Bits & Pieces

These are random & since individually they don't justify a post each, I thought I'd just combine them here. Call them mini short stories, if you will.

Big Bad Wolf

I realise that kids learn language in blocks. What I'm trying to say is that the Girl doesn't know that bouche (mouth) is feminine & thus you would say "la bouche", she knows it as "labouche" - it's one word to her. Just like "grand mechant loup" which is big bad wolf in French. The other day she was trying to tell me that there is a small one in her room - she said "petit grandmechantloup". Even though I broke down the 3 words & explained it to her & she knows very well the difference between small & big, she still insists on calling it "petit grandmechantloup".

2 choices

I'm not a big fan of offering a lot of choices for a fussy toddler. I do understand that she's at the stage when she's frustrated & needs to feel like she has some control, so occasionally I'll offer 2 options. Either "the white or the pink T-shirt", "one chocolate or nothing, not 2", "put on your seat belt or we're not going anywhere"....The other day, I caught her plunging her face down to her plate to eat her noodles. At which point I yelled at her "Stop eating like a dog". She turned to me very cheekily & said "2 choices maman, I eat like a dog or I eat with my hands (which is also not allowed)".

French faux pas

There are a couple of things my French family will never understand about me.

1. Barefoot Contessa
I hate wearing socks or shoes at home. The first thing I do when I step into the house is to kick off my shoes. It's the Singaporean in me. It also doesn't help that our floor is heated so even in winter, I don't wear socks. The French finds it very strange that I walk around barefooted. Unfortunately the Girl has also picked up this "bad habit" from me.

I don't insist that anybody remove their shoes when they enter our house & for appearance sake, I will put on shoes when we have a dinner party at home. Likewise, I don't remove my shoes when I'm at someone else's house. But at home, I just don't like having anything on my feet.

And of course, more than a few people have commented on the line up of our shoes at the entrance.

2. Having a savoury tooth
The French don't believe in savoury breakfast. Bacon & eggs are never eaten in the morning. Their idea of breakfast is cereal, toast with jam, nutella - anything sweet & nothing savoury. X mother finds it rather amusing that I have a ham sandwich for breakfast but will nonetheless prepares that for me when I stay over. Can you imagine her surprise if I were to have lor pak ko or roti prata or porridge early in the morning ?

Update :

Celetial Fundie just commented that she has an entire blog committed to Shoes Off at the Door, Please. Wow I didn't realise that there is such commitment to this cause. So do you insist on guests removing shoes when they enter ?

The motherland of Hot Air Balloons

Did you know that Annonay in Ardeche is the birthplace of hot air balloons ? In June 1783, Joseph & Etienne de Montgolfier flew a hot air balloon in the town square of Annonay. Ever since I discovered this fact, I've been meaning to go there - a 2 hour drive north of us. BTW the French word for hot air balloon is montgolfiere.

What better way than their annual hot air balloon festival last weekend to commemorate that event ? Since X wasn't home, I thought we'd take a small expedition to the festival entitled "Art of Flight". They actually do a re-enactment of the first flight with a balloon made from paper & cloth - totally 18th century with everyone in period costume. That would have been fun but it was scheduled a little too early in the morning for us to make it in time.

On the way, we came across this little parade complete with marching band - seemed like some sort of harvest festival. I was in such a rush I didn't even take down the name of the village - I had parked illegally, hopped out to see what was going on & then went back on my way.

As we enter the park, there was a huge stand selling kits of all shapes & sizes. Of course we had to buy one. We spent most of the afternoon playing with it. There were some serious looking kites.

I couldn't help but notice that there were lots of mousseron mushrooms in the field & nobody were picking them !! There were small tho & no, I didn't - it was my mushroom-off day.

There were 2 huge tents of all kinds of old fashioned toys & games, open for all . We didn't play too many cos it was crowded but I like the one on the left, a pretty contraption where you put marbles at the top & they roll down by themselves. Simple is best.

There was also a little demonstration of these mini mongolfieres activated by a remote control that sets off the burner. But that wasn't what I drove 2 hours to see, we were ready to see the real thing.

There was a huge discussion (all over the PA system for the benefit of everyone) after taking into account wind conditions, speed, direction, on whether or not to actually fly the balloons. It had rained a little all afternoon & the weather wasn't looking too bright. In the end, they decided to only set up one balloon but will not take off afterall. It was disappointing not to watch 30 hot air balloons fly by but it was still better than nothing. They might not even have done that if not for the fact that there was a Japanese TV crew waiting on the sideline.

