Dumplings

This year, I helped my mother in law pow bak chang, mine isnt so pretty looking, but good attempt nonetheless! When I said pow, literally, that is all I did.

I didn't help in the marketing, nor was I in any way involved in marinating the meat, cooking the meat, rice or even the chestnuts. I didn't clean and soak the leaves and the strings used to tie the bak changs. All I did was tie those little babies up!

And what do you know?

With all that talk about eating healthy and more greens in the last entry, the next dinner, I had -

Barbecued stingray with plenty of chilli, grilled sotong with plenty of chilli, mussels with again, plenty of chilli, pork chops, fried rice, some totally tasteless Hokkien mee (bleh!), garlic stir-fried kailan and pork satay with a glorious peanut and PINEAPPLE dip - you can't get pineapple in your dip much these days! Oh and I washed it all down with a avocado juice.

That must be worth at least 5000 worth of calories and god knows how much cholesterol. It was a Saturday, dinner with my family and it was fun. It has been awhile since I had a fun dinner like that. Yes, all that extra calories are worth it and very well justified.

Tomorrow I shall have porridge for dinner.

You know that you are turning auntie when you are asking for this:


for your birthday. Whatever happened to the 2.55 and the Louboutins? Could you just take a good look at this handsome fella? Really, this mixer is not a bad looker at all. If anything, it will make me to look like the domestic goddess that I so badly want to be!

No No Pigs Tuesdays

I blogged about turning vegetarian every Tuesday about 2 months back. Know what? It lasted just 2 weeks! Not that it is a bad thing, it turns out to be better! Taking the holistic approach it seems is the way to go. What I have done is, cut down on my meat intake for all my meals and up the amount of greens. When I cook now, I will have 2 vegetable dishes instead of just one, and a smaller meat dish. Oh, I have cooked more fish too instead of just pork, poultry or beef. There isn't much meat for my breakfasts and lunches, since I eat mostly bread and cereals. With occasional ham and cheese sandwiches. Amazingly, I had lunch appointment for most of the weekdays last week, I did try to be more carefully when I order lunch when I am eating out now. I try not too overly concern and try not to overdo the "eat-more-greens-eat-less-meat" thing. I will only come across as too uptight, anal and a killjoy.

No matter how much I cut down on meat, I will never ever be able to give it up. I love eating it. Imagine a whole without a nice home roasted chicken, bak gwa, lamb chops, bacon butties, nice juicy steaks, a good old fashioned greasy ang mo breakfast fry-up, foie gras - I love foie gras, I don't care if millions of geese are being forced fed to attain those lovely high cholesterol arteries choking livers, they are too yummy for me to be ethical about eating them! Gordon Ramsey was given livers from forced fed geese and livers from non forced fed geese, and there is a significant difference. When Ramsey says there is a difference, I am sure as hell not going to argue with that.

Since I am on the topic of food, I don't understand how some people would give "non-gourmet" food the snub. Like it is beneath them to eat rubbish like Old Chang Kee or Carl's Jr. Sometimes, nothing beats a messy, greasy burgers with plenty of fries on the side. I know, most times, all these thrash food is extremely unhealthy, but you only live once right? Just eat them in moderation. What is the point of living til you are 80 and not having had the joy of indulging in good old fish and chips and char kway teow and admitting that you love them?
There is just so much white asparagus and truffles one can consume before getting sick. Even the food critic in Ratatouille who eats only atas pretentious food had tears in his eyes when he had some ratatouille. Not that gourmet-y food is bad, it is bad only when you allow yourself to eat only that and nothing else. Food is good only when you let yourself be honest with yourself, shake off all the self-consciousness you have, let go and have a great time with it.

Water Fools

This is the only "decent" photo I have of the opening of the Singapore Arts Festival. I didn't expect so many people to turn up for the show. At least I can console myself with the fireworks after that.

