Travel is Fatal

Dinner with Baba

2012-01-21T10:31:00.000+08:00

Way back when Charlotte came to visit, she and I toured Singapore's Peranakan Museum but it seems I left that part out of the blog. And when we were in Penang in November, we visited the Peranakan Mansion there.So we've gotten a good dose of Peranakan culture in museum format.

As a rough reminder:

"Peranakan Chinese" or "Straits Chinese" or "Baba-Nyonya" are all roughly terms for the Chinese communities of the Straits Settlements (i.e. Singapore, Penang, and Malacca). They were the descendants of Chinese traders that came to Malaya in the 15th and 16th centuries and then created their own unique rich cultural blend of Chinese, Malay, and Colonial British traditions. Nyonya is the respectful term for ladies and Baba, for men.

But a huge part of Peranakan culture is food and we hadn't actually gone to a Peranakan restaurant. Until one opened in the neighborhood.

A little stall tucked in with the others next to a porridge place we like and across from a closed popsicle stand, I've been eying it for months. But I'm usually there to pick up porridge and head home, so we haven't stopped. Finally, a couple of weeks ago, we were together looking for food and decided to give it a try.

Just like the Peranakan culture is a mix of other traditions, Peranakan food is a unique and spicy stew.

On our first visit, Kyle had char kway teow(a Southern Chinese dish of rice ribbon noodles fried with egg, bean sprouts, cockles and chives with a hint of chili) and I had beef rendang (Indonesian/Malaysian dish of beef slow cooked in coconut milk and spices; recently named one of the world's 50 most delicious foods). Both were yummy and we finished with dessert of gula malaka sago (shaved ice and sago over coconut milk with palm sugar on top). Extra yum.

The gula melaka sago, though, did prompt frantic intervention by the restaurant staff. I started by scooping a small spoon full of ice and palm sugar to taste, and someone quickly ran over to tell me to stir it all together and make sure my coconut and sago and ice and sugar were well mixed before I dug in again. Can't have the foreigner eating it wrong!

We enjoyed the food (and the attention) so much that we've been back twice. And we've made a friend. The 77-year-old Baba who was pointing us to seats was hilarious and certainly took us under his wing. He chose our dishes for us (or at least made pointed recommendations). He asked about or work and whether or not we liked Singapore. While Kyle was placing orders, he asked me if Kyle was an engineer. I said no, scientist. Once Kyle returned to the table, Baba "read" his palm and discovered he was in science--with a theatrical wink in my direction.

He recommended more chili for my soybean and pork stew. When I (once again!) was about to make a horrid food-related-gaffe by sprinkling the chili on my pork he ran over and actually grabbed my arm to stop me. He then instructed me in the correct procedure: Pork onto rice plate and then add a drop of chili to that bite.

He tried to order us durian chendol for our dessert, but another staff member stepped in to assure us, "Out already!" Which was good. Kyle likes durian, but we did not want durian chendol (another shaved-ice based dessert which has green worm-shaped jellies in it). We had gula melaka sago instead (stirred correctly this time). We left assuring him we'd be back often.

The very next night, we were walking through our town when I felt a whack on my shoulder. We turned around and there was Baba, walking home himself. We discussed our Chinese New Year plans, his reunion dinner, the stall's holiday hours, and New Zealand. Then we wished him well and told him we'd see him soon.

It's totally my favorite place to eat now.

A Phuket Christmas

2011-12-29T21:35:00.001+08:00

We knew this trip was going to end well when we discussed the itinerary with James and Germaine after church a couple of weeks ago:

"So what's our plan?"

"To do nothing."

"To do nothing."

"To do nothing."

"Good, then we're agreed."

James and Germaine generously invited us to share in a free beach holiday that they'd gotten through a referral program. We had 4 days and 3 nights in a two bedroom villa on the north of Phuket island in Thailand. We just needed to show up (it's an hour and a half flight) and chill out. We arrived the morning after Christmas and got home today. And we made sure to fully execute our previously agreed-upon plan. (G's version of the trip is here. She backs me up 100%).

We did nothing on the beach.

We did nothing in the ocean.

We did nothing on kayaks.

And we did nothing on a great little catamaran (hooray sailing!).

Then we ate lots of surprisingly good Thai food (surprising for a resort, not surprising that Thai food is good) and lots of ice cream.

We all got a bit of sun, but thankfully Germaine had us covered with after-sun treatments.

It was a wonderful, wonderful post-Christmas break. A HUGE thank you to James and Germaine for letting us in on the deal. We had a great time doing nothing with you.

(These are all Germaine's pictures because part of my "doing nothing" included taking no pictures, apparently.)

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T16:56:00.000+08:00

Let it snow, let it snow!

2011-12-25T00:51:00.000+08:00

It may not get below 75 degrees here, but that doesn't keep us from getting into the Christmas spirit. A foam party is really quite like snow. Really.

Traditional Christmas Sushi

2011-12-24T23:49:00.016+08:00

Our Christmas Eve tradition is going fairly well. Three of the past four years we've been able to celebrate Christmas Eve with sushi for dinner.

2008 was the start of the tradition. We were on our own for the first time for the holiday. Kyle was busy writing his thesis so we didn't travel home. After church on Christmas Eve night, we drove around an all-but-abandoned East Cambridge looking for food other than leftovers at home. We settled on an Asian fusion place. He had sushi; I had Thai. At the time I didn't eat sushi, but we enjoyed sake and the tradition was born.

2009 was our first Christmas in Singapore. Rather late in the evening, we headed to Orchard Road for Christmas Eve sushi, only to realize that we shared the "Orchard Road" part of that idea with everyone else on the island. It was a very different scene from the dark Cambridge streets, but the sushi and the sake were good and I even joined in the raw-fish-enjoyment this time.

Last year would have been our third year in a row (how many years does it take for a tradition to be firmly established?), but we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas in Laos with Philip and Emily. We had fish that night, but it was of the Mekong River variety and we enjoyed it fully cooked--as I think Mekong fish should always probably be. You can get decent sushi in lots of places in the world, but I'm not sure Luang Prabang is one of them.

This year we once again celebrated Christmas Eve with church and sushi, again on Orchard. We were a bit earlier this year and we were prepared for the crowds. It was an excellent spread:

Salmon, scallops. and several kinds of tuna nigiri

Dragon and Golden rolls

Clams in sake

Crunchy tuna rolls

Not pictured: hand rolls, gyoza, and edamame. Needless to say, we were stuffed by the end of the dinner.

It was also excellent company and conversation, of course. As Kyle said in 2009: "sitting down to a slow dinner to talk, reflect, plan, and take stock of our blessed lives, that was the best part."

Rain, Rain Go Away

2011-12-19T12:30:00.000+08:00

December is monsoon season in Singapore and it seems like this season has been worse than others. Case in point: we've been trying to go for a bike ride for a month. At least.

It all started on November 13 (happy birthday, Daddy!) when we decided to go for a bike ride and to hike Mount Faber. The plan was to bike to Kyle's work, let him do his experiment (I mentioned before that the past few months have been very hands-on with the science), and then head to Mount Faber.

We were almost to the lab when it started raining, so we took cover under a palm tree.

Those things are amazingly efficient at water repelling. We didn't even get that wet. We waited for a break and biked the last distance to the lab in drizzle.

Once Kyle was finished with work we left the bikes in the garage and decided to take a bus to Mount Faber and hike instead. (I hadn't been entirely sure about biking and anything called "mount" anyway.) By the time we reached the bus stop, it was really coming down.

It cleared up again when we actually got to Mount Faber and the hike up wasn't bad. But at the top it started again. There was a cable car on display near the active cable car station. We ducked inside for some cover, and ended up staying there for a good 20-30 minutes until there was a break.

We passed the time by taking silly pictures and posting them on Facebook. As you do.

Between then and now we've made one more actual attempt and tried a few other times, but have been thwarted by the rain each time. Water on the road and traffic just don't lend themselves well to biking home in December.

Our most recent attempt was on Saturday. We intended to get up, get to lab to do a quick experiment, and get on the road. Our plans were derailed almost immediately. First, the subway was down and what should be a 40 minute trip took two hours of bus+walking+train. The science went quickly, but then we went down to the garage to get our bikes and Kyle's tire was flat. By this point it was drizzling again, but we decided to at least walk/ride to the bike shop to get a new tire. We only made it to the end of the block before the monsoon began. We hung out under cover for a while before giving up and sloshing back to the garage. This time Kyle was much less smiley in our "stuck in the rain" pictures.

Now it's Christmas week and we're not sure when we'll get the bikes home again (if ever). It's very sad. And soggy.

Eclipse

2011-12-13T13:59:00.005+08:00

After work, shooting, lunch, and Haw Par Villa, our last stop for the day was to the Botanic Gardens to watch the lunar eclipse. The new Circle Line Botanic Gardens stop is right by the garden entrance and right across the street from one of our favorite delis and a grocery store. So when we arrived, we bought yummy crusty bread, Camembert, grilled veggies, and drinks and found a cozy spot in the Botanic Gardens to picnic and wait for the eclipse.

In Singapore, the full eclipse lasted from 7:30 to about 1:30 am, though there was really very little to see at the beginning.

Penumbral Eclipse Begins: 7:33:32 pm in Singapore on Saturday night
Partial Eclipse Begins: 8:45:42 pm
Total Eclipse Begins: 10:06:16 pm
Greatest Eclipse: 10:31:49 pm
Total Eclipse Ends: 10:57:24 pm
Partial Eclipse Ends: 12:17:58 am
Penumbral Eclipse Ends: 1:30:00 am Sunday morning

We stayed until about 11 (the Botanic Gardens close at midnight), and then we headed home because it had been a long day. So we saw all of the total eclipse, but didn't see the "back side" of the eclipse.

I brought our zoom lens, but sadly not a tripod (because we don't have one). Out battery was also dying, which meant we were a bit more stingy with the pictures than I wish we'd been. I was really wishing for a tripod and full battery to do a time lapse series, but we had a great evening and we got some decent shots anyway.

That picture of the full moon was taken at 8:43, so right before the partial eclipse began. No idea what we did differently that time (or which one of us took it), but it was definitely the sweet spot as far as camera shake went. We're pretty proud of that one.

We then waited to take more pictures until the eclipse was well underway (saving battery life), and took more as we got closer to the total eclipse.

These times were 8:43, 10:03, 10:19, 10:28, and 10:39.

Kyle also tried his luck with the iPhone:

As handy as the iPhone pocket camera is sometimes, we do really love our big camera.

Haw Par Y'all

2011-12-12T12:40:00.005+08:00

After shooting and lunch, we decided to take advantage of the fact that we were out and Kyle didn't have to go back to work to explore the newly-opened Circle Line. When we moved here, the Circle Line had three or four stops, but now there are 29 stops linking the three other Singapore subway lines.

First stop: Haw Par Villa.

Haw Par Villa is sort of like walking into an ancient Chinese hallucination. The villa and park, originally called "Tiger Balm Gardens", was built in 1937 by Burmese-born brothers Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par, the developers of Tiger Balm, an herbal rub, sort of like Vicks. Boon Haw built it as a gift for Boon Par as a home and a venue for teaching traditional Chinese values.

Soon afterwards, the Japanese occupied Singapore and the brothers fled--Boon Par to Burma, Boon Haw to Hong Kong. The Japanese used the villa's hill-side location to keep a watch over ships at sea. When the Japanese left Singapore, the villa suffered damage from residents who vandalised it out of hatred for their captors. Boon Haw returned to Singapore from Hong Kong, only to be greeted by an abandoned villa. His brother had died in Burma. Boon Haw tore down the ruins of the house, but the statues and the rest of the decorations remained. The property changed hands a few times--from the estate to the Singapore Tourism Board, etc. Now it's free to the public and right on the Circle Line.

Most of Haw Par's statues are allegorical, depicting ancient Chinese history, illustrating Buddhist stories, but others are free of rhyme and reason as far as I could tell. The highlight (lowlight?) of the complex is a building housing depictions of hell. But it was closed while we were there. That's ok, there was more than enough crazy (and violence!) without the walking tour of hell.

There were plenty of things that made no sense (to us) at all.

With this much craziness, it was too tempting not to interact a bit. After all, when else do you get to take tea from a turtle?

Or be manhandled by a gorilla?

Don't worry. They made up.

And then of course there were just some things that defied even interaction:

Pull!

2011-12-11T14:44:00.000+08:00

Kyle has been running a set of experiments that needs 7-days-a-week care, and it's made for a really busy past couple of months. I'd say he's averaging about 65 hours/week. Any weekend plans we make need to be arranged around work, church, and usually a soccer game. It doesn't leave a ton of time for blog-worthy pursuits.

However, Saturday he went in to the lab early because we had plans at noon: a couple of dozen rounds at the Singapore Gun Club.

Picture from Xu Peng

His colleagues suggested this a month ago probably and a group of seven of us went. The club is actually older than the independent country, having been founded in 1950 (the country gained sovereignty in 1965). It's located in the West, understandably away from anything too crowded. The club has several ranges: clay target ranges, down-the-line and sporting clay ranges, rifle and pistol ranges. We shot Olympic Trap at the shotgun range.

On the way there, one of Kyle's colleagues asked me if I'd ever held a gun before. Which was funny. But I haven't actually ever shot moving targets, and I learned a fair amount in our briefing before going to the range. For instance, I now know the difference between trap (a clay target moving away from you) and skeet (a clay target moving toward you or perpendicular to you).

The launcher (I'm sure there's a more correct name for that) sends bright orange painted targets out of the green metal box toward the pile of broken targets on the hill. A stack of targets sitting on top of the launcher helped us know where to look for the targets (I'm assuming that is a beginner's concession). We stood behind the launcher another 25 yards or so. When it was our turn, we loaded our 12-gauge and said "Pull" to call for a target.

We each shot a box of shells and we took turns down the line, so we spent an hour or so shooting. I wasn't terribly good at following with the gun. My dad is going to be so disappointed.

Picture from Xu Peng

Me shooting my last round (I missed) and Kyle looking a bit concerned.

Kyle was better than me. The targets were launched fairly low, so I always expected to have more rise (i.e. more time) than I actually got, which means I shot above the target a fair amount. Except of course the one time I actually shot the launcher. Oops.

I don't think we'll be competing any time soon, but it was fun. Now that we've had the training session and initial experience, I think we can go back and rent a gun and buy a box of shells fairly easily.

Thankful

2011-12-07T15:16:00.000+08:00

(Late with this, sorry!)

This was our third Thanksgiving in Singapore. The first we celebrated at the American Club as the guests of dear friends who have now moved away. Last year, we were 100% traditional and celebrated on Thursday at home with our Singaporean friends. But this year I acknowledged the fact that everyone (but me) had to work on Friday, so we had it Friday night. People still had to come from work, but at least they could sleep off the turkey coma on Saturday morning.

Some of our friends have been asking about Thanksgiving since around June. There's nothing like several month's worth of anticipation to a) make you feel good about last year's event and b) set the bar dangerously high.

However, once again it went really well. We had 25 guests and a baby--including some Americans!--and I think the Singaporeans have even learned something about Thanksgiving. We had a LOT less left over this year. I think they were prepared.

We are so very grateful for the community we have in Singapore. We have such dear friends here, it is a blessing to celebrate Thanksgiving with them.

(All photos by Amanda! She rocks and I am not good at photographing+hosting together.)

There was lots of talking and eating, of course. And thankfully our friends are cool with sitting on the floor around the coffee table! And eating off paper plates.

In the background: Kyle and me. We were there!

Our most popular guest: brand new Baby Nate! Tee (standing) is in his pediatric residency and Eddy (holding) is expecting his first child in January. They were practicing. :)

Wet but Determined

2011-11-10T13:07:00.021+08:00

Reuben's resolution: motorbikes! We woke up on Sunday and headed to dim sum for breakfast and then to pick up our motorbikes--a first for Amanda and Reuben. We headed back to our hotel to get our things for the day and slather on our sunscreen.

By the time we were ready, it was pouring outside.

