Feeding Frenzy

So the urge was on me again (the cooking frenzy descends intermittently, this time probably caused by the latest NMRC grant call), and I strong-armed a helpless couple into coming over for dinner at short notice ("...but I hear the lamb calling my name"). Picture shows the appetizers, arranged for visual impact. Quite pretty-pretty I thought. Half the fun is in the plating and I got a kick out of using my new plates from Robinson's (square!), along with placemats I picked up from the poshy houseware store in Montreal.


Here is the menu:

Appetizers:
Buffalo mozarella with tomatos on the vine and balsalmic vinegar
Baby asparagus and proscuitto
Smoked salmon with herbs and capers
Pate de foie gras

Main:
Roasted lamb with dijon mustard, macadamia honey and rosemary
Salad greens with red wine vinaigrette
Sauteed marsala mushrooms and basil on angelhair pasta

Dessert:
Tiramisu (dusted with valrhona chocolate powder, courtesy of Shermay)

We paired the dinner with a 1999 Australian Shiraz, a little lacking in depth (disappointing) but nonetheless managed to cause hives in one of our hapless guests. Quite a nice dinner, but of course Steffi refused to eat anything except for the bread and asked for leftover mantou from lunch. Ben of course was easy, and had his epiphany when he tasted foie gras for the first time. Significant other also put foot in mouth...you mean no little biscuits with tea and coffee? No, because this was decided in the morning, and I was busy going to market at 7 am, Steffi's ballet at 9 am, brought kids to Tanglin Club to change library books , then to Cold Storage to pick up foie gras, then fed 2 grumpy kids lunch, forced them down for their afternoon nap, brought Ben to his Tien Xia chinese tuition, finished off drive home with a long lecture on how bad his attitude to work was and how he should not expect to have non-stop entertainment lined up for him in the holidays. Biscuits indeed. Sugar Honey Ice Tea (new mommy expletive learned from Madagascar the Movie).

Public transport

This is a real blast from the past - was at the transport display at the Jurong Library which had a nice little showcase of bus tickets and the ticket puncher the conductor used to wield. It was a pretty good system, except that there used to be ticket stubs stuck everywhere - in the joints of bus seats, in the windows...we used to collect the tickets when we were kids just so we could play bus conductor at home.

Since coming back from the US, I must admit to my embarrassment that I have not stepped up a bus or into the MRT at all. Maybe it's a bit of a reaction to having to sit on the illegal Hispanic but across the George Washington Bridge every day for 2 years, along with bomb scares and the like. I remember the time there was a big scare on the GWB, the bus I was on stopped suddenly and because I was in my favourite seat behind the driver, I couldn't see the road ahead. First thing I saw was an NYPD helicopter hovering at eye level next to the bus window. So we sat there, all the traffic stopped for about 2 hours. Called Stanley in Fort Lee who was trying to find out what happened on the news, but in the end someone got off the bus and found out that there was a bomb scare because this guy who jumped off the bridge had left his briefcase tied to the side of the bridge. So the poor guy did make a big final gesture. The bag was fine (except sans owner) and so were we (except this lady behind me who was a little upset because she really needed the loo.

Since coming back to Singapore, I've been really spoilt with my own car (albeit a rather boring Toyota Altis...oh for a nippy BMW open top), but there is a lot less second guessing the weather, the traffic and the trials of car-sharing with my significant other. Of course, there is now a scrape down the side (thanks to tiny hospital car lots and general poor judgement), but it's hard to imagine a life without wheels again.

Hand foot and mouth again...

So here is Steffi's ulcers again. Better than the previous bout, but still painful and she has gone back to sign language. Now Ben is down too, not with any obvious ulcers yet, but (wonder of wonders) he did not eat at the steamboat dinner for Grandma's 56th birthday. Tant pis. He can afford it, and maybe this will shrink his gianormous appetite for a bit. 

freezing to death

It's raining, it's pouring, and I am completely frozen. Aircon in this office is blasting away and I swear either I have Raynaud's phenomenon or incipient frost bite. Have been at it, desperately trying to catch up with work after taking a half day off yesterday. Steffi has had attack of Hand, foot and mouth disease, episode #2. The first time, she was off food for 5 days, and I was seriously worried about her being dehydrated. This time, she has fewer ulcers, and is less miserable, but very "manja". Luckily her KoKo is on holiday and is able to pander to her. Now he even has to lie on her bed to keep her company when she wakes up from her nap.

Anyway, still on the frozen mode. Have these grand plans to create a profiterole christmas tree (see non-christmas tree model in picture) for the festive season, only with many more layers for the grand finale. Only problem with lack of space in my fridge/freezer. Probably will end up a really small tree. Plus I will have to make the center support - maybe from wafer...hmm needs some construction and design skills, maybe less complicated than Ben's cloning machine. Anyway, can't wait to make the ganache with the valrhona chocolate samples from Shermay's cooking school. Now to find people not on diet to share in the sin.

Back to the Drawing Blog

Had an extremely long break from blogging because of the neurology meeting in Sydney and trying to cope with grant writing and lab work since coming back. Out of 9 days I was in Sydney, I think I had perhaps 1 1/2 days off to see the city. Plus I was dumb enough to sign up for teaching sessions at 7 am in the morning, so had to wake up at 6 am (3 am Singapore time). We did manage to sample really good food, though. Golden Century, Ying's, and not forgetting the tim sum place at Market City (trolleys and rude waitresses). Picture shows the kids posing with a piece of lung each (origin: poor hapless Aussie Cow). Never knew this as a tim sum dish, but this is Australia after all!

Anyway, after coming back, I had the angst-filled experience of getting my son's first report card...so it wasn't as bad as waiting for my MRCP 2A results (where I was convinced I had failed), but just a whiff of that feeling came back again as I looked at Ben's little blue book. It was surprisingly decent, considering that Fat BoBo spent the majority of October whining about having to pick up his books for the exams. So all my muttering about "if you don't study, you will become a road sweeper or a stable boy next time" appears to have worked. Plus, despite his fine motor difficulties, he managed to get an A for art and craft, which is amazing considering his father and maternal grandfather's history in this area (50/100 at best!). So the next thing is that I get an e-mail from the school giving the statistical analysis of the class and school performance in each of the 3 subjects - mean, SD, Max, Min. I know that we analyze results for tertiary level education, but this analysis (at primary school level!) has brought the "my kid vs your kid" thing to a sophisticated high.

Back to work, back to work. Have to answer some magazine with questions like "what are the 5 most common delays in children?" while trying to trouble shoot a real time PCR experiment. There are days my job is so schizophrenic I get the urge to lose it all in a frenzy of shopping. Christmas is coming, so hopefully I lose my angst in the ka-ching of the season.