I thought the Tim Tam Slams were a nice original snack and decided to try some variations. Some other things I've tried instead of hot chocolate were a Taiwanese multigrain drink and black coffee. I thought the original was too much of a chocolate rush, so replacing the hot cocoa with something else was natural. Both the multigrain drink and coffee are normally snack items that one would drink with a chocolate pastry, so they still went well together. Both drinks were also thin enough to get sucked through the Tim Tam. As with the cocoa, the drink must be very hot because the temperature will drop as soon as the first Tim Tam is dipped in. It must stay hot in order for the liquid to melt through the spongy middle.
Something else I tried was replacing the Tim Tam instead of the hot chocolate. I figured it should somewhat work with a Kit Kat. It doesn't have a fast melting spongy layer, but the wafers in the middle should act like a straw. Sure enough, it worked on my first try, but doesn't with every piece. There's also no collapsing effect. So we can't really call it a Kit Kat Slam.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
Snow Day
Today is the start of my vacation week, but all my colleagues got the day off today as Wiley (and probably every other NY area company) closed due to the storm. So that means I won't get any emails for at least one vacation day!
The snow came mostly yesterday and overnight. It's probably the most accumulation I've seen since living in the city. This goes all the way back to 1999. I'd say we got about 24 inches. The bulk of it has stopped, but the strong winds are still blowing snow around.
The snow came mostly yesterday and overnight. It's probably the most accumulation I've seen since living in the city. This goes all the way back to 1999. I'd say we got about 24 inches. The bulk of it has stopped, but the strong winds are still blowing snow around.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Tim Tam Slam!
Edith sent me a pack of Tim Tams from Australia a few months ago, but I was saving it for a family occasion. Christmas Eve was the perfect night to try it because it was just the 4 of us and it was a cold night for hot chocolate and Tim Tam Slams! After dinner at Ai Passion, Emily and I went to Rite Aid hoping to get some Swiss Miss hot chocolate. They were sold out, but luckily, there was a Dunkin Donuts on the way to my parents' house. So we had everything we needed for the Tim Tam Slams.
Here are the basic steps:
1) Prepare (or buy) some hot chocolate. Make sure it stays hot, otherwise you'll lose the melting/collapsing effect.
2) Bite off the ends of the Tim Tam so that the spongy layer in the middle is exposed. You want to bite carefully without collapsing the biscuit. It helps if the Tim Tams are stored in a relatively cool dry place.
3) Dip one end of the biscuit into the hot chocolate and use it as a straw by sucking on the other end. You have to do this for a few seconds before the hot chocolate makes its way up through the spongy layer, melting it and collapsing the biscuit into the ultimate chocolate implosion.
Enjoy!
Related: Arnott's, How To Video, Wikipedia
Here are the basic steps:
1) Prepare (or buy) some hot chocolate. Make sure it stays hot, otherwise you'll lose the melting/collapsing effect.
2) Bite off the ends of the Tim Tam so that the spongy layer in the middle is exposed. You want to bite carefully without collapsing the biscuit. It helps if the Tim Tams are stored in a relatively cool dry place.
3) Dip one end of the biscuit into the hot chocolate and use it as a straw by sucking on the other end. You have to do this for a few seconds before the hot chocolate makes its way up through the spongy layer, melting it and collapsing the biscuit into the ultimate chocolate implosion.
Enjoy!
Related: Arnott's, How To Video, Wikipedia
Ai Passion
Location: 20-02 Utopia Parkway, Whitestone, NY 11357Cuisine: Asian
Hours: SUN (1:30pm-10pm); MON-THU (11:30am-10:30pm); FRI (11:30am-11:30pm); SAT (12:30pm-11:30pm)
Phone: (718) 352-8100
Email: eat@aipassion.com
Website: www.aipassion.com
Prices: $15/person (Lunch)
Credit Cards: All major
Food: 8
Service: 9
Value: 7
Environment: 10
Frequency: Unique
Most of my cousins were away this Christmas, so we had Christmas Eve in a restaurant... don't think we've done that before, but it was a nice quiet night. We tried a new place and found a winner! Of all the new restaurants I tried with my family recently, I think Ai Passion is the first I would definitely go back to. Please check out the album below for details on the dishes we had.
