Ceramic Painting for Kids

Ideal for Kids' parties.
Each child will paint 2 pieces which will be fired and returned to them
Minimum group size of 8
All art materials and ceramics provided
$25 per child ( includes the cost of firing)
Call 98304184 for details

Things that BUG me

* When you're in the queue at the supermarket check out and you're the next in line to be served with a long line behind you and they open a new register and the cashier doesn't say " Can I serve the next in line, please" but takes the first clown who rushes over to her !!! Aaarrgghhh!!!
* Annoying people who don't switch off their cellphones when they're in the movie theatre and it starts ringing usually during the quietest part of the movie or during the most significant part. This happens in church, at plays etc etc and no matter how many times they remind folks at the start of the performance...........they just don't care.
* More annoying people who answer calls in the movie theatre and start a whispering conversation.........DUH! we can still hear you!!!
* and the most annoying people who start text messaging in the movie theatre..........the light from the cellphone screen is ANNOYING STUPID!!!
* People who speak very loudly on the cellphone so the whole room can hear their conversation.
* Walking behind someone who's smoking ........yuk! cough! cough! choke! choke!
* People who block the door of the lift trying to get in and not allowing those inside to exit first; this also happens on the MRT.
* People who taste the fruit before they buy it ; ok I think it's alright if they take one grape or one longan just to see if its sweet but have you seen those people standing there making a meal of it!! Check out the Giant supermarkets especially when they have a new arrival of longans.........its totally disgusting.
* Annoying taxi drivers who stop to pick up a fare the minute they spot someone and I mean really just slam on the brakes with total disregard for the cars behind them. Never mind the double yellow lines at the side of the road or the bus lane etc etc I have a living to make!! you hit me from behind , its your fault.
* Bicycle riders with total disregard for other road users. How often have you seen bicycle riders actually stop at a traffic light? Chances are they will look right and left and ride on through if there is no traffic; never mind if the light is red.
* Bicycle riders who wear dark colours and ride at either dawn or dusk.............stupid!
* Joggers who wear dark colours whilst jogging and jog on the road instead of on the pavement!
* Dog owners who walk their dogs and don't scoop the poop! Disgusting!
* Dog owners who don;t obey the leash laws; oh! my dog is well trained and will never bite anyone.....yeah right..........famous last words my friend.
* Cat lovers who feed strays.........you love them so much , bring them home and feed them in your own back yard or apartment.
* People who smoke where they're not supposed to.
* People who park where they;re not supposed to.
* Drivers who don;t signal when they're turning left or right.
* Drivers who tailgate.
* Drivers who drive really slow in the right lane.
* Recruiters who think that people over 50 years old are not employable; Hey! 50 is the new 40. You're also getting all that invaluable work experience, what are you talking about?!
* Parents who let their kids pee in drains or worse than that into wash basins in public bathrooms. YUKS!
* Bad service at restaurants or at any retail outlet for that matter.

OK I better stop here or I'll sound like a whinning old fart!!

Law Enforcement

Do you know why "everything" seems so efficient in Singapore? That's because of all the laws, rules and regulations we have AND all these laws etc are ENFORCED. OK that was in the past because today it seems like the laws , rules and regulations are still around BUT nothing seems to be enforced these days. Look at the number of people "caught" eating on MRT trains or the number of traffic offenders who get away scott-free. If you don;t believe me, go to www.stomp.com.sg and check out the sections "Motoring Goondus "or "Ugly Communters". I have always wondered how someone could go about making a citizen's arrest. I'm not sure if submitting a picture or video of someone committing an offence is good enough for the police or the relevant authority to make an arrest or issue a summons. Maybe one of you lawyers out there can provide an answer to this. I have always wanted to just spend one hour driving around Singapore video taping traffic offences and submitting it to the traffic police. This would make for a great reality show but that's another "topic" which I shall share with you another time.

