Scrumptous Dinner

Super kumxia to my 2nd bunny victim for a yummy dinner which he prepared! Well done!

An Evening’s Laughter.

Didn’t take much literature in school, only the very basic, didn’t go beyond the Merchant of Venice. The Taming Of The Shrew was much like a Prodigy song and the best version of Romeo and Juliet, I feel, was the one with Leonardo and Claire. Give me Superman, Spider-man, Batman, The Lord of the Rings or Men in Black anytime! Hahaha…

When a friend had asked if we’d be interested in an evening under the star with the Singapore Repertory Theater’s rendition of A Midsummer Night's Dream, we thought it to be a good chance to hang out with friends and family who are hardly in the country. We were ill prepared for the grammar was that to follow. We feel whoever wrote Yoda, must have been strangely inspired by Shakespeare! In Yoda we trust!

The stage was a 3 by 3 grid of walkways, the audience sat within this grid, and a huge rotating cube at the back, representing “home”. It started out slow, had to get the hang of the language and the not-so-good audio levels. It doesn’t help when everyone’s spewing Shakespeare across a shake-y speaker system.

This was an open-air stage so the sound could have been quite a challenge for them. I think some guy mentioned at the beginning that this was the first time they had held a play at that venue.

Getting used to the language at this play reminds me of when we saw Trainspotting. In an almost empty movie theater, the only ones who laughed in the initial 15 minutes of the movie was the row of foreigners who must have understood “shite” from the get go! They were the lucky ones!

Ok with the grammar in check, the story started to fall into place. Ode is to marry Hippo, Ode wanted his daughter Her to marry Dem cos Dem loves Her (or she dies or lives her life out in convent) but Her loves Lys, and Her’s sister Hel loves Dem. Are we having fun yet? One night they runaway (separately) into a forest/wood filled with a team of actors and a fight between some fairy King and Queen (also separate incidenced). Now this is getting better!

When this was all making sense a friend mentioned – do you know why Lys is limping and using a cane? Cos he fell in love with Her(n)ia! Hhhmmm…

The parts that did it for me was when Hel was talking about how she and Her grew up together and they threw in “sally-sally-luom-chiam-pas!”. Somewhere in there, (I think was Lys) a couple of lines were delivered in the tune of a famous Phantom tune. Even that song… “At first I was afraid, I was petrified…” was belted out by the Fairy Queen when she was mislead to fall in love with an ass! I love you Dolly!!!

The finale which were the team of actors putting on a play on the wedding day of Ode to Hippo, Her to Lys and Hel to Dem (yes they got it all sorted with help from the fairies, even the fairies worked themselves out – yippee! a happy ending), they had a non-belly-challenged guy in a 5XL red cheogsam, a guy used the traditional Chinese red lion suite (he was a lion, duh!) and another large bellied man in a large white suite which made him look like a long lost Teletubby cousin. White Teletubby was called Moonshine… more apt name then most.

The funny one was the wall… yes a wall, this guy walks up with 2 large sheets of cloth to the front and back of him with 1 hole in each of them – one at the back of him at his butt and one at the front of his at his crotch. Through this “hole” the play’s lovers had their love chats! Quite funny.

Thank you for an enjoyable evening of kooky grammar and strenuous running up and down a large stage (especially by Hel). Kumxia to my friends who’d asked us along and our friend’s friend who helped us buy the tickets.

Black Truffle Pasta

Thank you the friend who brought us back black truffles from Spain!

Kumxia my husband who made a scrumptous mushroom pasta topped with prosciutto ham and accented by the Spain bought black truffles. Yummy!

Never leave home without it.

Thank you my aunt, my bro and my bro's wife for the little digital camera they got for me last year. It has gone with me to many places and it's responsible for almost all the pictures taken from late last year. A small percentage is contributed by my cell phone. :-)

Everyone on the recent dive trip will know how snap happy I am and this tiny wonder has made it a breeze!

Taken almost 8000 photos in just over 7 months! Yippee!

Kumxia!

Mary Makes More! - Tuesday

This is the last half day we have on Kaleebso before we get back to reality! This also marks the successful documetation of Mary's food!

Day 4 - Breakfast.

The summary:


From the left (left) steamed dim sum (the frozen kind... hey we are on a boat).
And sausages with fried fish fingers.
The french toast that does seem to turn up at every breakfast.
Banana cake - didn't we see them at an earlier breakfast?
Steamed sweet potato.
Steamed fresh corn on the cob.
Cut fresh melon!
Just above the banana cake is mayo filling.
For those who got up early enough, they had special french toast with beans and egg cooked in! (I slept in :-p).

Day 4 - Mid-morning snack.


<- Goreng pisang.





-> Green bean soup!

Day 4 - Light lunch.

Mary thinks of everything! We were all washing gear and packing up so she made french fries and fried chicken, in case we were in too big a hurry to eat, we could have brought it with us. :-) But it was all gone by the time we left!


Last but not least...

<- This was what was left of that bunch of bananas that accompanied us on the trip.





-> This was how is started!

An enormous kumxia to Mary and KayLee for another super trip aboard their Kaleebso. And a big thank you to all friends, divers and non-divers alike who made this trip a fun one! :-)

There's Lots About Mary! - Monday

It is day 3 and Mary is the hostess with the mostess! She is still dishing it out - big time!

Day 3 - Breakfast.


