my little cyberspot

9.49pm, 27 Sep 04, Monday

Langkawi paradise

I'm beginning to like Malaysia more and more. Despite the differences our governments have, Malaysia is a pretty decent country, especially when it comes to island resorts. We certainly enjoyed ourselves in Langkawi, where day and night seemed to melt into one long, beautiful waterside paradise.

I think the hotel we stayed at made a great deal of difference. Casa Del Mar advertises itself as Langkawi's most personal hotel. And true to its word, the hotel (with only 20-something rooms) is extremely friendly and intimate. Gee... I have to say it was the best hotel I've ever stayed at! Being more accustomed to budget hotels of the Lonely Planet-recommended variety, my husband & I were in a mild state of shock when the hotel staff showed us to our rooms and actually took the time to explain what and where everything was. Like country pumpkins set free in an elegant shopping centre, we explored our room with wide-eyed fascination and yes, took pictures of everything.

Take a look at our toiletries.

Wah lau eh was all I could say for a couple of minutes. It was not just the room and its decor, but the entire hotel that was worthy of "shock and awe". The hotel was designed to be like a home - so when you enter, there is no cold reception counter, but several inviting plush sofas, a warm carpet and dark wood shelves. The lounge area is designed as a living room, complete with book shelves, a lounge bed and a piano. And the restaurant is a dining room, with Spanish art decorating the walls.

Needless to say, the weekend was entirely enjoyable. It was a perfect time of reflection and rest for both of us, praise God for that!

But towards the end it did get a bit too surreal and thus, unreal, for me. I actually missed regular life. Yknow, the life where you're not waited on hand and foot, where your bed is not made for you, you have to cook for yourself and scrub your own toilets. There's something about real life that is far superior to the fake perfection of holiday life. Though real life is full of tumbles and you can get scratched, or worse, bruised, when you fall, it is far more meaningful than being cloistered in a hotel for too long. When life is too smooth, you miss out on all the lessons that God teaches you as he brings you one step closer to His perfect plan for you - His perfection is a journey that no hotel can ever fully imitate or achieve. Boy am I glad to be back!

7.08pm, 23 Sep 04, Thursday

Meow

I've been trying for the past few days, without any success, to get a decent picture of Meow. The adorable little thing will not stay still or insists on standing, sitting and lying in the most awkward ways. Hence, some of my pictures make her look like a rabbit or a camel, which she is most certainly not. She is a beautiful Siamese cat with blue eyes that turn red-dy in the dark. That may sound scary, but actually, she's a very docile and lovable creature.

We're very amused by the way she acts when stroked. She'll flop over and then do a strange front-paws-cycling-in-the-air-in-slow-motion thing. Is that normal? Well, whatever it is, it's very funny. And we are very befuddled.

Meow is only just getting used to our house. I think she's looking high and low for her khakis, the strays that used to hang out at my brother's place. But for now, since little Samuel has moved in there, Meow will have to tolerate our inexperienced ways. My husband has said that this is good practice for having kids. Cough.Well, at least our kids won't cycle with their limbs in the air when we pat them. Or so we hope.

10.59pm, 20 Sep 04, Monday

Pictures of Samuel

Samuel is 5 days old. Isn't he cuuute?

And here are the proud grandparents:

It's strange yet wonderful being around a newborn. Though hedoesn't do much - just eats and sleeps and occasionally makes bird-like chirping noises - he really adds to the "general feeling in the air" of excitement and contentment.

10.24pm, 18 Sep 04, Saturday

Piri piri chicken

Tonight, I adapted a portuguese chicken recipe from The Australia Women's Weekly's "Great Cooking Classics". It was a bit of an exercise in "agar"-ation and also involved rather desperate replacing of ingredients that I didn't have on hand at the moment! Also, the recipe called for overnight marination and roasting, but I didn't have the time, so I marinated on the spot and grilled the chicken instead. The result was delicious. Piri piri chicken is normally served with crusty bread, or so I'm told. But I thought I'd pair it with a spring onion pilaf made of fragrant basmatic rice cooked in chicken stock. Here's the recipe with some notes on what I "adapted".

Piri piri chicken

200g chicken, in bite-size pieces *

2 tbs paprika **

2 ts oregano flakes

2 ts brown sugar

3 tbs sake ***

1. Pre-heat the oven at maximum temperature.

2. Throroughly mix in the paprika, oregano, brown sugar and sake.

3. When oven is ready, grill the chicken for 15 minutes or so, turning over halfway to prevent too much burnt bits.

4. Serve over pilaf. ****

* 200g of chicken worked out to be 2 drumsticks and 1 chicken wing, which was just about right for my husband and I (who have been trying to eat less in recent days!) You can use this recipe for other cuts of chicken, say, a spring or regular chicken cut into pieces or even, boneless chicken thighs. But do vary the marinade proportions accordingly.

