As we were watching the (brilliant) South Park episode with the Super Adventure Club (the Return of Chef), crazy Zion had a super adventure of her own.

Recall this picture:

We have occassionally been letting the cats out to the patio. It’s fenced. It allows them to believe they are free, when they are not. Ha. They usually don’t stay too long out there because it’s below zero degrees right now. Last night, after South Park, we wondered where Zion was, and Patrick suddenly realized that he forgot to let Zion back in. We went out to the patio and called for her. We heard a distant meow but couldn’t see her. Then I looked up and there she was, on the window ledge of the 2nd level of the next building.

WTF?

I had often read Archie comics where they have the scene with the cat stuck on top of a tree and the firemen have to be called to get it down. That scene flashed through my head. She was meowing frantically. I still have no clue how she managed to scale up there because there was a high and very narrow bamboo fence and some distance between the ledge and the fence.

The building next door is the Patio Lounge (our patios are separated by the fence), with apartments above it. We heard a dude yelling “Hi, I’m the bartender next door. I think your cat is up there”. So I ran next door (in my PJs) to see if there was any way to get her down. There was none. People at the lounge were so nice & helpful though, unlike the bastards of neighbours we had in that other building. Apparently someone saw them drawing the curtains, seeing the cat on their ledge and then close it on her. WTF?? I mean, it’s pretty damn annoying to hear a cat meow loudly at 11pm on a weeknight, but you’d think they at least wanna open the window and shoo her away! Careless New Yorkers. Bleh.

Pat scaled up the fence and balanced precariously on top of the bamboo fence (I didn’t like that one bit) and tried to get her to jump into a box he held. Didn’t work. I ran outside and buzzed the people living upstairs. There were 2 apartments on the 2nd floor. The first one said the window was in his roomate’s room. He took a good 4 minutes to get back to me and say the cat wasn’t on his ledge. So I buzzed the other apartment. A woman told me “yes, the cat was at my window but she’s gone now”. I went back into the apartment and Pat ended up grabbing her by the neck as she jumped onto the fence. I don’t know how that happened but I’m glad she got down without someone having to break their bones. I wasn’t too worried about her breaking her bones cos she’s agile like that; it was the humans trying to get to her that I was worried about.

So all’s well that ends well. NAUGHTY ZION!

From the Economist’s City Guide:

Make it tidy

Little India, one of Singapore’s more colourful districts, will soon get a makeover, courtesy of the government. Mah Bow Tan, the minister for national development, announced on January 6th that a new taskforce will work to revamp the largely ethnic-Indian block of streets east of downtown. Mr Mah proposed making some roads more pedestrian-friendly, sprucing up some pavements and, perhaps, providing a public space where the tens of thousands of Indian immigrants can gather.

But some worry that Mr Mah and his planners will sterilise this notoriously zesty, gritty, soulful neighbourhood, with its sari shops, distinctive—if faded—architecture and mouth-watering curry houses. It is unclear when the taskforce will report its suggestions to Mr Mah. But visitors looking to savour Little India in all its glory should go soon.

Alamak! The gahmen is going to turn Little India into…*shudder*…Chinatown, which looks more like the China Pavilion in Epcot Disneyworld than China.

We used to go to Little India approx. once a week. Just chill at that ghetto outdoor place and watch people watch Bollywood movies on a 15 inch t.v. at Kerbau road, then march on to Amber at Serangoon Road. The whole place smelled like Indian spices and jasmine flowers. Bollywood music was always blasting from shops. Most of the time, we find ourselves walking on the road because Serangoon Road has pretty narrow sidewalks and too many people (and too little traffic lights too, so jaywalking happens more often than not). But Little India had a little soul to it, because it felt different from Singapore…it didn’t feel very organized. I hate romanticizing ghetto grime, but there’s something about walking around a place that’s not clean in the same fucking way the rest of the country is.

What next? The Disneyfication of Geylang? Alamak!

