Its a sunday and the living is easy

H ate leftover gelato from the fridge.

While I successfully moved my 5,841 photos into my new hard drive. By the way, I saw the Imation 160GB harddrive that I bought from Mustafa at Courts Megastore for $90, thats $19 less than what we paid!

Its a Sunday and I am a little too sick to really go anywhere.

Faces of HappyGrub

Though I love stills and my photos of food, a huge part of the photos I take are of people in my life and people I am lucky enough to meet along the way. Today I feel extremely grateful and would love to share my joy with you. I wasn’t born wanting to be an eye surgeon or a gynaecologist, in fact I graduated with a basic degree in medical school, not really knowing what I wanted to be or what kind of doctor I was going to become.

After a year of completing my housemanship and half a year in a really busy department as a medical officer, I chose to take a break from seeing patients and took half a year off doing a “desk job” in a medically related field. At the same time I started doing part time sessions at a friend’s clinic and had the experience of some family medicine work. I enjoyed the slower pace but at the same time part of me still wanted to pursue my specialist degree. I started sitting for exams and was disappointed to fail in my first 2 tries. I thought to myself that I’ll give myself 4 tries to pass, if I didn’t I would just accept it that it wasn’t meant to be and I would explore other options in my career. Somehow fate had it that I passed after the 3rd try. Missing life in an acute hospital I went back to give it another go. Somehow I fell in love with it again and applied for a traineeship post, this time feeling that it was the right thing to do. Somehow things have fallen into place and I got thru. I am still learning everyday and ultimately, whatever you choose to do I hope it makes you happy. Just as I am.

So here are some smiles I’ve met along the way that I would love to share with you..

 H, my favourite subject!

A Keralan lady going door to door selling coconuts in her basket. She would stop and grate it on request into the large plastic basin on top of her basket.

In Cambodia, even monks wanna a brilliant white smile.

A tentative smile from a young cambodian boy and his mother in a wet market.

A cambodian baby girl in a village house we stayed in during our voluntary mission.

This smile is in New Zealand now!

Brown eyes captured in Cambodia

Sophia is special

These guys are important. Remember H’s habit of popping a camera in the unlikeliest of places?

Daddy’s serious smile.

Wishing all of u loads of smiles and a blessed Ramadan to all my Muslim friends!

Kuwaiti sweets

I am home sick today with a bad throat. I promised to share with you some sweets that we recently got from Aunty F’s Kuwaiti friend. Time passes by slower when you are unwell. I woke up late, cooked lunch for mother in law and myself, surfed the net, read the papers, took these photos and there’s still a couple of hours left till H comes back.

While other girls have shoes or bags in their bedroom closet, mine is filled with glasses and plates. We are moving to our flat by the end of the year! H and I were hugging each other gleefully, at last, a place of our own! And I can take out my ever growing cutlery and crockery to put in a proper kitchen! Though a really small one. I can’t wait..

I bet these sweets have Kuwaiti names but I’ve given them names of my own. This was a chewy apricot paste that did not have any added sugar. It was mildly sweet and had a tinge of sourness.

Somehow these photos remind me so much of my friend Quizas, I wonder how you are?

These were the sweets in its wrappers. The sesame brittle has dried roses stuck on one side which was a little bit odd because it got stuck in your mouth like little remnants of paper. The pistachio nougat was chock full of the greenest pistachio, I love nuts so this was my favourite.

The chocolate buttercream that refused to work with me

Over the rainy weekend, I wrestled with a chocolate buttercream that refused to work with me. It was really misbehaving, incredibly fluid and refusing to be piped. After a short stay in the fridge it became so hard it squirted out in spurts as hard as clay. Anyway I gave up and smeared it onto the mini cupcakes in the end. I know when I should throw in the towel. I spurted and squirted the leftover buttercream into mini papercups for and left it to harden into “truffles”.

The messy end result. Not the best photo as it was raining and raining the whole weekend, any prospect of photography was rather dismal. I think I’m abandoning the whole piping bag and tip thing till I get better equipment. Or perhaps I need tips, anyone? Anyway, I baked up these cupcakes with this recipe for my dear friend Sheerin. When are we going to cook that briyani together?

The only ray of sunshine was caught on these happy banana chips from kerala.

I have a growing collection of paper napkins, these were plain navy blue from Ikea.

 

My laptop is back! And my internet connection woes will hopefully be over soon..

