enjoy the sun whilst it's out?

Spring has been a bit of a touch and go this year in London. We had approximately 10 days of fine spring weather and on the good days it almost felt like summer before it all turned again and out came the winter coat.

Today's an exceptional day. The sun was out and the sky was a beautiful blue. I had an impromptu lunch with a visiting relative and a family friend in the city and since the city really is no more than 5 miles away from home, I decided to walk home after lunch!

Only on foot do you really enjoy the sunshine and as I walk past the famous sights of London - Monument, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London do memories of the first time I set foot in London came flooding through my mind. Many firsts, many fond and not so fond memories.

This is truly a beautiful city...

So Londoners, enjoy the sunshine and remember to vote!

think of decorating with vintage?

As some of you (yes you - out there!!) might have already known Dr O and myselves have finally committed to one property after 24 months of mindless weekends of home-viewing.

It initially starts off with much excitement - a little like the initial stages of the courtship but after 20+ months there lies much anger, cynicism and missed opportunities we were almost resigned to not ever finding anything.

No. 31 came as much of an afterthought. It was between an afternoon tea at the Wolseleys that I viewed the property much at the persuasion of the estate agent (who's now becoming a little bit of a nightmare. But hey! He hasn't met me yet! Until now....lol). It turned out to be a charm. More of disbelief that Mrs D could live with 3 young children (under the ages of 7), be a homemaker and keep the house in suchan immaculate condition after staying there for 7 years!!! How did she do it? It was more an aspirational moment as that's something I could most NOT definitely do.

After a second viewing 2 days later and 1 day before we were off to Japan we made the offer and it got accepted the morning we flew off for our holiday.

Much twists and turns later (lots of drama, scheming etc.), we've taken that one big leap and now solicitors are involved. The people at No. 31 have decided they will rent rather than buy (as this is their 4th failed attempt!) and we will hopefully move in end July.

I must say, house-buying is worse than getting married. It seems like there is so much more financial commitment at stake! lol....along with tears and trepidation and nightmares that come along with it. It is possibly also worse than giving birth. (though I have had no first hand experience, I've heard many accounts and some don't seem too bad at all)

Now comes thee better part of house-buying - home decorating.

Luckily for me, some of my quirky tastes have been (so far!) acceptable to Dr O and he actually quite likes some of the things I have picked out: notably a Chesterfield-type sofa, 50s vintage wallpaper, and mid-century Danish dining chairs.

As the former items will take much more measuring and did not provided instant gratification, my focus of much of last week was on mid-century Danish dining chairs.

The vintage Danish dining chair has always been my dream dining chairs. The slimline design, slightly curved back yet all made in solid teak wood along with the darkened patina that only comes with age appeals very much to me. The fact that it's also highly environmentally friendly to recycle, reuse something (rather than buy something out of a flatpack) and the fact that it's lasted 50+ years and still looks this good and feels so solid says much about its construction and durability.

I'm pairing my dining chairs with an Oval white acrylic table and the worries of a clash or a miss-match were completely unfounded. The oval table for all it's simplicity takes on any chair with a gust! - like nothing is too difficult to conquer and overcome.

The chairs meanwhile are, ... how shall I say, so so beautiful. I wake up every morning and after making my morning cuppa, sit into it and admire it's slimline design and solid construction.

These chairs that I have sourced from a dealer in Kent are not of any famous mid-century designer collectables (hence minus the expensive price tag) but are everyday items in Denmark in the 50s. They have been sympathetically reupholstered in a mid-weave herringbone that has tiny specks of orange yarn amongst the brown-beige fabric. Here's some pictures of this new darling of the house:

try to satisfy a craving?

I must admit, this food item I am about to describe is not strictly Singaporean food, but it's definitely Asian or more specifically Japanese.

Inspired from my trip to Japan, I suddenly craved for those little "croissant shaped" bread rolls from Petit Provence in Holland V.

Yes! They're called Wassants! You trust the Japanese to come up with an Anglicised name for a Japanese product. Trust me: I tried to rationalise this name and find it's origins (or rather an explanation) but to no avail. My conclusion: it's more like "Wah!(as an expression) combined with the "ssant" spelling part of "croissant" to come up with the name "Wassant"! (lol)

Of course, during my trip to Japan I popped into as many boulangeries as I could manage and there were many. The Japanese are obsessed with all the french bakeries and patisserie names and you can find everything from Dallayou, Laduree, Cordon Bleu, Lenotre, and everything else France had to offer! But in Japan!!