But we had the bikes by that point and we were determined. We waited for a break in the rain and then the first leg of our journey took us about four or five blocks when the bottom fell out again and we waited out the second downpour in someone's carport.

After that rain broke, we could see blue peeking through the clouds so we made our way out of town. We stopped for ponchos just in case, but it only drizzled on us the rest of the day. The weather wasn't pretty enough for us to take that picture I'm after, but it was still a nice day exploring the island.

We stopped in Balik Pulau, at a village about halfway around the island, for extremely delicious laksa--some of the best I've had (at the stall to the right of the market). We're no laksa experts, but in Singapore it's usually quite spicy and will result in much nose-blowing, and the occasional fit of coughing/choking when you inadvertently inhale a bit. This Malay version is a bit different- there were 2 kinds, Asam and Siam. Both were much less spicy than our local options here and much tastier, but the Siam especially had more sourness and well rounded flavor- containing coconut milk and pineapple and other unknown goodness. Probably the best thing we ate in Malaysia. We would eat this one with regularity if we knew where to find it.

We rode up into the hills in the center of the island and found a waterfall to explore (and for me to fall down in, of course... ed. note: don't worry! she was still wearing her motorcycle helmet, see below). The views from up there would be stunning, I'm sure, on a clear day.

We saw some lovely beaches, but it wasn't beach weather, so we didn't stop. We ended the day on the north side of the island where there are resorts for an early hawker center dinner and then drove back into Georgetown to return the bikes and enjoy the post-rain cool with a drink and a snack at an outdoor bar.

On Monday we flew back to Singapore early in the afternoon, but not before a massive brunch at the historic Eastern & Oriental (E&O) Hotel. Established by the Sarkies brothers in 1884 (who also developed the Raffles in Singapore), the hotel was gorgeous in that British colonial way.

It was still raining, so breakfast on the veranda didn't have quite the same view as it would have otherwise, but we weren't complaining.

Georgetown

2011-11-09T18:21:00.002+08:00

Once again the travel has gotten the best of us. Since October 10 I've been in Singapore for 7 days. First Germany, then the US, then Malaysia. Germany was work and the US was a wedding (Congratulations Kristen and Tim!!), both without Kyle. But Malaysia was together for fun.

We spent a long holiday weekend (Hari Raya) in Penang, an island off the Western coast of Malaysia near the Thai border. The island was formally handed over to the British East India Company in 1791 although the British had a trade presence there since 1771. The island was briefly the capital of the Straits Settlements (Penang, Singapore, Melaka) but lost that honor to Singapore soon after. Like Singapore, the island was a major trade hub (especially Chinese opium) and at one time had a dramatic reputation for brothels, gambling, and Chinese secret societies.

The Straits Settlements were dissolved in 1946 and Penang joined the Federation of Malaya in 1948 and became one of Malaysia's 13 states in 1963. Today the island is still heavily Chinese, and its major town, Georgetown, is a Unesco World Heritage Site.

It's about an hour flight from Singapore, so it seemed perfect for a weekend getaway and a chance to expand our Malaysia experience, since so far all of it has been underwater. Our friends Amanda and Reuben (who have often generously loaned us their underwater camera) joined us.

We arrived late Friday night but were up on Saturday morning to explore Georgetown. We wandered around the city all day taking in various bits of culture and history. We goofed off at Fort Cornwallis, the fort established by Captain Light when he claimed the island as a trade post for the East India Company.

Cannons line the walls of the fort pointing toward the strait and the Malaysian mainland, but the most important cannon faces the north coast. It's named Seri Rambai and it was cast in 1603 by the Dutch and given to the Malay Sultan of Johor. At one point it was stolen by pirates and was sunk, but then floated (?!?) up out of the water and ended up at the fort.

The Pinang Peranakan Mansion (not sure why it's spelled Pinang...) is a gorgeous restored home with an open courtyard in the middle. The house belonged to a 19th-century merchant, secret society leader and community pillar and his wealth is definitely on display. "Peranakan" or "Straits Chinese" or "Baba-Nyonya" are all roughly terms for the Chinese communities of the Straits Settlements. They were the descendants of Chinese traders that came to Malaya in the 15th and 16th centuries and then created their own unique rich cultural blend of Malay, Chinese, and Colonial British traditions.

The house had some really gorgeous carvings, porcelain, tapestries, and artifacts. This huge old music box was one of Kyle's favorites. It's the size of a piece of furniture.

From there, we headed to visit a few kongsis, or Chinese clanhouse, an overseas hub for members of the same clan or extended family. A kongsi is a compound, not one building, and served as assembly hall, civic and religious center. The Khoo Kongsi played a role in violent rioting in Penang in 1867 when a street war broke out between two Chinese secret societies. Cannons were fired from Khoo Kongsi down the street (Cannon Street now).

The Khoo Kongsi represents a wealthy clan and the wealth is evident in the temple, Chinese opera stage, carvings, and decor.

Apparently it was meant to be even more ostentatious. The roof caught fire the night it was completed in 1901--an event that was chalked up to divine jealousy.

From the kongsi, we wandered down to the jetties to see how the rest of the clans lived. As a world class port, a huge community grew up around the jetties on Penang's Eastern coast with communities of Chinese living in floating and stilt houses along the water, constantly unloading goods and people--both legal and illegal--from the junks crowding the water. Some of the clan jetties were destroyed by Japanese bombing during WWII, but a few survived and are low income, but still active, watery neighborhoods.

Of course there was also plenty of wandering though the streets taking in different aspects of Malaysia's cultural mix--Indian, Malay Muslim, Chinese--ducking into shops, soaking up the sun, and eating.

After a gorgeous day and over a huge Chinese dinner on Saturday night, Reuben decided to "face his fears" (his words, not mine). Which meant Sunday we were getting out of town...

Bookish

2011-10-17T16:43:00.005+08:00

We've been a little MIA on the blogging front lately because all of my "blogging" time has been spent finally biting the bullet and building our Southeast Asia albums.

(This may be really boring to most of you. But I worked really hard, so I want to write about it. You're welcome to skip down to the preview at the bottom, or skip this post entirely. My feelings won't be hurt. Promise.)

I knew I wanted to have some printed and consolidated record of our adventures here, so I've been gathering opinions and ideas for a long time. Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback. It was a pretty big project. I count 26 trips we've taken since we moved to Asia (though several of those were just a couple of nights away, of course) to 12 countries (not counting Singapore or the US). It was a lot of material.

I finally decided to focus only on the outside-of-Singapore-trips and to not include any home trips. The books will cover the more adventurous parts of life the past two years and less our daily life. Perhaps I'll tackle that part later.

I considered grouping the books by country or region. I was loving the idea of a whole library of books lined up on my shelf. But in the end, sticking to chronological order seemed to make the most sense in terms of cost and organization, so I've done two volumes: Year One (July 2009-June 2010) and Year Two (July 2010-June 2011).

On August 15 (based on the time stamp on my first file), I started with the safari trip and built 14 page templates from scratch in Photoshop. Once I got a collection of page designs I liked (this took a few tries; I built and tossed another 8 or so templates) and finalized fonts and styles etc, I dropped in text from blog posts we had originally written for each location. I did very little editing--the text was mostly cut and paste.

Once the general layouts were created, it went pretty quickly. I tried to do a trip a night or so, breaking up some of the more photo-heavy trips (like Siem Reap with 24 layouts, Beijing with 28, and of course the safari with 32). I saved all of the pages in Photoshop's PSD file format, so I could go back and make changes to anything that needed editing. I ended up with 270 book pages and threw away at least 75 completed pages that didn't work for one reason or another.

I wanted a really clean layout so the pictures would stand out and there wouldn't be a ton of other stuff on the page. It's much more magazine style than scrapbook style, but I like it. My friend Leah sent me the latest issue of the digital magazine Kinfolk in mid-September and it inspired several of my page layouts.

I am printing the books with Blurb, an online printer I've used several times before. They aren't the absolute gold standard as far as colors go, but the books look great. They allow you to print big books (Year Two is 170 pages), which the more photo-focused printers don't support, and they support spine printing. Plus there are always coupons floating around online. (If you click through to Blurb's page to preview the books bigger--which you can--know that the prices listed there are not the actual printing prices. I inflated those so no strangers would be tempted to buy the books. Of course, if they do, I'll make a nice little profit.)

Kyle's Mom will be the first to get to see them in person, but you can peek at the digital versions here.

Asia Year One | Make Your Own Book

Asia Year Two | Make Your Own Book

Bloom

2011-10-04T18:57:00.000+08:00

Last weekend I (finally) visited the National Orchid Garden inside the Singapore Botanic Gardens. I've wanted to do it for a while, but Kyle's never been super fired up about the idea, so a colleague and I went this weekend.

The Gardens have been breeding orchids since 1928, and Singapore claims the largest display of tropical orchids in the world--over 1,000 species and 2,000 hybrids. And they really were amazing. I don't know their names (they aren't all labeled), but here are a few of my favorites.

An orchid hedge.

This one was tiny.

This is the only one I can name. It's Margaret Thatcher--a hybrid named in her honor during a visit to Singapore.

This little orange guy was really unique. He was the only one in this color that I saw, and the leaves and petals were thicker and shiny, almost like succulents.

Several of the orchids looked almost like irises or daffodils with their ruffled leaves.

We weren't the only ones enjoying the flowers:

The gardens were beautiful and I definitely plan to go back.

Kraut

2011-09-15T23:22:00.000+08:00

There has been a fair amount of fermentation in our household of late.

As Alli alluded to, we had a simple dinner a couple nights back of homemade bread with storebought cheese and salami- and another specialty homemade goodie- sauerkraut. yum. First, another closer photo, then the details:

details: sauerkraut is one of the easiest things you can possibly make. I'd seen an article online talking about making it a couple years back, but was put off by the fact that you had to wait a few weeks to enjoy. I actually seem to recall the recipe suggesting on the order of months, and I wasn't up to waiting that long without some proof of worth. Then, a more recent article on lifehacker made it sound even easier. When I finally decided to do it, I just searched online, found a few recipes which all say basically the same thing, and roughly winged it.

so ahh, here is my very scientific recollection of the events.

1 head cabbage (we just got the white stuff, you can use whichever you like)
salt - I think 1.5 Tbs was the end gameplan I went with

wash, then chop up your cabbage. pack your cabbage in something, and kind of mush it down a little bit with your fist. add some salt to it roughly each "layer". keep adding, pounding, mushing, salting, until your cabbage is all in. The yogurt container above is what I used, but many recipes recommend your crock pot (I don't have one of those over here). At the end just mush it down as tight as you can basically, and finally you want to cover it and try to create a rather airtight seal- since the bacteria that are going to ferment your cabbage like to do it sans oxygen. Some people use a plate or something that fits well in your crock pot- but others recommend using a plastic bag filled with water (a good, food-grade plastic bag that will not leak the water or do anything else weird to your food).

I started with a zip-loc freezer bag full of water on top.. it wasn't forming a great seal, but seemed okay. Then Alli pointed out how well the yogurt containers nest, so after a few days we just put an empty yogurt container in, mushed it down, and added the water weight to that container instead.

It did initially foam up a bit and spill-- not a ton, but I left it sitting on a kitchen towel for the first few days because of this, and used a paper towel to sop at the edges, as I was afraid that's where something random might start growing and then infuse the rest.

Many recipes mention that you should check in on your fermentation each few days, as most likely in the event that oxygen is getting in, you can get a bloom of something random growing in there, which you don't want. However, they all concur that what will grow is not dangerous, and you just scoop it off and let the good guys keep growing. I never got any of these blooms, surprisingly.

I think ideal temperature for these guys is just above what you Americans would consider room temperature-- so we kept it in our bedroom where it would at least get air-con at night.

So that's it, cabbage, salt, wait. The recipes I found generally agreed on about 4 weeks, some longer. So at 3 weeks I opened her up and had to take a try. By the way, it did smell, but only if you stuck your nose in it mostly, our whole bedroom did not smell like kraut.

I was fairly amazed at that first forkful, and decided the mission was a success. I stirred it up, and made it part of the dinner shown below.

This dinner brought to you courtesy of salt (and microorganisms)

It is still very fresh, crisp, and quite a good taste. The only thing I will change when I repeat this is to try to cut back on the salt a little. It's pretty agreed that more salt means more preservative, it will keep longer and stay crunchier- but I feel it's just a little bit towards the pickle side of things right now. Possibly, just more time would have released more lactic acid and that would also balance the salt. But then, less salt wouldn't be such a terrible thing anyway, right?

Also pictured is my latest beer- a pecan nut brown ale. It's pretty rad. Not pictured is the yogurt we made immediately after this dinner-- this time a well controlled experiment where we varied by using either milk powder, regular milk, or regular milk with gelatin added to try and boost thickness. The result is that they are almost identical.. the milk powder one tastes different, but I wouldn't say worse, just slightly different. The gelatin didn't really do much to thicken. Straining makes it real nice, but is a bit of work, so we're still trying to figure out how to make good thick yogurt on the first go.

So collectively, that is 4 things we can now ferment and eat or drink later. The next goal is to get this all happening concurrently and regularly. I'll definitely get another batch of kraut going within the week.

Oh. One more thing: Alli doesn't like suaerkraut. Crazy, right? It's like pickles practically and she *loves* pickles. Mainly I mention this just for the record, so a couple of years from now when she can be quoted as saying "do you remember when I used to not like sauerkraut?" - I can point to this post and say yes, I do recall that sad time in your life. Did you know she used to not like tomatoes? Baby steps.

Breaded

2011-09-14T22:07:00.000+08:00

It's been a long time since I tried making bread in Singapore. I mean, remember what happened last time?

But I used to make bread fairly often and Kyle has been asking for bread for a few weeks now. So the other day at the library (my favorite place) I found a new bread cookbook. You know the Indian cookbook I'm obsessed with? Well the same authors made a bread cookbook, so I grabbed it. They have lots of yummy-sounding stuff in there, but we started with a basic sandwich bread, one they said they have in their kitchen all the time--a white bread with sunflower and pumpkin seeds mixed in.

Last night Kyle finally found unbleached all purpose flour in the third grocery store we tried, so we attempted to get this started. Sadly, we did not get full photographic evidence, but TEN CUPS of flour in and the dough was still super wet and sticky. And huge. And all over our counter top. So we gave up.

We put it in a bowl and sat it on the ironing board in our bedroom to rise overnight (because our bedroom is the coolest place in the apartment).

This morning Kyle woke up to a dramatic gasp that I'm pretty sure was not his favorite way to start the day. The dough had grown out of its bowl, over the edges and was pooling on the ironing board.

We scooped it up and took it back in the kitchen, kneaded it with MORE flour (still wet; still sticky) and divided it up. The dough is supposed to make 4 loaves, and I had one loaf pan. So it was going to be one at a time.

I put the first loaf in. After the required cooking time, I tried to take it out. The instructions said "Tip the bread onto a cooling rack." My bread was not tipping. It was not budging. Finally after basically clawing it out by hand I realized why. The bread and the pan had become one.

Ugh. Pan ruined. Bread ruined. Three growing dough blobs still on my counter.

So I punched them down and put them in cleaned yogurt containers and stuck them in the fridge because I had work to do. The cold is supposed to stop the yeast but to be extra sure they stayed put, I stacked them.

An hour later I went to pour a glass of water and the dough had opened the yogurt containers and was escaping. The containers were wedged so tightly to the top of the fridge I had a hard time pulling them out, actually.

So I punched the dough down again, and ran to the baking store to buy two more bread pans. This time I oiled and floured the pans extra well and cooked the bread for a bit less time.

Finally. Actual bread. The kitchen is a disaster, but at least they are no longer expanding.

It's pretty yummy. The crumb could have been a little more open, but that may be because I had to punch it down so many times before I got the right pans.

We had a simple dinner of homemade bread, cheese, and salami last night. It was great. As for the contents of that particular yogurt container... I'll have to let Kyle tell you about that.

(And I haven't broken the cook top yet. This, of course, is a win in and of itself!)

