Cookyn with Mervyn: Our Tribute To Japan

Cookyn with Mervyn organised a "Our Tribute to Japan" session today to raise funds for the unfortunate events that have happened in Japan. Mervyn and his team shares their Japan experiences as well as cooking skills and all proceeds from the session will be donated to Red Cross.

I had thoughts of donating to Red Cross myself for Japan disasters and when Cookyn with Mervyn decided to hold this session, I signed up myself and Lilian without hesitation. This session prove many firsts for me: first time attending a cooking class, first time doing real food preparation work (like cutting fish, peeling potatoes, making my own seasoning, etc) and first time seeing such "power" kitchen appliances (more on that).

We prepared four dishes in the session; our starter was "Hamachi Salad with Calamansi Dressing", with two main courses, "Cold Soba with Smoked Duck" and "Oven-Roasted Potatoes with Mentaiko Mayo and Seaweed Powder", and "Orange and Sochu Jelly with Whipped Cream" for dessert. Kitchen Culture sponsored their kitchen space and boy was the kitchen huge and beautiful. Huge island table top with mixture of induction and gas hobs set in marbles and with an equally impressive wet area at the back, littered with cool kitchen appliances and flanked by two rows of oven and a super cool fridge. Mervyn starts off by proposing a toast with Sochu courtesy of the ingredient sponsor Greengrocer.com.sg.

Then it's off to work. First up, our dessert as it takes the longest time to "set". We needed to dig out the orange flesh and mix it with gelatin powder to form the jelly then pour the mixture back into the intact orange "shell" before chilling it to form the jelly. It normally takes 4-5 hours for the jelly to to be firm but Kitchen Culture have this machine which can quicken the process by "blast chill" (sounds uber).

Next up, potatoes. We split the job with some of the class peeling the potatoes and some cutting them into wedges. Then we season them with canola oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper and its off to the high-tech ovens. The traditional way is to blanch in salted boiling water followed by airing them to dry and thereafter putting them into the oven. These ovens however, will steam the wedges followed by oven-roasting them to perfection, all by the touch of a few buttons. And they also come with high-tech price of slightly above $10,000.

High-tech oven at work

While the ovens does their job, Mervyn demonstrated with how to do the dressing for the salad and prepared the sauce for the cold soba. While he was on the topic on how to Flambé (French for flaming or flamed) the sauce to burn off the excess alcohol, he shares what not to do.


Once the sauce is done, we were left with the easy job of twilling the soba into the plastic shot glass, placing slices of smoked duck to the side and adding the sauce, topped with sesame seeds and chives.

Mervyn went on to prepare his version of the salad, explaining how we should try to slice the fish as thin as possible. On the left is Mervyn's version of the Hamachi Salad with Calamansi Dressing. Nice thin slices of the yellowtail kingfish and blue fin tuna drizzled with the calamansi dressing. And on the right is my interpretation of the dish. Thick sashimi slices soaked with sauce. Can see that I'm either very hungry or not playing attention to the words "thin slices" and "drizzle".

As we are enjoying the first two dishes, the golden wedges were taken out from the oven and ready to be served for the next dish. So crispy on the outside yet soft and puffy on the inside, it is paired with the yummy sauce made with mentaiko and Japanese mayo. This dish is just so irresistible that almost all of us went for second helping.

Finally, the desserts are all chilled and set. Top it with a dash of whipped cream and orange peel strips and it's ready to be served.

We sat down and while enjoying our dessert, we shared our experiences in Japan, what we liked and admired about them and what Japanese food or restaurants we love. It was an enjoyable and light-hearted session and with the $3,000 raised, we hope to help Japan in our little way. Gambatte Japan!

Xavier Starts Toilet Training

Xavier starts toilet training today at his school. His form teacher called Lilian to let her know that Xavier is very enthusiastic about it.

Image from Amazon.com

We been gearing Xavier toward toilet training by reading the book "Big Boy Potty", getting him two potties (one the usual potty and one that enables him to sat at the normal toilet bowl) as well as asking him to tell us when he wants to pee or poo.

