I Love Taimei: Taiwanese Street, Bugis, Singapore

I love Taimei, a small Taiwanese cafe located at Bugis Village that sells Taiwanese street food. Even though I always pass by the area, but didn’t notice the place until recently. I heard that it opened for a year or longer.


A regular bubble tea is $2, while most of the Taiwanese street food like the fried chicken, burger, mee sua are around $3-4; a strong hint of vinegar within the sticky and soupy mee sua, which had bits and pieces of tiny little oysters. A set meal consisting of a main, side and drink will cost around $6-7. I had drank Taimei’s bubble tea for afew times, and I definitely don’t think that it will lose out to KOI. (not expert on it; just thought).
BBQ Crispy Chicken ($3.90). It was crispy and drizzled with the spicy-sweet BBQ sauce. It ok but small for 4bucks. Cheese fries ($2), which was pretty decent. Coated with a layer of cheesy texture, it’s the ideal snack to munch the afternoon away.


**post taken from ironladychef blog***

Facebook launch!

Social Network
On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook founder) begins his fury of dunk blogging and programming; FaceMash after his "breakup", what begins in his dorm room soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history... but for this entrepreneur, success leads to both personal and legal complications. Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), once Zuckerberg's close friend, who provided the seed money and Napster founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), who brought Facebook to Silicon Valley's venture capitalists.
Movie started off through flashbacks via deposition hearings for two concurrent lawsuits, the development and early days of the social networking website Facebook is presented. Zuckerberg, with financing from his friend Saverin, decided instead to develop his own website without telling the "Winklevi" (as he calls the twins) and Narenda. Zuckerberg's assertion was that he never used a line of code provided by the three in his work. As "thefacebook" blossom, brought to more and more university campuses, Zuckerberg and Saverin began to have a difference of opinion: Saverin wanted to sell ad space to generate revenue while Zuckerberg, never one interested in money, didn't want to go that route as the ads would make the site lose its "cool" factor, which made it popular. The site attracted the attention of the founder of Napster, Sean Parker. As Parker ingratiated himself into Facebook's life (much to Saverin's chagrin) and as Zuckerberg began increasingly to side with Parker, Saverin slowly began to be phased out of both Zuckerberg's personal and professional life.

Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg; a cold, calculated and determined genius who knows what he wants, is very confident and forward-looking and will stop at nothing to get it. His counter in the film is Saverin, played brilliantly by Andrew Garfield, Saverin is a far more sympathetic character, more warm and inviting – these traits only increase the impact of the tragedy of Zuckerberg's betrayal of their friendship.

In the end this isn't a story about the founding of Facebook (cos nt 100% real); it's really a story of friendship, ambition and betrayal, a character study of this fascinating individual whose actions in the film happen to depict the invention of an online social networking site that gets out of hand and puts all of his relationships, especially that with his best friend and business partner, in jeopardy.

Samsung Galaxy S Vs Nokia N8

Nokia N8 is a flagship phone with premium feel, Symbian3, a high-end device to run a tried n true mobile OS that millions of users are accustomed. Samsung Galaxy S, on the other hand, a novel path it undertook with Android, having the fastest graphics chipset w 4” Super AMOLED screen.
Design: Nokia N8 is beautifully crafted from anodized aluminum, exudes that premium feel. Simply run your fingertips on it /against the etched logo, it is a high-end craftsmanship. Samsung Galaxy S wows with best LCD screen , as extremely thin n light, thus doesn't feel like the big phone it actually is. Being made entirely of plastic has its positives - plastic is lighter and less rigid thаn metal. Both have physical home buttons under their screens. Galaxy S adds back and menu buttons on its sides, making its' a better idea.
Nokia N8 has a non-removable battery. Card slots (SIM and microSD) are taken out of the battery compartment, placed on the left side. On the right side is the camera button, while Galaxy S uses the touchscreen to focus and shoot. Buttons on both handsets are very responsive. Important ports are protected either by sliding lids /plastic caps, both are manufactured with precision, feel like they can go on for years.
Interface, Software and Connectivity: Samsung Galaxy S has a more slick looking interface, feels faster n more responsive. Messaging has similar functionality, email client of Nokia can download up - 999 messages for offline viewing, while Galaxy S allows you to carry so much mre and searchеable. An improvement in text input department of Nokia's handset is needed.
Nokia N8 offers a free lifetime navigation with excellent Ovi Maps, which has turn-by-turn directions coverage in much more countries than Google Maps for now. It is an offline navigational software, of that type u have to pay in Android Mkt n only if u are in a country that supports paid applications download for your Android handset.
Camera and Multimedia: Galaxy S is more touch-friendly n easy to use. Nokia N8's 12MP camera with powerful flash is aimed more to sophist ppls, who know what they are doing. The photos from Galaxy S come slightly unfocused. Photography-oriented Nokia N8 took sharp, detailed snaps in a variety of situations, especially in low-light. Indoor shots are aided by flash up to 10ft. Nokia N8 had the advantage, focusing exactly on the object at hand.
When recording, Nokia N8 has upper hand with its stereo recording capabilities, offers very usable 2x digital zoom while shooting video. Samsung Galaxy S make videos smoother, but the difference isn't much. Galaxy S videos are a bit underexposed compared to those of Nokia N8, resulting in a slightly darker looking environment, but color representation is good on both handsets. Photos n videos gallery looks better on Samsung Galaxy, with nice animations and 3D effects, whereas on Nokia N8 is just plain ol' grid of thumbnails. Nokia N8 excels in editing functionality, offered for pictures n videos in the gallery. Abilities on Galaxy S are basic while on Nokia N8 the editing possibilities offered are comparable to a paid program that u have to buy off from Android Market.
Music playback on Galaxy S is excellent, with a pretty and functional player interface and SRS surround sound in headset mode. Nokia N8's music player on other hand, supports Cover Flow-like eye candy, its true audio virtue is the work of Dolby Mobile technologies in both headset mode n through speaker. It can play sound encoded with Dolby Digital Plus, which adds to the immersive experience.
Speaking of video playback, both handsets support a large number of formats, including DivX/Xvid and the chipsets are powerful enough to play HD resolutions. Big, vivid screen of Galaxy S definitely has the upper hand for watching videos on the go.
Performance: The in-call performance on Nokia N8 is very good, with loud n clear sounding voices in earpiece, while the noise-cancelling microphones do for better output at the hearing end. On Samsung Galaxy S the voice quality is decent – fine clarity in the earpiece on our side, but static noise at the receiving end plus some echo. Speaker of Nokia N8 also has upper hand, producing loud sounds with minimum distortion while Galaxy S is clear but weaker, as expected in a thin handset. Both phones produce excellent sounds in headset mode, due to the surround sound technologies present, but Nokia N8 has taken it to another level with Dolby Mobile. There is no reception problems on both handsets so far. Nokia N8 has placed the antennas near the plastic at both ends of the phone, so receptionwise it doesn't disappoint. Battery life in 3G talk time mode is rated at 6.5hrs time for Galaxy S, and 5.5 hrs for Nokia N8.

