Made with

Instead of the boring ole task of trudging to SGH for my bloodtest, I decided to stay home and do me some morning cooking for this evening's lazy Saturday @ the Springs.

Bacon and Egg rings are an old favourite and can be filled with most any smoked meat and cheese and topped with kitchen staples like boiled eggs and tomatoes. I made today's rings a little special -- studded the dough with sundried tomatoes and rosemary and filled them with streaky bacon, boiled eggs, a mix of chewy mozzarella, soft creamy Danish havali and some processed block cheddar, fresh basil and cherry tomatoes. Then I sprinkled the loaves with fresh parsely and washed them in a generous splash of sundried tomato olive oil.

Filled with Goodness

A fresh Bacon & Egg Ring; the other waits to be rolled snugly and tucked into the oven


Food Porn

I've always had a weakness for old fashioned kiddy cookies like shortbread, almond thumbprint cookies -- the ones at Cedele's are to die for! -- and oatmeal raisin. Today I decided to make a hearty batch of the latter but I jacked them with my chai mix, dried strawberries, sunflower seeds, flax seeds and lemon zest. The recipe was modified -- as usual -- from Epicurious. Initially I found them a tad too sweet and the cinnamon flavour on the strong side, but D seems to like them! And after a few test cookies .. now I cannot stop eated the cookies!

Grown up Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

And for veggies -- and cos I adore them, I made a few Vietnamese Spring Rolls filled with basil, some prawn, lean pork, tomatoes, capsicums and rice noodles.

Maaaaan, looking back, this time last year, I was partying it up, eating like a fiend and getting stomped on, sloshed up and shitfaced with party people. So why does my life look so freakishly tame right about now?

Hmmm???

It's bird! It's a plane! No, it's Capt Obvious!

Today we had a mandatory office talk chaired by Sir Repeatsalot (aka Capt Obvious). I am glad i woke up early for such pearls of wisdom as:

"Does anyone know what a crane is used for? What is a crane used for? Heavy lifting, because sometimes the load is too big to carry. We wonder how it can carry such a heavy load. But it relies on a chain to carry it. What is a chain? If you look at a chain it has a lot of links. But a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Your organisation is the chain, but are you its weakest link?"

"Does anyone know what is risk? A risk is different from a hazard. A hazard is like getting knocked down by a car, but a risk is different. For example, when crossing the road, there is risk. It can be dangerous because roads are used by cars."

"Does any one know what is Bird Flu? [Someone says: flu transmitted by birds] Wrong. Bird Flu is like influenza. Like when you work too hard and you get Influenza, you know Influenza? It's the flu, like a cold. Birds get bird flu like humans get flu. H5N1. (then he explains a bit more, but I lost him at INFLUENZA)

"Do you know the danger of noise? What is noise? Deafness is noise induced"

BKK BLISS (photos to come once I find time)

... and I wish heartily that I was back -- depsite the strange and disconcerting stare fest.

Day One:
Arrived in one piece -- albeit a little cranky and hot thanks to "malfunctioning auxilliary power" that left us stranded in the plane with no airconditioning for nigh 30-minutes at 6 in the morning. No sleep, no air, no patience! But there's budget flights for ya I guess. Then again, at $180 return, it's not much to complain about...

After a quick hotel check-in and rest, Ju and I had our first hit of Thailand with some posh Thai nosh @ MBK -- Pad See You, Som Tham & roast pork, and Chicken and Basil stir-fry, followed by retail madness. We managed to conquer MBK and part of Siam Square before exhaustion hit and I needed my icecream. (Medically required to sustain levels of euphoria and energy).

iBerry is iPretty

Then we hopped into a cab, but got abandoned by the roadside part of the way back 'cos the driver had to get petrol? Huh? We were already halfway back to Chinatown! But okaay, so we got out without paying -- no destination no baht dude! -- and got into another one with got us back, in 5 minutes for all of 30baht, to our pretty lil hotel.

