the wacky wombat weblog

I guess the only time I’m compelled to update my blog is when I take a vacation and 1000 photos. haha. And I’ll make no excuse for that — my life is too freaking busy to have any semblance of life at all!

Nevertheless, I had a long-waited — and much-deserved I must add — vacation to Tokyo as the new year began. Au Yong was there for work, and I was there for the food, shopping and long walks around the city. Although I spent the first few days catching up on lost sleep from my crazy work days, I still made the most of the trip with many leisurely walks around the city.

This is my fourth trip to Tokyo, and I already have a routine of sorts of things to do but it always turns out fun! Some of my favourite moments in Tokyo for this trip:

• Eating 7-11 oden in the freezing cold at a playground — a pre-dinner snack bcoz I love oden!
• Relishing my favourite hakata-style ramen at Marukin and cheap gyoza at Osho (twice!!)
• Chilling out and pigging out at izakayas. Nothing better than beer and assorted dishes consisting fried chicken cartilege, grilled chicken gizzard, fried noodles, grilled fish and pickled vege.
• (Yes, much of my favourite moments are to do with food.)
• Getting lost in the elaborate train system. Took a “shortcut” with less transfers that ended up as a longer ride, all the way out to Kawasaki. But it was worth it for the amazing sight of the Tamagawa River when I walked out of the train to make my transfer.
• Walking around the city without any real concern for time, except for the remaining daylight for my photos.
• Seeing Au Yong in his salaryman outfit. teehee.
• Shopping like crazy and buying 1000 yen items at H&M.
• Having fun testing out our new Tokina ultra wide angle lens. It’s great for shots around a crowded city like Tokyo.
• Being amazed by Amazon Japan’s efficient delivery. Ordered a wacom tablet and camera lens, opted for express delivery only for 500 yen extra, and it was at our hotel the next afternoon. Takyubin-desu!
• Finally getting more than a glimpse at the majestic Mount Fuji, and of course, being on Fuji Speedway itself!
• Experiencing a wacky Japanese event — the mamachari bicycle endurance race at Fuji Speedway with Au Yong and his company

The first set of the photos are up on the blog now. Just head on over to our not-so-new photo gallery. The second set is still sitting inside my camera. :p

Lion Dance Performance On January 26, 2009

Here’s to a happy and prosperous new year to all who happens to stumble onto this blog :p

From the 2 of us here who conveniently forgot to post up the above wish before CNY

We both love food. When we both head out for a meal, we eat a lot. Everyone’s always horrified that such a small person like me can eat so much all day long. I’m like lil’ gojira, chomping on food all the way.

That being the case, living in Singapore thus becomes sort of a daily struggle when it comes to food. I never know what to eat even after living here for 7 years. Not because there’s “so much great food” like all the lying coniving TV food shows always say, but that there isn’t anything nice to eat here!

I’m serious. For us, food here has only two classification: Edible & Not Edible. And this problem exists perhaps only for people like us who grew up eating food Malaysian style – oily, more flavours, less starchy, and less sweet. Which is entirely not the style here in Singapore.

You see, the problem is, Singapore and Malaysia share similar cuisine in that you can find wan tan mee, curry mee and char kuey teow in both countries, but they taste totally different! Which brings us to a childhood memory of mine.

Gastronomy trauma

When I was 6, all I ate everyday was wan tan mee. I never ate anything else when we’re out at hawker places. So when I came to Singapore on a trip, naturally I asked for wan tan mee when my dad brought us out to eat. Usually, I’d devour the noodles and polish the plate even of all its sauce. But when I tasted my Singapore wan tan mee, I couldn’t eat. To my 6-year-old mind, it looked like wan tan mee, but it did not taste like wan tan mee! There was tomato sauce in it and it was sweet! *horrors* So I broke my record finally, and did not finish my wan tan mee for the very first time.

