Materials:

• Poster board
• Magic marker (black, permanent)
• Deck of cards (or random numbers 0-9)
• Basket, hat, or bowl (for the money)

Set-up:

1. Draw lines dividing the poster board into 11 x 11 squares (draw 10 lines horizontal, and 10 vertical).
2. On the top edge write one Team Name, on the left edge write the other Team Name
3. Have people ‘buy squares’ for $1 each.
4. People write their name in any of the inside 10×10 squares (it’s random).
5. After all the squares have been filled up, grab the deck of cards.
6. Fill in the top edge with numbers 0-9 using the deck of cards to make the numbers random.
7. Do the same for the left edge.

How to Play:

Pay out $5 for every score change.  $10 for the Half-time score, and whatever is left for the Final score!  Use the one’s digit of the score to determine the number.

At kick-off, whoever has the square 0, 0 wins $5!  Then when the score changes, whoever has the square for that score wins $5!

For example: if the Giants score a field goal first, then whoever has Giants 3, Patriots 0 wins $5!  Then, let’s say the Patriots score a TD next.  Whoever’s name is written the square with Packers 3, Patriots 6 wins $5.  Naturally, the Patriots will likely kick a PAT (point after touchdown), so whoever has Giants 3, Patriots 7 ALSO wins $5!

The Betting Pool is fun because many people can win money!  It’s also fun because people who may not have been interested in the game, become interested when there’s a chance that one of their squares might win!  It’s always funny at my Godfather’s Super Bowl party to see some old lady (who doesn’t usually care about football) rooting for one team to kick a field goal, because the resulting score will win her $5!  It’s fun for all ages, makes the game a little more interesting, and is not too difficult to set-up!  So create a Super Bowl Betting Pool for your Super Bowl party and get everybody involved!

Leave your comments below.

Banana leaf rice is a seemingly simple dish. First, your “plate” is a banana leaf, rolled out in front of you like a placemat. Then a generous scoop of rice is plopped in the middle. Next, come an assortment of curry sauces and vegetables. That’s the basic dish, and it’s meant to be eaten with your hands.

Not wanting us to miss any of the good stuff, J Chan felt it a good idea to order a bit more. So, our meal had the addition of fried spicy calamari, fried chicken, and fish. One difficult, yet fun, part of eating the meal was trying to do so the traditional way – with only your right hand. As an American, it’s not a way of eating that I’m used to, but in actuality, it’s a more practical way of eating once you get used to the correct method. (Hint: scoop the food onto your fingers, and push into mouth with thumb)

Here’s a video we filmed on Jack’s iPhone of us eating banana leaf rice. (sorry for the low quality – hit the four arrows to go full screen):

There are several HFC’s all over Singapore in Little India, Chinatown, and elsewhere, so it’s not that hard to find one. What you might find difficult is choosing the best food stall to order from when there are so many choices, most of which look delicious. So here’s the best way to attack the HFC’s.

1. Decide what you want to eat.
Do you want chicken rice, char kuay teow, satay, or fish ball noodles? The last thing you want to do is get stuck wandering around an HFC trying to decide among all the options. Everybody else will know exactly what they want, where they’re going, where they’re sitting, and how to do it all. This only makes things worse for you if you don’t. I recommend chicken rice – it looks simple, but if you choose a good stall, you’ll be amazed how delicious it can be.

2. Choose a stall serving what you want.
Rule of thumb – look for the places with a queue. The locals know what’s up, and if they’re waiting in line, it’s because it’s worth it. Also, look for the busy cooks. The chefs standing around aren’t busy, which tells you a lot. The best stalls sometimes even sell out of food completely, so don’t be afraid to go earlier rather than later.

3. Order the dish and then sit down.
You can sit anywhere there’s a sit. Don’t worry about sitting close if the nearby tables are taken. The hawkers will bring you the food. If you’re out of view, point to let them know.

4. Pay when you get the food.
If you’re a foreigner, they might let you wait until you’ve finished eating, but it’s standard practice to pay when the food comes.

5. Don’t worry about cleaning up.
In Singapore, there are specific people paid to keep the HFC’s clean. As you’ll soon notice, Singapore is a very clean city.

Bonus Step: Watch the video the below: Know Before You Go. It’ll give you a few images of the Chinatown HFC in Singapore.

The tenderness of the meat combined with the spicy red-pepper spices and vegetables make this dishes one of the standards that I eat in Korea. It’s never hard to find a haejang-guk (pronounced hay’-chong-gook) restaurant in any town in Korea. Just act drunk and tell any passing Korean “pay go pah yo” which means “I’m hungry.” They’re bound to direct you to a haejang-guk restaurant.

