island hippy

we've moved!

2008-03-21T01:30:00.000-07:00

We have moved from "islandhippy.blogspot.com" to "islandhippy.com"!

Please come and visit.

Hong Kong

2008-01-27T01:10:00.000-08:00

P: New Year in HK with Mum, Dad, Holly, Nel and Oscar:

New Year in HK and Thailand

2008-01-13T06:36:00.000-08:00

P: We spent New Year in HK and Thailand with Mum, Dad, Holly, Nel and Oscar ... lots of photos to upload when I have the time.

Eating in HK (click to enlarge) ...

christmas lunch

2007-12-25T17:06:00.000-08:00

snowing in singapore

2007-12-24T07:32:00.000-08:00

P: Hueh Hueh very kindly gave us her old camera (which is way better than ours) after she upgraded, so I'm trying it out. Either I've not found the Christmas tree setting or it's snowing inside my flat.

It's Christmas Eve night and we're preparing some finger food for tomorrow so we have more time on Christmas morning for opening presents! Above are baby zucchini and basil frittatas fresh from the oven. Wrapped and cooling in the fridge are smoked salmon, creme fraiche and chive rolls.

one small step ...

2007-12-24T02:40:00.000-08:00

P: The first ever lunar walk by a hamster.

It's a wonder our neighbours ever ask us to look after their pets when they go on holiday. All we do is abuse them for our own amusement.

parson's nose

2007-12-24T02:34:00.000-08:00

P: Holy moley! Sandy and I dropped by Tanglin Mall to do some last-minute Xmas shopping and we couldn't really miss the 15-square-metre billboard on the side of the shopping centre! I love it! I'm going to ask them if I can take it home after Christmas and slap it on the side of my house.

tao sar piah

2007-12-23T00:58:00.000-08:00

P: Chong Ee flew in from Penang to celebrate Christmas in Singapore with his girlfriend. They kindly brought with them two boxes of Penang's famous tao sar piah or savoury biscuits. They didn't even have time to sit down and relax before Sandy had opened both boxes for a comparative tasting. One brand was the well-known Him Heang brand ...

the other a relative unknown, Hoh Heong, from a small shop on Macalister road ...

The verdict? All agreed that the newcomer, Hoh Heong, has a much fuller flavour and a fresher taste. Go check it out if you can find it!

steamboat with the sundermanns

2007-12-22T21:51:00.000-08:00

P: Jörg, Myrna, Kai and Tian are spending Christmas in Singapore and dropped by for dinner. Tian is now 4 1/2 years old and is a real joker. For Christmas he wants a pet lizard so spent the evening hunting for geckos in our flat.

Elder brother Kai is now 11 years old and has told his younger brother he can buy lizards at Cold Storage!

Tian ...

happy belated birthday

2007-12-22T21:47:00.000-08:00

P: Happy belated birthday Rafiq! Log cakes at Cable Car.

launch party

2007-12-17T05:55:00.000-08:00

S: Phil launching something ... I'm not sure even he knows what.

morocco ... japan ... singapore

2007-12-17T05:37:00.000-08:00

Spicy pumpkin and green bean tagine with couscous

Ingredients for shabu shabu (bizarrely Sandy 'found' all these ingredients in her studio?!)

Sandy's chicken curry and spicy ladies fingers with instant roti canai (no roti canai setting on the bread machine and no idea how to make it from scratch!)

pregnancy cravings ... for all food

2007-11-29T05:23:00.000-08:00

P: Wow, I can't keep up with Sandy's cooking. Forget about pregnancy cravings, Sandy's eating everything. One day she's cooking fried beehoon, the next crispy gnocchi. Then oyako donburi (chicken annd egg rice bowl), miso soup and oyako (tofu in cold sauce), followed by beef braised in Guinness! Tomorrow night Sandy's going out for Korean food with Hooi Hooi and I'm eating leftovers at home. I fancy fried noodles with potatoes and a little miso gnocchi on the side.

F-logging

2007-11-26T05:16:00.000-08:00

P: Mark it in the diary. 5pm - 6pm Sunday 2nd December, Earshot Café, The Arts House.

F-logging: The Fine Art of Food Blogging.

This event is part of the Singapore Writers Festival.

beehoon for brunch

2007-11-24T19:52:00.000-08:00

P: Hmm, delicious. Sandy's sunday brunch of beehoon stirfried with prawns, tauge, chye sim and fishcake, with a chilli and garlic dip.

food safari

2007-11-24T19:40:00.000-08:00

P: Phil A dropped in for a night after a business trip to Thailand so we had a good excuse for eating as much as possible. Not that we really need an excuse. In the fourteen hours we were awake we managed to put away chilli crab with fried buns, sambal stingray, prawn fritters, satay, pohpiah, fried kangkong with garlic, five plain roti prata (canai) and one banana prata, chicken curry, masala thosai, plain thosai, eggplant masala, pork rib soup, stirfried sambal chicken with eggplant, deepfried fish slices with ginger and spring onion, and chilli clams.

absentmindedness and pregnancy (and that's just Phil)

2007-11-24T19:16:00.000-08:00

S: God help me when I get so big that I have to rely on hubby to do all the shopping. I sent him out yesterday to buy some skin moisturizing cream and he came back with a box of chocolate Maltesers!! Er ... close but not quite right.

The new face of frozen poultry

2007-11-14T22:55:00.000-08:00

P: How bizarre! I sat down for lunch at my neighbourhood deli, which faces an outlet of a local supermarket chain and what was staring me in the face? A poster of me ... and a turkey! On closer inspection I found my face not just on the poster at the entrance to the supermarket but also on every single shelf-talker (where the price tags go) in the shop! Fame at last ... at least in the frozen poultry section. Bernard Matthews, eat your heart out!

Three new four-legged friends

2007-11-14T06:09:00.000-08:00

S: While checking on "Sunday", the husky, at his kennel, on behalf of Yeo and Shannon, who are on holiday in LA, we made friends with three adorable golden retrievers: Ben, Dede and Junior. As soon as we appear at the door, they all pick up their favourite toy (or all three grab the same toy) and wait for us to enter. Soooo cute!

Pill popping

2007-11-14T05:49:00.000-08:00

S: My breakfast is now complemented by four different pills!! In addition to folic acid, which I've been on for a few months, I've now been prescribed calcium carb tablets, obimin multivitamin film tablets and omega-3 essential fatty acid tablets (which seem to be mostly tuna oil!). Nice.

Out-of-focus shot (using Phil's mobile) of my hospital waiting room.

Eating for three

2007-11-14T05:22:00.000-08:00

P: Now that Sandy's pregnant and I'm eating for three ... I decided Korean BBQ was in order for dinner. I think we set a record with 23 plates of food on our table.

I was just about to barbecue these marshmallows when Sandy told me to pour a little water on them instead ...

and, as if by magic ...

they sprouted into napkins!

more corny ideas for dessert ...

(And this dinner was on top of a huge, equally delicious, lunch of Hyderabadi mutton biryani and eggplant curry at a Hyderabadi restaurant in Little India)

delicious!

2007-11-13T04:51:00.000-08:00

P: Pancetta-wrapped cod roasted on a bed of leeks, beans, garlic and pinenuts, served with tomato and onion couscous. Thank you Sandy ... delicious! And thanks to mother-in-law for this tasty sambal petai with prawns and preserved veggie.

three sheets to the wind

2007-11-11T06:48:00.000-08:00

P: Our king-size bed (£50 from ebay) was delivered while Sandy was up in Malaysia so I had it all to myself for a few nights.

