Easter Egg beauty pageant!

Introducing our beautiful contestants! da dadadaa!

Ms Lone Yellowstar

Starting with the glamourous Ms Lone Yellowstar

Ms Yellow Purple Polka

.. The simply beautiful, Ms Yellow Purple Polka

Miss Pimpled Face

.. Our next contestant, the colorful Ms Pimpled Face.

Ms Call Me Colorful

.. The very star studded Ms Call Me Colorful…

Ms Simbly Blue

.. The simple country girl, Ms Simply Blue

Ms Tropical Islands

.. Hailing from the beautiful islands of the pacific, Ms Tropical Island

Ms Hot Pink

.. Donning the beach resort look, the stunning Ms Hot Pink

Ms Fabulous

… Up next on stage, the elegant Ms Fabulous!

Ms Deep Blue

… Joining us from the depth of the Pacific, donning the colors of the corals, Ms Deep Blue

Ms Dashing

… From the Metropolis, the very sophisticated Ms Dashing

Ms Confused

 The absolutely stunning Ms Confused Indentity

Ms Broken Lines

… Our last contestant, the simple yet beautiful Ms Broken Lines

We shall now take a commercial break. Thank you to our 12 contestants.

After the break, join us with our 7 finalist. Who will be the Ms Easter Egg 2011 ?

Mood swings!

Am going thru a phase… I have been so in and out of moods while spending hrs deciding what to eat, when to eat and where am I going to eat! … This is just so crappy! … and the reality is, its all part of living in a city!

Typical scenario. I am at a mall, I am starting to get hungry, I start to think about what to eat, I flip flop between what I really want and what is conveniently available and priced reasonably… for like 5mins..

.. ok start walking in the direction of where I think something might be available.. and I see super crowded foodcourts, messy table of uncleared remnants, people trying to talk louder than the din! No way! I am not going in there. Start thinking again, next probable location and maybe change new set taste buds.. kinda more hungry now.. maybe a take out and eat back at home infront of TV or FB.. OhNO! I HATE that styrofoam takeout packaging! Food taste very strange after being in that box for 30mins! Noooo! What else is available for takeout? …

OK! I give up! I would rather eat my very own home cooked, super spruced up noodle! Even if I had to spend 30mins on the prep and cook, its way better than spending $5 for food that I am not sure about and eating in an environment that is crap.

Well… GET REAL! Life in a city is tough. .. I have adapted well enuf.. my new peace motto, eat when no one is eating, eat where nobody is crowding.

Its time for the big bird again

Our Norbest star of the dinner table for Thanksgiving

It is interesting to me how people mark time as the years go by. For me, its marking the year with Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys. Like thinking back and remembering that last year, we had Christmas Turkey while sailing Eleanor at Sebana. The year before, we had a Christmas party at Sebana with quite afew cruisers, under the marina building… but we didnt bake our own turkey that time. We had the thanksgiving turkey then, but it was a good Norbest.

Rubbing on margerine, thyme, pepper.. and hmm what else? sage?

see… so you get the idea..

For last Christmas, we could only get a small Butterball, cos Norbest was sold out! It turn out ok, but still I will choose a Norbest over a Butterball anytime. Norbest wins, hands down!

Festive fruity fried rice!

I thought that a fruity fried rice will go very nicely with the festive theme and the bird. This year, we have guest on board, so we need more food. .. My recipe: Chopped cubes of water chestnuts, pear, cashew nuts, raisins and sultanas. Heat sunflower seed oil in pan, add raw cashew nuts, fry until slightly brown. Add water chestnuts and 2 cup rice, stir fry and add seseme oil. Keep stirring until everything looks well distributed and hot, add pears, raisins and sultanas. Keep stirring and when the new additions are properly mixed in, its done. This is a crunchy and mildly sweet fried rice. My 1st time trying this style and it turn out ok. Wish I added some red bell pepper chips. It would add color to the pot and look more festive!

Our star emerges from the oven! Nicely tanned and juicy I am sure!

This years Thanksgiving will be quite memorable. We are having a party! We never did have a bird sharing party before, but we here at Keppel and our friends are nearby to join us. Very unfortunate, but I didnt get pictures of the group and the great stuff that they brought! 2 champaigns, juices, fabulous corns. All went very well with the festive spirit. … ooohh!! wish I had more pictures!!!

