www.Go To The Mountain - Musings of a Potential Guru

I love ramen. Does not matter if they are Chinese, Japanese, Korean or others. The last time I introduced you to Tonkotsu King which is fabulous. This time I visited this relatively new joint near the office with a couple of friends. It looked decidedly more spacious. Perhaps it is the decor and well appointed lightings. This one has chili, sesame, leek and Sanji which may be the normal/standard one. It is slightly cheaper from $11 but if you were to add more ingredients it would still come up to $15 or so. I told you that I like the interesting decor. Comics drawings of warriors. Pretty. This is the leek version which my friend tried. Another did the sesame. I had the Sanji. Lovely. I went back for the chilli version. I love noodles and ramen is always good for me. At this moment we did not need to queue in a long line but we were early as ore people came later. Now there are 3 good Japanese ramen shops near office. The other is the Chicke...

If we had depended on the weather, we would never have anything done. Hot or cold, rain or shine can come and change within a short time. I have already miss swimming so on a cloudy day after the rain, we decided to go on a family stroll nearby. At least I do not need to clean the bicycle later. I drove directly to the Punggol Promenade and headed straight towards the bridge to Halus. As always, I like to look at the many angles of things and people. You will find some beauty in them. If after looking at all angles and still I can't find anything, I do not know what to say. It was a crowded evening. Still bearable  but young and old were all there, walking, running, cycling or skating. I have been here umpteen times but despite my reasonably keen observation, I did not notice that they have nice street lamps that are like the leaning tower of Pisa. Ah, life's direction and choices we have to make. A broad board-walk that welcomed the sunse...

Is Suarez a wayward talent? He used his hand and gave away an unnecessary penalty then bit Ivanovic and scored the all important equaliser with seconds to go. He was the top scorer in the EPL with 23 goals to his credit which is almost 40% of Liverpool's goals and mostly playing alone up front and one of those selected to be Footballer of the Year.  RVP's hattrick has just pipped him by a goal now. Maybe Brendan Rodgers should sign this young fellow as Suarez has been slapped with a long ban. Will he be around next season? http://sg.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/soccer-dirty-tackle/argentina-u-17-player-scores-dazzling-overhead-kick-100919598--sow.html Still you can't beat this goal by RVP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxNlAcdsff8 And if you think that RVP'S goal was great, wait till you see this one: http://sg.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/fit-to-post-sports/ultimate-goal-kick-off-better-van-persie-volley-234119191.html There was a player who kicked to death an owl ...

I know all kinds of duck. Live duck, braised duck, roast duck, herbal duck and Duffy Duck:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42Lf7yNhdtk Recently, I discovered a new one - "Kung Fu Duck". I didn't any historical checks but I have passed by this place many times at Ubi and curiosity got the better of me. The duck knows kung fu? The cooking style of the duck was discovered through kung fu? Or was it through kung fu the duck was discovered? The restaurant's name is actually "First Culinary". If the air-conditioned interior is full you can be seated outside or when you prefer alfresco. The menu ranged from small items for several dollars to sophisticated Buddha Jumps Over The Wall for much more of course. A display of the chef and the caption "New Chapters of Emperor Culinary".  They offer the same drink I used to have at Jumbo where they called Green Island which is probably made from vegetable (Chye Sim) and pineapple. A pick...

I was there to witness the infant stage of hawker food culture. I guess that made me almost a dinosaur. Mind you, those were the days of home cooked food. Most folks ate at home and eating from hawkers occurred only on days off when the home kitchen was closed. It is always cheaper to eat at home and hawkers were there because they were not able to do something else to eke out a living and those who hawk their fares are skilled at what they do as they prepared everything in their dishes themselves. For those of you my age or so, our children will never know what it was like. From the family that sold pineapple syrup water outside my primary school (with red cut chilli with dark soya sauce) to the coconut and longan drinks stall at Capitol, from the Yong Tau Fu and Wanton Noodle outside my grandmother's home, from the Mee Rebus man, Prawn Noodle and Fishball Noodle stalls and Ice Kachang stall just below our home and the Mee Siam, Satay Bee Hoon, Popiah push carts and motor...

I used to be all wide eyed as a child whenever I came to town. You have to understand that the biggest shopping centres those days were Robinsons at Raffles Place, Metro at High Street and CK Tang. Dad used to work at Denmark House, so on some occasions he would bring us to Change Alley. Wow! They sell everything there from fishing rods to chendol.  I started work at LKN Building at Cecil Street and believe you me, the back lanes between buildings were where we had our lunch or we would sometimes go over to Lau Pa Sat, Raffles Place or Fullerton. It was like bright eyes big city and I was like a country bumpkin. Most people started out humbly but few remain truly humble in more than 30 years of meeting hundreds and thousands of working and business people.  Like buildings, some people walked in others walked out. Some just faded away and faded from your memory. Some new buildings or upgraded ones like Change Alley and Lau Pa Sat just look newer and more modern but lik...