Laundry Day

Fortunately, I do not live next door!

This is an old photo someone shared on social media awhile ago.

CNY Bouquet

I received this lovely Chinese New Year gift from my son's girlfriend.

What a sweet gesture!

Red (roses) for good luck and *Caishen (white pompom chrysanthemum) for prosperity.

* Caishen aka The God of Prosperity is characterized by his winged hat.

You can read about  Caishen here and the symbolism of the color red here.

From the archives.

Me and a mascot of The God Of Prosperity (2018)

Would you have guessed that these roses were made of soap?

The Year Of The Ox

Whew!  Finally, that dastardly rat (sorry, rat pallies!) is gone and the earnest ox now rules the new year as the 2nd animal on the 12-year cycle Chinese zodiac calendar.

In case you are wondering what I'm rambling about, you can read about the 12 animals here. I've also explained why the cat doesn't have a spot in the calendar.

According to feng shui masters, the Year Of The Ox is generally a better year for all.  

In the past, I would say "bull!" to all this but I am desperate! I want to believe that 2021 is going to be a brighter year for everyone.

It has to be.

The pandemic has dragged on too long — too many lives and livelihoods have been destroyed and we are all fatigued.

I want to travel again ...

Attend Sunday Mass ...

Attend my son's graduation ceremony which has been postponed indefinitely ...

Have a big family get together ...

Watch a movie in the cinema ...

Binge on an all-you-can-eat buffet in a fancy restaurant ...

I just want to push the play button of life that covid-19 has paused.

And oh,  if you have had a bad start to 2021, here's your chance for a do-over — a fresh start.

Have an ox-picious 2021, pallies!

The Three Wise Men

Image credit - https://www.instagram.com/reggietoons/?hl=en

Haha! This cartoon of the Chinese *Three Wise Men practicing social distancing and wearing masks puts a smile on my face. 

For the uninitiated, the Chinese New Year is just round the corner and the trio is one of the most auspicious symbols of the lunar new year.

On a sombre note, the cartoon is pretty sad actually.

It means that Chinese New Year 2021 is essentially cancelled for some of us.

We are lockdowned for the second time (MCO 2).

I can't visit my parents, in-laws, relatives and friends in my hometown as interstate travel is banned.

It means there will be ....

No reunion dinner...

No cookie exchange...

No ang-pow exchange...

Fu, Lu, Shou

* The Three Wise Men (Fu, Lu, Shou) are used in Chinese culture to denote the three attributes of the ultimate good life.

Fu for prosperity, Lu for ambition/career and Shou for longevity.

According to legend, Shou was carried in his mother's womb for ten years before he was born, and already an old man when delivered!

Traditionally, the three statues are arranged close together from right to left, just as Chinese characters are traditionally written from right to left.

Rubbernecking

Stuck in a bad traffic jam...

Waze reports a collision between a car and motorcycle 780 metres ahead.

Waze screenshot

Crawling impatiently ahead...

Inch by inch...

Finally, the scene of the accident...

BUT ...

The crash is on the OTHER SIDE of the highway!

The reason for the standstill on our side of the road? 

Rubbernecking!

You don't want to look. 

You shouldn't but there is this need to turn your head.

It's like trying hard to not scratch an itch or let out a fart.

You hold back until the last minute.

Then you turn your head and stare...

Are you guilting of *rubbernecking?

*Rubbernecking — a phenomenon when people slow down to gawk at an accident scene

Mr. Pery

Almost everyone I know already has and loves their air fryers.

But countertop space is prime real estate in my closet-size kitchen.

I have to think long and hard before I acquire a new appliance.

And more often than not, they were relegated to cabinets and drawers when the novelty ran out, occupying valuable storage space, gathering dust and getting in the way.

I think I had used my juicer a grand total of only 3 times before I bumped it into storage.

Naturally, I wasn't thrilled when I was gifted a bulky Pery Smith air fryer that squandered my precious countertop space.

I chalked the fangled appliance up to a glorified mini convection oven.

Anyways, I decided to give Mr. Pery a chance — a new gadget to play with, a new adventure in my uneventful life. 

It has been 3 months since Mr. Pery came to us.

My boys and I use him just about every day now, even if it’s just to reheat leftovers or frozen foods.

Super crispy pizza straight from freezer to air fryer in 7 mins!

WHY I LOVE MR. PERY

1. He's easy to use and SO, SO simple to clean!

2. It's so easy to check if your food is cooked — simply pull out the fry basket, eyeball the doneness and push the fry basket back in to cook longer if needed.

3. It’s like deep frying with very little or no oil.

Crispy outside, moist inside

No more oil splatters! Ever experienced hot oil spitting, sputtering and exploding from your stovetop like fireworks on the Fourth of July?  Ouch! Not fun!

4. Cooking time is faster with Mr. Pery than a convectional oven.

I made ultra crispy pork crackling in under 3 hours that would otherwise require a whole bunch of steps  with a convectional oven. No overnight refrigeration, salt crusting or long roasting time! No vinegar or baking soda needed!  Plus, you don't have to line the sides of the meat with aluminum foil. Mr. Pery made it way too easy to do.

Thick pork chops cooked to perfection in under 10 mins on each side!

DOWNSIDE

1. Things fly around in an air fryer. Think AIR FLYER! I once placed a McD burger inside the fryer with  extra slices of cheddar in between the buns, expecting a perfectly molten cheese burger. Instead,  Mr. Pery disassembled the burger! The cheese came off the patty and melted into an icky mess and stuck to the fry basket! Later, I learned that securing the burger with a toothpick does the trick. 

2. Wet, battered and loosely seasoned foods are a NO-NO!

So, is the air fryer just a load of hot air? Does the tiny fry-basket justify the space it takes on the counter??

