Cavalock and The Rehab Coffee Lowdown

A little pre-op lunch treat at Summer Pavilion couple weeks ago with the Baker-at-Home. The meat platter was excellent and there were more than couple of things on the menu that we really wanna try. Will we visit the place again? Maybe, it ain't cheap but worth every cent.

Shades of Rear Window, being bedridden and immobile now means I got time to read (and re-read) a buncha books as well as catch up on tons of Netflix shows (already done with Love, Death and Robots and Polar, now on to Punisher season 2). If you are into award-winning black and white Japanese movies, check out the surreal Woman in the Dunes from 1964 on YouTube. I had to remind myself that this here blog is bout the 'good', 'happy' stuff in my life hence none of that self pity crap.

I had to keep myself busy and I figured taking notes on this book Coffee that I'm reading ought to do it. Now I only read the first couple chapters so far and it's about the global history of coffee. More or less everything you wanted to bout bout the beverage, like some monstrous Wiki page or some thing.

Anyway, it's like the book on Egg that I absolutely enjoyed reading so I went and got myself another book in the series. Some interesting facts I wanted to share from the first two chapters of Coffee.

"The Arabica coffee plant is grown commercially throughout the topics and was the first species of coffee grown for human consumption. Currently it accounts for around two-thirds of world coffee production. 

Robusta suffers from a major defect as it produces poorer quality coffee then Arabica. Robusta also contains twice the caffeine levels of Arabica.

When caffeine is removed from coffee beans, that caffeine extract is actually sold off to third parties.

The two main factors in determining a coffee's flavour are the degree of roast and the speed of roasting. During coffee bean roasting, a 'first crack' is heard as the beans break open under pressure from the gases building up inside them. The beans continue to brown until a second crack occurs as the cell walls collapse and oils are exuded unto the bean's surface. Lighter roasts, developed to a point somewhere between the first and second crack, are believed to bring out the best in most specialty coffees.

After the second crack, the flavours from the roast overpower those from the beans, which is why dark roasts are often used for lesser-quality coffees such as Robusta."

Cavalock and The Ovaries Oddity Order

Not our first time at yakitori joint Tori-Tama over at Robertson Quay, we liked it so much it has become our de facto yakitori restaurant and we were there again last weekend with friends. Now a Japanese friend of the Baker-at-Home reminded her of the off-menu item that one has to specially  request for, preferably in hushed tones, as we soon found out. The reason for the waitress subtlety turning to the one of the chefs was soon revealed when he leaned over our table and whispered, "Ovaries."

Well, it took awhile for the ovaries to arrive. During which the Baker-at-Home did asked me, "where are my ovaries?" True story. She and her friend shared the ovaries while I silently waited for my chicken liver and heart. Them two orange balls dangling the end of the stick are egg yolks that pretty much taste like ... well, egg yolks according to the Baker-at-Home.

What a difference three days make! That's six cans of 500ml Kirin going for a mere $19.90 (that's kinda like duty free price!) last week and three days later, it became $24. It ain't the stock market but that's some freaky price jump.

Cavalock and The Tulang Pineapple Cinder Combo

Here's something you don't see everyday. A Tulang or bone marrow beef pie, all part of last week's special Pie Week menu at Bread Street Kitchen. Let's just say that a Tulang meal isn't exactly me go-to order whenever I'm at Golden Mile Food Complex but this here pie is pretty good. Sizeable chucks of beef soaking in delicious gravy, buttery crust and more than a couple of spoonfuls of juicy bone marrow.

I believe that Pie Week is over. Anyway I also had the Pineapple Cider again. My go-to drink at Bread Street. It's something that tastes a whole lot better than it sounds. Really. 

Managed to do more miniatures painting last week too. One whole Warhammer Underworlds Skaven team. They turned out better than I expected. Extremely detailed figures. The little rats on the figure, on the base and under the base. Enjoyed taking them out for a spin the other night for a game.

Cavalock and The Second Oden Visitation

Guess we liked the food so much, we had to go back for seconds at Yama-Ya. It was dinner this time and I headed first to grab a table as the Baker-at-Home made her way there from work. We had a good spread and got to enjoy the uni-ikura don that wasn't available the last time we were there. Looking forward to trying more oden dishes next time. I heard of another joint at Cuppage Plaza that does pretty oden as well.

So much cool shows to watch on Netflix right now. Watching the second season of Star Trek right now but I'm saving Titans, Punisher Season 2, Umbrella Academy, Polar, yah you can see a patten here, and couple others for later this month when I'll be bed bound. More on that in another post I suppose. Oh yah, am I the only one who feels old every time I spot some millennial or teenager watching Netflix Friends on their phones?

Anyway I got books and ebooks lined up as well. And I downloaded a food delivery app so I hopefully won't starve to death whilst I soak to death in me own urine. Which reminds me, this would an excellent time to start me writing again. Nope, can't paint cos that would require me to be in a siting position for too many hours.

