Thursday = pea soup + crepe

There's a quaint tradition in Finland where pea soup (hernekeitto) and crepes (lettu) are traditionally eaten on Thursdays. I've no idea why Thursday. And for that matter, no other day of the week has such association. This soup isn't the usual starter; instead, it's a main course because it's so heavy that it goes thump in your stomach. It's one of those things I read about Finland many years in a list that went, "You know you're in Finland when..." along with "silence is golden" or something about whipping one's body with a bunch of birch twigs in a sauna. How cute, I thought. But it wasn't a few years later that I actually tried pea soup.

I think if there's any dish that sums up the Finnish psyche, it's this. Hearty, down-to-earth, unpretentious.

Hernekeitto
shelled peas, dried or fresh
potatoes, cubed (optional)
onions, minced
meat stock (I used chicken bones left over from a roast)
bay leaves
ham*, diced
butter
salt & black pepper
mustard

1. Put the bay leaves, bones, peas & potatoes into a large stockpot. Add water until just covering the peas or potatoes. Bring to a boil and simmer until peas are soft or until a good stock is made from the bones.
2. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan and saute the onions until a golden caramel colour. Add into the stockpot.
3. Remove the bay leaves & bones.
4. Use a potato masher to mash the peas and potatoes into a thick paste. (Alternatively, a blender could be used as well but I prefer a chunky touch to the soup)
5. Add the diced ham. Season to taste with salt & pepper.
6. Serve with a dollop of mustard mixed in.

* I really don't recommend thin slices of 'picnic ham'. I'd go for a whole chunk of smoked ham then dice it to your liking. I had frozen portions of my Christmas ham and it was wonderful.

And as for the crepes (lettu), I whipped some cream and chopped up strawberries to go. Traditionally though, strawberry jam is eaten with the crepes along with cream. I love food traditions!


microbeanie is 4 months, 2 weeks & 1 day old
minibeanie is a 2.5 year old toddler

A Finn in the making

There's always something that makes one distinctly Singaporean, Finnish, Chinese.... It could be eating certain strange foods or some ritual that's totally based on culture. Today, mini-b climbed onto the dining chair and started rummaging through its stuff. He came to me all sheepish and said, "eat". I thought he had found the bag of M&Ms on the table and helped himself to a chocolate buffet but when I went to the table, lo, it was the box of salmiakki.

To non-Scandinavians, salmiakki is the black stuff that everyone else on this planet hates. It was once banned because it was made from ammonia. And this particular box was actually bought from the pharmacy :D Personally, despite my adventurous spirit towards exotic foods, I stop short at salmiakki (even if I crave for salmiakki ice-cream, go figure ;) mini-b is more Finnish than I thought.



microbeanie is 2 months & 1 week old
minibeanie is a 2 year old toddler - and up to no good

Beijing Trip

The trip to Beijing was a really nice getaway. We stayed at a boutique hotel that was within walking distance to Tiananmen located in a quiet street amidst hutongs and local eateries. With only 3 full days in the city, all we could really do was the mandatory tourist sights - Forbidden City, Great Wall & Temple of Heaven.

Having an ice cream break in the Imperial Garden, Forbidden City

Then, there were of course the evenings where we hunted down Beijing's famous ducks. The first evening, we went to the almost obligatory QuanJuDe (全聚德) where the dish is supposed to originate in the late 1800s. We even headed to the original shop (there are now several branches ;) where the old shopfront was preserved. Despite the wait of 50min, even though we got there at 5:30pm, it was well worth it as the Peking Duck was the best I'd ever eaten. There was none of that heavy layer of fat that I'd come to associate with Peking Ducks eaten in Singapore or Chengdu. Instead, its skin was crispy and the chef had nicely included a sliver of meat. All in, I could eat a whole lot of it without feeling guilty! :D

minibeanie's favourite dish of the house was its liver (盐水鸭肝). It was tasty & soft... quite unlike the overboiled chicken liver pieces sold in Singapore's chicken rice stalls. Again, I could finish off the whole plate if it wasn't for the nagging voice in my head that tells me preggies shouldn't be eating too much liver for their Vitamin A :P

Other dishes we tried were their deboned webbed feet dipped in a wasabi-like radish sauce (芥末鸭掌) as well as fried duck hearts (火燎鸭心). Both were good but weren't in the same league as their Peking Duck or liver.

