Filipino Food in Lucky Plaza: Jologs

Jologs by Café Calle Real is a Filipino restaurant in Lucky Plaza.

Jologs may be a negative word for some but in Singapore, they serve one of the best “SiLogs”!

SiLogs means a meal with “Si” Sinangag (garlic Fried Rice) and “Log” Itlog (Fried Egg).

The most popular “SiLog” has got to be Tapsilog which is Tapa (Marinated Beef) with Sinangag and Itlog!

Now to summarize my experience:

Food that is readily prepared is available: To hard to tell, but I think YES

You cannot see where they prepare the food, but once you find a seat, you don’t have to wait for too long before the food arrives.

Day Visited for the first time: Saturday

Time/Meal: Dinner

Day Visited for the second time: Wednesday

Time/Meal: Dinner

Good for Corporate Lunch/Dinners: No

Good to eat with Foreign Friends: Maybe for the adventurous

The thing is, Jologs is located in Lucky Plaza and their space is a bit cramped. If your foreign friends can deal with all these, then you may invite them to eat in Jologs.

Recommended for people who will try Philippine Cuisine for the first time: Yes

If we will only talk about the food, definitely a must try!

Jolog’s is located at #04-03 Lucky Plaza Singapore 238863

Their contact number is (+65) 6887-5724 and their website is:

http://cafecallereal.com/aboutus.html

Filipino Food in Lau Pa Sat: Mack’s, Happy V (formerly Jolly V), Panyeros and Mang Kiko’s Lechon

Lau Pa Sat, almost everyone in Singapore knows about it, so going to the place is not that difficult. Of all the food stalls there, four (4) serves Filipino Cuisine.

Mack’s Chicken Inasal

*****Sad to say, Mack’s is now closed*****

Panyeros

Happy V Fried Chicken (formerly know as Jolly V)

And Mang Kiko’s Lechon

Although they all cater to the Filipinos working and visiting Singapore, the food on their menu does not compete with one another.

You will also often see foreigners ordering from them, especially at Happy V.

Since basically Lau Pa Sat is a food court, we can assume that the experience  for all three stalls is almost the same.

Food that is readily prepared is available: Yes

Day Visited for the first time: Friday

Time/Meal: Dinner

Day Visited for the second time: Sunday

Time/Meal: Dinner

Good for Corporate Lunch/Dinners: No

Not unless your department wants to have a corporate meal in a hawker center.

Good to eat with Foreign Friends: Yes

It’s Lau Pa Sat so basically, I’m sure majority of your friends have been there.

Recommended for people who will try Philippine Cuisine for the first time: Depends!

Mack’s Chicken Inasal – Yes, their menu is very Filipino although most of the time, they only can offer 3-4 dishes. You may plan to eat Tapsilog but on your visit, they only have Chicken Barbeque.

Mack’s is the only place in Singapore where you can ask them to prepare a “malasado” fried egg.

Panyeros – They do not have a regular menu. You can just pick which one’s you’ll like to try.

Happy V – Fried Chicken and Rice! The only difference is the gravy! They also have Pizza, Pasta and Burger Steak but these may or may not work with your guests since we all know that Filipino Pasta is sweet.

Mang Kiko’s Lechon – I will have to say Yes, it’s lechon! But come to think about it again, its only roasted pig.

ASUS P525

I have written a couple of articles about various gadgets in this blog but I have never written anything about my “primary phone”. Yes, to people who have two or more phones in the bag, there is always 1 phone which does all the heavy lifting.

In my case, I use the Asus P525. Not one of the prettiest devices if you see it. I even use it with a leather case which makes it even bulkier.

This phone has been with me for the longest time; it has been with me for more than 2 years and for a time, I have built a small accessory list around it.

This includes a Bluetooth Headset,

a Stereo Bluetooth Headset

and a Bluetooth Keyboard.

The Bluetooth Keyboard was one of the hardest things to find, I once used an IR Keyboard but it’s not as reliable as the Bluetooth version.

