Against all odds

This must be one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever attended. Beautiful not because of the ambience, decor, food or gowns but beautiful because of the connection of two lovely individuals and their story. Finally, against all odds... My dear friends, Z & J, you cannot imagine how happy I am for the both of you and thank you for sharing your joy on this very special day of yours. My best wishes to the both of you as you embark on your next part of your journey together...with much strength, faith and love for each other.

Denial

How long can I still be in denial?

The little things

It's the little things that make you smile...how true

Sweet potato mont blanc

Chanced upon Bonheur Patisserie, a little pastry cafe, while reading a magazine and decided that I must check it out. Green tea mousse was not available that day, what a disappointment, had wanted to try that. Not quite sure if I would like their signature, strawberry balsamic, I asked one of the young chefs what else she would recommend. She pointed to the sweet potato mont blanc and urged me to give that a try. Well, I did and it sure didn't disappoint, it's kinda light, not too sweet and delicate in taste.

Birthday cards..sent

Dearest XF and Didi, hope your birthday was a great one...thinking of you both and looking forward to seeing you both soon, hugz...

What's going on

My first attempt at cooking curry with a homemade paste bought from a stallholder in the wet market. The stallholder even taught me how to cook, real patient of her :P The chilli was good but I had used too little curry powder. Curry was spicy, generally ok but lacked fragrance. Tried using fresh milk instead of coconut milk but I thought maybe that was a mistake. It's good that the homemade chilli paste wasn't that salty and glad that I added tau pok and fishcake, abit silly but I thought I just added what I liked to eat. Well, but this recipe really needs a second attempt!

Pieces of pumpkin were steamed and I had some stir fried minced meat with mushrooms on top

Tau kwa with bean sprouts...this is best with porridge :)

Tau kwa with french beans...love to eat what I cook, haha :P

I guess I am back. To those who have been wondering where I have been all these weeks, sorry if I have made you worry. After numerous assignments and hours at the laptop for the past months, the last thing I really wanted to do was to start typing paragraphs and paragraphs of words. Put it this way, I was even too lazy to form sentences, let alone paragraphs. Lazy is the word, I just wanna be lazy, so lazy that even a bulldozer wouldn't even move me. The rebel in me was enjoying itself taking centre stage for the past week, chanting "I don't care!" :P Well, well, well, I have not forgotten to do things which I like too...cooking meals at home and checking out some recipes. Did some shopping and marketing with Mummy, helped a little in decision making for the renovation and not forgetting to just idle :P

躲进世界的角落

我心里有个小孩，

每当她觉得与世界格格不入，她就躲进角落。

角落里有歌等着她唱，有谜等着她解，有回意等着她凝视，

有梦想如落叶一般等着她收拢，拾起...

在这里，她轻轻呼吸，慢慢走路。

音符与音符之间的空白，形成了音乐。

在静默之中，在留白之处，有一片美丽新天地。

我心里有个小孩，

她每一次躲进角落，都只是暂时的缺席。

因为，她需要一点时间，重新找到她在世界的位置。

~ 几米

The day before the day

Couldn't seem to get enough of this song and that voice, have been listening to it for the past week...

Homebaked love

Interestingly, I have two friends who loves to bake and I never fail to 'benefit' from their attempts at baking :P Ha, you can continue to dream of being thin, silly gal. Our dear Kat was very enthusiastic about sharing her lemon butter cake over the weekend and she even packed everything nicely in a box with a ribbon and a little note! Ha, what a pleasant little surprise :) Thanks Kat! The little note has already fed my stomach with much love and warmed my heart. Thank you for thinking of me...I ate the first slice of the cake with a smile on my face :)

Two lovely people and one meal

Went shopping with my parents last Sunday...Mummy and I love going to the household section and the supermarket while my father always heads towards sports section, more specifically, the golf section :P My parents are two lovely people who do not splurge when it comes to food for themselves. A simple meal of homecooked fish or minced pork porridge for lunch or dinner is satisfying to the both of them. I wouldn't say they are that adventurous when it comes to food, simple Chinese food brings simple pleasures to their lives :) Had dinner at TCC that Sunday evening, they complimented the food ordered but ha, I think Mummy still prefer traditional Chinese food :P

Missing you!

Always love it when Mark sends me photos of Sunny Baby :) Never fails to make my day...and make me miss Baby even more.

Penang Seafood Restuarant

Meow!

Fish was fresh, gravy was shiok, a pretty good balance of spiciness and sourish taste but we suspected that coconut milk might have been added as the gravy was thick and rich. Every bit of that head, together with the eye, was wiped out and every bone was licked clean :P

Penang char kway teow...I think it really had that wok flavour, love the crunchiness of the bean sprouts but it seemed a little different from what I have tasted in Penang.

Fermented deep fried pork belly...I was wondering why fermented and JX explained that the meat was probably marinated with some kinda fermented bean sauce before being deep fried. Great creation, crispy and tasty!

Finally managed to meet up with JX for Assam fish head on Friday night. Both of us love fish heads and we agreed quite some months back that we would meet up for a meal of real shiok Assam fish head. Glad we did, good to catch up :) The kitty in me mewed and rejoiced as we headed to a little well-hidden gem at Geylang Lor 25A (Near to Aljunied MRT Station). Penang Seafood Restaurant - a cze char place which also includes Penang food in their menu. It was really crowded around dinner time and they only take reservation for 6 or more people. As I looked around the eating place, most seemed to be eating Assam Laksa, noticed that the gravy seemed pretty similar to what I had in Penang...ha, brought back memories of those trips to Penang. I must say both of us were pleased with the service (quick, attentive and humble despite the crowd) and of course, the food for the evening. I think I will be back to try the fish head again but probably have it cooked in another way. Not to forget, gotta try their Assam laksa and Penang prawn mee too! :P

Cze Char - Uniquely Singapore

Ha, I think we spent the whole night feasting, chatting and laughing. Oops, Rene and Edmond are not captured in this shot :P

Somehow, I like things cooked in a claypot...the gravy for the claypot fishhead was not salty and went well with rice and fish was fresh.