Anyway, my search was for a typical Japanese bakery and for that wassant, or anything that vaguely resembles the wassant. The search was entirely futile and the only thing that came close was a loaf of marbled chocolate bread that was completely over-priced (approx Y800 = 7-8 pounds) and taste-wise, was nothing to shout about.

Oh, some of you might ask what a wassant is. It's a bread roll, layered with a chocolate paste, like puff pastry (so you get many thin layers) between soft and milky bread. It's not my usual kind of bread but don't ask me why, I suddenly had a craving for it.

So back in grey and very cold London (I spotted snowflakes yesterday when I popped out), I have yet to satisfy my cravings for that small little breadroll!

I decide to make my own - what better way to satisfy a craving?

A trawl through the WWW returned many results and discussions for this wassant (many fans out there - Singaporeans are real foodies).

Combining a new technique called a 65degrees water roux starter, laminating technique learnt at LCB(for feullettine pastries), a google translate of a Japanese website for the chocolate filling, I embarked on this culinary quest to recreate the wassant in my own kitchen.

As they say, a picture paints a thousand words and here are the results of my experiment:

A taste test by my Korean friend MC and her husband along with Dr O confirmed that this recipe is a keeper. Personally, on my next attempt I would increase the chocolate paste content so that it's more chocolately.

And just a note: the bread remained soft and fluffy even on Day 4 - not that they should last till Day 4!!

What a way to satisfy a craving! More bread making in the pipeline....

... take a family holiday?

When was the last time you had a family holiday? By that I mean a trip with mum and dad along with siblings and your other halves (if any).

It must have been something like more than 10 years ago since we took a proper family holiday - not going to visit grandparents (in KL), go visit Shar (in BKK) or visit HK (our almost second home) but a proper holiday to a destination solely for the purposes of eating, shopping and (yikes!) sightseeing!!

The last one I can recall was going to Sydney and Melbourne, just before I left for university in 1999. That seems like such yonks ago....Back in those days, it was only the 2 of us - me and Shar.

Now we have KLL. She's completely changed our lives and we're all so excited to go on this holiday.

So where are we going? We're visiting Japan!

Having spent countless hours on the internet trawling through websites, restaurant reviews, ryokans, hotels (thank you google translate!), flights and all the necessary preparations for such a long awaited trip, we've finally nailed down our itinerary and hotels and I'm flying off in less than 12 hours! Shar is flying in with Na from BKK, mum, dad and KLL from SG and me and O from LDN. What an international family we have become...travelling from different countries, crossing timezones, to meet in one place.

More importantly, this trip is also to celebrate dad's 60th birthday!! We decided to forgo the predictable birthday "surprise" party/large banquet but instead, do a small gathering of 7 in Japan.

In my opinion, this is one trip we will not forget and will cherish the memories in time to come. Remember: nothing is more important than family. (just like how I still recall all the wonderful times we had in Sydney and Melbourne).

So why not start making plans of taking a family holiday this year?

visit this museum on the south side of the river?

Yes! I'm talking about the little known Imperial War Museum, located near Lambeth/Elephant & Castle and very off the beaten track and well clear of tourists. (apart from war enthusiasts!)

This is one of those places that we often drive past whilst house hunting on the south side of the river but never quite got round to actually visiting it.

A very imposing 4-storey building with beautiful grounds that used to be the Bethlem Royal Hospital (aka Bedlam, hence how the term bedlam was derived) which housed psychiatric patients in the mid-19th century, the Imperial War Museum (IWM) is dedicated to the Great Wars and also all military operations that involved Britain and the Commonwealth since 1935.

We finally decided that last Sunday was when we would make the dedicated trip to the IWM to view the exhibits that has changed how we now live and how the world functions today - paying homage to all the inventions (atomic bomb, tank etc). during the war and the social effects (children of the war, holocaust etc.) that have lasted till today.

Also I was drawn to the special exhibition that was on in the museum Ministry of Food - an exhibition examining how the British public adapted to the food shortages at that time.

