A Superb Chocolate Cake

All the way to the restaurant to meet the rest of the girls, P muttered that she overdid it with the cocoa powder and the cake was too bitter, even with the Oreos cookies' base. So she had to rescue the cake and compensate with more chocolate cream and chocolate shavings.

I tuned out after a while. Not fully sympathetic. Hehehe. Not like I know how to bake. Didn't hear a pip of the second half. P always plays with the recipes. She hates sugar and will cruelly use half the amount stated in the recipe. Whatever she does, it always turns out just fine. Even I who doesn't like sugar, will take bites of her bakes from time to time.

Had our meal. When the cake was unveiled, everyone gasped. Jumping papayas!!! Everyone could smell the cocoa and the chocolate! Looking rich and bitter instead of cloyingly sweet. Yayyy. I like this sort of cakes. Took the first bite. Indeed. The cake was, as expected, superb.

Culinary Harmony

As tired as the man was, he chose to do this notoriously effort-draining dinner menu.  He's always in the mood to work up a sweat in the kitchen and rearrange the spice cabinet.

On the menu for dinner were two items seemingly easy to cook, but actually required a fair bit of effort to prep. Clams in white wine sauce and saffron vegetable risotto.

Cleaning clams is tedious business. Soaking them and all that. Gotta put corn flour in there to rid it of weird smells and coax the sand out. We were  lucky to have gotten really fresh clams from the supermarket today. It was free of all sand when we ate them. 

The simplest risotto is the best. The evening's beautifully creamy and smooth risotto was a perfect balance of taste and consistency. The secret is in the vegetable stock. We lingered over every grain to savor its subtle flavors.

Peranakan Delight!

It's always back-to-the roots Nonya food on Sundays. Luckily we still have family who could cook really well. Pity we don't particularly have an inclination to learn it. Maybe in future. For now, we're happy to slurp them up and wash the dishes after.

Another lunch, another fantastic meal. Loads of curries and carbs. I simply can't resist eating steamed white rice slathered with curry. As much as I would like to pop a carb-stopper, the wiser option would be to swim it off later, or double-up the exercise the next day.


So much effort goes into preparing the weekly lunch for everyone. Much appreciated though. Didn't think much of heading home for meals when we were kids. But by now, we know how much work that takes and eagerly look forward to every meal.

Cannot emphasize on how awesome buah keluak is. Always look forward to the home cooked ones because they wouldn't be mixed in with minced meat. The meat would be the accompanying ayam or something in the pot. The insides of the nuts would be all that black-bitter-goodness. YUMMY. I love the bitter, pungent ones!

There Are 2 Sides To A Coin

I saw this at Zouk an hour ago. (My phone does not have the highest resolution around. So apologies for the low quality shots here.) I suspect many of you will feel outraged by the photos. Don't be. Do hear me out.

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Night of Fri 13 Jan/Early hours of Sat 14 Jan.

0015hrs.
Man in wheelchair wanting to enter Zouk. He and a female companion were obviously denied entry by the bouncers. So they were asking if bouncers could relent and let them in.

0020hrs. Couple was denied entry despite repeated pleas.

0025hrs. Other friends whisked couple off in the direction of Winebar.

Now, there are always 2 sides to the story. 

My thoughts on the disabled man:

1) For the man, I noticed his thighs and apparently atrophied muscles. I believe he is permanently disabled. I admire his bravery in trying to have a fun night out despite his disability.

2) He knows that a club is a crowded place and he could be refused entry on all grounds. Still he tried.

My thoughts on Zouk:

1) I believe they have a SOP when it comes to these situations. Zouk is not wheelchair-friendly. Then again, no club in the world ever is, except at beach bars.

2) I heard the Zouk bouncers politely explain to him that his safety might be compromised even if they let him in. The Bouncers stood their ground in denying entry. They left it at that and ignored the couple after that initial 10-minute or so discussion I witnessed.
I believe the bouncers have a valid point.

Matters that lingered on my mind:

1) The disabled man and his female companion had friends. The friends should have decided that Winebar could be a better place for everyone to hang out at. They could have come out to take him away sooner. Some venues do not view disability with as a pre-condition to concessions.

2) Regardless of Zouk's stance and right to refuse entry, they could have done better in the communications & PR department. For example, not just to offer him Winebar or even Velvet as alternative choices (they might have, but I didn't hear it), but to physically come out from behind the cordon to show him the way to the alternative space. Unless Zouk has a total no-no policy to wheelchairs. That being so, there is nothing else the bouncers could have done in this case if no bureaucrat wants to come out to face the heat.

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Clubs are all about beautiful people, party and fun. We tend to be so carried away by all these glittery glamor. Tonight, this little incident totally sobered me up. I am reminded that there's another side to life and living.