Naturally it hadn't occurred to me to buy any king-size sheets and the only one I could find in the house was the gold silk sheet that we used for the cover photo of "Invisible Trade" (see below)! I got home drunk and spent the whole night trying not to slip off the bed. Note to self: don't drink and sleep on silk.

Excessive Ovation Syndrome

2007-11-04T01:53:00.000-07:00

P: Too much hand clapping, or Excessive Ovation Syndrome (EOS) as it has been dubbed by certain US bloggers, has hit Singapore. Last night Sandy and I attended the Singapore Symphony Orchestra's "Elgar Anniversary: Pomp and Circumstance" at the Esplanade. The event was billed as an Elgar Anniversary with guest pianist Antti Siirala from Finland. Rather confusingly there was neither piano nor Elgar until after the intermission (apart from a four-minute pianoless Pomp and Circumstance March No4 in G Major to wake us up before the break). Following the break, the piano was wheeled in and Antti Siirala played Mozart's Piano Concerto No21 in C Major with the SSO. He played beautifully and the audience was duly impressed. But the work lasted less than 30 minutes and we then applauded him for what seemed close to 8 minutes. Siirala was very good but surely you don't need to applaud for almost a quarter of the length of the actual performance. Our hands were sore so we eventually stopped clapping and the piano was wheeled out; we returned to Elgar for 10 minutes and that was it.

A lovely evening but we could limit the applause next time.

Battle of Sarimbun

2007-11-04T01:04:00.000-07:00

P: This morning Sandy and I drove to Sarimbun, the first landing site of the Japanese invasion in 1942. Bizarrely, the Japanese flag was still flying ... did nobody remember to take it down sixty years ago? We later realised this particular flag only signified a group of Japanese cub scouts was "in residence" at the scout camp next door.

Apart from a plaque at a road junction 200 yards from the sea, there's nothing to remind you of the Battle of Sarimbun, which saw Japanese troops successfully breach British and Australian defences and penetrate the (not quite) "impregnable fortress of Singapore". There were hundreds of cigarette butts next to the plaque but far from being historical relics they probably belonged to the Japanese scout masters, who we could see slipping off at regular intervals for a crafty smoke.

(image borrowed without permission from http://sg.pagenation.com)

A mile up the coast we stopped at Lim Chu Kang jetty, from which small motorboats service the many kelong (offshore fishing platforms and fish farms built on wooden stilts) which dot the Johore Strait. We ventured out onto the swaying wooden jetty and looked out fondly towards Malaysia, Sandy's birthplace. Thirty seconds later the stench of rotting fish in the air drove us back to the comfort of an airconditioned car in Singapore.

(image borrowed without permission from http://sg.pagenation.com)

We explored all the tracks off the main road, most of which lead to barriers preventing you from entering the "restricted access" live-firing area, which occupies the westernmost side of Singapore. We saw resident Brahminy Kites and Black-Shouldered Kites and one much larger raptor which we couldn't ID. The winter migration is about to start ... my favourite time of the year in Singapore!

Since we were in the neighbourhood, we dropped by Bollywood Veggies for lunch. Sandy took nasi lemak; I had a delicious banana-stem chicken curry, and sweet-potato leaves with belacan. A quick stroll round the farm then we went in search of the owners Great Danes, which Sandy likes to disturb. When they start barking, the whole restaurant can hear them!

Guess what?!

2007-10-28T03:53:00.000-07:00

P: We're pregnant! Instead of calling everybody, we're posting the news online. "Dumpling" (made in Prague) is 13 weeks old and 6.5cm long. Sandy is well and thankfully she's hasn't suffered any morning sickness. Sandy did stop eating meat for two months but that was probably a result of styling and photographing 25 roast turkeys, 15 legs of ham and various other animals for a local supermaket chain's Christmas catalogue. Luckily that three-week shoot is over so she's taking small amounts of meat again ... but only in Asian dishes, no more Western-style Christmas ham or turkey for a while!

We're both so excited and are devouring baby books. Luckily we have Holly and Nel in England and Katrina and Steve downstairs to turn to for advice since they both recently gave birth. Below is the 12-week scan:

Oom-pah

2007-10-26T23:02:00.000-07:00

P: Still in 'bier und wurst' mode after my recent trip to Germany, I went in search of teutonic sausage and stumbled upon an Oktoberfest party in Singapore! Two thousand people packed into an Erdinger-sponsored marquee on Merchant Road. The beer girls may not have been quite as buxom as their Bavarian counterparts but the weißbier was flowing just as fast. Also out were the lederhosen and Bavarian drinking songs ... we had to suffer 80s disco numbers. A big thank you to Suqi for emailing me the photos.

Chongqing mala steamboat

2007-10-21T01:23:00.000-07:00

P: I woke up at 12pm today (it's a Sunday) and by 12.30 I was sitting in Chongqing Mala Steamboat Restaurant in Tanglin Shopping Centre. I'm not convinced super hot and spicy steamboat is a good idea for breakfast. We joined Yeo and Shannon ...

and Eric and Ling and kids ...

Enoki mushrooms, prawns, prawn balls, chicken balls, cuttlefish balls, fish balls, fish glue, beancurd skin, tofu, four types of veggie, dumplings, tanghoon noodles, tripe and twenty small plates of beef and lamb later, we could hardly walk. No dinner for us tonight.

Ich bin ein Frankfurter

2007-10-18T00:57:00.000-07:00

P: I've just returned from ten days in Frankfurt, Germany, where I was exhibiting at a trade fair. I'm always so busy at the fair that I don't have time to eat well. That's my excuse anyway. This year I survived on: 2 kebabs, 8 frankfurters with bread, and 12 salami and camembert sandwiches.

A typical dinner/lunch/breakfast of beer, bread, frankfurters and a sparrow:

Katrina's birthday

2007-10-06T22:49:00.000-07:00

P: Katrina and Steve threw another great party yesterday. We started in the garden but were forced inside when it began to rain. Dinner was a delicious Greek moussaka with garlic bread, pasta salad and green salad ... and a fantastic raspberry and chocolate mousse cake baked by Vicky. Greek coffee and Ouzo was the perfect way to round off the meal.

Mum & Dad's 40th wedding anniversary

2007-10-05T22:09:00.000-07:00

P: Sandy and I flew back to England for Mum and Dad's 40th wedding anniversary. We were 60+ for lunch at Baxter Farm. Unfortunately the weather was pretty nasty but it was fantastic to see everybody again. And so many kids!!

Mum and Dad:

James and Fi's youngest daughter Anna ...

and their eldest Rosie:

Sandy and I:

Nel, Granny Faith, Mum and Dad, Holly:

Joe and I:

Holly chatting to Nikki, Granny Tatham on the far left:

Leela and Granny Faith:

Me, Nel, Faith and Dad:

Peter:

Joe and his daughter Libby:

Holly and a little mole:

Holly, Nel and baby Oscar:

Anna again:

Obviously Rosie and Anna are the photogenic ones:

Queen Victoria and Marion:

Mick:

Mel and Archie:

Tilly:

Dessert table:

Bob and Leela:

Dinner in the conservatory:

Faith with great-grandson Oscar:

Lifer

2007-09-26T04:40:00.000-07:00

P: On Saturday, Sandy and I joined a loooong queue of fellow immigrants looking to apply for, or in our case renew, Singapore permanent residency. We've been here for five years now and our PR is about to expire. After three hours of sodukoing, pulling funny faces at unsuspecting babies and counting just how many hairclips a mainland Chinese girl can employ to pull her hair back, our number finally flashed on the screen and we presented ourselves to the immigration official. Not five minutes later we had a stamp for another 10 years each! It pains me think back to those post-university days working in Malaysia without an employment pass or any form of security and making endless visa runs to Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. Now we're here for another 10 years! Jeez, I'll be 31 and Sandy 28 when we next need pay immigration a visit. Not.

