'She's the best deal in town'

Back with my Otaku 'Best of' list. Now I didn’t really read as much comic books as I would have liked. I’ll have to pick Ed Brubaker’s Captain America and Geoff Jones’ Green Lantern as the year’s two best on-going monthly series that I have NOT been buying.

Bought a bunch of figures this year. Best ‘ang mo’ action figure has to be Despero from DC Direct below. Hard choice as I scored quite a few good big figures towards the end of the year.

Best Gashapon figure is this one below. I don’t know her name but for only S$2 she’s the best deal in town, the details and sculpt are fantastic.

Best Anime/Manga figure. Well, I have already featured her more than a few times. <^;^> Oh, looks like she's hinting at what I ought to be whipping up next.

Best complete collection set I bought this year would be this set of cute lady workers of Japan’s train stations. That's them at the top of the page. Managed to get the entire set at the recent Anime Festival for freakin’ bargain price, S$5 each, normal price would be more than twice that.

Music side, best discovery would be all the genre radio stations on itunes. Work will never be the same again. Well, I also found lots of cool new sites during the year. Here's a fun site that I think most people who drop by here would like. It's about Trends in Japan. Food, fashion, gadgets, wacky stuff, it's here. Check out my list on the left for more links.

And yup, that's how detailed she is. Sorry, I just had to sneak this in....<^;^>

'My dream MILF'

Thought I'll start this entry with my latest Ladies Drinks addition.

Tried 2 new eating places over the long weekend but didn’t take any pix so I’ll just mention them briefly. Muthu’s Curry at Suntec, Good. Rakuichi at Dempsey, Not-so-good. I luv the Indian white rice (forgot the name) that most places serve but I couldn’t tell if Muthu was serving that or just regular white rice. As for Rakuichi, the sushi and sashimi were just average to me and not really worth the ex price.

The trip to Rakuichi actually marked my 4th time to Dempsey. First was for drinks at Margarita’s, next was to PC Cafe/Barracks, then White Wabbit and now Rakuichi. I also finally managed to drop by Joe Grocer too and wow, pretty cool selection but a little too ex for me. Spotted a bottle of garlic oil (don’t think I have seen it elsewhere). Know some recipes that call for it, I have instead used chopped/diced fresh garlic. This should be ok no?

Anyway I thought of doing a kinda ‘Best of’ list of 2008 but my memory is soooo bad, still, I’ll give it a shot. Right now the 2008 hottest babe to me is still Tina Fey. My dream MILF. Tropic Thunder, Iron Man, Bond, all good shows. Indy? argh, pity, not that good.

Hmmmm, the best book, although I didn’t read that many books this year, has got to be Joe Hill’s Heart Shaped Box. Caught random episodes of Mad Men, liked them all but am still hooked on my usual shows. Best gadget I got this year? My ipod touch just beat my Sony DSLR camera for it.

Next, I'll have my Otaku favourites for the year.

'More lemony than others'

I finally found my scallops at Carrefor! Thanks to everyone who answered my last post. I actually found some at Cold Storage Takashimaya but they were from China and I was like, maybe it's not that safe to eat stuff from China just yet... but later that day, I found some Chilean scallops and shells at Paragon. But it was today that I found some bigger packs from Indonesia at Carrefor Suntec. So I figured might as well. ;P

You got your breadcrumbs and the scallops right there, the recipe called for scallops without the roe, which was what I got. You'll see that I re-placed two scallops per shell.



After 20 minutes in the oven, here you go, Scallops-in-the-Shell! To be honest, I was afraid it would suck cos I didn't follow exactly like the book said but it didn't! Although the taste wasn't very consistent. Some were more garlicky while another was more lemony than others.


Oh, and speaking of my last post, I found a macaron recipe in the latest Jan 2009 issue of Living! Not that I'll try it, looks tough.

