I need to temporarily interrupt my Greek travelogue.
So.
Today.
Start of 2 weeks of free time to twindle my thumbs. Wake up late. Read. Go to the gym. Watch tv. Catch up on my photo backlog. Reply long overdue personal emails. Attempt to cook. Stake out facebook (disclaimer: I don’t do that. I’m just saying I could do that.) Stare out of the window.
Basically do nothing.
This was my schedule today, mostly unplanned:
9.30am Consciousness hits. Roll around in bed and relish the fact that I can.
10.00am Roll out of bed.
10.30am Walk over to grandma’s to get some basil leaves for a recipe to attempt in the evening. Ended up with a stalk of mint leaves instead. Oh well, they’ll have to do.
11.00am Pack grandma and mum into car for supermarket trip. Getting excited about preparing dinner after a friend loaned me her Everday Harumi cookbook. Supposed to be really easy Japanese recipes that tons of people swear by. Ambitious plans of producing the exact same dishes in the cookbook photos spur me on.
11.15am Arrive at supermarket. Grandma wants a snack. So we sit down for a snack.
11.45am Still snacking…..
11.50am Ok time to hit the supermarket aisles. Wait, why are pumpkins so expensive? And longbeans too? Surely I’m not that out of touch with supermarketing?? Oh wait. Yes, I am. Took the imported Japanese pumpkin and the organic longbeans instead. Clever indeed. Great way to start the cook fest. Ok recipe needs mirin. What the hell is mirin? Japanese aisle….teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, ponzu sauce, sushi vinegar….where is the mirin?? I wouldn’t even know it if the bottle was staring at me right in the face. Darn, they don’t sell it here. Time to move on.
12.30pm Feed the family lunch. Thank goodness the domestic helper had lunch ready at home. I was already tired. And the day had barely begun!
1.15pm Need ground toasted sesame seeds. Says recipe. None at home and no mortar and pestle to grind anything anyway. Grandma says she’s got some at home. So we trot over where I sit on the floor and pound sesame seeds.
1.30pm Grandma says she wants to go for foot reflexology. (read between the lines: can you fetch me?) So we pile into the car again. Drop her off and then run over to the nearest ang moh supermarket in search of this elusive mirin. Seeing a blank in the Japanese aisle. “Excuse me, miss, do you sell mirin?” “Only got big bottle left, small bottle no more.” Big bottle is 600ml. I only need 2 tablespoons. Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers. I’ll take it.
1.45pm Grab a kopi-ping to go. It’s hot as hell outside. I am melting in my market clothes. In Holland
2.00pm Change money for Krabi trip.
2.30pm Pick grandma up from reflexology. She says its teatime. We cross the road to the koptiam. Then she looks at the crowd spilling out and says she wants frozen yogurt instead. My grandma wants froyo. Wow. Ok we cross back to the other side of the road for froyo. After a 40-second drama of which fruit topping would go with the lychee flavour, we gamely sit at the bench along the road to feast on the cool delight. Then she discovers the horror. In the middle of the froyo spiral (or rather underneath, after you’ve eaten off the top swirl), is a big gaping hole of….emptiness. She thinks it’s an abhorrence. How can they sell you a hole? She waddles back to the counter and asks why her froyo has a hole in the swirl. The 18-year-old behind the counter explains that it’s “like that”. Sensing my grandma’s disapproval of her reply, she asks if my grandma wants her to fill the hole up. So that’s how we ended up with 2 servings of froyo. For the price of 1, mind you.
3.15pm Drop grandma home. Head over to see mum at physiotherapy. Mum tells the physiotherapist that I should have 4 children. And that dad will look after them. Dad’s not there to realise he’s been arrowed. And sorry Mum, I’m kinda behind the curve here.
5.00pm Finally home. Time to start cooking! Let’s hope it’s not a disaster.
5.30pm Oh crap. I’ve put the sugar into the sesame paste meant for the longbeans instead of into the boiling water meant for the pumpkin. Hasty recovery. Dig out as much sugar as possible from sesame paste. This is what happens when 2 different recipes are on adjacent pages.
5.40pm Sesame paste is tasting sweeter than it should be. Oh well. Too late to change a dish. Sweet longbeans is what it’s going to be.
5.50pm Oh! The glazed pumpkin is a success! Although the longbeans are not quite. Last dish to complete – main course of tsukune. I suddenly feel like I’m in masterchef or something. The heat is on! (It is very warm in the kitchen indeed.)
6.10pm Thank goodness for my helper. I’m moulding meat patties while she pan fries them.
6.30pm Still frying…looks like I overestimated the amount of minced meat we would need to feed the brood. We’re going to be standing here for a while…..frying…and frying….
6.45pm Yes! Tsukune is also a success! And I’m starving. Not to mention hot, sweaty and tired. I’m so not used to multi-tasking in the kitchen. This is even more challenging than what I do in the office. Clearly not my calling in life. Oh oops, time to bring grandma over for dinner.
7.00pm Finally get to sit down. Mmmm….the pumpkin and the tsukune are actually quite excellent (if I should say so myself!) Dad thinks the wrongly sweetened sesame longbeans are quite nice. I shove him the whole plate and encourage him to finish it. Then I don’t have to worry about finishing it. Ha.
8.15pm Supposed to meet a friend for farewell drinks but rescheduled. Aunt asks if I want to go for a walk instead. Since I’m already sweaty, fine, might as well.
9.45pm Back from walk. I’m exhausted.
10.00pm Plonk in front of tv to watch some HK drama serial. I don’t even follow the serials but I happened to catch the tail-end of last night’s episode and now I’m hooked. Trying to multi-task and read the newspapers at the same time. Not successful.
12 midnight Here I am. Writing this entry.
Where did my day go?? So much for being a lady of leisure. I’m more exhausted than a regular day in the office. And I haven’t done anything of leisure that I thought I would be doing (or not doing).
Although I did step into the kitchen. Rather proud of myself. J
Although I did step into the kitchen. Rather proud of myself. J
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| My version of Japanese tsukune with teriyaki sauce (recipe comes with homemade sauce but I got lazy and used the bottle instead....) |
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| Glazed pumpkin with sesame seeds |
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| And the semi-disaster (shouldn't be sweet) sesame longbeans |
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