Wizard of Id - 29th March 2009

Source: http://comics.com/wizard_of_id/

Familiar story isn't it? Unfortunately, despite the failings of the top executives of banks, finance firms and auto-makers in the US, their government has no choice but to bail them out due to the disastrous macroeconomic impact that would follow on their collapse. Conversely, the small firms that get innocently embroiled into the economic mayhem are left to their own devices.

The world is unfair. And it will always remain that way.

Non-sequitur

I just read this on the panel of 'Useless Knowledge' on the right side of my blog:

A ball of glass will bounce higher than a ball of rubber. A ball of solid steel will bounce higher than one made entirely of glass.

Wow... Imagine a bouncing ball of glass... :O

Kids, do not try this at home! Adults, if you intend to try this, do remember that a ball of glass will shatter when dropped on/thrown against most surfaces. A ball of solid steel, meanwhile, is likely to shatter everything else. A ball of rubber can be dropped/thrown quite safely. Do note though, that I shall not be responsible for shattered chandeliers, smashed glasses (drinking glasses, reading glasses, glass balls, etc...), holes in windows, and any other possible damages resulting directly or indirectly from dropping or throwing a rubber ball.

Ok, now you can go ahead and experiment.






Go on!

Chess gang meet-up (Mar 09)

Jia Chuan is back for a two weeks break. As per usual practice, it was the perfect excuse to meet up for lunch and chess! And seeing as Hon's birthday was merely a week ago, we decided to include a belated birthday celebration for him!

Esmirada Orchard was chosen as the venue from an initial shortlist of three. I was quite excited to eat there as I hadn't been there before. It helped that I had read about their lunch promotion with Citibank, which means that we could get a good discount for our meal! :D

The plan was to meet at Orchard MRT at 12 to get Hon's birthday card signed, before he reaches at the 'actual' meeting time of 12:30. Shi Qin was pretty late, and we were initially worried that he would spoil our plans by being later than Hon. Thankfully, our worries were unfounded. Hon was over 10mins late. When queried, he gave a very interesting response:

"I was late because I left my house late."

-.-" Oh. Wow. I resisted an urge to laugh out.

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The metal cover of the menu. I like how the rust gave the restaurant name a nice highlight.

I was quite impressed by the decor at Esmirada Orchard. The instant I stepped in, I was reminded of Hogwarts Castle in the Harry Potter movies. If only they had used chalices instead of glasses.

We were disappointed to learn that the Citibank cards discount only applies to their ala carte items and not for the set lunch. Nonetheless, most of us decided to go for the set lunch. I had a two-course set with a main course of roasted chicken and warm chocolate cake and walnut maple ice-cream for dessert.

The chicken turned out quite burnt, and I had to spend quite a bit of time slicing / chipping off the charred bits. Otherwise the taste was good. I loved the crispiness of the potato wedges, though they were a tad too salty for me.

Unlike the main course, dessert was great! The warm chocolate cake was delightfully sweet, and combined well with the ice-cream, while the walnuts provided a good juxtaposition of textures.

Hon's birthday cake was yet another chocolate cake. It lost out to Esmirada's offering, but was still good. By then, everyone was pretty full, and being the cake-lover that I am, I was glad to have more of it. ;P

Non-sequitur: The three lychees in each glass of Cher's Lychee Martini were pierced with one of these plastic sword. Very interesting!

Lunch was followed by some browsing and shopping at Borders, before we proceeded to Cairnhill CC for our long-awaited chess session!

(I ended my day with more cake during my grandma's birthday celebration at night. No, it was not chocolate cake.)

Wei Ting's Wedding Dinner

First wedding dinner of the year(and I already know it's not going to be the last)!

Yesterday's dinner at Oriental Mandarin Hotel was interesting in that the menu departed from the usual wedding fare I had been accustomed to. An example is the 2nd course(out of nine), Double boiled shark's fin soup with chicken. Unlike the shark's fin soup that we commonly find at Chinese wedding banquets, this one is not so thick, and it contains one small abalone, one dried scallop, and chicken on top of the leading character - shark's fin.

My favourite dish last night was the Baked fillet of cod in superior teriyaki sauce. One huge chunk of juicy fried cod with a very compatible sauce. Marvellous. I can eat that everyday, every meal. Heck, I feel like eating it now.

The Crispy king prawn was quite a disappointment though. The presentation was excellent, unfortunately, it wasn't as crispy as it looked, and in fact, turned out a tad tough. Many had difficulty removing it from the skewer.

Hmm... Close up, it looks rather like a worm doesn't it? o.O

Right up next is the deep fried pork ribs glazed with honey. The fatty part was an indulgent delight; the meat was too tough once again.

Here's a closer look...

And finally, for dessert, we had these two slices of cake below. The brown one is chocolate mousse, but I'm not sure what the yellow one is made of. It has a nice tangy flavour though. The orange bits at the side was mango.

And of course, a photo of the groom with a back view of the bride (my cousin Wei Ting).

Overall, I think the food presentation was great, but the taste and texture of the food have lots of room for improvement. Service too, wasn't fantastic. Although we were served for every dish, topping up of drinks wasn't as prompt as I would like. In fact, no one topped up my iced lemon tee; I merely got a new glass when before the toasting session. I love the washroom though. Spacious, clean, dry, with an attendant to boot! Towels were provided for us to dry our hands.

And finally, the souvenir for the evening:

Very interesting...