Curry San

Tucked away in Compass Point, Curry San to me must be one of the most underated Japanese restaurant in contrast to their more famous counterparts that sells sushi and other Japanese delicacies.

Suffice to say that, I will make my way down to this humble outlet whenever I am in Compass Point. To those who never had the knack of trying Japanese curry, should give this a try. Yes, its so much different that Indian or Chinese curry, but it just goes to show that there is so much varieties that we can try.

Try out the Chicken Katsu Japanese Curry Rice. Its simple but yet delicious. I hope Curry San expand its wings to reach more Singaporeans out there.

Daun Kaduk

Its really not easy to find daun kaduk or better known as Wild Pepper Leaves in Singapore. I tried asking a "makcik" before in the market at around my neighbourhood if she knows where to get daun kaduk. It comes to a halting No with a bemused smile that a Chinese guy is looking for daun kaduk.

Mostly used by ethnic Malays, its also used in laksa. To me, its just so yummy if you fry it with chilli, dried shrimps and coconut milk. The funny thing is that this plant is supposed to be a wild plant. Back home in Malaysia, this plant grows everywhere, and I mean everywhere. You can just pluck that from roadside, wash it, and its ready to be served.

So now, my search continues. To find this specimen in Singapore, or alternatively I can choose to grow this plant myself in a pot.

Friendly Match - Woodlands Team

We had a return match with Woodlands badminton team last Sun. We won with a margin of 3-2 matches.

It was a good win but we went into rubber games to decide including my match as well, in which the score was 11:21, 21:18, 21:16.

.

Food Sg Rambai

Its yet again food food food. On my 2nd night back in my hometown, made my way down towards open air makan place at Sg Rambai in BM. Thats what you love most in Malaysia. Eateries just mushroom anywhere you go.

So I tried the chicken wings and grilled fish, but sorry folks. No pictures. I was so busy eating, I totally forgotten about snapping. But anyway here are some pictures of gado gado, the famous curry mee and fried kuay kak.

The gado gado to me didnt taste that great. But the kuay kak is simple delicious. This must be one of the better kuay kak I eaten for years. Its so fragrant and it just melts in your mouth when you bite it. Simply ravishing.

As for the curry mee, I would rate is about 7 out of 10 given that you always need to put up with the long queqe. Plus taste wise, my Mum said it reminds her of curry mee that they used to sell in school canteen. Sorry I cant imagine that. Definately not my era.

.

Gado Gado

Last weekend I was back in my hometown. And you can be sure that anyone that comes within 50km radius will be flirting with the various nice delicacies up for offer.

This Gado Gado stall had been one of my favourite since I was still studying in secondary school. The funny thing about this stall is that, the couple who owns the stall do not have a fixed scheduele on when they are open for business.

Its no suprise that they dont open the stall for a stretch of few consecutive days or weeks. And then resume business, only for the stall to be closed again. Think I will have better luck predicting the weather than to predict whether the stall is open for business.However as of late, I believe they had discarded this old habit of theirs.

Their Mee Jawa and Gado Gado is so good that, it was even featured in a Chinese daily in Malaysia. I believe its like a recognition long overdue. I had found out about this gem long long time ago.

I wouldnt say this is the best Gado Gado or Mee Jawa in this part of the world, but I can certainly say that you will come back for more.

.

Zaid

I wrote a review before of a book called In Good Faith. Its so weird to find an extraordinarie in the mould of Zaid Ibrahim to be in UMNO. Not only did he build up Malaysia's largest law firm, Zaid champions "justice, "accountability", "transparency" and "good governance", words which probably do not register in UMNO's dictionary.

But how can a champion of equal rights be in UMNO. Well I guess only Zaid has the answer. But I will try to do a prognosis here. Zaid probably thought UMNO can be saved. Seriously, he thought Pak Lah is the knight in shinning armour that could rid UMNO of all evils. Besiege the party of all evils. Well I guess Zaid was wrong. He probably wanted to start a revolution of sorts. Or just like Castro once said, you only need one man to start a revolution. And ever since then, there was no looking back for Castro. But we all know Zaid failed in his task. And he admitted this as well when he relinquished his post from Abdullah's administration.

But the gloves are off now. Zaid is no more with UMNO. And I believe he need not be with Pakatan Rakyat as well. If you're reading this Zaid, you should be at where you had always been and forever will be. Be with us, the PEOPLE. As Raja Petra pointed out on telly last night, we are all in the Barisan Rakyat front. That term was coined way before the name Pakatan Rakyat ever came into existence.

Welcome to Barisan Rakyat, Zaid! You're a God sent hero to all Malaysians!


.

Syed

I find it amusing that some people will justify their crooked and whimsy statement by using another person's name.

Take our beloved Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar as an example. He recently said in The Star, "Malaysians sometimes don't know how lucky we are in that we have not experienced what is happening in Mumbai and Bangkok now."