But we didn't get any success as he doesn't like to use the potty and usually keeps silent about his poo, even denying he had poo when I smelled it and ask him. 

The book is an interesting read as it tries to relate Michael, the kid in the book, to your boy.

Let's hope he is fully trained by mid of this year.

Update 31 Mar 11: Xavier seems to be progressing well. He is able to hold his pee and ask us to bring him to the toilet to pee when nature calls.

Still the most interesting car combo I have seen yet...

As I was going through the photos taken during our trip to Japan in 2007 for the "To Japan: Gambatte!" post, I came across these few photos that made me pause my search and take a second look again.

It was our last day at Hokkaido with the tour group before we head to the airport for our flight to Tokyo. The tour guide brought us to the Chitose Outlet Mall, Rena just at the outskirts of Hokkaido's Chitose Airport. The coach stopped right beside the most interesting car I have ever seen, a Mini with a half Mini "Caravan".

And it's still the most interesting car combo I have seen yet.

To Japan: Gambatte!

The 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck Japan on Friday, 11th of March 2011. This followed by an unfortunate chain of events including tsunamis, afterstocks, snow, bad weather, and a nuclear crisis. Yet, the people of Japan has won nothing but praises (from various reports, facebook and twitter posts) for their willingness to help each other and the calm and orderly manner they have exhibited in times like this.

Japan has always been my favourite holiday destination. Lilian and I been there twice (in '07 & '08) and it's still the first destination that pops up in my mind whenever we have thoughts of going on a holiday. Aside from the wonderful food, we love the sincerity and warmth the people of Japan exhibit and they are always willing to help.

I remember on our first flight to Japan, Lilian was sitting beside a Japanese middle-age man. I got a little worried and defensive when he tried to struck a conversation with Lilian. But upon learning that it's our first visit to Japan, he was very passionate and eager to introduce the Yuzu juice to us, insisting that we must try it on board the plane. I felt like a childish boy (for being defensive) after that and it changed my perception of people of Japan.

They also take strong pride in their jobs, whatever their jobs are. Their sky-high service level makes you feel like you are king. I recall on our visit to a Salmon farm, I was so amazed by this old man in the toilet. He was the cleaner for the toilet and he was brushing and cleaning the sink with a toothbrush. You can see the pride and joy (of how clean and shiny the sinks were) written all over his face. If only we see 10% of that on our food court cleaners.

And in the face of disaster, the people of Japan was still calm and orderly, whether it's exiting the building (during earthquakes) or queuing for water ration. There were no looting or stampedes reported. Salute to you people.

If you wish to lend a helping hand to Japan by donation, you can do it through Singapore Red Cross Society or Mercy Relief. And I am sure there are other channels to offer help to them. I have done my part and I hope you will too. And I hope Japan comes out strong from this.

GAMBATTE JAPAN! Glico Man and myself will be behind supporting you!

(Dis)Band of Brothers

This is where it all begins...

10th March 2011. This day marks the day 650 SIR (Singapore Infantry Regiment), 8th Mono Intake 3 SIR, Scout Platoon disbands. A number of brothers have received their MR (Military Release) and will no longer be call up for reservist.

Scouts are a special infantry breed. We operate in small teams and are required to walk longer than the rest of the Battalion on loads heavier than most infantry soldiers. And we do travel on "speedy" mode, often with little rest. And when you do that for over a decade with the same people, going through thick and thin and all things in between, you become as close as brothers.

I feel a little sad that it all ends so abruptly. The news that there will be a number of brothers who will receive their MR this ICT (In-Camp Training) were only told to us on the second last day of training. All the sudden I felt lost at the fact that the platoon has disbanded.

I would thank all the brothers for the wonderful bitter-sweet memories and it's my privilege to have walked/slept/eat/drink/fight/shot/run/chased after/hor-lan/swam/drove/recce alongside with you guys. All good things must come to an end. Though we will not have a chance to "cheong sua" as a platoon anymore, I believe we will still keep in touch. Let's try our best to meet up at least once a year.

54 Delta DY, over and out.