Like those litter bugs doing the corrective work order ie. sweeping the streets; I think folks caught eating on the MRT should be made to spend sometime "roaming" the trains "catching" people eating and issuing them with fines and they could also clean the trains and the stations as part of the punishment.They could wear bright red or orange t-shirts with the words "Reformed MRT Eater " hahahha!

The bottom line is that we can have all the laws, rules and regulations in the world but if they are not enforced then they are completely useless and not worth the paper they are written on. It goes for traffic signs too. How many times have you seen cars caught in the yellow box at traffic junctions. What yellow lines? Are there yellow lines painted on the road? Gee I never saw any!! How many times have you seen someone make an illegal U-turn right next to a "No U-Turn" sign. My condo has a "NO STOPPING OR WAITING HERE" sign in RED at a blind corner. I cannot tell you how many drivers I have screamed at " READ THE SIGN STUPID!!" as they nonchalantly wait right next to the sign.

The excuse that enforcement is difficult because there is just not enough manpower is getting old. Deputize retirees or employ private agencies like Cisco to do the work. The relevant authorities could do "blitzes" or "raids" once in a while, like my suggestion of just driving around ( preferably in unmarked cars) , armed with a camera or video camera or just issue tickets as they go along. Its sad that the only way folks are going to learn is when their pockets are hit. Maybe thats how we in Singapore have been "programmed" to learn........but thats another topic.

Recipes

Teck's Patah Chilli ( Sweet & Spicy Fish Soup)
From my Dad's cookbook........
Ingredients :
1 largefish cut into half( whole fish any kind but best to use red fish or ikan kurau)
1 cup tamarind juice
3 or 4 pieces of ripe pineapple cut into bite-sized pieces
one stalk lemon grass
Sugar and salt to taste
Items to be blended :
2 candlenuts ( buah keras)
2 red chillis
half an onion
1 small piece of shrimp paste ( Belachan)
Method :
Boil 2 pints of water. When water starts to boil, add all the blended ingredients and lemon grass and continue boiling for 3 minutes. Add the tamarind juice, pineapple and fish. Add sugar and salt to taste. Turn down the heat and simmer for about 3 minutes or till fish is cooked. The gravy should be light and watery and taste slightly on the sweet side.


Rendang
Ingredients
1 tsp shrimp paste ( belachan)
1 kg rump steak ( beef/chicken/mutton )
1 stalk lemon grass

---- mixed together ----
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp soya sauce

------------------------
3 stalk lemon grass - sliced thinly
120gms grated coconut - fried and pounded
4 slices galangal
5 candlenuts
Ground 2 tbsp curry power - blended with 2 tbsps water

---- ground together ----
30 dried chillies
120 gms shallots
4 red chillies
1 clove garlic
2 cm pieces of ginger

-------------------------
1/2 cup thick coconut milk - extracted from 1/2 grated coconut
8 tbsps oil

Marinate shrimp paste ( belachan) , Lemongrass and Steak and set aside.
Heat oil and fry ground ingredients and curry powder until fragrant Add in half of the coconut milk and fry until the oil separates Add in the soya sauce mixture and marinated steak. Add in also the fried grated coconut and lemon grass. Stir fry for 10 minutes. Pour in the rest of the coconut milk and simmer until the meat is tender, for about 1 hour. Increase heat to reduce gravy until it is thick and oily.


Sherry Triffle
Ingredients :
1 pound cake ( Sara Lee or any other )
2 large cans of mixed fruit in syrup
1 pint of milk
4 heaped table spoons Custard powder ( Bird's)
Sugar
Sherry
1 small carton of whipping cream

Method:
Cut the pound cake into 1" thick slices and line the base of a pan apprx. 7" x 10"Soak the cake with sherry ( use as much or as little as you like but don;t make the cake too soggy) . Drain the syrup from the canned fruit and spread the fruit on top of the sherry-soaked cake. You can add any tyoe of fruit you like to it like strawberries or blueberries. Set aside.Make the custard by mixing 4 heaped tablespoons of custard powder with 1 pint of milk. Make sure the powder is all dissolved in the cold milk before turning on the heat or you will end up with lumpy custard. Add sugar to the mixture ( as sweet as you a want it to be). On low heat and constantly stirring the custard , bring to a boil. The mixture will thicken as the custard starts to boil. Take it off the heat when it starts to boil and pour the custard on the fruit and cake . Leave it to cool.Whip the cream adding 2 tablespoons of sugar to it. Spoon it or pipe it over the cooled down custard. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours before serving.



