Washington, DC

more about “Washington, DC“, posted with vodpod

It’s nearly one year on, and I’ve finally gotten round to uploading a bunch of shots we took of Washington, DC back in May 2008.

Better late than never, eh.

Alaska

akatsukira in alaska

Nasi Lemak

Nasi Lemak, originally uploaded by framboise.

For $11.


1 That’s in Singapore dollars, which works out to US$0.66 or 50p at the current exchange rate. I can’t even get the cheapest taco for that!

Places I Miss

And probably don’t exist anymore…

A real Kopi Tiam, with lau ah pek’s talking about horse racing at the top of their voices.

A true Hawker Centre, with ka-chuak crunching underfoot, where the food is served on colourful melamine plates that you throw in a big wash basin after you’re finished. Plastic chopsticks in a big ceramic pot on every round table with rigid, backless plastic stools cemented into the ground. And a lot of aunties tut-tutting waiting for your table. Oh sorry, THEIR table cos you shouldn’t take so long, you know… Typified by Newton Circus (probably razed to the ground now) and Lau Pa Sat (before gentrification).

A full-on seafood place on East Coast Parkway. Chilli crabs! I’d have gotten married in Singapore if they would have let me have it at a chilli crab craphouse. Yeah, fat luck.

You can keep your gourmet Michelin-starred gastropubs, fancy French bistros, and your air-conditioned “food courts”. I want the old-school open-air, fan-overhead, noisy, busy, rude, chaotic makan places of my nostalgia.

Time to switch on the Singlish, shock the husband, slap on the sunblock, and swan back into the country that threw me out1 a decade and a half ago.



1 They didn’t technically throw me out, but there was no future for me there.

I am craving

aka How akatsukira would spend her last day on earth.

Breakfast:

  • Roti prata
  • Tau huey (sweetened bean curd)
  • Soya bean milk (see above) with you tiao (chinese churros)
  • Nasi Lemak
  • Teh Tarik (or even just ginger tea)
  • Teochew porridge
  • Taiwanese porridge
  • Dan tart
  • Soon Kueh
  • Chwee Kueh
  • Kaya on white plastic bread
  • Bak Kut Teh (in Johor)

Lunch:

  • Hokkien Mee
  • Laksa
  • Mee Goreng
  • Mee Siam
  • Mee Rubus
  • Dempsey Rd Banana Leaf Curry
  • Pohpiah
  • Char Kway Teow
  • Kueh Chap

Afternoon snack:

  • Tanjong Rhu Char Siew Bao
  • “Carrot cake” (the savory turnip variety)
  • Tau Sah Beng
  • Chendol
  • Ice Kacang
  • Otah
  • Coconut Water
  • More Dim Sum
  • Goreng Pisang
  • Ah Boling
  • Muah Chee
  • Peranakan Kueh

Dinner:

  • Chilli Crab
  • Steamboat
  • Hainanese Chicken Rice
  • Laksa again; this time Penang-style
  • More Hokkien Mee, with extra prawns and lime

Supper:

  • Satay
  • Lontong
  • Anything from Lau Pa Sat
  • Is Newton Circus still open? Anything from there too.
  • Yong Tau Fu
  • Ahh… Grilled stingray!

Makan1! Then die happy…

1 Guess where I’m headed after a 12 year absence…

Grant Proposals

Academic research is pretty much funded by investigators panhandling, using the medium of grant applications. These suck up more than 50% of ones effort in times of poor funding. I’d like to propose a new method of grant applications: the 140 character limit Tweet.

Dear Funding Body, Plz gimme sum munny. My lab iz broke and we need dollahs to buy science. KTHXBAI.

Californian sunsets are spectacular



Californian sunsets are spectacular, originally uploaded by framboise.

Posting photos from Flickr to fill the gaping hole that is my blog.

@kcirtapu took over my camera, handed me the dog, and told me to take a hike. This is the result.

Unravel me

Unravel me, i missed a stitch, i’m now at the end of the row, a constant pain.

