*dimsumdolly* - the different morsels of the life of a foodie

The True Baguette

The true baguette is thin, between about 24 to 28 inches long, slightly flattened, weighs nine to ten ounces, and has five or seven oblique slashes along the top surface, made just before baking, to allow the dough to expand before the crust has set. The crust itself it toasty, tight, and crackling, and the insides (known as the 'crumb' in English or the 'mie in French) are creamy - nearly golden - never bone white, and marked by an irregular profusion of glossy bubbles and holes, some as large as olives.

The true baguette is made only from flour, water, and salt - and, usually, yeast for leavening. Countless French techniques exist for arriving at the same goal, but the classic recipes call for a brief, slow kneading and a fermentation of several hours with only a little yeast. A true baguette must be baked directly on the hearth; its underside never shows the telltale curve and waffle pattern of a metal pan. Its most elusive qualities are the strong, simple sweetness of the crumb, though absolutely no sugar can be added, and a nearly paradoxical quartet of textures - around the air bubbles, the crumb is dense, moist, stretchy, and extremely tender, all at the same time, with no hint of rubberiness, no dry, tough sheets or filaments of gluten.

- Jeffery Steingarten in It Must've Been Something I Ate

Disillusioned Females

Even female Komodo dragons have given up on their male counterparts!

Ambergris

Yes, you're probably thinking 'Huh? What the hell's ambergris???'

Well, suffice to say that after reading this article, I wished all the puking drunks outside the pubs and discos could somehow metamorphose into sperm whales.

Of Wine & Men

Hermitage at One Raffles Boulevard is the latest kid on the block of wine wholesalers. Only three weeks old, it is conveniently located at the basement of NTUC building – good for the yuppie crowd they’re trying to target.

The place is spilt into two levels with the upper level used to house the bottles of wines and the lower level has several tables and chairs where people can sit around to sip wine. It’s very pleasant with its wooden shelves and panelling and sleek, modern black furniture.

I went for a wine-tasting session there on Saturday afternoon. It was actually a wine-tasting cum speed dating thing organised by a friend of mine. But really, all I wanted to do was drink and wasn’t in the mood to make any conversation whatsoever 'cos I was so bloody tired after paddling for about 1¾ hours just awhile ago. (My teammates and I had paddled to Kusu, Lazarus, St John’s and Sisters Island again! Was a great paddle!)

We tasted one sparkling wine, two whites and two reds. We also tasted four types of cheeses. One of them was my Brie, a cheese that I like. The sizes of the cheese we were given were really disappointing though. They were the size of 1cm cubes. Pathetic! They really could have been more generous. The wines were OK, but I wished, Soo Hoo, the owner of the place could have said more about the wines and taught us how to taste the wines, and maybe write tasting notes. We were given a sheet of paper with a small write-up, but I thought he could have gone further with the tastes and smells we should be looking for.

I had asked a friend to come along with me. She later told me that she spoke (we didn’t get to speak to everybody which was really fine by me!) to one guy who didn’t drink anything 'cos he said a friend of his was sentenced to a few weeks imprisonment just the day before for drunk driving. For god’s sake, if you’re coming for a wine-tasting session and you’re afraid of getting drunk, leave the car at home or just ask for a bucket to spit the wine into. DUH!

Another complained to her that he was disappointed the wine wasn’t free-flow. Hello? This is a wine-tasting event not a wine buffet. *roll eyes*

Another was so sleepy and groggy that he looked as if he was going to fall asleep anytime. OK granted, he said he had been working from 5am – 1pm, hence the tedium. I don't think gulping down wine really helps in staying awake though...

One complained that Singapore’s VERY boring. I had to argue against this statement by saying that there ARE things to do in Singapore. It’s just a matter of looking for them. In my opinion, people who say Singapore is boring are the boring ones themselves. I don’t understand these people. To them, I guess visiting new clubs/pubs equates to ‘having things to do’. I suggested sports to Mr. Singapore-is-Boring as a way of filling his time. Mr Singapore-is-Boring goes on to say, ‘Oh, it’s so difficult to do water sports when I stay in the West 'cos all the water sports are in East Coast.’

Well well, you just haven’t been looking hard enough, mate! I have teammates who stay all the way in Jurong West yet they can make it for dragon boat and outrigger canoeing practice. I don't live near Sentosa yet I can make it there for practice at least twice a week. It’s only a matter of how much you want to do it, Mr Singapore-is-Boring! I could think of a million things to do if I had more time and money to do so. I think people who say such things are so bloody lame.

