Suzy's Teenager Dates

Where's Suzy?

Last night:

What did you do when you were a teenager? Le Monsieur asked, as he eyeballed the hordes of teenagers loitering around the shopping district.

Hmmm, I did a lot of sports in school every day. At the same time, I had to study hard so that my parents wouldn't stop me from playing sports.

Don't you go out with friends? What about dating? Where did you go?

Well, that was in the early 90s and I was a nerdy kid from a good school. My friends were all really sporty and we hung out in school playing ball. Basketball, netball, hockey,... For dates *blush* it was usually a movie and then dinner. And the guy would send me home around 10pm, never after midnight. That was my curfew.

Where did you go for dinner? Hawker centres? Food courts?

*Indignant* Not hawker centres! Not for a date! That "Russian" restaurant Shaslik with nice steaks was a favourite. There was always Milano Pizza or Swensen's. Or Jack's Place. Japanese food wasn't common then. It's funny. I haven't been to any of these places for a long time.

* * * * * * * * * *
So today, we went to Jack's place for lunch and I'm very happy to report that the steaks are as good as I remembered: tender, succulent, and the perfect medium rare. And the prices too! They still served the potatoes with sour cream, bacon and chives, though I skipped the bacon this time. They even had the same green checked tablecloths. Le Monsieur liked it and I have a feeling that we'll be back there again very soon... For a date, no less!

It was nice for me to revisit the restaurant after so many years. I am glad that it had survived the times and retained its character over the years.

And you, where did you used to dine when you were a teenager? Have you been back since? Does it still exist? Does it bring back nice memories?

Have a great week of Christmas shopping ahead.

Love,
Suzy

M*A*S*H

All lined up, and eyes looking front!

The first time I had mash potatoes was in KFC at Bukit Merah Central. They were known as Kentucky Fried Chicken then, and served with real plates and cutlery. What a treat it was! The flavour and texture was completely new to me then. The mushroomy chickeny gravy was delicious. I could eat tubs of it, and I did.

The first time I tasted homemade mash potatoes was when my German housemate Susie (not Suzy) made it. She used her Grandma's secret recipe that required raw egg yorks, milk, cream, butter and salt. Try as I did, I could never get the proportions right. I've lost contact with Susie now so I'm kicking myself for not paying more attention in the kitchen years ago.

But the taste of the Susie's mash made me sit up and take notice. The yellow of the mash was as intense as the texture was creamy smooth. The taste was rich, but didn't take anything away from the comfort reassurance of potatoes that we knew so well. She had taken the humble mash potatoes to a whole new level in my universe. Never had I tasted pureed root vegetables like that! Susie's Grandma was truly a genius.

These days, with low-carb diets being fashionable, and the proportion of obese Singaporeans increasing, mash potatoes are a great no-no on the dining table. "No carbs after 8pm," declared a friend. Another friend quipped that it was supposed to be 6pm. Yet another said: "No carbs all day long!"

A great pity, I think. Because out there, Susie and the Grandma, are still churning out their amazing mash potatoes. Given the chance, I will eat them anytime, night or day.

Did I mention how creamy smooth it was...? MmmmmmMMMmmmmmmm...

Have a good week ahead
Love
Suzy

Forbidden Food

Medium rare is not allowed

While in Tokyo, I went out to dinner with a few female colleagues. Of the 6 Japanese who were at the table, 3 of them had worked overseas for a few years (USA, Germany and Thailand). Besides me, there were a 3 colleagues from France, one based in Malaysia, one in Japan and the last from France. So it was a very international and interesting group, and I felt privileged to be a part of it that night.

Our conversation revolved around many topics, sharing our very different cultures and work experiences with each other but it invariably went to food. One of the French ladies was pregnant - she told us that she could not take sushi or drink any alcohol, something which was very difficult for her since she loved raw fish. The Japanese women exclaimed astonishment, they ate raw food and drank (in moderation, one quickly added) all through pregnancy. How can we avoid sushi, another woman exclaimed. This is Japan!

