Tofu, Japanese style

I have to admit that I'm not very health conscious when it comes to food. I love fried, salty, greasy food. My friends will tell you that my ultimate favourite food is fried chicken, especially the skin.

Ever since Sean was born, I have made an effort to cook healthier food. Sean eats the healthiest in our family as he was fed steamed vegetables, meat and fish for the longest time. Even now, he'd rather eat spinach than chicken. I suspect that he is a closet vegetarian!

We love tofu. We love Japanese food. There is a ramen shop nearby that serves this cold tofu. I decided to make my own version. It is easy to prepare (no cooking required), tasty and best of all, healthy!

Ingredients:

1 tub of soft tofu (sometimes referred to as silken tofu)

3-4 tbs soya sauce )
3-4 sesame oil ) mixed

For garnishing:

Fried shallots
Spring onions chopped up fine
Tuna flakes
Ground dried shrimp (optional)

Method:

Cut up tofu into cubes.

Pour soya sauce and sesame mixture over it.

Liberally sprinkle garnish on top. Serve.

Chinatown

Chinese are everywhere. Almost every country has a Chinatown. Bangkok is no exception and I love the Chinatown here as it reminds me of the Chinatown of my childhood ie an assault of noise, people and smells (and what a variety of smells)!

Chinatown here is called Yawarat. It is divided into a few sections and if you are taking a taxi, you have specify which part you want to go to. The 3 parts I normally go to are:

Samphaeng which is the wholesale side. They sell everything from hair-clips, cotton buds, pens, costume jewellery etc. The stalls there also sell festive items eg as it's nearing Halloween, there are loads of Halloween decorations for sale. I go there for party bags for birthdays, Christmases etc.

Typical scene where pedestrians, cars and delivery men hauling huge boxes jostle for space.

There is also a small section that sells dried food. It is there that I buy my dried shrimp, ikan bilis (small dried anchovy) , dried mushroom etc.

One of my favourite stalls in the wet market section. They sell all kinds of snacks,biscuits, sweets (all at wholesale price). Owner told me that lots of Singaporeans go there to buy chewing gum!

The wet market across from Samphaeng that has ingredients that have disappeared from the Singapore market scene (so my aunts claimed when I brought them there). It is there that I buy my crab meat (steamed, peeled and in beautiful chuncks), fresh ground pepper (there is a spice shop there that will grind it fresh for you) and chye poh galore (sweet,salty, chopped, chunky, whole pieces)

Wet market

Pahurat which is the textiles street and sells fabric of all kinds. Wonderful for people who can sew, have a good tailor or are creative. A friend found fabric to tailor a dress for a jungle themed party (it was slightly furry with a zebra stripes). Stalls selling trims, ribbons, buttons and bows also boggle my mind and I try to get the creative juices going when I am there, but to no avail.

In Chinatown you will find many Thai-Chinese (most are first or second generation here) and are of Teochew descent. So I get to practise my very, very rusty Teochew when they realise I'm Chinese.

It won't be Chinatown if you can't find the touristy cheongsam.

Chinatown here is synonymous with good food. Only thing is you have to brave the traffic (it is REALLY horrendous) and on occasion I have been stuck there because the taxis are in the midst of a change in shift and won't take passengers.

I always try to go in the early mornings as it's not so hot and crowded. The crowds can be overwhelming especially during hot weather. I sometimes feel like I'm going through an obstacle course that not only includes people but cars,carts and trolleys as well. Do I love it? Definitely, YES!

Chicken rice

One of the things I miss most living away from Singapore is the food. You can take the girl out of Singapore but you can't take the longing for chicken rice away from her.

There is chicken rice here in Bangkok. They call it 'kao man gai' and they have the steamed or fried version. I have not found the roast version here yet. There is a chain of Singapore chicken rice stalls called Boon Tong Kiat but I found the rice bland and the they only sell steamed chicken.

