Sunday, September 30, 2018

Cavalock and The Other Birthday Dinner

As with every birthday month every year, I tend to stuff myself a little more than usual. This year's spotlight meal has got to be Esora at Mohamed Sultan Road. It's apparently a pretty popular joint according to the local media. Modern Japanese cuisine. Definitely not a cheap meal as we each took the S$248 set plus a whole big bottle of sake. I tell myself it's worth it cos to think otherwise would positively drive me insane. Hah! I'm just kidding! We really loved every dish we had, some more than others. But really, we sat at the counter (our favourite seats in every Japanese joint) and had all our senses blown away by how beautiful every dish was, how unique they were and of cos, how they all came together for an amazing experience.








It's not a very big place, I guessing about 30-seater tops. Appreciate the personal touch as we were leaving the place. A little printout of the menu and a door gift. Unexpected but sweet and it's little things like this that won us over.


Also been bout a year since I joined the gym. No regrets that is until I get all nauseous during workout and feel like I'm gonna die... still no regrets.


Every time I see this poster, I'm thinking since when did the Guardians of the Galaxy become a part of our culture?


Thursday, September 20, 2018

Cavalock and The Satanic Birthday Dinning Week

Been ages since I been to a really fancy Chinese dinner that's not someone's wedding but ... it is after all my birthday month and this here is a free dinner. Thanks to the bank, I got a free dinner for two at St. Regis Singapore's Yan Ting restaurant.


First time there. Enjoyed everything on the set menu although we found it lacking in carbo so we ordered some rice. I know you aren't supposed to dig in to so much carbo but we just didn't wanna go to bed hungry later. Favourite was the abalone although I always forget, which is the one that we aren't allowed to have? Abalone, shark's fin or is it bird's next? I know it's one of them ... I'm kidding!!!








So I went to an army reunion last week with people I haven't seen in decades. One of the first things someone said to me was, "I'm surprised you are married," to which I replied, "You thought I was gay?" "No, we thought you are so satanic and into devil-worshipping that you weren't interested in relationships," or words to that effect but the words "satanic" and "devil-worshipping" were definitely brought up more than once. Looking back, I think I did mentioned bout reading comic books and playing games like Dungeons and Dragons while in camp.

Needless to say, the Baker-at-Home found all this absolutely hilarious. I guess she's now really curious as to the kinda teenager I was. A gamer friend said that these camp mates must really like you to invite you to the reunion even after assuming you were a devil-worshipper.

I'm just shocked that in this day and age, people still assume that "satanic devil-worshippers" are incapable of finding love or even maintaining a serious relationship. <^;^>

Monday, September 10, 2018

Cavalock and The Overdue Return Home Post

Back to some local food after almost a dozen posts on my Tokyo trip. Hah! We were fortunate to grab not one but two seatings at popular local joint Magic Square. Here are already a whole buncha articles written about the place like here and here. It's a year-long pop-up restaurant helmed by young local chefs. Situated at Portsdown Road, it's a 18-seater joint with two seatings and 3-course lunch offerings on Fridays and Saturdays. 


I believe they change their menu every month. We kinda had the same menu cos we were only like, a week or two apart. I said 'kinda' cos they were cool enough to switch the single main for us from beef which we had the first time we were there to grouper fish. Anyway my favourite is the above delicious mutant child of Indian prata and Chinese mantou. Rip it apart and dip it in that heavenly curried cauliflower ricotta sauce. Only complaint is there's only one bun. And that's also my only minor complaint that I wish I had more of almost every dish. All excellent dishes which I wouldn't mind paying a little more for bit larger portions. 


Highly recommend the place to everyone. Great fresh food and it's all about supporting our local and very talented young chefs. Most likely to return when they change the menu before the end of the year.


Am currently nuts about the new skirmish miniature wargame Kill Team. Set in the rich sci-fi gaming world of Warhammer 40K, this is a fast and light game of miniature fighting where each player controls about 5 to maybe 20 figures and fight over objectives in various scenarios. It's played skirmish style so each figure moves on its own instead of as a whole huge unit like in other miniatures games.


I have assembled a Kill Team of Blood Marines Intercessors as well as in the middle of putting together a Tyranids team. I usually play a team of 6 Intercessors. How you put together a team is you have 100 points to play around with, and each member would cost you a certain number of points, weapons too. So you try to put together a team and you count the points and see it goes. Like a sniper Space Marine armed with a stalker bolt rifle would cost this many points while an alien Genestealer would cost a different number of points. Still learning all the intricacies and tactics when it comes to skirmish warfare. So many different factions with different abilities. Think I have so far only played five or six games, lost all but really enjoyed them. Really. I mentioned before that I find painting the little miniatures extremely therapeutic.



How crazy am I about Kill Team? This is me putting together or obsessing over my Kill Team on my flight home from Tokyo last month. While listening to retro music of cos. Hah!


Tuesday, September 04, 2018

Cavalock and The Self-Serve Sake Sensation

Even since that time a year ago, when we wandered into a Foundry bakery at Karuizawa, we have become huge fans of their yummy creations. Well, we didn't have time to visit the place again even though we did drop by Karuizawa for a day but we were fortunate to find a small Foundry outlet at Shinjuku. Couldn't resist a slice of melon cake while the Baker-at-Home had the peach. A most welcome treat during summer.


More random Japan food notes and pix. Didn't notice this the last time I was at Narita's airport lounge. Self-serve Sake! Three different ones to choose from. I know I had one right after breakfast, nice and dry. Just can't remembered which. :)


No Tokyo vacation would be complete without me dropping by my favourite Japanese board game shop Yellow Submarine. This trip, I visited not one but two Yellow Submarines in Tokyo, their Shinjuku as well as Akihabara outlets. Picked up more games than in March but there were a few here that were requests from friends.