make paste
29/12/2009
Just so I remember, the next time I make it.
For 汤圆, you’d use 1/2 to 2/3 amount of water to flour.
First mix the water in till you get lumps. Then really get in there and knead it up.
If you’re doing the Korean pancake thing, then check here. Like a cross between a tang yuan and prata, but far prettier.
Post holiday crash
26/12/2009
Is it me, or is it a normal occurrence? The post-holiday crash. In the void between and after the Christmas and New Years (and the accompanying festivities and holidays) caused by the combination of anticipation and miscellany that comes with family get-togethers.
This is the time of year when things really start shutting down at work, since everyone is pretty much off. In school, this would mark the end of one year and the uphill climb to the next level.
Everything chugs off the rails slowly in January and February, and then starts picking steam in March – plans are made and routes are set. April onwards, it’s full steam ahead (since Q1 was pretty much squandered) and everything rushes towards a dizzying tailspin towards Q4. By late November, it’s pretty much said and done. In December you’re pretty much goofing off, enjoying the finer weather (in the tropics) and shopping.
But there is that void. It will creep in after Christmas dinner, and really start to rear it’s ugly head on New Year’s Day. Cos the first working day of the year is always the hardest. At school, it was the day you show up in the new class, figure out when your new classroom was, get a feel for how tough the year was going to be, figure out who your desk buddy was going to be. I always went through that process with a lot of trepidation. I guess I wasn’t a very confident student. At least I was realistic. Ha.
At work, the first day is a sham. Everyone comes back from the holidays, appearing to be recharged when you know they’re tired as hell from maximising their holidays. They appear to be all action and back to regular programming but you know they’re annoyed as heck to be back at work. It’s like a game of chicken, we’re all just waiting for a sucker to give up first and admit it.
I’ve never been big on New Year’s resolutions. Perhaps that is the device used to stave that sense of beginning bewilderment.
It is interesting, that the Chinese regard the year as a mythical monster. The word for year refers to the monster – Nian. Perhaps the Nian would terrorise China for two weeks, because the New Year festivities last that long, and the whole point of the Chinese version of the New Year is to mark the passing or the surpassing, of the Nian.
I think the creature that the Chinese call Nian is really time. It shows up once a year like clockwork to haunt you, remind you that it’s alive. Freak the crap out of you because without you noticing, it slithered past you in the year. And you see it again, 365 days later, still the same dimwit you were, doing the same things, in the same place, status quo.
I guess that’s when the Nian should just put you out of your misery and bite your head off.
You know, if they told me that version of the story in school, maybe I’d have turned out a little more motivated. Instead all I heard was that sorry ass story about how the little people triumphed over the nasty Nian, with red everythings and firecrackers.
You know, for the people who invented the paper and the printing press, we sure tell lame stories.
Anyway. I will conquer my trepidation this time. I will grab 2010 by the horns. I will psych myself to face the Nian face on. I will live flagrantly, like I’m afraid to get my head bitten off.
That can’t be a bad way to live.
why do people sing it?
23/12/2009
You’ve heard it too.
Rudolph, the red nose reindeer. *reindeer*
Had a very shiney nose. *nose*
And if you ever saw him. *saw him*
You would even say it glows. *it glows*
All of the other reindeers. *reindeers*
Used to laugh and call him names. *call him names*
They never let poor Rudolph. *poor Rudolph*
Join in any reindeer games.Then one foggy Christmas eve,
Santa came and said,
Rudolph with your nose so bright
Won’t you drive my sleigh tonight?Then how the reindeer loved him
And they shouted out with glee
Rudolph the red nosed reindeer
You’ll go down in HIS-TO-REEE!!!
Tell me that isn’t reindeer bullying and/or discrimination! Not to mention that disgusting ingratiating behaviour displayed after Rudolph makes good.
So why do we make kids sing it like it’s cute?!
Edit: 25 Dec 2:19am PST
It would seem that I felt this way enough to talk about it in 2003. Great. Not only do I recycle my ideas, I am incapable of looking past it. Not very imaginative, nor mentally mature.
At least it can’t get any worse. Perhaps I will have a good year next year. It will be the Year of the Tiger. Have never really had any luck with that lot. But you know what they say, those dudes only crouch. My kind, we hide. When it comes to camouflage, we win. Take that, striped kitties!
enriching more than flour
23/12/2009
We’ve recently rediscovered the library. You know. That place with lots of books, cold-as-ice glares when you sneeze and musty shelves of heavy-as-heck hardcovers in pristine condition. Apparently people went there for information. You know. Back in the dark ages. As recently as the late 1990s.
I think. I can’t be sure. Me and libraries, well. We didn’t have too much fun together. I think it began one day, in primary 3 or 4. I forget. Anyway, I went to the primary school library to return a book. The teacher there said there was one more book I hadn’t returned. I was stunned, it can’t be. I didn’t have any other books in my bag. I didn’t leave any at home. She turned me away and walked off.
My buddy at that time, and I still remember her name, which is no mean feat, because I haven’t spoken to her in more than 20 years – she transferred to I have no idea where at the end of the year – took the loaner card out of my sleeve and gave it to me. “Go” she said, looking around.
