Tahu Sumedang

I laughed. A happy laugh, not hysterical nor cynical laugh. The laugh you have when you were a boy and you -unexpectedly- have found your favorite matchbox car in side your school bag that was lost for months and you have given up looking for it in the last couple of weeks. That kinda laugh.

Nope, I didn't found my precious matchbox car otherwise the title should be 'the long lost beetle' or 'dude, i've found my car'. No. So, I laughed (discreetly, not to scare other shoppers) when I found this pack (refer to the pics), siting nicely side-by-side with slik-tofu in chiller in Mediya supermarket.
Questions popped out. Could it be the one? Could it be true? Looks like it, but location wise -if it is- it is out of place... but could it be? Maybe, what. Anything can happen.
You wouldn't know unless you try.
So we bought it.
Opened the pack and ate it.
And it wasn't it.

Christmas comes (way too) early

Took this pic couple of days ago while waiting for my favorite bus at my favorite bus stop. Probably coz this bus air-cond is set winter-cold, so inside it's already Christmas-time. Now lets find that fat-bearded-uncle-in-red-jump-suit...

Yesterday: si Tonggos scored

Yep, as the title said, he scored the 2nd goal. Also feeding Diego with back-heel pass for Brazil 1st goal. Here is him, taking corner.But the match itself was boring. Probably cos it was friendly. Probably they were afraid to get injured. Probably my expectation was too high. Although a bit of drama towards the end, resulted one Brazilian saw red for elbowing.

Well, at least I can say that I saw si Tonggos, kicking and scoring goal, live.

Today's Special: si Tonggos

Rain or shine event. Just hope it won't rain.

Kuning-Biru-Merah

Diambil minggu lalu.
Lho mana yang ijo ya?
Oh, mungkin dah meletus.
Yang sisa cuma 3 bukan 4.
Jadi jelas dipegang erat-erat.

36 days...

Marking 36 days after we moved from 7th floor to 8th.

Moving is not an easy thing. I have plenty of experience. We moved home 3 times in last 3 years. Prior that I moved places several times. Plus lots of experience from helping friends moving house.

For me the toughest part is not cleaning the new home, preparing the place before moving in. Or cleaning up the old place. Basically not the cleaning part. The toughest job (and probably the trickiest) is packing. Where to put this and that. Should plates go with pans and pots. Which goes to that box. Make sure all boxes are labeled. The packing level of difficulty has exponential relation to number of your precious belongings.

Packing my own stuff only (during my single time) is ok, enuf to do it in one day. For 2 peeps is a bit of tougher. Packing for family with baby is a different level. Last time we moved from 6th floor to 7th, we had 3 big trunks and 5 boxes. 36 days ago, there were 15 boxes, 5 big trunks, cot, cupboard, shelves, and more... Thank God my wife isn't Imelda Marcos!

Wonder what stuffs that are sold here...

Burger Nanas from Bishan

We saw an article in paper on this new ang moh food stall in Bishan. So last time we were in that area we decided to try it. Crazy Ang Moh was written on the stall sign next to image of kangaroo wearing red boxing gloves. Yes, it belongs to Oz guys. My buddy told me that after featured in paper, the queue doubled. Well, it better be good.
We ordered the special: crazy burger. What makes it special is on top of beef patty, fried egg, cheese, and lettuce, they put beetroot and pineapple. And it comes with tips from the ang moh owner (who supposed to be crazy): to get the best taste, squash the burger stack then bite it all. Which we did. Tough and messy but manageable. Taste wise: good, no complain. Pineapple and beetroot did provide different flavor. Eat while the patty and egg are still hot. The only minus point is the bread. It just plain ordinary burger bread.
It was featured again in today's paper. They compare it with another ang moh's food stall: Botak Jones. For me... (since last time we ate at Botak Jones was months ago) I find no diff... probably need to visit both in the same day. But my buddy Panda seemed to prefer this one.

Botak! Botak!

Nah, yang ini tentang botak. Bukan sembarang botak, tapi Botak Jones. 've heard this place for quite a while. Been planning to go for months. But we never ate there, not until couple weeks ago. Great place for meat eaters and burger lovers. Food is great and cheap! Check out the famous triple-burger (plus additional bacon strips!)... Need no explaination, rite?

