k r i s a n d r o

There is particular topic that has came up quite a few times in my conversations with KKNN; the possible death of delicious hawker food.

This topic is close to KKNN’s heart as her Dad & Mum runs a prawn noodle stall at Whampoa. The receipe has been passed down for 3 generations so far and like many other hawker businesses in Singapore, we feel that they face extinction.

The level of education in Singapore has improved by leaps and bounds for the last decade or so and the pursuit of acadamic qualifications has made other interests like cooking a tertiary skill. Most of the people around my age or so (myself included) probably have the culinary skills to ruin instant noodles. Not that people like us have no interest in good food; we still want awesome food but preparing it ourselves is a place where we seldom thread.

I am sure all of you guys have favorite hawker stalls littered all over Singapore like some of mine: roti prata at The Prata House @ Thomson Road and the carrot cake in Changi Village. Go look at the people who are running the stalls now and don’t you realize that these cooks are almost all of the older generation and has no hints of a younger generation taking over. It also doesn’t help that most of them would only pass on their recipes to close members of the family.

I think it is rather safe of me to assume that most delicious hawker food will die off in my generation and the rest will also go by the next.

There is still some ray of hope for hawker families like KKNN’s as she is more than willing to take over her Dad’s stall due to her strong interest in cooking. Her dad isn’t willing to pass on the ladle to her as he wants her to experience the world first before deciding if she wants to walk in his path.

In Singlish terms he is saying, “WAH LAU EH! Spend so much money to let you study and you want to sell HEI MEE after you get your degree? YOU SIAO AH!“

I hate to say this when I can’t help the situation myself but for those who has an interest in cooking and has a family hawker business, why not consider taking over it? If you have a hawker business but have nobody to pass it on to, why not find a disciple? Getting a person with love for cooking sure beats passing the business to a son/daughter with no interest or bringing your recipes to the grave.

Save our Char Kway Teow! (So that I can still eat em..)

The good folks at Text 100 invited me for the media launch of Nokia’s “Comes With Music” service and the new Nokia 5800 XpressMusic mobile phone which is happening down at Zouk this Friday on the 27th of February where I will probably get to fondle the cool looking phone and try out the song download service. What’s interesting for the rest of you guys reading this is that there will be an open event for everyone!

A Nokia Music Lounge will be at Zouk’s carpark where the hit band, All-American rejects will perform. The party starts at 9pm and will last late into the night in Zouk itself with Deadmau5 entertaining from 1am onwards.

Now, the most important thing that you guys will probably want to know; how to buy the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic at 58 cents?

Go to the party dressed in stripes and stand a chance to be one of the lucky 58 peeps who will get to walk away with the mobile phone on the spot at the swanky price of 58 cents! There are MANY other perks of going down to Zouk dressed in stripes, so please head down to the official party page at Earn Your Stripes to find out more!

I’ll blog more about Nokia’s “Comes With Music” service and the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic after the event. Stay tuned!

One of the things that I absolutely hate about the 4 and 1/2 years I spent in the army/air force was the inability to carry any kind of gadgets. Security was even more of an issue in the air force and items like camera phones, thumb drives, PSP weren’t allowed into my camp.

So for the last 19 months since I was free of the uniform, I have unknowingly collected quite a sizable amount of gadgets that I carry daily. A couple of months back, it has came to the point where I cannot stuff all my things into my briefcase anymore and I am now carrying a huge bagpack to work everyday.

So, what’s in the bag?

I have…:

• HP 2133 Mini-note
• Apple iPhone 3G 16GB with Mophie Juice Pack
• Canon IXUS 870 IS
• Microsoft Arc Mouse
• Sandisk Cruzer Titanium 4 GB
• Sandisk Cruzer Micro 16 GB
• X-Mini Max Capsule Speakers

Let’s not forget the cables and all things for connectivity!

• Charger for HP Mini-Note
• Usb mini cable for charging iPhone and data transfer for other devices
• Shure SE210 Sound Isolating Earphones
• Apple Earphones (For backup as I often forget to bring my Shure earphones out)

 

And I have not even mention my personal stuffs I carry like my foldable umbrella! Scary ain’t it? Some might even ask me if it is even necessary to carry some of the stuffs but I assure you that almost every item is used at least every other day.

I think it’s a habit of mine to carry everything I possibly need with me as much as I can afford to. I remember carrying a huge ass bag during my school days, shoving every textbook possible in it, even though it’s the first week of school; where other kids will waltz into class with nothing but a pencil box and some paper. Classmates would chide me for being kiasu but I’ll have the last laugh when the 2 sheets of paper they carried barely lasts a lesson.

But for the sake of my back, I should really consider cutting down on the items I carry. I am very tempted to leave the laptop at home as the iPhone does almost everything I need on the go but I can’t do presentations with it’s 3.5″ screen.

Either that or I start to push a trolley around from now on.

I created a page sometime back with absolutely no plan in mind on how I am going to utilize it. My erm… ‘adoring fans’ have since grown to a size of 46 as of the time I am writing this blog post and it’s about time I figure out what to give to the fans in facebook besides the rubbish I give everyone in this blog.

So, I have decided to make the facebook fan page a bonus for krisandro.com! Much like extended/uncut/bonus DVD movie releases of extra booby footage, the fans on facebook will get updates that won’t be found on krisandro.com!

How exciting is that? It’s just like the time when you discovered that kissing couldn’t make girls pregnant.

So head over to my as I plug it here shamelessly in font size 36. Be a fan and read the popular facebook meme, “25 random things about me” under ‘Notes’.