Spanish Fly experience report

spanish fly pillow

This is a cinnamon flavoured pillow of the infamous Spanish fly,
which is supposedly an aphrodisiac that will send people into throes of
orgasmic pleasure. Authentic Spanish fly preparations contains cantharides (also known as cantarides, which is made from the crushed wings of the Cantharis vesicatoria beetle, otherwise known as the Spanish fly.

spanish fly twist off

I bought a “pillow” (twist off pack) of this for RM 25 and the
proprietor told me that it’ll “make the girl feel hot all over”. I told
him I intended to consume this myself, in my never ending quest for
experience of potentially recreational substances. πŸ˜‰ Well, he told me
I’ll basically feel the same effects, but I did a bit of research
beforehand to see what it actually is.

Spanish fly is supposed to “work” as an aphrodisiac by irritating
the urogenital tract, which would simulate arousal. This is where the
legendary aphrodisiac properties comes from – cantharides is used in
breeding farm animals by making them “feel” like they’re sexually
stimulated due to the irritation of the genitals.

spanish fly experiment

I decided to experiment with this substance and twisted open the top
and consumed the thick syrup consistency Spanish Fly liquid. It tasted
sickly sweet, but it’s not that bad and I emptied the whole pillow in a
swallow. Here’s the experience report:

spanish fly consume

T+ 0:45 – I felt slightly “hot” at around T +0:45 but the feeling is
not “hot” as in sexually stimulated, but “hot” as in hyperthermia.
There seems to be some weak stimulant inside, probably caffeine or
ephedra.

T+ 1:00 – I feel itchy “down there”. :p No, don’t get me wrong, it’s not sexual arousal, but a real itch.

T+ 1:30 – Facial flushing is present, as well as a general burning
sensation on the face. Still no evidence of the Spanish Fly working.

T+ 3:30 – I had forgotten that I took the Spanish Fly preparation until I took a piss. It felt slightly uncomfortable.

T+ 6:00 – I’m filing this under “Bunk”. There’s no evidence of
aphrodisiac action at all, but it does seem to have a little
cantharides in it. I just said it’s bunk coz I refute its supposed
aphrodisiac qualities.

This particular product does seems to have a little
cantharides (the active ingredient of Spanish Fly preparations) from
the qualitative itch, and a slight discomfort during the two times I
took a piss during the 6 hour period. Since this is an isolated
experiment, I cannot state whether this is a “reverse placebo” effect
or otherwise. There are no after effects on the second day (this
morning) except I do remember having a sleep erection (the ones you get
when you’re sleeping) that won’t go down. *cough*

However, I must make it clear that my experience with this particular “Spanish Fly” product leads me to state that it has no recreational potential
whatsoever. The initial mild “hot flushing” effect is quite enjoyable,
but you can emulate that with any old weak stimulant, like phentermine.

P/S – Beware priapism – it seems that this can cause it. :p

Guylian Opus chocolate review

guylian opus

Guylian Opus is the Belgian chocolate manufacturer’s boxed set that
features six distinctive pieces named after the musical creations of
illustrious composers from the likes of Bach and Mozart.

guylian opus box

There are two sets of six different pieces of chocolate in the box,
mirrored and held in place in sunken receptacles. The box flips up to
reveal the composer and piece that each chocolate piece is dubbed and
what it contains. I found this unwrapped chocolate box in the pantry,
no one intends to eat it, so I did.

Guylian Opus Taste notes:

guylian opus chocs

Verdi – Aida
Smooth Truffle Filling
The sphinx inspired design looks good. The truffle filling tastes good too, but it’s a little predictable.

Mozart – The Magic Flute
Noisette – Cappuccino – Roasted Hazelnut
This is one of the more beautiful and intricately designed pieces. It’s
a burst of sweet chocolate followed by a surprise hazelnut slice
crunch, with a coffee aftertaste. This one is one of the gems.

Puccini – Madame Butterfly
Crème Orange Cream
The complex light-dark shade and butterfly piece is probably the most
aesthetically pleasing piece of chocolate. The filling is disappointing
though, but that can be attributed to my personal tastes. I don’t like
orange filled chocolates.

Beethoven – Moonlight Sonata
Crème Cappuccino Cream
The design is inspired by the yin-yang symbol and has two musical notes
imprinted on it. It’s really good, the cappuccino cream filling tastes
wonderful!

Bach – Toccata and Fugue
Gianduja
This piece is a simple chocolate block with stripes of white. I don’t know what gianduja is, but it tastes like Nutella to me.