Laptop update

My laptop is being repaired. The good news is that the hard drive is intact so I did not lose all my pictures like I feared. Another piece of good news is that I recovered my presentation for tomorrow. I hope I can get my computer by next Tuesday cos thats when my internet guy is coming to fix up a proper internet connection (thank god!) I don’t know how I’ve been surviving all this while with a wireless mobile modem, the GPRS network in Changi is really really bad!

At this point of time I have no photos to share.. But I do have some planned for you including some fabulous sweets from Kuwait and some baking planned for this weekend. I will be on call tomorrow too, so keeping my fingers crossed it’ll be good! But there goes the weekend. I don’t usually complain, (haha, maybe I’m disillusioned here) but I wish Singapore being a developed country will realize that 30 hour working shifts are inhumane and move towards what most other countries (like Australia and the UK) do which is roster doctors to do the night shift. After a night of sleep deprivation, your brain function deteriorates  to  what is equivalent to a blood alcohol limit above the range accepted to drive. Now you wouldn’t want a drunk doctor writing your prescription or taking your blood would you?

My laptop has crashed!

Remeber I promised you I will share this blog with you?

I miss these kids! And Husaini and Julie so much. Check out the blog for the thermal pot cooking thing. 

Those who know me well know that I am technologically averse. I limit the amount of technology I use. I keep one simple basic phone unlike most people who have a “work line” and a personal line. I don’t like to carry 2 phones and pay 2 bills. I don’t use any other electronic gadgets and I have never touched the dvd player that lies in my living room. Palms (and I’m not talking about the surface of a hand) terrify me. I am always quite amazed when someone whips out a palm during rounds and start fiddling around for medicine dosages. Of course kitchen equipment isn’t included in this list. I was utterly horrified when my laptop kind of sizzled and died when I turned it on just now. And it can’t be switched on. This is terrible considering I am preparing for a presentation on Saturday and I need my stuff! H recently bought me a hard drive and I was intending to transfer all my photos and documents. Then there was the call that came and went and the little person inside me that was recoiling from the thought of trying to sort out the hard drive thing which I have never tried before. So now I have to go down to the laptop service center hopefully during lunch or figure out how to get thru the presentation. I am supposed to speak at a career guidance seminar for college students on medicine as a career. I thought something will dawn on me by now but I’m kind of blank. 

So here I am doing this meme by Linda!

What were you cooking 5 years ago?
I was tutoring a kid to earn a little extra pocket money while still in medical school. I made a Malay banana cake that ended up in my current husband’s hands thru this now grown up kid. H and I didn’t even know each other then. 

What were you cooking 10 years ago?

Brownies from a mix. I was 16, forgive me!
Five snacks you enjoy:
Banana chips from Kerala

Cheezels

White chocolate with hazelnuts and rice crispies

Molten liquid hot chocolate from real melted chocolate and milk

Any good Malay kueh (or traditional cake)

Five recipes you know by heart:
Pizza base

Semolina pudding (sugee pudding)

Chicken pie

Basic tomato pasta sauce

Chapati

Five foods you love to cook:

Good quality prime steak

Anything for a BBQ

Roasted vegetables: zucchini, aurbergines, peppers, onions

Banana flower, I love the taste and texture

fresh herbs, I love the colour and smell. I especially love corriander leaves, in Thai or Indian food

Five things you cannot/will not eat:
Chicken thighs or drumsticks

Chicken feet

The thick streak of fat that sometimes comes with you steak

Clams cos I had really bad food poisoning once

Tripe, yuck!

Five favourite culinary toys:
Kitchen Aid, hands down

My Philips Ice Belender

My Philips Ice cream machine

My Cuisinart blender

My MOKA pot!

 

I’m tagging Is happygrub’s new blogging friend! Also Husaini, I hope you’ve gotten over your 1 day transit whirlwind that ended up in the unlikeliest of places, I think you know what I’m referring too! PS> H sends his love too.

 

And you know I would love to hear from anyone of you too..!

By my bedside table

I need to start baking more and buying less books.

August has been a busy month. Or rather is a busy month for me since its not over yet. We had a really good time with our best friend Husaini last weekend. Its so funny, perhaps the world really has gotten smaller. They are in New Zealand but we still feel connected, by looking at each other’s blog, looking at photos uploaded on facebook (ok that’s only one way, we don’t have photos on facebook) and with Husaini transitting in Singapore once in a while. And of course the strange emails. It seems like we picked up right where we left off.

