Foodview 0.9 Dian Xiao Er

Me: Great chinese scholar what does Dian Xiao Er mean in English?

Legend: Ummm, let me see. I think it means Electricity Small Hungry.

Me: Que?

Me: I mean thank you very much for your wisdom and parting with your knowledge.

So I discovered Legend isn't chinese and turned to person who is actually chinese.

Me: Hi what does Dian Xiao Er mean in English?

Candy: Waiter.

Now that makes more sense. So one of the restaurants I dined at in Singapore was Dian Xiao Er.

Before that, one of myhighlights of visiting Singapore is the HDB flats. Ever wonder how so many people can fit on one tiny island? Well, its because they don't have houses here and cramp in High Density Building flats. Ok this is not truth but truth be told that I thought HDB stood for High Density Building instead of Human and Development Board. So yes, I always read about HDB this and something happening in void decks in the newspapers so now that Im in Singapore I might as well visit one.

Ooooooh HDB flats. My life is now complete.

This area is call Woodlands. I am thankful that where I live at least has a backyard instead of hanging clothes on a stick.

Something I will never see anywhere else. I remember reading that public urinating also occurs from the top of the flats. As Akabane Kuroudo would say, "Bloody rain".

I still cant believe that this country is so clean...

but I found it! RUBBISH! But I must say that even the litter here looks so neat and organised.

Other sights around Singapore

Milo McFlurry at Maccas. I still have not forgiven myself for not trying this. Also Singapore has the coolest McHappy meal toys on this planet. Shame on you Australia.

This drink is legendary. A juice made from joy. as in the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires (from m-w.com)

More exotic drinks... and I havent got to the alcoholic ones yet.

What?! Egg tarts at KFC! Again, I should slash my wrists for not trying this.

I have no idea where this place is...

however, I think its near this famous shopping strip, Bugis Junction

To be honest, I won't do much shopping in Singapore even in this swanky complex, Iluma, because the almighty Australian dollar ain't so mighty in this land. Now in Malaysia, the Australian dollar rules over all! Strangers on the street will address me as Prime minister or Optimus and occasionally Mr. Rudd.

This building is my favourite. The whole building changes colour. I still cant figure out if its called Wilkie Edge or Milkie Edge.

Oh dear I've forgotten about Dian Xiao Er. Well my experience at this establishmet is pretty forgettable.

Lets get down to it. Nice decor and theme. Very crouching tigeristique. If I only brought my green destiny sword with me.

The service was great. The price was not. The food was meh.

The entrance to the restaurant. I thought my waiter was gonna be Mr. Wong Fei Hong

Nice big illustrated menu on the wall as one enters

Red latterns very Chinese New yearsy

I really like how this place is done up. Well done.

Barley drink with the barley bits. At least this was nice.


Mushroom and veggies.


Stuffed beancurds. This dish alone is enough for 1/4 of person or enough to fed a foetus. Talk about small portions. Big points on presentation.


The fried rice was not to my liking, though it was light and fluffy. A good sign of good fried rice.

This place should be an art exhibition rather than a restaurant.

Taste : 1 out of 5 stars

Value : 1 out of 5 stars

But presentation of food and decor of the place is top quality.

Review 0.8 Ibis Hotel on Bencoolen, Singapore

Image is from Imageshack.

Ooooh looks like a new robot series is coming up. According to ANN, its gonna be 52 episodes. Usually anime series go for 26 episodes. I might just hold to my robot hobby for a bit longer. Everyone knows that when a new anime airs, the robot toys will follow.

Anyways, I am getting behind on blogging about my trip back in February 2010. So when I was in Malaysia, I had a one day trip to the land of Singapore. From Kuala Lumpur, one can either

a) take a plane via Air Asia ($$$) or

b) take a bus to Singapore ($) or

c) you can drive there ($$)

I think taking bus to Singapore is the best way for a discerning budget traveller. And example of this coach service is Aeroline.

Air Asia will be good if you get those dirt cheap promos which you have to buy like 1 year in advance.

