Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing was made way back in ‘56 and it’s a film noir heist caper about a buncha guys tryin’ ta rob a racetrack. Note the duality in the title in it referring to a windfall as well as to death. Noirs never get a happy ending and this one tells you as much.

I thought the start of the film was a touch confusing as you don’t get introductions to characters, not that it’s necessary. It jumps right into the idea that this was a heist and it starts right about when the robbery takes place, slowly revealing more scene by scene, placing things in a timeframe and not having a linear time scale. One interesting thing was the multiple different views and perspectives the film shows you to build the story and give each character their own story.

Sterling Hayden, whom I previously saw in another noir, The Asphalt Jungle, plays the lead role as Johnny Clay, the guy who just got outta jail and saw his wife after 5 years only to decide it’s time for another ill-advised criminal caper. He strings along a few acquaintances and friends to do a big job, $2million dollars by robbing the racetrack. He hatches an elaborate plan involving a marksman, a wrestler, a bartender, a ticketer and a cop. Each one of ‘em has their own issues and reasons to need the dough.

So we get this interesting play of personalities and needs and the idea that crime doesn’t pay. No one gets away scot free but it’s an intriguing take on how desperation never gets the best out of man. You just know it’s all going to end ugly, but you don’t know how. That’s what the film is really about.

Hahaha. I went and got myself a pair of Wayfarers after my glasses lost one of the stem thingeys that support the frame off your nose bridge or whatever. They’re actually the new wayfarer, not the super classic vintagey squarer one. I like these cos they’re round and I haven’t had round glasses since my Primary 6 photo that went onto my ID card and forever raises a chuckle from all and sundry.

I wonder if I can pull off a modern chonmage like the one above… I am so sick of my stupid parted hair that I’ve had since ‘96. No matter how I style it, it just pops back into the parting, only varying by length. So annoying and looks so stupid when I wear a cap at work, which is like always, cos the sideburns stick out and there’s the longish crap at the back. Recent experiment trying to grow my hair long culminated in disaster. I think I looked like shit for 6 months. I trimmed it recently but now I’m back to old boringness. Only the sideburns, fringe and back are all so long. I hate my hair.

Oh yea, just thought I’d pass the buck on these leather jackets. Top notch quality shit from Aussie label Vincent & Vincent. I’m only telling you this because they’re having a super sale on their jackets at almost half price. I was kinda eyeing the black nubuck work jacket myself but just can’t justify it considering I’m sitting in my undies cos it’s so hot right now. But still, $360 versus the retail $600 is tempting.

But seriously, if you want a great jacket, get one of these. They fit real slim and short though, but shoot them an email and they’ll sort you out. Sale lasts till end of the month if I’m not wrong.

It’s that time of the year when my banged up Sony Ericsson looks like it needs an overhaul. Well, I usually swop phones like once every 2-3 years unlike most other peeps and only if I see something passable. Which is usually a Sony Ericsson cos I can’t use Japan only phones and Blackberries and iPhones are overpriced and way too ubiquitous. So I willingly choose to struggle with slow as crap OSes and whatever other problems my phones tend to have.

I’ve always been a Sony fan ever since Walkmen came out, it’s like the one branch of techy Jap mecha style design I actually like. Good thing they’ve decided to launch a whole slew of new, sleek phones. The Aino is compatible with the PS3, able to run media off it as well as act as a remote on/off switch. Not much point and I haven’t got a PS3 but I might be able to screw a friend over or something. The Satio is the top end entertainment phone but I really don’t need all the extra megapixels and etc. The X2 is the next level Xperia smartphone which I like cos it’s got the full qwerty keyboard. I’ve been spoiled by my current phone that also has one. There’s also a few other new ones but they don’t really interest me aesthetically but suffice to say, there’s another walkman/youth type phone and a next next level smartphone.

The Aino comes with a dock and looks like sex, but it’s a slider. Which is not really me. I’ll have to feel it in person and hopefully there’s no ugly exposed screws and they paid some attention to what it looks like opened up,

The Satio looks good too, especially the 3 wavy buttons on the bottom/right depending on your orientation. But I’m not keen to splash 1k on extra functions I don’t need. Why don’t people make phones that just call and message anyway?

The X2 though, with it’s full keyboard side slider design makes me a hypocrite cos I really don’t need a smartphone right now but I’d love a phone with a full keyboard.