Anyway, this is my first and last time going speed dating. It's just so tiring having to introduce myself and reiterate what I do ten million times. I happened to sit with another girl and at any one time there would be both of us and two guys at the table.

Once, one of the guys said 'Oh, since you work as an editor, your English must be very good, right?' And being too tired to act falsely modest as any good, demure Chinese woman should, I just went 'Er, yah' in a very deadpan, nonchalant manner. (But of course I'm hardly demure even at my best. Hahaha)

Oh you should have seen their reactions to what one might consider my social faux pas. That was a truly comic moment I tell you. The guy who asked the question said, 'Aiyah, when people say such things, you're supposed to say "No lah, not really. OK lah."'

Whatever. I would have retorted that it was a rhetorical question he asked, but I doubt he would have understood the term 'rhetorical question'. OK, as you can see, I'm in a very bitchy mood now. Anyway, I left it as that and I doubt I left a very good impression. Hahaha.

No more speed dating thank you very much! Anyhow, it's a cesspool of men here!

Corduroy Cafe

The cafe arm of the Corduroy & Finch group located on level 1of Vivo City is a place done up very tastefully, giving a classic French cafe feel. It's dark wooden chairs and tables and comfortable sofas just beckon you to sink your butt into it and enjoy a cuppa.

It helps, too, that as you make your way into the sitting area, you have to walk past this display of pretty cupcakes topped with huge swirls of colourful icing, decadentally sinful cherry chocolate cake looking positively evil in their dark brown coat, delightful cherry crumbles, panna cottas, etc. Your brain synapses just start telling you to order everything in sight as you go to find a table for yourself!

The cafe faces the waterfront and if you want to get closer, just opt to dine al fresco. Order at the counter, pay up and your food will be brought to you. I had the grilled chicken sandwich with egg which came with salad in balsamic dressing. The bread was fresh but the sandwich was average. Nothing that I haven't eaten before. I couldn't make room for dessert but next time I'll make sure I do so. I do like the setting of the place what with it's homey feel. Magazines and newspapers are also provided to be read at your own leisure.

Great place for brunch or afternoon tea!

Service: Prompt and pleasant.
Expenditure: Average $20 per person

Corduroy Cafe
Vivocity
#01-106
Tel: 6376-9895

Weekend at the Beach

After my home and office, Sentosa's Tanjong Beach is probably the place where I spend most time at. I reinforced this fact over the weekend. After an early evening paddle on Friday - I steered (under instruction from a more experienced teammate) to Sisters Island and back - three of us girls stayed behind as we planned to spend the night at the beach. The plan was to camp out, wake up at 7.30am, then go for a 5km run from Tanjong to Siloso Beach, then go for the usual Saturday morning paddle.

One of the girls had roasted a kampung chicken with mixed herbs, cooked brown rice, made guacamole and brought nachos, and tossed some garden salad with balsamic dressing. A bottle of Cabernet Merlot blend was the cherry on the cake for our gourmet camp-out. We even had an iPod plugged into small speakers for some nice jazzy music to complement the sound of waves lapping up the shore. Desserts were sugar plums, kiwi fruits and apples. Oh, there was chocolate too. Hee.

After being so stuffed from dinner, we decided to be healthy and walk off our dinner. From Tanjong Beach, we walked to Sentosa Cove to check out "the world's most desirable address" (that's how it's marketing itself). Nothing much there at the moment. There are already condominiums up and people living in them, but we couldn't get past the security post guarding the residential area as the security informed us that there's a big-shot living in there. It's amazing how many obscenely rich people there are in this world. Anyway, it took us 1.5 hours to walk there and back at a leisurely pace. I thought we had done enough to walk off our dinner.

We then pitched our tents. We had two big tents that we set about 10 metres from the water. At 1.30am, another teammate of ours came to join us after her company dinner & dance. So us four girls slept in the two tents, under the stars. We were really lucky it didn't rain!

Next morning, we dragged ourselves up at 7.30am and went for a 5km jog. Upon returning from the jog, about 20 other teammates had arrived for the regular Sat morning practice. Everyone was shocked that we had actually gotten up to run. Obviously no one believed we could do it! But I'm so happy we stuck to our programme and didn't give in to the temptation of sleeping in! The waters that morning were really choppy and it wasn't exactly a very fun paddle with choppy waters.

Anyway, camping out at the beach was good fun! We intend to do it again sometime!