The other duck restaurant we tried was Da Dong (大董), a new-age restaurant that married tradition with avant garde blending of flavours & serving. The tradition I was referring to was what they're famous for - Peking Ducks roasted in a good old fashioned wood-fired oven. The new age twist in their menu was in the way they served some of their appetizers or dishes - 3 little mouthfuls of appetizers on a long plate, soup in a martini glass... u get the idea. Well, we stuck to their Peking Duck and liver since that was our first visit. Again, the food did not disappoint :)

So, if anyone wants to try the best Peking Ducks in Beijing, here's an article written in Chinese on the Best 5 places to have the duck in Beijing. Otherwise, print out the addresses at the bottom and show it to your concierge to make the reservations 3 days ahead.

全聚德 (no reservation taken; dinner queue starts at 4:30pm -no kidding!)
崇文区前门大街32号

大董
东城区东四十条甲22号南新仓国际大厦1-2楼(东四十条桥西南)
Tel: 010-51690329 51690328


minibeanie is 1 year, 10 months, 1 week & 2 days old
microbeanie is 25 weeks 1 day in utero

A weekend tradition

I believe it's important to have family traditions. Reunion dinners for Chinese New Year, turkey & gingerbread cookies for Christmas, we all have them. But besides festivals, I realized we've unwittingly created one around the weekend. Pancakes for breakfast! It's the only time all of us get to sit down together for breakfast without the company transport to catch or (in time to come) the school bus to dash for.

So when mummy isn't too tired to get up in the wee hours of the morning with the boys, we sit down for pancakes. (So far, it had been quite a regular affair ;) I experimented with several recipes. I mixed my own with the standard ingredients of milk, egg & flour adjusting for flow consistency, found a crepe recipe and even used a bottle of pancake mix that I lugged back from Australia.

While the D-I-M pancakes were ok, I hadn't nailed the right proportion of liquids to dry ingredients. On the other hand, I felt that the crepes would be better suited for crepes suzette or as french crepes with ham & cheese. (I did make caramelized bananas as filling 1 weekend but sticking to plain ol' jam & honey would feed 3 hungry mouths sooner :D ) Ironically, the most enthusiastic response came from the pancake mix. Since I regard ready mixes not without a certain amount of disdain preferring the old fashion route, I just had to search for a substitute.


I found it in allrecipes.com. More than 2000 reviews that gathered 4.5 out of 5 stars couldn't be too off the mark, I thought. They were right. The recipe gave the best pancakes we'd had for a long time. I agreed with most of the reviewers - do not change a single thing about the recipe, it's perfect as it is. Some who thinned the batter either didn't know that the thick consistency would give it the light-as-air fluffiness or preferred their pancakes thin a la crepes. The only thing I added was 2tbsp of ground flaxseed that upped the nutrients but took away none of the fluff.

This pancake recipe would be a part of our weekend tradition.


minibeanie is 1 year, 9 months & 5 days old

Fusilli & Meatball

My mantra is "crumbs are my new best friends". Even more so now when minibeanie's feeding himself 2 out of 3 meals a day.

Since he almost never uses a spoon, typical Asian food such as rice or porridge hardly makes its way into his mouth. Hence I like pasta or mashed potato because they offer a convenient 'vehicle' for other bits of food such as meat and vegetables. He manages a fair bit with these foods so I'm not too worried he's not getting enough. Besides, he gets regular snacks like bread with cream cheese ("cheesy toast") and banana. And did I mention that having him feed himself frees up 1 hour of my time? What can you do in an hour? PLENTY.

Read more about self-feeding in this post.


minibeanie is 1 year, 5 months & 1 day old

Christmas 2008

We decided to have a Christmas Eve lunch due to minibeanie's feeding schedule. Might as well because he woke up from his nap past 3pm and the turkey was just about done then.