** 2 tbs of paprika is just an estimate as I just added dashes of paprika to the chicken straight from the little herb container. The general rule is to lightly cover the surface of the chicken pieces with the red powder. However, be careful not to add too much as paprika has a rather strong smell/taste which can overpower everything else.

*** The original recipe calls for lemon juice. But of course, silly me, I forgot to buy lemon at Cold Storage and did not have lemons on hand. So I figured, ah well, as long as it's liquid with a fairly sour-ish / bitter-ish taste - why not sake? If you have brandy, that might an interesting addition too!

**** For those interested in making the pilaf, it's very simply actually. Just cook basmati rice in chicken stock (1 cup of basmati to 1.5 cups of stock) and then thrown in finely chopped spring opnion shoots, stirring vigorously.

7.35pm, 17 Sep 04, Friday

Samuel is born!

Yesterday, I received the most delightful news! My sis-in-law went into labour (2 weeks early) and before I could say, "baby boy", she had a caeserean and out came Samuel! Samuel is my first-ever nephew, which makes me, a newly-minted auntie! When I bellowed, "I'm an auntie!" to my colleagues, they all looked at me mystified and amused. I'm so excited! This is my parents' first grandchild, my first nephew, the first of the next generation of my family. Pause for significance. So of course, we all rushed to the hospital where we each took turns to hold the little one (gingerly, I might add. He's teeny!) and take pictures with him. Samuel had his first meal and did his first burp (read: vomit) in my arms! HA.

J & L are suitably proud to be new parents. I caught several pictures of my brother looking quite "blur" in handling the kid. I think I may have heard him whisper to my mom, "How do you hold it ah?" Well, I guess I won't be laughing when it's my turn!

11.50pm, 12 Sep 04, Sunday

Merlion madness

I had recently heard someone from the Tourism Board expound on the Board's new tagline to attract visitors to our sunny shores - "Uniquely Singapore". He elaborated on the "Uniquely Singapore" campaign and got me quite excited that there were so many unique and wonderful things to do in Singapore, all that I didn't even know about as a local!

It was thus with a bit of disappointment that I ended this weekend, during which I brought S & V, my American friends, around. To be honest, though I had rallied the brainpower of several friends, colleagues and, of course, my husband, we found it hard to think of how to occupy my "guests" for two days. The Bird Park? That's for old people and families. Clubbing? That's for young people, and it's only at night anyways. Museums? Erm... say that again? Shopping? But my friends aren't the shopaholics that most Singaporeans are. Botanic Gardens? Bukit Timah Hill? Nature? S&V are from Sunny California. For crying out loud, what is Bukit Timah compared to Yosemite?

After much deliberation, we did cobble together a decent itinerary for S & V. We brought them to Boat Quay the night they arrived for dinner and a walkabout the Esplanade, Fullerton, Padang and Asian Civ. And then on the next day, almost at the last minute, we decided to bring them to Sentosa! I guess this was partly because S & V were rather fascinated by the Merlion at Fullerton (see S's "What's a lion head doing on top of a pineapple?" comment in my previous entry.) and also because we wanted to show them Fort Siloso, as they had been asking questions about our independence. I figured, "It's been a long time since I rode a cable car!" So that's what we did!

All in all, I must say, it was a decent experience. I didn't realise how easy it was to get to Sentosa and to get round it. We got in a cable car, got out, and spent the rest of the time walking around fairly aimlessly. What was most interesting to me was... yup, the Merlion.

I know it must seem as if I'm a bit fixated on this lion head on a pineapple, but as a Poli Sci grad, I'm fascinated by this whole "myth creation" thing. There is a ridiculously huuuge Merlion statue on Sentosa. And they make you watch this really interesting video presentation of how the merlion came about before ascending the beast in, of all things, an air-conditioned lift with piped in sounds of the jungle. The video is an animation depiction of Sang Nila Utama and how he saw a lion on our sunny shores and subsequently called it Lion City. Subsequently, the merlion was born (read: created by Tourism Board) in the last half of the last century (read: 1970s) to symbolise Singapore's strength and historical ties with the seas (read: to attract tourists and increase revenue from merchandising by putting the lion head on a pineapple everywhere from key chains to umbrellas to T-shirts and baseball caps.) Actually, there was no place better to see the extent of merchandising mania than at the Merlion in Sentosa itself.

