Cavalock and The Squid-Ink Dough Exposition

Been about two years since I had a bite at Basilico and that's two years too long if you asked me. We scooted down to Regent Singapore on late Saturday morning for an early lunch (I refuse to call it 'brunch'!) and thankfully everything there was as good or delicious as the last time we were there. Is there any other joint that offers an Italian buffet as generous as this? I don't think so.

Lamb on the left, chicken on the right and beef below. Lamb came out tops. But the surprise hit was the black-and-white squid ink bread. Yah, I really like this. Dip it in balsamic and olive oil. Who was the genius who came up with this!?!

Another fun weekend spent wargaming with my Age of Sigmar Stormcast Eternals army. Saw someone did this last month, he glued tiny little magnets to the base of his figures. This helps hold your figures steady cos some are pretty delicate or fragile. I have had pole weapons and wizards' staff broken after bringing them out cos they inadvertently get shaken about during transport. Did mine below with some magnets from Daiso. Another use for all them old mooncake tins I guess.

Cavalock and The Clasp Lock Lockdown

With less than a month to go, looks like everyone is getting into the Chinese New Year mood already. Spotted this new Haagen-Dazs flavour in town. Not a huge fan of sorbets no matter the flavour or occasion. But I can imagine folks serving this to kids during Chinese New year visits. So I guess people will buy it.

Here's something new or at else new to me and my friends who are also Nespresso drinker. Apparently Coffee Bean outlets here are selling their own capsules "For use in Nespresso Brewing Systems". I didn't know they did that! S$6.80 a tube. I'll remember to maybe grab a tube or two the next time I run out of them. Or unless someone tells me they suck. Hah!

Saw this at my neighbourhood hardware store. Dunno why but I'm like totally mesmerised by it. There's something old school about it and they so organised ... so so organised. Makes me wanna break the glass and just start flipping them all. They. need. to. be. unclasped.

Damn it! It's always posts like these that stop me from becoming one them fancy influencers!

Cavalock and The Cold Snap Spell

That cold snap's over and it was fun while it lasted. For the Baker-at-Home and me, it was the perfect excuse to make a beeline for Imperial Treasure Steamboat at Great World City. Not the cheapest meal around but it was definitely satisfying.

And with the temperature dropping, there weren't any birds out for my 84-year-old Dad to shoot either so we spent most of our time indoors. But he did managed to stake out (middle-of-freakin'-nowhere) Seletar open fields and shot this little fella round the end of December.

This is another one of those things I never thought I would doing a decade ago and that's carrying a tote bag. Back then this was pretty much one of the most gay things a straight guy would be caught lugging but these days that's how I transport my board games and miniatures around. They are the right fit for most of the game boxes. Just can't resist any Star Wars or Snoopy ones especially if they are all from Japan like the ones I got.

Cavalock and The Coconut Nut Entanglement

Was never ever a snack person but I did succumb and buy one of them snacks below when I was at Meidi-Ya last week. That supermarket is always great for spotting groceries your neighbourhood FairPrice will very unlikely bring in, for whatever reasons.

Anyway these Kettle bags of crisps look pretty interesting at first place, especially the New York Deli. I can imagine snacking on that. The others were either too meh or weird to me. I mean, salted caramel and cream crisps seriously? No thanks. And no, I didn't buy any of them.

Coconut biscuits from Japan! This is also where I finally find out whether or a coconut is a nut ... or not. The 'triple nuts sable' features almonds, hazelnuts and ... are you for this? coconut! Yup, from Oxford dictionary you got this definition:

"If you asked a botanist this question, the answer would probably be no, a coconut isn’t a true nut: strictly speaking, it’s a one-seeded drupe. In more general terms, however, a coconut can be a fruit, a seed, and a nut (a nut is technically a type of fruit)."

I like drinking coconuts and coconut-flavoured confectioneries, and I also like a generous scoop of butter on most of my food. Bought the butter pack and had it with a cup of coffee the next day, not bad. 

It's the second week of the new year and I have only managed to play eight games so far. Two games of Clank! Sunken Treasures, three games of Ethnos, continued our weekly Gloomhaven campaign, one game of Escape from the Aliens in Outer Space and one miniature war game of Age of Sigmar. Enjoyed all of them except for Escape from the Aliens. Well, Escape is a hidden movement game where two players are aliens while another two are humans, players won't know who's what until much later in the game. So as a hidden movement game, everyone's calling out real or fake co-ordinates on a map while trying to escape to the escape pod or if you are alien, kill the the human players. It got kinda draggy at the end. And I'm still painting my miniatures!

Cavalock and The Oxley Flapjack Fascination

Happy New Year Everybody!

If only we had something like this back when we were all living in the old family home. A Kith Cafe opened up at Winsland House along Oxley Road late last year. It's a nice little joint just a short walk down from where we used to live, where we can now all enjoy a breakfast of toast, eggs and pancakes. I know my late uncle would have loved a place like this. He spent half his life working and living in the US, and I remember how he would look forward to a ...er... non-local meal more than once. Hah!

I have never visited a Kith outlet before even though they are apparently almost everywhere. Now their light fluffy pancakes are what I would gleefully look forward to on weekend mornings. Just two pancakes, not too filling and just the way I like them. And their honey ginger chai is pretty damn good too. That ginger also kinda gives you a little morning kick.

Another thing that I noticed near my old family home is the traffic light across the road from Winsland House now has a 'Stop' button! Well, it actually had it about a year ago but for decades, it never had one. After all these years, the power is now back in the hands of the people! Well, I mean it's kinda obvious why it couldn't have a bleeding 'Stop' button cos it's at the Oxley junction where I can imagine a certain previous resident would rather his entourage not hit the brakes for the likes of us?