Hungry Ghosts

2011-09-04T08:29:00.001+08:00

(We needed something new up top!)

Way, way back we mentioned that about half of Singaporeans practice Buddhism or Taoism or another version of traditional or folk Chinese religion. (Three quarters of the population is Chinese, so this makes sense.) One of the times of year when this is most obvious is during the Hungry Ghost Festival.

Taoist Chinese believe that during the seventh month of the lunar calendar the “Gates of Hell” are opened and souls of the dead are freed and allowed to roam the earth. The 15th day of this month is the height of the celebration.

The Hungry Ghost festival is different from Chinese ancestor worship because 1) the ghosts are coming to you, rather than you going to visit a grave and 2) all ghosts are involved, not just your ancestors, so there are stranger ghosts to deal with.

So how does one interact with these freed ghosts? By feeding them, holding shows for their entertainment, burning joss sticks or joss paper, which is a symbolic way of giving them money and other material goods they may need.

When we walk home from the subway we can see the offerings out in full force: (I don't take pictures of people who are actually burning, but when we walked by and the area was empty, we snapped a few.)

It was a huge mess, but there are lots of people trying to appease lots of ghosts, so I guess that makes a mess. People buy multiple grocery bags full of joss sticks and joss paper to burn. And while all of that goes up in smoke--or ash, rather--the plastic bags and the packaging were lying all over the grass.

In order to be respectful of those of us that are not worried about ghost appeasement, Singapore provides the drums to burn the offerings in, so generally this is limited to a specific area.

And they do a good job of cleaning up between days and after the big event. The drums are still there, but the lawn was cleared the next day.

The money and "things" burned are paper or papier mache (an iPad for the ghosts?). I snagged this example that had blown away from the fire into the bushes near the sidewalk.

If this is worth 50 million, there's no telling how many quadrillion are burned.

The food, however, is real. Here we have oranges, apples, packages of candies, and some cakes. I don't know what the leaves are. Tea maybe?

And if you can see, the joss sticks are lining the sidewalk (with the white, skinny ash on the grass beside them). They are sparkler sized, and make walking across the grass challenging.

And on top of all of this, there are musical performances, stand up comedy routines, puppet shows, operas, concerts, and other events held in the ghosts' honor, usually on stages set up outside for the occasion. Anyone is welcome to watch the show, but don't sit in the red chairs in the front. Those are reserved.

Good News and Bad News

2011-08-31T13:00:00.002+08:00

Well it's August 31... Are you ready for an update?

The good news is that my right bicep is looking great! Completely room temperature and everything.

The bad news is that apparently banning myself from the kitchen was not going to thwart the Disorder this month.

Back in Siquijor, the first full day we were in the Philippines, we had a little slip involving a steep hill, some gravel, and our little motorbike. It wasn't a big deal--we were practically standing still when it happened--but it did result in a bit more leg/exhaust pipe contact than is really ideal. As soon as it happened, a very kind Filipino couple stopped to check on us to make sure we were ok and the bike was ok (I was far more concerned with the bike than my leg because the bike was rented!). We didn't have anything to cover up the burn, so the girl found some leaves that she called "medicine" and crushed them and squeezed the juice on my knee. It worked amazingly well, actually.

The incident obviously didn't slow us down at all (we still went diving and waterfall hiking and more while we were there, including more motorbikes), but our pride has been a little sore this month. But now that we have a nice "after" picture, we feel better about it. It looks totally fine and feels even better.

But still... this is getting weird.

August 2007: Right bicep (hot oil)
August 2009: Right bicep (hot pan)
August 2011: Right leg (hot exhaust pipe)

(And it should be noted that those are the only three times I've burned myself ever. I'm not pulling out a pattern from a long list of options.)

So August 2013... I spend the month in Iceland? That's cool. I've never been to Iceland. :)

GV Gold (5 Year Anniversary Celebration)

2011-08-30T15:53:00.000+08:00

If you watched our anniversary video (that which we put some effort into, so if you saw it, but didn't click play... maybe you should...)- you may have noticed in the last few pictures a couple of unrecognizable ones including one with 2 glasses of wine and some popcorn. This is what we decided to do for an unorthodox but uniquely Singaporean 5 year anniversary night.

This, my friends, is the GV Gold Class movie experience. That's right, some go out to fancy dinners, plan vacations, or, you know, shower their brides with jewelry. Not us, we went to see a movie.

But it's not just any movie theatre. It holds just 24 patrons, each in pairs of fully reclining la-z-boy style seats with provided blankets, full dinner menus including alcohol and dessert, and a call button for someone to quickly ask what else you might need. It's the high life.

Of course we have not been there in 2 years living here, not because we'd not heard of it, but because it's kind of crazy expensive compared to just going to see a normal movie. But if a 5 year anniversary isn't the right time, I don't know what is. So we hustled over after work Friday for a 6:30 p.m. showing of Horrible Bosses, pre-ordered a cheese plate, bread with various hummus and pesto type dips, gold chicken wings, popcorn, and 2 glasses of red wine.

Then we took our seats in the theatre, and within a few minutes the food started coming in. There is a smallish oval table placed in the middle in front of the recliners to hold food and drinks (as you can see). It's not exactly conducive to ordering the steak dinner, as you'd still need to transfer that to your lap, cut, and pay some attention to the film, presumably. But it's pretty cool to have a cheese plate (quite good cheese, about the best cheese plate we've had anywhere in Singapore) and wine, all while really lounging back in your recliner. I think if we were ever to do it again we'd be a bit more simple with the food- cheese plate and wine is a good place to be.

The options for films are pretty limited, just four to choose from at a time. Horrible Bosses is not likely something we'd have gone to see in the theatre otherwise, but we decided we either go see this or we have to find something else to do on our anniversary... The language is pretty vulgar, but there is some very good humor if that doesn't put you off too much. But we enjoyed the environment and after the film was over, instead of the usual leap to your feet and move on to the next thing, we just stayed and watched every last credit.

If we could only see every movie in this theatre...

The Fifth Year

2011-08-28T00:36:00.000+08:00

See also Year 2; Year 3; and Year 4.

Thanks to Bryan Kam Photography for some of these photos, as well as Amanda and Germaine. :)

K+A are Five

2011-08-26T12:30:00.004+08:00

August 26, 2006. Hooray!

Kyle's New Hobby

2011-08-24T13:00:00.000+08:00

We are finally done with the Philippines, so I thought it was time to introduce Kyle's new hobby. He's adding wildlife photography to his resume, and he's very dedicated to getting his shot.

Right now he's focused on the wildlife inside our flat.

He named her Liz.

Searching for Casaroro

2011-08-21T13:00:00.003+08:00

After touring Dumaguete on Tuesday morning, we were on a bike again heading out to explore the surrounding area. We headed toward Valencia, a little town at the foot of Mt. Talinis or Cuernos de Negros (Horns of Negros).

We wandered a bit and found some gorgeous butterflies:

We had some really yummy fried bananas (the outside was sort of crystallized sugar, not a heavy batter) and buko juice (coconut) from a street vendor and sat on the town green for a while watching the soccer matches that evening.

And we spent quite some time chasing the sunset behind Mt. Talinis. (If you ever need a change of scenery, can I recommend renting a motorbike and chasing a sunset? Good for the soul.)

Kyle climbed on a 6 ft cinder block wall to get that shot, while I stood on the ground trying to look nonchalant. This earned us some really interesting looks from passing motorbikes. I tried to take a picture of him, but my camera settings were incorrect and then he jumped down.

(Now you know what a good 5% of my photos look like. Grr slow shutter speed when I'm in a hurry.)

But we spent most of the afternoon looking for the Casaroro Falls. The falls are 30 meters, but the problem is we had to climb up, just to then climb down to see the falls. Thankfully, there was some encouraging signage:

335+ mossy, slippery steps.

[Ask me how many times I fell? Just once! Win for me!]

It was completely worth it though. The falls were absolutely stunning and we were the only people there.

They fell almost into a well. The rock wall was curved around them nearly 270 degrees with one open section and we climbed all the way to the pool at the bottom.

The whole rock face was covered with ferns dancing in the mist and breeze.

It defied photography, and we loved it.

Eating, Seeing Animals, and Dodging Coconuts

2011-08-20T13:00:00.005+08:00

After our day of diving, we spent the rest of our time in the Philippines (another day and a half) exploring Dumaguete and around. We also had a few signature Philippine dishes. Two nights for dinner we had kinilaw, Philippine fish ceviche. Very yum.

We also had sinigang na hipon a couple of times, a sour soup. The recipe in my Southeast Asian cookbook says the sourness comes from either medium-ripe fruits (like guava) or from tamarind (which I've used once--and searched for extensively--when cooking Indian). We had fish versions twice, which were really good and which we'll probably try to make at some point. For lunch the last day, though, I had a pork version until I realized that the pork still had hair on it. At which point I no longer had any.

(Fish version)

For dessert we had milkshakes, which aren't particularly Asian at all, I don't think, but still good.

On Tuesday, we explored the town a bit via tricycle in the morning. Here's a good shot of the motorbike/sidecar situation: A nice little set up.

Being the science-y folks that we are, we visited the Center for Tropical Studies (CENTROP) at Silliman University, which works with endemic endangered species. We got a tour from one of the center's animal breeders, who works with bleeding heart pigeons [Google pic] and the Philippine spotted deer [which looks like a fawn its whole life].

On Wednesday before we left, we also visited the Silliman University Marine Lab. They are raising crocodiles and giant clams (like the one we saw on the Great Barrier Reef).

They also have the [reportedly] second largest collection of whale bones in the world. The first is in a museum in Japan. This collection is in a spider-web-covered out building. I don't think they get a ton of visitors, so I made Kyle write down all his scientific credentials, so we seemed less random.

As we moved around town, we enjoyed some of the public service announcements:

Poor guy.

Not pictured, a whole cast of Disney characters painted along a long wall encouraging people to Be Brave, Work Hard, and Be Open Minded!

Finally, in what is becoming a small collection of pictures of this shirt in foreign countries, here's Kyle carrying our bag back to the main road from the Marine Lab (we were heading straight for the airport). Just because it's funny.

Disneyland for Divers

2011-08-19T13:02:00.011+08:00

We weren't sure about diving in the Philippines because I couldn't get a clear sense of whether or not it was the right season. It was definitely low season. None of the dive operators I contacted had scheduled trips to Apo Island (where I wanted to dive) and several weren't even going to other sites. But that doesn't mean the diving would be bad necessarily. It's more likely to mean that the water would be rough for the trip to and from the dive site. Some would have been willing to go with a full boat--usually 4 or more divers--but we were alone and I had no idea if I'd find people who wanted to go diving when we got there. When we left Singapore, we didn't have anything booked and we really weren't sure if we'd get to dive or not.

I offer all this as an excuse for why I did not bring the underwater camera--which our friends had loaned us--on some of the prettiest dives we've done.

Our first night in Siquijor I heard a guy call Apo Island Disneyland for divers. A tiny little volcanic island between Siquijor and Negros, we'd heard Apo is one of the best dive sites in the Philippines and is the site of the country's first and most successful marine reserve. But Disneyland?

We talked a bit more; he had been recently and said the diving was great. Visibility was good. The boat trip wasn't bad. We decided to head back to Dumaguete on Sunday night and see if we could arrange a trip for Monday. The guesthouse where we were booked in Dumaguete ran trips to Apo, so we emailed them on Sunday morning to let them know we were interested.

The first thing we asked when we checked in late Sunday afternoon was about an Apo Island trip the next day. They needed 4 divers to go, but another couple had mentioned it, so they'd ask them. Later that night the front desk let us know that the trip was on.

We ended up being a group of 6 divers and 2 dive masters. We rode in the back of a truck from Dumaguete to Dauin, where the boat was, before taking the 7km boat ride to Apo.

The trip was infinitely better than either ferry ride although it took about the same amount of time. Being in the open air is so much nicer. It's been a while since we've been on a dive boat that isn't a liveaboard though.

There was no where to go between dives but relax on deck and enjoy a picnic lunch and stunning scenery.

We dove three sites in the crystal clear water around Apo, and it really is like Disneyland. The visibility was phenomenal. Every time we entered the water I was sure I was going to hit bottom when we jumped in because it just looked so close. I was shocked on the first dive to look at my depth gauge and find that we were 30 meters down. The light was so good, I would have guessed we were in much shallower water. (I paid attention after that. That's a good way to get yourself a trip to a decompression chamber.)

We saw several critters on my wish list: a frog fish the size of a dinner plate (a black one though, not any of those crazy colors), some awesome shrimp including a boxer, really fantastic varieties of coral, and Mandarin fish (!!), though they were being very shy. [Links go to Google Images]

I, of course, wished the whole time I had a camera so I could show you the incredible things we saw, but Kyle, as usual, was glad I didn't. (I get very, um, involved in the camera when I have it). Regardless, I'm so glad it worked out even if all we had to show for it were dive hair and entries in the dive logs.

Siquijor

2011-08-18T13:00:00.000+08:00

Siquijor is its own little island province and the coastal road that circles the island is only 72km long. It's a quiet island, with lots of small villages. Beaches ring the perimeter and [small] mountains in the interior hide waterfalls and quarries and rumors of healers brewing traditional medicines.

So you know what we did as soon as we woke up on Sunday morning, right?

After a relaxing and low key Saturday evening, we spent the day Sunday exploring the island, adding to our rice paddy photo collection (rice is just so green and pretty!):

Checking out the beaches:

And rounding bends in the road to find gorgeous coves:

We visited the coral-stone San Antonio de Padua Church built in 1857 in the village of Lazi.

Since it was Sunday, there were services going on. The entire town seemed to be gathered in the shade of the enormous and awesome tree in front of the church enjoying their Sunday. We got lots of attention pulling up on our bike.

We stopped interrupting their Sunday and headed up into the mountains to visit the Cambugahay Falls. We'd been warned of "Organized Child Crime" (seriously, that was the warning) at the falls and heard stories of children hanging out in trees until a wallet or camera was left unattended and quickly climbing down and grabbing it. So we left the cameras locked in the bike seat. I looked around and didn't see anyone hanging out in trees, but I didn't feel like hiking back to the road at that point, so you'll have to just imagine it.

The falls were lovely though, several levels of cool green pools (similar to the ones in Laos). A group of guys was hanging out when we arrived and there was only one other woman there, so I skipped the actual swimming (I didn't feel like stripping down to a bathing suit with the audience), but Kyle jumped in and did a flip off of one of the ledges to great applause from the onlookers.

When we were nice and cooled off, we headed back to Lazi to peek inside the church (I loved the blue ceiling and the gorgeous wooden floors!)

We'd considered staying on Siquijor longer, but we wanted to get a dive in and needed to head back to Dumaguete to arrange a trip, so Sunday evening we took the ferry back. This time we booked with a different ferry company though--one that offered open windows, fresh air, and a sun deck if you wanted it. Still, none of the ferries are exactly luxury travel:

One so-long shot of Siquijor through the window:

(The windows did get closed halfway through the trip though because everyone was getting wet.)

Then we headed to the island of Negros.

Planes, Another Plane, Ferry, Etc.

2011-08-17T13:00:00.005+08:00

After the drama earlier in the week, we were a little shocked that we actually arrived in the Philippines early on Saturday morning. We left Singapore at 1:30 am, had a short, painless layover in Manila, then continued on to Dumaguete. We were headed for the Visayas, a group of thousands of islands (seriously) that lie in the middle of the Philippines made of up of 15 or so provinces.

Dumaguete is the capital of Negros Oriental (the Eastern province on Negros island). When we landed on Saturday morning we went straight to the pier and bought tickets for the 1:30 ferry to Siquijor (pronounced "siggy-hor" by everyone). I'd hoped to get to Siquijor much earlier than that, but the two earlier ferries were sold out, so we needed to wait.

After an overnight flight and with luggage still in tow, we weren't up for much on Saturday morning, so we spent our morning at a restaurant on Dumaguete's ocean front, Rizal St, snacking and visiting with our seatmate on the flight, an Australian aid worker who was also headed to Siquijor.