Sichuan hot & sour soup

2007-09-22T05:51:00.000-07:00

P: Sandy was complaining she hadn't eaten Chinese for a week and felt like eating something sour so I thought I'd try cooking Sichuan hot and sour soup. I decided against a seafood or meat version and opted for vegetarian instead. Monkey head mushrooms are pretty meaty and to these I added regular Chinese dried mushrooms, wood ear fungus and bamboo shoots. The actual soup is really just stock (turkey stock in my case; made from leftover turkeys from Sandy's Christmas catalogue shoot), black vinegar, soy, sugar, salt, white pepper, chilli oil and Sichuan pepper. And some spring onions and sesame oil added at the end of cooking. It took a lot of tweaking to get the right balance of ingredients but the end result wasn't too bad. Not quite up to Min Jiang restaurant standard but OK for a first attempt. We ate the soup with stirfried chilli chicken and stirfried baby kailan.

Our fridge is full to exploding. Sandy's been shooting Christmas catalogues for a local supermarket chain so we have turkeys, turkey steaks, roast chickens, whole hams, cheeses and fruit cakes coming out of our ears. Luckily downstairs has taken some turkey, ham, chicken and cheese. Sandy's other colleagues have also taken food back, as have the supermarket staff. They obviously can't resell this produce so at least it is being eaten and not chucked as often happens. I'm going to be taking ham or roast chicken sandwiches to the office for another month.

Chilli crab

2007-09-08T18:43:00.000-07:00

S: While Phil was in Manila on business, my two sisters came to visit and we pigged out as usual. Here we are eating chilli crab in Geylang ...

Snoring

2007-09-08T18:41:00.000-07:00

S: my nephew's the one on the left, husband on the right ...

DIY man

2007-09-08T18:37:00.000-07:00

S: Phil is getting better at DIY! Putting up the curtains he only chopped off one finger. Amazingly the curtains are still up after two weeks; his shelves lasted ten days before falling down.

Food @ Baxter Farm

2007-09-08T03:21:00.000-07:00

P: I love eating at Baxter Farm! Delicious food, perfect setting, service can be a bit slack. Roast lamb (from the village) with homemade redcurrant chilli jelly and roasted beetroot for dinner in the conservatory ...

Pork pie for lunch under the pear tree ...

It's back inside with Great Great Great Uncle Amos for beouf Bourgignon and bread dumplings smuggled in from Prague ...

And when there are sixty for lunch, it's into the barn with the ducks ...

Mutton soup

2007-09-08T01:29:00.000-07:00

P: To the untrained eye, this looks like a bowl of vomit. It is in fact the best mutton soup (sup kambing) in Singapore. Rich, hot and full of spices such as star anise and cinnamon, it's the perfect broth to dip chunks of baguette into. Full of mutton, crispy shallots and chopped Chinese parsley. Look out for it at Seah Inn Food Centre opposite HarbourFront. Sandy and I had a couple of bowls for breakfast this morning. Delicious.

Fear Factor food in the Philippines

2007-09-02T20:32:00.000-07:00

P: I'm just back from a business trip to Manila ... with food poisoning. Note to self: don't try eating street food on business trips, stick to boring but safe restaurant food. Luckily I fell ill after my last meeting ... in fact I was eating to celebrate a new deal to get Monsoon Books' titles into the Philippines. Note to self: celebrate with alcohol, not "balut" (fertilized duck eggs with a nearly developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell). Anyway, from September, we'll be carried by the two main chains, National Bookstore and Powerbooks, which together account for over 100 stores in the Metro Manila area and environs. I visited a couple of the stores in Manila and I was really impressed. They are well stocked and full of customers ... I think Filipinos read a lot more than Singaporeans and Malaysians. All the books were in English ... and far less conservative a selection than in Singapore. All the shops had a gay and lesbian section; in fact, the retail buyers asked me if I had anything on transvestites ... I don't, and for the first time ever I felt as though Monsoon was the conservative publisher! One of my authors, Suchen Christine Lim (winner of the Singapore Literature Prize), is currently teaching creative writing at Anteneo Uni in Manila so we'll launch her latest book there next month.

I didn't get to see anything of Manila apart from the hotel bathroom, the World Trade Centre, the Mall of Asia and the duck-embryo stall but I'm sure I'll be back again soon. I did go out one night with two publishers and we had a great meal of sizzling sisig (leftover parts of a pig’s head, such as the ears, roasted then minced and seasoned with lime and chili); inihaw na pusit (grilled squid); tadyang (crispy beef ribs); and bagoong (fermented shrimp paste)-flavoured rice. Delicious! And with ten mugs of beer and a pitcher of frozen margarita, the bill came to 45 Singapore dollars (15 quid / 30 US). I couldn't have even got the jug of margarita for that price in Singapore! (I do enjoy drinking beer for S$1, or 30 pence, a mug!) Other food I ate included pork and chicken adobo; and a flavourless hotel dish of flattened eggplant with minced beed and egg on top.

I didn't get a chance to ride in a jeepney so I'll have to go back.

Holiday in England (and Prague)

2007-08-20T06:37:00.000-07:00

(photos/links will be uploaded soon)

P: I’m blogging at 37,000 feet over Pakistan, two-thirds of the way into our thirteen-hour flight back home to Singapore from England. I’ve just finished watching an excellent in-flight movie, which I recommend you watch if you haven’t already. “The Lives of Others” is a German drama set in former East Germany, which follows the life of a Stasi agent who becomes drawn into the lives of a dissident playwright and his girlfriend, the very people he’s supposed to be spying on. I was going to say it’s the best German film I’ve seen since “Goodbye to Lenin” but it’s probably the only German movie I’ve seen since then! Actually, that’s not true, Sandy and I recently saw “Kebab Connection”, a hilarious German-Turkish comedy about a son of a kebab shop owner whose dream is to direct Germany’s first kung fu film (plus marry a non-Turkish German girl, and wage war on the Greek taverna next door). Anyway, the film I’ve just watched, “The Lives of Others”, won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language film in 2006 or 2007 so do give it a try.

Our two-week holiday is over ☹. But what a great holiday it was! I’m returning home to Singapore a godfather of not one but two beautiful babies!! Holly and Nel asked me to be a godfather to my one-month-old nephew, Oscar ...

and Phil and Susie asked me to be a godfather to their three-month-old daughter, Rose ...

I’m so proud. At the beginning of the holiday I was still pretty nervous about even holding a newborn; by the end of the trip, I was asking for final cuddles. Uh oh, somebody’s getting broody.

As well as becoming godfather to Oscar and Rose, other highlights of the trip include spending four days in Prague, eating dumplings and attending classical concerts; enjoying three days on the north Norfolk coast, eating samphire and watching marsh harriers; and catching up with friends and relatives at Mum & Dad’s 40th wedding anniversary bash when we had sixty for lunch at Baxter Farm.

Prague
We’d heard so many great things about Prague from friends and rellies that we decided to check it out for ourselves. View from Prague Castle ... (click to enlarge)

We stayed in a very new hotel (so new they were still building it and obviously hadn’t got round to putting the aircon in) on the west bank, a five-minute walk from Municipal House and National Square. Municipal House ...

