5 MILLION VIEWS FOR PIANOMANIA!

As of a few minutes ago, at 10.42 pm or thereabouts, Pianomania received its 5 millionth read! I find that quite incredible because it had its 4 millionth read as recently as 15th June 2026. One million reads under two months is a lot as it took me almost 8 years to get my first million reads. 

By the way, those hands on the
keyboard belong to Tze Toh.

This figure may be attributed to the frequency of posts, which rose sharply earlier this year when I began posting daily, instead of a few times a week. I guess that the posts of eating places in Singapore and Malaysia also contributed, especially when the food posts began to outnumber the music posts. I guess people prefer looking at pictures of delicious dishes (food porn) than reading about musical performances. 

Anyway, there will still be musical posts and reviews, especially now that The Straits Times has began to cut back on the number of reviews published as of this year. Too bad for the readers of ST, but no worries if you read about them here!

RANDOM HEARTLAND EATS: SEVEN SCOOPS & BAKES

This is as random as one can get. We were on our way to a familiar heartland food court in Clementi when we chanced upon an ice-cream and pie place called Seven Scoops & Bakes and decided to give it a try. It's a small and quiet eatery which ought to get busy when the weekend comes. Since this is Wednesday lunch, it was decidedly quiet, and we were the only souls around. The food court which we had meant to go was crowded as usual, but never mind.

We decided to get the savouries and drinks first. For Janet, it was and ham and cheese croissant, whereas I opted for the chilli crab pie, which was on a National Day promotion. The latter had an optimal spiciness and the crab "meat" was actually crabsticks. I guess one should not expect real crab meat for $8.90 (we go to a seafood restaurant for that). Both were nice, and it would have been nice if there were salad or fries on the side, which was why the plate looked so empty.

My chilli crab piece "dissected".

The drinks (iced chocolate and coffee) were nice as add-ons too, and we topped it off with Belgian waffles with a scoop of oolong osmanthus. That was $12, nice too, and CDC vouchers are accepted here.

SEVEN SCOOPS & BAKES

Block 345 Clementi Street 5 #01-92

Singapore 120345

Seven Scoops and Bakes (@sevenscoopsandbakes) • Instagram photos and videos

MAKAN WITH FRIENDS: SIAM SQUARE MOOKATA @ BUKIT BATOK WEST

We're back at Bukit Batok West, and this time with more friends. Siam Square Mookata at Block 155 Bukit Batok particularly hard to resist, especially with its D-I-Y cooking and reasonable prices for its dishes. On this occasion, we are dining with Phan Ming Yen and Amy, having enjoyed our previous meal here with his brother, Ming Ruey.

The multiple sauces makes this
mookata meal special.

Thai mookata feasts are best enjoyed with friends, because with more people, you can order more dishes and varieties. And it's also more fun cooking and grilling with friends, and then seeing their reactions dipping the meats in the various sauces. One could even give up vegetarianism by just looking at the goodies. Needless to say, we all had a great time.

Showing how it's done.

Ming Yen getting used to the cooking.

Everything is sizzling hot, ready to eat!

SIAM SQUARE MOOKATA

Block 155 Bukit Batok Street 11

Singapore 650155

(20+) 🎉🎉Siam Square Mookata at Bukit Batok🎉🎉 Blk... - Siam Square Mookata | Facebook

RANDOM HEARTLAND EATS: HONG KONG STREET CHUN KEE @ ALEXANDRA VILLAGE

It's been years since we visited Alexandra Village. Not much has changed, and Hong Kong Street Chun Kee is still here and it looks like thriving on a Sunday evening. This franchisee was originally at Block 117 Commonwealth Crescent, before it moved here. All the old serving staff and familiar faces are still here, but most importantly, the kitchen still serves up fine dishes.

We relived some of our old favourites, chief of which was the fish noodles in soup (Yu pian mifen tang). For once, we skipped the har cheong gai (prawn paste chicken) and opted for something healthier - a tofu dish with mushroom and eggplant that was more delicious than we remembered. Topping it off was stir-fried beef with spring onion, which is a good as before. All in all, it was a walk back in memory and we will come back again.

