Durian Cake from Hotel Rendezvous and Sherlock Holmes (2009) movie

My sister and I decided to buy my mother a durian cake for Christmas this year. We had planned to get it from Goodwood Park Hotel which is famous for its durian cakes but while walking to Cathay Cineleisure today from my office this afternoon, my friend and I passed by Hotel Rendezvous and we saw this near the entrance of their cafe (Straits Cafe).


He waited patiently while I excitedly dashed in to query about the availablity and price of the hotel's award-winning durian fudge cake. The cost for the 1/2 kg was SGD 26 while the cost for the 1 kg was SGD 46. Terrified that the cake would be sold out, I paid for the 1 kg cake and asked the hotel to keep it refrigerated for me until the movie was over. My mother was pleased enough with the cake and immediately sliced and served the same.


The Slog Reviews: 6/10. The durian in the cake was pasty and flat. The durian smell wasn't very strong and the rest of the cake was more creamy than "duriany". Maybe it was because of the fresh milk and coconut milk mixed in with it. This ranks way behind the durian cakes from Goodwood Park. Emicakes still makes the best durian cakes in Singapore in my humble opinion - afterall, I had such a cake for my 29th birthday last year.


Moving onto the movie which took up the better part of the afternoon (most companies in Singapore let their employees have the afternoon off on Christmas eve) Sherlock Holmes was an entertaining enough movie packed with lots of action during its 120mins. Robert Downey Jr reminded me of a really old Johnny Depp (when Johnny acted in Pirates of the Caribbean) - both of them do the glazed crazy-eye stare really well. Jude Law looked older in the movie and his fiancee in the movie reminded me of Paris Hilton. Rachel McAdams was as lovely as ever with one of the sweetest smiles I have seen. It is likely that there will be a sequel to this movie where Holmes will face off against his nemesis Professor Moriarty. The plot for this movie though is simple and appears to be more of an introduction to each of their characters. Holmes is protrayed as a detective having superior martial arts and lock-picking skills and a penchant for annoying Watson but he is also shown to have a soft spot beneath. Holmes hides the photos of Irene Adler he still keeps in his room when she visits unexpectedly and when Watson is hurt in the explosion, Holmes impersonates a doctor to visit Watson. Watson is also shown to have an unbreakable bond with Holmes - he puts his life on the line to rescue Holmes from Dredger at the shipyard and despite his resolution not to follow Holmes any longer because of his fiancee, his responsibility to Holmes dissolve that resolution time and again.

The Slog Reviews: 8/10. The movie holds true to the original stories of Sherlock Holmes where the explanations for the "unexplainable" are given at the end and there is invariably a lot of chemistry and biology involved. This movie is worth watching for the action and great acting by the cast. The English accent may be a tad hard to follow though.