Food: Turkish Cuisine

Food: Turkish Cuisine

So today begins another foray into another genre or type of thing that is reviewable, and hence shall be reviewed. I don't profess to be a food guru, but i would like to believe I can at least discern what is a good food and what is bad food. When i say good food i mean in terms of taste and not just cause it is a particular food I don't eat.

So if i do not eat it, don't expect it to ever be reviewed by me. For example I will never eat chicken rice and neither do I think I qualify to review it since I think it probably just tastes the same and is boring. Other food that I do not eat includes cockroaches, locust, human meat, and oysters because I seem to have some sensitivity to the raw taste that induces puking when i eat them.

Either way, my review is probably more tuned to whether you should consider trying this food at least once, or its not worth trying at all, or it is good for repeated patronage. Its more like an adventure kind of thing then whether the food is really good. That is cause I have not tasted all the dishes on the menu so you cannot expect my rating to be accurate in terms of the food taste if you eat something completely different. However, in terms of the eating experience, you could expect a more similar experience to what I have eaten and felt during my time there.

INTRODUCTION

So in a quaint little place called Suntec City, there has always been a bunch of shops at the top floor in the same tower as the one that has the Toys 'r' Us. I been there once a long time ago and remembered the good variety of shops, but was under the impression that it was all very expensive. Well, have you yourself walked there and taken a look? Probably the scary part would be the large Jap restaurant with a buffet priced at like SGD 44 bucks per person. But going further in, you would actually see pretty interesting shops.

So the first shop I decided to go to try for the very first time was this shop called Turkish Cuisine. It has a bright red signboard and should be the 2nd or 3rd shop from the Jap restaurant. I was actually trying to slide across to take a look at the menu of this swiss restaurant but one of the staff managed to convince me to go in and try and at first glance the price seemed pretty ok.

As far as Turkish Cuisine goes, i believe that it is pretty rare to find in Singapore with more people being familiar with the Turkish ice cream. Unfortunately, I also didn't manage to get a snap shot of their menu so perhaps that's something useful to add into my future reviews.

So below is the review proper, for now I cannot really come out with any more review criteria besides these four.

Food


Over here we will talk about things such as the taste, the presentation and even the uniqueness of the food. First of all, this place is pretty unique to me as they actually served something like this.

So this was actually minced lamb with some veggie on a pita like pizza. This is their version of the pizza. The bottom layer is actually something like the prata we can eat. The taste was also pretty good if you were to ask me and the portion is actually pretty sufficient.

The other dish we had was actually something pretty interesting too.

On the left side, the baked cheese like area was actually mashed potatoes. On the right side it was actually stewed beef. This one was called the King Kabab or something to that effect and it tasted very unique also. The beef was pretty tender and the stew sauce was pretty flavorful. The mash potato with cheese would serve to appease those who are more into western cheesy kind of food and is supposed to fill you up. Only grouse of this was that perhaps the portion was a bit too little and i felt that if i ate it all alone, I would probably not be all that full. That being said, at least it was served on a claypot which was a nice unique touch.

The boss also told us to try some kinda cake but in the end we decided to skip that. According to him however, he said that many of his patrons liked it and it does seem to be one of a kind in Singapore. So if ever you are visiting his shop, perhaps you could try the cake too. Its the Kunefe in the picture below.

Atmosphere


In terms of atmosphere, those shops at the top are pretty squeezed for space to be honest. But there was actually quite a fair bit of space when we ate there for a weekend dinner and I sat inside the shop itself. There was turkish music on loop and it sounded pretty interesting actually. Besides that, the boss actually came and asked us about the food which i felt was a pretty good touch.

The rest of the staff were normal filipino staff that was ever ready and attentive to serve. They might be a bit assertive in recommending food but overall they were pretty nice


Price


So this was the amount that we spent for the food that evening,

So if you expand it and take a look, there is no service charge and the price that was reflected on the menu was the price you would be paying. So its pretty clear that this is probably not a place you will eat at everytime, but nonetheless its a interesting place to try if you are looking for a special weekend meal and you want to try something different. Note that I didn't buy drinks but water is provided for free.

