When was the last time you ate together with your family?

My hubby has been wondering why I sit glued to the goggle box every Monday evening to watch Life Transformers 2. The reality show provides fleeting insights into the lives of Singaporeans who are marginalised by the city-state's affluence, who slipped through the cracks of the safety nets provided by welfare organisations. Each week, the show follows a formula: the 2 hosts will visit a household that is emotionally and physically traumatised(the causes vary). After shrieking at the layers of dust and the brackish looking toilets, the 2 hosts will lead a team of volunteers to clean, wash, repaint the entire flat. At the end of the show, the home-owners will turn emotional, shed a tear or two and make promises to turn over a new leaf.

Why do I watch it? Not for entertainment but to learn not to take a lot of things in my life for granted. For example, the episode last week was a family that was so crippled emotionally by the departure of the wife/mother that they have not sat down and ate together for 3 years. Why did it affect me? My hubby, son and I share a meal at the dinner day on most days of the week. Apart from eating, we talk about work, school, the dog and current issues but ironically we never talked about the significance of eating together. Have we been taking things for granted? Here's my thoughts about family meals - A family that eats together, communicates better and stays together longer.

The Bento Shop?

I have to be honest here. I watched Suspect X because of Masaharu Fukuyama, the suave Japanese actor-singer who plays the lead character, Professor Manabu Yukawa, who has a penchant for solving bizarre crime cases. However, my fascination with Fukuyama was fleeting in the movie- Suspect X - I was almost instantly drawn into the mindgames of Yukawa and his friend Tetsuya Ishigami, a math genius whom he became acquainted with while studying in university. The clash of two academic geniuses make Suspect X a very engaging and thought-provoking movie to watch. Unlike other whodunit movies, the crime was committed at the start of the movie and we knew the identity of the murderer - Ishigami. What was intriguing for me was to find out how Ishigami committed the murderer(and almost got away with it) and at what point in the movie did Yukawa realize that Ishigami was the murderer. Was it the morning when they walked past the bento shop? Or was it a question Ishigami asked? I’m not going to let the cat out of the bag here. Watch the movie to find
out.

Reading is Food for the Soul

I read everyday but I read for work rather than for leisure. My reading diet is inextricably linked to my desire to introduce good prose in the classroom. Well, I should be so lucky that I can mix work with pleasure? But how pleasurable can work be? My bloodhound-like instinct to sniff out a piece of good prose and turn it into a teaching resource has affected my ability to read for pleasure. Instead of lingering on Hemingway's masculine prose and feeling disorientated by his writing style of juxtaposing different narratives and points of views while reading On the Quai at Smyrna, I was subconsciously thinking about how to use the short story to teach descriptive writing, characterisation, dialogue and the list went on and on. Sigh. When can I regain the pleasure of reading for pleasure again?

Tuesday Morning's Breakfast Club

Tuesday is my favourite day of the week as I get to put aside work and become a stay-at-home mom(even though it is for a day!). I go for breakfast with a group of moms with children studying at Montessori for Children at Saravanan Bhavan(opposite Mustafa Shopping Centre), eating the most divine thosai and drinking the sweetest masala coffee while enjoying the camaderie and companionship of a group of women of different nationalities with similar interests and concerns. Although our topics of conversation are not mostly philosophical or intellectual in nature, we compensate it with our humor, vivaciousness and warmth. I'm actually quite sad that next Tuesday is Chinese New Year and we will not meet for Tuesday Morning's Breakfast Club.

The Blog is Mightier Then the Sword

I'm a typical Chinese and I like Chinese food especially Hong Kong style Chinese food.

But my recent dining experience at Old Hong Kong Cafe in Square 2 was less than memorable. I will not not go back there again because of the poor service attitude of the restaurant manager who is a Hongkonger.

This was what happened...

Q and I entered the restaurant at 11:30 and we placed our orders by 11:35am. The menu is interesting because there are several items that are typically not served in Hong Kong style Cafes in Singapore. For example the steam beef balls and the dumpling soup in shark's cartilage soup. The latter dish caused me so much grief! Most of the dishes we ordered were served in 10 minutes. At 11:55, I checked with the serving staff if the kitchen had left forgotten to prepare my soup. She assured me that the the soup is on its way. At 12:10, I checked again and requested a cancellation as I had to get Q to school by 12:30pm.

