All about food

During the last 3 weeks in Singapore, I didn't have to cook. Rather, I couldn't. 

I chose an apartment with an attached kitchen because the management promised to provide us with pots and pans, as well as gas. Upon arrival, we were told that there was "miscommunication" about the cost and installation of the gas cylinder and the manager could not find pots or pans. Whatever...

Food is everywhere in Singapore. The range and availability of food rank top on the list of things we miss of our homeland. We ate at our parents' homes, hawker centres or restaurants.

If we were hungry at 11 pm, HG would walk down to the Commonwealth market to buy fried beehoon. Cheap, yummy and frankly, too much just before bed.

The night before we leave for Finland, our kids stayed with my parents. So we spent some quality time at Holland V. Supper was sambal stingray, sambal sotong (squid) and fried rice at the coffeeshop. More ticks for our to-eat list. Very tasty and not at a king's ransom - we spent around S$30, including drinks.

Now in Finland, I am happy to have my kitchen back. HG invited a colleague, a Finn now living in Singapore, home for dinner yesterday. I cooked lor bak 鲁肉, a Chinese cabbage dish and baked chicken wings from the supermarket. My kids enjoy stews because the meat is tender and the dish has lots of other ingredients like mushrooms, beancurd and egg.

Living away from Singapore, the internet is an excellent resource for home-cooked food. I discovered so many food blogs. Most are amateurs who love cooking or baking, or moms who, like me, seek out new recipes to keep their families interested in food. The food they cook and their blogs are products of their love.

I discovered love and nostalgia overflowing in Nice Recipes blog. 

The blogger dedicates the blog to her grandmother's cherished cookbook. Besides sharing recipes with readers, she explains the background of each recipe and/or ingredient. Each entry is like a history lesson, a glimpse at what went into mouths in ages past. 

If you are thinking of trying out any of the recipes, cut/paste functions would not work here. This blogger scans the recipe direct from her grandmother's cookbook. To copy the recipe, you have to:

1)  decipher the handwriting

2)  write down/type the recipe

3)  interpret the ingredient list and instructions

4)  apply the recipe.

You see, the cookbook was compiled by hand starting in the 1950s. Nice's recipes remind me of old cookbooks I referred to circa 1980s and earlier. Some units of measurements have changed, some abbreviations are hardly used now, and new equipment and shortcuts have since been invented. 

I've heard that many established cooks, whether professional chefs or cooks confined to their humble kitchens, seldom pass down their recipes. No two persons cook the same way. Certain ingredients they add or technique or extra step would make their food stand out from the ordinary. Their secrets leave with them, so it is said.

Thanks to Niceties, we can still taste bits of the past. Even if you don't cook, you will appreciate her labour of love.

PS Reading this entry again, it occurred to me that perhaps Niceties is not female. I had started by adding "his/" before every mention to "her". I apologise if it's actually Mr Niceties.

Spring cleaning

It's officially spring in Finland.

We returned home yesterday to less white and more green/brown. This morning, we wondered how to dress the kids as we prepared them for school. The usual winter gear, we guessed, since it was around 1ºC outside - much like when we left 3 weeks ago.

By the afternoon, temperatures climbed up to 6ºC. Today was a bright and beautiful day.

As I cleaned out our luggages, I took the chance to throw some stuff out. 

In Finland, wastes should be sorted. The bags you see contained paper, metal, glass, plastics or biological wastes. The cardboard boxes on the left went to the children's school, which will be used for junk modelling. Whatever that is.

I enjoy sorting out garbage. Sometimes, I get confused. Like the time I threw out a tub of unfinished yoghurt into the "Bio-Waste" bin and my Finnish neighbour tried to tell me I should have put it in the "Plastics" bin. But the tub was over half full, I was throwing out the yoghurt inside the tub.

Later, I read that I should have poured the yoghurt out first - either down the drain or into a plastics bag for bio-waste - then the tub could go into "Plastics". A quick rinse of the container is recommended.

Is all this effort that goes in recycling worth it? Many people wouldn't go through the trouble.

I learnt about Reduce, Reuse and Recycle way back in secondary school but never really got a chance to put my knowledge into practice. I've lived in Europe for almost a year. How much long can I keep this practice going?

Don't know. Remember to ask me when you next see or e-mail me.

Making the news

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

I've just had my story published in Helsinki Times.

Sometime into my first year of university reading Chemistry, I thought about pursuing a career in publishing or something related to the creative line. The inspiration came suddenly, like a lightbulb whose switch was turned on.

I've liked science and my favourite TV programmes while growing up include Eureka! or Beyond 2000. In between Nancy Drew, I read Discover and New Scientist magazines, and science fiction by Edgar Allan Poe or Isaac Asimov. Mills & Boon wasn't really my thing.

After all that input, some output was inevitable.

The very first time I had a story published was in Lianhe Zaobao when I was twelve years old. I submitted a composition story I'd written in class and it was published in the children's section. My mom probably still has that newspaper cutting somewhere.