Now, there’s a subtle art to eating the dish. It’s brought to you in a steaming hot pot usually with some spinach draped over the pork bones boiling in the broth. Don’t be alarmed by the bones – you’ll be eating the meat and tossing the bones aside.

Here’s how I eat it – and my recommendation for how you should eat haejang-guk.

Step 1: Remove meat from bone. Do this by holding a bone still with your spoon (or fingers) and scraping the meat down into the broth with your chopsticks. Some will fall easily, others will resist.

Step 2: Remove bone from soup. Pick the mostly meat-bare bone from the soup and place it in the empty white bowl. While picking at the other bones, this one will cool, allowing you to pick it up with your chopsticks (or fingers) and gnawing off the last bits of meaty goodness. Yes, it’s worth it.

Step 3: Enjoy. Wait a second for the soup to cool. Eat the kimchi’s sides while you wait. Try each of them and figure out which ones you like the most. Then, grab your spoon and dig into the haejang-guk.

Hint: Spoon a little rice before dipping into the broth. “Mah-she-tah” – “delicious!”

Enjoy the video below of us eating two different types of haejang-guk, the traditional pork dish, and a seafood version with clams and crab.

Wrap a gift worth $10 or LESS! You can buy something, or simply bring something from your house. It can be a good gift, a horrible gift, for a girl, a boy, funny, or whatever you want. Funny and ridiculous gifts make the game fun!

All the gifts are placed together on the floor (in “the gift pool”).

Each person playing gets a random number.

#1 chooses any gift, unwraps it, and shows it to everyone.

#2 chooses any new gift, OR can STEAL the gift from #1

If #2 STEALS the gift from #1, then #1 chooses a new gift from the gift pool.

#3 chooses a new gift, OR can STEAL the gift from #1, or #2!

If a gift is stolen from you, you can then STEAL a gift from one other person, but NOT the gift that was just stolen from you, OR you can choose a new gift.

This continues until all the gifts have been distributed to each person playing.

SPECIAL RULE: A gift can only be STOLEN 3 times, and then it cannot be stolen anymore!

Rule #1: Two nights max.

Never stay in Vegas more than 3 days, and 2 nights.

A) Your body can’t handle
B) Your mind can’t handle it
C) Your wallet (or purse) definitely can’t handle it.

The first day and night are fun. Soak up all the lights, the action, the excitement, and gamble a little. The second day and night are either a crazy blur, or a chance to see what you missed the first day. The third day you’re either hungover, or simply over it. Go home. Another night and you’ll wish you hadn’t come to Vegas at all!

Rule #2: If you’re not willing to lose it, don’t gamble it.

That’s the only gambling rule you need to stick to. The rest is up to you. Set aside an amount of money you plan to lose in Vegas and don’t gamble a dime more.

If you lose it all in the first night, you’re done. Watch your friends lose their money or go see a show. If you’re smart, you’ll pace yourself and enjoy the money you spend on the various games that you probably can’t enjoy back at home. Whether it’s $100, or $5,000, set your limit and stick to it.

Rule #3: Stay near the strip.

Vegas isn’t cheap, don’t try to do it cheap.

Now, you don’t have to spend $300 for a room at the Bellagio, but you definitely want to be close to the strip. I recommend the Tropicana or maybe Hooters.

Hooters is a dump, but it’s a comfortable bed a half block from the main area. Tropicana is the cheapest hotel/casino actually on Vegas Blvd. You should be able to get a room for under $80 on a weekday.

Follow these three simple rules, and do Vegas the right way. Thousands of people regret their time in Vegas for one reason or another. Of the ones I’ve met, it’s because they broke at least one of these three simple rules.

Average hand in a game of Spades.

How to play Spades (the card game)!

Materials:

• 1 Deck of playing cards
• Pen
• Paper

Players: 4 (only)

Time: 45 mins – as long as you want

Basics:  Two teams of two, with players on the same team sitting across from each other.  Deal out all the cards (each player has 13 cards).  Bet how many ‘books’ your TEAM will win.  Win books, add up score and first to 300 (or 500) wins.

Details:  Shuffle the deck.  Deal all cards to players so that each player has 13 cards.  Players may look at cards.  First Round begins with the 2 of Clubs.  Player with 2 of Clubs lays it face up in the middle.  Player to the left places a card.  It MUST be a Club (because a Club was led: the first card played in the hand).  If the player does not have a Club, he can play any suit he wants.  Spades is the highest suit, while all others are equal.  Once each of the 4 players plays a card, the player who played the highest card wins the ‘book’ of 4 cards (Ace is high, K, Q, J, 10, 9… 2).

