Cavalock and The Budget Polarization

Ever since I gone back to religiously keeping a budget again, I have been really taking note of how much I spend on my daily meals. Started years ago on my pen and paper filofax, now it's my iPhone expenses app. Anyway, despite what some might think, I kinda like counting every meal's $. When I'm within my budget, it kinda feels good and when it's almost end of the month, and I have overshot my budget, it used to feel bad but these days, it doesn't really.

Now I usually only overspend on my food part of the budget, it's a often a single trip to a fancy joint that kills it. On those months when there's a Kinokuniya sale, that's when my 'Publication' budget goes crazy.

I also have a little section for 'Wardrobe' and it's only $25 a month! Really, I hardly spend a cent on clothes here so it snowballs every month till .... I dunno maybe till my next trip outta the country? Hah!

Wish I got some cool pix to put up this week but I been pretty busy at work. Check out my Twitter to see what I'm up to. <^;^> It's fun to a point I guess. Am also helping to maintain my office's Facebook fan page. Maybe more on that in another post.

Cavalock and The New Year Deficiency

Gosh, I wish I have great food reviews or been to some new joint but .... nah ..., it's just the same old places.

Chinese New Year has been a quiet affair for me compared to other people I know. A small family means keeping things fast and simple, no unexpected guests dropping in and all that messy CNY stuff. Hah! So with the shops closed and all, I been catching up with the shows I recorded during the free cable period. Finally saw Kung Fu Panda, Doctor Who (I am the only Doctor Who in this country, really) and a bunch of wrestling shows.

And there's some weird weather this year too. Don't remember it being this windy in the past but the last couple of weeks, the wind during the day was just plain crazy. I got doors slamming and windows opening by themselves.

So anyway, with most of the food centers closed for long holidays, it's time to cook my own dinner again. Not feeling very adventurous so stuck to an old recipe again.

A little different this time with adding the carrots instead of just potatoes. One big difference between baking and cooking is you don't need to follow the exact measurements once you are familiar with the cooking recipe. I mean for baking you usually gotta follow everything exactly.

This is like my third or forth time doing it so I just estimated all the stuff except for the oven temp. <^;^>

As you can see, for some reason the potatoes turned out a baked-like. They still had a little of that skin on them although I peeled them all.

Cavalock and Lunar Valentine Paradox

Happy Lunar New Year to everybody and Valentine's Day too!

This here's a Lunar New Year cake from The Patissier. It's actually pretty big and thick too. Packed with raisins and walnuts kinda like a Xmas fruit cake I guess, but without the booze.

Now what did I do on this special day? Planting myself on the sofa and making the most of the free cable channels. Hope your special day was as productive as mine. <^;^>

So the big news around here is the casino opening and for a spilt second, I actually thought of breaking my piggy bank and blow it all there. There's definitely more than S$100 in there. Hah, but no thanks. No way am I gonna pay to go see or do something that I can do for free elsewhere. That S$100 entrance fee for locals is something else. BTW, the cute little dog bank in that link is already on sale here, saw it in the shops last week.

Same reason why I didn't go see the Egyptian exhibition here. Hey anyone who knows me, knows I'm an ancient history (and WWII history) buff but hell, if I'm gonna pay to go see it when I already got to see it all for FREE in London.

Cavalock and The Hokkaido Fair Redux

Now take a real good look at that bowl of ramen cos you ain't gonna see one in real life in Singapore anything soon. That's right, you are looking at the very last bowl of seafood miso ramen served during Isetan's Hokkaido Fair. They only served 50 bowls a day during the fair and that was the last bowl on the last day.

Worth every S$17 of it. Crab, giant scallops, roe, prawns and the all the other usual ramen stuff. And to top it off, I got a kick outta hearing them tell everyone who came after me that that was the last bowl. Yah, I'm a nasty little bastard when it comes to food. <^;^>

Stayed away from the beer garden this year. Tried some sake instead. Left with two big bottles that had quite a kick to them. Not too dry and had a little fruity taste to it.

The two bottles came with these little freebies. Almost broke out laughing when the promoter auntie said to me, "Don't drink from them, there are not cups! They are for toothpicks!" ...Er... yes, I know they were not sake cups. What they were exactly, I'll admit I couldn't tell at first glance but I was pretty sure I wasn't planning to sip sake outta them.

And that's why I just can't wait for the fair to return.

Cavalock and The Calpis Reunion

Now I blogged bout my luv for this Japanese drink a couple of years ago and was lucky enough to find it on sale at Meidi-Ya on Friday nite. I mean, I seen it on the shelves all the time at Japanese supermarkets but on this rare occasion, it's on offer!

A small 300ml bottle only for S$1.25 while a big 1.5 litre bottle goes for almost S$10. You do the math.