Conclusion: As usual, in the end it all comes to personal preferences. There are many differences that will make picking one, depending on the usage. If you watch movies on your commute, read e-books n documents, play games on a 4” Super AMOLED screen, powered by the most powerful mobile graphics chipset, u may want to go with Samsung Galaxy S. For a well-rounded smartphone package, that appeal a lot to the casual n more experienced photographers, one would most likely pick Nokia N8, with its 12MP camera and Xenon flash. The Finnish handset also adds other notable virtues, namely the ability to watch its contents via HDMI-out with channel surround sound, USB-on-the-go and free lifetime navigation that works offline in most countries.

Comparison Samsung Galaxy S vs. iPhone 4

I had share these findings i have:
Design: Samsung Galaxy S is bigger with 4inch screen - iPhone4's 3.5 inch screen. However, Samsung has 480 x 800 pixel resolution while iPhone has 640 x 960. when put side by side, you could see that iPhone4 has a crisper screen resolution. As for design quality, iPhone4 is made like a glass composite materials which adds to its weight making it abit heavier than Samsung. Design win by iPhone4 cause it's mre pocket friendly n offers on hand ease of use.
User Interface: Galaxy S runs Android OS while iPhone4 has iOS 4.0. Both OS offers fluid scrolling n very responsive. Samsung Galaxy offers more customization. Different homescreens where u can put widgets to, similar to HTC.
Multimedia: iPhone4 is a better multimedia device. Screen resolution n built in iPod software has been unrivaled. Note that Galaxy offers DivX compatibility. So for those who fond of downloading DivX videos, they might lean towards Galaxy S more as they don't have to converting their videos.
Camera n Video Quality: it seems that iPhone4 has better image quality compared with Galaxy S but comes to video quality, your choice would have to depend on whether you want to have the option of setting video resolution to HD /VGA. Samsung Galaxy S has that option while iPhone 4 doesn't.
Web Browser, Connectivity: Now for web browser, both Safari n Android browser are two of the best web browsers on mobile phone. Both renders web pages very fast n scrolling is very smooth. Now the deal breaker is whether you want flash or not. Apple has forever closed its doors on Flash for iPhone while Galaxy S will have the option to do so in near future. Connectivity, both mobile phones supports WiFi b/g/n but Samsung added DLNA compatibility to Galaxy S. So if you have a WiFi equipped TV, you can easily stream media from phone to home TV. Both phones also have GPS but iPhone 4 has a lot of turn by turn navigation available on App store while Android mkt is lacking but Android has Google Navigation which is free, at least in the UK n US.
Games n Applications: iPhone 4 has the largest selection of mobile applications. Android, though it doesn't have an extensive collection but best part is most of apps are free on Android mkt.

You really wont lose in whatever phone you choose because developers are now making their most popular iPhone apps available for the Android market as well and if you can't find the exact same app on the Android market, there are plenty of free alternatives available.

Madam Saigon Vietnamese Restaurant

Instead of having Western or Japanese food all the time, why don’t you try Vietnamese food at Madam Saigon Restaurant Liang Seah Street for dinner?