I really haven’t had the time to share a glimpse of life in Brooklyn, other than saying I (heart) Brooklyn. But I’ve found some down-time tonight (down-time as in I should really be studying but I’m at the computer…same same), so here are a few snippets of the Chansidine Love Nest. It ain’t complete without a dining table and a rug for the basement and my huge painting from Koh Phangan that has been sent for framing. But it’s all coming together slowly.

I turned this (it’s actually halfway done in this picture…it came in a flat box in a bunch of pieces):

…into this!

(albeit after 4.5 hours. I’d have paid someone to do it. But I guess the sense of accomplishment is priceless.)

True to Chansiraver style, we have this funky lamp in the basement….with our SHINY DISCO BALL inside it!

We bought a bunch of plants from the person we bought a bunch of furniture from. This one barely fits in the basement. It’s a fucking tree. I love it.

I’m proud to be a Singaporean. Up on our fridge. Strangely enough, that picture with the Singapore flag was taken in North Carolina at the summer camp Pat used to go to. When the camp director heard I was a Singaporean, he dug out this flag (he had flags from all over the world).

The NYC Subway map pasted at our front door. You don’t know how useful that is. I wanna frame it up.

Raver lamp with ze eeeeevil plasma TV.

The sarong I got made in Tioman. From Tioman to Brooklyn. With love, of course. That’s the piggy my best friend Marie got me as a going away present for my flight. You press the feet, it vibrates!!

2 mornings ago, I saw snow in our backyard for the FIRST time. Whoohoo!

Picture of the next block with snow.

And in case you are wondering, the pussies are doing real fine. Here’s Buddy & Fat Cat doing their thing…

…and Queen Zion doing hers.

One of these cats is not like the others…
I’m still wondering how she managed to get up there.

We went to check out Doug Aitkens ‘Sleepwalkers‘ display at the MOMA on Thursday. It was stunning. In the cold, foggy night, the clarity of the video projected against the HUGE side of the building was amazing. With the city lights in the background, it was surreal. Go check it out!!

…is an EXCELLENT movie. Go watch!!!

I’ve been eating in so many different places in the past 3 weeks since I moved here. NYC is the restaurant capital in the world, for sure. The good and bad thing about moving to a new city (especially one so huge) is that we haven’t gotten our favorites yet. Like our fav. Vietnamese place, our fav. Thai, our fav. Sushi, our fav. Indian, our fav. Mexican, our fav. pizza, etc, which forces us to keep on trying a variety of places. We love all types of food, as long as it’s gooood. The older I get, the more the quality of what I put in my mouth matters.

Here are my reviews, for my own future reference, and yours too, cos there’s nothing like recommendations when it comes to deciding where to eat. I’ll probably rate each place based on whether I’d return again…given the obscene range of choice here, there’s no reason going back to a mediocre place. I’ll try to list them in order of when I went.

Lobo Park Slope
Random find. Park Slope (across the street).
Our first Mexican meal, our first proper meal in NYC actually. Good. Nothing memorable.
Will kellykelly return? Probably not. Or maybe. If we only just want to cross the road.

Azusa
Recommended by my colleagues. Midtown East.
Really good Japanese food. Excellent price on their lunch specials.
Will kellykelly return? Yes! For a special occasion. I have been packing lunch to work everyday. The portions I get at dinner tend to be so big I have a few meals with it thereafter. It’s too expensive to eat out everyday for lunch anyway. And there’s really not much time for lunch with the work I have here.

Lemongrass
Random find. Park Slope.
Our first attempt at Thai food in Brooklyn. This one was good…if it had been a Chinese restaurant. It was run by Hong Kongers. Food was good…just didn’t taste Thai.
Will kellykelly return? Probably not. Especially since we discovered T Thai (see below).

Los Pollitos II
Random find. Park Slope.
Paella! Excellent!
Will kellykelly return? Yes! Probably when guests come in town. It just seems like that kinda place.