Isnt it ironic and sad, to capitalize on other nation's misery, we justify a draconian piece of law to subdue and quell violence. So is Syed Hamid proposing that ISA is the antidode for terrorism? Slamming someone's ass into a cell without trial is certainly not going to change anything except robbing a person's freedom for a free trial.

He was also quoted in The Star

Syed Hamid was speaking to reporters after receiving Singapore Law Minister K. Shanmugam at his office here yesterday.He said Shanmugam shared the view that preventive detention laws were still needed."We both know that we are not out to silent detractors or the opposition. But they must not advocate conflict among the public, or raise sensitive issues."

Again using Singapore to justify ISA. Yes, Singapore also have ISA. But the last time ISA was used was against Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) in Singapore. As much as we disagree with the existence of ISA, Singapore never used ISA before against a journalist, a blogger and an opposition MP. But we know someone did.

And please dont besmirch K Shanmugam's name. This guy is a pedigree in Law. Syed Hamid might have the qualifications as a lawyer, but he certainly doesnt act like one.



.

Manics Review

Straits Times review

MyPaper review

Manics Street Preachers Concert Review - 24-Nov 2008

Last year when I bought Send Away The Tigers, I knew from the start this was Manics comeback album.Armed with 8 albums, you can be sure if you attend a Manics gig, it be money worth.

To be frank, I was a little under the weather prior to the gig. With all the bad news on retrenchments and dark clouds looking over the world, dont think it was realy a good time for me to be in a gig.

But boy I was wrong. After Vertical Rush, an indie band from Singapore, Manics Street Preachers came charging right at us with Motorcycle Emptiness spot on at 9am. For a 90 minutes gig, this gig is certainly for fans and non fans of Manics.

With James Dean Bradfield on vocals, unmistakenly you can feel his powerful chord blasting its way through and stretching it sky high with his falsetto. And he moves and dances with ease, striking a few poses and moves which will put any other younger performers to shame. After Motorcycle Emptiness, La Tristsessa Durera was up next. There was simply no turning back that night. Manics promised the fans that they will do at least each song from every albums. Suprisingly they didnt do Indian Summer. Australia was also missing from the setlist.

The one that really got the fans wild was Design For Life. I personally like Masses Against The Classes. It really fits into current political landscape we are witnessing in Asia, but that be another story to tell.

They also did a cover of Umbrella, me and Kim looked at each other stunned not sure what to make out of it. But they did justice with that song. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough sounds weird without Nina Persson on the other end. Same goes for Little Baby Nothing where the studio version has female vocals on the chorus.

Fans were treated with 2 accoustic performance by the lead, The Everlasting simply just blows my mind away. Its like guitar, a man's heart and a man's voice. He asked the fans to go easy with him. And so we did. The crowd was all silent when he played both songs.

Ocean Spray was a pleasant suprise as well with Manics strutting their guitars with the saxophone playing on the other end. Manics interacted alot with the crowd, something which I find other bands are lacking.

And to my suprise, there was no encore that night. Yes you heard me. No encore. They ended the night with If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next. As I was leaving the arena, many still stayed back, maybe they were hoping for an encore. An encore that didnt come. Maybe I missed it, but I doubt so.

And yes, there were so much more people at Manics gig versus Ash gig. If I were to rate, this concert on a scale of 1 to 10, I would have given it a 8 points. 1 minus point for not having Nina, and another minus point for no Indian Summer and encore.

.

Dark Horse

Yesterday I spent my night rocking away with Manics. But will blog about that tomorrow. Today I want to review Dark Horse, 6th studio release by Nickelback.

After their last release in 2005, All The Right Reasons which bagged a Grammy for Best Rock Album, I didnt thought Chad Kroeger and the crew can come up with something smart, classy, cheesy rock tunes which can float through the airwaves just like how Muhammad Ali will say it, fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee. And this album packs enough sting to make me say that this album certainly tops it all for 2008. What a way to end 2008.

Right from the 1st track, Something In Your Mouth which is slated to be the next single release after Gotta Be Somebody, there is never a dull moment with this album. Out of 11 tracks in this album, there are 2 powerful ballads that will be a perfect catch for pub singers. Never Gonna Be Alone and I'd Come For You. If I had to choose between this two, my vote will go to Never Gonna Be Alone. Burn It To The Ground opening guitar rift has a hint of nu metal before blasting off like an old school rock song.

Dark Horse is indeed a "dark horse" album as I had never imagined Nickelback to comeback with another succesful release after their last multi platinum album. There are more to say about this album, I suggest one gets a copy of the album and let the album speak for itself.

.

