Cavalock and His Amazing Day Off

Started my day off with a quick early morning online search for scrambled eggs recipes. Decided to wipe some up but didn't really have much stuff in the kitchen to add to it so ended up with a pretty plain version (with a pinch of chicken salt), and some cereal and coffee (with Bailey's of cos) to complete that morning breakfast of champions for one.

Spent rest of the morning at the library borrowing some CD-ROMs and a bunch of comic books. Finally got my hands on James Robinson's final chapter of Starman: Sons of the Father. Then a train ride to Orchard for the Kinokuniya sale. Lunch was pretty forgettable. Couldn't decide where in Orchard to go for lunch by myself, finally settled on Romankan Yokohama at Taka's basement since I was in the building already. Was 'meh'...

Got this impulse buy Izakaya, The Japanese Pub Cookbook. That's the first pix at the top. Flipped through the browsing copy near the cashier and thought it was quite good. Definitely not your regular cookbook, in addition to the 60 recipes there are lots of insight and articles on Japanese pubs and all their little subculture. The thing that sealed the deal for me? Printed in Japan, the book's 2,800 yen. It's going for (with the Kino 20% sale) only s$35. Do the maths man, with today's exchange rate, that's a good buy if I ever saw one.

Cavalock Wishes Everyone A Happy Lunar New Year

Hey, Happy Lunar New Year to everyone out there! I read bout how some folks aren't that crazy bout all the visiting and stuff. Me? I come from a small family and I see them almost every week so seeing them on CNY is really no big difference, cept for the ang pow part. Anyway, its been real windy for the last few weeks so I guess it ain't that bad going out, walking in the sun and all that.


We opened the above bottle of lychee wine last nite. Something 'Chinese' for the New Year I guess. Hah! 'Cept that came from Italy. Never knew them Italians could do lychee. Not too bad. Really strong lychee aroma/scent/smell but you don't taste it that much, a light wine that we all kinda enjoyed.

Cavalock and The Menace of The Tupperware People

Oh wow, remember the Danny Choo workshop I went to late last year? Well, before the workshop, he did mention that he was gonna have some giveaways for us attending the event. Unfortunately, the freebies never made to us, like it got lost during transit or something. But the good news is, he sent out another shipment and it finally arrived last week! Thanks Danny!

Hey check this out! Cool pencils eh? Just couldn't resist two of my homeboyz. Only a buck fifty each. And yah, they got other authors too like George Orwell.

And who are the Tupperware People? Something I found out while having Friday nite drinks...

Friend: He's (an ex-colleague) a Tupperware.

Me: Huh? What's that? Why a Tupperware?

Friend: He's so plastic, just plastic all over.

Me: Bwah-hahahaha!

Cavalock and Mister Donut's New Donuts

Man, just when I was talking bout Mister Donut in my last post. Look at what they got on their menu. Latest addition, mochi flour donuts! Sounds ... er, yummy... I think. Will I get a chance to sink my teeth into one anytime soon? <^;^>

Anyway, read this New York Times article in bed over the weekend. Real funny dating story. 

Cavalock and His First Nendoroid

Heard a bit bout this little seafood place that's located in the middle of an industrial estate and appropriately named Seafood Paradise. It's in Defu industrial estate in Hougang. As expected, during the weekend, the area is pretty deserted. Heh, now if you ask me, see that entrance there, it kinda reminds me of the Zouk entrance.

The outside doesn't look that good but damn, when you a long Q in the middle of nowhere, you just know there's gotta be something worth waiting for, know what I mean? What we got was good food at a pretty good price. Read a bit bout their wasabi prawns so we ordered that, was ok, I mean it tasted exactly how you expected it to be when you see something like wasabi + prawn.

Highlight for me was their signature butter crab. That's the first pix up there. Damn its good. Creamy buttery sauce. Ordered an extra serving of the fried buns just to soak up it all up. Overall, much better than the Mellben crabs.

Finally got myself a figure from the Nendodroid series. That's a line of Japanese figures where they take famous anime/manga characters and give them the cute 'big head, little body' treatment. And it ain't cheap either. This one, the 50th in the series, cost me S$42. Got it cos it reminded me of the famous Mister Donut chain in Japan. Remember having breakfast in one of their shops in Kyoto. Funny little TV ad here on YouTube.

