Big birthday bash

28 Oct 05 - My first uncle's 80th birthday bash. There is a long and complicated history between my first uncle and the rest of the clan but that is another story for another time. Suffice to say, he is not somebody I particularly admire or have much respect for other than that he is the first-born of the clan and apple of my long passed grandmother's eye. All my other uncles were here for the big bash and they were the ones I was really excited at seeing again. Being the *cough* filial niece that I was, I took friday off and accompanied everyone around for the whole weekend. The real reason was because (1) I dont have to go to work and (2) big clan gatherings always mean good food and I really mean that...just the 2 days they were here, I had a north indian buffet lunch, a mega expensive seafood lunch (Alaska king crab, giant steamed oysters, 2 huge steamed fish, geoduck sashimi), breakfast at the prata cafe @ botanical gardens, a stuffed to the gills dinner at Tung Lok and the birthday bash dinner which also stuffed my gills.

Anyway, back to the birthday bash. It was a pretty elaborate(by my standard) celebration with great pomp and grandeur. There were 10 tables, a 9 course dinner that didnt end til 11pm partially because some guests didn't arrive til 9pm, a huge cake with heaps of peaches on it, a professional photographer that took non-stop photos, a big red banner that all the guests had to sign and my very dressed up cousins and aunt. However, the guests seem to be there just for the food and when the cake was being cut, everyone just stood by and watched with disinterest. It is a bit like going to a wedding dinner of a colleague that you know but don't work with. You stand when the mc says the bride and groom are walking in, you clap when told to and for rest of the evening, you were more interested in examining the menu and commenting on the standard of food that was being served.

Yep, it was a very entertaining and eye-opening event indeed. I am still trying to decide if my cousins are stupid or just plain egoistic.

Updates and a new baby

Haven't been posting for a while now coz office work is getting seriously busy. Busy enough that I don't even have time for pee breaks. After office hours haven't been any more relaxed either but I did managed to find time recently to make a beaded ring for a friend's birthday. Yeah, its more economical and less time consuming to make something than to find a gift at Orchard. Hubbz said it was odd looking but I thought it was pretty unique. Anyway, he won't be wearing it so haha


Look weird meh?

Anyway, A gave birth to a baby boy today after 14 hours. Baby and mom were ok even though the new dad was very shaken. He is a doctor himself too. Tsk tsk.

Birth time: 1756
Birth weight: 3.355
Birth date: 19 Oct 2005
Name: Either Jac or Jake (parents still collecting votes on names. Jac seems to be the fav at the moment)

Notti boy made mom underwent an emergency C after 4 hours of no progress pushing for his arrival and scared the pants off his dad as well. Also bit the mom while breastfeeding but he is a good sucker or so the nurse says which made all of us rather relieved. Not only is he going to get enough nutrients to grow up big and strong, we also realised that he won't be turning out to be like his dad who only eats when he is near starving. Potential food connoisseur this little one.

Can't tell yet who he takes after but he definitely won't have a flat nose and he has 2 dimples so he will probably be a lady charmer when he grows up and he has the definitive Yim family chin :P

Anyway, will be visiting A pretty much every day these few days so even less time for blogging.

Caffeine overdosed

Perhaps I am getting a bit senile these days...

I normally limit myself to a mug of coffee per day but I had coffee from freshly ground beans for breakfast this morning because I wanted to finish the pack of milk in the fridge. Went to the office, promptly forgot about my breakfast coffee and had another mug of coffee from the Jarrah coffee mix that my colleague pass along for me to try. .

I only remembered why I was this O.O awake the whole morning at about 11am and all that time I was still boasting to my uni classmate (over email) that I didn't doze off in the car today and was very alert even though I slept at 2am the night before. I even remember wondering vaguely why I couldn't seem to doze off in the car like all the other days.

30 minutes ago, I wanted to take shots for this week's friday food fiesta sugar week (see above) and chose chocolate covered coffee beans. After taking the shots, I promptly stuffed myself with a whole pack of the said candy and then only remembered 5 minutes ago that shit! that's another mega dose of caffeine for today.

Yeah...am definitely getting senile these days.

Thai Pomelo Salad n other news

I made this on thursday night sort of on a whim.

The assignment for this week's flickr group friday food fiesta is fruits and I wanted to get a picture of a cooked food dish made with fruits rather than just a usual picture of fruits like what most people have got in the group. So anyway, the only two fruit dish I know of are both thai in origin. Papaya Salad and Pomelo salad. I usually go to Orchard Towers for the papaya salad and basement of takashimaya for the pomelo salad but ever since Thanying (the thai restaurant at Taka ) closed down, I havent been able to satisfy my craving at all. The thai pork green curry dish (and spicy basil pork) I attempted last week was really sucessfully so I thought I would try my luck again today which explains the making of the aboved dish on a whim.

I've researched the basic pomelo salad recipe on the web and tweaked it a little to make it more similar to what I had at Thanying. The results were surprisingly good (am very proud of myself) so here is the recipe.

Recipe

Pomelo (broken into small bits)
Cooked chicken breast (shredded)
2 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
Juice of a quarter lime
Deep fried chopped garlic
Deep fried chopped dried shrimp
Deep fried sliced shallots
Chopped chilli (seeds removed)
Slivered kaffir leaves
Dollop of coconut cream

Mixed all up and enjoy

Note: I've marinated the chicken breast in chinese wine and cracked black pepper before cooking for more flavour. Otherwise steamed plain is also fine. Ingredients which I havent got amounts for are meant to be added according to personal preference.


In other news, we went to Mag's wine kitchen to celebrate Hubbz's bird day. The food was really realllly good even though they werent of gigantic proportions. No pictures either (reasons below) but I do planned to go back there again some time soon so I'll promised to take pictures then. The place wasnt really quite what I had envisioned. I was thinking more of a calm super efficient kitchen since it was open concepted but I think (actually I know) the chef /owner (Maggie) was in a really volatile mood tonight.

The place was packed when we arrived. There seem to be a wine tasting group at the big communal table next to ours. Their bottles of wine were wrapped in foil and everyone was busy scribbling on the pieces of paper they had in front of them and having animated discussion. Not sure what was being discussed because it was all done in north european language. Another table had 2 couples that were perpetually going outside to have smoke breaks. Another couple came in right after us and halfway thru dinner, we realised that there was also another big party upstairs. Yep definitely very packed.

Not sure if it was the stress of cooking for so many people at one go or if it was because her staff were quite inefficient but we could hear the chef's raised voice the whole night. Scolding the other chef cooking along side with her, yelling at the waitress, cursing at the waiter...
When we heard the first faint "F" word over the noise in the restuarant, we thought it was one of the 2 couples sitting at the other end because that was the only table with women that I couldnt really see from where I was sitting but nope...it came from the chef. I guess this would be pretty normal in most restaurants. Afterall, restaurant kitchens are a highly stressed workplace but this did take some getting used to. After we got over our initial surprise, the rest of the dinner was "audio-ly" quite entertaining.

So, conclusion. The food was fantastic. I would definitely be going back there again even if the chef was still cursing and swearing at her staff. Patronising on a quiet, not so busy afternoon might be a good idea if you find the thought of hearing the chef sprout "F" words disturbing. 2 course dinner is $40 +++, 3 course is $55 +++, 3 course lunch goes at $35+++. Wine can be bought by the bottle but the ones I saw on their list were pretty pricey. Glasses of house pour wine at $12 were of pretty good quality though. Hee.

Mag's Wine Kitchen
86 Circular Road
Singapore 04943
8telephone: 65 64383836
email: mag@magswinekitchen.com