I have had no choice but to cook my own roast chicken rice. The recipe is adapted from Periplus Malaysian favourites cooking book. Why adapted? I used the ingredients listed but tweaked it to suit my taste.

To me, the key ingredient is the chicken stock. What I normally do is boil a big batch of stock and freeze it for soups, porridge etc. The meat and vegetables from the stock I dice it up to make porridge for us or as feed it to my dogs as a treat. They love it!

Stock

Ingredients:

2 chicken carcasses
6 pork bones (optional)
2 carrots
2 big onion
2 corn
1 leek (optional)
2 stalks shallots
2 coriander roots

3 liter water

Method:

Wash chicken and pork bones.

Place all ingredients into big stock pot and boil, then simmer for 2-3 hours.

Strain the stock before packing and freezing it.

Chicken Rice

Ingredients for rice:

4 - 5 handfuls of rice. Rinsed.
8 -10 cloves garlic finely chopped
6 slices ginger
3 stalks pandan leaf (optional but it smells better with it)
3-4 cups of stock
Salt to taste

Method:

Heat up 4-5 tbsp oil in wok. Fry garlic and ginger till fragrant. Add in rice and fry till all rice is coated with oil and garlic.

Transfer rice (with garlic and ginger) to rice cooker. Add stock (I normally add the stock till it comes up to the first line of my middle finger when I place my finger on top of rice).

Add 1 tsp of salt. Add pandan leaves and cook.

Ingredients for chicken:

3 chicken thighs

Marinade:
3 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp 5 spice

Mix ingredients for marinade and pour over chicken. Let it sit for an hour. Sometimes I marinate it over night.

Heat oven to 200 degrees. Place chicken onto baking dish. Pour 1 ladle of stock into the baking dish. Cover with foil and roast for 45 minutes. Remove foil to let skin crisp. Serve.

Mum's chicken chop soup

My mum was a late starter when it came to cooking. I remember when she first started cooking for us it was so bad we used to dread meal times. She blossomed to be a really great cook and I think TH married me partly cos of mum's cooking!

This dish is one that I think she concocted and I love it as it is a one dish meal (has meat, veg and carbo). It is simple to cook and keeps well. The leftover tastes even better as the meat and potatoes absorb the soup.

Unfortunately, like most cooks of her time, mum did not swear by cookbooks and precise measurements. I cook the same way too sometimes. I have inherited recipes from her that have measurements going like this "20 cents of dried prawns" Huh? Some of these recipes are older than I am so how would I know what 20 cents of dried prawns is like in 2008? So I estimate or 'aga aga' (as they say in Malay).

So, if some of the measurements in my recipes are not 100% accurate, please bear with me.

Ingredients:

Chicken fillet (about 6-10 pieces)
Biscuit (pounded to small crumbs)
1 egg (beaten)
1 big onion
1 potato
2 tomatoes

Chicken stock (1/2 litre)
Soya sauce (2 - 3 tbs)
Salt

Method:

Dice the potato into chunks. Fry till outside is browned (doesn't need to be cooked all the way)
Take it out. Drain oil and lightly sprinkle with salt. Put aside.

Dip chicken fillet pieces into egg and then coat with biscuit crumbs. Pan fry pieces till brown (doesn't need to be fully cooked). Take out put aside.

Cut up onion and tomato into mid size cubes.

Fill pot with chicken stock. Add onion and tomato.

Add soya sauce. Boil and then turn down heat to simmer. Add potato.

If there is left over egg, to stir in when soup is boiling.

When potato is softened, add in chicken. Simmer till chicken cooked and before biscuit crumbs disintegrate. Add salt to taste.

Road trip to Chiang Mai

We travelled 1,714 km (it's like from BKK to Sin, return) in 6 days. Route took us from BKK-Chiang Mai-Pai-Chiang Mai-BKK.

Surprisingly, it was an pleasant though long (6 hrs from BKK to CM) drive. This was our first time driving to CM tough we have been going there annually for the past 7 years.

