pulau ubin

Butter prawns, courtesy of the seafood restaurant on Pulau Ubin, this tiny island off Singapore that is famed for its rustic appeal. Unfortunately, it is only a matter of time before the authorities decide to give it an upgrading, when the whole stuck-in-the-50s thing is part of its charm.

Joe makes good butter prawns, and he is much better at deep frying then I am. The secret is lots and lots of butter. And curry leaves.


And we actually saw this bird, but it flew off before I could reach for my camera so I took a pic of the poster instead.

smelly smells

What's the worst smell you've ever encountered in something that is meant to be eaten? Durian, some say is the worst, but the truly evil smell is burped-up durian, which goes on for up to a whole day after you've eaten it.

Nay, what is truly evil for me is the smell of sour preserved plum (called sing buay). I always have to hold my nose when I walk past a shop selling preserved things that claim to be edible. It's not the sharpness of vinegar, which I can handle, but the sickly sweetness that accompanies it. Some people love it, or eat it to keep seasickness at bay. I smell it, it makes me retch even if I am not sick.

Last night I had to cope with the smell of sing buay and smelly cheese in an air-conditioned apartment. The smelly cheese was a supersoft liquid you had to eat with a spoon, a souvenir from portugal. The port however made up for it.

Japanese Tuna appetiser

I tasted this over a sake reunion with my philosophy classmates along with fried leatherjacket (recommended by the auntie) which tasted like sweet dried cuttlefish. Very good with drinks.

So I haven't made the appetiser yet but I think this is how they do it.

canned tuna - plain flavour in spring water
finely shredded carrot
toasted sesame seeds
tiny flakes of nori seaweed (this wasn't in the original but I can't see why it couldn't work)

Mix the above with
sesame oil
shoyu or soya sauce
mirin
and sugar to taste

It is meant to be salty-sweet.

I did a stupid stupid thing - forgot my camera charger. Until I figure a way to get it back, there will be no pictures.

Anyway, I haven't been cooking. Too many invites, too many activities.

Had a ginger beer the other night - beer brewed with essence of ginger, lemongrass etc at a microbrewery. It was drinkable, but you can't beat the freshness of german brewed beer. Das Good.

New day, new country

My last meal in melbourne: fried egg, carrot and salad sandwich (the bread is pumpkin sourdough from the organic bakery down the road). All leftovers, the last stragglers in the fridge. It looked very photogenic, but my camera was packed.

My first meal in singapore: roti prata (egg, onion) at an all-night kopitiam in Bedok, not far from the airport.

Since then, I've had a fabulous duck soup cooked by my grandma - a clear soup with duck bones and salted vegetables. She cooks it in a large steel pot, the type they use for curries and the meat is so soft that it melts...

Until I learn how to make that, here's a salad. A standard aussie salad, which becomes more exotic (and expensive to get ingredients - check out the price of feta) in singapore.




Feta
Olives
Cherry tomatoes, or chopped
Salad greens (goodbye my beautiful garden, I miss you)
Juice of 1 lemon, and the rind for extra lemoniness
salt
olive oil

What me cook?

On the express invite of Wy, here I am writing on a food blog!

But wait, me? cook? Huh?

For those who are... ahem... unfamiliar with our hijinks, my name is Nat; and Wy and I have been pals for keryonks.

And most of my friends will normally recoil in sheer surprise and horror at the thought of me cooking, but I have had to learn real quick in the last few months - since I abandoned job, home and family to be here in the US of A with the hubby for a year - and you just have to ahem learn and improvise.

Food - what can I say. It's tied up with our most intimate memories, scrunching down on buah keluak for instance sends me back to the reunion dinners of my childhood where the entire extended family would gather in this tiny flat at Circuit Road; so tiny that we'd take turns at eating from the kitchen table and a few uncles and aunts would always be standing on the periphery munching on some snack like crab legs or ngioh hiangs, while waiting their turn.
Porridge brings back memories of being feebly sick in bed, and pepper crabs brings back the time me and my philo mates went to the crab Nazi in East Coast Road.

I'll post what recipes I'm improvising from this little midwest town but don't expect them to be any good - well, as good as mother's anyway.

My mom and dad just arrived from Sg for a visit, I whipped up brunch (noodles and ahem, luncheon meat cos that's all I have on hand), and they ate three bites and said "erh enough"... obviously, I have *not* arrived in the world of nonya cooks yet.

Okay, post again soon.
Today, I need to bring mom and dad shopping.

*groan*

Nat

Next stop morocco

I've just bought a new book. Will only have time to explore it next year, but it looks promising.

So much for a recipe a week, I've made a couple of things this week, but no photographs remain.
- tried brownies, but I think I need to undercook them more. I added even more chunks of chocolate so that they would melt on first bite. Unfortunately it only works straight out of the oven, not after a few days.
- oregano pesto. A friend had too much herb, so I chunked it in the blender with salt, olive oil, cashews and parmesan. It was very strong, almost peppery. I'm taking a bottle home the next time I make it.
- thinly sliced radish with avocado and crushed peanuts. Dressing umeboshi vinegar, or a salty vinegar.

Cue the quiche

I was so excited about creating this new blog that it kept me up all night but now I can't quite remember what I wanted to say. Oh yes, happy birthday Joe!

Inspiration always hits when you are meant to be doing something else (like study).

So I guess introductions are in order - I write another blog, but this is to be the food blog. I was a student, flirted with journalism, now am a student again, and hopefully will turn out to be a decent osteopath.

The title of this blog comes from a conversation last night with my dear friend Mon, who is a brilliant, brilliant cook in her own right. Many thanks also to mum, who is always holding court in the kitchen at home and when she comes over to visit. She would probably faint if she read this, because she is firmly anti-sugar, anti-dairy. If that's the equivalent of being mature and grown up, I'm still at the teenager stage, enjoying my new-found freedom and oven, not sure how to say no to a goodnight kiss from a handsome stranger - in this case the milkman.

I hope to post once a week, sometimes just a link (because all cooks borrow) but today it will be something I've made.



Quiche

My very first housemate in Melbourne, Nick, is a keen baker and collector of cookbooks. This came from one of his but I can't remember which one now.

For the crust, two parts flour to one part butter. A pinch of salt and some herbs if you like. I used tarragon because it was the first bottle I found. But on the net I found another recipe for butterless crust which I've tried, using 1 1/2 cups flour (i used spelt and wholewheat) to 1/2 cup vegetable oil. It's worked very well, so I think I will be using this from now on.

Process or rub in till you get a dough which you are meant to roll out. Because I am lazy, I pour the crumbs into the tray and squish them together till they resemble a dough. You get a more even texture if you can be bothered to roll.

The filling is the easy part. You don't have to put salt if what you are using is already salted. I used leftover chicken sausage, leeks, asparagus and parmesan but put anything you want - tomatoes, smoked salmon, tuna, ham, leeks - and pour in a mixture of two eggs beaten with 1 cup cream. I had to put three because my eggs were tiny as. Bake in preheated oven for 30 min @ 375F or till the top is golden.

To serve with a salad - lettuce from my garden, radishes, carrots. I was going to put in avocado but unfortunately it had gone over to the dark side. Dressing - mustard, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Let the salad sit in the dressing for 30 mins before so that it comes together.

Eat and try to save some for lunch tomorrow (or for a nice friend). Serves 2 to 3.