LoveGIRL.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Have you ever realised how time-consuming and tedious it is to boil a pot of soup?

After coming to Dublin, I really cherish hot (temperature) food. Nicole and I try to make hot soup once or twice a week. We will use whatever vegetables that are available in our fridge which are mostly carrots, cabbage, spinach, onion and tomatoes. As previous experience trying to make bone/meat stock went haywire, we use combinations of the mentioned vegetables to make vegetable stock. To make vegetable stock, you can't heat at high heat because all the "good nutrients" and whatnot will be boiled to death. And you'll lose fragrance as well. If you put it at low heat, it would take you hours to simmer out anything. Thus, it is important to watch the water fluctuations and observe change in colour and texture. To speed up process,we normally boil water in our kettle first before pouring into the pot on the stove. This helps to bring water to boiling temperature at a faster rate. While that is happening, we will quickly chop up all the vegetables. When the water in the pot is bubbling already, we throw in all the vegetable and turn down the heat. When the water changes colour/fragrance is obvious, we will throw in seasoning! Our top 2 favourites are miso paste and hot sour paste. After putting in the flavouring things, you want to quickly dissolve the paste and hence it is time so turn up the heat. Then eggs!! Most of us like nicely cooked eggs with yolk slightly runny right! So you have to lower down the heat again and crack the egg at the surface of the soup so that you can see it. Yup and after a few minutes, you are done! SOUP!^^

Chicken fillet that was miserably small 😔

Caramelised mushrooms with stir fried black bean minced beef. The rice was Nasi Lemak improvised rice which got us so full we couldn't eat breakfast the next morning.

Citrus Salmon. My family's citrus sauce recipe 😊

Salad Omelette & Beans. Veg and eggs are staples.

Garlic butter cod. This was so grand it was awesome 😊

Dan Dan mian. We used this Hungarian chilli oil thing which was so spicy even though we only put half a teaspoon into the whole pot of meat. Our noses choked up after the first few bites of this recreated dish. Can't see much... But the Dan Dan mian sauce was really good: peanut-y, sour and spicy.

Realised most of the nice food photos are no longer on the phone so nvm pretend they looked nicer... HAHA. Just sharing my food love with everyone 😊

It probably doesn't sound very difficult right! But it is difficult cause we are normally drained and hungry from an entire day of school and its cold >< While cooking the soup, we also have to fix our main course. As we are both not much of carbs eater, its easier in the sense that we don't always have to cook rice. We focus on cooking our mains which are usually fish or meat. And then when everything is ready, we'll eat all the hot food together on the table and take out our condiments! We have a few condiments: basil, oregano, parsley and chilli flakes! And of course I don't like eating ugly looking food so I'll try my best to up the presentation before eating.

But anyway, regarding food, i have been eating a lot of food, i think that is why i am 5kg heavier at the moment): i need to do something about this 5kg or my friends in singapore are going to disown me this huge hot air balloon when i get home. Portion of food may not be exactly big but because it is cold i tend to keep snacking. I have been snacking on biscuits and chocolates and perhaps these are the causes of my ballooning. I recently met my dad in london and i also spoke to yunting about food and i think both of them died on the inside. Well my dad looked like he could cry. I had no idea about how he was reacting/going to react so i plainly blurted out how i was going about getting food every other day. But because my dad (and yunting) is so used to treating me as the princess he thinks i am, it pains him. For example, i told him how Nicole and I will hunt down fruits at Moorse Street, which is a street filled with street vendors/farmers selling fruits at cheap prices. Back in Singapore, i don't even do the super marketing. I only eat bananas from Philippines and korean strawberries and USA blueberries and i only ate sultanas not raisins. I get my cereal bars and hot chocolate stash from USA. And creme brûlée pudding and peach jelly are from japan. Stroopwafels are from amsterdam or munich. Over here, to save cost (everything is about saving cost) , i buy these random fruits from random vendors and lug it back from city centre all the way back home. and yes by public transport. I don't think the quality of the fruits are that bad in fact they are quite nice actually. i reckon is the mere action that i have to do these kind of things that upsets him. I save cost by NOT buying desserts and baking my own/eating low-fat yogurt.

Blueberry mug cake

I have evolved an aunty nature which can be quite extreme. That every time i go to Tesco to buy things i go straight to the offers section or look for everything under house brand. I currently take Tesco Fruit & Fibre cereal and tesco everyday value raisins. As for the biscuits, my favourite biscuits are Oreo original and cadbury chocolate chunk cookies basically. I restrict myself to only buy similar types of biscuits only if they cost one euro or less.

And i think the worst thing that hit was the fact that I'm doing laundry on my own. i have been in Dublin for 11 weeks and i only used the washing machine services twice. yes i have been washing all other clothes by myself, with my bare hands in my own toilet. On the two occasions that i used the washing machine, i hand dried each individual piece on my own as well. I admit i have really ugly hands at the moment but i wanna try to save $ on washing clothes for next semester. Next semester will be right into winter and then it will be too cold for me to wash on my own so i'll use washing machines next sem.

So some may think I'm extreme and question why i am torturing myself and etc. I would reply things like saving money to travel, saving money to buy things, saving money to blah blah blah. Which are kind of true. But up and above, it is a question of principle, honestly. If i wanted, i can spend money with less austerity. Funding is not an issue plus for as long as i want something reasonable, my dad will not say no to his princess. It is a personal thing. I told my dad( and myself) to set aside X amount of money for my expenses here and i am going to stick to the budget. If i can, i want to make some cost savings as well. As much as possible, all my daily expenses here, plus traveling, plus exploring, must stay within X amount. I do not care what remarks people may have for when i want something i make it possible, unless something crops up of course. So yes, life is hard here, but i am trying to find an equilibrium between challenge and satisfaction in it. Slowly but surely i will. People often complain that I'm an extremist for i always want (and only settle for) the best in various aspects, but i guess that's the kind of person i am. It is not about others or external situation, it is about not losing to myself. I hate losing and i hate losing to myself even more so. I set goal i set targets there are thing i want to achieve and i will do it to utmost perfection within my abilities. I can't be a princess here but i want to return home years later much stronger and better; be a better queen of my life.

2:43 PM sprinklinq love Y