Sake labels outside an izakaya

Apparently French women were told to avoid non-pasteurised cheese and raw food all through pregnancy. Cigarettes, caffeine and alcohol were out of bounds too.

I remember an American friend telling me that she had to avoid a long list of food, including fishes with high mercury content. She carried the list around with her and showed it to the waiter in every restaurant that we went to. It must have been common practice in the US, for all the waiters handled her questions professionally and in a knowledgeable way.

Besides the usual cigarettes, caffeine and alcohol, I don't know if there are any taboo foods for expectant mothers in Singapore. My mother is often "blamed" for taking too much dark soya sauce when I was in her tummy because I turned out dark-skinned and have a dark birthmark on my body. My sister-in-law avoided all dark-coloured foods throughout both her pregnancies. My niece and nephew were indeed fair-skinned and extremely cute.

What forbidden foods are there for expectant mother? Are they scientifically proven or just old wives' tales?

To eat or not to eat...

I'd queued for an hour in the cold for this on my previous trip - but it was worth it!

... that is the question.

I love to eat. That's the simplistic way of looking at it. I love more than the actual act of consuming food. I love thinking about what to eat, where to go or if I'm cooking at home, I love planning what to cook, how to balance the taste and colours so that the palette and the eyes are titillated before the tastebuds.

And with the wedding date creeping closer, I have started thinking seriously about *gasp* losing weight. It's almost a sacrilegious thought for me. Going on diet? That is a huge no-no for me since my teenage days when I saw many close friends succumb to anorexia to achieve that fashionably skinny look.

But although I have no dreams of being a princess on my big day, I don't want to be a pumpkin either. And a pumpkin in a white dress is not at all a pretty sight.

I'm off again tonight, to Tokyo this time. Will I be able to resist the temptations of Japanese delicacies?

To eat or not to eat...

Appreciate what you have, have a glorious week ahead.

Love, Suzy

Down Under



Cateract Gorge, Tasmania


I had a wonderful time in Melbourne and Tasmania. There's nothing like fresh air and lots of nature walks to whet that appetite. And being in Australia, we were spoilt for choice in terms of food. Take, for example, our first day of the trip.

First stop, breakfast in Melbourne. Our friend, an almost Melbourne native now that he's been there for a few years, brought us to a few alleyways cramped full of cafes. They were all serving dishes piled high with eggs, bacon and sausages. Portions are big here, our friend warned us, and so we shared a super large breakfast plate with extra sausages.

Italian ladies serve up a mean plate of pasta

A walk around the city and we then piled into an Italian place for lunch. We sat at a large table in the kitchen, right in front of the buzzing stove as the Italian ladies went about their business of cooking, gesturing animatedly with their hands, talking a rapid-fire of English and Italian at the same time. The pasta I had was good but simply being able to sit there and watch the ladies in action, made the experience better than being in Italy!

Dinner was a pub affair where we all ordered huge succulent steaks that came along with fresh salads and chips. Needless to say, we tried all the beers they had on tap and then ordered some more.

Le Monsieur comtemplates the sea

A cheese plate came along at another watering hole later that night, Le Monsieur was very pleased to announce that the Aussies make their cheese as well as the French do.

And so it went, the rest of the trip Down Under, we ate and drank very well everywhere we went. The meat was good and the seafood, excellent. Of course, we were not there only for the food. We also did nature hikes and met with a lot of the local animals. Le Monsieur loves the wombats while I, I simply love the Tasmanian Devils...

Aren't they cute?

Eat, drink and be merry!
Love Suzy

On the Road Again

Milo, anyone?

By the time you read this, Suzy is on the road again. And this time, it's a holiday! A real one with Le Monsieur. Not a weekend tagged at the end of a working trip, not a trip to accompany visitors, not a trip to attend a wedding, no no no, it's a real vacation complete with cameras, guidebooks, visa applications, car rentals, mountains, lakes, beaches, flea markets... the whole works!