Before we left, I had many friends telling me how cold CM and Pai were going to be (7C at night). Since we were driving it made things easier as we could just dump everything in the car and not worry about excess luggage. Knowing how fickle weather here can be, decided to pack mainly hot weather stuff with 1 sweater.

We spent 2 nights in CM. There, I introduced my friend's son to one of my favourite Thai desserts banana pancake or banana roti. It's actually prata with banana (or whatever topping, but banana seems to be the best) inside and topped with loads and loads of sugar and condensed milk. It sounds very sweet but in reality, it's a wonderful mix of sweetness of sugar and banana mixed with the slight buttery/salty flavour of the roti.

Yummy banana pancake

We also visited the Night Safari which is as good as the one in Singapore but way cheaper, if you paid the local (ie Thais pay 1 price and foreigners a higher price) price. It was S$10 for adults and S$6 for children.

The trams here stop at every animal enclosure and spotlight the animals for people to see. This was my second time at the Night Safari but I still enjoyed it. It was really nice and cool too (about 17C).

Pai is only 100+km from Chiang Mai but because of the 700+curves in the road, it took us 3 hrs to get there. Had to stop along the way as the children felt a little quesy.

Pai is a small town (about 5,000 people) in the valley. Starbucks or MacDonald's hasn't made an appearance yet so it's relatively less commercial. There are many artists and hippies (leftover from the '70s) who live there.

Hotel called The Quarter in Pai. New and very nice

We went bamboo rafting. The children had a great time helping to row the raft and on one occasion almost capsizing it. Along the way we say beautiful bright blue and green dragonflies which I've never seen before.

After Pai, we headed back to CM. Had to visit my favourite furniture street (Hang Dong) to buy some furniture. I always love going to Hang Dong as there are many little shops along the way to stop and browse. The big market for teak furniture there is Baan Tawai. Over the years it has become very touristy and sells more knic knacks than furniture. But we had a really cheap and good lunch there. 360 baht (S$15) for 8 of us! That included 2nd helpings for adults and drinks!

No holiday of mine is complete without food. I must say that we had really good and inexpensive meals on our trip. I had my fill of Kao soy (which is the Thai version of noddles in curry) and I must say the best fried chicken in a small coffee shop in Pai. I was introduced to 'nam prick ong' which is a northern Thai dip. It's a little bit like salsa and eaten with vegetables and fried pork rind (totally unhealthy but sooo good).

Considering we were travelling with 4 children and 4 adults, I think everyone managed to have a good time .

Would we do it again? Yes. Already planning to drive up to Mae Hong Son next year.

Krisaradoi a small hotel that has a beautiful garden Went there for lunch

At the mae Sa elephant camp feeding the elephant

The Royal Rachapruek flora and fauna garden.




Go-karting is an activity that the kids enjoyed.

In memory of .....

The past year and a half have not been too good for the pets in the Tan family. This is a tribute to the animals who have entered our lives and enriched it while they were with us.

Raisin....why we called her Raisin (I mean it's a snack not a dog's name) was because when we first bought her, she was tiny, had black, coarse hair and shiny, inquisitive eyes. Btw, the name on her birthcert is HAVAGO GOLD BUTTERFLY.

She was the boss amongst my 3 dogs. Raisin would snap at Mac (my other dog and her doggy husband)when he irritated her or growl at Sasha (her daughter) if she got too near her food bowl. She absolutely hated contractors and would nip at their ankles whenever she could. I've seen her bring big dogs to their knees and they would kowtow to her alpha femaleness. Unbelievable.

Raisin was really TH's baby. He used to spend a long time grooming her and getting her top knot juuust right. Her fur changed and she was gorgeous with her long silky gold and silver coat. She knew she was good looking and loved compliments.

For a tiny dog, she was really the best gauge as to who was at the door.From her bark I would know if it was TH/friend/ stranger at the gate even before the door bell rang. Once, she actually deterred an intruder who had broken into our home by barking furiously . I only thank god he didn't kick her or kill her.

