Embrace love and life.

I have an urge to try my hand at baking macarons!

I ALWAYS have baking urges during exam revision period!

Some macaron recipes... I'll probably pick one and give it a go after the exams!

Time Out London Recipe + Lemon Curd (Food Network)/Fool Proof Lemon Curd Method

David Lebovitz's French Choc Macaron Recipe

Bakerette.blogspot's pistachio macarons

A La Crusine's Macarons

Tartelette.blogspot's Expresso Toffee Macarons

Wed, please come sooooon!

It's durian season now and the pungent smell fills my living room... for the past one plus weeks.



I feel like gagging every time that pong hits me. Like my bestie Sam goes 'Ooooh nasty!' (Miss you babe, this post is also dedicated to you, my durian-lovin' pal)

My head starts feeling giddy, I pinch my nose while yelling at the dudes of the house to 'quickly finish can, there's some major farting going on here'.

When I was younger, I loved eating durians. But now, it's as if I woke up one morning with a taste aversion to the King of Fruits. And I thought eating durian needs acquired taste? Then what is the opposite of that? Losing taste?!

While holidaying in Perth last December, we visited many cheese making factories and had a couple of tasting sessions. Dad couldn't take the taste of the cheese and always denounced their 'tangy' tang. It's the same reaction as getting the ang mohs to eat durians, haha.

I come from a family of durian lovers. My dad is the current champion, he has a record of opening up 16 durians at one go, all in 60 minutes, and trying at least one seed from each fruit.

OH, and the greatest thing of this whole durian season is we get our durians at no cost at all, free. Not that we have a durain tree in our backyard. Not one durian tree, not our backyard...but MANY trees in the GOVT'S backyard, haha.

My estate will be kena bombed first if there is ever an aerial attack in Singapore (choy choy, how can say such thing girl!?!) because we are at the back of Mindef.

But oh boy, that forest (yes it's a forest with dense undergrowth... errr I forgot my physical geog...) had so many durian trees so the fruit you get is naturally sweet, sans all the chemical fertilizers.



A DUMMY'S GUIDE ON PICKING DURIANS AT PHOENIX

To get in, you must understand it's on a first come first served basis.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

If not, the torch-light wielding aunties in PCK boots and helmets (I KID YOU NOT, my neighbors are interesting folks man. Not sure if they're from the construction industry), sticks-snapped-off-from-tree-branches-in-hand uncles in long-sleeved shirt and jeans when it's like 33 degrees C will cast death looks at you. Yes, looks can kill. If it doesn't then their angry nags/complains till the cows come home will.

You will need god-given patience. Because you'll be waiting for 2 things to happen.

1) You must wait for the durians to fall.

Even if the durians have fallen, but if that aunty from the other block, yeah the one living on the 3rd story beats you by 0.01 sec to the little stairwell which you have to gingerly climb down to enter the Land of Durians (other than Malaysia and Thailand), then...

2) You have to wait for your turn.

Your turn will only come when that aunty who should try taking part in the upcoming Beijing Olympics (see durian, RUN!!) is satisfied with her prized accumulation of thorny green things, or as much as she can carry which is usually the case. Displays of greed on full display. How do you carry 10 durians home, even if it is 50 metres?!

Try not to feel too disappointed if she casts you a smug look as she heaves the load, straightens her shirt, wipes the sweat off her brow, while holding on to the torchlight and a bottle of insect repellent.

Your turn will come and you vow to be cooler when you step out of the humid forest (that's not very easy).

According to my maid, theres an endless stream of people who queue to get it. Almost a throwback to the year 1997, where all creatures great and small stood outside McDonalds to get a few cats without a mouth.

(subjected to change without notification)
8am-10am: 2 uncles from the 2nd story.
10am-12pm: 1 auntie from the 3rd story.
12pm-3pm: Empty most of the time because our bodies are not used to the Afghanistan heat+Amazon forest humidity-like conditions.
3pm-5pm: Another auntie with her 11 year old kid.
5pm-8pm: A troop of 5 people... who don't look like they are from our estate?! (our estate is very small, everyone knows each other...)
8pm-9.45pm: Dad and youngest brother, in slippers and ah-pek singlets, armed with an industrial torch light. Specially bought from a hardware store at $42.90 after 20 per cent off. (&#^!(&~#*!@!!)
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4.30AM when even the crickets are sleeping: DAD. Most patience and most disciplined award.

From my bed, I hear my mum complaining cos dad's a lot of noise while getting up to pick durians.

I don't know anyone else who wakes up in the wee hours of the morning to pick durian. Who in the right mind would forgo sleep to go into the dark forest to pick durian?

