Adventures in the Ordinary: Learning to Cook

Okay, I already know how to cook.  But I won't be able to have Dahl Makni, Chili Crab and Pad Thai at my beck and call when I get back to the states, so I'd better learn how to make them myself.  I started taking cooking classes from an Indian lady named Kay, and even though my (and David's!) waistline has suffered a bit, it's been great fun.   It's not all Indian food, too, she teaches Thai, Chinese, MIddle Eastern, Japanese, Indonesian, and Singaporean.

First, today's menu:

Mushroom and Pea Pillau

Tandoori Chicken

Prawn Marsala

Palak Paneer (Spinach and Cheese)

Stir-Fry Mix Vegetables

Tomato Chutney

Gulap Jamun (Dessert)

And this is Kay, our awesome cooking instructor (if she looks familiar, she's the one who took us to India):

She goes over every single ingredient and how to pick it out, prepare it, and what you can and can't substitute for the stuff you can't find in the US.  Spinach, potatoes, onions, most spices are easy:

This... might be a bit more challenging to find.  It's a certain type of food coloring that goes into the Chicken Tikka to make it red.

Or this stuff, called Asafoetida, which smells like feet.  You put a pinch of it in any bean or lentil dishes and it's supposed to help not make you gassy.  It's the Indian version of Bean-O.

After all the chopping and preparing, comes the cooking.

You're not part of the class until Kay grabs the spatula out of your hand to show you the right way to toss the food around the wok.

Chicken Tikka!

And last is the Gulap Jamun.  Basically, it's deep fried dough soaked in sugar syrup.  Best. Dessert. Ever.  I should try to bring them to the State Fair, I'd make a fortune.

And then we eat everything...

And then I roll myself home.  And diet until class next month.

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Secretly my favorite perk is checking out other people's houses.  This one was at Julie's, who's done some extensive traveling and has some great stuff around her house.

This is the sign outside her gate:

Here's what you find inside.  He ignored most of us as we walked in the house, and kept trying to shake my hand while I was taking his pictures.  I think the sign was basically wishful thinking.

Adventures in the Ordinary: Walking the Dog

It's already melting hot by 7:30am, my usual time to walk the dog.  David has an actual office he needs to get to, so I get the morning shift.  As soon as I jingle the dog collar, Millie's at the door and ready to go.

And because I have stopped to take a picture on this particular day, she looks as me, wondering why I'm stopping when it's time for a walk.

There are a surprising number of other dogs on our block, all pretty noisy when we pass by.  We started calling it "running the gauntlet", because the other neighborhood dogs jump out at you right and left as you pass by.

Turning right today, we head up the next block.

And see the garbage men, as usual.  They collect the trash here every single day.

We live in a pretty nice neighborhood, and there are lots of great houses to look at, both traditional and modern.

A few blocks up there is a little business area, and Millie stops to sniff this particular doorway every single time.  It's the dog grooming place, which she hates, but still it still seems to hold enough interesting smells for her to want to stop.

Next is O'Riordan's Irish Pub, where there are always last night's empties sitting outside and the menu "specials" never change.

Now past the Indian place I really like, and the Japanese Dining Bar that's always packed after 8pm.

Crossing the street, there are even more dining options to consider.  The Burger Shack...

Starbucks, Hong Kong Cafe...

And on to the next block, which has even more eating choices.  French Cafe, German Market, Spanish Restaurant and another Irish Pub (I haven't actually been to any of these) and an Organic grocery store fill this little block, next to the ever-present 7-11.

This guy was hanging out around the corner, reading his Chinese newspaper.

Here's a common sight - using an umbrella as protection from the sun instead of rain.  I just wear a hat, it's just one less thing to hold.

More yappy dogs protecting their gated territories...

This house is new, I can't decide if I like the architecture or not.  Pretty cool, but not exactly warm and welcoming.

I get to check myself out in this mirror when I pass by, it's usually not a pretty sight.

This is one of the biggest houses along the walk, and they seem to have a huge yard - a rare commodity around here.

Almost finished with our walk, I always gaze longingly at this house with the big pool as I pass by.  If we had one, I would jump in it every single day after our walks.  (I checked the temperature when I got back to the house, it was an actual temperature of 91 and a "feels like" of 97.  It was 8:15am.)

Millie sniffs everything along the way.

We live right by a kindergarden, which creates a traffic jam twice a day because everybody drives their kids to school.  Oh, there are buses, but they just don't seem to be very popular.

This little girl kept trying to turn around to see Millie but her mom really wasn't having any of it.

Another couple of surprise bark attacks...

And as we reach our block again, there's Charlie Brown the neighbor dog, but I couldn't catch up to say hi.

And there you have it, a day in the life of walking the dog!

Time for a much-needed shower.

Adventures in the Ordinary: Beginnings

I saw a guy the other day taking pictures of a sale in a mall, and I thought "Why are you taking a picture of that?" and mentally rolled my eyes at him.  Then I thought, well I suppose it's a pretty big sale, it's not too often you come across a football sized field of shoes for 50 - 70% off.

There's not a lot that goes on here that can be defined as exciting, it's mostly just... mildly entertaining.  But I have to remember that the things that have become normal to me may be fascinating to someone who doesn't live here.  So bear with me, I'm going to meander a bit for the next few weeks...

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I was looking at some old pictures, and found these.

Back in April 2008 (when I still thought Singapore was in China), a couple of Davids' Singaporean co-workers came to the US to visit.  They met Millie, we went to the Mall of America, they came over to watch American Idol (live!), and they enthusiastically invited David and I to come and visit them in Singapore.  "Of course, we'll try!" I replied, at the same time thinking, "If I had that much time and money to travel, why in the world would I go there?"

Less than six months later, David and I were in Singapore, and David was being offered a job.

Less than three months after that, we were living there.

I remember visiting the American neighborhood on that first visit to Singapore, and seeing this amazing house.

Turns out that's where my cooking classes were to be, and now I go there once a month and am friends with the girl who lives there.  One day you're sitting on the couch thinking that the furthest you're going to travel in the next year is probably St. Louis, and then *bam!*, you're sitting in Singapore trying to remember what is normal.

"feels like some kind of ride but it's turning out just to be life going absolutely perfectly" - brian andreas