49… 50… 51? No. 52 in total

52. That’s the number of books which me and my wife got hold of during last week’s NLB Book Sale 2006 at the Singapore Expo. Being the ever sceptical bloke that I am, I always believed that such sales are only for the kiasu and those foolhardy enough to brave the all famous “Singapore throng” at sales. It is with some wistfulness and mirth that I look back at last week’s adventure.

The shopaholic soul in me has never been fully eradicated since my crossover into adulthood. My pulse races and hands itch when I know that I can get something at a bargain. My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when I saw that NLB will be selling 300,000 titles at $2 per book. Can any bookshop beat that? Nah, don’t think so. Of course, I understood that the books on sale are more likely to be dogged eared, worn, spotted, musty, torn, bitten by pets, and all think imaginable that can happen to a book. But at $2, it’s a steal!

Planning in advance for the sale, I plotted a strategy to raid the Expo for a quick “smash and grab” operation. Armed with the layout of the sale, I planned to hit the non-fiction sections first before raiding the non-fiction sections. Rationale behind this is simple, non-fiction books are likely to be of better quality, literarily speaking, and costs a lot more in secondhand bookstores. Fiction is just fun books to stave off the blues or boredom. Non-fictions helps a person grow.

Setting the alarm to ring at an ungodly hour, i.e. anything before 8am on weekend is “ungodly”. Were still bleary eyed when I woke up. Sleepiness gave way to artificial alertness as the adrenaline started coursing through my veins. Picking up speed, I whipped up a quick breakfast while making last checks on the directions for getting to the Expo. Bathed. Ate. Changed. Out the house we went.

When we arrived, the entrance of Expo Hall 4A was already PACKED!!! Veterans of past NLB sales have arrived and is having their traidtional picnic, camping at the front of the queue. My wife and I had to content ourselves by queuing up just outside the barriers of the front queue. As seconds gave way to minutes, the crowd size grew. It grew so big that I lost sight of the end of the queue. It’s that long.

Before long, the golden gates of Hall 4A opened. A ripple of excitement swept through the crowd, already spilling beyond the open space reserved for the queue. The mood was carnival like. Parents with their kids, teenagers, aunties, uncles, and even grandparents joined in the fun. Some were armed with market trolleys, empty baby prams, while others looked ready to hop onto a plane with their hardcase luggage. All in all, an interesting view.

As the Singaporean horde charged into the hall, I am just glad that I am part of the advance party. It was utter mayhem! Owing my lack of experience, I actually had the temerity of choosing books! As the minutes ticked by, the number of books dwindled at an alarming rate. If not for my kiasu cavalier attitude,  in holding as many books as my big hands allowed, I would have ended up with nothing. Everyone was just picking up anything that looked interesting, every book is ‘good’ buy. It’s scary.

After our initial phase of attack. We retreated to regroup. Finding an empty spot on the floor, which by then is populated by an increasing number of people with their books and baskets-loads of more books, we plonked down and start sorting through our finds. Our first raid netted us around 20 books. Two-thirds of relatively good reading quality. Not to be outdone, I went back for 3 more raids. By this time, pickings were thin as the ’shelves’ were virtually empty. Yup, totally bare of books. Even books which I consider crap, such as Learning Windows 98, has been carted off by someone still using the OS.

But not all was lost. It takes patience to find the gold nugget among the silt. My last three forages yielded some interesting finds which my wife went ballistic over. Frankly I can’t tell if the books were great, I only know that they looked and felt like good books. Guess that’s what we call intuition.

In total, I think we harvested around 70 books, of which 20 were rejected. You know what, 50 books weigh a lot! I mean the back-breaking type of ‘a lot’. Lugging the 50 odd books around ain’t much fun. Guess that’s the price one has to pay for knowledge or a good bargain.

Packing up our bargains into 4 neat bags, we started searching for the queue which will lead us to the cashiers and out of the increasingly packed hall. Finding the queue was like almost impossible. Like a life snake, the queue grew and grew, snaking and looping around the entire hall. It was by sheer chance that we stumbled across the end of it. It was another hour before we reached the end of the queue. I don’t think I ever waited an hour for anything.

