Mad Jack Cafe @ Jalan Kayu

We had a great dinner at Mad Jack Cafe during one of the evenings. It was raining, and for some reason we didn't feel like eating prata despite being around Jalan Kayu.

The Mad Jack cafe is sited at the end of the shophouses, and there were some 'stalls' selling 2nd hand goods (I think) when we got there. We ordered a couple of items, a 'crazy chicken', garlic bread, apple pie + ice cream and drinks. The crazy chicken is fantastic! Lolz. I guess the name of 'crazy' fits the 'mad' cafe well.

The garlic bread is alright, and somewhat unique in taste. I like the apple pie with ice cream too. However I still think the chicken is best, partly cos' of having hot food in cool rainy weather. Overall a very satisfactory meal, and a good recommendation for something different from the prata.

The prices for the items are Garlic Bread $4.80, Crazy Chick $7.90, Apple Pie + Ice cream $4, and Earl Grey $2. With drinks, GST and service charge, the total damage is $23.

See also:
- Mad Jack has an outlet @ Paradiz Centre

Singapore - Island of Millionaires (but likely not locals)

I was surfing the salary.sg website and read the article about more people (2,751) earning at least S$1 million last year.

Out of curiosity, I google and found a few more articles that commented that Singapore is Asia's Switzerland for Millionaires (2008), Singapore leads world in new millionaires (2007), where millionaires stash it away (2006), and Singapore chalks up world's fastest millionaire growth rate (2005). So this is a growing trend over the past years.

Wow. The 2007 report said that there are 66,660 people with over US$1 million, or 3 US$ millionaires per 200 people.

So if we do a simple arithmetics of comparing 66,660 against the 2,751 people, it should be pretty clear that many of these so called millionaires do not earn their millions from Singapore incomes. Yes I know, the first salary.sg article mentioned about S$ millionaires, while later articles commented about US$ millionaires, which makes my point even more stark, right?

Guess I'm living in a land of (many) foreign millionaires who parked their assets here. Hmm for some reason I feel poor now ... lolz. No wonder some price tags for food / housings / recreations keep increasing over the years, guess the 'poor me' is not their target audience. lolz.

Ice Monster @ Bencoolen - Yummy Ice!

The past many days have been hot, and during one of the days we had cooling cold dessert of 'shaved ice durian and mango' at the Ice Monster @Bencoolen. The name of the dessert is quite cool in itself, i.e. "榴芒冰", playing on the names of the two fruits in mandarin to give the meaning of "流氓", i.e. gangster because they sounded similar.

The price tag of $8.50 for a large serving is not cheap, but nonetheless it is worth a try. The durian and mango taste fresh and good! I think the ice they used is milk ice, which gives it a smooth texture. The portion is big enough for two. They have other flavours, including strawberry.

Lights, Lanterns, & Mid-Autumn Fest @ Chinatown - Part 2

After walking down Chinatown and having a great dinner of porridge, we reached the temple housing the 'Buddha Tooth'. There was some lanterns competition, as well as 12 lights display featuring the Twelve Zodiac animals. It was a nice experience watching the entire rows of lanterns, checking out the words written on them (mostly details of the participants), and these lights added much 'mood' to the event. :) Walking around the temple surrounded by lanterns reminded me of those childhood times when large groups of kids would bring their lanterns and take a walk in parks.

I like the innovative designs of some lanterns, and there were also road side stalls selling quite interesting lanterns. There was even one stall selling SpongeBob SquarePants lanterns! Lolz. Others offered more 'usual' designs including those 'robots' and Disney stuff.

The display lights featuring the Twelve Zodiac Animals were so-so only. They added moving parts to make the display more interesting, but I find the display looked a bit 'fake' somehow. I can't exactly relate the Twelve Zodiac Animals with Mid-Autumn Festival. Maybe they re-use those deco pieces from Chinese New Year. :p

Related Posts:
- Lights, Lanterns & Mid-Autumn Fest @ Chinatown - Part 1

Lights, Lanterns, & Mid-Autumn Fest @ Chinatown - Part 1

Tonight is the night of the 15th day of the 8th lunar month! This day is often celebrated as the Mid-Autumn festival, with eating of mooncakes, and display of nice lanterns. We were at the Chinatown to look at nice lanterns / lights display sometime back, and took these pictures. This event was also featured as a tourist attraction, lolz.

