Vegetarianism: Cantonese Congee

There are different types of congee or porridge. Some more watery (I think that is the hokkien or teo chew version?), some more sticky (the cantonese congee), some with added ingredients (e.g. mushrooms, vegetables, etc.), and so on. This post will be on the plain version of cantonese congee.

Usually, I prefer to use a slow cooker whenever I feel like having cantonese congee (so that I do not have to keep stirring). Depending on the amount you cook and the heat you set on your slow cooker, it may take around 2 hours to cook.

To ensure that the congee is sticky like those sold by the stalls, the ratio of water to rice is very crucial. Personally, I found the best ratio of water to rice is when the amount of water is 10 times the amount of rice used.

Ingredients:
1 cup short grain rice (or new long grain rice)
10 cups water
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp mushroom granules
Sesame oil
Coriander
Chinese cruller (油條)

Steps:

1. Wash 1 cup of short grain rice and then add 10 cups of water into slow cooker. 
2. Add 1 tsp pepper and 1 tsp mushroom granules. 
3. Commence cooking.
4. Add sesame oil, coriander and Chinese cruller (油條) before serving.

That is it really! Simple right? You can adjust the amount of seasonings (mushroom granules and pepper) to suit your palate. Also, you can adjust the amount of rice. Just remember that the amount of water is 10 times the amount of rice used. 

It is up to your personal preference whether to add sesame oil, coriander and Chinese cruller (油條) as finishing touch. You can opt to add other ingredients too at Step 4. For example, if you add century egg (皮蛋), you will end up with century egg congee (皮蛋粥).

Before I end this post, does making the plain congee in less than 15 minutes might sound impossible? Well, we are aware that porridge usually takes pretty long to cook. Here, I share a trick I learnt on YouTube[1]. It can shorten the cooking time by a lot. And the trick is is to freeze the washed rice in freezer compartment for at least an hour before cooking it.

You might question why freezing would cut short the cooking time. I think it has something to do with what we learnt in science: greater surface area = shorter cooking time. Well, the washed rice grains have water molecules in them. So when you freeze the rice grains, water expand as it freezes to become ice. Hence, an increase in surface area because the rice grains are broken into smaller bits.

Hope you find the trick useful! Bon appetit!

Reference:

1. YouTube - Trick to cooking porridge quickly

Motherhood: Nursing Bra Review

Material wise, since the size of the breasts fluctuate before and after nursing, I personally recommend nursing bras[1] made of cotton material (slightly elastic type) to accommodate the changing breast size. Also, cotton is a good sweat absorber, which is a big plus point given that Singapore is rather hot and humid at times.

Many would say that underwire[2] helps to support the breasts from going out of shape (or becoming droopy). But for nursing mummies, bras with no underwire would be better. This is because the pressure from the underwire and the rigidness of underwire bras may cause blocked milk duct which increases the risks of getting mastitis.

This review will not be comparing brands of nursing bras. Rather, it will mainly be on the following three types of nipple access that I have tried: the full drop cup, the window opening and the movable flaps without hooks/clasps.

Full drop cup

First of all, we have a type of nursing bra whereby the whole flap/cup will drop down to reveal the whole breast once the hook/clasp is unclipped. Since the whole cup of the bra drops down to allow your baby to access the nipple for nursing, I think that is the reason for its name: the full drop cup.

The hooks/clasps take a bit or practice before you can clip/unclip them smoothly. In most nursing position, this full drop cup is pretty easy to use. But if you nurse in the lying position, the cups may shift out of place. So, you may have a situation whereby baby latches on to one nipple while the other nipple (or even the whole breast) is exposed. This may be of slight inconvenience especially if you leak during a let down. But the pros of this bra is since it exposes the whole breast, you get more skin-to-skin surface with your baby as he/she nurses.

Personally, because the cups may shift out of position, I feel the support for the breasts provided by this type of nursing bras is not as strong as the next two types.

Window opening

Next, the window opening which only exposes the nipple for your baby to latch on. Unlike the full drop cup, this type of bras do not shifts out of place as easily (hence unlikely to expose the other nipple which your baby is not latched on).

My personal experience with QW, when she was at least 5 months old, was that she started entertaining/distracting herself by "pulling" and "snapping" my bra as she nursed. So, I guess it is a cheaper baby distractor than those nursing necklaces sold during the baby fairs.

The cons about this kind of opening is it may get in the way of your baby's mouth when the bra shifts out of place if you nurse in the lying position.