This morning I was at the beach again. The morning was so gorgeous that we couldn't not take the opportunity to canoe to Sisters Island. I steered again and from Sisters Island we went to Lazarus and Kusu Island. We encountered some really rough waters and strong currents at some points and it was actually pretty scary when we were being hit head-on by the currents. The canoe just couldn't move. My crew really had to pull real hard and my steering skills were really put to the test. Yikes. It's at such times when you really feel extremely small against Mother Nature.

Both times I steered on Friday and today were good lessons for me in learning how to read and understand the waters. Partaking in sports where you're up against the elements really gives you a more profound respect of what nature is capable of. Of course I was steering under instruction from a more experienced paddler, otherwise I'd never dare risk going out there. Being a steer brings with it much more responsibility in that you'll have to ensure the crew's safety by steering and reading the waters well.

Often I think it's just much easier being a paddler and I shouldn't bother with learning how to steer. But I guess my desire to learn comes from the fact that learning how to steer makes for a more complete and versatile paddler. The club also benefits from having more people knowing how to steer. The best thing about outrigger canoeing is that no one situation is the same. Every time you're out, conditions are always different, be it different tides, different boats coming your way, weather conditions and wind direction etc are always different. There's always something to learn each time you go out. That's what I really love about the sport.

So there's my weekend!

Official Results

Gun Time: 2h:34m:52s
Chip Time: 2h:31m:1s

Placing in entire field:
2916th place with 3249 finishers behind. About 47% of finishers ahead.

Placing in gender (Female):
663rd place with 1151 finishers behind. About 36% of finishers ahead.

Placing in division:
131st place with 323 finishers behind. About 29% of finishers ahead.

Facts

Who's who
Of the 6165 who finished, 29% were female and 71% were male.

Opposite Sex
For the record, you were ahead of about 48% of male finishers. (Oooh, I love it when I beat the boys! Haha!)

Half-Marathon

“Why do I do this to myself????” Those were the thoughts that crept into my mind when I woke up at 3.30am this morning and got ready to leave for Bishan Stadium to catch a shuttle bus to the Esplanade. The Esplanade was the start point of the Stanchart run.

I had signed up for the half-marathon (21.1km) in end August, having had grand ambitions of training for it. But those grand plans fell through – I was paddling a lot but I hardly ran as I didn’t feel like running at one point in time in September and October. This is the first time I’ve run in any mass running event.

I arrived at the Esplanade at around 5.30am where I met up with a couple of friends. There was an excited buzz in the air and all the runners were rearing to go. The full-marathoners were flagged off first at about 6am. This was followed by the half-marathoners 30min later.

Before completing this half-marathon, I had never even run a distance more than 7km at a stretch. On hindsight, it was really quite insane to take something like that on without having trained for it. But I guess my regular exercise in other sports helps. At least I had enough stamina to last the distance. I maintained a slow and steady pace throughout and I told myself that my goal this time is not to stop to walk, no matter how tempting it is to do so. I managed to do that and am really pleased with myself.

I started off running with my friend who was maintaining the same pace I was for 8km. After that she had to walk as her knees were hurting. I went ahead without her, keeping at that steady running pace. I finished the half-marathon in about 2h 32min (exact time not known yet at time of writing). For someone who didn’t train for it, I guess it’s a pretty decent time! It helped too that we had good weather for running. It was cool and cloudy – unusual for Singapore! Thank god for that, ‘cos hot and humid would have killed me.

It's actually very motivating running with others. As I don't usually run with any music plugged into my ears, I motivate myself by setting small goals for myself at every step. If running alone on a road, I set visual markers for myself to reach. This time, I targeted a person in front of me and told myself I had to overtake him/her. Once overtaken, I aim for the next person. That really kept me going.

I should have heeded the advice of the running booklet to put petroleum jelly on the inner thighs and arms to prevent abrasion of the skin when running. Now I have bad abrasion on my inner thighs. I have to walk like a duck now. Next run I do, petroleum jelly will be my best friend.

In all honesty, I never thought I could do this. I’ve never been much of a runner and running isn’t my favourite sport. But I guess like many other things in life, it’s something I have to try once. For many people who take part in such runs, it’s more of a personal challenge than anything else. In completing the half-marathon (everyone who completes it gets a medal!), I feel a great sense of achievement and clichéd as it may sound, it’s true that often you’re actually a lot more capable and can achieve a lot more than you think you can. After awhile, it’s more mental than physical. Mind over matter. One thing I’ve realised in sports is that it really helps to build mental strength and character which can also be applied to other areas of one’s life.

So what will it be next year? Half- or full-marathon? Don’t know yet! But if it’s going to be a full, I’d better start training for it early. That’s just a whole different ballgame altogether!