CNY: because I failed to make adobo

Chinese New Year (1/26-27/09) is when everything is cheap and elders are extra generous with food and ang bao (!!). It’s also when the island is empty because everyone is either outside of the country or inside their homes. Almost all establishments are closed. Boo!

Chinatown is most alive at this time.

I spend my CNY holiday with my friend Ras and her family. The house was noisy (a good sign for the house) and they brought out all sorts of stuff in the kitchen and placed them all inside the pot. Soup with literally everything on it.

Malacca getaway

My friends and I travelled to Malacca for a weekend getaway. The trip was blessed with the summer sun, but mired by my constant need to rest my feet.

Dutch and Portugese architecture characterized the landmark areas of the city. The first area we checked out was the Christ Church and Stadthuys Square across it. The area was named a UNESCO Heritage Site, and its image was featured in all advertisement of Malacca. The maintenance of the Church and of the Stadthuys Square stayed faithful to the Dutch architecture.

Stepping into the Square transported me to a European park in the 18th century.

The landmark picture. We’re done here.

Old habits die hard

The last time I crammed was for the review for my last test in uni. My friend Potch sat with me throughout the time because I could not concentrate by myself. We sat in Starbucks for 10 hours armed with a Frappe and a muffin.

More than a year later, I’m back in the same scenario: with my frap and muffin, my iTunes on Chopin, and preparing for work on Monday.

I had forgotten what it felt like to sit like this. I wasn't even sure if they still allow people to settle here and work. I haven’t gone in Starbucks that long.


Trust Starbucks to come up with all sorts of muffins.

Hong Kong Cafe

Ramon and I biked for 16 miles starting at East Coast park halfway to Changi park.


The dearth of ideal restaurants ushered us in Hong Kong Cafe. I used to ignore HKC because it looked like their main ingredient was MSG, but at least we can try something new and confidently say I told you so.

I misjudged. Lots of MSG is alright sometimes?

Red bean and nai cha with ice cream is a GO.

Fried pepper squid - DELISH!

Beef Horfun - Ok...

Mandatory Yang Zhou

HKC trumps Kim Gary any day.

P.S.
I have a thing for shop houses - a stretch of it in East Coast Road

Hong Kong Cafe

378 East Coast Road

Singapore

Tel: 65 6440 3808

Auntie Kim's Ang Ku Kueh

Auntie Kim has been in the company for so long that she sometimes is the first person to get wind of news about people. She's fond of pointing out that I've gained some weight since I first arrived here, so much so that she tells Su and Esther off when they hand me Ang Ku Kueh. Well, it's kind of her fault - she brings in afternoon tea!

Ang Ku Kueh is gluttonous rice cake with crushed peanuts inside. It's oily, gooey and full of starch and sugar. It's my favorite afternoon snack besides Kaya Butter Toast.

A few seconds on your lips, a lifetime in your hips.

Jho's .. thing (!!!)

I am proudddd of my friend Jhoanna. She emailed me a picture of the first dinner she cooked by herself. Its making my mouth water cause it looks absolutely delish.


That's what being a hungry independent woman does - makes you whip up all sorts of stuff.

Considering that I'm having canned tuna and brown rice tonight cause I am lazy to cook (and I've been living off cheese and Baileys the past few nights cause it's the ones in the fridge), this picture definitely jolted some inspiration inside of me.

Snaps to Jho. I'm squirming with pride! =)

Have you had Tom Yum Martini?

Don't.

hellogoodbye

Why is love intensified by absence?

Family Food Trip

This has been a great weekend because my mom and my brother came to visit. We just laughed and clung to each other the entire time. And we ate! A lot! The first place I made them try out was a yummy local hawker center (not fake touristy ones) – Blk 120 in Alexandra Road. We got all my favourite hawker food.

String ray.
Experimenting on this recipe is sacrilege.

Hawker people do it so well!

Satay.
Actually, no. I just love the peanut sauce.

Fried prawn noodle.
It's basically carbs with 3 pieces of protein. Hail carbs!

Clam Chowder FAIL

Work has been tough lately, and I felt so frustrated with myself so I had to achieve something. I had to cook.

I brought out the ingredients for clam chowder at 11 pm. I prepared, cooked and cleaned till 12:30 am.

I proudly showed Jho and master cooking boy Jan my finished project over lunch the next day. Jan pointed out three things:

1. I did not make clam chower sauce. I made clam chowder soup.
2. I put too much flour.
3. I didn’t use clams. I used toughened mushrooms.

Pictures are painful.

Cameron Highlands High

Aldich, Jho and I went to Cameron Highlands in Malaysia for a short vacation. Cameron is the Baguio of Malaysia where there were a lot of yummy and fresh food (hotpot everywhere!), and fresh air.

Bfast

Street food cooked in reused (10x) oil

I'm particular with fresh ingredients
because it is possible to have it!

Uhm.. fresh ingredients are possible for all kinds of edibles save for sinful dessert. Whip cream, oreo wafers, X teaspoons of sugar with freshly picked (by us!) strawberries. Idiedandwenttoheaven.

A Walk to Remember

Yesterday, I joined the volunteer activity dedicated for elders and orphaned kids. They were asked to walk to different parts of Hort Park to experience that magicians, magic card performers, face painters and balloon twisters. Even the MASSEUS followed the elders around and administered massages.

The kids spoke Malay and the elders spoke in a Chinese dialect, so I could not communicate with them, and thus I was assigned to carry the chairs and transferring things around the area. But I danced the line dance Macarena with everyone in the end!

Pumpkin soup

My favorite of Telen’s recipes was her squash soup because it made me believe that my eyes were instantly clearer.

It was difficult getting the squash meat out, so Ms Eileen and I cheated by steaming the entire squash so it'll be easier to scrape it out. But this made the veggie soggy, and, when served, aethetically displeasing.

Soggy brim.

The soup was great, but on hindsight, I should have placed sour cream in lieu of regular cream and more pepper like I always do! Next time?

Or not. It was so laborious taking out the meat.