NY Day 5 : Saturday

It was a glorious day today. It was such a shame to waste the sunshine and we decided to take the Q60 bus from the hotel to Manhattan. The trip along Queens Boulevard is an eye opener. You definitely don’t see this side of NY in those glossy TV shows.

The bus terminated at 2nd Avenue, 60th Street. We walked along 60th Street and spotted a queue of people outside Serendipity. There was half an hour to go before opening time and there was already a long queue. I was half tempted to have lunch there too but was persuaded otherwise.

A quick stroll and we found ourselves at Dylan’s Candy Bar. Wow! What a place! I think Willy Wonka would be proud to be here and dentists all over the world can just hear the Kerching! of their cash registers. Just look at the proliferation of lollies, sweets, chocolate, jelly beans.



Outside Dylan's Candy Bar



Celebrities' favourite jelly bean flavours


Bunny at the top of the stairs to the basement


Merchandise display at the basement



More candy and Dylan's Candy Bar t-shirt and merchandise



Lolly tree at Dylan's



A whole range of Pez dispensers from small to large.



These are Pez dispensers of another calibre. Set with Swarozski crystals, they are $900 each!



Even the stools resemble strawberry and cream boiled sweets or lollipops!

After buying a small bag of jelly beans for the little one, we walked over to Bloomingdales. I was after a plastic Little Brown Bag as a souvenir and was happy to get one. The store has over 10 floors. We were not in the mood to shop so headed out to subway to catch a train to 86th street.


The outside of the MET


Stalls outside the MET selling artwork of varying degrees!

10 minutes stroll later, we were at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, another must see. Suggested donation is $20 per adult but they have a policy of pay what you can afford. We never pay for museum visits in London but I did feel obliged to hand over $10 for both of us.



We were famished by now and went to the excellent self-service food court in the basement. I was tickled by the way the kid’s meal was presented. Pasta in tomato sauce, pear and juice drink all in a paper yellow cab. Too bad the cab was stained with sauce or I would have carted it back home to London.





I really wanted to see the Egyptian artefacts especially this splendid Temple of Dendur. It did not disappoint. The light flooding in from the glass windows was simply fantastic. The museum was filling up fast and we missed the other amazing exhibits. The little one was getting skittish so we left the museum.

A busking performance by two extremely talented black guys (Afrobatics) was underway and the little one was enthralled. Besides doing amazing gymnastics and eye-popping breakdancing, these guys were very funny. “White people! White people! Don’t be afraid. We are only two black guys.” When they get volunteers for their finale : “Bring your bags with you. This is New York!” and when asking for donations just before the end of the show, “Listen, your donations are keeping us out of two places… The poor house and..(pointing at random audience members) your house.. and your house.. and your house” The crowd totally enjoyed the show.




We let the little one blew off some steam at the nearby playground before walking into Central Park. The baseball players were out in full force. Central Park is lovely. All green and fringed by the skyscrapers at the background. Would have loved to explore more – perhaps visit the John Lennon’s memorial or take a boat round the lake but MH was feeling worse for wear.


Taken from a bus as we ride downtown



Macy's


Wooden escalators!

We took the M3 bus downtown Fifth Avenue to 34th Street and went to Macy’s. Big mistake! It was after all, a Saturday, Macy’s flower show and they are having a sale. The crowds are horrendous. We went up to the Kid’s section and I had the opportunity to snap their amazing wooden escalators. By this time, our heads were spinning and we went back to the hotel.

NY Day 6 : Sunday

We had been following the weather news on TV the night before and knew that the weather will be bad on Sunday and Monday. We were right in the middle of the North Easter; a rainstorm of sizeable proportions and unfortunately, not moving eastward enough. It rained non-stop with flooding in several areas (thankfully not in ours). Over 400 flights were cancelled with delays up to 6 hours at JFK.

We spent the day indoors, ordering takeaways for dinner and lunch. One of the things I love is that you could order takeaways from hotels here. The reception had a collection of takeaway menus from pizzas to Chinese. Luckily, where we were is near a few Indonesian restaurants and we ordered really delicious (slightly salty!) meal.

This one is Nasi Goreng Minang Special from Minang Asli and we also ordered the Nasi Rames which came with Jackfruit Opor (opor nangka), a quarter leg grilled chicken (ayam panggang) and a hard boiled egg in sambal belado. For the sick MH, I ordered Bihun Bakso, rice noodle with beef ball soup.