Only my dad would do it. Hahaha! I am so proud of you dad!

He says he hears the durian drop and gut instincts wake him up. He also remembers which durian came from which tree. My dad can spend the whole Saturday afternoon in the forest (being the kampong boy he was in the past I guess). 2 Saturdays ago, he disappeared for 5 hours straight. Hmmm... should I start to feel worried?!

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Maybe next year, I will videotape the entire durian makan session in my living room, and yes, the competitive durian picking session too.

A food documentary to tickle both your taste and nose buds by my dad, self-proclaimed durian connoiseur.

Newspapers on the floor- check.
One huge butcher knife- check.
Megawati red plastic bag from market- check. (for rubbish)

Basically that's all you need for a hearty (and heaty if you believe my grandmother) durian devouring time.



Whoever said that durians smells like hell (or British gas of the old days, in a milder sense) but tastes like heaven is damn right.

Because I just ate 3 seeds earlier. Not much, but it's a brave start.

My breath smells of durian... duh.

In my freezer now sits 3 huge tubs full (think 1.5 litre ice-cream containers) of the fleshy durian seeds.

And it must be some sort of durian power that made me write this crappy post, hahaha.

I feel so burnt out by this entire week, primarily because I've been out everyday, 5 days in a row. The queer thing is that I can't remember what I did on Monday and Tuesday, even though it's only Friday today. What I can conclude from this fact is that one, I am getting a bit senile, and two, I'm living such a frivolous lifestyle that nothing seems to be outstandingly significant anymore. Oh wait, it just occured to me I met up with my favourite chatty girlfriends at a Jap restaurant on Tuesday night; I'm not that senile after all!

But yeah, it is upsetting to note that my life has been way short of being productive and this is despite the fact that Yi Fang has ironically commented that, 'We all need a break, from this long break!' However, it's in a different context for her as she has her schedule filled with all the mini events and responsibilities that accumulate overtime like how a small snowball gains in its diameter as it rolls down the hill. I love random analogies and I'm cool like that, plus I know that I can be SO long-winded. 8-) 

On a superficially significant note, I bought 4 pairs of shoes (3 heels and one slipper, and it's for the funniest reason, simply because my heels were killing my feet!) in one day, plus explored Peninsula Plaza with Sam, my explorer buddy and discovered that it's the Land of Paul Twohill, with loads of indie/hardcore rock&roll band shirts, extremely baggy jeans hanging side by side with extremely skinny ones, retro shades with bright kiddy frames, cool electric guitars, basses and whatever that lets you emulate the 'emo' persona with erm, style. Not my kinda thing but cool nonetheless. 

All in the same day, we explored City Plaza which is a run-down, rainbow coloured looking complex near Paya Labar MRT station which is like a Made-in-China galore. Well, most of the shops are anyway, and it got to the point when I actually turned to Sam and said, 'I think it's enough, let's get out of here!' Not to sound insulting, but one can only endure so much of ghastly, unflattering cuts, cheap, rubbery material that most of the bags there are made of and overprized shoes. Sorry. Still, it was an eye-opener, and really, shopping doesn't have it's boundaries confined to town or its nearby vacinities.

Glad to see 3 of my lovelies- Olie, Daph and Si (Rekha M., you are missed!) at AC (to collect grad certs)then Holland V (to draw up a detailed plan on our 'backpacking' cum shopping trip to Chiang Rai and Bangkok!!) today, and I also tried the shiok-ist Bak Chor Mee there. Unhealthy but everything in moderation, and I know that I'm still a local Singaporean foodie at heart. I was telling Olie that  in general, I'd rather pick cheap hawker food over expensive restaurants where you have to mind your Ps&Qs, but it really depends on my mood and the occasion I guess. Headed off to Holland V's Settler's Cafe to be the only girl not from MG 4A3'04 , but that's the only other difference and with MG girls, it just feels close to home, you know? :) Had fun playing many different types of board games but I think my attention span is really short as I'd get bored and would want to change to another game. I do like word games alot, and those bluffing games that need one to bluff, or to put it in elevated terms, to persuade and convince others to think your answer is the right one! 

I'm recounting all these events as I don't wish to forget my good memories. I wonder if people even bother reading this much, but that's secondary. 

