Cavalock and The Fiorentina Flashback

When I first heard of La Barca Ristorante last week, it immediately brought back memories of my trip to Tuscany which certainly felt like a lifetime ago. Their tagline promised "a taste of Tuscany in Singapore" so I figured why not give it a shot?

Was there on a weekday night and the joint was almost deserted which is fine with me as I actually prefer this to a packed noisy restaurant. Started with a plate of cold cuts and cheeses like Burrata and Pecorino, followed by a couple of pizzas, one of which they forgot the parma ham topping. Anyway, they were alright but nothing really worth writing home about.

Now this is what I came for. Their much-hyped traditional Fiorentina and I gotta say it sure as hell felt like I was back in freakin' Florence again. Yup, transported back via a mouthful of the finest piece of beefsteak around. So what we had was the traditional Fiorentina with truffle sauce, served with roasted potatoes and sauteed spinach. The Wagyu beef from Australia comes with a marbling score of 3 - 4 and is served medium rare. Really impressed at how soft and tender the beef was and they even had a hot plate if you like it a little more well done. I definitely didn't need that at all as I felt the medium rare was perfect in every way. Totally recommended for all meat lovers.

So after my last medical checkup, I have been working out a bit and a friend recommended I get a fitness bracelet to monitor my daily walking routine and ... this is the cool part! ... tracking my sleeping patterns. Yah, I read the literature on them and there are plenty out there that are pretty skeptical bout how accurate they are. But I'm cool with it. I got the UP by Jawbone and it was on sale at S$159 cos a newer more expensive Bluetooth model was just released. Paid for it using my Citibank points so it was quite a sweet deal at just S$59.

The darker blue bars are when I was in deep or sound sleep while the lighter ones denote light sleep. The orange periods are when I was awake. I think they are quite accurate as I do remember getting up at around those times. I guess it's kinda fun to wake up every morning to see how well you slept the previous nite. Check out my crazy sleep pattens!!!

Cavalock and One Week in Sillypore 10

Another dreary week has slipped by and although it wasn't exactly a bland one, it was rather a chore to recall a single event or occurrence that really stood out. Besides my usual caregiving duties, I did find time to join my gaming friends for dinner at the popular Keng Eng Kee restaurant at Bukit Merah. Was my first time having their signature 'Wat Tan' Hor Fun and Braised Liver Claypot and they were as good as I expected them to be. You can't really taste the eggs after mixing them up with the noodles and the livers weren't too chewy. Don't bother with the crabs, I think the ones at Mellben and No Sighboard are much better.

Went rampaging through the old family home again and found these nuggets from the 1970s. Remember bookmarks?

I have no idea how these work but for a S$2 Daiso product, it's pretty cool in a weird snake-oil-salesman kinda way. Do they work like regular glasses too?

On my way out on Saturday for another Heroclix tournament, felt the wind bellowing, looked up and realised that I was at ground zero of an Asgardian-level 2 storm.

Bought the Back to the Future Lego set months ago and finally found the time (and mood) to put it together. Took me a little less three hours to build it. It's really neat cos you can mod the car into three  different versions from each movie. I'll post the pix next time. Yes, I know it's a shameless effort to get readers to return to this blog but ... :(

Spent last Monday afternoon with my 80-year-old Dad going through his latest wildlife photos and I thought this was a pretty cool shot. He said there are two nestlings in there and has been staking out the nest for about a week. I still think someone his age should just take it real easy and not criss-cross the island every morning at the break of dawn while lugging a ton of camera equipment.

Well, it's World Cup time again and we actually had an order of cookies a couple weeks ago for a children's party and came up with this. More than a few of my friends are betting away like crazy every day now and they even created a Whatsapp chatroom for it. I'm the only guy in it who doesn't watch or bet on any of the matches but it's fun to read their (very) early morning chats on who to bet on. If you had read my earlier post, you would know I was betting quite heavily on soccer years ago. Not something I'm terribly proud of but I must say it was remarkably easy for me to quit. Don't really understand why other people have trouble quitting.

Cavalock and The T-Bone Tourney Treats

Ever since my last post on Cicheti, this little joint down the road has been my go-to restaurant for a hearty serving or two of Italian comfort food. The last time I was there about a week ago, we had the 800g T-bone steak which is something you don't see on their menu cos they don't have it all the time. It was pretty good, tender and juicy with every bite. Since we couldn't resist ordering a ton of our favourite dishes earlier, we ended up having to bag it. If you like a really good steak, you can try asking them if it's on the menu the next time you are there.

WARNING! 

All right, non-geeks get ready to turn back cos it's time for a whole lot of geek gaming talk! 

Hah! So its been a loooooong time since I entered any game tourney and came out on top. I honestly can't remember why but a few weeks ago, I decided to get back into collecting Heroclix or just Marvel Heroclix to be exact. Heroclix is a superhero miniatures tabletop game based on DC and Marvel comic characters. Me and my regular gaming buddies played it when it first appeared on the market over a decade ago. After a year or two, the rest stopped playing but I still bought an occasional booster whenever I dropped by the local game shop.