Raisin loved us and was loved for 14 years before leaving us. We have been blessed to have had her for so long and there is a huge space left by this tiny dog who will always be remembered and loved.

Oscar.... Sean's first pet. She was a hamster and yes, she was a girl but Sean didn't care and gave her a boy's name.

She would nip our finger and cling on as she was carried out of the cage. She loved the wheel in her cage. First night, I had a fright when I heard a whirring sound. She was just going for a run.

Sean loved her and I am quite proud of him for cleaning her cage out every week (with some nagging from me).

I wasn't too keen to have a member of the rodent family in our house but grew to love Oscar who definitely had a winning personality.

Muffin...Sean's second hamster. unfortunately, she wasn't as playful nor as good tempered as Oscar. She'd bite and draw blood. So much so that when we had to get her out of the cage, we'd use a kitchen mitt or a fishing net.

She'd run on the wheel morning, noon and night. She'd run so fast that she'll fly out of the wheel and then stumble back on it again! DUH!

Cookie...the soi (stray) dog that wriggled across the road one afternoon on our way home from school and right into our lives. Cookie was paralysed from the back down from a car accident. We found him wondering along the road and took him in.

Poor Cookie had his hind legs almost worn down to the bone from the dragging of his legs on the rough gravel. He had open sores and being a street dog, had a multitude of viruses that needed strong anti biotics.

I had the most memorable car ride when Cookie left the vet's. Let's just say it involved an overflowing doggie diaper, my car seat, gear stick, brand new sandals and not so new Gucci bag....I think it might have been worse if Sean wasn't there to calm him while I was driving.

Cookie was Sean's dog (Sean doesn't consider the other 3 as his dogs cos they were with us before he was born ).

For a street dog, he was a sweet and trusting animal and would actually lick Sean's face! Being a street dog also meant that he wasn't used to being tied or caged up and broke out of the cage the first night and tried to run away.

He was a young dog when he came to us but died when his curiosity got the better of him and chewed on a wire.

Suffice to say, Sean was devastated and took him a long time to get over Cookie.

Cookie showed us that he may have been hurt by humans but he still had a heart big enough to love and trust us.

Last but not least Cupcake... he was a stray cat that decided to take refuge under my car one rainy, rainy day.

I learnt that male cat pee stinks, stinks, stinks (this was when he peed on me as I was carrying him) and that even though he was probably in pain, he let me drag him out from under the car.

It was yet another trip to the vet who discovered that Cupcake had feline AIDS. The most humane thing to do was to put him to sleep. We had no choice but to say goodbye to him.

I always wondered why he chose my house as we have the most number of dogs in the compound. Someone said that he knew we would do the right thing.

All these pets made an impression on our lives in one way or other. As a mum, it heartens me when I see my son feel for them and want to help them. Through them, Sean has had to learn one of life's hard lessons, death. He mourns their deaths and believes that they are in heaven keeping grandma company.


NOTE: The names that denote desserts were chosen by Sean. Don't ask me why.

Why is it?

I came up with this when I was reflecting on certain things. This is what happens when I have too much time on my hands.


1.Why is it such a chore to get up in the morning on a weekday and yet I bounce right out of bed at the same time on the weekend???

2. Why is it that when men look for things, if it's not right in front of them, they can't find it?

3. Why is it so depressing that some mums are sooooo well groomed and my attempts last for 5 minutes? That's when I start rooting in my bag for keys/wallet/tissue etc

4. Why is it that Thai ladies DO NOT sweat while I look like my face is melting in the heat?

5. Why is it that the minute I became a mum, I became like my mum??? AAARRGGG...

6. Why is it that motorcyclists here somehow aim for your car and not try to avoid it?

7. Why is it that my son somehow says the most embarrassing thing at the most inappropriate moment? Eg.. (in a lift) "Ewwww... I think that man farted" (in a stage whisper and pointing)

8. Why is it that when other people tell you about their children's embarrassing outbursts it doesn't seem so bad?

9. Why is it that little boys love gross things like farting, pooing, burping?

10. Why is it that grown men like farting, pooing, burping?

11. Why is it that the male species doesn't turn green at the sight of gushing blood, heads being chopped off, body parts being blown off..... but cringe at a really good romantic movie?