Anyway, lots of stuff happening on the work front, so not much to blog. Gonna keep it short with just a bunch of random thoughts.

A bunch of amusing things happened over the past week. Met up with some folks from L.A. and had dinner with them. Now, I have met and worked with more than a few Americans and I noticed how most (not all) of them are really turned off by a mere fish head. Ordered a whole steamed fish like the kind you see at Chinese wedding dinners, usually a grouper. They took one look at the fish still with its head and said, "It's staring at me, I can't eat this thing." Same thing happened during a fish head curry meal a few years ago with another group of Americans. I just think it's just so damn funny that a simple fish head can turn someone off.

Speaking of fish, looks like one of our local member of parliament said it's OK to eat shark's fin cos "not all shark populations were endangered." Quote's from the papers.

Why can't people understand that when you need to take a loan to purchase something, that's the Big Guy's way of telling you that you can't afford it so don't get it! Buy a smaller apartment, take public transport and don't have kids if you can't afford them. If you take out loans or have kids and then complain about the rising cost of living, you only got yourself to blame.

Hot damn, I knew watching all them WWII documentaries on cable would come in handy at work.

And finally some pix from last Saturday's trip to the florist.

Cavalock and The Ice Cream Skateboard Reaction

Another extended lunch saw me at 313 Somerset for some dessert. Headed straight to B3 for Maggie Moo's. Strange that all of us knew exactly where it is, even though none of us had ever tried it yet.

That's what I had. A regular serving of Cherry Vanilla Vacation, that's vanilla with brownies, cherries and caramel. Pretty big scoop and here where I seal my reputation as the dessert king of the office, in addition to being the country's first Otacool but I digress.

Finished my cup while everyone else was struggling with his or hers. Heh. Oh, and if anyone was there at bout 2.30pm and saw guy in t-shirt and jeans, with short hair and carrying a big ass skateboard, yah, that's me.

Nah, being the first to finish my ice cream, I was just helping my colleague carry his skateboard while he struggled with his ice cream. <^;^>

They got this in the fridge too for the same price as a regular scoop S$7.90. Anyway, I kinda liked the one I had although not enough for me to have it again. Next time I'll try something else, mix it up my own way. I like vanilla too much to give it up but I might try apple strudel instead. For toppings, I might go for some mini marshmallows, cookie dough, strawberries or blueberries. Anyone knows what mallo creme is?

Cavalock and The Food Pix Dilemma

What? No food updates today? Yup, here's why.

Seems like the more I twitter, the less stuff I have to blog. I mean, I know I been posting twitter pix of stuff that I would normally blog about. Honestly I dunno how many people read my stuff or see the twitter pix. So I guess mebbe less food posts and more non-food posts? But more twitter pix on food? I dunno, any suggestions from anyone out there? Well, at least the food twitter pix are more current cos I tend to post them almost immediately after my meal. <^;^>

Oh yah, so I'm really falling deeper and deeper into geekdom here. Finally caved in and brought one of last year's San Diego Comic Con's exclusive action figures. It was first released at the Convention but Takashimaya had Hasbro's black-and-white Captain America for like only S$12 here, after sale discount.

Heh, it's good that I can indulge in stuff like this and honestly say that it's (a small) part of my work.

Cavalock and The Zi Char Solution

So after Saturday's restaurant meal$, it was time for some zi-char at Blk 4A Jalan Batu #01-40. First time there but it came very well recommended and looking at the long Q at 6.30pm Sunday, lots of people feel the same way too.

This was my favorite of all the dishes we had. Cheese-flavoured pork! I had no idea how it was gonna taste like so when I took that first bite, it was pleasant surprise. The cheese wasn't overpowering at all and it was just the right amount of cheesiness to compliment each piece of meat. And boneless too!

That's duck in there. Not bad but not much either for a table of six.

And that's your usual chicken below. Of cos there were veggies (too spicy for me), soup and a very delicious fish. It's a pretty good stall and they got another outlet at Toa Payoh, worth a another visit but only if I can get a ride.

Cavalock and The Cheating Complex

Saw an article in Friday's papers bout why men cheat. Yah, it's cos of Tiger Woods that our press decided to come up with a lame attempt of a cover story. Now here's something I been telling my friends since all this started. If Tiger was living in Singapore, he would have gotten away with boning every single groupie for sure.

Why? Cos our press and media would never ever report the extramarital affairs of our prominent citizens. It's a fact! I know for sure but hell if I'm gonna be dropping names here. From captains of industries to familiar faces to prominent individuals, at least half of them either have regular one-nite stands with nameless hookers or have long-time mistresses.

