Spider-man 3 Official Teaser Trailer

Venom and Sandman are coming!

Oldboy...

Digging around the net led me to the homepage of my old school in Singapore...

CLICK CLICK

Things have changed somewhat but some of the teachers are still there!

I still remember the stone grey uniforms and the funny 'nipple protector' buttons. But the skirts were really short...

It was a bitter sweet time but I admit I didn't make the best of it.

Dinner Vs Dinner

Comparing my dinner from 2 nights ago and my dinner last night...

Ah the famous cha cheong meen from Esquire Kitchen... I like it very much with the tauchew chili they give. Koreans absolutely love this dish and it's as ubiquitous as tukpokki in their country. They call it jajiangmyon and their version is slightly sweeter and oilier.





In contrast, last night I had taichow at Lucky in Section 17, Sentosa area. I dare you to find a better hamchoy taufu tong in PJ. The marmite prawns were excellent too! Plus kangkong belacan to top it all off...







Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Superman Makes A Triumphant Return

  

Review And Spoilers Below

Being a Gen-X kid, I grew up watching the 4 sometimes great movies of Superman back in the early 80s. After having watched reruns of the George Reeves version on TV, Christopher Reeve was a god to us and we really believed a man could fly.

With Bryan Singer's new version, my heart pounded excitedly when the opening credits and the thumping score of John Williams played from the silver screen. It was a GOOD opening and one that justified the legend of Superman.

Clocking almost 3 hours long, I found myself enjoying this flick... even though there are some flaws. The movie melds elements from the earlier Supes movies as well as some elements from the DC comics. Gone are the plastic wrap symbol used to capture General Zod in Superman 2 and the Great Wall Of China building vision of Superman 4... but Superman is now closer to the almost infinite strength and speed of Superman in the comics. Brandon Routh, though looking younger than Superman should, does a good job... and I enjoyed seeing him in the role. I did not like Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane and the kid spoilt it a bit for me (Lois having a kid is not canon in the comics). I thought to myself that for this first movie, they had to weaken Supes in order to give him a bit of challenge... I hope for the next one, they put in some supervillains!

There were some irritating moments in the movie. Too many scenes with 'ground shaking, oh-shit-something-big-is-coming scenes' among other things...

Anyway, go watch the movie... some parts may be a bit sappy (you can hear bits of the old Love Theme in there) and some parts are reminiscent of Titanic (UGH!) but overall, it's a good watch!

Blast From My Past Pt7 - Joyful lazy memories

I long for the days when I would go to Padang Merdeka in Melaka for a 6am morning jog and then roti canai after that. Or when I would kick around a ball with my cousins and friends at the field. Then, a man in a straw hat would lug around a big biscuit tin filled with Menglembu kacang. A RM1.00 worth of kacang would come wrapped in newspaper. Those days, the indian kacang putih men would still go around carrying a special table on their heads. These tables would have different compartments filled with groundnuts and vadai with green chillies (damn syiok).

In the afternoons, as we lazed about at home, the old lady kuih vendor would go around the neighbourhood peddling her wares using the old 'kandar' i.e. 2 rattan baskets on each end of a long wooden staff on her shoulder. Satay vendors would go around town selling their offerings in a similar manner... they would carry around the charcoal grills as well as small stools for customers to sit/squat on at the side of the road as they dug into the satay.

As kids, we found various ways of entertaining ourselves in the afternoons; playing games like variants of hopscotch and the peculiar 'AEIOU - Benggali I Love You' game.

The sugar cane man had lots of junkfood for sale... from the red pickled papayas to satay fish on sticks. The kedai runcit owners back then kept their small change in a Milo tin which is attached to a pulley at the ceiling and a weight would hold it up away from thieving hands. 10sen those days could buy you a handful of Jacob's Cream Crackers (which tasted much better before the 'new' formulas were implemented). Then again, 4 sweets when for 10 sen only. Ice kacang was 50 sen.

I had weird habits when I was a kid... I did stupid stunts like running in front of oncoming lorries just to hear the drivers horn and swear at me. I also liked to play with the cangkul (hoe) a lot in the backyard. I would go out in the searing heat of 1pm and play with the soil at the back of the house with the cangkul and didn't seem to care if I developed blisters on my hands.