The service was very good. I think our waiter was new because he made some minor mistakes, but everyone was nice. Food came out one dish at a time, which is a slower pace than we're used to in downtown Flushing, but always nice to know they're not batch-cooking (or microwaving) the food. Everything was fresh (except the carrots).
Ai Passion is a gem on Utopia Parkway!
Friday, December 24, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Mini Ninjas Controls for PC
Naturally, there's a different hack for every PC game, even if it's by the same company. So Mini Ninjas (also by Eidos) has an XBox 360 emulation mode for the Logitech Rumble Pad 2 USB too, but it's not as straightforward as Batman Arkham Asylum.
1) As with Batman Arkham Asylum, you won't install the Logitech software. Just plug in the gamepad.
2) In Regedit, do a search for "Logitech RumblePad 2 USB"
3) Right-click and modify the name of the item to "XBOX 360 Controller for Windows"
4) Click here to download the XBox input emulation files.
5) Unzip these and place them into C:\Program Files\Eidos\Mini Ninjas
6) Also download this file and copy to the same location in step 5, overwriting the existing one. It's a version of the file I edited to emulate the PS3 controller.
1) As with Batman Arkham Asylum, you won't install the Logitech software. Just plug in the gamepad.
2) In Regedit, do a search for "Logitech RumblePad 2 USB"
3) Right-click and modify the name of the item to "XBOX 360 Controller for Windows"
4) Click here to download the XBox input emulation files.
5) Unzip these and place them into C:\Program Files\Eidos\Mini Ninjas
6) Also download this file and copy to the same location in step 5, overwriting the existing one. It's a version of the file I edited to emulate the PS3 controller.
Batman Arkham Asylum Controls for PC
Since my desktop is now an all-powerful gaming system, I thought I would try out some of the games I had on PS3 for comparison. If it was even possible, the graphics for Batman Arkham Asylum were actually better. There are a lot of little extra details not in the console version of the game, like spider webs that get knocked down in the ventilation shafts, extra particles when Batman rips vents off and background objects breaking during fights. Also, the movements are much smoother and of course... it can be played at 1080p.But the all of the improvements of PC versions in general, the one thing I always hated is play controls. No game is ready to go once you open the package as with console games. You have to configure your gamepad, which often involves a lot of hacking. I looked all over the internet to see how people were doing it for this game. I didn't find a single complete instruction set, so I decided to make one. You'll need a Logitech Rumble Pad 2 USB.
1) Plug your gamepad into a USB port and go with all of the generic drivers used by Windows... don't install any Logitech software. Batman Arkham Asylum will detect the controller and apply some kind of XBox 360 emulation for it. This pretty much gives you all the functions in the game, but they're all scrambled if you're a PS3 gamer. And the controls are inverted.
2) What you have to do it go into C:\Program Files\Eidos\Batman Arkham Asylum\BmGame\Config\ and edit a few lines in DefaultInput.ini. I already did this for you. Just click here to download. Then overwrite the one in the /Config directory.
I basically found the lines for controlling movement and also swapped buttons 1 & 4 and 2 & 3. You should be ready to play now!
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Weekend So Far
Gift Wrapping
I finally got to gift wrapping... a little bit before I met Lewis yesterday and then the rest today. As I did last year, all gifts were wrapped in green (as in environmentally friendly) paper... either brown paper bags or holiday circulars. I didn't buy any wrapping paper this year. Then I grouped each family's gifts together in recycled bags. It was good to get that out of the way a week early.
Home Theater
The home theater project from last week was wrapped up as I got the 2 optical cables I was missing to complete the system. So now the digital cable box and PS3 are connected with fiber optics for crystal clear 5.1 audio. Movies sound great as expected. I tested it with Casino Royale Blu-ray. The intro. scene was a good test because of the breaking ceramics and great title soundtrack. Basketball games actually sound good too. I didn't expect that at all, but it has a stadium like feel because you can hear ambient noise from the fans coming from all directions. Video games are also great... played Batman Arkham Asylum, Gran Turismo 5 and Force Unleashed II (DEMO).