Massenet – Manon
Chocomousse
This is one of the more disappointing offers in the Guylian Opus
series. The mousse is feathery and airy, but it’s not distinctive
enough to write home about. I won’t even consider sending a postcard.

Donizetti – The Daughter of the Regiment
Noisette – Praline – Roasted Hazelnut
It tastes like the Mozart chocolate, but there’s no hazelnut in this
one. The Guylian Opus box has two sets of each and I ate both…and
both are hazelnut-less (is there such a word?). Where my hazelnut?

Gounod – Romeo and Juliet
Nougat – Praline
This gold foil wrapped heart shape chocolate piece looks to be the
premier offering in the chocolate box set, as such wrapped pieces
usually are. It let me down…it’s just a soft nougat chocolate with no
distinctive notes.

There, I’ve finished playing Chocolate Connoisseur. πŸ˜‰

Jesus, somebody please pass me an insulin shot…

We shall make paper edible and ink taste like fruit!

fruit printer

I just had a divine inspiration from the comments in the Xiao Pa Wang post
[sixthseal.com] by Patrick. We shall make paper edible and ink taste
like food (well, fruits first) instead of tasting like ink! Calling all
angel investors, we are prepared to launch this radical (well, maybe
not so radical) concept to the masses and deploy it as soon as possible!

The idea is to infuse the color ink toners in laser jet printers to
taste like fruits. This will be done by replacing the standard ink with
food coloring and flavoring. Red will taste like strawberries! Blue
will taste like blueberries! Imagine the staggering possibilities!

And that’s just the start; we can have swappable Taste Toners (TM) –
spicy ones, sweet ones, even custom Taste Toners made for certain
cuisines. A “Drinks: Coffee Taste Toner (TM)” will print out cups of
coffee that taste like espressos, cappuccinos etc depending on how dark
you print the shade as. Frappacinos is also possible if you freeze the
paper beforehand. The possibilities are mind boggling!

13 sibu

Okay, on to other more serious matters, I’ll be flying back to Sibu
again later today. It’s part R&R and part work. I have to fix up a
client’s deployment over there, but due to the long Raya holidays, I
can relax a bit too.

kch airport missile

Let’s just hope that the plane won’t be delayed coz the war effort
suddenly decided to load some air to surface missiles en route to
Fallujah on a mission like last time…

That would delay my arrival by hours, if not days. πŸ˜‰

Oh, and I just turned down a 4k job offer in KL. No offence to the
well meaning people who made the offer, and my appreciation goes out to
all of you. However, I’m staying with Huygens Asia. That’s my decision,
coz for some reason or other, I’ve come to think of Huygens Asia as
home and the people working here as family.

Hong Kong Pau Cafe (Xiao Pa Wang)

hk xpw

Hong Kong Pau Cafe or Xiao Pa Wang is the newly established pau cum dim sum cum bakery cum cafe. It has literally cummed on the…er, stiff
*cough* competition along Jalan Padungan, which is famed for having the
best paus in town. Hong Kong Pau has just recently opened its doors and
the crowds have been thronging to this establishment and haven’t
stopped ever since. I have noticed a remarkable decrease in patrons to
the 6 other pau specialty establishments here ever since this place
opened.

al fresco

Hong Kong Pau Cafe brings about a new light to pau establishments,
giving this old industry a complete new makeover. It has a fusion of
foods to choose from and cool al fresco *smacks myself upside the head*
seating arrangements to the side.

dim sum

The place only serves one type of pau – char siew pau or pork bun,
but they also have a remarkable array of dim sum offerings featured in
front. Their dim sum repertoire contains about 20 odd dishes of dim sum
offerings – more than most other dim sum places here offers.

interior

Xiao Pa Wang’s most prominent area is to bakery to the side.
Finally, we have a bakery with seating arrangements! Xiao Pa Wang
serves all sorts of innovative and imaginative (for Kuching, anyway)
pastries and baked goods.

pork floss bun

We finally have pork floss rolls! w00t! It tastes about the same as
Bread Story/Bread Talk offerings; it’s the secret semen-consistency
type sauce that gives pork floss rolls the oomph! πŸ˜‰

heated pastries

There is also a small heated oven to the side where they serve all
sorts of pies – strawberry pies, blackberry pies, egg cream pie, curry
chicken pie etc. The list goes on and the menu keeps changing.

eating in

kopi peng

I have visited this establishment many, many times. I have ate here
and had some to go, before writing this review because I believe this
place deserves a proper review due to it’s innovative (for Kuching)
nature.

