Haagen-Dazs Boutique Ice Cream Stores in Singapore

Bradley Farless9 Comments

Haagen-Dazs Boutique Ice Cream

Singapore was the first place I got to sit down at a fancy restaurant that was designed just for the purpose of serving ice cream, like the Haagen-Dazs restaurants that are so common here in Singapore.

There are, of course, places like this in the US, but they’re mostly in major cities like New York City.  I wasn’t aware of them, so I never went to visit one.  I thought the ice cream you get in the grocery store was only available in the grocery store.

Two cones from the Marble Slab Creamery in Columbus, Georgia.
Two cones from the Marble Slab Creamery in Columbus, Georgia.

There were ice cream places I went to like Baskin Robbins, Brewster’s and Marble Slab Creamery, but these places are set up as fast food ice cream parlors.  The seats, if there were any at all, are the hard plastic kind that encourage you to enjoy your ice cream, but to do it quickly and make room for the next person.

Since I’ve never been to a Haagen-Dazs restaurant in the US I have no basis for comparison but the experience here was a good one.  The seats were cushioned and comfortable, the table we chose was low-set, and the dishes and silverware were good quality.  The ice cream was served with presentation in mind too.  So, eating Haagen-Dazs ice cream in Singapore can be a very luxury experience.

Haagen-Dazs Boutique Ice Cream 2

Unfortunately, it comes with a luxury price tag as well.  The two plates shown in this post came up to around 42 SGD (about 29 USD) and I remember being stunned at the bill.  In the US you can get a half-gallon of premium ice cream for about 13 or 14 bucks.  Or at least you could the last time I was there.  I’m finding out that a lot of foods I took for granted as being cheap in the US are a lot more expensive abroad.  I think it has a lot to do with how the corn industry is subsidized by the government in the US.  Ya, that’s kind of a weird stretch, right?  Watch Food Inc. and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

Anyway, it’s still a nice way to pamper yourself from time to time, if you have the money to spend.

Book Review: The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry

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The Templar Legacy is a book by Steve Berry that details an adventure involving American agents, holdouts of the centuries old Templar brotherhood and the quest for the Great Devise.  The Great Devise is a factual cache of treasure and knowledge that was hidden away from the French King, Phillip IV, during The Great Purge in 1307 when the Templars were wiped out for political reasons.

The story is very compelling, if a bit flimsy in parts.  Some of the characters’ actions are a bit questionable compared to how I imagine people would react (and act) in real life, but if you just take the book at face value you’ll definitely be entertained, especially if you love religious mystery books and you might even learn something new about Church history.  That’s one thing The Templar Legacy has going for it.  As I was reading it, I wasn’t sure how much of the story was based on fact and how much was based on fiction, but the author was kind enough to include a section at the end of the book detailing what parts of the story were based on history and what he made up for the sake of the fiction.

I’ve always been attracted to religious mystery stories.  I really enjoyed watching The Da Vinci Code, though I haven’t read the book yet.  I also really enjoyed reading Angels & Demons, though the movie couldn’t hold my interest for more than 20 minutes.  So, it was really easy for me to pick up The Templar Legacy and thoroughly enjoy it.

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=talovecof-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0345504410&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrReligion is one of the greatest mysteries and greatest influential forces in the world.  I think that at some point everyone realizes that there must be some greater force at work and they want to know and understand what that force is.  For Christians, that force is God.  The nature of God and Jesus Christ is a subject that this book deals heavily with.  The author takes aspects of actual history, like the Templars, the Great Purge and the Great Devise, and crafts it into a story that will both educate you (if you’re not familiar with Templar history) and cause you to question what you believe.

Some people, like the Catholic Church, ban certain items from the consumption of ‘good Catholics’ because it may make them question what the Church has said about certain subjects.  Years ago I had a friend that refused to watch the movie Stigmata with me because the Catholic Church said it wasn’t proper for good Catholics to watch it.  Personally, I think that we should all question our beliefs regularly.  It’s only through questioning what we believe that we can gain greater understanding.

