french or bombay?

french or bombay? well, since a rose by any other name can smell as sweet, i suppose a toast by any other name can be tasty as well. i'm sure shakespeare won't argue over its namesake with my granny, the author of this culinary masterpiece. i can well imagine him having his english tea while my granny sips her chinese one, savouring the same toast. cheers.

mundane made exceptional

met my brother at paragon's m1 shop around 11.30am. it was his idea that we combine our handphone bills so as to get a percentage discount off our subscription fees. had lunch at
Tori-Q and it was then he said he had always preferred the pork stick because it tasted better than the chicken stick. after that we were at 'that cd shop' for a bit and he mentioned that he just bought a collection of oldish love songs. a mundane day made exceptional because it was time spent with my brother. kinder bueno, something he likes to eat.

talk about favourites, it was interesting that my granny gave me a side report of how that huge box of meiji plain crackers i bought became a hot favourite with my dad and his friend. the supply was depleted in no time... and it was ironic cuz i didn't buy it specifically for him in the first place. knowing the favourites of loved ones, it feels exceptional :)

three in one

the moment i stepped into the house, my granny told me about the cup of something she brewed for me - it has chrysanthemum, gan cao (dried grass?) and yang shen (american ginseng). thank you granny :)

macaroni L-sized

i was out quite abit and when i was finally home, eagerly, my granny informed me that she's got some soup and asked if i wanted a bowl of macaroni. why were they L-sized? these guys are twice the size of the normal ones that are sold out there. well, she explained that she prepared them way in advance by soaking them in water so that it could be cooked quickly and easily anytime. but maybe she soaked them a tad too long? my guess is that she seldom prepared macaroni since she never liked them. i was surprised! the things you never knew until they happened. the irony is that i actually bought that packet of macaroni thinking that she might eat them sometime!

granny's hairdresser

never knew my granny's hairdresser till today. i assume her name is karen since it's the name plastered in a big way across the shopfront. like an old friend, my granny shared like never before, in cantonese - her fears of going out because on 3 occasions, she fell. her controlling of her own diet in order to stay healthy despite the hairdresser's comment that she seems to have lost weight. that i'm her granddaughter and so on.

i must say my granny's hair looks good and gosh, her complexion is really tops, even at this age. looking at her mirror image,

i was struck by those chinese slit eyes...

i am her granddaughter no doubt. just like how we took a cab there, we took a cab back although the hairdresser was only a 10 mins walk away - by my standard. that umbrella hanging there? her walking stick.

flesh of sea snails

abalones. mushrooms. vermicelli. soup.

absolutely SWEET :) who else but granny can whip up such a delicacy?

i wonder if abalone is a fish type. checked it out.

i am eating the flesh of sea snails.

specifically its adductor muscle!

curry in tom yam style

"adding those little red chillis will make it very spicy" my gran was saying, as i was getting ready to tug into this special bowl of curry with rice meal. clear curry soup that is moderately spicy and cooked with no coconut. it's different. it's unique. it's one of a kind - my gran's kind :) curry in tom yam style.

of rats, cats & dogs

so it's true. a cat does chase after a rat. down the corridor, a cat with keen eyes, furtive movements, was eyeing that grey long-tailed scavenger. i sat down and watched. so still. both anticipating the other's next move. rat turned its body a little, cat sat up almost immediately. so precise. i whipped out my camera phone. cat eyed both me and that rat. turning its head left to right, right to left, purposefully. it's at times like these that i wish i had a camera with a superpower zoom.

more still moments. until the rat decided to scurry to a pillar. cat ran after it. rat hid. cat stopped. cat planning its next move. cat watched. rat remained very still. cat moved towards the rat, with caution. till at one point, cat and rat looked close enough to each other, that it seemed they almost kissed. now - i thought cat would pounce on rat and do what cats do best - shred. instead, after what seemed like a split second, rat hid further in, cat backed off. i was surprised and oscillating between disappointment and relief. did i really want to see cat shredding rat or rat cleverly escaping cat? cat went behind the pillar. and then in front of it again. rat ran to a neighbour's door. neighbour opened door. rat scurried down the stairs. in a flash, nimbly, cat followed suit. both stopped in their respective tracks. bidding their time. listening out. ever ready. up, down. down, up. always on the lookout, always on the go. never a moment of rest. i wouldn't want to live a cat's life, even if it has nine, and even less that of a rat. a rat race in a dog-eat-dog world is no fun, and never mind the cat. as fascinating as it was, watching the chase, no, i don't really want to see a dog eating another dog in real life.

butterfly bun

morning walks to the market will consist of buying fried doughs. long ones and butterfly shaped ones. some days when my gran is too tired to walk, our neighbour will offer to buy them. one time, a friend of hers from our previous neighbourhood came to visit. my gran came to my room shortly after, handed me a butterfly bun and said "aunt bought this for you". her body language tells me that she wants me to eat it while it's still warm. she must have shared with the neighbours that 'huay ji' is my favourite.

when asked about the mandarin translation, gran thought for a while and managed to convey these meanings - 'huay' means flower and 'ji' means fry. however, she doesn't seem too sure and it does boggle me that the hokkien term doesn't seem to match the english term. but the dough does look somewhat like a butterfly. oh well, what matters most is the soft fluffy interior when one bites into the crispy exterior; and my gran's sweet gesture.