My first attempt at yarn-based crafts was an unmitigated disaster. Back when I was a wee lass, my mother gave me a crochet hook, some garish pink acrylic yarn, and told me to crochet up a round coaster. I ended up with a doll-sized beanie (but with no doll to put it on). Suffice to say, the bug did not bite (although the mosquitoes never stopped).

Then I started seeing chotda’s yarn stash on Flickr, and realised that even I could not knit or crochet to save my life, I could at least partake in yarn pr0n (and a bit of stroking on the side). This momentary infatuation (aka work-avoidance) will pass…

But in the meantime, I have joined Ravelry.com, and you can find me at my usual moniker if you’re a knit-wit too.

She’s a big girl now

It’s 2 years to the Superbowl Sunday when we met Queen Kirinopolophagus. She was, and remains, a super-dominant, passive-aggressive, eternally-shedding, attention-seeking, loveable, loyal, luscious, ludicrous specimen of Canis lupus.

Here she is on her birthday:

Painted dog

And she’s knackered from chasing balls on the beach here:

exhausted dog

Here’s her looking a little worried (she remains fearful of all cameras even when I’m holding her favourite chicken):

huff huff

My dog is ginger, and I love her:

thar she glows

More gratuitous dog photos on Kirin’s Flickr set.

Subarashi Sukiyaki

Sukiyaki in preparation

I’ve jabbered on about sukiyaki before, so here’s a quick run-down of the “how to”:

  1. Prepare the ingredients. This dish needs to be cooked at the dining table, and it’s best to have everything ready. We buy the beef pre-sliced. The flower-shaped gluten-thingy² needs to be rehydrated (soak briefly, a few min, and squeeze lightly). Slice the negi (spring onion, but a lot bigger than the regular spring onion) and yaki-tofu (broil some firm tofu if you can’t buy pre-grilled tofu), and cut the shirataki (noodle form of konnyaku) into bite-sized pieces. There’s some enokitake under the flower-shaped gluten-thingy too, but looking too bedraggled to be photographed; shiitake works too.  If you can get a hold of shungiku (edible chrysanthemum leaves), all the better since they add a rather “fresh” taste to what is otherwise a pretty heavy dish. I’ve used “chinese/napa cabbage” and it works too; makes it sweeter. One day I’ll try dandelion leaves. Or not.
  2. After setting up the table with a portable gas stove and a sturdy pot (make sure the sake or tea are ready too!), start by frying a few slices of negi in some oil (beef fat if you want an even earlier heart attack) and add a few slices of beef. The aim is to cook just enough for everyone at the table to get a few mouthfuls before everything is over-cooked, so don’t stick the whole shebang in.
  3. And we cook it “Kansai”-style³ just because I’m too lazy to pre-mix a sauce. According to my trusty Japanese Home Cooking manual, 3 tbsp of mirin, 3 tbsp of sugar and 3 tbsp of soya sauce are added to the pan as the beef sizzles away. I shudder at the thought of so much sugar, and only ever add 1 tbsp at most. And maybe a little less soya sauce too. We usually add a dribble of water to compensate for the lower volume of soya sauce.
  4. Before the beef is fully-cooked (ie when it’s still a wee bitty red), add a bit of everything else (green veg last) and let it all simmer away while you…
  5. Fight for the beef! Dip in raw egg if you like.
  6. Repeat ad infinitum. Actually, don’t. You might explode.


¹ I’ve heard of folks slicing frozen steak to get it thin enough. We will explore this when Nijiya is no longer an option.

² I think it’s called “fu”, but don’t quote me on that one. I call it gluten-thingy. It’s not usually flower-shaped. I just bought that on a whim. I think the traditional style is tubular. The cookbook has “wheels” of fu. Or gluten-thingy.

³I will have to ask my Japanese colleagues about whether they really cook it Kanto vs Kansai style. But I know the answer will not be straight-forward. You know, it never is with scientists… We always have to give the objective answer.