my little cyberspot

10.13pm, 30 Aug 04, Monday

Cinnamon fried chicken

It's shocking but true. Last week, I did not cook at all! Zip. Giro. Didley squat. So, after a fairly relaxing weekend, I got down to experimenting and made Cinnamon fried chicken! It felt good to be in the kitchen again! (ug, the feminist in me jus shuddered!)

My husband's verdict - yums! It's a quirky combination - you wouldn't expect cinnamon and chicken to be chums, let alone cinnamon and fried chicken. But I found that it worked! And it's very easy too. Here it is:

Cinnamon fried chicken (adapted from Kyoko's Kitchen)

500g boneless chicken thigh, cut into pieces, skin in tact

plain flour

1tbs honey

3tbs sake

3tbs soy sauce

2tsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

1. Marinate the chicken with the honey.

2. Heat enough oil to fully cover the base of your wok. As the oil is heating up, roll the chicken in the flour, till evenly covered.

3. Shallow-fry the chicken till cooked - about 2 to 3 minutes per side, depending on thickness of meat.

4. Set chicken pieces on a plate.

5. While cooling, heat up sake, soy, sugar and cinnamon powder in a small pan. Stir vigorously for sugar to dissolve.

6. Shortly after mixture begins to bubble, turn off the heat and pour sauce over the chicken.

Enjoy!

(Unfortunately, I have not pictures as my camera battery died.)

10.40pm, 27 Aug 04, Friday

Exploring the city

I decided to take my husband out on a walking date tonight. We walked from our house to Club Street, a pleasant 25 minute stroll with some random intermittent shopping at Chinatown. And then after dinner, we strolled around the Far East Square area.

Too often, we drive to restaurants, zip in and out of the area and then plonk ourselves back home, exhausted from overeating.

So, this "gai gai" date proved to be refreshing and memorable. I didn't realise how abuzz the CBD area is on Friday nights. We came across a fleet of line-dancers dancing to golden oldies set to a techno beat! There they were, young and old, decked out in cowboy boots, hat and belt, swinging and swaying to the blaring music. Really weird...

The area was also filled with restaurants and bars, kind of like Boat Quay. There were a lot of angmohs everywhere.

I was pleased that one of my favourite bakeries in Far East Square was still open, though the homemade apple tarts were sold out. Has anyone heard of De Cooking House? The resident cook, a kind, housewife-y looking aunty, beamed as she told us proudly that she has taken baking lessons from some of the best in the world. She also conducts her own baking classes. Anybody interested? ^__^

We also found a Roti Boy, but the buns were also sold out. The sweet lady at the counter asked us if we wanted to reserve a bun for tomorrow. Eh...

The trip into town made me realise there is so much to Singapore I haven't seen. Despite the veneer of ordered and obedient same-ness that plagues our work day lives, there is actually a lot of surprises and quirkiness bubbling under the surface, waiting to be discovered.

6.29pm, 25 Aug 04, Wednesday

Frozen in time

There are some moments that you will always remember. Time is not static, but some moments are frozen in time. One minute you're going about your business, in the hustle and bustle of life, and then the camera slows down and the lens focuses in on a particular scene. You become frozen, like these statues outside the Fullerton Hotel. I found myself staring at them a few nights back and feeling a strange yet comforting affinity with them. Oddly, as life gets more chaotic, you feel more and more slow. And when faced with a situation spinning out of control, you find yourself stopping dead in your tracks, frozen like a statue with no face and no purpose.

10.08pm, 23 Aug 04, Monday

Badminton barefoot

I woke up this morning with a terrible ache all over. This was due to my overenthusiastic playing of badminton with DG friends the day before - barefoot. Yes, you heard me. I played without shoes.

Our estate has a huuge indoor badminton court on top of the 5-storey covered car park. 14 of us showed up to play. Chenyi and Zhengyu were fantastic - they have badminton blood or something! And then you have people like me - I'm still struggling to get my serve right!

Weixiong brought a kite to fly. But, it turned out to be the size of a credit card. There wasn't much wind on the rooftop corridor. So, he looked a bit silly trying to fly it.

Here's a picture:

Another highlight was of course, Issac. After Hwee Ling fed him patiently, Issac had a whole party of aunties surrounding him, fanning him, cooing at him and poking and pinching him.