NY DAY 7 : Monday

It was our last day. We packed our bags and after calling the airlines to make sure our flights are set to go, we had our last brunch at Pop Diner. We took the hotel shuttle to Terminal 8. Was hugely disappointed at the size of duty-free (one small shop) although managed to get a few more small souvenirs at the news stand. We boarded the flight and we were on our way home

Overall, it was a hectic trip. I would have though 7 days would be plenty but how wrong I was! Being caught in a big storm and staying relatively far away from central Manhattan did not help.

The subway is a nightmare although I have been told it is much, much better than it was years ago. Manhattan is so overbuilt with high rise buildings left and right; which can feel claustrophobic and in many areas, NY is not pretty. I began to see how beautiful and more atmospheric European cities like London and Paris are.

I still think New York is an amazing place despite the glitches and disappointments. There are so many, many more places that need to be explored. Haven’t had a chance to check out the other neighbourhoods like Greenwich, SoHo, TriBeCa and Little Italy. Not too gutted on missing Chinatown though.

Would have love to visit Lombardi’s, the Shake Shack and Katz Deli where they filmed the infamous fake orgasm scene in “When Harry meet Sally”, maybe catch a taping of Rikki Lake or David Letterman or go on the Sex and the City tour (alas, kids not allowed so those were struck off the list).

I would also love to do more shopping especially since the pound is £1 : $2 and checked out Bloomingdales and Century 21 more properly. Ah well, we covered a lot of ground in the little time we had. Perhaps if there is a next time, I would save more money to stay somewhere more central and go on an all-girlie holiday to NY.

Coupon Crazy

Blame it on that innocuous coupon I found on the net.
I was looking up the infamous Nathan's Hotdog write-up in NY when I saw a BOGOF (buy one, get one free ~ oh how it reminds me of my Cold Storage days!) coupon. Curious, I googled coupons and money off vouchers and lo and behold! Countless sites popped up giving printable coupons, special promotional codes etc. I was hooked!

Apparently some people make a living out of this; even to go as far as going through the garbage bins outside fast food restaurants just to lay their hands on elusive coupons. They then flogged them online and on websites such as eBay.

Just spent the whole morning looking through the sites, trying to find coupons that we can use on our holiday. Like all things on the internet, there is an avalanche of information and you had to sift through it one by one. By the third hour, I became more savvy. Sadly, a lot of the coupons will expire before we are in NY but there is a handful which may be of use.

Like the $10 off $40 purchase at GAP, $5 off $25 purchase at Babies'R'Us and the 11% card for shopping at Macy's

It remains to be seen whether I will used these or not. Knowing my luck and brain capacity, these will probably get left behind in the In-tray at work or fester at the bottom of the luggage. But hey, printing is free at the office!

Now if only i can get some vouchers for the U.K.........

Massive Headache!

Half term break (school holidays) is looming and I am a massive, massive headache trying to sort our holiday. It would be our last holiday as a family of 3.

The little one is all for a beach type holiday which means either Spain or Greece.

I am halfway tempted to go to do an Italy grand tour but it IS Easter which means Rome and Vatican City will be overrun. The other option is the train trip Zurich - Geneva (via Interlaken) which theoretically you can fit in into a 4 day weekend trip.

Husband said anything is fine. And he dropped the bombshell "Why don't we go NY?"

Argghhhhhhh!
Checked the flights and they seem reasonable.
Checked the hotel rates and I almost fainted. Nearly USD$300 for a night stay in a decent hotel. Checked for days and suddenly paying about £150 a night seems pretty reasonable but it would mean the hotel would be more expensive than our flights.

Decision, decision.....and all the while the prices are skyrocketing

Chocolate Pecan Pie

I had been in love with Pecan Pie since I had a slice at Coffee Club in Singapore. What's not to like? Cruncy yummy pecan on top of a sweet, treacly filling. I am such a hopeless baker that I never tried to recreate that at home.

It was not till years later when the chef at my work's canteen whipped up a most gorgeous chocolate pecan pie. One bite and I fell in love all over again. So much so that I asked for the recipe. She told me that she got it out of a supplement from BBC Good Food magazine. I marched straight out and bought a copy. Yes! There on pg. 46 is the recipe for this gorgeous chocolate pecan pie.

I have to say I am such a lazybone that I opt to go for ready-made pie crust. Argghhh.. i am so not equipped to do the blind bake and all that. Big mistake! the recipe was definitely for a 23cm. crust so mine came out eatable but not fabulous. My second attempt 2 years later is much better after some adjustments to the measurements

CHOCOLATE PECAN PIE tweaked recipe

(from BBC Good Food April 2005)

Ready made pie crust

3 tablespoon golden syrup

80g demerara or dark brown sugar

150g bar of plain or dark chocolate (chopped).