Queueing can be quite fun. I struck up some small talk with this Malay senior citizen. Basically, we complained at the really long queue while at the same time thanking our lucky stars to be in it. There was a kampong-like atmosphere as I and a fellow shopper helped him restacked his books into his precariously balanced basket after the books toppled. It was a moment where we were all equal beings seeking the wisdom contained in the tomes lugged around in all manner. No man or woman was richer or poorer. Smarter or less intelligent. It was that kind of moment.

I sighed a huge sigh of relieve when we reached the end of the queue. There were around 20 plus or more packing stations as library staff counted the books we bought and packed them into neat bags. A sense of satisfaction went through my being as I see my hard fought gains packed and counted. Although I left the hall $104 poorer, I will be richer in so many other ways. The books will give me much valued knowledge while the shared experience with my wife is something which I will treasure.

Yup, that’s the tale of how I bought 52 books at one go. Can anyone beat that?

Strawberry Cheese Tarts

With compliments from Luna Esa, I readily received 2 pieces of Luna Esa’s very special Strawberry Cheese Tarts. Called them so as Luna Esa herself has no real name for the pastries she so generously shared with me.

Looking at the tarts, I can tell that a lot of effort went into it. Most obvious would be the heart shaped strawberry forming the centrepiece of this artistic work of a dessert. The colours were also wonderfully balanced. The red of the jelly and strawberry mixed well with the golden glow of the cheese and the light brown finishing of the biscuit base. Nuff said. Time to taste it.

Small enough to pop into the mouth and gobble it up at one go, these tarts are made for tea parties and not brutes like me. Choosing to be more refined and Englishman like, I nibbled off half of the tart to savour the good mix of taste coming from the jelly, strawberry, cheese and biscuit.

Homemade stuff will always be special. Being a huge fan of cheesecakes, I have consumed different types of cheesecakes from cafes and restaurants, I have to say that Luna Esa’s tarts are comparatively tasty. That’s a compliment in itself since she’s not a full-time dessert chef a la Kim Sam Soon. The cheese in the tarts is nicely done. Neither too hard/dry, nor too soft/wet. Just heavenly.

I am very thankful with Luna Esa’s generosity in sharing such beautiful and tasty treats with me and Mydaemon. Looking forward to more of such tasty treats in the future.

Kam sahm nee da!!!

That’s “Thank You” in Korean. I am astounded by the overwhelming interest in all things Korean. Since my posts on my Korean BBQ experience and the My Lovely Samsoon OST, an endless stream of comments have come in. There’s advice on which K-Drama I should watch, should it be Full House or Gong, comments on whether Rain or Hyun Bin is better looking, and the best of all, the recipe for Bi Bing Bak! I am so looking forward to the last item.

Anyway, going back to the Rain vs Hyun Bin debate, here’s why I think Hyun Bin is good looking.

I have taken a look at Rain. On comparison, I still prefer Hyun Bin. Reason is simple. Rain is simply plain eye-candy. Cute, young, and very good looking. But that’s so common. Hyun Bin has something else. If you look at him from certain angles, he ain’t that cute. But there’s something about him which holds your gaze. Call it x-factor. He’s just special.

Darn, the word “Brokeback Mountain” is floating somewhere at the back of my mind. Nah…

My Lovely Samsoon OST

The music in the Korean drama My Lovely Samsoon is really catchy. So, apart from getting the 3 Xbox games below, I also got myself the My Lovely Samsoon OST cd last weekend.

How decadent of me.

Lelong! Lelong!

I have struck the motherlode!!! THREE XBOX games for $50!!! That’s exactly what I got when I went to the toy sale by Takashimaya at the Ngee Ann City “atrium’ last weekend. Originally, I was there to get a toy for my nephew. But just couldn’t find anything intellectually stimulating nor fun at the toy fair. But lo and behold… there’s something for old Uncle Fieldmarshal.