Now I will talk about driving. The obvious thing about driving either by car or bus is it takes DONKEY YEARS (1 donkey year = 9 human hours) to get there. My butt went numb on me my many many times. Actually recalling back to my trip, I change my mind and highly recommend you to fly there. Forget about being a discerning traveller... your body part/s (in this case my butt) is more important than money! I truly hate sitting for prolonged periods of time, I despise and/or loathe it!

Thankfully, there was rest spots along the way with restaurants and toilets. I remember the trip took a whole day maybe 9 hours? When I eventually got to Singapore, the customs queue was horrendous. Traffic was a stand still both ways coming in and out. I suggest if you still insist on driving maybe hire a masseur to massage your butt :)

Look at the queue. Nasty.

The customs building. Looks very omnious. Very prison-like.

When I finally got to the booth where the guy sits on his throne and looks at your passport.

Custom immigration dude said, "VEP".

I thought he was addressing me as a very important person and thus give me money.

I replied, "Yes, in ten dollar notes please"

Custom immigration dude answered, "Where is your VEP? Your Vehicle Entry Permit".

"Que?" was the expression on my face.
(Image ripped from Kurier)

So being new to the country, one must have these VEPs to be able to drive your own car around in Singapore. You must buy them at their office. So the dude called someone to escort me to their office (again this took awhile about 10minutes and yes, I was holding up traffic and all the cars behind me were saluting me with one finger). A lady custom officer came on her bicycle to escort me to the office to fill a form and buy my VEP. You must use Singapore dollars to buy them so come prepared. Apparently if you plan to stay longer in Singapore you can top up these VEP cards at any 7-11s. So you have been warned, weary traveller.

Singapore is a tiny country but it has almost 5 million people living in it. The first word that comes to mind is CLEAN.

Yes I think Singapore is the only cleanest asian country in the world. Boo to Malaysia!

Very modern. People hear are very trendy. I wish I was trendy.

SK-II Spa! All the ladies love SK-II.

Now once I was in the land of the free. The next hurdle is navigating one's way around Singapore. My destination was Ibis Hotel on Bencoolen. On the highway is easy and I enjoyed the scenery. Singapore is as old men says, "Mmm, indeed a very clean city". It was difficult to get to this hotel, even though I could see the Hotel on Bencoolen Road, there was no access to the hotel and instead, I discovered that I have to go one big round and enter from the back. I was frustrated to the max especially with the local drivers were honking at my foreign plated car. I suggest this hotel put specific directions for those driving to get to their hotel rather than putting a map on their website. I was going round and round in circles trying to get to this hotel.

The view from my hotel room.

So after that nightmare, checked in to a really small room. Its tiny, its only a shoulder's width from the foot of the bed to the wall. The 'desk' was a piece of wood fixed on the window sill. The wardrobe had no doors and it was again shoulder width. It flooded after every shower because of poor drainage due to years of pubes accumulation? However, the room was clean and nice wooden floors but I will not come here again for the money that was paid to stay here. Oh yes! There was a sign in the bathroom encouraging guests to reuse their towels to conserve water. What!? Personally, as a guest, I want fresh towels as I believe this is part of the hotel service! What an outrage! Raarrrr! I always hit 155L/day of water back in Australia and I think Singaporeans and Malaysians should embrace this idea rather than asking guests to recycle their towels.

Price : 1 out of 5 stars

Overall rating : 2 out of 5 stars

Blog 1.0 Back to gym

Renewed my gym membership. So much money gone. Must make full use of my fees. This year my aim is not big biceps etc but to make full use of my gym membership. I can nearly buy a low-end Scott with my fees.

here is a plan that i just came up

1. must swim twice once a week maybe twice .i will aim for mondays like 7am or something. will attempt this coming monday.

2. must be at the gym mondays, wednesdays and fridays. woah that looks sad. but looking at this forum thread. it seems doable. LINK. yes i will abandon my current routine. my growth training a part of the body every second day has not shown any results.

3. diet. this is the hardest to change. will not comment. thinking about it makes me head ache.

