Cravings

Last night (or was it early this morning), i walked away from my laptop with a craving for something sweet. i hung round the kitchen for a while hovering above the biscuits...then i remembered i bought a pack of beh teh sors from laguna asian grocery at QV about 1 week back. yesh its a pack of glory's beh teh sor. it's packaged in a pseudo traditional style (packed in a small plastic bag and then wrapped in a white piece of paper like how it's done before...last time no plastic bag). it's small, dry and the caramel (for the lack of better word) within hardened. sad but still worth savouring at this hour (the pix has a soup spoon for comparison on size).

I don't have a sweet tooth but i do like a certain type of sweetness.
Not the rich chocolate sinful sweetness but closer to baklava and even closer still, the beh teh sor/pong piah kind of sweetness with a savoury aftertaste. Maybe cos the sweetness comes wrapped in some flaky confectionery and the latter is one of those comfort food that i'd grown up with. well, the paternal side of the family used to patronise this Hokkien confectionery Tan Hock Seng along Telok Ayer for its tau sah pia, beh teh sor and pong pia as offerings/snacks. of cos the prices now are hugely inflated and servings had largely shrunk proportionately.

it's certainly gonna be one of my pit stops when i go back to Sg in 2 weeks time!

Endtrip

i'm to leave again for melbourne in 2 days time while the wife & kid will be catching a later flight in a week's time cos she's gonna attend a friends wedding at the end of the month. it' interesting how this trip has been marked by weddings at both the beginning and the end.

in the span of approx 6-7 weeks, i'd......

• attended 1 wedding in Singapore
• attended 1 wedding in KL (strange to see my sis going through 2 ceremonies in a span of 2 weekends)
• realised that i could no longer fit into my old dress pants (well, 1 was bought some 10 yrs ago n another 5 yrs ago...glad they cld be altered to fit present waist line)
  
• saw a side of KL which i'd not previously known
• mingled with my sis's very eloquent in-laws
  
• made 1 trip up Humen and saw the wife's 95 yr old paternal grandma
  
• made 1 trip to Hong Kong Disneyland with Wife, kiddo, bro-in-law, MIL and her 2 kakas
  
• eaten some 5 rounds of buffet and some sumptuous dinner spreads (courtesy of my sis's weddings and in-laws)
  
• bought tons of books for the kiddo
• (rather her laolao & gugu) bought tons of clothes for the kiddo
• spent CNY and caught up with most of my relatives (strangely nostalgic even though i usually just see them for no more than 6 hours annually on the very same occasion)
• caught up with some old friends, ex-schoolmates and ex-colleagues. for some, i'd really wish i could spend more time with
• caught 1 awful movie called Avatar. and dang that's the only movie i watched (downloads don't count).......
  
• packed and unpacked 3 times
• learnt about zero windows config to get internet connection on my FIL's peecee & cranky usb wifi modem adapter
• visited the doctor twice (once for flu/cough & 2nd for stomach viral infection...he'd been given a large enuff angbao)
• finally picked up my referral from my ex-boss
• read half of zhao ziyang's biography (maybe i'll get to finish it)
  
• stuffed myself with bakwas, pineapple tarts and kweh bangkit (i think that explains for my new found zits and probably 2 extra kilos which i had previously lost over the 6 mths in Melb)
• observed how the kiddo has grown & come to learn new things
  

i'd have loved to......

• spend more time with my folks/ let them spend more time with the kiddo
• bring the kiddo to more places in Sg
  
• tidy up the tank i'd left me dad
• stay on for my JC schoolmate's wedding
  
• eat the humful char kway teow and chicken rice at queenstown market & tau sar piah & pong piah from any traditional chinese confectionary store
  
• look for some long distance part-time work from over here
• etc......
  

I can't help feeling nostalgia creeping in towards the end of this trip. perhaps it's my mind's response to the uncertainty of our future - the 'not quite here-not quite there' conundrum. I was also saddened by the news of the sudden passing of another JC schoolmate just weeks short of CNY. but these emotions served to remind me to make the most of my life and treasure all the lil things that everyone around me had to offer. while i may not be able to see very far from where i am now, i'm glad that i can afford lil steps and have my loved ones around, however near/far.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

when i was little, i'd get a chicken drumstick on my birthday, even when my folks fell on hard times (i remember when i was about 8.....my mom sat me down with a single plate of chicken rice with drumstick in a coffeeshop. she'd to pay $2.50 compared to just $1.50 for a normal serving of chicken rice then. when i asked if she'd want some, she insisted that it's all for me).

