Late Night Haunts

as a post to remember all the singaporean things that I will be missing...my favourite prata stall.. coincidentally.. one of the best night haunts.. if you're ever stuck and hungry in river valley rd. at 1AM.. this is the place to be.. Spize Makan Place

ironically enough, I don't have any picture of pratas... i seem to have wolfed through it everytime before i remembered to take pictures... :-( so... unless I get some stuff down before leaving..(which isn't very likely)... this will have to do..

chicken biryani...my opinion.. just ok.. nothing exciting..but the best is yet to come..

they have more success with the thai fried rice, with tom yam seafood..nasi pad prik, the name, I think... the combination of pineapple fried rice and the sweet sourish tom yam inspired sauce really hit it off...

and have i told you of Roti John? well, it's like a western/indian food, that's only available in singapore... basically, it is egg and minced mutton slammed between slices of french bread and drizzled with indian rojak-inspired sauce and gravy... I really think spize has the best I've tried so far ( which really isn't saying much)
oh my... I'm tearing up inside... will i really have to settle for bubur ayam when I'm back in jakarta? sniff...

A Chinese Wedding

this is a little late in coming.. the wedding was in December, but only got around to posting it early Feb'07....

my first ever Chinese wedding, was interesting.. disclaimer: title may not be the consistent as the description, since it really won't be telling much about the wedding....my friend Willie got married in Dec'06, and assured me wholeheartedly that the food will have no trace of pork, even though drinks will still be available.. :-) which is totally fine with me... :-P

we started out with the h'ors d'euvres... which is two types of fried fish cakes and something else I cannot identify, little baby octopuses, prawn salad, and jellyfish.. since the wedding was a little delayed, and therefore the food came out a bit late, i really couldn't tell you much about how it tasted... I kinda stormed through it.. :-P

no matter... the second dish was coming up.. steamed fish...again..memory fails me what kind of fish it was.. doesn't matter.. the fish was fresh and with that fall apart tenderness fish meat... you can tell I'm getting pretty happy by now....

third dish was stir fried sea cucumber... gotta admit this is my least liked dish of the whole evening... is sea cucumber supposed to taste like this? chewy, rubbery, and slightly spongy... and the sauce didn't permeate the interior, it's kindly like eating tasteless konyaku jelly...
it is fully redeemed, however, by the fourth dish... deep fried prawns with floss toppings...now we're talkin'.... this.... is my favourite dish of the evening... the prawns were fried perfectly.. and the floss topping (mixed with basil, I think?) added a touchness of sweetness, that just melds so well with the prawns... hmm...umami... this really made my night...

fifth dish, coming in quickly, is chicken... don't ask me what it's cooked with, because I forgot to swipe the menu from the wedding (as per my usual modus operandi), so... I think it was roasted chicken, coated with some kind of starchy clear brown sauce, my guess is the oyster sauce and chinese five spice powder... nice one..the marinade went right through the meat the gravy moistened the outside just enough to provide additional gooey texture to the dish.on to the veggies... this is the usual spinach with oyster mushrooms, in oyster sauce.. chinese cooks seems to have perfected the art of cooking spinach... they always seem to get the balance of softness but the firmness (veggie al dente, if you will) just right... this one is no exception..

by this time, I had no capacity left to ingest any more food... so had to pass on carbs.. stir fried noodle with mushrooms... it doesn't look like much, but i was told it's pretty good... by that time, I just took their word for it..

all in all... enjoyable experience.. the wedding was a hoot... there were alot of toasts..and each table were eager to toast the bride/groom... and on each toasts.. there were alot of shouting...of.. what sounded like....WAAAAAAAAAAA.... ( i'm sure somebody will tell what exactly is shouted)..but regardess..it was so much fun!!!

I know I promised that there will only be one human picture in my blog.. but in this case... the picture's just too good to pass... so.. Willie, bottoms's up man... best of luck to you... :-)

Nite Walk....