My yellow rice….

I remember my 1st taste of that bright colorful orange and yellow rice. I was 7 yrs old and we were at our grandparents’ neighbours’ kids birthday party. They were educated and modern Indians. Very friendly, have 2 girls around my age. We played together almost every weekend, when we visit Ah Gong and Ah Po.

Curry marinated chicken

Yes, back to the rice. It was a mix of bright orange rice kernels and yellow rice kernels and some less colored(whitish ones). I dont remember when I became a rice fan, must be those days when I havent develop any memory… Anyway, I was so fascinated by that colorful rice and I always wondered how they made it. I got a big serving of the rice, and some curry and soury pickled vegetable, sat down in a corner, went about separating and re-grouped the rice kernels by their color. I had a pile of orange, yellow and pale rice… wondering if they taste any different… It is funny how one gets these sort of flashback.

Serving yellow rice, on a colorful plate

That was the only time in my childhood that I had seen that colorful rice. Later on, many many years later, I learned about Indian food. It was kinda different. More spice, stronger taste, mostly dullish yellow, rarely with speckles of orange. Okay, that reminded me, that I had a burning desire to learn how to make the rice so vibrantly colored.

Storing dry spices in tupperwares, onboard Calliste.

After some internet research, trial and errors… I finally got it down… my simplified version that I wont even dare call it Nasi Briyani! But its close, and its easy, and its probably much healthier by not adding ghee or any animal fat to it. The color part is probably the most important aspect… as far as I am concerned.. .. so I wont bother with the technicallity of tradition or not, authentic or not. (hey I am not even Indian to begin with) . … I dont have the real basmati rice that for this briyani, subsituted with Thai fragrant rice that I stock for everyday cooking. But I do stock the many spices needed for making my rice yellow and spicy.

Spice and Rice locker

Most cooking that I do is on the weekends, and weekends are mostly on Calliste now. .. The natural place to be storing my many spices is therefore the rice and spice locker onboard Calliste. .. And the wayof storing them properly is using small square tupperwares, labelled and stacked in the locker just behind the sink.

I never realize that so many spices are neccessary for my  cooking. Check out our stash! Gee… some are low. We really are not prepared to go on a long trip with our spices. .. yet, but we will definately fill every container before we head to the pacific.

Home Cooking

I havent actually been cooking much lately, being busy with work at the office, moving boats around, StickY.BusinesS  and not doing too well health wise. Finally a weekend, after knocking off many important things to do during the day, found some time to indulge myself a little..

My kitchen. Like the mossiac stove top? "DIM" "Did It Myself"

Over the last 3 months, I had quite afew incidents of ”Transient Ischemic Attack” or TIA for short. .. I am not even 40 and going thru this “mild stroke” sorta thing is depressing.. .. well.. anywell, the 1 thing that is established is that I have low haemo, caused by low iron… what causes low iron in my blood is still a mystery, 1 for the Gastro Intestinal clinic to sort out. .. but I will eat what I can and try to improve my condition.

I did a research on foods that are high iron and iron absorbtion aid and inhibitors. Ok, some modifications to my diet. Totally cut out tea drinking, because the tannine inhibits iron absorbtion by 70%! Less coffee drinking and never during mealtimes. Marmite is a good source of vit B6 and B12, essential for the body to form haemos. I like white bread and the nutritional info says it gives my 3mg iron for 2 slices, YES! I am having bread for breakfast as often as I can… or cereal is great too.

Cockle cevichi. Vit C is great for iron absorbtion

Seafood is a great source of iron… and cholesterol… but my chols levels are really good, and my iron levels are really bad! So I better wake up and realize that seafood is GOOD for me! So are EGGs!

Oven baked crab sticks and fish fingers

Currently, my blood iron is extremely low, indicating that my iron store (the liver) is depleted. RDA recommends 18mg iron per day for adult women, and I am setting my personal target at 30mg till my levels return to normal. … BTW, I am now counting my iron like how some people are counting calories… I have a tracking sheet…

Tada! My sorta seafood dinner.

Bread – 3mg, 1 large eg – 1mg, 100g beef – 3mg, 50g liver – 4.5mg, veggies – 1mg …. 100g boiled cockles – 28mg. Thats the comparison, seafood vs my regular foods..

