Cavalock and The Bank Run Recurrence

Every couple of months, I'll spend a Saturday morning running around the various banks in the CBD with my errands. First stop was breakfast and this time, decided to go for Coffee Club instead of Coffee Bean. Well, Club's breakfast menu looked pretty good and reasonably priced. Had the mushroom bruschetta set which if you look at the pix, it's exactly that. Cheesy mushroom on toast for only S$6.80, can't really go wrong with that so I'm satisfied.

Anyway I thought it's kinda strange that a coffee joint here doesn't have flat white. Settled for the regular coffee that came with the set instead.

Well, was at Takashimaya in the afternoon and I bet, by the end of the year, the Nespresso coffee machine is gonna be the like the new iPhone. As in almost every other household is gonna have one. Cos they were selling them like crazy at Takashimaya, the machines were all wrapped up and all over the counter. Yah I know it's the Great Singapore Sake but wow, almost everyone's getting one.

Speaking of the Sale, I always say the best thing to buy during the Sale is furniture! Bought most of mine like six years ago, lotsa savings. <^;^>

Gonna end on a cautionary public service note here. Be real careful bout hooking up with people you meet on the Internet. Just found out that an ex-colleague who met her future husband on the Internet, got married and migrated to his country a few years ago. About a week ago when she's like 8 1/2 months pregnant, he punched her in the face. I'm not gonna go into details but really, what else is there to say?

Cavalock and The World War II Legacy

Someone once asked me why am I such a WWII history buff, I told them maybe it's because it's the last real war between good and evil. It was truly the biggest turning point in the history of the world. Nothing was ever the same after that. When I was younger, I could remember names of WWII operations, codes, tactics, datelines etc. Well, these days I don't recall all those details anymore but I still watch almost every WWII documentary on the cable and I still got a ton of WWII stories to tell.

But no, I don't HBO so I'm not watching The Pacific. I am watching WWII: Lost Films right now.

Anyway time for a little more pleasant food talk. Something for all Nespresso owners. Dunno if these brochures are available here at our local outlets but a friend got them in London recently.

It's a small little brochure with coffee recipes in it. I think it's only a London thing cos on the back cover it's a list of outlets in the UK.

According to the brochure, you can find the recipes online over here.

Finally made it to the now famous Nando's at Bugis for lunch. As expected, there was a Q but it moved pretty fast. Chicken was nice and tender, picked the herb and lemon sauce which was the mildest one on the list. They were out of a lot of potato sides that day, so had the coleslaw and corn.

My colleague had the Extra Hot sauce, that's the max level of hotness. Didn't even flinch, he even had to 'enhance' the flavor by splashing extra hot sauce on it. Would I go there again? Yah the price is ok but it ain't worth standing in long Q for it.

Cavalock and The Eternal Quest

Well, the little Japanese restaurant near the office has closed down for good and the Chinese coffee shop next door has taken over it. That's not really a big shock cos the restaurant was selling stuff pretty cheap and a colleague said, “Of cos, they closed down! How could they manage to survive selling S$10 set lunches?” Granted, the food was just a little above average but it was cheap and I would head there sometimes on Friday nites, for a solo meal.

So I started looking for a nice quiet Japanese joint to maybe hang out on a Friday nite. Still searching and open to suggestions.

Anyway spotted this at the new NTUC Finest at Somerset the other day, tempted to try it but not sure if you need some kinda milkshaking machine to begin with. I mean, milk doesn't shake itself rite?

And after all these years, I finally say good-bye to my old passport and hello to the new biometric one.

Cavalock and The London Pub Resurgence

I could never understand the appeal of Vivo City, yah, I know it's like the biggest mall in the country but still, just about everything in there, you could also find in Orchard. Now I'm not talking about the restaurants and food joints there. That's different. Well, there's the cinema but I only caught one show there and that was a pretty sucky experience. Bad enough the movie was Transformers but the toilet was like outside the theatre and somewhere in the next continent. Took me 10 minutes at least to make the hike and return trip.