If you enjoy religious mystery books, Church history, or even just a good mystery / thriller, I think The Templar Legacy will definitely be worth your time.

Smart and Contemporary Cat

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Meet the Smart and Contemporary Cat:

This cat used to hang out in the business area in Tampines and he looks sort of like he’s wearing a black suit.  We don’t know if he had a name and we didn’t really give him one.  We just always called him Smart and Contemporary Cat.  My wife would see him on her way to work every day.  I saw him myself a few times.  He was laying around by the entrance to a parking garage.

He seems to have disappeared.  We haven’t seen him lately.  Hopefully someone decided to take him home and he wasn’t run over by a car entering or exiting the car park.

Malay Wedding Reception

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In October of last year I had the opportunity to go to a Singaporean Chinese wedding reception and I was really impressed.  The food was incredible.  Everyone was dressed well.  It was formal and elegant.  It was also a sharp contrast to the Malay wedding reception we went to.  Not in a bad way of course.

I suppose the best way to put it is to say that the Malay wedding reception was more lively.  There were drums, bright colors, dancing and the atmosphere was much less formal.  I felt a bit overdressed in my fancy slacks and button up shirt.

We arrived just in time to see the groom arrive.  In fact, we were kind of lost and when we heard the drums I said, “I wonder if that’s the wedding?”  So, we walked quickly over and saw a group of guys wearing red shirts playing drums, with a guy in a light purple garment walking at the front.  Sure enough, we’d found the wedding reception.

The music was really, really cool.  I tried to take some video of the event.  You can see it embedded below.  I had a problem where my camera didn’t want to focus properly and I think it has something to do with the shade of red that was being worn by the drummers, and the red cloth that was hanging behind the bride.  My camera uses a reddish colored light to focus its picture.  Regardless, it’s worth watching if for nothing more than to hear the drummers.

In the beginning, the video shows the groom’s retinue approaching the reception hall.  Then, it shows the groom sitting on the opposite side of the hall from the bride, with one of the drummers doing a ceremonial dance.  It looks almost as if the drummer passed something off to the groom.  The last two portions are when the groom is already seated beside the bride.

Here are a few photos of the event:

Year of the Tiger decorations in front of the reception hall.

The bride, waiting on the dais next to her mother, with a fan hiding her face.

The groom at the stage, with his friends offering small envelopes (presumably with money inside) to the bride’s mother, to secure the groom’s position by his bride.

The bride and groom leaving the reception.

The car they’re taking.  They’re definitely riding in style!
We had a great time at the reception and enjoyed the music, the dancing, and the food.  I’m glad we had the chance to take part in the celebration.  It was a learning experience for us, and one I’m glad we didn’t miss out on during our stay here in Singapore.

My Fish Tanks Are Empty and my Pet Is Abandoned

Bradley Farless9 Comments

Like many people, I managed to get hooked into some games on Facebook.  You know the kind.  Cheesy flash games that mostly have no point, purpose, or conclusion.  Their goal is to get you to play as many hours as possible, and eventually to get you to spend real money on the game.  Or in other words, they’re a time-sink and a money waster.

The games that I took to are Zynga games.  They’re pretty polished.  When I first started playing them they really weren’t that bad.  Lately, though, they’re chock full of pop-ups demanding that you ‘share! share! share!’ everything you do.  Not to mention the ‘Become a Fan!’ and ‘Add More Friends!’ pop-ups.  There are so many of these pop-ups that the slight entertainment value is rapidly disappearing.  If you open one of their games and then let it sit for a few minutes, you might come back to a stack of half a dozen pop-ups wanting you to publish things to your Newsfeed or add friends.

Now, in addition to their demands to share nearly every action you perform in the game and they’re incessant demand that you ruthlessly hound your friends into jumping on the bandwagon, they’re trying to get my e-mail address.  Facebook is going to make some change to the way application notifications are handled sometime in the near future.  That’s fine with me.  What’s not fine with me is giving my e-mail address to Zynga.  I still consider my e-mail address to be a pretty private thing.  I have a personal e-mail address, an e-mail address that I tend to use for comment forms, and an e-mail address I use as a contact e-mail for my blog.  They all serve their purposes and have varying degrees of exposure.  The e-mail address I use for Facebook is my personal e-mail address, because these are my personal connections.  I’m not going to allow some Facebook flash game developer to have access to it.  Especially when they have a track record of spamming.

