Cavalock and The Journey Through the West

Last week, the Baker-at-Home was doing what she did best and the result was some really yummy home-made cream puffs. She filled them up with hojicha cream, made from powder that we bought from Japan last year. Been awhile since she did something like that and it was quite a relief for her that they turned out better than she expected. Not that she hasn't been baking these few months, just that her attention was on other pastry treats like this and this.

There has been a lot of press bout the nature trails around the island recently and me and three of the guys got to walk from Lakeside to Bukit Timah one early morning last week. Wonderful weather made the walk all the more pleasant. One of the guys did the walk a few week ago so he kinda led the way. But he did it at night so now in the morning, we kinda took a different route cos at night, he tended to avoid places without street lights and stuff like that. We walked through almost all kinds of terrain, from HDB sidewalks to under the train tracks to along the expressway to fields with 'no trespassing' signs. 

One of the highlights has got to be us taking a last minute detour to Bukit Batok Nature Park to view the abandoned quarry site. A pretty fun morning and I could still keep up even with my foot operation from couple years ago. I thought 11km in two-and-a-half hours is pretty decent for a first-timer. Check out the over 100m elevation, that's us hiking up the quarry site. Ended with a hot bowl of lontong and then lazing by my friend's pool before heading to another friend's place for boardgames.

Cavalock and The Japanese Snack Trail

Ah, how we miss visiting Tokyo and those light fluffy slices of Japanese bread. Well, I chanced upon this interesting Japanese bread making book from Kinokuniya awhile back and bought it for the Baker-at-Home. But we were all busy with stuff until last week when she finally had time to try out the recipes in it. It's all bread loaf recipes so nothing really fancy to look at. Hah! But it's in Japanese so this book might be an obstacle for some folks out there. It did recommend the use of specific Tomiz Japanese bread flour but you could also use other regular bread flour except the texture result is a little different. But definitely still yummy and edible! The Baker-at-Home baked the bread using both Tomiz and regular bread flour.

Speaking of Japanese groceries, we spotted this small pack of Japanese milk tea at Cold Storage and picked it up on a whim. We really liked it, strong earl grey flavour and not too sweet. Next day, we saw some for-sale-in-Japan-only ice-cream flavoured candy at Giant supermarket, not our thing but I guess, the point is there are lesser known Japanese snacks or food related products like the bread book all over the island, you could try looking for them if you miss visiting the country. Does that make sense? 

Meanwhile, last week me 87-year-old Dad was busy snapping bird photos across the island. He kinda liked these from Botanic Garden although he missed a couple flying shots. I think he waited a few days for this little common kingfisher to finally show up. 

Cavalock and The Baker's Helper's Quest

It's no surprise that the Baker-at-Home did her fair share of baking during the Lockdown. I guess since most of our breakfasts (not the cookie!) are now homemade, they are healthier cos of the lack of preservatives etc. Maybe, I hope. As her Japanese baking is her forte, we were left with a very limited supply of Japanese bread flour very early in the Lockdown. And so began the quest for the elusive Japanese bread flour. It was a quest that brought me to baking supply shops in the West, only to be turned away as I lacked the necessary documents needed to enter the establishments, then to further parts unknown across the island where tales of such arcane ingredients were whispered among the native bakers.

I found it! I finally found it! Japanese bread flour for the Baker-at-Home, over at Isetan supermarket but they were all gone a week later. Hah!

Hey, more wildlife pix from Seletar by my 85-year-old Dad. Hope you guys enjoy them.

So recent worldwide protests got me reminiscing bout growing up in the old family home. Back in those days, decades ago, the word 'Negro' was how my uncles and aunts call Black folks on TV or on the radio cos really why else would Singaporeans talk about Black folks back then? I think it's fairly accurate to say that during those days unless one has some kind of direct personal connection wth a Black individual, we saw them mostly as entertainers. We watched a ton of TV shows from the west and listened to a lot of Motown too. Now we never ever used the other 'N'-word nor did we call them 'Black', coloured or African Americans. It was the only word I knew that described Black people I see on TV. These days I don't see, read or hear 'Negro' being used in media (or at least in mainstream media) which lends me to believe it's either an outdated term or perhaps it's deemed just as offensive as the other 'N'-word. So I did quick online check.

According to Wiki: In the English language, Negro (plural Negroes) is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Negroid heritage. The term can be construed as offensive, inoffensive, or completely neutral, largely depending on the region or country where it is used. It has various equivalents in other languages of Europe.

The term Negro is still used in some historical contexts, such as the songs known as Negro spirituals, the Negro Leagues of sports in the early and mid-20th century, and organizations such as the United Negro College Fund. The academic journal published by Howard University since 1932 still bears the title Journal of Negro Education, but others have changed: e.g. the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (founded 1915) became the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History in 1973, and is now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History; its publication The Journal of Negro History became The Journal of African American History in 2001. Margo Jefferson titled her 2015 book Negroland: A Memoir to evoke growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in the African-American upper class.

The United States Census Bureau included Negro on the 2010 Census, alongside Black and African-American, because some older black Americans still self-identify with the term. The U.S. Census now uses the grouping "Black, African-American, or Negro". Negro is used in efforts to include older African Americans who more closely associate with the term. On the other hand, the term has been censored by some newspaper archives.

For the older folks like my late uncles and aunts, it’s a term that was commonly used by their generation.