Anyway, so there I was on a Saturday afternoon, trying to figure out what to have for lunch and I came across The Queen and Mangosteen. It sounded kinda familiar, guess I must have read bout them somewhere. And since I was still missing them English pub food since last year, I figured why not.

Unfortunately they don't serve 'real' English pub grub. Had the onion rings and chilled tiger prawns for appetizers. The onion rings were great, they were kinda like beer battered although I know it wasn't beer but they were battered if you know what I mean. Geez I think I suck at writing food. Oh, and the Thai chili dip was good too.

As for the chilled tiger prawns (were they really TIGER prawns? cos they looked like regular prawns or shrimps to me, sizewise I mean), they were nice but nothing really special. Came with some salad dressing dip but otherwise they remind me of the regular prawns you find in Chinese restaurants.

My main was a delicious mushroom risotto with asparagus and tomatoes. Just the right amount of mushrooms and the asparagus (pity it wasn't white) tasted fresh and crisp.

Now for the best part of an already good meal, the oak sweet cider. A wee bit pricy at S$16 a 500ml bottle but definitely worth it. Light with only a slight hint of apple cider.

Cavalock and The Curse of The Mother Tongue

With all the mother tongue monkey crap controversy going on, I just gotta throw in my two cents worth. Let me start by saying I was one of those who got screwed by that single education policy. Cos I flunked my second language, I was denied something that in some countries was a basic right. And now the people behind that policy finally admitted that they might have made a mistake.

Well, I'm not as eloquent as a friend of mine was when she wrote this on Facebook, "it's amazing how, with globalisation etc, some people still want to retreat to tiny villages of their own making. it's about communication, not language. and language is a constantly evolving creature anyway....i think people should learn languages for the love of it. or for purely economic reasons (cos they want to do business in china, for example). but it's BS to think that speaking chinese makes one more chinese. and to call it mother tongue, as you pointed out, is nonsense too."

Hell, all I'm gonna say is they screwed me big time and well, ....... we'll just leave it at that for now cos you never know who's gonna be reading this.

Anyway, look what I got at Daiso for only S$2 each. Finally found matching ones too. Yah, I bought extra cups in case of company but er ... that's very unlikely. You looking at S$10 right there, to go with this.

The other day during lunch I finally caved in and got this. A double quarter pounder and you know what would really make it better? Olives! Just drop a bunch of them between the meat and bun and I bet it'll be perfect!

Cavalock and The Lunchbox Chase

During every single one of my trips to Japan, I would always head to Tokyu Hands in Shinjuku and gawk at the Bento lunch boxes on sale. You got your classic Japanese designs as well as everybody's favorite Hello Kitty ones too. I always thought it would be cool to bring a sleek black one to work and well, enjoy a hot home-cooked meal kinda like the ones you get at Ootoya at Orchard Central. But do I buy one? Nope, cos it's too expensive and I know no one's gonna use it. I mean, why buy something expensive and then not use it, rite?

So how did this arrive in the office a couple of months ago?

Well, a month before that I took part in an online contest organized by a Japanese website. The site's in English and all I gotta do is send in food pix about Tokyo! And I got a ton of those from my trips to the city. Did a short write-up about my food experience there and uploaded a bunch of food pix from my last trip.

Next thing I know, they told me I was one of three winners. Each of us could choose a lunch box from a pretty long list. I picked this black and rather manly-looking one.

It comes with a big black pouch to put your lunch box in. On the web page, it says it's mirco-wavable but when it arrived, there's note that said otherwise (in Japanese).

Comes in two layers as in an upper and lower compartment, with a elastic band too! I guess you would place the rice below.

As you peel the lid off the top compartment, you'll see a small tray for those little appetizers I think.

They even slipped in a free pack of tissues!

So there you go, after all these years I finally got my Japanese lunch box for free. Now I just have to learn how to prepare a meal to go in it.

I will be closing this blog for now. My mom has leukemia and at her age there is nothing we can do. She is the strongest, bravest and greatest mom in the world. I want to be as strong and brave as her too. I am truly blessed to have a mom like her.

