15 September 2011

A sense of belonging...

The past two weeks have been a horror to me. Last Wednesday I woke up to a churning pain in my lower abdomen which resulted in a case of diarrhea and exactly one week later I woke up to a rather high fever. I simply hate missing work. There is this horrid guilt looming over my head somehow. And above all, I abhor being ill. I have a tendency to become rather moody and upset when I get sick, which is understandable, I suppose.

This time around, as I have slept the afternoon away in a fitful sleep with a mild fever, I am feeling better. I switched on the laptop and I remembered that couple of days ago I was having a craving for a Hakka dish, mei cai kou rou (梅菜扣肉), pickled chinese mustards with pork belly. Traditionally stewed with pork belly, I prefer that it is cooked with a leaner cut. I grow up eating this dish and at this point I am missing it rather terribly. With this dish and a bowl of rice, your belly will be well nursed. 

With this I decided to search online for the recipe to make that, although I am not in a fit condition to cook, I just thought that it will sate my cravings for a bit. Thanks to Google, I found this blog Hakka Chan which comprises of a number of hakka recipes and the lives of the Chan clan in Malaysia and overseas. Needless to say, reading this blog threw me into a deep pit of homesickness. 
I have had my fair share of homesickness since I first arrived in Singapore. Of late, it has just gotten worse. I crave for a sense of belonging. I would kill for that sense of belonging. I would be ecstatic to have that, wherever it may be. In Singapore or in Malaysia or anywhere else in the world. 
For example, I am tired of cooking for Soenke and myself only. Even at times, he won't eat the food because it is too Asian/foreign to him. I would like to share joy, pieces of my life with more people. And somehow, all these things that really matter (at the very least, to me) is too much time and effort for life in Singapore... 
At this thought, I am rather glad to find "Home just got closer" in our mail, published by the National Heritage Board and in collaboration with National Integration Council and Housing & Development Board. Many will chide this effort but it is singing the tune in my heart. 

People should be taking that 5 minutes to know other people. I have been staying in various locations in Singapore and most of the time, a smile to my neighbors are unreturned. Not because they did not see it, they saw it but they decide not to reciprocate. What a great way to teach your young kids who are with you, that it is oh-so- dangerous to smile at your neighbour.

01 August 2011

Organic Vegetables

Organic produce are the way to go many say. Due to the price factor, I hardly ever buy any so-called organically produced fresh fruits or vegetables. Unless there is a recognition by an accredited organisation, I simply do not believe the label "organic".

However, today, I have a rather organic experience. I have purchased a couple packets of baby kailan. I found a picture on the internet:

 I love them. Stir fried with garlic, they are really crunchy, guaranteeing a good bite. Therefore, I already had the image of a plate of stir-fried greens for dinner. As I started to wash them up for cooking, I noticed a really fat worm trying to escape from being submerged into the basin of water. 

Before I go any further, I need to clarify the fact that I am petrified of these wriggly creatures. They are total yuck to me and gives me the creeps. With the worm on one of the leaves, I screamed for help. Soenke came to my rescue and pluck the worm off the leave. Thinking that was the last of it, I continue poking the vegetables to make sure they are completely in the water. I was using chopsticks to do that already, as I do not want to touch them. Then there were a couple more. Floating in the water. I freaked out again and screamed my way to Soenke, who kindly promised that he would wash the vegetables for me, leave by leave. He found some again.

Once he was done, I remembered someone told me that if I add some salt into the water, it will get rid of the worms very effectively. Wanting to ensure I have a worm-free meal, I did just that. Poking at the leaves, I found some more! 

By this time, I gave up. Yes, although I did not buy organic vegetables, I ended up with extremely organic vegetables. No pesticides were used it seemed. The damage was done. I could not imagine eating those vegetables at all. I gave them instead to the rubbish bin and settled for a sesame cheese bun.

26 July 2011

27 - 07 - 2011

A lot has happened between my last post and this post. From being focused and totally stressed out about my job, I vary between the occasional gym session, holidays, shopping and city outing weekends, baking weekends, and lately, sewing classes and school!

Yes I have also been very good at falling sick. I am still working on that part. Now, coming back to my post today, I want to start off that we are now past the mid-mark of 2011, and it is around 4 months to me marrying Soenke. Hee.....

