My first attempt at making Bak Kut Teh. Had some leftover pork belly from cooking a fortnight ago and the best idea I could come up with to use it in this dish. Bought the pre-mixed herbs, dried shitake mushrooms, some tofu (the spongy, absorbent kind) and just added everything else to it. One entire bulb of garlic, some soy sauce to season, a tiny bit of leftover chicken stock, steamed rice, and we have a meal.

It tasted pretty decent, although the soup was a little oily from the fat content of the pork belly. 10 minutes of prep, 3 hours of slow cooking, and you have dinner served. Heh, if only all my meals were this simple to prepare.

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These days I have a different perspective on food. Usually it’s one ingredient I have in the fridge or pantry, and trying to buy other ingredients to match it. Bought some squid ink pasta a week ago and decided I wanted to try a seafood pasta with it. Was at the market, and wandered up and down the aisles. Was staring at the marinara mix and a year ago, I probably wouldn’t have hesitated in buying it. Now I do a little more quality control. Preferably fresh meat if possible, although with prawns and certain fish you can only get it frozen. Didn’t like that they sprayed the bushy type of parsley on the marinara mix (Italian flat leaf tastes better, and I prefer to add it last to a dish to preserve the flavours of the herb). I prefer to carve up my own calamari, peel my own prawns, I’d fillet the fish myself as well if my knife was sharp enough (another thing to own, a proper alloy hardened chef’s knife).

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I’m thinking back now to late 2006, when I was thinking of what I’d like to do in the future. Getting a bigger paycheck was on my mind I suppose. Heh, wasn’t really thinking about what job I’d like to be doing, I was just happy learning and doing whatever that was required of me back then.

Now it’s nearing the end of 2008, and just looking for a job. Still trying to find something suitable, although the finance industry is a little tough at the moment, as I keep mentioning. I think I wanted the bigger paycheck back then so I could afford a nice place to stay. I’d still prefer an apartment in the city for the convenience, but would also like to have an empty patch of land to just grow things. The herbs I planted in the last 3 months have had different outcomes, the mint and coriander growing into giant plants. The thyme is growing slowly while the sage seems to be stagnant. I recently discovered that my poor parsley was covered in tiny, green bugs. I wanted to use them but when I harvested them they had this powdery feel. I looked closer and discovered the bugs, and reasoned that as why they haven’t grown more of late as compared to the beginning.

Mom was just telling me about this new puppy my uncle picked up recently. The poor thing was found lying in a drain and my uncle took it home to nurture it back to health. I wonder what it’s like and the only description I got was that it looked like Chewbacca. The pup has been aptly named August, after the month it was found. Heh, would be great to have a pet dog one day.

Dreaming again. I wonder.