I often hear about food rationing from my grandparents whom lived through WW2 as a teenager but it's not something our generation has ever had to experience so to hear some of the live accounts, see what a week's ration was actually like, flip through a rationing book etc. really did bring it closer to heart.

The exhibition also focused very much on encouraging the public of that time to grow their own crops and convert their back gardens into vegetable plots with propaganda posters and broadcast advertisements encouraging eating potatoes rather than bread (wheat was imported, potatoes were plentiful).

I guess this very much explains why most British people are such keen gardeners and why potato is such a staple and served in a myriad of ways in this country!

Some photographs of the exhibition (courtesy of Arf!)

In all, I really enjoyed the visit and am looking forward to revisiting the museum again soon and looking at all the rest of the exhibits that I did not get to enjoy this time round. A real gem of London and best of all it's free!

Imperial War Museum London Lambeth Road London SE1 6HZ United Kingdom		Open daily 10.00am - 6.00pm (closed 24, 25 and 26 December) ADMISSION IS FREE (Special exhibitions may charge an admission fee)

http://london.iwm.org.uk

...try a new recipe each month?

You know good old tried-and-tested recipes that you've churned out time and again with satisfying results? It's a little like the comfort blanket you've been having for the past 20 years - a little too comfortable, almost.

Well, I'm always up for a new challenge and not just any old challenge. But a challenge to try a technically complicated recipe each month, from the myriad of cookbooks S has been collecting at the Craven Street library.

I've always admired the precision and technicality Thomas Keller goes into in his cookbook,
"The French Laundry Cookbook". It's more than just a recipe book - almost inspirational at times and it really does make you think hard about devouring the works of art when you're at your next Michelin-starred degustation meal, eating merrily into your Course No. 6 of 10.
All top chefs must be perfectionists I reckon. Only with that kind of attitude and drive can you create plates of artwork that will stimulate all senses.

Dr O and I poured through the 60 odd recipes and due to various food exclusions, seasonality and various other factors we pondered, did a SWOT analysis (just joking!) and finally chose "Surf and Turf" (he wanted meat, I wanted fish!) on Page 162.

This "Surf and Turf" of course was not the usual fare you get at steak joints but it was a sauteed monkfish tail with braised oxtail, Salsify and Cepes.
Excellent stuff I thought! I like all the components enough so that should make one satisfying meal.

So off to Borough market we went on a sunny Saturday afternoon, braving the crowds and tourists clicking away on their big ass SLRs. As this is where I do most of my food shopping for the week, it is annoying to get through the crowds that of course, we not going to buy fresh fish and meat at the stalls! They were more spectators and were only interested in composing an "arty photographer-like" shot, not how fresh or where the fish came from.

Anyhow, 2 hours later we finally got all the ingredients needed for the dish and kid you not, the list goes on and on...with 2 different types of stock (we made one from scratch, bought the other!) a red wine marinade that had it's own separate page of instructions and ingredients and lots and lots of chopping and cutting of brunoise. (very small, the smallest cube you could possibly cut of 4 different vegetables, all must be of the same size.

Well we started with the red wine marinade for the oxtail and it needed an overnighter.

One bottle of red wine, 5 pounds of oxtail and about 10 other ingredients went into this marinade.

Into a large ziplock bag all the marinade and oxtail went and there it sat peacefully in the fridge, allowing the marinade to do it's magic on the oxtail.


That seemed sort of easy enough and we were glad we got through the very first stages.



The next day, bright and early I jumped out of bed, eager to check on last night's work and started to prep all the other ingredients.

If you happen to get your hands on this cookbook, you will begin to realise it's a big challenge.

Let's skip and hop through most of it but let's say that there was a lot of sieving, skimming, cutting, browning, braising, deglazing, chopping, sauteing more skimming and sieving involved!


Brunoise of leek (green part only), carrot and turnips.

About 6 hours later,
And this is finally what we produced...

excuse the bad photography...we were exhausted by then.

The uncanny resemblance to the real deal on the cookbook

It was such good fun but would we attempt this recipe again? Probably not.
And how did it taste? It was very yummy and gone in about 4 mouthfuls.
Note: as I was cooking and assembling it during the final stages, Dr O said it was such a tiny portion he could eat 4 portions of it. But let's just say when he finished the first portion, the amount of burre monte (butter emulsion) he had consumed left him feeling rather full.

Till the next recipe challenge!