The next few years could be described as my "wilderness". Many of my classmates had a much better grasp of the English language and they could express themselves most vividly. My sentences seemed awkward and cold. Much as I tried, my teachers were not impressed.

In university, perhaps because I was in Science faculty, many of my classmates were copying seniors' notes and didn't spend much time preparing their lab reports. It was then I realised perhaps I have an edge in this field.

So, more than 12 years after that first published story, I was back to writing and publishing, this time for a biotech magazine. My second publishing job took me around the world. And now, as I dedicate more time to my family, I can still do what I love.

Although I've had hundreds of stories published, I'm sharing this latest one on a mainstream medium. It has been a long, 20+year journey - one whose path was not clear at times.

Where do I go from here? Occasionally, I thought I would plan for my future but nothing comes out of it. Other times, when I was not purposeful in what I do, I seem to be taking baby steps towards my destiny. Like this article.

I walk on. Every stroke of the pen (rather, tap of the keyboard) takes me closer to my finishing line.

Tale of two cities

Blogging activity was suspended for about two weeks because I am now in Singapore.

We arrived two weeks ago and are living in a en-bloc development that has been put on hold. The developer re-organises the units and rents them out on a short-term basis. In this way, the company can still bring in income while it awaits better times to build the new condo.

Our first week was spent on organising "home", cleaning up the rooms and establishing a regular routine with the kids. By the time we had settled down, we got ready for my brother's wedding last Wednesday. On Thursday and Friday, I brought the kids to Vivo City and Ikea at Alexandra to enjoy the children's facilities. 

Perhaps we have been away for a long time - nine months this time, and a total of three years since we left for our first posting - Singapore feels different.

I noticed more foreigners and maybe we lived in China for two years, we can spot them rather easily. Many food stalls have Chinese helpers. Even the cleaners at church are partly staffed by Chinese.

We took the kids on a cable car ride, starting at Cable Car Tower (now called HarbourFront Tower 2), passing Mt Faber, then Sentosa and back. Seems that several workers at the Mt Faber point are Indians.

Angmohs are no longer confined to the city area. They look like they fit in the heartlands in T-shirts, bermudas and flip-flops. Very Singaporean, except for skin colour.

Singapore has become an international city. People are drawn to this little island near the equator by its clean environment, keen education system, safe food supply, among other things.

Helsinki and the surrounding capital region has also seen a rise in its foreign population. My family and I contribute to the statistics. As I sense a change in the demographic make-up of Singapore, I am part of the same change in Finland.

 

Cool winter outing

This is our final weekend before we leave for Singapore next Friday. Will Finland still be in winter mode when return in April? We've heard that spring comes in May...

We decided to make the best of this weekend by definitely not staying indoors.

Since our visit to Uunisaari last Sunday, we began searching for our next outing.

Uunisaari is a little island off Helsinki. In summer, it has a popular beach and one has to take a boat to get across, even though it is just about 100 m from the mainland. Unless you are Michael Phelps (and don't mind getting wet), you are less than a minute splash away.

On the website, we read that a suspension bridge is set up in winter. When we arrived, we realised that all we had to do was hop onto the sea. Yes, we walked on the sea again. Everyone else was doing it. Men, women, children, babies in prams, dogs...

We walked to Uunisaari, around it and on it. We also walked to the island next to it. Some parts of the sea just next to the coast was slightly wet so we had to be careful choosing our next step.

Today (Saturday), we visited Ooittaa. It has a camping site and a recreation centre where we can rent skis and other necessary equipment. There is also the quintessential Finnish sauna.

I asked a family from the children's school to join us. We had visited their home some months back and hadn't had a chance to invite them to ours.

Ooittaa is a nature site just next to a large lake called Bodominjärvi. The lake is frozen and a skiing track has been made out on the ice and leads onto land. Our friends told us that the area is actually a beach in summer and popular with Finns who come to tan. Today, we could not tell where the coast starts and where it ends. And even in summer, temperatures in southern Finland hover around 20ºC and don't forget sea breeze. Bbrrr...

The kids found a slope and sledded. A lump of snow which had somehow become a slide and had a hole at the base became a playground. They also had great fun playing on the slide and swings. Children need so little to be happy.

The highlight of this trip was our BBQ. The simple menu of sausages, marshmallows and hot Milo was really fun. The pit was open to all visitors and the centre provided free firewood. People just sat around the fire and placed their food on the grill. We may look like we are enjoying ourselves, but in reality, we were actually freezing. 

Sausages were the most popular food. The other kids looked enviously at our marshmallows so we shared our large pack with them. The Tohs seemed to be the only ones who know what to do with marshmallows at a BBQ. We are happy to transfer some technology.

The pit was tiny yet everyone was happy to share some space on the grill and seats on the benches. The area was generally clean because users tidied up after themselves. Very nice.

I told you Finland is a nice place.