Welcome to Shanghai Inn

After the customary fashion show of purchases and a little rest, we headed to Chinatown where we first had a modest serving of some peppery Thai-style kway-chap, followed by a gingery and warming soyabean curd so smooth and silky it makes the Rochor guys look downright mediocre. The best part was the crunchy fried cruellers swimming in the soup. I heart kroop-kroop very much.

But that wasn't all, cos in an attempt to not shock the work with our insatiable appetites, we cleverly bought stuffed chee cheong fun, fried prawn rolls, fried crabmeat rolls and about a whole pig worth of pork snacks back to our hotel room so we just lounge in our knickers and stuff ourselves while watching TV.

Day Two
Passed out last night, but kept Ju awake with my random yelling: Ouch! Ouch! and It's gonna be alright. If you must know, I dreamt of WORK. Sigh. It is relentless in its pursuit ... across the ocean and until death I tells ya.

We hit the wholesale area today at Pratunam, City Centre, near Bayoke. It was a bit overwhelming and I found it took a lot of deep breathing not to just buy a bunch of things I would not wear back. But I caved and bought this:

How do you say Kawaii in Thai?

Then we had proper home-style Thai food at Rose Cafe, which is co-tenanted with, of all thing, a bag shop. But who cares? It was spicy, piquant, and eye-poppingly yummy. I shudder to recall the lovely fried bamboo shoot.

Rose Cafe Delights

After the retail and food fest, we -- like proper tai-tais -- got a kneading for just 350baht ($14SGD) oil massage followed by wash-and-dries for 100baht ($4). For dinner we had Jap Shabu-Shabu -- possibly our healthiest meal of the trip, except for the rampart gorging on all-you-can-eat pork and beef and MOCHI!

Of course I needed my (medicinal) icecream after that -- Thai Coffee and Young Coconut

See my icecream musckle

Day Three
The true battle began today at the crack 'o dawn -- okay, 9am Bkk time, but still pretty early all things considered -- as we lay seige to Chatuchak, the grande dame of the BKK retail scene. But first! We got more bahts (and I got some satay -- eh, pre-breakfast snack leh). Then some sustenance -- wanton mee (breakfast is the most important meal of the day, nevermind I had two pre-breakfasts). Then, shopping, punctuated by fried chicken cartiledge, an emergency toilet stop, and random come-ons by strange men.
Some amazing iced blue-mountain milk coffees, koo chye kueh, a little bask in the sun and then we left Chatuchak -- mildy decimated in our wake-- and proceeded to MBK (again), followed by Siam Discovery, Siam Central, Siam Tower and Siam Paragon like the whirlwind retail dervishes we are.

I satay

Of course, I had to have icecream (again). This time it was a great Lemongrass sorbet and Hibiscus/Jujube Sorbet at Spice Story that cooled our heat headaches off a little.

For dinner, we got more Naem (sausage), Som Tham, Sticky Rice, Spring Rolls and some pretty crispy pancakes to eat in our hotel room.

Day Four
Started the day with an early morning massage while Ju grabbed some shopping. It was another Tai-Tai day as we had wash-and-dries again, and then facial massages at Hanako. Today I ate the sweetest goddamn mango TWICE, in two of the best sticky rice/coconut milk desserts I've had in a long time.

Mango magic dances on my tongue

The damage for the trip is evidenced in two large check-in bags. I arrived with a little over 4kg and ended up with about 20kg! Not inclusive of the jelly belly around my gut. I managed to undo my 6-week diet in a mere 4-days. LOL! Such a good trip... We leave tmw morning at about 9am and get in on Monday at Noon. Then it's back to the grind

Back to Reality: Monday
The first sign that you're back to the grind is when you realise that you're being forced -- after months of laziness and resistence -- to spring clean your wardrobe cos your stuff just won't fit into your sty of a room.
Generally, I love spring cleaning (no, I'm not being sarcastic), but on the legs of a trip and with the looming prospect of work the next day, it's not a very pleasant task.

But it's all done and I'm quite happy, if a bit on the incoherently tired side ... I shall post photos. Soon.