Tiramisu
Ingredients :
1lb. mascarpone cheese
1 cup of heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons rum (or brandy)
20 lady's fingers (a light, oblong italian cookie with powdered sugar on one side)
cocoa powder
double shot of espresso
1/2 cup of coffee
shavings of unsweetened dark chocolate to top (1 oz.)
Method :
Chill whipping cream and bowl. Mix coffee and espresso and chill.Beat whipping cream until stiff peaks.Put the cheese, sugar, and brandy into a medium bowl and mix until smooth. Add more sugar or alcohol as desired. Fold in whipping cream to create cheese mixture.Soak lady fingers in espresso for a couple seconds, rotating to coat all sides. Place lady fingers side by side on bottom of a 7x7 pan.Put half the cheese mixture on lady fingers in pan. Smooth with a spatula or spoon. Sift cocoa powder liberally on surface of layer.Apply second layer of lady fingers and remaining cheese. Sift cocoa powder and half of chocolate shavings.Cover in plastic wrap and chill.
To serve, use the remaining chocolate shavings by sprinkling a bit onto eight plates. Cut tiramisu into eight rectangles and serve on plates (or simply spoon them out).Basic Tiramisu (serves 8)

Sambal Tumis
( Versatile chilli paste which can be used for a variety of purposes like eaten with Nasi Lemak , stir fried with squid or vegetables and also as a base for Mee Siam)
Blend the following :
12-15 Red Chillis
one 2"cube of blachan ( shrimp paste)
4 -6 small onions

Heat some oil in a wok; add blended ingredients; fry till fragrant ( 2-3 minutes) add about 1 cup of Assam water ( Tamarind juice) + Sugar and salt to taste. Keep stirring until the most of the moisture in the mixture eveaporates leaving a thick chilli paste. Cool down and bottle. Keep refrigerated.


Tempura Batter
2 cups plain flour
1 cup corn flour
Iced water or cold soda water
Salt to taste
The texture of the batter should not be too smooth or runny.


Cioppino
( Fish & Seafood Stew)

Prawns, fish , crabs, clams, mussles, squid ( get enough for as many people you are feeding)
Broth:
1 large onion diced
Olive oil
3 cloves of garlic crushed
1 can tomatoes diced
2-4 cups of fish ( or chiicken) stock
dash of sherry or white wine
2 bay leaves

Place all ingredients in a large pot and cook for 20 minutes. Add shellfish to broth 3 minutes before serving. Sprinkle chopped parsley on top.

