Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Fishes Part IV
Here's an update on the 'eggs' that turned black. As I was mentioning, some of the eggs (larvae) were wiggling. Today, I managed to get a close up picture on the larvae......
They are so very tiny! But you can see two eyes, a body and a tail. They looked like tadpoles!
10:45 PM
Monday, February 12, 2007
ABOF Restaurant & Tea Lounge
My colleague recently went to this Scandinavian Restaurant - ABOF Restaurant & Tea Lounge at Millennia Walk and told me its nice. She was describing the dish that she had - Scandinavian Roast Pork with Crackling Skin. Sounds interesting, 'crackling skin' is meant to describe the crispy fatty skin of pork meat. Since SO loves roast pork, we decided to give the place a try on Saturday.
SO had cream of mushroom soup (soup of the day). I find it so-so only.
The bread that came along was piping hot! I burnt my fingers! The taste reminded me pretzels somehow. It had the 'yeast' taste and was slightly saltish. I quite like it (since I like pretzels)! 
The serving of the main course seemed quite small. I wondered if SO would be full... But luckily he had a full bowl of cream-based soup and bread. This was his Scandinavian Roast Pork with Crackling Skin. SO said not bad... I am not a fan of fatty pork meat, so I only tried the lean meat portion, but I can guess that it would probably taste better mixed with the fats! It is also one of the noisiest dish I have ever come across - crackling sound from the munching of the skin - it is indeed so cripsy!
I tried on the Ribeye. I was impressed that the beef was really fresh and tender. The black pepper sauce was just nice too - just the right amount of saltishness for you to taste the freshness of the meat. But I find the vegetables and potato portions quite miserable though.
SO & I shared the dessert - Warm Chocolate Cake - which I heard was highly recommended. And I must say, GOSH, it's really heavenly! I used go to Bakerzin for their warm chocolate cakes, but now I think I will visit ABOF for my cravings instead.
To appreciate why ABOF's version is better, you just need to look at the picture below. About 70% of the cake is runny! YUMMY!
I also had an ice latte (not very nice actually) while SO had Earl grey by the pot. The bill came up to about $85 in total. Overall, I would say the food was not bad, the Warm Chocolate Cake and the Scandanivian Broth soup that I had were both fantastic! I hope to return to the place again soon. SO, you catch the hint?
Labels: food, Restaurant
2:41 AM
Fishes part III
As I was sharing, the 3rd batch of eggs was layed on Thursday. This time round, there were ALOT of eggs layed. I didn't know Discus fishes are so productive. Read from the web that apparently they can lay eggs weekly for consecutive 11 times! That is one cycle. In the life-time of the fish, it can have two of such cycles (meaning they will lay eggs 22 times)!
My dad decided not to put the wire gauze to see if the chances of the eggs developing into frys are higher. We tried not to alarm the fishes, so we had to creep slowly towards the tank when we need to satisfy our curiosity (the wonder of nature, I now can also sit in front of the tank and stare for hours!). Luckily the fishes did not eat up the eggs! Also, thank goodness for my super zoom camera! I actually took these photos about 1 metre away from the tank.
I think this time round we may be able to get some of the eggs hatched as we noticed that some of the eggs turned 'black', which is a sign that the eggs are fertilized and developing into frys! Also, I noticed the parent fish will fan the eggs very vigorously, especially towards the 'blacken eggs', such that they actually fall to the 'catchment' area of the breeding cone. 
Then the parent fish will pick up the fallen egg and try to stick back to the cone (see picture below, I managed to capture a photo of the fish doing it. The blackish dot in between the fish's mouth and cone is the egg). So far, none was successfully stuck back onto the cone. Nevertheless, I saw the 'blacken' eggs wiggling on the catchment area once every few seconds!! So exciting! I counted about 17 of them so far!
After the frys break out of their eggs, they will get hungry and latch themselves onto the parent fishes' body to receive nutrients! Will try to capture a picture of it to share!
2:05 AM
I am The Emperor