Category: food fascination

I was rather facinated by the new advertisment that KFC had for its new meal.

The ad said this. Looks really good doesnt it?

The new KFC OR Chicken Chop. Prepared with 11 herbs and spices, topped with of specialty made mushroom gravy. With delicious raisin coleslaw and golden crinkle cut fries.

Excitedly, I headed to a chain after work and and I got this

I dont fancy the fries. And my raisin coleslaw? It has only 3 miniscule raisins in it and the specialty mushroom gravy is just the mashed potato gravy with sliced mushrooms on top.

To be fair, the chicken is rather nice, being juicy and crispy. But I wouldnt eat it with the gravy and the whole experience was something left to be desired – it isnt something I’d really want eat again.

Bleh

Have you eaten the new KFC meal? And have you ever been glossed over by an advertisment but got jaded after getting it?

Today is 06.06.06

No one got bitten by the vampires. The devil didn’t rise. No one here was burned at the stake. There was no mass hysteria and pandemonium.

But somewhere out there, in a Singaporean Junior College, there was a Mr S.A. Tan who gave a killer general paper during remedial lesons.

I wonder if he was full of devlish glee.

I did, however had a devlishly good dinner today at the newly opened ZingDo restaurant situated in the Jurong Entertainment Center

Wanting to try something new, I stopped by the Korean based restaurant and under the recommendation of the working crew, I ordered the Bulgogi Chicken with Rice and Kimchi Soup.

It was a hotplate. It arrived sizzling hot and I had to move the meat and vegetables about quickly to allow it to cook. It took no time at all and soon I was tucking in the delightful meal.

The vegetables were fresh, the meat juicy, the soup was a myriad of tastes. I was a very happy and satisfied girl at the end of the whole course 😉

I want to go again!

Caprese is one of the easiest thing you can make when you’re in a hurry and want to have something light.

All it takes is some sliced mozarella cheese and tomatoes and you’re done. You could add a bit of olive oil, basil leaves and a sprinkle of pepper if you want. I’m surprised at how much I like this dish.

And if there are excess caprese left over, put it on top of a piece of bread and it can be used for a quick and easy pizza!

—

Recently, in the middle of night class I would be moaning for all sorts of foods to eat.

While writing our assignments or during our discussions, my train of thoughts would flow from sushi, to chicken rice, to fishball noodles.

Its probably one of the effects due to stress making me have the urge to stuff myself to numb the stressed out feeling. After filling myself with food, I will be fine again momentarily.

Its extremely unhealthy though. Many of my clothes dont fit well as a result of my months of binge-ing.

I find it most odd that I could control myself during the fasting month and yet be such a glutton as soon as the month is over.

Oh gosh. Now I’m hungry again.

Must … resist … temptation …. to binge ….

Fazna is an ex classmate of mine from Jurong Institute. It has been a long time since I’ve seen her ever since she left for UK. She stopped by in Singapore for a while and we visited her place yesterday to see how she was doing.

Her daughers are getting so much bigger. Her first daughter was just an infant the last time I saw her. And now, she already has a younger sister!

Thats chocolate on her by the way, not poo

She is so adorable! She the way she smiles is so heartwarming. Makes me wish I had a child of my own. But that could be just my womanly biological clock asking :

I wonder how my kids will look like.

I wonder if I ever will get married.

I wonder …?

Mum is a volunteer for the women’s wing in the Jurong constituency and invited my father and me for a VIP luncheon organised by the community centre.

Today was the day after the results of the polling for the general elections were announced with the People’s Action Party attaining 82 seats over 84.

Many thoughts come into my head about the results as I enjoyed the food.

And what do I think about the elections?

Question:

Daphne, Taufik, Cheryl, Slyvester and Eric went to a concert. How many arrangements are possible when they sit in 5 adjacent seats if

a) Eric insists on sitting next to Cheryl?
b) Taufik refuses to sit next to Slyvester?

Answer:

Just what the heck is wrong with you, Eric and Taufik?! Cant you sit down quietly and just enjoy the concert? Annoying kids! Just sit down and dont disturb me! Any more complaints from the two of you and I’m going to smack you!