Tucked at the corner was a section selling a range of Xbox titles at $50 for 3 titles. While these are not Xbox 360 games, the titles there are still awesome. Here’s what I got. 

 

And that’s how I spend National Day 2006. Kicking and blowing up alien asses.

Yaw boh seh yoh!

That’s “hello” in Korean. Like many Singaporeans, I have been swept up in the Korean wave sweeping across Asia in the last few years. Prior to that I was a J-Pop fan. I still love J-Pop but the lack of airtime dedicated to it by our mainstream media is one reason for my acceptance, albeit ‘forced’ initially, of K-Pop.

A reason for my initial resistance to K-Pop was its, previously, synonymity with the ‘plasticky’ and fake looking props a la Taiwanese serials. What changed my impression was the visually stunning and more than authentic settings of Daejanggum or more popularly known to Singaporeans as 大长金. The fact that 大长金 chronicles, although historically inaccurately, the epic tale of a woman’s struggle against a feudalistic imperial and social system, is enough reason for me to follow it. Being a person who feels for the underdog who triumphs at the end of the day, this show was tailor made for people like me. Following 大长金 was my wife’s second offering of My Lovely Samsoon. Another wonderful Korean production.

TV serials aside, my taste buds have also started to enjoy all things Koreans. Kimchi has to be my favourite Korean dish. Leaving a sourish, spicy aftertaste in the mouth, kimchi is heavenly on its own, in soups, or taken with plain rice. That’s versatility for you.

Recently, I had the good fortune of visiting the Crystal Jade Korean BBQ and Ginseng Chicken. I had good memories of the restaurant since my first and last visit there some years back. My latest visit was a fortuitous one. Fortunate in that it was accidental since my wife, in-laws and myself were not able to make up our minds on where to have our dinner. In the end, my wife, with her insatiable appetite for Korean cuisine, came up with the fantastic idea of dining there.

Instead of ordering a la cartedishes, which I did in my first visit, we decided to take on the Set B Dinner Menu. At around $120, the set dinner for 4, consists of BBQ and several Korean dishes. Starting with the very delicious yet simple appetisers above.

The golden rimmed grill was a sight to behold when the waitress lifted up the wooden cover. Slightly oiled, the grill was heated up with a flick of a switch. As the oil started sizzling, plates laden with juicy meats started appearing on the table. There were thinly sliced beef, sliced pork shoulder meat, chicken fillet and this huge strip of beef, not sure which part it came from the cow, that ends with a huge piece of bone.

The smell was heavenly as we started BBQing the meats. My mouth was watering as the fat on the meat sizzled and crackled on the grill. My sensory apparatus were going into overdrive as my eyes, nose and ears pick up “tasty” signals. Quivering with excitement, my chopsticks began circling the helpless slices of meat. Holding me back was the need to maintain a cold and calm composure in front of my in-laws. Already having a reputation with them for being a “good eater”, taking the next step to the “greedy” level is not something I want.

Feasting on the well seasoned and perfectly BBQed meats were heavenly. Browned at the edges, the juices were locked into the meat by careful, yet continuous, turning of the meat on the grills. The meat literally melts in your mouth.

We were all stuffed by the time all 4 plates of meat were cleaned out. That’s only part of the meal. In quick succession, 3 other dishes landed on our table. There was the grilled soba fish, the Chicken Ginseng Soup and a dish consisting of fatty roasted pork and big slices of kimchi for wrapping the fatty morsels.

Shall not entice you further with their descriptions. Instead, I will show you a picture of the Ginseng Chicken Soup, plus the stuffing they cooked it with. In the foreground, we have the really tasty chicken soup with the tenderest of chicken thigh. Further back, you will see the stuffing which essentially consists of glutinous rice, chestnut, red dates, ginseng and some other herbs. The stuffing is really tasty. Can readily attest to that since I downed most of it while m wife and in-laws were distracted with conversation.

Not a drop of soup, sliver of chicken flesh, nor a grain of glutinous rice was visible after I went through the dish. Its as if the chicken, rice and soup never did exist. He… He…. Not everyone can eat as fast, or as stealthily as The Fieldmarshal.