We arrived late afternoon and headed straight for the Estates Theatre to buy tickets to Don Giovanni for that evening (the State Opera was still closed for the summer break). With the cheapest tickets, we found ourselves seated four floors up and, even though the production wasn’t the best, it was still way better than anything available in Singapore. Vertigo ...

The highlight of Prague for me really was the number of classical concerts and operas on offer. Unlike London, where people in the street try to sell you copies of “The Big Issue”, here the touts hand out fliers for Mozart and Dvorak. On the second day we caught a concert at St Martin in the Wall Church, an eleventh-century church in the Old Town. The choice of music was fairly predictable but the acoustics were great. On our third day in Prague we decided against dinner at Palffy Palac and went instead to an organ recital (with one tenor and soprano) at St Nicholas Church at the western gate of Charles Bridge. I believe this is the second oldest organ in Prague and, once again, the acoustics and setting were fantastic ...

Food wise, Prague was interesting if not spectacular. We were only there for a three lunches and dinners so we tried to stick to traditional Czech dishes and therefore gouged on pork neck with dumplings and cabbage, rabbit with dumplings and cabbage, wild boar with dumplings and cabbage, duck with dumplings and cabbage, goulash with dumplings and cabbage ...

Trout provided welcome relief on the final day ...

We acquired a taste for bread dumplings, which we found quite similar to Chinese pau, so smuggled one whole dumpling back to Baxter Farm, which we enjoyed with boef Bourguignon one evening (I won’t be eating cabbage for a while though).

The architecture is obviously one of the main attractions in Prague and it was such fun simply getting lost in the narrow backstreets of the Old Town, stopping every hour for a cold Pilsner.

Norfolk
Living in Singapore, you tend to hanker after some open countryside, so we always try to spend a couple of days walking in UK. Last year we went to Hay on Wye—wonderful but with far too many mountains for my liking; this year we went to the north Norfolk coast (no mountains). We stayed in Aunty Catherine’s cottage in Brancaster Staithe, just outside Burnham Market. The last time I stayed here I was eight years old and all I remember from that trip is sleepwalking out of my bed and trampling Holly’s head! It doesn’t seem to have done her much permanent damage. This time we did four walks: two from Brancaster Staithe (one heading north to Brancaster Beach, where we bumped into my old dentist, and one heading south which took us past the village and along the sea wall towards Scolt Head Island), one short walk around RSPB Titchwell Marsh and one walk in the Earl of Leicester’s estate.

We also ate at three fantastic restaurants: Fishes Restaurant and Rooms in Burnham Market, The Victoria in Holkham and The White Horse in Brancaster Staithe. I’m used to discovering new vegetables in Asia but I kind of thought I’d eaten most veggies in England so it was a pleasant surprise to discover samphire. This fern-like veggie grows on the saltwater marshes and is delicious when boiled and served with butter and seasoning. Birdwatching was great at the RSBP reserve at Titchwell Marsh and everywhere along the coast. We saw marsh harriers, Egyptian geese, avocet, oyster catchers, redshank and many other waders.

M&D’s 40th Anniversary
To celebrate Mum and Dad’s wedding anniversary, Holly, Nel, Sandy and I gave them a voucher for dinner and one-night’s stay at Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’Saison in Oxfordshire. We’re expecting a doggy bag.

Mum and Dad threw another great party at Baxter Farm to celebrate their anniversary. We were 60 for lunch, 25 for dinner, 13 for breakfast the following day and seven for lunch after that. It was really wonderful to catch up with friends and family, some of whom Sandy and I hadn’t seen for years, like Joe and Lucia, Kate (we met Stu in Singapore recently), Harriet and Jim, and Patrick and the kids. In fact, most of the kids we’d never met before! It was also the first time we met Nel’s mother, Margaret. Margaret was a military nurse in the 60s and was posted to Singapore for two years where, bizarrely enough, she worked at Alexandra Hospital, just 200 metres from where Sandy and I live now.

Dinner in the conservatory ...

Baxter Farm

2007-08-05T11:18:00.000-07:00

P: First day back at home in Willoughy. Mucking around with Mum's new camera.

Away in Europe

2007-08-02T19:57:00.000-07:00

P: Sandy and I will be on holiday 3 to 19 August in England and Prague so no blogging for a while.

Bye!!

Repainting the flat!

2007-08-02T19:49:00.000-07:00

After eight years of living in our flat in Jalan Hang Jebat, we're finally having the place repainted. Apparently our walls are supposed to be white, not dirty grey/brown. This will be done while we're away on holiday in UK. With luck, we'll return home to a brand spanking new, clean flat in two weeks.

The living room:

The spare bedroom:

And the bathroom ... I had to pee in the garden this morning:

Japanese food, pt II

2007-07-23T06:33:00.000-07:00

P: After my poor attempt at Japanese food, Sandy showed me how it's done with dishes of buta shogayaki (pork with ginger, soy sauce and mirin), spinach with soy sauce and katsuo boshi (bonito flakes), and miso soup with egg. Delicious!

Thalia's 2nd b'day at PS Cafe

2007-07-22T01:18:00.000-07:00

Three days old

2007-07-21T19:27:00.000-07:00

P: Our new nephew at less than a week old ... he looks just like Nel! A miniture version of his father! Mini-Nel.

Gay wizard

2007-07-17T20:20:00.000-07:00

P: LOL. You must watch this. Sir Ian McKellen, the actor who played Gandalf the wizard (and much more!), is in Singapore at the moment acting in a production of King Lear. He was interviewed on Channel News Asia's Prime Time Morning (one of Monsoon's authors was interviewed on the same slot last week, see the post below) and he took the opportunity to poke fun at homophobic Singapore. Good for him!

Holly gave birth today!!!

2007-07-16T07:02:00.000-07:00

P: Congratulations Holly and Nel on the birth of (as yet unnamed) twinkle (with a winkle)! Twinkle weighed in at 8lb 10oz. We suspect sumo may be the way to go. Sandy and I are so proud! Now we are really an Auntie and Uncle! Can't wait to fly back to UK to visit next month.

Itadakimas

2007-07-16T06:08:00.000-07:00

P: Never really having cooked any Japanese food before, perhaps three dishes was a bit adventurous. Sandy pretty much took over; I couldn't even find the ingredients in the fridge 'cos I didn't know what they looked like and the names were all in Japanese. Er, naturally. Anyway, I tried to cook seared beef with soba, agedashi tofu with enoki, and red miso simmered eggplant.

The agedashi tofu -- silken tofu coated in rice flour, deepfried and served with a dashi, miso, mirin and soy broth with enoki -- was delicious; the soba noodles and marinaded beef less so; and the eggplant -- deepfried then cooked in a red miso, mirin, soy sauce -- was superb but too salty. Note to self: use less soy sauce next time.

Thalia busy in the kitchen

2007-07-15T04:24:00.000-07:00

P: Thalia, our Australian neighbour, aged 2 (almost), sent up a surprise breakfast for Sandy and I this morning! Delicious savoury muffins with feta, sausage and olives. Thank you Thalia!

Braised duck

2007-07-15T04:22:00.000-07:00

P: Sandy's cooking tonight so all wildlife take cover ...

Hanging bed

2007-07-15T04:16:00.000-07:00

S: A tree frog has moved into, or onto, one of our hanging orchids and spends the day sleeping there.

