french or bombay?

french or bombay? well, since a rose by any other name can smell as sweet, i suppose a toast by any other name can be tasty as well. i'm sure shakespeare won't argue over its namesake with my granny, the author of this culinary masterpiece. i can well imagine him having his english tea while my granny sips her chinese one, savouring the same toast. cheers.

mundane made exceptional

met my brother at paragon's m1 shop around 11.30am. it was his idea that we combine our handphone bills so as to get a percentage discount off our subscription fees. had lunch at
Tori-Q and it was then he said he had always preferred the pork stick because it tasted better than the chicken stick. after that we were at 'that cd shop' for a bit and he mentioned that he just bought a collection of oldish love songs. a mundane day made exceptional because it was time spent with my brother. kinder bueno, something he likes to eat.

talk about favourites, it was interesting that my granny gave me a side report of how that huge box of meiji plain crackers i bought became a hot favourite with my dad and his friend. the supply was depleted in no time... and it was ironic cuz i didn't buy it specifically for him in the first place. knowing the favourites of loved ones, it feels exceptional :)

three in one

the moment i stepped into the house, my granny told me about the cup of something she brewed for me - it has chrysanthemum, gan cao (dried grass?) and yang shen (american ginseng). thank you granny :)

macaroni L-sized

i was out quite abit and when i was finally home, eagerly, my granny informed me that she's got some soup and asked if i wanted a bowl of macaroni. why were they L-sized? these guys are twice the size of the normal ones that are sold out there. well, she explained that she prepared them way in advance by soaking them in water so that it could be cooked quickly and easily anytime. but maybe she soaked them a tad too long? my guess is that she seldom prepared macaroni since she never liked them. i was surprised! the things you never knew until they happened. the irony is that i actually bought that packet of macaroni thinking that she might eat them sometime!

granny's hairdresser

never knew my granny's hairdresser till today. i assume her name is karen since it's the name plastered in a big way across the shopfront. like an old friend, my granny shared like never before, in cantonese - her fears of going out because on 3 occasions, she fell. her controlling of her own diet in order to stay healthy despite the hairdresser's comment that she seems to have lost weight. that i'm her granddaughter and so on.

i must say my granny's hair looks good and gosh, her complexion is really tops, even at this age. looking at her mirror image,

i was struck by those chinese slit eyes...

i am her granddaughter no doubt. just like how we took a cab there, we took a cab back although the hairdresser was only a 10 mins walk away - by my standard. that umbrella hanging there? her walking stick.

flesh of sea snails

abalones. mushrooms. vermicelli. soup.

absolutely SWEET :) who else but granny can whip up such a delicacy?

i wonder if abalone is a fish type. checked it out.

i am eating the flesh of sea snails.

specifically its adductor muscle!

curry in tom yam style

"adding those little red chillis will make it very spicy" my gran was saying, as i was getting ready to tug into this special bowl of curry with rice meal. clear curry soup that is moderately spicy and cooked with no coconut. it's different. it's unique. it's one of a kind - my gran's kind :) curry in tom yam style.