What awaits me on the other side? Cool weather, Mother Nature, wonderful wine, thirst-quenching beers, good simple food and friendly natives. I'll be in Australia... and coincidentally enough, it was in Perth that I first tried my hand in cooking. I had thought of it as a chemical experiment then: a bit of this, a dash of that, apply heat. And if it doesn't explode in your face, it's good enough to eat.

I haven't been back since those days in the "kitchen-laboratory". I'm truly excited.

Do you remember the first time you tried cooking? Or had to cook for someone really special? Did it turn out well?

Enjoy food, enjoy life.
Love, Suzy

Family Dinner

Ever since I could remember, my family had always had our family dinner on Sundays.

It meant a lot to me that the family sits down for a meal together. We are not the most talkative family nor are we good with sharing our feelings. Oftentimes, there was little in terms of conversation. We just ate together, what more could we ask for in a conservative Chinese-ethnic family?

When our grandparents were living with us, we would eat dinner out so that Mama could have a day's break from housework and cooking. Our usual haunt was the chicken rice at Queenstown food centre. I was still too young to appreciate the garlicky chili sauce or the piquant ginger sauce, but I loved drowning my chicken rice in the sweet dark soya sauce. It's still there, this stall.

The other place we frequented, which didn't stand the test of time, was steamboat at the Henderson market. In addition to the raw slices of fish, prawns and meat for the steamboat, they used to serve tempura prawns. They called it "yap pun har" Japanese prawns in Cantonese. I loved that! And when nobody was looking, I would feed the crunchy tail shell to the stray cats that hovered hopefully around the tables.

Then we moved on to the sliced fish soup in Chinatown food centre and the Hokkien restaurant in Amoy Street. And as my siblings and I started working, the places we went to became progressively upmarket as we took turns paying for dinner.

When I moved to Europe, I would time my calls around 9pm in Singapore, when the family is basking in their after-dinner contentment. They would pass the phone around with nothing much to say except to tell me what they just had: fish soup noodles, sashimi, fried noodles, Thai curry,... It varied every weekend and I didn't want to miss a single dish. Somehow, knowing what they had eaten for Sunday dinner made me feel closer to home.

And as my brothers and I got married or moved out, our Sunday dinners became the only time Mama can feed us nourishing home-cooked meals. The dishes became double-boiled soup, steamed fish, prawns and lots of vegetables. After dinner, we would be force-fed with a week's worth of fruits as my parents, like all Chinese-ethnic parents, fret needlessly over malnutrition.

Yesterday, my father texted me. Preparg chix curry and minestrone soup 4 2moro dner.

I'm counting down to dinner tonight - only 5 more hours to go. His minestrone soup is quite out of this world...
*drool*

Be well. Eat Well.

Love, Suzy

I hate Mondays

Don't you sometimes wish that you have a giant chopper knife like this?

I did, this weekend.

I wished I had it for the mosquitoes that feasted on my sweet blood as I pruned my plants by the front door...

I wished I had it when door bitch at the bar that my friends and I were trying to get into was, well, being bitchy...

I wished I had it when there were just too many things to do and the weekend is coming to an end...

Well, looks like Suzy has the Monday blues, on a Sunday night. I hope the week gets progressively better.

Love, Suzy

PS. Wouldn't it be a funny sight to see me waving a chopper at the mosquitoes buzzing around me?

Night Out with Christian Constant

Another week spent in Paris again. Work happened to bring me back to the beautiful City of Lights and Good Food twice within a month. Lucky me.

I discovered a nice restaurant near the office - actually I have heard many good things about it for a long time, but as they don't take reservations and I never seemed to be able to make it there ahead of the crowd, I have not had the honour to taste their food yet... until last week, that is.

The restaurant in question? Les Cocottes, by chef Christian Constant. I had been to the Cafe Constant a few doors down several times, and had never been disappointed.

I did a check on wiktionary for the meaning of "cocotte", and it came up with chicken (child talk), darling (colloquial), casserole and promiscuous woman. Well, the first three I knew, but the fourth? Intriguing!

