Friday, March 18, 2016

Thursday, March 10, 2016

New gadget... Casio Projector XJ-V1

(Quite impulse) buy of this Casio projector to replace my faulty one... this is supposedly a lamp-free projector and makes use of laser (!!!) and LED hybrid light source... have to go down to Funan to collect a free wireless dongle (the stock for IT Show will only reach at ard 4pm, which I cannot wait till so late), and while at Funan, was told the free HDMI cable was not in the box due to a "packing error" and they still sent to me... hmmm... I had 3 choices: this, the Epson LCD one, and Innovative small lumens (ard 800 lumens I believe)... At the fair, did not like the heat by Epson one, and also felt the dimness of the Innovative one, so in the end bought the Casio one (which happen to be the most expensive one at SGD699)... A bit regret due to the unpleasant experience and also when testing at home, found the rainbow effect to be quite annoying (not tried the eco mode though, hopefully it helps), and also afraid the physical zoom not enough to adjust (zoom down) the projection size to be small (yeap, the projection size seem to be too big), and also due to it's longer width, I now have to modify my projector rack to have a bigger rear space... sigh... so many things to do... Oh, not forgetting I still need to buy more converters and such as it has only 1 VGA (for my computer) and 1 HDMI (my DVD player)... Perhaps Epson may be a better choice but what to do since already bought....

Solar Eclipse 9 March 2016

Taken through a solar lens...


... and with luck when some heavy clouds pass by at the time when the blocking is almost around the maximum...

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Tai Wah Pork Noodle, Ah Meng Tapioca Kueh at Hong Lim Market & Food Centre

Went for yet another round of breakfast hunt at Hong Lim Market and Food Centre... This time I tried the Tai Wah Pork Noodle stall, for their bak chor mee... Pretty expensive eating here, as food gets into $4~5 or more easily...



I ordered the mee pok, and it cost me $5 (excluding the cup of kopi-o of course)...


The ingredients came in quite a variety; there is lean meat, liver (tur kuah), pork balls x3, fried sole fish(tee po??)... And the ranting starts:

(1) Soup is slightly to the sweeter side, with a slight tinge of pork smell; overall ok but nothing special
(2) Mee pok used has typical thickness (not refering to width) which my personal preference is the slightly thicker type, but it still has some springy-ness, which is favourable to those who like softer noodles
(3) Sauce for the noodles does not give off strong fragrance, but the taste is actually quite opposite - flavourful with right mixture of chilli sauce and vinegar. There is a weird tinge of bamboo / wood smell though, not sure if it came from the sauce or noodles... The generous amount of fried lard pieces does not really help in the fragrance...
(4) Lean meat is quite tender!!! nice...
(5) Pork liver (tur kuah) is quite tender too, though is not the powder type, I quite like it... A bit too thinly sliced though...
(6) Pork balls are typical commercial type but quite ok without bits of unchewable tendons that can sometimes be found in some pork balls...
(7) Fried sole fish (tee po ??) is SOLID!!!!!! Crispy and full of flavour with each small bite, and an unforgettable bitter-sweet aftertaste, loving it... Do note children might not like the aftertaste though...


... and nearly forgotten the (8) dumplings x2... The meat fillings are very little, even for the typical bian-seep 扁食, but the bits of fried tee po inside the meat filling makes up for the taste and fragrance... The skin is not soggy (nice!) and it soaks up the chilli and especially the vinegar, making it tasty too! Overall, quite a nice bowl of nooodles... For me, the most appealing factor will have to be the fried sole fish...


Also bought some tapioca kueh from this stall, which makes pretty soft (but not overly) tapioca kueh with coconut flesh shreddings scattered on it...