ALL THINGS BIG AND SMALL 2.0

Keradok: Bean Sprouts salad with colored prawn crackers in peanut sauce Grilled Rice in Banana Leaf, tempe, kangkong, chicken in green chili sauce Deep fried Ikan Nila [Tilapia] fish Corn and Potato Fritters Chicken with Green Chili sauce As Singapore becomes a cosmopolitan city, we might paradoxically have less interesting international fare due to purely commercial circumstances. Most restaurants would stick to the tried and true recipes for they know that these will always be in demand. Thus expect more Ramen, Teppanyaki and Sushi places. Expect a Korean restaurant to always have Kim Chi and Gin Seng Soup while the Chinese will have their La Mian noodles and assorted dumplings. For Indonesian restaurants in Singapore, the tried and true and boring mean dishes like Ayam Penyet [fried chicken flattened with a knife], Sop Buntut [Oxtail Soup] and deep fried Gourami fish. Or we also have the Nasi Padang restaurants with their little plates of assorted meat and vegetables. But recent...

One of the many stretches of causeways from Miami to Key West Key West facing the Atlantic Ocean A fast Catamaran docked by the pier Downtown Key West Marine Iguana pet at a cafe One of the many cruiseships that drop anchor in Key West An airplane park for the rich One of the most spectacular road journeys you can make in the USA is the one that goes from Miami, Florida to Key West, the most Southern point of the USA. It's a 150 mile journey from Miami island across the many causeways that link the chain of islands on the coast of Florida. Some of thse causeways are seven to ten miles long, and on both sides are the crystal clear Blue-Green waters of the Caribean sea with Cuba just 90 miles away. The journey takes longer than it should, as some stretches of road are narrow and two-way. There are many small towns along the way though none are really interesting and are merely stopping points along the way to the ultimate destimation. Key West is more than just another America...

Hae Bee Hiam or Spicy Dried Shrimp Floss on a slice of bread The dried shrimp fron which Hae Bee Hiam is made. The Americans: Peanut Butter The French:Duck Rillette with Baguette The Italians: Tomato Bruschetta with Mozarella Cheese The English: Marmalade on Toast The Australians: Vegemite Something spread on a slice of bread is one of the most basic of foods. Usually meant as a quick and easy way to quell hunger pangs. The Americans have their peanut butter and Nutella, the English have Marmalade, Australians have their VegeMite, the French their potted meats, Middle-Easterners their Hummus, Jews their chopped liver, Italians their tomato bruschetta and so on. Bread spreads are not meant to be complex, just utilitarian. Nobody need spend an inordinate amount of time dreaming up complicated recipes for bread spreads. But here in Singapore, we are fortunate to have inherited a recipe for a bread spread so exotic that I believe it qualifies for the title of "most interesting...

SPAM is canned processed meat made by the Hormel Corporation of Austin, Minnesota, USA. Nobody really knows what the word SPAM stands for [and for that matter how it became associated with junk email]. According to Wikipedia, it could be derived from any of these phrases : " Shoulder Pork And Ham", "Special Processed American Meat", or "Spiced Meat and Ham". Those who hate SPAM call it "Spare Parts Animal Meat" or "Something PosingAs Meat". Or it could even denote the place where SPAM is made: "Special Product of Austin, Minnesota" Nevertheless SPAM is more than a type of luncheon meat. It has become a food icon. According to its web site www.spam.com the 7th billion can of SPAM has been sold and every 32 seconds, someone in the USA is opening a can of SPAM. But its not only in America that SPAM is popular. Filipinos and South Koreans eat lots of SPAM and in the South Pacific islands of Fiji and Samoa, SPAM forms so much of...

Paradise Dynasty's multi-colored, multi-flavored Xiao Long Bao The flavors (from left): Original, Ginseng, Foie Gras, Black Truffle, Cheesy,Crab Roe,Garlic and Szechuan. Xiao Long Bao or steamed soup dumplings are a favorite not only among Chinese all over the world, but with Westerners as well. Said to have its origin in Shanghai, it was more recently 'discovered' by the West than the Siew Mai and Har Gau of Cantonese dim sum, and today no self-respecting Chinese restaurant from London to San Francisco would be without xiao long bao on their menu. Xiao Long Bao's novelty lies in the liquid [soup] that it is held inside the skin. Thus, eating a xiao long bao becomes a delightful experience as your teeth sinks into the meat-filled dumpling and hot soup mixed with meat gushes into your mouth. The secret of putting the soup inside the dumpling is to fill it with meat that is in aspic [gel] and as the dumpling is steamed, the apsic melts and voila! you have filled t...

1. A Self-Organizing Map of 2800 US stocks' Beta. Any area can be selected with mouse to Open up and identify the stocks in it. 2. A Daubechies 4 Wavelet; 5 Level decomposition of the Hang Seng Index. 3. Using a Wavelet to De-Noise the Hang Seng Index:more efficient than a Moving Average, with no lag. (click on image to see how the Wavelet 'hugs' the time series closely, yet gets rid of daily noise) 4. A 1-D complex continuous wavelet of the Straits Times Index in Jet Color Mode. Self-similar patterns are indications of fractals i.e. the Index is not totally random but has its own 'memory'. 5. A 1-D Continuous Wavelet of the Straits Times Index in Prism Color Mode. Again we see patterns of sorts. But it takes a skilled Wavelets practioner to interpret, Unfortunately, I'm just beginning to understand Wavelets. Financial markets historical data are essentially the same as digital signals. And therefore they can be processed and analyzed with the tools used in...

Unusual shape of the LollarCharlie Christian neck pickup for Fender Telecaster . Fender Road-worn '50s Telecaster, before the Charlie Christian was installed Ever since I heard jazz guitarist Ed Bickert play his Telecaster, and marveled at his tone, I have been obsessed with the idea of playing jazz on a Telecaster as opposed to a traditional jazz archtop. Ed uses a Tele with humbuckers, and although I have in the past tried the semi-hollow Tele Thinline with neck humbucker, the tone doesn't quite cut it. The tone was too airy. It's still possible to play jazz on the standard pickup of a Tele, and many have done it. But recently I heard about Jason Lollar's hand-wound neck pickup for the Tele based on the one used by Charlie Christian, the grand daddy of all jazz guitarists. Sound Alchemy in Singapore ordered one for me, and they also did the modifications for the installation of the pickup. The pickguard had to be cut due to the Charlie Christian's unusual shape,...

These ten silhouettes of famous personalities were found on a wall outside a stationery store in Melbourne, Florida. I think most people can identify at least three of them. See if you can identify all ten.