Mangiamo Italian Restaurant

Mangiamo Italian restaurant is a small family-run Italian restaurant located in Albert Court. I have walked past it a couple of times, and the place looks ideal for a dinner night out. I especially like the courtyard and its quiet environment. I told myself that I would like to dine there one day, and that was what I did. 

The restaurant has outdoor and indoor dining. Customers have a choice to dine indoors in a smaller air-conditioned seating, or they can sit outside, where it is airy. It is not a fancy restaurant. It is a relaxed and casual diner type of restaurant – my kind of place.

A starter. Grilled scallop and cheese.

I had the pork ribs. It's tasty enough, but the meat didn't actually fall off the bone.

My friend had the rib-eye steak. He said it was too done for his taste, but it was all right.

All in all it was a nice meal, and a pleasant evening.  The service was friendly, their prices affordable, and reasonable quality menu. 

Their beers and wine prices are very reasonable.

They are only a couple of minutes’ walk to Rochor MRT Station. I don’t mind going back again. 

Mangiamo Italian restaurant 

Albert Court Complex

180 Albert St,

Singapore 189971

Opens daily 1:00pm to 11:00pm

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The Raffles Hotel

The hotel has just underwent an extensive restoration.

Raffles Hotel is colonial-style luxury hotel in the downtown core district of Singapore. The hotel was named after British statesman Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the founder of colonial-era Singapore.

Opened in 1887, it is one of the few remaining great 19th century hotels in the world. It started as a ten-room hotel. Its proximity to the beach and its reputation for high standards in services and accommodations made the hotel popular with wealthy clientele.

Later, a pair of two-story wings added, followed by the Palm Court Wing. The hotel continued to expand over the years with the addition of wings, a veranda, a ballroom, a bar, a billiards room, as well as other building sand rooms.

“In 1989, the hotel closed to undergo an extensive renovation that lasted two years and cost $160 million. The hotel reopened on September 16, 1991. While the hotel was restored to the grand style of its 1915 heyday, significant changes were made. All guest rooms were converted to suites. In addition, Long Bar, which was a favorite spot of celebrities such as Somerset Maugham, was relocated from the lobby to a new adjoining shopping arcade. Long Bar is also where the national cocktail, the Singapore Sling, was invented by bartender Ngiam Tong Boon.” - Wikipedia

The hotel underwent another major renovation in January 2017. The rooms were refurbished and soundproofed, and the number of suites increased from 103 to 115. 

The hotel reopened on 1 August 2019. The hotel won the award for the renovation and restoration from the AHEAD Asia awards.

Fun fact - The Raffles Hotel was the first hotel in the region to have electric lights.

Only dignitaries, and the rich can afford to stay at The Raffles Hotel.

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Weekend Humour

Short and humorous, these quips are easy to remember. You might want to keep a few of these in mind, and impress your friends with your sense of humour. You can share them at a party, bring a spot of sunshine into someone’s life, and brighten up someone’s day. Everyone likes a laugh, and everyone likes a person who can make them laugh. 

I just bought my husband a ‘Get better soon’ card. He’s not sick… I just think he could be better. - Unknown

Sometimes, I wonder what happened to people who ask me for directions. - Unknown

The computer saves man a lot of guesswork, but so does the bikini. - Evan Esar 

Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon. - Doug Larson

I’m not waiting until my hair turns white to become patient and wise. Nope, I’m dyeing my hair tonight. - Jarod Kintz

They keep saying the right person will come along. I think mine was hit by a truck. - Unknown

Wouldn’t it be nice if the world was flat? That way we could just push off the people we don’t like. - Unknown

The quickest way to a man's heart is through his chest. - Roseanne Barr

I like to keep a bottle of stimulant handy in case I see a snake, which I also keep handy. - W.C. Fields

Don’t bite off more than you can chew because nobody looks attractive spitting it back out. - Carroll Bryant

I cook using the four food groups: Canned, Boxed, Bagged and Frozen. - Aunty Acid

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Cacti and Aloes

I came to appreciate cacti and aloes after my visit to the Succulent Garden in the Flower Dome at The Gardens by the Bay. Some of cacti are nasty looking, and you wouldn't want to go too close. But, most succulents have symmetrical petals that are pleasing to the eye. 

These pictures of cacti and aloes were taken at the Succulent Garden. They are instantly recognisable by their thin needle-like leaves and waxy surface that prevent the loss of water under the hot desert sun. I remember some of their names, and where possible, I have included them. 

Agave americana, common names sentry plant, century plant, maguey or American aloe, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to Mexico and the United States in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. Today, it is cultivated worldwide as an ornamental plant. 

This is Aloe Reynoldsii, or Reynold's Aloe - if I am not mistaken.