Here's something cool I got a couple of weeks ago at Mos Burger. They were going for S$3 each and I thought I'll just grab the whole collection since they got two of my Mos favourites. Can anyone guess which two? <^;^>

'My x-ray glasses are broken'

Well, it's Xmas nite and here I am. Did some more grocery shopping earlier in the day! Actually for the last week, I been hunting for scallop shells cos of another recipe I read in best damn cook book I found this year. It's a real simple recipe where I got to just bake some scallops in their shells. Problem is, I can't find any supermarket that sold scallops WITH their shells intact. Ok, I found one remaining pack at Raffles City Marketplace. But it was like S$45 for a frozen pack of maybe a dozen? Cos my x-ray glasses are broken and I can't see through the pack.

Anyway, so while I was at Raffles City, I had me some macarons from Canele. I asked an ex-colleague where would I find the best macarons in town and she pointed me here. My fav would be Violet. The Caramel was pretty good too but the caramel taste is really strong.


So I'm kinda hoping if there's anyone out there who can tell where I can find scallops with their shells, and also, where do you think is the best macarons in Singapore. A gazillion thanks in advance!

'Happy Holidays everybody'

Well, it’s almost the end of the year and a very Merry Xmas to everyone out there. A little Nightmare Before Christmas gashapon here to set the mood. So Happy Holidays everybody!

Ever noticed how people give and receive more candy as Xmas gifts than a kid in the US gets candy on Halloween? Ok, I admit I did give out some candy too but still, it’s just kinda weird to me.

So it's Xmas eve and with the halfday off we got from the office, what did I do? Figured I'll revisit an old friend. Yup, it's time to try making french toast again, on Xmas eve somemore! This time, I had some help from the Domestic Goddess herself. Got the Nigella Express book from Kinokuniya earlier this month. This is a really good book for fast and simple dishes. Saw the receipe for Doughnut French Toast and I thought why not round 2? Bought the stuff I needed after work today. Funny thing was the neighbour upstairs was blasting retro 80s music from some Internet radio station on his PC. Could hear it loud and clear from my kitchen. Ought to thank him or her for keeping me entertained while cooking.

There you go! Sprinke some sugar and it's done, in less than an hour. Taste great too! I actually did 3 slices although the receipe called for only 2. I thought I had enough mixture to soak 3 slices.

'Cos that's how I roll'

What else I been up to… oh yah, best discovery of the week, Comedy 104 radio station on my itunes. If you like American stand-up comedy acts and you have itunes, you should check out the radio stations icon on your itunes, whole bunch of different genres to choose from. For my current fav station, it’s so cool, you got all your new and old stand-up acts like Cosby, Newhart, Seinfeld and uncensored acts from guys like Pryor, Chris Rock, Tim Allen, Dennis Miller etc. Freakin’ non-stop stand-up comedy all day long. No way am I getting any work done. Hah!

Anyway, it’s almost Christmas so I figured I’ll do a quick gift idea piece. Cheap, fast and with that little personal touch called ‘crap wrap’. Yah, I totally suck at wrapping gifts. I'm supposed to wrap it hamper-style with clear wrapping sheet, which I did later.

Been wrapping over a dozen of them. Most of the stuff are from Daiso so they are like, only S$2 each. Packs of candy from Japan, little metal or rattan baskets, wrapping paper, all from Daiso. Then throw in a mini bottle of booze and maybe a gashapon cos that’s how I roll, for the centrepiece. The mini bottles are all from Ikea, neat eh?

Oh, and when we have little bottles of liquor, we must have the newest Ladies Drink pix.

'Does the turkey breast have a bone like that'

Man, I just got back from a Xmas dinner and it was just crazy! Not in a drunkard way, but in a comedy of errors kinda way. I swear we honestly didn't know what we were eating. I don't even know where to begin. To begin from the start would be too long so I'll just freestyle my way through this one.


Now when I took the above pix, we all honestly thought it was the 'turkey breast' that one of us ordered (if you wanna know where its from, let me know) for our dinner group of 10. Was pretty much the same group as two years ago. Some little conversation notes of the evening...

"Does the turkey breast have a bone like that?"

"...er...it's only 2kg."

"I thought turkey meat is usually white."
"No, it's like that one."

"That's really good turkey gravy"

"I don't see any stuffing."