Nightime... is my favourite time of the day.....

not for the clubbing.. neither is for the night life... but for the possibilities of walking down empty paths undisturbed, let your head clear itself of its own murkiness ..
this nite... walked out of the office at 10 PM.. but no thought of home popped out...
I decided to let my feet do the walking.. take the long way home.....destination, undecided
maybe I'll just go straight home... maybe I won't... maybe I'll just point my way to Bugis and watch the neon lights glow brightly, maybe I'll just stroll down Little India, and immerse myself in the scent and the fragrance... maybe I'll just head over Clarke Quay.. and watch the Hooter Girls serving beers... or maybe I'll just sit by Esplanade and gaze blankly at the bay...

maybe, the longer I walk, the easier it will be for me... to forget...

Porn

Walking on my way home last night, I happen to pass by.. some dimly lit (well, ok, it was pretty bright) neon clad stall...... they have pictures... large pictures...of well oiled, seemingly nubile, firm, white, succulent, flesh seemingly offering themselves to me.. saying... "come wilson... come... try us out... you won't be disappointed.... we'll give you a night you'll never forget...."

I had no choice... I had to get a better look...they look so tempting...my brain is screaming... No!... No!... walk away, wilson.. walk away...!!! but my feet....seemed to have a life of its own...

in front of the stall is the auntie....larger than life, it seemed...she was smiling...beckoning me over.... with her well oiled hands, waving me over...
seemingly saying " come over, Big Boy... you know you want it... come on over and choose...what will it be for you?"

at that precise moment, I broke down...A man can only withstand so much temptations of the flesh.... I gave up, right there and then....and sighed the unbidden words.... " 1 packet of Deep Fried Prawn Paste Chicken, auntie, to go, please"....

Out they came, perfectly fried pieces of golden nuggets, crispy, firm, succulent..
ashamed to say... I was biting, licking, and slowly but surely devouring these pieces of perfection till there was nothing left but pieces of bones and bits of crumbs, the lasting evidence of this torrid affair...

Come this morning... I couldn't even bear to look at my weighing scale...forgive me, sister... I have brought you grief.... I have sinned... Please have mercy on me....

Arias.....

Blogging in my apartement, looking over Clarke Quay, with a cup of tea and a mayo-seaweed toast, listening to Andrea Bocelli "Estate"... experiencing a state of relaxation& tranquility quite unlike any other..

Only do I now feel that..maybe... just maybe... I'm now ready to face the New Year...

New Year, 2007

Some things you think about... and some.. not at all.. and some..you think about it only after it's been and done... how would you summarize your 2006? I imagine some would say... "lucky you!!"...and some would roll their eyes and bug out..."what..ever!!!"

personally, I had nothing to say of my 2006..its neither a high nor a low... I suppose another year is just another year.. it's how humans mark the length of time they have left on earth.. :-)... damn.. why am I always so damn melancholy in new years?

Am I looking forward to 2007? hmm.. interesting question... from where I sit today 2007 offers a wealth of possibility previously unthought before...new changes, new lives, new state of mind.. and hopefully travelling AND moving... perhaps.. this 2 months extension may really be a blessing in disguise... we'll see...

Eid Lunch, courtesy of the B's

the Eid lunch was what I had missed for sometime, a real Indonesian lunch... so.. in my excitement (and admittedly, hunger..) I missed out on photoshooting the spread.. :-) ... in any case.. you really can't go wrong with Lontong, chicken opor, sambal goreng kentang, and semur daging.... you won't catch me dead waxing lyrical on the virtues of chicken opor.. but... hmm..it was real tasty... I suppose this is the "cooked with love" concept at work....

what we did get to shoot, was the desert.. chocolate fondue with a seemingly endless cornupia of fruit selections, and of course, marshmallow, ... if you noticed, the Wilson/Teaser/N's gang also brought contributions to the table, in form of Don's famous chicken pie, pictured at the bottom.

what was prevalent was also the seemingly endless baby pictures... they're really such a camera hog, so, in honour of the first ever baby that did not cry with me holding it... ReRe.... the (only) human picture in this blog.. hope Mr./Mrs./Ms. B's don't mind..... Thank you for lunch.. :-)

One Fine Night...

