Cavalock and The Return of The Courtroom Drama

After ordering their omakase meals via delivery more than a couple times during Lockdown (three actually), we finally made it down to Mustard Seed the restaurant for dinner recently. Their dishes are all top notch and when we had them at home, they naturally arrived together. So there isn't much of an omakase feel to it, know what I mean? Well, we managed to grab some seats earlier this month at their little restaurant for a delightful culinary experience. It really warms my heart to know that there are such talented local chefs. 

Been way too long since we had a good decent courtroom drama TV series, it's almost criminal. Well, that drought is over with the release of Perry Mason, an 8-part mini-series on HBO Max. I just finished binge-watching it and its got pretty much all you would expect from a classic noir detective, murder mystery. If the name Perry Mason sounds familiar to you, it's because this is a reboot of the 1950s TV series based on the novels by Erle Stanley Gardner. 

I really enjoyed it. We need more of these big budget detective shows. I was a little apprehensive about it cos crime mystery shows like these, sometimes the big reveal can be kinda disappointing. * cough cough True Detective cough *. Looking back now, I don't think I got any major complaints about the show. Set in the 1930s, a baby is kidnapped and then found murdered, the subsequent court case grips Lost Angeles as it slowly reveals the dark underbelly of the city. This first season also showcases the origin story of how Perry Mason went from being a gumshoe (private detective) to a defence attorney. Yes, the show was huge ratings hit and there will be a second season, likely next year.

And now a random otter eating an early lunch just cos my 86-year-old Dad managed to take these pix.

Cavalock and The Cuckoo Bird Switcheroo Syndrome

Another blog post, another Japanese beer shot. Got this at Raffles City Marketplace supermarket. Haven't drank it yet. Says it contains 'hints of cypress and lemongrass', I have always had a thing for lemongrass so I'm hoping this is something that I'll like as well.

One of the things that I have kinda neglected doing during the lockdown and this post lockdown period is my notebook journaling and calligraphy. I was really into it and I was taking it out with me to write stuff, then the lockdown happened and I kinda lost the mood to write bout stuff since ... nothing much happened anymore! Well, I finally started journaling again and of cos the first thing I gotta do is fill up my empty fountain pen. Now I bought this demin color ink on a whim a while back and it turned out pretty good. 

So me Dad was out taking more wildlife pix recently and found this rather interesting pair. What you have here is a smaller tailorbird feeding a larger baby cuckoo bird. So what happened was a mother cuckoo laid an egg in the tailorbird nest and then flew away. These are known as 'parasitic cuckoos'. 

Female parasitic cuckoos sometimes specialize and lay eggs that closely resemble the eggs of their chosen host. Some birds are able to distinguish cuckoo eggs from their own, leading to those eggs least like the host's being thrown out of the nest. Parasitic cuckoos that show the highest levels of egg mimicry are those whose hosts exhibit high levels of egg rejection behavior. Some hosts do not exhibit egg rejection behavior and the cuckoo eggs look very dissimilar from the host eggs. Other species of cuckoo lay "cryptic" eggs, which are dark in color when their hosts' eggs are light. This is a trick to hide the egg from the host, and is exhibited in cuckoos that parasitize hosts with dark, domed nests.

- Source: Wikipedia

So the dumb tailorbird didn't know any better and has been raising an illegitimate child every day ever since. Anyway both birds have since left the area and hopefully the poor tailorbird isn't still feeding the cuckoo bird.

Cavalock and The Flypast Foto Flash

This is probably the Baker-at-Home's current favourite Japanese grill joint right now. It's me third time at Osaka Yakiniku DonDon at Tanjong Pagar and I honestly lost count how many times she has been there with just her friends. They are (were?) fully booked for days ahead but we got in with a very early last-minute dinner seating for two. From our experience, odds of getting a table are always in your favour if it's only a table for two.  Our go-to picks are the coriander salad, potato salad, ox tongue, wagyu ribeye and the (tenderest) tenderloin. 

Well, me 86-year-old managed to camp at the Marina area during the National Day flypast rehearsal morning couple weeks ago as well as the actual day itself. During the rehearsal, he was balancing his camera on a monopod as the tripod was too heavy for him to carry on public transport. But he managed to do just that on National Day morning all by himself.

Cavalock and and The Prancing Poultry Playground

Been too long since I had me gnocchi from Cicheti. So when the Baker-at-Home had a craving for pasta, we decided to head to Caffe Cicheti to satisfy our hanger pangs. So the last time I had gnocchi was back in May and that's like almost three months too long. Grabbing a table before the dinner crowd is always a good idea, and even though the gnocchi was slightly burnt, the highlight of the meal was the amazing brussels sprout that came wth 'candied pecans' although I could have sworn they were walnuts at first.

Some random pix of poultry taken by me 86-year-old Dad that are prancing around his neighbourhood in the west. Man, them chicks look weird. Yah, this is one of those times when I can actually say something like that and no one's gonna be offended. 