I was sold, I suggested to my friend that we go there on the first evening that I was in town. Ok, it might be more of a demand than a suggestion... But who can say no to this darling little restaurant where chicken casseroles are served by promiscuous women?

The decor of the restaurant was very moden, with tall bar stool seats for all the guests. Not very comfortable to eat with feet dangling off the high chairs but judging from the long queue of eager diners at 8pm on a Monday night, making customers comfortable probably wasn't very high on their priority list. The food was.

French Wood Pigeon

Potatoes Stuffed with Pig's Feet

We shared a starter of cold meat. I ordered a French wood pigeon for my main course while my friend had a dish that was eloquently described on the menu as "potatoes stuffed with pig's feet". As we have learnt, in France, grossly named dishes were often the best traditional food that the country could offer. We were not wrong. Both our main dishes were very good. My pigeonneau, as it is called in French, was a tad undercooked but the sauce swung the vote from me. It was robust without being heavy, and went harmoniously with the vegetables.

The highly enjoyable dinner ended with me ordering the Fabulous Christian Constant Chocolate Tart while my friend went for the waffle with chantilly cream and salted caramel. My chocolate tart was good but wasn't that fabulous but the waffle certainly was. I should know, because 2 evenings later, I was back at the restaurant and ordered the waffle on that visit. Not someone with a sweet tooth, I was never very big on desserts... But the salted caramel sauce piqued my interest and I wanted to go back to investigate it further.

Investigation findings: The chantilly cream was light and unsweetened while the salted caramel was salty with a tinge of sweetness and a smooth toffee finish - everything that a salted caramel should be. The lightness of the cream and the saltiness of the caramel went perfectly with the crispy light waffle. They even offered it in half portions!

Fabulous Chocolate Tart (foreground) and the Amazing Waffle with Chantilly Cream and Salted Caramel Sauce (background)

My order on the second night was crispy cod, which aptly described the food when it arrived on the enameled cocotte. No surprises there, it was simply crispy on the outside, cod in the inside. And it was delicious. After these two visits, it is certain that Les Cocottes have made it to my list of Top 10 favorite restaurants in Paris.

I don't think I will have any more trips to Paris before 2011, what a pity. I would have loved to dine at Les Cocottes again very soon. But I have a few trips within Asia lined up. So watch this space, as I revisit old favourites and discover new restaurants in Tokyo and Shanghai in the coming weeks. *Excited*

Les Cocottes
135, rue St Dominique
Paris 75007
(no reservations)

Be well. Eat well.

Love, Suzy

Airline Food

Believe it or not, Suzy is on the road again this week. Another long-haul flight, another 24 hours of sleeplessness watching movies, another 4 airline meals for the week. Having been on the road 3 weeks out of the recent 4, it is understandable that I am feeling a little wary of being in the air again.

Thanks to the recent onslaught of economic crisis, I have been flying economy class, tipping the travelling experience from mildly pleasant to pain in the butt.

*Psssst...* Rumour has it that the top management have deviously started flying in the hallowed business class... But I digress, *ahem* let's talk about food, which is infinitely more interesting than office politics and abuse of power.

Where was I? Ah yes. Flying in economy class, I have met with a mix of surprisingly good offerings and downright inedible mush. Usually on the red eye to Europe, I am often impressed by the steak dinner offered on the menu. The medium-well meat is tender and though i would prefer it a little more bloody, it was far above the mediocre standards of airline food.

Breakfast is quite another animal. After 10 hours or so cooped up on an un-ergonomically designed seat, the breakfast offering never succeeds to lift up my spirits.

Omelette or noodles?

Glumly, I would go for the noodles because at least it's served with chili. And at that point, I do need them endorphines!

Soon after the breakfast trays are collected and stowed away, the plane would land, followed by immigration control, baggage collection and an arduous commute to the hotel.

And that's when the fun begins again - bonjour Paris!

Running Amok in Cambodia

I had spent the week in Cambodia - no weddings to attend, no lobsters to kill. I was a plain old tourist wandering around the streets of Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.

