Eminence: Passion with Mushrooms and Garlic

Met up with Christopher this evening at Raffles City. Tried out the..er...Pizza Place? (Forgot the name of the restaurant).

Anyway, I orded Mushroom and Chicken Baked Rice, while Chris ordered something else which I can't recall. I didn't really scanned through the menu...seeing the word MUSHROOM was enough to make me want to order that. I always seem to fall prey to yummy mushrooms. Every dish should have mushrooms. Except maybe that black coloured mushrooms usually found in Chinese dishes. Don't know the name of it...
Delicious delicious mushrooms.
After mushrooms comes garlic, but I'll leave that till the end of this post.
Anyway, my MUSHROOM and chicken baked rice was delicious.
The Pizza Place - I think it was called. Located at the basement of Raffles City. Worth a try.

After dinner, we went over to the Victoria Concert Hall and met up with Chris' sis and her friend. Caught the Eminence: Passion concert.

It was certainly a very different kind of concert.
It was just an ensemble of a percussionist, a pianist, a guitarist, one pretty violinist, and another violinist.
Anyway, they don't play the usual obscured classical pieces of some obscured musician, but actually performed quite a variety of popular music. This includes music from games, animes, Walt Disney classics and as the MC said, they managed to also "sneak in some popular classical pieces too".
The atmosphere for the concert was a jovial and lighthearted one. Heck, towards the end of the first half, all the musicians suddenly donned Christmas hats. With the first half closing with a cheeky Super Mario Brothers medley and a Whole New World from Aladdin, it certainly did felt a bit like Christmas.
They pulled a similar stunt in the second half, where everyone wore sunglasses this time.
The star of the night was probably the 2 violinist, and their individual prowess was certainly impressive, as was heard from pieces like Hungarian Dance and Dance Macabre.
Unfortunately, for some of the pieces where the whole ensemble came together, the 2 violinists seem to go out of sync at times. My other gripe would be that the guitar amplifier sounded a little too bassy.
Apart from these flaws though, I enjoyed the entire concert immensely.
2 hours went by quickly, and I found myself wanting abit more.
Hope they'll be back again next year.
I've also fallen more in love with violins.
I once heard that violins produce the most beautiful music, and I totally agree.
The music of the violin is capable of conjuring up so many beautiful emotions. That is probably the reason why, in an instrumental version of a song, the violin is usually used to replace the vocals.

After the concert ended, Chris' sis brought us to Lau Pa Sat for supper.
Ordered:
Satay - Didn't taste nice at all. The peanut sauce was too oily and too liquid-y
Butter Sotong - I don't generally like sotong. Butter flavour wasn't really there. More oily than flavourful
Teh Chino - It was just milk tea. Tasted normal.
Kankong fried with garlic - I found myself eating the most of this dish. Maybe because of the nice tasting garlic.
I love garlic. Just don't give me raw garlic though.
Mushrooms fried with Garlic. Someone tell me where to find this dish!

Came back home, and was told by my mum that the woman opposite my flat was shouting again. Then she said someone from our block apparently got fed up and shouted back, asking that woman to keep quiet.
That began a shouting fest of both sides.
Hmmmmm......

Anyway, It is now the 24th of December.
It is the eve of Christmas.
I suddenly feel happy.
I would like to imagine its snowing.
Magic is filling the air.
I love Christmas.