I'm really grateful for DG friends. After 2 hours of sweaty badminton, we all lounged around our house, eating pizza, reading the trashy Sunday Times and watching strange pseudo Christian movies like Left Behind. Kinda reminded me of college days, when we'd squeeze 25 people into a room to watch TV, stone, or bond.

Thank God for friends.

5.42pm, 22 Aug 04, Sunday

Recipe for warm chocolate cake

OK, here it is. After sieving through half a dozen recipes and experimenting with two, albeit with a bit of agar-ation thrown in, I've finally settled on a recipe for warm chocolate cake that I think will work well. This is the cake that is firm on the outside with warm liquid chocolate gushing out when you break it open.

Have received tons of requests from some of the "guinea pigs" I baked for over the past two weeks. ^__^ So, here it is, my warm chocolate cake recipe: Bon appetit!

Warm chocolate cake
(Click here for picture)

6 ounces semisweet chocolate, broken into pieces

175g unsalted butter, chopped into pieces

3 large eggs *

3 large egg yolks *

6 tbs sugar **

6 tbs all purpose flour ***

* Once again, I used Seng Choon eggs, which I tend to prefer for baking. Yin told me that they are considered "medium" in size. Since I didn't have "large" eggs on hand, I used them anyway, and the recipe turned out fine.

** Very slightly heaped scoops will do. If you have a sweet tooth, then add bigger heaped scoops, but I wouldn't recommend it.

*** Once again, very slightly heaped scoops will do.

1. Put the chocolate and butter in a bowl set over a pot of simmering water ^ and stir till melted and smooth, about 6 to 8 minutes. Set aside to cool.

2. While waiting for step 1 to finish, butter ^^ six 3/4-cup souffle dishes/custard cups. Freeze in freezer for 5 minutes. Remove, butter again, and freeze again. Finally, sprinkle with flour, discarding the excess and store dishes/cups in fridge till you need them. ^^^

3. Using an electric mixer, beat eggs, egg yolks and sugar at high speed until light and thick, at least 5 minutes.

4. Pour egg mixture into cooled chocolate mixture and combine well. ^^^^

5. Add sifted flour and stir till well-incorporated.

6. Divide batter equally among dishes/cups. Then, refridgerate over night. Important: bring batter back to room temperature before baking. This may take up to 2 hours, if your fridge is cold, like mine. ^^^^^

7. When it's time to bake, preheat oven at 200 degrees celsius. Bake for 8 to 9 minues. The top will be puffed and set, but the centre will be soft.

8. Take them out and let them cool for about 10 minutes. Unmold by gingerly lifting each dish/cup, allowing the cake to fall out onto individual plates.

9. Add vanilla ice-cream/strawberries/whipped cream, or whatever you like, and serve immediately.

^ To create a "pot of simmering water", heat up water in a pot till it boils and then turn off the stove. Make sure that the bottom of the bowl with the chocolate & butter in it does not touch the water.

^^ If you're using a 250g solid butter block for step 1, chances are, you'll have some leftover to butter the dishes/cups. Some people like to use the wrapper of the butter block to smear the dishes/cups. Since I had leftover butter from step 1, I used it instead.

^^^ Why freeze, freeze again and then flour? Basically, you're trying to ensure that your cake does not stick to the cups and this is one of the best ways to do it. After the second freeze, I used a finger to smear the butter in the cups to ensure that the butter was smoothly spread out and not in clumps. Then, I floured it.

^^^^ When you combine the egg and chocolate mixtures, be sure to stir well. At first, the mixture will be yellow, because of the egg. But, stir until the mixture turns a dark brown. MUST.

^^^^^ Somewhere at this point, you may freak out if you see air bubbles in your batter. DON'T. It's a good sign, actually. All the stirring and mixing is meant to create those bubbles, which will help to insulate the inner core of the cake, so that the liquid chocolate is not over-heated when it is baked.

9.49am, 20 Aug 04, Friday

Rare find - teppanyaki on a hill

Far in the West, on a hill mostly unknown, lies a rare find for those looking for a quiet, romantic night-out. The restaurant is unimaginatively called Hilltop Japanese and Indonesian Restaurant and as the name ever so subtly suggests, it is located on a hill and serves Jap and Indon cuisine.

