The past is a foreign country; They do things differently there.

Through crimson stars and silent stars and tumbling nebula’s like oceans set on fire. Empires of glass and civilizations of pure thought and a whole, terrible, wonderful universe of impossibilities. – Dr Who
September 28, 2011

David by Mary Hoffman

Michelangelo’s statue of David is renowned all over the world. Thousands flock to Florence to admire the artistry behind this Renaissance masterpiece, and to admire the beauty of the human form captured in the marble. But the identity of the model for this statue that has been so revered for over five hundred years has been lost .

Source - http://www.bloomsbury.com/David/Mary-Hoffman/books/details/9781408800522

It took me about 3 hours to finish this 250 page book and though I admit it is a page turner, I was quite disappointed. Mary Hoffman is not a bad writer and she’s got quite an imagination. Based on imagination alone and just some historical references, she managed to narrate the story of the mysterious model behind Michaelangelo’s David.

I am a fan of historical fiction. I’ve read books about the Borgias, countless books about the Tudors or members of the Tudor court, stories of Da Vinci and the identity behind Mona Lisa, Nefertari, Nefertiti, etc. When I picked out David during the Borders sale, I was quite excited. I haven’t read a book in the HF genre in quite a while and this seemed interesting. I love reading stories set in the renaissance. I am not usually one for putting books into age appropriate ratings but for the sake of this review, let’s just say I’m more used to reading books that were written for an older readership. Books in this category would usually be more in depth with a little more suspense to build up to the climax of this story. Mary Hoffman categorized David into Teen and Historical Fiction and the content itself does show exactly that it belongs in that category.

The book itself had a very creative and well thought out storyline but as I was reading, I couldn’t help but feel that all Mary has done is scratch the surface of the matter. I wouldn’t say that she only brings half-baked forms of what she offered but that she could delve further into the content; a little more history, more suspense, more emotions. The characters could be developed a little more for one. For example, Gabriele is this young, had working and good looking young man who got lucky with the artists and had “skirts” on his mind. He got dragged into politics and chose sides because the republicans were the first group to say hi to him and Michaelangelo was a republican. That’s it. I’m sure there’s more to him than just all that.

Throughout the book, I see references and implications of other historical figures and her take one some things that they’ve done. For example, she mentions that the painting of Mona Lisa (that Leonardo was still working on) looked exactly like the subject he was painting but it also held the face of one of Leonardo’s young assistants, implying a relation of some sort between the two. This was only mentioned in about half a page but it did enough to rouse the curiosity of readers. She didn’t go back into that or explore that option further. Is she going to write another book that explores this option? She’d be competing with many other books that have done the same and at least two books that were very well written.

But when it comes to other things like description and language, that’s perfect. I’m sure some other readers who aren’t really into the in depth books would enjoy it but for more the bookworms like me, this book wouldn’t be too satisfying.

♥

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September 26, 2011

Booklist

I was very sad when I heard Borders @ Wheelock was shutting down but then I thought, there’s still hope. Borders @ Parkway Parade is still up and functioning :D And then came news that everything must go by the 24th of September. Pssh.

I popped down to the book store, noticed there’s a storewide 70% off sale and went a little crazy, bought 5 books at an average of $7/each. I got home and I noticed the already messy stack of unread books by my bedside and even more books sitting out there, in the library, waiting for me to read them. Oops.

So I am currently compiling a book list here and will be trying to read through my whole list of sad, unread books. Let’s see if I manage to read them all :p

Eva ♥

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September 19, 2011

On the Menu: Aglio Olio with Pan-Seared Prawns

I rolled out of bed way past 1pm yesterday(Sunday) and for some reason, decided to be productive and cook myself some lunch. Everyone’s already had their fill (grandma made rice dumplings/ba zhang) so I was pretty much left to my own devices. -evil laughter-

I’ve been craving aglio olio with prawns lately but I haven’t had the opportunity for one. The closest I got was the Laksa Pasta over at Tea Cosy. Pasta in laksa sauce. Loads of prawns, amazing flavour.