Monster Sushi
Recommended by Shaun. Midtown.
My colleague Shaun brought me there on my first day of work. I got the shrimp tempura soba noodles. It was really bad. Soggy noodles, too salty broth. He ordered chicken teriyaki. I thought you can never go wrong with chicken teriyaki, but they did. The chicken seemed like it was boiled and overcooked with a thin tasteless teriyaki sauce poured over it. It was pricey too!
Will kellykelly return? Definitely not!

Song Thai
Random find. Park Slope.
We ordered delivery based on the reviews. Food was good. Nothing to scream home about. But food was cheap.
Will kellykelly return? Probably not. With T Thai.

Dizzy’s
Recommended by Vicki & Mike. Park Slope.
We had a Saturday Brunch there on that weird Saturday where temperatures hit the 70s, so we got to sit outside. Lovely. Really good food. We had waffles with granola tossed on top of it. Different. Excellent.
Will kellykelly return? Yes! We’ll definitely go back when the weather gets better.

T Thai Cuisine
Recommended by Vicki. Park Slope.
So far, the best Thai food we’ve had. We had the deep fried fish, the pad see yew (beef kuay teow), tom yum goong and dumplings. Authentic. Although we had to ask for Thai spice, and it still wasn’t spicy enough, so we ordered another one saying “no, really. Thai Thai spice”. And it came out the way any tom yum in Singapore (not Thailand…those get ridiculously spicy, even when you say “mild!”) would be. Reasonable prices too.
Will kellykelly return? Yes! We need to try the pad thai to decide if this will be our Thai place of choice though.

Yamato Sushi
Random find. Park Slope.
Very hip place. Filled with white people (hate to say this, but that’s usually not a good sign, not in an Asian joint anyway). Good sushi, but below average for it’s price.
Will kellykelly return? No. We need to find a better sushi place still.

Star of India
Random find. Park Slope.
Good chicken tikka masala…greeeaat naan (the breads in NYC are unbeatable…it’s the water!). Good rice too. Spinach was a little too heavy. Fabulous food all around…but a little pricey. Ah…I miss the S$5 plates of Indian food at China Square food court.
Will kellykelly return? Maybe. If we don’t find a cheaper alternative. We need to scout around the Indian restaurants first. The food was great, just kinda pricey.

Saburi
Recommended by Renee. Murray Hill.
I love noodles with that ‘bounce’. I had the pork ramen. Excellent.
Will kellykelly return? Yes! Really good noodles. Great prices.

Cacio E Pepe
Recommended by Renee. Lower East Side.
Pasta reminded me of our favorite Spizzico at UE Square in Singapore…perfectly al dente. We ordered the hen, which felt like too much meat at the end of the meal. The unique olive oil ice cream on a bed of parmasan biscuit was divine.
Will kellykelly return? Yes! Especially when guests come in town.

Mekong
Random find. Park Slope.
The only Vietnamese place in Park Slope…and it’s run by Brazillians. Weird. The whole place had a Brazillian theme, but they sell only Vietnamese food. But the chef was Vietnamese, we checked. We got the vermicilli with grilled chicken and spring rolls. Spring rolls got all soggy in the dish. But it all had a good taste. Pricey though.
Will kellykelly return? No. It wasn’t bad…just too pricey for not bad.

Szechuan Delight
Random find. Park Slope.
Really good American-Chinese food. Really cheap. Our total bill was US$13 plus tip. Had the General Tsao chicken, which is an authentic American-Chinese dish. Of course, we had a fortune cookie each too! I have this idea that I should go to China or Singapore and set up an “Authentic American-Chinese food”, since American-Chinese food is really not the same as authentic Chinese food. My colleagues think it won’t sell cos Chinese people would think the food is crap. I dunno. I think the younger generation would like it.
Will kellykelly return? Yes! For sure! It’s near our place, and you can’t beat those prices.

Omai
Recommended by Renee. Chelsea.
Kinda pretentiously hip…but of course…it’s in Chelsea. Rather authentic Vietnamese food, but very unauthentic prices. It wasn’t bad (about US$15 per person plus tip excluding alcohol). But after being in Vietnam, it’s just not the same.
Will kellykelly return? No. Kinda out of the way and would like to try more Vietnamese places.