buns

The flagship offering – the paus or buns are always warm and fluffy.
I’ve never had a hard crust one from here, you know, the leftovers
which have grown tough. This place serves fresh paus all that time.

pau inside

Here’s a look at the inside – the filling is just nice and the fluffy small bun goes well with it.

pork ham

The most famous offering from the bakery here is undoubtedly the
pork ham. It’s a piece of ham wrapped in a swirl of soft pastry and the
illustrious semen type filling with coriander to top it off. I’m
telling you, that semen mixture that’s all the rage in bakeries
nowadays is great!

blackberry pie

This is the blueberry pie. The crust is flakey and the filling tastes good, not artificial, like from a jam jar.

egg pie

Here’s the egg cream pie, it tastes like a cross between an egg tart and a cream pie.

take away

The pastries can be ordered to go as well, and this place has the proper packaging for everything, unlike other bakeries.

chocolate roll

This is the chocolate roll. It’s a phallic looking pastry with a
flaky crust and a nice cocoa filling. It’s not too sweet, which is
great, the cocoa tastes like real unsweetened cocoa.

lotus bun

This is the lotus pastry. It’s also spherical and contains lotus
paste. It’s good, but I won’t rate it as great. It’s certainly better
than most offerings from Kuching, I’ll tell you that.

strawberry pie

Here’s the strawberry pie – exactly like the blueberry pie, but with strawberry filling. It’s good, better than I expected.

pork bun

This is one of their new menu offerings – it’s called a pork bun or
something, it has bacon or ham folded inside the pastry and a generous
dollop of that Special Sauce (TM) on top. I love that stuff.

Hong Kong Pau Cafe or Xiao Pa Wang gets two thumbs up from me. The
place changes its offerings regularly so there’s always something new
each time you go, while retaining the old classics that everyone loves.
The service here is extremely nice, the girls are friendly, and the
place just offers good food, all the time. Oh, and I think they read
the blog coz the girls called me yesterday.

Piccolo Mondo review

piccolo mondo

Piccolo Mondo is the quasi Italian restaurant
located at Mid Valley Megamall. It has seating on the outside and the
inside but its all the same due to the location inside a mall. The
tables and chairs outside is a better option if you like to people
watch, since you can see a significant portion of the mall and its
temporary inhabitants going about like ants in an anthill.

This is from my last KL trip – I forgot that there was another food post until I saw it today.

Piccolo Mondo is more renowned for its pizza, lasagna and tiramisu
but we didn’t feel like pizza and the tiramisu wasn’t ready (we went
early), so we chose to have some drinks first while we decided on what
to eat.

F.B.I. (Full Blooded Italian) @ RM 17.50
A typical Italian’s Mafia drink, consisting of Gelato ice cream, a shot of espresso, Bailey’s and Kahlua blended to perfection.

piccolo mondo fbi

This drink is really good – it has the consistency of a thick
milkshake and you can taste the liquor AND the coffee. It’s a very nice
drink after walking around a mall. I’m not a big fan of malls, I just
went coz my gf wanted to buy something.

Sicily Strawberries @ RM 12
Fresh strawberries blended to perfection with coconut, orange,
pineapple juice frapped with crushed ice and finished with a hint of
Grenadine.

piccolo mondo strawberries

This concoction is a non-alcoholic thirst quencher that my gf
ordered. I’ll tell you something, Piccolo Mondo really does have good
drinks. The fruits are generous and the whole drink just tastes good
and is thirst quenching to boot. What more can you ask for? πŸ˜‰

Calamari Diavola @ RM 20

piccolo mondo calamari

I wanted to see how the calamari over here fares. This dish is
lightly breaded calamari served with a wedge of lemon and dip. It
didn’t taste all that good, if you want me to be honest.

Il Pollo Alla Valdostana @ RM 30
Pan-fried chicken breast and chicken ham, gratinated with cheese.

piccolo mondo chicken

This dish of chicken breast and ham cooked inside some sort of thin
pancake is dismal, at best. Chicken breast is the part of a chicken I
dislike the most but that doesn’t account for the bland taste. The
vegetables were overcooked and the mashed potatoes makes KFC’s mashed
potatoes look like haute cuisine…

I can’t really say anything nice about Piccolo Mondo’s food. The
lasagna and pizza, which are their specialties, would have been a
better choice. The tiramisu, which was what I really wanted, was still
not done by the time I finished my meal, so I didn’t manage to sample
that as well.

However, there’s one thing that redeemed Piccolo Mondo…the drinks.
Piccolo Mondo serves really good drinks, both alcoholic and
non-alcoholic blends, and they do it well.

Go there for the drinks, if not for the food.