Robert Burns on Literary Walk in Central Park

Jan 25th is the brith date of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. It is also commonly known in the UK as Burns night, although I suspect that it is probably celebrated more often in Scotland than in England itself. From what I can gather, people gather for a traditional supper of Haggis, which is basically a meal consisting of a sheep’s insides. The host of the dinner will start the dinner off with a Selkirk’s grace in Scottish language. Here’s the one thing about the UK that I’m rapidly learning. English isn’t the only language spoken here. There’s Welsh, and Gaelic, and apparently, the Scots have their own language as well. I used to think that when they said each part of the UK had their own language, that people were referring to their accents. Nope, its an entirely different language. I thought chinese dialects were a difficult concept to grasp, this is worse. At least the writing in Chinese is the same regardless of how it is spoken. These UK languages have their own writing and speech! How they ever came together to form one country is beyond me. The part about Burns Night supper that I like most? Everyone drinks Scottish whiskey at the end of the supper! So who’s having some haggis for dinner tonight?

My CNY dinner

The dragon year started today. As per tradition, CNY eve is the night that families get together for a big reunion dinner because by then, everyone would have gathered at home and its the beginning of the holiday period. Whenever I am at home in Singapore, my parents will have a meal of hotpot. It is basically a pot, on a portable hot stove. My mom would have made the soup stock earlier in the day, and then when it is time for dinner, all of us will gather around the table where the hot pot is sitting, and then start putting foods into the soup and eat together. For a lot of my US-based friends, I can only imagine that the idea of sharing food like that is mildly repulsive since everyone is probably worried about hygiene. But for us, that’s tradition. As per tradition, there are also various specific foods that are always eaten such as shrimp, to represent laughter for the new year, fish, for prosperity, some green vegetables, also for prosperity, and chicken for family togetherness. Because I am not at home, and I’m living alone, I tried to make a meal with all the essential CNY foods. I used some of the recipes I found online to make my dinner.

Poached Salmon

For the fish, I made a poached salmon dish using a recipe I found from cook with susan(and for once, I actually followed the recipe because I was so afraid to mess up), and I thought it actually turned out quite good. My favorite part was the seasoned oil. My mom had taught me how to make steamed fish easily before,and it was sort of the same thing. We would steam the fish first, and then heat up some oil and then pour the hot oil over the cooked fish. This receipe called for having the salmon to be ‘poached’ in the boiled water, without the fire on for 8 mins. I was a little iffy about doing that at first because I was worried about the salmon not being cooked but I reasoned that I eat raw salmon all the time with Sushi anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal. I’m not sure I would do that with other fish though. I will still use the same recipe for making the seasoned oil, but would probably make sure that the fish is cooked first.

stir fried prawns with egg

And then using Christine’s Recipes website, made a dish of stir fried prawns with eggs, except that instead of using sherry, I used Rosea (I didn’t have any sherry handy) for the marination of the prawns. I thought the use of the milk to make the scrambed eggs was ingenious, because it did make the eggs taste a lot smoother. But to be honest with you, I probably will be too lazy to buy milk next time just to make this dish. I made an exception this time because it was CNY, but I guess when I want to make this dish again, I might not use milk unless if I happen to have any lying around. I wonder if soy milk would work as well though?

Brisbane Chicken

The chicken dish was the Brisbane soy sauce chicken that I had posted about in an earlier post. All in all, not too bad. Its a good thing though that I don’t have a fire alarm in my kitchen. After I had heated the oil, I added some sugar to make the dish taste sweeter, and immediately, the sugar burned to a charcoal black! I turned off the stove, turned on the fan above said stove, and scooped the burnt sugar into the sink but kept the oil, and just kept on cookin’! I added some ginger, some onions and garlic, fried those together, then I added the chicken with a cup of water and allowed it to cook at low heat for 30 mins. And as per tradition, we also make sure that there is left over food for the next day, to represent an abundant new year. So that’s it folks! Happy Year of the Dragon!

Happy Year of the Water Dragon!

