Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog

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  • Eating At Home Vs Eating At A Hawker

    Eating At Home Vs Eating At A Hawker

    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

    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

    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

    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.

  • Our February Trip To Kuala Lumpur

    Our February Trip To Kuala Lumpur

    Last weekend (the weekend of the 5th – 7th), we went to Kuala Lumpur and over the last week I’ve been posting about stuff that we saw while we were up there.  We weren’t in KL for very long and we’d intended to try to make the most of our time to go see Putrajaya and the museums and art galleries if possible.

    We got there on Friday afternoon and dropped our bags at the hostel.  We stayed at Hostel Cosmopolitan again.  It’s by no means fancy, but it’s cozy, it’s got cats (which my wife enjoys) and it’s close to the monorail and good food.  Thankfully, that weird smell was gone from the air conditioner this time!

    The first thing we had to take care of was stuffing our faces.  We’ve been keeping an eye on what we eat lately but since we were sort of on vacation we decided to pig out.  We went to an eatery in Kampung Baru that we enjoyed the last time we were in Kuala Lumpur.  It didn’t disappoint!

     

     

    Another thing I really love about this place is that all that food in the photos, plus two large soft drinks, only cost 19.40 RM, which is 8.00 SGD or 5.65 USD.  That’s a real deal!  The same meal in Singapore would’ve cost about 14 SGD I think.

    Friday night was spent being lazy, watching TV and reading.  We went to bed at a decent hour though because we’d planned on getting some sightseeing done on Saturday.

    Well, as Saturday morning rolled around, dragging ourselves out of bed was very, very difficult.  And after eating breakfast we sat down in the common room area to watch TV, read and surf the net.  Well, my wife got distracted with a John Grisham book she found on the shelf and I was absorbed in Google Reader until I dozed off for about an hour.  Ya, the couch was pretty comfortable!

    Anyway, by the time we managed to get washed up and get out of the hostel the only thing we could think about was getting something to eat, and that’s when we went to KLCC and California Pizza Kitchen.  We sat around in Kinokuniya bookstore until around 8 PM, took some night photos of the Petronas Towers, and then headed back to the hostel.

    We continued being lazy, enjoying the TV until the wee hours of the morning.  Heck, we even watched one of the audition episodes of the latest American Idol season.  It was really fun watching people get up there and embarrass themselves!

    Our last day was short.  It wasn’t really a day since we spent most of it sleeping in and then traveling to the airport.  Everything went smoothly though with no problems so I’m glad about that.

    All in all, we didn’t really do much of anything at all except eat.  That’s fine by me.  Sometimes you have to just relax and let your body and mind rest.  Besides, we’ve seen quite a bit of Kuala Lumpur in previous trips.

    Anyhow, it was nice to get back home in Singapore.  There’s really no place like home, regardless of how much you enjoy the place you go to visit.

  • Singapore 2010 Chinese New Year: Luck, Decorations, Crowds & Surcharges

    Last year my wife and I missed out on seeing Chinatown at Chinese New Year’s completely.  Somehow, I got the date mixed up and we wound up going down there the day after the celebration.  This year I made sure to mark my calendar correctly.

    Luck

    We’d originally planned on eating at Bugis Junction, at the Pastamania in the food court.  We didn’t realize the place would be shut down.  In fact, almost everything was shut down.  Yoshinoya was open but I don’t care for the way the food there tastes.

    We decided to take our chances and headed on to Chinatown.  There was a hawker open across the street from the MRT exit so we walked over to it, using the pedestrian bridge to go over the road.  At the base of the stairs, hiding by the edge where the plants are, we saw this kitten:

     

    This is the year of the Tiger and a tiger is basically a big cat.  Maybe this means luck will come our way this year?  We like cats, so my wife carries around a little cat food to hand out to strays that look hungry.  We gave some to the kitten before going into the hawker to have our dinner.

    Decorations

    The reason we went down to Chinatown was to see the decorations.  The atmosphere was very lively so we wound up staying a bit longer than we’d planned.  I was really impressed with the decorations.  They were very nice looking.  It put us in a great mood and we even stopped for ice cream.  There was a guy there selling ice cream from a push cart.  He cut a slice (literally) and put it between two wafers and handed it to me wrapped in a plastic.  It was really good and only cost me 1 SGD.

    Here are some of my favorite photos.

    There weren’t as many decorations as there were at Christmas, which surprised me, but the decorations that were there were really nice.

    Crowds

    For a short while, we considered staying for the main event, but the crowds were starting to press in real tight.  We could hardly walk.  The crowds kept bottlenecking in certain areas which made it hard to get around.  Also, having so many people in such a small area was cutting out the breeze.  The place was starting to get hot, sticky, smelly and just plain unpleasant.

    The stage was set up in such a way that unless you were a special person, a VIP, and had access to the privileged seating area, you could barely see anything.  There were very few vantage points that would offer a decent view and they were packed.

