Love \ Love

I want to know what love is.

The Mariah Carey rendition.

The MTV isn't particularly well done, but there's something incredibly soulful and moving about her voice that just makes you want to stop and listen.

I also realised yesterday evening that I now have three versions of this song in my iTunes. I guess it's a popular song.

And speaking of love, I found another yesterday.

But I got it in ash brown instead of the black you see above. I've been thinking about it for months but could never bear to part with the money.

Till now; egged on by Tannie (I call her "little voice in my head"). This is the 2nd most expensive item I have ever bought myself. The 1st would be my MacBook.

I never liked big wallets before, and this isn't exactly huge, but it's bigger than what I'm used to.

I have realised in the past year that I am appreciating the things I have, more and more. I was never one to take exceptionally good care of my phone/wallet/bag/clothes/shoes, but I find myself doing so now.

It's scarily easy to spend money, and I don't want to grow old only to realise that I have flitted away all I have. I don't want to have to depend on my children or anyone else financially. I want to be able to support myself. And I think that's the best lesson my parents have ever taught me.

Another bum off the street

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I'm so excited to be going to work on Monday !

I'm sure in a couple of months I'm going to be moaning about the weekly grind, but for now, I'm excited.

I was without a job for about 2 and a half months, and I remember thinking at some desperate point that a career-switch would be good or me. I thought I'd be happy as a digit who shopped at G2000.

Turns out, I wasn't. And thankfully, the universe thought so as well.

I am a fluffy person, and I belong in this fluffy world of greys. It's where I'm comfortable, and where I enjoy being.

"Hello Monday!"

Japanese !

Fresh from my attempt at cooking Thai (which didn't go too badly at all), I decided that tonight I would do Japanese.

The Menu

Miso Soup

Ebi and Sweet Potato Tempura

Japanese Rice

Dish 1 - Miso Soup

Anyone can mix paste with water, so I decided to make it a little fancier.

Ingredients: Miso paste, half a white onion, enoki mushroom, tofu, nori

METHOD:

1. Don't worry, you only have to chop the onion roughly into cubes; it won't take very long and therefore, won't leave you all weepy. Put them in a pot with some oil, and saute for awhile. Use only a wee bit of oil or your soup be really oily.

2. Pour in some water quickly while standing as far as you possibly can from the pot. There will be a slight cackle and pop from the initial contact of the water with the pot.

3. Bring to a boil then lower heat and simmer for about half an hour.

4. Add miso paste, nori, tofu and enoki mushroom. Stir till cooked. If you find that the nori and enoki mushroom are a little too chunky, you can do what I did. Which is to take a pair of scissors, put it into the pot and just snap randomly.

5. Tada, ready to serve !

Dish 2 - Tempura

Ah, this one takes lots of skill. One which I have yet to master. But I'll try, try again. You can use anything you want, but I used sweet potato and prawns today.

INGREDIENTS

Sweet potato

Prawns

Tempura flour

Tempura dipping sauce

Check out this mother-of-all sweet potatoes, it was ginormous !

And it took me a good 15minutes to slice it all like so. I kid you not, this takes some real arm strength. Lucky for me, handygirl Kim has been working out by way of assembling my Ikea furniture. Ignore the darker-coloured ones in the foreground, those are steamed sweet potatoes that were left over from my mom's lunch.

Prawns, which should be curled like so for optimum freshness.

It occurred to me as I was taking the prawns out of the packet that tempura prawns are usually served straight. By that logic, the me-before-learning-that-fresh-prawns-are-curled would have gone straight for the stretched out prawns. But now that I know better, I had another dilemma on my hands. How does one get their prawns straight ?

So naturally, I googled it.

Literally.

"How to straighten tempura prawns"

And what do you know. I'm not the only one who wonders that !

I came across a few sites which basically told me to make 2-3 slits at the bottom of the prawn. So I did. But that didn't make removing the veins very easy at all, so I decided to just slit the whole of the bottom. What is the deal with 2-3 slits anyway. By the time you do that, you've practically slit the whole bottom.

2 to 3 prawns in, I noticed another black thing dangling off the top portion of the prawn. I didn't realise there was another one at the top ! I guess you learn something new everyday. Anyway, de-veining prawns isn't something I normally do. I only did it because they said to do so in the recipes I came across. I never really saw the point to it though.