During my first dinner in Phnom Penh, I saw a dish with a funny name on the menu. Fish amok. Images of fishes running (fishes running???) around in a mad frenzy brought a smile to my face. What was this dish about?

The menu went on to explain that this "fish amok" was the national dish of Cambodia, well-loved by young and old. It was a coconut-based curry, with very mild taste compared to Thai or Indian curries.



Running amok!

  My order arrived in a banana-leaf container, very pretty presentation! I have always thought that Thai green curry was my favourite curry in the world, but I had to admit that after my first taste, this dainty banana-leaf boat of rich curry had usurped its position.

For the rest of my holidays, I ordered an amok everywhere I went. They came in slightly different forms: some were served in a fresh coconut, others came in banana leaves. They all had something in common though, all were delicious!

At the Siem Reap airport, I bought a little bottle of spice premix for cooking amok and a Cambodian cookbook. Oh yes, I'm bringing the delightful national dish of Cambodia back home with me!

Run amok with passion.

Have a good week ahead
Love, Suzy

Lobster!

From the freezer, to the oven, to the table.

From London, I made my way across the Channel to spend the week in Paris. First stop: the new apartment of my good friends N & A for dinner. They had moved into their new apartment a few months back and the kitchen was just installed the week before. Perfect timing!

N and I met when I was living in Paris. She loves - no! - she fully appreciates food. She eats with her heart and all her senses. Seeing her relish her meal makes it a huge joy and great honour  for me to share it with her.

I stepped into their newly completed kitchen and was greeted by brand new cabinets. N & A had done most of the renovations themselves, not an uncommon thing to do in France where labour is expensive. As A was explaining the design philosophy and safety features of the kitchen, we were distracted by rustling of a plastic bag in the sink. What was it?

Something was hiding at the sink

It was a lobster! They were lobsters from Brittany and we were having them for dinner!!!!!

There was a long discussion on how to actually kill them. I gave the theoretical answer but could not do it in reality. Those claws look menacing. N and I danced around the sink skittishly, trying to muster enough courage to pick one up. *Defeat*

But I wanted to eat my lobster!! Couldn't they just die somehow?

A took charge immediately. The lobsters went back into the fridge - it would make them sleepy - and then straight into a pot of boiling water. They turned bright red immediately. We put the safely dead lobsters in the oven to continue cooking. Halved and with some melted butter drizzled over them, those lobsters were the best that I had ever tasted.



Go on, try saying "no"...

 
Honestly, I had always thought that lobsters were overhyped and just plain snooty. But that night, together with N & A, eating with our fingers and cracking the claws with whatever tools that we could find lying around (they were doing the renovations in their home, after all), I realised that I was wrong. They taste exquisite!

Lobsters, best served with melted butter and a huge dose of friendship.



PS. We had some luscious oysters as starters - largely forgotten in the excitement of the lobsters.



Weekend in London

Suzy is spending her weekend in London to attending the wedding of a friend. They knew each other back in the days when, well, when they were young and beautiful. Still beautiful now, of course.

The bride was radiant, the groom looked like he was in a dream, the church was grandiose and suitably ancient. Everybody was happy, cheering and clapping when they exchanged vows and rings. After the church service, we adjourned at a nearby restaurant. Now that was when Suzy really woke up from her jetlagged daze.

Celeriac Baked in Ash with Wood Sorrel, Hazelnuts and a Kromeski of Wild Boar

Roast Cod with Truffle Puree, Cauliflower, Parmesan Gnocchi and Sea Vegetables

Passionfruit Souffle with Sauternes Ice Cream

*yums*

The lunch went on very smoothly until dessert. Suddenly the guests around me were stirred up. There was a passionate discussion about their preferred flavoured souffles served in the restaurant and the conclusion was that the raspberry souffle was the best. We were having the passionfruit version.

Not normally a huge fan of sweets, I was feeling strangely excited.

