Guess what I ate?

I've kept this blog entry HIDDEN for way too long & now, I've the pleasure of launching it before the whole world. It has not a jot to to with the telly (some call it the idiot box; I wonder ...)

As you would know, I studied in Perth at one of the universities there (won't say which one). I STILL KEEP IN TOUCH now & then, with some of the people back there. Recently, ONE OF THEM came down to Singapore for work & I've had the good fortune to meet up with her.

How did I know? It is via one of mankind's good friends, EMAIL (short for electronic mail/letter).

K (not KENNY SIA) wrote back in reply to my email that she would be in Singapore sometime in October 2005. So, I emailed, asking to meet up if possible. OK on my side & OK on her side, the date/time/place was set.

The countdown began.

On the eventual day, I met her after my work at the MRT station (we call them train stations Mass Rapid Transit - MRT stations, for short). It has been over 2 long years since we last me & it got me a wee bit worried that K might not recognize me. I do have a photograph of me & her taken whilst I was at school, thus I would not worry not recognizing K.

K DID RECOGNIZE ME ... even after 2 long years!! Amazing, ain't it so? Well, at least I think so.

We sat down for a bit of a chat. Basically, I filled her in on what had happened to me since I left the uni. Yabba dabba do ... yak yak ... blah blah blah blah ...

Did my bit on being a good host, I had asked K prior to dinner what sort of food she takes/likes. Since she told me "spicy", I cheekily added, "no worries" & I brought her to our very famous outdoor dining area in the CBD, ... LAU PA SAT (meaning: Old Market).

Lau Pa Sat is situated in the middle of Singapore's Central Business District (CBD). It is like an open-air food court, where there are seats inside with shelter from the rain & wind, or you could choose to sit "outside", where from 7pm to about 1am, there is no shelter from the Old Man Up In The Sky. For non-Singaporean readers, it is best you ask your Singapore friends what I mean. I'm not so sure if one can get this style of eating in non-Asian countries.

For TWO PERSONS (K & me), the following is what we ate & drank - try beating the record:

1. 30 sticks of satay (beef, chicken & mutton)
2. 2 longtongs (actually, it should have been ketupat but the stallowners did say that longtong better & I'm OK with it)
3. 1 stingray, small
4. 1 small plate of kai lan cooked in oyster sauce
5. 1 small plate of sotong yu tiao
6. 4 bottles of drinking water, with ice
7. 1 piece otak-otak (for K only)

When K asked me "what's longtong/ketupat?", in short, I told her, "think of it as rice, cooked & compacted into a tiny container". Much later on, after dinner (which I paid for & turned down K's offer to pay, telling her to take it as my treat to her. Seriously, I was only too happy to pay), I asked the satay stall owner to explain it to K further.

I did warn K that the stingray would come BBQ, with a healthy dose of chilli & spices on it. GUESS WHAT? For an Ang Moh (Caucasian), she is considered to be very good at holding her chilli, if you know what I mean. However, she didn't like the "mushi-ness" of the stingray; that is the best word I can use to describe what she told me.

Both of us did look at the seafood menu when we came across this non-chilli & non-spicy seafood item, sotong yu tiao. When K asked me, I grinned & told her with a straight face, only to see her squirm in her seat there & then, "Sotong Yu Tiao is best described as putting some chopped up squid & putting it through the food processor, then spreading it over a cut-into-2 doughnut. Finally, one takes that concoction to fry till cooked".

The look on K's face was priceless. I was nearly doubled over with laughter.

Later that night, I was thinking," Hey, mebbie I should have described sotong yu tiao this way: squid pate in doughnut". Don't ask me why the fascination with doughnuts.

The one piece of Otak that she took also had about the same effect as the stingray: mushi-ness. Otak (or as some would call it Otak-Otak) is basically fish paste mixed with spices & chili (God knows how much chilli there is) wrapped in what-kind-of-leaf-I-can't-recall, then grilled over an open fire. Otak is best taken hot for the maximum effect, a kind of tingling sensation all over yourself.

Of course, there is non-spicy otak, for those who do not take spicy food. To me & others who love Singapore chilli, there is not much "kick" in eating that. (it is just my opinion)

Are you, my dear reader, drooling from all that I've described yet? Hahahaaa!!