Once all that's prepared, we can start !

METHOD

1. Mix tempura flour with cold water. I read on one of the sites that you should put an ice cube in as well to keep it cold, so I did. I also read that you shouldn't mix the batter too evenly, and that it should have some lumps in it. So I did that too.

2. Heat the oil.

3. Dip the sweet potato / prawn in the batter, and slide into the wok. Let it sizzle and swim around till golden brown, or whatever the colour usually is when you have it at restaurants.

4. Remove and set on a plate laid with paper towels to absorb the oil.

5. Serve with tempura dipping sauce.

This was the sauce and flour I picked up from Cold Storage.

Dinner! Admittedly the prawns didn't quite turn out the way it's supposed to, but it tasted alright I think. Better luck (and skill) next time !

My new room

Handygirl Kim

I went to Ikea today to pick up the last of the pieces to complete my wardrobe - a 100cm clothes rail, and 2x 50cm wire baskets. Because they weren't available when I got all the other bits delivered and assembled, I had to install these myself with my handy $9.50 orange toolbox.

I truly detest assembling Ikea furniture - something I discovered during my Uni days in Melbourne.

It's just something I never get right.

I lived with a half-assembled desk in Melbourne for two years before I finally decided to discard it. It wobbled because I couldn't get the legs screwed in properly, and what was meant to be drawers were not able to be used because I fitted some pieces in the wrong way.

And that's just one example of many.

But I figured I wouldn't have too much problem with the clothes rail and the baskets, after all, it was just a matter of screwing 4 screws in, each.

I succeeded in the task (I hope), but my hands are all blistery now and I just want to get into bed and feel sorry for myself.

A Thai Attempt

Fresh from my Phuket escapade, I decided to attempt a Thai meal for dinner.

The menu:

1. Pineapple Chicken with Oyster Mushroom
2. Deep Fried Morning Glory
3. Tom Yum Seafood Soup
4. Rice

I'm not a particularly expert cook, but I figure that I've grown up watching enough people cook (mom, aunties, sisters, Yan - of 'Yan can cook fame') so how hard could it be right ? I can just go on gut and a little improvisation, like I normally do with just about everything.

Dish 1 - Pineapple Chicken with Oyster Mushroom

INGREDIENTS
Fresh pineapple (cut into cubes)
Chicken breast (cut into cubes)
Oyster mushroom (randomly sliced)
Garlic
Oyster Sauce
Corn flour
Water

METHOD
i. Coat the chicken in some corn flour and deep fry in a wok, then set aside on a plate that's been laid with some kitchen towels (paper not cloth) to soak up the oil.

ii. Oil in pan; for some reason, I don't seem to have a frying pan at home. It's a recent development. I suspect my mom threw it out as part of her 'new year spring cleaning' routine. She's quite strange, she throws out/gives away things we need, and keep the things we don't. For example, no frying pan but we do have 5 pots. So anyway, I heated up some oil in a pot and fried the garlic. I didn't use the wok because it was filled with oil from the earlier deep frying, and too hot for me to clear.

iii. Add the oyster mushroom, some water and continue frying. The oyster mushroom that my mom got from the market was of a curious variety, it's huge ! I've never seen anything like it. At least the size of three of my fists.

I wasn't sure what to do with it, so I just sliced it up randomly like so (see below).

iii. Add chicken and pineapple cubes, some oyster sauce and water and let it simmer for a bit then it's done !

Dish 2 - Deep Fried Morning Glory

INGREDIENTS
Morning glory
Tempura battter
Sweet chilli sauce to accompany

METHOD
i. Mix your tempura flour with some ice water - that's what I gathered from the couple of recipes I read on 'how to make tempura'. It's supposed to add extra crisp to the final product I think. For good measure (and because the weather was so hot), I decided to toss in an ice cube as well and let it slowly melt whilst I took my time coating and frying the morning glory.

ii. Heat oil lots of oil in a huge wok.

iii. Take a bunch of morning glory, sort of fold it into half and then coat it in the batter. I used tongs to hold on to it coz I wasn't sure how it was meant to be done. And if you were me, you'd fry this one bunch at a time because the oil splatters like crazy. So take the bunch of batter-coated morning glory drop it into the oil (gently), and then step away while it splutters. After about 30-40 seconds (or when it stops spluttering), it's safe to step in and turn it around. When it's slightly brown, take it out and let the oil dry again on some paper towels.

iv. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

v. Serve with sweet chilli sauce.