By 1:30 we were fed, somewhat rested, and ready for the ferry. Our boat was equipped with what looked (and felt!) like rejected airline seats. The crossing was almost an hour. Toward the end, I started imaging how we'd all be stuck there if the ferry were to sink, unable to get out of our cramped seats and through the bolted shut windows. It wasn't my favorite 45 minutes of an already long trip.

We arrived in Siquijor at 2:30 pm, 13 hours after we left Singapore, 26 hours since we'd last slept. The port where we arrived in the ferry was absolutely stunning--white sand, turquoise waters, and one outrigger picturesquely situated in the shallows. Walking down the dock, Kyle perked up a bit at the sheer beauty, but I was too tired to fish the camera out at that point for a picture. Trust me when I say that view may have been the only thing that renewed Kyle's faith in my trip-planning skills.

Then it was into a tricycle (basically a two-seater side car for a motorbike) to our cottage at the northwest tip of the island. (That's our driver, Romeo, cell phone in hand.)

When we finally arrived, we were ready for showers and rest. We spent the afternoon taking it easy with a walk down the main road and then wandering along the beach and enjoying the sea breeze (Kyle's hair is really coming into its own)...

We had an early dinner as the sun set.

Not a quick trip at all, but the Philippines was looking awfully pretty, which was a nice welcome gesture.

The Trip that Almost Wasn't

2011-08-16T13:01:00.000+08:00

Back at the end of June I found a great price for two direct, round trip tickets to the Philippines over Singapore's National Day holiday on August 9. Kyle was in the US at the time, so there was a flurry of trans-Pacific emailing about whether or not we should take off a few days and spend some time exploring a new Southeast Asian country. I've been researching the Philippines for a while now, so we definitely wanted to go, but we needed to make sure that the trip would work with both of our work schedules.

Turns out the timing was good. Kyle would have Tuesday off. For just 2 vacation days (for him) we could spend Friday night through Wednesday in the Philippines. I was at a good spot in my schedule as well, so on June 30, I bought the tickets direct from Singapore to Cebu on AirPhil Express.

On Monday, August 1--before we were supposed to leave on Friday--I realized that we had a problem.

From: Alli
To: Kyle
9:22 am, Monday morning

PROBLEM

I just checked this flight to get the exact cost (so I could put it in our spreadsheet) and it's now showing a flight over-nighting in Manila. AUGH. I'm calling now.

Our nice little direct flight? Now replaced with a seven hour layover in Manila in the middle of the night. And no one told us anything. So I start calling AirPhil Express. And keep calling. And keep calling. Sometimes I get cut off. Sometimes the automatic menu won't work. But most of the time it just rings and rings. Finally at 1:30 I talk to someone.

From: Alli
To: Kyle
1:30 pm, Monday afternoon

I got someone! She said they'll give me a full refund. And they are "honoring" the flight in that they'll get us to Cebu, just not direct. She was very polite and apologized and looked for other flights for me, but no explanation.

I got off the phone without accepting the refund, because we still wanted to go. And as annoyed as we were that they hadn't told us about the schedule change, at least we still had a flight.

I quit worrying about the flight at that point to get some work done. Monday night, we looked at our options and decided we wanted to keep part of the AirPhil Express flight, but catch at Cebu Pacific flight that would leave Manila earlier. Yes, we'd be flying all night, but at least we wouldn't be stranded in the Manila airport for hours and hours.

On Tuesday morning I start trying AirPhil Express again. After just a handful of tries, I get through.

From: Alli
To: Kyle
9:38 am, Tuesday morning

Ok, I just got through to AirPhil and she told me the spiel about the flight being canceled, so you're on the Manila flight, blah blah blah, BUT THEN... oh by the way, you don't have a ticket. Because there was a problem with your issuing bank and your ticket was voided on July 1.

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

So on Tuesday, before we were supposed to leave on Friday, we had no ticket at all. Room reservations, yes. Flight, no.

In the Philippines there is a national sense of fatalism--bahala na, a phrase that (according to my guidebook) expresses the idea that all things shall pass and in the meantime life is to be lived. Whatever happens... so be it.

After much frustration and prayer, we decided to embrace that spirit. We dumped the whole AirPhil Express experience, booked new (and valid) tickets on Cebu Pacific, and called it a day. We'd fly through Manila overnight, but arrive in Dumaguete, the provincial capital we actually wanted to go to, and bypass the 4-hour ferry I'd planned from Cebu.

You know, if everything went according to plan.

Disorder Watch

2011-08-04T10:09:00.000+08:00

We interrupt this program to alert you that we are on Disorder Watch, meaning we are carefully watching for signs that my rare and painful disorder is returning.

We are taking all necessary steps to avoid recurrence or relapse. I am essentially banned from the kitchen for the rest of the month. You can find more details about the disorder here.

Balls of Joy

2011-07-30T23:12:00.001+08:00

We've been holding out on you, faithful reader(s?). We've only mentioned Balls of Joy once, in passing! I can't believe we've left you so unaware of one of the highlights of Singapore life.

Balls of Joy is a nickname a friend of ours gave the sweet potato balls they sell at a stall at Maxwell hawker center. This is Maxwell. Somewhere in there (there are 3 rows like this) is the sweet potato ball stand.

Unfortunately we don't have a single picture of a sweet potato ball, which is shocking considering how often we like to photograph our food and how often we like to enjoy sweet potato balls. They are deep fried balls of sweet potato that are light and chewy and slightly sweet and really smooth and awesome and... joyful. We discovered them during the Eat-a-Thon. They have a die-die-must-try rating in the Makansutra.

The extremely sad news is that for the past few weeks, the sweet potato ball stand has been closed. We don't know why. In light of a real shortage of sweet potato balls--you know where this is going, don't you?--we decided to learn to make them ourselves.

Turns out, learning how to make something you can't even adequately describe is tough. Especially since it likely involves ingredients you've never used before and may not even know exist. Namely: Glutinous Rice Flour. Thankfully, I figured out early on that this was necessary after searching the internet. I couldn't find a sweet potato ball recipe, but I did come to the conclusion that Asian "ball" deserts were likely made with this stuff. And of course "glutinous" sounded promising for the chewy and smooth center we were hoping for.

Attempt #1: The very first attempt was on Thursday night. I (foolishly) thought I'd whip some up before DG and bring them to surprise our small group. I used yellow Japanese sweet potatoes which wasn't right. And there was a sugar casualty.

These ended up being Balls of General Pleasantness (as much as deep fried potato is pleasant), but they were nothing like the target.

Attempt #2-7: We decided that a joint effort was called for, so today Kyle and I went all out in pursuit of Sweet Potato Ball goodness--three and a half hours of recipe testing! (according to the time stamp on our pictures). We started with orange sweet potatoes.

We tested three different sweet potato to rice flour ratios, and tweaked these with sugar and salt.

We compared taste and texture.

Once we decided on the best ratio, we tested frying time based on size and texture.

We took lots of notes (like any good scientists would when doing experiments).

We ended up with a lot of discarded samples.

And we probably consumed more oil than is legally allowed. We're not there yet. But we are closer than we were.

More Pops

2011-07-28T11:19:00.002+08:00

We made a decent dent in our pops collection, so last weekend I made two more varieties: minty limeade and coke float.These might be the best yet. They were much simpler than the other varieties (which were pretty simple to start with) and I have been going through these like there's no tomorrow.

Pop count yesterday: 4.
(I was going to try for none today, but now that I'm writing this... I'm not sure I'll make it.)

The minty limeade ones are my favorite. They are icy and tart and perfect. They remind me a lot of the mint syrup I make for tea and I love that stuff, so of course it makes sense that I'd love it frozen. But I've always loved Coke floats, so those are pretty awesome too. Mini Coke floats on a stick!

Minty Limeade
1/2 cup of sugar
1 skinny cucumber sliced thin
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 cup mint leaves
1 and 3/4 cup of water

Boil sugar, half of the cucumber slices, lime juice, mint, and water together until the sugar is fully dissolved. Strain. Add 1 tsp lime zest. Put one or two cuke slices in each pop mold. Pour in the strained syrup. Freeze for 1-2 hours and then add your stick. Continue freezing until solid.

Coke Float

Pour Coke into a bowl and let it sit out until it gets pretty flat, otherwise it will foam up when you try to pour it into your little containers. A few vigorous stirs will help release the bubbles. Put a spoonful of vanilla ice cream in the pop mold and pour Coke on top. Make as few or as many as you'd like. These tend to "grow" a bit while freezing, so don't fill your molds too full. Freeze for 1-2 hours and then add your stick. Continue freezing until solid.

While we're at it, can I rave about the mini paper cups as pop molds? I looked at all the many pop molds on Amazon and none of them get really great reviews: They're too big. The plastic breaks when they're frozen. They are hard to get out. You have to run water on the molds to get the pops out so it's hard to remove one at a time. The sticks come up when you pull on them. Etc. Etc.

Paper cups are single servings, and a nice size too. To remove them, I simply hold the cup in my hand for a second or two to warm it and push gently at the bottom of the cup. Every pop has come out easily. Plus the cups sit down nicely, so you can take a break if you need to.

(I put both of these back in the freezer after I took pictures. Pop count today: 0... so far.)

Retreat

2011-07-19T23:09:00.000+08:00

We got out of town again this weekend, but this time we only went as far as the tip of Singapore. We went for a weekend retreat with our friends from church and stayed in colonial bungalows on Changi beach. The weather was really lovely and we spent most of the weekend outside enjoying our friends and a little quiet time.

We were close to the Changi boardwalk, so along with some friends I walked down by the ocean and enjoyed the view of the sea and Pulau Ubin with not a freighter in sight.

And stuck around long enough to enjoy the sunset.

Kyle, however, stayed back at the bungalow. The bungalows were equipped with a BBQ pit; you know Kyle had to get some of that. We made burgers and brats and Nepalese grilled chicken and veggie kabobs and mango salad and orzo salad. At some point in the preparation, Germaine said that she sensed a definite "Go Big or Go Home" theme. That wasn't our intention necessarily; it's just the only way we know how to do things. But even with an awesome spread, the biggest hit was still probably the grilled banana splits.

Silhouettes

2011-07-14T22:51:00.001+08:00

My dear friend Charlotte is expecting and she wanted to announce the news to her family in a special way. She comes from a family of four girls that has grown even larger with her nieces and nephews. A couple of years ago I'd seen a silhouette family tree announcing a new baby, and I thought it was such a great idea--especially for a big family. So we decided on a family tree of silhouettes to show the whole crew and introduce the newest member-to-come.

She sent me profile shots she had taken over the holidays of every member of the family. The children were posed, but several of the adults' were candid (read: surprise) shots.

Using Photoshop, I removed the background from each picture and did a rough clip of the face. Then using Illustrator I finished and smoothed the silhouette.

I did this for each of the 17 family members and then created two generic "baby" silhouettes for Charlotte's baby and her sister who is also expecting. They are a curly-headed bunch.

For her parents' card, I arranged all of the silhouettes together with the new baby in white to stand out. Charlotte knew her mother would spend time studying each of the pictures and she wanted the new baby to be immediately obvious.

For her sisters' cards, we used an accordion fold card with the definition of aunt on the front.

The inside of the card was a timeline with each of the nieces and nephews in the order of birth. Their names and birthdays were above/below each silhouette (blurred out here for privacy). The final panel announced the newest addition.

I think it turned out really well and it was so much fun to do. Of course I'm thrilled for Charlotte and was happy to have a tiny part in the excitement.

(Roughly) 2 Year Singapore Anniversary

2011-07-13T11:34:00.000+08:00

We arrived in Singapore on June 4th, 2009, although we didn't move into our own apartment until July 1, and I did not start work until July 15th. I don't recall if we did anything special to commemorate our 1 year anniversary in Singapore, but after Alli returned from her China trip, we decided it was about time for date night.

We racked our brains (very briefly) before deciding that a trip to the French Stall in Little India would fill the bill. Fitting because a) we came here on our very first trip to Singapore, in 2007! and b) you may recall this was part of a birthday present for Alli, right after we arrived, in 2009.

We had a great dinner, and this time, failed to photograph any of our food. But here we are:

Happy (roughly) 2 year anniversary in Singapore, Kyle and Alli!!

Pops

2011-07-11T12:44:00.000+08:00

Another kitchen experiment while Kyle was gone was pops. I wanted him to have a little present when he got home since we were only going to overlap by an hour or so. We'd been looking for good icy treats for a while--something with recognizable ingredients that didn't taste like fake sugar and I wasn't having a ton of luck. So when I saw two pops recipe books at the library, I decided to make some myself.

I made three varieties: mango with ginger, Mexican chocolate, and coconut with a dash of cinnamon. There were lots of yummy-sounding fruit varieties involving strawberries and raspberries but I can't find either of those easily (or affordably) in Singapore.

The mango pops are made from mangoes blended with a ginger syrup. Very fruity. One of Kyle's favorites.

The Mexican chocolate pops had chocolate, brown sugar, cinnamon and a hint of pepper melted together. Kyle's other favorite.

The coconut pops were shredded coconut, coconut milk, whipped cream, and cinnamon. These are less sweet and thus my favorite.

I don't have pop molds, though there are a lot for sale on Amazon right now. I used mini paper cups, like the tiny Dixie cups you may have in your bathroom, and plastic cocktail picks. They worked really well.

It's nice to have a little homemade treat in the freezer.

The US - Post Alli

2011-07-10T19:38:00.003+08:00

Alli thinks I should blog about all of the things I did after she left me all alone in the US--one of the few times since we've been married that I've spent time alone with my family. There's not actually *that* much to talk about, but I should at least share a few photos.

First up, I need to share as I believe I did last time, the beauty that is the beer scene in the USA. This shot was snapped at a co-op in Carrboro, NC. It is a beautiful wall of fantastic beer. And it is ridiculously cheap when compared to SG prices. So, I had a few of those. While Alli was still there, and again after she left.

Another highlight of a trip back to the US is of course eating the foods you've missed. We made sure to hit Wendy's, Chipotle, Chik-Fil-A, In-N-Out Burger, Zaxby's, and more Mexican food- oh and the peach shake at Hardee's, don't miss it. Yes, there's a reason Americans tend to be a bit overweight. Yum. We all went out to Fatz for dinner one night and I had a Southern specialty, shown below-- shrimp and grits. This one comes with lots of bacon and cheese and goodness.

Other than that, for the remnant of my time in Aiken, I spent a lot more time with family and good friends, several who made significant drives to come see me. I got to grill steaks, and was lucky to be there while USC was winning the College World Series- a nice backdrop to catching up with friends.

Then it was off to LA for my first time, for the Wnt 2011 conference. You saw me talk about this kind of meeting before, so go there to read what that means if you don't know. This time I was there to present a poster covering some of my data. Here's a shot sufficiently blurry that nobody is likely to learn anything from it.

The meeting was a very involved affair. I managed to get into LA just early enough that our great friends Jack and Yula (yes Alli just saw them by herself a couple weeks earlier and reported back) could come pick me up from the airport, shuttle me to my hotel and out for some dinner, where little Jonah woke up just long enough to briefly say hi:

And that's the only picture I took in my time with them. Thanks again guys, for fitting into what little free time I had.
As I was saying, meeting was involved, starting on most mornings at 8 a.m. and running to 10 p.m. That doesn't leave time for sightseeing, and I didn't do any. No Santa Monica Pier, no Hollywood, etc. Next time...

For its part, I was impressed with the LA weather. Hot in the sun, cool in the shade. Long sleeves almost a requirement in the evenings. And generally just beautiful. Wish I'd taken more pictures of that- but maybe the blue skies and green vegetation shown here will give you a clue:

Well, maybe just hardly. This is the back porch off of the meeting conference lecture hall. As you can see, they are setting up a buffet dinner to go with poster presentations. Anyway it was pretty.