Like I said, for some unknown reason I recently decided to buy a ton of the latest Marvel Heroclix figures and then take part in a local tourney for newbies. Well, being out of practice for that many years, I'm definitely no better than a newbie ... or am I? My 300-point team consisted of Deadpool and The Black King. For non-geeks (are there any still reading this post?!?), Deadpool is the character portrayed by Ryan Reynolds in the first Wolverine movie and Kevin Bacon played the villainous Sebastian Shaw aka The Black King in the popular X-Men: First Class movie.

Was a three rounds tourney and my first two opponents were playing Avengers teams. Thor, Spidey and Scarlet Witch for the first guy while the second guy had Thor, Spidey and Sif. Thor was naturally the heavy hitter while the rest provided support and back up. Now the trick with my team is that Deadpool and The Black King are both heavy hitters, I don't have or really need any support. The Black King's special ability (like in the comics and movie) is that he gets more powerful whenever he takes any damage so he just gets stronger and bigger throughout the game! Plus Deadpool has the power to make opponents reroll their dice if he gets hit by them.

In the first game, I took out my opponent's Spidey, then Thor and Scarlet Witch. For the second game, Sif went down early followed by Thor and finally Spidey. Both of my guys were still on the map by the end of both games. When The Black King was at his last dial, he was just too damn powerful to die. ;) So it came down to the final 3rd game and my opponent was none other than my friend whom I practised the game with the night before, plus I loaned him my figures (Magneto and Emma Frost) to make it to the finals! After a quick beatdown, he came out tops while I was second. For his reward, he had first pick of the prizes and naturally went for the big bag of Heroclix figures from the Hulk set. Since I already had some figures from that collection, my sights were set on the above limited edition figures from the Fear Itself storyline. In other words, we both got exactly what we came for. <^;^>

Cavalock and The Chwee Kueh Impersonation

A pleasant but rather warm dinner at Bistro du Vin and I couldn't resist snapping a shot of our starter when it arrived at the table. Doesn't this look like a serving of our traditional chwee kueh? Kinda like how you would imagine they would look like if served in a fancy restaurant. Hah! Have you figured out what it is yet? Answer at the end of the post!

Well, I was back clearing out the old family home again. No surprise that there aren't really much vintage "treasures" left to uncover but I thought these kitchen finds were worth at least a pix or two. Now the green table mat is one that I have rather fond memories of cos I really liked how deep and green it was, and of cos savouring all those home-cooked meals off it when I was in kindergarten. As for the retro glasses, I recall they only making an appearance when there are guests around which unfortunately wasn't very often.

A part of me freaked out when I found these old comic books earlier this week. They are English translations of the popular Chinese myth Journey to The West that I was furiously devouring as way back as when I was in kindergarten. They were only 70 cents per copy back then and I got issues 1 to 16, but that ain't the last issue cos at the end of that, they are still traveling to the West. Enjoyed reading them a lot and the clean detailed artwork really caught my eye. Partly to blame for getting me hooked on comics, them and Jack Kirby.

Answer: They are escargots served in little white individual bowls, topped with Italian parsley. 

Cavalock and The Lego Food Trail

I may never get to own my own restaurant but building these tiny Lego food sets does allow me to indulge in a little culinary creativity. These are a couple of original Lego packs I got last year but never really got around to building them until I bought this cheap but fake Lego floor plate a week ago, which came in the ideal size that I was looking for. The shop had the bootleg plates in different sizes and colours that I don't think are available in a regular Lego store.

The hot dog vendor cart is everything you would hope it to be. Check out the hot dog grill as well as ketchup and mustard bottles. The vendor even comes with a 'worried' expression which is perfect when you set him up with the cats from the picnic table set! By the way, I created a Lego section here if anyone wants to look at my previous Lego posts. Oh, but if you wanna look at real Lego food, check this out.

My Dad told me while he was taking these pix at the Botanic Gardens, the agents from the National Environment Agency were chasing away photographers which I think is ridiculous. I really don't think an 80-year-old man is any threat to the wildlife there. Anyway, here are some of his latest pix.

Cavalock and One Week in Sillypore 9

Several years ago, I did a buncha posts called under the "One Week in Sillypore" banner which is kinda like a collection of random weird pix I took over the week (give or take a couple days!) while at work. Well, since I stopped working and became a full-time caregiver I noticed that my posts have been more or less bout the same topics. So I figured I'll just revive it just this one time and see if anyone likes it or not.

Wonderful but pricey chirashi lunch at Aoki Restaurant. I really like how the rice and sashimi are separated instead of putting them all in a bowl like how most other places do. That little mushroom, cod roe in a clear soup and dip was a separate deal, and it was amazing too. Dessert was a excellent combination of melon ice-cream, green tea mousse and Japanese jelly which I think is yuzu. A perfect complement to a flawless main course.

