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JR8
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Post by JR8 » Mon, 24 Jun 2013 4:03 pm

the lynx wrote:
v4jr4 wrote:
the lynx wrote:I love that thing. Reminds me of my childhood, although I regret to say that I never learned to prepare buah keluak when my granny was still around.
I haven't had that for years!
The one that I have at Dulukala (somewhere around Bukit Timah) is pretty good. Ole Sayang at Melaka has this menu as well.
I think one can find this dish in every high-end Peranakan restaurant in Singapore. Have not seen it served in other types of restaurants.

BTW, welcome back v4jr4! It's been a while :)
Casa Bom Vento
477 Joo Chiat Road.
http://is.asia-city.com/restaurants/art ... n-eateries

Nice place, casual/friendly/efficient, shop-house style...

$200 all in for 5 pax, three courses, and we didn't hold back (no booze though, it's dry...)

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Post by JR8 » Mon, 24 Jun 2013 4:18 pm

kookaburrah wrote: Hum, I may be wrong here, but I think that was all good natured teasing, JR8. The way you waxed lyrical on the vagaries of vertical living was quite poetically put, and the Frost dig made me smile.
You know what they say about cracking jokes on the web, and the use/or not of emo's. I don't even know what the suggested joke was, I've never heard of the said Frost.

Same week another American regular rather stunningly accused me, of all people, of American bashing, which if you knew me is preposterous...

You might see while I'm unusually feeling a little hounded-down! :? :)

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Post by JR8 » Mon, 24 Jun 2013 4:30 pm

QRM wrote: I often wonder how desperate for a cuppa one must be to go sifting through cat shitte for some beans. I tried it (surprising mild and no turd taste.),

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/1 ... 74851.html

They don't drink it themselves (come on, they're on Nescafe :)), they just sell it for $1,000/lb to rich foreigners.

Other 'weird food': -

Pufferfish sushi (and the 'brush of death' it imparts on your lips) - Japan

'Live' sea urchin roe - Greece

Goat testicle stew - Vietnam

Old Cheese - Norway

Natto (rotten soy-beans) - Japan

Digested lichen (recovered from hunted reindeer stomachs) - Norway/Sweden.

There's a link between poverty and food scarcity, and the stuff people will put up with eating...

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Post by v4jr4 » Mon, 24 Jun 2013 5:02 pm

JR8 wrote:
QRM wrote: I often wonder how desperate for a cuppa one must be to go sifting through cat shitte for some beans. I tried it (surprising mild and no turd taste.),

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/1 ... 74851.html

They don't drink it themselves (come on, they're on Nescafe :)), they just sell it for $1,000/lb to rich foreigners.

Other 'weird food': -

Pufferfish sushi (and the 'brush of death' it imparts on your lips) - Japan

'Live' sea urchin roe - Greece

Goat testicle stew - Vietnam

Old Cheese - Norway

Natto (rotten soy-beans) - Japan

Digested lichen (recovered from hunted reindeer stomachs) - Norway/Sweden.

There's a link between poverty and food scarcity, and the stuff people will put up with eating...
I start to wonder if you are Zimmern himself :lol:
"Budget Expat"

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Post by JR8 » Mon, 24 Jun 2013 5:32 pm

v4jr4 wrote: I start to wonder if you are Zimmern himself :lol:
Here we go again.

Are you going to give me/us a clue what this means?

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Post by zzm9980 » Mon, 24 Jun 2013 5:45 pm

kookaburrah wrote:e, but I think that was all good natured teasing, JR8. The way you waxed lyrical on the vagaries of vertical living was quite poetically put, and the Frost dig made me smile.
Agreed, Brah was spot on. Not an insult but maybe JR8 took it as such since he didn't get the Frost reference.

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Post by katbh » Mon, 24 Jun 2013 5:46 pm

Bob?

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Post by zzm9980 » Mon, 24 Jun 2013 5:49 pm

JR8 wrote: Same week another American regular rather stunningly accused me, of all people, of American bashing, which if you knew me is preposterous...

You might see while I'm unusually feeling a little hounded-down! :? :)
So what does that have to do with anything, Brah's nationality? And you're really still be salty about something someone said on the Internet? You're making sweeping generalizations under the guise of 'observations', are you the only one around here who's allowed to do that because you started the thread?

I normally really like you JR8, but a quote by Eric Cartman involving sand and a bodily orifice keeps coming to mind here.

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Post by zzm9980 » Mon, 24 Jun 2013 5:51 pm

JR8 wrote:
v4jr4 wrote: I start to wonder if you are Zimmern himself :lol:
Here we go again.

Are you going to give me/us a clue what this means?
Google, first hit:
http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/bizarre-foods

Pretty sure not an insult.

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Post by v4jr4 » Mon, 24 Jun 2013 5:59 pm

zzm9980 wrote:
JR8 wrote:
v4jr4 wrote: I start to wonder if you are Zimmern himself :lol:
Here we go again.

