RETURN OF THE KENT RIDGE FINE MUSIC & STEAK APPRECIATION CLUB (NO VEGANS ADMITTED)

The Kent Ridge Fine Music & Steak Appreciation Club (No Vegans Admitted) has returned with a vengeance. On the evening of Sunday 8 February, the KRFMSAC (NVA) moved further afield beyond Residential College 4 to the only New Town in Singapore named after a composer - Clementi*. To a favourite steakhouse which Professor Winston Seah Kar Heng has nicknamed St Martin in the Fields, which is none other Marriner's Corner off Clementi Road and Sunset Way.

Not deciding on the food, but
discussing about passacaglias and fugues.

Despite the restaurant's wide menu, the five permanent members of KRFMSAC (NVA) all settled for a single item - the weekend N.Z. Roast Beef Prime Rib set meal. No discussion, no hemming or hawing, just a strategic choice that made life for the service staff super easy. Before long, the soup de jour (Borscht of chicken), garlic toast and salad was served. Then came the piece de resistance in all its glory.

At $32 + side extras, the Maestro Chan Tze Law, who certainly knows his steak (see previous posts), declared this to be the best value prime roast meal in all of the land. He was right. The tenderness and succulence of the meat, with a small trimming of fat, made it all worthwhile. The sole medico of the party just reminded everyone not to forget their statins.

It's a quintet rather than a quartet now.

Are you being served?

What tucking in looks like.

Who qualifies to join KRFMSAC (NVA)? Obviously, no vegans. A love of good music (Mahler and Wagner preferred, and Beethoven too), an age of at least three score, old enough to remember Maritime House on Cantonment Road as the "good old days", and the minimum title of Doctor. Professor and Maestro as titles are even better, preferably all three. Kar Heng has all three, having also conducted the Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra and mastering no less than seven instruments and seven languages.

Ready, Get, Set and Go!

The two CTLs, PP and SKH
looking sated and satisfied.
HCK's reaction is likely to be the same.

When they say, "the proof is in the eating",
this is what it means.
A plate even cleaner than the ruling party.

After the steak, which had to be consumed before the curfew hour of 7.30 pm, it was time to adjourn for ice cream at Burnt Cones. And here are the incriminating pictures.     

Deciding on the flavours.

* I was, of course, joking about Clementi New Town being named after a composer. It was named after Sir Cecil Clementi Smith (1840-1916), who was governor of the Straits Settlements from 1887-1893. Clementi Smith was however the grandson of the Italian composer Muzio Clementi (1752-1832), a pioneer of the pianoforte who had settled in London and started his illustrious colonising family. So, I was partly right, but mostly being cheeky.

Looks familiar?
The bust of Sir Cecil Clementi Smith
at Victoria Concert Hall (left)
and his illustrious pianist grandfather
Muzio Clementi (right)

The other New Town in Singapore named after a composer is... Bukit Bartok.