Currently…
It’s Sunday morning and I’m hiding in my room while the kids play Lego in the loft. OK it’s not really hiding if my door is open and the younger one wanders in and out, digging around my bookshelves and nightstand and playing with things he finds around like earphones and a pen (it’s run out of ink so it’s ‘safe’). I’m typing this on my tablet and he keeps coming over and saying ‘see see’. Because yes that’s where I occasionally let him view YouTube videos of Maru cat. Have you ever seen Maru? He’s a fat cat who lives in Japan and is too fond of boxes. My kids – and I – love these videos. Well the younger one loves anything with cats!
Here’s some of what we did ate this week:
updated to add: I made linguine carbonara for Sunday dinner and served it with a spinach and cherry tomato salad with a (bottled) ponzu dressing.
Mmm fish porridge at Asian Pearl. Oh and other dim sum dishes too!
It’s been very long since I’ve eaten at California Pizza Kitchen! It might have been nearly ten years ago since I was last in one, probably in Singapore. But we were at the mall picking up some thing from Macy’s and it was right by the carpark! So there was lunch.
I was surprised by this bacon, potato, leek and egg pizza. It doesn’t look pretty but had such great flavour.
I liked that combination and will definitely be stealing it when I next make pizza!
Reading:
A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the great California earthquake of 1906 – Simon Winchester
For Nonfiction November. It was a bit of a slow start, with Winchester meandering through space and time before finally getting to California in 1906! But here we are!
Old Man’s War – John Scalzi
Just starting this, it’s my first Scalzi. I’m looking forward to it!
LA Son: My life, my city, my food – Roy Choi
I’ve only just started reading the first few pages of his life, his childhood in Korea and all that. But I was curious and flipped through the book. I love that each chapter has recipes at the end, and that plenty of the recipes are things that I would actually want to eat and cook, like his short rib stew and mushroom quesadilla, his $4 spaghetti! And plus I love that he unabashedly includes a recipe for his favourite way to eat instant ramen (it includes American cheese – something I don’t think I’ll be trying! In case you’re interested I like to eat my instant noodles dry, I drain them and pop it into a bowl with ketchup, soy sauce, sesame oil, a bit of pepper, and frozen dumplings which I boiled together with the noodles. If I’m feeling healthy, some quick blanched spinach or whatever frozen veg I have around like peas and corn).
Listening:
Kay Tse （谢安琪） This is the Spotify link to her album
Watching:
I am still rewatching Gilmore Girls. And watching, for the first time, Season 4 of The Good Wife. This LG-Florrick/Agos fight is kinda crazy!
Eating:
So I made some brownies, using this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, then added some Kahlua and a tablespoon of instant coffee. I’m calling it Kahlua coffee brownies.
Drinking:
Assam tea
Cooking:
Once again, I’m making japchae on Sunday for Monday dinner. On Monday I’ll also fry some breaded pork chops and cut them up to be eaten with the noodles.
Later this week I’m also thinking of making baked chicken legs with mashed potatoes and some kind of vegetables. Wee Reader has asked for mac and cheese so I might try to do that as a one-dish meal, e.g. add sausage and some vegetable (peas and cauliflower?) to the dish.
Last week…
I read:
Men we reaped – Jesmyn Ward
Review to come
The Raven Boys – Maggie Stiefvater
French Kids Eat Everything – Karen Le Billon
I posted:
Nonfiction November and Weekend Cooking: French Kids Eat Everything by Karen Le Billon
Library Looting some non-fiction!
Recent reads: Wintergirls, The Paying Guests
Woah, I sure posted a lot last week. I’m not sure how I did that! Haha that sounds rather pathetic…!
Anyway, I hope you have a good reading week ahead. Let me know what you’re reading this week!
Real Life Reading 
I’ve even got friends from HK who don’t like fish porridge! But I’d have it over a pizza any day. Reminds me of home. Also my mum hardly ever used salt in her cooking, so the flavour of the fish is something I used to crave.
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Aww that’s sad! I think fish porridge is perfect in its simplicity and of course the freshness of the fish. My in-laws love century egg porridge so that’s what they order when we eat dimsum with them. But I really don’t like that!
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I’ve never had century old eggs! Our most usual porridge though was dried scallop – that would be something relatives brought back from HK and we would store them up and savour them.
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Oh thats good too! But somehow not common in the HK style restaurants here.
Something I miss is what we called Teochew porridge in Singapore and is similar to Taiwanese-style porridge. A watery porridge sometimes eith sweet potato but its more about the dishes you order to eat with it like braised goose, steamed fish, pork and all! Yum!
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Why couldn’t the like button be a “love” one instead? 🙂 I always enjoy seeing what you guys are eating. L.A. Son is such a favorite cookbook of mine. I love Choi’s honesty along with his recipes. I’m going to check out the brownie recipe. It’s one of the few things I haven’t tried from scratch.
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I can’t wait to try out his recipes. Have you cooked any?
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I can’t wait to try out his recipes. Have you cooked anything from LA Son?
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Not yet. My family’s problem is that we can’t agree on which recipe to try first! 🙂 My twin sisters want carne asada tacos whileI want to try the rosemary potatoes! 😉
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