Cooking the Peranakan Way

Growing up in a Peranakan household, I've always been fascinated with cooking and the activities that went on in the kitchen. As children my brother and I spent our school vacations with our maternal grandmother in Malacca. She lived in a typical Malaccan house made of brick and wood and surrounded by a Malay kampong. It was also located by the sea. The kitchen was a shed built next to the main house. I guess in today's context it would be called a wet kitchen. All the cooking was done on a brick stove kindled by a wood fire. I can still see the blackened pot of water on the stove and remember fondly all the wonderful dishes that were turned out from that rustic kitchen. There was duck in chilli sauce that was hot and sweet at the same time ; soy sauce chicken with the soy sauce that was dark and thick and delicious; dishes that made meal times an experience you remembered the rest of your life.
My mum brought those recipes to Singapore after she married my dad over 50 years ago and today at age 87 she still cooks them with the same passion her mother used to. I have time and again tried to get her to write those recipes down but if you know what Peranakan cooks are like you will understand how difficult it is to get the exact recipe on paper. A pinch of this and a dash of that; how much is a pinch or how many grams is that? Well, its a near impossible task and the only advice my mother gave me was that cooking skills come with practice. It is something you develop yourself. Every Peranakan cook has his or her version of a particular dish. It is like "personalizing" every dish. I have yet to hear one Perankan cook praise another's cooking. Each nyonya thinks her version is the best. Every buah keluak or babi pongteh dish is different. The basic taste is there but each person adds something that makes it his or her own. Peranakan cooking is very communal and best cooked in large portions. It involves many ingredients, most of which are not easy to find especially when you don;t know what you're looking for.
My father was an avid cook too and when he got the chance ( when my mum was not in the kitchen) he would whip up dishes of his own. The greatest lesson I learned from my mum is that a good cook is able to improvise and to make do with ingredients at hand to whip up dishes that are in everyway as tasty as the original. Using canned and bottled spices and mixes helps cut down a lot of the preparation time. Ok so it's "cheating" but it sure helps when you;re like me , someone who just wants a meal that's easy to prepare and looks and tastes great. Today you can get ready to use Peranakan mixes in almost every supermarket which makes it a breeze to cook your favourite Peranakan dishes. Don't be afraid to try cooking whatever tickles your taste buds; who knows, maybe you'll come up with your own special version of a timeless Peranakan dish.
Happy Cooking !