Now back to the Asus P525. Once upon a time, this was the most reliable Windows Mobile Device available in the market! While other devices froze or had screen alignment problems, the Asus P525 just kept working. One Major complain about this device is the positioning of the joystick. Some people got used to it but there will always be people like me with fat fingers who can’t seem to get the hang of using its phone pad.

The Asus P525 was also the first Windows Mobile Device with a usable camera that has Auto Focus! When this phone went out, everyone was surprised with the photos its camera can produce. Today, no one will be happy with its 1.3 mega pixel camera, but for small chores, it is more than enough for me.

Here are the most useful apps installed on my phone (not including games):

Don’t Sleep Wifi – This prevents the phone from “sleeping” when using wifi or Bluetooth

Lextionary – Dictionary

Novi Remote – Universal IR Remote

Peek Pocket – Scans available wifi hotspots

Pocket CM Image Viewer

Pocket CM Keyboard – On-screen virtual keyboard

SyncMate – Enables me to Sync my phone with my Mac. It also allows me to organize songs using iTunes

TCPMP – AVI player

Although the Asus P525 is in no way able to compete with the new Windows Mobile devices coming out, I will have to say that this might be the last Windows Mobile Device for me, not unless a manufacturer finally decides to release a Windows Mobile device with a capacitive touch screen.

Reliability wise, it has got to be the best phone I have ever used. It never fails! Definitely one of the best gadget purchases I have made!

For the Asus P525’s specifications, please click here.

Here are additional pictures of my Asus P525.

Filipino Food in Lau Pa Sat: Mang Kiko’s Lechon

Just saw this stall in Lau Pa Sat front of Panyeros last Sunday.

Sadly, I was not able to try any of their food as they were closed for their equipment’s maintenance.

This must be the first stall in Singapore that sell’s Lechon!

Anyway, I’ll make updates once I have time to visit Lau Pa Sat again.

Mang Kiko’s Lechon is located at Stall #27 at Lau Pa Sat.

Netbooks! To buy now… or not to buy… yet!

Netbooks! These small laptop computers have gone a long way, sometimes I can’t imagine that the model that started it all had a 7 inch screen and a 2-4gig Solid State Drive… the EEE PC.

Yes we are still seeing new laptops trying to use a solid state drive but we still opt for the traditional hard disk since it has more space, I honestly think we can forget about the 7 inch screen since its really too small!

Two years from the introduction of the EEE PC, we can see a wide range of Netbooks from various manufacturers; almost all models have the same Atom processor, 2.5 inch hard disk and a 10 inch screen.

Now as for the real reason why I’m writing this article, to buy now or to wait?

Netbooks as we know uses a low powered processor. I think we can almost compare it with the older Pentium 4 processor which was great during its time but slow compared to today’s requirements.

Because of this processor, Netbooks used either Linux or Windows XP. Linux was ok however users started to install the more familiar Windows XP and to date, almost all brand new Netbooks are shipped with a Windows XP.

Windows XP was installed because Windows Vista performed badly on a Netbook, all HP 2133 users will agree with me.

Yes, you might say that Vista performed really bad with almost any computer and this is the reason why Microsoft has been working really hard for Windows 7.

Now this is where I will recommend that we all wait for Windows 7 before you purchase a Netbook.

I am sure that once Windows 7 come out, Microsoft will stop support for the Windows XP they almost pulled the plug on XP but they saw that they have to extend it a bit or else all Netbooks will run on Linux.

I just bought a Windows Vista Home Premium which I use on my Macbook’s VM Ware. It costs almost SGD 500.00. If Windows 7 (Netbooks edition) will have the same price, upgrading your Operating System will almost be as expensive as getting a new Netbook.

I would recommend that if you can hold your plan to purchase a Netbook, better hold it and wait for Windows 7. It will be a lot cheaper to buy a Netbook with a pre-installed Windows 7 than to buy one that runs on Windows XP then have it reformatted with a new Operating System later on.

If you really need a Netbook NOW, then by all means go to the nearest computer shop and make that purchase. But if it’s not that important, I really suggest you wait for Windows 7.