on your radar: woven in japan

The days of just Levi's, Lee, and Wrangler are gone; several new brands have risen and proliferated in recent years. And there is this fascination with Japanese denim.

info: AskMen.com's introductory article.

more denim: Denimology, The Upgrader's Basic Blue Hotlist.

[update] you bought: Paul Smith, Red Ear series.

forgoing alaskan crab @ sin hoi sai

You met Prof at The Gallery (Heeren) to shop for a watch. Cerruti 1881 it was. Then we discovered the-whatever-that-replaced-Marche was closed, so we decided upon cze cha at Sin Hoi Sai, Tiong Bahru Road, instead.

Ah Wai and Mister G joined us. Somehow Prof's playful suggestion of ordering Alaskan crab at the rate of Sing$12 per 100g did not materialize. (How are we going to ever make it to that Mellben place if none of us are ever up for crab?)

Sin Hoi Sai's version of marinated pork rib. "Gao gei" (dialect) with regular/salted duck/century eggs. And a rather assam-tasting tom yam soup. Prawn paste chicken and pepper pork ribs not in pic.

Now, about that Alaskan crab thingie Prof had his eyes on...?

sashimi @ rasa sentosa

strut! @ rasa sentosa

eat. just eat.

You met Mister G and Not-at-Meeting Richard at The Cafe Cartel, IMM.


You were down with the flu again. But you never let yourself starve, especially when you are ill.

garden street kway chap @ serangoon gardens

The rice flour sheets were thin and soft. Good.

The various items were less tasty. Not so good.

protein, carbs and more protein @ astons express

You met Mister G for lunch at Astons Express, Serangoon Gardens.

Prime ribeye, house salad, and pasta salad.

You found a strand of hair in the pasta salad. Maybe they thought you were not getting enough protein.

ramen @ noodle house ken

Your post-Hush Puppies shop-alot meal.

The noodles tasted more alkaline than usual. Mr Personality Keewee says you should have complained to Ken. Orr.

new shoes

Ongoing sale at Hush Puppies stores. 25 to 40 percent off.

You bought a pair of bluchers (open throat lacing) and a pair of balmorals (closed throat lacing).

Useful: info on styles of men's dress shoes.

a not-at-all-metrosexual lament

The years of refusing to use moisturizer have caught up with you.

ice-cream @ haato

Next up was the Ulu Pandan area. Ice-cream at Haato, to be exact.

Citrus and lychee flavours. But the combination just tasted wrong. Your bad.

fish mart sakuraya

Unfortunately, your stomach was full.

braised duck @ lim seng lee

From east (coast road) to west. You suddenly had the urge to visit the Pasir Panjang area.

Then duck rice came to mind.


The meat was sliced thinly. Quite tender, too. You did not like the gravy though.

chin mee chin

Well your house was not blown down by the big bad wolf. Whatever. Benny Lava.

But you digress.

No modules today. Thus, a third consecutive episode of BlackRx and Mister G's Gastronomical Adventures.

Chin Mee Chin at East Coast Road is, apparently, an institution. Bread. Pastries. Kaya toast. That kind of stuff.

You were underwhelmed by the breads.

You did not quite rate the kaya either.

What's wrong with you? So anal. Hah.

Where you saw eggshells, Mister G saw art.

being goofy

Post-claypot chicken rice. At Giant supermarket. Turf City.


Mister G knows just when to be goofy.

claypot chicken rice @ new lucky

Mister G was in the Commonwealth area, so Clementi was sort of the middle ground. He suggested claypot chicken rice for dinner. Yeah.

The folks at New Lucky forgot to put salted fish into your serving. Which, in your opinion, is an essential component of this dish. Aargh.

coffee while in exile

You and Violet were waiting for Oxford Huanyang at the library. The cafe on level 3 was a ideal place to wait, read, browse, and surf.

And drink coffee and eat strawberry cheesecake.

flavour confusion @ icekimo

Then it was off to Icekimo at Sin Ming Road for ice-cream and the aeroplane game. Mister G ordered that 8-scoop thingie.

You were stricken by cough and flu, which you insist led to your inability to differentiate between the flavours. Yes. Really. "This scoop is Horlicks, not Nutella? Which is the D24 I absolutely want to avoid?"