I loved sitting through the slide show advertisements before a movie in the old cinemas. These slides would be filled with ads from various retailers in the vicinity of the cinema. Almost always you would get a jeweller or optician advertising their wares. Some of these old colourful slides came with a voiceover. Then after these slides, we would get the liquor advertisements. Some of the more memorable ones are the ones by Guiness Stout (Ungelete Nalete or something like that) - Guiness Stout Is Good For You! These adverts also featured a lot before and during the Hindi/Tamil movies slot on Saturday afternoons on RTM2. Another that was close to my heart was the Anglia Sandy one which featured that bald guy who used to play Bong the English teaching clown on TV Pendidikan.

Ah well...

Dragon Tiger Gate

Looking forward to the upcoming Donnie Yen movie, Dragon Tiger Gate (Loong Fu Moon).

Weird dreams

I had a pretty weird dream a few days back. I dreamt I bought a watch with a tourbillon costing RM100,000. Somehow, I used a credit card for the purchase and the purchase was approved by my bank. I was ecstatic for a few moments but a few minutes later, reality sank. It was extremely ironic for reality to sink in a dream... but it did happen. I realized that there was no way I was going to afford paying the installments for the RM100,000 purchase of the watch. Horror-struck, I willed myself to wake up... and it was time to go to work...

Vader Lightsaber

Playing with Youtube is fun!

Gundam Stamen RX-78GP03S

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Proof that ANYTHING can be found on Wikipedia nowadays

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Damn cool watchmaking

Ever since I got involved with watches, I always dreamt of having the right skills of watchmaking. Having disassembled a watch before using the correct procedures in a watchmaker's lab, I understand how difficult it is to acquire these skills. Not only must you be mechanically adept, your hand control must be the same as a surgeon. Special handmade tools are also used since regular tools from the hardware shop cannot be used on the macro level of watch components.

Anyway, please read this guy's journey as a hobbyist watchmaker and how his own creation came to fruition. Salute!

http://web.ticino.com/dcorson/watch/index.html

Moritomo Restaurant

I've been a regular at this hidden restaurant (at 1 Utama) for a long time. Moritomo means forest friend as is managed by Jusco.

This is what I normally have...

Cold noodles... I love all shots of Japanese and Chinese cold noodles but dislike Korean cold noodles naeng myon because they use some sticky mung bean noodles. Anyway for Japanese cold noodles, they come in many forms - soba, cha soba, udon, somen, hiyamugi and inaniwa udon are some of them. The one below is cha soba (green tea buck wheat noodles).



Then some teriyaki salmon... I just LOVE crispy salmon skin and leave it to the last to swallow.



Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Freedom Gundam

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

So bloody addictive...

CLICK HERE FOR AN EXPLOSION OF TASTE!

You're Pitiful

Weird Al Yankovic's parody of You're Beautiful is hilarious!!!

Catch the MP3 here.

Here are the lyrics...

My life is brilliant

What? Was I too early?
Oh, sorry
Should I
Do you wanna start over?
Or keep going?
OK.
Now? Now?

My life is brilliant
Your life's a joke
You're just pathetic
You're always broke

Your homemade Star Trek uniform
Really ain't impressing me
You're suffering from delusions of
Adequacy

You're pitiful
You're pitiful
You're pitiful
It's true

Never had a date
That you couldn't inflate
And you smell repulsive too
What a bummer being you

Well you just can't dance
And forget romance
Everybody you know
Still calls you "Fartypants"

But you'll always have a job
Well, I mean
As long as you still can work
That Slurpee machine

You're pitiful
You're pitiful
You're pitiful
It's true

You're half undressed
Eating chips off your chest
While you're playin' Halo 2
Noone's classier than you

La la la la
La la la la
La la la la
Loser

You're pitiful
You're pitiful
You're pitiful
It's true

Your dog would much rather
Play fetch by itself
You still live with your mom
And you're forty two

Guess you'll never grow a clue
Well, it just sucks to be you

Kangsane At The Korean Village

The Korean Village is a BIG bunch of shophouses located adjacent to One Ampang Avenue opposite Ampang Point. There are a ton of authentic Korean restaurants there. The challenge is to find one that is good. I've been a regular of Kangsane for a long time and absolutely love their food. Kangsane is located on the same row as Chalet Suisse... somewhere in between Hanwoori Restaurant and PhiliMart. Most of these shops have Korean staff able to speak both Korean and Mandarin. This is what I normally have...

