Freak Thoughts

All my thoughts on a blog

Life in Taiwan

14. May 2008 | Kategorie Life

It’s been three weeks since I got back here, but frankly speaking I don’t really remember what I have done.

I’ve been to 高雄 for two days to see if I could find my nanny. Unfortuantely she has already moved to another place. Though I am amazed at myself for remembering an address that is twenty years old. Surprisingly, everything remained pretty much the same as I recall. Even the auntie at the salon downstairs rememebered me from decades ago.

Other than that, it’s pretty much the same here, night market, super convienent 7-11, fantastic chinese book stores etc. Not to mention the motorcycle rides. I am seriously considering returning to Taiwan for good. It feels just right after a while.

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In Taiwan

25. April 2008 | Kategorie Life

Been here for three days. Will be posting some picture of the food here.

There is also a review of Ken’s noodle house coming up.

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Worst Steamboat Ever

6. April 2008 | Kategorie Food, Reviews

Met up with the girls on Friday to have dinner at Bugis. The girls decided to have steamboat so we went around the area looking at all the different steamboats available.

Since I have been to Tian Tian and Keri has been to anothe, we decided to try this place that has been advertising on TVMobile for a while. House of Steamboat.

To make a short story even shorter, the over all experience was just atrocious. My biggest gripe was the meat. The beef probably came from the freezer after a short and disasterous attempt to defroze it. It was like ingesting rubber, albeit a tasteless kind, even rubber has some flavour.

That was $19 that I will never get back.

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Scored a big one

24. March 2008 | Kategorie Daily Musing

Not me (not really in a sense), but Mr. Ma.

For the first time since the past eight years a coherent governmenthas finally been assembled by the Blues. I sure hope they get it right and don’t mess up, at least not as badly as the previous government did. Hopefully they will not chew each others head off in a struggle for power now that the common enemy has been subdued by the people.

Do something good for the country as a whole and don’t try to pull a fast one on Taiwan-China relationship. I think I speak for most people when I say that the current situation is perfectly acceptable. If the Blues don’t tilt it towards reunification and manages to come up with a decent economy strategy in the next four years, Mr. Ma may very well have earned himself and his party eight years of mandate. Assuming he doesn’t screw up.

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Kadoman

9. March 2008 | Kategorie Food, Ramen, Reviews

Address: 10 Coleman St. Shop #01-21/22 Grand Plaza Hotel Shopping Arcade

Visited Kadoman today after receiving the dubious recommendation from Rick, someone who read and left a comment on my Ichibantei review.

I invited the girls along to try out this “new” ramen place, which unfortunately,  turned out to be a really bad experience.

When it comes to dining at a restaurant, most people are looking for the following qualities:

A. Good Food.
B. Reasonable Cost.
C. Nice Ambience.

Usually we only get to pick two out of the above. Since there is rarely one that meets all the requirements.

Kadoman was one of those rare places that fails all three. Ok, maybe it did have this Japanese feel to it, after all the TV in the restaurant was showing recorded Japanese shows and there was a Japanese feel to the decoration, though nothing really immersive that makes you feel like “Wow, this place is right out of a street in Tokyo”. Sure it has menu items written in Japanese and pasted all over its walls to give that authentic atmosphere, but I was there to have a go at the ramen, not the 101 other items they have like sashimi, yakiniku and whatnot. On hindsight, this amazing number of choices available was a warning sign to the quality of the ramen to come.

Let’s talk about the food. I like ramen, which was why I patronized Kadoman in the first place. The exact quote was “if you’re looking for a soup base that is not mass produced, should try it”. Sure, non-mass produced soup is great. It means that the chef actually bothered to prepare the broth from the ground up. However, just like everything else in life, DIY doesn’t necessarily mean it is better.

Ramen

Such was the case for Kadoman. I ordered their chashu shoyu ramen and I must say it was one of the most disappointing ramen that I have had for a while. Granted the soup was not the typical mass produced type, it actually managed to taste worse than the commercial soup base. Kadoman uses a chicken stock based broth, which sort of reminded me of the one at Marutama. The key difference being that there was absolutely no other flavour that you can taste besides the overwhelming saltiness. It was like hot water mixed with chicken oil and a lot of salt/soy sauce. The taste was just poor and unprofessional.