I saw this poster before we boarded the lift to see the view from the Merlion's head and made a mental note to check out the gift shop later. Of course, finding the gift shop was a no-brainer since after you exit the lift, the path leads you straight to it. You have no choice in the matter but to be inundated by rows and rows of Merlion merchandise.

OK, I admit, some of it was really very cute, like the above furry white mercub (?) key chains. (In the video presentation, the merlion had kids - called mercubs. Hoowart.) But still, it was very disturbing to see the symbol of Singapore, fake as it may be, reduced to $4.90 plush white adorable evolution-gone-severely-wrong KEYCHAINS. Arg.

I guess a lot of this angst stems from my sociological fascination regarding our lack of identity as a nation, resulting in the need to create strange myths and cross-bred monstrosities. I'm always comforted by the fact that when America was young, it too had its share of myth creation, e.g., Washington and the apple tree. But what scares me is that I'm pretty sure the myths of most other nations were not purposefully fabricated by the country's Tourism Board, nor were they dutifully manufactured into tourist attractions or cheesy merchandise for tourists. Hmm. Perhaps this is what they mean when they call it "Uniquely Singapore". ^__^

11.58pm, 10 Sep 04, Friday

Merlion

Tonight, we took S & V to see the Merlion. B told me that the merlion is a fictitious creature created by the Singapore Tourism Board in the 1970s. Apparently, it organised a competition to develop a Singapore "icon". The merlion was born and subsequently, the tourism board fabricated an entire story around the Merlion, to give it significance and meaning. So I have been lied to all this while. Horrifying.

Who would have known that the Merlion is a classic example of the process of myth-creation as part of the process of nation-building a la Anderson's "imagined communities"?

And on a lighter note, the funniest comment was made by S, V's boyfriend. They're both from America and when they saw the monstrosity vomitting into the river, he said, "What's the lion head doing on top of a pineapple?"

11.10pm, 9 Sep 04, Thursday

Cereal prawns

Hwee K came over for dinner today. I wanted to prepare something nice, yet easy, and cereal prawns came to mind. B's mother recommended it to me - it's an easy & impressive dish. All you do is shallow-fry the prawns. That only takes 5 minutes tops. Then, melt butter in a wok, dump the prawns and the cereal mix in, top off with strips of chives and stir vigorously for a minute or two. Highly recommended for a quick but yummy meal!

10.32pm, 9 Sep 04, Thursday

Vietnamese pork loaf

I wanted to share one of my favourite dishes - Vietnamese pork loaf. When in America, Asian food was scarce and all us poor starving Singaporean students would dash down to Argyle, Chicago's Vietnam Town, for a taste of warm, friendly Asian food. That's where I was first introduced to pork loaf. Our favourite pho restaurant served a mean dish of Vietnamese pork chops, with a huuuge serving of steamed jasmine rice, freshly-cut tomatoes, cucumbers and ... pork loaf.

The idea of minced pork in a loaf seemed weird to me at first. Most people would would be more familiar with meat loaf made out of beef, lamb, maybe even chicken. But pork?

Well, all it took was one bite for me to realise what I had been missing all my life. Ah... imagine my excitement when one day, while killing time in Big Bookshop, I came across a Vietnamese cookbook that had the recipe for pork loaf! I bought it immediately (together with several other cookbooks. Big Bookshop has a surprisingly wide selection of well-priced cookbooks!)

So here it is, the recipe for my favourite meat loaf - Vietnamese pork loaf! My husband gave it two thumbs up. My verdict? Hmm... it wasn't as good as the Argyle version, but I suspect that is because the memory of the Argyle version is intimately intertwined with the memories of college life and of good friends huddling together in a restaurant on a cold, winter afternoon, freezing their butts off while satistfying their ravenous Asian stomachs with delicious hot Asian food. Obviously, I am unable to capture those memories or 're-live' them through the baking of pork loaf. But, I do find that the smell still does trigger off those memories, and that is good enough, for now.

Vietnamese pork loaf

8-10 dried mushrooms

1 kg minced pork

8 green onions, finely chopped

5 eggs, beaten

2 tb fish sauce

pinch of salt

ground black pepper

1. Soak mushrooms in hot water for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove stems and chop the tops very finely.

2. Place mushrooms, green onions and pork in mixing bowl. Add fish sauce, eggs, salt and pepper and combine thoroughly.

3. Grease a standard bread loaf pan and add meat mixture, patting down firmly.

4. Cover with foil, sealing well. Place in larger roasting pan and pour hot water in the pan to half-way up the pan.

5. Place in oven at 200 degrees C for 60 minutes or less. Test doneness with toothpick, which should come out clearn from the centre.

