manbrain = p-brane, art-of-shaving edition

Tonight's "you-think-you-think-you-know":

Shaving cream, yes.

Shaving foam or gel-foam, yes. But, if one is a shave cream snob, no.

Shaving gel, no.

The Upgrader's Shave Cream Hotlist.

Oh, and products containing salicylic acid, maybe?

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...?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

not the right fit, so you are now throwing a fit (well, sort of).

A colleague is getting married next June; you are helping him coordinate wedding attire. He has selected fabric for a made-to-measure suit, now it is onto choices of shirt and tie.

We met in the Buona Vista area, as he wanted to visit a tailor he came across at #03-21 of Holland Village Shopping Centre. Okay, let's do so -- you, too, were interested in seeing what shirt fabrics they stocked.

Both of you went there decked out in sports T-shirts and three-quarter length pants. You were also carrying your racket bag cos you had a coaching session earlier.

You began by telling the tailor and his wife you were there to browse shirt fabrics. He took out collections of fabrics, and asked us if we had particular designs in mind. You did not, while your colleague wanted to tailor a white shirt, if he saw a weaving pattern he liked.

You would not say that the tailor gave you a good first impression. He looked quite unenthusiastic, bored, and well, neither friendly nor welcoming.

Then three tourists -- a gentleman and two ladies -- walked in. The guy wanted to tailor a jacket. The tailor proceeded to talk, joke, and laugh with them, asking them how they heard of him, were they here upon a customer's recommendation, blah blah blah. Hmm.

You finally spotted a lilac colour fabric with a weaving pattern you liked. You asked for a price quote. "$75," he said. "Very reasonable," you thought to yourself.

But you wanted to have the shirt made in mid-Jan, so you asked the tailor if he would give you his business card, on which you will write down the fabric number.

"We would not want you to do that," he said, taking you somewhat by surprise. Okay, well, you kinda understood that he was concerned you would note down the fabric number and have the shirt made elsewhere. But hey, come on, you wanted to take down the fabric number because you did want to have the shirt made at his shop, just not so soon.

"We will write down the fabric number for you," he then said. His wife takes out a piece of scrap paper, jots down the number, but without asking for your name. Oh, and you never did receive the business card you wanted.

You started to feel quite disappointed.

At that moment, you could not help but glance at the fabric again. Fine, you were sorry you did that. Or should you not have been sorry at all?

Because, to your astonishment, the tailor mumbled something to his wife, and she quickly closed the fabric book. Wow. Top secret.

You walked out of the shop immediately. You are not going back there again for anything.

That, really, please, is not how you wanted to be treated.

what you saw is not what you got

Went to Haagen Dazs at Junction 8 with Mister G, Doc Woon, and UCC Daniel.

You ordered the "Rich Hot Chocolate".


And when it was served, you thought they'd mistakenly prepared a latte.

And it tasted more of orange peel than chocolate.

bak kut teh @ Rong Chen

You cajoled Mister G into having a Xmas Eve pork rib soup brunch at Rong Chen Bak Kut Teh, Sin Ming Road.

The soup was Teochew-style, pepper- and garlic-infused. It was, out of those you have tried, closest in taste to Outram Park Ya Hua's (Keppel Road). The actual taste was quite underwhelming, though. Way less peppery than Ng Ah Sio's (Rangoon Road), and less tasteful than Seng Kee's (Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10). And the meat? Too hard.

The ter ka (pig trotters) was above average, just not at the standard of Seng Kee and Curry Wok (Coronation Arcade).

You hope your next meal at Rong Chen will turn out to be more satisfactory.

the less said, the better.