So I dug around the two fridge and I managed to find me a bag of prawns! I jumped around like an idiot for a while and then I realized that besides boiling them till they’re red, I have absolutely no clue HOW to cook prawns.

Me - Mm how to pan sear prawns?

Alan - Put in pan. Turn heat on. Poke prawn. Poke prawn more. Done!

It’s not that I don’t trust him but uhm, I think I need more precise instructions :P

Anyway, here is my recipe my favourite dish. I used to make aglio olio al funghi, inspired by Jamie Oliver’s very simple recipe that I found online. Of course, I don’t always have mushrooms at home so I’ve learned to tweak his recipe to my own preference.

Aglio Olio with Pan-seared Prawns

What you’ll need -

2 x Chilli Padi
1 clove of Garlic
1/4 of an onion

A handful of pasta

A couple of prawns

Olive oil

#1. Preparations!

Before I start cooking, I like to prepare everything in advance so that I’m not rushing around once the stove’s on. Let’s not forget, there’s quite a bit of dicing and some defrosting for this recipe.

First up, fill a pot 3/4 full with water and let it boil. It’ll probably get to a boil after you’re done with all the preparations.

I only wanted 4 prawns in my pasta so all I did was take those prawns out of the freezer so all I did soak them in tap water for about 3 minutes to defrost. Defrosting would definitely take a little longer if you’ve got a huge chunk of frozen prawns that you want to defrost.

I chopped the heads off, peeled all the skin away and pulled out all the “poo shooos”. If you don’t remove all the skin, then the prawn won’t be completely seared and probably not as crunchy and delicious. Unlike boiling the prawns, pan-searing the prawns without the skin on won’t make the prawn shrink drastically, it’ll just make the prawns curl up.

Next, mince up the chilli padi, garlic and onions. Onions weren’t on the original menu but I quite like caramelized onions – sweet yet spicy. The amount of these that you put in is really up to you. If, like me, you like your food spicy, then you can put in more chilli, garlic and onions. If you’re not a fan, then why are you making aglio olio?! Seriously though, just useless chilli or maybe no chilli at all. Just make sure you’ve got garlic!

#2. Pan-sear the prawns!

I recommend using a pair of chopsticks for this step.

Pour in about 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil into a pan and while you’re waiting for it to heat up, sprinkle in a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar. The sugar would caramelize the prawns while the salt would add a little bit of crunch to the skin. While you’re doing this, watch out because the oil pops when you sprinkle in the salt. Maybe try not to stand too close to stove or duck when the oil starts popping :p

Once the oil is hot enough, put in the prawns as fast as possible because the moment the prawns touch the oil, it’ll start cooking. Let it rest on one side for 30 seconds then flip it over for another 30 seconds. Be alert because it is very easy to overcook the prawns, especially if you’ve got the stove on high.

Once the prawns are done, turn down the heat a little and fish the prawns out and onto a plate. Don’t throw the oil away just yet!

#3. Pasta!

At this point, the water that you started boiling before preparing the ingredients should already be boiling. Just grab your handful of pasta and chuck it in. 7 – 9 minutes should do the trick, depending on how firm you like your pasta to be.

You can use whatever pasta you like – penne, linguine, spaghetti, macaroni, etc.

#3. Frying up the spicy stuff!

This is where it gets exciting. Using the same oil as the one you used with the prawns, pour in all the garlic, chilli padi and onions. Add in a touch of pepper.

Move the mixture around the pan and let it fry till brown. Again, try not to stand too close to the stove because frying all this at once releases really spicy fumes. The first time I made this, I start choking, my eyes started tearing. Whoa.

Once brown, just turn the heat off and leave the garlic, etc in the pan.

#4. Mix it all in.

While you’re waiting for the pasta to finish cooking, take each prawn and kinda wipe it around the bottom of the pan with the spicy stuff. This would coat it in the olive oil that’s got all the essence of the chilli, garlic and the onions.

Once the pasta is done, drain all the water out and chuck all the pasta into the spicy pan!