In summary, I’d like Naoto Fukasawa to work with Sony Ericsson and make me a cubey type, tactile little clamshell phone with no camera, no extraneous functionality beyond the classic concept of a mobile phone. See Nokia 8250/Startac etc. Hmm maybe I should just get an old phone.

I’ve been trying to get my wine game up for ages. But it’s tough when you’re like, living alone. I typically dunk a bottle down across 2 nights in the name of research and I try to do like a bottle or two a week.

So far, I’ve had a horrendously insipid Beaujolais and a terribly bland Pinot, both stupidly overpriced around the $20 mark. Those were like the official DIY (drink it yourself) testing specimens. I can duly note that I’ve had some decent wines, albeit mostly from New Zealand that weren’t DIY lol! But in the quest for professionalism, I went and got myself James Halliday’s wine companion and promptly got a Yalumba Y Series Voignier. Which is pleasant. I’m not quite sure what to make of it. Light golden in color, fringed with green, it smells barely asphalty and very peachy.

Taste wise, you’d think it was going to be sweet, but turns out it’s pretty dry, with a good crisp finish. Not my favourite style of white but certainly a good one. The 2008 vintage which I had, scored a 93 and placed amongst the 10 best value wines under $20. I paid $13 for mine, a good price for a good wine. I’d eat a spicy Thai duck salad drenched with palm sugar caramel or something with this instead of the roast pork/char siew combo I had. It’s not really spectacular but you can’t complain at all considering the price. It’s good value. Very drinkable and pretty high in alcohol. I’m sort of swaying a bit typing this right now.

Next up, I reckon I’ll just do a bottle that’s been sitting around for ages, a Shiraz Grenache from Wyndham Estate. It’s something I bought on a trip to the Hunter Valley like 1.5 years ago! And apparently, it was rated pretty well by Huon Hooke, a well known wine critic dude. I remember liking because it felt a lot softer than pure Shiraz, which I never really like because it’s so peppery. Although its more of a winter complement. We’ll see.

In Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck, they serve a dish of fish, usually salmon that’s been slow cooked then coated with liquorice and served with some sauces. One of the garnishes is the individual sacs of a grapefruit. The other day, I thought I’d try to separate the individual sacs of a grapefruit, just for kicks.

The dish I served it with was a version of the Thai pomelo salad, subbing grapefruit instead of pomelo, and with grilled prawns, cucumber ribbons, deep fried shallots, peanuts, mint puree and a dressing. My god! It isn’t easy. With stubby fingers, you’ll probably break half the sacs. Because a grapefruit isn’t as dry as a pomelo, it’s hard to pry away the rind from the flesh to begin with. After that, you really need to pay close attention to gently lifting away the individual sacs. I pretty much did like a quarter of the grapefruit useable. I ate another quarter and juiced the rest for my dressing. At The Fat Duck, I can see how torturous it would be to do 4 whole grapefruit.

Looks real pretty though and I like that you get the individual sacs. With whole filleted segments in a more traditional style, you don’t quite appreciate the bursty nature of citrus fruits. Also, if i ever saw this on a plate, I’ll know that some poor sod somewhere slaved over this.

I want a cool camera that is smallish and shoots good. I’ve narrowed things down to 2. The first is the gold standard for prosumer compacts, the Panasonic LX-3. The second is its latest challenger, the Canon S90. Bear in mind the former is over a year old. The latter came out in August this year.

Looks wise, the S90 wins for me. Clean, cute, simple, old schoolish and smaller. The LX-3 though, you can attach the Ricoh LC 1 lens cover and suddenly, it becomes super awesome. Check out the video!

Performance wise, they’re both prosumer compacts. Both come with exceptionally bright and fast lenses that go down to f2.0. The LX-3 comes with a super wide angle, 24mm lens. Which makes it very unique. The S90 though, has greater range, 28-105mm compared to 24-60mm on the LX-3. The S90’s sensor is slightly smaller than the LX-3’s but I’ll assume the difference is negligible for my purposes. Apparently, the S90 reduces more noise but loses detail whilst the LX-3 is noisier but more detailed. Macro mode wise, which is the main reason why I would want a new camera, the LX-3 wins hands down with its 1cm macro focusing. That’s just insane. The S90 is 5cm in comparison. The S90 comes with 3.8x optical versus the LX-3’s 2.5x zoom. But I don’t think it really bothers me. I want to shoot up close, not from faraway and then zoom in.