Just look at the parking lot of any high-end KTV clubs, the number of big fancy cars clearing shows the class bracket of men getting their feel of China gals. Gawd knows how many deals are sealed with overseas clients in private KTV rooms, seriously. You hear all kinds of other stories, sometimes you even see it with your own eyes but you'll never read about it, not in this country.

So what if you are cheating on your wife, as long as you are bringing in fame and $$$ for the country and don't break the law, you'll get a free pass from the local press and media.

Alright time for some good food recap. Finally found time to drop in at Wild Honey at Mandarin Gallery for breakfast.

Had the Sweet Morning Set, that's french toast stuffed with grilled mangos plus vanilla mascarpone, berry compote and the familiar maple syrup. I luv sweet stuff and that is one really sweeeeet breakfast, just the way I like it. For a much better write-up of this as well as more mouth-watering pix, head right to this cool review. Thanks Ice! Only problem was it was a little too little for me. Fortunately I had bout one-fifth of this English Breakfast set to fill me up. Hah, I'm a big breakfast kinda guy. <^;^>

As you can see, not the best iPhone shots. Place was pretty dim, felt like having a candlelit dinner than breakfast. Anyway, if you like flat white, they serve a good one too.

Cavalock and The Mac Factor

Made the first big purchase of the year with the 21.5 inch iMac. I seem to be making a habit outta lugging big, heavy gadgets on the train again. And now for better or worse, the apartment is entirely PC-free. A little extra space on the study table now that the big desktop CPU is gone.

Being in the creative/media industry, I been using Macs since day one. Now that doesn't me a Mac expert or anything close but I definitely do see the advantages of using one compared to a PC. But remember, I'm still a gamer so I would love to have a PC for gaming online with the guys. But again, these days I don't have much time for gaming and THE game that most of us are waiting for, Diablo 3, is going to be out on Mac as well. At this point, I just realized most normal people won't know what the hell I'm talking about....<^;^>

As you can see, I haven't forgotten bout my trusty MacBook. It's now my new placemat!

Just kidding! I still use it when I'm on the move or when I'm watching TV in the living room. You know, after all these years, I never knew the British Royal Family had anything to do with Japanese Royal Milk Tea until I saw that packaging. :P

While picking my iMac, I also had dinner at Tompopo. Decided to try the shabu shabu set this time instead of ramen or any fried stuff.

The strips of pork were really juicy and tender. Only prob was the pork came really frozen as in they were pretty much 'glued' or stuck together and tighter than a monkey's nuts. Maybe they should have given them more time to defrost. Ripping them apart kinda ruined the look if you know what I mean.

Cavalock and The Breakfast Corollary

Been pretty busy with work this week but there's always time to discover new stuff at your local supermarket. Spotted these jams from Japan a few days ago during lunch at Liang Court. First time seeing them, are they new?

Well, got those four bottles, almost S$20 for them. The two bigger bottles are pure, creamy honey with black sesame and cinnamon. The honey spread is really, really thick. Spreading them on a bread - not a good idea. Way too sweet. Will be trying them on crackers next I think. Heard that the chocolate and peanut one tastes like Nutella. I like the apple jam cos there's like crunchy bits of apple in it.

Apple jam and Rosemary Ham sandwich! Yap, tastes as good as it looks. <^;^>

Now breakfast wouldn't be complete without some good coffee. These babies came in the mail, the latest limited edition Nespresso Variations capsules. A gift from a London friend. And no, the pix ain't shakey cos I drank one too many cups of espresso. :)

You got Chestnut Cream, Gingerbread and Apricot. Had the Chestnut Cream this morning, very nice.

Cavalock and The Twitter Pix Experiment

Hey wow, looks like I'm a day late but HAPPY NEW YEAR! <^;^>

As I'm typing this on Saturday nite, I got a couple of other windows opened on my MacBook. One is work and the other is Twitter. Dunno if folks reading this know but I got a Twitter running on the right side of this blog and ever since I got my iPhone, I been updating it more than usual.

Well I (finally) figured out how to post my pix on Twitter too so look out for some instant pix from wherever the heck I'll be at that precise moment. Any requests?

Managed to take a break between my writing to have at Suntec City today, look what I saw.

Is this new? I know they sell croc meat, seen that before but think this is the first time I have seen kangaroo meat. Forgot to check the price tag for it. Bet it tastes like chicken. Or maybe a certain Chinese restaurant will pass it off as beef! :P

OK, time to get back to work....

Cavalock and The Plastic Permeability

It's all things plastic as I found myself at the Toyogo warehouse at Toa Payoh this morning. Been told that it's THE place to go to for all things plastic, and they are all much cheaper than their regular retail prices.

Geez ... can't believe I actually snapped more than one pix of plastic boxes. The bigger ones in the above pix are almost 10 bucks cheaper here.