Coincidentally, Au Yong had a similar experience as a kid with the same wan tan mee. Now every time we return to KL, we’d head straight for the following things:

• wan tan mee (no tomato or chilli pls)
• char kuey teow (dry and fried with lots of egg, not dripping wet with sweet black sauce)
• hokkien mee (KL style, not the limp yellowy-white ones)
• Bak kut teh (thick soup cooked with herbs, not pepper soup)
• Curry mee (with a cube of pig’s blood)
• Penang prawn mee (the spicy sort, not the clear soup ones)
• roti canai

Porkylicious

So on our last last trip in Aug, we had a pork fest. We usually have bak kut teh at this shop that’s situated in the middle of nowhere between 2 storage warehouses off the highway near Subang Village. It’s super cheap and really delicious. With bak kut teh in Singapore, you get a soup that’s peppery and light. While it’s okay, it’s not really what I want when I eat bak kut teh. Bak kut teh is meant to be oily, unhealthy and flavourful! Pepper soup is something I can make on my own. The thick herbal soup? That’s something only the best bak kut teh shops know how to cook up, so that when you first walk in to the shop, you can smell it and you’re already drooling for it.

Also, you haven’t tasted pork heaven until you’ve been to this place – Elcerdo, at Changkat Bukit Bintang in KL. Promising “nose to tail” dining, this little restaurant serves nothing but pork. There’s even real bacon bits in your potato or vegetable salad. It’s a little costly, but both the food and service is fantastic. They even gave us ladies little stools to put our handbags so that we can sit comfortably and enjoy our food!

For the main course, we shared a bacon-wrapped pork knuckle, stuffed with herbs and served with watercress. Needless to say, we really pigged out at that dinner!

The real McCoy

Besides going to mamaks for a nice supper of teh special and roti canai, we sometimes head out to a coffee shop near Jln 222 for hokkien mee. The KL style hokkien mee is basically thick fried noodles in salty black sauce and tons of pork lard. Every night, this coffee shop is filled with patrons, and nobody orders anything else except hokkien mee. Again, the pork lard probably isn’t the healthiest, but it’s what makes it taste sooo yummy and you only live once.

People who haven’t smelt or eaten it might say it doesn’t look nice, but seriously, this is hawker food, and hawker food is the kind of thing where you gotta be able to smell it and eat it. Aesthetics is secondary because you’re paying the fella only a few bucks for a delicious plate of food.

Wan ton, two ton?

Of course, my perenial favourite wan tan mee is a must have on my trips back to KL. The thing with KL hawker food is, it doesn’t matter where or which coffee shop you’re at. Just pick anything, and chances are it’ll taste good. Not great, but definitely way beyond merely the Edible classification that I give to most hawker food in SG.

On that trip back, we also drove to Ipoh to visit Au Yong’s grandparents. And there, I had the cheapest wan tan mee ever for only RM2.40! Heck, even in KL it’s almost double of that price. The cost of living in that town is insanely cheap!

Ipoh is also famous for its Ipoh Hor Funn, which you can also find anywhere else in M’sia but Ipoh’s version tastes the best. And to my horror, stalls selling “Ipoh” hor fun in Singapore, serve it “dry” with starchy black sauce. omg. Ipoh hor fun is supposed to be in a light flavourful clear soup, not thick sweet and starchy black sauce. If it has to be eaten that way, then just call it ’something-else’ hor fun, not Ipoh hor fun. X_X The stalls would also have the soup option, but clearly it isn’t a popular option as most people order the starchy black sauce, and with valid reason — the soup option is served clear, with no flavours except pepper!

*choke* *explodes*

Anyway yes, this blog post is the culmination of my seven years of eating local food in Singapore. X_X

Of course, I gotta give credit where it’s due. When it comes to international cuisine and fine dining, Singapore is a great place for it. Café Le Caire @Al-Majlis at Arab Street offers good Middle Eastern fare (mmmm lamb) at a decent price, while Sage at Mohd Sultan Rd serves up the most delicate french-inspired cuisine in a non-pretentious setting. And I have come across a great place serving good hawker style food – the yong tau fu shop at the end of Amoy Street. I used to go there every week, because it tastes almost like home.

p/s: I’ve also uploaded some shots of that August food trip: Go to Gallery, and click on Fooding in KL to view.

There’s really no excuse. Writer’s block, exhaustion, no inspiration, the Internets broke down or the dog ate it – I really have no excuse for not updating this blog for the past 3 months!! haha. Many things have come and passed, but the fact of the matter was, I just simply didn’t feel like putting myself up to writing stuff down. In other words, I was lazy. LOL.

But today’s different. I’ve planted my butt here, logged in here, deleted some spam comments, and here I am on the Write Post page, ready to resurrect this dead blog site. So what the heck – here’s a quick rundown of what’s gone by in the previous months.