Kimchi Peudeus @ Bt Timah

Today we've taken long lunch. My colleague brought me to Korean stall at Bukit Timah. She said that this small restaurant is managed by Korean family and the food is pretty authentic, plus cheap! So there were we ordering bbq chicken & pork, rice cakes, spicy seafood+tofu soup and famous Korean seafood pancake. While waiting for our meal, we were nibbling kimchi, free-take-as-much-as-you-like-from-pot kimchi. This kimchi is great, fresh, sour, spicy and you can't stop eating it. Then came the bbq thingy, which also tasted great. One thing that I didn't expect: they're all quite spicy. Then the rice cakes arrived. This one also had element of spiciness. Then the soup came. This one was even hotter & spicier. I started sweating, which normally only happens when I eat Padang or Manado's food. And still you can't get enough nibbling the kimchi! The last meal to arrive was the seafood pancake. It also came with spicy sauce! Well-well-well, what a heavy and hot lunch we had! Nett-nett, taste-wise: great for those who can stand spicy food; price-wise: thumb's up, it was quite cheap. Will be back someday.

Btw, nibbling too much spicy kimchi apparently hazardous to my stomach, after several hours it started to turn and growl... and I ended up rushing to toilet. :)

Es Jolly Korea

After having lunch, we went to this Korean grocery shop. My colleague was longing for Korean seaweed snack, while me, I didn't plan to buy anything. As I wondered around shelves full of instant noodles, funny-looking snacks and dried seaweed, I bumped into the chiller-box and saw this yellow-colored ice in odd bottle-shaped plastic container. Kinda reminded me with es jolly, which I had when I was in primary school. Cool! So I picked it up. The aunty-shopkeeper told me that it was a banana flavoured ice. That's even better! Taste wise: great, more sophisticated than the old-jolly-ice (which only contained water and syrup) my Korean-ice-jolly used milk as well. Nyah-nyah-nyah!

Pelajaran dari Sosis

Ya, ini pelajaran dari sosis bahwa duit ga bo'ong. Ceritanya di bilangan Novena ada kedai sosis baru. Selain sosis juga jual esgrim. Kalo siang sih lumayan rame, setidaknya 4-5 meja sih ke isi. Penasaran dong, apa bener sosisnya enak. Jadi suatu siang pergilah kita makan ber-3 dengan Pak Panda. Ada lunch menu, pilihannya sosis dengan spagetti dan sosis dengan rosti. Plus minum dan sup. Gue pilih rosti. Sosisnya ok, cenderung enak. Tapi rosti-nya be ajah. Sup-nya bener2 ga ada isinya. Ya, gimana ya namanya juga mau murah.

Nah, pembandingnya adalah semangkok sosis di resto di bilangan Bukit Timah. Pas masuk resto-nya ada bau khas yang biasanya kita cium di toko2 makanan di Jerman. Hmm... Kayaknya ga salah kalo pilih bavarian pot with sauerkraut. Harganya ga lunch-menu price. Ampir triple gitu deh, tanpa mimik. Tapi bener2 wenak. Satu mangkok isinya 5 macem sosis plus mash-potato dan sauerkraut. Mustard-nya pas bener peudeusnya, jadi inget kedai bratwurst di Huerth Park. Sauerkraut-nya juga yummy. Apalagi abis mamam di tutup dengan dessert serba coklat. Emang duit ga bo'ong=)

J-Lo in da Coco

As Jennifer Lopez decided to retire her famous J-Lo trademark name (and probably will be known as the artist formerly named J-Lo), my collegues told me about J-Lo Coconut. Not a related whatsoever with the singer, but delicious J-Lo is a jell-o, and you can find it inside a coconut. Nope, it is not part of a magic show nor debus. It is a coconut delicacy.
Basically the fresh coconut was cut open, then skinned the meat a little bit, mixed the coconut water to form the jelly, then put it in the chiller... and ready to be served. Dunno where it originated, but what I know is Carrefour sells it. And as a coconut lover, I have to try this. Result: not bad, although the jelly is a tiny-little-bit too sweet for me, but actually I have expected something sweeter than this. So taste is better than expected. Well, I still prefer eating fresh young coconut. But if you haven't had it, can try lah.