I also remember as a little kid when we were watching a British show and I was really surprised to see a minor Black actor appear. I asked how come there are Negroes in London cos like I said earlier, the word 'Negro' was pretty common in our household. I can't recall which show it was but you just don't see a lot of that kind of representation on British TV 30 years ago or at least on shows that our TV stations were showing. Black characters we saw a lot on American TV but they were a rare breed on the BBC. Plus the British history books I grew up reading never mentioned anything about Black history in the UK.

Yah, my mind tends to wonder like that when in Lockdown ...

Cavalock and The Balmuda Toaster Acquisition

It all started a year ago when we saw this strange little toaster in Osaka. It looked almost like any other toaster on sale except a wee bit sleeker and there's something about adding water into it. And also that it costed a bomb which naturally made it all that more intriguing. We did a little research and the more we read about it, the more tempted we were to get it. Well, needless to say, that's exactly what we did this Tokyo trip! We got ourselves an award-winning Balmuda toaster!

Basically in a regular toaster, the heat dehydrates your bread, drying it up and turning it into toast but this here fancy toaster, the water turns the machine into a kinda steam oven. It keeps the toast from totally drying up while retaining much of its original texture. As it toasts, you can see alternating bursts of steam and the oven's heating elements pulsating away. You can read more about it here and here. 

Weekend breakfasts have now become a toasty affair home in Singapore. The toasts we had so far have been phenomenal. There are different settings for normal toasts, cheesy ones, baguettes and croissants. We'll probably try heating some croissants for breakfast next once we get our hands on some the day before.

Oh, so how we got the toaster was pretty interesting too. We hit the main stores like Bic Camera and Yodobashi Camera the day after we landed but they were all sold out. Disappointed we carried on with getting other stuff on our shopping list. A couple days later we were at our favourite Tokyu Hands Shinjuku. I was checking out the gazillion kinds of different stationery there when I received a Whatspp from the Baker-At-Home who was on a lower floor kitchen section of Tokyu Hands. She had spotted a Balmuda toaster! Bought it in a heart beat and carried it back to our hotel which fortunately was just a short walk away.

Now remember Freshness Burger? The Japanese burger chain used to have a couple of outlets here before they moved out a few years ago. I miss their spamburgers! Anyway I couldn't resist dropping by one in Tokyo just for old times' sake. Damn! They sure take their lemon drinks seriously!

Cavalock and The Overdue Kitchen Street Visitation

It was all things pink in Tokyo when we were there earlier this month. It's a double sakura and strawberry season in play. Unfortunately we didn't spot any 'real' sakura except for the numerous flavoured snacks and beverages on sale. Of cos, you can count on Starbucks to come up with their sakura fraps, lattes and cakes. Sakura's a nice taste but for the life of me, I can't recall exactly how it tasted like now back home. It was sweet and agreeable in many ways but I guess kinda forgettable.  What I do remember is enjoying that sunny afternoon break at Starbucks dining al fresco, out in chilly breezy Shinjuku.

Beautifully ripe strawberries everywhere we went too. We bought punnets of them back to our room to snack on every morning. So juicy sweet and so damn cheap. 

For this year's Tokyo trip, the Baker-At-Home got to hit just about all her must-see spots. We headed to the popular Kappabashi Kitchen Town where you got an entire street of shops selling what else but kitchenware and everything you need to open a restaurant in Japan well, except for the food. Heh. This was actually a place that we had originally planned to visit on our very first trip to Japan over a decade ago but just never did. And yup, we did leave the place with bags full of goodies.

An actual pizza oven in your own kitchen?!? Very tempting even though I ain't exactly a big pizza guy. Why can't we ever have things like this here? Cos no one thinks folks here will pay for it?

Cavalock and The Football Club Cookie Challenge

Neither of us are sports fans which made this cookie order more challenging than others. Hours were spent online looking for the correct colors and design. We even considered the possibility of getting 3D printed cookie cutter because of its unique crest sharp. Instead the baker-in-house decided to do it freestyle on regular round butter cookies. As each piece had to be traced and painstakingly hand-drawn, she really had her work cut out for her (pun intended). 

Frankly I can never understand the appeal of being a sports fan. The idea of cheering for millionaire sportsmen from halfway across the world who doesn't know or even care about you is simply beyond my understanding. But I digress. The family who got the cookies all loved them and that's good enough for us.

Great Shades of Storage Wars! It was just like a scene outta the reality show a couple of Sundays ago when I was invited to a private boardgame sale held at one them storage facilities. Only about five of us were allowed in at a time and I spent almost an hour combing the racks in the dark. Yes, it was so freakin' dark that we had to rely on our smartphone torchlight apps. Everything in there was going at half-price! Quite an unforgettable experience and fun too as we went around discovering some pretty cool old games hidden in the corners. Found and bought over S$180 worth of games and expansions.

Cavalock and The Fluttershy Experiment

The baker-in-the-house was pretty busy over the last couple of weeks turning out cupcake and cookie orders. Now I ain't a My Little Pony fan at all but I thought these really looks good. After we got the request for a little girl's birthday party, the baker-in-the-house headed immediately online to research the colors and design of the character, Fluttershy. She especially wanted to get the eyes right.

As always, every Fluttershy butter cookie piece was painstakingly hand-painted. Lots of attention to detail cos that's what she does best. Hope we got the right shade of pink and yellow too. *whew*

And now this. Hey, the baker-in-the-house ain't the only creative person around here! ;) Presenting my prize-winning Lego early 20th-century seance scene! Submitted it to an online Lego creation contest last month and won me a small limited edition Lego winter box set.