Cavalock returns to Newton Circus

I know I'll going to sound like a 'mountain turtle' when I say I just made my first trip to the new Newton Circus. When I was a kid, I grew around Newton and I was like there almost every week. Mostly cos of the newsstands there where I would go buy my comic books. But its been like 5 or 6 years now since I stepped back into the place or ate anything from there.

So last week I was there with the guys, I ordered something I always had whenever I'm there. The popiah. Same stall facing the carpark, also sells Chinese satay. Boon Heng? Or something like that. 

Unfortunately it didn't taste as good as before. Another thing I noticed is ... no more newsstands! Not that I was aiming to buy any comic books that nite but was just looking for a little bit of my childhood. Awww man, guess you can't go home again after all. Damn you, Thomas Wolfe!!!

Cavalock and The Game Mobil

Recent haul from Isetan's Hokkaido Fair. <^;^> That's sweet natural, pure fruit juice, not booze like the last time.

True story, friend of mine, married with kids, drives a wagon we call The Game Mobil. He's a gamer too, and you know how in those Hollywood action movies, when some bad ass guy pops the car's trunk and you see this freakin' arsenal of big ass guns, rockets and all kinds of shit in there, and you (if you are a guy), you'll go 'that is soooo cool'. Well, when my friend pops his trunk, you see this freakin' big collection of board games. Yup, and if the average is like a hundred bucks a box, we looking at bout a grand's worth in there. And there was even a request for it to make at appearance during a wake, I shit you not.

Cavalock and The Mystery of the Sea Bird's Nest

Really, can someone explain to me if a bird can actually build a nest in middle of the ocean or under the sea, or is the nest of a new kinda 'sea bird'? Should I read it as a sea bird's nest or sea bird's nest? :P And in case anyone is wondering, it's from the juice stall Tracy at the basement of Raffles City.

Tried another recipe from The Book, something called Nutella Crepes. Real fast and simple like the rest. Tasted all rite but I used a little too much Nutella. Still got lots more crepes in the pack so I'll definitely be trying it again soon, before the crepes expire later this month.

Does that look like too much Nutella to anyone? Pop it in the oven for 10 minutes.

Decided to go with a banana instead of nuts like the recipe called for. Like I said, a little too sweet (yah I know, coming from me, it must have been VERY sweet), can't taste the rum at all.

Cavalock and The Fertility Idol

Check this out, the latest from Kit Kat, Caramel Macchiato (McDonalds McFlurry version). Got it from Isetan (where else? Really) at S$3.95 a box. Nice and sweet, the way I like. Not too caramel. And when you open a pack, man, the aroma it's so sweet. I think everyone in the room can smell you opening one.

Here something else I got today. Bet most of you have no idea what this is. It's a Mighty Muggs figure. One of the latest line of vinyl/plastic collectibles. The one I got is based on the famous fertility idol from the first Indiana Jones movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Remember the famous rolling boulder scene at the begining of the movie?

The Mighty Muggs fertility idol is an exclusive figure that was only sold at last year's Comic Con. That means it's gonna be as expensive as a real Indy treasure if you can find it here. Well, I was lucky to find a shop here selling it at only S$30, that's the average retail price for a normal Mighty Mugg. So you know, at that price, a Comic Con exclusive is a sell. Besides, it's in a gold box, all shiny. Unlike the regular Muggs that are in their boring white boxes. Hah! Don't worry, that's gonna be my first, last and only Mighty Muggs figure, ain't no way I can afford the $$$ or space for another new collection.

Cavalock Enters the New Year

Hey there! Happy New Year everyone! <^;^>

Hmmm... to be honest, I tried to come up with something special to write bout on New Year's Day but I can't think of anything, anything special that is. And then I remembered why I blog in the first place, it's bout stuff that I like, things I do that make me happy, won't write bout the things that make me worry or unhappy. So with that in mind, look what I bought on the last day of 2008! One last indulgance...

Its been at least a year since I bought any mini food replicas, got this complete set of the official Pierre Hermes Collection by Bandai for S$45 at China Square Central during lunch. The guy was here last year for the World Gourment Summit and he conducted some lessons macaron-making classes too. Friend of mine went to one.