The 4.6kg turkey took about 3 hours - much less than the 3.5-4 hours suggested by conventional cooking wisdom. And I'm glad I listened to my instincts because it'd have meant a tough chewy bird had I cooked it longer. (hmm, of course a meat thermometer and the fail-safe test of cutting it to see if the juices run clear helped ;) The salmon from Ikea didn't work as Gravad Lax because they were cut into 2cm portions and came without their skin. Well, I'd 2 jars of pickled herring* in the fridge so those would do as the fish platter :)

Here are a series of pictures leading from decorating the tree in early December to the Christmas Eve lunch.

My little helper...

... not

Christmas Stollen

Lots of puns surrounding this one ("It's stollen". "Oh no, who stole it?"). This Dresden stollen is buttery and laden with golden and dark raisins, currants, slivered almonds, candied orange peel & lemon zest. I would use less butter and more milk the next year though!

Christmas pyramid

This cost a little bomb but as it would stay in the family as a Christmas tradition for years, I thought it would be worth it. It was handcrafted in Erzgebirge, a mountainous town in Germany. Christmas pyramids, or the unpronounceable "Weihnachtspyramide", use the rising heat currents from candles to turn the impellers and the platform below. This particular pyramid was of the Nativity scene; unfortunately, baby Jesus in a manger was at the other end. See the little devil at one end of the platform? I couldn't resist getting that piece ;D Of the many Erzgebirge sculptors, I liked Christian Ulbricht's style best :) For those in Singapore, there was a fantastic collection of Christmas pyramids & nutcrackers at Das Erzgebirgen Haus(?) in Raffles City.

The Spread

Finns celebrate Christmas on the Eve. On the table, we had turkey, traditional potato and carrot casseroles, 2 types of pickled herring and a selection of salami (that I bought from Singapore!) accompanied with Danish blue cheese & French camembert. minibeanie was eating a piece of camembert in the picture above.... which was amazing because even some grown-ups in Finland wouldn't touch camembert.

Time to open the presents!!

First taste of chocolate

I got a box of Belgian truffles from minibeanie's mummi (my MIL, if anyone is wondering) and guess if minibeanie threw a tiny tandrum when he wanted to have a bite as well... I guess I could strike chocolate off the list of 'Things to withhold from minibeanie until as late as possible."

To everyone, may you have a blessed Christmas!


*I have to thank Ikea for making a Scandinavian Christmas possible. Besides pickled herring, they have made it possible to buy cloudberry jam and Glögi. ...Actually, I do know the wife of the Ikea guy who runs Ikea in this region. minibeanie & their 15 month old son are playmates. I think I'll invite them over this Christmas.


minibeanie is 1 year, 4 months, 4 weeks & 1 day old

Bye Singapore!

We'll have to wake up tomorrow morning at a most inhumane hour - half past four. sigh* Trust Air China to pay for the cheapest timeslot at Changi.

It had been a very enjoyable trip. We met up with friends whom I hadn't seen in ages - Sharon, RJ bunch (Rhu, Mari, Jazz, WeeLin), sky (it's her initials...she's not really called Sky like some girls who are called "Milk" or something..serious!).


We got to do lots of fun stuff like bringing minibeanie to the Underwater World. Despite his young age, I think he knew what was going on. For some reason, he reached for dada to be carried and he gripped dada really hard when he saw particularly large fish & rays swimming above him. And today, typical of so many Singaporean parents on a Sunday, we brought him to a center that will hopefully enhance/increase his intellectual prowess ;) And so we went for a trial lesson at Kindermusik at Tanglin Mall. 45 minutes of singing, dancing & playing on musical instruments. Admittedly, I think the mums got more of a workout what with prancing & swinging 10kg babies. But will I pay good money for that weekly 45 minutes? In the end, I don't think so. It's nothing like what I haven't been doing at home - banging on drums (a wooden spatula and an overturned pot on my kitchen floor!), silly dancing with dada, marching to the mummy calvary's 'trumpet & drums' etc. And if it's for the company of other same age babies, we've neighbours.

Are we done yet?

