kha khoon kaa

i've just gotten out of a bangkok jam at 12 midnight. sung karaoke with japanese, thai and taiwanese. bohemian rhapsody, ABBA greatest hits medley, a thai band called blackhead and a japanese love affair song.

it ended with let it be. oh what a day - all in the name of duty.

had a fantastic nam nua - roast beef thai salad.

let it be... good night!

pan fried salmon & tomato salsa

after the last 3 weeks of rushing around madly, i've been totally zombied. finally summoned some energy on saturday to cook something at home.

went to little india that afternoon. wondered around lembu lane and picked up some wonderfully ripe and red and fat juicy tomatoes - good enough to rival beef tomatoes from the
supermarket.

but dinner was entirely minimal fuss, for lazy people. ready to eat in ten and with more than some semblance of healthiness.

pan fry the salmon in olive oil, skin side down first, sprinkle salt and ground black pepper liberally. remove from pan and brush with unsalted butter.

i love my trusty blender...

tomato salsa - leave to develop flavours for at least 10 min
2 large ripe tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
1 shallot
1/4 tsp mustard
1/2 teaspoon sugar
blend all the above into a coarse puree and spoon over fish.

i ommitted the cilantro and lime juice cause mr.T hates that sort of stuff :S
but i love it usually. and if you are using the salsa as a dip for chips, you can hand dice the ingredients or leave it chunkier. you can also boil up the sauce a little if you are averse to very "raw" flavours of garlic and tomato. i'm cool with having anti-vampire breath and the laziness outweighs the added efforts required.

vintage furniture for sale!

i like, i love... but my house is not a mansion, so cannot have it all in there! a friend is moving his interior design agency, so he needs to clear some stock.

restored, refurbished and re-upholstered, all the good "re's". minty fresh condition but with a lot of character. buy quick - forget the ikea sale, that's furniture without soul!

All good chairs deserve a nice home!

i'm tired

so tired that no matter how many hours of sleep i get, i find it hard to get myself out of bed in the morning. it's probably not physical fatigue.

i'm tired of spending 8 hours a day in an office making documents and plans that ultimately go no where. it's hard to summon enough motivation to keep showing up in order to reach the 27th day of each month when they pay you. it's been a long time since anyone spoke to me about stuff i cared about or was genuinely interested in. it's been a long time since i've responded to something or someone on an organic level. it's also tiring to have to keep proving that you are smart or can add value. and frankly, i don't really want a "career" cause i don't like selling my freedom - the right to do whatever i please with my time, the ability to say whatever i feel whenever i do feel it.

guess you know when something headed nowhere. i need to quit whining and inspire myself, i know. but for now, i need to rest.

lemongrass and fennel pork

still trying to do more home cooking this week. not much got done, except steamed snapper with garlic and lime on friday. this was eaten with a salad of rock melon and blackpeppered salami.

on saturday did pan fried pork rib eyes. the fridge was still stocked with the aftermath of thai cooking and visits to golden mile the week before, so i marinated the pork with lemongrass. for some reason i always think that of all the meats, pork takes the best to asian flavours. something about the texture lends itself very well to the citrusy fragrances of lemongrass and ginger.

lemongrass and fennel pork - marinade for about 400 grams of pork rib eye, left to sit for 2 hours at least (use chops of whatever cut you like for grilling or roasting)
1 thai lime, juiced
1 tbsp grainy mustard
6 cloves (toasted in dry pan till fragrant)
1 tsp fennel seeds (toasted in dry pan till fragrant)
4 lemongrass stalks, sliced finely - lower part of stalks only. strip off tough powdery outer leaves till you reach the tender, oily inner shoot.
3 inch knob of ginger, skinned and bashed about a little (poor ginger always gets violent treatment)
3 cloves garlic, bruised (another candidate for kitchen brutality)
10 gms gula melaka, shaved
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tbsp chinese rice wine (hua tiao)
good glugs of olive oil to coat the meat

to cook: heat up a pan till really hot, pour in 2 tbsp oilve oil. shake off the loose bits of ginger and lemongrass from the meat, salt and pepper the surfaces genourously. seal each side for about a minute on high heat. lower flame and cook anoother 5 mins till done (depending on thickness). remove from heat and rest for 5 to 8 mins in a plate tented with foil.

