The Tastes of Singapore

One of the cool things about Singapore is the diversity of the culture which brings with it, my favorite thing, food.  It is has become known for its rich, diverse culinary scene and has yet to disappoint.  Singapore offers Indian, Chinese, French, Thai, Spanish, Indonesian, Italian, and Fusion food which has driven a spurt in tourism here.  So, as you can imagine, I dived right in and have been wanting to learn how to cook some of these delicacies. 

Joe's favorite of the moment - pork rib soup

 

Indian Chicken Curry





Laksa - sooooooo good



Indonesia Chicken or Mutton Satay

  

Thai Tom Yam Soup



Chinese Chili Wontons














As luck should have it, my friend invited me to join a cooking class with her friends that meet once a month.  They meet at one of the girls house and you are to bring a knife, cutting board and apron.  The chef is Singaporean lady who is lots of fun and a great cook.  If you have any interest, you can check her our at:  http://www.kkaruna.com/main.htm .  Anyway, she goes over all the ingredients with you and you can ask questions, etc. and then she splits you off in teams to take on different tasks.  After everything is prepared, you sit down and enjoy your masterpiece with wine of course. 

The first class I learned how to make hummus (from scratch-using fresh garbanzos), falafel, chicken tagine, moussaka, spanikopita and these incredible coconut balls.  The thing I learned was that I have never been an eggplant fan but she won me over with the moussaka.  I have made it twice since the class.  Additionally, coconut has never been at the top of my list but these little balls were balls of heaven!  Basically, coconut and sweetened condensed milk... yowza.  You have to use fresh, grated coconut that you get from the wet markets so unless you know someone willing to grate fresh coconut, you probably won't get to tastes these unless you come visit!  After that class, my friend and I decided to cook for our guys and invite a new couple over that just moved from Austin.  It was a success and we have decided to make it a regular date once we all get back from the holidays.

Vietnamese Pho

Last night we learned how to make Vietnamese Pho (pronounced "fa").  Joe and I love pho so I now know how to make it and it was delish.  Along with it was Chicken Cabbage Salad and Sticky Rice with coconut cream and mangos.  Yummmmmmmm... coconut is a big thing in Eastern dishes.  I am now the new host of these cooking classes since our current host is moving back to the states (that's one of the sad things around here, you get to know great people and then they move away).  We will have one more class before we leave and it is an Indonesian menu and it sounds awesome.  Hopefully, I'll be able to find the ingredients when I'm home so I can show off my new culinary talents. 

Lastly, the chef also conducts wet market tours to teach you about all the local fruits, vegetables and spices and where to buy them.  The smells come with the tour at  no extra charge.  They call them wet markets because ice is constantly melting on the floors and they are constantly being washed down so sandals are not recommended.  I've decided it is best to go early as the seafood is fresh off the boat and hasn't been sitting there all afternoon.  Anyway, it was fun to learn and it will be a stopping point of my tours when people visit.

Tick, tock... time is getting shorter!!  22 DAYS!




This picture has nothing to do with the topic but I figured it wouldn't be complete without one picture of the girls.  First day at the pool.  They weren't too sure but they'll get it eventually!



4 Months Old!



Watching football with Daddy



I know I have been slacking in my blog posts, but my life has become a "schedule" and we have been in sleep training mode so nothing too exciting has been happening.  The girls are now 4 months old and are just the happiest little things and always smiling.  Well, that is until the bewitching hour of 5:00pm when the overtiredness sets in and the crankiness starts.  We are still in sleep training mode and trying to teach these girls how to sleep more than 30 minutes during nap time!!!!!!!  I've read all the books that tell you to let them cry it out and "ferberize" them but these little zombies will have none of that.  I let them cry it out for what seems like hours, and then finally go in to pop in the  pacifier, and they just start smiling and laughing at me.  I'm actually better at leaving them in their cribs to work it out but their daddy is a total sucker.  He can't take it and they know it.  So by the end of the day, they are exhausted with red eyes and lately have been in bed by 6:30.  The good news is they are great night sleepers so I'm not complaining too much.  They have been in their big girl cribs for the past month and the transition was smooth but they still like listening to the frantic hairdryer sound which sounds awful and continues to make me wonder what this means about their personalities.  I am wondering if the passengers on the airplane will mind this sound as we are traveling 24 hours to the US? 