    I have to wonder why the stage would be set up in the center of the road like that.  It offers such a narrow viewing area.  Wouldn’t it make more sense to set it up caddy-corner in an intersection?  A LOT more people could get a good view then, rather than just the few VIPs that were likely sitting comfortably across from the stage.

    If you’re going to have a public event, set it up so the public can actually see it.

    DSC04548

    We decided that it wasn’t worth the hassle and moved off into the side roads to look at the stuff for sale.  The crowds there were horrible too, so after fighting our way free to a major road we headed back to the MRT station and went back to Pasir Ris.

    DSC04547

    Surcharges

    Toilets

    I forget the name of the mall just outside the MRT exit in Chinatown, but they had a clever scheme set up.  I really can’t blame them because it makes sense from a business perspective, but it was still annoying.  When we were leaving we stopped in at the mall to use the restroom.  The female restroom on the lower level was conveniently closed for cleaning.  So, we searched further into the mall and found another restroom.  The difference was that it was a pay restroom.

    Like I said, I don’t really blame them, because there were a lot of people going into the mall just to use the toilet.  They have to cover the cost somehow.  But still… obvious scheme was obvious.

    Food

    The hawker we ate at on CNY Eve didn’t charge us anything extra for our meal.  When we got back to Pasir Ris and had roti prata and beer, we weren’t charged extra.

    Yesterday though, on Sunday, we went to Bedok to look for something to eat at the hawker.  We were hoping the New World Mutton stall would be open, but it was closed. There was a chicken rice hawker stall open though.  Great Wall chicken rice I think.  We ordered two plates and after our food was ready the guy told us there was an extra .50 SGD per plate as a holiday surcharge.  Thanks for letting us know up front.  At least the food was good.

    Sunday evening after jogging we passed through the hawker to get dinner.  We ordered two plates of roast pork rice.  2.50 per plate.  After the food is ready the guy says, “7 dollar”. I asked him what he was talking about and point at the sign. 2.50 and 2.50 is 5 bucks. Turns out this jackass wanted to add 1 SGD to each plate as a holiday surcharge.  I told him he should’ve put up a notice.

    Well, turns out he did.  He pointed to a tiny sheet of paper, covered in Chinese characters and prices which I had assumed was another menu, or the same menu but in Mandarin.  I just gave him a look.  I’m white.  The chances of a random white guy being able to read Mandarin are pretty damn slim.  I’m sure that there are people from a lot of other countries in Singapore that don’t read Mandarin either, which is why English is the business language. Nice calculated way of trying to pressure people into giving up more money.

    Well, I didn’t have 7 dollars on me.  We had literally just finished jogging and we brought just enough for what food usually costs plus 1 dollar for either a fee or in case I felt like having an iced kopi.  So, I told him sorry, that I only had 6 bucks, and turned and started to walk away.  Of course, the guy called me back and said 6 dollars would be ok.  I figured he would say that.  6 bucks is better than him throwing the food away.  So… haggling win for me.

    I understand the point that they’re working on a holiday, but something tells me the workers aren’t getting paid any extra.  Also, with only a few stalls open, I know they’re already making a killing picking up business from all of the other stalls that were closed. The .50 SGD extra from earlier I can accept, but 1 SGD extra on a 2.50 plate?  That’s about a 30% markup.  Seems greedy to me.

    I don’t remember this kind of surcharge being added to food last year.  Hopefully they don’t try to drag that out for the full 15 day holiday.

    All in all, it was fun to get out of the house and look around and we had a real good time seeing the decorations in Chinatown.  It reminds me of when I used to go to Chinatown in New York City as a kid.  I regret not seeing any dragon-lion dances but I’m sure they’ll be other times.  I’ve seen quite a few since being here in Singapore, especially with the opening of so many malls over the past year and a half.  Lion dances seem to be a tradition to bring luck to a newly opened store here.

    Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you all have good fortune this year!

  • To My Dearest Wife, On Valentine’s Day

    We’ve had so many good times together and made so many wonderful memories, like getting caught in the rain on the lift at Sentosa, walking along Patong Beach at night in Phuket, and you chasing me around the dining room table in the Philippines with ‘balut’.  These are memories that I’ll always cherish and, even more, I’ll cherish the fact that we have a lifetime together to make new ones.

    I couldn’t have asked for a better wife.  You’re kind, loving, beautiful and patient.  You’re good to animals and hard working.  You have a great sense of humor and you’re fun to be around.  Whether I want to watch a movie and pig out or go jog for 3 miles you’re up for it.  You let me have my choice more often than you have to.  You’re always there beside me, supporting me and motivating me to do better, whether my goal is to learn another language or gain the next level in Cafe World.

