Nagging As a Micro-Aggression

 Click HERE to read.

Cooked a Proper Meal

Steamed red garoupa.

Rendering duck fat.

Salted vegetables and duck soup.

I don't blame my friend Ah Yi for thinking I cannot cook. Ever since he has known me, which really is not very long at all, I have been tapau-ing food. I used to cook all meals when the children were small. It was not healthy for the children to eat out all the time. Then, the children grew up and ate rarely at home. The Husband too had dinner out about 3 times a week.  It was hard to cook for just me and M. So, I mostly made do with tapau food.

This week, The Son is on army leave. The Daughter works from home. The Husband no longer has a string of dinners to attend. Occasionally, my children's partners join them. Suddenly, it makes sense to cook properly again. 

So, I did!

Steamed Fish

I soaked a fish in a solution of sodium bicarbonate for a few hours. 

Then, I steamed it in the Le Creuset braiser. Done this way, the texture of the fish is firm and moist. Layer the bottom of the pot with tomato, onion and ginger. Add 1 cup of water. Bring to the boil. Lay the fish on top. Place another layer of tomato, onion and ginger on top of the fish. Squish 2 sour plums and place on the fish, along with generous knobs of butter. Turn the heat down to 3 on the induction stove. Steam for 40 minutes. Throw on chopped spring onions just before serving.

At level 3 on the induction stove, it barely steams. It is more like a fish sauna. So, the cooking is low and slow. The fish meat texture is excellent this way.

Salted Vegetables and Duck Soup

I used the recipe from The Meat Men, which required white peppercorns and nutmeg. Nice! I broiled the duck meat to extract the fat and achieve some degree of the maillard reaction. Then, I added the gelatinous soup stock that I had made last week, pressure cooking cuts of lamb shoulder and pork shoulder. 

I found out that if I kept re-using the same water to pressure cook the tough cuts of lamb and pork, I would get a nice gelatinous soup stock which I could then convert into an aspic, or I could just add garden vegetables to make a filling vegetable stew.

I threw the whole lot into the thermal pot with pickled mustard, tomatoes, onions, white peppercorns and  2 seeds of pounded nutmeg.

Gelatinous soup stock.

Aspic. Picture from HERE.

 

Cotton Candy/Undie

Picture from HERE.

Every day, at my bathtime, a battle of wits takes place between Pistachio and me. What are we fighting over? My underwear.

It started innocently enough. He was only a 3 month old puppy when he was exposed to the sleazy world of human underwear. I thought it was cute how he would sniff my pile of dirty clothes on the floor, next to the shower cubicle. I let him be. It took me a while to notice that he was particularly interested in my underwear. It did not occur to me that this inadvertent early imprinting would have such lasting effects because Pistachio has now developed a life long fascination for all our underwear. His favourite is still mine.

When I cottoned on to Pistachio's delight in my cotton undies, I gently removed them from his mouth, with a firm, "No!"

This progressed to a firm, "No!" and a nice sharp whack on his butt. Then, he would stare reproachfully at me with cotton candy (oops... no... cotton undie) still hanging from his mouth.

With a few nice whacks, Pistachio did get the message that my cotton undies are not his cotton candy. But alas... the allure of said cotton candy was simply too strong. It has now got to a point where he and I try to outwit and outwill each other.

Last night, after my shower, Pistachio came over to sniff at me. I suppose it was to ascertain that I had really just showered. He then made his way to the pile of dirty laundry on the floor. He looked at me. I looked at him. He looked nonchalant, and trotted out of the bathroom as if to say, "Nah... I am not interested in your cotton undies."

I told myself, "Ahhhh! What a good doggie! He has stopped having unrighteous motives vis-a-vis my cotton undies." Pleased at my own world class skills as a dog trainer, I went to dry my hair. When I came back to gather up my dirty laundry to place in the laundry basket, I could not find my cotton undie (Pistachio's cotton candy). I could not find my dog either.

He had sneakily made off with the cotton candy, found a large armchair, hidden behind it and was furiously trying his best to eat up all of it as fast as he could manage.

Dogs are capable of lying, you know. Pistachio lied to me! He pretended that he was not interested in my undies. Then, he stole them and hid himself away to do the unmentionable. I am just so surprised at this dog's intelligence.

A Life In Reverse

The thought occurred to me that my life has been lived in reverse. My friends are now thinking of retiring or have already retired. If not for Covid19, quite a few would be travelling the world, posting pictures on Facebook of windswept hair and brilliant smiles from suntanned faces.

