a-l-i-n-e.com

If you know me well enough, then you should have been able to guess that I’ll be writing about food.

What I like to eat when I’m feeling hungry late at night or early in the morning:
Glutinous rice balls! They are called tāng yuán (汤圆).

(frozen and not yet cooked.)

This Chinese dessert is usually served when it is Winter Solstice. (Some information about the celebration of winter solstice here.) It is also eaten during other Chinese festivals to indicate togetherness or reunion. Since it is so easily available at the supermarkets here in Singapore, I eat glutinous rice balls whenever I feel like it. I was also buying glutinous rice balls quite often when I was still in Shanghai. There are many types of fillings available: peanut, red beans, black sesame etc.
I don’t remember if ready-made frozen glutinous rice balls are sold in Mauritius. We usually make our own glutinous rice balls at home. I miss that .

I bought those with peanut fillings.

Boiled in water + a few slices of ginger . Most people like to add sugar to the ginger soup but I don’t add sugar if the glutinous rice balls have sweet fillings inside. I only add sugar if I’m having plain glutinous rice balls with no fillings inside.


I like my glutinous rice balls dry but back in Mauritius, mum was telling us to drink the ginger soup. The fact that I don’t drink the ginger soup is also another reason why I don’t add sugar. If you plan to drink the ginger soup, add sugar.

I don’t really like peanuts but if it is inside glutinous rice balls, then it’s alright. This filling also contains white sesame.
I always feel a bit weird when I eat glutinous rice balls all alone. If I’m going home this December, one of the first things that I’ll do back in Mauritius will be to make glutinous rice balls with my family and eat, sitting at the round dining table. Yes. Let’s not forget the round dining table.

I love KFC’s cheese fries.
I try to avoid eating fast food but I eat KFC’s Cheese fries about 4 times a month. I think it’s good to give in to my cravings sometimes.

I had lunch with Nicolas, one of my primary school best friends about 3 hrs ago. We went to eat at the Coffee Club right outside Raffles Place MRT station. The last time I saw Nicolas was 6 or 7 years ago. I didn’t see him for a couple of years after we finished primary school but we met up again one day thanks to a mutual friend. He is one of the few primary school ex-classmates that I still keep in touch with.

I was thinking about this the other day: I’m still not sure if Singapore is where I should be. I still don’t feel like this is ‘home’ but at least, here I’ve been able to meet up with my good friends again. I have 3 other close friends in Singapore. I’ve met them at different stages of my life and they have been very good friends. A few years ago, I didn’t think that I’d see again after they/I left Mauritius. Now somehow I’ve landed in Singapore and they happen to be working/studying here. I’m really happy.

Back to food…

Soup of the day was Leek and potato soup. It was good. I had just finished my soup when I suddenly remembered that I had my camera in my bag.

Mushroom and Parmesan baked rice. I could smell the parmesan as soon as the waiter put the dish down on the table.

Mango peach smoothie

Nicolas had the Honky Tonk Gumbo Set meal. (Weird name!) I didn’t take a photo of his Lychee soda with vanilla ice cream but here’s what his food looked like. (90% of it anyway)
He had already started eating when I took this photo.

We only had one hour to eat and talk but it was good to see him again. We’ve known each other since 1990. That was so long ago. I can’t help feeling a bit old. I miss my carefree childhood days.

The food was good & we got to talk for a while after not seeing each other for so many years. Sounds nice right? The only thing I’m sad about is that I forgot to ask one of the waiters to take our photo. As usual I took photos of food and forgot about taking photos of people. Argh. I’ll try not to forget next time.

Lisa’s friend Jeff came over for dinner last night and Lisa bought Chilli crab, Black pepper crab and some other dishes.

Chilli crab is very popular in Singapore. I’ve heard of this dish even before coming to Singapore.
Audrey and Colas both like the black pepper crab but I didn’t like it much. I preferred the Chilli crab.

This seems to be fried mantou. Mantou are Chinese steamed buns with no fillings.
We dipped the mantou in the chilli crab sauce before eating. yummy!
Read the rest of this entry »

As mentioned before, I went on a trip to Hong Kong and mainland China with my youngest sis for ten days.