—

I’m glad that my tummy stopped rumbling. Since this morning, my tummy has been playing the opera.

Juli asked me to a dinner buffet at the Cafe Vienna. Having always wanting to eat there again, I said yes and got ready to meet her and Red at the Royal Plaza on Scotts.

It has been donkey years since I’ve eaten there. Back then, it was called the Royal Crowne Hotel. It was a treat from my teacher for being best in geography 🙂 I’ve been completely enamoured by the sheer choices of gormet food there. And since then, I’ve subconsciously dreaming of the lovely food there.

We talked over a dinner of a whole load of mish mash. I sampled the roasted duck, herbal tomato fish, salmon, couscous, potato salad, sushi…

Red : Have you ever read about the true story of count dracula? It was in this facinating book that I’ve read about a historian. She found a book that mysteriously materialised and decided to read it. Then she heard footsteps at the door, getting louder and louder … and then there was a loud knocking at the door. The door shook. There’s shouting now. And then…

Juli and me got startled when someone interrupted us.

Waiteress : Sorry sir, maam, may I clear your plates?

And then I went for another round to try the lobster, and oysters. I’m not really a fan of mollusks, but gosh the canadian oysters tasted real good and was quite fresh that I slurped it down with no additional seasoning. Mmm good!

Juli : Have you read the Davinci code? I know that its fiction but there are so many things in there that just makes me think and reconsider about the different views that we have.

Red : That reminds me, do you know about the illuminati? An organization from the freemason era, that is supposed to control the entire world. It still supposed to exist today…

And then I force stuffed myself with royal chocolate cake, walnut cheesecake, chocolate pudding pie, bread & butter pudding, and this banana & chocolate caramel pudding.

Oh my gosh, the royal chocolate cake was so smooth, I had to savour it slowly and give sighs of satisfaction every few seconds. Sigh!

I was so greedy. I should have taken pictures of what I ate but being totally focused on my dinner, I didnt manage to take any picture but this banana & chocolate caramel pudding.

I’m completely stuffed! My tummy feels like a washing machine on spin mode… But I want to go again!

—

Its funny how that when I think of something, its so coincidental that it would somehow materialise.

I’ve been thinking of chocolate all week, wanting to devour a nice bar of chocolate when Shirin, one of the heads that I worked with gave me a beautiful box of chocolate. I love the patterns on the chocolate. So intricate!

The very next day, Teresa, a lovely science teacher passed me a couple of Hershey bar chocolates. Awesomeness!

All of them didnt last long though, I’ve eaten them all. And now I’ll have to face the consequence of having fat thighs in a few weeks ..sigh

By the way, have you heard that there is actually a place called Hershey in Pennsylvania where you could have a chocolate spa? They cover your body in chocolate and then wrap you up in foil. And then after a few minutes, you could soak in a tub full of warm cocoa with foamy cream on top. Both are supposed to be good for the skin.

Ah .. what decadence…

Feeling so much better now.

On monday evening, I thought that I’d make the lovely salad that I did in the weekend but instead of the regular amount of bell peppers, I’ve increased it.

Bad move.

The next morning I felt nausea and vomited. Oh gosh the pain! My kidneys were screaming out and there were banging in my head.

Couldnt go to work. The doctor diagnosed me as having food poisoning and gave me two days off and I was recuperating at home like an invalid, in a dizzy cloud of heavy medication.

Lesson learnt:

Too much bell peppers is bad for you

Curses on you bell peppers!

Update : Now mum seems to have my symptoms too … (she said that she’s better now) now it couldnt be the bell peppers since she never touched it. So what is it …?

—

Going out of my mind over the stress of everything. Studies! Work! Finances! No time! Arghh!!!

Karen, me and Diane at Newton Circus so-so foodcenter

But always time to pose for a picture with friends. Without the motivational support and encouragement of other people, its very hard to carry on.

I really really want to make this worth it.

Buon Giorno Signora and Signore! Please sit down comfortably while the chef serves you your lunch today!

