White Peach & Green Apple Salad with Yuzu Marmalade Dressing

Food has many meanings. With each individual having their own innate interpretation of its raison d’etre and personal experience to reconcile the difference between function and meaning.

Often, I am presented with two general schools of thought. First, food is the form of sustenance apart from water, sleep that maintains our lives. The other, food presents one with a sense of purpose, a motivation to seek out for food as a form of joy. Or in other words, one eats to live, while the other, lives to eat.

It is obvious that this is not an absolute dichotomy and there is much room for debate. I admit that one has to take into account one’s financial situation and accessibility to food. The truth is that a starving child in Ethiopia has little to eat, let alone a choice in the matter. However, for the sake of facilitating my stance, bear with me and allow me some leeway.

Here goes:

Eat-to-Live

A choice of the meal is the determined by factors other than the enjoyment of the meal. One possible factor would be price. Considering that one has the ability to pay more for a meal, one would rather pursue an option which is cheap or rather the minimum cost required to fill one’s belly.

The next would be accessibility/convenience. This suggests that whatever is along the way or the nearest determines the meal location. What is on the plate has no bearing on the decision process, but purely the location at which the meal is consumed at is nearer or easier to reach.

,,,,,,,,,, to be continued

Considering that my mum’s lactose intolerant, I decided to make a dairy-free mushroom soup. Traditionally, we are accustomed to the ubiquitous “cream of mushroom soup”, which should be more adequately named mushroom cream soup, as you taste more cream than mushroom.

Method: Bunch of mushrooms, brushed, peeled and chopped. In a pot, fry the mushrooms with a bit of olive oil. Pour in sufficient vegetable/mushroom stock to cover the mushrooms (if you have sufficient amount of mushrooms, water will do just as well). Bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer. Blend in a food processor. Season with salt and pepper. Keep warm till serving.

Tips: There are many ways to thicken the soup. In this scenario, I boiled a small potato in the soup, so when the soup was blended, then potato thickened the soup. Alternatively, cream/milk/butter can be used as thickener. Please note do not attempt to bring the soup to the boil after you have added cream/milk/butter as this will cause the soup to split.

Honestly, this is a way overdue post.

Late last year, I was intrigued with watching Gordon Ramsay make scrambled eggs on Youtube, but till of late (well actually the past 3 mths) was motivated enough to try it out myself.

Initially I started with the conventional stainless steel pot, which resulted in wonderfully crusted layer of egg at the bottom and I eventually had to put in some elbow-grease to scrub off.

Armed with non-stick pot and heat resistant spatula, I was ready. The non-stick pot gives me some room for error if I might have let too much heat to the eggs. The spatula helps to scrape egg from the sides and bottom of the pot. Using a heat resistant spatula is so critical, unless the desired effect is scrambled eggs with burnt rubber.

Eggs are very sensitive to heat and will start to “solidify” at 60 degrees Celsius. Hence, constant stirring and temperature control is imperative. Often, I find myself taking the pot off the heat to slow down the cooking, otherwise it results in a solid layer of egg at the bottom of the pan. The eggs should be cooked till it takes the appearance of “slushee” or thick porridge. The eggs should have body, but fluid enough to be poured out of the pot.

Seasoning: Usually I add a knob of butter into the egg mixture to add richness and flavor. Once the eggs are taken off the heat, either cream or creme fraiche can be stirred to elevate the rich and flavor, it also gives the eggs the bright yellow color that we are accustomed to. Important point to note is that salt should only be added after the eggs have been cooked. Salt while cooking will make the eggs runny and prevent the eggs from scrambling.

Method: 3 eggs and a knob of butter into a non-stick pot. Keep stirring while scrapping the sides and bottom of pot. If the eggs seems to be sticking to the pot too fast, take the pot off the heat and continue to stir while scrapping. When you are back to speed, put the pot back on the heat. Once the eggs have gained the texture of thick porridge, remove from heat. Add cream/creme fraiche. Season with salt and pepper. Serve.

I’m sure many in Singapore have tried Duvel and if you haven’t it’s available at the major supermarkets. What makes this bottle special is that it’s the jumbo 750ml bottle. It has a corked-stopper, aesthetically it just warms my heart. Got this one during FHA2008.

The latest addition to my collection – Absolut Mango. In my opinion, Mango is one of the better flavored vodkas Absolut has released. Got this bottle at the Duty-Free at Changi Airport.

Have you ever noticed on how Singaporeans make dedications over the radio?

Well, often but not, it usually goes:

“I’ll like to dedicate this song to all my friends who know me.”

I certainly understand what the dedicator is trying to say. Its rather a Singlish or rather chinese translated into English issue. It is my guess that the crux of the statement is to indicate that the song is dedicated to any individual who are friends or acquaintances of the dedicator.

Anyway moving on, this statement has pressed me on to ponder.

[Statement]
I’ll like to dedicate this song to all my friends who know me.

[Premise 1]
My friends know me.

[Premise 2]
Friends are the individuals who know me.