It has been a pretty wonderful "birthday week", in the days leading to my birthday tomorrow. On an honest note, I really, truly dread turning 26 years old. To me, it's really downhill from there agewise. Nothing else to look forward to. I even just bought a facial cream that says "From 25, imperfection skin needs a skincare that both treats its imperfections and preserves its youth". Need I say more? The cosmetics industry have a cut off point for women aged 25 years and above!

On the other hand apart from avoiding and silently worrying about turning 25 (26), Soenke brought me to a very nice restaurant for lunch. See it as a trigger that starts off my birthday celebration. I would like to see it that way anyway. A wonderful lunch courtesy of my future "parent-in-laws", Erika and Jörg. THANK YOU! VIELEN, VIELEN DANK FÜR DAS LECKERE MITTAGESSEN UND DIE KARTE! :)

The restaurant is called Les Amis, voted by the Miele Guide 2010/2011 to be the Asia #11 restaurant. I was truly looking forward to go there. We got a bit lost looking for it as it was at a location that we passed by 100 times but never thought that it is there!  (Sorry for the highlight, I could not manipulate my font properly to suit the background)

For the first appetizer which is not included in our course meal, it was a very crispy biscuit topped with thin sliced, truffle oil infused ham. The "biscuit" tastes like pizza dough to me, just more brown and a lot more crispier and the ham was aromatic and very salty. 

Moving on, we were served with bread. And then followed by our real appetizer. I chose a ciabatta egg, wild mushroom, spinach and Australian truffles. Soenke had a garden salad. Although we shared, I didn't enjoyed the garden salad but I loved every mouthful of my truffle-y spinach with crispy ciabatta slice and poached egg. Oooo....I can have that everyday for dinner. 
For mains, I chose pan fried danish halibut on artichoke heart and cheesy risotto. Soenke had a leg of a suckling pig! Oh gosh, I will always remember the waiter bringing out half a suckling pig and asking Soenke which part of the pig he wants to have. I really enjoyed my fish but the cheesy risotto was too much for me. 

With a full belly, we waited for our dessert. Rhubarb cream, rhubarb served with elderflower ice cream and dark chocolate was mine and Soenke had a crispy apple with yoghurt ice cream. I love the combination of rhubarb with elderflower ice cream and bits of dark chocolate and also the crispy pastry skin with apple sauce. Soenke thoroughly enjoyed both dessert as well, especially when he got the whole of the rhubarb cream :)

Too full for tea/coffee, we were surprised that we were still served with cakes and cookies for that. This is for me the highlight of the day. The lemon flavored Madeleine was mind-blowing. So simple yet so perfect. WOW. The rest of the platter, chocolate mini cake and nougat was to me negligible. Nonetheless, amazing meal. 

For dinner, we had a simple meal of roast chicken and salad with Rui Chin who came and visited!
On Sunday, I made Luftkuchen. Lovely layers and very light cake. Very apprehensive at first. But it turned out to be successful. I just need to work on my food presentation skills. Soenke said it was good and so did my colleagues! Happy happy happy.. (Also, thanks to Erika for giving me the recipe!)

I also received birthday cards from my parents and Soenke's parents. :) 
So in half an hour, the dreaded time of turning 26 years old has come. Urgh. Undeniably, it was a great build up of events.

My thanks and gratitude to my parents for bringing me to Earth, kisses and hugs to Soenke for promises of a birthday waffle breakfast and for celebrating the whole week with me, and of course many thanks, appreciation and best wishes to my "parents-in-laws"!


30 mins to go....

27 February 2011

Two Weeks of Exciting Reads

I love libraries. Ever since I was a kid, I had been a frequent visitor to the library in Ipoh. Of course, as I moved on to university I fully indulged myself in the offerings of the libraries in campus. 

Upon graduation, I found myself signing up for a membership with the Singapore national library board. And yes, my joy of reading never had to stop :)

Some may wonder why I love libraries so much, in terms of practicality, I think it is very economic. I do not need to spend money on the books nor headache over the logistics part of storage or moving them around when I have to move house.

For this fortnight, I managed to get my hands on several interesting titles which I would like to share: 
1. The Fattest Man in America, Christopher Nicholson
2. Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger
3. The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
4. The Independence of Miss Bennett, Colleen McCullough
5. Eternal on the Water, Joseph Monninger

Many people do not appreciate/ understand the way I choose books. It is very simple. The rule of randomness. It makes it more interesting but it does not work for everyone. Hah....