My husband brought me to the Jap portion of the restaurant that serves Teppanyaki for our weekly "date night". Here's a picture of our friendly cook making soft-shell crab for us.

The food was yummy (though a bit oily) and prices were very good too! We dined amongst mostly families and groups of young adults or schoolkids. The place being so "ulu", we were surprised that the restaurant was so crowded!

So where exactly is this hilltop find? It is located atop Jurong Hill, next to Jurong Bird Park and here's the weird thing, it is in the basement of a 4 storey spiral look-out tower that provides amazing views of western Singapore. The tower was opened by Minister Othmon Wok in 1970! What a relic! And at the very top of the tower, yes we climbed it, is a beautiful, if weathered, stained glass! Random!

It's a great place to "pak-tor". The restaurant was built in the 1970s and it has a nostalgic look and feel to it, kind of like Shashilik, but better (and yummier). The tower is also very reminiscent of the 1970s. Its walls and columns are tiled in the fashion of that era. You can tell there's a bit of wear and tear here. And the best thing is.... the view.

Yes, that's right. It overlooks Jurong Island. After dusk, the flame from the island's processing plant made the sky look like a scene out of a sci-fi flick. The entire place looked like the Machine City in Matrix. It was truly awesome.

There were other parts of the view that struck us. From the tower, we could see all the way down to Raffles City and UOB Tower. Turning to our left, we spotted the massive chunk of crowded HDB flats that make up Jurong West. And to our right, a lonesome eagle (yes, eagle) was battling the strong winds to make flight away from us.

What a weird and wonderful night. It always makes me happy to discover beautiful relics such as this. There aren't too many beautiful places like this from the 1970s still existent in our modern day metropolis. It felt good to hear the waitress tell us that some patrons tell her they've been coming here since they were kids and now, they bring their kids here. Such continuity and nostalgia should be preserved.

8.21am, 18 Aug 04, Wednesday

New look

It's amazing what 3-day Civil Service College courses can do. Am once again proud to present the new look on my site, courtesy of Dreamweaver MX. We learnt far more complicated things like Flash and Fireworks too, but didn't think it quite appropriate for a blog. Will see how to incorporate them in, if possible...

NB: Have left my July entries in the old design for 'posterity'.

10.12pm, 16 Aug 04, Monday

Dreamweaver

Am attending a 3-day dreamweaver course at Civil Service College, only my 2nd IT course in over 5 years. The trainer is very interesting and effective. I'd tell you more about him, but am afraid he may be reading my website... ^__^

10.45pm, 15 Aug 04, Sunday

Warm chocolate cake

A favourite at Saturday's dinner (other than the yummy portobello mushrooms made by yin & the amazing fish by alto!) was my warm chocolate cake. It's the kind with a molten centre that spills out chocolate when you cut into it. Yums. Haven't perfected the recipe yet, but here's a pikkie contributed by alto. Thanks alto! Will put up the recipe after further experimentation this coming weekend. :)

10.25pm, 15 Aug 04, Sunday

More pictures of Perhentian

Finally got pikkies from yin, alto, bim & chers. Here's my consolidated album then. Enjoy!

10.05am, 15 Aug 04, Sunday

UTI experience

Bim and I were having a long, enjoyable talk the other night, when all of a sudden, I had the urge to pee. The peeing urge kept coming and going, but each time, I'd only pee a 0.01 mililitre of "stuff". It soon became quite hard to carry on any conversation, what with me hunkering to the toilet every 5 minutes. And it got progressively more painful too. I'm not one to see the doctor on a whim (well, at least, not past midnight!) but I finally mustered enough courage and desperation to shout, "Take me to the doctor!" and Bim readily obeyed. So off we went to Grace Polyclinic and as Bim was registering me with the nurse, I once again hunkered down to the toilet to pee. That is where I got the shock of my life. I was peeing blood! The entire bowl was bloody red. In my shock, I thought I was having a spontaneous abortion or something. It was horrifying!

