Gomashio

First introduced to black sesame dessert by my brother. He loves his dessert. Black sesame with soyabean curd! Yuks! but after a few spoon of the smooth sweet black paste, I was hooked. Two weeks ago at the japan food fair organised by Isetan Super market I spotted the bottled black sesame paste. Eaten with cheese crackers or bread. Had it with my morning bread and butter. Less calories than eating it as a dessert.

Frying in the Oven

The oven in my kitchen comes alive for the occasional baking and roasting. Other times, it doubles up as a storage space for all the baking trays and sorts. While browsing at the bookshop, I came across this book. After flipping through the pages, checking if the food presented is suitable for homecooking, I was convinced. I just had to own. It'll save me time cleaning off all the oil fumes and splatters in the kitchen. 3 steps, Prepare all the ingredients, marinate, into the oven it goes. Presto, dish is really. And the fact I recently acquired a supersteam convection makes this cookbook a must. Written by a Ms Jo Marion Seow, a Home Econ teacher with MOE, shows, how using the oven, to fry crispy teriyaki chicken chops and thai pandan chicken with just the oven. Braising curry chicken and steaming dum chicken briyani. So for a start, Tonight, stingray with tom yum paste, cooked in the oven.

Numbers reveal

The interpretation of the spoilt vote figures reveals the votes' feeling. In the papers today:-

"Spoilt votes was lowest in five constituencies where opposition parties fared the best. Hougang 1.13% whereas the national share of spoilt votes was 2.17%.
There were fewer spoilt votes in closely contested wards, or where the opposition was more viable, because the voter perceived that his or her vote was more likely to make a difference.


The percentage of spoilt votes was highest where PMLee(3.01%) and DPMTeo(2.85%) led teams against relatively weak opposition.


Where WP was the party challenging the PAP they were willing to vote for the opposition. But if there were no compelling opposition candidate , they would rather spoil their votes in protest"

Hot & Hotter

It's been hot hot and very hot over the last few days. First it was the election feverish excitements, drummed up by the various opposition parties then there's the weather.
Yesterday 9th May must be the hottest. A check on the the inbuilt thermometer in the car showed 37C. Even the cold shower taken in the evening, was warm. My thoughts are with the many foreign workers spending hours under this sweltering heat, going back to the equally stuffy and hot dormitories in the evenings. All for the want of giving their families at home a better life.

Hot Steaming rice

The title "Cooking made us human" by Richard Wrangham sounds intriquing considering the fact that half of the working population these days don't even know how a kitchen looks like let alone cook. An interesting explanation on how we the human evolves physically all thanks to cooked food.

Excerpts:

Cooking makes eating faster and easier, and wrings more caloric benefit from food. Moreover, cooking is vitally important to supporting the outsize human brain, which consumes a quarter of the body’s energy.
By freeing humans from having to spend half the day chewing tough raw food — as most of our primate relatives do — cooking allowed early humans to devote themselves to more productive activities, ultimately allowing the development of tools, agriculture, and social networks. Cooked food is also softer, meaning the body uses less energy digesting what it takes in.
Since physical remnants of fire tend to degrade rapidly, archaeological evidence of fire and cooking dates back only about 800,000 years. Biological evidence, shows that around 1.8 million years ago, Homo erectus arose with larger brains and bodies and smaller guts, jaws, and teeth — changes consistent with the switch to a more tender and energetically rich diet of cooked food.
Cooking is what makes the human diet ‘human,’ and the most logical explanation for the advances in brain and body size over our ape ancestors, It’s hard to imagine the leap to Homo erectus without cooking’s nutritional benefits.”

Lightning and Hammer

Never had there been more interest and enthusiasm on elections in Spore. For the the 1st time in many many years, 2.2m singaporean will get to vote for 82 out of the 87 seats on the 7th May. A walkover for MM Lee and his 4 other group representative constituency.

Huge crowd turns out to listen to the nightly rallies and memorabilia are used to show support and publicity.

I too have been following with interest for it's this constituency that is the fiercely contested. On one team it's the A list team from opposition on the other a foreign minister and 3 other members of parliment at stake.

How will the voters choose? MM Lee has spoken, choose wisely or ......

"The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm.
The boss says ‘I’; the leader says ‘we.’ "