Oh, and of course the marvellous food! We had a mental checklist of our favourite local food to be checked off such as Hokkien prawn mee, satay, fish head beehoon, nasi padang and uncountable cups of kopi (coffee) & kaya toasts. Of course, Indian cuisine was also high on our list. We'd great Punjab food at Race Course Road and masala thosai & onion bhaji at Saravana Bhavan. And today, we visited what's unofficially Little Burma at Peninsula Plaza. At the basement and third floor are lots of Burmese eateries thronged with Burmese workers on their day off.

minibeanie's first ride

And of course, shopping! This time, we are carting back tons of organic foodstuffs & milk. Geeesh, what else is contaminated in China. Who knows? We're sorry to be leaving clean & green Singapore. With 4 hours to sleep, I think it's time to turn in!


minibeanie is 1 year, 2 months, 1 week old & 3 days old

Sushi & garlic rice

We are extremely proud (& relieved) that minibeanie has been receptive of new food. He had his first sushi a few days ago at Sushi Tei when I met up with grandma for lunch. I had packed his usual lunch along - pork & beef porridge with french beans, sweet potato, spiced with loads of garlic & coriander. Honestly, I thought it was really tasty (don't all mums out there?) but I suppose since it was:
1) salt-less and
2) it's still porridge however disguised,
minibeanie wasn't too hot about it. Nonetheless because of the late hour at 2 in the afternoon, he ate most of it. Then I placed a piece of rolled sushi with unagi (bbq eel) on a plate in front of him. He grabbed it like he would any new curio and put it into his mouth. And that was it. I couldn't pry his hands away from his mouth even when I'd to put on his catch-all Baby Björn bib.

For the next 15 min or so, he happily ate 1 piece of sushi after another. By the 4th piece, he started picking out grains of rice in his bib to give to me. All right then, when he starts playing with his food, that's a cue that he's full. And as expected, I'd to turn him upside down to brush off the sticky Japanese rice that speckled his pants and entire high chair ;D (Someone should invent a machine that sucks rice/crumbs/mushy-half-chewed-on biscuit... mash/sand/cereal from toddlers!)

We also had success with grilled fish & rice when we had our dinner at Manhattan Fish Market. Granted, it was fried garlic rice. It was no wonder then he has turned his nose up at the boring, bland & mushy fare I'd been been offering. In some way, this is a milestone for me - as a provider & gatekeeper to what goes into his tummy. He's not so much a little baby now but a little boy curious about new flavours & textures. Oh, and those 8 front teeth he has so far are not to be underestimated.


minibeanie is 1 year, 2 months & 4 days old

A matter of taste

While minibeanie can't be persuaded to try drinking from a cup, he has been very receptive of new foods :) Thank God!

His first birthday had been like an invisible line for me. Now he's technically able to eat everything we eat. Foods which had been advised against for allergy reasons are now off the list - egg whites, tomatoes, honey (still holding off on this one..) etc. Thus, these are what I'd been cooking up for minibeanie. So far, he'd loved all of them!

• noodles in pork broth with meatballs, pumpkin & cauliflower
• alphabet pasta with meatballs & pumpkin in a tomato sauce
• chicken breast in pork broth with peas, pumpkin, potato, onion & garlic
• Aloo Gobi, an Indian vegetarian dish of cauliflower & potato

Aloo Gobi had been an afterthought when I was making Chicken Briyani with Aloo Gobi as a side dish. Then I thought there was nothing in there that he couldn't have so I cooked it sans sel, then reserved a portion of it to be frozen in little cubes. I can't believe it still, this little guy is trying real Indian cuisine with the full works - cumin, mustard seeds, tumeric, garam masala (itself a blend of cinnamon, cumin, cardamom, nutmeg) & chili.

My goal is to introduce a diet as wide ranging in taste as possible without comprising on nutrition. While he may choose to prefer burgers & crispy chicken in future (I draw the line at fastfood though), he will have a palate that's not restricted to the blandness of typical baby porridge.

I think I'll make some maple syrup cookies for minibeanie now.... [in Cookie Monster's voice] I knows it, u knows it, DH will eat most cookies.


minibeanie is 1 year, 3 weeks & 3 days old

Food prowl in Shanghai

Our last full day in Shanghai was spent fulfilling our duties as tourists, namely taking a few obligatory pictures at the Bund （外滩）, stuffing ourselves silly at the Whampoa Club buffet brunch and then eating still some more.

It was an overcast day and drizzling a little but it wasn't enough to deter a little determined march across the river to gawk at Shanghai's most recognizable landmark, the TV tower. But first, the brunch at Whampoa Club.