Cavalock and The Home Alone Report

The Baker-at-Home is finally home after almost a week away on an all-girls trip to Taiwan. One of the first lunches we managed to have together this week was at Yama-Ya, a little Japanese joint over at Fortune Centre. It's set by the same Japanese folks behind two other izakayas in the same building. Too bad the ikura don was off the menu that afternoon but we couldn't resist the oden and it was pretty good. The place is cozy and they had that soft jazzy saxophone music on, kinda reminded me of the music almost every cafe we been to in Japan was playing.

Dessert was a short walk away at Kurasu, a Japanese coffee joint. First time there too. Decent coffee but damn crowded during lunchtime. Probably drop by again at a more suitable time. And then again, maybe not.

Anyway, while the Baker-at-Home was away and me home alone, I found the time to finish painting me Warhammer Underworlds team, Magore's Fiends. Just four figures, it's a short skirmish game played over a board and uses cards from a deck to determine your actions. I actually bought the game over a year ago, played a few times then stopped. But got back into the game last month. There were several new figures and expansions released for the game recently and that sort of made the gameplay a little more interesting.

Cavalock and The Lazy Sunday Post

It's like that oldie by the Commodores, Easy like Sunday morning. The Baker-at-Home and me taking it nice and easy on a lazy Sunday afternoon. She (b)aked sure that breakfast for the next couple days was taken care. And that's our homemade kombucha fermenting in the living room.

We still got the coffee beans from Omotesando Japan and grinding, brewing them has kinda been our weekend afternoon thing for awhile now. And then I continue with my Warhammer miniatures painting. 

Cavalock and The Book Club Revisitation

After months of being lost in the abyss of illiteracy, I'm finally back to reading my stack of books I purchased last year. Picked up this collection of whimsical Japanese short stories during my last trip to Tokyo. Written in the later part of the 19th century by Lafcadio Hearn, these stories are all about the supernatural, fairy tale-like tales of old Japan, complete with samurais and lost ghosts. They are mostly short and rather straightforward stories reminiscent of the fairy tales that I used to read when young. But there's a certain poise and innocence in those works that just draws me in, know what I mean.

Anyway I have always liked fiction writers from the late 19th to early 20th centuries like Tolkien, Lovecraft, Tanizaki and now Hearn. If anyone has recommendations for short stories from that era, fiction of cos, let me know. Hah!

And speaking of Japanese, a friend treated me to this little bubble tea joint at Vivo City recently. It's called Nayuki and the surprising thing, well at least surprising to me, is that it's from China. I mean, I just thought it's strange that such a high profile Chinese shop would have the Japanese character 'no' in its name, considering their history and all that. I know copying designs, trademarks etc. are common there but kinda weird I thought to be coming up with one that's so ...er... Japanese.

Cavalock and The Sagrada Ice Cream Night

Always fun to introduce folks to the wonderful world of boardgames. Been ages since I had the opportunity to do a boardgames session and dinner at me friend's apartment. And the best thing to go together with boardgames is a good serving of premium ice-cream.  Having one of the brains behind local ice-cream parlour chain Creamier at the dinner party, means we were certainly spoilt for dessert choices that night. There were tubs of Longan and Goji Berries, Roasted Pistachio, Chestnut Rum, Mandarin and Carrot Sorbet and maybe one or two more that I missed out.

Had the Roasted Pistachio and Longan Goji Berries, and I much preferred the latter. Not too sweet and the berries weren't too overpowering which for some strange reason, I was kinda afraid they would be. Not sure if they are already out on sale, but I'll likely drop by Creamier for more scoops in the near future.

So one of the games we played that evening was Sagrada, a game I picked up in London last year. In this boardgame, we are artisans designing stained glass windows. We pick or draft dice to put in our individual window boards, following specific placement rules. Everyone loved how colourful and eye-catching the boards were when the game ended. Wish I had a picture of that! It's fun but a bit of brain burner and when you have five players like we had, it can take awhile to get to your turn as we are all staring at our boards and dice, and trying to figure out which dice to draft into our boards. Like I said earlier, I really enjoy bringing my games out and introducing them to new as well as old friends. My offer still stands.

Cavalock and The Doped Up Post

Since the authorities here have acknowledged that the rum in a tub of rum and raisins ice-cream isn't going to turn anyone into a drunken lout, how about the poppy seed in them bakes like lemon poppy seed bread. I mean, has anyone ever gotten high after eating them? Just like there aren't people getting drunk on rum and raisins ice-cream, I sure doubt if you can get stoned on a poppy seed bagel. :)

Me and the guys took a short break from gaming last week to indulge in a little makan session at Pasir Panjang food centre, the one right next to the train station. The guys didn't want any carbs so no carbs at all. So there's all this talk about injuries in the army. When I was a teenager and doing my stint, I woke up one morning in camp with a sharp pain around me pelvic area. I couldn't even lift me leg to put on me army trousers. No idea what caused it, I mean I didn't fall or anything like that. Visited the camp doc and got me first taste of painkillers. Headed back to training and everything was fine till bout a week later I ran out of painkillers. Of cos, that familiar piercing pain wasn't far behind and then came another supply of painkillers. At this point, I wound't be surprised if the army doc thought I was faking it when he was prescribing me all them painkillers (again).