years later i'd a brief stint helping out at my uncle's chicken rice stall in jurong west. not that i was cooking/chopping up chicken, i was simply packing up food, sending out/retrieving plates to/from tables and packing lil balloons of chilli sauce. my uncle never talked about how he went about preparing his chicken (cos there was simply too many competitors in the very same market he was operating from) but i got to hear what people like about their chicken rice and got acquainted with the smell throughout the cooking (i think it's an important experiential lesson as the smell changes throughout the preparation process). unfortunately, he had to wind up his business due to a stroke a few years later. it was only many years on, with much prodding did he tell me how 'white' chicken is done (admittedly i was quite disappointed cos i was actually more keen on knowing how he did his bestselling roasted chicken instead).

avery turned 1 today and while she may be too young to have a drumstick all to herself, i'm glad to serve up something familiar (dadi & mami can have the drumsticks!). of cos i do not have with me the big vats you can find in stalls but i do have a medium 'pong-pong' tall steamer which wld have to do for the occasion. i did get the chicken and chilli sauce right in this modified version of his recipe but the rice is somewhat lacking in fragrance. it's easy to do but tedious.....so here goes......serves 4.

(a) chicken

ingredients

• 1 whole medium size chicken (cleaned of all the blood clots under the spine at the back of the chicken...yah u have to use ur fingers to dig them out)
• pieces of ginger
• cloves of garlic
• 2-3 pandan leaves
• salt (to taste)
  
• pepper (to taste)
  
• 2-3 tbsp chinese cooking wine
• 2-3 tbsp sesame seed oil
• coriander (as garnish)
• cucumber and tomato slices (optional)
  

recipe

• make cuts into 3-4 pieces of ginger (ginger size abt 5 cm each) / smash them
• break 1 whole garlic into separate cloves and smash them (leave skin on)
  
• split pandan leaves into halves and tie them into a knot
  
• rub salt & pepper on the insides of the chicken (abt 2-3 tbsp salt)
• stuff garlic, ginger and pandan leaves into chicken
• rub outer skin of chicken with sesame seed oil then salt (abt 2-3 tbsp salt)
• set aside for at least half an hour
• prepare steamer and bring water to boil at medium-high heat (do not change the heat during the steaming process)
• before putting chicken into steamer drizzle chinese cooking wine onto & into chicken
  
• when water is boiling, place chicken into steamer
• steam each side of chicken for about 15 minutes (yah u gotta flip the fella over)
  
• to see if it's cooked use a test stick and poke thrugh the thigh area (cos thickest there). if blood water oozes out then let it steam for a few more minutes
  
• once cooked, remove and cut/chopped & serve. else keep warm in steamer while u prepare other stuff
  
• DO NOT DISCARD the oily juice from the container
• serve with chopped coriander, cucumber and tomato slices
  

(b) chicken soup (this is for steaming the rice and also to serve as side)

ingredients

• chicken bones/frames
• chicken fat/skin
• soya beans (half cup approx)
  
• 3-4 pieces of ginger (cut/smashed)
  
• 1 garlic (no need o smash the cloves. keep skin on)
  
• 2-3 pandan leaves (tear into haves and knot)
  
• (to taste) chinese cooking wine
• coriander (as garnish)
  

recipe

• soak soya beans overnight
• boil everything at medium heat
• sieve out the chicken oil and set aside
• keep it at low heat after the leaves turn yellow

(c) rice (serves 4. approx 2.5 cups)

ingredients

• 2 tbsp blended ginger
  
• 4 tbsp blended garlic
• rice
• chicken soup
• 2-3 pandan leaves
• chicken oil (from chicken soup)
• oily juice from chicken
  
• cooking oil
• salt (to taste)
  
• chinese cooking wine (approx 3-4 tbsp)

recipes

• fry blended garlic and ginger till light brown in chicken+cooking oil
• add in uncooked rice and salt. there must be enough oil to coat all the rice. stir till fragrant but not burnt
• remove from stove and add chicken soup (same as the amount of water for cooking that amount of rice)
• add few tbsp of oily juice
  
• add chinese cooking wine and knotted pandan
• steam in rice cooker

(d) condiments: chilli sauce + sping onion sauce

ingredients - chilli sauce

• blended chilli (no seeds) - 5 parts
  
• blended ginger - 2 parts
  
• blended garlic - 4 parts
  
• blended spring onion (to taste)
  