Met this little sweetie...ha, fed him some pieces of fish and I seemed to become its saviour for the night :P

Another makan session among a few of my ex-colleagues yesterday. This time it was at Rong Ji Seafood, a cze char place at Cactus Road (Yio Chu Kang) as recommended by Julia. It was kinda a nice cool evening after a heavy rain. I heard from my father that those cze char places around that area are usually quite crowded during weekends. I thought the meal we had at Rong Ji was rather cheap, considering the kinda dishes that we have ordered...claypot fishhead, sambal crayfish, yam ring, roasted chicken, cereal prawns and sambal potato leaves. Well, I couldn't help but feel that Singaporeans are really blessed, one can easily find these kinda cze char places at different parts of the island. Their prices are pretty affordable and some serve really tasty food too. I think some of these cze char places even come up with rather innovative dishes. I guess those cze char chefs are also experimenting and trying to create unique and unusual yet affordable dishes. Good for them!

Come on, silly gal!

My few attempts to blog for the past week were met with reluctance and hesitance. Having spent hours in front of my lappy typing my assignments everyday, the last thing I ever wanted to do was to look at that keyboard of mine or even to think of the strings of words to express myself in my blog. My brain was too tired even though my heart had that desire to express. I just felt compelled to close my lappy, leave my table and stay away from the 'war zone' lest it could lead to any form of permanent damage :P And yes, sometimes, the naughty and ill-disciplined side of me would choose to unleash the rebel in me and start a revolution by fighting for more time for myself, strictly no readings or assignment doing. I promised to love myself a little more this year and I will keep my promise :)

I would say the kind of stress that I have as a student is different from the kinda stress one faces at work, very different. I have come to realise that learning is indeed not easy, at least in this programme of mine, but I must say that it is made easy with the people around you. A word of encouragement goes a long way and certainly grateful to have the great support from my coursemates, glad that we have always been there for one another through the tough times and those crazy moments :) This programme of mine is coming to an end in less than a month's time and I still have two more assignments to complete...come to think of it, sure gonna miss those times spent together with my coursemates. Ha, yes, I must say we are all really tired from doing all our assignments but I think when we look back, we will realise that it's probably quite an enriching and fruitful learning journey. And as for silly me, to have gone through and survived this journey, I think I sure deserve a pat on my shoulder :) Come on, silly gal, hang in there!

Teochew steamboat

Soup was rich but somehow, I thought it's still a little salty for me. Well, maybe it's me :P But I really love the beancurd skin - a must-try if you are a beany lover!

Wow, we really can eat! :P Fishballs, meatballs, wanton, squid paste, fish paste noodles...all recommended! I think to me, what's essentially good about this restaurant is the freshness of its ingredients. That does make the whole Teochew steamboat experience all worth it :)

Red grouper...fresh! Pork belly...hmm, not of much appeal to me in this meal, maybe a kinda sauce has to be concocted to serve as a kinda dip to complement the thin slices of meat?

My very good friend recommended a steamboat restaurant at Joo Chiat Road and so I went with another two of my good friends for dinner at that restaurant :) It's Teochew Traditional Steamboat Restaurant (176, Joo Chiat Road). A simply done up place and it was rather crowded during dinner time. I think reservation is recommended especially during weekends. We ordered too much and had difficulty finishing. Well, at least I think we tried our best not to waste food :P

Baking...a science

I was really wishing for a cup of hot tea while we were savouring the freshly baked croissants :P

Before placing it into the oven, a croissant? A crab?...Whatever it is, please do remember to appreciate and savour every bit of a croissant the next time you are eating one coz I must say it's really not easy baking croissants.

Crispy on top and real soft and fluffy beneath...have you ever experienced the excitement of bringing out a tray of freshly baked muffins from the oven? You should :)

Someone's crazy over bananas, hoping that every mouthful of the muffin is filled with pieces of banana :P

Attended a baking class (kinda an informal one I would say) with Mark and Derrick at Sally's place over the weekend. The agenda for that afternoon was banana muffins and croissants. Sally's a real warm, bubbly and friendly housewife. One thing which really amazes me is the fact that she's allergic to dairy products and yet she loves to bake. Yup, I think I can confidently say that it's her passion. I feel that it's not only the knowledge and skills of baking that I have learnt from Sally but also her dispositions and attitude towards her love - baking. Standing at the mixer, putting in one tablespoon of evaporated milk into the mixer at every interval of two minutes and never taking her eyes off the mixer...well, that's very much patience to me. Silly us asked if we could just pour in all the milk at one go into the mixer and she said no firmly, sharing that the shortcut would not give us nice muffins and that every little step counts :P

I remember PY once shared with me that cooking is an art and baking is a science. I think I couldn't agree more. Precision in baking is important but I am not sure if I like the science of it all, it could be somewhat like a form of restriction to me. I think I am someone who doesn't like to follow closely to recipes too. I was also wondering if baking could be an art too, well, maybe to a certain extent. You see, one needs to know the basics of baking and that's science. However, having a good grasp of the knowledge of the basics, the next level would be mastering the art of baking. What do you think?