Every gamer in the world is talking about it. The online collectible card game Hearstone is one of the ways I de-stress these days. I actually started playing it on the desktop several months ago when it was first out on Beta. Stopped for awhile then returned to it when it was released on the iPad and all my friends started playing it again too. If you know the game, you'll know what an awesome setup I got going on below. Strung him out and deck-death the guy.

I really love Liang Court and it's not just cos of Meidi-ya supermarket. Here we have a seemingly normal-looking men's tailor shop. I'm sure am curious to see who actually purchases that. Cosplayers maybe? Y'know that anime with that king in that castle and that thing he does while wearing that robe ...?

Then there's always this to look forward to in Meidi-ya. Stuff you most likely can't find in our regular supermarkets. A brand of boorish cereals and ice-cream soda by the same folks behind the famous root beer float.

Here's how I have been enjoying my Japanese maple honey. Brought it out with me whenever I'm having a pancake breakfast meal at McDonald's. Way better than that overly sweet syrup they give out.

A random pix that opens the door to numerous awesome culinary possibilities and another that'll sure to drive some churches ape-shit crazy. You are welcome!

Cavalock and The Izakaya Authentication

In an old commercial building with a not-so-innocent reputation of housing dubious massage parlours and shops offering otherworldly services, we found this gem of an izakaya tucked away inconspicuously on the ground floor of the one and only Fortune Centre. Now you would probably have strolled past Nobu-ya if you weren't exactly looking out for it. To be fair, that big red noren or Japanese door curtain in the front does kinda obscure any sign of a restaurant.

But make no mistake, this is a real drinking joint or izakaya as the Japanese would call it. Sitting at the counter near the entrance, I saw more than a couple of potential customers getting turned away cos they either didn't make a dinner reservation or said they won't be ordering any booze when asked if they were gonna be drinking.

Almost everything we ordered on as well as off the menu turned out amazing. After all we are talking about a couple of Japanese chefs who used to work at a fancy joint like Fairmont's Mikuni so really, this is seriously good Japanese pub food. I loved the above beef stew so much that I ordered a second serving, and the sashimi wasn't actually on the menu but we requested for half of the grilled fish to be served raw instead. That turned out great too. Sure can't wait to try this place again.

Now instead of showcasing all the fake Legos that I have been buying over the last few months, I thought maybe I ought to share some new genuine purchases. Been a huge Simpsons fan since their early days at the Tracy Ullman Show. Anyone remember how we can could only get to watch Tracy Ullman over Malaysia's TV3 channel? Been drooling over these Simpsons Lego minifigures and house set since they were announced months ago. Finally got them all including the new Parisian Restaurant so now all I need is more space, and I'm taking bout a LOT more space to set them up.

Shared that box of Simpsons minifigures below with two other friends as you get three complete sets of 16 minifigures each in there plus a handful of extras. I like the figures as the sculpts are closer to the animated characters than the typical Lego ones especially the heads. 

Cavalock and The Fatty Medical Anxiety

Ever since I went for my full (manly) medical check-up last week, I have been on pins and needles waiting for my results. And that finally came early yesterday morning. It was really no big surprise, to me at least, that the results revealed that I had way too much fats in me as well as a serve lack of "good cholesterol". Now if we have met in real life, I'm probably the last person you would expect to be called 'fat' but unfortunately it's all under this skinny little frame.

The reason why I wasn't surprised by this is because ever since I became a full-time caregiver about two years ago, I have pretty much stopped working out. After a day of taking care of the sick and elderly, the last time I wanna do is exercise. I'm just too mentally and emotionally exhausted to do anything else except to go home and de-stress.

But like I said, this wasn't the thing that I was most concerned about. It was all the other extensive blood tests, scans and x-rays that came with the full medical examination that had my imagination in overdrive. Well, glad to announce that everything else turned out alright. No STDs, no cancer markers, normal blood pressure, normal this and normal that, just need to eat right and work out a whole lot more.

Looking back I definitely don't regret going through the check-up even though it ain't exactly cheap, at about S$800. Last week's tests took only a couple of hours to complete, including waiting time. First up, the nurses took vials of blood, checked my eyes, took my stats (+1 Dexterity, -2 Strength), before I met the doc for a chat. Then it's off to get my stomach scanned and chest x-rayed in another part of the building. When all that's done, it's back to the same clinic to role-play a hamster on the treadmill. It was quite an interesting morning and oh, they had a small breakfast spread in the waiting room that was much appreciated for those of us who had to fast the night before.

Gone are my days as a lean, mean stabbing machine. But seriously I'm grateful that the rest of the results came out alright, but I do have an uphill task ahead. Trying to find time and energy to work out while still being a 24/7 caregiver ain't gonna be easy. Oh, did I mention that I'm STD-free? ;)