40g butter

1 egg beaten

1 tsp grated nutmeg (optional)

80g pecan nuts for topping

Heat oven to 190C fan or 170C gas. Place the sugar and golden syrup in a small pan. Cook over low heat until sugar had dissolved. Stir occasionally and bring to boil for 4 minutes. Remove from heat. Add chocolate and butter and allow to melt. Cool slightly. Add the beaten egg and the nutmeg. Mix thoroughly.

The filling should be deep chocolate and glossy and you will not be able to resist taking a lick. Be careful! the sugar is very very hot! (I know.. I tried..). Fill the pastry case. Tap the side to make it level. Arrange the pecans on top. Bung it in the oven for 20 minutes. Cool the pie first before eating. It is best served warm than hot, with a dollop of vanilla ice-cream.

Of sex and shenanigans

Was browsing Google for kevii hall and came across this keviian entry. While deep in his study, the poor guy was disturbed by strange wailing noises "Ahhhhh....ahhhhh", climaxing in an orgasmic crescendo. The entreprising young man set to investigate the origin of the moaning and in part 2 of investigation, narrowed it down to Block G. And at last the moaners were caught.

Hahaha... some things never change. What do you expect? Throw girls and boys together, at the peak of their sexual urges, first time away from home, coupled with late nights bonding over the latest assignments and maggie mee, private rooms with comfy beds and what do you get?

What made finding that blog so funny is that KBL and I were just reminiscing about our Hall days at KEvii. Iinevitably, the topic turned to the infamous moaning incident in Block D. We all knew who the guy was. The moaning was on day and night. Give us and that girl a break! Good old S, ballsy as ever actually taped the moaning, knocked on their door and replayed the moaning to them.

Of course, over over-oily eggs at breakfast, we gossiped with hushed tones on who is going out with who and who was seen sneaking out of whose rooms in the early hours of the morning. Other tales of shenanigans from other halls include the couple who infamously forgot to close their blinds tight and did the act in full view of any passer-by from a higher floor. They were given a standing ovation. And I will always remember that guy who when highly stressed doing his assignments will shout "I need sex! I need a woman!"

Halls are a hotbed of sex and shenanigans. The theory is that hall mates can face expulsion if they were to have members of the opposite sex in their rooms way past the decent sociable hour. Hall master and residents are supposed to carry out surprise room checks to make sure residents are on this side of being virginal but the checks are so few and far between as to make it non-existent.

SDU got it so wrong! They should have just subsidised more undergrads to stay in campus halls instead of spending the money on cheesy ads. Quite a number of my hall mates found their wife/husband from the hall and since had children. Yes, including that famous moaner from Block D.

Wanton Me!

Following Rasa Malaysia posting on shrimp wontons, I just remembered I got some gyoza skins lurking somewhere in the freezer. I love wontons. Scrummy little morsels of heaven packed in a slithery delectable skin. Or have fried ones which crunchy on the outside with a bite in the middle.

Back in the late 80s/early 90s, there was a sudden explosion of halal Chinese food in Singapore, spearheaded by First Muslim Noodle House at Far East Plaza. Muslim tongues more familiar with sambal tumis and rendang get to taste "exotic" new dishes like honeydew chicken, ngoh hiang, carrot cake and char kway teow. And I tasted my first ever wonton.

Alas, there are no halal wonton eateries here so here I am making wontons at home :

Chicken meat and prawn pulsed briefly in the food processor. Add in finely minced garlic, ginger and spring onions. Season with a dash of sesame oil, fish sauce, light soy sauce and white pepper. Mix them well and set aside for the flavours to develop.

Pop a teaspoon of the mix onto a wonton skin. Wet the sides with a little bit of water and fold, either into a moneybag shape or a simple one like...

... this!

I had some prawns in the fridge and decided to make some prawn ones. The wontons can be frozen at this point. Bring water to a boil in a pot and chuck the wontons in. Once they float, they should be ready. I found out gyoza skins are more delicate than the usual wonton and perhaps it would be better to steam them.

Serve with a dip of light sauce sauce with small cut chillies. You can eat them on their own, serve them in soups or with noodles. I had some blanched wonton noodles, covered with a gravy made of reduced stock and oyster sauce, fresh romaine lettuce and a side serving of spicy chilli in oil.

Good old KE Hall

Good Old KE Haall

Good Old KE Hall

KE is the bestest Hall

the greatest of them all......