Finally, the last thing I did without Alli was get on another plane to come back home to her. Luckily, companies in Singapore support their national carrier, which just happens to be kinda the best in the world. So on this occasion, I decided to just take a picture like the rest of the Singaporeans on the plane were doing (they take a ridiculous number of pictures of themselves in the airport, getting on the plane, in the plane, of the plane...)

Collectively, I think I watched about 12 movies on my two international flights. I hate to say it, but that journey isn't even all that painful anymore, at least when flying SQ.

I arrived back in Singapore Tuesday at 3 a.m., hurried home, and was able to spend a solid hour with Alli before she caught her 4:45 cab to the airport, destination China. Luckily, that's all over now, and we are enjoying our time together with no immediate plans to go anywhere solo again.

Gazpacho

2011-07-08T18:29:00.000+08:00

I came home after South Carolina and Kyle headed to LA for work. We passed each other in the middle of the night as he returned and I left for China. But now we're both back. At the same time. In the same country! Hooray!

While I was home alone I had a gazpacho craving and realized that we've never blogged about gazpacho. Shameful. (Only because this is our online cookbook and I had to look elsewhere for my recipe if it wasn't here.) So I'm rectifying that.

Gazpacho is all about chopping (unless you have a food processor). It's a vegetable soup served cold and I think it's extremely wonderful and worth all the knife work.

My recipe calls for peeled tomatoes, which I used to do by hand with a paring knife, which is foolish. I wondered if the internets had a better idea this time and they did! Boil some water. Drop your tomato in for 20-30 seconds. Peeling done!!

It just slides right off! Brilliant.

So besides tomatoes, here's the pile of stuff to chop and mix.

2 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 cucumber, peeled and chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons lime juice
1.5 tablespoons lemon juice
1 liter tomato juice
1 teaspoon tarragon
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon honey
dash of hot pepper sauce
1/4 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper

I chop everything finely (I don't have a food processor), but I like my gazpacho chunky. You can even blend it if you want and serve it smooth. Whatever you prefer. Once you've mixed everything together let it chill for at least 2 hours.

Perfect for summer with crusty warm bread.

On to Georgia!

2011-07-01T10:58:00.000+08:00

[...and South Carolina, and North Carolina. It was a 5 state trip.]

After I'd been in the US for a week, Kyle arrived and we continued our ~~baby tour~~ trip in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. As always, we got to see way more people than we photographed. Kyle's friends are particularly awesome at coming from wherever they are to see us when we're in town and we're so grateful.

We spent Saturday night with John and Caylee (Soo and baby-to-be were out of town). We had Sunday brunch with Brook. Then we headed to South Carolina to see 5/6 of the Wheelons and meet Wyatt. We spent Monday and Tuesday with family and got to see JP, his daughter Skylar, and meet his wife, Lauren (they're expecting twins!). Wednesday morning we had lunch with Ryan before heading to North Carolina to meet Cohen and spend the night with Josh and Cristen. On the way home we met Ryan to visit Brandon and meet his wife, Nicole. Friday Jake, Chris and Amber came in to see us and we all got together to watch baseball. Saturday I got back on a plane and Kyle stayed put. It was a lot packed into a great visit. Now for some pictures! (Not pictured: lots of people. Adults, mostly.)

Caylee, John, and Kyle


Marie loving on Wyatt. (He was a much calmer photo subject than his sisters.)


Lauren, Skylar and JP

Family portraits.

Us paparazzi-ing Cohen with a weird guy in the background.

Kyle's favorite part. Miles logged: 1567

Nashvegas

2011-06-28T11:39:00.000+08:00

[back to the trip...]

I headed East from California to Nashville to see more friends than was really reasonable in my short visit and to be entirely inconsistent in my photo taking. That is always the case, really.

Ashley, Meg, Mary Clark and Kara picked me up at the airport, and besides a frustrating computer thing, we spent the afternoon playing kitchen and dress up and talking. It was great. (I told Kyle about the computer issue later, and he said "Don't you have a flash drive in your bag?" and I said, "Please don't make useful suggestions 12 hours late. It just upsets me.")

I tried to take some pictures, but the girls were far more interested in moving than my shutter speed issues. Child photography is really a special skill. So here are just two:

Meg being adorable.

MC also being adorable and Ashley looking freaking gorgeous.

I had dinner and spent the night with the Rosses and took not a single picture, which is extremely annoying because the boys are about three times the size they were the last time I saw them.

The next day Jodi and Charlotte and the kids (Jodi's two and Charlotte's baby-to-be) picked me up and we spent all day Friday running around... to SATCO to fulfill Baby D's cheese dip craving:

to the sorority house to let the kids run around and be silly:

to a crafts fair in Centennial Park where we wandered for a bit and let Sophie smell the "flowers":

to baby stores that were having a sale to buy Baby D some pretty things for next year (it's a girl!), and finally to Arington Vineyards for a Calypso picnic, live music, and a wine tasting for Jodi and me.

Saturday Charlotte went to see other Nashville friends and Jodi, Chad and the kids drove me to Atlanta to meet Kyle. We learned several things on this car trip but the most important was probably that Sophie does, in fact, get car sick, poor thing.

As usual, it was far too fast, but really awesome at the same time.

[Besides the car sick part, of course.]

Reader Question of the Week!

2011-06-27T14:16:00.001+08:00

And now for the Travel is Fatal Reader Question of the Week! [TiF's RQOTW starts--and likely ends--with this post.]

Alli, is this a real depiction of the Sky Park there?

As I’ve told you, I enjoy your articles so very much and love and adore your grandmother. Isn’t she the greatest mentor of all time?

Look forward to your next writing.

God Bless,

Judy

Well Ms. Judy, yes, my grandmother is an excellent mentor. She also told me she didn't think you'd mind if I gave you a shout out on the blog. Thanks for writing in!

Oh wait... maybe that wasn't the question I was supposed to be answering.

Ms. Judy got an email [not from us] with pictures of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. The email read:

June 24 in Singapore , opened a new wonder of the world. " Sky Park " Marina Bay Sands is located on the 200-meter height on the three skyscrapers, as if on three pillars. Here is the most expensive in the world of casinos, bars, restaurants, the largest outdoor swimming pool, 150 meters long and even the Museum of Modern Art. ADD TO YOUR BUCKET LIST!!!

Photo from original email.

How timely! The week before I went to California, I had a tour of Marina Bay Sands. And if you think these pictures are impressive, you should see the ones in their promotional material. Wow.

Aside from the fact that the grammar is a bit questionable and I think the all-caps bit at the end is unnecessarily bossy, the email is basically correct. The Marina Bay Sands complex opened at the end of April 2010 and is convention space, a hotel, a casino, a theater, lots of shopping and restaurants, and the ArtScience museum, [which--tangent--has a Van Gogh exhibit right now that I'd like to see, but tickets are $30 each, which for a former DC girl, seems steep.] I'm not sure "the most expensive in the world" is much of a selling point, but it is fancy.

The three towers are hotel rooms, the SkyPark is across the top, and the museum, casino, shopping, etc are across the street in the much lower buildings on the water. There are gardens currently under construction on the opposite side of the hotel that will include a greenhouse for "temperate plants."

I was told this on my tour and it struck me as really funny. At home we build hot and steamy greenhouses for orchids and tropical plants. Here, they're building a greenhouse for the temperate plants: "Look, we really want some daffodils, so we're going to need a greenhouse with some air con!" Ha.

Photo from the original email

The SkyPark is 200 meters in the sky on top of the three hotel towers and features the world's highest and largest outdoor infinity pool along with a couple of restaurants and garden space. The curved end in this picture is the area that is open to the public for a $20 fee. The rest of the space is for hotel guests only and there's a club house and restaurant up there.

While I wasn't a hotel guest, I did get to see the pool on my tour. It does probably afford some of the best views of Singapore, but the day I was there the views were thus:

Still extremely nice, but a little hazy and Speedo-y for my taste.

The building is architecturally interesting, though, and does make an impressive addition to the Singapore skyline. This panorama was taken with the iPhone in mid-May, (the night of my birthday outing which I don't think we've mentioned), and I've been meaning to go out at night and take a real-camera better version. But in the meantime, here you go.

Shiny!

So yes, Ms. Judy, those pictures are an accurate representation and it is very nice. Especially on a clear day with a professional photographer. But I'm not sure the complex alone is bucket-list worthy.

June Gloom

2011-06-27T11:40:00.002+08:00

[And now we have retrospective blogging...]

I landed in LA on Monday morning, two weeks ago now, in the middle of "June Gloom", which is what two different people called it--an LA thing, I guess. It was foggy and gray, but I still had a nice time. Monday afternoon it cleared up for a bit and I got to meet the extremely handsome Jonah, new son of Jack and Yula (formerly of Singapore).

They were awesome enough to pick me up at the airport, let me shower, then take me to brunch and walking a bit. It was great to see them and visit. I didn't bring my camera because of the gray weather, but by the time we got to the Santa Monica Pier, it was actually gorgeous.

(My shirt, Philip, was a gift from a friend in the US. Jonah is snoozing, covered, in the stroller between us. You know how the paparazzi are.)

I met a colleague for dinner and then settled into my extremely cozy hotel for the night. I don't know what the Angelenos think about the weather in June, but it was pretty crisp and awesome at night and I was loving it. I sent Kyle a "wish you were here" photo of my thumb and my fireplace.

Thanks to jet lag, I was up early on Tuesday morning, so I did a bit of work and then went for an early morning walk on the Strand and the pier to watch the surfers.

Then we headed south where I spent the next two days in conference rooms, but not before stopping to see the cliffs at Palos Verdes...

and to have an In-N-Out burger, which is sort of a thing in LA. It was a great burger. But I may have been more pleased by the fountain Dr. Pepper. (Spoiler: the next two weeks involved a LOT of Dr. Pepper.)

Tanjong Pagar

2011-06-14T23:17:00.002+08:00

On Sunday, Germaine organized (i.e. provided the kick to our collective behinds) a trip to the Tanjong Pagar (soft J, hard G) rail station before it's closed at the end of June. It was an eating/photography trip, which is really what most of our trips are.

The train station is owned and operated by the Malaysian rail company and is technically Malaysian land. Thanks to a disagreement between Singapore and Malaysia, if you're taking the train to Malaysia from Tanjong Pagar you go through customs and enter Malaysia here, even though you don't technically leave Singapore for several more miles at the actual border.

Travelers lined up for immigration on one side of the tracks. Lots of people having lunch on the other side.

The Malaysian flags make it abundantly clear that you are technically entering another country at this point.

The two countries have finally agreed to have all immigration done at one point at the border, and Singapore traded some other land for this old train station in the heart of the city. It will close in June, and after that there's talk of preserving the old building while moving new businesses in.

Not pictured: me (duh) and Ruth and Kelvin (who weren't there yet)

It was a good time to eat lots of Malaysian-style mee goreng, donuts, and prata and snapped pictures before this all changes.

Customs inside the station.

Mosaics inside the station.

Amanda sets up her shot. (Pic stolen from G's facebook.)

I set up my shot and Kyle makes sure I don't fall onto the rails.(Again, stolen from G's facebook.)

Mee goreng.

Project Yogurt

2011-06-07T22:55:00.000+08:00

I miss our farm share. (That may seem to have very little to do with yogurt, but stay with me here.) I miss knowing exactly where my food came from and what I'm eating. I miss the kitchen experiments and eating so much that was homemade. We'd heard from an Indian friend here that making yogurt is easy. They make their own yogurt each week. So in the name of kitchen experiments and homemade food, we finally made homemade yogurt on Sunday.

And I have to say, man, that was easy, and it fulfilled a need to be back in charge--at least somewhat--of what we're eating.

We started out with yogurt, the most natural I could find:

This does seem like missing the point--buying yogurt to make yogurt--but just like bread you need a starter. Once you make your first batch, you never need store bought yogurt again. It is possible to buy yogurt cultures somewhere, or you can use any regular yogurt with live and active cultures. I read that you need 2 Tbsp for 4 cups of milk. Too little and it won't work. Too much and you didn't actually need that much. I used half a cup of yogurt for about 4 cups of milk completely arbitrarily and it turned out great. I miss the experiments.

First you heat your milk until it's about boiling, but don't let it burn. Then cool it down to about 100-115 degrees. Alton Brown says more than 115 degrees will kill the bacteria, so keep it cooler than that. But you still want a nice, warm environment for them.

If you're trying to heat up your milk while also making pancakes, be careful. You know my stove doesn't like to multitask. At one point the stovetop got really hot and we had to turn off the milk because we were afraid we were going to break it again.

Whisk your yogurt into your milk, and keep it warm. I wrapped my cast iron dutch oven in a towel and let it sit in my 90-95 degree kitchen. If you have access to a crock pot, that seems to work really well. Here are some great crock pot instructions.

We let our sit for about 8 and a half hours--all day on Sunday. That night, we unwrapped it...

to find a pot of milk!

Just kidding! It was actually semisolid! [the above is a spoon mark, in case that was unclear] And it definitely smelled and tasted like [room temperature] yogurt.

We put it into clean glass jars and stuck it in the fridge. Monday morning, I had some for breakfast with a drizzle of honey and chopped walnuts. Yum.

It tasted exactly like the Yoplait I started with and was the same consistency: not really thick, but definitely not as thin as milk. Decidedly yogurt.

I really like strained or Greek yogurt though. You can get that in Singapore, but it's not quite as common and something like Fage tends to be much more expensive.

So I decided to strain about half of my yogurt stock to see if I could thicken it. Alton Brown says to use four layers of cheesecloth in a colander. Other people use coffee filters. I have neither of those things. But I did find a cloth bag Kyle uses to make beer.

I'm sure that says something about also good for yogurt.

The yogurt started draining right away. I left it in the fridge because it is so warm here, but I read about people hanging it over their faucet to drip in the sink. I let mine drain for just a few hours, but it made a big difference in the consistency of the yogurt.

Much thicker and creamier. Very yum. You can stir in flavorings here if you want them--honey, fruit, vanilla, whatever.

All in all, the process took about a full day from starting to enjoying, but very little hands on time. I set aside 1/2 cup right away to use as the starter for the next batch when we get low on this. The cost comparison is whatever the cost comparison is between milk and yogurt in your location. For us, that's fairly significant, which is a nice plus.

Now if this is only mildly interesting, but not really because you don't eat a lot of yogurt, I highly recommend that you try cooking with it. It makes a great base for dips or dipping sauces. We use it instead of sour cream a lot because sour cream can be pretty hard to find here. But my favorite option is to use it to marinate chicken thanks to my favorite Indian cookbook. If you're up for it, here's a weeknight, super-quick chicken recipe adapted from Mangoes and Curry Leaves.

Yogurt-Marinated Chicken
1 lb boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1 T minced garlic
¼ cup garlic chives/chives/scallions/onion
1.25 t salt
.5 t pepper
2 T veggie oil
½ cup yogurt
1-2 lemons or limes in wedges

Mix your marinade well, coat your chicken, and marinate for 1 to 2 hours in the fridge. [this is a very relaxed estimate]. Broil or grill until done.

The finished product doesn't have anything "yogurt-y" about it. You leave most of it in the marinade container and the rest cooks off while broiling. You're left with really moist and tender chicken, gently flavored with garlic, chives and lime.

No Phones, No Lights, No Motorcars

2011-05-25T08:20:00.000+08:00

(Actually, we had lights.)

As we alluded to on Friday, we ran off for a quick dive trip this weekend. It was the same boat that we dove on last August for our anniversary dive, and it really makes for an amazing trip.

The MV Diverace spends half the year (or so) in Phuket, but when the Phuket monsoons come through and the dive season is over there, it comes south to Singapore. From April to August, the boat runs dive trips from Singapore and it really makes for the best dive trips (if not the absolute best dives).

I've mentioned this before, but you aren't supposed to fly for 24 hours after diving. So a dive trip anywhere outside of Singapore involves a flight there, usually one night on land if you get in at night, get on the boat first thing the next morning, dive, then return to the port, another night on land, and then catching a flight back to Singapore. This is very important to staying safe and healthy, but it does add expense and time to the trip that you're not actually using diving.

