The trip back home made me rethink my eating habits. The lunch I eat at the office canteen is quite oily so I decided to eat home cooked meals on some days. Although I am not noticeably affected by oily food now, who knows even an extra year saved in terms of blocked arteries during my last stand may prove to be useful. I actually enjoy cooking. To me, it's more like an enjoyable version of laboratory research where the subjects of my experiments are my friends, and not mice. The friends don't mind since they get to sample free food. Making food that is healthy is science. Making food that is visually appetizing is like art. And making food that tastes good with the right ingredients in the right quantities is chemistry. Hitting that mark of perfection in taste is like reaching the equivalence point in a titration experiment. Adding anything less or anything more is likely to miss the mark. With the exception of accidentally poisoning oneself or burning down the house, failures in cooking experiments are valuable things that go down as lessons learnt.
Last night I went out for a barbeque with my colleagues. We planned this event for many days with much excitement. Everyone pooled in their ideas and sponsored various items. Initially they planned to bring their families and invite other friends, but in the end it was just the four of us. I stated in the beginning that I won't be inviting any of my friends - I can't imagine how any of my closest friends would enjoy an outing on a Friday night with a group of mostly unknown people and be forced to socialise.
We drove to the farthest end of the country in search of our barbeque pit in Changi Beach Park. In all the excitement, we forgot to research on the road route. We parked in the wrong car park and walked about a kilometer from the car park to the pit carrying heavy things like charcoal, barbeque equipment, food, drinks, a bag of ice cubes, a large ice box, large umbrellas and a big watermelon! Also, getting a fire started was quite a challenge. Eventually, we settled in what was a calming spot, listening to the waves pounding on the beach and getting excited every time a low flying aircraft made its way to land at the Changi airport. It was a Friday evening well spent in good company, (over)eating, talking, singing a lot of old songs (mostly just the first few lines) and playing charades.
What do vegetarians eat at barbecues? In yesterday's barbeque, Shu sponsored garlic and herb vegetable skewers and grilled corn
On my return from Sri Lanka last month, I brought back some biscuits to distribute to my office colleagues. One of my favourites is the ginger biscuit which I also passed to an older Scottish colleague who occasionally gives me biscuits and freebies leftover from Safety campaigns in the office.
He came back to me several weeks later and said, "Shu, do you think you can get me more of those biscuits? As kids, we used to eat something called Ginger Snaps, which we don't see anymore. It reminded me a lot of my mother who used to dunk the biscuits in milk because they were too hard for her false teeth!"
It's fascinating how memories of certain events in our lives are tied to food or songs and archived in our long term memory, only to be released on contact with specific triggers.
"Ginger snaps" from home
In a twist of unexpected events, Brother Bear and Goldilocks are turning out to be better tenants than we are. While we are at work, they proactively clean the house (although we protest to it), fix broken locks and to our embarrassment, they even solved a chronic clogged sink issue. Now that they keep the house cleaner, we are feeling the pressure to keep up. Shu learned that they got married only a couple of months ago and left family behind soon after to start a new chapter in Singapore. It's a bit saddening knowing it's a struggle to adjust to a new country and culture, but at the same time, it's admirable that they are trying it with a positive attitude.
Last week, Ryuu and I caught Guardians of the Galaxy and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles back to back. I didn't think we'd make it through 4 hours of sitting (with old age, weak bladders and all) but we did. Guardians was definitely the better movie of the two, but Turtles was a major blast from the past for me. I was a big time fan of the cartoon as a child and recall fondly playing the game on my TV game console.
Recently, I discovered a food stall selling "appam" and it was our pre-movie dinner. In Sri Lanka, they are known as "hoppers" and are very popular among the masses.
Not so long ago, Katy and I decided to try Mediterranean food at a restaurant called Esmirada. Just when we were beginning to think the food there was a bit underwhelming, the restaurant suddenly came alive and started playing a loud, catchy folk song. I thought it might be a birthday celebration. Then some of the staff members got on tables and danced away while smashing lots of porcelain plates! Soon, they gave us plates for smashing too!! Everyone was in smiles and followed suit.
The staff danced on the tables to this folk tune. It turns out that smashing plates is an ancient Greek tradition and the "Zorba" is a Greek dance.
The floor was a mess of chipped porcelain when we left
