Arnold's Fried Chicken

Arnold's Fried Chicken is one of my favourite fried chicken joints around. Forget about KFC. Went with a Dharma friend (who is also my blog reader, *big wave*) to this fast food restaurant quite a few weeks ago. Have not been to Arnold's for quite a while.

As usual there was a long queue of customers outside. Their system of ordering was a little unusual. Diners will order from a service staff at the entrance, after browsing their menu while in the queue. Only when existing diners finish and there is an available table, then the diners would be guided to their table. After that the diners were to proceed to the counter inside to pay up for their orders. Their orders would be served at their table shortly.

That day we waited about 20-30 minutes before we got a table. Mind you, it was already past lunch time, almost 3pm, yet the restaurant was full. But it was ok as we had plenty of time to spare and good for chit chat. My order was the Half Spring Chicken Set (S$5.90) with mashed potato and salad. It was quite a big portion, compared to the other 2-piece chicken set. My friend said the chicken was well marinated, very tender with a tinge of garlic smell, which made the fried chicken so fragrant. I confess I like the fried-till-crispy skin when it comes to fried chicken. I guess it is ok indulging in this sinful meal once in a while. We ordered an additional dish of Criss-cut Fries ($3.00) because this was not available in other fried chicken restaurants. By the way, besides fried chicken, Arnold's also serves Fish & Chip as well as Fish & Squid sets at $8.30 each. Overall, it was such an enjoyable meal.

To side track, when it comes to mashed potato, I still love Popeyes' Cajun Mashed Potato. It is chunky and topped with the absolutely spicy gravy, which made this side dish not too "jelak" (repulsive). Absolutely yummy!

Arnold's Main Branch - City Plaza:

810 Geylang RdCity Plaza #02-99

Singapore 409286Tel: 6746 2372

Hougang Green Shopping Mall:

21 Hougang Street 51, #01-49Hougang Green Shopping Mall

Singapore 538719Tel: 6386 9015

Express OutletPasir Ris Town Park:

94 Pasir Ris CentralPasir Ris Town Park

Singapore 519637Tel: 6585 0584

The Apple of his eyes

The whole world is abuzzed with news of the release of the new iPhone4S, as well as the loss of the man who created it. I am swamped by news of the passing of Steve Jobs everywhere.

Let's compare the iPhone 4 vs iPhone 4S in infographics (taken off Huffington's website).

Great man, great inventions. May he have a great rebirth.

Already Famous 《一泡而红》

One local movie is set to rock this November. I only learned of it last night when I saw this trailer. I do not usually watch local flicks but this is kinda funny. It is a movie starring and directed by our own local artiste, Michelle Chong. She is starring as a Malaysian aspiring for stardom and her accent was unmistakably and hilariously impeccable. Also, our very own Kumar is making an appearance as himself! 

It is Michelle Chong's directorial debut and Alien Huang's first Singapore movie.  Apparently Michelle Chong wrote the movie’s script 9 years ago. However the plan to direct the movie was delayed as Michelle became busy with various acting and hosting projects. Now Michelle is finally going to fulfill her dream. 《一泡而红》is a lighthearted and insightful comedy about Singapore’s entertainment industry. Watch out for it.

 

By the way, it was just announced in the news yesterday that our local TV news parody show, The Noose, has been nominated for Best Comedy in the International Emmy Award. This is a great news for Michelle Chong who starred in this comedy series and made popular memorable characters such as Barbarella, Leticia Bongnino, and B.B See, who pokes fun at all things Singaporean. This is great news for local TV and also for Michelle. 

With the debut of her first movie coming 24 Nov 2011, this Emmy Award nomination is so timely. A great career boost. By the time the movie is out, she is indeed ALREADY FAMOUS ..... not 一泡而红, but rather, 一炮而红.   Congratulations to her!  

Revealing the torso - how much is too much?

So, I read the news that the advertising body, ASAS (Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore), has managed to get the government body, Media Development Authority (MDA), to ban retail brand, Abercrombie & Fitch's huge-ass (I mean torso) billboard advertisement at KnightsBridge in Orchard Road.

The Abercrombie & Fitch ad fronting soon-to-be-opened store at Knightsbridge.

I quickly digged out this photo which I snapped a few weeks ago when I was passing by. I thought it was an interesting ad (shouting out at you) and not surprising coming from the retail giants in Orchard Road. I was in a rush when I snapped this, and coincidentally, from my angle, I happened to capture this couple in front of the shirtless model and the lady was right smacked at the... erm... vital part of the body. I did not do it on purpose. :P

ASAS brought up the standard code of conduct for advertising which says, "advertisements should not contain anything that is offensive to the standards of decency prevailing among those who are likely to be exposed to them".

I know Singapore is an Asian country. We are prudent, conservative, regulated, clean and I know what my Grandma and parents would say if they see this ad, "Aiyoh!!!". Definitely it raised eye brows. But still, I wonder what the hooha is about. There are many other more urgent and important issues on a macro level to handle. If one is worried that this is a bad influence for kids and that it encourages sexual activity, one has to be very ignorant what the kids are exposed to online these days, which is a zillion times worse. Even worse still, besides complaining that the model is almost naked, some found it offensive that it was headless as well, and cited this as the "worship of the devil".

If you think the headless naked male torso model in Orchard Road is questionable, there are some even more controversial ads from the retail big boys in the past.... (and of course they never made it to our shores).

Rocker Dave Navarro stripped to protest against wearing fur. He tells PETA in an interview that he used to wear fur in some of his over the top costumes, but he is now a reformed anti-fur believer.