Normally you get a good mix of panchan (side dishes). If you want to replenish the side dishes, you can always ask them in Korean, "Panchan tojuseyo!" or if you want specifically more kimchi, then just "Kimchi tojuseyo!"



You will find similar water bottles everywhere in Korea as well...



I ordered some grilled mackerel. It comes with soy sauce and wasabi for dipping.



A DEFINITE MUST HAVE is their kimchijigge (kimchee cheegay) which is kimchi stew. Their version is super kao... very spicy and superb!



I also ordered soon dooboo the last time around. It's a pot of clam soup with lots of taufu and egg. This dish is mildly spicy.



The meal, for me, cannot be complete without bekseju (pecksayjoo) which in Mandarin is paisuijiu (called 100 yr liquor because it aims to give long life). It has some ginseng in it and tastes much better than soju (which is more like vodka). Lovely to quaff when cold. Remember to observe Korean drinking traditions hehehe...



The aftermath... (note this meal is just nice for 2 people with large appetites)



Burp!

Now that they've started to serve marinated kalbi (bbq beef rib meat), I will try that the next time round for sure! Other dishes to try at Kangsane are

- buddaejigge (boodaycheegay) aka army stew which has lots of spam and sausages
- goon mandu which is grilled dumplings
- dwenjangjigge (twenchangcheegay) which is bean paste stew
- tukpokki (topoki) which is as ubiquitous in Korea as char kuay teow is here. Basically strips of rice cakes sauteed in chili paste

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Malacca is all about Eating...

Melaka food is not only about chicken rice ball and satay celup. There's a lot that locals eat that are unfamiliar to non Melakans. Anyway, it's always good to stare at bamboo chopsticks and bottles of condiments while waiting for my noodles...



Hee kiau mee, as some of you might know, is one of my perpetual favourites. It's teochew styled fishball noodles with fish wantan and funky but delicious red coloured fish cake. For the konlou version, you get to pour as much teochew chili sauce as you want to mix with the noodles.



Since I didn't have breakfast that day, I needed to have more than just the noodles... so a packet of Melaka style sieu mai accompanied by friend spring rolls and nogr hiong (meat rolls). These sieu mai are very smooth and soft unlike the ones you get at the dimsum shop. I could pop them in all day!



Dinner came and I came across perhaps the most apt pairing in the world...



Nyonya food was on the menu so we had kacang panjang fried in belacan...



Fried taufu...



And of course, ikan chili garam, which is so simple to cook, yet so DELICIOUS!



Some fishball soup as well to balance the spicy food.



The next day, it was melaka style pork satay which is more savoury than the kajang variant and has a pineapple based sauce...





Hungry yet?

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Blast From My Past Pt6 - Video arcades and video games

Ah the old video arcades... ever since video game consoles overtook the performance of arcade machines and the authorities clamped down on 'illegal' arcades, it's never like it used to be...

My earliest memories of video games involve Space Invaders and the machine they had installed in my primary school's oldboys association. Then it was Scramble - the horizontal shoot em up which I loved from the old City Park arcades to the arcades of Genting Hotel (where they had table top monitors).

As I grew up, I enjoyed the Atari 2600 (while the richer kids had the Colecovision)... but it never reached the heights of true arcade experience. Pacman, Combat, Yar's Revenge, Missile Command, River Raid, Galaxian and tons of other games gave us countless hours of fun at home.

During my primary years, handhelds such as Nintendo's Game&Watch were the rage - Popeye, Mickey Mouse and Octopus gave the kids lots to shout about. G&W soon went on to games that covered multi-screens such as Oilpanic and Donkey Kong Jr. Casio's calculator with boxing game in it was REALLY quirky.

Here's a site dedicated to the once-ubiquitous Nintendo Game&Watch. And this really cool Japanese site for G&W.

Konami, Tomy and other gaming manufacturers also produced a lot of really nice LED handheld gaming devices - there was a small version of Scramble and also Lupin, etc. I owned a Gakken Amidar game and a Tomy Scramble which cost a lot of money back then.

Some other examples of these games are here and here.