Accessibility

I decided to add this portion because I was wondering, if people were thinking of eating here then i guess to some extent how difficult it is to get to the place should be somewhat important still. Being in the central area which is in Suntec city, I would say that it is a pretty easy place to get to complete with parking. Of course those might not come cheap but at least you can plan this together with your grocery shopping.

Overall


Food               : 4 (Its unique and the taste is pretty good, of course there can be improvements)
Atmosphere   : 3.5 (Music that suits the setting, and the boss himself was friendly and forthcoming)
Price               : 3 (Pricey, probably the level of a more extravagant meal, but its still not daylight robbery)
Accessibility   : 4 (Near the mrt, can drive, just might be bit crowded)


Overall            : 3.6 (Overall, this is the kind of place that you could consider on that special occasion just to try something different. When you go with this kind of mindset, you will be able to enjoy the meal and the experience. In short, this is a place that you should try at least once :) )


Please comment if any :) especially if you have ways to improve on ratings.

Movies: Immortals

Movies: Immortals

INTRODUCTION

This movie deserves a bigger poster shot, cause it is supposed to be whats so cool about this show. Unfortunately despite having so many different posters, this show really just emphasizes on about 2 of them majorly, with one particular character having a abyssmally small role despite being so prominent in the poster. Just take a look amongst this 8 posters and guess who is that pitiful actor and character. The answer will be revealed at the bottom of this posting.

Anyway, tauted to be the next blockbuster action movie, especially with the statement at the top, the producers of 300. If you seen 300, you probably already have the inkling that you must see this show.

This show follows the story of the hunt of a particular bow that is able to release the titans from their prison. So the main character and his oracle and a few friends set off to try to get the bow. There are also the gods in these show and if you do not know which ones in particular, they are Posidon, Athena, Zeus and Ares. Can you spot them in the poster above? So these Gods do not want to interfere in the business of man, and Zeus makes this statement that they can only interfere if the Titans are released. Thankfully, for us, they do get released at one point of the show, but continue to read on to see if it lived up to expectations or at least my expectations.

Storyline


Lets be honest, in an action film, all you should really expecting is a storyline that gives you tons and tons of action. This movie doesn't do it all too badly, although the storyline is still pretty standard fare. To be honest though, i felt that this movie, which is already long, tried to put too much storyline into the movie depriving us of time for more and more action. I guess at some point of time there is some tradeoff to be made but honestly. for a action show with this much potential, there should have been a bit more emphasis on action.

There are also some strange incidences in the show that do not make particular sense to me, like the action of a particular monk that i shall not spoil for those seeing the show. Overall, since this show follows some mythology, it does above average for an action flick and that is just enough for this genre. This show also had quite a few funny moments as well as gory moments which added to the entertainment value of the movie.


Character


Well, unfortunately, like many action movies, this show might have highlighted too many seemingly "starring" characters then it could chew. Like i said in the introduction, some characters are so hardly elaborated that I actually pitied one of the actors in those posters above. I mean it seems like he was gonna be important and yet he has horrible screen time. Further more, some of the characters that followed the main character were actually very unimpressive and not distinct enough if you ask me. It reaches the stage whereby you actually have no clue which one of them was actually killed because they are so close together in character and role and they even look kinda alike. This is also the same case for two particular gods also.

The front two is different, but the next two are pratically twins

On the bright side, at least they did have visible attempts at trying to distinguish some other characters at least via weapon choice and costume.

Cinematography


This is the portion whereby the show really shined. Similar to the movie 300, this show placed a lot of focus on trying to depict magnitude, beauty and take very good shots of places. The action sequences was also pretty well filmed with the typical 300 effects to bring out the impact of the action.

You might find yourself saying wow this place looks cool, or this place looks nice when you see some of the shots they used. There are also some perspective shots that adds some entertainment value to the show.


Music


Music was also above average and added much thrill and value to the battle scenes. Nothing particularly too outstanding as this is no musical and there was not much singing to be expected.


Spectacle


For an action movie with a mythical storyline, this show did pretty well. Its no 300 in terms of action, because i personally felt that there were a bit too little large scale fightings and there was more focus on individual 1 v 1 or 1 v 2 or 1 v 5 that kinda fights. I also like the idea that the show admitted the vulnerability of the gods especially when they are fighting the Titans that according to mythology, did actually put up a fight. So its less of a hero story and rather more of looking at everything in a collective sense.