A platter of Spring rolls ($17.90), which is a popular Vietnamese dish, appeared on the table. Luckily, they didn’t disappoint: the semi translucent raw spring rolls went well with the sauce; as for the deep fried ones as agreed always taste good.
The Vietnamese Fried Calamari ($9.50) was very different from the ones that I had before. For one, it wasn’t round and they were broke down into strips, bearing a close resemblance to fries. It was a very addictive snack/appetizer, and we enjoyed it with the light dipping sauce.
Coming back to the Vietnamese Pho ($8.90), its just wasnt authentic. It was hard to pin-point what was missing, as there isnt much vietnamese eateries here nor had i been eaten it for all my lifetime. We just tossed lots of raw beansprouts, mint and squeezed wedges of lime into the Pho.

Soup.. soup

White Fungus Soup with lotus seed
2 pcs White fungus, 100g lotus seed. – soak the fungus in water for 3times, remove the ‘head’. Cook til soft, then blend finely with cold water. Pour in a bowl and mix well with honey. Add 400ml water with lotus seed and cook. Cool it and mix with white fungus, serve.

Sheng Yu broth
Sheng yu 500g sliced, wolfberry 1tbsp, seedless red dates 8pcs, ginger afew slices, rice wine 50ml, boiling water 5glasses, sugar ½ tsp, salt 1tsp.
Wash and soak sheng yu in boiling water awhile. Soak the wolfberry in rice wine for a while, slam the ginger slices & cut in small cubes. Stirfry the ginger w 1tbsp of oil, add in sheng yu & cook in high heat then add rice wine n cover for awhile, then add in dates n wolfberry. Slowly in ad in the boiling water into 3portions. Cover and steam awhile each time. Whole process is 20mins. Add in sugar & salt as seasonings n serve.

Back from a short relaxing trip BKK

I had been waiting anxiously for the days to come, so looking forward to this BKK trip. My body n mind just tells me its time to relax! Nt long b4 we started on this tip, there is bad news (bombing! yucks!! Y didn’t end mah?) Its spoil the economy as nos tourists slowed, didn’t the locals notice?
My hubby n I already had a list of what to buy n promises to colleagues for tidbits. Heeahahaha, shld had look up into calendar to avoid the monsoon season.
Although the rain did hamper our spirits abit, we keep our shopping to mostly indoor and freq trad Thai massages. There are lot new stuffs, but also some disappointing happening like buildings being renovate and their nite market no longer interesting.

Colour of windows????

As I was looking out of my room, I notice there is colour on windows.
Black common, blue/ green even brown... wow.. I just wan simple grille for my windows n my main gate.
Im considering not to have any window curtains cos so troublesome need to wash n redunct. May put up blinds instead if necessary.
Pondering where to install a shower screen?? mah? but area seemed to be too small Or just a curtain will do??? Afraid will smell / mold?

PS Move

PlayStation Move is a motion controller sys with sensors to detect player's movements n translate into gameplay. Primary remote is abt the size of Nintendo Wii remote /attached MotionPlus combination. Where Move departs from Wii is that Wii detects movement with its built-in accelerometers, pointing (with sensor bar) /detect exact orientation (with addition of MotionPlus), Move can be tracked precisely within real 3D space instead of just inferring relative movement based on your previous position. Most gameplay motions require a full and complete movement on Move - also means interesting things for augmented reality. Of course, for AR you need camera, for Sony it has PlayStation Eye. In fact, Move system is partly based on what the Eye can detect of those cute colored balls at the end of each Move controller, which helps PlayStation know how far away from camera the controller is, and map, say a tennis racket exactly to a user's hand. Each wireless Move controller has the four familiar symbol buttons surrounding a new "Move" button, which generally functions as OK/ Accept command input.

The controller itself is comfortable to hold, contours resting perfectly in our hands. Every button is easy to reach, although the 45-degree counter clockwise twist of command buttons did confuse ppl. Move controller's not just for games -- it can navigate menu by holding down the T button to initiate movement and tilting in direction. Sensitivity can be adjusted. Though not part of any bundles, Sony's also releasing a companion Navigation Controller (also wireless) that you'll be able to wield with your off hand for more traditional analog controls. It's got a joystick in standard position, a directional pad just underneath, as well as additional 'X' n 'O' buttons. Below that is another XMB menu button, on underside are L1 n L2 triggers. But if u already got DualShock 3, no point for this.
The Starter Bundle includes motion controller, required PlayStation Eye camera n Sports Champions. If u're a complete newcomer to PlayStation 3 - or need to slim down yr home theater sys - starter bundle with a DualShock 3 pad n new 320GB PS3. PS3 has something for everyone, be it watching Blu-ray movies, playing the latest games, and now working out while gaming at the same time. But still Sony had a lot to live up to if this was the system to compete with Wii .

Furniture hunting.

List wanted: dinning table, sofa, coffee table, bedside table, accessories; hook, mag racks, entertainment rack? Side table.
In fact, dinning table; we want tempered glass will do.. but mil wan a marble instead so we suit her. I wan my coffee table to have drawers inorder to keep things easily/ handy. A small side table for phone will do. Sofa I wan in leather, can’t stand fabric ones cos sensitive skin if fabrics I need to wash freq.