Cavalock and The Meidi-Ya Hokkaido Fair Temptation

Guess what, I was at the Hokkaido Fair but it's not the one you would expect. Instead of the usual fair at Isetan (like every four months?), the other Japanese supermarket on the island is having its own Hokkaido Fair too. Yup, Meidi-Ya is having its own two-week long Oishii Hokkaido Fair till the end of the month.

I don't think it's their first time having it but anyway there I was this afternoon after an Iron Man related event earlier that day. They got the usual Hokkaido ramen, milky confectionary and crabs, crabs and more crabs!

Lots of cool stuff like these eye-catching roll cakes, great packaging! They got white chocolate (my fav!!!) as well as the usual vanilla and I think strawberry.

I didn't buy any this trip maybe next time. So what did I get from the fair? Six little tubs of Naganuma Ice Cream. At S$5.30 per tub, it's like the most expensive ice cream I have had for awhile.

So here they are sitting nicely in my freezer. :) Flavors picked were Pumpkin, Hokkaido Pumpkin, Red Bean, Hokkaido Milk, Potato & Butter and Custard Vanilla. Don't fret now, I'll be back at the Fair for more stuff later this week. So look for more updates later!

Now here's something I thought might be interesting to do. I'll post cool gift idea stuff that folks out there might like to get as Christmas gifts starting with this. Spotted these upstairs at Kinokuniya Liang Court. Pac-Man moleskines! Aren't they cute? <^;^> But I have no idea how the inside looks like.

Let me know what you think, leave a comment or give me a tick in one of the little boxes! Thanks!

Cavalock and The Mediterranean Dessert Deception

Need an exotic yet easy and fast dessert to impress someone? Here's one I picked up from an episode of Chef At Home, with my own modifications of cos. Hah!

Alright, it's not really a Mediterranean dessert, I'm saying it is cos it sounds kinda exotic and the ingredients do give the dish a certain flavor from that part of the world. And come on, it also works if you wanna impress someone, tell them you can whip up a Mediterranean fruit dessert in seconds!

Real simple to make, all you need is bout half a watermelon, olive oil, basil, sea salt and pepper. Cut the watermelon into cubes or just small pieces would do. Mix the water melon with a 1/4 cup of olive oil, sea salt and pepper, all in a bowl. I say don't be afraid to go crazy with the salt and pepper. Now here's my switch, grape seed oil instead of olive oil cos that's what I usually use. And also, I don't have any basil with me so no basil. :(

Mix and stir everything up real good. Put it in the fridge and serve it cold. Tastes better than I expected, well to be honest, I didn't know what to expect. I mean, it looked real easy on TV so I figured why not? I must admit, it takes a while to get used to grape seed oil if you haven't had it before but by the third piece of watermelon, its gonna be a burst of cool flavors, you got juicy sweetness, savory and a bit spice all in there. It's good, it's easy, what's not to luv bout it?

Now here's something that I saw at Canele in their outlet at Paragon basement. It's their strawberry shortcake and how they displayed the strawberries.

Look at them, why have the pale, characterless inside of the strawberry facing out when you can have the red, luscious exterior instead? I don't get it. <^;^>

Cavalock and His Hot Italian Date

Oh, who am I kidding...I was home alone when I whipped up my version of an Italian pasta salad for lunch. It's been awhile but I figured instead of talking bout somebody else's joint, I'll do a post on something I did, that I'm happy with.

What you got here is a little pasta salad that I came up with. Having downlo...er...I mean, gotten a whole bunch of food magazines on my iPad, I decided to take bits and pieces from different pasta salad recipes, put them together, improvise here and there and see what comes outta it.

It's really, really easy and I did it in like 45 minutes, most of it were spent just waiting for the the pasta, prawns and broccoli to cook.

You decide how much macaroni, broccoli, cherry tomatoes and prawns you like. Next, prepare the other ingredients and here's where I start doing a little 'free-styling', like when the recipe calls for extra virgin oil, I use grape seed oil. Just two tablespoons of grape seed oil and a teaspoon of sugar when mixing everything up later, the only time I added salt was when boiling the macaroni.

The other major thing I subbed out was the parmesan cheese that most recipes asked for. I decided at the very last minute to use some raisins instead. Turned out to be a great move, I thought the taste of the raisins complemented the other vegetables nicely.

It was quite a huge bowl and I thought there was no way I was gonna finish it. Guess what, I wolfed it down while standing in the kitchen. If I do say so myself, I thought it was that good that I literally couldn't put the bowl down. <^;^>

And what better way to complete an Italian date than with my popular Affogato. You just can't go wrong with that. ;)

Cavalock and The Docomo Delay

Got to admit I haven't been eating out at any new joints lately. Thought I would free after that last gig but ended up spending most of last week at home writing more stuff. Anyway I did managed to find some time to finally make a return visit to Liang Court or to be more specific, Meidi-Ya supermarket.

