If someone invented a giant comfy grandfather chair that recharged your ‘life’ levels, I’d totally get it - crumple straight into it like dead batteries to a charger and stay in there lifeless till I’m good and ready for the world.

Completely maxed out in terms of energy today. Never realized 4 hours in the library could be so soul-sapping (since it has never left me so dead tired before), to the point that I turned down a pub quiz night and pound-a-pint, and an invitation to Gatecrashers. Normally, if there is a lack of events for the evening, I’d happily light my row of candles by the window sill, turn the lights down, slap on a face mask and cuddle under the covers with my readings. My brain is completely fried, my eyes red and tired, and my neck stiff as hell. I can’t seem to do anything else other than sit my laptop on myself and struggle immensely hard at completing this post.

What I’d give my life for right now? A back massage, an eye mask and the comfiest king-sized bed with the most luxurious bedspread and most decadent down duvet in the world!

If my week (subtract last week’s amazing nights out and my 21st) of bad karma was not depressing enough, it would be laughable to think the people up there were letting me go scot free without a next round of setbacks. Round Two is a fucked up shower that might fall through the ceiling, a injured right hand that got caught in a door and being woken up by a deafening faulty fire alarm. Some tribes somewhere believe that your soul travels out of your body whilst you sleep. Hence, one should be gently woken up (if truly necessary) to give the soul sufficient time to return to the body that houses it. Reckon, not only was my body shattered from lack of sleep, my soul has been given a right electric-shock from that horrible alarm. If I were crazier than I already were, which is really a bad thing, I’d go up to that dastard manmade invention and give it a good talking-to. Only I was taught in school that there’s a difference between living and non-living things. Cheeky as I am, I ain’t gonna try and provoke that barrier between them. Not all binaries of the world can be exploded.

The pictures for this post aren’t much. 3 out of 4 of the lightbulbs in the kitchen went bust and I didn’t have a spare lamp anywhere for extra lighting. I forget that a return to student life is equivalent to foregoing little luxuries like not having to pay the bills, groceries bought and ready-stocked in pantry and fridge, and err… lights?

The sauce is power-packed and inspired by a gorgeous sauce paired with scallops from Melonfish. The strength of the garlic and lemon were pretty superb with the sweetness of the courgettes. The flavour of the salmon, it being an oily fish, pulled everything together and tamed the piquancy of it all.

Lemon Herb White Wine Sauce
Ingredients

knob of butter
1 tbs olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped or minced
200ml white wine
3 tbs chopped tomatoes with some natural juice
dried basil leaves
dried Italian parsley
pinch of dill
grated zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
3 tsp shoyu
2 tsp sugar
salt and pepper

Courgettes & Apricot Jam
Ingredients

2 courgettes, sliced into medium-sized strips
olive oil, for cooking
2 tbs good apricot jam
salt and pepper, to season

Grill salmon steaks as you normally would.

For the sauce:
Melt butter in a heavy-based saucepan. Add olive oil. Sauté garlic in the fats, be careful not to let them brown. Add wine, tomatoes, lemon juice and zest and mix well. Next, add the rest of the ingredients. Lower heat and let it simmer until thickens. Season to taste.

For the courgettes:
Heat olive oil in large frying pan. When oil is hot enough, add the courgettes and stir-fry till slightly browned. Remove from heat. Add jam and stir, making sure to coat all courgette strips with jam. Season a little. Serve.

Me: You only turn 21 once.
D.: No. YOU’ve turned 21 three times. That’s mental!

I’ve turned 21 three times now: a pre-birthday bash, the official birthday, and a belated birthday. Can safely say I’m very fortunate, very loved and very honoured. Multiple celebrations are way too cool and have imprinted my 21st very deeply in my memory now.

I’d like to thank all my mates for all the effort (time and money) they’ve put in, Ted Baker, my liver and Birmingham’s good side. I think some tried really hard to make me forget about personal troubles. A home-baked chocolate cake, party hats, giant balloons in your face, and shiny birthday banners — the perfect cure to anything!