Oh, and D-b-I Richard did not want to play the aeroplane game.

japanese buffet @ takaya (thomson road)

Mister G and yourself met Dispensible-but-Irreplaceable Richard near his stomping ground for dinner. You vetoed both kampong and non-kamping chicken rice. (It's either Wee Nam Kee or the highway. No other "Kee" comes close.) Nobody stumped that hard for Korean barbecue and Hong Kong Street franchise cze cha. Then the sign advertising "buffet for $23++" outside Takaya caught their eye. $23++. What the heck.

You felt the food was average. The cost per person was cheaper than Minori @ UE Square, but the range of items was also less impressive.

Mister G wondered whether long grain rice was used to prepare his fried rice. Hmm.

char kway teow at #01-01

Many months ago, Prof tried the char kway teow at #01-01, Amoy Street Food Centre, Maxwell Road, while waiting for you to meet him at Books Actually. He quite liked da grub.

It was your turn to check out #01-01 this evening.

Your verdict?

Taste: average at best. The chilli had little kick. The chinese sausages ("lap cheong") used were too sweet. It hurt that it was fried without any use of stock.

You also suspect the plates of kway teow were not fried individually. You placed your order a while after the lady in front, but both of you received your orders at the same time. Maybe that is why the dish lacked that touch of "wok hei"?

You'd much rather head back to Apollo Fried Kway Teow, located at Marine Parade Central. Your current fave.

a book on writing.

You bought The Modern Library Writer's Workshop: A Guide to the Craft of Fiction, by Stephen Koch, while browsing at Books Actually.

look sharp! @ Mode et Creation

You are not Caucasian; you are not an expatriate; you are not a tourist -- you are just a local, white-collar civil servant who wants to dress well at work.

Thus your lousy experience with a certain tailor at Holland Village Shopping Centre really, really irked you.

Later that afternoon, you decided to visit a tailor with a reputation for good customer service. Just to get that pent-up energy out of your system. Your google-ing (Flyertalk Forums thread, TripAdvisor thread) turned up Mode et Creation as another tailor shop worth visiting. (In addition to Oxford Tailor, that is.) Address: 545 Orchard Road, #04-02, Far East Shopping Centre, Singapore 238882.

Mr Anthony Tan is the tailor at Mode. He has been tailoring menswear since 1977. It was both a breeze and pleasure to transact with him. He was patient, ever so willing so show you more fabrics, not the sort of person to hard sell, attentive to your work needs.

After much browsing and discussion, you decided to tailor two dress shirts, one maize and one lilac in colour.

Style notes: French-front (concealed buttons, as always), semi-spread collar, but barrel (button) cuffs this time (more appropriate for your work environment).

What really made your day subsequently was this: you had placed your order on December 27. Anthony told you the shirts would be ready for collection on January 5. Very reasonable, given it was the end of 2007 and start of 2008 period. You told him there was no hurry, as you were not going to dress up that often while in exile.

Imagine your pleasant surprise when Anthony had the shirts made by January 3rd. He said he wanted you to have the new shirts ready to wear when you began exile.

You thanked Anthony profusely for being most thoughtful. You will return to Mode et Creation for sure.

no chickening out @ Ikea Tampines

After you powered up on mee rebus, Mister G asked, "More chicken? And meatballs, too?"

Sure.

So you and Mister G came to Ikea Tampines. You saw the crowd and the queue. You had to conquer the long wait before you could conquer the grub. So you did. Somehow. With a detour to Giant supermarket thrown in.

No. Chickening. Out.

mee rebus power @ Rahim

Early morning, start of another new year. T-minus-one day to exile. Nothing you could do to ease your trepidation except: eat.

You were not in the mood for Chinese fare, so Mister G suggested we power up on mee rebus (and soto ayam) at Rahim Muslim Food. You arrived before the Rahim folks were ready to begin business, and thus alleviated the waiting with a couple of soft-boiled eggs. But quickly leaving the issue of too much cholesterol aside, the mee rebus + satay gravy + extra chicken was just what you needed.

Now here is something else that caught your eyes, and you think you might as well bring it up: a Makansutra Food Masters 2007 award plaque was displayed quite prominently at the stall-front. There is a potential issue here, because you checked the list for 2007 again and again, and Rahim is not among the stalls conferred the award.

What's going on? Did Makansutra give out additional awards? Or did their corporate partner, Yeo Hiap Seng, do so? If the answer is yes to either, then this begs the question: why? Doesn't this cheapen the award, and come across as quite unfair to the official ten recipients?