Death in the Kingdom

2007-07-14T00:30:00.001-07:00

hangover cure

2007-07-13T22:11:00.000-07:00

P: Perennially in search of the best hangover cure, this morning I tried frying French garlic sausages in chilli prawn sambal with shallots and eating them on wholemeal bread straight out of the oven. Not too bad ... I might still pop a few panadol but I feel a whole lot better. Try it!

Spotted Wood-owl

2007-07-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

P: Wow! Finally, after years of hearing them and seeing the occasional one in flight, I've finally been able to have a good look at a Spotted Wood-owl! Thaaaank you Katrina from downstairs who spotted the owl. It was perched on a mid-level branch of a rain tree not 10 metres from our livingroom window in Jalan Hang Jebat, Singapore. I think there's a resident pair living in the forest to the back of the flat. We couldn't photograph this one as it was too dark so I've found a photo of one that showed up in Chinatown two years ago:

Photo lifted from Bird Ecology Study Group of Singapore

frog's legs

2007-07-09T07:06:00.000-07:00

S: hmm, delicious. this baby's just asking to be deepfried.

dead fridge

2007-07-09T07:02:00.000-07:00

P: the fridge died. RIP. new one arrived. half the size. need to fit the food in. did my bit and drank all the cans of beer. now there's plenty of space.

Super Sport Sunday

2007-07-08T05:43:00.000-07:00

P: What a Sunday! The British Grand Prix and Wimbledon Men's (sorry, Gentlemen's) Singles Final. Go Lewis, go Federer! We're channel hopping while feasting on lamb and couscous. Delicious.

Fear Factor

2007-07-08T05:33:00.000-07:00

P: I would love to send Sandy onto the reality show Fear Factor. Whereas most contestants baulk at the thought of eating intestines, bugs and other creepy crawlies, Sandy would probably ask for seconds.

Celebrity Look-alikes

2007-07-03T21:05:00.000-07:00

P: Ha, check out Sri's blog for a cool application that "recognizes" facial features on your mugshots and determines your celebrity look-alikes. Sri looks like Sylvestor Stallone, Sandy looks like a Chinese pop singer, Jonathan's look-alikes include everybody sporting a moustache and I look like a dead bald guy. You can find the link to the original software on Sri's site.

sunday roast

2007-07-01T05:57:00.000-07:00

(clockwise from top left) Phil and Sandy having a quick drink at Hacienda in Dempsey Village; making beef dripping and red wine gravy with caramelised onion and garlic; roast beef with coriander crust; garlic roast potatoes and mini Yorkshire pudding.

cili padi burgers

2007-06-30T06:19:00.000-07:00

P: Sandy's cili padi (bird's-eye chillie) burger with shiitake on ciabatta ...

and Phil's 450g monster cili padi burger on homemade bread ...

strange deaths

2007-06-30T04:57:00.000-07:00

S: I don't know why I was in such a morbid mood today but I found this list of unusual deaths on wikipedia. Some of the best are:

458 BC: The Greek playwright Aeschylus was killed when an eagle dropped a live tortoise on him, mistaking his bald head for a stone. (S: Phil, be careful!)

1671: François Vatel, chef to Louis XIV, committed suicide because his seafood order was late and he couldn't stand the shame of a postponed meal. His body was discovered by an aide, sent to tell him of the arrival of the fish.

1771: King of Sweden, Adolf Frederick, died of digestion problems on February 12, 1771 after having consumed a meal consisting of lobster, caviar, sauerkraut, smoked herring and champagne, which was topped off with 14 servings of his favourite dessert: semla served in a bowl of hot milk.[citation needed] He is thus remembered by Swedish schoolchildren as "the king who ate himself to death."

1841: William Henry Harrison, the 9th President of the United States, died of pneumonia one month after delivering his two-hour inauguration speech in cold weather without an overcoat.

1899: French president Félix Faure died of a stroke while receiving oral sex in his office.[citation needed]

1884: Allan Pinkerton, detective, died of gangrene resulting from having bitten his tongue after stumbling on the sidewalk.

1987: Dick Shawn, a comedian who starred in the 1968 movie The Producers, died of a heart attack while portraying a politician. Just before he died, he announced, "if elected, I will not lay down on the job,".

1911: Jack Daniel, founder of the Tennessee whiskey distillery, died of blood poisoning six years after receiving a toe injury when he kicked his safe in anger at being unable to remember its combination code.

1941: Sherwood Anderson, writer, swallowed a toothpick at a party and then died of peritonitis.

1974: Christine Chubbuck, an American television news reporter, committed suicide during a live broadcast on July 15. At 9:38 AM, 8 minutes into her talk show, on WXLT-TV in Sarasota, Florida, she drew out a revolver and shot herself in the head.

1975: On 24 March 1975 Alex Mitchell, a 50-year-old bricklayer from King's Lynn literally died laughing while watching an episode of The Goodies. According to his wife, who was a witness, Mitchell was unable to stop laughing while watching a sketch in the episode "Kung Fu Kapers" in which Tim Brooke-Taylor, dressed as a kilted Scotsman, used a set of bagpipes to defend himself from a psychopathic black pudding in a demonstration of the Scottish martial art of "Hoots-Toot-ochaye." After twenty-five minutes of continuous laughter Mitchell finally slumped on the sofa and expired from heart failure.

1993: Garry Hoy, a Toronto lawyer, fell to his death after he threw himself through the glass wall on the 24th floor of the Toronto-Dominion Centre in order to prove the glass was "unbreakable".

1996: One person was killed by a tiger (named Shiva) in Alipore Zoological Gardens in Kolkata (Calcutta), India when he entered the enclosure of the tiger and tried to put a marigold garland around the tiger's neck.

2005: 28-year-old Korean video game addict Lee Seung Seop collapsed and died of fatigue in an Internet cafe after playing Starcraft for almost 50 consecutive hours.

2006: An unidentified 45 year old Ukrainian man of Azerbaijani origin lowered himself by a rope into a lion enclosure at a Kiev zoo and shouted to horrified zoo visitors, "God will save me if He exists!" Moments later a lioness pounced on him, severing his carotid artery, killing him instantly.[3

Makeover, Pt II

2007-06-24T07:18:00.000-07:00

P: The second part of Sandy's makeover involved visiting the hottest (and sweatiest) hairstylist in town. Yes, out with the books, in with the curlers. I realize now why hairstylists wear clothes ... I managed to dye my chest hair quartz. Luckily I wasn't allowed to use the scissors.

The end result? Not only have I been fired, I'm not even allowed to post an "After" photo! Sorry, Sandy! You can always wear a hat!

Eurasian chicken curry

2007-06-24T06:19:00.000-07:00

P: Sandy cooks a mean chicken curry ... spicy Indian chicken curry, rich Malay curry with coconut milk, fragrant Nyonya curry with kaffir lime leaf, a simple Chinese one or this one, a fiery Eurasian devil curry. Also known as curry debal, it's flavoured with galangal, vinegar, candlenuts and a scary number of dried hot chillies. This was so good I had three helpings; I think I overdid it.

iWant

2007-06-23T22:06:00.000-07:00

P: A new feed from Mac Rumours appeared in my Bloglines news aggregator notifying me within hours of Apple posting a guided tour MPEG of the new iPhone on its website. Like a total geek I immediately downloaded the video.

Sandy and I watched the guided tour ... now we need two phones! There are so many great features, where to begin? An 'accelerometer' changes the display from portrait to landscape if you rotate the phone from vertical to horizontal! The multi-touch screen means no more buttons. You just tap, double-tap, pinch or slide your fingers across the screen to activate various functions.

iPhone, iPod, iPhoto ... iWant!

