Ten Days of Chicken

"If you could only eat one type of food for the rest of your life, what would it be?"

This question always amused me. Am I allowed to say pizza? Because if so, then a pizza can be customized to pretty much anything. Basically, pizza is just a flat bread with leftovers, and the variations are endless. Am I allowed to say eggs in any form? If so, then I could boil them, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, I could add milk, flour to make pancakes, I could add ham and onion to make a great omelet, and so on.
What I'm asking is this: Am I allowed to do variations, add other ingredients? If so, then my answer is chicken.

Would I grow tired of chicken? Probably. But chicken doesn't taste a whole lot, and it's mainly the other ingredients that leave the taste. To find out, I gave my self a challenge. I would eat chicken for ten straight days, but it would have to be different every day.

Click in to read and see the result!

Minifigure checklists series 1-10

These are mostly for my own use, as I just wanted to store them online in one place. I have an updated version of the Top 10 list incoming, as we're closing in on 150 figures. With the upcoming Series 10, it will be extra exciting, as the series is rumored to include an extremely limited chase figure, the Mr. Gold (5000 examples worldwide).

Either way, I'll try to get a better scan of some of these, when I get my scanner up and running again.

Lego Modular Buildings... still unopened

What am I waiting for? Well, a good opportunity, maybe? A designated space to put them? The complete line in hand?  

I didn't pick up the 10232 Palace Cinema in New York, because the price from my regional Lego.com isn't that much different to the $169 they wanted for it in the Rockefeller Plaza Lego store. I plan on making the jump in the near future, because Palace Cinema looks incredible! Maybe will I even go for the massive 10224 Town Hall. But it's a bit lame to pick up yet another modular, let alone two, without really having any plan for the ones I already own. 

Speaking of prices. I gave $150 for the 10185 Green Grocer a couple of years ago. Last weekend, I checked a local comic store that also sells some rare sets. They wanted $1000 for an unopened 10185. I'm not kidding. Obviously, it's not a realistic price, but there are few of them on ebay, and it will definitely just increase in price. Makes me wish I stocked up some more 10185.    
  
I doubt 10211 Grand Emporium, 10197 Fire Brigade or 10218 Pet Shop will reach the same notoriety, because they're still sitting around on Lego's online store. Of course neither of the sets I own will ever be as valuable as the first two Lego made: 10182 Cafe Corner and 10190 Market street. 
Neither will I make an effort to get them. Too expensive, and honestly, not good enough. The lack of interior in the first two make them just less appealing. 

Finally, the 10228 Haunted House isn't actually part of the modular line, but it's still very similar. The modular buildings will attach to each other, but this is not the fact with the Haunted House. I have heard people complaining that it's a bit too different, and that it doesn't fit next to the others. But isn't that the whole idea with a house like this? It's supposed to lie in the outskirts of town, and be just that: very different to the rest. I can't wait to build this one, at least. 

Suggestions are welcome. Do I just start building them with the first opportunity possible, or do I wait until they're worth too much to open at all?

Dinner in New York

When the trip is over, all you really have left are the memories. But while you're there, you actually need fuel. We are nothing but animals, and the food is essential. So why not make the best out of the situation? We wanted to avoid the random encounters, where you just stumble hungry into the first place you see. Mostly to avoid places that got by exclusively through hungry tourists randomly dropping in. But also because we wanted to experience New York by way of eating.

We wanted New York in the form of food.

We did some research in advance. We watched a few travel guides, browsed the net, and asked locals where the good places to eat in New York was. The result was a google map cluttered with potential restaurants, and an extremely simple way of making sure there always was a relevant alternative nearby when the hunger growled like an angry wolf.

Read on!

Coffee in New York

Tuesday, I wrote about several places to eat lunch and breakfast in Manhattan, and naturally close to all of these places had some sort of coffee, some of them were even worth the money. But we also wanted to check out coffee bars that exclusively sold coffee. We wanted to buy coffee from proper enthusiasts, among other things. Did we find what we were looking for?

Read on to find out!

Breakfast, lunch and brunch in New York

It should come as no surprise that there are many places to get good food in New York. But it's also no secret that many tourists tend to seek the familiar and safe option. In some cases, I even suspect it's tempting to eat cheap when on holidays. I can understand this, not everyone prioritizes food when they're on trips. And sure enough, you won't have to look long or far for the $1 burger meal in NYC. But it's really nothing to write home about. Literally.

We did it a bit differently. Read on for the first of three articles with details on where to eat in New York City. This first one is about breakfast, lunch and brunch. Enjoy!

Awesome (and unidentified) Masters of the Universe art

I had promised to publish the Food of New York article today, but it's not completed, and I'm a struggling with a fever today. So instead of writing a lot, I'll share some art I found on a hard drive, with the intention of possibly identifying the artist.

Obviously, they're contemporary pieces, and the file names say "alanleemotu". Which I guess is supposed to be the famous fantasy artist. But it doesn't really look like Alan Lee's style, and the signature says "Deng 2011". Superficial google searches left me no wiser, but I'd like to see more of this artist, as these two pieces are awesome. Leave a comment below if you recognize the artist.

Edit: TimmGleason commented below that this was in fact the work of two artists, commissioned by Mattel, apparently. Link to the original and the artists deviantart accounts are here:
http://ngboy.deviantart.com/art/Masters-of-the-Universe-341634695
http://espeng.deviantart.com/art/Masters-of-the-Universe-The-Bad-Guys-339913222

Additionally: By now, we have all these figures in the Masters of the Universe Classics toy line. For many, the line is complete. I'm personally waiting for a few figures I had as a kid, like the upcoming Snake Face, Clamp Champ and New Adventures He-Man.