Moveable flaps without hooks/clasps

Last but not least, the sleep bras that do not have hooks/clasps. Similarly to the window opening type, the sleep bras do not shift out of place easily too. The great thing is that they look like sports bra. So if you do not live with your elders, you may opt to wear the sleep bra with a shorts on those very humid and hot days, and yet not run the risk of being sued for public nudity ;)

By the way, I stick the breast pads (both disposable ones and washable ones) on the flap to absorb any leaking for all three types of nursing bras. Sticking the breast pads also help to hide the nipple if you are wearing tight fitting tops.

There are nursing mummies out there who may not wear nursing bra. Instead, they wear camisole/spaghetti strap top/sleeveless T-shirt/tank top or cotton bra with neck holes or cups that are easy to fold/push down. When nursing, they just pull down to allow their babies access to the nipple.

I did try the $9.90 nursing bras from OG but preferred the Kelly bras from.Fabulous Moms carried by Eugenesella[3] eventually because of quality issues. But why Eugenesella? For the same brand of nursing bras, it seems that Eugenesella sells it at a more reasonable price (typically around $1 to $2 cheaper). Also, their delivery is pretty fast. Last but not least, one of the sellers is a nursing mummy. So, her testimonials attracted me quite a bit.

The cheapest nursing bra I have heard of costs $4.90 from Giant. I have yet to try those because I am worried about the quality. Have you tried and have good feedbacks for these $4.90 nursing bras from Giant?

Do you have any good and cheap nursing bra to recommend? We all know that periodically changing bras is a good hygiene practice. So, do leave a comment as many will benefit from your recommendations :) Thanks in advance!

References:

1. Wikipedia - Nursing bra
2. Wikipedia - Underwire bra
3. Qoo10 - Eugenesella

Crafts: Efficient Gift Wrapping Technique

Every now and then, we may have an occasion that calls for us to wrap a gift or two. I happened to stumble upon friend's posts on efficient gift wrapping techniques which I found interesting.

I am sharing the gift wrapping techniques in the below reference links which are not only efficient in terms of the amount of wrapping paper used, but also the amount of scotch tape used! By the way, I have arranged them in increasing order of the amount of scotch tape used (Haa~!) The 1st link used only ONE scotch tape to wrap the gift! Amazing right?!

By saying that it is efficient in terms of the amount of wrapping paper used does not mean that you can use an overly small sized wrapping paper. From the YouTube videos, I gathered that the bare minimum you need should at least cover the corners of the gift you are wrapping when you attempt to wrap it up diagonally.

Well, efficient in terms of the amount of resources used also meant that it is cost saving (and saving the Earth;)! So, do take a look and try them out of you are going to be wrapping some gifts not just for the efficiency, because they also look presentable!

Hope you find them useful! Do share if you also have a different and efficient way of wrapping gifts :)

References:

1. YouTube - Japanese department style gift wrapping
2. YouTube - Gift wrapping in Japan
3. YouTube - Diagonal gift wrapping technique

Vegetarianism: Celebrating Wedding Anniversary

I treated him to spa body massage for our wedding anniversary. What he prepared for us was much more :)

The fun started from lunch onwards, where we met my sister at Nature Cafe[1] because it was near his client's place. Nature Cafe is located in Aperia (Kallang). The nearest MRT station is Lavender, which is about 5 to 10 minutes away. The decor was beautifully done. Together with the soothing background music, the ambience was great to enjoy a meal comfortably. Being there, you might feel as if you are in the Amazon (because of the fauna and flora themed decor, including the menu):

Menu cover

Per her recommendation, we tried the following dishes:

Curry fish and braised brinjal

Sotong balls with spicy sauce

Fried bean curd with sauce

I must say that the sides were deliciously made, but I felt was a tag pricer than usual as some cost $6. As for the mains, the curry fish was done more tastefully than braised brinjal (which I felt was plain and oily).

After finishing up his work at his client's place (which took the same amount of time to nurse QW), we headed for Faber Peak[2] (used to be known as Jewel Box). That was the starting point of our cable car ride to Sentosa, where we will hitch a bus ride to head for our dinner. The last time we were on the cable car was at least 7 years ago. At that time, I had booked the sky dining package to celebrate his birthday. So, with all that good memories which we shared, I really looked forward to be on the cable car again!

QW fell asleep!

Before we got onto the cable car, I checked out the nursing cubicle located in the ladies' restroom while QW napped. The entrance to the restrooms is interestingly named as Peek-a-Loo. That was a funny enough name, but I do hope that nobody really "peek" while I go to the "loo"!