12. Why is it that when you really, really, really want THAT pair of pants, they don't have it in your size?

13. Why is it that that sinful, fattening chocolate cakes look and taste soooo good while healthy stuff somehow doesn't appeal as much?

14. Why is it so much harder to exercise than it is to open a pack of chips?

15. Why is it that men (OK, my husband) eats like a pig (seriously) and loses weight???? OK, he does exercise, but so do I (to a certain extent)

16. Why is it men and women have different levels as to what 'clean' means?

17. Why is it that all other infants I have seen are placid and coo while Sean was a whirl of arms and legs and screeched?

18. Why is it that I am heavier now than when I was 9 months pregnant?

19. Why is it that people can be mean and cruel to the helpless like children and animals?

20. Why is it that my dogs will always be happy to see me while my son may not when he grows up?

Balloons, balloons everywhere

Last weekend at yet another mall, we ventured into a wonderful, colourful land of..balloons! As it is the Thai school holidays, many malls have activities geared towards entertaining the children (so as not to drive their parents mad after 50 long days of no school).

Last weekend, at Central World (a huge mall with Isetan and loads of other brand name shops, plus lots of places to eat) they had a balloon festival. Part of the mall was turned into a 'jungle'. I am not too keen on balloons, hate it when it pops (yes, I know it's wimpy). Surprisingly there were no pops to be heard when we were there. It could be that the music drowned whatever sounds the balloons were making.

I think it's meant to be Horton (from the Dr Seuss book)

I thought these 3 guys were so sporting. Not fun dressed in balloons right down to balloon 'shoes'!

Dress up

When I was in school, we never had things like dress up day, Halloween dress up day etc. Ever since Sean has been to school, there is always something or other to dress up for. The school he attends usually takes these dress up days to raise funds for a certain charity.

Point to note: I am NOT a creative person so I've had to really crack my head to come up with things sometimes. These are some of the things I have made/bought for Sean over the past few years.






(from top and left to right)

He went as scubaman for Halloween. Am quite proud to say the costume was REALLY easy, just paint 2 water bottles silver and use black thread to make loops for the arms. He won for best costume at school and at a birthday party.

He was supposed to be a knight and I made a 'coat' of mail (made out of tin foil cupcake holder). But it ripped after a rolled around. Sigh... I really like this pic cos he is with his two best pals and they look so happy!

Every boy has to go as a pirate just once!.

For International Day in Kindergarten. Bought the Chinese outfit.

Here is ....Garfield (can't you tell?). This was taken just this morning (hence the pic is not so clear cos it was at 6.30am and I am NOT too sharp at that time of the day). School had a dress up as your favourite book character for Book Week. My friend pointed out that he sure was a skinny Garfield.

Flora and Fauna

One of my favourite department stores in Bangkok is Emporium. It's got everything ie supermarket, cinema, loads and loads of food, bookshops, banks etc.. Yesterday, we headed down there for the Flora and Fauna exhibition that was held in the store.

An aviary in the middle of the store.

This was IN the building. The queue was too long so we didn't bother.

Of course there were hordes of people but everything was surprisingly orderly. What I like was they used the whole store to showcase the plants and animals.

A white cheeked gibbon. This was outside the building

A common sight in Bangkok,sadly many can be seen walking along the busy roads.

Sean loved this dinosaur skeleton.

Stories by Sean

The author

My friends on Facebook would have already read this. I thought I'd share this with everyone as I think it shows how innocent Sean still is.

At the end of every school year, parents get all the work the children have been doing over the past year. This is an essay by Sean as part of his English work. note: spelling and punctuation are all his.

