Red Desk
I’m not too sure why, but I was generally in an okay mood today.
Maybe I’d have to attribute it partly to discussing next year’s themes with my bosses. I don’t exactly recall the last time I ever had such a long meeting with her, but it was alright. It was definitely nice to air out my ideas and opinions, and she taking them not only as token gestures, but ones to be taken seriously. At the same time, I felt a little bittersweet. I do plan to begin exploring other options next year – I’m not ready to discuss it just yet, but let’s just say there are some things I want to do before I get too old for it. That said, I’m quite excited about what the future holds in the near future at ALEXIS Magazine and I want to be a part of it as long as I can.
In the afternoon, Chia Erhn, Keidi and I headed down to The Pierside at One Fullerton for Luxottica’s media preview of the Spring-Summer 2012 collection. Personally, I’ve always preferred Luxottica’s line of shades and optical lenses not only because they always pull out the stops at their events, but because overall, I can actually wear their shades. I’ve a wider head and high cheek bones, which limits what type of lenses and shades I can wear, and that’s where Safilo fails, at least for me. Unlike the previous event at Equinox, this event was definitely less intimate, and Luxottica invited celebrity stylist Trey Wong to present the collection. On paper, it’s a good idea – a stylist would know best. However, in reality, it was a train wreck. When you present to the media, what you really want to do is to present the collection in a most objective way – be humble, and don’t talk down to the press, and dumb down the technicalities. As a writer, I thrive of being fed objective information so that I can curate an original piece – I don’t want to be influenced by anybody or anything else. So, I couldn’t be bothered with anything he said.
The trends for this coming Spring and Summer are the same all across the board, from menswear to women’s wear. While it wasn’t too successful this year, the fashion industry has refined its technique and methods, and will continue its push for colors next year. Generally, if you’re not embracing bold, strong and bright colors like orange, yellow, red, green, blue next year, you’re not in trend which I’d imagine will be a little difficult for Singaporeans given their love for simplicity and heat-conducting colors like black and…mostly black.
What I was really excited about was dinner. Ever since I met Mark and Bert last week, my craving for good fried poultry was never satisfied. If I have cravings, I usually try my best to satisfy them ASAP because I could eat a lot – I’ll be full, no doubt, but there’s this inkling that it’s not filled, and I’ll desire food not long after again. With a swim date with Raudhah and Keidi tomorrow throwing off my plans to gym this evening, I decided to hit the highway to satisfy my much-needed craving. So, I went down to nex at Serangoon. I bloody hell hate that mall for its claustrophobic design and confusing layout, but damn, that place has some of the most eclectic variety of food concentrated in a single building. You have your usual fare, then you have the more unusual choices and I went for one of those – Broaster Chicken.
Broaster Chicken is a new entrant to the fast food market in Singapore. While some might argue that newer entrants such as Carl’s Jr., Wendy’s and Popeye’s have saturated the market, it is evident that the market is saying otherwise. It is surprising that fast food is still being embraced, considering that Singaporeans are more health-conscious than ever before. Ironically, public awareness about the importance of a healthy lifestyle means that the public can afford to eat fast food, precisely because they’re more physically active – engaging in dance or sports-related activities. The flip side, which everyone seems to be glossing over regarding rising obesity rates in the country, is that customers are solely basing their decision on price, and the deep-discounting such as McDonald’s Lunch Value Meals and value deals on Groupon or Deals websites which slashes off as much as a third of the usual cost, is inflating the market demand for fast food.
Broasting is a method of cooking food such as chicken using a pressure fryer and other condiments. Compared to deep frying, broasting allows a more evenly cooked and desirable taste – the outside crispy, but the inside remains perfectly moist and tender, and it’s overall less greasy. This makes Broaster Chicken a healthier choice compared to KFC or Popeye’s, whose franchise agreements do not insist on purchasing pressure fryers, which can be an expensive alternative. Unfortunately, Broaster Chicken seems to have poor marketing and poor word-of-mouth, particularly because lack of knowledge about the different methods of frying may cause diners to perceive Broaster Chicken’s food as more tasty, and thus, unhealthy. This perception may ironically help diners to pick KFC’s Original Recipe chicken which appear to be “dry” and “less oily” when in reality, is as unhealthy because of the cooking method.
I’m not too sure where my obsession stems from, but I always eat turkey whenever it’s an available option. In the States, turkey is a Thanksgiving affair but here in Asia, turkeys are as important to us as egg nogs are to Americans for Christmas. Yet, I haven’t had a real Christmas feast complete with pudding, fruit cakes and all that drizzle and drazzle in a long while, mostly because in recent years, the focus has returned to the traditional Peranakan roots… Particularly since some of my relatives’ Christian denomination (I’m not sure which… I notice non-Catholic Christians love to call themselves Christians, denying that they’re a denomination which would directly accept that other ways to worship God does exist…). Anyways, they don’t “celebrate” Christmas – some of the families are “Christians” whose “religion” says Christmas is a solemn affair. Another family of “Christians” say that their “religion” suggests that Christmas is a Roman Catholic paganistic and/or a sham instigated by corporations to encourage consumerism – they believe that Jesus’ true birthday is unknown, and not celebrating it on his birthday is to honor the anti-Christ or somethin’…
Yeah. It’s complicated like that.
Back to dinner. I ordered the Turkey drumstick which I had assumed was going to be a small affair. At SGD 7.90, it was rather overpriced, but I wasn’t concerned – these turkeys come all the way from the States, I reasoned. Little did I expect that the Turkey drumstick was as long as my forearm. While I initially ate in a civil manner, with the plastic fork and knife, the broasting unveiled its magic – deliciously crispy skin and a moist, juicy and tender inside – I quickly graduated to eating with my bare hands. True to true broasting, it was scarcely oily.
To quote KFC, it was “so good”.