Always holding each other

Reghan is still beating out Rylee in the weight game as she is 13.3 lbs and Rylee is 12.7 lbs.  Not too much but it seems they have a ways to go since their cousin, Millie, who is two months younger is the same weight as Rylee!  As they get older, they are really starting to take more notice of each other.  They love to be touching each other when they are close and don't seem to care one bit if they kick each other in the face or suck on each others hands.  I wonder if that will be true when they are 12?  Reghan is really starting to reach for things and they both are rolling all over the floor.  When we are gone on holiday, our helper is going to child proof this house.  We figure they will be crawling or near crawling when we get back and this place is definitely not child friendly.  And Leni is hard core about safety and sterilization so I feel confident it will be deemed "safe".

I haven't written much about our helper, Leni, but we were definitely blessed with a good one.  She loves our babies and takes the ultimate care with them.  She just finished taking a first aid/cpr class and came home full of even more knowledge and is even more rigid about their care.  I know we drive her crazy because we are not that rigid.  It's a good balance.  And the best part of having a Leni is no housework for me!  She is up in the morning with the bottles cleaned, my coffee made and the housework started.  She even irons our t-shirts.  I had a day of jealousy wondering if the girls were going to love her more and think she is their mom and was ready to let her go to do it all by myself when Joe looked at me and said, "but I really like my t-shirts ironed."  So, I got over that real quick and living back in reality... well, Singapore reality.  That will be the one thing that will be hard to get used to when we are back home! 

Having someone live in your home that is not family is hard to get used to at first but once you see how easy it makes your life, you get use to it real fast.  Of course, there are things that drive me crazy but they are really small on the scale.  In fact, for those of you that know me well, will laugh at what makes me nuts. She makes this "shhhhhhing" sound when the babies are upset that literally puts me over the edge of insanity.  And when she is giving one of them their bottle, she constantly smells their head.  Anytime I tell someone that, they say but babies smell good and I know that but I still think it is weird.  It all then plays into my conspiracy theory that she secretly thinks they are hers and she is plotting the day she is going to steal them.  Joe thinks I'm a nut job.  :-)

Well, that's enough for today!  I think this might have been a little lengthy but that should make up for my slacking.  It has been about 30 minutes, so I'm sure my free time is dwindling!  I'm taking some cooking classes so I'll write about that in my next post...

36 DAYS!!!!!

Halloween in Singapore

Thing 1 & Thing 2 won the costume contest!  Of course there were only two participants and their parents were the judges but they won nonetheless.  Halloween is not a celebrated holiday in Singapore except that there are a ton of expats living here so many condos and some neighborhoods throw their own celebration.  Due to this, costumes are not abundant so luckily I had ordered these prior to us leaving the US.  In fact, I tried ordering peapod costumes to be shipped here and the costumes cost $50.00 and the shipping was $100.00 so that didn't happen.  Our condos did throw a party so Joe and I went to the "Hobby Lobby" of Singapore and found the stuff to make the hair which definitely made the costume.  Unfortunately, we were in such a rush to get it done and the girls were sleeping that we didn't fit their heads before we glued it together.  They were a little tight but it made the photo op.  Since they don't sit up yet, no one could see the scissor cut up the back of their caps when they were in their stroller.  :-)  We did go trick or treating but only to take some friends little girls that were visiting for the party.  It's not quite the same walking thru parking garages and hitting call buttons to get the elevators to ring the condos that were participating but the kiddos were young enough that it was still fun to them.  The plus side of a Singapore Halloween is that you never have to worry about your mom making you put a coat on top of your costume because it is cold outside.  That was the worse, wasn't it??

I also have to show a picture of the cutest little bunny.  I'm sure it would have been a little tougher competition if she would have been here!!!  This is my new, little niece that was born about a month after Rylee and Reghan.  Love you Millie Grace!

Things have been going good here but I am ready for my trip home!!  I'm so excited to see everyone and let you get to know our babies.  They are funny!  Just like their mother!  HA! 

42 DAYS!!!!!!!