For starters we have

Salad with Watercress, cherry tomatoes and grilled bell peppers with Italian dressing. Ah benissimo!

For the main course we have

Penne Arrabbiata. What Signore? You cant take the heat?

What about some honey glazed chicken instead? Squisito!

A bit of sparkly for the Signora? Perfetto!

And for dessert we have vanilla ice cream with a generous topping of chocolate syrup. Ah … Cielo!

Thank you for coming!

—

To be honest, I’m not the type of person who’s into cooking. In fact, I actually hated it. As a kid, mum would try to coax me to learn how to cook and I’d always try to run away.

Malay cooking isnt the easiest thing to cook. With all the preparation, the pounding, the ingredients, the endless waiting of the stirring and such, the typical time to prepare one dish would be about 2 hours.

And it can be really physically harming. Cooking Ayam masak merah requires a soldier’s bravery. The frying of blended chili in hot oil – which tends to just splatter out at the most unexpected time, usually everywhere, like the kitchen walls, the stove top, the floor, and me! Its really painful! And the kitchen will end up like a warzone at the end of it.

It takes a brave person to try to clean the sticky mess up afterwards.

Not to say that its not worth cooking it though, because the end product is worth waiting for, wonderfully appetizing and aromatic. Foods like Kari Ayam (Chicken Curry), Otak-otak (BBQ Fish mousse), Ayam masak merah (Chicken in Red sauce), Satay (BBQ’ed marinated meat) and Nasi Lemak (Rice cooked with Pandan leaves and coconut milk) are just heavenly.

But I really dont have the patience to stay in the kitchen for too long. Makes me admire the persistance, patience and dexterity of the people who cooks them every day. Amazing people.

For the moment, I’m starting slow and try easy to make foods that doesnt require so much effort to make. Sure I’m no Jamie Oliver or Anthony Bourdain but at least my food is edible (At least I think so)

Jemput Makan!
Come and eat!

Dang … I’m 60 kilos now …

Mother taught me how to make Roti Jala this morning. It helped me take a number of things off my mind momentarily as I slowly moved the utensil slowly on the wok.

Roti Jala is something that I’ve always liked to eat but didn’t have the opportunity to make till only now.

Roti means bread, while Jala means net which fishermen traditionally used to catch seafood, using large nets that looked like these.

It was pretty simple to do with just a few eggs, flour, coconut milk and a little bit of salt and abit of tumeric for the colouring.

The batter would be placed into a funnel with many holes below it and then slowly poured into the flat wok that mum specially bought from Little India.

The first try I did wasnt so good

By right, there shouldn’t be much clumping on the batter. I must have poured it in too quickly till mum adviced me to pour it in slowly and with love.

“Cooking with love! Thats what Anita Sarawak said when she cooked. First time when people heard it, they thought she was crazy! Cooking with love? I’ve got no time to cook with love! As they think about wanting to spank their children for being so naughty or the neglectful husband. That’s why their food didn’t turn out so good”

So I slowly poured in the batter carefully and took my time and it did look better on the next try. There must be something psychologically calming about this as I slowly nurtured my little pancake into the crispy golden lace that it was supposed to be.

And it’s supposed to be eaten best with chicken curry.

Mother didn’t have time to make the chicken curry, so we ate it with chilli squids instead. It was new to me but, food is food. And food is always usually good.

I’ve been quite depressed for this week with many things on my mind like the A levels, sometimes I feel like I can’t cope with it with my demanding job taking up most my times. So I feel helpless and unprepared.

And I’ve been depressed with the realisation that my money is rapidly depleting with the registration of examination, the classes and the extra tuition that I’m taking. It unbalances my goals and now I can hardly save up for the many things that I aimed for.

And I’m also depressed because of my long distance relationship which has just been leaving me a feeling of uncompleteness …

And I’m feeling depressed because of the issues at home.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m just being childish. People always say that there are people who’ve got worse problems than you do. But I can’t help but to feel extremely sad. Like everything is pointless. Sometimes I feel like I just want to end it all.