i was clearing up my locker at work when i came across an old fish and chips recipe that i scribbled on a piece of paper. the special thing about this recipe was that it was given to me by a former ‘client’ of mine who had since been released. the last time i heard, he had his own stall selling western food in the western part of singapore.
anyway, i’ve tried using the recipe and boy, was it good! the crispyness of the batter really made it delicious. i wasn’t really surprised as this fish and chips recipe had won an award in the iron chef competition held earlier this year. and now i’m sharing the recipe with you and also as a reference for me if i ever want to make fish and chips. the ingredients are as follow:
1 packet of pacific dory fish fillet
1 packet breadcrumbs
300 grams plain flour
50 grams corn flour
3 tablespoons cajun spice
3 tablespoons mix herb
2 cans soda water
2 slices of lemon
ground pepper
salt
add the plain flour, corn flour, cajun spice and mix herb together in a bowl. mix them with 2 cans of soda water. stir well. add the ground pepper and salt to taste. lastly, squeeze the lemon juice into the batter.
prepare the breadcrumbs on another plate. try getting the japanese version, i think the packaging is in yellow. dip the fish into the batter and cover it with the breadcrumbs. fry till golden brown. enjoy!!
for your info, you can get the cajun spice and mix herbs at cold storage or mustapa centre. i think the brand is called masterfoods.
anyway, if you think that its rather troublesome to cook, you can get good fish and chips at surprise surprise, long john silver! no, i’m not talking about their normal fish meal. have you tried their traditional skin-on fish and chips? its quite a huge piece of fish fillet. although the price is dearer than their normal set, its rather worthy as the fish is juicy and the batter is so crispy.
so next time try getting the skin-on fish and chips for a change and you will know what i mean. but if you think its rather expensive, try the recipe, your whole family can enjoy, simply shiok!!
this song is so infectious!! a great song to brighten your day. love her voice.
“One Two Three Four
Tell me that you love me more
Sleepless long nights
That is what my youth was for…..
Old teenage hopes are alive at your door
Left you with nothing but they want some more!!!” (again, again!!)
btw, its sung by a canadian lass named leslie feist, but she called herself simply, feist!
i think the kids at playgroup went to ikea this morning.
they were supposed to go to the public playground but it’s still wet from yesterday’s rain, so i guess the teachers thought to bring them somewhere nice and dry as a pre-children’s day treat.
children’s day! haha! (as you can tell, i still can’t believe the whole my-child-is-in-school thing.)
anyway, dadam as usual refused to go to school in the morning. this boy’s got a lot of delaying tactics (just like me when i was small!) such as refusing to bathe, refusing to wake up, etc.
heck, i remember i used to recite to my own grandma this famous line when i was too lazy to go to preschool in the morning – “mummy cakap sekolah makan boleh ponteng, nanti sekolah betol tak boleh ponteng!”
ahh, what a DARLING i must have been. *rolls eyes*
so anyway, according to my mum, aniq became the self-appointed drill sergeant and took over today – he went to the tv and demanded “tup! tup!” (translation: “tutup tv”) and pushed dadam from behind and went “go! go! go!”, telling him to get a move on.
maybe he knew what an exciting time they were to have at school later.
back to children’s day, i hope they didn’t think to give out any ‘goodies’ either.
strangers, most notably adults (occasionally older kids, but that’s forgivable), just LOVE to offer sweets to small children, nevermind their age. it’s like a Standard Operating Procedure, they do it on auto-mode. “hello little boy/girl, what’s your name? you want a sweet?” *magically whips out a bottle of sweets and rattles it under little boy/girl’s nose in temptation*
like, hello! firstly, they, namely those below two, could choke on candies, especially the hard kinds, or even chewy kinds for that matters. all those warnings about toys with small parts as choking hazards? sweets are small parts, plus they taste AND look yummy, all the more incentive for these little guzzlers to gobble them up without a thought to suck first!
secondly, at least ask the permission of their parents before offering! i would rather not deal with the potential problems of sugar rush and rotten teeth, thank you very much, unless you intend to partake in the caring of a super-tornado child and future dentist bills. (and don’t tell me milk teeth don’t matter! i like them pearlies nice, white and unsullied by baby cavities for as long as possible, please.)