I've never seen a hot air balloon inflated before so it was quite an eye opener & I'll share with you how it's done. You never know when you'll need it to make a quick escape.

Step 1. The envelope (what we know as the balloon) is stretched out on the ground & attached to the basket which is lying on it's side. A small fan blows air into the balloon.



Step 2. Once it's sufficiently inflated, the burner is turned on & the air inside the balloon gets heated.

Step 3. As you know, hot air rises so voila, it lifts the balloon upright.

We had an enjoyable day out - ventured into unknown territory, had fun rolling around in the field even though we didn't get to watch them take off. I'm jotting down the dates for the hot air balloon race.

Some interesting facts :

1. The best time to fly them is just after sunrise & 1-2 hours before sunset when the wind is calmest & the air most stable. No wonder the schedule had a takeoff at 6.30am & I thought it was a typo mistake.

2. Ever wonder how to steer a hot air balloon ? The balloon goes where the wind takes it. However, the winds at varying altitudes may blow in different directions and at different speeds, so the trick is to climb or descend to an altitude where the wind is blowing in the direction you want to go.

Introducing My Freezer

Before I moved here, the only freezers that I have were the ones attached to the refrigerator. Before I moved here, I didn't cook every day. Before I moved here, I used to cross the street to the nearest supermarket to get what I need.

Now all that has changed. I never knew households actually own these industrial size freezers. Over here, everybody has one, X parents have 2. But I can see why it is necessary. Most people here only shop once a week so having a huge freezer is handy. Excess summer vegetables are prepared & frozen. Left overs are frozen. Meats are purchased in bulk, cut up & then frozen.

Just to give you an example. I will open up my freezer & invite you inside.

This is the size of my freezer. The little machine next to it is my washing machine. It's like David compared to my Goliath of a freezer - it's a quarter the size of my freezer.

Enter at your own risk. You never know what you're going to find. As you can well see, it's completely filled to the brim.

On the left in the white tupperware are the springrolls I made with the leftover wonton fillings. Everything is labeled & dated. There is so much stuff in here I can't keep track of what's what if I don't. Once I took out a pack of legs thinking they were chicken legs, turned out to be duck legs. When they are frozen, everything looks the same. What's called hache de porc is minced pork. It may come as a surprise to you but minced pork is not easy to find in the supermarkets. The ones that are available are usually marinated to be made into sausages not just plain minced pork. So whenever I see these, I would buy 4-5 packs. I use them a lot - in wontons, springrolls, spicy szechuan noodles, laab moo & my recent favorite nam prik ong.

Inside the ice cream tubs are mousseron mushrooms that I had prepared. There are about 6 of those. On the right in the baskets are packets of meat bought in bulk & then divided into meal sized portions - chicken legs, pork chops, beef steak, veal etc.


This is what you see after I remove the top baskets. On the right is half a baguette. Yup we freeze bread too. It's pretty common here. Just pop them into the oven for a few minutes & they're, almost, as good as new. Can you can make out what's next to the baguette ? Well it's a rabbit. Rene gave it to us & I'm still waiting for an occasion to cook it.

Right next to it is the packet of spring rolls wrappers. That's a recent acquisition which reminds me I have to make some spring rolls....but where am I going to put them in the freezer ? Just above the wrappers are home made sausages, also given to us by Rene. Next to it is a whole chicken. Don't know about you but I must always have a whole chicken in my freezer. That's my security blanket. I don't feel comfortable unless I have one handy.

Then to the left of the spring roll skins, wrapped in white are lamb chops. X buys food at a specialty store that caters to restaurants & professionals so as such he buys them by bulk. Right at the bottom of the freezer sits packets & packets of magret de canard, leg of lamb, veal chops...It's a black hole down there. I don't even remember what else we have. Oh platters of tomato farcies, spring rolls, chee cheong fun, ngo hiang, curry puffs......you know for in case there is a war. Not forgetting vacuumed packs of pumpkin, french beans & spinach - all from Rene's garden & kept for in case we run out of food...haha if that will ever happen. I almost forgot, I have tubs of soups too - don't diss them okay, they are extremely handy when I'm sick.

I don't believe I'm actually saying this but it would be my dream to get a walk in freezer. Once upon a time, I would have said walk in closet. Not forgetting I have another smaller freezer that sits on top of my refrigerator. By the way, if you think my freezer is over the top, wait till you see my pantry.