The only reason why I think the Canon would be good is because it also comes with a control ring. In fact, it’s got 2 control rings, one customizable to whatever you want. Kinda like a DSLR, which you can set to make it change various functions, from aperture to focus to ISO etc. Pretty nifty, even if it smells like a gimmick.

I’m still leaning towards the LX-3. Price wise, at the moment, they’re pretty similar. I reckon the LX-3 would cost me a little bit less after I fix a Ricoh LC1 on it and ultimately, it seems more like the camera that I want for my purposes, even if I think the Canon looks much better. It’s also got a hot shoe and you can get a super wide macro lens for it. Which seems to have made my mind up I guess. God, am I actually sacrificing form for function? Well, I suppose I could get the Leica D-Lux 4, which is basically slightly improved over the LX-3, just in a much sleeker and sexier body. It also fits the Ricoh thingy! HAHAHA, best of both worlds! Pity, it’s about $400 more than the other 2!

I love silky soft, delicate stuff like chawanmushi or the korean gyeran jjim and egg custard. I think chawanmushi should be a breakfast dish. With braised mushrooms and a pork broth. Imagine a good sized pot of that in the morning. But you’d probably need some rice to make it more substantial, that’s the main issue, it’s just too light. Maybe I’d just add more layers. Like minced pork at the bottom, then spinach, then mushrooms and cook it in a transparent glass so you can see the layers and the colors.

The other type of egg I love is Onsen Tamago, or eggs poached in a hot spring. In Singapore & Malaysia, we have a similar thing for breakfast that goes with a little bit of dark soy, some white pepper and coffee. That was like my fave breakfast when I was 9. Or 19. And every year in between. It’s an amazing example of what low temperature, slow cooking can do to create awesome texture in the slithery white and the unctuous, slimy goop that is the yolk. Plus, you don’t even need a vacuum machine or an immersion circulator. You just use the egg shell itself. What I’d like to see is a croque madame with Onsen Tamago, rice bun slices of “bread” and pork belly braised in soy. Like Kong Ba Pao with a poached egg.

Fried eggs are a treat. I like the variation in texture. When you watch an egg transform under duress from heat, it’s an interesting lesson that heat transfers over time and the changes in the egg are dependent on the temperature as well as the conductivity of the pan used. If you fried an egg slowly and gently, under low heat, you’d get a more uniform, smooth, white surface. If you just whacked it on high heat with loads of oil, you’d get a bubbly, fierce surface that’s sometimes completely rubbery on the outside and the secondary layer of white remains somewhat uncooked. Or you could just drop it in a deep fryer and get this very crispy and rubbery egg. I like the slow method because ultimately, the temperature of your stove is still high enough that the bottom of the egg gets crispy, then you get a relatively uniform softness to the white, which appears smooth and clean and the yolk stays liquid. I got this thing about eating fried eggs though. I bend over, mouth first towards the yolk, pressing my lips gently over the goldenness below and suck, very lightly until the surface breaks and I slurp to maximize the textural delight. Then I attack the whites with a knife and fork or bare hands, whichever’s available. Enjoying the contrast of crisp and silky. Then, with the second egg, I try to combine all three and use some toast or whatever to mop up whatever’s left on the plate. If I’m eating over some rice, I always mash the yolk into the rice and hack away with furious level chopstickery.

What kinda eggs does you like?

My friend has this habit of pouring the sugar over the top layer of foam on her lattes or cappuccinos. Then she sorta spreads it out to even things slightly before spooning mouthfuls away. Clearly, she enjoys the soft, dense milk foam with a little bit of crunchy sugar. Which keeps making me think of trying to caramelise the sugar that you’d put on top of the latte.

Obviously, if I took a torch and tried to burn the thing, I’d just end up with the sugar dropping into the coffee below after I wipe out the foam entirely. No matter how stable the foam matrix, any application of direct and violent heat required to caramelise sugar would surely make all the air in the foam dissipate, rendering the idea stupid.

Which means that in order for me to achieve a candy shell full of latte foam, I’d have to reverse engineer it. Make the shell first, then fill the interior with a whipper or a foaming device. Or maybe… I could make the coffee inside a 5 sided candy shell, expresso, crema and foam, a baby-latte and then, seal the top with a final wafer of candy shell that’s midly torched at the sides to join, like welding the panels together. I suppose the sugar would melt though.

Perhaps a 3rd element is required to finish the jigsaw.

Someone please tell me how to make a crispy, 1mm thin caramel shell containing warm cappuccino foam inside!