Zynga’s applications, and other players, generate quite a bit of ‘noise’ already in notifications, requests, and my newsfeed.  Why would I want even more ‘noise’ in my e-mail inbox?  As a cheap incentive, most of Zynga’s games are offering special items or bonuses for giving up your e-mail address.  I think my time and privacy is worth more than a special fish or a few extra game coins.  I’ll be keeping my e-mail address to myself Zynga.  Thanks, but no thanks.

In addition to all the noise Zynga games create, they’re big time-sinks.  I realized that I have to give up some of these games if I want to be able to do other things I enjoy, like reading the news, studying, exercising, eating, etc.

So, to that end, I’m putting FishVille and PetVille on the chopping block.  I’ll also be cutting back on the amount of space I use to ‘grow’ crops in FarmVille and the amount of time I invest into it as well.  There are more important things in life than fake fish, a fake pet (I already have two real ones that are a handful), and fake crops.

Hey FishVille! So long, and thanks for all the fish!  In memory of my fish tanks, some screenshots:

The only one that really has me hooked is Cafe World.  I’ve always been a sucker for cooking in games. I even had maxed cooking skill in Final Fantasy XI.  What I like about Cafe World is that it’s possible to get by without having to spend real cash.  What I don’t like about it is the number of pop-ups.  ‘Become a Fan’ it says, when I already am.  ‘Add More Friends’ it demands, when all the friends that want to play the damn thing already are.  It’s going to wear out its welcome soon too, if that keeps up.

Keep pushing the limit Zynga.  If I can quit playing World of Warcraft, don’t think I can’t give you up.

Voice of the MRT on Accents and Singlish

Bradley Farless4 Comments

I found this video on another American in Singapore’s blog.  She was doing a post on the voice behind the MRT announcements which was really neat.  Seeing the person behind the MRT voice was entertaining, but I also appreciated the first part of the video.

She makes it clear that she doesn’t approve of the taking on of accents to (I assume) try to impress people.  She also doesn’t approve of Singlish.  She thinks Singaporeans should speak clear, concise English and allow a mixed, natural accent to develop.  I agree.  The Singaporean accent should be a unique blend of the accents already present in the country, but it shouldn’t be a butchery of the English language either.

A few weeks ago, I made the observation that some foreigners tend to want to take on a Singaporean accent when they get to Singapore, because they think it’ll make them more international, or look more impressive to their peers and family / friends back in their own country.  I also noted how it instead just makes them look ridiculous.

I guess the same could be said for Singaporeans who try to take on foreign accents.  One commenter made the following comment on this YouTube video:

2Shae91:

She means a foereign accent. We’re Singaporean, our accent is British influenced but it’s not distinctly British either. Our newscasters sometimes speak with American accents which bothers me sometimes.

I agree that it’s ridiculous. I’ve said it before, though I can’t remember where, that Singaporeans should just speak and allow their natural accent to develop.  Developing a unique Singaporean accent is part of the nation building process and will help create a unique Singaporean identity.

Eating At Home Vs Eating At A Hawker

Bradley Farless3 Comments

Over dinner, my wife and I made an observation about the food we were eating.  It was heavy on vegetables and we liked it that way.  It was a home cooked meal of pork chops, broccoli, and a sinigang based soup with radish and a green, leafy vegetable.

It’s really easy to get roped into the habit of eating at the hawker all the time.  The food is good and it’s well priced.  Depending on what country you come from, you might even say it’s dirt cheap.  When you can eat a tasty, filling meal for a good price it’s hard to make yourself get into the kitchen and break out the pots and pans.