Cavalock and The Lockdown Booze Collage

Like some folks out there, I did resort to some boozy entertainment during the Lockdown as evident from these snapshots I took at home. I almost forgot bout them until I chanced upon them in me phone's photo album. All good stuff but I gotta give a shout-out to the French Cider at the bottom left from So France. If you like cider, give this bottle a try. Been ages since I had a good cider, can't find any decent cider from the US anymore and this French cider is pretty excellent.

Well, this is Gen Con weekend and like I mentioned in me last post, me and five other guys should be in the US right now. Instead we are all still here for obvious reasons. So rather than spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on games at Gen Con, I have been spending a tiny fraction of that amount on getting games from Amazon. One of them is Warfighter: The WWII Tactical Combat Card Game, definitely the most complex game in my collection. I have yet to play and have been busy pouring over 50 over pages of rules as well as watching instructional YouTube videos on how to play it. 

Now I got it for a couple reasons. First off, I'm a huge WWII nut since my teenage years, there was a time when I knew stuff bout D-Day's Operation Torch and Operation Barbarossa on the Eastern Front. I think I mentioned this in a much earlier blog. Anyway the other reason is the many favourable reviews the game has gotten. It's also solo-able, meaning I can play it by myself. Since the pandemic is making us all spend a lot more time indoors, I have been playing more solo games than ever before. Hope to finish understanding the rules and getting it to the table real soon.

Cavalock and The Failed Gen Con Expedition

So me and the guys were supposed to be on a flight to the US this week to attend the world's biggest boadrgame convention GenCon but obviously that ain't happening. It would had been me third time attaining the event (2014 and 2016) and this year was gonna really cool cos our old gamer friends who have never been before would be joining us. Oh well, c'est la vie. At least SQ has started the refund process for our tickets. Unfortunately the same can't be said for our domestic flights to Indianapolis.

I thought I'd share a little boardgame that just arrived from local Amazon last week. Read some good reviews about it and it was on sale so why not. Abomination, the Heir of Frankenstein is a worker placement, resource management game with a unique and slightly morbid theme. Set several years after the events in the classic novel Frankenstein, the creature is now in Paris and forcing scientists (the players) to build another creature. Players will then place their scientist and assistants tokens at locations around a map of Paris. Many places to go including the Morgue to acquire bodies or University to give lectures (gain money) or even commit murder in a dark alley for fresh body parts (lost humanity).

It ain't that easy cos you will need to build the individual body parts first. For instance, a Leg will need a certain number of Organs, Muscles, Bones and Blood. These four resources are only available in limited quantities in the random bodies you find. That body you just stole from the Hospital might provide you with only a few Organs and no Blood. Even after getting all the body parts you need, you will need to deliver an electric charge to them to give them LIFE!!!! It's not a short game and the resource management part can be a real brain burner. Then you still have keep an eye out on your Humanity, Reputation and Expertise levels. You'll lose Humanity depending on how you source your cadavers and losing Humanity means losing points at the end of the game, while you need to increase your Expertise cos that means you get smarter and you need to be smart enough to build different body parts like the Head of the creature. So everything's connected and you got to balance them all. If anyone wants to play, let me know. A very challenging yet fun game and I hope to try the solo rules version soon.

Now here's an unexpected find at Marks & Spencer. Ravoili is usually my go-to dish at Italian joints, followed by tortellini and gnocchi, so when we saw this made-in-Italy ricotta and spinach ravioli, we figured why not? Turned out great, blindfold me and I'll probably think I'm in a restaurant! Will very likely grab another pack next time we are there. 

Oh, and you know it's the new normal when after over a decade, the Wash-Pole Patriot suddenly changes his act. Hah!  

Cavalock and The All-Tokyo Flashback Post

From visiting the new Tokyo Starbucks Reserve Roastery to hand-carrying a freshly baked apple pie home from Japan, it's certainly fun to look back at last July's trip to Japan. And since we definitely won't be leaving the country anytime soon, I figured a little look back might be a way to beat the stay-at-home blues. Gawd knows I still got a whole buncha pix that I haven't posted from that trip. Hah!  

I remember this drink. The first beer of the day as well as the trip. Nothing like a little lunchtime buzz to into the holiday mood. Ah, the Tokyo Starbucks Reserve Roastery is definitely one of those places that I might very well visit again if given the opportunity. It's a nice neighbourhood and I will always want to drop by the Traveler's Notebook flagship store around the corner. 

Some of the things the Baker-at-Home and myself have been doing to quell the wanderlust is to watch the Japanese cable channel WakuWaku as well as other food and travel shows like Somebody Feed Phil on Netflix. We really prefer shows on WakuWaku where it's just the hosts and guests exploring neighbourhoods in Tokyo or parts of Hokkaido. The Baker-at-Home would be making mental notes of where to visit next time while I would be squinting at the subtitles. Meanwhile here are just more random pix from July 2019 of the old normal where travelling and enjoying ourselves in a foreign land was almost second nature to us.