Beef Noodles

A new noodle stall at Amoy Food Centre. The stall name says Pepper Bowl but it doesn't sell those pepper rice that is everywhere now. Instead its main dish is beef noodle.

I tried the dry beef noodle and I know now why the stall is called Pepper Bowl because there is certainly a lot of black pepper in the noodle. A very different taste from the usual beef noodle found in the food centre. More the beef hor fun style. Not a bad dish but definitely nothing to rave about.

What is nice is the fried seafood taupuk. Fried to a crisp outside and soft inside. Come with a sweet sauce which I think is not necessary. This one I like very much. To borrow a phrase, "die die must try".

But what got me excited is the durian puree which the stall call durian brulee. Sadly I haven't gotten round to trying it yet. A bit too strong for lunch time. Cannot afford to have durian breath in the office but damn it sure look goods!

Anyway, their credentials? This page of reviews say it all:

Durian Durian Durian

Times flies and it is the durian season again and time for another round of durian gorging. After 2 unsuccessful attempt, I finally managed to round up enough people to qualify for the durian buffet at our usual durian haunt.

The unique thing about this durian feast is that for $25.00 each, we get to eat unlimited. None of those kampong durian or anything that goes for 2 or 3 for X dollars type of durian. Here we got get premium durian like

Black Pearl - indisputably the best with its slightly wet flesh and small seed

Mao Shang Wang- the king of all but too rich and big for us. This was left to the  last

Palai - a new breed that we have not tried enough. Creamy, soft and tasty. One of the best

D13 - very bitter 

XO - everybody complained it was too wet

Red Prawn - always my favourite. 

Pure durian bliss. But good things cannot eat too much especially heaty food like this. So contend myself with a little of each. The stall holder allowed us to tapao the balance even those not opened!

Definitely worth every single cent of the $25!

Beer Fest 2012

Never been much of a beer drinker so had never been to any of those Oktoberfest or Beer Fest until somebody gave me 2 tickets for this year Beer Fest.

We went on Thursday evening and first thing that hit was when we walked into the festival village which was actually some marquees tent at the F1 race track was the heat. Apart from the high humidity and the stifling heat, the chillers and crowd were generating its own heat. I don't understand why they can't have it in some nice air con place and most of all I don't understand how all these people especially the Ang Moh can sit there and drink beers like it was all so pleasant.

Coming back to beer, there were so many different brand of beer from all over the world and all of them were for sale at prices between $5.00 per cup to $20.00 per bottle.

  

 And of course where there are beers, there will be beer ladies but not those aunties at those HDB coffeeshops but sexy young things like these lovely ladies.

We thought our tickets came with a free beer but unfortunately and to our embarrassment, it did not and we were rejected when we tried to get one. But it was really too hot and so we caved in and bought our first beer. A very thick German lager

We also bought this Fruli strawberry beer which tasted more like those wine cooler drink.

And we had this Somersby ice cold cider as well.  

So not exactly beer tasting for us with our combination of drinks but still a very interesting experience to savour.

Kill 'em all

Recently there has been reported sighting of wild boars at Peirce Reservoir. Either I am blind or the wild boars are so scare of my BO that our paths have never crossed in all my days of running there. Anyway, seem like there is an overpopulation of wild boars, about a 100 of them and the Nparks are considering using crossbow to cull the wild boars. Cross bow? In this age and time? Couldn’t it be easier to just shoot them with real gun? Get the fellas from the gun club or invite some soldiers to do their target practice there instead of at the range.

Last October, there were report of monkeys attacking park users at Telok Blangah Hill. Immediately, some fellas wrote to the press to demand that the monkeys be culled. Me think though, at the rate the monkeys are being run over by vehicles, there is no need to cull them. Our drivers will do the job for the authorities.

A warning sign at Admiralty Park

And then of course we have all these culling of crows, pigeon and chickens. So easy. Got complains about crow? Shoot them. Got complains about pigeon? Poison them. Bird flu? Avian virus? Bury the damn chicks!

Did I also mention that it is the policy of the HDB, Town Council, AVA or whatever to kill any cats and dogs caught roaming in the neighbourhood! Like that time when some dogs bite joggers along Punggol Waterway. Good for them. No more cat shit and no more dog bite!

Recently, I have been spotting monitor lizards all over – at Pasir Ris, Lorong Halus, Bukit Timah, MacRitchie. Some goodnu even thought they were crocodiles when he sighted one at Serangoon Reservoir. Looks like the population of lizards are increasing. Maybe AVA should kill them all before they eat our children?

