Interesting website from Taiwan

The below link is a fren who send it to me and I found it quite interesting.

http://tw.superfate.com/channel_fortune/

This link to a website which from considering your time of birth predict your fortune as well as other aspects in life.

Interesting for trying out though not sure how much is true.

Do give it a try. Some more you are able to translact to the English version as well.

Opinion on Euro 2008

Tonight is the final between Germany vs Spain. It should be an entertaining final as both teams have been playing attacking football throughout the tournament.

One of the more refreshing thing in this tournament is the determination by the majority of teams to play attacking football. They will not sit back after taking a goal lead. They will go for the kill and try to claim a decisive win.

In this tournament, one of the surprise so far is the performance of the Russian team. Excluding the first match and the semi final defect both times to Spain, they were really outstanding against the rest of the teams. One of the best matches was the Holland vs Russia game. It was end to end stuff and the passing movement was so fluid.

The other surprise team is tonight finalist Spain. The usual under achiever is playing some of the most fluid football and in my opinion when Cesc Fabregas is playing Spain play a level of football that no team could cope with.

The disappointing teams in this tournament are some of the big guns such as the aging Italy and France sides as well as the Czeh republic.

For the first two teams, I felt that they were counting on too many of their aging stars to pull them through. This is especially true for France which had many of the first team players were from previous world cup and euro teams.

For the Czeh side, they were unlucky in their final game vs Germany as I felt that they had a very strong midfield especially with Modric in the team. He is really outstanding and will be a great addition for Spurs in the coming season in the EPL.

There is no real standout player in this tournament so far and it seems like the team is been given precedence ahead of individualism.

May the best team win the final

Lunch at Sabai ( Thai Cuisine)

This is really a very belated article as have not work on it since April.

I had brought my mum and relatives to the Thai restaurant located at Takashimaya level 4. The name of the restaurant is Sabai and it was featured in a newspaper review. Hence the decision to bring them there as firstly my mum like Thai food and secondly going to try a new place.

The below is a picture of the entrance.

A picture of one of the displays in the interior of the place.

After reviewing the menu, we decided to order a few items to share which are shown in the following photos.

The first dish to arrive is the seafood tom yum soup. The soup is delivered on top of a flame to ensure the soup is still hot when is served to us.

As can be seen, the soup is very clear which does not look very hot. However believe me when we had the soup it was really spicy. The soup was spicy enough and it had a sufficient sourness which give a very strong flavour and unforgettable flavour.

This was really a very excellent soup.

The next dish is the chicken fried with dried chili. This chicken was deep fried to a crisp and it went well with the dried chili.
The next dish is the boneless whole grouper cooked in Thai sauce. This dish was one of the best I had. They had debone the fish from the tail to nearly the head and they had curved up the meat and deep fried it. Hence from the fist glance of the picture, it looks like there is only the fish head.

The meat was very tender on the interior in spite of the exterior was very crispy and the sauce complimented the fish taste very well.

The below is the scallop cooked in a dry curry style. This was the dish which was not up to the expectation. There was nothing outstanding in this dish.

The below is the sambal Kang Kong. It was quite good.


The below is the deset buffet spread which is charged at 8 bucks. There is about 15 different desert items to choose from. My family really love the desert as it was very well prepared especially for the deserts which contained coconut milk.

In my opinion, if you are a desert loving person, you should have it. The sequent photos are some of the items that were taken from the selection.

In summary, my family really enjoyed the food and mention it was one of the best Thai food they have had. The majority of the dishes were excellent. The only downside is the pricing is on the expensive range.

Sample of local food (Bukit Timah Hawker Centre)

This article is about my recent visit to the Bukit Timah Hawker Centre. Actually it was my first visit there. It is a two storey building with the ground floor been a traditional wet market ( less common nowadays) and the second floor is the hawker centre.

The hawker centre had about 40 stalls selling a variety of local delights. The below is what my frens and I had for lunch.

The below is the wonton and char siew noodle. The noodles' texture was quite good and the sauce base of black sauce and chilli compliment the noodles quite nicely. The char siew is also quite good.
The next picture is the fried carrot cake. This version is the one fried without the sweet sauce. As can be seen below, the exterior is fried to a crisp and the inside is soft and moist. ( unlike the sweet version)

The one that we bought was actually quite good although it would have been better if the exterior is a bit more crispy.