There are also many shops selling both the battery operated as well as candles lanterns. The whole area looks like a lantern district! We used to have much fun as kids carrying these lanterns around the neighbourhood. Since we were using the paper / candles version back then, it was a common thing to see the lanterns burning to become a small fireballs mid-way through our walk.

Accompanying these stalls are others selling souvenirs (very cheap!) and other knit knacks. It is also a practice to eat the pomelo fruits during this festival.

Accompanying the festivities would be many organised events, for example lanterns making competition, and of course the 'karaoke' type of singing competitions. The entire Chinatown area will be vibrant for this period of time. I have more photos of the lanterns and lights, to be shown in the next post.

Related Posts:
- Lights, Lanterns, & Mid-Autumn Fest @ Chinatown - Part 2

Chang Cheng Porridge @ Keong Saik / New Bridge Road

When we were at Chinatown for the mid-autumn lights up, we went to the famous Chang Cheng porridge （长城粥）located at the intersection at Keong Saik Road & New Bridge Road.

The bowls of porridge are delicious. We ordered fried intestines porridge （炸大肠粥) and pig liver porridge (猪肝粥), with tau fu (豆腐). Everything cost only $11.30, which is quite cheap considering the size they gave, i.e. two big bowls with lots of ingredients inside. The 炸大肠 is nicer, since after a while the cooked 猪肝 became quite hard to chew. The porridge is smooth. Actually the place also offers hot claypot frogs' legs which is the more famous dish, but we didn't have the mood for hot claypot frogs' legs that evening. Despite it being a busy place, the waiting time for our food was rather short.

The two chicken wings in the background of the picture below is from another stall at the same coffee shop. The lady grilling the chicken wings is very polite, and the wings taste good ($1.30 each). Overall a good place for dinner, especially for porridge lovers.

Wish Bank - a place for deposit of wishes, hopes and dreams

I came across this website about Wish Bank, i.e. a place where visitors can 'deposit their wishes, hopes and dreams'. Once the visitors 'deposit' a wish, they would post it on the website.

The founders of the website feels that when a thought is written or spoken, it 'gains' a tangible, material form. As the thought gets propagated by others who come into contact with it through listening or reading, the wish amasses even more 'energy', and it may come true sooner rather than later. Hmm I wonder if money can materialise in such a manner, lolz.

The website stated that they do not collect Internet Protocol addresses or any other information apart from what visitors sent. They also have a nice poem on the website.

When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you

If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do

This reminded me of the Singapore site sometimes back where people post their thoughts anonymously, like a secret group diary of sort.

For those who are interested, you can go and deposit a wish there. :)

Mooncakes - Taka exhibition, and budget options

In my previous post I uploaded a few pictures of the various mooncakes offered by the different hotels. These mooncakes are typically costly to some extent, and it is common for businesses to offer these mooncakes to their clients and associates. Normal households would also give these mooncakes to friends and relatives, much like the giving of ang baos during Chinese New Year, or gifts exchange during Christmas. Eating of mooncakes actually has a long history in the Chinese tradition involving revolution.

Events for mooncakes tasting are also held around this time of the year. Here's a photo of the recent event at Takashimaya, which will last till 14 September.

Many mooncakes will be available for tasting and purchase, and so we have a huge crowd attending these events. I'm not so sure about the discounts (if any) though.

Considering the nature of the event, I thought it will be burning a hole in people's wallets if multiple boxes of mooncakes are bought for various parties, e.g. family, relatives, business associates...etc etc. It is also common to hear comments from people that they have too many mooncakes at home, which would be thrown away if they cannot consume it. This is a waste from both money and food angles.

There are much cheaper options around, for example Hans. The packaging looks decent enough for gifts as well, isn't it?

For those who intend to buy mooncakes just for the fun of the occasion, we could get them easily and cheaply from the supermarket. I know, a bit cheapskate to serve these as gifts, but they are fine for own consumption (more for the fun pf the mid-autumn festival).

Adding to the festival mood, one could also buy these little 'piggies' which would be more fascinating for kids. These are made from the same materials as mooncakes, but typically in the shape of pigs or other animals. So all in all, there are cheaper alternatives, maybe not as ideal as gifts, but for normal tasting and own consumption should be fine.

Related Posts:
- Fancy designs for mooncakes from various hotels

Fancy designs for mooncakes from the various hotels

It's the time for the Mid-Autumn Festival and of course it's also time for mooncakes. Nowadays we have a lot of different fanciful mooncakes that come in very nice packaging. I've took photos of these mooncakes (and packaging) from the various hotels (Raffles, Sheraton, 4 Seasons). Incidentally, their brochures and advertisements for mooncakes are also equally fanciful, which added much cost to the price tags of the mooncakes, no doubt.