Toss the pasta around so that it is covered in the olive oil that’s been infused with flavours. Naturally, the chilli seeds, garlic and the onion would get tossed around and mixed in with the pasta as well.

Once that’s done, toss in the prawns and if you’re a nut like me and you LOVE spicy food, add in loads of tobasco over the top and mix it up again.

#5. Plate it up and nom!!

The title says it all. I put in so much tobasco after plating it up, my lips and my tongue were completely numb after lunch. Such sweet, sweet torture.

Enjoy ♥
Eva

Photo Credits: Took the photo of the raw prawns and the olive oil off google images :p  

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September 17, 2011

Don Quixote

The Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra from Russia is in town and the ladies and I had the opportunity to catch them perform the classic Don Quixote at the Esplanade this evening.

The costumes were spectacular, the settings were amazing and the technique of the dancers, even better. I still cannot get over how perfect their pointe was and how they made dance en pointe, multiple pirouettes, beats and jumps seem so damn simple. Then again, they are professionals and this is their career so I supposed they’d better be good at what they do. But that’s beside the point.

Even though the 6 of us, with student tickets, only managed to get seats in Circle 3, we had an unhindered view and we could really see how precise their footwork was. We spent most of the show just gaping at the amazing dancers (Brenda was more interested in Don Quixote’s horses). I’m not entirely sure if Don Quixote is supposed to be a comedy because if it wasn’t, it should. Or maybe it’s just the company’s own interpretation of the choreography that injected humour into the scenes, like Basilio’s death scene, Don Quixote himself, Sancho Panza and the pompous nobleman with yellow tights.

The music for the evening was provided by the Marrinsky Ballet’s own orchestra. A live orchestra, in my opinion, beats recorded tracks any day of the week. I guess live music’s just got its own body that fills the room much more than a good stereo and recording system really can. The orchestra was just as good as the dancers although I really didn’t understand why this girl had to come up, dressed like Princess Jasmine and just wave her hands about. Go figure.

Anyway, we started the evening off at Thai Express in Raffles City and the laughter and the jokes didn’t stop there. “Unlease your inner minah!” “Buy And Throw Away. BATA.” “I forgot to bring my binoculars… so we’re gonna have to squint and look like factory made china peeps.” Of course, I don’t think Brenda meant to be racist with the last comment. I’ve got to say, the service at TE this evening was quite bad but to be fair, they do seem to be a little understaffed.

We walked to the Esplanade from there and jostled with the crowd a little to get to our floor, got really annoyed with some really impolite people who just squeeeeezeedddd past us to get to their seats with no “sorry” or even a simple “excuse me”. Pssh. But the performance itself was enough to make us happy ^^

Serene and Brenda left after the show ended, leaving Natalie, Hui Sze, Nikki and I to hunt for some supper. With onion rings, mexican wings and Coronas in mind, we went on Hui Sze’s virgin trip to Clarke Quay at night, to the Whopper Bar.

The evening was really amazing and I had loads of fun with the girls. Many more before November, yes yes? Pictures up ahead (: -

Don Quixote is on for the next two days, for another 4 shows; two matinees and two evening shows. If you’ve got the opportunity and there are still available tickets, go watch it. At about $70ish bucks for a Circle 3 ticket, it’s a very low price to pay for an amazing show.

Enjoy!
Eva ♥

Photo Credits:

Some of the photos here were taken by the lovely Ho Hui Sze ^^ 

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September 15, 2011

“Avoid fruits and nuts. You are what you eat.”

Evangeline and I busted out the blender this evening and we whipped up some pretty yummy smoothies! Evangeline and Eve enjoyed a nice, pink Apple Banana Berry Yoghurt Smoothie and I made myself an Avocado & Green Apple Milkshake. Noms ~

Apple Banana Berry Yoghurt Smoothie

For 2 Servings, you will need - 

2 Apples and 2 Bananas

1 1/2 Cups of Mixed Berries Yoghurt Drink

#1. Peel the apples and bananas then chop them into smaller pieces

I made the mistake of quartering the first apple before getting the skin off. Oops. Cutting the apple before peeling the skin would make peeling a lot more difficult, even if you use a potato peeler like I did, because there is a lot less apple to grip and the apple piece would probably slide around a little making it less easy to attack with the peeler or a knife. Would be pretty dangerous with the knife I reckon, if the apple slips, especially if you’re using quite a bit of force. Once ready, just dump everything in the blender.