In all honesty, it was over-hyped. And I didn't think it was because I had my expectations too high. Since one MUST have XiaoLongBao in Shanghai, it would be a crime not to order it from Whampoa Club's offering. Unfortunately, while the skin of the dumpling was light and thin, its meat stuffing was bland and forgetable. That was a shame.

We felt that Whampoa Club's redeeming feature was its interesting twists on tried and tested dishes. For instance, Singapore's chicken rice was made into a spring roll (although the accompanying chicken rice chilli wasn't garlicky enough) The Chilled drunken chicken from Shanghai fared a lot better. Tender pieces of chicken (not unlike Singapore's Hainanese chicken) buried under ice shavings tinged with alcohol.

The best part of the brunch was its dessert menu. The Ginger milk custard with osmanthus from Macau was smooth if not a little on the dense side. The best item of the day however had to be Singapore's aloe vera green lime sorbet with lemongrass jelly. Heavenly!

With the brunch ending at 3pm, we felt that it would be impossible to do justice to Le Platane. So there goes the Risotto with wild mushrooms that we would have ordered :( Nonetheless, we went to XinTianDi with the objective of meeting a friend from Singapore whom I've never met before - it was a like a blind date! :D Eventually, we were led by DH's sweet tooth to a swanky (read: expensive) Chocolatier. Indulgent and excellent truffles and hot chocolate for dinner. What decadence.

At a tea house

minibeanie is 11 months, 2 weeks & 5 days old

Gastronomic Shanghai

It has been a great holiday so far!

From our hotel room, I see the neon lights of Nanjing East Road (南京东路）, Shanghai's answer to Paris' Champs Elysee, Singapore's Orchard Road. Nice! But as expected, having a little baby onboard means a very different sort of schedule - naps in the day, going out only after he has had his breakfast/lunch/dinner and to top it all, returning before he gets really grumpy for his bedtime. No matter, I think we've adjusted to the slower pace quite well :)

We wanted to sample Shanghai's street food yesterday and there's only 1 place for it - WuJiang Road （吴江路）. First, we had a flaky & crispy beef pastry （香酥牛肉饼) - minced beef nestled in layers of crispy pastry with a hint of sichuan pepper and generous amounts of spring onion. Then, we queued in a 20m long queue for the famous fried dumplings - XiaoYangShengJian （小扬生煎）. It was well worth the wait. It was like its famous cousin, XiaoLongBao （小笼包）, filled with soup. In fact, not knowing any better, I had to scald my arm with boiling soup when I bit into 1 hungrily. The base of the fried dumpling was crispy while the rest of the dumpling wasn't overly oily nor tough. In fact, the sesame seed speckled dough still retained a nice chewy elasticity. Hmmm...

XiaoYangShengJian

Next, we had a stick of barbequed little octopuses and a pair of succulent oysters grilled. Heavenly. Further down the street, we had stinky beancurd! It wasn't as stinky as I'd hoped :D Finally, we got a drink from 1 of the many juice bars lining the street. But what did we find? Durian milkshake! yesh! We were stuffed by then, but we couldn't resist the Portuguese egg-tarts :P

Octopus, oyster, mussel, pork, fish, chicken Grill

Today, we ventured to XinTianDi （新天地）. DH was missing good european food sorely so we had Italian at 'Va Bene'. DH's spaghetti with clams and white wine was on par with what we had in Rome but I was a little disappointed with my spaghetti with sea urchin and roe.

It will be another gastronomic adventure tomorrow. We've reservations with Whampoa Club on the Bund for its brunch and a dinner reservation with Le Platane, again at XinTianDi, a French restaurant helmed by a Singaporean chef.

We love Shanghai! ...and not a little bit jealous that we're in Chengdu instead of Shanghai ;)


minibeanie is 11 months, 2 weeks & 1 day old

Cupcakes vs Muffins

I'm totally smitten by cupcakes. Yes, I know I'm a tad behind the cupcake craze in Singapore but I'm catching up!