View in the ladies

Seeing that I did not have a baby with me (because QW was asleep!), the janitor tried to stop me from using the nursing cubicle (it really is the size of just A cubicle!). Hence, it is definitely great news to many mothers that she guarded the nursing cubicle pretty fiercely yet professionally. Kudos to her!

Nursing cubicle

We headed for the cable car once QW woke up. At first, I was quite worried that we may not be fast enough in getting onto the cable car (so much so that I started to strategise a way to get onto it!). Then, a sigh of relieve. I was quite glad to see a signboard that the cable cars' speed may be adjusted for those having a stroller like us.

The ride was smooth (and well ventilated) enough such that QW did not kick up a fuss and seemed to enjoy her virgin cable car ride :)

When we reached Sentosa Imbiah Lookout, we were still early for dinner. Hence, we had a drink at Starbucks and were pleasantly entertained by a squirrel which was passing by.

After enjoying the Christmas drinks, we took Bus 1 to the Beach Station. There, I nursed QW at the bus terminal before we got onto Bus 3 to head for our dinner.

We got off at the Singapore Resort and Spa Sentosa where iILiDO Italian[3] is located. This is my second time there. But before that, a photo with the free roaming peacock first!

At iILiDO, you will get to enjoy fantastic sea view if you request to sit outdoor. Do make a reservation first as they were fully booked even on a weekday night when we were there!

Pretty sunset view from our table

Though they did not indicate their vegetarian options on their menu, they noted our booking request and told us that they can pretty much prepare most things on the menu for vegetarian with some obvious exception due to the sauce used, for example Squid Ink Spaghetti.

We started off with mushroom soup. Okay, allow me to correct myself. It was more like we started off with mushroom soup cream foam:

It was not a big portion (actually, it was only a few mouthful), but it was tastefully done. Next up, we had a small ball of hash brown served on some charcoal filled glass bowl (Sorry for the lack of photo because it happened too fast! I was told to pick it up and eat it hot. So, I shove it into my mouth before remembering to take a photo of it!).

Then, we were served our drinks and bread with balsamic vinegar. All these that we had up till the bread was not even our appetizer yet.

For our starter, we had crispy eggplant parmigiana with smoked tomato:

For our mains, we had risotto with mushroom and stracchino cheese, and asparagus spaghetti (off the menu):

As we were quite full after the mains, we did not order dessert.

All in all, it was a day well spent with the right companies, my hubby and QW. Had I mentioned that it is our 10th year together (and our 1st time with QW)? Thank you for such a heart warming celebration, hubby~ Looking forward for more to come!

References:

1. Facebook - Nature Cafe
2. Faber Peak Homepage
3. iILiDO Homepage

Vegetarianism: Fried Bee Hoon

I saw this recipe on a blog by Crystal[1] and decided to experiment with it because it looked simple and easy to make.

The difference between her recipe and mine is I added fried egg and dried shitake mushrooms. A tip on using dried shitake mushroom is to keep the mushroom water for use later after soaking and slicing the dried shitake mushroom. I feel it helps to make the dish more fragrant.

Ingredients:
Rice vermicielle or bee hoon
4 sliced shitake mushroom
1 can of mock abalone
6 sliced carrot
2 eggs
2 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp tom yum paste
Vegetable cooking oil
Water

Steps:

1. Blanch rice vermicelli in hot water and drain well. 
2. Mix curry powder and tom yum paste with half bowl water to form curry paste and set aside.
3. Heat oil in wok, fry the eggs and set aside.
4. Heat oil in wok, fry sliced carrot, mock abalone and shitake mushroom until fragrant.
5. Stir in curry tom yum paste and fry over medium heat until fragrant.
6. Add in rice vermicelli and mix well. Add mushroom water (and more water per your liking) for easy tossing and to ensure that rice vermicelli is cooked thoroughly.
7. Add in fried egg and mix well.

Truthfully speaking, I am not a fast cook. So, the preparation (slicing the carrots and shitake mushrooms, preparing of curry tom yum paste, etc.) took me about 10 minutes. And unlike what was mentioned in her blog, the cooking also took more than 5 minutes. I had to add quite a bit of water (about 2 bowls) before I felt that the rice vermicelli was soft enough for my liking.

Here is how it looked like:

Bon appetit!

Reference:

1. Crystal by Blog - Vegetarian Fried Rice Vermicelli