Such a Heroine.........She can hold her head up

Corina Zheng has lost five siblings to the same disease that has nowParalysed her, but that is no reason for her to wallow in self-pity HE WAS in the intensive care unit of Eastshore Hospital when I called his home last year.Mr Cheng Chit Lam was an ice-cream seller. He was a familiar face inNewton and Bukit Timah where he plied his trade for nearly 45 years. Several generations of Singaporeans - past and present residents ofThese areas - have bought Cornettos, Eskimo Pies and popsicles from the friendly old man with the very kind face.I heard he had a disabled daughter and wanted to meet him to see if he would make an interesting story. We never met. Mr Cheng died after an 86-day stay in the hospital, from complications stemming from excessive fluids in his brain. I found out later that he and his wife Madam Sze Hiang Kim, 71, hadEight children but lost five of them. Of the surviving three, one - 50-year-old Teow Hoon - is adopted and a deaf mute. She is a cleaner at a health food company.Poh Huat is 45 and works as a driver.And then there is Corina, 42, who suffers from Werdnig Hoffman, a Disease where the spinal nerve cells and brain nerve cells degenerate, leading to atrophy of skeletal muscles and flaccid paralysis. Corina's five other siblings succumbed to the disease. Three of them -including her twin brother - died when they were just two years old. One died at six. Corina's eldest sister Poh Ngoh lived the longest; she died in 1980 when she was 22. 'When my father was in hospital, he gave instructions not to drag or delay his death with prolonged medical treatment. He was worried about me and my mother, he didn't want us to waste money,' Corina says. She describes the late ice-cream seller as someone who always put his family first.'Someone once told him that mutton was good for the muscles. So when I was about seven or eight, he'd spend a lot of hard earned money going to Tekka market, buying mutton and special herbs. 'My mother would boil them and I'd drink them. Well, it helped. I could walk by using the wall as support for about a year. Then, I fell very ill with a lung infection at eight. They thought I'd die,' she says. Today, Corina has lost all use of her limbs. She can't even turn her head. Her hands and legs are deformed and lifeless but her voice has a Vivacious quality - it is loud and chirpy. She spends her days and nights lying on a thin piece of bedding in the middle of her humble but spotlessly clean three-room HDB flat in Geylang Bahru. She only leaves her home when she has to go to the hospital, in an ambulance. Her mother patiently and selflessly tends to her every need – feeding her, bathing her, propping her up when her daughter wants to read her Bible or the newspapers. Madam Wee has been doing this for nearly three decades ever since her daughter left the Singapore Red Cross Home at 13 after living there for three years. Although Corina never had any formal education, she speaks English, Malay, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien and Teochew. 'My sister taught me how to read and write when she was alive. I also upgraded myself by reading the newspapers and the Bible. 'She said literacy can help a handicapped person get knowledge, widen the mind, make you think better and communicate with people who can't speak our language. She said education is the only thing we can take to our grave.'INDEED, despite her condition, she is the wise counsel of the house. She translates all letters for the family and takes care of all official correspondence. When her father was alive, she handled his accounts. She even taught her illiterate mother how to type 10 years ago. 'I told her to look at each key on the keyboard and tell me what it reminds her of. She said the letter S' reminded her of a snake, C' a half moon and ?' an inverted fish hook,' she recalls. Very painstakingly, they established a system. Today, Madam Wee - anextremely quiet and dignified woman - types all her daughter's cards and letters. The 71-year-old smiles a sad, weary smile and says in Cantonese: 'I have to look after her. If I didn't look after her, who would? 'We can't blame others for the way things have turned out. We can only blame ourselves. Maybe our lives are not good.' There is a lot of sorrow behind her stoicism. 'My well has dried up, I have no more tears to shed,' she says even as a watery film clouds her eyes.'I didn't want to have any more children after the first few but the doctor kept telling us to try. Maybe the next one would be normal', he said. 'They were all born healthy and bouncy but after eight or nine months, their spine would go soft,' she says. She looks away when Corina relates a story.'Once my mother bought a roast duck from the market and gave a small piece to our neighbour's son who was hungry. When the neighbour saw this, she grabbed the piece of meat and threw it away.'She told her son not to eat it. She said that if he did, he would end up like us. Some neighbours also said our parents did bad things in their previous lives,' she recalls without any bitterness. Corina herself is a lot more philosophical.'It's God's will. People with this condition don't live long. But I'm still here,' she says with an ironic laugh. She's no alarmist either. Her father's life savings were wiped out by his huge hospital bill. Corina herself has no assistance from the authorities. 'All my father's children died in a government hospital so he was very adamant that I be treated in a private hospital when I got ill. Because of that, I don't qualify for any official subsidies or schemes.' They get by with a small payout from an Eldershield insurance policy and her father's savings. Her married brother - who has decided not to have children for fear they would have Werdnig Hoffman - and her deaf mute sister help out when they can.'My deaf sister doesn't earn much and she also has her own medical bills to take care of.' Corina will 'cross that bridge' when the savings run out. 'Who knows if I will live that long? If I have to go to a home, I will.' Right now, she leads a peaceful existence with her mother and deaf-mute sister. She wakes up every morning at the crack of dawn and goes to bed at 11.30pm. In the day, 'I read, do some financial planning, figure out how much we need for the next month's expenses and ways to scrimp and save'. 'Or I get my mother to type letters to my friends.' At night, she watches the news and crime dramas. 'I like CSI and Law And Order. I don't like Chinese TV serials. They are all the same, they offer nothing new.' She has a hobby: collecting wedding photos.She has enough pictures - from friends and relatives - to fill 1 ½ albums. 'Wedding pictures are beautiful. Everyone looks beautiful.' Blessed with a sly wit and a wicked sense of humour, Corina has nohang-ups about death and mortality. 'My mother and I have talked about it. Death is like paying a very long bill. It's not easy to pay but once it's cleared, all your debts are gone,' she quips. Letting out a loud cackle, she adds: 'You know, since I do everything around here, I probably have to arrange my own funeral as well.' Here are the details if you or your friends would like to help corinaand her mom. please make a crossed cheque out to Cheng Poh Eng (Corina's Chinese name)and send it to: Ms Iris KohHead, AdminStraits Times News DeskSingapore Press Holdings1000 Toa Payoh NorthNews CentreSingapore 318994
Article written by Wong Kim Hoh

Handpainted Ceramics for Sale

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