Do you see where this is going? I know 10 adults didn't until we got a phone call telling us they gave us a 7kg piece of honey baked (or was it glazed?) ham instead of the 2kg turkey breast we ordered! By then we already ate like 20% of it, all the while thinking it was turkey! As one of us said, "wah, lucky no one here halal!"

Honestly, we all thought turkey breast looked like that. I mean, if we ordered a full turkey, we would know the difference but this was the first time we ordered turkey breast and none of us really knew how the 'breast of a turkey' looked like before it becomes the familiar little thin slices that we always see on our plates. We even went back to their website to see if the order form has any pix of the turkey breast. It didn't or if it did, it wasn't labelled. Some more of the evening conversation...

"That was 7kg?!?"

"I just took what the guy gave me."

"That's a LOT of ham."

"Every year something like this always happens during our Xmas dinners."

"That's really a LOT of ham. Where're the Ziplock bags?"

"I don't care, everyone is taking home some ham!"

Oh, and for dessert we had the very delicious Crunchy Honeycomb Xmas cake from The Patissier. Very highly recommended.

'Take a good look at them'

Here's a post that's partly inspired by Lunch and Ice posts bout mini Japanese food replicas.

First we gonna travel back in time to 2006 when I was on little Japanese island called Miyajima.

Nice little place, spent the nite there in quaint little inn. In the room, there were these little snacks, traditional snacks from the region I suppose. Now take a good look at the two pix below, there are the REAL deal.

I think a couple of months later back in Singapore, I found this at a local Japanese toy store - the mini-look-alikes! The boxes were marked so I knew what I was getting in them. The next few pix below I took today. I actually have them on display next to the TV in my living room. Can't zoom any closer, but they look like the real thing to me, right down to the little tea kettle and cups.

Geez, I just realized I got a whole bunch of pix from my earlier Japan trips like the ones above that I never got to post. So here are the dinner pix I had at the inn, followed by the breakfast pix the next morning. Can you imagine eating all that for dinner (the pix only shows half of it!), then waking up to more food?!?

'Stoners got into the cabs'

To be honest, I was actually quite surprised by my ability to hold onto my booze that nite.

3 mugs of Assahi beer

2 rum n’ coke

2 tequila shots

1 mystery shot

Yup, it’s the annual office dinner party again. That time of the year when some of us cement our industry’s reputation for hosting slutty, sleazy promiscuous drunkard parties. And me being one of the sober ones, had to make sure the stoners got into the cabs in one piece at the end of the nite.

But this year, am at this new agency. Argh, not as close to the folks here as I was to the people at my previous place. I miss those guys. *sigh*

Anyway, looks like my year-end party prize streak is back on! At my previous agency, I started with bout S$100 voucher, the next year got a 3D/2N Batam or was it Bintan stay (didn’t have time to use it) and capped it off with this baby. Well, won me a 2GB ipod shuffle and S$200 voucher this year. There were a bunch of different shopping vouchers to choose from. The Taka vouchers were all gone by the time I got there this morning. The other winners were really fast in collecting them! Wanted those. The practical side of me settled on the NTUC vouchers instead of the remaining like Tangs and Ikea.

So like anyone interested in getting a brand new 2GB ipod shuffle for S$80, it’s retailing for S$108 I think.

'Yah, that's a pretty long piece of eel'

My Mayback card arrived in the mail earlier in the week and as part of the promo, I get like S$100 free to charge to my card. And obviously, it's time for a well-deserved sushi treat. Since I had to get a haircut at Liang Court, I figured I'll treat myself to lunch at Tompopo again. Being alone, I got my favourite counter seat, only its not facing the sushi chef. It's actually facing rows of ramen bowls and the ramen cooks preparing them.

Anyway, here's my 'free' meal. All S$50 (plus tax) worth of it. Yah, that's a pretty long piece of eel.

After that, I headed to the basement for some desserts and/or snacks. Wanted to go to the supermarket but decided to pop into the Tampopo Deli instead. Saw a Q but I didn't what they were Q-ing for. Looked around and realised it's for their famous cream puffs. I looked at the little timer board at the cashier and it says the next batch is due at 1pm. Looked at my watch and it says 1pm exactly! So I joined the Q and got my cream puffs a few minutes later. As I joined the Q, a couple more people came and like, after me, three more people behind me got their treats, the rest didn't. Was sold out.