Monitor Lizard at Sungei Buloh

Oh yah at Pasir Ris where I live, there are dozen of heron and all sort of water fowl flying around. Also got a lot of parrots. The thing is I often hear them but seldom see them. Their loud calls and screeching, surely that is a major noise polluter. I say why not we kill all of them as well?

A heron at Pasir Ris Park

So easy right. Got problem. Kill em. Problem solve. No need to waste time and money to do research, study on their habitats or relocate them. And since we on this, why not we go one step further? Those old folks who are going to live in those new to be build homes that is taking people’s view, playgrounds, park, air away – why waste money building homes for them. Kill them. They not productive anyway. And how about those patients in hospice? They going to die sooner or later. Do them a favour. Kill them once they are diagnosed as no hope. And the handicapped? How dare they complete with able bodied people for space in the bus, trains and horrors, car park lot as well! Kill them.

In fact, anything and anybody that threatens our nice peaceful existence. Kill them all!

And if whoever reading this doesn’t get my point or what I trying to say, I think I have to kill you as well

Durian Soya Bean Pudding

I normally don't have high regards for those durian flavour soya bean curd selling at the shops and hawker stalls. But still I quite kapoh and got to try when I see a new stall. The other day was at my usual lunch haunt and there was another one of those new craze, soya bean pudding stall. 

The stall owner got not much business so she was sitting at our table and we got to talking. The very glib lady - she was praising my colleague no end. So when we finished our meal, we paiseh and decided to buy the soya bean pudding. But I changed my mind when I saw they have a variety of jellies beside the usual soya bean. And they had durian. I decided to try that.


Imagine my delight when I opened it to find this:

Yes real durian on top and also inside. Most other I tried only have durian flavoured pudding. Hardly any at the economic level ie stalls and shops sell it with real durian. But this one did, Packaging wasn't that nice unlike say, the Goodwood Park durian desserts. But at $2.00 a pop, it was well worth it!

The stall is at Maxwell Food Centre, somewhere in the middle right next to the Taiwanese Porridge stall.

My Grandfather Road

Picture from Insing

When I read the news that a young lady has been arrested for spray painting the words "My Grandfather Road" and putting up all those stickers on traffic light, I was like whoa! how come I never see any of them and some more some of these were near my work place!

Picture from Stomp

I think its a disgrace that the authorities are charging her for vandalism. Maybe they are using her as an example. But just look at the amount of notices, advertisements put up by tuition centre, illegal money lenders, etc etc on lamp posts, traffic lights, bus stops and practically everywhere. How come I never hear people being arrested for these offences

Picture from Stomp

As for the graffiti on the road, I have seen a very solid looking one on a wall of a row of house. I have also seen graffiti on underpass walls. Ok I never seen any painting on the road although some ad agencies have occasionally put up stickers on the pavement. Except for the MRT case, this is the first time I hearing of someone being arrested for vandalism. And vandalism in Singapore is like a major offence with canning!

Anyway, I hope the authorities will see the whole incidence as something creative from a naive young girl and let her off with a warning. By all means, punish her if they must - maybe get her to remove the stickers, paint up the graffiti or even better get her to do a community project but don't stick her with a record!

Alexandra Canal

This is a typical "canal" in Singapore. Long ago, I believe this was part of a river stream but the old government decided to concretise everything and all the rivers and streams ended up as big concrete drains or longkangs. 

Today, after realising that going the way of the longkang was no good, the authorities decided that it was time to beautify up the longkang and came up with the ABC water campaign! ie Active, Beautiful and Clean Water.

This is the Alexandra Canal which leads into the Singapore River. Under the Active Beautiful Clean Water program, the canal has been spruced up and looks beautiful. Too bad the water flowing into it is still just as dirty.

Now there are plants growing over it

Even some sort of sedimentation system

And the masterpiece of the Alexandra Park Canal - this water feature where children can play in

There is also a path along both banks of the canal which leads all the way to the Singapore River and up to Queenstown on the other end.

There are some critics who claimed the government is wasting tax payers on this ABC program but hey I rather have these beautiful places rather than an ugly concrete drain!

Puppet Show

This is real rare nowadays. But at the temple at Telok Ayer Street, whenever there is a deity birthday or somebody strike lottery from the number pasted on the urn, there will be a puppet show.

The puppet show is a mini version of the Chinese Opera Stageshow and the actors and actress are puppet hemmed by puppeters. This is a dying breed and soon  it will go the way of the dodo bird. And why should it be so? Cos nobody is watching and even the puppeteers look so bored just singing their parts.

But still it is a visual feast and I will be sad to see this disappear from the local scene but disappear it will. Not a question of if but when!