Alrighty, so here it is… my dinner, oven baked crabsticks and fish fingers, 1 egg darkened with soy sauce, soupy rice and cockle cevichi on the side… + ice-cream beer float!

OhMy OhMy! Its CNY again!

This is one of those weeks that I am extremely busy… why? you might ask.. since I am not into celebrating CNY or V-day… well, lets just say I am “more or less” Chinese.. and I “more or less” enjoy having 2 new years every year..

Was done spring cleaning of Eleanor last weekend with great help from Doug.. everything was brought out and the interior cleaned thoroughly! I should have done this long time ago… but as you know.. never got to it..

And yes, there is much to prepare. .. nope, I am not baking new year cookies.. but I hope we wont starve while everyone else is gluttoning .. and I dont like to jam with the last minute groc and food shopping crowd… so I made a food itinary and got all the greds early! The art of frozen food cooking is Dougs’ speciality.. ..

See! “clam juice”.. made from boiling real fresh clams 1 week before CNY and then frozen to keep fresh.. To use, empty contents into a big pot, add diced potatoes, carrots, onions and whatever… makes a great clam chowder!

.. and my groc list 5 days ahead of the big feast day? 1.5kg minced pork (thawed by the supermarket, freeze again by me… I think thats not very good… but it cant be helped), carrots, 1 turnip, lots of onions, 20 eggs…, bunch of chili, cloves of garlics, 3 packages of wanton skins … oh yes dried shrimps and waxed Chinese sausages.. and glutinous rice… yum! what am I going to make… you’ll see..

A little better, s’il vous plait

I was a little embarassed when I brought some friends out to dinner couple of nights ago, at a pretty well known restaurant serving chicken rice in Serangoon gardens. We were early and the waitresses were happy to serve up quickly.

More diners came and soon all the tables were taken, and the room was loud with lots of chatter. .. above that chatter was the occasional (rather too often) drop of utensils and used plates into the wash bin that was in a corner of the room.

We might be in the middle of a good story and then a loud “thump” “clang” of stuff being dropped into the bin. .. I saw my guest “jumped out of their skin” at each crash. It was disturbing for me to see such inconsiderate behavior by the waitresses, but I dont think they deliberate did that. This is a restaurant with 1st class food, 2nd class environment and 3rd class service… very sad… I dont think we will ever go back there again, despite the best tasting chicken rice in town.

Another discovery, my visitors (mostly from the US) actually prefer to eat at hawker centres rather than mid range restaurants or air-conditioned foodcourts. Can you guess why? How about these reasons: 1) Bad enclose acoustics resulting in very loud chatter and loud dish dumping noises 2) Too crowded and even if seats are available, its usually near a central dish dumping station or else its in the alley way or worse, near the toilets…. under the exhaust air vent from the toilet itself! 3) Too business like.. no local charm in the food that is served.. food are prepared by uniformed robots in branded chain food outlets.

We might be better than most… but there is alot of room for improvement… dont you think..? Starting from our expectations. If we take everything now and think it is good enough, then we will never get there.. .. very sad..

Thanksgiving 2009

This is 1 long day in my life, and probably 1 that I would remember at future thanksgiving. I thank God that 2009 had been better than 2008.. cos we didnt get turkey last year.. For us, and like many other people, 2009 has been a year of slow recovery from our financial diaster of 2008. This year, we find ourselves in the right mood and have a little extra to celebrate with a turkey.

Weighing in at 9.5lbs, our very own little turks

What do I know about turkey cooking? Its not in my culinary skills set. So its all up to Doug.. and he makes the best turkey meals that I ever had.. After 5 years, .. u would think that I learn a thing or 2 .. nope.. …

Stuffing with real fresh water chestnuts. They were great!

Some people find it amazing that we can cook decent meals onboard a small boat like Calliste, a 28ft BCC. Its incredible that we even have a good old marine oven and stove that would fit a small turkey.

A fun picture of Doug and turks

Doug had fun with the turkey preparation. We are all in pretty good spirits today.. 1 day later than the actual thanksgiving. A day off from work for Hari Raya Haji that we conveniently renamed Thanksgiving..

Turks stuffed and sealed with pins.

Turks stuffed and sealed, ready for baking. ..

Golden brown turks! The skin was sooo gooooD!

.. After 3hrs of baking… yes it took all that time.. surprised? We were!