But the ultimate highlight of the week is my virgin clubbing experience, and Zouk's Mambo night has the 'honour' to welcome me. I am not a newbie anymore, and I have mixed sentiments over the whole incident. Overall, it was fun, and it's really the company that matters. Sam and Milene Tan (who's back from Melboune and looking so pretty) accompanied me, and we did really groovy, cheesy dances with K-box style singing to top it all off. What sucks is when you see people puke non-stop, (stupid) guys trying to take advantage of (stupid) girls who don't hold their drinks well and yet drink till they reach drunken stupor, to the point where all cow sense goes out of the window. Ahh well, you only live once, but don't kill liver too soon. A friendly reminder from your health-conscious LJ friend. Next Wed, it would be an AA3 Mambo night, and I can't wait to see almost everyone again. I know not everyone will approach clubbing in all candidness, be it due to religious or personal moral convictions, but really, to each his own. I just dislike any imposing attitudes, but I shall not comment any further because I'll write out an essay here.

AND I'm such a retard, I've so many invites requesting me to sign up for Facebook. It's not that I don't want to, it's because I don't know how! I don't have a collage email add, so how? Not that is this the highest on my priority list because SMU matriculation stuff is still looming at top spot. I am paranoid that I haven't received all my info... :/

Time to sleep, and attune my body clock back to more regular hours. Not that one night's rest will banish those unslightly eye-bags that seem to have found permanent residence as dark moons under my eyes. Another night out tomorrow, got the GB 80th Anniversary Dinner to attend. I have bipolar feelings on that- but I'll be a optimist and go, 'Yay, a chance to wear that new Dorothy Perkins dress I bought from the Great Singapore Sale!'

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I'm not a true-blue Singaporean, not really, because my dad was born in Malaysia. Which makes the situation at hand even more embarassing for me because of 2 reasons. A) I don't know the Malay language, except drips and draps of very important conversational Malay, such as selamat datang, terima kasih, tandas (toilet!), kopi (haha), sedap (meaning delicious), sila makan (please eat), ayam (which Singaporean doesn't know this!), pisang and all the usual Malay food terms. 

Which leads me to my second point, I'm so confused by all the kuih terms in the tea time list that Mimi has emailed to me. There are more than 10 different kuihs out there, and it's just so confusing for a person who can't differentiate between the different sweet and intricate creations that are usually steamed, not baked. Did you know there are distinct differences between nyonya (Peranakan) kuih, Malay kuih and Indonesian kuih? However, over time and due to the influences of Malay cuisine and culture, the line distinguishing them becomes vague. In Wikipedia, it listed over 70 different types of kueh; 77 to be more exact. WOW. That's insane. If you could only eat one type of kuih everyday, it would take you more than 2 months to sample everything! But it could do some damage to your waistline, because kuihs are empty calories, due to the high content of sugar and coconut that goes into making these colourful delights.

So anyway, the reason why I am blogging about kuihs, as random as this subject may seem, was because I couldn't tell the difference between kuih lapis nyonya and kuih lapis kacang hijau, and also between kuih talam keladi and kuih talam jagung. And this forced me into turning to my best website on the internet other than Wikipedia, which is Google and I spent the last half an hour trying to research on this topic on kuih. I either sound like a mad local foodie or a lost tourist, boggled down by the extensive variety and names of this seemingly plain albeit sweet dessert. I'm neither, yet a mix of both: a local, lost, boggled down by the extensive variety and names of this seemingly plain albeit sweet dessert. 

The whole Googling process proved to be kind of furtile, because my mind can't seem to put the names to the photos- I get them all mambo-jumbled up. In the end, I just randomy picked 2 from the list of 10. Fed up already! Hah. 

And why is this so important? Ok, not so, so important, but still of some-what importance,as I'm in-charged of choosing the food for the WV participants' camp next week, so orders can be delievered to the caterer. I told the WV people that they must not complain and blame me of the food choices... haha seriously, I'm the wrong person to pick man, I'm kinda anti-meat, save for chicken and fish, and I hate fried and oily stuff too so the food will be kinda bland. Ok, I don't know! I just know I'm bringing my own tea bags and erm, wholemeal bread to camp. The breakfast list was... gross. Like all the fried stuff like mee goreng, beehoon, fried kueh tiao, nasi lemak. And the hot beverage that is to be served was Milo. I don't want 200 people having stomachaches, so the best choice was just white bread with table magarine and jam/kaya. Hey, maybe I'm quite all right as the person in-charged to pick the food! (What a task.)

Thanks for reading my ranting, I shall stop here now and reply to Mimi's email. (Her name is so cute.) 

Oh, I got a job assignment too! I swear I'm a lazy ass, I don't have to go job hunting; it comes to me. Good, it jolts me out of my bumming mode. More about that soon, after my little interview with the boss at a private learning agency in town. Strange how this works, I get to do my job first, today, before going for an interview! But good pay, and super flexi in the sense that I don't have to work everyday. I like!