A Little Blog

Everybody has to learn cooking from somewhere. It’s never too late to start!

My first attempt at cooking was probably while I was still a teenager - nothing fancy, just boiling and steaming. Out of school, I tried some frying. My first cake was a no-bake cake. Then came grilling, baking.

There’s still tons of techniques I haven’t explored, and I continue to learn.

I believe everyone can cook. If I can cook, so can you! (haha!)

While I am no Nigella or Harumi Kurihara (or Yan or Anthony Bourdain), I have tried to learn cooking, and survived, and can whip up a meal on demand. Not too bad!

Whether you are an absolute beginner, curious enthusiast, or seasoned (and suitably benign!) pro, I invite you to read and participate in my little Cooking 101 section of my blog.

A group of SYC singers at circle 3, Esplanade, during a rehearsal

The SYC Ensemble Singers continually surprises by extending the boundaries of choral performance. In this instance here, a group of singers sing from above the audience (ok there’s no audience because it was rehearsal time), while a bigger group sings a different part onstage.

One group on stage, the other right at the circle gallery

For more pics, visit http://photos.mikeleecs.com .

SYC’s home on the web is at http://www.syc.org.sg .

Count them dust… oh nevermind.

dust magnets??!

dust gets more apparent with dark surfaces.

tyranny of things
clogging up every spot
making a big sneeze

Right within a stone’s throw distance of my flat is a secondary school. Just heard over the air:

“What do I want for my Teacher’s Day present? I want you to pass your exam. If all of you can pass your exam, I will be verrryy happy.”

PS. I hear all kinds of classroom banter because some of the teachers are loud enough with their mics, amplifiers and loudspeakers, and the students are naturally rowdy.

View at the dining area at Kyubey. My chef is at the extreme right.

Through wp-slimstat I noticed that someone was trying to find an entry I had on my old blog about Kyubey - in the post I wrote, and in most google search results, a Sushi restaurant.

In a gist, I feel Kyubey is definitely worth a visit; be prepared to pay good money. After all the restaurant does have quite a reputation, and it is afterall located in the pricey Ginza district in Tokyo.

I didn’t pay for my lunch visit there; expenses were on a major electronics company who brought journalists over the region for a major product launch. No, not all the journalists got to go to Kyubey; the manager who was my companion for the trip decided Kyubey was a good place to try. His mom raved about it, and his mom knows food.

When it came to ordering we just pointed at a set course on the Japanese menu. We didn’t realise the price was for per pax. My companion was a little surprised when it was time to pay the bill. Anyway…

What I remember is the reverence for really good ingredients, great craftsmanship in the preparation and (some) cooking, and just pure relaxed dining (happily bantering customers) despite the upscale reputation.

I’m not too sure I can or want to be a great Sushi chef, but it would be excellent if I can do any one thing with the same level of excellence it takes. And I’m pretty sure the chef put a great deal of heart into the food as well. This is one food experience that I can say I will remember well.

Over the past two months or so I have been reading many, many books - many, by my usual standards. And surprisingly, most of them weren’t photographic pictorial books! So it’s quite unusual, by my usual standards. Aside from maximising my library membership borrowing quota, I have also made an unusually larger amount of book purchases.

I’m choosing to write about this one particular book for a start for this new little blog - A Year in Japan, by Kate T. Williamson.

I came to know about this book from Danny Gregory’s blog, which talks about mostly things related to illustration and creativity (and more). Danny made a hearty recommendation for A Year In Japan, and I was compelled (by the inner consumerist perhaps…) to look for the book. Most happily, the staff at Page One at Kinokuniya helped me to locate a new copy.

On the same day I bought three other books at Borders. A Year In Japan wholly captured my attention when I got home. It’s easy reading, er browsing if you like. I love the drawings and the colours. Some of the drawings are based on photographs Kate took while spending a year in Japan on a post-graduate fellowship. Apparently, for consistency her book editor suggested that her book to be made up of just illustrations, so photos were eventually taken out.

By and large it’s a journal, more than a guide. Kate spent most of her time in Kyoto, a fine balance of the modern and the traditional culture of Japan. She went to Japan to study sock design btw (the subject occupies exactly 4 pages out of 192 pages in the book :)

Yes, I recommend the book!