I mean, why not? They have had successful careers and deserve to enjoy the years left.

Whilst their careers are revving down, mine is revving up. I realised this when I had to decline 2 invitations to gatherings. There was a time when I could meet anyone for lunch any day of the week. They could not though, because they had meetings to attend and presentations to give. Now, they meet and I cannot.

I am where I want to be. I am doing what I want to do. I like the feeling of earning my own money. It is awful to have to depend on The Husband for money. I used to feel bad about buying clothes, jewellery, curtains. I was frugal to a fault. I made sure I checked with The Husband on every expense except for groceries. I have a lot of pride and did not like it when he questioned me on this or that expenditure.

Now, when I changed the curtains in our bedroom, and The Husband said that the old ones were still usable, I said. "I used my own money." When I decided to install a glass roof to protect my Mediterranean herbs from the rain, The Husband grumbled. I said, "I used my own money."

It was also hard to have to put up with a mother-in-law who assumed that since I only worked part-time and earned a small fraction of what The Husband earned, then my entire house, my bedroom, my children belonged to her (via her son). I owned nothing. To live like that, is to live without dignity. I was the equivalent of a bond maid: 奴婢. The Husband and she, owned me and mine. It gave her license to tell me how to wash my bathrooms, where to store my pineapple tarts. It gave her license to lend out my belongings without asking me, give away my garden produce without asking me.

Now that I make decent wages, I no longer have to live a life, without dignity... owned by others.

One Ninety at Four Seasons Hotel

Large and expansive seating.

My 2 children.

My pig out plate.

Best ever gluten free bread!

I love the buffet spread at One Ninety. We have been going there for years. 4 things set the One Ninety spread apart from other more well-known spreads.

(1) They serve real cheese (not Boursin, nor supermarket camembert like the Ritz Carlton)

(2) They serve fresh burrata (which The Line at Shangri-la does not)

(3) They are very careful with my gluten free diet.

(4) They make excellent gluten free bread.

When you are celiac, you can either eat very cheaply in hawker centres like Chong Pang Market where you get to observe how food is made and then decide whether it is safe to eat, OR you have to eat in expensive places where the chef is cosmopolitan enough to know how to make food for allergies.

At One Ninety, knowing I am celiac, the kitchen will clean the grill before grilling my meat. I normally don't inconvenience people like that. So, I don't order grilled meat. If I order French fries, they will change the whole pot of oil to make sure there is no cross-contamination. They refuse to serve me butter because they are afraid that some microscopic breadcrumbs have landed on the butter that is often used for normal bread.

Bread is one of the cheapest things to buy and eat, unless you are celiac and need gluten free bread. I have quite given up trying to make gluten free bread. It never tastes like real bread. The gluten free bread at One Ninety does. For someone who cannot eat real bread, this is a real treat. It is also a costly treat. Sigh!

We haven't been back to One Ninety for a long while. The last time we went there, I was still on speaking terms with my mother-in-law. I haven't spoken to her for 2 years. So, it must have been more than 2 years since we last went. It is not a place to go regularly, you know.

The Daughter and The Son were both on leave. I proposed a nice lunch at One Ninety. I was a bit apprehensive about how Covid19 would be managed in a buffet. I need not have worried! The buffet stood majestically behind clear glass. I pointed and was served by a chef on the other side. Tables were spaced far apart. There was almost no on there!

Instead of tap water, I now have to pay $3 for bottled alkaline water... sealed for my safety. So yes, I did feel safe and will go back again.

 

Tang Dynasty Fashion

Even though the folk ballad that recounted the story of Hua Mulan first appeared in the 4th to 6th centuries (i.e., during the Northern and Southern Dynasties) people commonly think of Hua Mulan as a Tang Dynasty personage (i.e., 7th century). So, when Hanfu Girl HERE, did an analysis of the period costumes in Disney's Mulan 2020, she referenced the Tang Dynasty.

The period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties was one where many battles were fought between the Northern and the Southern states. It made sense to have a Mulan appear during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period than during the relatively more peaceful Tang Dynasty.

Be that as it may be, Hanfu Girl's analysis of the period costumes in Hua Mulan was fascinating. The Tang Dynasty was a golden age for China. Till today, the mere mention of the Tang Dynasty evokes elegance, luxe, good manners and fine food. Elements of Tang Dynasty fashion exist today in the Japanese kimono, and the Korean hanbok.

