TravelCent

Singapore Dance Graffiti

Singapore is always a surprise, with numerous opportunities to find yourself surrounded by cultural events that will really spark your appreciation for art, or fulfill an already-sparked desire to be put into a state of awe.  The virtuosity of the talents that live and work here demonstrates itself in multiple forms, and you can probably find whatever you might be looking for.  There’s so much happening here, in fact, that you can likely find most every form on any given evening.  There are many ways, then, to have a perfect night here, which just demonstrates further Singapore’s charm.  There are many paths to perfection.

One way is to spend the first part in a Japanese restaurant.  The food here is extremely fresh, and the chefs are very adept, and know so many splendid ways to prepare contemporary as well as traditional Japanese dishes.  Because of Singapore’s position as a major trading port, there are many necessary ingredients that are difficult to find anywhere else, but here, they are readily available, making your food absolutely stunning.  This can be followed with any entertainment, but if dance is on your mind, then you won’t want to miss Graffiti of The Celeste coming this March.

This is a new work by Arts Fission, and deals with the themes of the environment and the urban landscape, exploring the nature of change when nature comes into the city.  It is a very apt theme for Singapore, where the rich urban culture is in a tropical setting with forces of nature that are palpable and always present.  This is the same company where Wong Wai Yee has had a lot of splendid artistic history.  Her current work with Moving Arts, that teaches dance to children of all ages, along with the many other dance companies in town, shows that dance is alive and well in Singapore.

NYC Dates

This movement back and forth between coasts has become a rare pleasure for me, where the circles that were inspiring me to consider chaos as a vocational interest started to come together. They came together in magnificent ways, as they typically would, because this was the beginning of another world. It was somewhere after the creation of the fourth world, and at the point where we all started to finally worry about the fifth. It was about time we started to take them seriously, and whether or not the dwarves that lived under the earth would come to occupy the same rooms, and hold their meetings there, was still up for questions, but it was on the verge of a new spinning, that much was certain.

For me, cheap hotels in New York City also remind me of the smell of almonds, and that’s just enough reason to recommend returning again and again. This visit was to find out what happened to the Date Palm Cafe, because this is where we had met. I didn’t know it at the time, and she didn’t understand that it was important, so we just lapped each other in the way the people do when they are slightly conscious. It was, all in all, a good time in life for both of us because we were so fixated on how we were falling off of all the things that we could count on.

This would continue for more than a few years, and they were never pointless, but never made enough sense until we were sitting in each other’s company again and talking about the Date Shake that had come between us. It doesn’t matter if, by the end of the day, the shake was forgotten, and even ignored, and even scorned in some respects, because that, too, feeds the earth, and that too, opens up a window in the world that remembers us. The dwarves get to drink, and they can decide whether or not those things on the surface are still worth keeping when they come.

BBQ Grill Envy

When I was participating in a BBQ competition, I was a bit envious when I noticed that the BBQ teem next to me was using a Dual probe thermometer. I had gadget envy. I thought I was doing fine in this area, because in the competition we got to cook on built in BBQ grills, grills that made me drool. So, I was pretty certain my needs and desires were satisfied, but alas, it was a small hand held gadget that got me in the end, so to speak.  At my last BBQ competition, I had left my meat thermometer/timer at home.

Until then, I had only seen these new dual thermometers in the stores and wondered if they were any good, or where barbecuer’s just getting lazy. For me, a single probe meat thermometer and a separate gauge smoker thermometer, which I have had for many, many years have served me quite well and have dutifully given me all the information I need. I really couldn’t ask for more, could I?  Once at barbecue store, picking up some hickory wood chunks, I saw that dual probe thermometer actually taunt me, but I resisted all the while pictures of my favorite BBQ tools flashing in my mind.