And this was when the drama began. A group of serving staff congregated nearby(how polite!) to contemplate the course of action they should take after I made my request. And of course, it had to be a Hongkonger (I will share with you another heated debate I had with a Hongkonger that sent shivers down the spine of a Cathay Pacific staff in another post) who speculated in Cantonese just loud enough for me to hear that the reason for me requesting a cancellation for the soup was because I had enough food! What audacity! And of course, I don't take such things lying down especially from a boorish-looking Hongkonger. I spoke in English in an calm and detached manner disputing what he said. And he spoke in English that the soup takes 15 min to prepare and he has advised his staff to tell customers that. For one with superb memory, I didn't remember anyone telling me that. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to find out who the culprit of the entire incident was: at 11:35am - we placed our order, by 11:40 - most of the dishes were served. So if it takes 15 minutes to prepare the soup, it should be served by 12 noon, the latest?

So it was on this very day at 12:18, after the exchange of unpleasant words, I realised that the blog is mightier than the sword.

I'm glad I have the last laugh.

Ready-Made Paste With a Twist

I got the inspiration to introduce a twist to ready-made Thai Red Curry paste from my Thai masseuse. Not too long ago, she took me to this Thai Café in Orchard Point Shopping Centre that sells authentic Thai food. Even the Thai Embassy staff whose office is a stone’s throw away are in praise of the food, claimed the cook. It sells mainly Thai street food(not the type found in Thai restaurants in Singapore) such as Thai Laksa and the Thai version of the economical rice where you help yourself to the rice and dishes and pay for what you take to the owner. So, my masseuse took a little rice and a generous serving of fried roast pork with long beans in some kind of spicy red curry. She declared it is her favourite food.

My version does not use roast pork or long beans. Instead, I use sliced pork fillet and french beans. After stir-frying the pork, I added half a packet of ready-made Thai Red-Curry paste, a generous splash of Ayam Brand Coconut Milk and s few silvers of Thai linme leaves and the french beans. Last but not least, I added sugar to taste. Even my fussy husband who is not particularly fond of spicy food enjoyed my sliced pork and french beans with Thai Red Curry paste.

Short-Cuts to a Tastier Meal: Sayur Lodeh

If you have a choice to cook Sayur Lodeh from scratch or to cook Sayur Lodeh from a ready-made paste and the end result taste like the real thing, which option would you choose?

Years ago, the purist in me would baulk at the second option. How can a ready-made paste taste like the original with all the preservatives added? My Thai neighbour played a major role in converting me when I asked her to teach me how to cook her delicious Thai Green Curry. Imagine the shock on my face when she told me she cooked it from a ready-made paste from Bangkok. Unconvinced, I pressed on(for I am one who is never shy when asking for a good recipe!) and she smiled serenely and told me that nobody cooks Thai Curry Green Curry from scratch in Bangkok anymore. Everyone cooks it from a ready-made paste! The purist in me decided that it is time to compromise a little.

So for dinner last Friday, I decided to try out Prima Food Sayur Lodeh paste. I first saw it at the Prima Food Outlet at Centrepoint but the purist in me got the better of me as I doubted the authenticity of the flavour. It was only at Cold Storage Great City when the thoughts of a busy, stressful schedule in 2009 and special discounts that persuaded me to put the attractively packaged box into the trolley. I never regretted the decision!

With a fussy hubby who enjoys delicious, restaurant-standard cooking at home, the Prima Deli Sayur Lodeh ready-made paste is godsend! Just follow the instructions and add the recommended amount of vegetables, I also added a splash of Ayam Brand Coconut Milk to thicken the curry and within 20 minutes, you have Sayur Lodeh that tastes as good as the real thing on the dinner table. My hubby was really impressed!

I’ve also a quick tip to share – If you do not want a greasy kitchen after frying beancurd(tau kwa) for your Sayur Lodeh, go to Isetan Supermarket and buy the Japanese Fried Beancurd -2 pieces for $1.55. Surprisingly, the fried beancurd taste as delicious as the fried tau kwa that you slaved over the stove to fry.