Category: miscellany
A Japanese kind of weekend
It wasn’t really intentional but we had a rather Japan-filled weekend. It started with dinner at our new favourite Japanese restaurant just a ten-minute drive away. Yuki Sushi. A little more pricey than our regular Japanese restaurant but perhaps more authentic? Their grilled Saba was just absolute perfection. The right amount of seasoning, and that wonderful smokey flavor. Absolutely divine. We’ve been to this place twice so far and both times I’ve ordered this dish and both times I’ve been blown away. It was so good I forgot to take a photo. Instead you’ll have to be content with the top two pictures. The left hand corner is the husband’s chirashi. The right photo has the other two-thirds of my ‘combination dinner’: sushi and sashimi. It also came with rice, salad and miso soup.
The next day, we headed to San Jose to have ramen at Santouka, located in the Mitsuwa supermarket food court. And then some grocery shopping at the supermarket – fresh sashimi-grade unsliced pieces of fish (salmon, kanpachi and hamachi) and some fish roe and green tea. Homemade California rolls and some Popeyes fries chicken that a friend brought over rounded up the kind of Japanese dinner. Ok so maybe the fried chicken was not so Japanese!
To top it all off, I finished reading Natsuo Kirino’s Out. It was perhaps the first Japanese novel I’ve read that wasn’t dreamy. Instead it was ugly and nightmarish (but in an everyday way, if that makes sense) and kind of depressing. It’s not just because of the murder (it is crime fiction after all) but because of the lives of Kirino’s characters. At its heart are four women, colleagues in a bento factory. It’s a hard life – night shift, hours of standing in line scooping rice and curry, and rumours of a pervert lurking around the carpark and grabbing women. Life isn’t pleasant at home either. Masako might as well live on her own, as her husband and son both ignore her. Kuniko is heavily in debt and her boyfriend is on the verge of leaving her. Yoshie is a single mother and the caretaker of a bedridden mother-in-law. Yayoi has two young children and a husband who gambles and is besotted with an escort named Anna who works at a club owned by former gangster Satake. It’s not really a spoiler since it’s all over the synopsis but well, I’ll be a bit vague in case you’d like to find out for yourself: someone gets murdered and the body needs to be disposed off. Things get complicated and essentially, lives get turned upside down.
In an interview with Japan Review, Kirino explained that “being a woman in this society is mainly an anonymous existence. I don’t think the fact that the environment is such that women are nameless and overlooked is a good thing. For example, a young man once told me that until he read Out, he “never realized that regular middle aged women actually had a life.” What makes these women special is not that they committed a crime, but the circumstances around these normal women that cornered them into that situation. It’s often merely convenient to depict them as seeking an escape from their life through an act of crime.”
Kirino brings these women, these everyday down-on-their-luck women, and brings their story to light. This is the book’s strong suit – the everyday life of these women in the suburbs of Tokyo. Because sometimes it can head towards too much melodrama, too much gore. But overall, a good, gritty read.
Merry Christmas!
So the steak’s defrosting, there’s plenty of spinach and strawberries in the fridge for a salad, my cocoa brownie’s a-baking, and there’s dessert wine a-chilling. It’s a quiet Christmas this year, just the three of us (last year my husband’s family was around, the year before that we were back in Singapore).
It’s time to put my tired feet up on the couch, snuggle under the throw and settle in with one of the library books I picked up this morning. Perhaps the graphic novel adaptation of Sense and Sensibility? Or to continue with the Mary Russell series? Plenty of choices for my holiday reads.
I hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year!
Hello and goodbye
It’s never easy living far from friends and family. Three weeks back home in Singapore wasn’t enough (yeah I am a paranoid blogger, preferring not to reveal the fact that I wasn’t home until I, er, actually got home). I didn’t get to meet all my friends, and didn’t get to spend enough time with those I did manage to meet. And because we stayed with my in-laws, I didn’t get to see my parents and sister enough either! But wee reader got to meet his great grandparents and many other relatives and friends who have been so eager to meet him.
And I got to take some time out for myself, do some window shopping (and some actual shopping from my sister’s clothes line Uraraa), wander the ever-changing Singapore, and feast on good food!
So there were many cheerful hellos and some rather teary goodbyes. And here I am back again in my chilly foggy quiet suburb in Northern California, a world away from the hot humid loud busy city-state of Singapore.
Ok here come the food pictures!
Cake! Cake!
Oh hi, did that title catch your attention?
Ok maybe not the second one. Not so pretty huh. But I tell you it was Good. Yeah capital ‘G’ there. It’s a Black Forest cake from a bakery in my neighbourhood, and although they used strawberries instead of cherries, those layers of chocolate cake were yummy! Moist, not too sweet, dense but not too dense. And while I’m not a fan of cream, the layers of cream were just right. Thankfully, as it was the end to a big meaty meal of steak!