As our tastebuds were getting a little bored from the usual Italian fare, The Oriental was the restaurant of choice for the night. Situated by the wharf in The Mailbox, it was quite decadently decorated with a great ambience and very kind and attentive staff. We probably went a little too far with the starters and very many bottles of wine, such that the main course was a bit of a challenge when they were finally set down on the table. Our table was very taken with the wonderful menu. Spoilt for choice. I highly recommend going onto their website first if you intend to pop in for a visit as it is so extensive and varied over Thai, Malay and Chinese cuisine, you won’t be able to figure out what you want only after about 30minutes I reckon!

Not to worry, however, since major drool-age pushed us into ordering quicker than you can say ‘quick’. I was so hungry at that point my ribs were hurting. Not to mention I had been battered the night before, my feet were aching, my knee was scabby from falling over because of my new ALDO heels. What else? None of us had really eaten all day. Wonderful! Peking duck pancakes, a Thai platter of starters, wine and a Singapore Sling. Then, plates of Cointreau Flambéd Red Snapper arrived, a Sweet Orange Duck, Pork with Ginger & Spring Onion, Sweet & Sour Chicken, not forgetting some noodles and the ever-lovable egg fried rice.

By the end of the meal, I was zinging with joy - never feeling so happy and relaxed. Despite all that food I’d eaten, I was literally bouncing off the ground with each step. Walking down the canal towards Brindleyplace to meet the rest of the gang for drinks, I suppose we were the loudest, jolliest and craziest group of people. Next thing we know, Steph’s practically ordering us to pull a Thriller pose in front of some random Thriller posters. No problem there, as you can see.

Last stop, Brindleyplace. Got into Pitcher & Piano without an ID. How? you ask. Simply flashed my ‘21′ badge after my mate had explained it was my party and got an ‘ok’ and a smile from the burly bouncer. Everyone’s awfully nice and understanding when you’re 21. Geee. I think everyone in the bar was tolerating these crazy yellow balloons as well. It was hilarious.

Great banter. Many rounds of gin & tonic, B55 and Screaming Orgasms (a chocolate alcoholic cocktail) and the night rounded up very pleasantly. Woke up the next morning, surprisingly, with not the faintest throb of a headache! But feeling knackered, Steph and I pulled through and trudged to uni to spend 4 hours in the library slogging hard at a desk. The magic of the night had worn off a little but with the massive number of photos we’d taken that night on 2 cameras, I’m relieved to know it’s all preserved in them. Best night of my life.

Who’s up for noodles?

Well, not just any type of noodles actually.

The finer but just as elegant cousin of the udon noodle is the somen noodle. Often considered the queen of all noodles, because it originated from the aristocrats and hence is the nobility’s favourite noodle, somen is made similar to hand-pulled noodles. However, somen require a longer pulling and resting time. The noodles are made from wheat flour, salt and water. They are moistened with sesame or cottonseed oil to prevent their thin lengths from breaking. It is not difficult to find affordable packets of machine-made somen noodles in grocery stores or your Asian supermarket these days but handmade somen noodles, made the previous year, are most-prized. The reason for this is that handmade ‘overwintered’ somen changes texture as they dry out during storage and the oil on the noodles changes the noodles’s taste with time. It is recommended to wait a year before cooking handmade somen to really enjoy the flavour of somen.

Somen is the star of the show during Japan’s Star Festival in the summer. The festival of Tanabata is based on a famous Chinese legend about 2 lovers. Once a year, only on the evening of the 7th of July, the young cattleman, the star of Altair, is allowed to cross the Milky Way to meet his beloved - the weaver Vega. As a child, we’d celebrate this by placing handmade paper boats with a lighted candle on top of it on river surfaces and let it float along in hopes that all the lighted candles on the water surfaces can guide the weaver and cattleman to meet. Of course, it is not common to see anyone doing this anymore. At this time of the year, it is said that it’ll be difficult to spot any sparrow in sight as sparrows will be busy bringing the lovers together. In Japan, children used to decorate bamboo branches with their origami creations and tie coloured paper tags which bore their wishes. These decorated bamboos were then thrown into nearby rivers.

