Driving to Rompin and Restoran / restaurant Rompin Bahru

The last fishing trip, I took 3 and a half hours to drive from Singapore Customs to Mersing (7 to 10.30pm) and another one hour to get to the fishing chalet at Rompin. The reason was because of the heavy traffic jam in JB going in the direction of Tebrau City and also the number of cars on the road heading to and fro Mersing. However, when I drove back on a weekday night (not Fri), the traffic was much better and I took only 2 hours and 15mins in my vios to drive from Kuala Rompin to JB Customs despite the winding road, 3 pax and 2 large ice boxes in my cars and never having seen the road before in the day.

I have been bringing my 2 new groups of fishing kakis to restoran lei huat at Mersing which I was introduced to on the Pekan light jigging trip. Not because the food is very good but because by the time one gets to Mersing, there aren't very many choices left. The restaurant stops serving food about 10.45pm though and the ambiance of the place (no air con) and toilets remind one of a coffeeshop in Singapore in the 1960s. The hor fun at RM4 is pretty edible and filling I must say and is the ideal choice for a quick dinner before going on to Rompin or Pekan.

One knows one is at Kuala Rompin when one sees this giant marlin statue. Be warned though that after Mersing en route to Kuala Rompin, there is a bridge which one has to go across where there are lots of people fishing along the sides of the bridge, and right after the bridge, there is a traffic police roadblock (both times about 11pm on a Fri night) and the police may ask to see one's driving license.

Anyway, I saw this signboard of Restoran Rompin Bahru outside 7-11 and took a pic of it, never realising that this would be the restaurant I would be eating at all the time for breakfast and dinner when at Rompin or Nenasi.

Here is a pic of the restaurant in the day. It opens pretty early apparently about 7+am and they serve toasted bread, kampong eggs, wanton mee, porridge or meat buns for breakfast. The lady boss speaks English, Chinese and Malay fluently and is very helpful and pleasant (pleasant on the eye too!)

On my first visit to the restaurant (for dinner), she recommended the lotus soup. The Slog Reviews: 9/10. Everyone at the table raved about how good the soup was - it came with lotus roots, peanuts and chicken meat (and chicken feet).

We also ordered the fried chicken, sotong dish, and the restaurant cooked the two of the many fishes that we had caught during the day - one grouper and one parrot fish. The sotong dish apparently is a huge draw and all the times I've eaten there with different groups of friends, all of them have polished each and every morsel of this dish. The kangkong is average though and the chicken dish slightly below average.

Here is a close up of the parrot fish dish. Apparently, it is not possible to buy this fish at all in Singapore markets and this was the first time that I had parrot fish. The Slog Reviews: 10/10. Sweet succuluent tender white fish meat. It can't compare with cod or salmon of course but if you think that grouper meat is delicious, we had both grouper and the parrot fish at the same seating and the parrot fish meat tastes 10 times better than the grouper's. This restaurant does a fantastic job of cooking both the grouper and the parrot fish (steamed in the same source) by the way.

So where previously I'd always been most delighted to catch a nice greasy grouper, I'm beginning to hope for parrot fishes each fishing trip. Not that I'm dissing a greasy grouper which is amongst the most expensive fishes but I would sure like the Bradmis to land me one big fat parrot fish the next fishing trip. My freezer currently has about 4 groupers, one of which is this one below which I landed on the Bradmis - time to stock the freezer with parrot fishes instead!

Lim Seng Lee Duck Rice Restaurant near NUS

Lim Seng Lee Duck Rice Restaurant sells the famous teochew boneless duck and I'd been eating there since my NUS days. Almost a decade later, I'm still eating at this restaurant once every 2 months or so because my boss (also from NUS) loves the food there. The day I was to drive up to Rompin, we went to the restaurant for lunch and as usual, parking there was a real challenge - I handed my keys over to the restaurant's helper who specialises in helping customers to park their vehicles for them. As usual, during lunch time, the restaurant was pretty packed with the lunch time crowd. I'm not sure about accessibility by buses but the restaurant is located at the start of pasir panjang road (one should exit at the Science Park Exit on the AYE, keep left while making the exit and at the first traffic light, turn right to go down the long winding road. The drive is worth it, trust me and one should eat at this restaurant at least once in one's life. We had duck meat of course. The Slog Reviews: 9/10. Mouth watering boneless tender duck that is served together with fresh slices of cucumber. The gravy is of the right consistency and taste. One has a choice of rice or porridge and one can ask for more gravy which comes in a seperate bowl. While I wouldn't make this my last dish on earth, the duck here ranks second in my books behind Xiao Dian Er's duck dishes. We also had 2 plates of sambal kangkong per the picture below. The Slog Reviews: 7.5/10. The kangkong is fried light and crispy and not soggy but has quite too many stems and too little gravy. Not a must try item. The restaurant also sells eggs, innards/liver but this time we decided to have the prawn dish (see pic below). The Slog Reviews: 7.5/10. While the gravy was somewhat lipsmackingly tasty, the prawns did not taste fresh or sweet and were rather shrivelled and small in size. The cost of the dish was prohibitively expensive too for such quality and I wouldn't recommend this dish. So before we left, I decided to ta pao (take away) what was good which was the boneless duck and have that for dinner since I was leaving straight from the office to go to Rompin. The cost of the package of duck meat rice below was SGD 4. The Slog Reviews: 7/10. The duck meat needs to be eaten at the restaurant with loads of gravy. The difference between eating warm/hot duck dishes and a packet of duck rice which has turned slightly cold is huge! Do not take away from this restaurant but eat there instead if you want to enjoy the full flavor of the duck. For those who want to call or visit the restaurant, the details such as the full name, address and contact number of the restaurant is printed on the cover of each takeaway packet (see the pic below).

