… that Mr Bean’s Soya Bean Ice-Cream + Roti Prata = Awesomeness.

… that Dropbox is one of the best free apps (who still spells ‘applications’ nowadays?) ever. It has made sync-ing (and the word ’synchronising’ too) and sharing large amount of data across  computers so much easier and pleasurable. Why haven’t you started using dropbox too?

… that Gindaco @ Ion has the BEST TAKOYAKI IN TOWN. Seriously. It is so nice all over, a baby can probably learn to spell n-i-c-e after eating it. Like what ahdui from headphonehaven describes, it is “Crispy on the outside, moist in the inside with a rather decent cut of octopus meat, accompanied with the right amount of okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise and katsuobushi. *orgasmic*”

… that the food court at Cineleisure sells biáng biáng noodles! Haven’t tried it though. The Chinese word biáng is made up of 57 strokes, and is one of the most complex Chinese characters in contemporary usage.

… that I just watched two Asian movies (one from China, one from Taiwan) about dreams and passion.

Hear Me is good. It’s the kind of movie that makes you feel warm and happy inside. It reminds me of Cape No. 7. It explores themes such as sibling love and overcoming obstacles (in this case, being deaf) to achieve something in life. It’s a movie that requires a bit of patience and effort from the audience to read the subtitles as most of the dialogues are presented in sign language, but the sincere performance and much-welcomed comic timing of some supporting casts eventually makes you forget about the read and draws you intothe enjoyable light-hearted story. The female lead, Ivy Chen, is so cute! =D

8.5 / 10

The only obvious evidence of Stephen Chow’s involvement in the comedy Jump is during the opening credits, when it said ‘Stephen Chow presents’. However, I couldn’t help but feel the whole movie has his signature ‘Mo Lei Tau’ style stamped all over. It’s a straightforward story about a village girl who enters a modern city to learn how to dance. She encounters quite a fair bit of obstacles along the way but eventually manages to impress the right people with her gung-ho attitude towards dancing. It’s quite entertaining and well-shot, but you can’t help but feel empty when the credits start rolling and wondering why the movie didn’t have more dance sequences.

7 / 10

What is a ‘Taste-of-Heaven’? Food/drinks that instantly teleport you to the happiest place mentally, spiritually and emotionally. Here’s my top 5!

1. Max Brenner’s Melting Marshmallow Crêpe

I’ve always liked desserts that involve fusion of the hot and cold (eg: Dark Devotion from TCC, which combines hot chocolate brownie with vanilla ice-cream). Fusions like that are what I call heavenly fusion, because they are so orgasmically satisfying that they send you to both the highest and lowest temperatures at the same time!

Here we have a thin crêpe filled with nearly overflowing warm melted marshmallow, top that with the cooling vanilla ice-cream, sweet chocolate sauce, crunchy chocolate bits, fresh slightly sour strawberries and *bonus!!* chewy gummy bears!

I would call this heavenly fusion plus, or mega heavenly fusion. All the different well-balanced ingredients complement each other in terms of taste and it’s never too chocolatey.

This is your admission ticket to paradise.

$10 + 17% service charge and gst.

Max Brenner
Esplanade Mall
8 Raffles Avenue #01-06/08

2. Ambush’s Japanese Baby Scallops with Cream Fish Roe Sauce Pasta

So how is this another mode of transport to heaven? Here’s 3 reasons:

i) Generous amount of fresh bouncy baby scallops. Chewing these with your eyes closed sends you straight into the Sea of Japan, where the gentle waves nudge and massage you in all directions. You instantly forget that you have to go back to work/school on Monday.

ii) White creamy gravy, which tastes good and isn’t too thick like those that make you sick after awhile. You might want to lick the bowl if you see any leftover.

iii) Pop pop pop! The very tiny fish roe burstin’ your mouth upon biting make the chewing experience even more exciting!

I wasn’t a fan of cream-based pasta until I met this.

Now I’m not only a fan, I’m a convert. *bows*

$11 + no extra charges

Ambush
391A Orchard Road
#B2-04 Ngee Ann City Tower A

3. Aloy Thai’s Fresh Mango with Sticky Rice & Coconut Cream

Here we have 2 types of sweetness: The lusciousness and refreshingness of the mango, and the subtleness and fragrance of the sticky rice & coconut cream.

Chewing the mango slices feels like biting cucumber slices. Every single chew unleashes the strong delicious flavour of the juicy mango, which is the very hydration you need when you have it with the coconut cream flavoured sticky glutinous rice.

Eat both together and you have the best of both worlds.

$3 + no extra charges

Aloy Thai
100 Beach Road
#01-39/40 Shaw Tower
(closed on Public Holidays, Sunday and last Saturday of the month)

4. Aloy Thai’s Traditional Thai Iced Milk Tea

This is the milk tea that will put all local coffeeshops’ iced milk tea to shame. It is so rich (but not extremely sweet) in Thai flavour that even the large amount of ice cannot dilute and kill it. Even after all the ice have melted the sweetness remains with no noticeable drop in quality.

Every sip of the tea delivers 100% condensed milk filled sweetness with a hint of the authentic Cha Yen after taste.

Savour this milk tea with your eyes closed and you are in Thailand.

$1.30 + no extra charges

Aloy Thai
100 Beach Road
#01-39/40 Shaw Tower
(closed on Public Holidays, Sunday and last Saturday of the month)

5. N&B Snack’s Beancurd and Rice Dumplings

The goodness of rice dumplings thrown into warm beancurd oozing with strong soya bean flavour is like a dream come true to me.

Every piece of beancurd is soft, silky and smooth, and they dissolve/melt with warmth in your mouth, without those powdery residue which some low quality beancurd often leave behind.

Stirring the wonderful dessert further and you might be surprised to find not only 3… not 4 but 5 generous balls of rice dumplings with peanut fillings!

It’s so soft and good you’ll probably hate yourself.

$3 + no extra charges

N & B Snacks Fresh Soya Bean Puffs Pies
Blk 267  Serangoon Ave 3 #01-37

(find other outlet addresses here)

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Movies I’ve watched:

Confessions of a Shopaholic

I honestly think it was my mistake to watch this movie. =(

With an ordinary story (girl goes shopping, girl learns that too much shopping is bad, girl meets guy, happy ending) and hardly any humour, I wondered what’s the purpose of watching it.

There are definitely better chick flicks than this.

3 / 10

***

Departures

The movie is not as serious as the poster looks, and is quite a funny movie for the first half portion with well meaning humour (not slapstick). It turns into a powerful drama towards the end of the show.

This movie nearly made me want to be a professional embalmer/casketer for a few minutes. It’s one of the professions that people often frown upon and no one really wants to take up. Departures has made me look at these impressive people in a different light, and with greater respect.

Impressive performances by Masahiro Motoki and Ryoko Hirosue, an entertaining and meaningful story about life and death, as well as excellent cello dominated soundtrack totally made the movie ticket price I paid for worth it.

9 / 10

***

Detroit Metal City

An extremely crazy show from start to finish, this show is so unbelievably wacky you’ll laugh.

This movie is about pursuing your dreams and about masks we all wear. Nice light hearted show.

7 / 10

***

Paul Blart: Mall Cop

This movie is filled with slapstick and offensive jokes (which are not very funny actually) in an attempt to distract you from the cliche story.

But a cliche story is a cliche story.

All in all, it’s another turn-your-brain-off movie that nearly manages to entertain, but ends up burning your 2 hours away.

5 / 10