This, it had too little of

Sadly, I still personally felt that there was too much potential that could have been used in enhancing the action scenes and personalizing the battles better and this is probably where the movie fell a bit short from the action genre.


Overall


Storyline             : 4 (Coherent storyline expected of the action genre. It could always be better but if you have to sacrifice action for storyline, i rather you keep the action and scrimp on story)
Character           : 3.5 (Many characters, supposed to be unique but they could have done a better job differentiating them. Too many short roles for supposed important characters)
Cinematography : 4.5 (Where the movie shines. I would say its still not the 300 level but its pretty close)
Music                  : 3.5 (Above average and added to value of entertainment)
Spectacle            : 4 (Action genre that had good action while it lasted, but perhaps was just a bit too short)


Overall                : 3.9 (Action genre lovers, this show can still work for you as long as you don't set your bar at the level of 300 and love to see cgi effects and more personal scale battles then large scale Lord of the Rings army battles. Other genre fans that just want to have a nice day off enjoying the progress of technology and CGI could possibly enjoy this show as long as they have realistic expectations of a action flick. That is to mean, if you want to enjoy this action flick, go in expecting to just see action and don't say its bad cause it didn't have romance or storyline or what not.)


So there goes another blockbuster for the year, it was a entertaining experience for me, but I just felt a bit wasted that they didn't utilize the gods as much as they could.

A bonus clue for those who are still thinking who is the pitiful actor, it seems like this actor got the worse part, and also the most retarded costume. Its like those kinda costume that you are made to wear cause you lost a bet or the drawing of straws.

You could put down your guess in the comments, or just comment in general :D

Movies: You are the Apple of my Eye

Movies: You are the Apple of my Eye

INTRODUCTION

It is not a frequent thing, that i see chinese movies. It is also not very frequent, in fact even rare, that I would see a drama or romantic kinda show. It is also not very common to see a show that is pretty good in all catagories. So this movie, You are the Apple of my Eye can be said to be a rare infrequent and uncommon gem amongst all the movie here. In fact it was a pity that i could nearly have missed this show.

Its a taiwanese movie, and apparently its one of the higher grossing movie here in Singapore. Unfortunately, besides word of mouth, there is hardly any advertisement on this show.

This show is pretty smart, in the sense that it tries to make us identify with the main character and how he moves and grows from high school, all the way into adulthood and working life. It then uses these time periods to tell a love story and boy... is it a love story that many people can identify somewhat with and it is a realistic situation complete with sweet beginning and nice end (To prevent spoilers)

Heres a song to get you through the review,

Storyline


To be honest, this show probably falls under the drama, romantic but also comedy genre. It is really pretty funny from the start to the end although from the ratings you probably could guess the jokes are generally sexual in nature. So if you are some purist, then you might be slightly put off, but in reality, life isn't all that pure and innocent from the start to the end and this is reality of life.

Because of this, this show really enables the person to identify with almost all the characters, situations and associated feelings. From the innocence of children to the realism of real adulthood when it strikes you, these are the points that the show tries to bring out.

As long as you can identify with the life and the happenings of the main character, I would say that the storyline is fantastic, because no one can really honestly say that their life story is completely uneventful and there are no ups and downs in their life.


Character


Characters are also well planned and acted out, every single character has enough distinction and screen time to show their impact to the show in general, and every character can be found in our own respective lives in some way or other.

Characters are true to life and don't do anything that you would feel is particularly impossible. Even the additional characters that are added midway in the show do much in adding to the humor and realism of life.


Cinematography


Cinematography is fantastic. Perspectives are closely chosen to convey the very feelings of the moment. It adds immense comedic value as well as allows you to see from the eyes of the characters. Really, this show could possibly have the best Cinematography I have seen in the genre. Everything is very clear and crisp and there are no wasted shots that detract from the feeling of the entire show.


Music


Music is also another very well done point of the show. Placed in the correct moments to evoke the correct feelings. And being a romantic show, the song really helps in bringing out the feeling and making people think about their own past stories.