Somen noodles are usually served cold and eaten with a, similarly, cold dipping sauce. In winter, a variation of it called ‘nyu men’ is served in hot broth - and this is what I’ve prepared tonight. The house is absolutely freezing so there was no way in hell I was gonna pick out a cold somen salad recipe. When buying somen in supermarkets or grocery stores, somen are usually available in 3 appealing flavours : cha somen (addition of green tea), tamago somen (yellow due to egg yolk) and ume somen (pink from the addition of plum). Not only do they look great, they’re fabulous to the tastebuds too. I initially thought it wasn’t gonna be any different to regular somen but these ume somen packed a punch! The moment the somen is put in hot water, you can already start to smell the lovely fragrance of ume and the taste is even better. Slightly salty but definitely holds a distinctive ume flavour.

My choice of vegetable topping wasn’t anything greatly inspired but more about what was available in the fridge, and also at a near rotting stage. I haven’t come across a traditional nyumen recipe so this is something of a as-I-have-it nyumen demi-ramen broth recipe.

Check out Kimiko Barber’s The Japanese Kitchen for more info on somen and the Japanese noodle tradition. Here is my quick and easy recipe for 2.

Nyumen Fit For A Lady
Ingredients

2 servings of ume somen
1 clove of garlic
1 tsp ginger, sliced into thin strips
1 cup konbu dashi stock
2 cup chicken stock
1 tbs sake
1 tbs mirin
2 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tbs sesame oil
spring onions, chopped, for garnish (use the green and white bits near the ends of the stalk)
black sesame seeds, for garnish
various vegetables of choice, for topping (highly recommended to stir-fry them in butter)

To prepare the soup:
Place sesame oil in heated pan. Sauté ginger and garlic in oil. Reduce heat and add both types of stock to the pan. Let it boil then add sake, mirin, soy sauce and sugar. Once it boils, reduce the heat and let it sit to simmer.

Boil sufficient water to cook the noodles in a large saucepan. Add the somen. The cooking time needed will depend on the type of somen noodles purchased. When done, strain noodles then run under cold water and keep in pan of cold water till other ingredients are done.

Stir fry vegetables of choice in butter.

To assemble:
Simple place somen in a bowl. Place toppings on and carefully ladle soup into the bowl. Garnish and serve whilst hot.

Last Wednesday, my brain blacked out - short-circuited for a few seconds before it jumpstarted back on again with full sugar power - on a slice of Chocolate Blackout cake. A customer of mine had highly recommended PS Cafe’s chocolate cake and after having a spoon of the warm fudginess soaked in warm chocolate fudge (or ’soup’ as I prefer to call it) with a little of that just-beautiful vanilla ice cream, I very gladly label it one of the best chocolate cakes out there.

The menu spoilt me for choice and it came down to splitting two dishes between my mate and I since we were both pretty torn between all the choices available. The Big Nihon salad was top-notch with very fresh perfectly-flavoured sashimi and a beautiful mix of salad leaves, thinly sliced vegetables, edamame and soba noodles. The dressing was lovely as well and not too heavy or greasy. However, I wouldn’t be hyping about the salad in days to come. Despite how delicious it was, it wasn’t something that left a great impression on me and I’d pass it up for Mum’s Japanese homecooking any day!

The Crab Tart scored beautifully in my books. It sure outdid the Nihon for me as the tart pastry was quite well done and the chef was awfully generous with the crab meat. It was warm, creamy, so delicious with just the right amount of bite in the pastry. Topped with slightly crispy grilled cheese on the top, served with a prawn bisque sauce, a few drops of an accompanying lemony sauce and a belachan of mild heat, I was completely blown away. One, I HEART CRAB. Two, I believe tarts are beautiful creations and are little edible pots of joy. Three, crab + tart + belachan??? is genius! It was so good I’m almost convinced to always have my crab tarts with belachan now.

At the end of the day, Chocolate Blackout was still the best 30minutes of my life. And yes, the cake was massive enough to be shared amongst 8 persons. Hence, the length of time that was needed to consume this gorgeous piece of work. Cake consumed, every drop of chocolate ’soup’ licked and scraped off the plate and not a bit of evidence of the existence of vanilla ice cream on the plate was how we left it.

Desire Satisfied is Us.

And that very evening, the second birthday cake of the day was a Matcha Adzuki Bean Cake with loads of gorgeous sweet Japanese pastry cream. It was heaven. My birthdays are sweeeeeet!

PS Cafe
Palais Renaissance #02-09A
390 Orchard Road
Singapore
Phone: 6887 2207

Great news - I’m finally back in England. It’s autumn. I’ve had chocolate for supper.