The Blind Side (2010) Movie

My colleague recommended this movie to my boss and me and by sheer co-incidence I had bought the DVD but hadn't watched it yet. My colleague said that the movie was a must-watch and was about the power of helping others. I lent the DVD to my boss who opined later that the movie was not quite believable. Surprised by the differing views from the 2 legal birds, I decided to watch the movie this weekend.

For the reason behind the movie's title and a really good and concise summary of what the movie is about, click here.

The Slog Reviews: 8.5/10. I'd known that Sandra Bullock had swept a number of prestigious acting awards for her role in this movie so I was watching out for her acting and even I, a layman, was blown away by her protrayal of a plucky wealthy upper-class white woman with a heart big enough to take in a large young black man who hadn't a place to call home. The film contrasted the "haves" and the "haves-not" with the protrayal of a wealthy white family living in a palatial home and being a real family in every sense of the word where the parents are involved actively in the children's lives and the family is shown to spend quality family time together. On the other hand, Big Mike never even had his own bed till he moves in with this family, he was taken away from his drug-using mother and moved from foster home to foster home where he ran away each time to look for his mother. He sleeps on friends' couches for the nights as his mother has been evicted out of the housing projects, and has no clothes except for those that he has in a small plastic bag. When Sandra Bullock's character first meets Mike, he is trudging in the rain heading for the school gym because there is heating there. It truely is heartbreaking to know, that this is the reality for some people out there - that they do not even have a bed, a place, a family, all the basics we have taken and still take forgranted or worse, as if we were entitled ( a sense of entitlement) to all that we have. With this show which is based on a true story, one is reminded of how rich one is (not in terms of wealth alone but in relationships, families) and how we should be reaching out to those whom fate has dealt a harsher hand from birth.

And this part of the movie, an essay written by Michael Oher, stayed me long after I'd finished watching the movie.

"Courage is a hard thing to figure. You can have courage based on a dumb idea or mistake, but you're not supposed to question adults, or your coach or your teacher, because they make the rules. Maybe they know best, but maybe they don't. It all depends on who you are, where you come from....That's why courage it's tricky. Should you always do what others tell you to do? Sometimes you might not even know why you're doing something. I mean any fool can have courage. But honor, that's the real reason for you either do something or you don't. It's who you are and maybe who you want to be. If you die trying for something important, then you have both honor and courage, and that's pretty good. I think that's what the writer was saying, that you should hope for courage and try for honor. And maybe even pray that the people telling you what to do have some, too. "

Fishes that I have caught since 2009 (This entry will be constantly updated)

Saltwater

Offshore

Cobia
- on the Bradmis (click here)
Gar Fish
- in Langkawi on Rapala lure (click here)
Giant Trevalley / Ebek
- on the Bradmis (click here)
Grouper
- on the Bradmis (click here)
- in Langkawi on Rapala lure (click here)
Snapper
- on the Bradmis (click here)
Todak (click here)
- on the US Penn Reel "sabiki-ing" (click here)
Triple Tail
- on the Bradmis (click here)
Tuna
- in Phuket trolling (click here)

Freshwater

Pond

Giant Mekong Catfish
- at Bungsaram in Bangkok (click here)
Giant Siamese Carp
- in Phuket (click here)
- in Krabi (click here)
Grass Carp
- in Shenzhen (click here)
Pacu
- in Shenzhen (click here)
- in Bangkok (click here)
Patin
- in Phuket (click here)
- in Kota Kinabalu (click here)
Peacock Bass
- in Singapore (click here)
Red-tailed Catfish
- in Phuket (click here)

Cobia porridge and my first taste of tripletails

After all the fishing, especially last week's, my house's freezer is full of fishes, my car smells slightly fishy and I can't get the smell of blood and fish out of my nose. I've also eaten so much fish that I've got fish coming out of my ears. And all this is after me and my mum having given some of the fish away.

Anyway, I got to eat some of my catches today for lunch and for dinner. My mother was intrigued by the tripletails which the boatman had advised that we fillet and fry and which I had read on the net should be fried with batter. As such, she cooked not one or two but three of the many tripletails I'd caught (click here to read the catch report) for lunch - 1 medium sized one and 2 smaller ones. She also cooked a whole bowl of the prawns that I'd caught on one of my prawning trips more than a month ago.

I thought the fishes looked really strange (see the close up pic I took below), nothing like what I'd caught and then I realised why - the triple tails - the anal and dorsal fins as well as the fishes' tails were missing. When I asked my mum about this, she told me that there was so much fish in the freezer and the tails take up unnecessary space so she asked the fishmonger to cut all the tails off. I'm not sure if the groupers and snappers are now missing their tails too!

The flesh / meat of a triple tail is said to be white (see pic below) and without smell (ie doesn't taste fishy). My mother fried both these fishes with curry powder which lent the fish some taste because the meat certainly wasn't sweet or succulent but rather ordinary. The kind that really needs to be fried with batter and eaten with chilli or mayo.