Here's a picture of the brochure about Tung Lok, and also Ritz Carlton's mooncakes. There is a picture of the Tung Lok mooncake below, the version with double egg yolks.

Here's the mooncake from Raffles' Hotel. Personally I like the mini-snowskin version with champagne truffles. Expensive, but worth it! Each piece costs about $6, and there are even more expensive versions around. Here's Raffles Hotel's online brochure about the mooncakes.

We also have the Sheraton Towers Hotel's Li Bai mooncake. Very exquisite packaging, and the lotus paste is very smooth. The box comes with mini-picks that allow for easier handling / tasting of the mooncakes.

We also have the mooncakes from the Four Seasons. Another not so cheap option for those buying mooncakes. I do think that there are other cheaper or budget options around, but this post is getting too long and I'll split it to the next post.

Related Posts:
- Mooncakes - Taka exhibition, and budget options

Uport - Singapore's Umbrella Dispensing Kiosk

I was hunting for a dinner place at Marina when I came across this interesting looking red box. The box is situated at the 1st floor, at the pathway leading to the Citylink. It doesn't look like a drinks vending machine, so when I walked closer for a look, I realised it is an umbrella dispensing kiosk! Wow I didn't know there are umbrella dispensing kiosks in Singapore. There is also a screen where adverts are shown.

Each umbrella costs $8 each, and such services will be useful, especially when it is raining so frequently recently. There is a website address on the box, and after doing a search, here's the website: Uport. They have about 10 such kiosks sited around the island, including places like Orchard Emerald, Bugis Village. Chinatown Point & Plaza Singapura.

Singapore's New Speakers' Corner's 1st Speech

I was at the 1st 'new' Speakers' Corner for the 1st speech! The speech was about maid abuse awareness, i.e. prevent maid abuse movement in Singapore. They also have a website. There was a Straits Times article and a Channel NewsAsia article about this event.

Actually I didn't plan to go for this 'speech', but we were on our way to Chinatown for the mid-autumn lights up when I realised that a large group of people was gathering around the area. Then I saw the MediaCorp vehicles and spotted the reporters, with their gears ready for video shoot.

Being so typical Singaporean, I decided to take a look at the event. Not much actually, since the event is more for maid abuse awareness and not any political issues. Maid abuse is a big thing, with so many cases over the past years, and thus interested parties should go to their website to take a look. They actually have someone bandaged up and sitting there to emphasize the point about maid abuse.

There weren't a lot of people actually, and one of the organisers passed me a flyer. I think the crowd is mostly those passing thru the place to the MRT. I didn't walk too close to the event since there were so many other folks taking photos and video. So I guess that's about it for the 1st speech of the freer Speakers' Corner.

WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth class) - Great Movie!

Walle.E is a great movie to watch! The animations was done relatively realistically, and much emphasis was placed on the 'voices' & sounds of the machines. This makes the movie comes to life. While it is an animations, the designers have skillfully craft the 'facial' animations of the robots such that all human expressions are projected through simple movements of the robots. I like the way Wall.E's binoculars-like eyes move to depict his various emotions. The parts when he 'replaced' his faulty eye and tracks are also quite funny. Of course, it really helps that Wall.E is also such a cute, innocent, and brave robot. Eve, the female robot lead, also has very expressive 'facial' expressions through movements in her 'visual' head display.

Story plot wise it is a simple movie. Afterall, it's a Walt Disney 'cute' production with a happy ending. Let's not spoil the pleasure for readers who are going to see the movie, and so I'll not go into the details of the plot. Instead let me highlight a few simple 'facts' of the movie.

Wall.E stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth class
Eve stands for Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator
There are also gigantic 'Wall.e' in the mother spaceship (Axiom) known as Wall.A, i.e. Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Axiom class. There are many other cute robots, including the little guy who insisted in cleaning up Walle.E's 'foreign contaminant'

Before the movie begins, there is a short clip (very amusing) of 'Presto' which is also produced by Pixar. 'Presto' is about a magician and his pet rabbit. After the movie ends, there is no 'special' clips. Instead, at the showing of the credits, there are some animations by the two sides of the scrolling screen.

The local distributors for this movie have put in a lot of efforts to promote the movie, including many of these life size Wall.E as well as postcards. I quite like the idea of a bench with Wall.E at one side, looking at Eve hovering at the other end, and so I took a pic of myself in it. Lolz.