Friday, 27 September 2013

The Escape Artist - Dimension Z review

DISCLAIMER: This post is spoiler-free. Any spoilers will be clearly demarcated and be in WHITE text. There are no answers given about how to solve any of the puzzles, just general hints, which the gamemasters may also give to you anyway when you play. If you want an entirely spoiler-free experience, just don’t read the review/tips!

Brief Intro: If you have played any online room escape games, you would surely be keen on The Escape Artist, a real-life room escape game at the somewhat obscure Bukit Timah Shopping Centre. They have 4 rooms in total, which you can check out on their official website here. The room sizes allow anywhere from 2 – 8 people, depending on the particular room. Each room has a unique theme and a set of puzzles which you have to solve to unlock the door to get out of the room. The success rates are pretty low, probably below 50%, so be prepared for a challenge.
It costs $15 per person for 50 minutes (and an additional $15 for the entire room for a 10(?) minute extension), $12 if you are a student. Pretty reasonable rates for a really great time!

Many puzzles in every room are what I call ‘general lateral thinking puzzles’, where you have to think creatively and figure out how to derive the code from whatever clues you have.

This blog post will be my review of one of their rooms, Dimension Z.

The Escape Artist - A Wonderfool Dream Review

DISCLAIMER: This post is spoiler-free. Any spoilers will be clearly demarcated and be in WHITE text. There are no answers given about how to solve any of the puzzles, just general hints, which the gamemasters may also give to you anyway when you play. If you want an entirely spoiler-free experience, just don't read the review/tips!

Brief Intro: If you have played any online room escape games, you would surely be keen on The Escape Artist, a real-life room escape game at the somewhat obscure Bukit Timah Shopping Centre. They have 4 rooms in total, which you can check out on their official website here. The room sizes allow anywhere from 2 - 8 people, depending on the particular room. Each room has a unique theme and a set of puzzles which you have to solve to unlock the door to get out of the room. The success rates are pretty low, probably below 50%, so be prepared for a challenge.
It costs $15 per person for 50 minutes (and an additional $15 for the entire room for a 10(?) minute extension), $12 if you are a student. Pretty reasonable rates for a really great time!

Many puzzles in every room are what I call 'general lateral thinking puzzles', where you have to think creatively and figure out how to derive the code from whatever clues you have.

This blog post will be my review of one of their rooms, A Wonderfool Dream (Version 2)

Sunday, 15 September 2013

Homemade burgers!

I've been wanting to make burgers for a long time and finally got about to doing it!

Alan's Burger and Fries

Ingredients: (makes 4 patties)

200g minced pork
200g minced beef
1 cup bread crumbs
1 small onion
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 egg + 2 tablespoons water
1 slice of cheese
optional: 
4 slices of cheese
BBQ/tomato/chilli sauce
1 apple, sliced
4 hamburger buns

Preparation

1) Dice up the onion into small bits. You can vary the amount of onion you want but do have some as it adds to the taste very well.

2) Put all the ingredients except the cheese into a bowl, and mix well with your hands.
You can add more mustard/salt/pepper to your liking. I'm going to try to mix in BBQ sauce at this stage the next time, as well as some thyme.

3) Divide into 4 flat patties. Try to make them flat, about 1.5inch thick should be the most, otherwise it won't cook well. (Mine were 1 inch) Enclose 1/4 slice of cheese in each patty (optional)

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="614"] Raw patties[/caption]

 

4) Put in fridge for 20-30 minutes. This is to help the patties firm up so it won't fall apart when you cook them.

5) Heat up frying pan with just a bit of oil, then put in patties when the oil sizzles (just sprinkle a drop of water or something to tell)

6) Depending on your heat, leave on each side for 2-4 minutes. I tried 3 minutes for the first batch on medium-high flame and it turned out slightly burnt:



For the next batch I used a medium flame, and only about 2 minutes on each side. Turned out perfect:



If you enclosed the small piece of cheese inside, you can get something like:



7) After removing the patty from the pan, it may be good to put on top of a kitchen roll to let the oil drain out a bit.

8) Serve with buns and side dish of your choice.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="614"] Those are apple slices, sliced to look like chips. Healthier choice! When serving, you can add some BBQ/chilli sauce to the bun, and a slice of cheese too if you like. I added cheese and a slice of apple in the bun for fun. Tasted really good.[/caption]

That's it!

Simple to make, really tasty, and healthy (use less oil)!