• chicken oil
  
• salt (to taste)
  
• sugar (to taste)
  
• 1 finely chopped tomato
• lime (optional)

recipe - chilli sauce

• use chicken oil to fry tomato, garlic and ginger (do not brown)
• add blended chilli and stir
• add blended sping onion and stir
• reduce mixture to a thick sauce keeping it at low boil
• add in lime juice, sugar, salt to taste
• you can then set aside the extras and bottle it up for later use

ingredients - sping onion sauce

• blended ginger - 2 parts
  
• blended garlic - 2-3 parts
  
• blended spring onion - 5 parts
  
• chicken oil
  
• salt (to taste)
  
• sugar (to taste)
  

recipe - sping onion sauce

• use chicken oil to fry garlic and ginger (do not brown)
• add blended sping onion and stir
• reduce mixture to a thick sauce keeping it at low boil
• add in sugar, salt to taste
• you can then set aside the extras and bottle it up for later use

as you can see it's the longest recipe i'd written for the blog........

Assorted Luncheon Meat & Cheese Buns

We ran out of bread, so i figured it'd be the best excuse to hit the oven again.

This time, my tastebuds are lingering for some good old luncheon meat buns (no luncheon meat here, only spam but just as good. The Wife absolutely loves spam!). I remember that luncheon meat buns were (together with sugared ring/satay stick donuts, pandan chiffon & marble cakes) the mainstay of confectioneries in my younger days but they got replaced with sausages over time. these days, in fanciful bread boutiques a simple sausage bun will most likely set you back almost $2. before we left, we actually chanced upon a stall in serangoon central food market (not chomp chomp, it's the one diagonally oppposite) which sells 5 mini soft chewy-doughy luncheon meat buns for $2.50, incidentally the boss calls them burger buns). so for those of you going for a cheap bite of nostalgia, you might wanna check that out.

i made some 20 buns (16 spam, 4 cheese). following recipe adapted from Jia Lei Confectionery's website.

ingredients:

• plain flour (original recipe called for bread flour. essentially bread flour has more gluten so it's what makes your bread more chewy. i find that plain/all purpose flour works just fine) - 500g
• butter - 30 g
  
• yeast (i used those instant yeast. abt 3 tsp) - 12.5 g
• water - 230 g
• sugar (i used raw sugar) - 90 g
• milk powder (The Wife let me use Avery's milk powder. about 3 baby tin scoops) - 15 g
• 2 eggs (1 to mix, 1 for brush)
  
• salt - 1/2 tsp
• spam, cut to fingers
• hard (cheddar) cheese, cut to small slabs
  

recipe:

• whisk egg and yeast together
• mix in remaining ingredients to form a dough and knead for about 8-10 mins (make sure that dough is not too wet / dry. dough when kneaded should feel 'chewy and bouncy'and not stick to your hands
• brush bowl with some oil and leave dough in bowl for proving
  
• cover with a damp cloth and leave aside to prove for 20 min
• after 1st proving, divide the dough into small portions, approx palm size ball (ok i have small hands). you shld bear in mind that the dough will continue to rise after shaping and will spring furter in the oven
• for spam buns: roll out and coil dough around each spam fingers
• for cheese buns: roll out, put in cheese slabs and pinch to close like making a 'bao'
• line baking tray with grease paper and sprinkle some flour on it before laying buns on pan. leave ample space between the buns for it to spring in the oven
  
• brush with 1 beaten egg
• leave aside to prove for 1 hour
• preheat oven at 200°C
  
• bake for 12 mins at 200°C. i realised that such dough relies on the high sugar content and high heat to provide rapid spring. so the dough will 'grow' very fast in the oven. since its my 1st time at baking such dough, i had underestimated the rate of spring in the oven, thus most of the buns had more 'bread' than filling.
• remove from the oven and set to cool. original recipe suggested brushing surface with melted butter before serving, but i thought they looked good enough as they are
  

the buns were surprising easy to make. The Wife and kiddo liked it and we'd enough for me to dunk into milo for supper later.