The noodles taste familiar, I am guessing that it was the same commercially available noodle that I have tried at a few other ramen places. It tasted ok since they are pretty much all the same, with the hardness of the noodle varying. Since I am a noodle lover, I had no problem slurping them all up.

As expected, the toppings were disappointing as well. The egg was not included in the ramen and I had to pay additional charges for it. Tamago came excactly like those hard boiled eggs that you’d expect to see in a bowl of laksa available in your neighbourhood coffee shop, and it tasted just like them. The chashu was bad as well, thinly sliced and with little flavour left in it, might have easily been mistaken as sliced ham.

The best part was the gyoza. It was the glorified version of those frozen gyoza that you can find at a Japanese supermarket. How glorified? With its exorbitant price of course. That must have been the most expensive frozen gyoza that I have ever had. You can find out how it tasted like by visiting a supermarket.

Remember what I said in the beginning of this review? I said “Good Food, Reasonable Price and Nice Ambience” right? Kadoman obviously failed at the food aspect, so let’s talk about the cost. Three bowls of ramen, a pot of green tea and a plate of instant gyoza set us back by $67 or so. The worst thing that you can get after you had a lousy meal has to be a hefty tab.

Kadoman has left me (and the girls) with no desire of ever returning again.

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SDS is for you if…

1. March 2008 | Kategorie Daily Musing

Do you open doors for your dates, pay the bills and send your darling home?

If so, congratulations, you belong to Social Development Services (SDS). Because more than 80% of the guys there are just like that. They will happily foot the bills and drive (or rather, take a taxi) to send their date home. They are generally known as the “nice guy”.

Well, to me it’s just plain fucking stupid. The report on today’s The New Paper only indicates, if nothing else, that good guys finish last and are in need of professional help to get themselves a date/partner/wife.

It also means that women who expect too much ends in SDS/SDU most of the time. Face it, if you are so bloody good looking and attractive, you wouldn’t have required the services of either agency in the first place. Of course, if the other party is equally desperate, you might just get what you want as shown in the survey.

By the way, it’s only for people who did not graduate from a university. Graduates go to the higher class SDU.

I don’t know what the statistics are like for SDU. But this survey, if it’s any accurate, also indicates that people with a lower level of education (well, politically speaking, non-university graduates), are interestingly more inclined to be “chivalrous” (for the guys) and to expect more (for the ladies).

Now, have they ever wondered why they needed to join SDS in the first place?

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I just want to say…

15. February 2008 | Kategorie Daily Musing

The Chinese people have it right, 玩物喪志….

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CNY

10. February 2008 | Kategorie Daily Musing

Well it’s been a week since I last posted. Guess WoW got the better of me during this time.

CNY was ok. Had reunion dinner at FK’s place with his folks and relatives. It was a good time having dinner with real people.

The one week of break is going to be over soon, gonna have to mug a bit for my assignments once again as well as having to look for a new place to stay. I hope it turns out alright, seeing how I tend to wait till the last minute to do things.

I wonder if I will strike the 10 million ToTo  angbao draw.

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素食者與雜食者的對話

3. February 2008 | Kategorie Daily Musing, Funny

素: “你應該吃素,動物是有靈性的,我們不應該殘殺他們來滿足我們的口腹之慾.”

雜: “植物就沒有靈性所以該死?”

素: “…植物跟動物不一樣他們不會痛也沒有情感.”

雜: “我不太懂…你的意思是吃不會痛也不能表達情感的生命比吃會痛也有情感的生命來得好? 他們之間的差別在於…??”

素: “就不一樣啊,植物沒有感覺的.”

雜: “如果你那天變成了植物人不會痛也不能表達情感了,你會想要人把你吃了嗎?”

素: “….”

雜: “那就對啦,吃就吃嘛….幹嗎這麽認真分的這麽清楚,還不是都是把生命往肚子裏吞.”

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Night

29. January 2008 | Kategorie Daily Musing

I think I write better at night.

The thoughts that seem to have been suppressed during the day flow freely in my mind in the dead of the night.

I think I kept too many secrets for too many people.

The secrets that are untold are never truly forgotten but always kept in a corner of my mind.

I think I should let them out, without mentioning any names.

Secrets should never remain secrets forever.

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