As for the larger tripletail, my mum fried it and put it in some gravy she made out of dark sauce, sugar etc. I didnt like the taste of the gravy very much although she did and as I'd said earlier, the tripletail flesh doesnt have any taste so much depends on the sauce it is cooked in and the condiments.

For dinner, my mother cooked some of the cobia I'd caught in a soup with fish maw, veg and mushrooms. And wow, let me just say that I would rather catch another cobia again than a tripletail if I were catching to eat (the fight of the tripletail, as per my catch report here is better). The meat of the cobia is tender and sweet and although my mum didnt cook the meat in thick warm porridge which is the recommended cooking method for cobia meat, we added rice to the soup and it was extremely good! :)

Lucky by Jason Mr@z

I was at Timbre late last night knocking back a couple of drinks with friends when the live band belted out the song "Lucky" by Jason Mr@z. Everyone at the table, no, the whole place started swaying, humming, nodding their heads or mouthing the words to the song.

And I couldn't get the song out of my head so here I am at 2am listening to it on youtube.

"As the world keeps spinning round
You hold me right here right now

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been"

How romantic is that!

My first ebek - the Ebek / GT that broke Mr Brad's virginity - and first Cobia

Remember me bringing Mr Brad and Ms G-Loomis together and promising some bashing good times ahead? (click here if you don't) While Ms G-Loomis was sadly second-hand, Mr Brad was brand new and in sore need of having his virginity broken so I paired both of them together and a very powerful and lethal combination they made indeed.

The very first fish that I caught with the Bradmis (short for Mr Brad and Ms G-Loomis) was a big ebek (giant trevally) off the coast of Pahang on an offshore trip. 3 of the 4 people at the front of the boat got hit with an ebek each and I was at the middle of the boat with my line running out almost to the bottom when I felt a powerful take at the end and Mr Brad started to shriek in short bursts, just like a woman. Ms G-Loomis was powerful (she should be, given her price tag) and bent only slightly over during the process but there were times when I could do nothing but hold on to Mr Brad as the line spun off him while the ebek fought in the water to get away. However, the Bradmis held true and we landed the ebek.

Here is a close up pic of the ebek caught by the Bradmis with the boga hanging from its mouth.

And yet another picture of me struggling to lift my prize to the position I wanted in the picture above. The weight of the fish and the fight robbed me of almost all my arm strength...almost, not all.
The gym sessions with the weight machine certainly paid off well enough because I managed to hoist the ebek up per the pic below. This is my first ebek and I've dreamt of catching one since the last light jigging trip up in Pekan where I left empty handed. And the Bradmis realised my dream with its very first fish. How about that! It wouldn't do for Mr Brad's virginity to be broken by something so non-dramatic like a 2kg grouper or snapper or sweetlips which are found in the waters here, oh no, that isn't the Bradmis's style. Talk about losing your viriginity in the biggest possible loudest most dramatic way - with an ebek!

And later that afternoon, to prove that the ebek wasn't a one off chance and that the Bradmis was capable of having a go at it, the Bradmis landed me another of the largest fish of the fishing trip when I was using my other rod and reel to get some bait fish with the sabiki. I'd left the Bradmis on the rod stand when Ms G-Loomis bent sharply as if she was seasick and hurling and then Mr Brad started to sing his high pitched song. I dropped the other rod and reel quickly and struggled to extract the Bradmis from the rod holder (the pressure of the fish taking off caused the rod to press against the holder). And then it was a good short fight with the first and only cobia of the fishing trip. The Bradmis held firm and true and the cobia gave up after 10 mins. Here's a pic of me and my first cobia. They say that the meat of the cobia can be used to cook one of the sweetest and best porridge around. Looking forward to that!