Singapore Laksa

I only recently discovered Top Chef. How could I have not known about this show until they are already in Season 4 ? On the show, one of the contestants decided to do a Laksa & Anthony Boudain who was the Head Judge for that round said, "I take my laksa very seriously."

So after watching that episode, I decided it was time to take my laksa seriously too. Well not that seriously enough to make it from scratch. You see laksa is actually not one of my favorite Singaporean dishes. Not really sure why and although I will eat it, it's just not something I would normally order.

This weather was really getting me down (I promise not to talk about the weather any more) & I needed something to perk me up. Sitting in my pantry were the 2 packets of Prima Taste Laksa ready mix that friends had sent to me (thank you Barb & Swee Lin). In general, I'm not really a fan of ready mixes cos they taste well, like ready mixes & if I really like a dish, I want to do it from scratch anyway. But since it's hard to find the ingredients to make a laksa, I'm happy to try out this ready mix.

There are basically 2 types of laksa - the singapore version which is made with coconut & the penang version which is made with assam. Apparently there are also other versions like johore laksa & sarawak laksa although I have not tried nor have any idea what they are. Traditionally laksa is served with rice vermicelli but I wanted to do something different so mixed in some ramen.


The instructions on the package was very straight forward. Add the premix which is actually the coconut powder into water & then stir in the laksa paste. Right off the bat, it already smells heavenly. I started to get excited. Next I threw in some tau pok from my very precious stash & 5-6 whole shrimps. Once the shrimps were cooked, the laksa soup was basically ready. No more than 10 mins in all.

Then it was just laddling the soup on top of the noodles & topping off with a handful of beansprouts. The pack also came with a satchet of sambal chilli - a very generous satchet if I may add and a satchet of dried laksa leaves for ganishing. How thoughtful !!


It was so good. This bowl of laksa really hit the spot & that's saying a lot for someone who doesn't even like laksa to begin with. I'm not a snob but if a pack of ready mix can make me feel that way without having to slave for hours in the kitchen, that's fine by me. Looks like I'm ready to try their other ones. I had a quick look at their website & they even have party packs - for big groups etc.



Dear Mum, Can you please send over as many Prima Taste Paste that you can possibly find & carry ? Many thanks, Your daughter.

Rain rain go away

All these rain has dampened my mood. I haven't felt inspired to cook, bake, blog nor take photos. We do get occasional showers in May but this is ridiculous, it has been raining non-stop for weeks. I can't even remember when was the last time it hadn't rained all day.

We may joke that it means more mushrooms but my favorite mushrooms, the cepes are not sprouting cos without the sun, they ain't coming out. I was over at our old neighbourhood where there are lots of cherry trees and let me tell you, cherries are going to be really expensive this year cos most of them have gone bad because of the rain. Nobody has ever seen them this bad. Sigh.

It's June & I'm still walking around in my sweater. I have hardly worn my summer clothes. In fact, there were days I had to dig into my winter wardrobe. What's the opposite of doing a rain dance - is there some way I can summon the sun ?

I can't wait to be able to eat out on the terrace, BBQ, go swimming, seek the shade & complain about how hot the summer is.

In case you don't know what we're obsessed with

Conversation last night

Me : I was hoping that today would have been a rainless day - the first in weeks but no, after a beautiful sunny day, it has to rain in the evening.

X : Think positive. At least that would mean more mushrooms.



Note - BTW my back is hurting big time from last weekend's mushroom pick

The tale of the 2 nam priks

Once upon a time, 2 friends were chatting on the internet about Thai spicy dips & how that was the only way they would eat raw vegetables. So the one living in Bangkok suggested sending to the other, ready made nam prik ong pastes. Upon receipt, the friend happily made the dip only to find out that wasn't the same dip she was referring to. It turned out she was thinking of nam prik kapi. But it didn't matter cos she discovered another great Thai dish & has in her possession spicy pastes that she can use for her stir fries.

Moral of the story : Never miss an opportunity to talk about food.

Nam prik ong
(thanks Eunice for the paste & the recipe)

1 Tbsp nam prik paste
200g minced pork
1 tomato, diced
2 stalks of parsley
chicken stock

1. Stir fry the paste until fragrant

2. Add the rest of the ingredients. Enough stock to half cover the meat. More if you like the dip more watery

3. Simmer till meat is cooked

4. Serve with sticks of raw vegetables (carrots & cucumbers) or over rice