thirdly, there is zero nutritional value in sweets, is there? what’s there, glucose? fructose? wait, don’t they have that in, hmm, fruits? i’ve spent so much effort and $ in providing him with good stuff in his body, i’m not about to ruin it now over some damn candy, not on my watch! he”ll have a whole life ahead of him to ruin his body himself!
the other day when we visited my dad at the hospital, the boy had wandered outside the ward and came back with a piece of chocolate in his hand.
with NUTS!
at 9.30 PM!
courtesy of the NURSES!
where do i start?!
thank you nurses for dispensing with your chocolatey treat to match the ‘sweetness’ of the little boy, but isn’t there anywhere in the medical handbook that children under two years of age should refrain from eating nuts, in case of allergic reactions? ok, so he survived, but not after he rolled around for a whole hour in bed trying to sleep – chocs at night are a no-no in certain ngiao parents’ handbook after all!
bah.
ok, so i’m sure many veteran parents out there will snigger and smirk at the mad-control-freak-mommy rant above. i’m sure some proud parents have kids who are expert sweet-eaters/fizzy-drink drinkers/potato chip munchers at merely one year of age, and that they’re perfectly-behaved, wonderfully-adjusted and beautifully-developed. kudos to you and your flawless parenting skills, i am in awe!
but really, i’d really rather not take the risk. i’m new at this, so would rather err on the side of caution.
alamak. that reminds me…
hari raya coming up!
looks like the mad-control-freak-mommy has to switch on her vigilant mode on HIGH.
and all you aunties ah, please don’t lure him with colourful sweets when we visit, can?!
oh, and that also includes cherry ade/apple zest/grape f&n, etc.
and here i will do the makcik-makcik thang and say, “eh, kalau dia sakit, batok-batok, siapa yang kena jaga? maknyeeee jugak, tau! tolong sikit, eh! jangan nak susahkan orang!”
disclaimer: i admit that i AM okay with giving chocolates sometimes, if it comes in biscuits or breads or cakes or as dips. and i’ll most likely relent with the occasional kuih tat and choc chip cookie and kuih lapis, coz they’re much more interesting to taste and he loves trying out new foods. hey, i’m not THAT depriving ok. pfft! :p
“Our last four children were so junk food deprived that we seldom let a morsel of packaged, junk carbohydrates enter their mouths. Then, when they entered the world of junk food at birthday parties and preschool, we noticed that although they would delight in a piece of birthday cake or candy, they did not overdose. And if they did overindulge on junk carbohydrates, not only did the food taste foreign to them, they felt ill afterwards and would report having a case of “yuck tummy.” Because they had been fed nutritious food during the first three years, they made the connection between eating good and feeling good and eating bad and feeling bad. We had programmed them to crave nutritious foods and shun junk foods.”
- good ol’ Dr Sears
i click on “Create New Post” every freakin’ day and stare at it blankly for many many minutes and i click “Sign Out” because…
there is simply NOTHING to write about!
well… there IS that, but that’s published under “Private”, so that doesn’t count.
so i shall ask the floor:
are there ANY topics in particular you would like izadnhana to blab/yap/crap about??
eg. upcoming hari raya preparations (pathetic; no bajus nor kuihs bought to date), hot gossip in the blogging world (no idea), the new CPF reforms (lagi no idea), aniq’s infuriating phrase-of-the-moment (“no more!” after running away with snatched item and hiding it from owner’s sight), their views on britney’s mtv performance (missed it, thankfully), the next big concert to attend (BEP vs linkin park vs $0 to spare), whether ‘live the dream’ participants should be shot (yeah, like fiddy-cent), what incredulous identity to take on in the game show ‘Identity’ (this is tricky, needs more deliberation), a thesis on mcdreamy’s hair (grey’s anatomy tonight, yippeee!), etc etc etc?
i know it’s early – VERY early – but i thought i’d just store up the potential baby names i’ve collected for later consideration.
note that they’re ALL boy names. ha ha.