6. Allow the loaf to cool before slicing and serving.*

*The pork loaf I ate was always served at room temperature or even, a bit cold. I'm not sure if it's just because the restaurant made a whole batch and then stored it in the fridge before serving, or whether it is more "Vietnamese" to eat it non-hot. But, nevertheless, that is the way I like it and I do find that putting it in the fridge for over a day does meld the tastes together. I guess that is the case with all meat loafs!

7.02pm, 5 Sep 04, Sunday

Hubby cooked for me

There's something about not having to work on Saturday that makes you a happier, more well-adjusted person. My husband enjoyed his first official 5-day work week this weekend, courtesy of The New Powers That Be, and he put it to good use by cooking for me!

Grilled cod, sauteed shitake mushrooms on bed of spinach... yums. PM Lee, can I just say, "Thank you thank you thank you thank YOU..." ^__^

11.12pm, 3 Sep 04, Friday

Egg-debted

I forgot to mention that my egg crisis a few days ago had a happy ending. Hwee L was enjoying a Teacher's Day off and had 5 eggs sitting pretty in her fridge. Just the number I needed! So, I trotted over to her place to pick up the eggs and chat a bit. Hwee L, I am egg-debted to yoo...

So, I did end up baking my brownie cheesecake! And was quite cheered by the outcome. Finished it round 9pm, just in time to feed a hungry husband and treat myself to something sweet before bed. Because I baked a panful (it was 5 eggs worth after all!), we've been eating brownie cheesecake for breakfast for the past few days. I must say, brownie cheesecake is something that gets better with age. The refrigeration really binds the tastes together. I used cherries and the fruity flavour infuses the cheesecake the more it is chilled. ^__^

By the way, Nami confirmed my NTUC auntie egg conspiracy theory! At the check-out counter, she casually remarked to the auntie that there were no more eggs left, and the auntie surreptitiously pulled out 2 cartons of eggs from under the counter and offered it to her for $4.80 each in hushed tones! I tell you was I right or what? There is a serious NTUC auntie conspiracy going on here... Thank God for friends with eggs and other small blessings to help us along the way!

1.40pm, 1 Sep 04, Wednesday

Where have all the eggs gone?

Am down with illness and decided to cheer myself up by baking a raspberry brownie cheesecake. So, after the doctor's, I dragged myself to NTUC to pick up ingredients. I found everything, except eggs, so I paid up thinking I'd be able to get eggs from Shop N Save across the road. The Shop N Save auntie told me point blank, "We don't sell eggs." What kind of supermarket doesn't sell eggs? Ho-kay... so, I dragged my dying carcass back across the street and a 100m down to the wet market to look for eggs. Found fruits, flowers, fresh meat, dried foodstuff, even fish and seafood... but no eggs. No eggs? I needed at least 5 eggs for my brownie cheesecake. Even if I made a half-portion, I would still need at least 2-3 eggs. What is wrong with this place?

In desperation, I asked the 7-11 auntie if she sold eggs. I even tried Robert's downstairs - he usually has everything, all hidden in dusty corners, waiting to be discovered. He had quail eggs, century eggs, ... but no eggs.

Yes I haven't been living in a cave. I do know that Malaysian poultry imports have been banned since Aug 18; but I swear, only 2 days ago, I saw 12 cartons of eggs sitting pretty in a 7-11 at East Coast Park. And none of the customers batted an eyelid as they walked past. So where have all the eggies gone?

Malaysia sells us 2/3s of our daily consumption of eggs - a hefty 2 million eggs. Which means, there is now 3 times less eggs than normal. Our population of 3 million is now left to fend for itself and survive on 1 million eggs a day. That's 1/3 of an egg per person per day. That seems pretty little, but if you think about it, how many people eat eggs every day? The doctors certainly don't advise it. On average, I'd say a person eats two or three eggs a week. And then, you have to minus off the people who are trying to avoid cholesterol, the egg-intolerant, infants, the invalid and so on. There should be plenty of eggs left for us regular people!

I'll bet you 1 million eggs is just about right to go round. But some greedy housewives out there have been selfishly hoarding eggs. Maybe it's them aunties who work at NTUC and Shop N Save. They actually keep all the eggs for themselves in the back and sell it on the egg blackmarket. Maybe there's an egg cartel, made out of all the restaurant and bakery magnates who have armtwisted and bribed their way into securing an egg monopoly (which will naturally lead to a price-hike on egg-laden products like chawanmushi, cakes, bread and pastries.) And this leaves us, poor starving itinerant people, downtrodden, empty-handed and egg-less. Life sucks.

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