The conversation started haltingly.. but soon melted to easy warm chatter and hearty laughter....


..... the setting... the bustling Bugis Village, where the neon lights glow and happy shiny people walk together hand in hand and crowds the avenues with laughter..




the food.. a fusion of malaysian main course and chinese desert...... one word of caution, if you're not into oatmeal, do not order the chinese walnut paste...

the companion.....a mix of cousin, sister and new friends...... the night... sparkles like the christmas baubles, hanging over the bugis junction with nary a cloud in the sky. and I was constantly distracted by what seems to be a constant shadow of a dimple, or is it just a particularly fetching fine line accentuating such a killer smile of my acquaintance....

Interesting New Button

blogfans...

was writing a blog one day, and looked over the dashboard and saw....hey... a picture insert button.....doh!.... so ashamed of my oversight....... well, better late than never.. so consistent with the name... Epicurean Odelay.. the first ever picture of a Spinelli's French Cream Donut for your viewing pleasure... :-) yes.. it is a heavenly sizzling bursts of donut pleasure... rare in a city with nary a donut shop. surprising, eh?.....jakarta has (alot) more donut shops than singapore..

Travelling Without Moving

I have never really understood what Jamiroquai meant by "Travelling without Moving" when it was released..hmm... 6 years ago? I always really thought that it really meant one of those teleporting Star Trek thingy which he managed to dream up in one of his cocaine infused binges..recently though I realised one thing.... Travelling without moving... is what I've been doing...

I have been travelling... alot.. one place to the other, one country to another, one office to another.. and in all of my travels I have experienced a lot of things... new sights, sounds, images, point of view, cultures...but I haven't been moving... I'm still here... in this job, doing the same things, solving the same problem, saying the same things over and over... instructing the same things, to different people, maybe, but the same things..sometimes I would really catch myself saying something I have said before, somewhere...a "deja vu" moment, if you may.

and I think...most people, are really travelling without moving.. going with their everyday duties, but not getting anywhere, just making it through the day... it really sounds sad..but it isn't really.. it's just real life..

the secret's out... the realisations here...so, wilson, time to get off your ass..and start moving..where? maybe I'll just join on someone's wild ride and see where it gets me...

Karaoke, thou shalt be nameless..

Of all the unimportant things I've ever done... this must surely rank at the top of the list...had karaoke with a bunch of friends last night.... I won't bore you with the details, I believe you will have been in a karaoke joint at some point in your life, either by free will, or with some gentle persuasion (translation: blackmail)..

to make the points short and sweet... you should experience a karaoke..with all your buddies singing mandarin..I really didn't realise there were so many mandarin songs.... and after a while..they really start to sound the same..... :-( thank god there were still english songs....

Feeling Crabby?

Had massive giant crabs today.... they told me it was Srilankan.... how do they grow these mothers? the claw was easily as big as my hand...and the meat.... peeled off in massive gorgeous chunks, like slabs of chicken pieces... and coated, no, smothered in creamy butter sauces.. the sauce wasn't as good as the one in my first crab experience, but no matter, the meat more than makes up for it..

these crabs were huge.. the meat, sweet and succulent, and the portions.. out of this world... wish I could update you guys on the picture.... but as it stands, you will just have to imagine my blistering fingers, slicked with butter, tearing off those hunks of perfectly cooked crabmeat and devouring it with rakish abandon...... due to obvious reasons, i have never told anyone I'm allergic to crabs... well, yes, I guess this one is worth getting the allergies...

so tonight... I'll be scratching my itches the whole night...and tomorrow first thing in the morning, i'll start planning my next allergy rush trip... :-)

John Mayer Wannabe

one day, a 4 months ago... while I was alone in my apartement on a sunday morning, I had this epiphany.... what haven't I done that I would like to do....thought hard, thought long... and along came a sudden flash of inspiration... a- ha!!! I'm going to start playing guitar...

