家常菜: 砂锅鱼头

开饭了！

好久没吃的家常菜 - 砂锅鱼头！这应该是一道广东菜式的代表菜之一吧！

有点像大杂烩，因为光看就可以看到很多的料扑在鱼头上，所以完全看不见鱼头的踪影！

我想这也可以叫 “一锅搞定”， 可为均衡的一餐，有鱼，有肉，又有菜。

I Cooked Curry!

This is my first try to cook curry katsu don (curry pork cutlet rice). I bought the curry sauce from Isetan Supermarket. It took me a while to decide which curry sauce to buy because there is a whole shelf to choose from ranging from different brands, intensity, etc. I finally decided on this because it has English instructions. 

Werner's Oven

Werner's Oven

6 Upper East Coast Road

My sis asked where to go for dinner before sending me & my mom home. So I said it's my treat & she can decide where to go. So we ended up at Werner's Oven which is near my sis' place.

A nice treat after cycling more than 20km on Sunday.

Elderly Friendly Country

Over the years, our government has done their part to make our environment more elderly friendly. The range of infrastructures include handle bars, ramps, lift-upgrading for HDB, subsidies for retro-fitting flats of elderly, etc.

This is the first time I see this special traffic light outside Tiong Bahru Plaza. Elderly with their EzyLink card can tap their card for longer crossing time. Since the card reader is still under wrap so I guess it's still not ready for use yet. I was quite excited to see this & was telling my mom that next time when she see such traffic light, she can tap her card so she can have more time to cross the road.

These are some of the hardware which our government can put in place to enhance our environment, but the software is still something which we have to work on.

Citizens in various estates had voiced their concerns & protested the building of elder day centers at their void decks, citing reasons like lower home values. I am for the idea of building elder care centers at void decks because if we can have child care centers, then why not elder care centers. 

七星针

I heard about this plant many times from my mom about its rich medicinal properties but have never seen it for myself. My mom said that my aunt (my mom's elder sis) in Malaysia have this plant right in front of her old house, which I have never noticed.

这就是传说中的七星针.

Unique leave pattern which is just one of the plant features.

Look out for the thorny stem which is one of its distinctive attributes.

指甲花 (Henna)

During the walkabout at Tiong Bahru with my mom, we came across this plant. My mom told me this is known as 指甲花. When I Google this, I found that this is what we commonly know as Henna. Wow, so surprised to finally see the plant itself. Well, I really glad that I learnt something from our little excursion.

Tiong Bahru Walkabout 2

It seemed like not so long ago when I did my last walkabout at Tiong Bahru, so I was quite surprised to find that it had been slightly more than 2 years when I did my first Tiong Bahru Walkabout.

This time, I brought my mom along because she hasn't been here before, and I believe she'll enjoy checking out the ground floor mini gardens. 

I observed that there are more newly renovated units compared to my last visit, which wasn't unexpected since this is quite an up-and-coming neighbourhood for both the expats & local. I believe in time to come, most of the original shutter windows and iron grille might be gone forever.

Enjoy the pictures and see for yourself the differences between the first & second walkabout.

Oh, I've finally switched to the GF1 pancake prime lens which had been in storage for a long, long time. 

291 of Project 365: Group Photo

Our one and only group photo taken at Ipoh on 3 May 2012.

Clockwise starting from the bright red Skechers sneakers belonging to my cousin Choy Kwan, Victor (my brother-in-law), Joanne (my cousin's buddy), me, Cheng (my younger sis), my mom, last but not least, Ah Fei (my cousin's employee, who is also our guide for our Ipoh trip).

ISO: 160

Exposure: 1/50 sec

Aperture: 5.4

Focal Length: 33mm

Flash Used: No

251 of Project 365: Breakfast

Sunday morning, 7 Aug 2011, I awoke to the sound of heavy thunderstorm & smell of food wafting from the kitchen.
Here's my breakfast prepared by my mom & sis.
My sis was actually inspired by the "Full Works" breakfast we had at Food for Thought, and here's her take to prepare something similar.
We had rosemary focaccia bread, bratwurst, scrambled eggs with tomato & onion, not forgetting our own grinded coffee.

ISO: 200

Exposure: 1/30 sec

Aperture: 1.7

Focal Length: 20mm

Flash Used: No

159 of Project 365: Sun Yat Sen

According to my mom, dad was an admirer of Sun Yat Sen.

ISO: 250

Exposure: 1/60sec

Aperture: 5.0

Focal Length: 26mm

Flash Used: No

Rubber Tapping

Rubber tapping tools on display at the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall.

Mom excitedly asked if I've taken a picture of the rubber tapping tools & started to tell me interesting facts about rubber tapping which I never knew. Invaluable lesson which I believe many might not know too.

妈妈: (非常兴奋的问我) 有没有把这个拍下来?

我: 哦，还没。(喀嚓，拍了一张，就是所见上图)

妈妈: 以前我们去割橡胶的时候就是戴酱的灯在头上。

我: 哇，酱high tech 啊！为什么要戴盏灯割橡胶?

妈妈: 因为割橡胶要早上两，三点，天还没亮的时候就起来割，所以要戴盏灯才看得到。

我: 为什么要七早八早，天还没亮的时候去割橡胶? (本人非常反对任何干扰正常睡眠的非自然活动)

妈妈: 因为天亮了，橡胶树被太阳晒了，就不会流出来。只有到了晚上，橡胶才会流出来。

我: 哦，原来如此。(上了一堂课)

妈妈: (指着右下方的一堆种子) 这些就是橡胶的种子。

我: 这个我以前有看过。(因为曾经有人把在地上磨过的橡胶种子烫我，所以印象深刻)

妈妈: (指着橙色的物体) 这就是处理过的橡胶。

我: 很像石头叻！

完毕！

27 of Project 365: Mom's Flower Arrangement

Isn't this an interesting flower arrangement comprising of flowers of different seasons and a religious-looking flag? I wonder which sect it belongs too but it's unmistakably my mom's handiwork placed at a "fortune" spot" for good luck.

ISO: 400

Exposure: 1/25 sec

Aperture: 1.7

Focal Length: 20mm

Flash Used: No

22 of Project 365: Mom's Cooking

Families that eat together stay together.

ISO: 400

Exposure: 1/3 sec

Aperture: 1.7

Focal Length: 20mm

Flash Used: No

Sentosa Day Trip

Mom and I went to Sentosa for a day trip. I felt like a tourist and went "trigger-happy", snapping everything I see : ) We started the day early and managed to enjoy the morning sun and avoided the crowd.