Recharge Back Home

Common reaction from others upon coming back to land after 5 weeks offshore: "You lost weight!" I think I lost a couple more kgs onboard, Not a good thing cos now the clothes are starting to look like they're wearing me instead of the other way around.

This post is mainly a collection of food I've been stuffing myself with. Be warned that you will experience painful pangs of hunger, and possible homesick. Do not continue if you have a weak will towards food like me!

 Jalan-jalan @ UTC market for breakfast...

Wantan mee breakfast washed down by a cup of kopi tarik ahhhh.... bliss....

 Fried tomyum beehoon courtesy of Mum. With mint leaves, chopped lemongrass and everything yums.

 Tua Ee is such a gem. She was supposed to leave for Bangkok couple of days after I'd arrived, but she took time to prepare chilis for hu pau (stuffed chilli fish) and also went out of the way to look for buah petai and cooked the awesomest sambal petai the way I like it best, dry with LOADS of heh bi!

For the record, I finished 80% of the petai dish. I could just eat that with plain white rice and nothing else and I'll still be happy and glowing from the petai stink afterwards.

 Awesomeness in its full glory.

 Pickles picking a fight with someone 10 times her size.

 

Learned making lor bak from scratch! With Tua Ee as the lor bak sifu.

 I've always thought that lor baks aren't easy to make, well, myth busted! It's so easy to prepare, it's almost laughable.

 Just marinade strips of pork with a few highly guarded secret ingredients, lay them on beancurd skin, roll them up together. Voíla! Lor bak ready to be steamed/ pan-fried and served.

 Ah Ma's Mercedes Benz ride still in its usual spot.

 My immortal clover's luckier than yours ;)

 Lor bak pan-fried and served with Thai chilli sauce dip. SUPER!

 Pickles giving me the sad, disbelieving accusatory look after I left her on the balcony to air-dry her LOL.

 Drove to Baling to drop Tua Ee off at Ji Ee's place for her Bangkok trip. Tapao-ed hokkien mee as well. Another one of my all-time faves! Hokkien beehoon with siobak and bak iu woooot!

 Visited Ji Ee's new place for the first time too. Love the hills the house overlooks. I'll bet it's all misty and fresh in the morning... I can just sit on the rocking chair all evening, staring at the hills and do nothing else :)

So, with Tua Ee gone for her trip, it's all down to Mum to chut all her kang hu and cook more things for me (good practise for her :P :P )

Another of my faves- the legendary tu tor th'ng....

It's a lot like the big occasion type of meal! Tu tor th'ng complete with jiu hu char and sambal belacan, specially requested by yours truly :) Don't blame me... I will be missing out on CNY this year ma.... Only thing missing is the lettuce here :(

And another of my fave hu pau!!!! With extra sambal on the sides!!!! This has become like a suyin-come-back-must-cook dish cos recently every time I am back, Tua Ee will ask if I want this *superior smile*

 Assam laksa @ Ji Kei. Lookie Grace aiming for my laksa when her bowl is still full :P 

 My kryptonite! Bak kua kiap-ed in bread, dipped in eggs and deep fried. Yes, you can hear the crunch as you sink your teeth into this cardiac arrest catalyst baby.

 Chee cheong fun. This is often overlooked and usually not in my list of to eats, but everytime whenever Mum buys them, I'd relish them anyhow as though it is one of my favourites... Ok I am rambling but yes this is yummeh.

 Forgive the less-than-appealing state of this bowl but this dish makes no apologies, it is the mammoth of meals, the tu kha chor! Vinegared pork trotters cooked in dark sauce and loads of ginger, a typical confinement period meal.... Haven't had this for a while now.... Bliss. Thanks to Mum again. Hmm.... Am I really that spoilt? Nah, scrape that thought.

 More Mum-generated meals.... ABC soup, stir fried kailan, and steamed pork with snap peas. First time I tried the steamed pork ribs but it's so sweet and really good. Time to get my hands on the recipe. McMum she is...

 More beehoons.

 Succulent looking deep fried chicken cutlets all golden brown and ready for consumption! These are for the chicken chops.