This is Kalanchoe Pumila or commonly known as Flour Dust Plant, or Dwarf Kalanchoe.

These, I know not the name of.

A succulent garden within a succulent garden.

They are too many pictures to be loaded into one post. I will be posting more in the coming days.

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Life's Little Lessons

Life lessons are learned through experiences, and mistakes. Some of the mistakes are costly and/or painful, and took us a lot of time to recover from them, while some lessons took a long time to learn. Unfortunately, time is something we do not have plenty of. We do not have enough time to learn all the Life’s lessons by ourselves.

However, we may be able to get a head's start in life, if we learn from the experiences and mistakes of others, and by paying attention to the words of wisdom, and advices of the wise people before us, – the sages, the philosophers, the gurus... – and also all those who are still with us, who have been through the hardships in life.

These are valuable Life lessons not learned in school. Armed with these lessons, we will be able to avoid the potholes of life. We will have an idea of what to expect of Life, and how to live our lives. There will be times when you find that these are exactly the advise you are seeking, the answers to your questions.

If the rain spoils our picnic, but saves a farmer’s crop, who are we to say it shouldn’t rain? - Tom Barrett

The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn. - Bertrand Russell

Much of the seeming ingratitude in life comes from our magnifying of our own acts, our minifying of the acts of others. - William Jordan

Goodwill is earned by many acts; it can be lost by one. - Duncan Stuart

The most dangerous strategy is to jump a chasm in two leaps. - Benjamin Disraeli

There is nothing that fear and hope does not permit men to do. - Marquis De Vauvenargues

If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently. - Bill Watterson

The more anger towards the past you carry in your heart, the less capable you are of living in the present. - Barbara de Angelis  

Grades don’t measure intelligence and age doesn’t define maturity. - Unknown

Familiar things happen, and mankind does not bother about them. It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious. - Alfred Whitehead

Good tactics can save even the worst strategy. Bad tactics will destroy even the best strategy. - George S. Patton

The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience. - Mahatma Gandhi

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Daily Walk

On my, almost daily, walk for more than a decade, I came to be acquainted with quite a few people. They are fellow walkers or joggers who take their walks about the same time as I do. Where time permits, we might stop for a chat, share a laugh. Otherwise, we just exchange pleasantries in passing.

Humans are social animals, and a little socializing will always do us good. Sometimes, these acquaintances take our mind off things that are bothering us. Sometimes, talking to them I get a different perspective of things. After all, they are from all walks of life. It is always good to see  another person’s perspective, or point of view.

Here are pictures I snapped on my walks.

A yawning zen master.  Quite a few of them around. 

A flowering tree, the name I know not of.

Wild wheat grass. They have started giving the whole area a trim, so they won't be around long now.

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Bread Tree

There are several of these trees on my walk route. They seem to be producing fruits throughout the year. The fruits resemble jackfruits. Sometimes, I see people plucking them from the trees. 

One day, my curiosity got the better of me, and I asked the guys plucking the fruits, what tree it is and how is the fruit eaten. It was then that I learned they are called bread trees. An elder gentleman said they can be deep fried and eaten like fritters or bread.

A search on Google reveals that the Bread tree is one of the highest producing food plants in the world. Now, this is interesting to know. When times are desperate, I know where my next meal is coming from. 

Apparently, Breadfruit - as the fruit is called, is  a major carbohydrate source, a staple throughout much of the tropical regions. The seedless breadfruit is commonly made into fritters and eaten as snacks. In some places, the fritters are sold as local street food. 

Both ripe and unripe fruit have culinary uses; unripe breadfruit is cooked before consumption. The unripe fruit is roasted, baked, fried or boiled. When cooked, the taste of moderately ripe breadfruit is described as potato-like, or similar to freshly baked bread. The fruit can be eaten once cooked, or can be further processed into a variety of other foods. 

At maturity, the fruit is white inside and starchy; when green or under ripe, the fruit is hard and starchy like a potato. Breadfruit is mostly utilized as a vegetable and, when cooked, has a musky, fruity flavor and, yet, extremely mild, lending itself well to bold dishes such as curries. Ripe breadfruit may have a texture like ripe avocado, or be as runny as ripe brie cheese.

The breadfruit tree has large, thick, deeply notched leaves. The entire tree yields a milky juice called latex when cut, which is useful for a number of things, most notably, boat caulking. 

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Albert Court

The entire Albert Court compound is owned and managed by Far East Village Hotels. The establishment has a hotel block and a large courtyard. 

In the courtyard, there are shops, offices, a couple of restaurants and cafes. 

That's the Village Hotel in the back.

Beautiful palm trees. It looks like a cosy corner, especially in the evenings. I like the place.

A Yucca tree which looked like it has just bloomed.

Albert Court in the Evenings.

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