Cavalock and The Uncanny Crab Compendium

Who knew there are so many different local ways to prepare crabs? I sure didn't. Me and the guys were having dinner at Mellben Seafood over at Ang Mo Kio when I saw this at the back of their menu. Some I have tried, others I have never even heard of, like Tomato Sauce Crab and Claypot Curry Crab. Although I don't think I'll be in a rush to try the tomato sauce one.

By the way, the restaurant also has a 'wall of shame' with CTV photos of patrons who left without paying. Most look like PRC couples, hey, just sayin'.

Was going through the old family home kitchen last week and found this lot inside a drawer. I think any collector of beer paraphernalia would certainly appreciate these. Beer bottle openers from Gosser Beer, Amstel Holland Beer, Orange Smash and our very own Tiger Beer.

Cavalock goes Back on The Neighbourhood Breakfast Trail

With all the new cafes and hipster coffee joints opening in my neighbourhood of Jalan Besar and Arab Street, breakfast out can be quite an expensive affair especially if you are a big breakfast guy like me. Heard about this relatively new joint along Kandahar Road called Dong Po Colonial Cafe and decided to drop by for a late breakfast a few days ago.

They had that retro shanghai vibe and decor going. I got nothing against that as I don't usually let a restaurant's deco influence my dining experience, yah, I guess that's another reason why I can never be a food blogger. Gosh, ah hear them food bloggers devote a whole lotta big fancy words just to describe the inside of a deli, youse know what ah mean?

Anyway I rather enjoyed my late morning breakfast. The bread butter pudding would fill any mere mortal's stomach but I always knew I was more than that so I had the above kaya toast as well as 2 eggs and a cuppa tea. There's also the almond french toast and a little tea cake which I was told you eat by dipping it in coffee. Total cost was just a little over S$12 for a hearty traditional local breakfast for two, still slightly cheaper than heading to McDonald's. Seeing all that tasty pastries in the showcase is a sure way of getting me over again for another visit in the very near future.

Been a while since I posted any of my 80-year-old Dad's wildlife shots. Besides the Bird Park, he has been hanging out at the Botanic Gardens too. Some friends have suggested that I sell some of his shots as prints, would anyone be interested in them if I do?

Cavalock and The Fred Flintstone Delicacy

Remember all those vintage jello moulds I found in the old family home? Well, I uncovered another classic mould and this one I definitely remember from my childhood. It's a Fred Flintstone jello mould! Although I don't think kids today know who he is and that's just plain sad. I think I got it from a 1980 cereal box. Well, naturally I did the only thing possible and that's to make more jello, this time using the moulds that I didn't use previously.

Tried some blueberry flavoured jello which turned out rather strong. Next time I'll use a lighter coloured jello too as you can't really the outline here. Still a yabba dabba doo moment! See the little seeds in one of the jellos, that's actually chia seeds and not the traditional kiwi seeds. Yah, that's my little version of a healthy snack. <^;^>

Speaking of snacks, I still got more pix from my last visit to Meidi-ya on more groceries that you usually can't find elsewhere on the island. I believe that's some smartphone app game tie-in with Pocky and I just think that 'eat you' pix is the best. The Marmite and Guinness crisps were mighty enticing until I remembered I'm more a Brovil kinda guy. Just add milk, instant cereal bowls for those who without bowls?

Cavalock and The Hair Jam Mystery

Comes a time when a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do and in my case it was an overdue medical checkup. Spent 30 hours at Raffles Hospital last week and it actually turned out be more like a mini-bed breakfast stay, especially since all my manly bits appear to be in working order so that made the experience a somewhat pleasant one. I got a whole room all for myself, a nice view and three square meals plus afternoon tea and all the water I can drink. Managed to catch We're The Millers and Agatha Christie's Poirot on the iPad as well as finally reading Poe's classic Fall of The House of Usher.

