Bye Blanco

Bye Blanco
Originally uploaded by Taking5

Blanco left us on 14 Feb 2010, the first day of Chinese New Year. He did not come for dinner and after that when we went looking a neighbour told us that a dying cat (prob hit by a car) had staggered into his driveway.

Blanco -your sweet temper, warm and affectionate manner will always be remembered.

(I've got to post some more positive cat stories, the last few are all so depressing!)

Houses by a Lotus Pond

I have always liked Vietnamese art.  A few years ago, I bought one piece by Le Thiet Cuong.  And last year, when I visited Hanoi for the first time, I bought another piece. But where the first piece was an original, this was a work in the style of Minh Son, and similar to some of his paintings (a sort of impressionistic, water liles-like foreground, with a more delicate background.  Hanoi has a number of little reproduction shops which churn out copies of more famous works, or paintings in the style of a famous artist.

The original would probably have cost me upwards of US$600. But I was not comfortable carrying such an expensive piece back to Singapore.  My copy, on the other hand, cost me all of US$35.  I carried it from Hanoi to Halong Bay, all rolled up.  I had to get it reframed once back in Singapore and after some procrastination, finally hung it up on my bedroom wall today.  I should say, that the original work was more refined and more "finished", altogether.  But I hope you like it, as I do.

Christmas

Inspirational Christmas Poem

By Oren Arnold

Christmas gift suggestions:
To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To a customer, service.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect.


My own effort

Christmas eve with the family
Grace said as dinner starts
Smoked ham, roast vegetables, turkey
Sugee cake, pineapple tarts

Children and a Christmas play
Here we come a carolling 
To the Lord above we pray
For tomorrow is Christmas day!

Blessed Christmas, everyone!

French Cooking with Julia Child

I took my first French cooking class more than a year ago. That started me off baking, after I realised how easy it was to make a delectable chocolate lava cake. Actually there were some issues there with the outcomes because my actual oven temperature was well below the stated levels and I had to deal with underbaked cakes, but the process was easy enough. So I tried out a few recipes from Chocolate and Zucchini and went on baking from there. But where French cooking was concerned, that's as far as it went.

So fast forward a year and a bit. I'm flying back after a holiday, the in-flight entertainment hangs for the umpteenth time. I borrow my cousin's copy of "My Life in France" (MLiF), Julia Child's (JC's) story of her introduction to France, French food and the art of French cooking. I read Chapter One, end of flight, return book. Interest definitely piqued. A few weeks later, my cousin SMSes: do I want to watch "Julie & Julia", a movie based on MLiF and "Julie & Julia", a book by Julie Powell, a blogger who cooked her way through all the recipes in Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" within a year. We go to movie, I walk out and buy "Julie & Julia","Julia's Kitchen Wisdom" (a slim little book which JC describes as a "mini aide memoire for general home cookery") and borrow MLiF from my cousin. That's what Meryl Streep's exuberant, effervescent portrayal of JC can do to a person. I highly recommend both MLiF and the movie.

Going through the recipes, I started with a basic omelette. JC highlights the technique (the ingredients are same old, same old - eggs plus butter, salt and pepper) which her French chef teacher taught her - the "shake-and-jerk" method. You beat the eggs, season them with salt & pepper, put butter into the frying pan and when it's hot, add the eggs. Allow the eggs a few seconds to solidify and then pull the handle vigorously towards you. Somehow Newton's Laws of Motion apply and the egg curls up upon itself in the frying pan till it is a beautiful, neat oval. Then you sort of unmould it into a plate. My unmoulding technique needs work but nonetheless I was very happy with my efforts. Next, scrambled eggs. Beautiful.

But making an omelette or scrambled eggs are not something to write home about. I set my sights on making beef bourguignon, a dish which is not easy to spell or pronounce. It was featured twice in the movie and frankly it made me salivate just watching. My brother's birthday provided the occasion. My mother provided the beef. It only took me five hours to turn out a thoroughly delectable pot full of tender beef in an absolutely scrumptious broth, chock full of carrots, onions, mushrooms.

It was a slow, painstaking process which started with my making lardons (streaky bacon boiled for about 6 minutes to remove salt and smoky flavour), then drying the beef with paper towels before frying, to facilitate browning (what Julia doesn't tell you: use good quality paper towels which don't stick to the meat), and then popping beef, lardons, browned onions and carrots, one bottle of red wine plus assorted herbs and beef stock in a pot and cooking till the beef was tender. Whilst the beef was cooking I sauted some mushrooms, and brown-braised sliced white onion. The recipe calls for pearl onions but I couldn't find them in Fairprice so settled for a large white onion. The onions were fried in butter and oil till brown, then added chicken stock, a teaspoon of sugar and salt. They turned out silky smooth and sweet and yummy beyond words. The mushrooms and onions are added to the beef when cooked. But I still wonder how the pearl onions would have turned out.

