perennial favourite dish - stewed chicken

today, i cooked the one dish that can go by itself with any meal. it has vegetables - carrots, potatoes and button mushrooms - and meat (chicken) and a bit of soup (sauce).

i had bought the chicken drumlets two days earlier and had left them in the freezer. this morning, i got them out of the fridge to let them thaw. meanwhile, i cut up the carrots, potatoes and button mushrooms. i used a small can of mushrooms.

to marinate the ingredients, i chose oyster sauce. when the chicken had thawed completely, i marinated them also and waited for an hour or so before i started to fry the drumlets with ginger bits and shallots. after that, i added in the carrots, potatoes and mushrooms.

finally, i added one and a half cups of oyster sauce (2 teaspoons) mixed with water. to complete the cooking, i added one spoonful of corn starch mixed with one third cup of water to the sauce.

i transferred the content to an amc pot and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.

skiing & snowboarding @ mt baw baw in victoria, australia

yesterday, ida went with ivy and a number of other care group members to the baw baw ski resort. ida complained that she had only one hour of sleep because they had to be ready to set off at 4.00 a.m. to make the most of the day trip. to save money on food, she got up even earlier to prepare packed meals.

mt baw baw is the closest downhill ski resort to melbourne at just 157km which equates to about 2.5 hours of driving. mt baw baw’s summit is 1564 metres high. the village at mt baw baw reaches 1470 metres in height.

they had rented four cars equipped with the gps. ivy was not one of the drivers. i think ian drove the car they travelled in. even with the gps, they 'managed' to lose their way on their homeward journey.

ivy, being an quite an old hand at winter sports, went skiing while ida tried her hand at snowboarding. in snowboarding, one rides on a snowboard - which is like a skateboard - without the use of poles. for safety reasons, one should wear wrist guards, a helmet and soft boots.

ida said she enjoyed herself thoroughly in spite of the many falls and spills, and the aches that followed after the session.

my scouting days

i should have been a cub but i wasn't. i was inducted into scouting in my primary six year at newton boys' school. i think my form-teacher did not quite approve of my joining the scouts in my crucial psle year. it was a short stint but it was long enough for me to develop a love for singing. nostalgia fills me when i hear songs like 'home on the range', 'tipperary', 'happy wanderer', 'spring time in the rockies', 'red river valley', 'waltzing matilda', 'clementine' and many more.

although, most of the songs were related to places far away and which we had not seen, they somehow seemed meaningful. as i sang, i could see in my mind's eye the places and scenes mentioned in the songs.

my scout-master - i cannot remember his name - used to play the accordion as accompaniment to our singing. ours was a small troop and he was the only teacher in charge. i can vaguely remember attending a campfire where we sang lustily all the songs we were taught.

we also learnt the scout yells, and yelled we did although most of the time we could not make sense of what we were yelling about. some of the yells were humorous, like the onion yell and the char kway teow yell.

i also have fond memories of my one and only scouts' job week. it was supposed to be a one-week programme but i was involved on two days only. i had not been clear about the instructions and so did not turn up on the first few days.

a few of us went to perform some simple tasks at the home of a kind european lady and we were each 'paid' two dollars. we also did some cleaning of book shelves and some gardening at other places.

jalan sultan prawn noodles

just like the names of some of our schools, the name of the stall tends to lead one to think that the stall/shop is located at jalan sultan. just like schools which have been relocated but retain the names of their original location, the shop at jalan ayer, off geylang lorong one, could have its origin at jalan sultan. i don't know. all i know is that ever since i learnt about its popularity, it has been at the same location - geylang lorong one.

the shop is closed on tuesdays and business hours are between 8.00 a.m. and 3.30 p.m. exactly, at 3.30 p.m. they will stop selling the prawn noodles and set about to wash and clean up the premises.

i had the $5 bowl of soup prawn mee, without any extras. if you opt for jumbo prawns, the minimum price is $8 and for $10, you will get the sultan prawns in either version, dry or soup.

the soup has a strong prawn flavour and it is a bit salty for my taste. such a soup will go better with bee hoon or kway teow. the dry version looks just as good as the soup version.

as i have said before, food is a matter of taste and preferences. according to my favourite food blogger - ieatishootipost - wah kee at cambridge food court is the best but according to the straits times' foodies club, jalan sultan prawn noodles is top. i have tried both, and i prefer the jalan sultan's prawn mee.

bonsai @ s'pore botanic gardens

bonsai is the art of dwarfing trees or plants and developing them into an aesthetically appealing shape by growing, pruning and training them in containers according to the prescribed techniques.

currently, the bonsai display in the gardens is located around the bandstand. it comprises 48 specimens ranging from tropical to sub-tropical species and varieties. they are made up of 29 plant types.

sizes vary from 40 cm to 200 cm in height. plants were trained and portrayed in different styles viz. upright,informal upright, slanting, semi-cascading, cascading, forest, raft, twintrunk, root over rock, rock landscape, etc. according to the inherent characteristics of the plant.

something new that i learnt today: the banana plant/tree can be 'bonsaied'.

old cucumber and pork rib soup

today, i will tell you how i prepare the old cucumber and pork rib soup. i bought the smallest old cucumber from ntuc supermarket for $1.20. the pork ribs - 7 pieces in all - cost slightly more than $2.00. the dried red dates, scallops and the small piece of rock sugar are from our own stock.

i normally remove the skin of the cucumber by using a peeler. (it's okay to keep the skin but make sure you scrub it clean.) i also remove the seeds and the soft parts by using a metal spoon. (again, if you don't mind the seeds, you can keep them.) i then cut the flesh into bite size pieces.

boil a small pot of water to blanch the pork ribs. when the water boils, just leave the pieces of pork ribs in it for about a minute. after that, drain the water away.

next, place all the ingredients, including the blanched pork ribs, into an earthen pot. fill it with water to cover all the ingredients. i normally pour in 2 or 3 rice bowls of water. bring the water to boil. let it boil for 10 minutes or so before bringing down the flame so as to allow the soup to simmer. an hour of simmering will do, by then you should be getting a whiff of the flavour.

the three ponds of s'pore botanic gardens

it is quite common to hear singaporeans refer to the botanic gardens as the botanical gardens. the botanic gardens comprises three core areas - the tanglin core, the central core and the bukit timah core.

each core area has a large pond. at tanglin core, it is the swan lake. symphony lake is located in the central core. the bukit timah core has the eco-lake.

in each pond, there are some resident birds. the white swans inhabit the swan lake. at the symphony lake, there is a family of lesser whistling ducks and at least two black swans have made the eco lake their home.

parking rate at the car parks is $1.20 per hour. if you go between 11.00 a.m. and 5.00 p.m., the first hour is free. in the evening, the maximum charge is $2.00.