Run that by me again. Bestest? Greatest? wahahahahaha.... Poor old King Edward VII Hall (KE for short), who in my time would come last or second last in IHG (Inter-Hall Games) and the butt of jokes during Orientation Float competition. But what do I care? To me, it is still good old KE hall and yes, I had some of my best times in Uni there.

On hindsight, maybe I should have done more research before choosing a Hall of Residence. Not only did I chose a hostel which was the furthest you can get to the Arts Faculty, it was crammed with Science and Medic students and only a very light sprinkling of Arts students and seniors. But I was seduced by a well put together brochure, you see... a beautiful pic of the buildings at dusk with twinkling lights and a harlot tagline of "All rooms faces the sea".

Little did I know that the nearest bus stop is a good 20 minutes walk down a secluded road, another 20 minutes walk the other way to the Arts Faculty down a scary secluded road and if you want to get to BizAd Faculty, it's a good half hour with a trek through a bit of jungle. There are 127 steps down and up to reach NUH for the internal bus.Yes, all rooms did face the sea but that does not guarantee that all rooms HAVE a sea view! More likely than not, you'll get a lovely view of the weird guy in the next block, scratching his bum on his way to the toilet.

Nevertheless, you don't spend years living at close proximity with other people without forming bonds and harbouring countless memories so I'm going to do some postings on my hall life starting with.....

Freshie Orientation

My introduction to Hall Life was the Orientation Programme; three weeks of relentless planned activities from gotong-royong sessions to 5km. runs to preparing for the Float competition. It was like Army boot camp. Fall in at 7.30am, dismiss for classes, fall in back again at 5pm, more activities, dismiss for dinner, fall back in, more activities, exercises, talk to seniors sessions where they made you do ridiculous things; ending in the wee hours of the night before you can collapse to bed only to wake up again a couple of hours later. They can always tell which ones are hostel students during the first few weeks- we were the ones who were falling asleep at the back of the lecture theatres.

Talk to Senior sessions can either be great bonding/advice sessions or pointless ones if you are unlucky enough to get seniors hell-bent on a power-trip. Not only you have to talk to seniors on allocated evening sessions but during breakfast, tea and dinner and woe betide those who tried to "siam".

The trick is of course, to know which ones are the "good" seniors and to head to them quickly once you are dismissed. Get a garang senior and good luck to you... more than once a poor, too-tired, overwhelmed freshie was reduced to tears. On the other end of the scale is the gatal senior who were keen to check out the "talent"; good-looking freshettes were often singled out and some of these seniors tend to be the good tah-kor (big brother) in order to worm themselves into their affections.

One of the hardest challenge in Orientation is keeping a straight serious face. Points (which later you have to work off during Physical Training sessions) are given to those who laugh or even crack a smile. So seniors will fool around with ridiculous jokes just to make sure you earn bad points. Sadistic right? Who can forget Kuan Chee Keong, dentist senior, coming in full dental regalia which will not look out of place in a Hannibal Lecter movie? You just had to separate yourself from your earthly body to deal with stuff like that.

Points were awarded for latecomers and also if you fail to come back to the hall in PE attire within a sadistic 7 minutes. Woe betide those who leave on the 6th floor (no lift) Block E which is the furthest away. Points were awarded for not being a teamplayer; for putting up your hand to answer a question which no one else know. Better fail as a team rather than being a smart alec. Points are deducted for good team behaviour, of course.

PT sessions run the gamut from calisthentics to runs to Kent Ridge Park cumulating in the final 5km. run from our hall to West Coast Park and back. It was punishing but now recalling it, it was rather funny. The lovebirds making out (some already on top of each other) at West Coast Park didn't know what hit them. There they were canoodling and then some, in the dark when suddenly this mass of 80 joggers ran past, with torchlights and seniors screaming like banshees. Sure mood killer.

An activity they no longer have in Orientation nowadays is the Song Fight. Each hall will have a proud tradition of Hall songs or cheers which any true-blue hall resident would know by heart. Song fights are basically halls shouting these songs to each other until one concede defeat. Sounds easy but it is murder to keep on track as a group with the other hall screaming discordant tunes at you and trying not to faint as you were squashed in a tight mass of sweaty bodies. Once in my year, we had another hall coming stealthily at something like 12am challenging us to a Song Fight but the real event was at the Science Faculty Sports Stadium. Kwang Hsien were hoisted on the shoulders of two tallest freshies as the Time Keeper and we yelled and sang to a respectable second place.