Transplanted in the east, and west-bound everyday

I’ve moved to live in Bedok since August. Very simply, the rent here is cheaper. Au Yong has said sayonara to Tokyo and so we needed an entire flat and not just the puny room I had previously. And here we are.

It’s the first time I’ve ever lived in such a ‘heartland’ kind of place. Putting the jungle that is NTU aside, I’ve only ever lived in Queenstown and Tiong Bahru, both really near the city but lacking a township that’s as vibrant. I love all the old-style shops in Bedok Central – the many pawn shops and incense/burn-only-for-dead-people shops – I don’t think I can even find many of these back home in PJ anymore. Not to mention, gigantic supermarkets that are stocked with tons of things. And free buses to gigantic Ikea. Bedok Reservoir and East Coast Park aren’t too far away though I still haven’t gotten myself to go and try cycling.

There’s also a stadium and a pool behind us. Which is why I’ve canceled my beloved gym membership. It’s too much of a hassle to get to my gym now that I don’t quite end work on time everyday, so it’s back to public facilities. There’s also lots of kids here, as well as stray cats, and I have a neighbour down the corridor whose loud conversations on the phone only contain vocabulary of the most flowery hokkien cusswords. Another neighbour down the other end of the corridor likes to blast music on the weekends – I’m wondering how long it takes for his radio’s speakers to fizzle out at that volume. LOL.

Of course, everyone also tells me that the food here is great, but um, as a KL foodie, I can’t comment on that. haha.

Transplanted in the east, I make a journey to the west (monkey king style) everyday. I’ve since changed job as well, and unfortunately it’s a 30-min train ride away. So every morning and evening I join over x million of people in Singapore and jostle for a space on the train. Forget about seats, just be glad you can squeeze into the train at all. And after a while, you start seeing the same faces waiting for the same train everyday at 7:45am at the same end of the platform, which can be quite interesting at times. (I once thought a gaudily-dressed woman was a streetwalker until I realise 8am is too early for business and she did not get off at kallang or aljunied. haha.)

Au Yong’s luckier as he gets a direct bus to his office, but then, it’s the kind of bus that never comes when you need it to, so I guess I don’t envy him either, LOL.

Of course, now that we have an entire flat to ourselves, we’ve gladly furnished it with a gigantic plasma TV complete with sound system & media centre + cable channels + Nintendo Wii! That pretty much explains why things don’t really get done in the house, and that includes writing blog entries. And through the process of buying electricals and necessities for the house, I discovered that Au Yong is more aunty than I am.

We also bought pots and pans, but neither one of us are actual experienced cooks (instant noodles and eggs don’t count). So far, we’ve only accomplished pasta coz it’s the easiest to portion. We really need to start diversifying!

Anyway now that I’ve written this post, I hope I’m back to writing more on the blog! :p

There was a lot of shopping during my last trip to Tokyo and I came back hauling a bunch of stuff. Including things I bought on a whim. Which I’ve decided to sell it off since I haven’t worn them yet.

Here’re some items from United Colors of Benetton. They’re all brand new (price tags still attached). Some are still wrapped in plastic. lol. All items are in XS size and I only have 1 unit for each item.

If anyone is interested in purchasing and plumping up their wardrobe, please contact me on this blog or e-mail to tsewei [AT] wackywombat [DOT] net.

Here goes!

#1. Long-sleeved collared shirt in eggplant purple

• Original price: 4,900 yen (~S$68)
• Now selling for S$50

Click to see details.

#2. Sweater jacket in white cotton

• Original price: 8,900 yen (~S$123)
• Now selling for S$90

Click to see in detail.

#3. Cardigan in deep forest green

• Original price: 4,900 yen (~S$68)
• Now selling for S$50

#4. Pink wool turtleneck sweater

• Original price: 2,900 yen (S$40)
• Now selling for S$23
• Wool, 3/4 sleeves

#5. Knee-length skirt in navy blue

• Original price: 5,800 yen (~S$82)
• Now selling for S$60
• Front zip with button, slit on the front, pockets on the back and front.

Click to see in detail.
#6. Handbag

• Original price: 6,900 yen (~S$96)
• Now selling for S$80
• Canvas with leather trimming, zip-top closure.12″ (L) x 6″ (H) x 5″ (W).

Click to see in detail.