BTW, we are firm Norbest fan. Never a Buttonball for us! The red popup button indicator for fully cooked turkey is a must! And it works! All the time.

Chinese style stir-fry Shrimp in tomato sauce

My last good Shrimp in tomato sauce was too many years ago.. when Ah Ma was still around and doing a fair bit of cooking. This was 1 of Ah Ma’s signature dish.. IMHO. Simple, quick, easy and goes well with rice or noodle. ..

This was a simple dish that I somehow never attempted… until now. Why now? Guess I must be missing Ah Ma again.

Starting with the ingredients preparation. 300g medium shrimp, shelled and deveined. 300g squids, cut into rings, tentacles may be used if you like. 1 medium red onion, chopped in half, then quarters. 2 garlic, minced. 2 fresh tomatoes, chopped into 1″ size.

Seafood in tomato sauce.. Yummy!

Next, make the sauce. Mix 2 tablespoon ketchup, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 teaspoon light soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional), 1 tablespoon cornflour into 2 cups water. Stir well.

Ok, now ready to start cooking. Heat oil, fry onions until soft and slightly brown. Add garlic and stir-fry until garlic is slightly brown too.  Add tomatoes, low heat, simmer for 2 minutes. Add seafood, stir-fry around. Add mixture, stir well. When all seafood is cooked, turn off heat and ready to serve.

Egg noodles. Really quite tasty.

See, its that simple. Ah Ma never use squids for this dish… and I wonder if she uses salt? My kitchen was salt-less for many years and my mum and sisters never like my cooking. Ah Ma never complain about it though.. ..

Egg noodles in Seafood in tomato sauce.

This is my 1st attempt at this.. and it dont quite have the same flavour as I remember.. … I will use more ketchup and a little more sugar next time.. maybe a touch of pepper, and some fresh chili flakes.. 

And the noodles, for 2 serving. We bought this package of dried egg noodle. Me thinks its for 3 serving, but we only use 1/2 the package for the 2 of us. It was enough for a light lunch. To cook the noodles, boil 2cups water, add noodles, stir regularly. Turn off heat when noodles are soft. Drain and serve onto plate. Pour Seafood and gravy over the noodles. Tata!

Making Ceviche onboard S/V Calliste

Ahh… once again… .. we are making Ceviche. sigh.. havent we had enough of this sour stuff yet? .. well, .. this time we have help from Van.. she wants it more than we do, so shes gonna do all the hardest part of the work.

Whatever it takes to make it a good one.

6am, go to wet market. Bought 1kg fresh white meat fish, 1/2kg squids, 1/2kg large prawns. Almost 2kg limes, 2 large onions, some Chinese parsley. You have to be early at the Sg Rengit wet market to get these stuff.. really..

The galley feels a little too crowded for the 3 of us, so I choose to work in the cockpit, leaving Doug to use the galley space, Van to do the limes on the chart table.

Very good squids. They turn out very well in this batch.

Van is a fast worker. She finished squeezing the limes, as I chopped up 3 garlic and 2 onions finely.

workspace in the cockpit.

Then she came out and help with the chili flaking, while I go back down to steam the prawns. By this time, Doug is done with cutting the fish meat into small bits.

White snapper meat filets before cutting up.

We start the Ceviche going with putting the fish, onions and garlic into the lime juice. Adding the sliced squids and prawns as and when they are finish.

Prawns are only steamed lightly. Our last batch, prawns were over cooked.. were a little tougher than prefered.. Thats me, turning the prawns over, allowing only 1 min on each side. Doug’s abit worry that the prawns were still raw, .. never trust his judgement on that… as soon as the prawns turn pink all over, I remove them from the pot. Our conclusion after the 4hrs taste test, the prawns were perfect!

Lightly steamed prawns.

On the prawns prep, I choose to steam before removing the shells. Seems like shells come off easier after steaming. We are firm believers in removing the “poop”. Van was a great help with that!

In less than 2hrs, the Ceviche prep was done. A record for us. Shortest time taken. Still it would take 4hrs in the fridgerator before we could do our 1st taste test. … Enuf time for a short paddle upriver, cooking and eating a lunch. .. Taste test, this is a very promising batch! Only needed a little soy sauce. Yum! Opps, I forgot to take pictures of the Ceviche itself! Oh so dum!