Mother's Day SuperBaby Issue

decided to date this post on 09.09.09 as it's our wedding anniversary.

we didn't have a getaway that day, neither did we have a romantic candlelite dinner...we did however have a really feverish baby to take care of and i'd to go off to monash uni at caulfield to find out more about a master of design course for next year's enrolment. i'd then bought japanese bentos from this small joint near caulfield station and rushed back home to check on the lil one. in the midst of my concern for the lil one, i'd left the key outside the door for 2 whole days (yah we holed in for 2 days cos she took that long to recover, luckily nothing unfrtunate had happened from my moment of carelessness).



so i thot it's rather fitting to rehash this for the post...it's something i put together a while back as a pressie for The Wife on Mother's Day....and on our anniversary i'm glad that she's been such a great mum to our lil one and an exceptional wife.

guess if the kiddo can speak, she'd probably make those cheeky lines too!

Fish Slice Horfun 魚片滑蛋炒河粉

i think this week's posts can be collectively called 'comfort foods'.

as many will agree the 河粉 is part of the mainstay of every 煮炒 stall. along with the hokkien noodles, fried rice and yee mee. frankly if the stall's 河粉 sucks, you're better off eating from the chicken rice stall. i prefer the seafood 滑蛋 version and in a not too distant past they were served and packed in dried banana leaves (more uses of banana leaves here). i haven't tried cooking this for a long long while and with a few 'refresher' recipes from the web, here's my adapted version. Not perfect cos the gas stove wldn't allow me to create the 鍋味 in the horfun but the texture and taste quite there. if The Wife says not bad then it must be not bad lah.

following recipe serves 3-4.

ingredients A (to prepare horfun/guotiao)

• horfun/guotiao 1 kg (boil it in water for >10 sec, drain before frying. you dun wanna over cook it. try to get frsh ones from market, the one i used is from a prepacked...it had a 'distinct' factory/preservative taste which i can‘t quite get rid of even after frying)
  
• chopped garlic
• dark soy sauce
• fish sauce
• salt (soy sauce)
• chinese cooking wine
  
• cooking oil
  

recipe for frying horfun

• oil wok (you'd need quite a bit of it else horfun/guotiao will stick) and brown garlic. keep at medium-hi heat
  
• add boiled horfun/guotiao and fry
• add fish sauce until u see the 1st shade of brown and smell the fish sauce's fragrance
• add dark soy sauce (sparingly) to brown the horfun/guotiao further. some say that you can add this on the side of wok to let it burn to help create the 鍋味. not much luck here.
• add a dash of cooking wine (not too much you dun wanna have it soggy) and salt to taste
• try not to disintegrate the horfun/guotiao with too much stirring
• once done, set aside

ingredients B (to prepare gravy)

• chopped garlic
• ginger slices (essentail if u doing fish horfun)
  
• thin fish slices (i used bassa. can add prawn, pork slices etc)
• vegs (choy sum, bakchoi, carrots whatever)
• 2 eggs, beaten
  
• oyster sauce
• 1 bowl stock (great if you have prawn stock. i used chicken powder stock)
• salt
• 1 tbspn corn flour (optional)
  

recipe for gravy

• brown ginger and garlic. keep heat at medium
  
• fry in the 'harder' vegs like carrots, stems of choy sum etc
• add stock and when it comes to boil, add fish slices on the vegs so they dun stick to the wok. you can alternatively coat fish with cornflour and fry it before adding to gravy
  
• when the fish is almost cooked, add the leafy parts of vegs as they cook faster. cover wok to allow all to be cooked
  
• once all is cooked, add corn flour to thicken gravy, stir to achieve consistency
• off the stove and pour eggs over the gravy, cover wok to allow heat from gravy to cook the eggs
• scoop desired amount of prefried horfun/guotiao into plates and add on gravy

too bad i didn't have green pickled chillies to go with it. maybe i'll make some.

Mock Fried Carrot Cake

Did i mention that carrot cake is also one of my comfort food?
Incidentally The Wife likes the white version while i prefer the black.

When i was much younger and staying with my paternal grandma, she'd pamper me with fried carrot cake from ghimmoh market pretty much every other day. it's simply breakfast in the dunno-much-abt-calories days and together with youtiao, soya bean milk, they make up some fond memories. it's a really simple hawker dish, steamed daikon flour cake and eggs, not like these days with the extra prawns and what nots.

so what happens when you haven't gotten round to figure out how to make daikon flour cake n u r craving for this dish? then must be creative lah. so here's my non-carbo, hi protein version. i used what's readily available in most asian kitchen for this adaptation that serves 2-3.

ingredients

• slab of tofu (not the silken kind, and not tau kwah type...those with texture somewhere in between). you dun want too much cos later it tastes too tofu-bean-y. cut the tofu to small cubes
  