The doctor must have been quite concerned and yet amused to see a full-grown adult entering his room, blubbering like a child. Yes, I was blubbering. Actually, blubbering probably doesn't quite describe it. There I was, holding a cup of bloody pee in a state of mild hysteria. He looked at the pee and promptly diagnosed me with UTI - urinary tract infection. Then, he jabbed my behind with a 10cm long needle, gave me antibiotics & painkillers and charged me $85!

Oh... I also got a 2-day MC. But had to "clear work" the next day, so it didn't really matter.

UTI is the most horrifying thing ever. You feel this tingling sensation when you pee and there is actual physical pain in your bladder. You feel like kicking and screaming, as if you have an alien in you wanting to get out. I really thank God for Bim who drove me to the doctor. Not sure what I'd do without him...

6.12pm, 12 Aug 04, Thursday

Special dumpling soup

I took leave upon returning from Perhentian, so had enough time to make special dumpling soup. Found the recipe in TODAY - they have a regular recipe section on Tuesdays by Pauline D Loh.

The dish is special because you make the dumplings from scratch, out of fish, shrimp and minced meat. It's actually very simple, but looks great and tastes yummy too!

Special dumpling soup

500g threadfin fillet

200g fresh prawns

50g minced pork/chicken

bunch of parsley

1 can of chicken stock

1 packet baby butter lettuce

1 tb soya sauce

Dash of pepper

1 ts sesame oil

1. Rinse the fish fillets, slice and butterfly. *

2. Shell and devein the prawns. Cut into chunky halves.

3. Season minced pork/chicken with soya sauce, pepper and sesame oil.

4. Fold prawn pieces in between butterfly-ed fillet flaps. **

5. Use minced pork/chicken to surround the fish & prawn mixture.

6. Heat up one can of chicken stock, together with 4-5 bowls of water.

7. When water boils, slide dumplings into the pot and wait for water to return to boil.

8. The dumplings are cooked when the fish turns white.

9. Sprinkle chopped parsley at last minute and serve.

* To butterfly fish fillet, first cut fish into 1cm thick slices. Then, slice it in the middle again towards the skin, do not cut through. The slice should open up like a butterfly.

** Think of it as a hamburger. The prawn piece is the burger and the two flaps of fish are the buns.

9.45pm, 11 Aug 04, Wednesday

My trip to Perhentian

I've never taken the train to Malaysia before. But since we moved to Spottiswoode Park in March, we've been dying to try it out as the train station is right behind our house. Literally, a skip and a hop away.

So, on Friday night, we boarded the sleeper train headed for Pulau Perhentian! Here is a picture of my tiny bunk:

For 14 hours, we slept, chatted, ate and took pictures on board. Cold Ramly burgers and extremely sweet teh susu were served - Mel said the Ramly burgers were still good! My favourite memory is waking up to a view of wide open grassy spaces and occasional limestone outcrops. If it hadn't hit me that I was on holiday yet, it really hit me then!

In contrast to the grime and dirt that one is accustomed to in outback Malaysian towns like Wakaf Bahru, where we alighted, Pulau Perhentian is a beautiful island with crystal clear green blue waters and powder white beaches. We stayed at the Coral View Island Resort - the chalets and grounds are newer than the Perhentian Island Resort, which is next to it. Being el cheapo, we picked the smallest chalets with no aircon or hot water. Later on, we discovered almost by accident that the larger chalets with aircon and hot water were only a bit more expensive. We definitely won't skimp the next time!

This was only my second scuba diving trip and have to admit, my heart was pounding when I got in the water. . On my first dive trip to Tioman, I literally thought I was going to die. I'm the kind of person who doesn't swim often (doing 2 laps is a huge achievement for me!) and has never snorkelled. In Tioman, my mask kept leaking and salt water irritated my nose and eyes aplenty. My dive instructor, Stephen of Seahounds fame, was kind enough to lend me his mask, but for some reason, the leaking continued. Perhaps, my cheeks were trembling in nervousness, causing water to seep through?!

This time round, the diving was much more pleasurable! My mask stayed put and the waters in Perhentian were... stunning. We spotted a lion fish, spotted eels, turtles and an entire school of barracudas swam directly into my view. It was a truly magical moment. Very surreal watching them glaze past me in perfect symmetry.