* 100 yen = 1.39 SGD

Wishing you all a happy and prosperous Year of the Rat
from the wonderful folks here at
the wacky wombat weblog

(no, that’s not a rat in the picture – it’s the late Gigi the Pug)

If you’re in KL, hop on over to Lot 10 at Bintang Walk. You’ll see 5 magnificent life-size painted horses on display outside the Samsung Digital Media Plaza. One of them is painted by my sis Yein, so go go go and take a look!

My mom called to tell me about it, that my sis was spending 4 days painting a horse sculpture at a shopping mall (Sunway Pyramid). I was like, huh??? Just cannot imagine painting a life-size horse, from 10 to 10 each day. X_x Or even imagine a horse painted.

After asking for about a week (-_-”), I finally got a picture of Yein’s horse as it was being painted. Pretty!!

Also, apparently the public gets to vote for their favourite horse. So if you want, go pick your winning horse now, because there’s a free lucky draw thingy for voting too (always an incentive there somewhere). Samsung gadgets and TVs to pimp your house and tickets to a horse race or something like that. If you’re lazy to go to the mall (or stuck overseas like me), you can vote online too. It’s horse #5.

No prizes for guessing which horse I voted for obviously. I hope it’s still there at the mall when I make my trip back to KL sometime soon next month!

Just read this article from Economist.com (that appeared in The Economist print edition) about the Belgians don’t quite care that their country’s still without a new government despite having the general election since June. The author suggested that the country be dissolved, much like the spoof news flash that was broadcasted on their TV last December.

So here’s my take – a Top Ten list of why Belgium should not be dissolved:

10. The excellent Belgian dishes

9. We’ll all miss Belgian chocolates

8. Someone out there (not me, for sure) will miss Brussels sprouts.

7. The Adventures of Tintin

6. The Belgian King will be unemployed

5. Without Belgium, the Americans will claim they invented fries/fritters

4. The Germans might want to try to invade Belgium again (third time lucky, perhaps?)

3. No Belgian Grand Prix in the Formula 1 calendar

2. Dr. Evil will be stateless

… and the number 1 reason why Belgium should not be dissolved …

1. I’ve yet to have a taste of Belgian girls
1. I’ll miss my Belgian beers

<shameless-plug>

I’ve just started a new tech blog on Adobe AIR technology – head over there, check it out, and tell me what do you think: AIRdesktop.com

</shameless-plug>

One can never have too many pair of shoes is what I always think (unless you’re Imelda Marcos).

Was out with Au Yong looking for a new pair of sports shoes 2 days ago. And of course, I ended up finding something I liked, and bought it as well.

A new pink pair! For only 5600yen, it’s a pretty good buy. I’ll just have to make sure the white parts don’t get dirty too soon.

As I unpacked my shoes after the shopping trip, what interested me more was not the new pink shoe, but the box that it came in. Lots of stuff printed on it, and some didn’t quite make sense (at least to me it didn’t).

“Average contents: 2″??? These ARE shoes made for humans, right? With 2 feet? I’m sure they had to print that, oh you know, just in case someone buys it but expects 3 individual shoes in there (one’s for his head, or hand or tail, you see) only to find 2 in dismay and sues the company???

auyongtc: Or what if it’s written on the box Average contents: 1.75 ? Does this means that there’s a 25% chance you’ll not get the other shoe? LOL

Don’t quite know what to make of some of these logos either. (from L –> R)

1. umm, battery not necessary in utilizing this product? fair enough, makes sense.
2. “Products may differ from those shown” –> um, ok, my shoe certainly doesn’t look like this logo.
3. no swimming while wearing these shoes? do not double as flippers. hah.
4. “Shoes sold in pairs only. Sale of single shoe is not permissible.” –> bad news for poor ole’ one-legged pirate captain on wooden-peg.
5. this last one is the best. What does it mean? “Shoes best for running during escapes”??? “With these shoes, you can have a clear escape and no one can catcha!” ??? (hm, good for prison breaking lol)

The box also provided a helpful chart to help you compare and find out your shoe sizing under the various different measurement systems around the world, including a even more helpful size comparison to daily items.

Turns out my feet’s smaller than a pair of chopstick. I will never be able to look at chopsticks from now on without imagining placing my feet next to it, several centimeters shorter. (sigh, why won’t my feet grow…)

And with all the hype around a greener environment and saving our world from spontaneous combustion, there is a helpful little recycle tip on a folded corner of the box.

Never thought a shoe box could engage my interest so much that I’m actually blogging about it. LOL!