• 3 eggs
• pepper
  
• fish sauce (not optional. add to taste)
• chai por (preserved turnips, also not optional. add to taste)
• small portion of chopped garlic (optional...)
• spring onion (finely chopped, use as garnish. optional. i dun have in fridge today so i used dried parsley instead)
  
• cooking oil

recipe

• heat non-stick pan/wok at medium heat, brown the chaipor + garlic. you shld be able to smell the fragrance of the chaipor
  
• add tofu and fry with the chaipor+garlic. try to brown the tofu a lil too
  
• drizzle fish sauce and fry till you can smell the fragrance of the sauce
• keep pan at medium heat. beat eggs with dash of pepper, more fish sauce (optional) and add to tofu-chaipor mix
• wait till 1 side is browning and edges are crisping, then flip to fry the other side. you may turn up the heat to create faster browning
  
• serve with garnish when cooked

You'll get a slightly springier texture cos of the tofu, but you should get the fried omelette fragrance that comes with the chaipor n fish sauce. Glad The Wife likes this version. now i got to google on how to make the daikon cake......

Soya Bean Milk

i'd better state this outright......if you have spare time, lurrve the homebrew taste with no preservatives....yah go ahead try this out yourself. this is really cheap back home & you shld really save yourself the hassle. but since it costs >AUD$2.50/cup here, i thot i'd give it a shot (actually this is my 2nd go at it).

another item to add to my ever increasing list of comfort foods...the everyday humble soyabean milk, the pride of 5k yrs of chinese civilisation (hmmm maybe that was tofu). i'm a BIG fan of this drink and The Wife & my ex-colleagues can attest to that...every opportunity we get to lunch at ghimmoh market, i'd rather have this than fizzies. and warm one....not cold one hor. I even have my ICQ & MSN nic as SoYaX- The Mutant Bean for the longest time (that's another story that i'm working on).

the beany aroma seeping out of big hawker vats tucked away in their tiny stalls was a distinct part of my childhood. you see, i was brought up by my paternal grandma in ghimmoh and she lived just next to the market/hawker centre. on days when i get to accompany her and her neighbours down to the market/hawker centre, i'd see hawkers pouring this out of their vats into big plastic containers (those with lucid green frames and ladles) with icebergs in them. the gurgling of the ladle stirring and navigating through those icebergs and the generous portions of syrup sounded just right amongst the cacophony of marketplace.....& better yet you get one big sweating glass mug (not the puny pvc disposable cups they use these days) for less than 50 cents.

so here's the recipe adapted from a couple of sites. you have the option of blending the pandan leaves together with the beans to top the fragrance in the drink (it'd get slightly greenish but edible) or you can go with the 'traditional' approach of bundling up pandan leaves and boiling it with the milk (as described in this post). the latter approach will allow you to save the pulp. as The Wife's googles tell me, you can actually bake the pulp (okara) , blend them further and make more good stuff outta it. but all i really want is my soyabean milk lah.

Tools You'll Need To Make approx 1.5-2 litres of SBM

• blender with the centre sift attachment (i used The Wife's U-like blender. you can buy this inexpensive and really easy to use blender from isetan. the downside is that it's quite small so you'd need to repeat the process a few times. we use it mainly for making bb's food.)
• medium size metal/earthern pot
• sift lined with filter cloth (i used my bb's linen nappy)

Ingredients

• 300g soya beans
• 8-10 pandan leaves
• Water
• Rock sugar / raw sugar to taste
  

Preparation

• Soak the beans in clean tap water overnight. they'll look quite 'bloated' after soaking
• next day, drain and rinse once
• wash pandan leaves thoroughly, slit at the centre of each leaf into 2 (more flavourful instead of just using without slitting). bundle them up into a few knots.
  

Brewing

• fill about 3/4 full in the centre attachment of the blender with the beans
• pour boiling water into the blender until it reaches 3/4 full of the blender's jug
• blend for about 40-50 seconds. (Avoid blending for more than 1 minute non-stop, it will cause the motor to be over-heated and stall, then you'd have to wait at least 20 min for the motor to cool down....according to the phamplet that came with the belnder, it aint a design fault. duh)
• pour out the blended milk into the pot with a filter lined sift
• then pour more clean water into the blender's jug, this time only about 1/3 full
• blend the soya pulp for anther 10-15 seconds
• pour out the milk and place the pulp aside for okara
• repeat steps until all the beans are blended (your should need to do this about 3 times using u-like)
• you can sift the milk as many times as you like....apparently, the more the milk has been sifted, the smoother the milk will be...i simply just folded the nappy n place it in the sift and drained through once. it tasted smooth enuff fer me
  
