From Italy to Japan in the kitchen

Date: 26/04/2020 (Sun)

Risk our life again to supermarket at Century Sq.  On the way popped by J-Mart with a short queue.  A pair of mother and daughter came out empty handed then walked to the escalator and left.  No sure they couldn't find what they wanted or merely doing window shopping and waste everybody's time, haiz....  I grabbed rolled barley, cream puffs and seaweed.

The supermarket was more crowded than before CB.  But since the community cases are getting lesser, I don't feel that scared any more.  But if I can find an online option other than choked up NTUC/RedMart/Giant, I really rather not step out of the house.  Even after CB, I will still stay in my cave for another 10 or 14 days till every pinch of virus is dead and never back.

Gotten most of the groceries, left out a few items only to realise when I am home (as usual always).

Ta bao dinner from the same floor Boon Tong Kee (文东记), was happy with every bite including the chilli and onions lolxx...

Signature steam chicken rice came with a meat ball, broccoli, achar and thai sauce tofu.

太好吃了!

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Date: 27/04/2020 (Mon)

Spending almost the whole day kitchen.

Lunch carbonara macaroni, the kids licked the bowl clean.

Used 2 egg yolks for these, egg whites kept for dinner cooking, nothing was wasted.  I so clever lolxx...

I made Dalgona coffee intending to share with Luis, but when I came back after all the washing, the whole glass was gone too.  He gave me that innocent poor puppy look some more and I was totally defeated by his cuteness.

He hates HBL, he wanted to go to school very much.  His brother sat with him accompany for a lesson, both laughing enjoying cringing at the teacher's voice, kinda ya ya papaya that he knows all the questions.

Lunch Italian, dinner Japanese.

Gyudon was legit with onsen egg.

Let the kids had more beef, PapaVoo and I made stomach space for pan fried egg plant.  The egg whites were used here.

Glazed with BBQ sauce, this was so crazy yummy!  No enough!

Dinner was completed with easy miso soup with seaweed, a few strands of spinach and tofu.

The cooking was all done in 50mins but I sibei tired already.  I am a very lazy person.  Haven't even find time to bake after CB for so long.

Eat and eat...

Date: 24/04/2020 (Fri)

Weeeeee.... Chicken and leek toriyaki was done at 12.30pm!

Did simple marinate the night before with salt, pepper, sesame oil, chinese wine and cornflour.  Then grill, that's all.  The bottle of Jap BBQ sauce did all the magic, I also dilute a bit of the sauce to pour over the rice.  So damn good, I love myself lolxx... I think jap dishes are generally more simple than chinese dishes.

Dinner, PapaVoo ta bao hokkien mee in opeh leaf.  I hope I don't put on weight, haahaa....

I just found out that opeh leaf comes from palm trees!

I was watching the first few episodes of 媚者无疆.  It became too bloody and violent, so I decided to skip it.

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Date: 25/04/2020 (Sat)

Woke up so late, everybody ate their brunch already.  So I warmed left over rice and made instant CP wonton for myself.

Ordered 2pax dinner from Dian Xiao Er while the boys ordered Maki-San.

The set came with their signature roast duck, veg, soup, rice and drinks.  Love the stir fried green dragon chives that came with some orangey petals and lily bulbs, of course the roast duck was lip smacking yummy.

I didn't join in the singing cos' it's not of any help to frontline workers.  It merely entertains people who are bored to death at home.

Found this online which was exactly what I was thinking.  Give medical workers extra bonus and extra off days, even FOC meals or supermarket vouchers is way better than any lip service.

Bubble tea is more precious than bird nest now

Date: 22/04/2020 (Wed)

Gov closed bubble tea retails last night.  Massive crowds gathered for their last drink before the shut down.  Social media broadcast photos of the crowd, this is one of them and no, you won't find me dead in such crowd.  I think people are still ignorant, they thought 1m distant is safe, they thought face mask is a 100% protection.

All thanks to these people, there will probably be a sudden increase in community cases (again) in about 10 days time from now.  Never mind about all these people, already can't stop them from sabo-ing the society any way...

Back to my own life, fetching Darren home.

Infections are finally drying up.  He has got more such sores on his arms and legs.

He didn't sleep well cos the elderly at opposite bed made a lot of noise.  Darren is a kind kid at heart and is able to empathise with him.  I was tired too, we bought SubWay in the hospital for lunch again, and took a cab back.