Then, I learnt something surprising. Tang Dynasty women showed off their cleavages!! 

When I first watched Zhang Yimou's "Curse of the Golden Flower", I scoffed at the ample cleavages. I thought it was some modern take on Chinese period clothes, done for the purpose of salacious interest. So, I was very surprised to learn that if Hua Mulan were really a Tang Dynasty girl, she would be wearing clothes that would have exposed her cleavage.

I was a little incredulous. So, I researched a bit. I found this.

Wah! See how the necklines dropped from early Tang Dynasty to late Tang Dynasty? Unbelievable! When Rihanna wore a Guo Pei dress to the Met Gala, I thought that she had a rather inappropriate figure (and style) for Chinese fashion. The Chinese silhouette tends to be slimmer and less voluptuous.

It turns out that Rihanna type cleavage and Chinese high fashion go back a long way!

The new Mulan 2020 by Disney has not been well received. The Daughter refuses to watch it because the beloved songs did not appear, and there was no Mushu. The Chinese in China won't watch it because there was no attention to detail. Younger sisters don't call older sisters by name. Bit part actors in the background were not appropriately dressed. The movie was sloppily made, in its details.

I liked the movie because I liked the theme of:

- older women cutting a path for younger women,

- women come into their true power as women, not pretend men,

- women safeguarding the sancity of home and family once the battle is over.

It is a pity that the set and costumes were sloppily rendered.

Embroidery Meditation

There is something immensely calming in the embroidery process. Needle in hand and head bent over the hoop, I forget about everything else. My entire attention focuses on the thread, the tension in the thread, the needle and where it should come through the cloth. You have to pay attention. Else, you will prick your own finger. I have pricked my finger so many times. The process trains focus with pain and blood.

Once the focus develops, my cares fall away and I sit in a bubble of light, drawing thread through cloth sedately. You cannot go too fast because then, you introduce too much tension into the thread. When that happens, your cloth will pucker. You can see that I am quite a lousy embroiderer from the way my cloth has puckered. I get better with practice. It still is a lovely looking piece (no thanks to my skills) because the colours are bright and cheerful against the white cloth. Also, I deliberately chose a very forgiving design that does not require precision. The petals of the flowers are haphazardly shaped and sized. The flowers twist and bow in every direction. So, my poor abilities in thread control and precision seem to be advantageous. The flowers look very lively and wild.

One needs a lot of light to embroider with. My favourite spots are right next to the window, or under the lamp next to my bed. Seated in that bubble of light, I exist in an oasis of meditative calm. When I come out of my bubble of light, I feel refreshed and energised.

Liziqi Wannabe Garden

A few friends forwarded me videos of an Azerbaijani woman making food from her garden produce. I looked and then decided, "Nah... I still like Liziqi."

Liziqi uses beautiful plates and magnificent cast iron woks. Azerbaijani woman uses aluminium basins. Liziqi plans beautiful colour contrasts into her videos. Azerbaijani woman just films her everyday life. Liziqi wears lovely clothes from very rustic to very fairylike. Azerbaijani woman wears, you know, what I would wear if I were an Azerbaijani woman.

The whole allure of Liziqi is that I wanna be like her and will never get there. So, I watch her videos and dream. Youtube now has plenty of rural copycats of Liziqi. No one will ever quite match her in my heart. I am a die hard Liziqi fangirl!

For what it's worth, here is some produce from my Liziqi Wannabe Garden. Note to Dr. Pet's parents: some of the veggies are for sale. If you order today, I will deliver them tomorrow. The pictures were taken this morning. So, what you see is what you get. Please note that these veggies are fully organic and poop fed.

Kangkong.

4 bunches available at $2 a bunch.

1 bunch left

Sweet potato leaves.

8 bunches available at $2 a bunch.

Sold out!

Laksa leaves: 4 bunches at 50c a bunch.

Chop into bits and mix into white rice with butter. Deliciously fragrant rice!

Bottle gourd: Not for sale.

Guava: Not for sale.

Thai basil: 3 bunches at 50c a bunch.

2 bunches left.

Sweet basil: 2 bunches at $2 a bunch.

Sold out.

EQ and DSA

Click HERE to read.

 

Handwriting on the iPad Pro

It was a good thing that I asked my friend about her opinion on the reMarkable, a tablet that offers a paper like writing experience. See HERE. I had been eyeing the reMarkable for 3 years already because it is so hard to keep track of all the different pieces of paper I need to work with.

