Before Flying Out Tonight, Neighbor Cooked These Dishes

Mackerel fish with stir fried cauliflower, carrots and minced pork

Corn on cob with carrots, pork bones and Szechuan salted vegetable

Part 1 View Without Showing Fish Bones Except for fish spine.

Part 2: 2nd View with fish head bones shown

Neighbor’s Cooking On Adhoc Basis This Week

Fried yellow noodles with veggies, fishcake and pork

Pork tripe soup boiled with chicken in peppery soup

Fried parsely with sprouts ans fishcake served with chia seed rice

22 Sept 22 dinner was spinach soup with anchovies and some red fermented bean curd for color

Pumpkin belly pork rice with salmon

Birds Nest With Dried Longans Dessert

Birds Nest is made from the saliva of the black swallow. These nests are usually found in the steep caves of Malaysia, Indonesia and even in Vietnam.

It is very expensive to buy birds nest as it can cost thousands of dollars.

Restaurants sell birds nest dessert for SGD60 to SGD100 a dessert bowl. Usually double boiled with white fungus and red dates, I decided to use what I had – dried longans.

These 2 pieces of dried birds nest that has been factory purified cost were a gift from a good friend many many eons ago. It cost my friend MYR300.

As I do not have a double boiler, I used a crock pot or slow cooker after I soaked the 2 pieces of birds nest with hot water.

I boiled it for 4 hours and the birds nest dissolved, which means it is not genuine birds nest but mixed with agar agar or seaweed gelatine. My friend got conned into buying “jelly” like substance and parting good money for it. It is edible though.

Finished product – longan tea with birds nest. I kept it in the fridge to slowly savor every spoonful next week. I added rock sugar, a bit to taste as dried longans has some sugar already.

It was successfully made👍😃

Neighbor’s Cooking – 1 To 3 September 22

1 September 22 dinner was a Filipino dish of fried pork with brinjal and beans. A side of blanched spinach was also added. She added 2 rounds of Korean sushi made with tuna flakes and miso doufu soup with seaweed.

Japanese Miso soup

2 September dinner was delish. Fried noodles with fishcake, pork & vegetables. Accompanying soup was pork bones with radish and carrot chunks.

3 September 22 lunch was soup -corn on cob with tomatoes and pork bones. Stir fried veggies and chicken cuts stir fried in soya sauce, seasoned with curry leaves.

Delicious! Neighbor is still busy managing 2 grandsons and often stay over at her daughter’s place. So she cannot cook for me. But when she is home, she includes me. And for that, I am grateful.

Neighbor’s Cooking On 23rd & 25th August 2022

23 August dinner, chia seed rice and baked salmon head. I bought the salmon head and shared 1/2 the head with Neighbor’s helper who cooked it for me. It was served with a side of corn on cob soup with pork. Delicious!!

Chia seeds cooked with rice

1/2 salmon head baked

The other 1/2 shared with Neighbor’s helper for her dinner as Neighbor was not in.

Corn on cob with carrots soup with pork

25 August 22 dinner was Bak Kut Teh or pork ribs cooked in special herbs and served with chia seed rice, blanched baby napa cabbage with a slice of fish.

True Or False? Can Any Canadian Verify This?

Ketchup lovers are in for a summer treat! French’s has released limited-edition ketchup-flavored ice pops, dubbed ‘Frenchsicles.’ The summer popsicle will be available in Canada at certain pop-up locations until June 24, but the food brand has also released a recipe online to teach you how to make some DIY ones at home, too.

Canadian ice pop brand Happy Pops collaborated with French’s to create the ketchup popsicle, in which they used 100% Canadian tomatoes and sweetened with organic cane sugar. French’s says it will donate two meals to Food Banks Canada for each popsicle it gives out.

Food Hodge Podge

Since Neighbor has been caught up with family affairs to do daily meals for me, she is still very kind to include me in1 to 2 dinners a week. This week, her dinners were simple but delicious.

This is a perennial fave of both Neighbor and I. Lotus root soup slow boiled with pork ribs and peanuts. It is a flavorful soup and I love to crunch on the lotus root.

Bittergourd soup with pork ribs is a healthy soup in that it is touted to be “cooling” to the body system and stave away flus and cough as it reduces the heatiness of daily stressors

Rice with stir fried belly pork and string beans

Wedges of doufu, corn on cob, chopped carrots and pork rib soup

By having erratic meals from Neighbor, I have had to have my colleagues do take away meals for me and they have gone rogue as they entice me with all sorts of delectable treats.

This is locally handmade pancake rolled up with different fillings

A side view of the different fillings from Left to right, red bean, cheese, coconut shredded with brown sugar and the peanut butter made by the seller. The usual antiquated flavors since my grandparents’ days are red bean and peanut butter.

This is the typical pancake flan that is wrapped with red bean and cut into wedges

This is Earl Grey Tea Cake with Chia seeds. It is delicious but sinfully decadent because of the sweet icing that is flavored with Earl Grey Tea. Well made and it only cost me SGD2.20 per slice. If sold at a cafe, it could go for SGD4 to SGD5 per slice

It also happened that brother decided to call me last night at 9pm and shared what he had ordered to eat at the local shop in Hong Kong where he usually dines before going home.