But the trip wasn't just about diving. It was also a good time to just "stone" and catch up with friends. Yin recently bought a digicam and so naturally, her inner shutterbug was unleashed! Alto & I were equally trigger happy. I practiced taking natural portrait shots. Here's a sample:

The best part of the trip for me was being with friends. By coincidence (or design), all the gals on the trip were songbirds, just like me! We spent the first night sitting by the beach singing worship songs. We managed to work out four-part harmonies even! (Jessy would be proud!) The second night was spent singing songs from "our era" - Bananarama, Rick Astley, that-silly-turn-around song - and songs from musicals like Les Miserables. Later in the night, we launched into a few Mandarin numbers. I was dozing off by then...

I'm really grateful for the trip! Thanks for my loving husband for making all the arrangements. And look forward to the next National Day romp! Penang, anyone? ^__^

For those of you looking to go to Malaysia, check out Impressions. Our travel itinerary was as follows:

1. Board train at Tanjong Pagar KTMB train station, 8pm, Friday night.
2. Arrive in Wakaf Bahru train station, around 10.30am, Saturday morning.
3. Take bus to jetty (1 hour journey)
4. Take speedboat to Perhentian (30 mins)
The bus & speedboat were arranged by the hotel.
5. Take speedboat from Perhentian to mainland, 4pm, Monday morning.
6. Take bus to Wakaf Bahru train station.
7. Board train at 7.20pm
8. Arrive back in Singapore 11am, Tuesday morning.

For more pics, click here

6.22pm, 6 Aug 04, Friday

Off for long weekend holiday!

Tonight, we board the KTMB sleeper train for Trengganu. We'll arrive Saturday morning and be sped off to Pulau Perhentian where we'll spend 3 glorious days, diving, walking by the beach, listening to the lapping waves, reading and generally, stoning. Whoppe!! A long awaited holiday is finally here!

8.56pm, 4 Aug 04, Wednesday

Reflections & pics for leadership workshop

The best thing about retreats, like the one we just had, is it gives you time away from the office, some "mental downtime" to reflect and assess. And what exactly did I reflect and assess about? Life, friendships, family, marriage, work...the list goes on. Somewhere in between writing words on mahjong paper, role-playing Commander BMTC, drawing graphs and doing IQ puzzles, I mused, albeit subconsciously, about all that has happened to me in the past year and all that is yet to come.

This year has been butter-tight-packed with significant events. I got married in March, moved into my first piece of owned real estate and very quickly got into the thick of independent living - in other words, I learned how to mop, sweep, iron and dust all by myself. People say that after you get married, your life becomes routine and boring, but that's hardly been the case for me. In May, I displayed suicidal tendencies by learning how to scuba-dive. God was really watching over me for that one! Then, there was the weekend where we had 3 dinner parties in a row, what were we thinking? Though I've been married nearly five months now, I can't say that there has been a single "routine" week. Almost every week is different, and it's likely to be like that for a while longer.

While some may say, "Good keep it that way! Avoid routine as long as possible!", I'm beginning to feel quite the opposite. I want my life to settle down, if only just a bit. I want some stability. I want some routine. Never thought I'd hear myself say that. Ha. But this year will bring more changes yet... come September (only a month away!), I'll be trusting in God to settle me into a new job, with new colleagues and bosses. September will also be when I become an aunty for the first time. Whoo!

I've never been one to shy from change. But my guess is 2004 will go down as the year where I took change a bit too far, or rather, change took me a bit too far. I can only pray that God will guard my heart and mind and help me through this year day by day, step by step. Onward we go!

10.37pm, 1 Aug 04, Sunday

A tiring weekend

Had a weekend workshop with colleagues. Tiring, but very enjoyable and useful. We stayed at the Aloha Changi Fairy Point Chalet 6 - basically, da biggest chalet ever, with 5 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, 2 living rooms and a kitchen twice the size of my study! Above is Nami embossing SD_BRANCH on our private beach. She did an excellent job of organising the workshop - good job Nami! ^__^

Fairy Point Chalet 7 was having a huge children's birthday party on the last night of our stay. We suspected some Minister was involved because of the presence of gurkhas and many handsome bodyguards. This morning, my husband & I snuck around and took pictures of the playground equipment that was brought in... more pictures of the workshop and my weekend will come later.