Tuesday, May 27

Day 1



On a whim, my twin and I decided to shoot a photo a day -- for 365 days. Follow my progress here.

Full of eager-beaverness, I ventured up to the rooftop garden of my office. Drats, it was raining. So this is my shot of the day.

Let's hope we make it to Day 365!

happy birthday, blog

Wah, so big already ah, five years old liow. Don't seem very different from the day you were born hor? Except that all this second-hand smoke has ruined your baby soft skin. Aiyoh, you badly need a facelift. And soon.

[Thanks, everyone, for reading and leaving kind comments over the years. Muaks!]

Monday, May 26

not a crumb left






Photos by the multi-talented and ever-supportive Mr TPL.

Realised I've been totally remiss in posting about my lurve's new venture. Without further ado, I present, Crummb.

Ask me about her cakes, and I won't be able to stop drooling about how good they look and, more importantly, how good they taste. I even committed the ultimate cake fox pass, when I devoured all the fondant decoration, that's how delish her baked goods are.

Drats, it's now past 3am and I'm in need of a sugar fix.

Thursday, May 22

say cheese


Grilled tomatoes with mozzarella

Sorry that this is turning into a third-rate food blog, but I've been playing with the new oven (and also the not-so-new camera). I want to master the art of food porn!

Forgot to mention in my previous post that while the mussels were dirt cheap at $1.71 for 41 (yes, I counted), the mozzarella was $8.99 for a chunk (I saw it as $2.99 and grabbed it, thinking it was good value. Duh).

So anyway, in a bid not to let the cheese go to waste, I found a recipe for grilled tomatoes with mozzarella. Again, dead easy and super yummy.

Preheat oven (grill function) to 150 deg C.

Slice four large tomatoes and place on a baking tray lined with aluminium foil. Sprinkle some salt on top.

Slice the cheese and place on top of tomatoes. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and season with coarse black pepper.


Just before popping the tray into the oven. (No self-respecting food pornographer would be seen in the oven door's reflection, but then I'm just a wannabe.)

Place under grill for 15 minutes (they look burnt in the photos, but trust me, they taste divine).

Let them cool a little before placing on a bed of salad greens. Drizzle balsamic vinegar before serving.

Tuesday, May 20

flexing my mussels


Thwarted in my attempt to have sambal mussels last night at No Signboard at VivoCity -- turns out the super yummy $15 dish is only available at its Geylang restaurant -- I started surfing the net for recipes to make my own.

Somehow, I got sidetracked by baked mussels with garlic, butter and cheese. How can anyone resist that deadly combination? So I modified the online recipe and made these babies instead.

It's dead easy.

Soak mussels in salt water and clean and debeard them. Throw any opened shells away.

Preheat oven -- New oven! Yay! -- to about 120 deg C. Line baking tray with aluminium foil.

Put a large pot of water to boil on the stove.

Mince garlic and mix with butter at room temperature. Cut thin slices of mozzarella cheese, one per mussel.

When water comes to a boil, throw in the mussels and cover the lid for a couple of minutes till the shells open.

Remove the mussels from the water and open them, leaving the meat on half a shell.

Put a dollop of garlic butter and top with a slice of mozzarella.

Bake for 15 minutes.

Next time, I'm going to try making the stir-fry sambal version. Hopefully it will be as yummy as this.

Tuesday, May 13

manual labour

Since my twin has already posted her photos from our field trip last Saturday, I think I better get off my lazy ass and get mine up, too.

Being twins, we were both naturally bored by the Bugis Street scene. Us shallow twins like pretty, not gritty, things. And it was only natural that we ended up shooting the same things. The only reason I don't have a snap of the overgrown Ne Zha was because I actually scurried away in great fear that she -- he? -- might actually bestow some blessing upon me.

Out of 7,423 shots, only this handful are deemed suitable for human consumption.


Token shot of the back alley. A security guard came up to us and wanted to know if we were terrorists planning an attack. Well, not in those exact words.


Mannequins with no torsos.


Mannequins with no taste.


A wheel.


More wheels.


At this point, I believe I muttered under my breath to my twin -- so that Biceps Man a.k.a. our instructor wouldn't overhear -- that Ah Loon or Foo Shoo would surely be able to shoot some spectacular pix. Unlike us.


I'm lousy at taking photos of people -- the few I attempted are blah to the max -- so I shoot inanimate objects instead.


The prettiest things, by a long shot, were the lotus flowers. Hence, so many shots of them. I may even try growing some myself, they are so elegant.


I never knew there were different colours of lotuses. Or rather, I didn't pay attention to their beauty previously.


They can look like onions.


Or lemons.


This is my second most fave shot. I didn't even realise that the temple mural depicted lotuses too until I downloaded the photos at home. Just shows how observant I am.


My ultimate fave photo wasn't even shot by me, but by my twin.

Sunday, May 11

best potato salad in the world


Photo of dish and dog courtesy of Mai Minshan

I'm sure you are familiar by now with my hyperbolic tendencies -- Ikea has the bestest chicken wings! My doggie is the cutest dog in the world! -- but trust me, this is the yummiest potato salad you will ever taste.

I first cobbled together the ingredients for my Lazy Labour Day party and on the spur of the moment, decided to roast the potatoes with the skin on instead of tediously peeling them and then boiling. Lazy lah.

The dish was such a hit that I didn't even get a chance to take a photo of it before it was all gone. Luckily, Ms Mai has replicated it, to rousing success.

Here's the recipe (before I forget how I threw it together):

Roasted potatoes with wasabi mayonnaise
Serves five greedy people

1 bag of washed potatoes from Cold Storage, cut into quarters
20 cloves of garlic, minced
A good glug of olive oil

Dressing (taste as you go along to gauge the explosion level):
A lot of Kewpie mayonnaise, and I mean a lot, like half a small bowl
Wasabi, agar agar 1 large spoonful
Splash of light soya sauce

Toppings (optional):
Chopped spring onions
Paprika
Japanese seven spices (not sure what it's called)
Ham
Bacon

Mix the above ingredients together in a big bowl. Place in a single layer (I had to do it in two batches) in oven toaster for 30 minutes, stirring the taters and rotating the tray mid-way through.

While potatoes are baking, mix the dressing ingredients well in a small bowl.

When the oven goes "ding!", take potatoes out and place in a large bowl to cool slightly before mixing the dressing thoroughly.

Top with the, erm, toppings and dig in.

(If you do make it, do take pix and send to me.)

Tuesday, May 6

three thousand words

Busy. Busy. Busy. So here's the week in pictures.


Second photography class. Why f/2.8 is larger than f/8 is beyond human comprehension. And don't ask me why, when the instructor said, "The shadow looks like a peace sign", I thought to myself, "Where got pee sai?"


Mother's birthday, just one day after the Sng clan had moved in. Super yum chocolate cake baked by TPL. Super unflattering photo shot by the one attending much-needed photography classes.


Despite all the moving and unpacking, the dog still needed to be walked, and this was what we saw plastered around the estate on our daily jaunt.

Friday, May 2

last night



The photo shows a very tired and famished girl, who nonetheless is still very gleeful to be at the happiest place on earth, devouring a $1 hotdog and buying cheap Malm drawers in preparation for the Big Move tomorrow. [Eagle-eyed readers will notice that something is different compared to this photo, shot just two hours earlier.}

Chip Bee Gardens will never be the same again once the Sng family takes over the very pink house.