(coz girl names would be easy. i think. and besides, i don’t want to get disappointed after conjuring up so many fantastic girl names and then not being able to use any of them if it turns out a boy. so there.)
i figure it’s only fair to make it another A name, to go with the firstborn. pattern lah, katakan. and most likely, it’ll come tiered with an Izhan as well.
1) Aidh – Name of a reciter of the Holy Quran
2) Aydan/Aidan – Help, Intelligent
3) Aryan – Of utmost strength
4) Aqeil/Aqil/Aqeel – Wise, Intelligent
5) Aqram (Akram) – More generous
6) Arfan – Gratitude
7) Arif – Knowledgeable
8 ) Aqif (Akif) – Focused
9) Ariz – Respectable
10) Arez – Leader of nation
11) Aizat – Sweetness
12) Armaan – Desire, Hope
13) Arsh – Dominion, Crown
14) Arshaq – Handsome, Well-proportioned
15) Atiq – Ancient, Noble
16) Azad – Freedom
17) Anaz – Emperor
18) Arib – Bright, Brilliant
i haven’t warmed up to any of them, mind. i’ll definitely need more time.
it’s always been a yearly routine, more like a ritual. i’ve been to the ramadan bazaar for as long as i can remember. my dad used to bring me to the bazaar when i was small. he seemed to know most of the sellers back then as they were mostly made up of the kampung glam residents, but now it’s different, new partners with new faces sell their wares here. but its inevitable, the times are ever changing but one thing stays the same – the food!
went on a mini shuttertrip with my photobuddy jeremy on sunday. it’s been a while since i took out the dslr camera for a spin. we revisited the kandahar street bazaar. the place was as usual, bustling with activity. long queues at yusof power briyani dam stall and the battle of the kebab stalls. i noticed that there are 3 kebab stalls this year. but surprising, only one ramly burger stall.
for the complete photoblog, check out my flickr here
i’ve been following the COE prices for the past 2 months and the latest open bid COE result for september shows a slight drop in price in category A (cars 1,600cc and below and taxi) COE from $17,999 to $17,941, while there’s an increase in category B (cars 1,601cc and above) COE price to $19,589 but surprisingly the COE price in the open cat dropped from $19,323 to $19,199 (source from LTA website)
anyway, i wouldn’t be surprised if the COE price hit $20k next month. with the rosy economy outlook, many people are rather optimistic about the future, which is good in a way, but not so good for people like me who is shopping for a car!!
ever since the last post on buying a new car, i’ve renewed my insurance and road tax and put off thinking about getting a new car until baby colt started to get other ideas, the door locking system had failed on me for the 3rd time this year! maybe now, its justifiable to consider shopping for a new ride
also the wifey finally relented to my request of changing the car, wasn’t really hard, considering my prophecies came true. higher coe price, car giving problems etc…
after going through our finances, we can only afford the sub $70k cars, so that means continental cars and honda stream are out. my first choice was the toyota vios but after looking around, the toyota axio and honda airwave look rather promising. the wifey is also attracted to the airwave, “…. the silver colour one looks striking, eh?” she quipped.
airwave, mini mpv or
toyota axio, the saloon choice?
so anyone out there got any views about the axio or airwave? perhaps you own one or know someone who is using them. or maybe you think you got the perfect car for us that is within our budget. let me hear your 2 cents or 5 cents worth, hehe…
one of the teachers called on monday and asked me, “are you expecting?” well, i was expecting her to ask, some day or other, and she had to know, some day or other. i said yes.
well, she was actually calling me to tell me that earlier, aniq had cried till he vomitted (he tends to do that when he’s REALLY crying, we’re very used to it by now) and they had to change his pants. she suspected he had a bit of a tummy upset, but he was alright after that and proceeded to eat two slices of cake from a birthday celebration of one of the other kids that day. but she said he had burst into tears out of the blue a few times, which was out of character for him, since he’s always usually happy and carefree. he’d call “ma!” and point to the door. he’d be reading a book and suddenly cry, or some music made him sad for no reason. she thought it was a ‘rewel’ kind of crying, typical of small kids whose mothers were, voila!, expecting. she said it’s normal, classic even, coz it happens with every one of the kids who was going through the same thing, except that some threw tantrums or wouldn’t let others touch them, etc. so, this sad crying thing is, erm, i guess mild.
