MALA HOTPOT!!!

Everyone knows i like chilli. But i think this is too much, even for me.



Its the globally famous SICHUAN MALA HOTPOT !!! (麻辣火鍋)



I found it on thursday with my parents while searching for somewhere new to eat. Its actually just outside hexun's house, along the stretch of road where there are lots of eateries. Down the road from Thomson plaza, near macritchie park there.



Outside the shop theres an old signboard saying "天下第一刷" which translates loosely into "best steamboat under the heavens"


From the outside, it looks amazingly like some eatery from Beijing with the metal frame chairs and barely sufficient decorations.


Once inside, theres no doubt that this is in fact a china shop. That distintive smell of god-knows-what and flat faced, yellow skinned waiters with that recgonizable-at-once beijing curl accent reminded me instantly of the numerous restaurants I dined in at wang fujing, Beijing.



From my experience with cooking I have always heard of the mala hotpot and that it is a out-from-hell concoction of explosively hot chilli peppers and pepper seeds. One sip of the devilish soup is enough to numb your mouth instantaneously and break the ice between eaters, that i have been told is the main philosophy of the hotpot. It opens people up.





Enough of the talk, I'm sure you all want to know what the soup looks like.

On the left we have the traditional chicken stock that always tastes so good because of all the ingredients you cook inside it. But on the right is the real deal.

Looks like super oily curry right! I swear thats meant for you to drink.

That layer of oil is at least 3 cm thick.

My dad doesn't like spicy.

And actually i retract my statement from before, the soup isn't too much for me. In fact I LOVE it.. Oh yeah and this is supposed to be the not-so-oily version.. The waitress actually asked us whther we wanted less oil and less spice. My dad wanted both, but i heavily opposed to less spice so this was less oily only.. I bet the "normal" one would have like one litre of chilli oil on the top.

Oh yeah and if the place looks popular, thats cause it really is.. Got angmoh eating somemore, all laughing loudly with tomato red faces. Reminds me a bit of drunk people, guess the ice-breaking philosophy is really correct.

If you want to know what the soup tastes like, think bak kut teh with 3 times the pepper, add dozens of dried chilli and half a litre of chilli oil. I won't lie to ya, it is hot, but the hotness is somewhat different from the fresh chilli spice of tom yum soup, instead the hotness builds up gradually, along with the numbness.. its hard to describe la.

Haha for all of you who are looking for something special instead of your usual zichar or curry fish head, this is certainly a must try. Furthermore, its super duper extremely cheap. Only 18.80 for dinner buffet steamboat okay. The buffet menu includes super fresh beef, mutton and chicken slices, fresh prawns, cockles, soft shell crab, and your usual fishball, meatball, egg... etc etc.. got 70 different items in total.

Its really good, better than koka.

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And Hexun told me that he wanted to pick up pool again. That totally made my day. I always loved him and the way he played. It was a bit of a blow when I realized that he didn't want to play anymore. Although i did understand the logical reasons he gave, but i am, like him, an emotional person.

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Belldandy is the ideal beauty.

suprisingly busy

i know i know.. one week no update..

found out surprisingly that even i can be busy lol.. especially when you got 30+ games to play, mythbusters to watch everyday at 5pm on discovery, chase the anime "ah my goddess", learn fourier series, train your voice and on top of that, cook dinner every night. which is the worst i think.. (people who cook would understand..) But i managed to find some time to blog.. About maths again lol..

i came up with this in secondary three.. Mr Sin incorrectly dismissed it by stating that one equation cannot have two variables for it to be solved.. can you tell whats wrong with it?

we start with the equation,
a^x = -1

squaring both sides we would get...
a^(2x) = 1

since a is not zero and anything other than zero, to the power of zero is equal to one we have;

a^2x = a^ 0

and so,

2x = 0
x = 0

substituting this result into our original equation which was a^x = -1
we would get

a^0 = -1
1 = -1

which is of course impossible, but can you see where the error lies?

TPA Cup 2008

THE TPA

The TPA cup has ended. (For over two weeks now) A bit on my thoughts for the competition.

Before the cup i thought that this year everyone would have a more equal chance of winning instead of the usual "Kenneth, Daniel and Master sure win one.." And as it turns out, the later generation members did indeed come very close to almost clinching it. (yes teck siang I'm looking at you) But in the end our pure experience (and luck?) turned out to be too much for them.

Major surprise of the competition was yuan hong.. First non-TPA member to get into semi-finals?!? Teaches us something, play more pool simulations. Darren was a little disappointing.. Hexun was the worst.. Quit in the middle of the cup... But lets not talk too much about them :)

And here are the long awaited medias.Third prize
goes to Tan Yuan Hong, First non-TPA member and pool talent.
As such, he is pronounced the first honorary member of TPA.


Second prize
goes to Kenneth, Forefather and Coach of the TPA.


First prize goes to Daniel, who almost got banned for talking too much.


And heres the amazing match between teck and hex.

Teck Siang is godly.