It should look like so.

Dish 3 - Tom Yum Seafood Soup

INGREDIENTS

Tom Yum Paste

Shallots

Lemongrass

Tomatoes

Prawns (with head)

Squid

Straw Mushrooms

Chicken Stock

METHOD

i. First, prepare all your ingredients like so, so it's all handy.

Straw mushrooms, shallots, lemon grass, tomatoes

Squid (again, wasn't sure how it should be cut, so I just sliced it into random bite-sized pieces), prawns - separate the heads, and de-shell the body. Just a tip from my boyfriend the Nat Geo geek, when picking prawns you should also pick those that are curled up. It means they're fresher than their stretched out counterparts. I can't remember why though.

METHOD

i. Some oil in a pot, stir fry the shallots and lemongrass and prawn heads. Add water, chicken stock and tomatoes then bring to a boil.

ii. Add tom yum paste, I used this that I got from the airport on the way back from Phuket - we had some spare Baht. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes.

iii. Add the seafood, and you're done !

Tom Yum Soup and Pineapple Chicken

Tip: If for some reason your tom yum soup turns out too spicy or sour, just add some Oyster Sauce. I know it sounds weird, but I learnt this from my good friend Den back in Uni. "Oyster sauce fixes everything!", he says.

I Heart Phuket!

We decided to kick 2010 off with a short trip to Phuket. Now, Phuket's never registered on my radar as a place-I'd-love-to-go though I've always been aware of its existence, nor have I ever been particularly taken with the idea of 'island holidays' - most notably because the islands round here aren't exactly the Maldives, and also because I'm not really into water sports, plus the sun gives me heat rash.

How wrong I was.

Yes, by virtue of its location - within Thailand - Phuket was already three strikes down because I've been conned almost every single time I go to Bangkok. And yes, Phuket isn't exactly the Maldives but it was oh-so-very charming in its own way.

Phuket and I, we fell in love over the course of a 3N/4D adventure.

Pre-Trip Prep

"are you sure we need all that stuff ?! we're only going to Phuket you know... a TOURIST destination, not trekking in the himalayas"

Putting together a first-aid kit, he's cute like that

Mikey the Saint Bernard - armed and ready to go

Day 1

We had to wake at the crack of dawn to catch a 9.25am flight from the Budget Terminal. Check-in was swift and we settled in at Maccas after for a nice, comforting (I always think of Maccas as comfort food) breakfast whilst discussing the silliness (or not) of their recent 12 zodiac Happy Meal giveaway, sans the boar. My brother-in-law said that if they were creative at all they would have nicknamed Cupid (the boar's replacement) 'Cupig' or 'Cutepig'. Quite funny, no ?

Anyway, a short flight later we landed in Phuket. Customs was an excrutiatingly long process, made only a little more bearable by the entertainment provided by a French dude who had some sort of tussle with the customs officers. I did what any Singaporean would do and stared quite undiscreetly while our line inched ever-so-slowly forward.

After exiting customs, we opted for the bus to take us to our hotel. Two reasons, we were on a budget of S$150 each, and we have had many (many many many) bad experiences with Thai taxi drivers.

The bus was a good choice, only 180BHT per person.

En-route

The hotel - we opted for Kata beach instead of Patong

After settling in, it was time to go for lunch. We went round the corner and chanced upon a quaint row of little restaurants, if you could call it that. There were four of them, and we picked one randomly - best choice ever ! The food was extremely affordable (about 400BHT gets you a really decent meal, tips optional) and absolutely delicious !

where we ate, I call it the 'blue signboard restaurant' because it doesn't have a name

Pineapple rice - with real (and very sweet) pineapples !

Chicken omelette

Deep fried morning glory served with sweet chilli and/or plum sauce

Connect 4 seems to be a really popular game there, it was available at all the little Thai eateries we went to. Here's boo strategising. Nice try, but they don't call me the Connect 4 queen for nothing.

We took a walk down to the beach after lunch just to take a look-see, before heading back to the hotel for a dip in the pool. He swam, I literally 'dipped' and then planted myself on one of the lounge chairs with a backdated copy of NW magazine.

