Thanksgiving 2025 :: Sous Vide Chicken!!

My aunts are in town. They said they're visiting ME and Choya. LOL They're not technically incorrect. But on a flight itinerary, Singapore is a stopover on their way to their actual vacation in New Zealand. They're also 'stopping over' here on their way home. It has become a 'new tradition' of sorts since Choya came along. I'm appreciative of their love for us. 

I had suggested eating out on Thanksgiving Day. They would not hear of it. They said they would eat my cooking. They didn't mind simplicity. They claimed that they would rather eat my food than any restaurant's items that might be too rich and induce the runs for them, rendering them in agony for their 9am flight out the next day. I was like..... 'and you think MY food won't give you the runs?'

Anyway, I succumbed and agreed to cook them dinner. Very few people can coerce me to cook. Accccck. Now, I'm not a cook. I can provide edible food, and that's it. Chicken it is this year too! It was chicken curry last year. No more of that. I shall do it sous vide. Nobody is that fond of turkey in this home. I most certainly do not want to deal with a slippery butterball that can't quite fit inside the oven. Imagine the cleaning of the burnt grease after. Ugh. 

I certainly didn't mind doing sous vide chicken since I was prepping that for the floofs too. But for the humans, I marinated the meat for a bit and seared it in the pan first before sous-viding. Searing it would lend that brown loveliness to the tenderness of the sous-vide meat. 

I didn't do a whole chicken. I did chicken breast for floofs and humans. All these people like chicken breast. They wanted to tank up on protein as well. To be honest, they can't get 2-kg of chicken breast at restaurants unless they pre-order it. This morning, I had no issues buying 2.5-kg of chicken breasts at the grocer's for tonight's dinner. 500g were apportioned for the floofs. Teheheheheh.

Dinner turned out pretty edible. The easy marinade was lovely — with fish sauce, garlic, shallots and spices, and the meat was sooooo tender. I didn't bother with a salad. I did throw coriander on the side since some weird people like coriander. I made Asian stir-fried greens with store-bought broccoli, homegrown nai bai and shanghai greens, and carrots. I did feed them carbs. Made two pots of rice — a plain basmati, and an autumn-flavored rice with a bit of mushroom dashi, pumpkin, mushrooms and chestnuts. It was an odd little meal that nobody seemed to mind. 

I also quietly heaved a sigh of relief and whispered a prayer of thanksgiving that Choya is okay without symptoms of tick fever. It's been a week and a half since the clean removal of that damn tick. I know clearly that the preventives would work as they are supposed to. But I still worry. 

We had an early dinner because the husband was heading out for a jam session. Suited us fine. The Aunts woke up early and were still kinda jet-lagged, and the earlier meal complemented their stomachs. They stayed on for a bit before they returned to the hotel to pack up. That was a most lovely evening.

May we be blessed by God as we share this food and as we work and live together for the good of all.

A Thanksgiving Feast

We had a gorgeous Thanksgiving luncheon with all our loved ones at Fork in the Jungle. It was truly a communal feast filled with plenty of love and laughter. It was a good date when people who don't live in Singapore could fly in to have a meet, and before everyone flies out again for their year-end vacations. 

It was the most amazing menu. We had a full table of 20 pax — so we had two portions for everything on the menu. We began with burrata and smoked grapes. There were two kinds of pastas in the form of a vegetarian-friendly spaghetti with charred tomatoes and aged pecorino, and another creamy miso rigatoni with crispy courgettes. 

Today, our dear hosts at Fork in the Jungle went all out. All the flavors meshed well together. There were three generous mains of honey-mustard lamb shoulder, fish of a whole mackerel with burnt tomatoes, a whole butterflied chicken, and an easy salad with vinaigrette dressing to round it up. There were even desserts of fresh fruit and banana and apple fritters. 

It was a lot of food. And a full table meant I needn't over-do it. This is the start of festive feasting. While I'm very controlled about who I meet, which parties I join and what I put inside my stomach, I still need to be wary of macros. Meanwhile, I'll be eating very well. 

'Physical: Asia'

[⚠️ SPOILERS FOR 'PHYSICAL: ASIA'! ⚠️]

Is it safe to talk about 'Physical: Asia' now without spoiling it for people who haven't caught the finale? 

I followed both seasons of 'Physical: 100'. You know how much I eschew reality shows. But this series got me hooked. I was literally nervous while silently cheering on my 'fav' athletes and marvelling at their strength and discipline in training to get here. 

Of course I would watch 'Physical: Asia'. I didn't think I would be rooting for the respective countries per se. It's probably like 'I have to root for Team Korea because you threw all my favorite tv athletes from 'Physical: 100' into the team'. I don't know the other teams, and I don't particularly care about them. And I still don't really care about them after the show. LOL 

There was this cliffhanger at those sack throws. I was like, if Korea loses this, I'm not watching the rest of the episodes. Oof. I honestly like the camaraderie between Team Korea. They're also elite athletes. They're not just ridiculously strong. They had the chops to strategize and figure out the optimal methods to win or to succeed in a quest. 

Anyway, Team Korea won Team Mongolia in a neck-to-neck finish. 

This could be a lot of nifty editing and all. But the way the production team has done it, subtly or even overtly showcased each competing team's strengths and weaknesses, leading the audience on to form opinions about them, fairly or otherwise. Say, I didn't like Turkey's cockiness. They were chaotic and messy and they talked too much. Also, I really didn't want Australia to win. 

There's this whole discussion and accusations thrown at the production team about rigging the show to have Korea win. They also said that the Korean production team picked the final participating teams and not the respective countries' production teams. This is television after all, hello? Also, Team Korea has participated in Physical: 100. They know what it takes and train like hell for this show with a different team format. They never underestimated the strength and skills needed. That's the home ground advantage. 

I like the clips and all coming out on the socials. They're absolutely crushing it on social media. The competing teams visit one another and seemed to have fun. Sure, it's funded and directed by the production teams, but what the heck, the humans look like they genuinely enjoy one another's company and filming what it was that they had been told to do.

I'm going to take it with a pinch of salt and simply enjoy the... physical aspects of it. Regardless of what it is behind the scenes, the participants gave it their all, and honestly, it made for good television.

And the point is, seeing those athletes grunt and work, I know how much work that requires to get to that level of strength. It's total motivation for me to get my lazy ass to the gym. How I wish watching it also means I've exercised away those calories and built muscles in that two hours or so in each quest. HAHAHAHA.