Reactions: I seem to have gotten good reviews all round. There were leftovers, but I put that down to the rather excessive quantities of beef my mother thought necessary for the occasion. And this gives me an opportunity to eat more of the dish.

For anyone who wants the recipe, the link is here. I should note that there are differences in the recipe and the version in Julia's Kitchen Wisdom. Kitchen Wisdom omits the dredging with flour before the beef stock and wine added. The tomato paste is also replaced with a can of diced tomatoes.


Julia: I'm hooked!

Visiting Vietnam

Oh, also recently went to Hanoi and Halong Bay, Vietnam. Photos have been appearing in the Flickr badge on the left column of this blog. But if you want to see and find out more, here is the link: Vietnam photos.

(I've decided that it is not necessary to write about every single holiday I take. In fact, it's rather a nice break not to feel compelled to do so.)

Cat Update - Good News and Bad News

Ready to go
Originally uploaded by Taking5

It has been a while since I posted an update on the cats. That's not because it has been uneventful; on the contrary there have been many events, most of them sad.

First, Brucie. Brucie was this beautiful brown Siamese-Birman type cat who used to live in the road next to us but moved down a road or two some time back. He used to be a fierce, aggressive cat who actually attacked cats he felt were invading his territory. He was sterilised after injuring a cat belonging to someone living nearby; the owner of the injured animal took him for sterilisation thereafter. But over time, he was relatively friendly and came by for feeding regularly. Over time, however, his condition deteriorated somewhat. Then came the ear injury, which he recovered from. But thereafter he had another jaw injury and couldn't eat. He disappeared for a day or two, by the time we got to him and took him to a vet the prognosis was poor. So we put him down.

Then our dear Casey cat felll ill. She was not eating and was a little feverish. She was taken to the vet but there her true nature emerged as she gave the vet and assistants a hell of a time. She resented the subcutaneous drip, and the antibiotic jab. She ran around the vet's clinic and hid behind his computer. We brought her home after that but she still wasn't eating or drinking so back to the vet she went. This time she stayed for two nights. She came home with a collar around her neck, her long sharp claws clipped and a bandage over her paw when the intravenous saline drip had been inserted. The vet was labelling her a "psychotic, semi-feral cat". That's our Casey for you. Oh, and apparently she jumped and hissed everytime any one passed her cage. What to do? Our sweetie is used to a peaceful, quiet environment where she is an absolute Princess. Not a place where people grab her and poke sharp needles into her, full of antiseptic smells and worst of all, Other Animals. Anyway, she recovered and is fine now but those were a stressful few days (especially for the vet).

The next incident (and this is the good news, the only good news) was the advent of Smudge. Smudge was found on the roadside, by my father. We brought him home and cleaned him up. It is such a pleasure having a kitten around - playful, mischievous little things that they are! Smudge got on well with his big "uncles". They loved playing with him, and he for his part loved wrestling with them, a small little David to these surprisingly gentle Goliaths. I put him up for adoption (via facebook) and was so fortunate that a nice lady fell in love with his adorable little photo. She came by and within the hour had made her decision. She brought Smudge home, took him to the vet and made a monumentous discovery - Smudge was a she! Well, well, well. But Smudge has made a happy home with her.


Finally, Sootie. This is indeed the saddest story of all. We had been looking after Sootie for some time now, probably for slightly more than 3 years. The neighbours a few doors down also loved him, especially the two daughters of the house. Friendly and affectionate, Sootie loved showing us the white flash on his belly. Then one morning, I opened the gate to drive out. As is my normal practice, I did a cat scan (a scan for cats) to ensure that I didn't reverse over an unwitting animal. I saw Sootie lying against the gate. I went to check what he was doing and realised that he was unnaturally still. We picked him up a little and realised that blood was flowing from his mouth. He must have been hit by a car, or run over, but there were no visible wounds. His fur was still beautifully soft and lustrous, his body still a little warm. But that was the end for him. It's been about 6 weeks, but we still miss him very much. That's why his is the first photo at the top of this post.

End of Pilgrimage

So ends this pilgrimage, and on with the rest of my life!