Singapore's Sofra Turkish Restaurant Offers Splendid Food and Splendid Views

Turkish bread at Sofra Turkish restaurant in Singapore.

Turkish coffee.

Comes with white sugar cube on the side.

 Sofra - what's that? It means table, dinner table, table laid with a cloth for a family gathering, says the guide on the inside of the menu. No sign of a tablecloth, but a perfectly acceptable table with soft undulating edges, banquette seats around the walls, which I like, a huge room so reduced risk of the restaurant being fully booked.

Best of all is the view. From the sides of the room the picture windows give views of two great landmarks. The giant cricket stump of the Marina Bay Sands hotel triple tower complex (the one topped and linked by an infinity swimming pool). In the other direction is the prickly dome nicknamed the durian, the stadium.

That is what you see by day. I ate lunch there in a foursome with family and friends, as chance would have it, the last day before the restaurant indoor eating lockdown. July 21st 2021.

We had a choice of set meal of from the menu.

I chose lentil soup. The red pepper hors douvre made a change, but was a bit too spicy for me.

Three of us chose the set menu.

You had to key in your order on the device on each table. I dare say that saves time. Straight to the kitchen with the information.

I had chicken on a flat bread with wrapped edges like an envelope not yet completed, just the edges turned up and pinched together with the contents showing

For dessert we considered baklava. The manager persuaded us to opt for n off the menu dish at twice the  price which we did not regret. It was a pancake with pistaccio nut paste inside and pistacchio ice cream on top. Hot pancake and cold ice cream.

I finished with t small cup of Turkish coffee. I do like thick Turkish coffee. 

MRT City Hall exit A, or the Esplanade.

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A new bust of footballer Ronaldo, and Sculpture of Fishermen At Sea to See

Map of Portuguese speaking Madeira in the Atlantic from Wikipedia. Note the proximity to Portugal, Gibraltar on the tip of Spain, and the coast of Morocco.

Problem - What To See and Where in Madeira?
Madeira used to be one of the world's dangerous airports, they say, until the runway was built out into the sea on stilts. Now you can arrive with your mind on the tourist sites you plan to see.

Cristiano Ronaldo Airport, Madeira. Photo by Peter Forster, from Flickr via Wikipedia.

1 Cristiano Ronaldo Bust At The Airport
The first site for visitors to look for on arriving at the Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport is the bust of the footballer, Cristiano Ronaldo, created by sculptor Emanuel Santos when the airport was renamed.

When the sculpture was unveiled in 2017, although Cristiano himself liked it, many people on the internet did not. Frankly, I think it's very good. But then I am a caricaturist. I like the slight exaggeration which captures a character, whether or not it is flattering, it is memorable. The twisted mouth, the lopsided smile. Excellent.

Emanuel and Jesus
The sculptor, Emanual Santos, was very hurt by the criticism, although he came up with a wonderful motivational line: 'You can't please everyone. Even Jesus didn't please everyone.'

However, March 29, 2018, Emanuel Santos revealed his new, more serious face of Cristiano.

2 Fishermen Sculpture in Caniçal
I was very heartened to read that he was commissioned to create a sculpture of fisherman, two fishermen in a boat with oars, delightful white, in his home village of Caniçal. (It is pronounced canny Sal, like a canny girl called Sally.) The name comes from the Portuguese for fishing lines, and the area is now the main cargo port.

Portuguese Spelling And Pronunciation
That sign under the c turns it into an s sound, which is what it looks like. We are all familiar with words using the c is an s sound: place, palace police, pronounce.

Think of canister. You can see that the first letter of the name is c pronounced like a hard c like k.

The c with the cedilla, is easy to reproduce. ç (Type it and hold down the c key and tap the number one to get it printed in a text).

The capital of Madeira, Funchal, is on the south coast. Caniçal is anti-clockwise up the coast of the island.

3 CR7 Museum of football, Funchal, Madeira
CR stands for Cristiano Ronaldo.

Cristiano Ronaldo's CR7 Museum in Funchal, Madeira. Photo from Wikipedia author AbbyM.

Another photo opportunity with a full-size statue. It costs 5 Euros to go inside plus another 5 Euros for a photo with a Ronaldo mock-up. What do you see? Tropies, videos of scoring goals, fan letters, news of his donations, enough to entertain football fans and others. 