I think we need to start saving a little as our spending this month has been sky rocketed past the roof. I have a terrible weakness to cookbooks and kitchen equipment. What are you shopping indulgences?

Because I don’t think I can knead anything this week, I bought some bread

I can’t find the energy to knead. But I do like experimenting with my camera. This was dinner on a weekday.

I like my vintage Royal Doulton plate and it comes with a matching teacup. Olive oil foccacia bought from Peck Bakery in Takashimaya. Eaten split, filled with mozarella and chicken salami then toasted.I like it with a slather of Japanese mayonnaise. I love japanese mayonnaise simply because its not sweet like regular mayo. And the fact that it comes in squeezy bottles just feels more hygienic some how.

 

Photo taken with my 50mm f1.4 lens and a Nikon D60

grocery shopping

I wish there was a one stop grocery shop where I could get everything I needed. Unfortunately there isn’t and we shop around at a couple of places to stock up our kitchen. It seems like we are grocery shopping all the time but I think we both enjoy it. I think nothing screams more couplehood than loading a large supermarket trolley with stuff that you need. I’m not sure how it ended up this way but we by our steak from a supplier in Eunos, our chicken in the Geylang market, this is the only place I know that will sell me just the breast of the chicken because we don’t eat the other parts, we buy our fuit mostly from Giant because its the cheapest and we seem to consume a lot of fruit as we always run short. We buy our Middle Eastern and Indian stuff form Mustafa because they stock up on things you just can’t find elsewhere like foul, hummus and tahini. As well as that essential chapati flour, Pilsbury atta flour. Herbs and baby potatoes are also cheap at Mustafa. And then of course there’s Carrefour for cheese and Cold Storage or Jason’s for things you just can’t find in the other places like anchovies, special dressings, ok I did say I always make my own but the dressing below is seriously good.

 

Have you tried Boursin cream cheese? It is so addictive with chip or crackers. Its H’s favourite entertainment tool. He calls his friends over and they have cappucino with chips and Boursin. He leads a good life. 

I love mustard. I’m not sure how this love came about and how to explain it but I think nothing beats steak and mustard of that sausage with a dollop of mustard. I think Maille makes the best mustard and I only buy Maille Dijon or wholegrain. I don’t like the mustard in the squeezy bottles. The Caeser dressing to the right is seriously good. Making a Caeser dressing is a lot of work from the egg yolks to the grating of the parmesan. This is lovely and fluid and great on top of those croutons, cos lettuce and a soft boilled egg with a runny yolk on top.

Another thing I can’t live without is my Barilla pasta. Barilla is good, and I think can only be found in Carrefour/Jason’s or Cold Storage. I might have seen it at Giant but I can’t be sure

This is the secret to those chocolate chip cookes akin to Famous Amos with a golden brown caramelly bite.

I like anchovies in my tomato based pasta sauces, it adds a layer of flavour that just makes it all round tasty. I usually buy the ones without the capers and add the capers myself if I want them in the sauce.

The new issue of donna hay is out, so before I plow thru that, thought I would share some last pages from the last issue. What better way to spend a Sunday then slow with some slow roasts?

I’m not so great with meat, so I’m roasting a whole bag of bell peppers I bought today. The possibilities are endless.. Pasta, on burgers, in sandwhiches or salads. Slow roasting really mellows the flavours.

We walked at the beach last weekend. It was nice and cold as the eratic weather has been lately.

I’m not sure how soulful my contemplation will be this weekend, all I know is that Sunday will be terrific because..

Husaini’s in transit in Singapore! To those who don’t know Husaini, he’s equivalent to our soulmate as a couple. (husaini you’ll probably laugh reading this) And he has the coolest job. He flies with a company that does medical evacuations so he was from Johannesburg transitting here and going back to his new home in New Zealand. And he has a new food blog which has quite an interesting concept.. More soon..

For the love of chicken rice in all its forms

A random weekend lunch. If you are Singaporean, you’ll know that this is smashed chicken rice or nasi ayam penyet that was the craze recently. It is kind of dying out like so many other food trends. For those unaccustomed to this curiously named dish, I think it originates form Indonesia and is rice served with a well seasoned crispy fried chicken “smashed” with a pestle and mortar into crispy bits. Its eaten with a chilli sauce that is usually sweet and spicy with tomatoes and chilli. This was homemade by my Indonesian helper. She’s absolutely amazing, just let her taste something and she can recreate it. And having had a Chinese employer previously she can cook lots of good chinese dishes including desserts.