In another PETA ad, gold medal winning USA swimmer Amanda Beard has made a big splash and bared all. The Olympian follows in the naked footsteps of Pamela Anderson and Eva Mendes, standing up and stripping down to protest the fur industry.

This shock advertising from Gucci is already 11-years old. Male torso was supposed to shine from London billboards, but the Mayor turned it down, regarding the picture as revolting.

Versace's ad of naked bodies. This poster was banned only in Arab Emirates and Oman.

This Emanuel Ungaro advertising appeared in 2002. Of all glossy magazines in the world, it was accepted for publishing only in American Vogue.

In 1995, the British Advertising Standards Authority found this Jean Paul Gaultierposter as inappropriate. The reason was that the poster could insult the idea of interracial marriages.

American feminists were outrageous at this Diesel advertisement. They claimed that the posters promoted sexism and went on TV to call for abandoning the brand’s products.

The British Advertising Standards Authority considered this Gucci poster to be violating to female dignity.

This 2004 advertisement for Calvin Klein Jeans is extremely racy and controversial, which suggest more than the purchase of designer jeans.

Antonio Federici Gelato busted out with a print ad campaign where nuns and priests get a little more intimate than the Holy Spirit is comfortable with. According to UK's Advertising Standards Authority, "linking sex or sexualised images with religion may cause particular offence" and "portraying nuns in a sexual manner is inappropriate." And they were just trying to sell ice cream.

There was not even torso revealed here. Yet United Colors of Benetton got into trouble with this ad. There was some gnashing and grinding of teeth when they parked this ad on a billboard outside the Vatican a few years ago.

In this 2007 Emporio Armani underwear ad, David Beckham revealed a hairless torso which was plastered on billboards in cities such as London, New York, Paris and Rome... Why was there not that much of a hooha then?

So how much is too much, where naked torso is concerned? You take your stand. It seems a little ironical that while the audience seem ok with pictures depicting violence, disasters, abuse etc... but when it comes to nudity they race to criticise, judge and censor. All these racy advertising campaigns are yet more proof that fashion houses are pushing boundaries to extremes in order to gain publicity for their products. To them, perhaps, no news is bad publicity.

May all parties..... advertisers, consumers, and governing bodies (no pun intended) exercise the right motivation when it comes to our birthday suit.

Fuzzy kinda childhood memories

So excited recently. Just got in touch with long lost classmates from primary and secondary school! We found each other through Facebook, 24 of us so far. Each of us connected and added more classmates whom we are still in contact with. We have even formed a clique in FB to share private conversations and to catch up with each other. My phone is buzzing with plenty of notification alerts whenever my friends posted something. This is personally so significant to us because it has been decades since we last saw one another. Imagine for some of us, we have known each other since Primary One! Below is a class photo of us in Primary One. Yes we were from one of the Methodist schools.

Our primary one class photo!

It is amazing we can still recall each other's names when I cannot even recall most of my classmates' names from Pre-U and MBA days. I think it is because the sweetest and innocent memories always come from our childhood.

I am most touched by one particular classmate whom I have a fond memory of. She joined my class in Primary 3 and left after Primary 6. In that short 4 years, we used to swim and play together. She also used to stay a few blocks away from me. She came from a relatively well-to-do family and she was an extremely smart girl and did very well in her studies. Yet she was very humble and did not look down on poorer kids like me.

Taken during one of our swimming lessons

After she left to join a prestigious school, both of us used to write letters to each other for a few years. I remember in some mornings, while I was walking to school, her dad's car would passed by and she would call out to me and waved at me excitedly! In one of her letters to me, she would write: "Saw you from my car this morning, waved at you but you didn't see me. How are you, my friend?"

This time when we found each other in Facebook, she said she has been looking for me for decades! She said she even went to my old house just a few years ago to have a look but suspected I had already moved. And she questioned me if I had sent her an anonymous Joker card back then. Haha! I told her I seriously could not remember anything about it.

My friend said we were sending Christmas cards for a few years and then she stopped getting a response from me at some stage, so she thought I had moved. We could have stayed in touch all these years! Every time she looked at the Joker card she would think of me. But unfortunately she had just cleared out all the old post cards and letters just hardly 2 months ago.

When I told her I had dreamt of her just 2 years ago, the same old tanned bright-eyed girl in primary school, she laughed. She said she was very honoured to be in my dream after so many years! She rekindled little details of our memories of school which I had totally forgotten. She said she remembers my "fated duty of guarding the staircase ... was it every recess? And also catching the late comers in the morning. Did you even get time to eat on those days?". I could not even recall this. In those days, I was a Prefect from primary 5 till secondary 4, and then Head Prefect.

She remembered the tiny school bookshop perched right at the top of the flight of staircase leading to our chapel hall. She wondered how come we did not walk to school together. That was because I used to be fetched to and fro from school on a trishaw! I only remember we walked home after swimming lessons. Sometimes we had stopped and buy ice cream or some snacks from the mama shop.

Our old school back then, which has since been demolished to make way for a MRT station

Our school tuckshop was so small with just 4-5 stalls. She loved the curry chap chye with bee hoon that was her favourite food for the entire year! I remember the coloured syrup drinks and all the unhealthy snacks we fed on. Not forgetting the old market at the back gate of the school. We feasted on so much sweets, chewing gum, soft drinks, and suck on those syrup ice cream in cylinder form! We even bought paper dolls from the mama shop behind the school. Haha!

Such beautiful sweet memories. My friend is based in Mumbai India now. I am waiting to meet up with her soon and with everyone else. I feel on top of the world at the moment, or at least the bunch of us are.... how apt but to play this old song from our time....back then, we felt WE ARE THE WORLD.

A tiny lesson in life