Mother's Day 2010 - Restoran Pekin at Tmn Sutera

My mother had mentioned that she wanted to go Genting and I was all ready to take her to Genting for Mothers Day during the Mothers Day weekend this year given the number of points I'd chalked up playing the jackpot machines the past 2 times this year. As it turned out, my mum changed her mind at the very last minute and so I decided to take her on a weekend jaunt to JB instead and buy her Mothers Day lunch at Desaru. However, because I needed to get some fishing tackle for the fishing trip and I wanted to buy durians, I ended up taking her to Restoran Pekin at Tmn Sutera which I'd been for dinner once before. I hadn't realised how big the restaurant is until that day because I usually park near Carrefour at Tmn Sutera and walk to the restaurant from the mall which is connected to the restaurant. This time, parking was full so I parked near the restaurant and I realised that the restaurant has tanks full of live fishes (including one huge grouper) outside. Service was very good and even though there were 3 of us only, we were quickly shown to a table big enough for 8 because we were next in line. The restaurant was relatively crowded with large families but the restaurant managed the customers' needs very well and the servers were very attentive. At the recommendation of the server who had waited on us, the first dish we ordered was the bbq pork ribs which was amongst the specials of the day. The cost was RM 5 per pax and the dish below cost RM 15. The Slog Reviews: 9/10 for presentation and taste. The meat was fresh and the skin gently warm and slightly crispy. What gave the dish extra oomph was the sweet sauce that came with it. The restaurant was most obliging when we asked for more of the sauce to go wtih the bbq pork ribs. Thumbs up. I also ordered the same dish that I had the last time with a friend - the speciality egg but a medium sized helping for the 3 of us given how much my companion loves egg dishes. The restaurant maintained its standards and like the last time, this dish was awesome (and made even more awesome at only RM 15). The Slog Reviews: 10/10. This dish is full of chicken, mushrooms, eggs all cooked to tender perfection with the right mix of moisture to the dish. A must order, esp for egg lovers! I had initially ordered cereal prawns but my mum vetoed the idea and said that we should have drunken prawns if we were going to have prawns. And, Mother was Right. The Slog Reviews: 10/10. The soup that the prawns came in was the best I'd ever had for for this dish. Although the dish was a bit pricy at RM38 for a small portion, the prawns were so fresh, firm and sweet and the soup tasted fantastic with a capital F. I would order this dish again without a doubt. The only drawback is that like all good things in life, there wasn't very much soup and when we asked for more, the restaurant explained nicely that they could not give us more soup. While I am not a chicken lover (not a white meat gal), my mother's favourite meat is chicken so we had the cheese-baked chicken too. I can't remember if we ordered a small or medium portion but the cost was RM18 and there wasn't very much of it (See the pic below). My mother claimed that this dish wasn't challenging to cook when it came but after she'd eaten a bite of it, she said that this dish was cooked to cheesy perefction - not a single burnt part of the cheese which was spread and melted evenly over the tender chicken. The Slog Reviews: 9/10. After the meal, we were a bit thirsty because the weather was boiling hot and I suggested dessert. The mango sago was RM 5 while the honeydew sago was RM3.50. The Slog Reviews: 7/10. A bit too sweet for my liking - one can almost taste the sugar. Would advise trying another dessert. Below is a pic of all the dishes we had on the table :) And guess what the total cost of the meal was....seriously...my jaw fell when I got the bill! I think I'm going to move to Malaysia already. For a meal at such a nice restaurant with such good service and food, the price is unbeatable. Do go to Restorant Pekin at Tmn Sutera if you are around the area. I think it is one of the places with the best Chinese food in JB. However, be warned though that they do not serve dim sum at all, not even for lunch.

Astons Specialties at Sembawang

The problem with once having had the chance to experience something really good, one finds it rather difficult to accept something that isn't on par, even though it is doubtless that that has its own merits too.

In a vain attempt to relieve the glorious memory of Astons Prime, we went out for dinner at Astons Specialties at Sembawang at my suggestion one Saturday evening. And, the queue, there was not one moment from 6.20 to 8pm when there wasn't a queue at all. However, the queue moved along pretty quickly, largely due to the management of the tall big-built manager at the doorway and rather ample no. of seats in the indoor and outdoor portion of the restaurant. The restaurant seems very popular with large families and larger groups of friends on weekends. The queue for dinner on weekdays is far shorter based on my previous experiences

So anyway, it was my treat because of the good news I'd received in the week, and I ordered the Ribeye Xtra Cut for both of us. Priced at albout SGD 17, the steak comes with two sides which can be chosen from the variety of hot sides and cold sides on the menu. My health conscious companion had the house salad and fries for his sides and his steak, medium to well done.

As for me, I had the mashed potatos and pasta salad. The Slog Reviews: The waiting time was about half an hour for the food but that wasn't a surprise given how crowded the place was. I would suggest having a light bite before going to astons for dinner or one might get really irritated with the wait time. I would give the ribeye 8/10 which was cooked the way I liked it (medium-rare) and came with just the right balance of fats and meat. Unlike the lousy Ministry of Steak, Astons Specialiaties at Sembawang gives real value for money steaks.

604 Sembawang Road #03-14
Sembawang Shopping Centre
Tel : 6753 6302
1130-2200hrs (Opens Daily)

Restoran / restaurant New Lucky at Tmn Sentosa

This restaurant, Restoran New Lucky, has been around for more 30 years according to the owner. And I believe him since I'd eaten there with my family when I was really young and my dad would do the weekend supermarket/petrol driven-drives into Malaysia - my dad loved the drunken prawns at this restaurant which the waitress would bring in a covered glass bowl to our table and swirl the still alive prawns about in whiskey. My dad did like the roasted pigeons at this place too although he finally agreed that the creatures didn't have much too meat on them.

Anyway, after a 12 year hiatus, I finally returned to this restaurant sometime in November 2008. Locating the place isn't a problem - the restaurant is most prominently located at Tmn Sentosa - there is no missing the restaurant on the left side of the road when one turns in. The pic below is of the dishes we ordered - crabs, toufu and veg. The bill came to almost RM 90 and I remember being most disappointed at the quality of the dishes, in particular the toufu dish - never ever order this toufu dish. As for the steamed crabs, nothing exceptional at all.

So, because I am the queen of second chances, and because my food companion wanted to have drunken (and not herbal) prawns and I distinctly remembered how this restaurant did the covered bowl with prawns swirled in whiskey thingy, I suggested that we go to this restaurant for dinner. It was almost impossible to find parking at 8pm at Tmn Sentosa and we had to walk all the way back down to the restaurant after we did. The restaurant was about 2/3 occupied but the service staff came over after we seated ourselves (they don't show you to the seats here) and we ordered the following 4 dishes per the pics below.