Store Cupboard Essentials

My cupboard is embarrassingly bare. I only have a can of tuna and a can of Campbell's soup. I do have a packet of ready made paneer. You see, I have a paneer obsession. Those little cottage cheese things are impossible not to love! I was telling the husbands the other night that if a war breaks out, we will be the first to starve to death. I am uncomfortable having too many packets of instant noodles in the cupboard. Instant noodles are bad! But we need to take everything in moderation, even moderation itself. Those wise words uttered by Confucius (or was it Buddha?) Off I set off to get some store cupboard staples to filled up our empty shelves. I got some instant noodles (got to get over that fear) and then more soups and tuna. I bought some olives, and some gherkins ( I am the queen of excessiveness. It is not enough for me to just open a can of tuna and spread it on my toast. I need to add my own chilli, gherkins, onions and olives. Bonuses will be tomatoes and lettuce.) I did buy some canned tomato sauces, for easy breezy pasta sauces on lazy days.


Suddenly my shelves look positively happy looking. The little basket at the bottom left holds my bread, most of the time, I tried to buy brown, wholemeal or multi-grains. Nothing beats white bread sometimes.In that basket I have some nuts and dried fruits. Those are healthy snacks and sometimes I add those into my cereals. The bigger yellow basket on the right contains all the yummy and not necessarily healthy stuff. That is the guilt box. I have Pepperidge Farm Milano chocolate biscuits, mini jelly babies from Marks and Spencer (they were on discount! How couldn't I?), a packet of green apple sweets given by my aunt, I have some leftover lotus seeds from HCMC, and the sugar "soda piah". Those are great for dunking into coffee! Now you know why those things needs to be "contained".


I have 2 types of peanut butter, the creamy one and the crunchy one. Oh, there is some golden syrup that I use instead of maple syrup. I can't find good maple syrup! and a red wine jam. Apart from that, I have a lot of jams in the fridge too! Too many bottles just for 2 persons. A bottle of raspberry, apricot, strawberry and marmalade. The bottle of raspberry was left over from making a trifle for christmas. Yikes, half a year already! I checked the jam, not moldy yet and the expiry date is still quite a while away. Marmalade and strawberry I will always have and CMC kaya too. I get my supply from my brother these days I think the apricot is for the husband, I am not too sure about that one. Lurpak butter is such a luxury to have these days. A 250g block is now $5.60! I don't mind eating President, which is over $4 now I think. I think Echire butter will have to wait for now. I can't imagine how much that will cost now. That is a sometime luxury item to have in the fridge. Adore it absolutely with toast and scones!

I may not have a lot of canned food, what I do have a lot of are sauces. I have mirin, miso, yuzu, Worcestershire, at least 3 kinds of vinegar, pesto (home made!), all kinds the chinese sauces imaginable, fish sauce, dark soya, light soya and sweet soya sauces, chilli and tomato sauces, apple sauce, mustard, cooking wine, olive oil, extra virgin olive oil, sunflower oil, next I will get my hands on truffle oil soon! I need to scale down on that. I am slowly using up some. I will not put up a picture of my sauces, as I will be too embarrassed by the sheer amount that I have. I would rather, happily live my saucy life in denial.
Did I mention that I am the queen of excessiveness?

Miracle Fruit

These little berries are natives of West Africa. What these things can do is incredible.The berry rewires the way the palate perceives sour flavors for an hour or so, rendering lemons as sweet as candy. They make vinegar taste like apple juice and Guinness with lime sherbet taste like chocolate shake .

The cause of the reaction is a protein called miraculin, which binds with the taste buds and acts as a sweetness inducer when it comes in contact with acids, according to a scientist who has studied the fruit, Linda Bartoshuk at the University of Florida’s Center for Smell and Taste. Dr. Bartoshuk said she did not know of any dangers associated with eating miracle fruit.

There are people organising flavour tripping parities. Guests will each eat a berry and then go on tasting different kinds of foods. From fruits to tabasco, maple syrup, radishes, dark beer, coffee, radishes, cheeses and vinegar. The effect of the fruit is known to last for about 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on what you eat.

There was an attempt to commercially make these berries into sugar substitutes in USA but that attempt failed. The berry would have been ideal for diabetics! I can see this fruit being the next big fad soon!

Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent has passed away on Sunday. He is an fashion icon. Those pant suits! The tux jackets! Those sheer blouses! Oh so sexy! Fashion will not be the same without him. Can you imagine women not wearing trouser suits???

"Fashions fade, but style is eternal."