4 Wine Museum
Wine museum, winery and wine tour.

5 Cable car
Goes up to Monte. Monte like mountain, easy to remember. From there another cable car takes you to the botanical gardens. If you like that sort of thing. I prefer my feet on the ground.

6 Walks
Around town and across the island. See in Funchal on Avenido Zarco (Zarco Avenue) the statue of the man who discovered Madeira and was its first governor.

Of Passing Interest
You might pass the outside of the synagogue or the door of the cemetery. The synagogue is disused due to declining population of Jews. Zero.

Photo from Wikipedia.

So is the cemetery. Last used when the last Jew on the island died in 1967.

Photo from Wikipedia.

Christopher Columbus house
You might wonder why everybody needing better-paid employment didn't leave Madeira and go East to Spain and Morocco or west to America. One famous person did Christopher Columbus. It must be admitted that Christopher Columbus seems to have been born and died all over the place. So Madeira can lay claim to ancient and modern heroes, Christopher Columbus, explorer, and Cristiano Ronaldo, footballer.

I found a Jewish website which taught me about the geography and history of Madeira. Jews went west to Madeira from Gibraltar and Morocco. Madeira is in the ocean west of Morocco, and Gibraltar which points from Spain south to Morocco.

Food and Drink
Food is fish, fish, and more fish.
Madeira wine.
Passionfruit cocktail.

Souvenirs and Shopping
Madeira wine.

Madeira Wine Bottles at a wine tasting in England at Eton Vintners, Windsor and Eton. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Getting To Madeira
TAP Portugal (Star Alliance with Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and others) goes to and from Madeira (you have to type in Funchal FNC, Portugal).  You can go from New York or Brasil and other American continent airports, from London, Gatwick (LGW) or Portugal and other European destinations. You can also have a stopover in Portugal at Lisbon or Oporto.

(Other airlines include British Airways and some budget airlines.)

Hotels
The five-star Reid hotel where Winston Churchill stayed is on the top with an outdoor pool and sloping gardens. Winston Churchill stayed here. So did Bernard Shaw an several other famous people.

The rival luxury hotel is down by the sea.

Useful websites
Wikipedia Madeira
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeira

Madeira Official Tourist Board Site
http://www.visitmadeira.pt/en-gb/homepage

Coniçal
Cristiano Ronaldo, footballer
Emanual Santos, sculptor
TripAdvisor

BBC article on Ronaldo statue
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39442098

Where Next? Cardiff, Wales - Emanuel Santos Bust
If you'd like to see another footballer's bust by Emanuel Santos, there's one outside Cardiff Stadium, of Gareth Bale, who plays for the Welsh team and Real Madrid (meaning not real Madrid but royal Madrid). The sculpture shows Gareth Bale's distinctive beard, moustache and topknot.

If you are not planning to visit Cardiff, at least when travelling to and through Wales you can think about it.  You see the stadium as the GWR train from Paddington goes west through Wales.

Cardiff Stadium, from the window of the GWR (Great Western Railway) train. 

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/05/gareth-bale-statue-emanuel-santos-cristiano-ronaldo-real-madrid

A detailed description of the life, problems and persistence of the sculptor Emanuel Santos.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2766946-a-year-after-internet-infamy-ronaldo-sculptor-gets-another-shot
Madeira wines and bottle labels:
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/madeira.html

http://www.cntraveller.com/article/travel-guide-madeira 
Mentions Columbus's house on Porto Santa, a 20-minute flight or two and a half hours by catamaran.

For a great photo of Emanuel Santos's sculpture of fisherman in a boat, see:

https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/cristiano-ronaldo-bust-artist/

Travelling to Madeira? Check out Tripadvisor.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g189167-d5993654-Reviews-CR7_Museum-Funchal_Madeira_Madeira_Islands.html
You can check out museums, landmarks, hotels and get ads for tours.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have several posts on learning Portuguese and on Madeira. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

What Was Good About The Middlesex Stadium - For Refreshments After a Funeral At Breakspear Crematorium

The Clubhouse Sports Bar and Lounge - a surprise venue after a funeral.

Drive into the car park after a funeral and it is convenient from the start. You can even fill up your electric car.

Jugs of water were on the table.

