Poisonous Food

The vocation in which I am having my current internship has a self-imposed invisible rule that requires me to take work home and is not leaving me with much free time. But I have been taking out snippets of half hour breaks from my 'work from home' time to indulge in a passion which I know would most probably be warped once August arrives - reading. Now, free of the rigidity of reading titles handed out on a piece of paper, I have the liberty of selecting what I want to read and hence my choice for Jim Crace's The Devil's Larder.

The process of devouring each of the 64 dishes with relish has left an aftertaste that has poisoned me into seeing the world in terms of food. It was with such food smeared lenses that I celebrated Samuel's birthday yesterday. Despite the lovely company and the immense fun we had with the KTV (I can't believe I'm actually buying into another Japanese craze), my main course @ Pasta de Waraku could only be described as poisonous. The melted fusion of sweet curry and cheese on the Okonomiyaki starter warmed the palate, but eventually soothed it so much that the clash of wasabi cream pasta with bacon and oyster came as a rancid shock.

I admit I only chose the combination 'wasabi cream' over more palate friendly sounding names like 'miso cream' or 'original cream' for the matter simply because I once read an article of an Italian chef (authentic pasta here!) bemoaning the fact that Asians request for the 'shocking' combination of spicy with cream. Japan - land of all things innovative - I really had to see for myself how they managed this blasphemous Orientalization of Cabonara (which, by the way, is an Americanization of Italian pasta).

The $14.80 heap of noodles arrived with a beautifully poached egg perched on top. I remember how I started. I scooped a bit of the part gelatinous, delicate albumen, coated it with the offending cream and took a bite. I remembered repeating the phrase 'a taste of innovation' to myself. I mean, if you choose to partake of the innovations from the country that gave you Kimchi Calpis, Bilk, Boy Lolitas and Uruha, you'd better psyche yourself to be shocked in al ways possible. So I ate of this innovation with almost mechanical emotions, and was met with a childhood memory inducing nostalgia when I chomped on a soft oyster which innards burst out of its rubbery coating and homogenized with the wasabi cream. Cod Liver Oil. The horrors!

And yes, I did finish the entire plate. While the experience with wasabi cream was certainly an exercise with exerting the mind over matter, the few morsels of curry meat sauce pasta that I nipped off Jie's plate proved to be a heavenly case of Japanization that would compel me to go back for more!

And speaking of food. I am of the opinion that cheese should be confined as a topping on pasta and pizza, sandwiched between 2 slices of bread or cubed and speared with grapes as an appetizer. If there's anything that cheese does not go well with, its with words.

The Christmas Dinner, and Snowballs

The long-awaited Christmas Dinner has been cooked, served and dined. Surely it was nothing like the lavish spreads we see on television, in fact it was a rather modest affair, but I was glad to see everyone together once again and have yet another opportunity to help out in the ktichen.

Before we left for my grandma's house, I simply had to document the latest Christmas-themed nibbles to enter my fridge.

These chocolate balls were simply insane. I have never tasted anything so sweet that it sores up the throat upon the first swallow. Anyway those milk-coated balls were appropriately speckled with red and green spots and packaged 'milk-carton' style - perhaps to give the illusion of eating snowballs straight out of Santa's house.

So this was how Jie (who did not think they were too terribly sweet to consume) ate them:

The gathering was opened with a session of Guitar Hero and Rock Band (oh no, I fear a GH addiction) but we soon deviated to the food. We started with some appetisers, courtesy of Mum who detoured to Joo Chiat to pick up Durian Puffs and these delectable donuts.


And before we stained our palates with the rich taste of roast meats, we indulged in salmon sushi, courtesy of my aunt. I have to admit that I am not a fan of the popular Sakae Sushi, but it had been a long time since I indulged in Japanese fare so I helped myself to the fish and topped it with lots of wasabi.


And finally, we proceeded to the main table for the highlights.


And everyone could not wait to feast.


I had to give special mention to these two dishes, since they were proudly homemade by Eden jiejie and me.

Potato Salad

Quartered hard boiled eggs, sweet apple and potato chunks and chopped celery folded in with English Salad Cream and topped by freshly sauteed bacon ( no cheating with bacon bits). I had the opportunity to saute the bacon bits, and after dodging spurts of oil which intermittently flew out of the pan, sprinkled them over the aforementioned contents. I would have preferred to forego the English Salad Cream - which got too cloying after a few mouthfuls - but since everyone else loved it, I emptied 3 whole bottles into the huge yellow bowl.

The next homemade dish received a warmer welcome than the turkey.

Deep fried Prawn and Bacon Skewers

Most assuredly, this munchie tastes a lot greater than it looks. We were fortunate to get large succulent prawns from a long time fishmonger friend of my grandma's. The prawn bodies were then wrapped with bacon strips, speared by a tooth pick, then throw into a hot cauldron of oil to simmer to a reddish brown. Amazingly, while I faced arrows of oil shooting at me from the shallow pan in which I fried the bacon, the cauldron of oil cackled and bubbled endlessly but did not squirt anything at me. Anyway, I am now more confident of dealing with hot pots of oil, and might just conquer fried fish some day.

Family Gatherings are the only times where you can stuff yourself silly in the most unglamourous way even if your lip gloss smudges, sing off-pitch at the top of your lungs without damaging anybody's eardrums, and play badly on a guitar. Truly, there's no place like home. Now, Chinese New Year is in a month's time.