Yah, once a gamer, always a gamer even when laid up in a hospital bed. <^;^>

Well, its been at least a month since I checked out what's new at Meidi-Ya supermarket. So I dropped by over the weekend and saw these couple of ... er ... unique items on sale. Gatsby's new hairdo cream, wax, mousse or whatever, I have no idea! It's called Hair Jam and since I can't open it, I can only imagine it looks or feels like jam?!? Then there's the very tempting Apple Potato Pie, three of my favourite foods in one. I would have gotten it except the almost S$30 price tag kinda freaked me out. That's not exactly a very big pie.

Cavalock and The Rise of The Hackivists

Our local government wasn't the only one who had their hands busy dealing with all things Internet, fortunately it wasn't hackers that I spent most of my online time with. I was emailing the tech support folks at Blizzard to fix my account so that I could get into the Beta version of their next big game Hearthstone, Heroes of Warcraft.

Like I said, it has been quite a tech-y last few weeks for me. After four years, my little red Nespresso machine has finally decided to give up on me. Luckily Nespresso has a trade-in offer where you get S$120 off the new machine once you hand over the old one when they deliver it to your home, yup, they do deliveries too. Plus they gave 16 free capsules!

And I finally got the official Lego iPhone case for my iPhone 5S! Got the iPhone 5S on the first day of launch without even having to queue cos I only wanted the boring space grey colour one that apparently no one else wants. I actually held off getting the iPhone 5 cos I couldn't find a Lego case for it. The tactile surface of my old iPhone 4 Lego case gave it such an easy and comfortable grip.

Anyway, back to the hacking, I find it rather amusing that the local government press has decided to call the hackers "hackivists". I have never heard of that word until today. Now I like to consider myself pretty well read as I do pick up the occasional copy of WIRED magazine that is if I happen to be at the dentist's waiting room once a year. But seriously, what's wrong with the more familiar 'hackers'? Is it like calling flooding "ponding"? I'm thinking maybe the older senior folks in the newsroom remember the 1995 film Hackers starring a young Angelina Jolie. Hackers were good guys in the movie so maybe they had come up with a new word for evil hackers. So the next time, if there's a news story about evil joggers, they'll be "jogivits". Nasty bus drivers could well be "bus drivivists" in disguise. Any others?

Cavalock and The Halloween Cookies of Horror

It's almost Halloween and I thought I'll showcase some of the treats that left my tiny apartment kitchen over the weekend. I have only been to one Halloween party my entire life and that was an office event like a decade ago. Bet no one can guess who or what I came as*. Anyway, I thought these cookies came out looking pretty cool. And no, I didn't bake them, I just snap all the pix.

Every cookie was individually painted by hand and the tags were all cut, pasted and labelled the night before. They were made for sale for a little kid's school Halloween party. Hope they all like it.  You can check out some other goodies that left the kitchen here and here, and don't forget we got some Christmas fruitcakes for sale here too.

Well, I got nothing planned for Halloween nite so I'll probably play a solo game of Elder Sign. It's a great board game that's based on the horror stories by H.P. Lovecraft. Or maybe I'll just watch this year's Simpsons Halloween Treehouse of Horror, yah it's been sitting in my iPad for almost a week now.

Since we on the topic of baking from home, how's a little flashback to some of the more interesting bakes that have since left our kitchen to satisfied friends and ex-colleagues over the last year or two.

* I was Dilbert from the comic strip. Easiest costume ever, just a white office shirt, black pants and glasses with a curled-up tie. Which made it all the more unusual as I'm always in jeans and t-shirts in the office.

Cavalock and The Christmas Fruitcake Shout-Out

A quick shout-out to anyone out there in Singapore who wants some great Christmas fruitcakes this year. I have been enjoying these amazing home baked fruitcakes every Christmas for several years now and trust me when I say they are the best I have ever had in my entire life. It's so rich and moist you wouldn't wanna with just one bite. It's just October but all the fruits are already soaking in glass jars of Bacardi Gold rum and that's why they are taking orders this early. You can order them as well as other cakes such as the sour cherry pie and the classic orange sugee cake, over at the Only Slightly Pretentious Food site.

If you have been reading bout all the retro stuff that I have been digging up in the old family home, you would recall that I got reams and reams of fabrics and material from the 60s and 70s. I have passed several vintage reams to my friend and local designer Audrey from The Girl's Kaksh, and you can see some really nice designs she came up with last year. Neat eh?