Core i7
I noticed that sometimes my new desktop system would reach 92 degrees in temperature, so I quickly ordered 2 extra fans... one exhaust fan for the slot area and a 5.25" bay for the front. That dropped the temperature down to a more comfortable 83 degrees. So the system also looks more modded now. There are only 2 5.25" bays left... one is reserved for a future BLu-ray burner. The slot fan I added also has blue LED lights, making my system look super geeky.
I finally got to gift wrapping... a little bit before I met Lewis yesterday and then the rest today. As I did last year, all gifts were wrapped in green (as in environmentally friendly) paper... either brown paper bags or holiday circulars. I didn't buy any wrapping paper this year. Then I grouped each family's gifts together in recycled bags. It was good to get that out of the way a week early.
Home Theater
The home theater project from last week was wrapped up as I got the 2 optical cables I was missing to complete the system. So now the digital cable box and PS3 are connected with fiber optics for crystal clear 5.1 audio. Movies sound great as expected. I tested it with Casino Royale Blu-ray. The intro. scene was a good test because of the breaking ceramics and great title soundtrack. Basketball games actually sound good too. I didn't expect that at all, but it has a stadium like feel because you can hear ambient noise from the fans coming from all directions. Video games are also great... played Batman Arkham Asylum, Gran Turismo 5 and Force Unleashed II (DEMO).
Core i7
I noticed that sometimes my new desktop system would reach 92 degrees in temperature, so I quickly ordered 2 extra fans... one exhaust fan for the slot area and a 5.25" bay for the front. That dropped the temperature down to a more comfortable 83 degrees. So the system also looks more modded now. There are only 2 5.25" bays left... one is reserved for a future BLu-ray burner. The slot fan I added also has blue LED lights, making my system look super geeky.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Paris Baguette
Location: 136-20 38th Avenue, Flushing, NY
Cuisine: Chinese, Vegetarian
Phone: (718) 713-0404
Website: www.parisbaguetteusa.com
Prices: $5/person (Snack)
Credit Cards: All major
Food: 7
Service: 7
Value: 6
Environment: 5
Frequency: Unique
We probably hung out at Happy Buddha for over 2 hours just catching up since the last time I saw Lewis was when we had our little SCAD reunion in June. So we headed out to the food court in Queens Crossing even though the Happy Buddha staff wasn't rushing us. At Queens Crossing, I was looking for the organic coffee place that I normally buy from, but they closed down. Taiwanese chain, Kung Fu Tea will take its place soon.
So instead, we ended up in Korean chain, Paris Baguette... yup "Korean!" For some reason, Koreans like naming things "Paris." There were so many choices and a lot of pastries looked good. I was eyeing all the things that had cheese in them and then finally decided on a green tea w/ cream cheese bun. Both the bread and cheese filling were rich with flavor. They also had organic iced coffee like the place that closed down, although the price per portion was nearly double. Lewis had an iced tea that looked and tasted more like water.
The dining space is very tight and not well maintained. There were crumbs and grease all over the seats. I had to wipe it down before sitting down. The decor is nice, but impractical. They had lamps hanging down low enough that the average person needs to duck while walking around.
Cuisine: Chinese, Vegetarian
Phone: (718) 713-0404
Website: www.parisbaguetteusa.com
Prices: $5/person (Snack)
Credit Cards: All major
Food: 7
Service: 7
Value: 6
Environment: 5
Frequency: Unique
We probably hung out at Happy Buddha for over 2 hours just catching up since the last time I saw Lewis was when we had our little SCAD reunion in June. So we headed out to the food court in Queens Crossing even though the Happy Buddha staff wasn't rushing us. At Queens Crossing, I was looking for the organic coffee place that I normally buy from, but they closed down. Taiwanese chain, Kung Fu Tea will take its place soon.
So instead, we ended up in Korean chain, Paris Baguette... yup "Korean!" For some reason, Koreans like naming things "Paris." There were so many choices and a lot of pastries looked good. I was eyeing all the things that had cheese in them and then finally decided on a green tea w/ cream cheese bun. Both the bread and cheese filling were rich with flavor. They also had organic iced coffee like the place that closed down, although the price per portion was nearly double. Lewis had an iced tea that looked and tasted more like water.
The dining space is very tight and not well maintained. There were crumbs and grease all over the seats. I had to wipe it down before sitting down. The decor is nice, but impractical. They had lamps hanging down low enough that the average person needs to duck while walking around.
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