 The only item I helped prepare was the coleslaw at 9o'clock :P It was also excellent, thank you very much :)

 Happy meal of broccoli, mixed peas, pan fried tater wedges, chicken cutlet swimming in the best tomato-and-other-ingredients-based sauce.

 She really went all out this time, even prepared coffee chai ien for dessert. It is superb.

Putu mayong... haven't had this for the longest time.

Ji Ee's pai kut ong sauce which was passed to Mum who then made the pai kut ongs... yummy, with sambal heh bi stir fried with french beans and watercress soup.

Blissful mang zhang kueys!

 My favourite nasi lemak!!! (I kinda figured using the term favourite is increasingly becoming negligible in this post).

And the last meal in SP before I left for KL...

 Thanks to Mum who got up super duper early to prepare breakfast for all of us before we leave for KL! My favourite mikupau (miku or bread dipped in eggs and pan fried) with the much needed caffeine fix.

OK, you can start looking for food now :D

2012 In Review

Another year gone, another year of reflection.

Chronologically -

Got my first tattoo in March and hasn't looked back since. Got a couple more, the pain of needle on skin has not deterred me. There may be more soon to come, we'll see how things goes ;)

Traveled for a bit and my favourite of the year has got to be the family trip to beautiful Bali some time mid-2012. It's been a while since I've traveled with my parents and this has to be the gem of all travels. Of course, thanks to MCC as well for the superb villa stay and for 'most' of the planning :P

Went on three dive trips this year, I am pretty impressed myself. Did Tioman around late July, followed by Perhentian end of August and finally my first ever live-on-board in Anambas Islands. Along the way got to know a group of serious divers in Singapore - great people with such deep passion for diving. This can only mean one thing - never short of diving trips!

Picked up lap dancing (gasp!) and loved it to bits. I was considering to go for pole dancing classes but unfortunately, the schedule couldn't fit into mine, so fingers crossed, I will have a go at it next year (2013). Don't laugh ok.

I think I've been on more food expeditions this year. Singapore is great that way that it offers a wide range of international cuisines hehe. Had a go at preparing and cooking more recipes, more nonya food and so far all turned out pretty damn fine (in my opinion, anyways).

Of course, 2012 hasn't been a bed of roses. This year especially has been the toughest for me, a testing period. Ended a close to 6-year relationship which needless to say hasn't been easy. But it's ok, there's a reason behind everything, I am sure things will look up for me :)

The biggest move ever made this year has got to be the decision to work offshore. I came upon a time in my life where I'm wondering about life's purpose, goals, directions... Well, I've been feeling that way for a while even back when I was in KL but I suppose living in Singapore sort of escalated that sense of purposeless-ness. It's just something about big cities that make you want more money, more clothes, more belongings. In short, a purely materialistic life. You turn into this working machine that is detached and void of all humanity or feelings. It doesn't help either that everyone else around you scrambles past you in the rat race, making you feel like you should really, really speed up or get left behind. It's a vicious cycle.

I'm just glad that I'm sitting by the stands now and watching the race comfortably with my feet propped up... Okla, honestly, it's not that comfortable during my 5 weeks stint working, but I honestly cannot complain. There are pros and cons in every job and for me, this is the mould that I am most comfortable with.

I must say that I feel blessed for the great support from my family - Mum who's always tottering around in the kitchen and trying to fatten me up after seeing me lost so much weight when I came back :) Dad too :) I am so lucky to have great friends who make me laugh and smile so much more, putting me up at their places without expecting anything in return. My four-leaf clover seems to be working for me :D

***

I don't usually make resolutions, but I think I'll make an exception this time around...

1. Desperately need to own my first property. And it's not even about making an investment or all that crap. I just need to own a place that I can call my own, have all the things I own in one place. I want to say MY HOUSE! Starting to feel sien living like a nomad, renting a place in Singapore, having some stuff back home in SP...  I WILL OWN MY FIRST HOME!! THIS YEAR!

2. Travel! Well, this is more of a passion than a resolution haha. I want to cover as many places as I can, taste as many different food as I possibly could and experience and bask in as many different cultures as I can.

3. Health & well-being. Slacking on this bit now that I'm working in a ship. But still trying to insert any sort of workout if I can even on holidays. Think I'm doing pretty good so far... just that I indulge myself way too often ;) And of course, try being happy a default mode :)

That should do... just a few ones to remain focused.