Napped a bit and cooked dinner.

All from Donki, I am big fan.

I made miso soup base with udon.

I need some seaweed strips badly to make it legit lolxx...

Then we had strawberry crepe cakes for dessert and began my new "mission" of applying medicine for Darren twice a day omg.....

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Date: 23/04/2020 (Thurs)

I made mirin egg toast with beef and cheese for brunch.

It's crazy delicious.

PapaVoo ta bao seafood soup for me for dinner.

I was really happy, he is still quite sweet to me after all these years, heehee... 小幸福.

After dinner had to ask PapaVoo to drive me out to get a bath soap mild and suitable for Darren.  My FB friends gave many recommendations and I decided to give Catephil a try.

Before going home, we went to 我爱台妹.

In order to buy bubble tea, we bought chix cutlet and sweet potato fries, haahaahaa....

Without long queue or crowding, we tugged the calories home feeling intensively satisfied lolxx...

I goes to CGH as frequent as I goes to supermarket...

Date: 19/04/2020 (Sun)

Woke in noon, so this was my brunch from Eileen.

I took a slice of matcha crepe cake to try.

YUMMY!  Would recommend it as one of the best thing to buy at Donki.  It's $14.90 for 4 slices.

Cooked dinner: mapo tofu, saba fish from Donki and spinach egg drop soup.

After dinner we tried the vanilla crepe cake, I think I prefer this to the matcha!  So good and so fat lolxx...

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Date: 20/04/2020 (Mon)

Frozen waffles and potato/broccoli cake from IKEA.

My carnivore kids rejected the veg cake, sigh...

US gg already...

The worst scenario will be.... more people will be infected (that's for sure), the medical facilities over burden (already it is now) and collapse further leading to death rate so high that it might wipe out 30 to 40% of the population or even more.  The economy may plunge so low that it's not able to recover for the next 5 years.  So, enjoy your beach and freedom before death lah....

 Meanwhile, Singapore is marching towards championship with the most COVID cases in Asia.

Darren's rashes flareup further.  This time I let his father bring him to the hospital.   PapaVoo must be ah beng enough and successfully admitted Darren for a proper diagnose.  My poor son had been suffering from the rashes for half a year already, no doc in Polyclinic can tell what's wrong, gave all the useless medicine.  No NSC or skin specialize is willing to give him an appointment (cos all doc deploy to treat COVID).  The earliest date we gotten was 5 May, by then my son whole body rot already sia.

PapaVoo came back around 2.30am, so they put my son in observation room to wait for a bed for warding.


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Date: 21/04/2020 (Tues)

Dragged myself up around 10am to see my son, brought him toiletries, charger etc.  He was still in the observation room, still no bed.  I stayed with him for lunch before I left.  Bought Subway from the hospital before heading home.

When I reached home, he was warded.  Couldn't visit him, but kept in touch by phone.

I still cooked dinner cos I already thawed the food before he was admitted.

Deeply impressed with myself, Katsudon tasted great, would be legit with seaweed strips which I forgotten to buy.

Katsudon made possible with Donki's pork cutlet.

It's really good deal, 2pcs can be shared with 3pax cos it's so large and thick.

It's a handicap if you can't cook no matter how modern or career minded you are.

Donki was so crowded.....

Date: 18/04/2020 (Sat)

 Ordered Maki-San for brunch.  It's so yummy, salad and sushi $14.90 X 2 leh, can only eat once or twice a week, else the pocket will bleed until before CB ends.

We reached Donki Orchard around 5pm.

There were at least 100 people at the queue.  The massive crowd is something I will avoid even without COVID.  We left 313 and paid $5 for the carpark wtf.

We went to Tanjong Pagar outlet, less crowd, but still more crowd than before CB.

In another words, 2 weeks later, we will have to go either freaking early in the morning or late night to avoid the crowd (and virus).

I bought 2 full baskets of groceries then went to NTUC in the same building.

Not much options to ta bao dinner around the area, we drove off and turned into Marine Parade Hawker.

Yummy curry chicken rice with a drum and thigh for only $4.50.

Old liao, reached home exhausted and took forever to pack the things into the fridge.

Singaporean's die hard passion in queuing...

