Singapore

*Draft was forgotten, now published...

It has been just about two years since our last visit, but Singapore seems to have gone through a major transformation during that time. It seems to be more modern, more cosmopolitan, more grand and definitely more expansive. With Singapore dollar, appreciating close to 20% since our visit two years ago, everything is more expensive for the visitors.

Our visit this time took place between 29 January to 3 February. Apart from the four of us, Felicia's Dad, Freda, Frank, Annie and Jonathan were also there to celebrate the Chinese New Year holiday. While we know we would be visiting Singapore during the "raining season," this year's raining season was very different than ones we have experienced during our four year plus in Singapore. Rain was non-stopped during the first two days of our visit. The rain also brought comfortable temperatures of mid to low twenties Celicious.

Food, as usual, was a highlight of our trip. We started off with seafood at Long Beach on the night of our arrival. The Sunday Brunch at the Equinox was memerable, mainly for the foei gras and caviar, but also for the view from the 70th floor of the Swiss Hotel (formerly the Westin Plaza). The breakfast at Tiong Baru was also special as it brought back a lot of happy memories for Felicia and Peter. The major disappointment was the DB Bistro which is a Daniel Boulud (a three Michelin star chef) restaurant at the Singapore Sands resort. While the menu looked promising and the prices relatively reasonable, the food was not particularly inspiring. Peter had the DB Burger which was a burger made with sirloin, short ribs and foei gras. Peter found the burger to be rather bland, terribly underseasoned. The steak frites was also very ordinary as with the lamb cous cous. Most disappointing was the cheese plate which was a collection of rather tasteless cheeses (imcomparable to the cheese spread from the Equinox). This disappointment was made up partially from the Chicken rice and Indian food at the Far East Plaza next day. The Brazil Charusco or Brazilian BBQ on Sixth Avenue was as good as it's ever been. Almost everything we tasted there was great and the food was abudunt.

Visiting Singapore also means seeing our friends, Rosa, Kwan, Glenn, Lisze, Clarence and Roseline. These were our closest friends while we were in Singapore between 1996 and 2001. The timing our trip this time, however, prevented us from spending too much time together. We spent about two hours with the Koos on Sunday evening. We did have dinner with the Wongs and the Lees, but it was short and sweet. Rosa and Kwan, as usual, were the most hospitable. Inviting us over for repeat visits and allowing the children to spend some times together. Catching up with Peter's old colleagues Nick and Peter was quite good fun as well. It has been a few years since we met up and it was great to bring everyone up to date.

Walking around the streets of Singapore, especially around the Botanic Garden and Nassim Road, brought back a lot of fond memories. Apart from Taipei, Singapore was a place were we have spent the most of our time together as a family. While Singapore has changed a lot as a City and a Country, there are still a lot of Singapore that have remained the same.

Cooking

I have always wanted to write about cooking, the why, when, where, what and how about cooking.  The reality, the "how" to cook books are too hard to write as all the measurements take the fun out of cooking.  Furthermore, I don't have many "original" recipes.  Mostly, I steal them off TV shows, restaurants, friends and the Internet. 

The "when," "where," and "what" questions are also too boring to discuss.  I cook when I am hungry, or when my family members or friends are hungry.  Likewise, I cook anywhere and everywhere.  I love cooking in a nice kitchen and BBQ on a nice grill, so my favorite place to cook is in our California home.  I love my oven, my stove, my utensils and my large counter top space!!  Of course, I also love the Webber grill that I got two summers ago. 

There are many reasons why I cook.  First and foremost is that I love to eat tasty food.  After my parents immigrated us to Toronto Canada, I spent many after school  hours (we get off early) watching cooking shows.  The Galloping Gourmet was one of my favorite as with Julia Child, Jacque Pepin, Martin Yan and an assorted other TV chefs.  My brother, Bob, who was effectively my guardian at the time as my parents were still living in Taiwan, was great at cooking all kinds of food.  Nothing was too difficult for him.  He tried to cook everything including making "yu-tell" the Chinese fried dough, and "bao-zi."  Though he may not succeed every time, we ate everything he put on the table.  To this day, I think he has a larger repertoire of dishes then I have, at least in Chinese cooking. 

My cooking activity really took off during University.  Bob had moved out of the family house and into his own house.  So I had begun to cook occasionally for myself and my sister, Joyce.  I always helped Bob in the preparation whenever we have a big dinner party or BBQ at our house.  Cooking became a necessity after business school when I was living on my own.  With my meagre salary, I couldn't afford to eat out on a regular basis.  This is when I tapped my Mom for all of her recipes, for the "lion's head," "chow nien-gao" or stir fried rice cakes, to stewing beef or fatty pork.  Soon, I begun to learn the tastes of different ingredients, sauces and spices.  This skill enable me to "steal" recipes from restaurants and friends. 

After a while, I have developed enough recipes in my head to throw my own dinner parties in my tiny little loft in New York.  The cooking continued after I married Felicia who also enjoys cooking and entertaining.  Our friends in Singapore, Rosa, Lisze also inspired us with new recipes and delicious food. 

Nowadays, we cook almost every weekdays, Monday thru Thursday and on weekends if we are entertaining.  When we are in Taipei, we cook mostly Chinese.  When we are in California, we cook mostly Western food. 

Cooking is fun, most of the time.  It is always satisfying to taste the food afterward and have it turn out exactly how you wanted it to turn out.  So far, my fan base are fairly tolerant to my occasional over- or under-seasonings.  But learning from my mistakes can also be rewarding.