visions of wilson serenading along bouncing expertly playing guitar crowded my mind... I was so sure... so positive, so unbelieveably confident that the Wilson, the man with the game, the plan..
is a guitar god in the making...

so... I need a guitar.... no problemo... called my dad... Hi Dad... I know it's inconvenient for you, but when you're coming over to visit me, do you mind bringing me a guitar??? Yes.... the guitar...
I know you have to carry it through customs ... but your son is a guitar god in the making... so how can you deny the world of the untapped unbelieveable talent of wilson in the making?...

so... along came dad... with a guitar.... all the way from indonesia....
and of course... have to arm myself with all the books, guitar chords, learning CD's, all jazz greats of the guitar gods, the Earl Klugh's, Lee Ritenour's, Martin Taylor, Acoustic Alchemy,John Pizzarelli, what have you... and of course..keeping in mind the goal, the target...the dream...

swaying some unbelievely nubile vixen out of her mind with John Mayer's "Your Body is a Wonderland" ... :-)

well.. now... guitar...check... books... check... cd's check.... now... to start playing...

hmmm.. the guitar is untuned... have to start tuning.... damn.... it's hard... took me 3 hours just to tune the damn thing....

and now... to play my first ever chord.....
hmmmm.... this guitar god thing...is probably too much to hope... my fingers hurt... why do they have to make the fret board so unbelieveably small anyway? my nails ache...and I didn't get past the first chord....

so... there ends the first ever guitar practice... and the last since 4 months ago...

just this afternoon... dad called... Wilson, i'm coming over on transit to your place... so.. how's your guitar practice?

.....it's going great....fantastic..... I'm so glad you brought it over........

The Driver --> Comb Connection

I've noticed a peculiarity with the Singapore company driver... They're mostly Malay, they don't smoke, and they have this thing with hair.... In fact... Forget Singapore company driver, most drivers I know have this obsession with hair...

the hair is always neatly slicked with litres upon litres of pomade, or more commonly, mousse... But most importantly, is the comb...

The comb, regardless of driver, is always the same... It's always bright yellow, it always this big bright yellow handle so it sticks out oh so prominently out of the backpocket, and the location is always at the backpocket, comb side down, handle side up... could it be one of those "mine is bigger than yours thing? " or is it one of those secret society where only certified "hardcore" drivers are allowed to carry the ubiquitous yellow comb? or it's like a secret handshake thing...
whenever you meet on the street, immediately start combing your bright yellow comb, and you get to pass the yellow light? ha......maybe I'm just jealous I don't have a yellow comb...he he..

Let me count the sins..

I went back to Indonesia last week.. Thought I would at least miss a couple of things...
the jempol noodle, the streetside "bakwan" vendor, at the very least, the indonesian
beauties.... or so it might seem.... as predicted, the dream very much diffes from the
reality... Jakarta is hot... and dusty... the traffic jam is appaling, the beggars even
more offensive than I had remembered, and, worst of all,
jempol noodle sucks big time :-(

and I haven't stopped sneezing from the time I landed to the time I left... now,
back in singapore, I'm sneeze free... Ironic...

in fact, the reason I would ever want to go home for... is family...the old adage is true,
I suppose, home is wherever family is... If they were here... I would definitely
consider myself singaporean... heheheh

mama's boy...

I change my mind... bluecactus... I'll retract back what i said on not missing home country... I'm at this moment, 2.30 AM... desperately missing Indonesia, staying at home, and being taken care by mom when I'm ill, having a miserable cold and on constant nausea......:-) mama's boy, I am...

I'm wondering why we men, who under normal circumstances are stronger physically than women, but any sign of illness i.e.. cold, flu, fever, we're so much more crybabies than women in the same situation? I admit... when we have a cold... we need some lovin'.. :-)

women, on the other hand... just do the normal thing and move like nothing's happened... My mom would just have a lie in, for an hour/two, and get back to business....dad.. like me... we'll be rolling in bed, asking everything to come to bed, be it breakfast, tv, medicine, whatever...if the bathroom can move next to the bed, we'd do that too...

well.. now.. that doesn't make me feel any better, does it? ah.... I think, the bottom line is... I miss having someone take care of me.. :-) see... writing above doesn't have to always correspond to the conclusion... miserable sick cows who cannot get to sleep at 2.30 AM don't usually care about little details..