The problem with that is hawker food isn’t the healthiest choice more often than not.  Hawker dishes tend to be heavy on rice, a staple food, and light on vegetables which are necessary for a balanced diet.

Here are a few example dishes:

On top of that, most hawker food will be loaded with MSG.  MSG in small doses probably won’t do much harm, but if you fall into the habit of eating all of your meals at the hawker, or even eating there multiple times in one day, it can cause health issues.  Here’s a list of what you experience from too much MSG:

  • Headaches/migraines
  • Lethargy
  • Sleepiness
  • Anxiety
  • Panic attacks
  • Mental confusion/disorientation
  • Insomnia
  • Nausea/vomiting
  • Diarrhea
  • Stomach cramps
  • Irritable bowel syndrome
  • Bloating
  • Asthma attacks
  • Shortness of breath
  • Chest pain or tightness
  • Runny nose/sneezing
  • Extreme dryness of the mouth
  • Hives or rash
  • Palpitations
  • Flushing
  • Mouth lesions

Please follow through on this link for additional information about the hazards associated with MSG, along with who should avoid MSG.  I’ve had an MSG induced migraine on more than one occasion and it is NOT fun.

Hawker food can also have other health consequences, like higher risks of food poisoning and even death, as reported in a recent case where 152 people fell ill and 2 died from food contamination at an Indian Rojak stall at the Geylang Serai Temporary Market.

By all means, enjoy Singapore’s food culture, which is most prevalent in the country’s numerous hawkers, but be aware of the health risks and remember to eat at home more often than you eat out.  When you do the math you’re not going to pay much more, and often it’ll be less, and you’ll have more peace of mind that your body is getting what it needs.

Dapper and Thumper Cat Photo Post

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Thumper giving a weird look.

For some reason, Dapper was hugging Thumper’s head.  She didn’t seem to mind.

A close-up of the head-hugging.

I call this one “pussy sandwich”.

I used that brown bag to pack some stuff for when we went to Kuala Lumpur earlier this month.  She saw it on the bed and then took up position half inside it.  The expression on her face says, “Hey, I know what’s going on here and I don’t like it.”  Cats are smarter than people give them credit for I think.  They knew we were going to be gone for a while as soon as we pulled out our big bags and started packing them.  They got agitated, ran around a bit and then tried to stay close to us to prevent us from leaving.

Who says cats can’t be affectionate?

Singapore Budget Terminal Children’s Art Area

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If you haven’t been through Singapore’s Budget Terminal lately there’s a table set up for kids to play.  It’s one of those tables where you lay a piece of paper over an image made from raised edges.  You scribble a crayon (or pencil) across it and the picture carries over.

It’s a lot of fun!  The table was drawing a mixed crowd and when I walked up to it, it was composed of mostly adult tourists trying to get one last souvenir before getting on their flight.

Some of the designs are really interesting too.  Here’s the one I made:

Pastamania at Downtown East – GREAT Service

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This is just a short note I wanted to write to praise the customer service at Pastamania at Downtown East.

Tonight, we went up there to have dinner and there was a problem with the pizza I ordered.  Within a few minutes the manager came out, addressed the situation, apologized for the inconvenience and made sure that a replacement dish was made.

To follow up on that, he came back to let me know the pizza would be out in a few minutes and apologized again for the problem.

I was happy and impressed with the level of attention that was given to our problem.

When the replacement pizza came we finished our meal and then got up and walked out of the restaurant.

Surprisingly, we hadn’t gone more than five feet out the door when I heard the manager calling after us and running to catch up with us.  He said the problem with the food shouldn’t have happened, apologized for the extra time we had to wait, and that he hoped we’d be coming back in the future.  Additionally, he gave us a voucher for a free pizza.

That’s what I’m talking about!  This manager has a great personality and does his job well.  Pastamania in general has always had a great attitude in regard to customer service.  You can see it in how every cashier, waiter / waitress, and manager handles themselves.  Well, at the Tampines and Pasir Ris branch at least.

Despite there being something wrong with the dish I ordered, I’ll definitely be going back to the same location again.  Good service is worth repeat business.