26 February 2011

Thunder Tea Rice (Lei Cha)

Now, this dish here called thunder tea rice is a unique dish of the Hakka people. Not everyone will like this dish. Particularly, I feel because of the amount of vegetables in it so for those who are rather selective with vegetables.

Although I am a Hakka, there are a number of different clans and this dish is not one from the clan that I originate from. My first encounter with it was when my relative (who is this "type" of Hakka) invited us to a lunch of homemade thunder tea rice. The dish is arduous to make as each type of vegetable has to be chopped into tiny pieces and cooked separately. Then comes the highlight! The soup that is made of basil, mint and tea leaves that are grounded in a special pot, made traditionally with lines on the surface to help with the grounding process. 

I will not be able to re-create this dish as I doubt the soup is that easy to make. However I relish the mix and crunch of the vegetables, nuts, tofu bits and crispy anchovies together with rice and the soup. It is very healthy and wholesome. 


11 January 2011

Bits & Pieces of 2010

I am not the most responsible blogger and photographer, yes. Today I had time to look through my pictures and noted that there are some pictures that I had forgotten about. Most of them were taken with the aim of posting them on the blog. 

Let us have a look at the fragments of memories in 2010 via photographs:


Weinheim, January 2010: Soenke teaching me to roll my first snowball. Followed by my first snowball fight. I lost, needless to say.

Paris, January 2010: We strolled along the River Seine towards the Eiffel Tower

Paris, January 2010: Tarte aux Pommes, Soenke's favourite. 
Heidelberg, January 2010: How often do one see Soenke holding a wine glass, full with wine, and enjoying it? Thank you Andreas for distilling it!
Ipoh, February 2010: Soenke doing what he likes on top of a fishing platform floating on a lake full of water lilies. I brought him here to show him one of my favourite spots.
Singapore, April 2010: One of many surprises Soenke occassionally spring on me. Gold class cinema is watching cinema on wide, reclining chairs with blankets and "butler" service. Wow...
Jakarta, June 2010: With Julian at his uncle's wedding dinner reception. Miss the little guy.

Jakarta, June 2010: We had a great meal at Mr Curry Rice. Yes, we should eat Indonesian food when in Indonesia but :)

Jakarta, June 2010: My most recent meet up with Dani. That is really sometime ago!

 Singapore, June 2010: One of the minions from Despicable Me! Cute!


Singapore, September 2010: Mooncake Festival at Chinatown. Every year, kids will play with lanterns and candles during Mooncake Festival. Here there are lanterns from all over the world. This is also my first Mooncake Festival without eating any mooncake.

A rough summary of 2010 in photos. It was quite a year. 
 

07 January 2011

1st Post of 2011

Hello 2011! It took me exactly a week to pop by here to post my first post of 2011. So far, the year had started like any other day of any other year. Yes we did had a countdown at Siloso Beach, which fortunately or unfortunately, we missed the couple at the foam pool who got famous all over the internet. Ho-hum. Big deal. 

I am at the moment more concerned about the amount of booze that I had consumed after the clock went 00:00 at 1st Jan 2011. None! And 7 days later, still nil! The worst thing is I have the craziest itch to swig down a glass of nice wine or a mug/bottle of foamy beer, followed by losing myself into the music. No, that did not happen on the New Year's Eve countdown and yes, I am very deprived. Worst case, I am still sick! I had a mild food poisoning that caused me to first shiver and break into fever, vomit on the next day and have diarrhea on the third. On the fourth day, I ate like a bird, pecking at my food because post feeding I get tummyaches. Which is something similar to a headache that is there but not too serious, just telling you that it's there. 

I want to reflect on my year of 2010. It has been a great ride. Sometimes challenging, always great and also life-changing perhaps. Travel-wise, Soenke and I had done it again. We started the year off with a trip to Paris, a bit more of Weinheim, Phuket, Malacca, Jakarta, Bali, Jogjakarta and Beijing. 

This 2011, I hope I can drag my ass of the couch finally and get some work out done. I used to enjoy swimming, walks, hikes and so on. Whatever happened to that~! 

This 2011, I will be married to Soenke Scharnhorst! Haha, another reason to get my body toned for my wedding dresses! 

This 2011, I hope I can be a better person to my family and friends and also the environment (not only the plants but the animals, the other people on this planet etc).

This 2011, I want to read more. I want experiment more things. In general, live more.

One step at a time. Let's focus on all positivity to all of our hopes and dreams.