兰州拉面

I should have done a write up on this a few years ago when The Magus brought me her for dinner. That was when he decided that the Bush Administration Regime (if not America itself) no longer welcomes foreign talents (as a result of 9-11) and return to boring Singapore. I believe his opinion was that the U.S. under the Patriot Act was no different than Singapore with the ISD.

However, even before The Magus brought me to the place, Lanzhou La Mian (兰州拉面) used to be located in Lao Pat Sat some time in the late 90s. I was pretty sad when it moved out, and I have no idea where it has moved to.

Anyway, after I was re-introduced to the place, I brought a number of people to the shop (now located at 19 Smith Street) for dinner and it has so far not disappoint me and my friends. I am glad Daphne did a video with Bloggers’ Treat on the place because now it gave this lazy bum here the impetus to pay tribute to the eatery myself.

Lanzhou La Mian’s specialty is of course – la mian (拉面, which literally means ‘Pull noodles’ in Chinese). Simply put, it’s just ‘hand made noodles’ (手工面), but unlike the other kind of, the only machinery involved in the making the noodles would be the machine that mix the flour and water. Whatever else is all done manually.

My personal favourites would be the Chicken Chop (鸡排拉面) and Pork Chop Noodles (排骨拉面). And for sides, it would be the steamed (小笼汤包) and panfried dumplings (锅贴). They actually also have some Chinese style deserts, though the English names escaped me for the moment.

I am sorry I don’t take photo of my food, so do check out the video done by Bloggers’ Treat and Daphne. I believe the visuals would have more impact that the mere words I am using here.

Blog Advertising… yet again…

Every now and then we will hear something about our ‘local’ Blog Advertising companies – e.g. Advertlets and Nuffnang. Most of the time it’s just complaints (if not the whines) of bloggers.

In rare cases, you hear something different. Even Blog2u was not spared of this curse, though in their case the matter quickly blew over with both sides – company and ex-staff – agreeing to remove their respective blog entries. (I will not go into details about this matter.)

Yet again, blog entries about nuffnang hits the Top 10 of ping.sg recently. This time written by bloggers who finally having enough of their service and deserting them. Starting with Limetouch, the body count soon increase to include: Kriscell, Wishbone and Sicarii. (If you aren’t mentioned here then it’s most likely your blog has been given the [-] on ping.sg, a list that is ever growing… daily.)

In Limetouch’s case, he also published his post on Innit, nuffnang’s very own propaganda machine People’s Daily blog aggregator which resulted in his ban in a matter of hours – an efficiency rarely seen in nuffnang (depending on who you asked). Of course, the reason for these bloggers finally ‘abandoning’ nuffnang, is yet again: the lack of ads, the never-ending controversy surrounding the transparency on how the ads are given out and also how bloggers are ‘tiered’ and paid. (And frankly speaking, I personally felt it wouldn’t matter very much to nuffnang unless there is a massive desertion of bloggers from using nuffnang to monetize their blogs, or when higher ups of big brands which use their service sit up and do something about it.)

Of course, where there are detractors, there will also be supporters. Blogger ylva wrote that she will not leave nuffnang regardless and stated that her reason she will stay with them for the ‘priceless’ activities nuffnang have organised and the ‘friends’ she can meet as a result of such activities.

But I wondered if ylva had thought about this: If bloggers continue to leave nuffnang in droves, then her chances of her making new friends are going to diminish as time goes by. Unless she’s content with meeting the same people over and over again, these ‘priceless’ activities she touted appears to me to be slowly depreciating in value.

Still, it was quite amusing for me to know that some actually found a special use nuffnang other than as an attempt to monetize one’s blog. It is now some kind of friend-finder or social networking facility like Asia Friendfinder. Perhaps nuffnang should consider adding a new facility along the lines of myspace, facebook or even friendster, so nuffnangers can now poke, slap or perhaps even scratch the back of one another.

Indeed, it appears to me that some bloggers are also unconsciously using ping.sg in that capacity and more than just a blog aggregator and a means to publicize their blogs as well. I personally have made and gained a few friends… and make a few enemies.

Meantime, I am glad I have outgrown the usual urge to respond to the ‘creative’ cut and paste of those who never grows up and fart through their blogs as easily as they do with their mouths. They are aptly be described by this new term: 兰州人 (Lanzhou Ren). An interesting term which I believe I will soon use often on die Mutter-Ficken Schweinhunde, hopefully without any offense to the real natives of Lanzhou.