Spectacle

This show does very very well for the romantic genre, as it brings into it a lot of believability and also is really down to earth and realistic. The show is said to be from a book whereby the author is describing his own love life. I would go so far as to even say that this is not a show, this is life.


Overall


Storyline                   : 4.5 (Great storyline, it follows a person's possible life and does it well and in good fun fashion)
Character                 : 4.5 (Very believable characters, all adding to the value of the show)
Cinematography      : 4.5 (Very good angles to bring up what the director wants to show)
Music                        : 4.5 (Very well use of the songs for the movie's purpose)
Spectacle                  : 4.5 (Telling of a romantic story in a very believable way, its hard to do better then that)


Overall                     : 4.5 (Fans of romantic genre, must see this show, but for all other people, if you are able to understand chinese, you can enjoy this show also. Unless you are a hardcore fan of any other genre and just absolutely HATE romantic shows, you cannot really go wrong with this show)


To my knowledge this show has relatively few screenings already and the shows are usually pretty packed even in the theaters further away from the city. So if you do want to see this show, you might even need to consider booking the tickets to get better places.

As usual, please comment if there is anything you want to add :D Hope you enjoyed the song.

Movies: 11 11 11

Movies: 11 11 11

INTRODUCTION

Alas the faithful 11.11.11 or 11 November 2011 has passed. This nice number sequence will only appear a 100 years later so I guess its probably pretty safe to say that I won't be able to review this movie then. So here's a review on a movie made specially to coincide with this special date where suddenly there is a spike in the number of people who get married which serves as a very good way to remember your wedding or engagement day without wasting too much brain space.

The synopsis can be found over here but it does not reveal too much about the show and thats kind of the sad part. Because if more was said about the show... then I probably wouldn't have watched it. Noting that the directors seems to be from the SAW series, its not too gruesome in that aspect. In fact its probably not gruesome at all. But there are lots of ugly things that you will see in the show. From the characters to how the show was made in general. Anyway this show classifies itself as a thriller or perhaps horror thriller. Its a good classification, as long as u understand horror thriller to be horrible thriller

Lets not waste time and go straight into the review

Storyline


To be honest, I thought this show had potential. It had lots of potential having such a unique date and with the vagueness of the title there was many many things that could have been done. There were many references that could be used with the number 11 11 11 and everything with 11 11 11 or looked like 11 11 11 could have been used to make the show very much more unique and mysterious.

SADLY, the only 11 11 that was really used in this show was all with reference to time. So basically the show just moves from 11 11 and says oh something happened in this 11 11 oh now the time is 11 11 again and something else happens oh 11 11 11 at 11 11pm is coming and something big is going to happen.

That is what i would call a spoiler. Destroyed all the potential of the show with its uncreativeness and overall bland and dull storyline. You could basically just change all the 11 11 time reference to 12 12 12 and things that happen at 12 12 and rerelease the movie next year and it will still be able to use the exact same story line and the scenes.

Also, this show is not creepy horror type of show. Unfortunately, it follows the line of the cheap and uninspired shock scares that I feel is quite a downer to the horror genre. The screams that came from my show didn't come from any of the demons or monsters or whatever that was supposed to be scary but rather from a shock at meeting the main character's father at just a shocking and inopportune moment.


Characters


Characters are pretty normal, actors seems to be not as well known at least to me and none actually left any impact at all. In fact there was some really useless characters and roles that just seemed to be giving employment to some of the actors and in particular actress as compared to adding any value to the story. There are also certain reactions of the main character that seem to be rather unconvincing and implausible.

And the show ends up with a very unconvincing final scene that to be honest does not really seem plausible and seems more of a loophole then any logical progression of the characters.


Cinematography


I would say that this show tried to instill horror value with good angles. But since the scares were cheap scares its really not my cup of tea. The whole movie overall however feels very low budgeted with no particular reason. (Unlike paranormal activity that is supposed to follow a family so the movie can be more grainy) The whole show stays very dull and uncolored and became hard to follow.

In fact some of the cinematography made the show look like some horror house that people go for amusement rather then a real scare fest.


