A culmination of food desires

apologies for the lack of new prose on this blog. Close friends would know how busy i was, no time to sit down and sift through the stuff i wanted to blog. I had definitely started on the note of the knife though.. wanted it for my 22nd Birthday. unfortunately the price tag is a little out of reach for myself or any of my equally impoverished student friends. I even went as far as going and physically checking out the knives, and realised the 6-inch version is better for me, as opposed to the scarily long 8 inch.

One thing about knives is that they're severely underestimated in the kitchen of the average home chef. I've had the fortune of learning to cook with good knives at home, so on the occasions i had to use *erm*, i loathe to say cheap knives, but thats what they are really. okay.. cheap knives, i've inevitably managed to hurt myself. either wrist pain, nicks on fingers, and in one case, blisters.

My little red handled henckels' paring knife was beginning to get blunt, and the tip had been broken off thanks to me using it to pry apart frozen sausages one too many times. so as one of my many birthday treats to myself, i bought a new Henckels TWIN grip black handled paring knife. The cutting sharpness is ggreat. But the blade is thin, so bends alot, thus feeling really flimsy... and is very slim, so chopping is even harder. I know i have no business using a paring knife to chop, but in a hostel kitchen, its hard to have so many knives. Also i'm still a knife snob, so find it hard to use one of the cheap knives. I figure its all about getting used to the knife size and shape.

The week was spent eating out mostly, hawker centre favourites, showing an Irish friend the tasty side of Singapore. Kitchen activities were limited to morning coffee, some simple food to stave off hunger in the afternoon. But everything culminated in two huge ass dinners, one cooked by me mammy, and the other by me for my friends. I totally let myself down by forgetting to charge my camera before going home for the birthday banquet my mother organised and prepared. But just for posterity's sake. There was...

deep fried grouper
tom yam tilapia
steamed promfret
tomato prawns
chilli crab
pepper crab
deep fried marinated pork
braised chicken with nam yu and lap cheong
"New Year" soup (always made for reunion dinner and first day of the chinese new year in my family. Pork and chicken bone base, with chinese cabbage, canned mushrooms, fishballs, stuffed foochow fishballs, fish maw and some other stuff my mammy puts in when she feels like it.)
stir fried bittergourd
stir fried chinese kale
beetroot salad
Bubor Cha Cha
and i honestly cannot remember what else.

see what i mean by "pity i forgot my camera" ?
everyone was there, grandma, several aunts, kid cousins and of course my very own immediate family. absolute madness. But meals like that are great, because then everyone is too full at the end to run and jump. even the children.. hhehhe... all just sit around to digest. Peace and Quiet at last :D

For the birthday dinner i made, it was just an excuse to get my best girl and some other friends to come to my hostel and stuff themselves. Chicken curry, dry fried curry prawns (as requested by a friend who saw the earlier prawn post) some vegetables. eating out of disposable plastic bowls and paper plates, on a straw mat on the ground. (my new favourite way of 'entertaining' guests, but more on that later)

But the point of this super long post is, that the cumilation of all the birthday frenzy resulted in a most wonderful gift from aforementioned best girl. Last year i got a big fluffy pillow 'cause i complained i had not enough, and this year, she bought me proper white corelle crockery so i could eat off a proper surface! Don't you just love a practical best friend? But most importantly dear reader. This also means, i'll be able to take more pretty photographs of the things i cook to eat!

cheers! and.. Happy Birthday to ME!