I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I took it and left. It turned out to be the card for the book that I was supposed to have loaned. The title seemed familiar, but I thought I’d returned it a few days ago. I was super perplexed, and the way my friend tried to help me out made me feel like a criminal.
A few days later, a younger schoolmate I took the schoolbus with gave me the book that was missing. She said she took it from my bag to read while we were waiting for the bus.
But it was done. I avoided the library like the plague, and I stopped being nice to the younger students. They were nothing but trouble!
Anyway. The Patron Saint of Libraries here did a number on me, I guess. The number happens to be 50. I get to check out 50 books for 3 weeks. I also get to check out 10 DVDs/CDs/VCDs a week.
What liberation! We started out borrowing documentaries. Since it beats reading! We quickly went through the stuff of interest. Now we’re borrowing j-doramas. I’m even making plans to hit the other libraries in the vicinity when we exhaust the little one near us.
The strange thing I notice is this. The people at libraries, are old. They are generally older than me. Old ladies, retiree looking folks, middle aged folks. I feel young in SF libraries. I don’t know if it’s the sign of the times – kids use the internet, I suppose – or location, time of day, etc. I would’ve figured more kids around since it is next to a school. But it’s fine. Kids smell funny anyway.
Old school, it seems, can sometimes be enriching too.
happy 冬！
22/12/2009
Move over Autumn, Winter is here. I think it odd that Winter begins at the solstice (I grew up thinking it straddled the solstice) but hey. If it works, it works.
The days will now get longer (the way I like it) and will come in handy as the holidays suck energy levels even for the most extroverted.
My attempts at making 汤圆 have yielded some success. The riceballs are edible, though I almost always end up getting more than I started out wanting. Glutinous Rice Flour is a deceptive one, it is. When you think you finally have enough water, it lets on that hey, you actually have too much. Cheeky.
My grandmothers made them riceballs very differently. My paternal grandmother liked the savoury coconut milk “lemak” version. I was never a fan. But she did make really chewy riceballs. I only ate it cos I adored the riceballs.
My maternal grandmother made a simple clear accompanying soup. Just pandan and sugar, or sometimes with ginger. It was clear that the star of the dish was the riceball. However, her riceballs weren’t as sultry as other grandmother’s, who sort of relegated those riceballs to the supporting role.
Nonetheless. 冬 was always a good time, cos they didn’t make me riceballs any other time of the year.
I make my own riceballs now, and they’re turning out like maternal grandma’s: a little less firm and chewy. But at least I don’t have to share them with countless cousins. Ha!
Happy Winter!
It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas
12/12/2009
It’s wet, it’s cold, it’s not even officially winter yet.
We’ve been a little busy. I guess as the year rushes toward its inevitable conclusion, the unfortunate coincidence which is the holidays and the misguided notion that you should spend it with the extended family (aka tradition) will rear it’s ugly head. Slowly but surely.
It’s one thing to enjoy the company of your extended family. The other thing, we call “obligation” to traipse around egos.
Call me sentimental, and don’t hold my weakness for being unable to call bullshit on occasions like this against me. When I get around to freeing myself from these bonds, I get to call myself brave and wear it around like a badge 
Until then, I guess.
Found a new way to really maximise a good recipe. Like tenderising a steak, you gotta beat it over and over again – like having it four times a week. Ha! That’ll teach you, arteries!!!
getting to know the city
03/12/2009
Had a pretty good couple of days.
Yesterday, I put my usual inhibitions aside and willingly went to a pre-arrranged dinner engagement. Filled with people I sort of would know, but mostly did not. Not my usual crowd – no geeks, mostly Caucasian.
Thankfully, it was around dinner. And dinner was really quite something. KF’s cousin found a great hole-in-the-wall (and this was a wall in a not so nice neighbourhood at night at that) which serves simple, elegant and inexpensive Vietnamese. They served a bunch of appetisers portioned out for the table, and a few mains, so it ended up being a fun sampling menu.
That’s pretty much the amount of social interaction I’d like for a good 6-8 weeks, unfortunately it’s holiday season and invariably there will be more. I need to remind myself to stop saying yes to these things. Yeah, it’s a dinner here, watching the kids or staying over there, but it adds up to a lot of stuff I don’t really care for. Cos if I did, I’d have kids of my own right now. Obligation – a ten letter word that’s tiring.
Today, we went to a nearby library. It’s about a ten minute walk away, but we drove, haha. We came back with a couple of books but about a dozen dvds. Movies, documentaries, travelogues – I left it to KF to pick out.
He picked out Election 2, or 黑社会：以和为贵 expecting it to be Election. It was a good movie nonetheless. There is something subtle and understated about triads that is so far superior to the regular American mafia shoot-em-ups. The chopper scene in Election 2 makes the Stuck in the Middle with You scene in Reservoir Dogs clumsy and crude.
It’s pretty impressive – how evolved and complex these triad films are. It’s like Chinese culture crash course in 2 hours. Fun.
Now I just need to brace myself for the next week.