First up - the "drunken" prawns which appeared to be prawns cooked in herbal soup - drunken indeed! No glass bowl materialised with live prawns drenched in whiskey. My friend who, as I'd said in a previous entry has a craving for herbal prawns too, pronounced this dish highly unsatisfying, not just because it wasn't what we were expecting but because the soup's standard was pretty low too. The Slog Reviews: 6/10. The cost of the prawns was RM9/100gm with a min order of 300gm and the dish above cost RM25 which is about SGD 11. While not expensive or nasty-tasting, the prawns did not have the sweetness that truely fresh prawns have and the soup/ingredients of the soup failed to enhance or bring out the flavor of the prawns. Instead, presented this way, the prawns ended up being cooked to the point of being too hard.

As for the clams (la la) which cost RM 15, The Slog Reviews: 6/10. The clams were really small, the meat shrunken and tasteless and there appeared to be more shells than meat. When compared with the clams I've had at other seafood places in JB, like Grand Straits Garden, and Kong Kong, this dish cooked in bland black pepper pales in comparison. Waste of $ ordering this.

The Slog Reviews: 7.5/10. The fried kong kong priced at RM 10 was plentiful and tasty enough. We could not help comparing the quantity for the price against the kong kong we had at Serangoon Gdns a few days earlier for dinner but that's the cost of living for you.

If there was any dish which we agreed was worth ordering, it would be the toufu with minced meat priced at RM 10. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. The sauce and meat on the toufu which was fresh with a crisp outer layer was rather satisfying, being not too salty or too sweet. Do note though that this restaurant does not have menus but one has to order based on the large pics of the food put up on the billboard near the kitchen area.

The total cost of the meal above was RM73.65 inclusive of 5% govt tax and 3% svc charge. Was it worth it? No. I wouldn't recommend this restaurant to anyone at all. The standard has fallen far from what I remembered from my childhood days and I suppose the cooks of yester-years are long gone. In any case, if one wants to try out this place still for whatever reason (I can't think of one given that there are so many better places around), here is the adddress and tel no.

1-5, Jln Keris, Taman Sri Tebrau, 80050 JB, Johor
Tel: 07-3337519

After the meal, because it failed to hit the spot for both of us, we went to good old A&W at the Jusco located at Permas Jaya and had a rootbear float each (and a connie dog for my food companion). Like the restaurant, A&W is a reminder of childhood days (there aren't any more A&Ws in Singapore now) but our experience there that night was definitely more satisfying than eating at Restoran New Lucky.

Pontian Wanton Mee at JB

The first time I had Pontian Wanton Mee was with my mum a couple of years ago. She wanted to share her great find - a place at Orchard Rd selling really cheap and good food - and I remember being really surprised at the cost of the food at the outlet of Pontian Wanton Mee in Orchard. However, the food never really grew on me and it was only recently that I developed an inexplicable urge to wolf down springy but soft noodles and slurp slightly salty soup with pcs of tender minced pork wrapped in a kind of flour skin that slides away from the pork when put in one's mouth - ie wanton mee.

So, when my companion told me that he had found a wanton mee store in JB which would satisfy this urge, I was most surprised when he brought me to the Pontian Wanton Mee outlet located at Taman Sutera (the shophouses near Taman Sutera).

At about 8pm, the shop wasn't too crowded and we were attended to almost immediately. This is how the first page of the menu looks like - apparently there is a difference between wanton noodles and pontian wanton noodles when all along I've thought they were the same thing. When I said I found the price in SG cheap, the price of Pontian Wanton Mee in JB blew me away - the food is ridiculously cheap - get this - RM6 for a large bowl of noodles which works out to SGD 2.50 only and the small bowl is RM4 which is SGD 1.70 (below SGD 2!) .

Below is a pic of the food we ordered - I had the a medium sized Dumpling Noodle (bowl on the left - the dumplings came in a soup) while my companion had a large sized Pontian Wanton Mee. For both bowls of noodles, we chose the chilli plus black sauce combination for the sauce which, as you will see from the menu above, is the recommended option.

The Slog Reviews: 7.5/10. Very decent grub for a ridiculously low price. The noodles were springy and chewy but I felt the meat in the dumplings were too hard - probably the dumplings hadn't been defrosted properly (I don't expect freshly made dumplings for that price!). Still, if one is on a budget and has to fill one's stomach with reasonably satisfying grub or if one shares a similar urge to partake of a non-conservative local asian delight (wanton - get it?), one may visit the following Pontian Wanton Mee outlets in Malaysia per the pic of the addresses of the Malaysian outlets I took below.

Zerorh+ Sunglasses

I have discovered that there isn't a limit to the things one can buy when one has a hobby like fishing. In the deep of my heart, I know that some things are essential and some aren't but somehow, the definitions of need and want get blurred when colored by passion. I have bought the essentials like Mr Brad and Ms G-Loomis, and I have held back getting the waterproof camera (Project Camera) but after my last fishing trip, I decided that a pair of 100% UV protection and polarised sunglasses is a must and not a mere want. Nevermind the 2 Coach sunglasses and 1 Gucci sunglasses all bought within the last year sitting at home unused and unworn.

Well anyway, after shopping around at various sunglasses stores (I discovered that the price of a polarised Rayban sunglasses model differs by SGD 40 between Sunglasses Hut (SGD160) and Capital Optical at Raffles City (SGD202) which means that price comparison is a must!), I finally decided on a pair of Zerorh+ sunglasses at Sunglasses Hut.