Thank you all for reading.

Cavalock and The Giant Sucker Topology

Two good meals out of three can't be that bad. Started out with a very nice (and cheap) prata meal at Killiney Road. Ever since Casuarina prata closed, yours truly decided to try the store a steps down the road, at the junction just across the NTUC supermarket.

Was pleasantly surprised to find that it tasted even better than Casuarina's and from what I have observed, they only serve your prata when it's fresh and hot.

And I was feeling a wee bit adventurous when I saw this at Tampopo during lunch. Giant octopus suckers for starters.

Well, as expected, they tasted kinda like calamari. But I felt it's a little 'juicer' and not as chewy as calamari. Not a bad thing if you wanna try something different.

Cavalock and The Missed Maggots Incident

So it was my second day back in the office and when it was time for lunch, I asked if we were going to the usual coffee shop across the road. Someone said, "We are not going there." I asked, "Why?". They said. "Oh yah, you haven't heard, you were away. They got maggots in the rice."

MAGGOTS?!? Hah, apparently a colleague's friend had lunch from the economy rice stall and maggots came spewing out of his mouth. Well, whenever I'm there, I always had the prawn noodles or indian rice, so I wasn't that ...er... concerned but apparently the whole office has stopped patronizing the entire coffee shop.

Yah, I know it's sad but I think that's the most interesting food story I got for the week. :P

Oh yah, was at Isetan this weekend and there wasn't any Japanese fair on but a European food fair instead. Saw some pork knuckles and 'crackling' pork on sale and bought them. Not as salty as our local Chinese crispy pork.

Time for a little flashback. Found my old fencing school homepage and saw these pix of me, was like exactly 10 years ago, I think. These pix are as clear as they come.

Cavalock and The Home Alone Syndrome

Well, was back in the office today after a week being laid up at home cos of my sprained ankle. And the general consensus was that I hurt myself chasing some girl or didn't see where I was going cos I was looking at some girl, you can see where this is going.

Anyway you would think that being home for an entire week, I would have lots of time to blog but honestly, I didn't really do anything worth blogging about. I still worked from home, on Skype with office, answering emails and watching lots of TV. I like to think that the shows I watch like documentaries and sci-fi series are all part of work.

Geez, so what else did I do? Well, I took pix of my new Iron Man 2 figures, the ones based on the classic comic book series, not the upcoming movies. As usual, grainy pix via iPhone camera.

War Machine was pretty hard to find during the first week. But it's easy now, it's everywhere.

Oh, and speaking of toys, remember my potato chip maker I bought in Tokyo? Well, you can find a very, very similar thing right here now. It's called The Crisp Maker from Let's Cook toys, it's one of those cooking toys that actually work. As you can see from my pix and the toy pix, they both use the same tray to put your potato slices, and then you just microwave them. You can find them at most toy shops like Toys R Us I think, saw them at Takashimaya and Metro toys departments. Man, check out their official site, am pretty tempted to get the cereal bar maker. Hah!

So back to food, managed to snap some more random food pix. Nice dessert to have at home.

A very well-deserved flat white at Plaza Singapura on my first day out.

Then lunch at Tonkichi on Sunday. Best meal all week.

Whew! Managed to grab some stuff on the last day of the Kinokuniya sale.

Cavalock and The Ankle Accident

Well, if you have read my Twitter posts you would know that I sprained my ankle Monday night on my way home from People's Park. Missed a step, slipped and almost fell that kinda thing, nothing as dramatic as saving the world or anything like that.

Oh, and this was what I had for dinner minutes before it happened. My first Hakka Yong Tau Foo meal. The only reason I gave it a try was cos there was a long but fast-moving Q, and I remembered watching some TV show bout it. Not bad and the noodles made it very filling.

Anyway, after I slipped, there was this piercing pain and there was no way I could walk anymore so after hopping (literally) onto a bus home, I took a cab to Raffles Hospital A&E ward. No Q at all and I was in and out in a half-hour.