i know what they say about undercooked pork and selmonella - but really, there's no need to over do it till the meat is white and flossy like cardboard. nice and tender pink is still how i eat my fresh pork chops/ loins and roasts.

for the sauce: add 1/2 cup of water or stock to the marinade, set on flame to boil while pork cooks in the other pan. once you have removed the pork from the pan, drain off excess oils. clean of any burnt bits in pan. strain the marinade liquids over and cook on medium heat for another minute. on a low flame, add 5 tbsp cream, adjust salt and pepper. pour any meaty juices from rested meat back into sauce and stir it up. happy eating.

truly virtuous

dinner, that is. cold lychees and sparkling water with thai lime. very refreshing for a day (and night) so scorchingly hot.

i've always loved lychees. the thing is that they so truly taste like themselves and nothing else. fruit with a very strong sense of self/ identity - even tinned lychees still taste essentially like lychees, if that explains what i'm trying to say. unmistakable texture, unmistakable scent and flavour. i mean think tinned grapes, peaches, and what naught - all nothing like the real thing.

fresh is best of course - i like biting into the thin shell and feeling the crispy mottled shell give way to that first burst of juice. then, peeling off the top half of the shell like tearing through thick parchement. it's a nice way to pass some time, shelling and eating lychees.

as for the thai limes - we went to golden mile for thai food at lunch on saturday. took the opportunity to buy some soft, fragrant and fat limes. emphasis on soft- earlier in the week i had bought some smaller ones (forced ripe, i bet) from cold storage to make thai-style steamed sea bass. bad mistake. trying to extract juice from those little green rocks was culinary hell (or penance for the calories i ingested at lunch). 6 limes and 1 broken thumbnail later, all i got was barely 2 tbsp of juice! needless to say, i am in total appreciation of these fat, waxy and yielding ones from golden mile!

steak and fries on saturday night

trying to eat at home more this week. feel so weighed down from all that eating out. though home-made fries are just about as oily, i guess the psychological pat on the back of chopping up all those potatoes helps. it's my food-placebo - since i went through some trouble, it should be better for me. i know, it's the "ok, whatever you say" syndrome.

marinade for steak - i used whatever was in the fridge, in this instance there was some withering basil. but i guess thyme or corriander would work equally well:

3 cardomon pods - popped and black seeds used
5 garlic cloves - smashed
2 basil leaves, shredded
1/2 tbsp mustard
glugs of olive oil
black pepper, freshly ground

rub it all over the steaks and set aside for at least 2 hours. before cooking, leave the steaks out at room temperature for 45 mins. while your pan is heating up, sprinkle steaks with sea salt. sear 2 mins on each side. these steaks were striploins, and rather thin, so i only cooked them for an additional minute. remove from pan and make a little foil tent with a hole for steam to escape. rest for at least 5 mins before eating.


after - yum yum, i love salt and added more than i should have!

as for the fries, i parboiled the chopped potatoes in boiling salted water for 3 mins. rinsed under cold water and drained dry. happy deep frying - prepare to clean the oil splutters. after i'm done with the batches, i toss them all in for a final browning - then toss in a very large bowl with salt.

candid camera

a couple of weeks back, SY got himself a new toy - an antique camera. so he was tinkering about with it while we headed out to lunch on a friday. curry fish head at casurina rd. he left the photos in an envelope inside a bag with stuff that i was supposed to send to our Japan office. obviously i didn't undo the package and sent it all off, blissfully unaware. till an email from my Japanese colleague stopped me in my tracks.

embarassing -" i hope we all look good", in jest. reply: all of you look pretty. Japanese humour (boys, you are pretty, hahaha...) or...? nevermind, i just left that one unreplied. bet this made a sniggering round of the entire Japan office. camera man remains unscathed. sigh.