Title: how the lion got the fish tail

{Long, Long ago in ancient times in Singapore there was a lion who was walking by a lake. He steped on a rock and fell in to the lake. Then a fish saw the lion so he helped him. He said "wake up lion". Suddenly he woke up and he saw the fish "thanks for helping me" said the lion in a soft voice. The the fish said "would you marry me" he said "yes". Then me marryed him and after that thay had a parrty. It had food, games, movies, songs and best of all rides. Then one day the fish babby came out. It hurt allot. But she did it. The babby looked like this body is a lion and her legs were like a fish. Her name was merlion. And thats why the merlion repesents singapore. }

I thought it's a new spin on our merlion....

This next one is play. He is learning about the different types of writing (fiction, poems etc)

Title: A play about princess willy and princess maggi

Prince willy:"ahhhhh! Help! Help!"
Princess maddi: "Oh! what is that thing?"
(Looking surprised)
Prince w:"it's my pet rabbit"
Princess:"oh it's your rabbit"
Prince:"Why?"
Princess:"I thought it was a frog and you know how I hate frogs"
Prince:"O yes I know"
Princess:"It's OK"
Prince:"Can you help me put my rabbit in the cage"
Princess:"OK"
Prince:"thanks"
Princess:"come back here"
Prince:"I will not work"
Princess:"Oh"
Prince:"I got an idai put some carrat's in hes cage"
Princess:"OK"
Prince:"And wait"
Princess:"He's comeing"
Prince:"1,2,3 let GO!"
Princess:"finely"
Prince:"Thanks again"
Princess:"It's OK"
Prince:"Oh"
Princess:"Why?"
Prince:"never mind"
Princess:"OK"

The End

I thought this was pretty funny. It reminded me of a lit play I had to study called "waiting for Godot".
And best thing is Sean had to act it OUT!!!

Is it 'ka' or 'krup'?

After living here for some time, one would guess that I'd be fluent in Thai. Wrong! Before I came here, I went for Thai lessons in Singapore thinking that I'd be conversant once I moved here. Wrong! What I learnt in the classroom was a very formal way of speaking. Like any language, the day-to-day usage is very different from the textbook.

I'm hopeless at languages. When I speak Mandarin I'm told I sound constipated, my Hokkien is non-existent and my Malay is limited to 'how are you' and 'eat'. So, when faced with Thai which has not 1 or 2 tones but 5..... you can imagine some comedy of errors along the way.

So, how have I picked up the language? I've learned from my maids who all spoke Thai only, from taxi-drivers, vendors etc...

I've learnt that ladies use 'ka' (for yes/OK) and men use 'krup'.

Ladies use 'chan' (me) while men use 'phom'. However, most Thais will refer to themselves by name when talking. Instead of saying "I am going", they'll say "Eunice is going". Took me some time to get used to it but I do it now unknowingly while speaking English.

Thai grammer is like Mandarin. Eg, we'll say 'I am going" while in Thai, it is 'going am I'. For a while, when TH first arrived he he thought he was saying 'my car' but was actually saying 'I am a car'! No wonder they looked at him funny.

A bit of trivia: A vegetable with an interesting Thai name is the pumpkin which is called 'fark'. So now, instead of cussing, I have friends who go 'pumpkin'! I seriously thought that the vegetable vendor was kidding me when she told me it's name.

Some of the words sound like they were derived from Chinese. Example is 'chair' is called 'kaw yi' and 'leg' is 'kar'.

Thais generally appreciate a foreigner trying to speak their language. They will laugh at your mistakes but it's not done in an unkind way. They especially find it amusing that my 8 year old son, Sean speaks Thai. His Thai is better than his Mandarin and that is because he came here when he was 3 months old. Children's minds are really like sponges. His grammer and intonation is way better than mine.

I am still learning but I think when it comes to the really important stuff ie anything pertaining to shopping and food, I've got it covered!