Injured

Played a friendly on last Sun. We lost the 1st game at 16-21, but we clawed back in the 2nd game to win 23-21. However in the 3rd game, I sprained my right ankle in the 11th point. Ouuch! The rest is history. I was walking in the court with my left leg and we need to give away the 3rd game at 14-21 loss. Sorry partner.

Oh well, now its back wearing my old ankle guard. I thought I dont need to see the ankle guard anymore. Looks like I am back wearing it again And I need to sit out last Wed friendly match as well against Infineon.

Sucks. I hope I can play this Sun and then be ready for the next friendly next Wed in HP....I hope....

.

My new Ipod

I wanted to blog about my new IPod Touch last week. But due to unexpected twists in events, delayed my blogging. Here what transpired on my purchase from Apple which I expected it to be a breeze in the park which turn into a hellish nightmare.

On Monday morning, I called up Apple 1-800 line to make my purchase of IPod Touch via Citibank's Employee Purchase Program (EPP). I wanted to get 2 units. One of myself and another for my good pal, Teong Wei. In the mailer ad sent out, it was shown that the sale was for IPod Touch (2nd Generation). Thanks to Teong Wei, he reminded me that 2nd Gen IPod should have volume control and speaker functions.

So I called up Apple and made my purchase. To my suprise, they cant find any info in their system for this EPP price which supposedly to be sold at $241. So 1st round was a failure. They called me back again 5 minutes later, saying that they can now accept my order. So fine, I relayed my order to the telesales. And I emphasized again, its 2nd Gen and it supposed to come with vol control and speaker. The telesales said yes.

So on Wed, I got my Ipod. Happy-lah. At night, open up the packaging, and browse through the box. Next morning, in office, I plugged my Ipod into my laptop after installing latest version of the I Tunes. To my horror, I couldnt find the vol control nor the speaker. Something is amidst here. So I called up Apple again. And told them that they might have shipped me the 1st Gen instead of 2nd Gen.

2nd nightmare starts to unfold. They admittedly confessed of making an error in the ad. There are no refurbished 2nd Gen in the market, considering the fact that this release is so new. Heck, its not my problem. I expect Apple to make good of their offer.Right? After rounds and rounds of talks, they finally came with a so called appeasement plan. Plan A was for me to return the Ipod Touch and in exchange they will give me a $60 voucher. Plan B is I can keep the 1st Gen 8Gb IpodTouch and they will refund me $100. Hell no to both of this ideas.

So they asked for an extension and promised to get back to me again latest by Wed. So on Tues, Apple called back and offered another plan. I can either return back and get a voucher of the same value or they can come and exchange my Ipod with a 16Gb version.

Alas, I took up the offer of the 16Gb. But I was dissapointed with Apple for not making good with their offer of advertising the 2nd Gen Ipod. Yes, their call centre team overall was courteous, but thats beyond the point. the point here is that when you sell a product to your customer, one should make good of the offer.

And to makes matter worst, their appointed courier company (TNT) screwed up their delivery plan when executing the 1-1 exchange. I do not want to go into details of that as well. Basically I am so so fed up with the whole supply chain of Apple. I think the management that made the decision to not honouring their advert of selling the 8Gb (2nd Gen) refurnished should read the book, Hug Your Customers. I think that will give them the ABC of how to better value their customers.

I dont have any hard feelings with the call centre team because I know they went through shit from a mistake by their Marketing folks. What I am unhappy is how Apple top dogs here in Singapore did not honour what they advertised. Yes I could have choose to decline the product and get a voucher, But why should I do that? Apple enticed me about a good offer, and I am supposed to walk away just like that because of an error made by them?Hell no!

Anyway I try to put this behind me now. I dont think I want to buy anything from Apple ever again. Too much hassle and time wasted. As for now, I am enjoying my Ipod Touch listening to songs from Oasis and Snow Patrol.

.

1977

Finally my 1977 album from Ash was in the mailbox last night. Bought it online since I called up HMV and they dont carry this limited edition release. Ever since they had their gig in Singapore, I had been waiting anxiously for the release of their special limited re-issue album of 1997 3 CD set which comprises of 1977, Trailer, Live at Reading, Live at Wireless and B Sides & Rarities.

I pumped up the stereo when playing 1977, Tim Wheller and the boys are brilliant. How can an album sound this fresh after so many years. Its only one of those rare moments where an album like this stands through the test of time. And 1977 to me is one of the classics which will stand shine through the years.

.

Books

When MPH organises a warehouse sale, you can be sure that they will be throwing in alot of quality stuffs for us to cherry pick at an attractive price.

So last Friday after work, I made my way down to get some books. By the end of the visit, I didnt expect to be saddled with 10 books. Kim got 4 books on cooking and feng shui. As for me, I decided to call it a day and made my way to the cashier. Not before having to wait as there were about 50 people in front of me.