The picture on top though, while it looks pretty, wasn’t that great. Tiramisu, but not rich or coffee-tasting enough! That ended our Saturday dinner at an Italian restaurant – I had linguine vongole.
It was a weekend of eating (is any weekend not one of eating??) as the husband celebrated his birthday!
I would not be a book blogger if I didn’t talk about books so here’s what I’m currently reading.
Adoring The Beekeeper’s Apprentice. I’ve been interested in reading more mystery books lately. And this has been such a treat. Here I have to sheepishly admit that I’ve never ever (ever!) read any Sherlock Holmes. I was given a copy as a Christmas present as a kid (can’t remember which though) and glanced through it and thought it the most boring thing ever. And never considered revisiting that view since. But now I’m going to give it another try. A proper try. The only question – where do I start?
I’m also continuing to read The Good Soldier and Monsters of Men, which has me once again going, “noooo! What the hell?” and various other not-so-niceties.
What were you up to this past weekend and what are you currently reading?
Of dim sum and naan
Unfortunately this is going to be a post without pictures. Because while I have a brand-new iPhone to play with, I forgot all about it and took care of my stomach first. So you’ll have to trust me when I say that it was a yummy weekend of eating. A Saturday lunch of dim sum at Asian Pearl, followed by a rather spicy feast of Pakistani-Indian food at Pakwan for dinner (I was greedy and ordered too many naans – all the better for leftovers the next day!). Sunday was an afternoon of shopping and catching up on the week’s TV (loved the six timelines plot in Community).
And what would a weekend be without some reading? I’m making my way through Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart and it’s not turning out the way I want it to be. It sounded like it would be an interesting story, and I guess in a way it kind of is, but there’s something about it (the translation? the pacing? the characterisation?) that doesn’t quite make me love it or want to love it. I’m probably going to finish reading it, but now I’m not sure whether I’ll be going on to the rest of the books in this trilogy. I’ll keep you updated.
Half-birthday celebrations (of sorts)
Wee reader is six months old! Well six months and a few days to be exact. It’s quite something to see how much he’s grown, how much he’s developed, how he’s changed from that fragile, kind of floppy newborn-ness to a grabby, vocal, active little boy of six months.
Last week, the husband took a few days off and we headed to Monterey for wee reader’s first night away from home – since the hospital. And it was also the first night the three of us were sleeping in the same room since the hospital. What a sleepless night for me! He really kicks a lot in his sleep, and the noise was exacerbated by his sleeping in the peapod, which is an indoor/outdoor tent for children. But I think he had a great time in this hotel room and being pushed around his stroller in Monterey, and maybe not such a great first time in the swimming pool. He was rather apprehensive, and it was a little chilly. Well there’s always plenty of swimming to be had in Singapore when we visit!
A night in Monterey meant no Internet other than on my crappy iPhone. So a lot of reading was done on the iPad (I had packed in my library copy of Jamaica Inn – and then completely forgot I had brought it along!) and I ploughed my way through Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, which I have been mostly reading on my iPhone on my morning walks around the estate. My right hand pushes the stroller, the left swipes the e-book’s ‘pages’. It gets hard to read when it’s sunny but I tend to stick to the shaded areas. Ok so I was also ‘relaxing’ by fighting monsters on Dungeon Hunter 2 on the iPad, when I wasn’t playing with the baby. We never turned on the TV at all. Amazing*
You would think that being in Monterey we’d be scarfing down plenty of seafood. Erm no. Instead I had a wonderfully fresh salad bursting with cherry tomatoes, roasted red peppers, and my favourite avocado, along with a giant non-fat latte at the very cute Wild Plum Cafe. And then I indulged in some lamb shanks and minestrone soup, and a gigantic chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting at Rosine’s, a family diner near the hotel.
* Amazing because we no longer have cable TV at home, just Netflix, and sometimes I miss watching silly shows like What Not To Wear and various Food Network/Bravo reality shows.
It came, it went
Erm what? It’s Monday already?
Ok not technically since I’m writing this on Sunday night, but it’ll probably post tomorrow. It’s 9:15 pm, wee reader is asleep in his room and all is quiet. For now. Unfortunately, we’ve been having one of those weeks. Perhaps it’s a combination of growth spurt, teething and eczema that’s been leading him to wake and cry. Or cry with his eyes closed. Or wake and fidget throughout the night.
Perhaps that’s why this weekend has seemed just incredibly short!
But I am glad for the small things. Like these bookish bits:
Somehow during those (oh so short) two days that constitute the weekend, I managed to read The Terror. And I will write about it in another post because more people ought to read it! Otherwise, I continue to plough through my e-book version of Mansfield Park, reading it in bed and on my daily 30-40 minute morning walk with wee reader in the stroller. And have just begun Conspiracy of Kings (?) and am glad to note that indeed it have not read this one yet (I picked it up at my last library visit – and couldn’t quite remember).