and that made me sad too, and i could barely talk with her over the phone coz i was trying not to start bawling my eyes out.
guilt. it hit me, once again, but this time, HARD.
guilt that i’m causing my child’s world to turn topsy-turvy. guilt for having a second child when my first is hardly old enough to understand what’s really going on. guilt for having to divide our time and attention when the time comes. guilt for robbing him of a world he’s already comfortable and happy with.
no wonder my mum waited five years before deciding on having me after my brother. i bet she faced the same reluctance and guilt too.
so anyway, i still feel the guilt, niggling in me, and it probably won’t go away till… hmm, the baby actually comes out? or forever…?
tuesday, i asked teacher again if he cried. she said nope.
and that’s that. he got over it.
i think it was just the monday blues for him. (especially since i’d stayed home with him the whole week before, so i think he just misses me. again, pass me the tissue!)
last week, on the day just before the fasting month, we had a sudden craving for donuts (again!) and decided to check out munchy donuts at east wood centre. seeing that the queue for the donuts wasn’t that long, we decided to do the groceries at cold storage first. but surprise-surprise, after we were done with our shopping, the donuts were ALL sold out, just left with some plain sugared donuts. apparently, they prepared their donuts in batches and the next batch is at 8pm, which was about an hour later!!
oh well, since we were already there, we decided to have our dinner first at the nearby food centre, bedok camp hawker centre aka bedok corner. scanning the place, i noticed a new stall. wow, hawker price italian dishes and its halal too! the stall, called “Gemelli” which means twins in italian, serve pastas and pizzas.
they had a fairly wide selection of pastas and pizzas and considering that they are just a small hawker stall, its really amazing! back when i was still schooling, i used to work at pastafrasca during the holidays, so i know a thing or two about pasta, hehe…. btw, their menu is almost identical to pastafrasca’s, they even have their gnocchis and calzones!
gnocchi which is dumplings stuffed with potatoes is a personal favorite of mine, calzone is pizza folded into two, just like a curry puff! and since its been a while that i tasted gnocchi, i ordered the gnocchi with cream sauce.
the gnocchi came with creamy white tomato sauce with fresh shitake mushrooms and asparagus. the gnocchi was perfect, chewy yet soft, and the sauce was simply delicious. you can get rather full just by eating the dish. the wifey ordered the mushroom soup which was rich and creamy.
we didn’t get to try out pizzas since we are rather full, (also saving the tummy for the donuts later, hehe) but overall, good, definitely worth a second visit. with price ranging from $7-$9, it really easy on the pocket.
so if you are within the vicinity, check out the place, its at bedok camp hawker centre, tucked right at corner, you can’t miss it.
i wish i could just throw up and get it over with!!!
i’d told him this morning during sahur that, that’s it! no more! this is the last time. he merely went “mmm” and continued eating. grrr.
yesterday during buka, as i tried my darndest to eat while breathing, he said the forbidden words.
“it’s all in the mind.”
WTH?!?!
i tell you!
that could rouse the furore and uproar of a billion pregnant women in the universe, i tell ya! in our head, SUUUUUUREEEE. i SO wish they could feel an ounce of the hormones going bazonkers in our bodies, and tell me it’s in our head! your head lah!
so anyway.
the little one was kneading my doughy stomach one afternoon, fascinated by its, err, doughiness, and i told him mummy’s keeping baby inside. he knows now that “baby” resides in mummy’s doughy stomach, and he can peep at baby through mummy’s belly button. he can also talk and sing to baby through the belly button, which he has done so a few times, ha ha. i even made a funny baby voice to talk to him while moving my belly button like lips, and he seemed to find it amusing. he strokes my tummy (occasionally forgetting and pokes it instead) and tries to listen to baby by putting his head against it, and during such conversations, i refer to him as “abang aniq”.