But before that, you can't visit Liang Court without dropping by the basement Tampopo Deli for their ever popular cream puffs. That's them on the bottom row and that's the Pont Neuf top left and banana caramel tart top right.

Walking to the supermarket, look what I found. Looks like Japanese mobile phone operator Docomo has finally decided to open a store right here in Singapore.

Talk about too little, too late. From like five or six years ago till last year, I was praying that we could lay our hands on those cool, crazy ass Japanese handphones here. That is until I got my iPhone 3GS, after that nothing even comes close.

Didn't take any pix in the shop but yah, they do have those stylo Japanese flip handphones here at last. A recent survey showed that iPhone in Japan is like 40% of the smartphone market. So I guess since they are losing market share back home, they finally decided to go global? Too late bub.

So in Meidi-Ya, I saw this new Kit Kat pop choc. Looks yummy but almost S$9 for it? Nah, I'll pass especially since there's a tag that says it's only £1.99!

The other new thing I spotted, beer! Japanese LUXURY beer to be exact. Yah, it does sound pretty cool.

Umenishiki beer comes in a bunch of different flavors, six I think. And a few have won some local and international beer awards. They aren't cheap but then again, it does say 'luxury' beer so I guess you are expected to buy more, from S$10.50 to like S$11.50.

So did I get one? Hell yah, have yet to try it. Just one bottle first, if it's good and I like it, I'll go try the rest. See, it promises a 'luxurious time', can't wait for that. <^;^>

And here's another shot of it so you can see exactly how big it is. Check out the bag of brains behind the can of Sapporo beer!

Cavalock and The Greenwood Visitation

It's the long weekend and I finally finished a 3-week gig in town so it's to dinner at Greenwood. A nice, quaint little place that's pretty much inaccessible unless you drive or teleport. It's my second time there, first time was with the guys a.k.a. The Fellowship.

This time it was with the nice folks from the U.K. trip. First stop was the famous Lana Cakes shop. Moist and rich chochy goodness. What else can I say? Too bad you can only get it there and not anywhere else on the island.

Then it's dinner at the Fish Market. First time there for all of us so we took the two hot and cold seafood platters. Not a bad choice, for the cold platter which arrived first, we had half a lobster, mussels, tuna salad, oysters among others. I only thought the lobster was kinda bland, tasteless like.

Same with the other half of the lobster in the hot platter below, just wasn't that tasty. The rest of the hot platter was good. The baked oysters, calamari, scallops and the rest, all pleasantly satisfying.

I wouldn't mind going there again. The row of restaurants that Fish Market and Lana Cakes are housed was quite empty during dinner but there was another row at the other end of the road that was way more 'happening'. Anyone knows what's good there? I think there's an Italian joint that was real crowded.

Ok, a little something I found that I thought was funny and weird, so wanna share it here. Heh. I posted some of these Japanese surveys before and here's another interesting one on Office Romances. Hehe. Only if you like to eat where you shit, dip your pen in the company ink, well, you know what I mean. Feel free to leave a comment or personal story! <^;^>

Q: What office romance situations do you long to find yourself in? (Sample size=341, male)

Rank		Score
1	Working overtime into the night together	100
2=	A grope in the lift	95.6
2=	Leaving the office at different times but meeting up outside	95.6
4	A grope in the office kitchen	77.8
5	Writing where to meet on a Post-It Note	73.3
6	Both going on a business trip on the same day to the same place	68.9
7	Secret meetings on the office roof	57.8
8=	Always eating lunch together	53.3
8=	Playing footsie under the desk	53.3
10	Eyes meeting as we pass each other on escalators	51.1
11	To keep our relationship secret, splitting up at the station and going into the office separately	48.9
12	Secretly exchanging email on office computers	46.7
13	Looking diagonally at her seat	40.0
14=	Meeting in empty meeting rooms	35.6
14=	Talking in code	35.6
14=	Suddenly calling her under the guise of work	35.6
17	Secret meetings on the fire escape	31.1
18=	Secretly chatting on office computers	24.4
18=	Matching lunch boxes	24.4
20	Calling her when the copier gets jammed	20.0

Q: What office romance situations do you long to find yourself in? (Sample size=731, female)

Rank		Score
1	Leaving the office at different times but meeting up outside	100
2	Working overtime into the night together	73.1
3=	Writing where to meet on a Post-It Note	63.5
3=	Both going on a business trip on the same day to the same place	63.5
5	A grope in the lift	60.2
6	Eyes meeting as we pass each other on escalators	58.6
7	To keep our relationship secret, splitting up at the station and going into the office separately	47.4
8	Secretly exchanging email on office computers	45.8
9	A grope in the office kitchen	43.0
10	Looking diagonally at his seat	41.8
11	Secret meetings on the office roof	41.0
12	Always eating lunch together	34.9
13	Suddenly calling him under the guise of work	32.9
14	Talking in code	27.7
15	Secret meetings on the fire escape	27.3
16	Playing footsie under the desk	24.9
17	Secretly chatting on office computers	21.3
18	Meeting in empty meeting rooms	18.5
19	Calling him when the copier gets jammed	18.1
20	Being proposed to at the end of a presentation	13.7

One Week in Sillypore 7

Oh wow, it's almost the end of the month (and closer to Christmas!) and here's another one week in Sillypore installment. First up, a little update on the last post bout chicken macaroni I had at Tanjong Pagar. Here's the 'dry' version of the last soup version I had.