Lunch...with benefits...

You know how everyday you always try and strive to find something good to celebrate about everyday....
well... doesn't matter how you get it or how it happens, or how it will turn out.... had a very nice lunch with a very pretty young lady today...

it's a terrible thing, they're always better to talk to... it's somehow a bonus if they look pretty then no matter how less deficient they are in the art of conversation, they always seem to turn out better judged than someone more or less, say, conventionally built.
this one... is it the whole package? I never know.. it's not for me to judge, but then... so far, this one is interesting in a pretty lady kind of way..

will this conversation get out of topic? I guess it will... we will run out of subjects will sooner or later... no matter how cute her pout is... and oh man, such a cute pout... :-> ....

Tanktops...

Singapore, is a land of tanktops..

in fact, I think it's more common than t-shirts. Guys wear it, kids wear it, construction workers wear it, old german ladies wear it... of course, girls wear them most of the time... at the office, at home, weddings, cleaning, partying, sleeping, waking, swimming...whatever.....

you know.... I think women knows the power they hold upon us with their tops.... it's not that its too humid to be wearing shirts... its something else....:

• 1. it gives them the exclusive rights to call us perverts... I mean.... no guy, would pass off the chance to see what's hidden underneath, and now...women claim its our perverted minds that we are looking at them.... and somehow they're not responsible for the fact that by wearing tops they're trigerring our male's primal switch
• by wearing tops, they're deviously distracting male attention away from conversation and steering men into humble submission..... example.... have you tried having a conversation with a cute chick on a low cut top? aha... yes... can you concentrate on the conversation or on the subject? forget that, can you concentrate on the face???.... If you can.... well... either you're a woman, or.... well... you're a very well adjusted guy... :-)

really though, i'm agonising over the fact that I remember very little of the conversation, and missing points of the conversation on the merit of a low cut tank top, which had me trying my best to divert my eyes, and failing spectacularly... which she may, or may not notice... Is Kane Perverted then? If she didn't wear such a dress, would I have sneaked a peek? I probably wouldn't....... so, basically speaking, this is a premeditated murder, with the man being the setup for "temporary insanity"

maybe I should be wearing tanktops... maybe then someone would sneak a peek at my melon blossoms.......and let them get distracted..... "sigh" ....

Hiromi!!!!!! Mosaic Jazz Fest

went to see the Mosaic Jazz Fest. and watch this Japanese pianist firecracker called Hiromi...actually... it should be Hiromi!!!!!!!

No word in english can describe it, "Edan!!" she just never seems to stop... sending shivers up and down the spine.

Currently listening to one of her "autographed" cd's bought right after the show. It's still sending shivers as I'm writing this... Run/crawl, whatever, buy her cd's if you're into jazz...

By Request

All Right!!!!

my internet connection is NOW up to speed... been having so much time shopping... :-) hey, it's singapore dammit... I have the absolute right to shop and exercise the index and middle finger (to tip the credit card) to buy so-called bargains (which, incidentally, will be sold at a lower price next door) , and sampling foods left and right..... oyster mee suah... now..... if only you don't have to stand up to eat....

what have I bought, well.... speakerstandamplifiersubwoofershortspantspoloshirtsshoesandmoreshoeslotsabooksexerciseballtoysdvdplayerlightetc.....
see... its not to read, but to "understand" and sympathise...

the tank tops... have I told you of them? it's the darndest thing....in my next posting... :-) suffice to say.. tank tops aremore common than buses... and it's always an enlightment in the morning bus to the office, where normally you no longer have a place to sit, and the only available place to stand, coincidentally, is in front of somebody wearing tank tops....unashamedly juvenile, i am....