by Sharlene

It’s Monday (January 23, 2023)

Happy Lunar New Year! It’s the Year of the Rabbit! Following our usual tradition, before the New Year, we spring cleaned, decorated the house a little bit, even managed to donate some old clothes to help a fundraiser at a local high school.

I also made some cookies previously, but wanted to make some huat kueh or fa gao 发糕. It’s supposed to bring fortune and is a delicious light steamed cupcake of sorts. I made a version with pandan and coconut.

For our reunion dinner or tuan yuan fan on the eve, we had hotpot
Thinly sliced meats are a must for hotpot!
A recent love of mine is mixing regular jasmine rice with some Korean mixed grains. I bought this packet at an Asian supermarket. It contains brown rice, sweet brown rice, barley, wild sweet rice, mung bean, millet, glutinous millet, green peas. Per some online recipes, I soak the grains for a bit before adding it to the washed jasmine rice. Then I let my rice cooker do the work. The first time, I tried it on a brown rice setting but that seemed to overcook it. A regular rice setting does much better.

Last Friday evening, while at the Japanese supermarket to pick up some thinly sliced meats for hotpot, we discovered that their sushi and cooked food is 20% off in the evenings. The husband grabbed probably what was a bit too much sushi, and we had a nice dinner out of it.

The mochi doughnuts were also discounted.

Currently…

Reading:

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida – Shehan Karunatilaka

Watching:

Single’s Inferno on Netflix

Listening:

I’m glad my mom died – Jennette McCurdy

Eating and Drinking:

A homemade peanut cookie and coffee

Cooking:

We still have some hotpot broth leftover, so might warm that up with some extra fish tofu and vegetables. Eat it with rice. Later this week, maybe some mushroom pasta as I have extra mushrooms.

Last week:

I read:

Winter in Sokcho – Elisa Shua Dusapin

Legends & Lattes – Travis Baldree

Ducks – Kate Beaton

A Man and His Cat vol 2 – Umi Sakurai

I posted:

Winter In Sokcho

Library Loot (January 18 to 24)

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog   and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. 
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11 Comments

  1. I have started eating brown rice instead of white rice. Everyone seems OK with it, I wasn’t sure that our Chinese student would like it, or even the family. I think I would like the grains but I have never seen those mixtures. We just use one setting on our rice cooker even for brown rice (it only has one setting!)

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    1. I think most Asian people are still more used to eating white rice. That’s definitely the case in Singapore, although maybe the next time I visit, I’ll go look for some of these mixed grains and have my mum try it.

      If you look up “Korean mixed grains”, you can find different brands. Or you can also try to make your own by mixing barley, brown rice, black rice etc together too.

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  3. I’ve recently started cooking black rice (from the Carmargue) and really like it, though it takes much longer to cook.

    I’m reading The Arsonist’s City by Hala Alya set mostly in Beirut, but also Damascus and the US. I read a novella for a Japanese Literature Challenge, Child if Fortune by Yuko Tsushima which was very thought provoking.
    I enjoyed your Winter in Sochko review.

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      1. The Carmargue is near where I live so I like to use the rice that comes from there. It’s an interesting area in the south of France, it’s also a bird sanctuary, lots of migrating birds rest there, the most spectacular being the pink flamingoes.

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  5. Happy New Year! The 发糕 looks delicious. It’s one of the treats we used to get when we went for dim sum, or dropped into our local Chinese bakery. I admit that I have never seen the green! It looks delicious!

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