Now on a week's MC and been working from home. Talking on Skype with the guys from LA and our office here. I luv this gig, where else can I send official emails with the word 'werewolves' in them? <^;^>

Since then, I been posting quite a bit on Facebook and gathering quite a fair bit of comments from friends. Thanks for all them crazy comments, some were pretty hilarious. So just cos I have nothing else to write right now, here are my Facebook posts in chronological order.

Just back from raffles hospital. Sprained ankle, bedridden for a week. So who wants to buy me lunch?

So while I was being wheeled in and out of x-ray, i pretended i was Prof. X.....really

So when the doc looked at my x-Ray n said no broken bones, I asked him then why does it hurt so much? Then suddenly I felt like Wolverine with the unbreakable bones...really

So it's like Hitchcock's Rear Window right now except i don't have a telescope, and i still can't walk but i get to look into people's windows while in my jammies. Close enough?

Feels strange watching 'So You Think You Can Dance' while laid up with a sprained ankle, like you wanna yell 'No, I don't' to the TV....

So the original plan WAS to not shave or shampoo for the entire week since I'm gonna be stuck indoors till next week. I mean, I'm not gonna be running around outdoors, sweating rite?

So I wore my Flash t-shirt to the hospital just now for my review. Figured it would be real funny to see a limping guy in a Flash t-shirt. Oh, the irony...

Cavalock and The Flashback Experience

Back in 2006, I blogged bout one of my early jobs and how it was the best working experience, a dream job. Well, recently I found one of the American ex-colleague Will's blogs and he has pretty much written out everything that happened there like more than 10 years ago, how the dream started and went horribly wrong. Will and all the Americans were really nice guys and I was one of the local guys working on the game.

It's a long read but if you weed through it all, you'll see a short paragraph of yours truly in there.

"His writing was odd and original, and he definitely had the Cyberpunk feel down." Hah, not gonna argue bout that.

Was looking at some of old posts while searching for the job post, and thought it would like four years ago, geez, what was I thinking when I posted this.

Cavalock and The Applebees Disaster

Saw that the new Applebees restaurant at Somerset had opened earlier in the week, and dropped in for lunch. I mean, it's one of those gotta-try-it-at-least-once kinda thing, since I never had it when I was in the U.S. years ago.

So how was it? Well, it's not somewhere I see myself going to anytime soon. The food was average at best but the price ... yikes! Don't wanna sound like a cheapskate but lunch for two with two mains, one starter and two drinks was a little over a hundred bucks. Yah, I know I had the ribeye (as usual) but still that sure didn't taste like an over $30 ribeye to me. It was ok, at least they had A1 sauce on hand.

Next time I'll just have a steak at Botak Jones around the corner then head to Applebees for drinks. Geez, for over $100 I could have had a real kick@$$ Japanese meal. Oh, and the starter arrived like 10 minutes after both mains were served. WTF?!?

Anyway, week has been kinda busy with work and stuff. Took a bunch of random pix and well, here you go. As usual, all pix with the iPhone.

It's strawberry season again in Japan. Saw this at Isetan last weekend and it kinda reminded me that this time last year, I was having a blast in Tokyo. Was really cold and my hands, fingers were all freezing, had to run into a 7-11 to buy a pair of oversized gloves.

My trusty Samsung vacuum cleaner, probably the only Korean product in my apartment. Yup, am not a big fan of Korean stuff or food but the vacuum cleaner has served me well for like, 5 years now. Yes, I probably jinxed it now :P . The plastic tube that collects the dust directly is the best part cos I can just clean that instead of changing the bag all the time.

I guess you could say this is my salaryman dinner for one. Not the best sushi but it's just across the road from the office and maybe once a fortnight if I'm working late, I'll pop in for dinner before heading home.

My old prata stall at the Waterloo Street food complex is back. But I forgot how much I spent on that breakfast and I can't update my little budget now. Anyway, another place to head to for good and cheap weekend breakfast.

Finally, this one ought to be interesting once it's done.....

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.