Fish soup with noodles.

Braised tofu with mushrooms,
eggplant and vegetables.

Stir-fried beef
 with spring onion.

HONG KONG STREET CHUN KEE

Block 125 Bukit Merah Lane 1 #01-190

Singapore 150125

Hong Kong Street Chun Kee 香港街珍記 (Bukit Merah) | Burpple - 42 Reviews - Queenstown, Singapore

SSO'S FORGOTTEN RECORDINGS: RIMSKY-KORSAKOV'S SCHEHERAZADE

 

That's Alexander Souptel's autograph
on the cover of my CD sleeve.

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scheherazade

GLINKA Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Lan Shui

Sometime in 2001, this self-produced SSO recording came out of nowhere. Neither recorded by Donald Wong nor BIS, but by Paul Zinman for Sound Byte Productions, it sounded very good. Was this the SSO, which had not made a recording since that unauthorised Richard Strauss Alpine Symphony of 1993? Since when has the SSO recorded mainstream repertoire? And since when has the orchestra sounded this polished in ruinously familiar music?

A new broom sweeps clean, so they say. Lan Shui, who succeeded Choo Hoey in 1997 as music director, had main sweeping changes in personnel. He retired several older and past sell-by-date musicians, and recruited new and younger professionals, mostly from USA (where he had conducted in Boston, Baltimore, New York and Detroit) and the SSO was beginning to sound fresh and revitalised.

Russia-born concertmaster Alexander Souptel, who arrived in 1993 during the Choo Hoey tenure, was retained and was the superb solo violinist for this Scheherazade. Sasha (as he is affectionately known) had played for decades in professional orchestras in the bygone Soviet Union, including being Gennady Rozhdestvensky’s concertmaster in the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra in all those Melodiya recordings. The effortless manner in which he handled the storytelling that begins The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship and the final Festival at Baghdad sounds totally natural. The harpist is unfortunately uncredited.

The orchestra performs this familiar favourite with gusto and verve, and the performance survives repeated listening, which was saying a lot. SSO was really this good, and the strings shine particularly well in the filler, Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture. This became the orchestra’s calling card, and little wonder that SSO used this showpiece to open its BBC Proms debut in 2014. By this time, Souptel had retired and the concertmaster position handed to his younger compatriot, the Russian-American Igor Yuzefovich.

SUKA MAKAN: GO-ANG PRATUNAM CHICKEN RICE @ ANCHORPOINT

It seems that Hainanese cooks go everywhere. Go-Ang Pratunam Chicken Rice, founded in Bangkok in 1960, is Thailand's premier Hainanese chicken rice. Being chicken rice junkies, we decided to give this a try, with the nearest location being in Anchorpoint. Despite its "humble" status, chicken rice has a special cachet with Singaporeans. Everything must work, from the tenderness of the specially-timed boiled chicken, to the chilli sauces and soup, to make this dish a success for the palate.

We are glad to report that this Thai-styled Hainanese chicken rice was a success. The half-chicken we ordered was completely de-boned, the rice was fragrant and not too oily. The main difference was the sauces. The chilli was not too acidic while the brown sauce that complemented it was tangy and slightly sweet. Janet thinks this is some variation of Hoisin sauce, and it works wonders too.

Besides the chicken rice, we had garlic kailan with mushrooms, and the black pepper prawn with tunghoon (glass vermicelli), and both dishes were also very tasty. 

Kailan and mushroom with garlic.

Black pepper prawn in tunghoon.

We'll definitely return sometime, but we'll also need to find the OG Go-Ang in Bangkok itself. Found it! It's on Petchaburi Road, just behind the Pratunam klong boat stop, accessible by a foot-bridge.

It's Michelin-starred too!

The history of Go-Ang (Hong Da Ge)

Here's the original shop in
Bangkok's Petchaburi Road.

GO-ANG PRATUNAM 

CHICKEN RICE

370 Alexandra Road #01-07/08

Anchorpoint

Singapore 159953

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