Anyway, it's a pretty big set and I have nowhere to display them so I'll keep them in the boxes for now. Here's a bigger and clearer pix of them. As you can see from my pix, there are little bags and cake boxes plus a portrait of the pastries too.

5 different themes:

1) New Year 2) Valentine's Day 3) Mother's Day 4) Birthday 5) Christmas

If I'm ever back in Tokyo, I am so going to get some of the real stuff! I know I'm kinda slow to really appreciate them after my last trip to Japan.

Now its been over a year since I came up with the idea of using the ‘Two And A Half Men” title style of writing my entry headlines. It’s like a line from the week’s episode is used as its title and usually it’s something that sounds really funny when taken outta context.

Now its time to change things again so I’m gonna use something from another one of my favourite TV shows, Monk. How Monk does it is that each episode title starts with “Mister Monk …something, something…”

'She's the best deal in town'

Back with my Otaku 'Best of' list. Now I didn’t really read as much comic books as I would have liked. I’ll have to pick Ed Brubaker’s Captain America and Geoff Jones’ Green Lantern as the year’s two best on-going monthly series that I have NOT been buying.

Bought a bunch of figures this year. Best ‘ang mo’ action figure has to be Despero from DC Direct below. Hard choice as I scored quite a few good big figures towards the end of the year.

Best Gashapon figure is this one below. I don’t know her name but for only S$2 she’s the best deal in town, the details and sculpt are fantastic.

Best Anime/Manga figure. Well, I have already featured her more than a few times. <^;^> Oh, looks like she's hinting at what I ought to be whipping up next.

Best complete collection set I bought this year would be this set of cute lady workers of Japan’s train stations. That's them at the top of the page. Managed to get the entire set at the recent Anime Festival for freakin’ bargain price, S$5 each, normal price would be more than twice that.

Music side, best discovery would be all the genre radio stations on itunes. Work will never be the same again. Well, I also found lots of cool new sites during the year. Here's a fun site that I think most people who drop by here would like. It's about Trends in Japan. Food, fashion, gadgets, wacky stuff, it's here. Check out my list on the left for more links.

And yup, that's how detailed she is. Sorry, I just had to sneak this in....<^;^>

'My dream MILF'

Thought I'll start this entry with my latest Ladies Drinks addition.

Tried 2 new eating places over the long weekend but didn’t take any pix so I’ll just mention them briefly. Muthu’s Curry at Suntec, Good. Rakuichi at Dempsey, Not-so-good. I luv the Indian white rice (forgot the name) that most places serve but I couldn’t tell if Muthu was serving that or just regular white rice. As for Rakuichi, the sushi and sashimi were just average to me and not really worth the ex price.

The trip to Rakuichi actually marked my 4th time to Dempsey. First was for drinks at Margarita’s, next was to PC Cafe/Barracks, then White Wabbit and now Rakuichi. I also finally managed to drop by Joe Grocer too and wow, pretty cool selection but a little too ex for me. Spotted a bottle of garlic oil (don’t think I have seen it elsewhere). Know some recipes that call for it, I have instead used chopped/diced fresh garlic. This should be ok no?

Anyway I thought of doing a kinda ‘Best of’ list of 2008 but my memory is soooo bad, still, I’ll give it a shot. Right now the 2008 hottest babe to me is still Tina Fey. My dream MILF. Tropic Thunder, Iron Man, Bond, all good shows. Indy? argh, pity, not that good.

Hmmmm, the best book, although I didn’t read that many books this year, has got to be Joe Hill’s Heart Shaped Box. Caught random episodes of Mad Men, liked them all but am still hooked on my usual shows. Best gadget I got this year? My ipod touch just beat my Sony DSLR camera for it.

Next, I'll have my Otaku favourites for the year.

'More lemony than others'

I finally found my scallops at Carrefor! Thanks to everyone who answered my last post. I actually found some at Cold Storage Takashimaya but they were from China and I was like, maybe it's not that safe to eat stuff from China just yet... but later that day, I found some Chilean scallops and shells at Paragon. But it was today that I found some bigger packs from Indonesia at Carrefor Suntec. So I figured might as well. ;P

You got your breadcrumbs and the scallops right there, the recipe called for scallops without the roe, which was what I got. You'll see that I re-placed two scallops per shell.