I begged my parents to buy me this game which featured Dr Slump characters and played it to death. My sister got really good at it too!

God... this website holds a ton of memories for me...

Anyway fast forward to the mid 80s. I was very good at Irem's R-Type... good enough at the arcades for a crowd to build behind me sometimes. Back then, we were quite engrossed with Double Dragon, Ikari Warriors and Shinobi. Then came the big one... Capcom's Street Fighter in 1987. I cannot erase the famous phrase from my head, "What strength! But don't forget there are many guys like you ALL over the world!" It was my first experience with the Shotokan brothers and Sagat but it would not be the last. 4 years later and SFII came around. ALL the arcades had a machine of some sort. I was a mediocre player on SFII.

For while, there also emerged a whole new slew of handhelds that allowed us to play Tetris and Columns on the go (today we have Sudoku handhelds instead).

After having left Malaysia for my A Levels in Singapore and then having returned, I started to build my skills with Fatal Fury II (I didn't like the first FF that much). I spent hours at the Sungei Wang arcades with a friend. Back then the internet was not a big part of our lives yet and it was really cool when we discovered the death moves of the characters. I remember going around the arcades challenging other players with the Fatal Fury games as well as the Samurai Shodown series and the King Of Fighters series.

As technology advanced, more graphically sophisticated games appeared. It started with Virtua Fighter and Virtua Racer... then went on to the other VF series, Virtua Cop, Tekken and of course, Daytona (though I was a bigger fan of Namco's Ridge Racer series). Today's arcades are filled with music related games such as Dance Dance Revolution and Beatmania.

I never gave up on the home front though. I had a Super NES followed by the Sega Saturn, Playstation 1, Sega Dreamcast and Playstation 2. Soon, as my arcade kakis slowly dwindled, we started to play more and more games at home.

Happy Birthday Lynn!

Happy 25 Lynn! I hope to see that Seiko in WORKING order again in 25 year's time. Hoping you get the camera you wish for :P

Good Bye Tua Pek

You've had a hard life and I hope you find the peace and joy you seldom had in this life. I am deeply saddened and will miss you but am also glad that when you passed on you were in the company of loved ones. Rest In Peace my dear Tua Pek.

Glashutte Original Dinner

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

2 very significant songs for me...

Robbie's Better Man

Send someone to love me
I need to rest in arms
Keep me safe from harm
In pouring rain

Give me endless summer
Lord I fear the cold
Feel I'm getting old
Before my time

As my soul heals the shame
I will grow through this pain
Lord I'm doing all I can
To be a better man

Go easy on my conscience
'Cause it's not my fault
I know I've been told
To take the blame

Rest assured my angels
Will catch my tears
Walk me out of here
I'm in pain

As my soul heals the shame
I will grow through this pain
Lord I'm doing all I can
To be a better man

Once you've found that lover
You're homeward bound
Love is all around
Love is all around

I know some have fallen
On stony ground
But Love is all around

Send someone to love me
I need to rest in arms
Keep me safe from harm
In pouring rain

Give me endless summer
Lord I fear the cold
Feel I'm getting old
Before my time

As my soul heals the shame
I will grow through this pain
Lord I'm doin' all I can
To be a better man

Elvis' Can't Help Falling In Love

Wise men say only fools rush in
But I cant help falling in love with you
Shall I stay
Would it be a sin
If I cant help falling in love with you

Like a river flows surely to the sea
Darling so it goes
Some things are meant to be
Take my hand, take my whole life too
For I cant help falling in love with you

Like a river flows surely to the sea
Darling so it goes
Some things are meant to be
Take my hand, take my whole life too
For I cant help falling in love with you
For I cant help falling in love with you

Mum's Place in DP

The food at Mum's Place Restaurant in Damansara Perdana has always been consistent and one of my firm favourites... especially the cencaru with petai. Super spicy and savoury, it is a must have of theirs.



I normally order their 5 spice soft shell crab which is REALLY nice but a bit pricey but today I opted for their honey sotong.



The sambal belacan is awfully potent... be warned!




I normally order fishball soup to counter the heatiness of the other dishes. Refreshing!

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Hahah another funny post by TV Smith...

Bodowi... hahahahaha

Azim's Burger Shack at Rasta

The double cheese burger at Azim's Burger Shack at Rasta TTDI. The beef patties are homemade using NZ beef and look at the thick slices of cheddar (not the processed stuff you get from Kraft). Yum!!!