I do reckon I need more banana. I used the smaller bananas today because the regular sized ones weren’t ripe. Two regular sized bananas should do fine but two of these mini bananas, didn’t produce that much banana flavour. The serving size shouldn’t really matter because bananas don’t produce much juice anyway.

#2. Pour in 1 1/2 Cups of the Mixed Berries Yoghurt Drink

I like how, with these flavoured yoghurt drinks, you can add almost whatever flavour you want to your smoothie without really having to go through the hassle of having to prepare more fruits. Marigold has a small but delicious selection of yoghurt drinks – Mango. Strawberry. Mixed fruits & vegetables with Wheat grass and Mixed Berries. Imagine making a mango and banana yoghurt smoothie but only having to prepare the banana. What a cheater :p

I only used 1 1/2 cups of yoghurt because 1. that was all that’s available in the carton and 2. The apples itself would produce quite a fair amount of juice so in total, it was just right for two huge cups of smoothies with a little extra.

If you prefer your yoghurt smoothies a little thicker, you could try using yoghurt instead of a yoghurt drink. Get one of those yoghurt that are available in small servings/cups, like the petit miam brand of yoghurt then you can tweak the thickness of your smoothie according to the number of cups you put in.

#3. BLEND!

Blend it on high for about 45 seconds to a minute. I blitzed it for about 30 seconds today and Evangeline said that the apple still felt a little chunky. There were no solid pieces but the consistency was quite rough. Blend it longer for a smoother smoothie :p

#4. Get a cute cup, pour in the smoothie, stick a straw in it and slurp!

The title says it all ^^

The yoghurt drink should be fresh out of the fridge so it should still be cold and it is quite sweet so any extra sugar or any other form of sweetener shouldn’t be necessary. Feel free to add in whatever else you feel like though!

Avocado and Green Apple Milkshake

For 1 serving, you will need -

1 Avocado and 1 Green Apple

1 1/2 Cups of Milk

1 Teaspoon of Sugar (optional)

#1. Prepare the fruit!

Like the first recipe, peel the green apple before chopping it up into smaller pieces. The avocados I have now are already pretty ripe so the flesh is considerably softer than when I first made an avocado milkshake here. So just slice the avocado in half, chuck the seed and sorta squeeze the two halves like you would a lemon wedge and the flesh would just come off the skin and fall into the blender.

#2. Add in 1 1/2 cups of Milk

I did mention in the first post that I didn’t really like the milky after taste and the taste of milk competing with the flavour of the avocado. And then I realized that this was just because my avocados weren’t that ripe yet and the flesh wasn’t fragrant enough, so much so that the milk was overpowering what little taste the avocado had.

I was quite baffled because 2/3 cups of milk + 1 avocado was pretty thick AND didn’t taste as avocado-y as one of those served in the fruit stalls. I was observing them prepare my milkshake the other day and realized that they actually did put in quite a lot of milk. It wasn’t too thick; the consistency was just right and the milk/avocado mixture tasted just nice.

Anyway, 1 1/2 cups of milk seemed good enough for 1 serving, using a ripe avocado. Tasted just about right.

#3. Blend!

Blend the mixture on high for about 45 seconds. The avocado should be quite soft and if it were just an avocado milkshake, 30 seconds should do the trick. The extra 15 seconds or so are for the more solid pieces of apple to get blitzed.

#4. Add in 1 teaspoon of Sugar

This step is optional. I tasted my milkshake right after I blended it and it wasn’t really sweet enough. It wasn’t bland but just felt like something a little sweeter. Again, if you’d like to sweeten your milkshake, you can add in any other sweeteners like maple syrup, honey, etc.

#5. SLURP!

ENJOY!

♥

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September 14, 2011

“You see, ladies? A heart of gold.”