The following picture is the satay been hoon. It seem to be very popular as there was a long queue of people. My fren commented that the flavour was very good and was worth eating. ( should try it out next time, hopefully the queue is not so long)
The below is the char kuey teow. ( Singapore version) It was fried with cockles and fish cake and most importnatly it was fried with lard which give the dish the extra kick. It was alright although I still prefer the penang style of char kuey teow.
The below is the rojak. This is something quite commonly found in hawker centre. This is a chinese version. There is also the Indian rojak which is something like the chinese Ngo Hiang where there are a lot of fried items.
The last picture is a local desert.

Anyway I feel that if you happen to be in the area, you could drop by and try the large variety of local delights.

Unique buffet at Inter-continental Hotel

This is an article which has been on hold for too long. Actually I had went there a few months ago. It was in the intercontinental hotel and my fren mention that it was not a bad place to go for buffet.

Anyway the theme of the buffet is mainly seafood buffet and the style of cooking is more towards the European style of cooking which is a bit unusual. The name of the cafe is as shown below: Olive Tree.

The below is a picture of the cold cut selection. The carving of the Christmas Tree using ice was an interesting concept and on the ice bed below, there were cold crabs, rock oysters, poached prawns, scallop in shell with olive oil and some other shell fish as well.

The photo below, is the bread selection which will go well with the lobster soup available. See the many variety of breads.

The following 3 pictures are some of the appetizers that was available. Personally, some of which I dare not try as it looks very unusual from what I am usually accustomed. Guess must be European style cooking.

The next section will be covering the main course items. The below pictures are some photos of the various main courses.

If you are wondering what is the above picture, it is actually stewed venison meat. It was very rich in flavour and the meat was very tender.

The above picture is a whole salmon that have been sliced open and you could pick which part of the salmon you would like to try. A very interesting presentation hence using it as my blog opening picture.

The above is the Spanish speciality rice which is rice cooked in a seafood broth. In this dish, they cooked it with prawns, crab, mussels and other seafood. I have watched a documentary about it before, they put the seafood in first to simmer to create a very rich stock before the rice is entered and it is left to boil till it becomes relatively dry. It was very flavourful and quite a good first impression of the dish.

They also have one section where there a few fresh seafood items which you could choose from and the chef will prepare it on the spot. They use white wine in the preparation. Excellent dish.

The below is the lobster soup which I mention earlier.

The below is a sample of the items which I picked from the cold cut section.
The below are some of the sweets available. Actually there was a round table in which all the various sweets are placed. They had someone available to prepare crepe on the spot for you as well as hot chocolate. There were also many cakes and fruits available. The cakes in general were ok but not really outstanding though. However I love the crepe !

The last item below is the complimentary coffee.
It was a really interesting experience and maybe in future would like to have something unusual and willing to splurge a bit, this could be a possible location.

Dinner at Bottle Tree Village

The below is a review of the Bottle Tree Village in the Sembawang Park. You can take a bus and alight of at the entrance of Sembawang park and walk in, although it is not recommended.

It is about a 15 mins walk from the main road to the place. The below picture is the picture of the food place and the next picture is the view facing out to the sea. Such a smoothing view.



My friend and I decided to order a few dishes to try out since it is our first visit to the place. The below pictures are the dishes that we ordered.

The first dish is the satay. It was ok but nothing really outstanding. The meat was grilled to quite tender. The only downside was the meat on the satay was not really a lot. Personally I think I have tried in my opinion better satay at other places. Eg: Fisherman Village at Pasir Ris or the satay at the Beach Road Market.

The above is the sambal Kang Kong. My fren found it not spicy enough. Personally I concur with his opinion. It did not have the spiciness.

The above is the fried cuttlefish. This is a dish not likely found during new year as the direct cantonese translation of the name of the dish is to be fired from work. My fren found it a bit tasteless which I agree. However I found the texture of the dish to be ok. It would have been better if the batter used had a stronger flavour.

The above is the fish maw soup which was the best dish of the night. the soup was tasty and the fish maw was also very nice. The soup was a bit too peppery.

The last dish is the prawn fried with salted egg yolk. It was an unsure interpretation of the dish as the normal one that I had usually have the salted egg fried with the prawns. As per the picture, the egg yolk is placed right in the centre and surrounding it is the prawn which is coated with a batter. The batter also could do with more favouring.

In general, the experience was not bad although the price would be steeper than the typical zi char stall mainly due to the fact that you can have your meal near the sea.