• add in all the bundled up pandan leaves and bring to boil at medium heat
• once the milk starts to bubble, IMMEDIATELY lower the heat to low. else you will have burnt taste in your SBM
  
• continue to brew for about 20-30 minutes till the pandan leaves turn yellowish
• add sugar to taste & serve
  

Preparation of okara

• press and drain milk out of pulp
• line it on aluminium foil and bake for 20-30 min. oven at low heat
• stir it occasionally so that it doesn't get burnt
• remove from baking tray and blend it further to get a powdery substance
• seal in airtight bag/container
  

now all i need is to find out how to make youtiao.......

Singapore Fried Noodles

Here's my attempt at serving up the ubiquitous 'kwailou鬼佬-fav' found in all 'respectable' overseas Chinese restaurants. my 1st experience of tasting this was when i was studying in london many years back. i'd come to learn that this dish, together with

• Won Ton (anagram: Not Now...hurhur...ok its corny) Noooodle
  
• sweet & sour pORk
• spling loll
• 'peek-ing' duc
  

are 鬼佬's fav orders. i have never eaten Singapore Fried Noodles prior to my london days (i mean why wld i want to to Singapore Fried Noodles in Singapore?!), my experience of it had been rather disappointing. often it's no more than a curry-flavoured oil drenched plate of noodle with miserly portions of ingredients. i assume its an aquired taste. 鬼佬s would eat the above listed dishes as mains and often incur so much leftovers while we hungry poor overseas students wld look over our shoulders and mumble 'tsk tsk, so sayang' as we savoured our 1 plate meal of beef horfun/duck rice/soy chicken rice.

years later in my travels, it'd occurred to me that 鬼佬s the world over really haven't quite changed their chinese restaurant palattes. so be it berlin, chicago or sydney, 鬼佬s eat just about the same thing. but the presence of chinese restaurants in all the places i've been, made me proud of being chinese, for i'd learnt to respect the tenacity of the owners and their forefathers who eek out a living in sometimes not too chink-friendly environment. i suspect Singapore Fried Noodles share the same overseas chinese cuisine origins, with its set of reapproriations and spins, like that of fortune cookies and chop suey. incidentally, one of my fav docu series of all time is Chinese Restaurants.

since i am in Melb now, i figured i'll do up my rendition of this dish. The Wife wasn't quite sure if she'd actually like it when i announced the dinner menu. but it went down pretty well in the end. :)

ok here's the recipe:

ingredients

1. noodles (dried types, not the thick types. i used 蝦仔面, other wise known as HK Shrimp Roe Noodle)
2. garlic, onion/shallots finely chopped
3. eggs (okie i didnt add them into the one i cooked last nite, thot i'd cut down on the calories intake for a day)
4. fish sauce
5. dark soy sauce
6. sugar
   
7. salt, pepper
   
8. whatever raw/ precooked ingredients
9. red chilli, choy sum (chopped) & towgey
   
10. curry powder (yellow type, otherwise known as madras curry powder)
    

recipes

• prepare noodles. some types require you to soak before boiling. the ones i used didn't need to boil and cook noodles in separate pot. once done set aside. make sure they are dry
• fry scramble eggs set aside
• fry garlic, onion/shallots till brown
• add in raw ingredients (e.g. pork slices) and fry with fish sauce, sugar and dark soy sauce. add some water so that there is some gravy. keep fire at medium
  
• once raw ingredients are cooked, add in scrambled eggs, noodles and vegs. stir fry continuously, cover and simmer for a short while to allow noodles to soak up the gravy
  
• add salt and curry powder to taste. stir fry until noodle has an even yellowish tinge
• off the fire, the noodles should look dry by serving time
  

Proto蒸雞蛋糕

Prototype 2. the 1st one ended in the bin.
i'm still trying to learn how to get this, partially cos i really miss the ones that i cld get back home. and the times i'd eat it as a child after every religious rituals/ceremonies.

i was using the following recipe but as i do not have the tall lid/deep steaming pots, the cake didn't manage to 'bloom'. resulting it to be rather compact. also made the mistake to opening the lid too soon and the cake kindda collapsed. oh yah the recipe.....