What is Orientation without the Float Competition? Every Hall are required to present a Float and intrepretive dance to the VIP which is usually the President of Singapore. So during my year, it was President Wee Kim Wee. Since Kitaro was so hot that time, we had a dance based on his music. I cannot remember much about the float in our year except that there was a dragon.

Why did I remember the dragon? Because I had to freaking sew that stupid thing night after night. It was not too bad on some nights because we got to chat and most importantly, sit down but running up to the day, our nights were getting later and later. Yoke Yeen and I were yet again sewing countless sequins onto that dastard dragon in the Hall. It was dark and cool and I could not help but fell asleep. I remember being woken up by a sympathetic senior, who dismissed me to bed. Yoke Yeen was also curled up next to the dragon fast asleep.

Harsh though it was, Orientation was a great bonding exercise. Nothing bonds a group faster than a common enemy : the dreaded senior. And we were dying to get to the finishing line because there was going to be a role reversal! For one night and one night only, we will get to be the bullying senior and they will have to take the crap from us. We had secret freshie meetings to think up gleeful reprisal punishments. Oooo..the excitement!

On the last night, after the Backwards Change (you have to put your clothes on inside out and backwards, including tying your ponytail the other way round) and the dreaded Square Meal (you have to time your feeding movements into a square and gobbled up your meal in seconds), we were finally ready.

Dressed in our best, as instructed, we trooped to the Basketball court ready to mete our punishment. The seniors were not listening, however much we shout and then out of nowhere, water bombs started flying. It was nothing but a sham and we had to walk through a tunnel of interlinking arms with well aimed kicks to our rears; just to complete the humiliation. After that, they shook our hands and welcomed us as true blue KEVIIans.

London's famous markets : Camden

Prologue :

It is inevitable that you will get Singaporean mates or friend of a friend coming down to stay for a few days when you are in London. For the past 7 years, we were play hosts to countless friends, bunking on the sofa or inflatable bed. That bed was the honeymoon bed for two couples at least! We don't mind the slighest at the constant parade of guests ~ nay, this was the chance for us to get them to transport essential rempahs or spices from Singapore. My newest project is to document the wonderful places that we enjoyed in London.

What is London without its markets? There are plenty of markets to choose from; some mediocre mostly visited by locals in search of daily essentials while others are that little bit more special and known the world over. Who can forget references to London's famous markets like Portobello, shown in its full glory in films such as Notting Hill or Borough Market, the focal point of gourmands and foodies akin to Melbourne's Victoria Market?

The first ever market that we went to when we came here was Camden. And I was hooked. Gothic clothes stores cheek by jowl with vintage clothes stores, alternative medicine with tatoo and piercings, coffee chains with falafel stores, bean bags sofas and Indonesian carvings next to old antiques. The range of merchandise is staggering and when you mixed it all together, the atmosphere is electric.

On weekends, it can get so crowded that the Tube only allows outgoing passengers. Exit from the station and you are on Camden High Street with shops selling tshirts galore and bongs. Across the road, next to the Superdrug store is The Works, a great discount bookstore worth a nip into.

Walk down Camden High Street and check out the amusing decorations on the store fronts.

Also the famous Electric Ballroom, the infamous venue where bands as diverse as Sid Vicious and the Vicious Kids to Catatonia had played.

.

There are small markets to the left and right but don't be fooled. Go the big Camden Lock Market right at the end. The entrance is right under the bridge as shown in the main picture above - you can't miss it.

Camden Lock market is a warren. I absolutely love exploring the two sides. It has changed a lot from how it looked 7 years ago but what hasn't? From the orange juice stall at the entrance, you can veer to the right - towards the food stalls. Beyond the food stalls are more shops and the "antique" or second hand clothes shops.

Go through this tunnel with its majestic-looking chandelier .....

..and you will find Cyberdog fashion store extraodinaire for the hard partying house music, techno loving groovers out there. With its strobing lights, loud music and smoke machine with a bar right smack at the entrance, I am sure many a tourists would have thought it is nightclub in full swing. Wander it and you'll find a store with many bizarre clothes and fashion accessories that are designed to glow or pulsate in the dark. A black tight t-shirt with a LED display on the chest is the tamest thing you can get.

The range of merchandise available has grown over the years that I have been there. No longer will you find just purveyors of second hand winter coats (cheaper in summer) or German Army uniforms. You'll be hard pressed to find genuine antiques too but there are a growing number of furniture and furnishing stores.



.. so yes, you can get Indonesian and Thailand produced furnishings right in the middle of London. The Thai store is amusingly called Farang, although I do not know how many English people would understand that it is Thai for caucasians.