Problem
The stadium? Where is it? I had been to Ruislip crematorium several times, also to funeral teas held at the Barn Hotel, Ruislip.

We were offered white wine, apple juice, orange juice on arrival. Sandwiches on the table.

Sandwiches over on the buffet display. Samosas. Chips in spicy tomato juice.

Brown bread sandwiches with three fillings. I opted for chopped hard boiled egg.

Cake
Delicious cake with buttercream.

Cake looked ordinary. I ate it anyway. Much better than it looks. Good. I tried another piece. Excellent. Cake I dream of. The buttercream filling had an almost crunchy texture. 

Biscuits.
Coffee machine.

Screens showed family photos. A good venue to recover after the funeral. Could not be more convenient.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer, photographer, author and speaker.

Kallang stadium seen from train

Here's my photo of K a l l a n g Wave stadium. The Calling Wave mall is alongside.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Hong Kong Contrasting Restaurants Inn Side Out and The Graces Restaurants

Peanuts, potato skins and golf balls at a sports bar. Hong Kong, like other cities in the world, offers a range of dining experiences, from the casual to the elegant. I sampled two in one evening.

LOCATION
Both are near Times Square, the shopping mall above the MTR underground railway.

From the station area we crossed assorted roads. We braved star shaped road junctions with care.

We passed a free Po Leung Kuk museum with a decorative green tiled arch entrance gate. (I wish I'd known of the free museum earlier on a rainy day when we stayed indoors nearby).

Then a few steps uphill brings you to the sign. Inn Side Out.

SPORTS COMPLEX
I was not expecting the 'bar' where we were meeting two Hong Kong based friends to be within a sports complex. But sure enough, it was.

MEMBERSHIP
We were not asked for any membership cards to use the bar, although we would have been to use the sports facilities.

Apparently, the sports club membership is very reasonable, less than £100 a year, although you do have to pay for every activity or class.

LOCALE
We went up in a lift (elevator) to the second level. A bridge led to seating by windows, a long bar overlooking what seemed to be a green football stadium with goal netting.

GOLF
However, the movement of something white through the air drew my attention. I then realised we were above a golf range and that white golf balls were flying a huge height and stance. The green grass below was scattered with hundreds of white balls.

Why does notably run out and fetch their golf balls? I supposed you risk being hit by other people's golf balls. Maybe the staff collect the balls and recycle them after hours.

TABLES
Ignoring the bar stools, we went straight to the window tables. What a view. Green grass and the stadium and skyscraper beyond.

A bowl of peanuts was on the table. Apparently, you are allowed to drop the shells on the floor. I didn't.

FOOD
We summoned up a passing server to produce the menu. Quite a good choice. We opted for potato skins.

DRINKS
I had a Wandering Bear rose wine. I could have had a muscat costing only slightly more.

I eventually worked out that the letters HH stood for happy hour.

WATCH OUT FOR ROUND TWO
After a while the server came back and apparently asked somebody if we wanted another round. I assumed that the two men were just ordering another drink for themselves. Nobody asked me.

Up comes another drink for me. I didn't want another drink, firstly because I am on a diet and don't wan't more calories. Secondly two drinks is too much alcohol for a person of my small stature and for my health. Thirdly I didn't need it and it was costing my family who were hosts extra money. Finally, I'd rather have tried another drink for a change; also the muscat would have been sweeter.

What's the moral, shout, "NOT FOR ME, THANKS, NO THANK YOU, NOT FOR ME." Shake your head and wave your hand like a windscreen wiper at the host and the waitress.

Now I know why my friend got so drunk after several rounds on a previous occasion last week that he dropped his phone and ATM card into his rucksack and lost the items, possibly in the taxi, on the way home.

Inn Side Out
Inn Side Out overlooks the vast golf course surrounded by stadium seating. Not grand. But you feel you are part of real Singapore. You can sit for unlimited time.

Plenty of space in the bar. No pressure of crowds, unlike most tiny shop bars in the bustling streets.

Inn Side Out
Roof Top 2/f
Golf Driving Range
South China Athletic Association
88 Caroline Hill Road
Hong Kong
Tel: 2895 2900
wwwelgrande.com.hk

From there we went to another restaurant, totally different, table cloths and multiple glass chandeliers.
(Photos will be added later.)
For an account of The Graces Restaurant, see next post.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.