First off, ever wondered what's the difference between cupcakes & muffins? Well, I did. I tried searching for the answer and the quick answer seems to be that cupcakes have frosting whereas muffins don't. Another difference (technically) is that cupcakes are well, mini cakes and muffins are errm, bread. I think the line is a little blurred on the last definition because honestly, haven't we all had a choc muffin that's more cake-like than bread?

Regardless, I don't care if they are cupcakes or muffins as long as they are yummy!

Anyway, as I mentioned, I'm bitten by the cupcake bug. Not so much as in eating them but in creating them. I found a wonderful shop in SG that solely sells baking paraphernalia - a baker's heaven! It's aptly called B-I-Y for Bake-It-Yourself.

Lemon Cupcakes with Bitters, Sorrel, and Toasted Meringue (from cupcakeblog)

Then, thanks to the thousands of crazy cupcake lovers out there who have made it their life mission to create perfect cupcakes, I found a couple of totally cool sites that are good enough to eat.

http://cupcakeblog.com Without a doubt, the QUEEN of cupcakes.
http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com


A little update on minibeanie. The little imp has learnt how to climb stairs! A little easier to go up than come down, I must say.


minibeanie is 10 months & 1 day old

Food rambles

• minibeanie had durian today! And he seemed to love it :> We are so glad he's a gourmand like us.

• An egg yolk makes for a very messy finger food.
• I just bought a book - Healthy meals for Babies & Toddlers - today. They have recipes such as 'pasta with roasted red pepper sauce', 'couscous with lamb & apricots' & 'stuffed mushrooms'. Wow! I can't wait to be able to have minibeanie at the same dinner table as us.
• Having started with fruits such as banana, mango, apple & papaya, minibeanie scrunched his nose at the berry mash I offered him. Great, I'm now left with at least 20 jars of berry mash from Finland. I think I'll blend them into smoothies, bread and muffins when he's able to eat those.
• A slice of bread is a great take-along snack. It will keep him busy, entertained & fed at the time we are sitting in a restaurant or cafe. Always wholemeal or rye, of course. BreadTalk has wonderful wholemeal/rye bread with cranberries.
• minibeanie wants his breakfast always around 7am. And he lets me know by pouncing on me, sticking a wet tongue into my face or having his thumb in my nose and twisting it like a knob.

minibeanie is 9 months, 4 weeks & 1 day old

Bon Weekend!

I got my WFD fix on Friday as promised :D Check out my Chicken Pot Pie. Man.... it was good. In addition, we'd a Potato-Apple salad and an Irish stew of sausages that was almost identical to the Finnish siskonmakkarakeitto (sausage soup). The total damage? Y188. Eur18 / S$36. To put the prices in perspective, we could have a dinner of 2 dishes, 1 fried rice & a small serving of roast goose for Y60. Eur6 / S$12. ......Alright, so it was the Shangri-La and I'd severe WFD.

This weekend was sort of a mini-holiday for me. DH took over as full-time babysitter - I slept in this morning and then went to the shopping street for some retail therapy. Bliss!


I bought a yogurt machine as it was impossible to find natural yogurt without sugar. It's an idiot-proof device - just combine milk and the starter bacteria, switch on the machine and leave it running for 8-12 hours. I'm going to start churning out tons of homemade yogurt - smoothies, meat marinade, facials anyone? ;)


minibeanie is 7 months, 3 weeks & 5 days old

Rock a bye baby

For the past 2 days, it has been difficult putting minibeanie to sleep. I mean, his arms & legs would be waving in the air, doing a nice job of removing his blanket, all the while making little whimpers. We call this "fussing". It either means he wants to be burped or wants more milk OR both. And when he's finally asleep, he could be making little sounds in the cot. A little yelp, cry, grunt or a squeak...yes, very endearing but not when it's 2:30 in the morning and you've a ear cocked for his cries. Then, it's our turn to be awake.

Nonetheless, he's the sweetest dear when he's asleep. Then, much as we'd like to give the little 'Care bear' (DH's moniker for minibeanie) a tight squeeze and a peck on his cheek, it's best to let sleeping babies lie.


I thought I'd have a savoury scones for lunch tomorrow so I made these quick & easy scones from black olive tapenade & minced garlic. Hmm...if I could have some hearty soup to go with it... :P


minibeanie is 1 month 4 days old