Fire Forty Six

Taiwan Beer - Gold Medal, Honey and Lychee

Over the years, my brew of choice has swung from the light and citrusy Hoegaarden, to the dark and broody Guinness (but only if it’s on tap), and back to easy-drinking lagers like Kingfisher and Estrella Damm. Taiwan Beer is currently my favourite, especially their Lychee Fruit Beer.

Taking one baby step into the scary world of blue cheese

Food

February 12, 2022April 22, 2022 Alvin Lee

We asked Nicholas to recommend the least scary choice and he suggested the Blu di Basque, a blue cheese with training wheels. He shared that when he tried it for the first time, it was so mild that he couldn’t even tell that it was blue cheese. It sounded like the perfect fit for our first foray into the world of blue cheese.

Prosperity yusheng with a Japanese touch from Tanoke

Food

February 9, 2022June 17, 2022 Alvin Lee

Japanese ingredients in the Tanoke Prosperity Yusheng set it apart from others. Hamachi, ikura, shiso flowers, honey yuzu and goma dressing add a nice touch to the traditional Chinese New Year salad.

Our expiring Krisflyer miles just got a new lease of life

Travel

February 5, 2022February 23, 2022 Alvin Lee

30 April 2022 was supposed to be D-Day, marking the start of a tsunami of expiring Krisflyer miles. Surprisingly (and thankfully), Singapore Airlines decided to extend the expiry of our miles again, giving them a new lease of life. Here’s how I plan to redeem all of them before they expire.

Another thirty days of machine learning with Kaggle (Part 3)

Learn

February 3, 2022January 22, 2024 Alvin Lee 1 comment

It took me a while to finally complete all 17 modules, but knowing that there was a clear outcome helped motivate me to keep taking the next step, and the step after that.

So, if you’re interested in getting a taste of what the world of machine learning has to offer, beginning with the (free!) online courses on Kaggle Learn is a great starting point. I know that it definitely was for me.

Auspicious mochi waffles on the first day of the Chinese New Year

Food

February 1, 2022May 5, 2024 Alvin Lee

Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year, and The Wife wanted to start off the year with an auspicious breakfast. So she made some mochi waffles and paired them with Jeju yuzu citron and Canadian maple syrup.

Sushi Raku is the pretty stepsister of Itacho

Food

January 29, 2022April 22, 2022 Alvin Lee

We started with the lighter-tasting shiromi, or white-fleshed fish, and slowly worked ourselves up to the heavier-tasting sushi. They say that first impressions are the most important, and the Raku Sushi Set did not disappoint.

Purple is the colour of comfort food

Drink

January 26, 2022April 25, 2022 Alvin Lee

To make the drink, peel the sweet potatoes, chop into rough chunks and steam them for around 15 minutes. While they cool, weigh and heat up the milk. Finally, dump everything into a heat-resistant jug, whizz it all up with an immersion hand-blender and enjoy.

Kaggle Learn courses and prerequisites (Part 2)

Another thirty days of machine learning with Kaggle (Part 2)

Learn

January 22, 2022January 22, 2024 Alvin Lee

Part 2 of my Kaggle learning journey focused on the data-centric modules. The tutorials and hands-on coding exercises were rich in content and spanned across Pandas, Intro to SQL, Advanced SQL, Data Cleaning and Feature Engineering. 13 down, 4 more to go!