But, now, after losing to the barbecuing team next to me, the ones using the dual thermometer, I decided to not resist any longer; after the competition, I immediately purchased a dual thermometer of my very own. To my surprise, the dual thermometer had a remote! The learning curve on how to correctly use the remote thermometer is steep, but after patiently programming the thing, setting the alarms for high and low temperatures on both probes, I go ahead to but it to the test.

It was beautiful! Once I got it all set, I went back inside and surfed the net, watched some television, cleaned up in the kitchen, all the while trusting in my programming skills and in the remote dual thermometer. I didn’t even look back at my grill once, it was amazing. It felt almost magical, or like a burden was lifted up off my shoulders.  I got the grill and the meat temperatures from the comfort of my living room! I’m very pleased with my new gadget, except for the learning curve required to use it. So, watch out next BBQ competition! I’m now armed with new gadgets!

Now You’re Really Cooking with Gas

It’s a pleasure to make the move from indoor cooking to the outdoor kitchen.  You soon discover that nearly everything can be cooked on a grill, from appetizer to dessert, and there are mutiple possibilities for dinner parties, for family, friends, neighbors, it’s endless.  All of these possibilities start to open up for you, not the least of which is the fresh air you get to enjoy every day, which is excellent for physical as well as mental health.  It’s perhaps impossible to underestimate the benefits of the outdoor grill, and with our drop in gas grills it’s even easier, because our stoves are so precise.

With the latest and most advanced technology, our gas grills can heat with a magnificent precision that will be hard to believe until you experience it.  You can apply the exact amount of heat to the specific cut of meat in a way that’s never been possible before.  Now you’re really cooking with gas, as the saying goes, and of course, here it’s literally true.  Those who begin to cook with gas understand for this first time why the master chefs prefer this method over any other.  You can direct the heat with an exactness that’s scientific, and the process never gets old.

In fact, the repetition is one of the most exciting things about cooking with our gas grills.  There is a joy that comes from being able to prepare a splendid meal, time and time again.  There was a time when the culture was moving from wood stoves to gas stoves, around the early to mid part of the 20th century, and the advertising in this time proclaimed the same exctitemet about cooking with gas that you’ll experience.  It really is an amazing thing, and when your recipes start to change, and your friends start to come around more often, and the neighbors start to linger by your door, you’ll know that you’re cooking with gas!

Find Dining a must

My parents, no matter what their finances were, no matter if they were in a fight, always went out ‘Fine Dining‘  every Friday night. This is the one activity they would not give up. Even if they didn’t enjoy each others company for the evening, they enjoy the socializing with their favorite waitstaff, favorite Maitre’d and favorite bartender. My mom would tell them one of her new dirty jokes and my dad would flirt with all the females.

No matter where they were in the world, from Singapore Fine Dining to the obscure small towns like Harlan, Kentucky Fine Dinning, they would always make instant friends with the entire staff of the restaurant they were patronizing, by inviting the staff to come by the bar they would go to after eating and offering to by them drinks. My mother, when she and my father visited a friend in a small town in Germany, made instant friends with the Burgermeister who was dinning next to them at a Fine Dinning restaurant because she invited him to go for drinks afterwards at his favorite watering hole. Today, they still correspond back and forth via the mail.

It was a rare opportunity for me to be able to join them, when I was old enough, and witness how my parents transformed right before my very eyes from the disciplinarians of the house into the most wonderful and delightful people anyone would ever like to meet. My parents were fun to hang around with and truly a revelation I will always treasure along with my friends who were also invited a few times and treated to a night of dressing up to Fine Dine, drink and laugh all night long. Surprisingly, my friends always ask me how my parents are doing and if they’ll ever be invited to go out with them again. Surprising because they are what you’d call non-conforming agitators, but for some reason, getting a chance to dress up and go out for the evening with my folks made them forget about their resolve and just enjoy. I will forever be grateful to my parents showing me a side of life that I rarely get a chance to do, Fine Dine and for letting me see that they are some much more than my parents, they are a gift to treasure and enjoy.