Cart in SG : We went to the Singapore Science Center and Spagetti Too

Tue, 25 Dec 2008

I’ve always had fond memories of the Science Center. Back in school, we’d have rather regular excursions to see the exhibitions or omnimax films or to participate in their science courses.

A snapshop at Science Center, 2003

It was probably in 2003 when I’ve last been in the science centre. Even so, it was for a robotics competition rather than for leisure.

Last year, I thought that I’d bring Cartcart to go to the science centre as he loves maths. But it has been an unusually heavy downfall of rain the entire week that he was here last year. Hence, when the weather appeared to be fair this year, I dragged Cartcart to my stomping ground, Jurong East 🙂

The entrance to the Science Centre was already crowded by the time we reached there in the early afternoon. There were plentiful of people around, kids, parents, tourists as we walked down the corridor past the waterworks.

For many of the parts, the Science Centre was quite familiar as how I’ve remembered it the last time that I was there. There were the displays that I still remembered. But at the same time, there were also a number of new displays that I saw for the first time.

Like this painting of the President of Singapore, Mr SR Nathan

But as cool as the painting was, I don’t think I would like to be in the same room with this painting, alone  and especially at night time. I think you’d feel the same too!

And there were plenty of other cool stuff around, like these display made up of laboratory created pills in the Biology Segment :

As well as this interesting interactive game where one goes in front of a green screen :

And these beautiful cosmic like elements swirling around gracefully :

When we walked to another area, I regretted for not coming to the Science Centre before my examination period as I saw an ecology section where everything was very useful for my geography knowledge.

There was so much things to see that it seemed incredulous when we found out that we did not have enough time to see everything. I thought for sure that two hours would be more than enough time to look around Science Centre. But we did not even get to explore the second floor and then it was time to head to the omni-max theater at 6 pm.

We did however had just about enough time to pose with a little friend 🙂

Since the first time going there, I’ve always enjoyed going to the omnimax theatre. It was, and still is the largest theatre in Singapore to date. With the screen being about five storey tall, it was an immersive experience that it was easy to feel like being part of the movie itself.

It was an arduous climb to the back of the theatre as the way up is a lot of stairs. One may feel vertigo if they stood up and look down as the steps were quite steep. But I think the best seats are the ones at the back. The poor latecomers would have to crane their neck up.

The show that we were watching was the secrets of the pharaoh. It was like watching the BBC’s walking with dinosaurs where current scientists explore how mummies were preserved and using the evidences that they had, pieced up the clues.

And like all the times that I’ve been in the omnimax theater, I was very drawn to the beautiful, lush and rich visuals.

After the movie, I decided to take Cartcart to IMM, which was probably one of the largest shopping centre in the area, for dinner.

We were standing there at the directory for a full five minutes, wondering what to eat when Cart decided that he would like to try to go to Spagetti Too and try their pasta.

Spagetti Too was a relatively new cafe in IMM. Everything in the menu looked so tempting. The front counter was so colourful that it seemed as if it was beckoning us to come closer.

What a nice surprise when I saw that there the cafe had a halal certification. It didn’t carry it the last time I saw it.

Behind the counter was an enclosed area that diners could sit in. The décor was clean and simple.

We made our orders by taking the paper menu which is provided by the side of the table and mark a tick to the items that we wanted. And then we hand it to the front counter and then make our payments.

And I was doubly surprised to see that the food was affordable. I think we spent less than $25 for full set meals for the both of us. I was impressed.

As I still had a craving for chicken chop, I decided to order that, while Cartcart had Vegetarian Pasta. We had the Garlic Bread with Cheese ($1.70) as an appetizer.

Cart liked this bread a lot. He said that it was nicely cooked and perfectly crunchy. But I thought that it was a little bland but there was no condiments to be seen nearby.

Nevertheless, we didn’t have to wait long for our food to arrive. By the time we were done with our appetizers, in about 10 – 15 mins, the helpful crew handed over our main meals.

This was my delicious Grilled Chicken Chop with Mashed Potatoes. ($6.90) I do love my chicken a lot. The meat was tender and juicy and was just a delight to savour. The sauce tasted more like black pepper sauce than mushroom sauce, but it was still really good.

I expected for some gravy on top of my mashed potatoes, but once I took a taste of it, it was good the way it was. It was smooth, savoury and creamy. It may look plain, but it was full of flavour.

This was Cartcart’s Vegetarian Pasta. ($5.90) Cart said that although the dish was more of a fusion dish than true Italian pasta, it was still cooked well enough with the pasta not being overcooked – something that he is very particular about.

In the end, I was surprised to see that even an Italian enjoyed his pasta here 🙂

For dessert, Cart had the Chocolate Brownie while I had the Apple Cobbler ($2.50 each)

We both loved our desserts. They were both inviting and each had a huge dollop of ice cream on top of it. My only mini issue is that I don’t like my apple cobbler to be heated up. I think it was nicer to eat at room temperature or cold, unlike brownies. But its not such a big deal, being such a value for money 🙂

If you are anywhere in Jurong, give this place a try. Good food and cheap prices. They don’t have a website yet though.

Next : Meeting Tstar and the beautiful sounds of handbells!

In this series

• Part 1
• Part 2