Friday, November 29, 2013

Cavalock and The Uncanny Crab Compendium

Who knew there are so many different local ways to prepare crabs? I sure didn't. Me and the guys were having dinner at Mellben Seafood over at Ang Mo Kio when I saw this at the back of their menu. Some I have tried, others I have never even heard of, like Tomato Sauce Crab and Claypot Curry Crab. Although I don't think I'll be in a rush to try the tomato sauce one.



By the way, the restaurant also has a 'wall of shame' with CTV photos of patrons who left without paying. Most look like PRC couples, hey, just sayin'.

Was going through the old family home kitchen last week and found this lot inside a drawer. I think any collector of beer paraphernalia would certainly appreciate these. Beer bottle openers from Gosser Beer, Amstel Holland Beer, Orange Smash and our very own Tiger Beer.



Saturday, November 23, 2013

Cavalock goes Back on The Neighbourhood Breakfast Trail

With all the new cafes and hipster coffee joints opening in my neighbourhood of Jalan Besar and Arab Street, breakfast out can be quite an expensive affair especially if you are a big breakfast guy like me. Heard about this relatively new joint along Kandahar Road called Dong Po Colonial Cafe and decided to drop by for a late breakfast a few days ago.



They had that retro shanghai vibe and decor going. I got nothing against that as I don't usually let a restaurant's deco influence my dining experience, yah, I guess that's another reason why I can never be a food blogger. Gosh, ah hear them food bloggers devote a whole lotta big fancy words just to describe the inside of a deli, youse know what ah mean?




Anyway I rather enjoyed my late morning breakfast. The bread butter pudding would fill any mere mortal's stomach but I always knew I was more than that so I had the above kaya toast as well as 2 eggs and a cuppa tea. There's also the almond french toast and a little tea cake which I was told you eat by dipping it in coffee. Total cost was just a little over S$12 for a hearty traditional local breakfast for two, still slightly cheaper than heading to McDonald's. Seeing all that tasty pastries in the showcase is a sure way of getting me over again for another visit in the very near future.



Been a while since I posted any of my 80-year-old Dad's wildlife shots. Besides the Bird Park, he has been hanging out at the Botanic Gardens too. Some friends have suggested that I sell some of his shots as prints, would anyone be interested in them if I do?





Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Cavalock and The Fred Flintstone Delicacy

Remember all those vintage jello moulds I found in the old family home? Well, I uncovered another classic mould and this one I definitely remember from my childhood. It's a Fred Flintstone jello mould! Although I don't think kids today know who he is and that's just plain sad. I think I got it from a 1980 cereal box. Well, naturally I did the only thing possible and that's to make more jello, this time using the moulds that I didn't use previously.




Tried some blueberry flavoured jello which turned out rather strong. Next time I'll use a lighter coloured jello too as you can't really the outline here. Still a yabba dabba doo moment! See the little seeds in one of the jellos, that's actually chia seeds and not the traditional kiwi seeds. Yah, that's my little version of a healthy snack. <^;^>

Speaking of snacks, I still got more pix from my last visit to Meidi-ya on more groceries that you usually can't find elsewhere on the island. I believe that's some smartphone app game tie-in with Pocky and I just think that 'eat you' pix is the best. The Marmite and Guinness crisps were mighty enticing until I remembered I'm more a Brovil kinda guy. Just add milk, instant cereal bowls for those who without bowls?






Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Cavalock and The Hair Jam Mystery

Comes a time when a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do and in my case it was an overdue medical checkup. Spent 30 hours at Raffles Hospital last week and it actually turned out be more like a mini-bed breakfast stay, especially since all my manly bits appear to be in working order so that made the experience a somewhat pleasant one. I got a whole room all for myself, a nice view and three square meals plus afternoon tea and all the water I can drink. Managed to catch We're The Millers and Agatha Christie's Poirot on the iPad as well as finally reading Poe's classic Fall of The House of Usher.




Yah, once a gamer, always a gamer even when laid up in a hospital bed. <^;^>

Well, its been at least a month since I checked out what's new at Meidi-Ya supermarket. So I dropped by over the weekend and saw these couple of ... er ... unique items on sale. Gatsby's new hairdo cream, wax, mousse or whatever, I have no idea! It's called Hair Jam and since I can't open it, I can only imagine it looks or feels like jam?!? Then there's the very tempting Apple Potato Pie, three of my favourite foods in one. I would have gotten it except the almost S$30 price tag kinda freaked me out. That's not exactly a very big pie.



Friday, November 08, 2013

Cavalock and The Rise of The Hackivists

Our local government wasn't the only one who had their hands busy dealing with all things Internet, fortunately it wasn't hackers that I spent most of my online time with. I was emailing the tech support folks at Blizzard to fix my account so that I could get into the Beta version of their next big game Hearthstone, Heroes of Warcraft.

Like I said, it has been quite a tech-y last few weeks for me. After four years, my little red Nespresso machine has finally decided to give up on me. Luckily Nespresso has a trade-in offer where you get S$120 off the new machine once you hand over the old one when they deliver it to your home, yup, they do deliveries too. Plus they gave 16 free capsules!


And I finally got the official Lego iPhone case for my iPhone 5S! Got the iPhone 5S on the first day of launch without even having to queue cos I only wanted the boring space grey colour one that apparently no one else wants. I actually held off getting the iPhone 5 cos I couldn't find a Lego case for it. The tactile surface of my old iPhone 4 Lego case gave it such an easy and comfortable grip.




Anyway, back to the hacking, I find it rather amusing that the local government press has decided to call the hackers "hackivists". I have never heard of that word until today. Now I like to consider myself pretty well read as I do pick up the occasional copy of WIRED magazine that is if I happen to be at the dentist's waiting room once a year. But seriously, what's wrong with the more familiar 'hackers'? Is it like calling flooding "ponding"? I'm thinking maybe the older senior folks in the newsroom remember the 1995 film Hackers starring a young Angelina Jolie. Hackers were good guys in the movie so maybe they had come up with a new word for evil hackers. So the next time, if there's a news story about evil joggers, they'll be "jogivits". Nasty bus drivers could well be "bus drivivists" in disguise. Any others?