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.

• Younghusband of Coming Anarchy has a red Economist t-shirt. He also recommends some Economist related humour from that other venerable publication, the Onion.
• Like Joe, I'm a card carrying member. Gosh I'm nerdy!

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.

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.

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...

• Ennui by Mukhom
• one ton by Wichai Tan
• open screen by Pimpaka Towira

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.

We're not worth... we're not worthy

Was strolling through the supermarket this evening when made an impulse buy of fresh gingko nuts... I had just treated some guys at the office for birthday lunch and for some reason their yam pudding (oh nee) didn't have any of them nuts. So if I ever get ambitious I might make some this weekend (it would be better if the secret of the whole thing wasn't 2/3 cups of oil per yam), but I'll probably end up boiling them in syrup.

I was back home searching for some recipes, and quite serendipitiously came across this very nice blog, Little Gingko Nut. Of course I'm darn humbled by all the nice food 'Ling' cooked up and also I finally know what a luohan guo looks like.

Thanks to the interconnectedness of the blogosphere, Little Gingko Nut opened a window to a great big community of food blogger. He he... looks like I'm not the only crazy one taking pictures of his food before eating.

Some of the best I've found so far (recipes all included it seems)

• English Patis - 'A Filipina living in the UK. Dreams of cooking for a living.' Don't we all? I love that she's so eclectic with her food but also lovingly features that the little known cuisine of her country. I love this dessert - sort of like the Thai kao tom mut best eaten but a topping of butter!
• She Who Eats - Photography in this site positively beautiful it borders on food porn territory. She's based in Japan, but seems to have quite a big interest in Western food, ice cream, jams, tarts and all kinds of desserts.

There's a whole lot more, I think I still need to digest. There's the great big Holiday Cookie Swap. Food crazy in Malaysia with masak-masak.

I guess I should leave you with the immortal words of Wayne and Garth... "We're not worthy... we're not worthy!".

Blogger vs Ung-aang Talay and other finds

Some new findings in the blogosphere to share with you.

1. Sa·ra·son·teh (http://sanpaworn.vissaventure.com/?s=log)

Through the magic of Googling I rediscovered this blog that I came across a long time ago and found quite engaging, in a weird way. Good clean web design, frequent and timely updates, an engaging, articulate prose style in both Thai and English.

But the draw is that Mr. Tom hold political views completely and utterly in opposition to mine!

• He despises the Democrats and their demagougery.
• He accuses Anand Panyarachun of Kerry-esque flip-flopping. Anand! Doesn't like his speeches much either.
• He's not too fond of the Nation. Nor the Post. Nor any media outlet apparently.

Reading him makes me feel a bit annoyed, but if you read pass the venom for his pet hates and his ranting, of course he make some good points. Good exercise for me since I've been afraid that my media consumption is sometimes skewed towards people who hold pretty much the same view as I do.

*****************************************************

This post is a classic - our blogger attempts to take down the New York Times, food writers R.W. Apple and our very own “Ung-aang Talay” at the same time!

So there's the typical opiniated dressing down and nit-picking... which is probably a right given to bloggers everywhere.

Loyal blog-fan 'poststaffer' joins in with the chorus and so it goes. But the absolute twist of the narrative comes with the list of the comments - the Ung-aang himself has the final word. I can imagine Mr. Halliday, the season journalist, sitting at his computer composing half with anger and then with no little joy with vignettes like this:

Mr Vamvanit seems to view humankind from a very lofty perspective, indeed, so lofty in fact that it makes me wonder just how he was raised and educated. There is some consolation in the realization that those motorcycle taxi drivers (who, incidentally, seem to be expert papaya choppers) would probably find Mr
Vamvanit just as distasteful, with his Chez Michel and his Connecticut phat thai and his more-farang-than-the-farangs, dek nawk posturings.

Hehe... you'd never what can happen over in blogosphere. More on Ung-aang-talay later

2. Mr Wang Bakes Good Karma (http://www.commentarysingapore.blogspot.com/)

Maybe he's a bit Singapore specific, but I like Mr Wang's gentle style of commentating on current affairs.

3. The Reader's Eye (http://readerseye.blogspot.com/)

A poetry blog. The decor is littered with Degas, Van Gogh, Matisse - may be a bit too classy for my tastes, but I do like the simple poetry. One of my favorites here - "A Completely Safe, Good Poem".

Maybe after years of trying, I'm more ready now to appreciate poetry. Maybe it comes with age and a bit of patience.

Pizza Dinner

I'm back cooking again, courtesy of Jamie Oliver. Thanks to some very kind friends, who generously gave me his new book, Jamie's Italy.

It's nice to finally have some company for dinner. The new fellow expat is a big eater, he likes to cook plus finds everything tastely. Just listen to him rave at the food at the local Kopitiam.

We cooked some pizzas with two toppings (salami/ zucchini/ basil and anchovies/ capers/ chili/ parsley). A nice rocket and cherry tomato salad to go along with it. Turned out quite well I should say.