Diving from Singapore, however, requires none of that. Leave after work on Friday, take a 20 minute cab ride to the ferry terminal. Hop on the boat. Dinner that night on the boat, wake up the next morning in Malaysian waters, dive all day. Sunday morning get a few dives in by lunch time and take a leisurely cruise back to Singapore's harbor. Dinner on the boat. Breeze through customs thanks to the awesome customs machines. Home by 8:30 on Sunday night.

No flights. No hotels. No vacation days. No internet. No phone. No drama. Just great diving. Good Thai food (this boat has a Thai crew). Lots of relaxed, unplugged, time together.

The view from the boat heading back to Singapore at sunset.

(No dive pictures this time--no camera. But if you are in dive picture mood, you can check out some of ours above. See? I finally updated the thumbnails across the top of the blog. And some of them are dive pictures. Whoo hoo!)

Still Trying to Get to Malaysia

2011-05-24T09:24:00.000+08:00

We're still trying to get to Malaysia on our bikes. It's a goal now. So last weekend [the weekend before the dive trip] we tried another route.

19.54 miles round trip / 31.44 km (I wasn't feeling 100% so it was a short trip.)

Yes, I am aware that Malaysia is NORTH of Singapore and this route has us headed SOUTH, but as we mentioned last time we biked to Malaysia, we can't cross the main bridge on bikes. Instead, we need to take a ferry and the ferries are on the eastern tip of the island. So we thought the best bet might be to head south to East Coast Park, and wrap around the island in the park.

This has the added advantage that East Coast Park is really lovely in a lot of ways. There were people camping and fishing and flying kites. There's a boardwalk area with lots of restaurants, bike rental places, and drink stands. We took a break and hung out by the beach for a while, and then had dinner at an Indian restaurant in the park before we came home.

It is slightly less lovely only in that there are a ton of people hanging out at the park on Sunday and they don't all respect the bike path. But we didn't hit anyone, so yay for that.

Still haven't actually made it to Malaysia, but we're making progress, I think.

Jonesing

2011-05-20T19:34:00.000+08:00

we're in Malaysia getting our fix

Please Draw "Pentateuch"

2011-05-14T11:24:00.000+08:00

[Blogger was acting up yesterday, which you may have noticed. It deleted this post, so I'm posting it again.]

Jiazi's only request for her Baptism Party (after I told her she had no choice on the menu) was that we play Bible Pictionary. So I went searching for Bible Pictionary cards. Turns out, they don't make that game anymore. But someone on the internet had gathered some of the words from the original game in case anyone wanted to make their own. Are you ready for this?

Baldhead, Nailprints, Twofold, Fourfold, Sevenfold, Sheepfold, Mespotamia, Talebearer, Bond-Servant, Aquila, Revelation, Cypress Tree, Myrtle Tree, Oak Tree, False Witness, Lillies of the Field, Stiffnecked, Persecute, Grape Cluster, Canaanites, Betroth, Raiment, Barbarous, Sepulchre, Consecrate, Wormwood, Temple Pinnacle, Bowl of Pottage, Outstretched, Gomorrah, Damascus, Pool of Siloam, Slow of Heart, Mount Hermon, Damnation, Inkhorn, Brood of Vipers, Babylonia, Lattice, Cold nor Hot, Pentateuch, Foal of a Donkey, Rye, Inlaid, Pillar of Salt, Eli, First Martyr, Widow's Mite, Spectacle, Sweet as Honey, Armholes, Fish Gate, Brimstone, Unknown Tongues, Aramaic, Alleluia, Coppersmith, Goldsmith, Silversmith, Golgotha, The True Vine, Cock Crowed [also Cock and Crowed have their own individual cards too], Time to Mend, Decline, Mephibosheth, Jochebed, Bar-Jesus, Jesus Calls Levi, Jesus Betrayed, Thief's Cross, Zebedee, Japheth, Batimaeus, Jairus' Daughter, meek, beatitudes...

I challenge you to draw me "Batimaeus" or "Pool of Siloam" or "Inlaid" or really any of those. How does one draw a language? Or better yet, unknown languages? And what is pottage? How do I draw a bowl of it that is distinguishable from a bowl of porridge? Or oatmeal? Or cereal?

Good grief.

So instead, Jiazi and I made up our own cards and we played boys vs. girls and periodically flipped over to see if the election results were in. (They weren't.)

We were also very high tech and played on a tablet connected to the TV. I didn't have a flip chart lying around.

The girls totally won. Even if Reuben disagrees.

Want to play? Here are a few screen shots I grabbed:

Amanda and I think you're doing a great job.

Siete de Mayo

2011-05-11T18:18:00.001+08:00

[Should we just move on? Or play catch up? And if we play catch up... should I backdate the posts so they show up in the order in which they occurred? Or would that be confusing? Or should I just post lots of little posts so that for the next week it looks like we're consistent bloggers? These are questions that plague me.]

Last Saturday was a big day: the Singaporean elections, Derby day, two days after Cinco de Mayo, and the two-week anniversary of our friend Jiazi's baptism. So we had a party. Here's the invitation:

Thursday is Cinco de Mayo (the 5th of May) which is the anniversary of a Mexican army victory that the Americans commandeered as an excuse for Mexican food and margaritas. And Kyle and I feel that there's really nothing like stealing a holiday from one country and introducing it to another!

You knew this was really about burritos, didn't you? It was a small get together because lots of people were taking advantage of the national holiday to be out of town. But it was still good fun. We got to introduce two Chinese people and one Singaporean to burritos. Hooray.

Amanda demonstrates the fine art of salting the rim of a cup. To which Bingjun was all, wait, what? You stick salt on the edge of your cup? Then how do you drink without getting salt in your mouth?

How, indeed, Bingjun? How, indeed?

[I've decided to go with little posts. Less overwhelming for me, more overwhelming for you!]

Happy Birthday!

2011-05-02T22:33:00.000+08:00

Ready for the party:

Enjoying Italian food and mussels:

Birthday cake:

Yes, that is a tomato on top of the cake. No, I don't know why.

Happy birthday, my love!

Balls in the Air

2011-04-30T17:18:00.003+08:00

Less than a week after I got home from the US, we had a 7-hour visit from Eric and Emily, our original Singapore hosts way (way) back in the day. They had a layover in Singapore and so they arrived at 11:20 p.m. and left again at 7 a.m.

We stayed up way too late catching up and I'm not sure that's really what they needed (surely they were hoping to actually SLEEP on the layover), but it was so good to see them face to face!

And we took some sleep-deprived group shots at 2:30 in the morning. Because that's always a good idea.

Good, Em's excited, but we can't see Eric.

Let me see, "Happy!"

Let me see... I have no idea what that was.

That's nice. Now, everyone go to bed.

The People in America

2011-04-28T16:51:00.002+08:00

[Ruthie suggested back dating, so I'm doing that to keep these guys all in order.]

I went to America for a couple of weeks in April for work but I didn't take a lot of pictures. In fact, I didn't get pictures of any of the friends I saw. I fail at photojouralism. But I did take some pictures of babies...

I tried to take a video of a toddler, but Lily thought she was posing for still pictures instead. Hilarious.

(I think this is showing up as one video and one picture... which is odd. Sorry about that. The video is the one with the play button.)

I got to surprise Kristen (of here and here and here) at her bridal shower and watch her open gifts her husband-to-be registered for.

And I got to see my family. (All of them, not just my mom. This is just the only picture I have... see again, Fail.)

Thailand on Two Wheels

2011-04-07T16:59:00.004+08:00

We've been a little blogged-out if you hadn't noticed. But there are still things to tell and pictures to share, so I guess we'll get back on the horse and plow ahead (metaphor!)

Northern Thailand! Yes, we spent a week in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai in March. And this trip may very well turn out to be pivotal in our traveling lives. Because of the motorbike. Before this trip, we definitely had a "Kyle and Alli don't do motorbikes" stance, primarily because both my brother and Kyle's uncle have had bad motorcycle accidents. But there's only so many times you can see four 10-year-old girls on the same bike all texting before you think, "You know, maybe we could do that. But with helmets."

So we did. In both Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai we rented motorbikes most days and roamed wherever we wanted with the GPS to guide us back home when the day was done.

The "white temple" outside of Chiang Rai was extremely odd and Dante-esque. Except Buddhist.

These platforms were in the middle of the river outside of Chiang Rai for chilling and picnicking.

The "silver temple" in Chiang Mai was much more to my liking. The entire structure is hammered silver. It's amazing and looks sharp.

Of course we did a little nature-observing on the way up to Doi Suthep, an important temple on a hill outside of Chiang Mai.

It's a very active temple.

We found some of the translations... confusing.

We also found random temples and rice paddies and teak workshops and lots of other interesting things to explore.

My only regret was that we didn't have someone with us to take a picture while we were riding. I had the shot all planned out in my head. The blurred green background would have been awesome!

Turns out we can do this. With helmets.

Motorbike, baby

2011-03-27T23:17:00.001+08:00

We've been to Northern Thailand, and there's lots to say about that, but we're still processing and thinking. However, we did rent a motorbike and covered many, many kilometers.

It was extremely lovely.

Painless

2011-03-12T15:29:00.000+08:00

There's something we've been meaning to rave about: Changi airport. They have instituted a new immigration procedure for residents and it is brilliant. And so easy. And we love it.

I would have pictures except that's probably illegal. So instead I will just tell you about it.

It's like self checkout at the grocery ( which we don't have here). You walk up to the lane and confirm for the nice lady overseeing 5 or 6 lanes that you are in fact a resident and not a wayward tourist. Slide your passport and the first gate opens. Enter the "pen" and let the scanner read your thumbprint. "Bon voyage!" The screen tells you, greeting you by name, and the second gate opens and you're in! When you return to Singapore, repeat. "Welcome to Singapore, Alli" the friendly screen says.

And that's it. No lines, no waiting, no cranky immigration, maybe 3 minutes total.

When Singapore does something right they really do it right.

(Although this is a bit random, this is not a paid advertisement. We just happen to spend a lot of time in airports and as Kyle said today, "that was painless!" We are fans of painless.)

Chingay 2011

2011-03-09T10:28:00.001+08:00

The weekend of Kyle's actual birthday (we are all out of order here these days!) was Chingay @ Heartlands in Singapore. We had no idea what that was, but Amanda and Reuben (of the underwater camera) assured us that it was happening in our neighborhood, and we might as well check it out since we didn't have far to go.

Turns out, Chingay is a uniquely Singaporean cultural festival/parade with some amazing floats and cultural presentations. The word Chingay is from the Hokkien (Chinese) dialect, of which the Mandarin equivalent is Zhuang Yi (妆艺), meaning "the art of masquerade".

The festival began as a neighborhood parade with only Chinese elements in 1973, but now all (most?) of Singpore's cultural groups are represented. The weekend before was a two-day event in the central business district, but on the 20th three smaller parades happened in "Heartlands" neighborhoods, one of which was ours.

We didn't follow the parade down the road, but instead scored a bird's eye view of the plaza in front of the library where the finale was happening. All evening there were musical performances at the amphitheater. The emcee was speaking in Mandarin, so I have no idea what was going on, but the music/dance all sounded like Korean pop.

We did have a nice view of the lion dance troupes hanging out until it was their turn.

There was a dragon dance, which was my first. It involved quite a surprising amount of fire, though it was really cool to see how they made the dragon weave and dance.

Then there was another kind of dragon dance which involved more fire and firecrackers which I thought were pretty loud. No pictures of that one, because I was too busy holding my ears. (Do you know my family? Yeah, I try to be careful with my hearing!)

Finally, they parted the crowds for the actual parade and floats to roll in, complete with politicians on a tour bus and ticker tape. Yay ticker tape.

I don't have great shots of the floats because they all lit up and it was dark, but they were extremely elaborate.

This one involves a cactus mariachi band in the front wearing sombreros. I am not so sure about this as I have not found Mexican culture widely represented here...

Anyway, my favorite ones were the Indian float that featured a huge peacock and dancing elephants around a lotus bloom:

The fire-breathing dragon with the Singapore Flyer in the back:

And the zoo/night safari float with an elephant, hippo, monkeys, crocs, and other creatures. The hippo sprayed water. Fancy.

Lake Baringo, the Equator, Goat, Kick Boxing, and the Super Bowl

2011-03-01T20:28:00.000+08:00

[and we're back to Kenya, last stop, promise]

After our thrilling safari adventure, we hopped the short flight back to Nairobi, where we hardly spent any time at all. About all we did was relax for half a day in Philip and Emily's apartment, and then went out to a big Ethiopian dinner with several of their friends (and Philip's brother, Andrew, who was in town for a couple of days). Thankfully, Andrew brought his camera to dinner, as my iphone shot is all darkness. Snagged from his facebook:

It was a first for Alli and myself. Basically it's lots of meat (though some veggie dishes) richly flavored, sitting on a big piece of injera, with rolls of injera for tearing off and hand scooping meat. Injera is just a kind of bread, but it has a spongy texture and very interesting soured flavor. I really had no idea what I was eating, but it was all good (and at least as far as I'm aware, the ordered items were all recognizable meats. As long as you consider goat a recognizable meat).

Philip and Emily enjoyed our company so much that they took Friday off from work so that they could drive the 4 of us up to Lake Baringo. We stocked up on some food items and headed up around noon (deftly avoiding the majority of Nairobi traffic). It's a 3-4 hour 2-lane drive to the north, through and alongside the great rift valley and across the equator (rift valley picture here). We drove right across the equator without even realizing it--but luckily for us, there was an exhibit set up to mark the place and attract tourists. We decided that we don't cross the equator in a car every day, so we made a stop. Two guides walked us through a small building with pro-Kenya tourism photos, describing each in detail. Next, Philip pulled his car up on the stage for a great photo opportunity:

(Those two flags are France on the Northern Hemisphere side and Israel on the Southern Hemisphere side. There were lots of flags and we have no idea what order they were supposedly in.)

We were informed by the guides of the interesting phenomena related to which side of the equator one is located on... such as the direction of whorl your hair may take depending on where you were conceived, and the famous toilet swirling (counter-clockwise drainage in the North, clockwise in the South). We nodded along. Once back in Singapore and unable to sleep from jetlag, I took the time to do some more research on the Coriolis effect, as this is called (the toilet bowl part.. can't say there's a name for the supposed hair whorling). The consensus seems to be this is a true effect, but could only be seen in very large volumes of water. Regular toilet flushing is apparently exempt, but the myth is perpetuated anyway.

Ahem. We got into our cabin on Lake Baringo in the late afternoon. We men got to work fixing dinner while the ladies relaxed. Our house was just about 1 full stride away from the water--where we knew there were definitely some crocodiles, and probably hippos nearby. There were no plans for swimming in this lake. viewing only. Unlike our protected spot on the Mara, we were definitely in the wild here, and the signage advised we just sit tight after dark. A strong cool breeze blew constantly off of the water and into our cabin. Once it did get good and dark, Alli and I were amazed by the number and intensity of the stars. I'm not sure how much of it was a perfectly clear night or how much further we were from light sources on Earth than other times, but I am pretty sure it was the most stars I've ever seen. You'd think in the woods of Maine, or in the hills of Laos, you might get just as good of a view, but this was better. The down side is that to really see the stars you had to step just out from under our cabin. I'd have loved to just lay down and stare for a while, but I did not want to be a hippo statistic.

The next day we took a boat ride on the lake--over to an island with natural sulfur springs (bubbling hot water, neat), and then just around to see the wildlife. Our guide pointed out no less than 40 different kinds of birds. We spotted a few crocodiles, and then boated in to a known hippo area (remember this is prior to reading the part about unprovoked attacks).

As we neared the herd, our guide informed us there were about 20 of them. As we could count only 6 or so, we were all very inquisitive about where the others were. When our boat ran across a submerged log, there was a brief fright. Similar to our experience with the rustling bushes by the river of 40 hippos, Alli and I asked our guide to just go ahead and take us back to the less hippo-populated areas.