Noodles in pork broth and topped with salted sour mustard vegetables

A side of specially marinade of soy sauce and spices on cut cucumbers as a side

Food is favorite topic in Lil Red Dot and with the relaxation of Covid 19 safe distancing measures, the population has gone rogue and on a vengeance to eat at their special haunts. Good news is that the F&B business is picking up again and the foodie nation is back in action.

As for me, now that I have supped and slaved like a minion, my bag of bones has been killing me. Thankfully I have this special embrocation oil that Piglet bought for me to use.

Black Chicken Embrocation oil that has elements of eucalyptus, menthol and other heat evoking items that is formulated into this bottle. Proudly made in Singapore, it cost about SGD13 to order online although the packaging states SGD10. Again thanks to Piglet for this life saver (and not the rolled candy LifeSaver LOL!)

Spending Saturday With Marleeeena (M)!!!

Steeples, a family runned deli located in Tanglin Shopping Center. Photo image courtesy of M.

“Marleeeeeena” is how I would holler when texting my classmate. We have known each other for a long time and I am so grateful that we are still keeping in touch and having fun!

Marleeena is an adventurous chef Boyadee and would buy kitchen gadgetries to lighten her time in the cooking space. I am not in anyway like her, as I am the sort that just boils, microwaves or toasts!

We had initially planned to cook a meal – brunch, using her latest kitchen helper, Thermomix. But it fizzled out as fast as it was suggested.

Why? The un-inviting idea of washing up threw that brainwave out of the window and we ended up eating a sandwich at Steeples when the Deli at Nassim Hill had a long line waiting for tables.

Steeples resides in a sleepy corner of an old but iconic mall – Tanglin Shopping Center that has already been sold, enbloc to make way for a new mall that is more relevant to today’s shopping trend.

I have not set foot in this mall for a long time and much less knew about this long time existence of Steeples that sold sandwiches and operates till 6.30pm on Saturdays.

We got there in the nick of time as by the time Marleeena placed out orders, the line formed had more than 20 people waiting. Our seats allotted were near the exit and it was just cosy.

I settled for a pulled pork sandwich and latte whilst M had her craving for a Reuben sandwich fulfilled with black coffee. She is quite a coffee connoisseur and foodie as she knows where good places to eat were located.

Typical us quickly shared half a sandwich of what we ordered with each other and M commented that she liked my choice of the pulled pork sandwich on a type of focaccia bread. I think it was because of the pickling type of dressing used and it was tangy and delightfully tasty.

Still M was satiated with her craving of her Reuben sandwich. I had her half share for dinner last night and it was ok, though I preferred my pulled pork tangy sandwich better.

After brunch, we browsed through an old shop selling qi paos or cheongsams from Hong Kong. I was looking for an outfit for my upcoming award ceremony with the Dukes of Yore but did not manage to find the right size. Yesssss, I need to lose weight! Sigh!

It was fun looking through the old merchandises that were sold in the eclectic mix of shops – Chinese art and artefacts, Peranakan jewellery and tailors. It gave a sense of nostalgia as these trades are few and far between,

We then left for M’s house. I have always loved M’s house as it is designed like a Balinese resort to me. But before that, M decided to do a dessert and off we went to a mall near her home, Oh My Village. My first time there, I found it a hive of activity with eateries. It was not horribly crowded but had a nice ambience to it.

M picked out coconut milk, a new product that we were both interested to know how it tasted. After tasting it, I felt it was a good coconut milk to use for Chendol, a dessert treat and M felt it was too watery to be used for cooking curries. We agreed on sweet potatoes, green beans and water chestnut dessert.

M’s house Surrounded by her garden and a water feature, I spotted yellow lemons, calamansi limes and ugly limes. She is self sufficient in Pandan leaves and it was so convenient when she decided to make dessert using her Thermomix. M does have green thumbs.

On and all, dessert was excellent although we felt the spinning and peeling of the waterchestnuts were left for too long and it came out as a small morsel of its original size. With Lemon grass, ginger, pandan leaves, it was a delicious dessert.

All good times came to an end and I was given a ride home by 6pm as M had a family event to attend to.

It is always good to sit with M and chat about our school days and sharing it with M’s husband as we chatted and talked about things under the sun, which included Buddhism (which I learnt from M’s husband who took it from an academic view running down the differences of Indian, Tibetan and Thai Buddhism correlating to Taoism and Christianity)

I really appreciate the company of M as she treats me like a family member and genuinely cares about well being.

Thanks M and S for a lovely Saturday outing.

Neighbor’s Cooking Week 15 July To 20 July 22

Dinner for 15 July 22

Kitchen is closed for 16 July & 17 July.

18 July 2022 dinner

Neighbor’s kitchen has closed for this week as one of her grandsons is unwell. So she needs to stay over at her daughter’s to take care of the 2 grandsons.

Neighbor’s Cooking Week 11 July To 13 July 22

11 July 22 – Monday lunch was fried rice vermicelli with veggies and eggs.

11 July 22 – Monday dinner was braised soya sauce 2 chicken wings and a drumstick with veggies and rice.

13 July 22 – Tuesday dinner is my fave lotus root soup with carrots and corn on the cob boiled with pork bones. Braised chicken wings and drumstick and a hard boiled egg. Yummy!

Wednesday & Thursday kitchen is closed as Neighbor’s grandkids have swim classes.