For a really neat shot of inside one of those guys, head to Ice's blog. She's got a great pix of the inside of one. Yah, the cream was like, really oozing out of it. It's S$10 for four although Ice, I didn't see any signs saying you can't order more than four. But I could have missed it. Thank gawd, the Tempopo cream puffs did NOT turn out like this!!!

'It's chilly and windy again'

It's chilly and windy again, the way it should be this time a year. The way I like it to be.

Had a real interesting cab ride over the weekend. A very polite, older Malay driver who was a former commie-killing, commando from a cannibal tribe in Sarawak. You sure as hell don't expect to run into one of those guys these days. We talked bout the Somalian pirates, terrorism and the time he served in the Congo. Like I said, not your average cab ride.

Finally managed to read a damn good horror novel by Joe Hill. Wanna know who he really is? Well, I'm not a fan of his dad but I definitely like junior's stuff. I believe Warner Bros is already developing the movie version. A colleague passed me the book and it took me almost a week to finish it. I must be getting old, I usually finish a good book in a couple of days. 'Heart-Shaped Box', argh, wish it didn't have such a 'girly' title, bet folks thought I was reading a romance novel when I had it while Q-ing outside Wasabi Tei.

Something else I did over the long weekend was helped out in making this bunch of while choc cookies.

Very sweeeeet, just the way I like them.

'Thick enough for you guys?'

Its a Saturday afternoon and I was too lazy to go to the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Fest at Fort Canning, so here I am at home. Anyway it looks too cloudy and it was raining earlier too. <^;^>

Was actually on leave for the last three days. Been running errands and doing some Xmas shopping in town. First day of my leave saw me in Tampines, looking for the library. Got some books and finally got to play the new Streetfighter IV at the mall video arcade! Although I luv video fighting games, I'm not that good at it especially on my first try. So imagine my surprise when I got as far Round 8 (I expected to croak around Round 4 or 5 usually). That's not a pix of me playing (I'm shooting it!) but that's the character I played, Sagat.

My second leave day saw me again at Tampines! And another first time for me, is the trip to Tampines Ikea. Will show what I bought another time. Had the Xmas platter lunch, was * meh *.... only if you are in a real Xmas mood I guess. They have free coffee AND soft drink refills now! Don;t remember them having soft drink refills before.

Third leave day saw me Q-ing for like an hour at Wasabi Tei. That's the S$20 chirashi set. Sashimi thick enough for you guys?


Bought this at Takashimaya for the home after lunch. It's a L'Occitane Home Perfume Diffuser. The scent is supposed to last 6 weeks! I'll be impressed if it lasts over a week. Want an update later?

'From the head/skull region of the pig'

I have to admit, all this recession talk is making me think twice bout buying stuff and spending $$$. Even though I can afford those things, there’s a little voice telling me to think twice. I’m coming up with excuses like where am I gonna keep those books if I buy them or do I really want to spend all that on a three-figure omakase meal when I can get good and cheap sushi at Far East Plaza’s Wasabi Tei? And when I look at my budget application on my iTouch, it does kinda make me feel good to see how much I saved.

Ok, enough talk bout the recession, time for some food matters! This is IMHO the best pig organ’s stall I ever been to. It’s at the small ground floor food centre, next to Funan Centre facing the main road, facing the old fire station. What I always have is the LEAN MEAT soup, item no. 6 on the overhead menu board. I know the pix I took don’t do it justice. These slices are super tender and taste great. They are not your usual pork slices. Was told that they could be from the head/skull region of the pig so it’s real tender. Good and cheap food to beat the recession!

Did a few more Ladies Drinks shoots. Tried some new angles and stuff. Got these two bottles of Moscato at a very, very cheap dealer's price. Actually got four but passed two over to a couple of friends. Now those two remaining bottles of mine should keep me tied up for a weekend!