My friend pointed me to the iPad Pro. My iPad and iPhone are both about 8 years old. It did not occur to me to buy new ones because both work fine. I did not expect that the new generation iPad Pro would be such a huge improvement on my 8 yr old iPad. I can now:

- keep track of my To Do List all in one place, instead of on sheets of paper that get lost.

- mark students' work by hand on the iPad.

- take notes from class observations on the iPad.

- send off electronic copies of hand marked student work via email, without using the scanner.

I super love this machine. If I have time, which I don't, I might even learn cartooning on my iPad Pro! I don't know how the iPad Pro it does it, but my normally horrible handwriting looks so cool on it.

Blessed Ah Yi

Ah Yi is an interesting character. He is short, thin and wiry, with a head full of hair. For a 60 year old, that hair is something that even I envy. What he lacks in height, he makes up for with chutzpah. When The Boss of the braised duck stall is not around, Ah Yi rules. His eyes are bright and mischievous, set within a face like the tanned leather of a horse saddle. 

In another place and another age, I wonder if Ah Yi might have trained as a 相声 artiste. He says the most outrageous things, and has a keen sense of comic timing.

Till I have known him till now, he has variously said to me:

- You can't cook.

- You murder your plants.

- You don't work.

- You eat too little.

- You are too skinny.

However, he says all these in the most hilarious manner. Peals of laughter bubble up from the pit of my stomach, and out through my mouth. This week though, he paid me my very first compliment. He said that I made a good wife for my husband. I could not believe he said that. This said, I can't see how a woman who can't cook, murders plants, does not work, and is too skinny... is a good wife.

Hmmmm... **scratch my head**

I wonder if I dare to secretly take a picture of him for my blog readers to see.

Leadership Testimonials: 14 Sept 2020

From loud-mouthed and vulgar to school prefect: See HERE.

From overly timid to Class Monitor: See HERE.

Daisies Galore

 

The first step in any embroidery project is to sketch the pattern, and attach the batting. The batting is a piece of cloth used as a backing. It strengthens the cloth and holds the stitches. For unskilled embroiderers like me, it also prevents me from pulling the stitches too tight. 

I have been so busy that there was no time to sketch the pattern. I finally got it done!

This design will be a straight row of Black-eyed Susans with bobbing heads, right across the bed from left to right.

Gong Li in Mulan 2020

 

I just watched Mulan 2020, the live action version. Gong Li is magnificent! Gong Li plays an older woman to Liu Yifei's young Mulan. In the movie, it was Gong Li's strength and sacrifices that helped Mulan achieve gender equality with male warriors.

I love this message. It is the strength and sacrifices of mothers that ensure daughters continue to live in a world where women have rights and an equal place in society... that we are not seen only as sex objects, or domestic workers.

Gong Li was magnificent in this movie. Aged 55, her mature face still looks stunning beautiful. Her acting was magnificent too!

The movie is beautiful too. The camera work was excellent. There was no distracting sex scenes. I loved the colours onscreen.

My Funny Hyena Neighbour

The single storey house neighbour on my right is very funny. When we first bought the land on which to build our house, the wife hailed us and invited us over to her place to tour her house. During the tour, she showed me a water pipe which had burst when the cluster housing development behind her house was being built. She said that the water bill from the burst pipe was about $2000.

Shortly after I started building my house, her husband approached me with a water bill of about $2000+, saying that my soil works had caused his water pipe to burst. I looked at the date. It was dated about 6 months before I had even demolished the old structure, let alone move soil. I politely and firmly told him that his wife had shown me the burst pipe months before I had even demolished the old house. They backed off.

After I moved in, I kept a polite and smiling distance. I don't understand why people see smiling as friendly. When I smile at you, I may not be friendly. They smile at me, but they tried make false claims on me too. Nope... decidedly not friendly, despite the broad smiles.

Like hyenas, you know. They smile before they eat you.

After the government closed up the open drains, all the households along my street gained a small strip of planter with soil in front of our houses. Since I only grow edibles, I filled my planter with kangkong, gotu kola, purslane, sweet potato leaves, chilli and basil. The neighbour's helper would cut my kangkong and my gotu kola in their prime. At first, when my helper told me, I did nothing. I thought these were just a few leaves, and I left the issue unresolved for weeks. M resorted to cutting back the kangkong and the gotu kola before their prime harvest size. The neighbour's helper still beat her to the harvest.