Music


To be fair, in terms of music, it did add to some of the scare value with all the building up and loud noises. But with such a bad story line it can be said to be the only plus point of this show


Spectacle


I don't really think i am fair if i say that horror should be creepy horror and not shock horror. I do not know what the director was trying to bring out. But even for shock horror it would be just at the average level. For creepy horror it really ending up being slightly retarded.


Overall


Storyline             : 1.5 (Bad waste of such a unique premise. Should have tried harder)
Characters          : 1.5 (Unconvincing, boring and bland, implausible and some were fillers)
Cinematography : 2 (Dull bland, sometimes distracting camera. There was slight pluses though)
Music                  : 3.5 (Only positive part of show. At least i noticed)
Spectacle             : 2 (A failure in its own genre. Cheap thrill show)


Overall                : 2.1 (This overall points show that this show should not be worthy of a theatricals release. No real point in seeing this show in the cinemas. Even if u have no expectation, it probably wont be entertaining either. Pick it up when it moves to DVD only IF you are really THAT bored. In fact fans of the genre might probably even find this show an insult to the genre.)


Any comments or disagreements please feel free to voice out :)

Movies: In Time

Movies: In Time

INTRODUCTION

Although this show is already ending its run, since i seen the show, I felt that i should at least write something about this show so that for those who have seen it they can see how someone else feels about the show, and more importantly for those who didn't see it, they can put to ease the question whether this show was worth the time and did they miss anything important.

So here is a poster showing this fella who acts in this show

Whoa is that Justin Timberlake? apparently so... and this shows that singing might not necessary work out as a lifelong job.

This show, if you seen the trailers has a very interesting premise, that is... the world is a different world from what we have, whereby the currency in this world is time. So coffee costs time, bus costs time and you get the idea. You also get paid in time and its pretty interesting to consider if you are paid 24 hours a day you cannot spend any time on anything or else you are slowly but surely moving towards death. Then apparently you can take time by touching onto someone and focusing real hard. Probably not a good idea in Singapore or entering the MRT circle line at Bishan might become a very risky affair with all the pushing and squeezing and all that kinda stuff...

Ok enough of thinking, time for the review

Storyline


To be honest, its really hard to define what genre the show falls under. Could it be sci fi cause its talking about the future? Could it be action since there is some running here and there and shooting here and there? Could it be thriller cause its talking about how people are losing time and how time is of the essence? Musical cause Justin Timberlake is inside? Ok the last one is impossible but you get the idea.

The only thing this show really has going for it is really the concept. It spends a chunk of the earlier movie time to introduce the world and this is really entertaining if you ask me. A world whereby people wanna steal time, earn time, use time. In fact this was the part that probably attracted me to see the movie in the first place.

Unfortunately, besides the interesting concept, everything else is pretty bland. Sure all the old people look 25 and your grandma will look like your sister and your mother.. and your great great great grandma might be alive also. But this show lacks in doing anything particularly impressive. Instead it just follows a standard robin hood like story that can be done in any other world or universe.


Character


Characters are also sadly, veryvery bland. In fact the actress is close to the realms of being hateable. Not entirely sure whether the character script was supposed to be like that but she is so robotic and kinda bimbotic in many ways and that causes some cringes when seeing the show.

Heres how she looks and if u cringe at this sight you will be glad you didnt see this show...

The more interesting mother storyline was ended a bit too quick also and the rest of the show was just going through the motion with nothing really done to interest the audience. So the movie follows these two fellas that are in the poster but I cannot remember anything at all that was impressive or particularly entertaining.


Cinematography


Cinematography was ok. At least since the whole show was just following these two people, it was never confusing at all. Nothing impressive either though they do make some attempts at good shots. But still nothing wowing.


Music


Music was normal, at least it did not hinder the show in anyway.


Spectacle


Concept wise this show really had too much potential... too bad it was cleanly wasted towards the end of the show. In fact I could say that 1/2 of the show was worth seeing but the 2nd half it started to really get ordinary which was a bigbig waste.

One thing that might be unique however is how some people might be able to reference the spending of time on how we waste our time in our world. Like maybe we are just gambling our time away, every time we gamble what we are really using is time, having too much time or assuming we have a lot of time will cause us to become alcholics and die earlier then our time, or maybe having too much time and no way to spend it in quality is really worthless. So its better to live a short quality life then a long meaningless one.