Ingredients：

* half cup cake flour

* 6 x eggs (must be at room temperature)

* half cup sugar

* Cream of Tartar 3/4tsp (optional)

* non grease paper


Approach：

1. Boil the water first, you have to make sure its boiling when you put in the cake mix later. also make sure that you have enough water to last 50 min

2. line the baking pan with non grease paper

3. separate egg white and yolks，add cream of tartar to egg white

4. beat the egg white at full speed (use mixer)，until you see it turning foamy (can see bubbles). use mixing bowl cos rounded bottom allows better circulation so i read.

5. gradually add sugar until the mixture thickens. the mixture shld have an equal consistency. it will grow up to 3 times the original volume.

6. beat the yolks in another bowl

7. add the yolks and fold it into the mixture in 3 different portions. you must fold till you dont see any yolks trace every time u add in the yolk. the technique is to fold gently so as to not disturb the inherent air bubbles.

8. add in the flour and fold it into the mixture in 3 portions. you must fold till you dont see any lumps of flour.

9. pour mixture into pan. ur mixture should take up no more than half of the pan.

10. sprinkle a cross of sugar on top of the mixture so that it will bloom into quarters. i have also read that you can use a oily spatula and 'cut' a cross on the mixture. (i didnt do this :( )

11. bake for 50 minutes. the water must be boiling at hi-heat.

12. once time's up, turn off n let cake sit in there for 10 mins (i also didnt do this :( ). then take out and serve.

Job hunt

i'd never quite had to write a proper cover letter or CV in my entire adult working life (i had done artist-versions for exhibitions and stuff but they aint strictly cvs).

since i was bonded to the Service, the career options are somewhat lateral, ie school-HQ-school. your bosses wld probably have told your new bosses what kind of a whackjob you are before they decide on the move (hmmm come to think about it if you are a whackjob your old boss will probably want to sell you asap). seriously, pretty much everything from iras declarations to claims...are all rather efficiently worked out by the admin staff in the System and all you needed to do was to remember to click on some buttons on a webpage and be done with it. end of story.

so here i am trying to prove my worth to potential employers when i had to synthesis what i had done in the past 7-8 years into a 2 page cv. after all the typing, the premise of an artist, teacher, HQ officer does not translate to any 'quantifiable' evidence, ie no '80% retail target met or made turnover of 1.3 gazillion bux', in my 'list of achievements'. i cld probably quote the percentile of kids passing my subject (tho that's really not quite my doing since its the kids themselves delivering the results), the numerous projects, which i was in a sub-sub-sub-comm of. even when i do get tasked to 'lead' anything, i was managing higher-ups' intentions. so i wrote that i can manage projects, run events from sectional to ministerial scale (like they say On The Job Training) but seriously i'd no paper qualifications in PR, Comms, Mgt....so essentially i wonder if any of my work done in the Service has any currency out in the real world. so as u can see, as a fine art and education trained guy in his early 30s, any career change at this point is 1 heck of a hurdle.

nonetheless, out went the cvs and i'd just have to keep my fingers crossed that someone out there will buy my story. like a good friend of mine just told me, it'll be like skipping from 1 puddle to the next...if not how to evolve right?

Hard Reset

i did a hard reset in my life on monday.

it had literally been an agonising 4-5 days (on The Wife too...for having to put up with my verbalised thoughts) before i pulled the plug on on my grad place in melb uni on monday.
i dont expect anyone, other than The Wife, to understand what transpired, afterall i did get a place in the uni, attended 1st week of class, bought a couple of books and even very kiasully gotten the online readings and planned out my google calender for the next 6 mths with all the assignment deadlines. then a voice in my head (or the heart as some may put it) spoke real loud, culminating into sleepless nites and listless netsurfing.

the voice had asked what if i'd not really made another truly life altering decision since i decided to go to art school (ok, marrying The Wife n having BB also counted)? that my choices made in that past 8 -9 years had rather been like jumping from one fishtank to the adjacent tank, from 1 comfort zone to another...each a rational extension of previous professional experiences. it's rational cos for most, i believe, that's termed as career progression / upgrade. and the situation with the course looked pretty much as such. but hell, what do i even want to do with it after spending the next 2.5 yrs and some 50k AUD on it? is that a career path carved out by a large degree of convenience and familiarity? if i am questioning this on the eleventh hour, i reckoned something is not quite right.

so after the weekend, i returned every single thingy and got back every single cent. and i felt a sense of relief. it was particularly difficult to explain to my folks. perhaps the notion of leaving service, relocating to melbourne and now this withdrawal had made me look like some kamikaze pilot, with wife and bb in toll. i couldn't do a good job explaining it to my mom over skype and to hear what i had to say myself was definitely un-reassuring.

so here i am, a 33 yr old who'd leapt out from the tank and landed on the dry table. admittedly, i am terribly scared, anxious and flippy. all the years of habitual planning and contingencies simply went out of the window and i'm trying hard to breathe on unfamiliar grounds. perhaps it's normal to feel that way...just need to keep flipping and flipping...and then i'd learn to evolve.