The Vermonster

It was a huge-ass bucketful of ice-cream from Ben & Jerry's.

20 scoops of ice-cream.

4 bananas.

4 ladles of hot fudge.

3 chocolate chip cookies.

1 chocolate fudge brownie.

10 scoops of walnuts.

2 scoops of your 4 favorite toppings.

Topped with lots of freshly made whipped cream.

10 ice-cream monsters.

Did we finish it?

No.

Wet Day

I love the rain.

It makes everything so muted, so magical.

The Chrysalis

Lunarin's gig at their official album launch at The Substation was brilliant. I like their stuff. Full of angst. So emotive. So heavy. Dark progressive rock. Great one.


And you know what? The drummer's Mom made chocolate cookies for everyone. Such a sweet thing!! Ate some. Pretty good. Couldn't finish my share. Gave it to the man who merrily ate it all. 

Also heard the shrieking by opening bands The Love Experiment and Kulturkampf's. Super loud though. Luckily I brought ear plugs which made the ear-busting soundscapes bearable.

Heartfelt Wedding Gift

Our dear scientist gave D a wedding present in the form of a plasmid DNA with their names encoded in it. All of us were blown away by the effort he took to do this. He gave a totally detailed presentation as proof of its existence. I saw stars. I've obviously forgotten all chemistry lessons except that The Periodic Table exists.

Reproduced from their wedding blog, here's the proof!

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A DNA sequencing chromatogram showing the sequence of the 4 DNA bases (adenine, thymine, guanine, cytosine) within the region of interest on the plasmid.

If you ignore the first and last 3 bases which are start and stop signals (ie ATG and TAA), you will find that the DNA sequence translated into its corresponding amino acid sequence reads: DAWNANDIANALWAYS.

Results may be verified with a genetic code table.

The Man's Picks For Top 10 Music Albums of 2005

Aimee Mann- The Forgotten Arm

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Augustana- All The Stars And Boulevards

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Black Lab- See The Sun

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Bloc Party- Silent Alarm

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Broken Social Scene- Broken Social Scene

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Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!

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Death Cab For Cutie- Plans

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Gratitude- Gratitude

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Shout Out Louds- Howl Howl Gaff Gaff

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Trivium- Ascendancy

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Blessed Is A Woman Whose Man Cooks

Grilled Portobello Mushrooms Stuffed With Tomatoes & Feta Cheese

Congratulations, Dawn & Ian!

An intimate wedding is the dream of every couple. Dawn and Ian insisted on sticking to a small celebration and sorted out their wedding and reception at Ember at Hotel 1929. That ended 2005 beautifully.

The cosy do saw 35 friends and family bear witness at the solemnisation before celebrating it with great food and wine. Ember does their food beautifully. The hosts ensured everyone was taken care of. Blue was the theme of the evening.

I don't attend many weddings. It's just not quite my scene, especially the traditional sort. There're many things I disagree with, and prefer not to turn up so as to keep my temper in check. This one is different. The bridal couple made their rules. Everyone attending their wedding more or less knew one another. The company was relaxed and jokes fluttered all around. Bliss was so totally in the air. D and I are the man's oldest friends and saw him through years of pain at school. Heh. I've only recently gotten to know them and totally enjoyed their awesome company and conversation. 

Our warmest wishes for this new chapter in your life.

Welcome, 2006

Paid due homage to 2005 and gathered together at the friends' house to ring in 2006. All ready for the year. It would be rocky, but it would be fine.

Didn't need no wild drinking or copious amounts of liquor to fortify ourselves for the new year.

At the stroke of midnight, we ushered in year 2006 with a very properly chilled 1995 Dom Perignon vintage.

Thankfully, with none of the Auld Lang Syne hair-raising bumps. I can't stand that song.

Games For The New Year

There were New Year 'cracker toys' brought by this very mischievous couple.

Star Wars Lego toys!! The boys dismantled them and piled them all up.

"Cirque du soleil!" They proudly announced.

The scientist corrupted us and brought us over to the dark side of this style of Texas Hold'Em poker.

The betting was really cool. The Imp couldn't tally scores for shits. But nights of losing at 'dai di' in sleazy bars stood her in good stead. *giggle* The Imp amassed a mini fortune at the end of 2 hours.

Then the charades started. We stuck to movies.

Try guessing titles like Jumanji, Miss Congeniality, Cyrano de Bergerac, Dr Strange Love (Or How I Learnt To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb), Hotel Rwanda, Amelie of Montmartre, The Island of Dr Moreau, Maximum Overdrive, etc.

It was hilarious. Our brain cells went into overdrive till 5am.

Hah.

Dinner on New Year's Eve

One succulent piece of abalone on my plate.

Slurrrrp.