***

New Year's Eve! Is an impromptu affair. I'd just only got back from a 2-week break in SP, followed by a week in KL and a night in Johor for a friend's wedding (loooooong blog post coming up next).

 Steamboat @ Lance's place.

 Tomyum paste, corn, scallops, chicken balls, chillis, tomatoes, 4 different types of mushrooms, huge tiger prawns, and all sorts of miscellaneous steamboat must-haves. Haven't had steamboat for the longest time. Looks like this will have to replace the steamboat I will be missing coming Chinese New Year :(

 Spent the rest of the night gambling - this certainly feels more like a Chinese New Year than a typical New Year haha. You'll see!

 Lou sang! (So CNY #1)

 Can't see anything under the enormous heaping of salmon!

 And..... counting down in front of the TV lol. Last year's NYE I clearly remember spending it with Suewern and Chia Chia at the Esplanade. We were literally squashed like sardines in a can, and that wasn't the worst - finding our way back was a right pain in the ass! Massive crowd jamming up the MRTs, we couldn't even get into the MRT station, let alone the MRTs!

 Champagne.... and an indulgent dessert prepared by Gino. Chocolate molten lava cake.... so heavenly paired with vanilla ice-cream.

Oh yessss.... it is orgasmic!

So shall the year 2013 !

27 Imaginary Candles

First post of December! Been bumming since I started on my 5 weeks vacation :D I'm so used to remain motionless in the living room or just stuffing myself with food that anything out of this range of activities, everything else seems to be categorized as work :\ 

Mum asked me how I wanted to celebrate my birthday, and we (I think it was more like she planted the idea) decided to drive over to Penang for lunch as a treat.

After a few ideas thrown in on where to have lunch (E&O, the Ship), we decided to settle for Eden, which, back in those days was THE place to makan makan western food. I clearly remember that each time we have a special occasion, a birthday, or scoring a major exam, we'd get rewarded with a meal there.

Unfortunately, I did not feel exactly rewarded for my birthday :( Place was dingy and dark - we had to find seats just next to the dessert display section for the extra lighting, cos it was even hard to read the menu. Speaking of the menu, it probably has not changed since 10 years ago and food was really average.

I was in the mood for fish and chips. Okla, to be fair the fish portion is really huge! I can barely finish it... Dad had the same order as I did, at least he seems to enjoy it :) Mum had this baked fish which I conveniently did not take a photo of.... didn't seem tempting.

We also ordered a mushroom soup that arrived just as soon as we'd placed an order for it.... Incredibly diluted and runny, the soup obviously came from a can... Mum was disappointed with it and complained to the waitress... lol... typical.

Matchy matchy with Mum. When I put the yellow top on, Mum was like, har? wear like that only ah, as if I had thrown on a used rag or something #$(&#($#) lol... it's a comfy top, ok?

My birthday 'cake'. Mum asked if I wanted cakes with candles at the restaurant. I was mortified and firmly said no, no, no cakes nor candles lol. So we settled for banana split with an erected wafer in place of my 27 candles.

Happy birthday I love me :/

K, the following flow of events a bit cheating la cos it's no longer on my actual birthday itself but still, I consider them as a substitute to it :P

Was supposed to catch The Hobbit but somehow timing was off so went for duck rice in Buterworth instead.

Don't you just looooove food that looks like these, greasy and glistening...... Duck was really tender, sio bak skin so crispy nomnomnom. Also had chai boi which isn't in the picture.

After the movie, proceeded to dinner at a steakhouse (The Cruises) on Bishop Street.

Mango salad. Was yummy.

Mushroom soup so thick it puts Eden's to shame - well, which isn't exactly hard to achieve...

My order of honey lamb chops is super. The mint sauce (a must have for every lamb dish lol) is incredibly good paired with the sweet cutlets.

Dining mates.

And other random whatnots....

Finished the night with more dessert - tiramisu and my favourite carrot cake @ China House. Oh wait, that wasn't the end.... we still went for roti canai afterwards hehehe. I love Penang.

27, all the wiser I hope!

Approaching the end of my 5 week holidays. I just hope I have time to blog all of them!