奸人與惡人

i once told an ex colleague that i'd rather work under a 奸人 than an 惡人.

i had reasoned that a 奸人 will probably keep himself out of troubles and you wld probably get the best rate of survival under such a person. if you had the misfortune of working for an 惡人 then you will be gorenged very often. but later on, i changed my mind, cos a 奸人 would also most likely to have you silenced and fed to the vultures and not all 惡人 sought to put you away for good even after they gorenged you.

Que Sera, Sera

my ex-colleague told me recently that she is envious of the Wife & i spending so much time with BB. to that, i politely replied, 'you can also do this too, but your hubby loves you too much to want to risk dropping everything here and leaving'. she said that i'd put across my point very nicely and she'd not thought of it in such light before ( i hope she'd gone off and spent a great evening with her hubby that day).

to some degree i feel that there is more to simply inertia for ppl to stay/ even excel in where they. there are all the other big picture considerations like security that sometimes a family as a whole, cannot or would not to make a decision on.

for everything that would have been laid out to me so far then, life back then from the classroom to my small cubicle was pretty decent. i was lucky to not have met slavedrivers. i'd gotten used to the rigors of lesson planning, full day teaching, weekends of marking, irate parents who just want to be heard, irate kids who just want to be themselves, attending countless meetings, organising endless events, politicking, siam-ing, posturing, second guessing, regular lunch hours (only when i went to HQ) and all degrees of predictability that comes after every 'firefighting' exercise.

before i come across as being cynical, i'd like to set the record straight. i was certainly passionate about my subject area, and delivered more than what was expected. i had the humbling opportunity to work with decent folks who accepted their places in the System, giving folks who support you every step of the way, admirable leaders who truly are nurturing, had vision(s) and knew the ins-&-out of the Game & sadly also ****less folks who, well, are simply ****less...... i know that if i do not screw up and get a dose of blessing from Higher Ups during the secretive annual appraisals, 'lateral career advancement' (when u get it of cos is relative) was certainly in the deck.

but sometimes you hear a faint tiny voice between your eyes that goes 'what if'. or that you'd wake up 1 day realising that you do not want to play the game according to prescribed rules anymore. perhaps that you had once again felt an impending legit early-midlife existentialist crisis, one that silently yells out to you, asking what else do you want out of your mortal existence. indeed one day, a Huge Carrot came dangling from Higher Ups and i am only human to wanna taste 'the sweet future' hanging by the tips of my lips. but when the initial temptation subsided, i remembered that while i do not always know what i want in life (erm i still don't), i know for certain, at least for now, what i do not want....and i certainly no longer wanted to give myself another reason to lament.

there are moments that i'd feel it was a selfish reason on my part to want to leave a decent-paying job, afterall if i'd not left the Service, my family wouldn't have to watch every single cent that we spend now and i can well afford all the toys & niceties for BB. for that i apologise to them but i'm grateful that they're along in this adventure.

i am proud to say that i had faithfully served out my 8-yr bond and more......
looking back, i started out as a young arty-farty-wannabe who only wanted to emote his kids and left, humbled by the passion & strength of others who continue to walk the talk. i take a balanced view on the bond issue, my overseas studies shaped my worldview and in the past 8 yrs i'd helped shaped others (gawd i can't imagine how many kids grew up to not liking art, ever. or how many colleagues who siam me when i approach them to try out art projects on top of their piles & piles of work). i certainly knew that i wan't going to make truckloads of marnee. while it offers opportunities and security, my personal objectives and interests faded. call it a trade off. no free lunch, they say.

i'd recently came across a blog post of a fellow ex-garmen skolar.
i regret that i am not as proficient a writer and am unable to convey my shared sentiments in my 2-fingered typings eloquently. so here's the link should you be keen to have a read.

it's certainly scary to be off the leash, with no more directions to follow, no certainty of the next meal. but with no more excessive luggage to tug along, i think i'd like to roam free for a while.