The Slog Reviews: I hadn't heard of the brand Zerorh+ before the day I got the sunglasses but I was totally sold by the fact that it had ZEISS polarised lens. And Zeiss as we all know, is legendary for the quality of its lens. The price (SGD220), the fact that is is comfortable and light-weight as well as the way it fits the shape of my face had me and good hard-earned money parting company. I'm going to use this for the fishing trip coming up in a couple of days and based on the website reviews of the sunglasses, I don't think I'll be disappointed. If you are into sports, do consider Zerorh+ (click here to go totheir website) as an alternative to Oakley.

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

After watching the movie Shutter Island which I reviewed here, I knew I had to get the book and read it asap to get the answer to the twists the movie presented, so I went online to reserve the library book and thankfully, I was the first in the reservation list. The other book I had reserved some time ago, called Super Freakonomics which is some sort of a sequel to the book Freakonomics which I reviewed here, had also arrived at the Central Library so I picked both books up at the same time together with another 2 books that caught my eye.

When I got home, the first book I read was Shutter Island of course and because I've discarded the nasty habit of reading the last few pages of a book first (it spoils the pleasure), I only got my answers at the end of the book - Andrew Laeddis/Edward Daniels/Teddy was insane - the hospital was not trying to make him crazy or make him believe he was crazy so that they could imprison him out of fear he would blow the whistle on their experiments on patients. Andrew Laeddis could not accept what had happened - his wife killing their 3 children, in particular, Rachel, his 4 year old daughter, closest to his heart (according to the book) and he murdering the person he loved the most in the world, his wife.

The line in the movie "Would you rather live as a monster or die as a hero?" is not in the book at all. I read though that the author of the book had taken the stance that Teddy did not consciously opt for the lobotomy to erase all his memories because if this was the case, that Teddy had shown some awareness, the lobotomy would not have been carried out. So this answers the second twist in the movie too.

The Slog Reviews: 8/10. As for whether one should read the book, I would say that if one has not watched the movie, one could well enjoy it but if one has watched the movie and read my reviews on both the movie and book, then maybe one could give it a miss. Because some of the lines in the movie are lifted right off the book and the movie brings to life not just the characters but the relationships as described in the book, in particular, Teddy's deep love for his wife.

The book describes the relationship between Teddy and Dolores in a moving manner too:

When he met her
"He thought: so this is what it feels like to love. No logic to it - he barely knew her. But there it was just the same. He'd just met the woman he'd known, somehow, since before he was born. The measure of every dream he'd never dared indulge."

When he thinks of her (when he is Teddy and not Andrew)
"But as the years passed, he missed her more, not less, and his need for her became a cut that would not scar over, would not stop leaking...I held her. This world can't give me that. The world can only give me reminders of what I don't have, can never have, didn't have for long enough...We were supposed to grow old together. I wanted to watch the lines etch themselves into your flesh and know when each and everyone of them appeared. Die together. And if I knew for certain that all it would take to hold her again would be to die, then I couldn't raise the gun to my head fast enough"

"What was the point of buying groceries, shaving...if none of it brought him closer to her..."

When he has just pulled his 3 children's bodies from the lake she drowned them in
"If he could sacrifice his own mind to restore hers, he would. Sell his limbs? Fine. She had been all the love he'd ever known for so long. She had been what carried him through the war, through this awful world. He loved her more than his life, more than his soul."

Iron Man 2 (2010) Movie

1 of my movie kakis cancelled watching this movie with me last min because of all the negative reviews he'd read about it and after watching the movie with another friend, both of us could not fathom why anyone would write anything bad about the show! They say birds of the same feather flock together and I suppose in this case, both of us legal birds enjoy flicks where there are hot chicks in body hugging outfits (Oh, Scarlett!), fast cars (car race at Monaco) and lots of action where the good guy kicks ass...again and again.

The Slog Reviews: 9/10 - Definitely a movie that should be watched on the big screen - Whiplash/Backlash snapping his electricity charged whips slicing through racing cars, Natalie Rushmore (Scarlett) in a outfit that shows off her lithe but womanly frame executing the most sexy poses ever while taking down the bad guys and Mr Oh So Bad But Dont U Want to Just Be The 1 Girl to Change Him,Tony Stark himself. Robert Downey Jr I must say, plays the role to perfection, quite a departure from how I remembered him in 1 of my favourite serials - Ally McBeal. As for the storyline, you can find it here but if you are looking for a mind bending plot or an emotional rollercoaster, this show can't give you that. It's action, action and action!

Go Karting in JB

If I've never particularly favored Go Karting before, the experience I had at the Go Karting Circuit in JB made sure that this "sport" would never be one of my hobbies. At the suggestion of a friend who was insistent on trying out something new and persuaded by the fact that his and not my car would be used for the trip to the circuit located near Permas Jaya at Plentong, we headed there one morning.

We got lost, but asked for directions at the BHP station in Plentong and managed to find the road and then dirt track leading to the circuit. The dirt trail, which went on for quite a distance, was narrow, rough, bumpy and strewn with stones (I'm so glad it wasn't my car). To my surprise, there were quite a number of Singaporean cars heading to and fro the circuit, most of which were driven by expats.