From left, at the top - mei-chai duck, very very yummy. It came with the Chinese steamed buns (not pictured). Delightfully savoury!
Just below that - was egg omelette with some kind of vegetable.
Dish 3 - Fried noodles.
Dish 4 - the little packages of white paper towels kept warm and moist Mary's very own Ramly burger! On a boat we have Ramly burger!!!
Dish 5 - French toast. Somebody's gotta really love them cos they are at almost every breakfast.
Dish 6 - There is the trusty papaya at the very end to make sure our insides are working well!

Day 3 - Lunch.

<- Chopped up fresh crunchy fruit with Mary's special spicy prawn paste dip!





-> The morning's mei-chai duck was shredded and added into a well boiled peanut and sotong porridge. So yummy I had 4 helpings!

<- There was also fresh salmon pan-fried in its own juices with a dash of special pepper. The crispy over-fried salmon skin was worth waiting for.




The highlight of day 3's lunch was lamb prepared right on the upper deck's hot pan. There was none left at the end of the meal. :-)


Day 3 - Mid-afternoon snack.


Cooling pot of chin-chow with the green chendol strands, for helping us heal our sun burns... ->















Accompanied by 2 brimming pans of pheonix claw noodles heap with chinese vegetables.

Day 3 - Dinner.

This could be the largest single we have ever had on the history of our visits to Kaleebso. Mary spent over 4 hours in her little compact kitchen and dish after dish after dish was placed on our dinner table. Thank you, Mary! :-)

Here is a bird's eye view:


(1) Rendang. (left)
(2) Stir-fry vegatables with mushrooms and prawns. (right)






(3) Spicy chicken. (left)
(4) Butter crispy prawn. (right)







(5) Sambal ikan bilis with petai. (left)
(6) Black pepper beef. (right)






(7) Mary's own recipe for tou foo skin wraps, hers has corn in them! (left)
(8) Garlic fish. (right)






(9) Spiced cashew rice. (left)
(10) Herbal soup. (right)







(11) Curry fish head (foreground).








(12) Fresh skinned pears. (bottom)

It's the most impressive meal yet! The spread may not sound fancy but it was GOOD!

Mary Mary quite contrary - Sunday

These menus have been split into individual days, 3 whole days (Saturday, Sunday and Monday) and a half day (Tuesday).

This is from our second day on this great boat with an even more amazing kitchen!

Day 2 - Breakfast.



From the right, there were fresh plums, marbled cake with soft buns, french toast, and fried noodles.










At the very end were fried rice, whole fried eggs, sausages and the mayo filling for the soft buns. A hearty start to another day of scuba diving!

Day 2 -Lunch.



<- A light snack to keep up the energy! From the right, fried sweet yam samosas, and deep fried otah-otah packets.



Plus the highlight! Crab bee hoon!!!!! Yummy!!!!! ->





Day 2 - Mid-afternoon snack.



<- Mary's version of the dry chee-chiong-fun with an even yummier sweet sauce on the side.




A very special and hearty soup with yam and yong-tau-foo! ->




Day 2 - Dinner.

Here is an overview.

In the far right end, were friend little bundles of wanton.


In the left corner were fresh salmon sashimi with rice rolls Mary rolled herself! 2 trays worth and we finished them all!










The 2 trays in the foreground were sotong and fresh mushrooms... (^)



... all into this huge rice pot which often doubles as a steamboat! ->





The highlight of day 2's dinner were large prawns, more than enough for everyone! Only in this long shot can you truly appreciate the size of those prawns, use the slender forearm on the left as comparison. :-p

Our Annual Dose Of Mary - Saturday

We should all be thankful for the food we receive, and I believe more thanks should be given to the people who lovingly prepare the food that fills us.

This is my attempt to document the yummy yummy meals over the 4 days we spent on the boat Kaleebso, split into 4 posts. Wish me luck!

This is going to be one very long post. :-)



Day 1 - Breakfast

Simple start to a day 1 on our annual retreat on Kaleebso. Mayo tuna and pineapple filling for the soft buns. Red bean buns. Sweet pastries. Banana cake and chicken fingers!

The basket of fruit for dessert and the BBQ pork we had brought - just for fun!










"Secret" stash of fresh crabs just for us!










Day 1 - Mid-morning Snack

There was goreng pisang and a huge trash bag of 2 types of keropok! Mary's own fish crackers and the prawn stick-like ones Allan brought.











Day 1 - Lunch

Mary's 'magic pot' of curry with filled with lots and lots of stuff! On the side a special green bean curry with cockles. All put together to form a beautifully reddish orange curry noodles.

To quell the spice was a basket of bah-lu-ku.










Day 1 - Midday Snack

Dry friend mee-tai-bak with battered fish fillets. The real fish fillets not the processed nugget type.

Day 1 - Dinner

Here is a summary:


From the left:


<- Dinner dish 1 - stir-fried chinese vegetables with crunchy ikan bilis.






Dinner dish 2 - stir-fried chicken with mushrooms. ->


<- Dinner dish 3 - braised lamb with gourd (help if you know what this is?)






Dinner dish 4 - bitter gourd with ribs. ->


<- Dinner dish 5 - prawns fried in salted egg yolk and onions.





Dinner dish 6 - Mary's very special cheese curry, this time with deep friend fish fillets (not the nugget kind). ->



<- Dinner dish 7 - super fresh chili crab, we first saw them on the deck below the bench! :-)




Dinner dish 8 - roast duck. ->





<- Dinner dish 9 - chinese herbal soup with pheonix claws (chicken feet lah!)



Dinner dish 10 - skinned whole fresh mangoes! ->

And this is all just on the first day! We were there 'til Tuesday!

Kumxia Mary! :-)