We spent the rest of our time at the lake just relaxing and catching up with Philip and Emily, playing some card games, doing lots of reading:

bird watching and photographing:

eating well, and having a good time.

We closed our time in Kenya by cooking Southeast Asian for P+E, visiting them at work, a kickboxing class for Alli and Emily with one of the Kenyan national team coaches, and going to a real (only delayed to Kenyan prime time) Super Bowl party.
Oh, and juggling. There was quite a bit of juggling.

P+E: We had a fantastic time. THANK YOU! K+A

Birthday Trips and Christmas Presents

2011-02-28T22:00:00.001+08:00

We went to the wedding of good friends here on Kyle's actual birthday, so we saved our celebration for this past weekend: a quick dive trip to the Similan Islands in the Andaman Sea, northwest of Phuket, Thailand. And we got to break in our Christmas presents from our families: new dive boots and fins. Yay!

Once again our incredibly generous friends Amanda and Reuben loaned us their underwater camera. I think my photos are getting a little bit better with practice.

These were great dives.There were just so many fish, all sizes and colors and it was beautiful.

This turtle was having a hard coral snack and was completely unfazed by our presence. He just chomped away while we hovered. Awesome.

There were a few boulder dive sites this trip and I loved the boulder dives. We could swim through tunnels and holes and up over these massive rocks covered with coral. (Check out Kyle's fancy new fins. Merry Christmas to him!)

This moray eel stayed tucked in his hole but he watched us for a while.

These are Andaman Sweetlips and they are awesome. Pinstripes and polkadots!

This blue spotted ray was also very chill, resting at the base of the rock in the sand.

This is a picture of a thermocline. See the distortion? It's not blurry like bad photography, it's wavy. A thermocline is a layer of cold (cold!) water in the ocean. You swim right through it and suddenly everything looks and feels different.

Between dives we got to spend some time on one of the Similan islands, climbing on rocks, playing in the crystal clear water and baby-powder-fine sand, and generally enjoying paradise. We are fans of liveaboards that include chill time on practically deserted islands.

We spent our surface interval (i.e. the time we have to stay on land before it's safe to fly after diving) in Phuket before coming home last night. There were tropical drinks and massages and yummy Thai seafood.

Portrait of a happy birthday boy.

(I'll get all the pics up soon/eventually. But for now... these are your teaser.)

Happy Birthday!

2011-02-21T13:23:00.002+08:00

On Saturday (the actual birthday) we had a good friend's wedding here, so the full birthday celebrations have been delayed until this coming weekend when we're sneaking away for a few nights.

But birthday boys still need cake!

Happy birthday, my favorite.

(Photos--and cake delivery, actually--courtesy of Germaine)

Here kitty, kitty...

2011-02-20T23:26:00.000+08:00

We originally planned to head back to Nairobi on Wednesday morning. Sammy, our steward, shook his head knowingly on Tuesday afternoon. "You love it here. You'll stay," he told us. He was right. By Tuesday night we'd decided to stay until Thursday.

But even with the extension, Kyle had already decided he wasn't up for an early morning game drive before an early morning flight, so the Wednesday afternoon drive was our last chance.

And we were not disappointed.

Hello, Gorgeous.

We didn't actually come across a leopard strolling across the plains. We were on high leopard alert, but another jeep spotted her first, laying on a hillock watching a herd of impalas.

The first jeep alerted the others by radio and soon there were six jeeps from our camp semi-circling the leopard and the DLTs. We sat for an hour watching the leopard watch the herd. A small group of zebras passed through, a couple of buffalo walked by. A frisky male impala chased a single not-in-the-mood female again and again while the rest of the herd went about their grass-munching business.

The impalas moved across the plain slowly as the sun set. For a moment it looked as if they'd head into the brush. "That's what she's waiting for," Alice told us in a whisper. "Leopards don't chase, they stalk. She'll follow them into the bush and get one."

But then, out of nowhere, came the leopard's ~~greatest enemy~~ most annoying pest: guineafowl.

The little flock of guineafowl was wandering along when they noticed the leopard. And they let everyone know. I have never heard such a bird cacophony. They circled the hill, they advanced, they retreated, and they made the most ridiculous scene. None of them was interested in actually getting too close to the leopard, but every creature in earshot knew that the guineafowl had identified danger, an enemy in their midst.

The poor leopard just gave up and laid down. She didn't even twitch the tip of her tail, purposefully ignoring the birds and the racket. But after ten minutes of guineafowl-abuse--as the impalas decided against the bush and took to the open plain instead--she finally sat up, stretched, and headed into the bush herself.

The next morning, while Kyle slept and packed, we looked for her again and found, not the Mama leopard, but her baby. The cub was older, but still had some youth and playfulness to his movements. Like lion cubs, leopard cubs stay where they're told. Alice guessed that the mama was hunting and would be coming back at some point with breakfast.

On Wednesday night, after escorting the leopard into the bush, we came back to camp to find a lantern-lit table for two set up outside of our tent. Sammy stood at attention. "What is this?!" we asked.

"It's your last night, right Alli?" He smiled and poured me a glass a of wine. "Yes, today you saw the leopard."

Mudding on the Mara

2011-02-18T23:12:00.000+08:00

On our third game drive the radio buzzed that someone had seen the leopard. We raced to the gulch with about 5 other jeeps. We drove around clockwise. We drove around counter clockwise. I was seeing spots everywhere I looked, but no leopards.

Couds were rolling in and the temperature was falling, so we gave up. Alice assured us that wherever the leopard was, she wasn't going to show herself at that point.

So we headed off. We saw impalas heading for cover...

And Elands accompanied by a little warthog...

A pair of silver-backed jackals crouched in the shrub before one faced off with a huge bird (who finally just flew away).

Zebras wandered across the plains.

And shortly after spotting the rhino, we watched the storm roll across the Mara.

Alice asked if we wanted to go back. And we definitely did not. Wrapped up in red plaid Maasai blankets we raced across the Mara chasing the storm and being chased by it, passing whole herds of DLTs standing with their backs to the wind, getting completely stuck in a herd of buffalo, and splashing through new streams.

We were trying to drive out of the storm when I saw a flash off in the distance. We could barely see the jeep, but it didn't belong to our camp. We decided to go see what was worth taking the camera out in the rain.

Two cheetahs looking for something to chase. (rain + wind + bumpy terrain cheetah chasing does not equal my best pictures) We stayed with them for a while until they got tired of our company and broke into a trot in the other direction.

The next morning an impossibly thick fog lay over the whole Mara. We checked again for the leopard, but could barely see anything in the mist. A giraffe wandered past us.

A hyena skulked home.

An elephant went looking for fresh mud.

Late in the morning the fog cleared a bit and we headed to the river. On the way we saw the (apparently?) quite rare bat-eared fox with more jackals in the background. It was the first one our guide-in-training had seen!

At the river we got out of the jeep to see the hippopotamuses and crocodiles.

More than 50 hippos grunted in the river while two crocs floated silent and log-like. Alice seemed unconcerned, but at a rustling in the bushes, Kyle and I jumped back into the jeep as quick as we could.

We headed back that afternoon for our last lunch at camp and only one more long game drive ahead of us.

See, here's the secret about the Big Five. When people ask you if you saw the Big Five, what they really mean is, Did you actually see the leopard?

Rhinosaur* (Dino-ceros)

2011-02-16T19:00:00.026+08:00

There is actually a rhinoceros in the Singapore zoo. It is part of the night safari. We have been on this night safari, and... if you live in or visit, Singapore-- you should go. But let's not pretend that seeing a rhino in a zoo is anything like seeing one 10 feet from your land cruiser. with its baby...

You know, before we go straight to those pictures, I feel I should interject a few things.
First off- when you're on a safari, and out in the wild, even when you're all snug in your little hotel tent, and you put your feet into the bed, and you feel this surprisingly warm and wiggly thing down there where you expect only more cool crisp sheets... well, you might jump too. My brain did do an amazing number of immediate calculations and rememberizations in that shortest of nanoseconds such that I knew it was only a water bottle and not a python, but it wasn't fast enough to capture the very little yelp prior to its escape.

Also, even in our safe little tent camp, we were not completely safe. You see, there were these warthogs:

and they were all over the camp. At least 5 or 6 of them. If you got close to them, they would run from you, but still.

Also there were some DLTs:

They napped by the pool mostly. See how dangerous it was! Actually if you did leave your tent at night you were only to do so with a guard at your side. There was some mention about if things got really desperate out on the Mara, lions would make their way in and pick off the overly relaxed warthogs for an easy meal.

On the note of the whole water bottle thing, I don't think we've mentioned what the weather was like in Kenya. It was pretty great. Despite the fact that Singapore is 1 degree north of the equator, and Nairobi is 1 degree south of the equator, they have vastly different climates, owing largely to the high elevation of Nairobi:

The private airstrip for our camp. Altitude reads 5360 feet. Coordinates also provided if you want to google map us.

During the day, when the sun came on full force, it became pretty warm, and you didn't want to stay in direct sun, but all it took was to duck into shade and the temperature changed by several degrees. This does not happen in humid Singapore and was a welcome feature. In the evenings it cooled down quite a bit, to the point that a hot water bottle at the foot of your bed was fantastic. Once you knew it was coming.

Right, so on to number 4. We spotted the rhinoceros on our 3rd or 4th game drive (2 per day). In a way, they are easy to spot, even from distance. While the buffalo have convex backs, viewed from the side, the rhino has a concave back, so you can differentiate by the profile. Still, we were somewhat amazed at our guides' ability to spot them from pretty much as far as our eyes could see. And so we tore across the plain to get a nice close look.

Wow. Would you look at that thing? seriously. That can not possibly be a modern day creature that just walks around Africa chewing on plants, with its 2 horns and giant body. let's get a little bit closer...

Oh my. That, my friends. That is a dinosaur. surely a vestige of a day gone by.

And then, it turns, it looks at us. Oh my God it's coming right for us!!! but then you remember, this thing doesn't even make the list. pfft, 12-14 kills per year. we're not even afraid of you, rhinosaur.

Besides, she's got a kid to look after and can't just go picking fights with land cruisers.

Awww, aren't they cute?

On the note of the whole dinosaur thing... I picked up Obama's "Dreams from My Father" for light reading on the trip.** It was a neat choice as it's the story of his journey from Indonesia to US, ultimately taking a trip to Kenya to trace this half of his heritage. I happened to be on a safari just about the same time as he was in his book. He described what he was seeing:

"It was like that for the rest of the day, as if I were seeing as a child once again, the world a pop-up book, a fable, a painting by Rousseau. A pride of lions, yawning in the broken grass. Buffalo in the marshes, their horns like cheap wigs..."

He goes on to give some more flowery description before pausing and reflecting: "This is what Creation looked like."

And I think that's a pretty good summary of how it makes you feel, like you're in quite a different world and time even, a place where you can actually start to imagine giant dinosaurs walking around like they make perfect sense.

4 down. 1 to go!

*rhinosaur, as far as I am concerned, was coined by Philip when I suggested that rhinoceros are clearly dinosaurs. what a fitting name. rhinosaur. Dinoceros is a close second.

**In the interest of full disclosure and political equality, I also picked up George W's "Decision Points" for the same trip. I enjoyed both, and invite no political commentary on this blog whatsoever.

The Most Hateful

2011-02-15T19:00:00.052+08:00

On our first morning game drive, we had breakfast on the plains. We drove up onto the escarpment, chasing a troupe of baboons up the slope so we had a view of the whole plains. Our guide, Alice, and our guide-in-training Elias found us a nice, safe spot and laid out the spread: coffee, tea, hot chocolate, fruit, yogurt, juice, single-serve frittatas, and fresh crepes with honey.

Kyle even enjoyed it all a bit more after a mini-snooze.

Below us, a curious giraffe hung out for a while before loping off to find other trees to munch.

To the right, a group of DLTs grazed. Oh, DLTs? I am stealing that from Philip's friend: Deer-Like Things.(ha!) We saw Thompson's gazelles (my favorite), impalas, bushbuck, eland, topi, waterbuck, the miniature Kirk's dik-dik, and (slightly less deer-like) zebras. (Pictured here, topi and possibly a Thompson's gazelle--the smallest one.)

The only reason I didn't fully enjoy myself, though, were the buffalo way off to our left. As I'm sure you remember, Alice told us that buffalo would lay down and hide until you get close and then attack you! In February in the Mara the grass isn't high enough to hide a buffalo, but they still made me nervous.

They just seem to glare at you with their Alfalfa horns:

(See the resemblance?) The rest of the animals seemed to coexist quite peacefully with the buffalo. There were always a few warthogs running around among the herd. But to me, the buffalo somehow seemed especially likely to change its mind suddenly and decide you were foe, not friend. We drove close by one resting herd, and as we passed a buffalo jerked its head up from its grassy lunch to glower. I just as quickly dropped my camera and tried to be invisible. Minutes later we passed a beautiful mother and baby very close to the vehicle, but at that point there was no way I was clicking shutters and adjusting focal points.

The best place to watch buffalo, in my opinion, was from the pool.

Yes, our tented camp had a pool--a pool overlooking the Mara no less. In fact, our tent looked out toward the plains as well.

As did the hammock.

Ok, in the spirit of full disclosure, I guess I should say that "tent" is a bit of a misnomer. Yes, it was canvas-covered and zipped up. But it also had a carpet, down comforters, electricity, steaming hot showers, a wooden dressing table with a inlaid sink, laundry service, and "wake up calls" that consisted of your tent steward laying out freshly made tea/coffee/hot chocolate on the writing desk. We weren't exactly roughing it.

In fact, the only actually scary "wildlife" encounter we had on the whole trip was the first night when Kyle slipped into bed to find something, warm, soft, and wiggly at his feet. The yelp was halfway out of his mouth (and he was halfway out of bed) before he realized it was a hot water bottle tucked between the sheets.

With that kind of treatment, we could skip the buffalo on the game drives. I was content to watch the herds moving across the plains from the safe side of the camp fence.

Three down, two to go.

Weekly Photo: Body Part

2011-02-14T22:19:00.001+08:00

We interrupt this Kenya retrospective to give you body parts. (confused? see here)

(I feel like in this particular category, we are at an extreme disadvantage compared to Ruthie and Jamie who have cute baby parts to photograph.)

Last session's winner was Alli with the blackberries.

Like a Soap Opera

2011-02-14T19:00:00.014+08:00

This area of the Mara is where parts of Out of Africa were shot, so the pride of lions that lives there is called the Out of Africa Pride. (This is also the area where BBC films Big Cat Diary). And there is a shocking amount of drama going on in the Out of Africa pride.

When you are on a game drive there is a lot of radioing back and forth between the camp jeeps with drivers telling each other (in Swahili) which animal is where. When we first arrived, we saw four of the lionesses from the pride under a tree with some cubs, sharing the hunting and babysitting duties. The male was lazing a fair distance away. After the elephants scratched, we headed there to see if they were still around.

The females and cubs were gone, and the male had moved deeper into the bush. Alice told us that a few months ago, a group of juvenile males had attacked the alpha male. He'd fought them off, but was wounded. As she told us, the radio buzzed. Three young male lions had been spotted not far away.

The youths were across a gorge from us, and they looked calm. "The alpha male is hiding," Alice told us. "He doesn't stand a chance against three teenagers." Won't the lionesses help, we asked? "No," she told us. "Their priority is to keep the 15 cubs safe and fed. They'll keep moving the babies until something happens."

Later in the afternoon we found the females and the cubs relaxing on the plain. "Everyone is waiting," Alice told us. "You're going to hear lions roar tonight!"

All night I waited, but it was quiet. The next morning we couldn't find the alpha male or the young males. We found two of the lionesses looking anxious, but no cubs. Alice explained that if the young males were to kill the alpha male, one would take over the pride and the other two would move on. The new alpha male would kill all of the cubs because the lionesses won't go into heat while they still have nursing cubs. If the cubs can survive until they're weaned the new alpha male may let them live.

