Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Cavalock and The Lego iPhone Fixation

If anyone ever asks me when I'm gonna get the new iPhone 5, I can honestly say "never" cos until I find me a Lego iPhone 5 case, I ain't ever gonna change my phone. I am just having too much fun (and attention) strapping various Lego figures to my iPhone. Check out the latest one that my friend gave me! Just in time for Halloween?


Like I said, I prefer the ones that come without any accessories so when I carry my iPhone around, there's no chance of any small bits dropping off. Yup, that's a Moleskin Lego notebook, with a brick attached to it so you can stick your favorite figure to it.


Speaking of Apple stuff, I decided to get the iPad mini for my Dad so he can view his wildlife pix. Ordered it online from the Apple store and strange thing is, they delivered the cover like, 2 weeks before they are gonna send me the iPad mini itself. Hmmmm ... I'm already thinking of weird things to do with cover ...

Anyway, my Dad showed up and figured I'll just post a couple of his new shots. Click one of the tabs below if you find them interesting!





Sunday, October 28, 2012

Cavalock and The Bizarre Pizza Phenomenon

After a sushi drought that lasted more than a couple months, I finally had my fix at a little joint in International Building last week. So I discovered Sushi Kanazawa tucked away on the second floor right after I had my haircut in the same building.


Saw they had an Express Lunch which promises a 10-piece sushi deal for only S$18. As you can see from the above pix, it's a pretty good meal and they even served a little edamame appetizer. Only thing that didn't really go down that well was the S$23 bill. Kinda forgot how much tax, service charge and "misc" can add up to. Gawd, I hope this ain't the first step of me turning into a cheapskate.

Alright, been awhile since I stalked the local supermarts for some unusual groceries. Saw this jar of cold and flu remedy at Isetan, have no idea whether it works or not but I bet it tastes way better than your regular cold meds.


Also spotted at Isetan, third party Nespresso capsules? Sure looks like it and they are couple bucks cheaper than the real deal.


Cold Storage also had its own share of bizarre food stuff. No way in hell will I ever touch these pizzas! Ikan bilis is actually anchovy so I guess that's possible but otah pizza? Really? No. 1 in Singapore?!? As in it beat all the other kinds of frozen pizzas? Or was it the only one in the Mackerel Fillet Otah category? And can a fillet be fish paste otah at the same time???



Also from Cold Storage, yah, I know Halloween was just over but I couldn't resist posting this. It's made-in-Italy and it actually reminded me of the 'joke' pasta I saw in Italy exactly a year ago. 'Joke' as in the funny-shaped pasta pieces. The penis-shaped ones at the tourist shops are always the funniest. <^;^>



Monday, October 22, 2012

Cavalock and The Star Wars Sprite Surprise

When I was a teenager, me late mom would heat up one them frozen chicken pies from the supermarket and I would have that for tea. I guess you could say that was my little version of frozen comfort food. So having heard bout this new joint that has got chicken pot pie on its menu, I naturally had to go try it out. Plus it being just a 10-minute walk from my apartment made it a no-brainer.


So was the chicken pot pie at Suprette along Jalan Besar Road any good? Well, it wasn't bad nor did it blow me away with chicken pie awesomeness. Although it was pretty wide (notice I said 'wide' and not 'big') pie, it wasn't very deep. I would guess the pot or pan was bout 6 inches across ... I'm thinking 6 inches cos that's bout the height of my action figures. :P


The inside was tasty enough but a little too watery for my liking. And the S$14 price tag was I thought a little more than what I would pay for a chicken pie. Still, the rest of the menu looked rather tempting and I would probably drop by again.


After all those classic vintage stuff, it's time for some retro geek! Here's something from my own stash instead of the family 'treasures'. Back in 1980, (new) Sprite ran a promo with a little sci-fi film called The Empire Strikes Back and guess which kid drank lots of Sprite that year. Inside each bottle cap, on the rubber liner was a pix from the movie. So here's my Empire Strikes Back Sprite bottle cap collection.


For all you Star Wars geeks out there, there's a rather glaring mistake in one of the caps, can you spot it? ;)





And now the moment you all have been waiting for! All two of you who gave a shot at guessing which tea set was from where. It's the answer to my last post's question!  Well, the one on the left is from China which makes the one on the right from the UK!


Thursday, October 18, 2012

Cavalock and The Iron Man Cookie Factory

Came home one nite after a boardgame session with the guys and look what I found! Iron Man cookies! Unfortunately they weren't for me. All 30 iced cookies will be on their way to a kid's birthday party by the time I post this. But I did managed to snap more than a few shots of them.


The cookies may be from my kitchen but I had nothing to do with them. As you can see below, each cookie is individually hand-painted. Pretty neat, eh?







Check this out! The cookies come with an armored escort during delivery too! I luv my action figures! For all you non-comic book fans, those are just some of various Iron Man armor that Stark has worn over the years.