For example: Tom and Jerry are playing Bill and Ted.  Tom has the 2 of Clubs so he lays it face up.  Bill (because he’s on the other team and is sitting between Tom and Jerry) plays the Queen of Clubs.  Bill is now winning.  Jerry doesn’t have anything higher than a Queen of Clubs, so he plays his lowest Club – the 5.  Now it’s Ted’s turn and Bill is already winning with the highest Club (the Queen), so even though Ted has the King, he plays a low Club – the 7, because his team has already won the ‘book’.  Once Ted has played there are 4 cards laying face up.  This is the first book and Team Bill and Ted wins the book because Bill threw the highest card.

Now it’s Bill’s turn to lead, because he won the hand.  He throws the Ace of Diamonds.  Everybody has a Diamond, but nothing is higher than the Ace, so everybody throws a low Diamond.  IF YOU HAVE THE SUIT LED, you MUST throw the suit!  Tom or Jerry cannot throw a Spade if they have a Diamond!

This goes on for a couple rounds with the person who won the last hand, leading the next hand.  They can lead with whatever they want except for Spades.  Spades can be led once Spades have been ‘broken’.  This means when one player has run out of a suit and chooses to throw a Spade.  Once any player has done this, any other player can now lead with a Spade.  But remember: IF YOU HAVE THE SUIT LED, you MUST throw the suit!

Play continues until all players have thrown all their cards.  There should be a total of 13 books between the two teams.  Let’s say that Tom and Jerry have won 8 books, while Bill and Ted have won 5 (8+5=13).

Scoring: Basically the score is the number of books times 10.  So T&J have 80 points, while B&T have 50.  Now comes the fun part: before the first card is played in the second round the teams must bet how many books they plan to win in the hand.

Betting: A dealer is chosen.  All the cards are dealt.  The players look at their cards.  The person to the left of the dealer declares (states aloud to everyone) how many ‘books’ he plans to win.  Then the person to his left does the same.  Now the third player must write down how many ‘books’ he bets his team will win.  He marks this number under his written score from the first round.  The dealer then makes the bet for his team knowing what the other team has bet.

For example: Tom deals.  Bill bets 2, Jerry bets 3, and then Ted writes down the total bet for B&T.  Ted things he can get 3 or 4 books, and he decides to bet a total of 6.  Now Tom can make his bet knowing that there are 7 books left.  He only things he can win 3, so he adds Jerry’s bet of 3 and makes a total bet of 6.  If a team wins the number of books they bet, they get the points (times 10).  So if both teams get at least 6 ‘books’, then they each get 60 points.  If a team does not win at least the number of ‘books’ they bet, they lose their bet times 10.  If B&T win only 4 or 5 books, then they lose 60 points!

Note two things: First, the 3rd player and dealer each decide the total bet for their team.  The bets from their teammates are useful, not mandatory numbers that must be added.  The 3rd player and dealer can choose to bet whatever they want.  Secondly, you can see that less than 13 books have been bet.  This is okay.  Players may bet whatever they wish with the minimum for each team being 4.

During every hand, a total of 13 ‘books’ will be won.  If both teams have bet 6, then whoever wins the extra ‘book’ gets a ‘sandbag’.  A ‘sandbag’ is bad.  If a team accumulates a total of 5 ‘sandbags,’ they lose 100 points!  This is to discourage teams from underbidding.

At the end of a hand, the ‘books’ and score is tallied.  The player to the left of the dealer becomes the dealer for the next hand and play resumes.  Play until one team reaches 300 (or 500) points.  That’s it!  Maybe play a practice round, then have fun!

Extra Rules:

• A Spade may not be played in the first turn of each hand.  So when the betting is done and the player to the left of the dealer plays the first card of the hand, neither he nor any other player can play a Spade, even if that player is out of a particular suit.
• If a player is out of the suit led, he may play any card in his hand.  He does NOT have to play a Spade.
• No table talking.  Players may not discuss what cards they might have in their hands, not what suit they want their teammate to lead with.
• Nil: A player may bet ‘nil’ if he believes he will NOT win any ‘books.’  If a player bets ‘nil’ and successfully plays the hand without winning, his team will receive an extra 100 points!  However, if he wins a ‘book’ during the hand when he bet ‘nil’ his team will lose 100 points!  The teammate of a player betting ‘nil’ can still win as many ‘books’ as he wants.  The lowest he may bet for his team is 4.  A player does not have to bet ‘nil’; he may bet 0 in which case he will not win or lose the extra 100.
• Blind Nil:  Before seeing any cards in his hand, a player may bet ‘Blind Nil’ which means he believes he will NOT win any ‘books’ this hand (without knowing what cards he has).  Once he bets ‘Blind Nil’ he may look at his cards, then trade one card with his partner.  If he succeeds in winning NO ‘books’ during the hand, his team receives an extra 200 points!  (This is difficult, but not impossible.)
• If a team bets 10 and wins 10, they receive 200 points.  (This is very rare as teams usually bet no more than 8.)