Monthly Archives: June 2018

In My Hands Today…

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Leche – R. Zamora Linmark

9590632After thirteen years of living in the U.S., Vince returns to his birthplace, the Philippines. As he ventures into the heat and chaos of the city, he encounters a motley cast of characters, including a renegade nun, a political film director, arrogant hustlers, and the country’s spotlight-driven First Daughter. Haunted by his childhood memories and a troubled family history, Vince unravels the turmoil, beauty, and despair of a life caught between a fractured past and a precarious future.

2018 Week 22 Update

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Welcome, June! We’re reaching the halfway mark in 2018 and I’m super conflicted about this year. On one hand, time seems to be moving slowly with each day similar to the other, but on the other hand, it also seems to be moving at warp speed with the months just flying past.

This week was pretty much similar to the others and so there’s nothing really to add.

I’ve been noticing something about my hair recently, so thought to share. Maybe someone who reads this has gone through this before and shed light on why this is happening. All my life, I’ve had poker straight hair. I used to have a boring hairstyle all the time because anything I do, within a couple of hours, it would go back to being poker straight. I never really resented this (except when there was a trend of having bangs in my school and I could never cut my hair like that) and actually loved my straight hair. A couple of months back, I realised that the middle of my hair started to become wavy. I initially thought it was because I usually bun my hair when I am at home and started bunning it less. But this waviness did not go away. I don’t know what to do, really miss my straight hair now. I read online that this could be due to hormonal changes, stress and also food, so I need to research more on what could be done.

Anyway, we’re off on our holiday later this month, so I am excited about this, especially since we will be doing a driving/road trip which we haven’t done in years!

Have a wonderful week folks!

2018 Secondary 3 Week 22 Update

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The children are still in the school holidays with GG going back to school almost all days whether it was for CCA or even as a student guide for her seniors at the Former Ford Factory. This place is a national World War II museum, which was the place where, on 15 February 1942 (commemorated as Total Defence Day now), the British army led by Lieutenant-General A. E. Percival, the British General Officer Commanding (Malaya), met Lieutenant-General Yamashita in the Boardroom of the Ford Factory, and surrendered unconditionally to the Japanese, effectively sealing the fate of Singapore for the next three and a half years.

We also went to one of the local polytechnics for parents talk about the polytechnic education for our children as well as the Early Admissions Exercise for Secondary 4 students. The biggest draw for us was the tips given by the registrar to ace the EAE process. You need to have two write-ups, a 600 character one which is a more general write-up on why you want to join this particular course and a 1000 character write-up in bullet points on why you should be chosen. The larger write up is where you get to toot your own horn about the courses you may have done, the competitions attended etc.

Next week, GG has an intensive CCA schedule of almost 6 hours of singing each day, broken into two parts with a lunch break in between. BB also goes for his much-awaited field trip to an RSAF camp.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

In My Hands Today…

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Inheritance – Lan Samantha Chang

423797In 1931, abandoned after their mother’s suicide, the young Junan and her sister, Yinan, make a pact never to leave each other. The two girls are inseparable—until Junan enters into an arranged marriage and finds herself falling in love with her soldier husband. When the Japanese invade China, Junan and her husband are separated. Unable to follow him to the wartime capital, Junan makes the fateful decision to send her sister after him.

Recipes: Raw Mango Thokku

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A thokku is a pickle which is cooked down to a paste. In normal pickles, you don’t cook them (or barely cook them) allowing the vegetables (or fruits) to absorb the spices from the spice paste that coats them. In a thokku, you cook it down until there is no moisture left in the vegetable (or fruit) and this can also be made with herbs like coriander (or cilantro as it is called in North America) or curry leaves.

A thokku can be eaten not only with rice or flatbreads, but you can eat it as a stuffing in a sandwich. The raw mango thokku is an all-time favourite pickle and I have been known for eating it as it is, that’s how much I love it!

Last year in December, when my mum was with me, one day when I was wondering if I should make my instant mango pickle with the raw mangoes that S brought home, she asked me if I wanted to make this raw mango thokku. Me being me, I instantly said yes and learnt it from her. Since then I’ve made it at least once a month, fine-tuning my recipe. I am now confident of this recipe enough to share with everyone.

This is an easy recipe, just a little tedious. For around 4 largish mangoes, it usually takes me an hour from start to finish. If you are making more, perhaps for the whole year, then yes it can even take the whole day!

Raw Mango Thokku

Ingredients:

  • 4 large raw mangoes
  • 4-6 tbsps gingelly oil
  • 1 tbsp mustard seeds
  • 1 tsp turmeric powder
  • 4 tbsp red chilli powder (approximately)
  • ½ cup jaggery
  • ½ tsp fenugreek seed powder
  • Salt to taste

Method:

  • Wash and dry the mangoes thoroughly.
  • Peel the skin and chop the flesh into small pieces, the smaller the better. Discard the seed.
  • In a large pan, heat the gingelly oil and when it starts smoking, add in the mustard seeds. When the seeds pop, pour in the chopped mangoes and stir well to cover all the pieces with the oil.
  • Stir well and cover and let it cook for a couple of minutes. Then add turmeric powder and salt and stir well and cook for 2 minutes.
  • Now add the chilli powder and continue to cook. You can do a taste test at this point to check for seasoning and the level of chillies in the thokku. When you feel it is slightly spicier than you can handle, that’s what you are looking for.
  • Add the jaggery (optional, you can omit this completely or even add some brown sugar) and let it cook till the oil starts leaving the sides of the pan. Add more oil if your thokku starts to stick to the bottom of the pan.
  • Just when it is ready, add the fenugreek powder and remove from the gas.
  • When the thokku is cool, remove it to a jar and enjoy!

Notes:

  • I have found that the best way to cut the mangoes is to peel them with the peeler (after you have removed the skin).
  • Peel the flesh until you come to the seed, and then chop the remaining flesh finely. This way, the flesh breaks down fast and you get a smooth paste like thokku.
  • In the photo below, (I made this version about a month back), I have chopped the flesh and you can still see the slightly grainy cubes which have not melted into a paste.
  • You can also grate the mango flesh.