For dinner, we walked to Kata centre and decided on an Italian joint. The place is really a European ghetto, I can count on one hand the number of Singaporeans/Malaysians/Hongkies we came across. Everywhere we went we were outnumbered.

So anyway, my point being, Italian might seem like an unusual choice for Phuket, but because of the vast amount of Europeans in Phuket, European/American fare is widely available, and actually very good ! Our pasta dinner was incredibly yummy. The pasta was freshly made, the garlic bread was made with freshly baked baguette, and most importantly, the parmasean they gave me to accompany my pasta was freshly grated ! Not of the powdered variety you get at most restaurants in Singapore. And our whole meal cost only 440BHT.

They even had a real wood-fire oven for the pizza, but I'm not really a pizza fan.

Day 1 ended with me filled and happy.

Day 2

Again, another early morning for our SNUBA session ! SNUBA is basically a cross between snorkelling and scuba diving. You get to dive up to a depth of 7m, whilst being hooked up via a pipe to an oxygen tank that floats on an inflatable platform. It's two people to a platform. I was a little nervous initially about the whole breathing underwater thing, but this was a really great baby step.

The SNUBA raft

By the time we got back to the hotel I had a full-blown heat rash but completely worth it.

For dinner, we decided on somewhere a little more upmarket. We picked Two Chefs after reading some good reviews.

He had steak.

I had salmon.

And that's how we ended Day 2.

Day 3

We decided that Day 3 would be a slow one, after the strenuous (for me anyway) activities of the past couple of days. We had a heavy hotel breakfast (I loveeee hotel breakfasts' !), skipped lunch and spent the day at the beach under a brolly, with coconuts, water and a trashy novel (me).

On the way back from the beach, we had a little tiff - the only blip in our otherwise perfect holiday. It wasn't major, but resulted in about 3 hours where we played 'stony silence interspersed with bits of cordial exchange'.

It wasn't fun.

But there was a bit I find really funny now in retrospect. When we got back to the room, naturally the rules of the game dictated that we should aim to put as much distance between the both of us as possible so I sat on the farthest end of the couch, while he sat on the bed.

Initially, he did the usual channel surfing while I flipped through yet another backdated issue of NW magazine and pretended to ignore him. I'm quite good at it, but he's better.

After about half an hour, American Idol came on. Both of us had been looking forward to catching the debut of the new season so I put down my magazine and watched from my corner in the couch.

He adjusted the air con temperature and it got increasingly cold. I put on a pullover and refused to budge from my corner in an attempt to maintain my pride. But after about 15minutes, I had to get into bed and under the covers. I did however make sure to perch myself as close to the edge of the bed as possible. I suspect he tried to freeze me into bed when he adjusted the temperature. I told you he's good at this.

When it ended, he asked me very cordially if I would like to get dinner. I agreed, and so off we went. Stony silence all the way. We picked another one of those little Thai eateries.

After placing our order, the waitress put the Connect 4 between us. He calmly took it, folded it up and put it away. I pouted inside, but still refused to be the first to make nice. I had hoped we would connect over Connect 4 (pun intended), but he was really letting his stubborn streak rage out in full force - I hate how he's so good at this game.

Finally, when the food came, I could take it no more. I am a Libra and peace-loving by nature, and I didn't want our last night to end that way. So I took down the imaginary barrier and forced myself into his territory, giving him no choice but to look at me adoringly and remember just how cute I was.

After dinner, we went for a long walk around Kata centre.

We had a banana and nutella pancake

And saw the cutest wee elephant. I paid 20BHT to feed him some sugarcane and made him do the same while I went all trigger happy. The elephant actually knew how to pose!

We ended the night watching Hangover - we got a pirated copy from one of the stalls at Kata centre. Only 60BHT.

Day 4

Our last day. We woke up to another huge breakfast in the hotel, followed by lunch at the blue signboard restaurant. The staff were really nice and gave us a packet of biscuits as a going-away gift.

After lunch, we lugged our luggage onto a Tuktuk and headed to Patong to spend some time before going to the airport. Just 3 hours there and we decided that Patong really wasn't our scene. Kata is really so much nicer. It's more laid back and you don't feel like every other stall vendor is trying to con you.

We'll definitely return to Phuket. And next time, we'll rent a motorbike to see more of the island ! Oh, and maybe try para-sailing too !