I decided to make an exit as I know the longer I hang around, 10 books will be a foregone conclusion, and the numbers will increase. Each book is priced at $8 except for Nelson Mandela, Long Walk To Freedom that was sold at $10.

I am mugging my way through God Is Not Great. One hell of a controversial book if you ask me in this part of the world. And trust me, just by seeing the title of the book alone, I had gotten a few curious stares from onlookers. To be fair to the author, he is not zooming in on any specific

monotheistic religions. Kim wanted me to cover the book so that overzealous fanatics wont come for me or blurring out the word, Not, so that its now re-titled as God Is Great. Well, I'll take that into consideration.

Anyway back to the books I bought, I can wait to finish this one, so that I can proceed to my next read.

.

Carrot Cake and Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee

Its food review again. This time lets bring our attention to Blk 127 Toa Payoh Lorong 1 Food Centre.On 05-Oct, Straits Times did a comprehensive poll on "ST Readers' Choice Favourite Hawkers Poll". At No. 9 was Chey Sua Carrot Cake.

So whats my verdict on this? I think its just okay. For me to travel all the way to taste this carrot cake might not be worth my time and effort. However my colleagues find the carrot cake nice as the carrot cake is sliced into smaller pieces and this gives it a crisp feeling. And one more thing. They dont sell black sauce carrot cake, so sorry for those who likes black carrot cake.

Another food I tried is Hokkien Prawn Mee. Verdict is, its not that fantastic. I may be spoilt by Nam Sing Fried Hokkien Mee at Old Airport Road, seriously. Now everyime I taste hokkien fried prawn mee, I cant help but draw a comparison to Nam Sing's version.

Friendly Match I

Here are some pictures from HP Team friendly match last night against Chai Chee CC Team. Admitedly I didnt play well. Here was the scoreline midway through the matches.

You can see my name there and the scoreline. Anyway, I am looking forward for this Sunday's friendly match with my Sunday team and next Wed against Infineon.

The story continues, and I vow to play better........

.

Another One!

This must be the 4th racquet I had found without a owner for the many years I had been playing badminton. It's good considering the fact that I would need to return Muscle Power 30 to the rightful owner.

Out of 4, 2 I actually pass it on to the sports hall and the other 2 I kept it for myself. Yeah yeah yeah. I am a bastard for doing so. The racquet I am using now, brand Flymax was also found in a sports hall. Little is known about this brand or its model. All I can say is that, it could be one of those cheap knock off that tries to imitate a Yonex racquet. However it has served me well throughout the years. No complaints from me.

However my search for a good badminton racquet continues. need to find one that fits my budget, and something that feels right for me.

.

Steamboat Again

2 steamboat buffets in a span of 2 weeks. Well I went for another one last Friday with my old pals.

Situated at 100 Beach Road, #01-04 Shaw Centre, this restaurant is run by Chinese mainlanders. The waitress asked us if we were locals because based on her experience, locals will not want the other half of the spicy soup to be too spicy. Trust me, even the mild version is killing me. And I still would want to live through the weekend in one piece.

The soup costs $15 each for one flavour. So since its 2 soup, that makes it $30. After the early bird and Visa discount, the nett we paid was $108.03 for 4 persons. So it comes up to about $27.00 each person.

Overall, the food was okay. I mean its steamboat buffett. What can one expect? Here are some of the pictures from this restaurant.

.

Dig Out Your Soul

When I put it the CD of Dig Out Your Soul into my CD player, I knew from the onstart that, this is a gem. Fucking brilliant. Its Oasis finest to date of course after 2 of their most brilliant albums of all time Definately Maybe and Whats The Story Morning Glory.

Its old school rock which fans will either like ir or hate it. It doesnt matter that Liam took fucking nine years to finish I'm Outta Time or the music video to The Shock Of Lightning is so warped that the images looks as though one just popped in some ecstacy pills. Bag it Up starts the ball rolling in the album with its jagged rock edges. Gallagher brothers are certainly experimenting alot of instruments with the inclusion of gongs and sitars in their songs.Noel still writes shitty smart stuffs.

You gotta buy this album to find out. This is way better then their 2005, Dont Believe The Truth. I have caught Oasis twice on concert before. I just cant wait to see them again performing songs from their latest album.

By the way, I rarely do album reviews. But for this band, I am always willing to do an exception.

.

Steamboat Buffet

Last weekend, the Kulim gang met up for dinner. Initially we decided to dine at Tony Roma at Suntec City. But upon knowing we need to wait for 45 minutes, we decided to go for steamboat buffet at this restaurant.

Above are some pictures of what the restaurant has to offer. I must admit that they have a wide selection of ingredients to choose from. But it doesnt come cheap though. Per head, nett about approx $38.00

But I find the service is not up to par. Despite the restaurant being half full, the waiter or waitresses just dont seem to be interested in serving the food I ordered. Maybe they are trying to discourage their patrons to order more?

.