Junior’s
Recommended by Mike & Vicki. Downtown Brooklyn.
We went there for dessert after Omai. Diiiivine cheesecake. We had 5 different ones. The best were the apple crumb and strawberry shortcake cheesecake.
Will kellykelly return? A big fat yummy yes!

And now for the pizzas. I’ve had too many to list, most of them were random walk-ins where I can’t remember the name anyway, but the most memorable one has been:
Joe’s Pizza
Random find. Park Slope.
Perfect crust. Perfect sauce. Perfect amount of sauce.
Will kellykelly return? Yes please!

In conclusion: (1) we eat a lot around our neighborhood Park Slope; (2) there are tons of restaurants in our awesome neighborhood Park Slope; (3) I love Park Slope; (4) we have eat out a whole lot! I didn’t realize till I wrote this; (5) it helps that Pat & I don’t eat a lot; it’s definitely quality above quantity with us. If you have eaten with us before, you’d know that we both eat half what an average person eats, so we share our food all the time, which allows us to afford more restaurants and better food than most people because, really, our bill is half the average. Portions here tend to be bigger and richer anyway, so there’s usually food to take home for lunch tomorrow; (6) price is still a concern…when the food is simply good and the price is high, there’s no point going back because you know there’ll be some place out there with the same standard of food, only cheaper. When the food is excellent however, then my demand is less price elastic. When the food is excellent and cheap in NYC, it is, what we Singaporeans would say….DAMN SHIOK!

It’s 19F or -7 degrees celcius outside right now and I’m toasty in the cold because of this wonderful thing called THERMAL UNDERWEAR. I don’t know why it took me this long to discover THERMAL UNDERWEAR but it’s the best thing in the world.

My father-in-law emailed me this link: a scientific study on the effects of drugs alcohol on spider’s webs.

Ah, the novelty of it all kills me! NYC rocks!

We headed out last night with some family friends from Singapore that were in town to dinner at Cacio e Pepe, excellent Roman food. Then we walked to Union Square to meet a friend from SF who now lives in NYC. We randomly hopped to a Chelsea bar for a drink, then headed to West Village. The first bar we went into had a dreadlocked DJ at the door spinning chill R&B. Nice. Then we headed out again and fell into Marie’s Crisis Cafe, an absolutely uniquely New York place. It looked like a small dive bar, with a piano in the middle. Surrounding the pianist were about 30 people, all BELTING out Broadway songs. So many of them sounded absolutely professional. It was bizarre, fascinating and hysterical. Everyone was SO into singing. Then the owner did a solo that gave me goosebumps. It was good. We headed outside and wondered what our next stop would be. We decided to go just next door to Arthur’s Tavern, where we heard a good funk band playing. We were chilling for a while, then the band started to sing a couple of Michael Jackson and Prince songs. Niiiice. And then, the lead singer introduces “the last of the red hot mommas, Sweet Georgia Brown“. And this big black lady struts up the stage, and starts belting out old school songs with her own sassy sexy twist so hot it made us all blush (she ended her set with “now, go home and have sex, y’all”). She got us standing up, yelling, screaming and shakin’ for more. Talk about soul…sister’s got more soul in her little pinky than all of Singapore. We were hungry afterwards and walked a couple of blocks and went to Arturo’s at 2am, where there was a live jazz band playing with a white saxaphonist and drummer, Asian cello player and black pianist.

It was a night that we didn’t plan. A serendipitous find, all of them. In one night, we had R&B, showtunes, funk/soul, and jazz. I (heart) NY.

With work piling on and just so much to do, I don’t know how I’m gonna find time studying for the CFA. It was much easier studying in Singapore.

It was all over the news in CNN in Singapore as well. Yeap, New York stank on Monday morning. My mom called and asked if I had a gas mask. The smell in my office was like a faint smell of old durian. Yucks, I know.

Apparently, weird smells permeate the city quite often. Last year, the city smelled like Maple Syrup. Go figure.