Well, I think it was after me third or was it me fourth visit that he finally thought, "maybe this guy ain't faking it after all." Cos that's when he decided to send me for an x-ray. And guess what it revealed, I had a freakin' fracture! Which was very likely aggravated by all the constant workouts that I did while doped up on painkillers! Hah!

Back to the present, one of this year's first few paints, I rather enjoyed painting this guy. It's a single unit or a single model when you are playing it on the battlefield, a Knight Incantor so I didn't really have to worry bout painting a bunch of them in similar colours. I did a bit of deco with the base as well, like adding little twigs to it.

Cavalock and The Boozy Slurpee Discovery

I guess this is the closest I got to a boozy Slurpee drink for lunch. So the Baker-at-Home and I were at Yakinikutei Ao-Chan for lunch last week and saw an irresistible offer for frozen plum sake. it seemed like the perfect choice after a heavy BBQ beef-laden lunch. If you ever been to Beauty in A Pot, it's similar to that little frozen drink they serve at the end of the meal. Kinda cleans the palate.

It's as slushy as cup of Slurpee with a rather strong boozy sake take. Glad that we shared it. Was a little too much ever for me. But something we wouldn't mind having again if we are ever back there.

Spot the typo!

Now if you ever wondered what some of the birds at our Bird Park have for breakfast, here's what my 85-year-old Dad found out. Yummy and nutritious!

Cavalock and The 'Nam Connection

Cheap Japanese beer right in my neighbourhood!?! Too good to be true? Unfortunately that may be the case as I did some snooping around. Well, some good ol'-fashion legwork revealed that all the cans of Sapporo beer available in shops here are made in Vietnam. Well, just like how some Onitsuka Tiger sneakers are now made in Vietnam and therefore cheaper. Apparently, it's the same with Sapporo beer these days. More than a few Japanese familiar product brands have moved their manufacturing plants to Vietnam and according to the Baker-at-Home's Japanese teacher, there is a sizeable Japanese community there today.

The thing is I'm fine with that as long as it's cheaper than the other real made-in-Japan beer brands. Don't go charging me the same price as those other Japanese beer right? I mean, the minimart in my neighbourhood has lowered the price and that's cool. But if you check out (made-in-Vietnam) Sapporo beer in other supermarkets, it's about the same as other made-in-Japan brands. That ain't cool, in my book at least. And I'll be avoiding Sapporo beer in restaurants here too if it's gonna be the same price as other Japanese brands.

Now this caught my eye while I was at Tokyo Hands shopping for (another) journal. So explain to me again, who exactly is this for? 

Cavalock and The Teotihuacan Throw-down

One of the most interesting meals so far this has got to be dinner at Japanese beef joint Yazawa at Robertson Walk. Reminded us of all them Japanese beef restaurants that we visited in Japan as in it reminded us of the fresh and high quality food, and not the dark, dimly lit interior. I mean, it was our first time there and we only saw like, a tiny part of the restaurant and it was pretty damn dark. Anyway food was good and we went with friends who frequent the place so we something that was off the menu. Thin strips of beef, lightly grilled and then quickly dipped in raw egg. Nice but little too pricey.

After dinner, we took a ten second stroll over to sake bar Orihara next door. Counting the highball she had at Yazawa, the Baker-at-Home went for her second, and third and fourth drink (you get the idea) for the night with a sake tasting session. Me? I just stuck with my Suntory Premium Malt. They got an appetizing oden and yakitori menu as well and we are definitely eager to give them a try next time.

Oh yah, and we dropped by Meidi-Ya before dinner and found this. Pringles instant noodles! Not our thing but I believe folks out there are into this. Only $3.40 for one with Jalapeño and Onion flavour tub.

Got the opportunity to play a game of Teotihuacan a couple nights ago. It's a new boardgame that one would call a heavy euro game. Came out at the tail-end of last year and it became a huge hit. A lot of strategy, hardly any randomness even though dice are involved, you don't roll them at all. Won my first three-player game with some luck even though I must say, this is a game with very little luck involved. Luck to me was getting the starting tiles that allowed me to advance my tech. I stayed away from building pyramids even though that could get me points. You can do stuff to get points but you can't do everything. So players move around the board to gather resources such as wood, gold, stone and food. To get fame points you need to do stuff like build pyramids, houses and so on, different tasks require different resources. 

"Travel back in time to the greatest city in Mesoamerica. Witness the glory and the twilight of the powerful pre-Columbian civilization. Strategize, accrue wealth, gain the favour of the gods, and become the builder of the magnificent Pyramid of the Sun.

In Teotihuacan: City of Gods, each player commands a force of worker dice, which grow in strength with every move. On your turn, you move a worker around a modular board, always choosing one of two areas of the location tile you land on: one offering you an action (and a worker upgrade), the other providing you with a powerful bonus (but without an upgrade).

While managing their workforce and resources, players develop new technologies, climb the steps of the three great temples, build houses for the inhabitants of the city, and raise the legendary and breath-taking Pyramid of the Sun in the centre of the city.

Each game is played in three eras. As the dawn of the Aztecs comes closer, player efforts (and their ability to feed their workforce) are evaluated a total of three times. The player with the most fame is the winner."