I simply love this retro looking table and chairs, complete with the fake shrubbery. I wish I can magically teleport this to Singapore, along with a Smeg fridge which I covet so much.

You can spend a good few hours browsing through the shops. Retrace back your steps, stop to have a hot drink, lunch or a quick bite of freshly fried doughnuts and you can explore the other side of Camden. From the entrance, it is the fork to the left, into the courtyard. The stalls here sell anything from new Pop-Art print bags, to Orgasmatron head massager and on hot summer days, they sometimes sell strawberries with cream or chocolate.



Here's the barges that ply along Regent's Canal. Walk up the stairs to the indoor market where again you will find a cornucopia of goods on sale. I personally thought the lovely large prints of London sold at one of the stalls there are a wonderful souvenir but not cheap though.




..view of the shops in the indoor market from the first floor. The strings of fairly lighst are a festive touch for the Christmas season. So have a lovely time in Camden. You may not buy anything in the end but revel in the atmosphere.


Camden Market
Camden tube station on the Northern Line

Tips :

For families, it is advisable to go there earlier in the day to avoid the crush.

For those you wandered in later in the evening, the food stalls will reduced their prices to £1.50 per portion instead of the usual price of £4.50.

I have had mixed results from my visitors when I bring them. I once brought a family with makcik and pakcik (aunt and uncle) who were far more used to clean, sterile Singapore shopping centres. They spent a total of 5 minutes at the second hand clothes stores complaining of the "smell". They were happier in the souvenir shop, buying fake Chelsea and Man Utd beanies and magnets which you could find elsewhere in London. To each its own.

My Favourite Meatballs

I used to hate meatballs. Hard, dry, flavourless balls of meat deepfried. Loathed them. Then I was flipping through Annabel Karmel's Family Meal cook book and there was a recipe for spaghetti and meatballs. Out of the blue, after years and years not eating meatballs, I had a hankering for it.

Annabel Karmel's book is indispensable for mums here. A mother herself, her recipes are tried and tested on her brood. I love the way she presented the food. Smiley face bagels, snake shaped pizza, bee shaped oat biscuits - that woman is a marvel.

So here is how to make these moreish meatballs (adapted from Annabel Karmel's)

lean lamb/beef mince , flat leaf parsley, stock cube (crumbled) , black pepper and finely chopped onion

and the secret ingredient.... grated apples makes the meatball moist!

Shape into mini meatballs. (look at the lovely green flecks of parsley!) and brown them by batches . *You can freeze them at this point

I boiled a large pot of water for the angel hair pasta and prepared the tomato sauce. Just a simple one with lots of chunky vegetables like carrots, red and orange peppers and mushroom. Once the sauce is on the boil, just chuck the meatballs inside and cook until they are done.



Viola!
Spaghetti Meatballs
with lashing of parmagiano

Chefs Galore!

Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares is back! I caught the series at the tail end of last season and was totally hooked. What's not to like? Horrible grungy kitchens serving substandard food, hapless restaurant owners running up huge debts and strode in Gordon, like a white knight to their rescue.

Each week, I watched in morbid fascination ~ just waiting for the chef on the receiving end of Gordon vitriolics to stick a knife into Gordon. He swore at them, pulled out his hair, threw food away, swore some more, rubbed his face, swore at the owner, chef, staff, cajoled the chef to cut down the menu, show them whose boss in the kitchen, cheered the staff on and viola, you have the restaurant back on its feet. I love it!

I simply simply adore the cooking shows they have here. Like Ready,Steady, Cook hosted by the irrepressible Ainsley Harriot. two chefs will have two participants working alongside them. With a bag of ingredients (sometimes less than £5-10 of stuff), they whipped out four or five fantastic dishes in about 30 minutes! Fantastic.

The other series I love is by Keith Floyd. He does series where he travel to different countries like Italy and Spain ~ he will cook outdoors most times so that you get an eyeful of both the gorgeous scenery plus the food he is cooking. He did cook in the rain, under an umbrella once in an Italian piazza. He will talked to the cameraman while on the camera "Take a big fat lingering close-up of that" or will speak unscripted dialouge which is often quite funny.

The best of the series is Far Flung Floyd of course since he travelled to South East Asia for this. Sadly, he circumvent Singapore but he made stops in Malaysia, Vietnam, Hong Kong. I especially remember his stop in Malaysia because he cooked rendang in a kampung kitchen and served it to the family. Of course, in front of the mat salleh, the makcik and pakcik were all stiff and formal. The translator who was eating with them had to say in Malay "Sedap ke tak sedap? Kenapa tak cakap apa-apa?" to which the makcik and pakcik automatically said "Sedap..sedap.."