Then, I promised my friend that I would make gotu kola powder for her. I inspected my gotu kola and told myself that I would harvest and process the fresh leaves the next day. I woke up early. I went out with my scissors. Lo and behold... someone had taken it all. There was none left for me. I was upset. So, I told my neighbour that our CCTV footage shows that her helper had been helping herself to my veggies without asking. I advised her to control her helper before I gave the footage to the police. I also smilingly reminded her that I had given her family 2 bags of vegetables the week before. Smilingly, we both agreed that her helper should not help herself to my plants as and when she liked.

The stealing stopped too.

Then, the neighbour planted a curry tree an inch or 2 within my side of the planter. Since it was only an inch or 2, I decided to let it go. It won't make her wealthy beyond her wildest dreams to gain a few square inches of gardening space. M decided to plant sweet potato leaves under the tree. It was, M thought, a nice compromise. The curry tree grew high up in the air. Her sweet potato leaves would carpet the ground. The neighbour erected a small wooden fence using bamboo stakes to prevent my sweet potato leaves from going over to her planter. I don't see why she should have worried?

(1) I did not begrudge her an extra few square inches of planter.

(2) I was quite disciplined about pruning back my sweet potato leaves.

(3) I had never stolen from her.

I am not sure how it works in that brain of hers. Why is she so insecure that she will take what is not hers at every turn? Why is she so insecure that after laying claim to a few square inches of land that is rightfully mine, she must erect a fence to block out a few sweet potato leaves crawling on the ground? I mean, she was the one who tried to cream me of $2000+ for a burst pipe that she should know was not my fault. She was the one who claimed more than her share of garden space. She was the one who took my vegetables, without asking. I should be afraid of her and insecure, but I am not because these are all small things.

I have never intruded on her rights and her personal boundaries.

Maybe, she thinks that I am like her, out to scavenge what is not mine, like a hyena. I am not going to be like her. I want to be a wolf. I hunt/grow what is mine, not scavenge what I did not myself hunt/grow.

If she had asked, I would be so happy to give her armfuls of veggies. I have too much. She never asked. She just took.

Hearty Mums Interview: Motivation

 

Picky Pistachio

Before Pistachio came into our lives, I thought all dogs ate indiscriminately. Lo and behold, I now discover that Pistachio eats like me. His food has to:

- look good...

- smell good...

- be on time.

Anything you give to Pistachio had better be of a certain quality standard. Else, he will sniff it carefully, won't even bother to lick it, and he will just trot away. That dish will go untouched no matter how long Pistachio goes without food. Like me, he would rather starve and eat nothing, than eat yucky food.

So now, when we cook, we need to mind Pistachio's tastes in food. That dog is not just going to eat what you give him. Surprisingly, Pistachio likes a whole range of fruits (mango, apple, peach, banana). He adores sweet potato. Every morning, he will share in my bowl of tauhuey. He won't eat duck gizzards. He hates salmon and mackerel, looks at me reproachfully if we give him minced pork. Pistachio's fish has to be mild tasting. His pork must be crispy pork belly and you had better not stinge on the crispy bits. He goes crazy happy when I come through the door carrying Michelin certified braised duck and braised pork from Chong Pang Market. My dog has Michelin tastebuds.

On evening, I had dinner brought up to the daybed in our bedroom for The Husband, who had come home late. The Husband was bathing when Pistachio devoured half his braised duck rice dinner. There was a bit of drama then. The Husband was hangry (angry because hungry). The dog had eaten half his dinner, rendering the other half inedible. Luckily, there was another packet in the fridge.

Foraging (In Other People's Gardens)

The good thing about having too much sweet potato leaves is that I can now wander over to the neighbours' gardens and nicely request a leaf or 2 of the herbs they grow but I do not. I supply them with laksa leaves, vegetable compost leachate, sweet potato leaves, kangkong and bayam. I get from them limau purut, mint, and ulam raja.

The thing is, the plants have their moments of glory. It is best to harvest them at the height of their glory. So today, the neighbour told me that her ulam raja was ripe for harvest. I had not meant to make nasi ulam but when you have a big bunch of ulam raja, it is silly not to make nasi ulam. However, I had already done my marketing in the morning and did not want to go back to the wet market.

I found sand ginger, turmeric, lemon grass, laksa leaves in my own garden. I asked this or that neighbour's permission to get mint, kedongdong leaves, and limau purut from their plants in the community garden. Voilà! I was able to put together a fragrant nasi ulam.