Family meals

For my family, food is never far from our minds. After all, we eat to live and we live to eat. Meal times are times for family bonding. When my brothers and I were growing up, we did not have any television in our dining room. As such, meal times were strictly for eating and chatting.

Ever since my mother took a break from the workforce in May 2009, my family and I have been enjoying home-cooked food from the past era. We have in recent weeks managed to eat my mother's signature dishes. It was like "yesterday once more". Yummy!

This morning, I woke up around 8.30 am and decided to do some baking. I started by baking some banana and mango muffins for Da and I to bring to work tomorrow.

Recently, my mother, Da and I watched an episode of "The Naked Chef" on the Asian Food Channel where Jaime Oliver used chickpeas, ground coriander and ground cumin to bake some flat bread. As I did not take notes during the programme, I did some trial and error and baked some chickpeas flat bread today.

When my mother and I went gallivanting in Orchard Road on 25 June 2009, each of us came home with a set of two Tefal non-stick pans. I put one of the pans to good use today and made some "ban jian kueh". It is something like a thin pancake which is folded and has filling comprising peanuts, sesame seeds and sugar.

Before Da and I left the house to join my mother, my brother (LG) and LG's girlfriend (ZT) for brunch, I packed some of the goodies that I had made this morning and gave them to the three handsome boys who live on the same floor as Da and I in our apartment block.

Brunch was held at our favourite coffee shop at Jalan Tua Kong. I also brought along some of the "ban jian kueh" made by me and gave them to the stallholders. We are regular customers at this coffee shop and we get along well with the stallholders.

After a very heavy lunch, Da and I went to church. The traffic was very heavy on the road today and we arrived after the service had started. Initially, we were turned away and asked to attend a later church service. I asked whether we could still attend the service if we did not mind standing. We were allowed to attend the service but managed to obtain floor seating.

As always, it was a grace-filled service. For those of us who believe in Christ, we have been given the spirit of sonship by which we call out "Abba, Father". If we know how to give the best to our own children, how much more will our heavenly Father give to us who are His children. Father, I thank You for your protection and your blessings. I thank You that You will bless my family, my loved ones, my friends and I from all diseases including the H1N1 virus. Amen.

After church, Da and I went to Bedok Bus Interchange to browse the shops as it was still early. Da managed to buy a pair of working leather shoes from BATA shoe shop that were being sold at a discount. We also went to my favourite Sant Rolane clothing shop and had a lovely chat with the shop assistant (VKY). VKY is a Filipina who has been working in Singapore for so many years that she can speak Mandarin. What I like about buying clothes from this outlet of Sant Rolane (even though they have several outlets throughout Singapore) is the level of service that I am given at this outlet. VKY knows my taste and she knows what type of clothes suit me. Most of the time, whatever she passes to me to try would fit me (size-wise and taste-wise) and it is only a question of whether I want to purchase it. Not only is alteration free of charge, she would also propose alterations to the clothes that would enhance the suitability of the clothes for the wearer. There have been times in the past that after incorporating her proposals, the altered clothes do not look anything like the original design and in fact, are nicer than the original design.

When I helped out at the wedding of JL (niece of WC) last year, I made a last-minute telephone call to VKY and told her that I needed a nice dress to wear. Over the phone, she told me what was available at her shop and she also made some suggestions on how to alter a dress (that she recommended to me) to suit me. A day later, I went to the shop, tried on the dress for the first time and walked out of the shop with the dress nicely wrapped up and not needing any further alterations (save for whatever alterations VKY had already used her initiative to make to it). The morning thereafter, I wore the dress to the wedding. Where else can you get such service in Singapore? I would be hard put to find another service staff like VKY.

As night fell, Da and I went to my mother's home for dinner. The lady chef, LG and ZT were busy in the kitchen, making last-minute preparations for dinner. My other brother (LB) and his wife (MF) were joining us for dinner as well.

Other than longevity noodles in soup that my mother had cooked, LG fried some eggs and bacon and ZT baked some finger food. It was a sumptuous meal indeed. Each of us placed a slice of bacon and one fried egg on top of a chickpea flat bread and ate it before we proceeded to the rest of the meal.

I suggested to my mother that she cook the longevity noodles "heng hua" style the next time. The heng hua are one of the sub-dialects of the Hokkien dialect and they are known for their generous portions of food. Longevity noodles cooked "heng hua" style are dry noodles with ingredients such as sliced fried egg, peanuts, cabbage, etc. Delicious, delicious... I look forward to eating this dish again.