Mr. Pery has really blown me away! Now, I can't imagine life without him.

An amazing air fryer recipe to share.

Did you hear that crunch?

Hair Dryer?

 My son Rodney pranked me with this Christmas gift.

I thought it was a cordless hair dryer!

Turned out , it was a gag gift — a big-ass airpod!

He had me there! 

I used it to boom up and play on repeat my playlist of whiny, mopey, achy-breaky songs that I listened to when my heart was shattered by my first major crush at the tender age of 17. 

Haha! The songs drove Rodney crazy!  "D-E-P-R-E-S-S-I-N-G!" he groaned !

Guys 'n' Dolls - How Do You Mend A Broken Heart?

 

Guys 'n' Dolls lead singer Dominic Grant died  of abdominal aortic aneurysm at the age of 71 in November 2020.

Skeeter Davis - My Last Date With You

Skeeter Davis  died of breast cancer on September 19, 2004, aged 72.

Anne Murray - Broken Hearted Me

Retired from singing, Anne Murray, 75, now settles into Nova Scotia life.

Linda Ronstadt - Long, Long Time

Ronstadt, now 73, prematurely retired from her singing career. Parkinson's disease has silenced her emotive voice.

Oh, the hauntingly beautiful vocals and lyrics...

Lyrics that rhymed so perfectly...

 The nostalgia... 

What were your breakup songs for wallowing when you were a teen?

Siesta

This candid photo was taken by my son Rodney when we were walking towards our car.

Rodney wanted to close in for a better angle but I said to let sleeping dog and human lie.

A Feast For The Eyes

I was googling stroopwafel and somehow landed on Rommy de Bommy's Instagram page.

This wasn't what I had in mind!

Scrolling down her page, I discovered that Rommy from The Netherlands creates fun, quirky food-inspired handbags, clutches and purses.

All of her unique designs are meticulously handmade.  The bags feature a concealed zip and hollow centre, with enough space to hold a phone, keys, purse and even a little makeup!

In case you are wondering how much they cost...

These are only 25% of all her bags!

Feast your eyes on loads more on her Instagram here.

So which one is your favourite?

Tang Yuan

You probably have seen photos of bowls of colorful rice balls (tang yuan) on social media and especially on December 21st/22nd every year when  the Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Koreans and Vietnamese the world over celebrate the Dongzhi festival. 

Tang yuan is a Chinese dessert that consists of sticky rice balls in a pandan and ginger infused syrup.

Tang yuan means "soup ball".

The dessert is traditionally enjoyed during Dongzhi, the Lantern Festival, at weddings and essentially any family reunion dinners.

These days, you can have tang yuan any time you want.  I always have a packet of those store-bought ones in my freezer.

But half the fun of eating tang yuan is in the rolling of those colorful balls! And especially back then  for boomer kids like us when play dough wasn't around!

Tastewise, I personally don't find the starchy and chewy balls amazing but I like eating them because they always evoke fond memories of my childhood with every bite.

Even as I'm writing this, I can almost smell the aroma of pandan and ginger wafting from the pot of bubbling syrup in my late grandma's kitchen where we all gathered to make tang yuan.

While Grandma and the aunts worked on the dough, me, my sisters and the cousins would be seated around a huge marble table and tasked with shaping the balls.

Every now and then, one of the aunts would inspect our handiwork to ensure that the tang yuan were roughly of the same size and most importantly, perfectly round as Grandma was a stickler of tradition. The spherical shape of the tang yuan  and the bowls in which they were served symbolized family togetherness and completeness.

Ha! I think my purist grandma would roll in her grave if she were to see the spin people put on tang yuan these days!

Great balls of fires! Square tang yuan??!!  I see Grandma spinning in her grave!

image credit - Pinterest

image credit - crave4sweet

image credit - crave4sweet

image credit - simi.huang

image credit - osemhomecook

Many hands make light work.

image source - The Star

XLB

My first encounter with an XLB was painful (literally) and embarrassing!

It  happened during a business luncheon with my boss and a couple of clients.

Back then, these soup dumplings had just recently debuted in Malaysia and I was totally uninitiated.

Long story short, I ended up with a scalded mouth, a wet chin and blouse and guffawing co-workers!  

I had no idea there was piping hot soup inside the dumpling!

Now that I've wised up after that mortifying experience, here's a 101 on soup dumplings for the clueless!

First, a little fun trivia!

So, what are XLBs?

Xiao Long Bao (XLB) aka soup dumplings are tiny, delicate, pleated pouches that encase a pork filling and a rich, savoury broth.

Xiao Long Bao literally translates as "little basket buns", so named after the bamboo baskets in which they are steamed.

How to get an XLB from the bamboo steamer basket and into your mouth

Place your Chinese soup spoon close to the dumpling and gently lift it up from the steamer onto your spoon. Haha! The first time I tried to pick one up with my chopsticks, I inadvertently punctured the skin and the leaking dumpling conspicuously left a wet trail on the red table cloth all the way from the center of the table to my plate!

 I didn't know you had to use a spoon!

Once the dumpling is safe in your spoon, resist the temptation to pop it into your mouth immediately lest you suffer first-degree burns from the blistering soup. 

Nibble the top of the dumpling to let some steam out. Give it a moment to cool and slowly slurp out the soup.  Once this "dangerous" step is over, you can now devour the rest of the dumpling any way you please!

I like my XLB plain but you could gingerly (don't mind the pun) dunk it in the dipping sauce of vinegar and julienned ginger while waiting for your dumpling to cool.

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

My son took these photos at a mall where his client's office is located. 

I am glad that our local malls are keeping the Christmas spirit alive despite the  lack of shoppers and many a shuttered store.