4. slow and easy. today breaking in back to the routine. i can feel my left arm tendons tingling. why wont this pain go away? i wanted to go heavy today but this fear made me hold back. I looked like a chimp benching 10kg dumbells.

ok end of the gym stuff for now. while i was at the gym I thought about my gundams as well. so went home today and attempted to assemble the gundam freedom sd, but the passion and desire that once consumed me months ago has slowly dissipated. I think I am over gundams. I rarely go to ngeekhiong's page now. looks like time to change my blog address to gym-is-my-hotel or something like that. plus came across gym blogs such as this one. I think I will change from gundam to gym but I will still be known as Mr.Unicorn! arrrgh! someone took the address mrunicorn.blogspot.com and its a girl! a girl called mr. unicorn. i wonder if duocorn is available... anyways here is wat i did at the gym today

bench dumbells

10kg 6sets 10reps LOL (someone please put me out of my misery)

Foodview 0.8 Rice bar, Carlton

Match day 2 and here's the current ranking after today's results

01. Jaystin Unicorn (Previously ranked no.4 on match day 1)

02. Mr. P (Previously no.3)

03. Donna Legend (Previously no.2)

04. Suzuki Swift (Previously no.5)

04. cK Tree (Previously no.5)

05. Anel Bum (Newcomer)

06. Nat Chan (Previously no.1)

Suzuki is displaying the fine art of posing (for the camera) while playing

And here's how to pose if your shot is being blocked by someone in front of you

Is she posing or passing the ball?

Yes, I am the new no.1 player now that Nat Chan has gone to Europe to focus on his football career, thereby, dropping his ranking to the bottom. Initially I thought I was going to remain no.3 but after easily defeating Donna and Mr.P, looks like I will have to defend my no.1 ranking against Nat Chan. Feels good to be on top.

Beating Mr.P after many receiving so many defeats from him is a breath of fresh air. The air in Loserville was muggy and foul. I want to thank Youtube for teaching me the skills to improvemy game. I still have a long way to go as I need to watch more videos on backhand returns and returning lobbed balls.

After the tournament, lunch was at Rice bar on the corner of Swanston street and Pelham street. There are a handful of restaurants named 'Rice bar' all around the city. I wonder if they're a franchise or if they are not being creative enough?

Nice atmosphere. Pricing was reasonable, food and drink for under ten bucks. I ordered Roasted Chicken rice and a nice big cup of watermelon juice.

"And this is how you slap someone from far away"

"And this is my middle finger, oops, my little finger"

the food was taking long to prepare so everyone was chillaxing

Look at how big the cups are! (I believe mine was made of 1/3 ice, 1/3 water, 1/3 actual watermelon juice concentrate. Oh yes there were sago balls at the bottom too!)

Donna must be feeling left out not being in most of these pictures.

Roasted chicken rice (with plain soup)

The meat was a generous amount. Not many bones. The meat wasn't fresh but it wasn't bad either.

Overall impression is good. Considering the price and quantity of meat.

Taste : 3 out of 5 stars

Value : 4 out of 5 stars

New toys just arrived and waiting to be reviewed

Gundam Unicorn SD (purchased from Hobby Search). After shopping from both Hobby Link Japan and Hobby Search, I think both gives good service, but If I recall properly, I think Hobby Search delivers your gundams much faster than Hobby Link Japan.

This box is big (lenthwise). Even bigger than my Gundam Exia SD (unfortunately both will be sitting in a corner)

The unicorn looks very much like its Master Grade counterpart. What this picture doesnt tell you is that its legs (which have to be painted) and crotch cover are always in 'psycho frame mode'. Very not happy with this.

What?!! Only three runners? Do I even need to assemble this kit? So disappointed. Bandai should have just made it SDX.

At least there are clear red parts for the psycho frame. Dont really like the gold sticker for the V-fins. Why not just make it gold plated? Stingy. Anyways I got this at 800yen (from 1000yen) excluding postage. You can see in this picture that the legs need to be painted for psycho frame mode.