Anyway, spent bout S$70 there and took a cab home. Time to start packing those old books and game boxes away. And speaking of games (and still on plastic stuff), here are two new boardgames I bought a couple of days ago during a sale at P.I., a local gaming shop.

Ingenious is a really, really simple and fun game for two to four players. Finalist for best boardgame a few years ago. Kinda like dominos and Scrabble cept using colours instead of letters. Score points by matching colours on a board. Got it primarily to try to get some non-gamers gaming. Any takers? <^;^>

The other game is Carcassone: New World, a spin-off from the popular Carcassone series. Little harder than Ingenious but still fun.

Well, I still managed to find time for a fancy Chinese dinner at Min Jiang at Goodwood Park Hotel last nite. First time there and I enjoyed every dish cept for a weird mixup, ordered black pepper beef and was served black pepper pork! The waiter insisted that it was beef until we asked him to bring it back to the kitchen, turned out we were right. Wasn't his fault, mix-up was in the kitchen I guess, they took the wrong slabs of meat. I believe there was no black pepper pork in the menu in the first place.

Two of my favourite dished that nite were the giant herbal prawns and mee sua with crab meat and egg. With those huge prawns stewing in it, the soup was really rich with the usual strong herbal flavour you would expect from it.

The crabmeat mee sua was something new. Very smooth and so good that you just wish you had another serving.

Well, after peeling the prawns, my fingers were in no condition to be touching my iPhone. So those were the only pix I managed to take of dinner. <^;^>

Cavalock and The Ootoya Expedition

Went to Ootoya a couple of weeks ago after reading all those reviews but there was a really long dinner Q so I figured maybe lunch would be a better idea.

So I was there last Sunday bout 12.30pm and got a seat almost immediately. Now you gotta forgive me for this cos I forgot to take down the names of what I had, so ....er.... I'm gonna just wing it here. :P

Alright, this one's easy. The mackerel here was perfectly (charcoal) grilled. It came real fast too, unlike the dessert later which took forever.

A very tasty pork soup dish here with veggies thrown in, its the kinda fatty pork that you usually find in your ramen. Always wondered if they use MSG or not?

A very delicious set meal with ... I think it's chargrilled pork, I can't remember, I know it's pork! And in case anyone's wondering, no, I didn't order any booze. Kids, this is not how you do a food blog or even attempt to do on ... try to remember what you ate if you are gonna write bout it later...<^;^>

And finally we come to the dessert that took almost a half hour to make. Was it worth the wait? It was alright. There were other kinds of dessert that I would like to try next time. Yah, even though the service wasn't as polished as I would like to be, I'll still give the place another shot.

Cavalock and The Raisin Butter Cookie Reaction

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!

So on Christmas Eve morning I finally got my hands on the much talked about Marusei butter sandwiches. I missed the earlier sale a couple of months ago, they were sold out in a flash. This time, there were available on 23rd and Christmas Eve at Takashimaya.

They were S$12 for a box of five, and limited to 3 boxes per person. It's from Rokkatei, a famous confectionery from Hokkaido. The sandwich is made up of a yummy smooth and creamy sweet spread, mixed with equally sweet raisins. And the cookies is light and heavenly too. I'm like having two or three every nite after dinner! <^;^>

Check this out, Christmas ain't over yet but Chinese New Year decos are already on sale at Waterloo Street. I forgot, what animal is front and center next year? BTW, all the pix here were taken via my iPhone with the Snapture application. Thought they turned out pretty good.

Cavalock and The Office Christmas Party Phenomenon

Goodbye wild drunkard office Christmas parties. Hello sober afternoon office Christmas lunch. Hey, not that I'm complaining at all. I had a great time but it's just such a big difference. In my old industry, all those stories about folks getting drunk and doing stuff they shouldn't be doing, all true.

Free flow of booze. Individuals who shouldn't be kissing certain people caught on film tongue wrestling. People throwing up or passing out drunk on the dance floor, in the loo or even on the steps of city hall * ahem*.

Now I don't wanna jinx anything but office Xmas parties' lucky draws seem to be my thing. Here's this year's loot. Oh, every pix in this post was snapped by my iPhone. Wanted to see how clear the close-ups were.

Most of us thought it was kinda weird that it doesn't come with one of their famous pens but I'm cool with it.

I used to have an organizer but traded that in for a couple of Palm handheld organizers. Now it's the iPhone and I guess, an organizer again. So how's it look with my British Museum pencils?

Some more random pix I took with iPhone. Yup, I like my Carl's Jr Lemon tea really, really lemony! <^;^>

The cold drinks' section in a *gasp* Korean grocery store. One of the few times anyone will ever catch me having anything to do Korean stuff. :P

Next up are a couple of great Christmas log cakes from The Patissier. Both taste as good as they look!