The waiter finally came around to serve me the famous dessert. I stared at it. It stood, warm and proud, in front of me. Hello, I'm Suzy and I'm going to eat you up. I thought to myself, licking my chops. No wait! A waitress came around with a large tablespoon of ice-cream and plunged it down the middle of my souffle. Stab, she went, and lifted the clean spoon out. *enjoy*

The souffle was s-u-b-l-i-m-e.

There was hush all around me as the guests focussed their full attention to the enjoyment of this little piece of paradise. Be sure that I will be testing out different souffle recipes in the coming weeks to recreate this perfect dream.

The restaurant's name? The Ledbury.

To my friends, R&J, I wish them a long and happy life together.

Have a good week ahead.
Love,
Suzy

What is Singaporean Food?

A friend arrived from France yesterday and we trooped off to Newton Circus Food Centre for a late night dinner. It was his first time in this part of the world. What better way to introduce him to Singapore, with a mind-boggling selection of local food, the hustle bustle of an outdoor food centre and of course, cheap cold Tiger beer. He would get to rub shoulders with locals and tourists alike in Newton.

There's a dish you have, with noodles and prawns. It looks really good, my friend said. I saw it in documentary about Singapore some time ago. What's it called? Lah... Lao... Cah...?

Do you mean Lau Pa Sat? It's a food centre not far from the business district.

No, it's the name of the dish, just noodles done this way. He mimed a frying action.

Turned out that he was referring to char kway teow. Mystery solved.

At Newton Food Centre, we had popiah, bbq stingray, oyster omelette, satay, chicken wings, black pepper beef and of course, a plate of char kway teow. Presented with such an exotic spread of food, my friend asked, Is this typical Singaporean food? What is Singaporean food?

I was stumped.

Is it chili crabs? Or Hainanese chicken rice? Should it be spicy? Or have its roots in Chinese or Malay or Indian food? What do I cook at home - a mix of Western and South East Asian food with influences from anywhere and everywhere else. What are the characteristics of Singaporean food - something that my mother would cook? Or something that we can easily find on every street corner?

I didn't know what to say. What do you think? What is Singaporean food, what characterizes it?

Spicy Hot!

Spices at a Bangkok market

There is a small Thai restaurant in Paris called Ban Som Tam that offers their dishes at different levels of hot. 1-chili was for babies, most of the French chose 2. 3-chillies was exciting, 4 was for risk-takers. I always ordered the steam fish at 5-chilies: suicidal. They did it well, sour and spicy with the pungency of fish sauce - thoroughly satisfying with some glutinous rice.

I'd mentioned this restaurant to Le Monsieur when we were still dating in Paris. As a bet, we decided on a challenge to see who could take more chillies. At the restaurant, he told the bemused owner of our plans and ordered all the dishes at Level Suicide 5. Mango salad, steamed fish, green curry chicken, beef laap and tomyam soup.

The rule: the first to drink water or eat the rice, loses.

The dishes arrived, steaming hot and looking potent.

I Love the Smell of Baking

Walking around the basement of Wisma Atria, I caught a whiff of cookies baking at Famous Amos. Famous Amos has a FREE SMELLS sign displayed, tongue in cheek. Indeed, the best things in life come free.


I wish I know how to bake well, not because I like cakes and cookies but because I adore the smell of baking. I tried to make bread once. The (ex)cleaning lady was amused. She hails from Northern China where noodles are the staple food. She barked instructions while I fought with the dough. Le Monsieur helped. He hails from France where bread is the staple. Aided by 2 experts, surely, success was guaranteed!

Cooking at Home

I like home cooking.

I like it for its simplicity in taste and for better nutrition that we get. I am fortunate to be working near my parents' place - near enough for me to hop over for lunch a few times a week. It's usually home-cooked goodness that awaits me when I'm back. *heaven*

I cook too, after work and on weekends. We like it this way: less salt, no msg, less oil, better quality ingredients. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't necessarily take a lot of time. Take last night, for example, we grilled a big piece of salmon (sprinkled with a little salt, white pepper and dill) and blanched some asparagus. When done, we squeezed some lemon juice over it. Simply yums.