Opinion on Grand Slam Sunday in the EPL: Manu vs Liverpool and Chelsea vs Arsenal

In two days time, it will be what is term as Grand Slam Sunday as the top four teams in the EPL will battle it out against each other which will have a huge bearing to where the championship will be heading to.



The below is the screenshot of the current table as of the 22/3/08. Currently in first is Manu with a 3 point lead. They are followed closely by Arsenal and Chelsea and slightly further back is Liverpool who has regained their form over the last few weeks.

The first match to preview is the Manu vs Liverpool game. This is in normal times a very intensive game but to add on to the intensity of this game is the timing of the game as well as the gap at the top.

In recent weeks, after a mid-season slump, Liverpool has hit the road and is back in a big way. They have recently went on a run of 7 successive wins and are in buoyant mode as they are scoring for fun with the new front pairing of Torres and Gerrard as the free role attacking midfielder. A win at their bitter rivals Manu would provide an additional boost to the Liverpool players that they may come out of nowhere and win the League title.

On the other hand, Manu in the last few games have developed a worrying wastefulness in front of goal which led to the elimination from the FA cup and the narrow wins against Bolton and Derby which in all honesty are quite fragile in terms of their defence. Only the individual brillance of Ronaldo is driving the team towards the Championship.

Therefore in a way we could say this could be one of the worst time for Manu to meet Liverpool. The situation would have been much difference if the fixture was a month ago.

The below is my opinion on what are the potential problem that Manu could face .

1. If Manu regular center half pairing is not able to recover in time for the game, Torres could have a field day in attacking Manu if he is on the ball as the replacement will have a harder time coping with the brilliant running of Torres and Gerard.
2. In recent games, Fergi has been trying out a number of combination for centre midfield. If the combination is not selected with utmost care, Liverpool which has an abundance of talent in centre midfield ( Javier Mascherano and Xabi Alonso) will dominate the center midfield. If that happens, Manu will be in big trouble.
3. Another area of concern would be the choice of the wingers. If they choose both Nani and Ronaldo, there is a high chance that these players will take the ball and charge to opposition territory. This is more of a direct route and will lead to less intricate passing in the midfield which is something useful to help remove the attention of the opposition players. Another potential weakness about the direct route is that a lot of the manu midfielders will go up and support and if Liverpool are able to take the ball of the dribblers, it will lead to a rapid counter-attack which Liverpool are very good at.
4. In attack, Manu stiker has hit a lean spell with the exception of Ronaldo, Liverpool could mark Ronaldo out and Manu would effectively be toothless in attack as they lack a finisher upfront. ( Someone in the mold of Ruud)

The below are the potential problem that Liverpool could face:

1. Ronaldo. He is the main threat that they have to watch out and they cannot afford to give too many direct free-kicks from 25 to 30 yards out.
2. If for some reason, Gerard and Torres are not on top form, it will be hard for liverpool to sustain attacking pressure on Manu defence. These two players performance will likely determined the performance of Liverpool.
3. Rafa himself. He has to decide on his team setup and the mentality they approach the game. A wrong choice in midfielder could be critical to Liverpool.

Based on the past history, Liverpool has not beaten manu in the league for a few years already and their last win was 2 years ago in an FA cup tie. However this game will be very close and to be honest during the last few meetings with Liverpool, Manu rode their luck and won games with a very late goal from John O'Shea last year.

As a Manu fan, I am hoping that we can continue the winning streak against Liverpool but it will be a very tough matchup. ( Doubt that there will be many goals)

For the second game between Chelsea vs Arsenal, it will be another tight affair. Chelsea has not lost at home for a very long time. It is a fortress for them.

In the recent matches, Chelsea defence has not looked so solid as evident from the last outing against Tottenham which they considered 3 goals from set play which previously Chelsea was fantastic at defending it. However their attack is still very strong and with Joe Cole and Frank Lampard in hot form, they will cause any defence problems.

Arsenal in the last few weeks with the exception of the Milan game has not been outstanding. They have drawn 3 times in a row against opposition that they were expected to beat. The surprising thing is that in these 3 games, Arsenal did not manage to dominate the games for long period and also need not create their usual array of chances for their forwards to finish.

Based strictly on form, Chelsea should have the upper hand since they are also at home. However Arsenal is one team you do not write off as can be seen from their performance against Milan on their day, they are nearly unplayable.

Therefore I have a sneaky feeling that this match will be a draw. ( Maybe because I am a Manu fan and the best result is a draw :)

Anyway it will be a great Sunday evening of top class football although goals could be a premium.