Gluttony-related bits:
I made my favourite walnut bread on Thursday. Favourite because it’s pretty easy and only requires two risings of about 4 hours in total. And it’s got walnuts! one loaf is gone already.
In anticipation of the week ahead, I made a freezer bag ready for the crockpot. It involved cleaning and chopping up some chicken thighs, leeks, garlic, carrots and popping the parts into a ziplock and into the freezer. I’ll add the potatoes towards the end. And probably some chicken stock and/or canned tomatoes and various herbs and seasonings.
Met friends for some yummy 小笼包 (xiaolongbao). We devoured three types of steamed dumplings (the typical porky soupy ones, a batch with crab roe and the last were shrimp and loofah), green onion pancake, beef roll, red bean pancake and Shanghai-style fried rice. And apparently that wasn’t enough so a quick stop was made for some banh mi and rice paper rolls (mmmmm…). Unfortunately I forgot to take photos as usual. But it was all pretty good.
Met other friends for a not-yummy lunch at a pseudo-Italian place (not my choice of restaurant!). Disappointingly bland shrimp and spinach capellini. Calamari and fresh bread were tasty enough. We were there for the company more than anything else as one friend was visiting from Singapore – so it was great to hear news and updates.
Unfortunately the top split!
Weekend update (updated with links)
Sunday as usual has been about the chores. First an early trip to get groceries. Yup, I was one of the first shoppers at Trader Joe’s, at 810am, thanks to a hungry wee reader who decided that his Sunday breakfast time would be at 6 (he usually sleeps till 7 or 730 but since Friday has been stirring just before 6).
Then an attempt at multitasking in the kitchen. The menu for the week: chicken broccoli rice bake, freezer burritos with black beans, tomato rice, cheese, cilantro and tapatio sauce. And thanks to the ten lemons the husband’s colleague gave to us, a lemon cake using Ina Garten’s recipe (unfortunately I only used four lemons, lemonade perhaps?). So that’s lunch, dinner and tea time set for the next few days, hopefully till Friday. All this work on a Sunday helps make my life easier on weekdays, especially with a five-month-old who never manages to nap for longer than 20 minutes at a time, and work to complete in between.
And now with wee reader dozing off, and the husband watching Armageddon, I’m going to settle in and read The Terror. Because I am not about to read that when the sun goes down…! Hope your weekend was a good one.
(used the iPhone, it’s an old one and the camera is crap
A morning in the city
When living in Singapore, I mostly took the bus – to work, to meet friends for dinner, to go shopping in Orchard Road. I would plug in the iPod and pull out a book and read my commute away. These days though, living in the East Bay suburbs, I more or less drive everywhere. So it was a rare occasion that I did some reading in public yesterday, beginning with the Bart, when I joined the husband on his morning commute into San Francisco in order to pick up my passport from the Singapore consulate. I brought along my library book, Joan Didion’s Play It As It Lays, and just in case that didn’t work out, I knew I always had plenty of e-books on the iPhone. It was quite pleasing to see the number of fellow commuters reading. The woman standing next to us had a copy of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Another woman across the aisle had a hardcover of something, and a man standing near the door was reading a paperback. The man standing next to him was reading something on his iPad, might’ve been a book or perhaps it was just the morning news.
The consulate only allows passport collection from 9am so I wandered Market Street looking for a place to sit. The nice thing about SF is that there are plenty of little pockets of open spaces, with benches and landscaping. It was a little cold though as it was a foggy start to the day and I wished I had brought along a scarf (and yeah I know, it’s June already! That’s San Francisco for you), but there I sat, far from the smokers, pigeons at my feet, reading Joan Didion’s Play It As It Lays, occasionally distracted by the office-y types heading to their workplaces in suits and briefcases and non-office-y types heading to yoga or just wandering the city that morning, tourist or not.
Later, passports (new and old) in hand, I walked over to one of my favourite places in the city, the Ferry Building, always a nice place to wander around, with lots to see and smell and taste and marvel at ($11.95 for a small packet of granola, egads! And later, at least 50 people in line for Roli Roti outside at the farmers market!). A visit to the Ferry Building of course has to include a stop at Book Passage and Blue Bottle Coffee. I sat and sipped my delicious hot chocolate and read the book I bought, A Stew or a Story: An Assortment of Short Works
For more fun reading in public blogs/posts, see Book Spy, People Reading and Thomas at My Porch’s Seen on the Subway posts.
Going fishing
(Reading to the bump)
Just in case you don’t hear from me in the next few…. weeks…. it’ll be because the wee reader has decided to emerge.
I’m scheduling a few posts for the next few days, but these thoughts are rather fragmentary ones, as I’d rather be walking around the house reading or relaxing on the sofa with instant Netflix than at the computer thinking through a proper post!
Thanks for reading and see you soon.