Yah, I know. That sure don't look like 'dry' to me but that's what they are calling it. The 'gravy' had a very little slight spicy taste to it which I don't think really call for so I think I'll stick to the clear official soup version the next time.

So what else have I been mulching recently? Frog legs! A newfound love. Yes, I know I'm late again. Here we have the S$20 for 3 frogs (with porridge) at Lavender Food Court.

I heard the one at Geylang is pretty good. Anywhere else?

Saturday morning at Tekka Market. On the way there, it looks like Mustafa is opening another shopping wing or rather new shopping mall.

Lots and lots of fresh goodies at the market! Luv getting the seafood here.

You get to see some stuff that you wouldn't expect to see at a wet market. Like little sharkies, you can see greens like rocket leaves too.

More new pirate arsenal for me. Mac connector cables for me so I can watch the new on my TV too. Gawd, so far every week it's at least 12 different shows, the latest episodes and I'm not even counting the movies...

Finally say 'hello' to the newest addition to the household. <^;^> Don't forget to gimme a tick in one of the boxes below or comment!

Cavalock and The iPad Inflight Imitation

Well, since it's highly unlikely that I'll be going anywhere this year, I figured I'll share this little thing I do for fun, I guess you could say it's a cheap thrill kinda thing but hey, I like it.

Now one thing I sorta look forward to when flying is all them inflight movies and shows. What I managed to do is 'simulate' that inflight entertainment experience or more specifically night flight entertainment experience using my iPad.

You set the mood in your bedroom to mimic the one in your plane cabin. I did it and it really, really felt like I was back on a plane flying past midnite on my way back to Tokyo cos that's my usual flight, leave Singapore round midnite and arriving at the crack of dawn in Narita.

First download a movie or TV show you like and wanna watch on your iPad.

Second turn off the lights and turn on the air-con, a noisy air-con is actually a plus point here cos it'll resemble a rumbling plane engine. :)

Third snuggle up under the blankets and sit up in bed, like you would on a plane.

Took that pix while in bed and it felt so much like the last time I was up in the air. The silent surroundings, the glow from your inflight entertainment screen. Then you start feeling sleepy halfway through the movie, you doze off sitting up. For added realism, get a stranger to climb into bed with you. It'll be just like have someone sitting next to you! You can pass the iPad to her and try to fall asleep while that annoying glow next to you keeps keeping you awake!

Food stuff now! Back at the old stomping ground for awhile, and I finally managed to sample the popular chicken macaroni stall at Tanjong Pagar Market and Food Centre. It's not an easy stall to find, with no pictures of their dishes displayed or anything. Look for Dao Ji Cooked Food, the one with the MakanSutra cert.

As you can see there's a lot of non-traditional stuff in that bowl. All the ingredients complimented each other, the dumplings, the mushrooms, etc. it all helped make the meal all that fuller and all that more mouth-watering.

Cavalock and The Mussels Miniaturization

Well, it took me awhile but I finally made it to Brussels Sprouts at Mohammad Sultan. As expected, real busy on a Friday nite.

As for the food or the mussels to be exact, they were all good. Between the four of us, we had five 'starter' sized pots of mussels like the Tom Yam, a couple of beer-flavored ones and also the above Brussels Platter.

Like I said, the mussels tasted fresh and pretty good, not as good as the ones in London but hey, I wasn't exactly expecting it to be.

One major gripe, the mussels' meat or flesh (I believe the correct term is foot?) inside are really, really small. Tiny little morsels of meat. Now I wish I took pix of them but really just go to any supermarket like Cold Storage, look at the size of the mussels they sell there. Well, now imagine the ones I had to be waaaaay less than half that size. Does that mean they are local or something?

They got lots more on their menu that I'm more than anxious to try on another visit. I kinda prefer the ones in the creamy sauces. Would also have preferred a free flow of bread instead of fries.

And now for something cute and creepy at the same time. Was checking out the above gashapon machines earlier this week and I found this new one.

Oh yah, those are Minnie's panties or as the Japanese would call them 'pantsu'. Those are really plastic mini Disney undies as handphone straps. In Japan, there's a whole fetish industry on them (pantsu, not handphone straps although there is one on those straps but I digress) but this is the first time I ever expected to see Disney being part of it. So you can now own a whole little set of lady undies and perhaps strap them to your handphone so nothing says 'hello' like a mini lady undies hanging from your phone.

Something for the 'Interesting' or 'WTF' box below? If you click 'Yummy', I sure as hell hope you are clicking for the mussels and not the Disney pantsu. <^;^>