My darling turned 19 yesterday and to celebrate, I took her out to lunch at Buffet Town over at Raffles City Shopping Centre this afternoon. Food was good, hanging out was awesome as always and we ended off the day with a Babe marathon on Fox Family Channel, Dr Who on BBC Entertainment, How Do I Look on the Style Network and some delicious smoothies. Funny how our outings always end up with the two of us at my place, watching TV.

Isn’t she pretty?

Dear Best Friend 

These past 12 years with you, by my side as my best friend, have been amazing. You have been my pillar of support, one of my most understanding friends, my sister and all other pretty, amazing things that my brain cannot put into words right now.

I’ve mentioned that I feel guilty for leaving you behind when I leave for university. Our other triplet hasn’t been here for a while and once I’m gone, I guess number of girls who understand you best will be down by 1. I’m afraid we might grow apart but with our history and our eerily similar life experiences, I sincerely doubt we would.

No matter how far away I am or how busy I will be, I’ll always have time for you and I will always be around for you when you need help or a listening ear, just like you were for me. I may not physically be there but I’ll always be just a phone call/whatsapp/Skype call away. 

I  love you!

♥
Me 

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September 14, 2011

Roses in the Morning ♥

I woke up this morning, just in time for Far East Flora‘s delivery man to drop these lovely roses off. Alan did mention that he had something planned for me today but the roses were a pleasant surprise!

Today marks the 4th month of our little adventure and it’s been about 3 weeks since we’ve been separated. A long distance relationship isn’t easy and I’m not exactly happy about this situation but I am quite pleased with how we are handling our present position. Besides the physical factor, nothing much has changed. We are still as fail as before and our feelings for each other remain the same.

Roses or not, our relationship is definitely rosy and more than I could ever ask for; not perfect but close enough.

♥, always
Eva

Special shout out to Natalie for helping Alan arrange the delivery of these roses and being prepared to give Far East Flora an earful should the roses not arrive this morning. Thank you love.

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September 14, 2011

The Behaviour of Moths – Poppy Adams

Memories flit around this Gothic pile like moths around a flame

As Ginnie – now grey-haired, arthritic and delusional – watches her younger sister, Vivi, come home after half a century’s absence, memories surface: nasty, poisonous and mostly mendacious. The intense ambivalence of sister-love is the core of the plot.

Source: www.independent.co.uk

What I love about this book is how the content is mostly just memories, very though provoking memories that were aroused with Vivi’s appearance. In real time, the plot would only span three days and yet, the memories span a lifetime. Ginnie’s whole lifetime to be precise.

In those three days that Vivi’s returned to the house, almost everything evokes memories. As someone who’s lived alone for most of her life, her memories, or rather, her version of past events, are what kept her going. Now that Vivi has returned, her world starts to spiral out of control. With her daily routine messed up, her calm demeanour gets ruffled and Vivi’s various actions begin to make her question the true significance of past events.

When I first picked up this book, the first thing that really called out to me was the sibling rivalry and how their different personalities truly complemented each others. Although Ginnie was the elder, Vivi never failed to take the lead on everything and anything. Vivi always seemed to be better than Ginnie in everything and yet later in the book, it was revealed that Vivi was jealous. Jealous that no matter how hard she tried, their parents attention always seemed to be on Ginnie and never on Vivi.

And then, there was family. The value of family love was further explored here, with Ginnie’s determination to keep her mothers condition her secret, Ginnie’s ultimate sacrifice for Vivi and what was implied to be their father’s desperate move to protect Ginnie.

If you happen to have some free time on your hands, The Behaviour of Moths is definitely a book to pick up. The content is thought provoking, the scene is very beautifully set out. Every thing bears a significance in the book and most everything holds a story. And yet, it is really the plot twist at the end that makes it such an amazing story.

Eva ♥

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September 13, 2011

Comfort

My position right now – lying on my front in bed, staring at my laptop screen. I haven’t got a clue as to why I’m awake at 3am, quite possible waiting for some random ginger to call between classes, and also quite possibly kept awake by the nagging dissatisfaction with this blog.