Date: 16/04/2020 (Thurs)

Wanted to kill many "birds" at one go, BreadTalk, Watsons and NTUC.  But look at the stupid cluster of queue outside Tampines Mall at 11am.  Haiz..... shake head, they might as well hug together.

How many of them genuinely buying groceries I don't know.   Singaporeans have this die hard passion in queuing, so all thanks to these ppl lah, I didn't want to be part of them.

 Luckily BreadTalk is outside the building for me to grab one toilet roll.

Bought lunch outside MRT station, couldn't finish, continued for dinner...

The toilet is very very cute and the size was about the same as the real thing.

Many people complained that it's sweet, I mean HELLO, fondant where got not sweet de??  Mala got not spicy or not?  Hiaz...  Anyway, the sponge cake tasted like a normal sponge cake, but cos it looked so cute, made us laugh and we were happy.

Actually Singaporeans funny one, they like cakes and desserts to be flat in taste but savory dishes to be sweet, heehee....  My boys the same, only myself knows how much sugar I have to add into soups, meat and veg in order to make them eat.

Dinner PapaVoo ta bao ba chor mee and we finished up the sushi.

Karma for putting foreign workers in congested dorms.  So please give them the best medical treatment to atone.

Most old people wear mask liao but continue to sit around, I believe they probably don't know what's going on, haiz... so poor thing but frustrating at the same time. 

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Date: 17/04/2020 (Fri)

Both PapaVoo and Darren had gone to work.  Cooking for Luis and myself.

Opened 3 stoves at the same time, spicy boneless chicken thigh, rice in the pot, and eggs at the end.

Should had added some water for the chicken, it was a little dry, but the taste was great.

We had dinner quickly so that we could bring Darren to the hospital for his rashes.  The rashes were really bad but still they wouldn't give us an earlier date to see a skin specialist.  He's literally rotting le...

If you don't have savings, you gonna drown in this "rainy day"

Date: 13/04/2020 (Mon)

I fell into an unhealthy cycle of waking up in the afternoon, the first meal of the day was done at 3pm.

I pan fried rice cake and Sadia chicken burger for Luis and myself.  I could had shaped the rice cakes into round shape to stack up as chicken rice burger.  Pan fried rice cake was less strenuous than usual fried rice, so I'll be doing this quite often from now. 

PapaVoo bought back dinner.  He said my stingray with egg and clams were only $7 with half a bowl of sambal.

In the mid nite, a piece of sad news came, a family friend's father passed away.  My sis in Oman was crying as she couldn't fly back to Singapore to be with one of her best friend of more than 20 years.

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Date: 14/04/2020 (Tues)

I prepared instant dry noodles and stir fry pork shabu with leek as topping.

While others always run out of idea of what to cook, I always have numerous recipes seen online.

I don't like complicating dishes with a long list of ingredients, must be easy, else I'll be too exhausted to eat after cooking.

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Date: 15/04/2020 (wed)

Gotten $600 from our garmen liao.  Some people were encouraging others to donate the money to the needy.  It's very noble and kind lah but I am going to keep it for dear life.  We don't know how long this "rainy day" is going to last..... $600 can feed my family for a month sia.

You know I came across someone which I didn't know in person who does voluntary and charity work like helping out the poor and old, bring them see doc, give them food etc... like every weekends.  From what I read (I may be wrong), she was still doing her work on 5 Apr.  And suddenly, she and her husband went out of job!!??  Now her family is having difficulties to meet ends with a old mother and a young child.  She is such a kind lady but she doesn't have any savings??

Saving for unexpected emergencies is so important.  The first thing I want to do after this stupid COVID is to see my father and look for a job.  When things are more stable, then hopefully we all can fly again...

I really don't know how to deal with wraps.

So the kids and I just any how roll up and eat.

Took Grab to Singapore Casket for the wake.  Talked to the driver a bit, he damn suay.  He lost his job one year ago, found a job last late Dec, was about to start work, this COVID came, the company was not able to start, so he's jobless again.  Driving Grab was ok for the first 2 months, and now, we all know what happened lah...

Paid respect to my friend's father, sat with her, learnt how to fold a ingot.  I am a free thinker, so any religion practice it's fine to me.

It's so sad and so painful.

I went back home by train.

Reached Tampines Interchange and it was as crowded and as busy as before CB.  I took a bus and went back home ASAP.