Hey, I'm really digging my Home Vintage stuff so I thought I'll do another one! As a kid, growing up in my family meant taking afternoon tea breaks on an almost regular basis. I didn't really drink a lot of tea back then but it was basically a time when my late mom or aunt would yell at me to stop whenever I was doing in the afternoon (usually reading or watching TV), and grab a biscuit or chicken drumstick. Yes, really, a chicken drumstick but that's another story for another day.


Needless to say, my family kept quite an interesting collection of British tea sets. Digging through the family homes, I found more than a couple of teacups. Here's one that I posted earlier. The above one is a complete set with a pitcher, teapot etc. I actually don't remember using them at all.


Here's something fun. One of the above teacup and saucer set is made in China while the other is fine bone china that's made in the UK, can you guess which is which? :)

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Cavalock and The Matchbox Menagerie

Having spent countless hours cleaning up my old family home and 'rediscovering' a ton of vintage or retro stuff from around the world, I decided to post some of them here like I did in the last couple months. And also create a new label called 'Home Retro Vintage Stuff', hey, you think you can come up with a better name? :P


Seriously man, I still can't believe some of the stuff I have found in dusty boxes, under the dressing table, behind the kitchen cupboards, etc. I ain't kidding. There is just sooooo much more to catalog that I do honestly feel overwhelmed at times. Oh, and it would be great if you could leave a tick in the little boxes below if you find any of it interesting.

The above pix is a box bout the size of a shoebox and in it are about a hundred or more old matchboxes from the US. Like I mentioned in my earlier post, my late uncle spent most of the 70s and 80s working all over the US, and from what I just found it looked like he must have paid a visit to every darn diner and restaurant from the East Coast to the West Coast. It's definitely a very interesting find and like most of the other finds, I have no idea what to do with them! The matchsticks are all gone so maybe I could frame or stick them somewhere? Or maybe I should go sign up at one them hands and crafts courses?

Between my caregiving duties and playing my home version of American Pickers, I was fortunate to still find time to whip up something halfway decent a few hours ago.


Some cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, chopped up basil, a dash of balsamic vinegar followed by a drizzle of olive oil, toss them all up and you got a very quick, cheap yet delicious tomato salad. I thought it had a nice taste balance to it, the cheese was savory enough and the balsamic vinegar gave an appropriate little kick to the whole thing. Come on, you gotta admit, it looks pretty good! ;)


Friday, October 12, 2012

Cavalock and The Japanese Supermarket Trek

Saving the best for last, two totally awesome log cakes from the Autumn Hokkaido Fair (ends this weekend!) at Takashimaya. These are actually known as 'baumkuchen' and there's already a shop at Takashimaya basement making and selling their version of it for over a year now. Well, the ones I bought (plain and maple flavor) are from Tokachi in Hokkaido.


I guess what's special about about these two is the extra 'light' chocolate coating over the softly baked and moist sponge cake. I say it's 'light' cos it's a very, very thin coating; just enough to perk your sweet tooth up a little. Had the maple one recently and it was incredible. If you can take a closer look at the pix below, you'll see that the pieces are already individually sliced. Let's just say I didn't stop at one.


From one Japanese supermarket to another, yup, it's time to drop by my fav Japanese supermart, Meidi-Ya again. Been like two months since I been there, spotted some new yet familiar stuff.

This one is soooo cool especially if you grew up around these parts of the woods. Back in school we had made-in-China glue bottles that looked EXACTLY like the ones below. But today, the same bottles are filled with made-in-Japan face and hand cream! And cost almost 100x more!!!


More new Soft Oreos from Japan! Now in tiramisu flavor! And look who's back! Been bout two years since I saw these Shake 'n' Snack cups. Still not crazy enough to pick them up.



As always, it's not officially Autumn or even an official changing of the seasons until you see some kinda limited edition seasonal beer from Japan! And you can't have beer without some nuts. I have never seen these M&Ms packs being sold anywhere else before, have you?



Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Cavalock and The Retro Mad Men Coasters

As promised, more goodies from Takashimaya's Autumn Hokkaido Fair! It's a bottle of Japanese maccha or green tea pudding. Tasted a lot of Japanese desserts in my time but this is actually my first Japanese pudding.


Very strong green tea flavour. The texture is kinda like soft ice screen at the top. Then you get to the inside or bottom, it's more spongey. Not bad but maybe a smaller bottle or less is better for me. That's actually a pretty tall bottle I thought.



Found more retro goodness in the old family home while cleaning up the place. These colorful and I mean COLORFUL! plastic coasters are from the 1960s I believe. Was told my mom bought them while she was overseas and I remember seeing them when I was a kid. But didn't really gave them a second thought until I found them again.



You can almost picture them on the set of 'Mad Men' TV series. Check out what's engraved on the back of them. Yah, back when everyone was smoking a cigarette, I can understand if someone accidentally uses it for an ashtray.

Frankly, I'm not sure what to do with them. They are pretty small compared to today's coasters. Well, someone did offer to buy them so maybe.