I was too busy to take photos during my trip. The only photos I took with my camera were on the plane and on the train.

On the plane to Hong Kong:


I didn’t have time to eat at home and had to buy the food on the plane. Jetstar is a budget airline. The plane tickets are cheap but meals aren’t included and have to be bought during the flight. I chose the Hainanese Chicken Rice meal. It was expensive and didn’t taste nice. >.< Next time, I will eat at home or even at the airport.

After I finished eating, I put on the N95 mask that Lisa got for me. Almost everyone was wearing a mask. Mine looked a tad funny but that’s all I had. I found it a bit hard to breathe when wearing the mask. I also had to fill in a health declaration form on the plane. Seeing so many people wearing masks on the plane made me worry a bit.
~~~~~
Read the rest of this entry »

Something not related to this entry:
I’ve been sleeping late everyday because I’ve been chatting with my sisters. Argh. The other day I went to bed at 7 a.m . It was 3 a.m in Mauritius. Huge eyebags now. >.<
One of my sisters and I are meeting in Hong Kong next week. It has been 1 year since we've last seen each other.

================================
Häagen-Dazs ice cream!

They were SGD 5.15 cheaper if buy 2 at ‘Shop n Save’.
I have never tried these two before.

I love anything Green tea: green tea hot drink, green tea cold drink, green tea candy, green tea cake, green tea milkshake, green tea ice cream etc.
I only ate a few spoonfuls. I will try the Summer berries & Cream when I’m done with this one.

I met up with Diana and Bryan for lunch the other day.
We were going to eat at Café Cartel but then we saw this place called Margarita’s Bar.

It didn’t take us long to order our food. We all wanted to eat spare ribs. We chose the spare ribs set meal which was highly recommended on the menu.

The set meal consisted of spare ribs, coleslaw and fries and because it was before 3pm, we also got a free soup of the day, 1 scoop of ice cream and free flow of soft drinks.

The soup of the day was Celery and potato soup. Bryan and Diana told me that they don’t like celery. I love celery!

500g of spare ribs! hehe.
Read the rest of this entry »

My family used to buy papayas quite often back in Mauritius but as far as I can remember, I had always hated papayas when I was still in Mauritius. I used to watch my youngest sister eat papayas and I couldn’t understand her love for that fruit. I used to find the smell and taste of papayas disgusting. Apart from papayas, there was no other fruit that I hated. Then I went off to study in Shanghai and during my 4th & last year there, I bought a papaya one day. I don’t even know why I bought that papaya. To my surprise, it didn’t taste as bad as I remembered it to be. I even drank papaya milkshake once.

I bought 2 papayas a couple of days ago at Fairprice. My first 2 papayas in Singapore! They were S$1.80 each. I felt like buying the papayas because my sisters were both telling me that they have been eating papayas everyday.

The two papayas that I’ve bought. There weren’t many left at Fairprice and I just chose two which seemed okay. I have no idea how to choose a good papaya.

These papayas are from Hong Kong? hmm.

Photo taken after cutting the papaya in half. I hadn’t removed the seeds yet. According to my sisters, this papaya looks a lot like the Solo papaya that they love because of the orange red color of the flesh. I was like “Solo papaya?What’s that?”. haha

Guess what ? I didn’t have dinner that day and ate one whole papaya by myself. I was sitting in front of the laptop with the two halves of the papaya on a plate in front of me and a spoon while watching a show. I somehow managed to eat both halves. I should have put one half in the fridge. argh.. See the photo where it’s written that it’s from Hong Kong? It’s also written that the net weight is 1.0 kg. Minus away the skin and the seeds, there’s still a lot left. I didn’t eat anything else for dinner. The papaya was more than enough. ah… and it was really good. Sweet but not too sweet. I haven’t eaten the other papaya yet. I’m keeping it for the weekend.

I’ve sent the photos to my sisters via MSN and they were surprised that I’ve bought papayas. Not one but two big papayas. They both said that they thought I hated papayas. Yes I did but that was when I was in Mauritius.
Hmm.. I can’t think of any fruit that I hate now. I love fruits.