After 20 minutes in the oven, here you go, Scallops-in-the-Shell! To be honest, I was afraid it would suck cos I didn't follow exactly like the book said but it didn't! Although the taste wasn't very consistent. Some were more garlicky while another was more lemony than others.


Oh, and speaking of my last post, I found a macaron recipe in the latest Jan 2009 issue of Living! Not that I'll try it, looks tough.

Here's something cool I got a couple of weeks ago at Mos Burger. They were going for S$3 each and I thought I'll just grab the whole collection since they got two of my Mos favourites. Can anyone guess which two? <^;^>

'My x-ray glasses are broken'

Well, it's Xmas nite and here I am. Did some more grocery shopping earlier in the day! Actually for the last week, I been hunting for scallop shells cos of another recipe I read in best damn cook book I found this year. It's a real simple recipe where I got to just bake some scallops in their shells. Problem is, I can't find any supermarket that sold scallops WITH their shells intact. Ok, I found one remaining pack at Raffles City Marketplace. But it was like S$45 for a frozen pack of maybe a dozen? Cos my x-ray glasses are broken and I can't see through the pack.

Anyway, so while I was at Raffles City, I had me some macarons from Canele. I asked an ex-colleague where would I find the best macarons in town and she pointed me here. My fav would be Violet. The Caramel was pretty good too but the caramel taste is really strong.


So I'm kinda hoping if there's anyone out there who can tell where I can find scallops with their shells, and also, where do you think is the best macarons in Singapore. A gazillion thanks in advance!

'Happy Holidays everybody'

Well, it’s almost the end of the year and a very Merry Xmas to everyone out there. A little Nightmare Before Christmas gashapon here to set the mood. So Happy Holidays everybody!

Ever noticed how people give and receive more candy as Xmas gifts than a kid in the US gets candy on Halloween? Ok, I admit I did give out some candy too but still, it’s just kinda weird to me.

So it's Xmas eve and with the halfday off we got from the office, what did I do? Figured I'll revisit an old friend. Yup, it's time to try making french toast again, on Xmas eve somemore! This time, I had some help from the Domestic Goddess herself. Got the Nigella Express book from Kinokuniya earlier this month. This is a really good book for fast and simple dishes. Saw the receipe for Doughnut French Toast and I thought why not round 2? Bought the stuff I needed after work today. Funny thing was the neighbour upstairs was blasting retro 80s music from some Internet radio station on his PC. Could hear it loud and clear from my kitchen. Ought to thank him or her for keeping me entertained while cooking.

There you go! Sprinke some sugar and it's done, in less than an hour. Taste great too! I actually did 3 slices although the receipe called for only 2. I thought I had enough mixture to soak 3 slices.

'Cos that's how I roll'

What else I been up to… oh yah, best discovery of the week, Comedy 104 radio station on my itunes. If you like American stand-up comedy acts and you have itunes, you should check out the radio stations icon on your itunes, whole bunch of different genres to choose from. For my current fav station, it’s so cool, you got all your new and old stand-up acts like Cosby, Newhart, Seinfeld and uncensored acts from guys like Pryor, Chris Rock, Tim Allen, Dennis Miller etc. Freakin’ non-stop stand-up comedy all day long. No way am I getting any work done. Hah!

Anyway, it’s almost Christmas so I figured I’ll do a quick gift idea piece. Cheap, fast and with that little personal touch called ‘crap wrap’. Yah, I totally suck at wrapping gifts. I'm supposed to wrap it hamper-style with clear wrapping sheet, which I did later.

Been wrapping over a dozen of them. Most of the stuff are from Daiso so they are like, only S$2 each. Packs of candy from Japan, little metal or rattan baskets, wrapping paper, all from Daiso. Then throw in a mini bottle of booze and maybe a gashapon cos that’s how I roll, for the centrepiece. The mini bottles are all from Ikea, neat eh?

Oh, and when we have little bottles of liquor, we must have the newest Ladies Drink pix.