pictures

its spring cleaning here at the house. expecting visitors (cousins) from hk on thursdays and clearing up all the junk n re-organizing my clutter to get ready for their arrival.. very excited as well. having been away in the states since i left national service n haven returned once, i've not seen my cousins in 20 years. these were the guys that i grew up with watching monkey god on tele, listening to horror stories on the radio, n playing jim rummy n five stones n zero point....n catching fighting spiders.....
my cousins who lived in bendemeer road where we all grew up, that my moms side n my dad's side at geylang kampong, married someone from hong kong n he owns a chinese restaurant in san diego california.  so the very guys that i grew up with r now running a restaurant on the other side of the globe.... so much to catch up on as well as....tell them all about my cooking adventures.....think we should still be conversing in cantonese.
hopfully i can sell them my idea n move back to california!!!!!

my knives all bought from japan on two separate trips n some from friends

you choose the knife that suits u. the person at the retail end then hands the knife over to the master n he sharpens your knife there n then. then ask if you wud like to engrave your initials on the blade. pretty awesome. its pretty awesome from the beginning when u walk into a knife maker....its a sight of beauty n perfection. 

when i was working with chef david mollicone...he was at that time using a misono...that got everyone in the kitchen hook on misono with the air pockets n they do work really well when you're slicing a 200g piece of sirloin or ribeye from a 6kg slab of meat. it just glides thru it like a hot knife thru butter.

i think this says : infinite possibilities

ha ha . i'm sure many of you r familiar with ferran's texturas

nothing to do with cooking whatsoever.

found a picture of my first car.

1300cc volks beetle.

toidy if you're reading this....remember the times where we snug out late at night n test drove the car....we wud move the car out of its space n replaced it with a big ass trash can so that we cud come back a couple hours later n park it in its same spot. of course....the last time we took the car out....dad n his belt was waiting for our return....gerald wud bail on me thru the escape door on the driver's side before we reached dad. whoop de doop.. ouch!!!! dad!!!! the neighbors r asleep!!!

oh...there's a horror story to be told about this car.

two toned grey.

remember the curry murder case way back then.

yep...thats the car that house the chopped up body parts before the murderers distributed the curry all over singapore.

my dad worked at mcdonald house at bozell. every morning he'd park his car at the church...the care-taker of the church wud wash his car for him w/o his asking. so i think it was coming christmas n dad let him have the car for the holidays. so christmas passed n as usual the car was returned spotless. few days later, the police came knocking n dad was arrested for murder!!!! little did they know the real people behind the chopped up body was the care-taker who had been given the car by my dad.  i'm not quite sure about the details of the case but I remember dad saying that the guy who was chopped up was a wife beater n that he'd gone on a rampage on his wife that christmas night...the brothers of the battered woman couldn't tolerate his abuse anymore n beat the shit out of him n accidentally went a little too far n killed the dude. to get rid of the evidence...they chopped him to pieces n cooked him in curry...

prata anyone????? 

shit man...taste before you swollow. 

the body was supposedly stuffed in the trunk of the beetle. we sold it. n 1277 came out tops in 4d

think we made 10 grand. 

so good samaritans do get rewarded!!

so go on...this easter is a good time to do good!! lend your rides out!!

hey!! did a catering for mr peter tan last wednesday.

four course meal.

not bad for a days work

lamb rack|red spinach| preserved lemon| smoked aubergine| parsley soil| raita| 

job well done 

thanks guys for helping

mama u r d best

tris at work

boys got potential

band of brothers

hey chef andre!! is this how u erected your olive tree??

btw..congrats on your restaurant making it to top 100 list

i'm sure you're a little disappointed that iggys is at 26

i feel ya man

all respects to all working chefs out there.

was talking to a fren on the phone the other day.

then came to a conversation about my work n my blog

fren says: well at least you got a clear direction of where you're headed

me says: well, yes....but its really not that clear..i'm still struggling with finding my own identity n style of cuisine

me says: i mean u go to most restaurants n you see the same things on the menu...i'm trying to not be the same

bussorah was not the entity for me plus a host of other things that made it fail

fren says: so u feel like u need to challenge them? other chefs?

me says: huh? every long standing restaurant has their own unique selling point. any chef that has toiled for 10 -15 yrs deserves credit n respect...did i make it seem like i was wanting to challenge them? i certainly hope that u didnt get that vibe from reading my blog.

i says: i played competitive tennis n snooker when i was young but cooking ..nah....cooking is like golf....you set the course n visualize your trajectory...n you try to be as perfect as you can n execute the plan

cooking is exactly like that....you visualize a dish....u receive the product...at that point u're either half way to an eagle or three quarters to bogey. most of the time you r just playing with the course n the course with you....cooking is like that too. 

so no...i'm just doing my thing trying to find my way around....no challenges...definitely not.....in fact i dont even think i'm a contender if there was a tournament..

i says to fren: yo man...i'm really not that agro:-)