One week to go until the phone goes on sale in USA ... Ming, can you send me one? Er, you better make that two.

Now iReally want one ...

2007-06-23T22:01:00.000-07:00

I've just realized the best feature of the iPhone is a special "iNeed_To_Skip_All_Of_Sri's_Drunk_Voice_Messages" function! Amazing! A certain drinking buddy, who will remain nameless unless you click this link leaves mad voice messages on my mobile every weekend. Mostly unintelligible alcohol-induced mumblings, each of which I have to listen to, in order to delete it and listen to the next voice message ... which is invariably from him too. Obviously this serial caller had been phoning Steve Jobs as well because the new iPod has a "visual voice message" retrieval system. Voice messages are displayed on the screen so you can simply choose, skip and delete at will.

Makeover, Pt I

2007-06-23T06:56:00.000-07:00

P: Sandy's annual haircut. Can borrow some or not?

Having her cake and eating it

2007-06-16T05:51:00.000-07:00

Sandy making her birthday wish ...

S: Thank you Katrina for a delicious birthday cake!

The Universal

2007-06-16T02:46:00.000-07:00

P: It’s Sandy’s birthday! We celebrated with a “lormantic” dinner at The Universal, a modern European restaurant in beautiful tree-lined Duxton Hill. I rarely head up to the top of Duxton Hill, so when I do find myself there, particularly in the evenings when it looks even cosier, I’m always shocked at how pretty the cul-de-sac is. It’s like being in Paris or London, with mosquitoes. (Another favourite restaurant of ours, just over the road from The Universal, is BROTH.) The Universal is still less than six months old and is helmed by Gary Kwang, who has done stints at Singapore’s Les Amis as well as a two-star Michelin restaurant, Le Clos de la Voilette.

(All photos culled from the restaurant's website.)

I’d been perusing the menu online for several days before the dinner and had already decided on “oven roasted pigeon with orange-scented carrots and wilted spinach accompanied by a bitter chocolate sauce” as a main course. Somebody was late arriving, so I had even more time to peruse the menu again in The Universal’s very smart bar. Disaster! The pigeon was nowhere to be found. I quickly harassed the nearest barstaff and he admitted that so few people had ordered the pigeon, and that long-term dead pigeon storage is not advisable, that they had dropped it from the menu. He did add that the chef would be happy to prepare whatever dish I wanted if he had the right ingredients. That’s always a good sign.

Still waiting for the birthday girl to arrive — she likes to make a grand entrance — I took a look at the voluminous wine list. With over 500 wines in the cellar, it should have been a tricky process selecting a wine. But since I couldn’t afford any of them the decision was very fast. Er, a glass of the house Riesling, please. In their cellars they stock three prime vintages —including many 1982s — of all the first-growth and many second-growth Bordeaux wines. The 1982 vintages were all priced between S$3,000 and S$8,000 a bottle so naturally I pretended to look at that page for a long time as if deciding which to choose.

When Sandy finally decided to grace The Universal with her presence, we were led upstairs to the front dining room, a tiny room with only four tables, overlooking the pretty street. We immediately fell in love with the décor. Modern, sleek, comfortable and relaxed. Orange swivel chairs (I was tempted to do a quick pirouette but apparently this is not acceptable in refined restaurants) on polished wooden floors, stunning tableware and a quirky chandelier overhead. After a quick look at the wine list to order the second cheapest glass of white, a Leeuwin Estate Chardonnay (no, not Art Series, the other one but still more expensive than the whole bottle would have been in Australia!), we were given bottled sparkling and still water. I thought this a bit pushy, sky juice would have done me fine, but to our extreme surprise the water did not appear on the bill. Full marks to The Universal. Mind you I could have bought a small vineyard in Margaret River for the amount I spent on three glasses of wine. Having settled in, we were then presented with plates of amuse bouche (which later appeared on the bill — complimentary, of course — as amuse bush!). I have no idea what they were as I didn’t catch the waiter’s explanation but one was a kind of spicy chicken ball and the other a mini homemade brioche stuffed with something or other. Very good. In addition to the amuse bush we had Parmesan foccacia and heavily scented rosemary rolls.

Sandy ordered a set dinner of “garlic-sautéed escargot on wild mushroom served in red wine sauce” followed by “handmade potato gnocchi with shredded duck confit” and a dessert, which we shared, of “flourless warm chocolate cake with a flowing chocolate center served with French vanilla pod ice-cream”. With no pigeons on the menu, I ordered a starter of “port and Cognac-marinated duck foie gras with balsamic jelly, puree of dried fruit and homemade brioche” and a main dish of “duck confit with roasted ratte potato and beetroot mousse drizzled with a homemade sage-infused orange sauce”.

Sandy’s escargot was delicious although, as she later discovered, the base flavours were not that dissimilar to those of her main course. Strange that they should be offered together on the same set menu. Or not, if it saves on preparation. My foie gras was exceptional if rather alcoholic, and was mouth-wateringly good when paired with the jelly and fruit puree. My duck confit was delicious and I had to fend off Sandy’s advances, as she’s a real duck confit fanatic. The portions were really quite big and Sandy was struggling to finish her gnocchi. I was washing my duck and her gnocchi down with a big, heady Australian Shiraz (by this stage I had decided to fall back on the credit card) and only just finished my food. I can’t comment much on the chocolate cake as I only got to try one spoonful. Sandy cunningly asked me a question about one of my books, knowing full well I would drone on for ten minutes, by which time she had finished the whole thing!

When I recovered from the great disappearing-chocolate-cake-trick, I called for the bill and we were pleasantly surprised to see that the water was free and no service charge was added. The service was of course top notch; a wait staff was ever present, standing discreetly in the corner to serve the four tables, so we tipped accordingly (probably insultingly low compared to their regular diners).

Definitely a place to check out. Next time we’d probably try to ask for a degustation menu to share ... more dishes but much smaller portions. I’m sure they would oblige with whatever combination you requested.

Update: Gary Kwang, Chef de Cuisine at The Universal, read the above post and emailed: "Thanks for the write up on us. Do let us know one day in advance for the pigeon dish on your next visit." Great!

quiche with no crust

2007-06-11T06:12:00.000-07:00

P: After inspecting my Italian vegetable torte made with courgette, asparagus, baby spinach and basil in a mascarpone, ricotta and parmesan base, Sandy declared "Oh, you mean it's just a quiche without a crust". Oh well!

hangover cure!

2007-06-09T02:13:00.000-07:00

P: Ahh, the perfect hangover cure: bacon, poached egg and chili padi sandwiches for breakfast, washed down with fresh orange juice, followed by one of Sandy's super-strong ice-blended mocha frappucinos! OK, so the caffeine isn't great for rehydrating the body but what the hell, it wakes you up.

Easy workday dinner

2007-06-09T02:02:00.000-07:00

S: One of the easiest workday dinners we enjoy is chicken breasts stuffed with roasted red pepper, parmesan and basil, sprinkled with paprika, flash fried to brown the sides and seal in the juices and then baked in the oven. Served with whatever-pasta-is-lying-around al oglio peperoncino = garlic, chilli and olive oil!

P: Delicious!

sandy's hometown

2007-06-07T01:07:00.000-07:00

S: my early years in Kangar ...

S: my teenage years in Penang ...

phil's hometown

2007-06-05T21:48:00.000-07:00

P: Where I grew up ... Baxter Farm, Willoughby on the Wolds, England. All pix courtesy Google Earth.

where we live now

2007-06-05T21:11:00.000-07:00

P: one the few remaining pockets of green in Singapore!