I took this picture when I went to Hong Kong in 2010. That was my first trip there as an adult. It was a relatively calm period for me, that year. How much has changed in a span of just a year and a half! I can only hope that the Year of the Dragon will be a better year than the Year of the Rabbit had been!

Happy New Year everyone!

Well, for the past couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to cook more decent meals by myself but when I returned from NY, I found myself back to the old habit of buying the M&S meals again. Last night it was the Parmesean potatoes, which were very very good. I think I should be able to replicate them myself. Because its not that these are super-gourmet hard to make meals. They are meals that normal people should be able to make, except I think supermarkets here have realized that people are either too busy (or in my case too lazy) to bother to prepare the meals. They want fresh stuff that they can just stick into an oven or pot and have a delicious meal quickly. Surely, that isn’t too hard to ask?

One of the best things about visiting a place that you have already visited multiple times, is that you already know where to get the food that you want to eat. On my last trip to New York, I stayed with my very generous Russian Princess again and she, again, took me to Mitsuwa, the giant Asian superstore in Bergen county, New Jersey. One of my favorite dishes there is from this little store in the food court. I have no idea what it is called except that it is No. 59 on the menu. Its rice with pork, and covered in an egg omelette. From the looks of it, I figured it couldn’t be that difficult to replicate, right?

Turns out, I really should keep my opinions to myself because it turns out that it is. Perhaps under the hands of a more able cook, or perhaps one who has a finer taste bud, the dish would have come out tasting exactly the way its supposed to taste. Unfortunately for me, trying to replicate a dish without a menu proved to be quite a disaster. An edible disaster, but a disaster nonetheless. I guess I should count my blessings since it was edible. Honestly, it didn’t taste that bad, but the texture was all wrong and I was quite disappointed.

I’m still trying to figure out where I went wrong. Perhaps it was the wrong sauce? I used Hoisin sauce, but maybe I should have tried oyster sauce instead. Sometimes I feel as if Korean dishes are very seafood-oriented and so maybe they used oyster sauce for their rice dishes too? I also boiled the rice before frying it. The texture of the rice was quite wet. And I cooked the rice and pork separately from the omelette and now I’m wondering if perhaps the whole dish was baked somehow. When I got the dish from the store, it was presented on a hot plate and I don’t know if perhaps by making the omelette separately from the rice and meat, it somehow took away the sticky texture of the food?

Anyway, it didn’t turn out that bad. Just different. I basically took a half cup of rice (I was cooking a dish for one!), and boiled it in a pot until it looked a little like rice porridge (sort of gooey-ish), then I fried the rice, then added the pork (seasoned with a dash of salt), and fried it until I knew that the pork was cooked. Then I transferred the fried dish into a bowl. Then I made the omelette with a quarter cup of milk and 3 eggs whipped thoroughly to provide a consistent color and fried the omelette. and when it was clear that the upper half was sort of half cooked (a little formed, but a little runny), I flipped it over and onto the plate and waited for about 5 mins (I was hoping that the residual heat from the pan would result in the rest of the omelette cooking properly by itself and gel with the rice). And when that was done, I added in some hoisin sauce and that was my dinner. I think next time when I try this again, I’m going to try baking the eggs into the rice instead. What do you think?

9 quid a box from a convenience store in London!

I acquired many bad habits while I was working as a resident, and one of them was an addiction to sugared cereals. I became obsessed with coco puffs, and fruit loops. They came packaged in these cute little bowl packages which allowed the children to dump milk in it and then eat it for a snack. I simply ate it dry. Who wants to eat soggy sugared cereal anyway? When I moved back to Singapore, I satisfied my addiction with coco crunch. crunch crunch crunch. Unfortunately, London stocks neither coco puffs or coco crunch. I’ve searched Tescos, Sainsbury, Marks and Spencers, Budgens. Nothing. Can’t find it. Well, I’m in NY for a holiday. Guess who’s going to be hauling back a couple of boxes of coco puffs and fruit loops with her? I will probably also bring a box or two of rice krispies. The English Flapjacks are great, but the require the use of oats. Somehow, eating rice krispies treats reminds me of med school. And they are easier to make than flapjacks! This is a chocolate recipe reproduced faithfully from the Rice Krispies website:

(Nutrition Information)

• 1 cup  light corn syrup
• 1 cup  sugar
• 1 cup  peanut butter
• 6 cups   Kellogg’s® Cocoa Krispies® cereal
• or 6 cups   Kellogg’s® Rice Krispies® cereal
• 1 package  (6 oz., 1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate morsels
• 1 cup  butterscotch chips

Instructions:

1. Place corn syrup and sugar into 3-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until sugar dissolves and mixture begins to boil. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter. Mix well. Add KELLOGG’S RICE KRISPIES cereal. Stir until well coated. Press mixture into 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan coated with cooking spray. Set aside.

2. Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips together in 1-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Spread evenly over cereal mixture. Let stand until firm. Cut into 2 x 1-inch bars when cool.Note: Before measuring the corn syrup, coat your measuring cup with cooking spray–the syrup will pour easily out of the cup.

Sitting in West New York watching Desperate Housewives with my RussianPrincess. What a perfect way to end the weekend.

Sex and the City, Friends, Seinfeld, these are all the shows that define New York, and for many people, New York is America. But what is American cuisine? That is a question I have a hard time answering. Its te same with Singapore cuisine. I can’t quite pin it down. Southern bbq perhaps? But the answer became little clearer as I found myself wandering through Central Park. Hot dogs, pretzel, bagels and pizza. Sure, perhaps not entirely reflective of America’s cuisine as a country, but bagels, hot dogs are as New York as the Big Apple will let them be. So it really wasn’t difficult to convunce myself to eat a hot dog while lking through literary walk even though I knew that the ketchup would eventually rind a new home on my jeans and leave my hands a sticky mess. After all, what else can you do when you find yourself in New York on a nice sunny day?
A New York hot dog is also the easiest meal to make. EVER. You can grill the dog, or boil it in water. The key I the ketchup. Stick the grillled dog in the bread, spread ketchup generously and lunch is served.

My father worked for Singapore Airlines from when it was formed and most workers under the old contract got a sweet deal where your immediate family members get to fly for free on a balloted ticket once a year. It is expected that all members who fly on a balloted ticket, or even a subsidized ticket remember that it is a privilage to fly on SQ. Hence, we are perhaps one of the most meek passengers every time we board an SQ flight. I’m also a by-product of an era where flying was a novelty, a treat, and we always dressed appropriately for it. When I was a child, we wore dresses, always neatly pressed. And my mom always wore make up. When we got a bit older and flying became a bit more uncomfortable, we moved to wearing jeans (no holes, non-faded), and nice blouses. Sweat pants, jeans with holes in them, flip flops never even crossed our minds. It never even crossed our minds to complain if we were separated in our seating arrangements.

Even when I started having to pay for my flights home, I hardly ever ask for anything beyond what is served to me because I appreciate that these trans-Atlantic flights are difficult, not only for the passengers, but for the crew as well. And I always appreciate the amazing (well, not always, but compared to most other airlines) food that is served to me. Its always nice and warm, 3 courses, with proper utensils.

Coming from this background, you can imagine how difficult it is for me to fly on any other airline, especially the American ones. I find myself reacting to their bad food and bad service with equally bad behavior. I realize that tit-for-tat behavior does not reflect well on me, but on a 24-hour flight, when I’m tired, and experiencing cabin fever, well, it doesn’t excuse my irritation, but it does explain it when I’m served a cold sandwich, or given food that tastes worse than chinese left-overs from take out the night before.

Imagine my surprise, therefore, when yesterday, I was on an American Airlines flight from LHR to JFK, and I was served beef stroganoff that was actually edible, and imagine my delight when we were served a pre-landing dinner of hot piping pizza! Granted, not as good as Singapore Airlines cuisine, but at least it was hot, and I didn’t feel like throwing it against the window when I was served! Is it too optimistic to hope that the food from JFK to LHR will be just as good? *cross fingers*