Domo-kun (purchased from dealextreme.com)

This bugger is still available for USD13 including postage! Get it while its hot here. Dimensions: 12.6 in x 9.06 in x 4.17 in. Weight: 9.1 oz. Its a knockoff but its a big knockoff, even Mr.P wants one.

PS3 (on loan)

Yes I finally have a PS3 on loan from my buddy, Zeus. He is greek, and no, he does not carry thunder bolts nor lightning rods in his pockets.

Foodview 0.7 Ootoya Bangkok

Reached the hotel at 6pmish so quickly requested for a Tuk-tuk ride to the Thong Lo BTS station .

On the way to the Thong Lo BTS Skytrain station (Only 3 minutes tuk-tuk drive if you don't consider the crazy bangkok traffic)

One of many ads at the stations. Maybe I can earn a living in Bangkok by teaching broken English.

From there it was just one stop westwards (or away from On Nut BTS skytrain station) to the Phrom Pheng BTS station. The first of the big shopping complexes that was encountered called the Emporium.

Comparing the Emporium to the other shopping complexes, I reckon its one of the smallest.

There was a Heineken Music festival night happening inside and outside of the complex. The talent was pretty good. The crowd was loving it while enjoying their nice cold Heineken.

The live singing complimented the nice atmosphere outside as well

I really like how the skytrain stations are connected to the shopping complexes in Bangkok. Well done-no need for walking down the stairs or crossing roads. Once I walked in, all the big fashion labels were everywhere. I am not into branded stuff except the brand, GUNDAM and TELSTRA! (Telstra took off their advert cos no one clicked on it - I only earned 20cents... I probably can earn more money picking up fallen coins on Swanston street). I didnt waste time walking around and went straight up to the top floor - FOOD COURT. There were ther big chain restaurants like MOS Burger, a Nandos knock-off called PIRI PIRI, and Hungry Jacks.

After walking around, decided on Ootoya. A japanese franchise, they have like one billion or so branches in Bangkok, five in Taiwan and one in Singapore and zero in Malaysia. My deduction skills and reasoning leads me to believe why Ootoya is so succesful in Thailand because there are so many Japanese people living and working here. Every 50th person I met was Japanese. I wonder if the pay is good in Bangkok? I want to work here as a professional badminton player.

So I am at Ootoya and every staff member is Thai and there was a number of japanese patron. If Japanese people eat here then it must be good enough. Had to queue and waited to be seated bu didnt take long about 5-10 minutes. A lot of variety in the menu. Green tea was free flowing and I must say that I was never a big fan of green tea but the tea was yummy. Fragant-y and not bitter yet and no funky aftertaste.

Details appreciated.

Always wipe your face with hot towels then wipe your hands.

You like it hot or

cold?

For starters I ordered fried potato croquette, came with two dips. I gouged that potato like there was not tomorrow. Crispy skin and chewy potato bits.

I just love the plates and bowls they use. This potato croquette is yummy.

Next was Oyakodon, as Suzuki-san explains, "Oya means mother and ko means child and don means rice. So Mother (Chicken) and child (egg) rice". The egg was nice and moist and wasnt overcooked.

They provide seaweed strips to sprinkle on your dish. :)

Grilled chicken rice. Mmmm. Sauce was just the right thickness. The clay pot was super hot which slowed down me scoffing my food

Moist meat and crispy veggies. Rice was cooked perfectly.

Look at my shiny sauce. Its so shiny.

Need some spice for your palate?

If things get to spicy. Then cool off with green tea ice cream and red beans. I just love these bowls.

Looks tiny but I think the serving portion is just right.

Cant get enough? They can deliver to your hotel.

These guys in orange and motorcyclist taxis. You dont get a helmet. I was tempted to get on one but didnt know how to give him directions back to the hotel.

After walking out of Emporium its a quick walk back to the skytrain station where you could call the hotel tuk tuk or walk home.

Actually when I got back to the hotel, I became super hungry again and ventured out to what must be the worst japanese restaurant (unfortunately I didnt bring my camera) and bought the worst dumplings ever. All I can remember was that the restaurant was tiny and cramped.

Yuck.

Taste : 4 out of 5 stars

Value : 4 out of 5 stars