This is how the counter at the go karting circuit looks like. This is not the place to bring one's loved one unless she/he can accept flies (lots of them), stray dogs, dirt, heat and filth, all away from civilisation. The rates for an ordinary go-kart (you are not allowed on the faster ones unless you have some sort of license/permit) are SGD 35 for 10mins. I am sure that is cheaper than SG rates but it seems pretty pricy to spend that amount of money just to go a few rounds at a limited speed in the blazing sun around a track with a helmet that has been worn many times before on one's head. Of course, one is required to sign an indemnity form and to dorn a cheap sort of shower cap before putting on the helmet. Still, be warned that the sweat-soaked sides of the padded helmet press against one's cheek...talk about major ughhhh.

The picture below is a close up of one of the faster racing carts. Drivers of the karts, per the pics above, are required to don a safety suit (see the guys in blue and red above) before driving off in one of these karts. Note where the jelly can of petrol is. I fail to see why anyone would subject themselves willingly and happily to racing about in one of these "machines" under the blazing hot sun with a can of petrol between their parted legs, especially when one can drive a car at a far higher speed, at greater comfort and without the risk of one's family jewels going up in flames.

As the petrol tanks for the ordinary smaller go karts are located near one's elbow and we had driven all the way there, I was minded to have just one round on the go kart despite the horror of having to put on the smelly sweat-soaked helmet. The pic below shows the smaller ordinary go karts and a glimpse of the circuit. I should mention at this point that the seats of the go-kart are meant for the ordinary-slightly larger person- there was a lady of considerable girth who had to sit out the ride because her butt could not fit in the seat despite her best efforts. Instructions are given one to one in English by the many foreign workers consisting of instructions on how to get in the kart, sit down, stop and accelerate. Very simple all of it. One foot goes on the brake, one on the accelerator.

The Slog Reviews: 6.5/10. Unless one doesn't drive or one drives very carefully usually, one may probably find the thrill in racing around the karts under the blazing hot sun. And one needs to be less particular about hygiene too given the state of the circuit and the helmets. Going around the track 5 rounds in 10 mins got pretty boring although I would say some of the bends are rather sharp. I trod on the accelerator and brake at the same time which resulted in my kart spinning 360 degrees at least 3 separate occasions on the track. An employee (a foreign worker) followed me in another go kart throughout so I guess this circuit is pretty mindful of safety.

Shop just next to Geylang Prawn Mee at Upper Serangoon Rd

We had decided to have the yummilicious Geylang Prawn Mee at Upper Serangoon Road but if you have been there, you will know that parking there isn't easy (Beach Road is still more challenging though) given the limited no of parking lots outside the row of shops.

I was delighted to see a car pulling out of a lot slightly in front of the prawn mee store and sped up to get to the lot...only to find 2 PRCs dragging those large green rubbish bins to block cars from parking in the lot. My companion got out and asked them to remove the bins but they insisted that we had to eat at their shop if we wanted to park there. Given that my companion had grown tired of the prawn noodles (??!?!) , she agreed without a second thought (or without asking me!) and so I parked my car there.

I'm sorry I don't have the name of the restaurant - all I can tell you is that it is just next to the famous prawn mee stall which was packed to the brim by the way. I am not sure if it is operated by PRCs but all the servers in the restaurants are PRCs. The restaurant's menu is rather limited if one does not favour their set meals which range from SGD 25 onwards for 2 and consist of curry/assam fish head and veg. And from the limited menu (6 items), we shared this nonya hotpot per the pic below.

The Slog Reviews: 8.5/10. For SGD 5, the dish above despite its rather simple ingredients was exceedingly tasty (I think it was the soup!) and the prawns were firm and fresh. I would without a doubt recommend this dish.


We also shared a bowl of curry chicken - the curry comes with rice and is priced at SGD5. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. I would give it a higher score if the dish came with more of the delicious curry which was not too oily and just the right consistency/thickness. The curry was spicy enough to give a warm fiery feeling but not too spicy so as to make one reach for water.

This restaurant is worth a visit for cheap and good dishes. It helps too that it is air-conditioned unlike the prawn mee store and that the servers are extremely polite, friendly and helpful. Very good service - I think I'll get the name of this restaurant and update this post later. The only drawback is that one has to pay in cash.

Blissful Cafe's Bak Kut Teh and Liver Soup

Remember my last post on Bak Kut Teh? Since then, I've developed a strange craving to have Bak Kut Teh, nevermind the blistering temperature in the afternoons. If not for the sheer number of things to be done at work each day these few weeks, I believe I would have deliberately driven to Chinatown just to have a bowl of BKT at the hawker center there for lunch.

As it was, because Mr Brad needed some lubrication to function smoothly, I was down at Beach Road (parking there is a nightmare!!!) during lunchtime today with a friend and at my insistence, we had BKT at Blissful Cafe (No 29-31 Sultan Gate Tel No: 62988538). He had a bowl of pig liver soup which came with mee sua and shared a medium sized bowl of klang-style BKT with me.


The Slog Reviews: 7.5/10 for the BKT. I believe the standard has dropped since the last time I was there and it would appear more worthwhile to order a small bowl of BKT at SGD 5 than a medium sized bowl of BKT at SGD 9 given the portions of each. Not that the medium sized serving was anything to complain about given the amount of straw mushrooms, tau kee, veg, butter mushrooms and meat but just that a small bowl would be more value for $. I can't comment about the pig liver soup (SGD 6) because I wasn't mind to try the same but my friend who slurped his way down to the last drop was of the view that it was "normal, the BKT was better". Still, Blissful Cafe is a nice place to have lunch at whether it is hot (there is air conditioning) or rainy (the BKT warms one up!) and the service is fast and good with the servers being helpful without being intrusive. There are also numerous newspaper cuttings on the walls (mostly from Chinese newspapers) which proclaim the merits of this eatery so if one is fortunate enough to find a parking lot at Beach Rd during lunch, Blissful Cafe is worth a try at least once.