i hope i’m on the right track, introducing him to the concept of baby in mummy’s stomach, and getting him to communicate with it this early. i’ve even mentally picked out a present to give him, courtesy of baby, at the hospital after i’ve given birth! something like a motorised helicopter, perhaps. IF he doesn’t get one for his birthday, that is.
and that post about finding a bed for him, that’s me thinking of the logistics of having two kids in one room, or one kid in one room. aniq is so used to his cot in his bedroom, i’m a bit iffy about putting him in another room. i’ll either have to train him to sleep in a new bed of his choice in his playroom, or let him learn to sleep with a wailing baby in the same bedroom.
i made a mental list of things i *think* i’ve done right the first time round with the firstborn. amongst them is getting him to sleep by himself, without patting or pacifying, in his own room, with no night lights. it’s evolved over time to an interactive bedtime reading routine and switching off the lights while letting him roll around on the floor before i tap his cot, and he indicates he’s ready to be put in bed by going “nak!”.
i thank God that he’s an easy child – SO FAR.
of course, you’ve heard of horror stories about subsequent children who are complete opposites and will make you tear your hair out with the culture shock of bringing up a totally different baby.
i must NOT be lulled into thinking i CAN do it all over again the same way!
she calls herself a (faux) SAHM, sheesh! well, what’s harder is being a SAHC – Stay-At-Home-Child!
i mean, look at the multitude of chores i do everyday.
i cook…
i clean…
and because i’m the obliging child that i am, i even let mummy play dress-up with me. she has sharleez-envy, i tell you!
oh well. at least i have daddy to keep me balanced. he who puts me in football jerseys and make me sit with him to watch football matches.
speaking of which, mummy finally figured out what i’ve been saying all these while (or perhaps, i finally hit the right notes), so i’ve been repeating it to her daily. my sentence goes like this:
“IKIKDABOWWWLLL!!”
of course i’m saying “i kick the ball!”, and now she finally understands me. it helps that she stayed a whole week at home with me to help me refine my proclamation of ball-kicking, and that i emphasise it with the action itself.
other than that, i also delighted her one morning by referring to myself as “a-neeek!”, though occasionally i prefer “nik-niiik!” coz it’s much more fun. she’s trying to brainwash me into answering people should they ask “what’s your name?”, but huh, we’ll see about that.
i’m also adept at saying “i shleeep!” and “i sheeet!”, the second of course does not mean a poo-poo, as you would think, but rather the act of sitting on a chair or the floor.
i could go on a bit and blow my own trumpet (which i can too, literally, with my toy trumpet) but it’s sunday and there isn’t much time left to wrestle and smother mummy with my most disgusting saliva-filled smooches. so that’s on top of my agenda today, as i’m sure is hers too.
ouhh, i smell daddy’s porridge rice and fishball soup in the kitchen. (yup, mummy gave up the whole cooking thing just after one day, ha ha.)
just downloaded got the latest album from kanye west, ‘graduation’. although he seems to be an egocentric SOB, i must admit, he is one talented and creative individual. upon first listening, no doubt with the slick production, he’s got listeners bopping their heads up and down with his tight beats. from the first track, ‘good morning’ to his current single, ‘stronger’. his forte seems to be his wide appreciation of music and influences, sampling from daft punk, the great motown soul, to having chris martin of coldplay as guest vocalist. this is definitely one of his better productions. judge the album, not the man. a must-have album of 2007!!
stand out tracks
good morning (great beat to start the album)
champion (vintage kanye soul sampling)
stronger (daft punk production)
good life (featuring T-Pain, irrating synthesizer whining sampling, but it works!)
can’t tell me nothing (“life is a, uh, depending on how you dress her, so if the devil wear prada, adam, eve wear nada, I’m in between but way more fresher” haha, illest line!)
barry bonds (featuring lil wayne)
flashing lights (great beats)
homecoming (featuring chris martin, enuff said)
big brother (great lyrics, an ode to jigga aka jay hova aka shawn carter aka jay-z)
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airwave, mini mpv or
toyota axio, the saloon choice?
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