Thursday, December 22, 2005

Random Posts

Random things today...

1. The Economist came out with it's year-end double issue. The debate nerd in me yells out 'Goodie! I can just crawl in bed with this magazine all weekend'. At least I'm not the only one who's an Economist-addict.




2. Holiday shopping again today at Orchard Road. Hyper busy, even more than the weekend. I was going to buy some Royce chocolates for back home but...



Went on another splurge at Kinokuniya - this 20% discount thing is really hurting my pocketbook. The queue at the cashier so long it was scary!

Couldn't even see the check out from the back of the line.

3. Books, books, books

- I went on a Jane Austen marathon for the past few weeks. You really do get hooked on her once you start, you just can't get enough of the elegant and witty dialog, plucky heroines and dreamy happy endings.

- Bought three books the in latest Kino splurge:

  • Istanbul: Memories of a City by Orhan Pamuk... Heard a few good things about this book and I've also begun a little Istanbul obsession after a friend raved about it from a visit (not to mention Tyler Brule).

  • Lord of Light by Roger Zelany. It's a sci-fi classic about gods walking on earth as mere mortals, with a cast that include Buddha (aka Sam), Brahma, Kali and Krishnan.

This book always reminds me of my best friend in elementary school, Ian. I was then a chubby Asian kid in thick glasses, a bit lost in elementary school in Pacific Palisades, CA. We hit it off when we were grouped together with another girl in sixth grade advance math class... he's the guy who introduced me to Asimov and his Foundation series and science fiction in general.

Ah... my nerdy memories...

The last book is The Future of Freedom by Fareed Zakaria, as recommended by Fringer. I'm exceeding impressed with this book, so I think it will warrant its own post.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Back to the Kitchen

Haven't had much inspiration in the kitchen these days... maybe I've reached a point that I have a few sure fire recipes in hand so if I feel lazy (which is most of the time) I can go back to. Hmp...

Been reading this book - Pedant in the Kitchen... and I do feel for the author after I read a few cookbooks myself. He points out, rightly -

Never buy a [cook]book because of its pictures. Never, ever, point to a photo in a cookbook and say, 'I'm going to make that.' You can't. I once knew a commercial photographer who specilized in food and, believe me, the post production work that recently gave us a slimline Kate Winslet is nothing compared to what they do shamelessly to food.

He he... so I present my latest adventures in the kitchen... yawn...


1. 7 Dec - Another lazy boiled rice dinner... I'm gonna try to be a professional menu author this time.



Salad of salted duck eggs, shallots, chili and sweet Chinese sausage with fresh lime dressing. (ยำไข่เค็ม ha ha...)


Wok-fried organic pea sprouts with garlic


Pork sauteed with lightly salted black olives (หนำเลี๊ยบ)

2. 10 Dec - Gingko Nuts in syrup

You might have known from my last post that I brought some nuts home other day. Let me warn you - if you're not sitting in Singapore bored out of your mind like me - buy gingko nuts that are pre-shelled!

It took me in excess of an hour and some sorry looking pulverised gingko nut paste to get this:


Then I had to boil them, and remove the bitter stem (kinda like the young shoot) of the nut. Then just boil in sugar and pandan for another 45 minutes, just out of the microwave:


3. Salad of Italian Sausage, Baby Spinach and Cherry Tomatoes

This accompanied my carbonara the other day. Carrefour has a surprisingly good deli section with tons of coldcuts and cheeses - which is where I found some chirzo for this salad.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Open Magazine Resurrected

Good news, Open Magazine is back! There's a preview version of it online here:

http://www.diarii.com/

Doesn't it look great? More on the background of the whole thing here:

http://pinporamet.blogspot.com/2005/12/open-online.html

The old gang is back I think...

I guess the only one missing is ความน่าจะเป็นบนเส้นขนาน by Prabda and Win... sorry W! Let me digest Mukhom's new article on Arundhati Roy first....

Update: Opps... the column is actually there's... here's the link.