As good-looking as Brad...

Last year, my Fishing Shifu had recommended this spinning reel to me as a value for money spinning reel - he who owns S@ltigas and Stell@rs. *sniffs. And since Feb this year, there had been a sale on this model at 1 of the tackle shops ((15% discount) but I put off going down because I was reluctant to spend $ on a spinning reel when I already had a Made In USA 2500 Penn Spinning Reel, courtesy of my father.

However, after due consideration of the age of the Penn reel (more than 10 years) and my skills with my Shimano Calais Baitcasting Reel, I decided to shell out the few hundred bucks and buy my first spinning reel. I had my mind fixed on the 2500 model which would be perfect for luring but that model was sold out by the time (2 months after the sale started) so I bought the 3000 model instead which is bigger and heavier.

And here it is, the beauty from Japan loaded with 30lbs Berkeley Crystal Translucent Braided Line...

Oh, and did I mention I bought the perfect companion for Mr Brad? She didn't come cheap - about SGD 10 more than Mr Brad in fact but she's as important as he is and he cannot co-exist without her so tada...presenting Ms G-Loomis!

I think the rod is a she because it requires so much more maintenance and storage space than Mr Brad! Let's see how the two work together given their cross cultures - he is made in Japan while she is made in America.

Me, Mr Brad and Ms G-Loomis are going to have some bashing good times ahead! Watch out, fishes of the deep! :D

Afternote: Click here to read what the Bradmis (combination of Mr Brad and Ms G-Loomis) has conquered.

The Lovely Bones (2009) Movie

I remember browing through the book at the bookshop's bestseller's section and I remember being pretty thrilled that there would be a movie adapted from the book, and a movie directed by Peter Jackson no less.

The Slog Reviews: 8.5/10. A pretty comprehensive review of the movie can be found here. It was a pleasant surprise to find out that Rachel Weisz was also acting in this movie, given that I'd just watched Agora right before this dvd. However, she wasn't playing the lead character, an ethereal young actress named Saoirse Ronan was, because as you will learn from the review, the lead character was a young gal named Susie Salmon who was raped, murdered and dismembered by a neighbour at the age of 14. While in heaven, she watches over her family in the wake of her murder (the grief, the need to find the murderer, her mother fleeing to another state to escape the pain) and in the years that come after that when they move on with their lifes (her baby sister gets married and have a child). In the movie and in the book, her murderer doesn't get caught and that lends the movie and story a very realistic angle (no fairy-tale ending) - that in life, sometimes not all the bad guys get caught immediately or in the near future or even at all. There are people out there who do bad things and get away with it, and it seems grossly unfair but that's life for you.

Agora (2009) Movie

Agora sounds a lot like my fav hotel reservation website, Agoda so I googled Agora for its definition and the term apparently means "An open, public courtyard in ancient Greek city."

The historical movie however is set in Roman Egypt and centers around the life of Hypatia, a female astronomer-philosopher in a time where there are Christian fundamentalists bent on denouncing all other religions through violence where necessary. Hypatia is played by the incredibly beautiful Rachel Weisz. (I first noticed Rachel Weisz in The Constant Gardener (A 10/10 movie in The Slog Reviews) for which she received an Academy Award for her role.)

The Slog Reviews: 10/10. Hypatia is the daughter of the head of Alexandria's fabled library and she teaches philosophy to a group of men (including slaves). Her slave, Davus, is madly in love with her and as is 1 of her students, Oreste. But Hypatia makes it abundantly clear that she is not interested in men by returning Oreste's gift of a song and musical instrument with a cloth stained with her monthly blood. In the movie, the Christians are shown to be fanatical zealots hell-bent on persecuting those of a different faith and the Christians storm and destroy the fabled library and its contents when those who believe in the Roman Gods take refuge behind the library's walls. Hypatia escapes the looting and murder by the Christians and is shown to be the woman behind Oreste who rises to become the Prelate of Alexandria. He is shown to use her words and to bow to her counsel. She also sets free Davus during the looting and he becomes one of the sword-carrying Christians. He doesn't forget her however and tries to warn her when he overhears the other Christian planning to harm her because she states openly that she believes in philosophy when asked if she believes in God. Oreste is shown to cave in to the pressure by the Christians zealots and asks Hypatia to state her belief in God, failing which he would not be able to speak to her any longer. The movie makes it clear that he is torn between the deep love and respect for Hyptia and the need to placate the rising forces of Christianity, in particular, their crazy-looking leader, Cyril. Hypatia decides to leave his protection and his palace and walks out on the streets of Alexandria where the Christians capture her. Davus her slave sees her being captured and follows them to where they take her - the ruins of the fabled library. There, they strip her, and almost skin her alive but Davus saves her by telling them not to stain their hands with impure blood. The Christian zealots then rush out to get stones to stone her to death and during the time they are gone, Davus suffocates her with his hand across her mouth and nose. He tells the Christian zealots that she fainted when they return and walks away as they stone her inmobile body mercilessly.