    Even when times have been tough, we’ve stuck it out together.  No matter how grim the situation, I always knew that things would be better because you were there beside me.  At the end of a hard, stressful day you were there to lay down next to.  In the morning, you greeted me with a smile.  Oh, and you always had cheerful words to keep me going like, “Stop complaining.  Life is harder in the Philippines.”  Ha ha!  So true!  You always remind me of what it is we have to be thankful for and it helps me to focus.

    So, on this day, and every day, I want you to know how much I love and cherish you’re being in my life.

    Happy Valentine’s Day darling.  I love you.

    You’re my best friend, my love, my life.

  • Kuala Lumpur Cats

    Kuala Lumpur Cats

    These are just some of the cats we saw while we were in Kuala Lumpur.

     

    This is Mr. Jinja.  He’s a cat at Hostel Cosmopolitan.

     

     

    This is Whinny, Mr. Jinja’s friend.  She also lives in Hostel Cosmopolitan.

     

     

    This cat was hanging out in an eating area in Kampung Baru, begging for scraps.  I gave it some chicken.

     

     

    This girl was working at a satay stall we stopped at for a late meal.  In fact, we got there just before they were closing.  As they started packing up, cats started showing up.  I was wondering what was going on until the girl working at the stall pulled out a bag of cat food to feed them.  She seemed really excited to see the cats, and she had a good laugh when my wife ran over to watch them and had her photo taken with them.

  • Bukit Nanas and Dang Wangi

    This area is located along the path between the Bukit Nanas monorail station and the Dang Wangi train station.

    It looked really nice so I stopped to take a few photos.  I forgot to take a picture of the name of the building that was adjacent to this outdoor area, but it had something to do with Malaysian timber, and it was also the place where I saw the Pinis Gobel boat.

    I was a little surprised to see that the path for the interchange was above ground.  I’ve gotten spoiled in Singapore where the interchange is all underground and you use tunnels to get to the other line if you have to.  I like that better because then I don’t have to deal with the sun and the lack of air conditioning.

    Anyhow, part of the trip to between the lines includes going over a major road.  There’s a pedestrian bridge.  Unfortunately, the escalator on that bridge is broken and it appears to have been that way for a long time.  None of the pedestrian bridges I’ve seen in Singapore, except maybe one on Orchard Road, have escalators so we just used the stairs.  Apparently, the average Malaysian doesn’t want to deal with that though because everyone else walked out into the road and then used a spot where the center barrier had been broken down to get through.

    I’m kinda surprised that these people want to run in traffic, but I remember seeing them doing it in Chow Kit where the traffic is a lot heavier.  They’re pretty brave, considering what a fast moving vehicle can do to the human body.

    Anyhow, we were happy to notice this on the transit map this time around.  The last time we went from KLCC to Chow Kit we went all the way to KL Sentral.  Taking this walk from one line to the other saves a lot of time and RM.

  • Misquoted By The New Paper

    Relax – An inconvenient fee: “Another frequent budget airline traveller, Mr Bradley Farless, 28, a US citizen who is visiting Asia for work and leisure, had bought a pair of tickets from Tiger Airways for a flight from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur earlier this month.

    He said: “It is not a small amount when you add it all up. And who is stopping them from increasing this amount in the future?””

    When I read this I kinda just pulled one of these numbers:

    Last month I was interviewed by phone by Veena Bharwani, a reporter for The New Paper.  She had initially contacted me by e-mail because of a Tweet I made expressing dissatisfaction with the amount being charged as a ‘convenience fee’ by Tiger Airways.

    I have no problem with what she quoted me as saying.  I just wanted to point out that journalists should be bound by a sense of integrity, to not put quotation marks around a summarization of the writer’s views and then attribute it to another person.

    Yes, I do agree that the fees are high when you add them up.  We paid a 6 dollar convenience fee per person per direction, or 24 dollars in total.  But, I didn’t use those exact words.

    I never made the second statement, even passingly.  That’s the writer trying to attribute a quote to me to validate her own opinion.  It’s not even correct English.

    I do agree with her assessment, because what is to stop them from raising the fees in the future, on the vague grounds of processing fees and some other such nonsense?  I want to just use Amazon.com as an example.  When’s the last time you made a purchase on Amazon.com and had a 6 dollar fee added onto your purchase for ‘convenience’?

    The convenience of shopping online is that there are supposed to be less fees and less hassle.  It seems to me that these fees the airlines are charging are their way of milking customers for a few extra dollars to help them edge their bottom line higher into profits.

    Here’s the fishiest part of it:  If you go to a ticketing office you can get tickets without paying the convenience fee, but you aren’t allowed to take advantage of online ‘deals’, meaning you pay more.  But, if you go online to get the ‘deal’ you have to add in the ‘convenience’ fee, which means that you’re probably paying the same as what a person at the ticket counter is paying.

    In the end, what’s the difference?

    But, back to the matter at hand, it would be good if people who make a living off of journalism learn to do it right.  Learn the art of paraphrasing.  Don’t put words in people’s mouths, even if it’s something positive.