He also talked to another pakcik haji about ayam masak kicap and inevitably asked about how Muslim men can marry up to four. The pakcik said with a straight face "Yes, they can but for me, one already more than enough". Another time, he was demonstrating how to cook sambal crab but somehow he bought rempah curry instead. They only do a re-shoot for the sambal crab which ran during the credits.

In the series where he did HongKong, he did a demo at a small jetty just abutting a few boats. He looked seriously at the camera and said that he had to speak quite loud to drown the arguements the crew is having with one particular boat owner, who demanded payment for them to cook at the jetty.

I am also fascinated by the River Cottage Series by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. He basically moved from the city to the country to see whether he could survive being a smallholder/farmer. You'll see the full whack of country living where he grew his own vegetables and rear his own livestock. Not an inch is wasted which makes very good tv. Not only you see his adventures in being self-sufficient on the farm, you'll see country happenings like jam and cake competition, vegetable growing competition (who has the longer runner bean? that sort of thing).

And who can forget Jamie Oliver's debut as The Naked Chef and his subsequent offerings? He is a phenomenal success now and based on that, there was a Malaysian student chef whom we helped to film a cooking programme ala Jamie Oliver. Let me tell you - filming a cooking show is a lot of hard work so kudos to all the chefs and thank you for making entertaining television.

Disney Colour a Cookie

The plus side of having a day (or two) off work is I get to pick up the little one from school. She was so happy to see me at the school gate and as a special treat, we went to the Disney Store. Just to look, mind.... However, I picked up this :


Disney Colour a Cookie.

A simple cooke with icing. A Mickey Mouse line drawing and various food colouring markers. How ingenius! The markers are flavoured as well ~ red (strawberry), blue (blueberry), yellow (banana) and black (black cherry). They must have taste delicious because Alia was sucking on the markers instead of colouring in the cookie.





She was busy for a good 10 minutes which would be ideal if you are dining out. And you can promise the cookie as desserts for afters. Apparently they do serve this at Disney hotels and resorts in Florida. I didn't find any in Disneyland Paris though. I saved up the markers for future biscuit drawing plus i get to draw smileys on her packed sandwiches. Hehehehe

I'm sick today.....

It's cold. My head hurts. My nose stuffed. Sore throat. Racking cough.
And daytime tv is putrefying my brain.
I only crave this...



Sup kambing.
Hot steamy mutton broth with crusty french bread.
There is no mamak stall round the corner so I had to drag my carcass to get some lamb from the butcher. Arghhhh.... I don't have any Sup Bunjut spice so had to make do with a simple hashed up version with whatever I have in the fridge :

Resepi Sup Kambing Orang Sakit
(Lamb Broth)

Rack of lamb chopped up roughly; with its bones (think rustic!)
**Boil in a large pot with sliced up leeks and a stock cube. Let simmer**

One large onion, 10 cloves of garlic, 2cm. ginger (all whizzed up in a blender)
Cloves, cardomom and cinnamon stick

This is how I did it :

Heat oil in pan. Sautee the blended-up ingredients and the spices till fragrant. Add in the stock and meat. Throw in potatoes and carrots. Bring to boil. Put in oven at 150 deg celcius for about an hour - longer if meat is still not tender and falling of bone. Season with plenty of white pepper and salt. Served steaming, with spring onions, chopped parsley and fried onions (bawang goreng) along with a loaf of crusty baguette

I think I feel better already....

I feel like Chicken Tonight

In case, anyone is wondering ~ why do I suddenly upload recipes on this blog? No, I am not going to turn this into a 100% food blog. It would pale in comparison to the others already in existence (see the food blogs in my sidebar). The care and love they put in their photos and postings! It makes me so hungry just looking at the photos and when they posted wonderful photos of Malaysian/Singapore dishes.... wahhhh.... double whammy for me. Hungry and nostalgic.