By the afternoon, we found a different group of four females from the same larger pride, but without cubs. As we drove toward the escarpment (the long hill that serves as the "back" of the Mara plains) late in the afternoon, we found the females and cubs hiding in the bush. But there was still no sign of the males.

On our last full day, we only saw the lions once. The lionesses were on the move again, herding the cubs across the plain from high point to high point and looking anxious. Still no sign of the alpha male and the youths.

The morning we left, I took one last early game drive while Kyle slept and packed up for us. We saw three of the lionesses hunting and Alice said the fourth was with the cubs. They didn't get their prey (warthogs), and stalked off together toward the escarpment.

(I shot video of this, and it goes like this: lioness, warthog, lioness, lioness running, OMGLIONESSESRUNNING, THREELIONESSESSHUNTING, sky. I'll spare you.)

As we were leaving we heard that the male had been spotted deep in the bush, injured, but alive. The three youths seemed to be gone. All of the cubs had been accounted for.

Two down, three to go.

Counting Down from Five

2011-02-13T14:11:00.015+08:00

When you go on safari (and you should, because it was incredible) I have a few pieces of advice:
1. For heaven's sake take a camera with zoom (I won't whine about the girl at our camp with the 35x optical zoom and the mind-blowing pictures she got. I was torn before we left: wide angle for the stunning vistas? Or zoom for the animals? The answer is ZOOM!)
2. Dress in layers.
3. safari means "journey" in Swahili, any kind of journey really, not just a trip to see animals. Now you know.
4. Learn what the Big Five means.

Oh look, we can check off #4 right now! You'll hear everyone talking about the Big Five and see it mentioned in reviews and you'll be asked about it. The Big Five is a phrase coined back in trophy hunting's heyday describing the most dangerous big game animals to hunt on foot. The lion, buffalo, elephant, rhino, and leopard were chosen because of the hunting difficulty and the danger involved, not their actual size. Now of course, most of those animals are strictly on the no-hunting list, but the phrase is still used by all the camera-wielding hunters in Namibia, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.

Not that our animal wish-list was limited to 5, but it's a good start. Let's go on a safari, shall we?

[These posts are going to be long. I can't help it. But you can always just look at the pictures if you want.]

We flew from Nairobi to the Masai Mara, a national reserve in southwest Kenya that's part of the Serengeti Plains ecosystem. The Serengeti is in Tanzania, and the 1510 square kilometers that dips into Kenya is the Mara. Our 16-seater plane was so small that the pilot just turned around to pass out some mints in a tupperware container and let us know there was a cooler of water in the back.

Though the illustration of what an "emergency landing" looked like gave me some pause, the flight was really smooth and lovely.

We stopped at one private air strip on the way and let off two guests, and then the rest of us got off at our air strip (actually owned by our camp, but used by several camps in the general area). When we landed, guides from our camp were there to pick us up (along with two other guys, one of whom knew Emily and Philip!) with a table of coffee, tea, and hot chocolate and snacks. We saw a few adult elephants standing on the plain as we had our "Welcome to the Mara" snack. That's some airport shuttle!

Our first game drive was delayed by a freak hail and rain storm the afternoon of our arrival, but it was short lived. Then we met the guide that would be with us for the rest of our stay. Our vehicle was an open sided Land Cruiser with three rows of seats behind the driver and nothing on the sides to limit your view (or protect you from wind/rain/animals, but that was only a problem once).

On our way out to the plains (the camp is fenced in the bush), we ran across a whole herd of elephants who had taken advantage of the short rainstorm to play in the mud.

We turned off the engine and watched as they came our way. One elephant designated the tree directly beside our vehicle as the scratching post, so we all sat very still and watched the mud-covered herd scratch.

Interesting fact: "Masai Mara" means "spotted plain" or "spotted land" of the Maasai people, which makes sense because the plains are dotted with occasional trees. However, as recently as the 1960s, the Maasai called the area Osere or "thick bush." What happened to all the bush? Elephants are hard on trees.

Eventually our guide decided it was time to move on when one big Mama elephant with two calves behind her started looking a little stressed. "She's pretending to eat while she watches us," our guide, Alice, told us. Apparently in Mama-Elephant speak, pretending to eat is not a good sign, so we moved on.

One down, four to go.

The Most Dangerous

2011-02-12T19:01:00.030+08:00

While in Kenya and on safari, we were warned on many occasions about the danger posed by some of these awesome animals we were seeing from the "safety" of our open-air vehicle. What bothered me, though, is the overuse of the superlative. I feel it is impossible for 3 to 4 different animals to each be considered the "most dangerous", "most lethal", "most vicious", and other frightening descriptions. When it comes down to it, I think the most lethal is probably the most dangerous and the one I most want to avoid meeting on foot. So it's time to break down these terms and identify which of these species is really your worst nightmare.

First, the short list of those animals commonly given these attributes: the elephant, the hippopotamus, the buffalo, the crocodile, and the lion.

The buffalo. Generally this animal gets the description "most dangerous", or just meanest. Our guide informed us that these are very territorial, and would actually hide in the grass if they knew you were nearby, only to pounce on you and gore you to death. Simply because you were on their land. They also stay in huge herds, so it wouldn't be just one buffalo to contend with. It could be hundreds. And here's the kicker: they are herbivores. They don't even make a tasty meal out of your corpse, but rather leave you to be picked apart by hyena and vulture.

The African elephant. Elephants are also very territorial. If they are surprised, they will attack and trample you. They are very protective of their young, and apparently being between them and their source of water is a terrible idea. Both males and females have quite large and terrifying tusks. They can move quickly despite their size, and you really just don't have much chance if they decide not to like you. Our guide acted as though this animal is the one she would cut the widest path to avoid.

The hippopotamus. These giant (3-4 ton!) semi-aquatic mammals like their space as well, and even more warnings are doled out with regard to you not positioning yourself between them and water. They hang out in rivers and lakes in large groups for most of the day, and come out at night to feed on grass. They've been known to topple boats without provocation. (A fact Alli is glad she did not know when they boated by the group above.) You probably know or have even seen pictures of how they are able to basically dislodge their jaws and open their mouths large enough to eat school buses full of children. They also have very big teeth. And apparently they can outrun humans. And once again, really herbivores.

The crocodile. In Africa, the Nile crocodile can grow to ridiculous sizes - 18 feet long and weighing up to a ton. They lurk in and do not venture far from the water, meaning that you can very significantly reduce your odds of being a crocodile's next victim by staying firmly on dry land. Still, people needing to venture in for their bathing and food collection regularly provide the crocodile with food... which by the way, they can go without for up to 2 years. That's just not fair.

The lion. The undisputed king (or queen) of the jungle. I would venture to guess that if you did not do much reading beforehand, you might count the lion as the animal you'd least like to encounter while lost on the savanna. They are mighty and strong. They could probably kill you by heart attack with a simple roar. Luckily, the big males are very lazy and prefer to let the ladies do the hunting and children tending. But I'd avoid getting too close to the cute little cubs if I were you, the ladies work in teams.

Lots of big, scary animals. But who really wins the contest?

Random statistics gathered on the internets:
The Rhinoceros (just for reference): 12-14 fatalities per year.
Lions take out around 70 per year.
Hippos are responsible for 100-150 deaths per year
Cape buffalo - 200 fatalities per year
Elephants kill up to 600 people per year
Crocodiles rack up around 2000 kills each year
(and we didn't even discuss the snakes. or scorpions...)

Hmm. It's an oft-repeated statement that the hippo, surprisingly for most, is the animal that kills the most people in Africa. My search would seem to indicate that the crocodile deserves a larger share of your fear. However, I did find some sources indicating that this is worldwide (elephants too), while perhaps if you are in Africa, and you are killed by a wild animal, it is most likely that it will be a hippo.

Ultimately, this search only informs me as to why the superlatives can be applied to many different animals. I don't think anyone actually knows the answers, one person makes up the statistics and others copy them. Like I just did.

Actually most everyone tends to agree that the mosquito is much more dangerous than all of these combined, accounting for upwards of 2 million deaths worldwide per year, by transmitting malaria-causing parasites (and dengue and yellow fever for fun as well). So the smartest thing we did was take our malaria meds and wear bug repellent.

Being very still and quiet while the elephants walked by probably didn't hurt though.

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

2011-02-11T19:00:00.007+08:00

We spent Sunday afternoon at the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife Kenya, or the Giraffe Centre, another wildlife conservation organization based in Nairobi whose main mission is to help in wildlife education and conservation. (The giraffe's main enemy is man and they are killed for their hides.)

Visitors can feed some of the giraffes from a viewing platform at the Centre, and it was amazing to see these animals up close.

To go with their very long necks, giraffes have very long tongues. This little guy was using his to snag some giraffe treats, even though he wasn't quite tall enough to stick his head inside the platform.

One of the giraffes we met was extremely friendly. Giraffe kissing, anyone? Kyle was game.

And I think there's some rule... if your husband kisses a giraffe, and you plan to ever kiss your husband again, you might as well join in.

(At least two other tourists went home with a picture of me giraffe-smooching.)

This was definitely our closest wildlife encounter in Kenya. On Monday morning we headed south to the Masai Mara National Reserve, hoping to see more animals. But we really didn't want to get this close...

Elephant Games

2011-02-10T19:49:00.009+08:00

Philip and Emily left Boston the month after we did. They headed to Africa while we came to Asia. So of course we've been talking about visiting ever since. They held up their end of the bargain in December, spending Christmas with us here and in Laos. So the Chinese New Year holiday seemed a good time to return the favor.

E+P had warned us to watch out for chalk marks on our checked bags and if we saw a mark to quickly hide it and walk through customs boldly without making eye contact. We managed to do that and were swept into the tide of Nairobi, only to be fished out again by Emily and put into the car on the way to their apartment.

We dropped luggage and chatted for a minute before heading to dinner and then to a bar to hear a band and meet many of Philip and Emily's friends. Kyle tried his first Tusker beer and I had a dawa which is Swahili for medicine. I'm not sure what else it would treat, but it (and the flight from Singapore) certainly worked as a nice little sleeping tonic and I don't know how much fun we were.

Sunday we got up and headed to the David Sheldrake Wildlife Trust, an elephant and rhino sanctuary to see the baby elephants. Because we were there as soon as they opened the gates we had front row seats to see the infants comes out of the reserve, have a snack, and do some mud wrestling. Then the 2- and 3-year-olds came and did their thing as well.

The elephants at the Trust have been orphaned because of poachers (their mothers were killed for their tusks), human/wildlife conflict (their mothers died in some other interaction with humans), or some other forced separation, maybe because the baby elephant has fallen into a man-made well and can't get out. Elephant babies are a lot like human babies. They are emotionally dependent on a family, and older orphans remember and grieve for their dead or missing mothers. The Trust establishes a human "family" of keepers who bond with the babies, comfort them, stay with the baby 24 hours a day, feeding it milk every three hours and sleeping with it. Because babies are usually protected from the sun and elements by a much larger mother, the youngest orphans have an umbrella detail.

As the babies grow up, they build close bonds with the others in the nursery and the oldest female takes the role of matriarch. When the babies are well adjusted they are transferred in groups to Tsavo National Park with the human keepers who stay at a home base.

Elephants really don't forget. The former orphans in Tsavo recognize and welcome each other as groups "graduate" from the Nairobi nursery to the park. The orphans will spend the day with their old friends and be introduced to wild herds, but return to the human keepers at night. Gradually as they establish more secure bonds with wild herds and feel more comfortable, they return to the base less and less, though occasionally adults will come back years later and make contact with their keepers, recognizing them.

They were pretty adorable. But we didn't establish relationships quite as close as the ones we built that afternoon...

Gorgeous

2011-02-09T19:18:00.004+08:00

Wow, we were gone for a while there. We just landed in Singapore this afternoon, returning from an incredible week and a half in Kenya. We have so many pictures to share and things to tell, so get ready for Kenya Week around here. But while we're trying to get organized and caught up, here's some stunning Africa for your Wednesday.

Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes -- the rest sit round it and pluck blackberries. ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Dawn, sunrise, day, and sunset on the Masai Mara:

The Rift Valley:

In Kenya

2011-01-30T22:06:00.001+08:00

Kissing giraffes, watching baby elephants play... so far Kenya is good stuff!

The Year of the Bunny

2011-01-26T22:07:00.000+08:00

As soon as the Christmas decorations come down, Chinese New Year/Spring Festival/Lunar New Year decor goes up. This year (year 4708 in the Chinese calendar) is the Year of the Rabbit. Here's just a taste of the CNY decorations (it poured all day today and I couldn't get out and take any other pictures!)

See those big, full flowering trees?

Yeah, they're fake.

They light up and then go off again. Took me 3-4 shots to get my timing right!

Weekly Photo: Macro

2011-01-24T22:53:00.001+08:00

Inspired (and nudged) by Ruthie, we're thinking of playing along with the Digital Photography School yearly photo project. dPS suggested weekly themes for 2011 and last week's theme was Macro. Now you could argue that since we don't have a macro lens, this was not the week to start. But we're jumping in where we are and working with what we've got.

The goal is to push us to be creative within set parameters, practice with our cameras, and think outside of the pictures we'd normally take. Further nudged by Ruthie, though, we're upping the ante a bit and making this a little friendly competition. Each week (or so, or until we get bored, or until y'all get bored) we'll post two weekly pictures: one from Kyle and one from Alli. And you get to vote!

So to kick things off.... Macro (but without a macro lens...)

Photo 1: Pistals

Photo 2: One at a Time

The winning shot may or may not end up on the refrigerator.

I have a hard time typing the G at the end of Dumpling

2011-01-19T12:19:00.000+08:00

We're fast approaching Chinese New Year, which may not be a big deal for you, but is a very big deal here in Singapore--the biggest holiday bar none for Chinese families. People are buying new clothes, cleaning like mad, getting hair cuts, maybe buying new furniture, and definitely buying lots of red paper decorations all in preparation for the New Year.

In honor of the festivities, our friends Jiazi and Bingjun invited us and some others over for a dumpling party so we could learn to make Chinese dumplings. We made four flavors: pork with cabbage and radish; beef with sesame and okra; shrimp and fish; and veggie with fried egg. We made (and ate!) a lot, but I think Jiazi and Bingjun still had their own "dumpling party" after we left.

First we thawed, diced, and grated all of the fillings and mixed them together to let the flavors meld. Then it was time for the skin, which is the boys' job.

Bingjun made the dough by feel, which was impressive. Flour, water, a little more water, and that was it. Then the boys each took a ball and kneaded their hearts out for quite a while. The dumpling skin needs to be stretchy and strong (nice, long gluten chains) so it needs lots of loving. They also worked in food coloring. You color your dumpling skin so you know which flavors are which. Though, I have to say I've never seen dumplings quite as brilliantly colored as the ones we made.

Then it was time to make the little dough rounds and shape our dumplings.

Jiazi taught us a few different dumpling shapes...

Some were better than others.

We cooked the dumplings in rounds--pink/pork together, green/veggies together, white/seafood together, orange/beef together. Jiazi boiled them until they floated.

After the first batch came out, we ate pretty much constantly until we couldn't hold any more. I don't know if J&B were that impressed with our efforts--some definitely tasted more of skin than filling which means either your skin was too thick, or your dumpling didn't have enough filling in it--but I thought they were great. Jiazi did note that none burst open while cooking, which is good. I think she was a little surprised.

At the end of the day, Jiazi had a fun Chinese New Year quiz for us. Kyle did great and his quiz is up on our refrigerator now.

I have determined not to let my husband grade my quizzes anymore. I think he was a little over zealous.

Laos: People and Places

2011-01-14T09:17:00.000+08:00

Our travel buddies Emily and Philip have posted their Laos posts! (Or some of them anyway, I don't actually know how long the series will be).

So far we have Laos: The Place

And Laos: The People

Christmas Night Shenanigans

If you like vicarious travel, may I suggest becoming a regular visitor (or subscriber) to Emily and Philip's blog? They moved to Africa about a month after we moved to Asia and they have great pictures (giraffe kissing, anyone?) and cross-cultural stories as well.