Samantha wins damages

2007-06-04T21:19:00.000-07:00

Samantha, the hottie in pink from the Penang wedding thread below (scroll down), finally won her long-running court battle against a taxi company that owned the cab she was riding in when it crashed in Shanghai. She was only awarded ten percent of the US$1 million she was demanding but it should help. When we were up in KL last weekend, the story was running in the newspapers there -- Samantha is from Penang (Sandy's classmate) and not from Hong Kong as stated in the China papers. Apparently Samantha is less upset about the amount she was awarded than she is about her real age being revealed in the newspapers. I'm sure she said she was only 26 at the wedding in Penang last month!

Shanghai Daily news

Samantha Teoh, a 33-year-old Hong Kong pop singer, will get 750,000 yuan (US$97,403) compensation from China CYTS Shanghai Auto Service Co Ltd, company driver Shan Genbao, and a truck driver surnamed Chen for her injury in a traffic accident, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court ruled yesterday.

On February 28, 2004, Teoh and her boyfriend took a taxi driven by Shan to their hotel. Shan soon realized he was going in the wrong direction and tried to make a U-turn, when a truck smashed into the right side of the car. Teoh was badly injured, suffering numerous broken ribs and internal injuries. The injuries have hindered her career, the court heard.

Jalan Yew eateries

2007-06-04T07:08:00.000-07:00

Back in KL for the weekend we went in search of some good makan. Two of our favourite noodle stalls are located on Jalan Yew, within walking distance of Hueh Hueh's house and next to Pudu wet market. May King's famous lam mee is a dish of fat yellow noodles in a thickened sauce to which should be added lashings of sambal belacan; Hokchiu red wine lees chicken noodles is a delicious sweet red soupy mee served with green chilli sauce. I interviewed the Hokchiu noodle sellers 12 years ago for Wine & Dine magazine, so it's great to see they're still going strong.

happy 60th

2007-06-04T06:49:00.000-07:00

Father-in-law's 60th birthday dinner in KL ...

flattened roadkill piglet ...

kah san showing off some moves ...

massage chair on wheels

2007-06-04T06:22:00.000-07:00

P: Sandy and I travelled up to KL for father-in-law's 60th birthday. Forget flying up, we took a massage chair on wheels. This sixteen-seater bus not only had a TV-cum-games console for each person -- with a choice of over twenty movies and a dozen games -- but the chairs had a built-in four-speed massager!

Hungarian Goulash

2007-05-24T01:37:00.000-07:00

P: Sandy cooked a deliciously rich and tender Hungarian goulash for dinner. The cut of beef was perfect -- shin has plenty of connective tissues, or collagen, between the muscle fibres which covert to liquid gelatin during the two and half hours of cooking resulting in tender meat and a thick, flavourful soup. With paprika (and some extra chilli ... er, Malaysian goulash), onions, tomatoes and garlic, and dollop of sour cream, the stew was fantastic. Melt-in-your mouth ossobucco-style beef and rich, hot, thick soup. We ate the goulash with buttered brown rice. Two whole bowls of goulash for me, thank you very much!

And for dessert, guava with chilli powder-salt.

Garden Party

2007-05-23T02:37:00.000-07:00

Phil and Sandy entertaining in their garden in Singapore ...

Not. Unfortunately our garden is only 2 metres square. This was a shoot we did for a catalogue cover, taken in the garden of a bar in Dempsey Road, Singapore.

full pockets

2007-05-22T07:02:00.000-07:00

P: Just how many ingredients can you stuff into a pocket of pita bread?

We had some pita bread left over from a recent book launch party which needed finishing so I stopped by the supermarket after work and bought some prawns and more to stuff them with. Sandy was working late - etching out photos in the studio till 8pm - so I baked the prawns in red chilli and garlic, and shoved them into the pita pockets with baby spinach, spring onions, avocado, mango and feta. Hmm, deliciously messy.

Holly and Nel's bump!

2007-05-20T05:02:00.000-07:00

S: Phil's sister is seven months pregnant! Congrats Holly and Nel. We'll see you in August.

Penang food

2007-05-20T03:45:00.000-07:00

P: Sandy and I flew up to Penang to attend Hooi Hooi and Hashi's weddding dinner, held at Shangri-La's Rasa Sayang in Batu Ferringhi. We also managed to get some serious eating in. We were met at the airport by Hueh Hueh, Ah Ngae and mother, who took us straight for Malay lunch. We'd eaten at this stall a few years ago but it moved and we only recently discovered where its new location was.

Mother-in-law loading the table with dishes ...

Dishes of deep-fried chilli-stuffed terubok fish; ayam kicap manis (chicken with sweet black sauce); tumeric fried chicken; cuttlefish in chilli; curried squid; fish curry; stewed beef; bamboo shoots in coconut milk; mixed vegetables; and winged-bean salad. Ten dishes for five of us!

Suitably satiated, we checked in to our hotel, had a swim then fell asleep by the pool!

Hueh Hueh, Sandy and I drove into town to look for their favourite seafood hor fun stall for dinner. Unfortunately the stall was closed so we tried the same dish from another stall. Pretty good but the girls maintain that the original stall is still the best in Penang, if not the universe.

Sandy choosing the following ingredients for her soup: congealed blood cubes, fishballs, intestines and chye sim! I didn't partake ...

Penang's famous Guerney Drive foodstreet ...

For breakfast the following day, Sandy, sisters, mother and aunt really pigged out and ordered: carrot (radish) cake; char kway teow (stirfried flat rice noodles); won tan mee (more noodles); kway chap (intestines); chee chong fan; roast pork; and chicken feet lor mee.

Hooi Hooi and Hashi's wedding

2007-05-20T02:32:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Hooi Hooi and Hashi on their marriage!

From the left: Clarence, Samantha, Phil, Sandy, Hooi Hooi, Hashi, Hueh Hueh, Karen, Simon, Joseph and Michelle ...

Some more photos from the wedding dinner ...

hot in pink! the chick's not too bad looking either! (S: she's a former Miss Malaysia lah!)

Broccoli and blue cheese pizza

2007-05-17T06:44:00.000-07:00

P: Busy packing for tomorrow morning's flight to Penang for Hooi Hooi's wedding so we made a quick broccoli and blue cheese pizza for dinner. We can eat blue cheese, especially Stilton, every day ... er, see yesterday's blue cheese hotdogs!

Going in the oven ...

Going in the stomach ...

S: Love it. Love blue cheese. Love pizza. Can we watch American Idol now?

Mexican-inspired roast chicken

2007-05-13T21:55:00.000-07:00

P: Sandy wanted roast chicken for dinner and we chanced upon a Mexican-inspired recipe on a foodie blogsite from California: what we're eating. This San Diego-based foodie couple made a lime coriander pesto and stuffed it under the skin of the chicken and all over the top of the skin before roasting it. Our chicken is marinating now, I can't wait to eat it for dinner!

S: The chicken turned out fantastic but took longer than expected to cook so ended up eating very late! We finished 98% of the chicken (1.2kg) and 97% of the potatoes (1kg) — not bad at all!

P: I would have finished the potatoes if I hadn't been physically restrained. The chicken was superb too, very tender, and the flavours of the pesto stuffing so light and fresh. It would make a great marinade for a bbq. OK, enough Mexican flavours for a while, back to Asian tomorrow. Thanks Sandy, delicious!