Late Dim Sum

From Wiki: Dim sum is a Chinese light meal or brunch, served usually with Chinese tea. It is eaten some time from morning to early afternoon with family or friends.
Yep, this is the concept of dim sum that I know, at least well until yesterday. Before yesterday we always went for dim sum in the morning, the latest probably around 10 am. So when Panda asked us to have dim sum for supper, we kinda confused. Dim sum at 9:30 pm? And, yep, there is a place that serves dim sum the whole day. So there were we, sitting happily looking at siomay, hakau, ceker ayam and other yummy stuffs. And for the final dish Panda insisted us to try the 'kuning-kuning'. We don't know its name, but it looks like yellow kueh bolu, something that resembles ball made of a pair of socks, light yellow sporty socks. Kinda no need to explain its taste ya.

And the numbers are...

And the numbers are (drum roll) five, six, sixteen, seventeen, twenty eight and thirty five!

Congrats for the two lucky bastards who just pocketed $5 millions. They got those 6 numbers printed in their tickets. Now probably they are dancing like crazy. While we (me and my 3 other colleagues) have only 4, so gotta be satisfy with twenty bucks prize money... which means break even. Sigh. Kiss goodbye to new cabriolet car, house with private beach, retire early, or that exotic long vacation to Maldives!

Well, my luck always fails me on lucky draws...

Botanic Garden

At last we went to Botanical Garden. Have been thinking on going there for months, but never made it until today. It is kinda fun. Big trees, colorful flowers, swans swimming in murky pond, fresh air, mosquito bites. Great place for picnic, and lots of peeps are doing so. And (probably) the only public place in this island that kids can legally climb trees. Plus you can encounter with weird looking plants. The 3 most memorable, that we have met today, are: (what we called) pohon astor, kembang babat, and pohon daun kutil. Pohon astor, with its long-white & brown strips-shoot, basically reminds us on the Astor Stick snack. While the other 2, I don't think they need more explaination ya?

Fresh Air

This morning we took a stroll along Petai & Prunus Trail. Kinda nice to get out from steel & concrete jungle to living trees jungle, enjoying fresh air, watching butterflies and macaques... or probably being watched by those macaques. :) Oh ya, as it is named, we did encounter with numerous of petai trees.

Gulali Nenek

Have you noticed an old lady sitting in front of Crystal Jade in Holland V? Do you know what she's selling? Yup, she is selling candy, traditional candy. We've seen her since the first time we went to Holland V, but we never tried her candy. So to fulfill our curiosity, we bought one.
After ordering, the old lady picked up a-finger-length-bamboo-stick and opened her basin. Inside there was a thick brown colored sticky thingy, she jabbed and rolled the stick, creating a ball of gooey thingy. Then she handed it to me. That's it. We thought it will be similar to those green & red colored gulali that we used have during primary school in kampung halaman. Y'know, the one that -when it still warm- can be molded into any form. Usually the abang sold them in the form of wayang, butterfly, pacifier or any other form. Cool stuff!
Anyway, this one was not that. The brown gooey thing was basically caramel. Sweet, from the first lick till the end. Not like those gulali abang, which gave you a bitter after taste. Well, you never know (or probably do not want to know) what gulali abang made of. The green and red color probably came from textile coloring. Ha ha ha!

BMW Art Cars

These 4 BMWs were transformed into art pieces by 4 world-famous artists: Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein and Ken Done. Warhol's M1 probably is the most famous, the car was hand-painted by himself. But out of these 4, Lichtenstein's is our favorite.

Gank Duren Strikes Again

As Singaporeans and Malaysians were cheering their teams in Kallang stadium, Gank Duren was also cheering on the sweet and creamy durians at Ah Hung. It was quite a while since the last rendezvous, and that may be the reason why we're a bit kalap. 7 peeps shared 7 durians, one of them was a big 2.8kg D-24 (which cost a fortune!). Yummy! Can't wait for the next rendezvous!

Btw, the Lions are through to final after penalty-shootout.