The Demise of my favourite HK series

AAARRRRrrrrggggghhhh!!!

ZHEN QING (aka A Kindred Spirit) is having its last episode today - 9 October 2005, on Channel 8. Let me share with you my memories of it.

The show that I'm watching now is a repeat of the very popular long-running drama series from Hong Kong. It started off being shown somewhere in the late 1990s on cable TV. Later, on "free TV" aka Channel U (by the now defunct MediaWorks), it was broadcast on a weekly basis, on 1-hour episodes.

Never really got to know the characters on the show, as I was away in Perth studying & only returned to Singapore irregularly. In those days when I returned to Singapore, I would eagerly grab an old copy of the TV magazine, 8-Days, to read up on what happened in "A Kindred Spirit".

I heard but never knew what happened in the stories on Runcai, Duohuan, Duoxin, Qinghua (having an affair in China), Shuang Shuang & Dasheng. The ones I knew about are as folllows:

1. Run Shan & Cha Shao Bing
2. Run Hao (played by Nancy Sit) & her ex-husband(s) & partners.
3. Rong Yi
4. Tian Fu & his 2 wives - the good 1st wife & that bad, bad 2nd one, who cheated him (I can't understand how Tian Fu allowed himself to be so cheated upon)
5. Xiao An, the indecisive guy & the youngest child of Run Shan/Cha Shao Bing
6. Xiang Hai & his multiple partners - sorry but it is true. Don't feel much sympathy for such a guy. Pity Rong Yi, what an adopted son Xiang Hai turned out to be!!
7. Zihao - what a jerk!! 'nuff said
8. Mei Mei - what arrogance she displays, which makes me wonder: Do all rich ladies show such arrogance/indifference?
9. Ah Qiong & Ya Lai
10. Ya Nan & Xiao Min
11. Dasheng & Qingyun - have never come across such a domineering woman in my life, save for one ... and as for Dasheng, he is an ex-con turned 100% good guy (though I don't know why Dasheng went to jail for, as I was away in Perth during his story)
12. Muchuan - he ain't an angel, so why he ditters & dotters when it comes to Xiaomei, I don't understand
13. Da Li - used to like Ah Qiong, still do 'cept now it is on a friend-friend basis
14. Xiaomei - she had prior knowledge of someone committing adultery, so why did she not inform the aggrieved party?
15. Granpa & Granma - "Mu Lao Hu" is how I would describe the grandmother (Wai Po, in Mandarin) ... As for Granpa, now & then, he would spout out his "words of wisdom"
16. Shengmen - in the beginning, sheer arrogance & an absolute love for bananas (he is a nutcase in himself). In the later part, maturity takes hold of him
17. Shengxiao - another indecisive fella, where matters of the heart is concerned
18. Shengjin (aka Jin Jin) - her name is a play on the Mandarin words for "crazy" ... Whoa!! Stay away from her, man!
19. Xiaoni - the mother to Shengxiao, Shengmen & Shengjin .. where all the craziness started
20. High-class relative (in Mandarin, this sounds like "Shang Deng Qing Jia) - a filthy rich-to-rags-to-some riches lady, who is the mother of Qingyun & Qinghua; hence a MIL to Duoxin
21. Datuk & his wife (mother to Ya Nan & stepmother to Ya Lai)
22. Ah Xue - Certain aspects of her behaviour prior to her amnesia is questionable
23. Helen - Careerwoman
24. Joan - Helen's younger sister & on/off girlfriend of Xiao-An
25. Lisheng - wonderful doctor's career turned off when he had an affair & tragic consequences resulted in his 1st wife's amnesia, his 1st child's death (an unborn baby at that, poor thing), his subsequent jailing & after that, rehabilitation back into the society, including being a doctor again & his 2nd marriage
26. Jingchuan - sounds like my type of heroine, except for 1 part
27. Ken - playboy one-time partner of Shengxiao
28. Vietnam - the son that Granpa had with his Vietnamese wife, a very nice bloke, who has a never give up attitude

Ok, I need to go get ready for the final episode of "A Kindred Spirit". It will start soon at 4.40pm today, 9 October 2005, on Channel 8.

Will blog about my good friend's wedding some other time, as until now, I've not gathered what I feel is sufficient blog material on it.