Are you going to give me/us a clue what this means?
Google, first hit:
http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/bizarre-foods

Pretty sure not an insult.
Yep, thanks to him, everytime I go to a new place, I will look for strange foods first :lol:
"Budget Expat"

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Post by zzm9980 » Mon, 24 Jun 2013 6:11 pm

Since you asked previously, your still acting hurt, and I have a bit of time, a few quotes just from this thread:
JR8 wrote: - Loud obese Americans yelling at each other next to the pool.
No one else in the world is loud or obese. Only those Americans.
JR8 wrote: JR8:
Please don't get me wrong; I don't like Americans less for it - this is all about observing differences, rather than passing judgement. Americans have a commute-car culture, so walk/excersie less. They tend to work long hours, so do less home-cooked food, and more take-aways. They tend to be more vocal and rumbuctuos too. Add it all up...
Nothing wrong with that, in fact I rather enjoy it, just I have not witnessed it for several years, so it really struck me.
Negative stereotyping much?

JR8 wrote:- A young Singaporean couple, him in a 'Penn State' sports vest - both
speaking broad American with just a vestigial hint of heartlander-Sgn remaining (//'So, yah, I like said to Anastasia that it's you know like really gross and .. //wah damn siow horr!'). I ponder how SGns, more so the youngsters, very quickly adopt foreign accents if they spend any time abroad.
Of course any air-headed sounding spoken English habits that aren't Singlish must obviously be American. I'm sure every teenage girl in England must speak like she was tutored by the Queen herself.
JR8 wrote: - Axe-faced caucasian women. Where are they from I wonder, Australia, America? I have only ever experienced this previously on moving from the east to the west (going from softer/smaller features to bigger harder ones; but here I am noting the reverse most odd).
You and Brah discussed this one already. All I have to add is that British women are the last thing I think of when I think of beautiful. Exceptions given to all of the first and second generation immigrants from places England colonized, and Keira Knightly.
JR8 wrote: - SGn children who speak with American accents.
'American' English is such an awful thing we must call it out and label it.
JR8 wrote: Curiously enough the only other place I've seen people holding cutlery in such a strange way is America!

(Not trying to cause trouble, this is 100% true).
Curiously enough the only place I've ever seen heroin addict cooking and shooting up his fix was in London. One of the pedestrian tunnels by Hyde Park.

Not trying to cause trouble, this is 100% true. But I'll say it like this anyway to *imply* it's somehow associated with all brits being junkies.

***

That's just this thread, using ctrl-F and looking for 'amer'. I know I can find a lot more in other threads if i had time. I remember plenty of poor geography and similar comments in the past few months.

Again, most of these are fine. You made the post, I'm thick skinned and really don't care (and can agree with most of it). But your getting bent out of shape and indignation at any observation about YOU now seems really silly.

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Post by katbh » Mon, 24 Jun 2013 7:05 pm

zzm9980

Yes, I agree when put together they do infer a negative impression. But why do you assume that these are all insults. Is sounding American an insult? If it is I think you have a double chip on your shoulder.

America is a dominant culture and there is no need to be so defensive or insulting in reverse.

Yes, some of the comments are generalisations, but don't YOU also get sick and tired of fake American accents? Or people claiming America as their own?

I tell you what, I get sick and tired of the image portrayed by my country men and women - both here and in my country of origin. But I do not excuse it as not being representative of the culture (or lack of) where I come from. It is indeed representative - not that I like it. But I must accept it. And I do not have to be like them.

Many Americans are loud and brash, but they are also enthusiastic, hardworking, fun, inventive etc.

Many are overweight but that is now not necessarily unique to America but unfortunately is now a trait of most western nations. But perhaps, Americans with their plentiful food (as opposed to Britain in the 50s) and being the inventors of modern fast food - were there first.

Be a little more objective on this one. I think you are reading too much into some pretty innocuous observations/generalisations.

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Post by Brah » Tue, 25 Jun 2013 8:16 am

katbh wrote:zzm9980

Yes, some of the comments are generalisations....

Be a little more objective on this one. I think you are reading too much into some pretty innocuous observations/generalisations.
The operative words here are "I think" - you are entitled to your opinion.

What you dismiss as innocuous, I see as pervasive, constant, passive-aggressive, overblown, one-way, unbalanced, tired and trite.

As one who went through the whole critical-of-my-own-countrymen thing for years, based on a whole lotta experience overseas, my opinion however is more like zzm's.

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Post by zzm9980 » Tue, 25 Jun 2013 8:36 am

Brah wrote:
katbh wrote:zzm9980

Yes, some of the comments are generalisations....

Be a little more objective on this one. I think you are reading too much into some pretty innocuous observations/generalisations.
What you dismiss as innocuous, I see as pervasive, constant, passive-aggressive, overblown, one-way, unbalanced, tired and trite.
Katbh,

Brah said most of it for me. You're reading one post in a conversation and taking what I said out of context.

I jokingly called JR8 anti-American based on his comments. He took serious offense to it and challenged me to show where he was ever anti-American. (Not only that, he's now acting extremely sensitive to anything else anyone is saying that isn't even remotely offensive.)

I have gone through just his comments in this one thread to highlight numerous places where he has done that. There are numerous other threads that devolve into America bashing that I didn't bother to go back to.

I've been extra careful and said half a dozen times that those posts DON'T bother me. But on the same token, if I'm going to give him a light hearted jab about it, he shouldn't be so sensitive either. I've only gone back and quoted all of this because JR8 kept beating the dead horse.

Now if you'd like to go and re-read the whole conversation about this including the comment I made where JR8 initially got upset, and THEN inject your opinion, feel free.

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Post by Brah » Tue, 25 Jun 2013 8:52 am

Just for the record, my observations and opinions are based on many things, not solely recent postings or things strictly from this particular forum, and actually more on real-life experiences.

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