Trece de Mayo

2007-05-13T19:06:00.000-07:00

P: It looks like we're going Mexican today. Or Mexican-inspired anyway. Since Sandy didn't get a chance to celebrate cinco de mayo (5th May; scroll down), we're celebrating trece de mayo (13th May) instead. I'm handling brunch, Sandy's doing dinner (see post above, when it arrives). In fact I should be cooking now and not blogging but Her Ladyship hasn't woken up yet so I still have a bit of time. Brunch will be Singapore-style heuvos rancheros, the classic Mexican breakfast dish of eggs and refried beans on a tortilla covered in spicy tomato and coriander sauce. I might add some spicy sausage slices just to "beef" it up. It's Singapore-style 'cos I can't find jalapeno chillies at the local supermarket and will replace them with local red chillies! I'll also replace Monterey Jack with some mature Cheddar that Phil A brought over from UK. And, just to really upset the purists, I'm going to replace the tortilla with a healthier wholeweat wrap. So, it's probably nothing like heuvos rancheros!

P: Oh, wow, that was damn good! Delicious! I have no idea what this dish is supposed to look or taste like but this version sure works. The spicy sausage was great too. I will definitely cook this one again.

S: I like it very much! I love the egg and refried beans. Are we going to fart a lot later?

P: Open the windows and increase the fan speed.

Teochew Porridge

2007-05-12T05:34:00.000-07:00

P: One of our favourite cze char restaurants in Holland Village recently closed down, or moved, and was replaced by a Teochew Porridge restaurant. I loved the old place for one of its signature veg dish of lettuce fried with red preserved beancurd ... delicious. We tried the new restaurant this evening and, well, it's got nothing on the old place. We chose beancurd skin, squid, roast duck, kangkong, and minced dried shrimp. The belly pork looked good but Sandy worried it would be too fatty (that's the whole point!) so we gave it a miss. Overall, passable but I won't rush back.

S: Seriously not good! If you've tried other places you wouldn't come back. The selection wasn't big enough. The beancurd skin was tasteless.

coq au vin

2007-05-06T05:23:00.000-07:00

P: Sandy's coq au vin. That's where all my wine disappeared to. :( Fantastic though.

S: You drink too much, let me burn off all the alcohol!

cinco de mayo

2007-05-05T22:05:00.000-07:00

Phil and Sri celebrated Mexico's cinco de mayo at No5 Emerald Hill. Cinco de mayo means 5th May and it's not Mexico's Independence Day so what is it? Who cares, it's a good enough reason to have a party.

Phil and Sri with some hot Mexican (from Ang Mo Kio) samba dancers.

fridge cleaning

2007-05-04T21:46:00.001-07:00

My favourite omelettes are the fridge-cleaning variety. For Saturday brunch I "omeletted up" some barely edible bacon rashers, the leftover potatoes from Sandy's Galician fish dish, some ends of mozarrella and parmesan and added some more oregano and paprika. Tasty, if not very healthy. Or pretty.

Trouser leg

2007-05-04T06:20:00.000-07:00

I felt like having pizza for dinner today so popped into the supermarket opposite my office at lunchtime for some salami, mozzarella and olives. As soon as I got home I made the dough, which had risen by the time Sandy was home. For a change we decided to make a calzone, a stuffed pizza. We put in sliced potato, salami, mozzarella, parmesan, olives, sundried tomato, rosemary, onion, oregano and chilli flakes. I can't actually make a round pizza so my calzone was rectangular and looked more like a murtabak! But it tasted goooood! I lurve pizza!

new cookbooks

2007-05-03T04:04:00.000-07:00

We are addicted to cookbooks! There must be over 100 lying around the house. Two recent additions are The Food of Italy and La Cocina de Mama: The Great Home Cooking of Spain (thanks Phil & Susie).

Over the weekend I cooked baked polenta with four kinds of cheese (gorgonzola, taleggio, mascarpone and parmesan). I couldn't find any taleggio in Cold Storage so I picked up some fromage chaumes -- a mild, creamy French cow's milk cheese from Dordogne. After the polenta is cooked, it's then cooled in a tray, cut into sheets and layered in a baking dish with homemade tomato sauce and the four cheeses then baked until crispy on top (thanks to a sprinkling of parmesan) and it oozes cheese from within. Sinfully delicious. Except it wasn't. I hated it. It was such a pointless dish; too much cheese and flavourless polenta. Sandy finished the dish over the next few days, I kept my distance.

From the Spanish book, Sandy cooked Galician-style fish baked with potatoes, onions, saffron and paprika with a side dish of spicy courgettes. It was absolutely delicious but Sandy thought it tasteless, and that after she added more ingredients as the recipe seemed very basic.

Baked fish with paprika ...

Cheesy polenta ...

Salad of baby spinach, mango, avocado, prosciutto and spring onion ...

Twas a rough night

2007-04-28T20:56:00.000-07:00

One of Singapore's claims to fame is that there are more thunder storms here than in almost any other country. In one year, thunder can be heard on about 171 days. The worst period is April/May ... now! According to weather stats, thunder storms occur on 20 out 30/31 days in April and May. Sandy and I were both woken by last night's storm at 3am. It was LOUD! I didn't sleep back till 6am. Mind you, that's also because I'm enjoying reading Julian Barnes' "Arthur and George", a beautiful book.

"conceptual bullshit"

2007-04-19T20:47:00.000-07:00

It started out as a fairly typical Friday morning. I left the house at about ten to nine, Sandy still snoring away. I walked past the mosque and was invited by the bearded one to celebrate Prophet Mohamed's birthday on the 29th. I stepped over the railway tracks and made for the main road to grab a cab when suddenly I noticed a herd of cows grazing in the field. Nothing unusual with that if you live anywhere in the world apart from Singapore. We don't do cows. We have two in the petting zoo but for most Singaporeans they're as rare as zebras, penguins, kangaroos and sheep. (Actually we do see sheep once a year when the bearded one next door slaughters a herd for mutton curry.)

These cows were definitely of the Milton Keynes variety. Rather static and unusually colourful. However, the famous "concrete cows" were built in Milton Keynes in 1978 by an artist "poking fun at the preconceived notion of the new city, held by commentators who had never seen the place, that it would consist entirely of concrete pavements where once there were fields, and where its deprived children would need models to know how real cows once looked" -- the reality being that Milton Keynes was in fact very green. In Singapore, however, the citizens really do need models to know how real cows once looked! Worse, there never were many cows in Singapore in the first place. Some artist has copied an idea which even in 1978 was dubbed "conceptual bullshit". Why not use an animal indigenous to Singapore?

Update: As Ming (blogging from San Francisco) correctly points out (see her comment below), artistic expression is not allowed in Singapore. Silly me. Our herd of cows is nothing more than advertising (an ad agency advertising itself). I saw more cows on a taxi this morning.

roast myna bird

2007-04-14T20:57:00.000-07:00

We have mynas nesting in the roof eaves and somehow this little chap fell into our spare bedroom.

Sandy wasted no time in roasting it with chillies, sage and lemon and served it for dinner with rosemary roast potatoes and French beans ...

where are we?

2007-04-10T20:53:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite views in Singapore. Can you guess where the photo is taken from?

Stuffed bread

2007-04-09T21:07:00.000-07:00

Just how many things can stuff into a loaf of bread?! Phil stuffed this pane farcito with roasted eggplant, feta, homegrown basil, spring onions, cured ham, cherry tomatoes and olives. We were supposed to take it on a picnic but we didn't want to miss the Malaysian Grand Prix on TV so we had a picnic on the floor of the livingroom. How sad. We should have taken in to the actual grand prix ... next year.