Friday

See you south

Today

Strange vegetables

Did you know that the celeriac is the root of the celery? You cook it like you would potatoes but the best thing about it, is that it has fewer carbs than potatoes. Tastes like celery, but nuttier Wikipedia describes it. Hmmm. I don’t like celery that much; I used to hate pansit that had celery bits in it. Kohlrabi on the other hand is actually related to the cabbage. The following way of cooking it appeals to me: For a simple side dish, sauté the sliced kohlrabi in a bit of butter in a skillet. Once it begins to show some caramelization, season it with salt, nutmeg, and a little sugar​ for increased sweetness. Continue cooking until slightly al dente, with a bit of crispness, and serve it immediately.

The end of single-use plastic (for real)

Don’t get me wrong; I think I can live without plastic. But if it’s there like in the supermarkets, I will use it and won’t feel guilty about it. But this is it- the government is banning it for good.

Spend like a penshioner

So a much older friend advises me, and with Uber rides now starting at $14 for a 6-kilometer minimum, I decided to do public transport. By the time I got back, I had saved myself $56. I felt very virtuous after that.

The Gold-Card hour

All the passengers on my bus had gold transport cards and it always gives me flashes of my future- that’s me eventually. And strangely, I’m at peace with it because it’s inevitable. A couple of things could be different; I would be immaculately dressed because that’s non-negotiable for me; I could finally be driving instead of taking the bus (Dear Elon, pls sort out your self-driving cars ASAP).

Dinner at Berta's

J'aime la France: la vie insulaire

J'aime la France: la véritable âme de la ville

God save the King

Cutting the ‘coronation cake’

The Weekend (in photos)

Where is autumn?

It seems that as far as the weather is concerned, you will never quite know what you’re gonna get

Can you have your cake and eat it too?

I go for the full cream, full sugar one…

Stack it

Well, couldn’t find a brioche bun bigger than this, but three patties it is!

The Prom King

My nephew had his prom/soiree over the weekend and it was light-years away from what we had at the old and dusty Sison Auditorium. I would actually like to travel back in time though to attend one

Anzac Sunday (2023)

Pork belly

It’s great to have a recipe that works consistently: basically, you cook the (seasoned) pork in the over at 140 for four hours. After that, you take it out and put it onto a cold frying pan, fleshy side up. Put enough oil to cover the skin and watch it blossom into the perfect crackling you’ve ever seen. No prepping, boiling, foiling or pricking with fucking pins.

Fruit salad of your dreams

European people LOVE it because what is there not to love about fruit, cream and condensed milk?

..and it has to have coconut

I finally found the right coconut which is young coconut, but I think I draw the line with adding cheese.

Saturday

Power breakfast

I don’t buy bacon that often because I end up eating all of it myself (all 2kgs of it). But it’s been months, so…nothing beats a breakfast full of fats and some rice. The scrambled eggs used four eggs.

Birnam Wood

I could’ve read ‘The Luminaries’, it wasn’t that of a big deal, but I just didn’t like, didn’t get the subject matter. But this one- read the 1st 10 pages at the mall while having coffee- sounds promising.

The viral round croissant

Some call it croons (??). I’ve been meaning to try it after seeing it on all my social feeds, but just couldn't organise myself to go to Newmarket’s Luna Cafe which was the 1st one to offer it. This one is from Z Pattisserie. If it’s supposed to be a croissant, then the texture is wrong- it’s too dense and bready as opposed to being a bit chewy and flaky. I wouldn’t rave about it, but I’m not giving up on it yet until I get to taste Luna’s.

Fat for breakfast, fat for dinner

But I did this in the air fryer so…

The eating is almost done

The Weekend (eats) in images

Christmas treats from Pōhutukawa Pantry

Smashed burgers

Not going to cook my burgers in any other way

Research before you buy

This is at Gilmour’s which has none of the ‘excitement’ of Costco, but has a lot of what you actually need (do I need another 3kg bag of peanut-butter filled mini pretzels???). We’re having a party for some friends in the coming weekend and we’re pleasantly surprised at our final Gilmour’s bill; not as horrendous as we thought because we spent the better part of an hour comparing prices with what’s available at the normal supermarkets.