I love this blog and I am incredibly proud of it but my posts have been increasingly infrequent. I can’t help but think that there’s something missing to this mess of a blog and yet, I also happen to feel that this blog is very cluttered with no real direction. There is definitely a temptation to start anew but what good would a new blog be if I’d just treat it the same way as this one – an infrequent contributor who adds in nothing but trivial facts.

I’d like to keep Tango in Ebony alive but I honestly have no clue as to what I should do to improve. Should I just continue as is, random outburts of varying emotion or should I just sit back and rethink this whole blogging thing.

Enlighten me.
Eva

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September 11, 2011

To Murder an Avocado…

I’ve been having these serious cravings for avocado, avocado milkshake to be precise. It all started when Evangeline and I were roaming around Far East Plaza, waiting for our turn at the manicurist and we came across this little juice stall. Ordered an avocado milkshake and then  :o I like! It was not as thick as the ones they serve over at the Indonesian restaurants but just as good.

Over the next couple of days, I’ve been roaming around random food halls at malls looking for fruit stalls until one day, we found avocado’s at $2.99 for 3 at NTUC. Bagged 6 avocados and whipped out the ancient blender.

So here’s my little recipe for a nice, thick avocado milkshake.

#1. Take one avocado and slice open.
Throw the seed away and dig out all the flesh. Chuck all the flesh into the blender. It shouldn’t be too hard to “skin” the avocado since the skin is pretty thin. Try to get a riper avocado that’s already a little soft. If it’s not too ripe and still quite solid, it’d take a little longer to blend, it won’t be as fragrant and it won’t be as sweet either.


#2. Pour in 2/3 Cup of Milk
The recipes that I found online all called for 1 cup of milk (or 8 ounces) for every avocado. I tried that proportion for my first milkshake but realized I didn’t like my milkshake tasting too… milky. With about 2.3 cup of milk, the taste of milk doesn’t really compete with the flavour of the avocado and the milkshake is also a little thicker.

You can use just about any type of milk that you like. One website I came across mentioned that the author tried the milkshake out with coconut milk instead of regular cows milk. It didn’t turn out too good but eh, for experiments sake, why not. Whatever milk you usually drink, full cream milk, low fat milk, skimmed milk, etc, go for it. I reckon you could use one of those plain yoghurt drinks as well. I used the mix berries yoghurt drink instead of milk when I made a berry + banana smoothie for Eve.

#3. Add in a dash of Cinnamon Sugar
This is really up to personal preference. Other recipes I’ve seen have suggested maple syrup, vanilla extract, cane sugar, honey, etc. I personally like cinnamon sugar. It isn’t too sweet and it’s got quite a unique flavour. I used to make myself a yoghurt dessert – plain Greek yoghurt, a handful of blueberries, a dash of cinnamon sugar and occasionally, some raw oatmeal.

Mixed in with the avocado, the taste of the cinnamon itself isn’t too strong and the sweetness isn’t overpowering. The flavour of the cinnamon itself if quite subtle and pleasant in the mix.

Indonesian restaurants usually serve up the thick concoction with a dollop of chocolate sauce and/or gula melaka. My grandmother likes her avocado with a touch of coffee or coffee liquor. I’m not sure how that’d work out but definitely worth a try.

#4. BLEND
Blend for as long as it takes for all the avocado to get mushed. I always stop after about 30 seconds and check the state of the avocado. If there are still solid chunks in the mixture, I blitz again!

Prior to this step, you can add a handful of ice cubes into the blender. I did because the milk wasn’t too cold and the avocado was sitting around on the kitchen counter so… not too cold. I’ve read about people who’ve pre-frozen their fruits prior to blending just so the mixture would be cold. I tried it with bananas and it seemed fine but not too sure about avocado.

#5. Stick a straw in it and slurp

Enjoy!

<3 Eva

P.S. – Pardon the bad photos. I had to take them quick cos my maid kept walking by and giving me the “wtf are you taking photos of an avocado for.” Go figure. Might do more smoothie posts in the future, hopefully with better photos!

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