Overall


Storyline               : 3.5 (Good concept, but lost to find out what exactly did they want to emphasize on)
Character              : 2.5 (Really really average characters that annoyed more then entertained)
Cinematography   : 3 (Average shots and attempts)
Music                    : 3 (Average music)
Spectacle              :  3.5 (Really just the concept, and it did entertain when it was all about concept)


Overall                  : 3.1  (This show is really hit or miss. Since it doesn't fulfill any specific genre well, its really hard to say if you could enjoy it. The only way for more assurance you will enjoy it would be to have pretty much too little expectation, and perhaps look forward to just contemplating what the world would be like should we be paying in time.)


As usual any comments please leave below :)

Movies: Tower Heist

Movies: Tower Heist

INTRODUCTION

Tower Heist... the movie that sounds all very actiony until you see who are the starring people. Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy. If you don't know who that is just look at the rest of the cast and you will realise that this is a show that should not be taken too seriously. In fact, I would go as far as to say that if you take this show any bit more seriously you will not be able to enjoy this show at all.

Just for interest sake, do you realise that there is a dog in this picture? I didn't until just now. And I do mean a dog as in a real dog animal. I am not being racist or anything like that.

For those who do not know Eddie Murphy, this is what he is more famous for...

Just look at the face... ain't they a bit similar?

So the gist of the show is as so, there are this bunch of people working in this tower. Stuff happens and then they want to rob the big boss of the tower. So the entertainment here is to see how normal staff workers transform into robbers with minimal training and nothing more then the desire to succeed.

So into the review we go

Storyline


Storyline to be honest is really pretty standard. Discontent employees, rich employer. Does something wrong and leads them to want to bite the hand that feeds them. They enlist help, get some assistance here and there. It doesn't break any new boundaries to the idea although this show focuses more or at least tries to focus more on the comical aspect as opposed to an action movie with all the cool gadgetry and moves.


Characters


As can be seen from the poster itself, there are many characters and to be fair they do have a wee bit of back story as to why they do the things that they do. Unfortunately there are a few that are still a bit too ordinary and we have no real clue why they are even participating in the first place at least to me. The dog also has no real part at all in the show besides looking cute.

A few are hardly even funny... ok actually only Eddie is slightly funny to me. The rest are really just too ordinary. The characters kinda take themselves too seriously at certain times also and some do not participate in making the show funny at all. It also gets somewhat confusing whether some characters are really helping the heist or against the heist.


Cinematography


There are a few above average shots but nothing that really stands out or brings out the comedic effect to the audience. Also there are alot of shifts from the theives to the boss that are just messy and really disorientating to be honest.


Music


Music is ordinary, nothing too impressive. Nothing that hinders the show too.


Spectacle

Its unfortunate to say that overall, this show brings out hardly anything that is expected of their genre. Is it thriller? no it was entirely bland. Is it action? no.. there are no strong action scenes and since these guys are amateurs they don't do any impressive stuff. Is it comedy? well.... i would say its borderline or even below average in this aspect as the only memorable thing that was mildly funny was that Eddie talks so fast that its funny. Its not even the content that he was saying that was funny. Of course there are SOME scenes that were funny too in the show but i guess in some way, this show took itself a BIT too seriously and didn't make use of enough opportunities to be funny.

Overall


Storyline              : 3 (Really too ordinary, unable to use the plot to bring out comedic effect)
Character             : 3 (Tried to diversify the character but results in no one having particularly good and believable coherent characters)
Cinematography  : 2 (Sad to say, it became annoying with all the jumps to and fro.)
Music                   : 3 (At least it didn't bring the show backwards)
Spectacle              : 3 (To be honest, nothing should get below 3 unless it actually goes against its own genre and hence deserves a negative score which i feel is extremely hard to do)

Overall                  : 2.8 (A score that barely passes, the lowest score that I have given. So what does this score mean? Basically it means that even fans of the genre might not be able to enjoy this show unless u are a real Eddie Murphy fan or just have tons of money and no expectation. There's really alot of  tweaks that should have been done to make it more funny or do something more unique, either way if you have zero expectation you could still possibly enjoy the show but I won't guarantee it)


Disagree with me? feel free to comment then :)