I'm a "let's put that in the pot and see what comes out" type of cook so often I would forgot how I cook it. Yesterday, I stumbled upon this recipe Ayam Kicap Pak Said on Suria website. Hmm... sounds good and simple. OK, bought the chicken and was all out to cook this for dinner. Found out I am short of a few of the spices and worst of all, the blender died on me. So... sorry Pak Said, next time I try your chicken. Last night, I cooked Ayam Kicap Blender Rosak instead :


Ayam Kicap Blender Rosak
(Broken Blender Chicken in Spicy Soy Sauce .. hehehe)

One small chicken cut into portions
(seasoned with turmeric powder + salt, browned and set aside)

Ingredients A :
One onion, five garlic cloves, 2 inch ginger
(all sliced thin)
Ingredients B:
1 cinnamom stick
6 cloves , 6 cardomon
4 star anise
1 tablespoon of black pepper
Ingredients C:
100ml dark soy sauce
2 tbspn of oyster sauce
2-3 cups of water
2 tbspn of vinegar

Heat oil in a good sized pot. Fry all of Ingredients A until they smell absolutely yummy. Throw in Ingredients B. Once they are mixed well, carefully add in Ingredients C. Once the concoction bubbles, pop in the chicken, mix it well and cover the pot to cook the chicken. Stir it once a while. Cook it till chicken is done and gravy is thickened. Throw in some sliced spring onions + cubed tomatoes as garnish. Stir it once more time and it's ready to eat with hot white rice.

Chicken cooking in the pot. As you can see, I have a long way to go before I even qualify as an amateur food photojournalist. All that steam coming out of the pot!



I can almost hear Gordon Ramsay screaming "F**king Mucky Plate!" or something like that. The cooking smells had driven MH to distraction and I could only managed one snap before we dug in.

Roti John Recipe

Had another bash at Roti John yesterday and it turned out much better that the one I did on the weekend. Ahhh.. the delights of roti john. This true-blue Singapore Malay dish always hold special memories to me ~ after a rigourous ECA session at RGS in the 80s, we would always trooped down to Taman Serasi Food Centre (now sadly defunct) next to Botanic Gardens for roti john, soursop juice and soto pedas.

The roti john was from Shukor Stall - the birthplace of this dish. Apparently the stallholder's dad created the dish for angmoh customers living/working in the area. Little did he know it would be a legend, with mentions on the Makansutra.

I intended to take photos as I went along but totally forgot to do so. Hope to post some photos later on. So here's my version :

Roti John

Minced meat (about a handful)
Clove of garlic
3- 4 Eggs
2 long Baguette
Salt + Pepper
a tiny bit of curry powder
Chicken stock cube (can omit this)
Spring onions (cut really small)
Chilli (cut small or omit if you don't like it hot)
red onion - sliced
oil (less oil if meat is quite fatty)


Heat oil in pan and throw in garlic. Put the mince in. Season with pepper and fry the mince until quite dry. Set aside. Beat the eggs. Mix in the spring onions, chilli, onion & mince. Season with curry powder, salt, pepper and chicken stock cube.

Sliced the baguette longwise. Once frying pan is hot with a tiny amount of oil, slather the egg-mince mixture onto the baguette and grill them on the pan, egg-mince mixture face down. Press the baguette down so that the egg mixture is well cooked. Flip over to brown the other side of the bread.

Serve hot with sliced cucumber, a slice of cheese in between, sweet chilli sauce or ketchup. It keeps well for a few hours and just need crisping in a hot oven. Sedap!!!!

Primrose Hill

We had no plans last Saturday but didn't want Alia to watch tv all day long. A quick call to my mate and we planned to go to Primrose Hill; just behind Regent's Park. It had been touted as having the finest view of London but I wasn't overly impressed by it the first time I've been. It was only after a few years, we visited it again with our brand new kite and we totally fell in love with it.

There's a fab children's playground at the foot of the hill which was ideal for Alia and her friends to burn off some energy. We parents just parked ourselves on the picnic table and enjoy the little picnic we brought along.

We could have spent some more time there but decided to go up the hill before sundown. It is not a high hill but believe me you would be puffing by the time you get up. (..or maybe I was terribly unfit?)



The walk up to the peak....



People already on top looking at the view...




A poor picture of the view - you can actually see a number of London famous landmarks like the London Eye, The Gherkin, St. Pauls Cathedral and a tiny bit of Palace of Westminster.

We spread some canvas on the ground and enjoyed the view while the children ran up and down the slope (...ngeri sikit I.. takut they all jatuh tergolek..)



MH brought along his board which was a source of fun for the kids. They just love rolling down the hill with it. I voted to stay put because cannot tahan going down and coming back up again.




Sunset is much earlier nowadays so you can see the moon rising on the east while the sun goes down on the west. This is a picture of the moon, I kid you not.

This would be a perfect vantage point to see the fireworks tonight but that means that we would have to stay out in the cold for another 3 hours! so here's R's family packing up to go home.



We adjourned at R's house later for Madu Tiga, roti john and grilled chicken while the kids have fun playing sparklers and eating hot dogs.