Malaysian cuisine

We were wanting some comforting Vietnamese soups but the rain made parking a challenge so we ended up at Uncle Man at Southpoint which had sheltered underground parking. At $68 for four dishes includiing two generous entrees (the chicken skin!!!!), you certainly felt that inflation was just a bad dream you had the other night.

Photo Dump

Tuesday

Got my Twitter account restored. I’ve been contacting Twitter support for months with ZERO response until Elon Musk came in and in less than 30 seconds, was able to login with a new confirmed email address. The guy’s a TWAT, but he must be doing something right, like firing incompetent, sanctimonious Twitter staff who can’t even solve simple technical issues.

Happy Thanksgiving

An American colleague gave me a can, but with everyone dieting- and not really liking pumpkin as a sweet dish- I’ll just save it for Christmas

Have you put up your tree yet?

I thought I was an all-rounded creative, design genius, but apparently, that’s not true. I can’t even bring to life, the Christmas tree of my fantasies which this year is meant to be ‘Bird Forest Extravaganza’- this little fellow made of discarded feathers and styrofoam will do.

When the economy is hurting

Plant a tomato…

When the economy is hurting

Buy yourself some Prada…

The Weekend (in images)

I like browsing through antique stores but I haven’t really been keen on buying anything. I don’t like used stuff in general (unless it’s family stuff) and more so if they were stranger’s possessions.

Day out (in images)

Part of the weekend (in images)

Essentials

Went to Costco with Toni and Washington and this time, Lay’s Potato chips were available. I got FIVE bags and the kids got toilet stacks of toilet paper

Painting using a grid

I’ve never tried it because I don’t really paint or draw, but I’m trying again. And just as I suspected, you can upload your image to a website where it does the grid for you.

Prep

The usual butcher (online) where we get our meats had a sale on pork belly ($24 when it’s normally $30 a kilo) so I got some and it turns out, there was a catch. The pork had a higher ratio of fat over meat- but there was a silver lining to this. Instead of slow-roasting the whole thing which I normally do, I ended up with three lots; one for just crackling, one for adobo (pork and chicken) and the 3rd lit for grilling.

Plants need care

M who does the garden said that the small lime tree was being attacked by small white insects. I’m oblivious to these things and we wouldnt have know otherwise if all of us were garden idiots. So we got some spray to deal with the fuckers.

Saturday (in images)

Saturday morning (in images)

Early this morning, I was woken up by the cat meowing loudly in the spare bedroom we’ve christened the budoir- a walk-in closet of sorts, the racks now groaning with winter coats and jackets, the floor, three rows deep with shoes. She was clearly looking for something, and without my glasses, I couldn't make anything out on the dark, hairy rug. And then I almost stepped on it, my big toe touching something (still) warm; it was a small wax-eye with that distinct while colouring around its eyes and that dusting of pistachio green on its head, wing-tips, and tail.

It was literally the early bird getting caught by a cat.

Lily has a bell around her neck so it’s either she’s clever and the birds are dumb or the birds are clever, but she’s cleverer. Or she could also be cunning- an adjective that is a step above clever. There are so many ways of looking at it, but does it matter which one is more accurate? Or truer?

It’s too early in the day to mull over these things so you just take a breath and to realise that you need to see the fundamentals; this is the nature of cats, and birds are prey in the hierarchy of things.

The sun’s out (in spite of weather predictions to the contrary) with a nice stiff breeze so you can do the laundry. You woke up early so now you have time to replant the blue cypress that hasn’t been liking its pot. You can work on that presentation due Monday. You can do the pork butt, 3 kilos split into two generous portions, one for Korean barbecue and the other for a pulled-meat recipe. So I did all these all before 9:30am.

Life is a combination of circumstance and the choices you make to work with these and sometimes, you don’t need to be as clever as Lily the cat.

You just have to do it.