So the notorious Ashley Madison site is coming to town. I gotta admit I was mildly amused when I first heard bout the website over a year ago, and even more tickled with the local uproar that followed the recent local announcement. Way I see it it's a whole bunch a double standards especially with the government coming in and saying how wrong it is. How different is that from giving licenses to dozens of legal brothels in Geylang, mega casinos and shady KTVs all over the island cos I'm pretty sure all those did their fair share in breaking up more than a couple of marriages too. Stay outta it. Let us decide what's right or wrong, the same way you trust us to decide on whether or not to go visit a hooker in Geylang or the casino.

Cavalock and The Little Things That Matter

Ended my Restaurant Week experience with a meal at Salta at Icon Village. Dinner started with a very pleasant blue swimmer crab timbale. Not too heavy and just smooth enough to guide me into my pan seared sea bream main course. I chose this instead of the beef steak cos I figured they already do great steaks since that's their specialty, so I wanna see how was their fish. And I totally enjoyed it! The sea bream was pan seared to perfection but what I really liked was the pumpkin puree that came with it. Awww man, that sauce dialed it up for me. I freaking cleaned the plate up with it. Been a very long time since I had a fish meal this memorable. The dessert was amazing too. The lavender scented bread pudding tasted like an almost perfect kueh lapis, with a nice scoop of coconut ice-cream on it. It was a perfect dinner if not for one very minor detail ....

... and that was how old the menus were. Old enough for them to possess a certain whiff that instantly transported me back to the old Stamford Road National Library. Maybe I'm too sensitive but the menus sure smell like some ancient parchments. You know that really old book smell? But really, that didn't spoil my dinner at all. I had a wonderful time, no complaints about the food or service. In fact, we even left them a 10% tip even though there's no service charge. Will definitely drop by again for lunch or dinner.

I have mentioned before that I started this blog to more or less talk bout stuff that made me happy. I try not to write bout the things that brought me down. Had quite a rough week so I figured I'll remind myself of the little geeky things that brought a smile to my face recently.

The Magic the Gathering playmat I won in a lucky draw on Wednesday nite, the Abomination action figure I found at Takashimaya and the arrival of my (first) Kickstarter boardgames Via Appia and Templer. All the little things that may not a lot to anyone else but certainly lifted me spirits when I got me hands on them. I'm not a hard guy to please. Oh and remember my family's vintage cheongsams? Brought them to a local history professor and he sure was impressed by them, more on this later if it all pans out.

Cavalock and The Jiggy Jello Collection

In the words of Will Smith, let's get jiggy! Here are more kitchen relics I found in the old family home again. First up are jelly or jello moulds from the 50s or 60s. It's kinda amazing the different shapes and sizes they all come in and I really like bigger ones. The tiny ones would be great for jello shots. Now I don't actually remember seeing these being used although my late Mom did make jelly on a pretty regular basis but that's like after we moved to another house. And when she made them, they were in glass or crystal bowls like the ones I found earlier.

The Imperial Navy jello mould! Only geeks will get this.

These glass jelly bowls or "blows" are the kind that my late Mom would make for us when we moved out of the family home. So she would add cocktail fruits in them too and I would always go for the grape or raspberry ones. Didn't like the lemon or orange flavors cos they were always too sour. I found a whole lot more of the glass or crystal bowls so I guess when we moved out all them decades ago, we left some behind in the dusty kitchen cabinet.

Now I'm seriously tempted to try some agar-agar or jello recipes. Been searching online for some simple ones involving coconut cream and espresso since I got easy access to both. And I found this simple enough recipe from Serious Eats on coffee-coconut agar agar.

It turned out better than I expected. Minor problems I had was deciding when to pour the second coffee layer and gauging how much to pour cos you wanna make sure the proportions are right. You also don't wanna pour the second layer too fast and hard otherwise it'll break the first layer, you gotta spread it out gently with a spoon. So watch out for all that if you are doing any double or triple layer agar agar.

Check this out! The coconut coffee combo was great and eating something that came outta a 50 or 60 year-old relic is quite an unforgettable experience.