A large order of fries. Azim does it thick cut... excellent to gobble down as you wolf down the burger (which was almost too big for my mouth).



They also serve various fish, chicken and pasta dishes as well as ICE shisha.

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Vegetarian Food at Kwan Yin

Vegetarian food at Kwan Yin restaurant Section 17 PJ... yum... asparagus in belacan.



And their must-try... mango chicken!

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Man In The Golden Armour

GARO!!!


Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Blast From My Past Pt5 - Old TV programmes

I grew up watching TV... LOTS of TV. Back in the late 70s and early 80s, the prime entertainment a kid had at home was TV. My earliest memories of TV was of the old black and white TV we used to have at home with the rotary channel changer that would click into place as we switched channels. I remember watching Birdman in B&W. Warta Berita (I can still remember the theme song) played around 5.30pm or 6pm. When transmission was interrupted, the 'Siaran Tergendala' image would play. I was so terrified of this image since the man in the chair looked like a headless chicken.

Cumi dan Ciki featured prominently in the early colour TV years. Back then, European TVs were the rage. Before the Quintrixes of National, we had the Luxors, Grundigs and Telefunkens complete with sliding screen doors which parents could lock to prevent children from watching TV (dammit). Bing and Bong, the 2 English speaking clowns were a favourite on ETV (TV Pendidikan).

I loved the old Terrytoons which had Super Six and Deputy Dawg. Plus the older superhero cartoons like Space Ghost. Space 1999 was a hot sci-fi hit followed by Battlestar Galactica.

In the 80s, apart from the Hulk, we had 6 million dollar man (Lee Majors also went on to star in the popular Fall Guy) on TV as well as Rich Little's You Asked For It! There was also Voyagers! Oh how I loved Voyagers. I also REALLY enjoyed QED (Quentin E Deverill) and the Robin Of Sherwoodseries from the UK (which starred Jason Connery). Nasir the Saracen was so cool with his twin scimitars!

The emergence of TV3 brought forth a whole slew of TV programmes from Airwolf to A Team, from Automan to Knight Rider and from He Man to Thundercats.

On the local front, Drama Minggu Ini was a boring memory. There was Bintang RTM which gave us the talented Sudirman. Hari Ini Dalam Sejarah never failed to educate us about our past. Empat Sekawan (all 4 actors are quite old today... including Lai Meng and Ying Cheh and they all feature prominently in HVD productions now) was a staple and so were the old P Ramlee movies.

On Saturdays, my grannie made me read the Malay subtitles of Hindi movies to her as she loved them so much. It was taxing since Hindi movies are quite long (up to 3 hours)!

TVB shows were prominent during the emergence of VHS. We had Ting Lek vs Hui Man Keong in The Bund. We also had the ultra cool Loh Sei Hoi (Tse Yin) in The Shell Game.

Valuable memories indeed...

Crystal Jade Noodle House

Crystal Jade in Lot10 is fast becoming my favourite Shanghai/Beijing styled restaurant in KL. After a lazy afternoon of curry fish head, I needed a lighter meal hence my choice of CJ's noodles - very cheng mah!



Their chili oil is quite tasty... I think they put in some red hot peppers as well. It's also very potent so use sparingly!



Of course, since I love veg, I had to order their kailan yau choy... very refreshing and crunchy! I can wallop a whole plate of this!



Ah the ubiquitous siu loong bao... and I think this is the best in KL that I've eaten. Check it out!



Some noodle shots...



Szechuan beef I think...



Plain spring onion la mian allows me to enjoy the smooth springy noodles... they are indeed VERY good!



Another definite must have - their mango pudding... very refreshing!



Crystal Jade can be found in many different locations now...

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

E&O Curry Fish Head

E&O has been a favourite place for me to indulge in curry fish head ever since a friend introduced me to the place about 5 years back. Their curry is very very kau and damn shiok to drink.





A good complement to the spicy curry is of course the poh lei sang choy with oyster sauce and fried garlic.



They also serve papadams and sambal belacan. The sambal belacan is very appetizing and savoury.



E&O is located at Taman Wahyu Selayang.

Now time for a sinful afternoon nap...

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan