Start of a NEW class.

That's right, After one weekend rest We start again.
SCP in KL is back in action with Joey, Bryan and myself running the classes.

I have a good feeling for this seasons classes, reason because we are only 1-2 weeks after the SK & IAG Camps. I can feel the energy till at a high for my classes. This really makes me even more motivated to stretch even more.

Wonderful way to start a new Season of SCP!!!

Precious Z's

According to my recent poll, sixty-six percent of you reading my blog (and responding to the poll...) wanted to lose between 15 and 30 pounds. Well, listen up!

I returned from my honeymoon last night. Husband and I spent 7 days in beautiful Puerto Vallarta at the Dreams all-inclusive resort and spa. Red flag: all-inclusive. Or, as I consider it: (nearly) guaranteed diet failure.

The mini bar...stocked with juice, beer, and sodas. Included. The restaurants on the resort...ohhh the restaurants. Five in total serving from 8 am to 11 pm. Included. Before or after that...you, my friend, were ordering room service. At any hour of the day you can order room service (full menu). Included. If this wasn't enough, the "preferred club" tower of rooms offered varying arrays of food and beverages throughout the day...in case picking up the phone and/or walking to a restaurant was a bit too much to bear. Included. Did I mention the beach and pool service? Forgive me. Included. There was that, too. About every 15 minutes, like clockwork, a resort staff member would approach you offering you a beverage of your choice: pina coladas, mojitos, daquiris, beer, dirty monkey, soda...you get the point. The calories flowed without cessation 24/7.

While I dug deep for dietitian self-control, I often found it difficult myself (especailly since we all know that when in Mexico, don't drink the water*!). When we arrived back home, I somewhat feared stepping on the scale. Though I didn't look or feel any bigger, I imagined that a diet so far fetched from my norm had to have caught up with me. To my pleasant surprise, the scale barely budged!

I got to thinking how this could be. While I wasn't inhaling the buffets or drinking the bar dry, I thought a few fellers would've surely stuck around to torture me. It wasn't until we picked up our new puppy that I thought maybe there was something in Puerto Vallarta working in my favor to ward off vacation weight......sleep!

While I embrace meeting the recommended 8-9 hours of sleep each night, husband and I surely exceeded this each night while on our honeymoon. Our room was just ten stories above the "adult only" pool on the resort, which was constantly occupied by a myriad of crunked adults. I actually heard one couple (from Canada, if that matters) state their disappointment in the swim-up bar not being in the adult-only pool. Let's just say I can count my lucky stars that it was not, as I'm sure our twelve-hour sack sessions (give or take) would've been interrupted with even more drunken debauhery.

Similarly, Lily, our bulldog, sleeps constantly. And when you're sleeping, typically you aren't eating. When she's not sleeping, however, she has the appetite of a cow in green pastures and can consume an obscene amount of food for such a lil peanut. If she weren't a bulldog, I'd think something was truly wrong with her. I swear, she defies puppyhood in my book. We got on our webcam tonight to show Mark's parents their new grandchild, and she wouldn't even open her eyes. She was curled up in her princess bed sighing at the disturbance. We're such a bother, didn't you know?

Lesson learned: sleeping does the diet good. And surely the same goes for the ill-mannered bulldogs out there.

* Take my advice (along with the millions of other unlucky and/or wise guys) and don't drink the water in Mexico. Swine may not hold a candle to what Mark and I experienced one evening while honeymooning.

Lurking Fruits and Veggies

At this very moment, on Tuesday, June 16, 2009, I have a lot of fruits and veggies sitting in my refrigerator. Green onions, two fresh Serrano chiles, Roma tomatoes, jicama, two ears of corn, part of a red onion, papaya, mango, apple, grapefruit, an orange without the zest, mint, basil, cilantro, romaine lettuce, iceberg lettuce, half a red cabbage, a carrot, radishes, an avocado, and yellow patty pan squash. Most were purchased for use in other dishes. Because I always buy a little bit more than I need, just in case, I always have leftovers.

There are at least four ways of dealing with them:

1. I can let them sit in the bottom drawers until they get soft and mushy and I can, without guilt, consign them to the compost bin.

2. I can use them in a reprise of the dish for which they were originally bought.

3. I can practice what my friend Anne in Albuquerque calls “cooking from the fridge.” She and her husband George are experts at it. She looks at what she has and decides how she is going to put the things together—a soup, pasta sauce, stew, omelet or frittata. And she does it brilliantly: she has a wealth of cooking experience and can draw on dishes she has made in the past to inform her.

4. Or I can make myself a cup of tea, sit down in my favorite chair with a couple of the cookbooks I’m currently “testing,” check out the indexes, and see what might work.

The truth is, I do all four.

The compost pile is such a lifesaver sometimes. “Waste not, want not” was a big part of my Mid-western heritage. The compost pile allows me to believe that I’m not really throwing the radishes away; I’m turning them into soil that will help my garden.



The reprise can work, but it is a little boring. I’d rather, if given a choice, make something new.

I do “cook from the fridge” occasionally, especially for lunches on the weekend. But for whatever reason, it is not the option I turn to very often. Somehow a drawer-full of produce doesn’t inspire me to create. I feel as tired as they do. But suddenly a fruit salad springs to mind, maybe with a hint of candied ginger and fresh mint. And maybe a cabbage, radish, and carrot slaw. Or guacamole. Or an iceberg lettuce salad with blue cheese dressing. Anne, are you out there sending me ideas? Maybe there's hope for me after all.

Now the fourth. That’s my favorite. The cup of tea, sitting in my chair with cookbooks on my lap. Let me tell you what I found. A Jicama Slaw recipe in Chocolate for Breakfast that uses the jicama, serrano chiles, red onion, and cilantro. Spicy Corn Frittata with Tomatoes and Scallions in Fresh Food Fast that uses tomatoes, two ears of corn, green onions, and more cilantro. And I remembered the Grilled Asparagus recipe in Bradley Ogden’s Breakfast Lunch and Dinner which I have used with patty pan squash in the past. Pretty good, eh?

I’ll let you know how it goes over the next couple of days.

Using Them Up--So Good

Over the past several days, I've done a good job of cleaning out some of the fruits and vegetables I found lurking in the fridge. It was fun to watch the shelves clear out. Some breathing room for all that remained. And we had some great meals with very little additional shopping.

Jicama Slaw

1 medium-sized jicama, peeled
½ cucumber, peeled, seeded, and chopped in ¼-inch pieces
1 minced jalapeno or Serrano chile, seeds and membranes removed
½ sweet red bell pepper, diced
¼ cup chopped red onion
½ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
Juice from ½ lemon
1 tablespoon sour cream
½ cup mayonnaise or less if you use more sour cream
1 garlic clove, pressed
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Grate the jicama using a food processor or a box grater. Combine all the vegetables in a large bowl. Add the lemon juice. If you have time, refrigerate the vegetables for 20 minutes to let the flavors mingle.
2. Mix together the sour cream, mayonnaise and the pressed garlic. Stir into the vegetables along with salt and pepper. Taste for seasonings and adjust.
3. Some liquid will gather at the bottom of the bowl so serve with a slotted spoon to avoid a big puddle on the salad plates. I served for lunch with corn chips and a slice of leftover pesto arugula pizza from the night before.

4 servings
Adapted from Barbara Passino’s Chocolate for Breakfast

Grilled Patty Pan Squash with Smoked Bacon and Olive-Caper Vinaigrette

Squash:
1 pound patty pan squash (5 or 6), cut in half horizontally
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper

Smoked Bacon and Olive-Caper Vinaigrette:
¼ pound smoked bacon, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
2 tablespoon capers
¼ cup chopped olives (green or black)
2 tablespoons champagne vinegar
2 tablespoons caper vinegar (from the jar)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 Roma tomato, peeled, seeded, and chopped
You can also use cherry tomatoes, cut in half

To prepare the squash (and peel the tomato):
1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Drop in the tomato for 10-15 seconds. Remove and peel. Drop in the squash and cook for approximately 3-5 minutes or until barely tender. Remove and place immediately in an ice bath or run under cold water. When cool, lay them out on a clean kitchen towel to dry.
2. Coat the squash lightly with olive oil, salt and pepper. Set aside.

To prepare the vinaigrette:
1. In a skillet, cook the bacon until it is nicely browned.
2. Reduce the heat to low and add the garlic, shallots, capers and olives. Sauté until the garlic is slightly golden brown.
3. Remove from the heat and add the vinegars and olive oil. Set aside.

To finish the dish:
1. Place the squash on the hot grill or a hot grill pan on top of the stove. Turn them until they are warmed through and have nice grill marks. Reheat the vinaigrette.
2. Place the flat bottoms of the squash on a serving platter. Spoon some of the warm vinaigrette over them. Top with the round part of the squash and pour the remaining vinaigrette over all. Garnish with the diced tomatoes.
3. Serve warm or at room temperature.

4-6 servings depending on the number of squashes and your hunger.
Originated with the Grilled Asparagus recipe in Bradley Ogden’s Breakfast Lunch and Dinner

Fruit Salad
We had this for dinner with the Frittata which follows.

You can use most any fruit that you happen to have in your fridge. I used blueberries, one mango, one pink grapefruit, and one orange. I could have added an apple and a giant papaya but thought they didn't quite fit the mood. I served the salad on a couple of small romaine leaves with French Fruit Salad Dressing (see recipe below) on the side.

3 servings or as many as you have fruit
my own devising

French Fruit Salad Dressing

¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon paprika
6 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoon lemon juice or juices from the bottom of the fruit bowl
¼ teaspoon dried mustard
1 teaspoon sugar

1. Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl or a small glass jar. Stir them with a small whisk or a fork until they are smooth. Or shake them in the jar with the top on. Taste for seasonings. Add more salt if necessary.
2. Shake or stir before using. I put it in a bowl on the table so that we could serve ourselves.

Makes ½ cup
Adapted from Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker’s 1953 Joy of Cooking

Spicy Corn Frittata with Tomatoes and Scallions












This was a perfectly nice frittata from Fresh Food Fast but not worthy of being a “keeper.” What was truly worthy was the new pan I used for cooking it. Bram, a new store on the Sonoma plaza, specializes in pottery made in Egypt that can be used both on top of the stove with a heat diffuser and in the oven. I had seasoned it earlier in the day so it was set to go.

I sautéed the tomatoes, corn, peppers, green onions, and garlic on the top of the stove on lowish heat. I then mixed the vegetables with 8 eggs and returned it to the burner to cook gently until the eggs started to set on the bottom. And finally I popped it in the oven for 20 minutes to firm up. I used bacon fat to cook the vegetables and to coat the pan before returning the eggs. Not a bit of the frittata stuck to the dish. Just amazing. And it looked really pretty. Prettier than cast iron which is what I would have used in the past. Let me know if you want to see the whole recipe.

Mavro and me

June 21

I have the morning off! So it’s time to update the blog.
The past two mornings have required that I be out of bed and ready to go quite a bit earlier than I'm accustomed to, but this was really no hardship as Hawaii is six hours behind New York during daylight savings time (the Aloha State does not observe the twice-yearly clock adjustment practice, so it’s five hours behind during the rest of the year).
On Friday I was picked up at 6:15 a.m. — a time I’m more likely to see from the other side, before going to bed — by chef George ”Mavro” Mavrothalassitis and his wife and publicist Donna Jung.
Donna was the main protagonist in getting me to O‘ahu. I normally see her and Mavro about once a year, when he cooks at the Beard House in early May, and she wanted me to try his food in their restaurant. So she made some calls and here I am.
We were meeting so early because they wanted to take me to the Honolulu fish auction, which starts in the very small hours of the day. The first picture in this blog entry is what the auction looks like. Those are wholesalers bidding on big-eye, or ahi, tuna. They really do have big eyes, but I didn’t have the good sense to take pictures of their eyes. I was more interested in the carcasses, which you can see in the next picture, and the flesh samples taken from each of them for the bidders to examine. One sample's from the tail, one's from the midsection and the third is like a core sample, drilled from the center of the carcass.
Mavro and I spent most of the time talking with Brooks Takenaka, general manager of the United Fishing Agency, which is what the auction company is called.
Donna took a picture of us talking, in case you need proof.
I should stop slouching.
Brooks said that in his 30 years working with the United Fishing Agency (he did various fascinating things involving marine biology before that) this year’s catch is the worst. He’s not sure why, as the Hawaiian wild fishery is one of the most strictly regulated on the planet.
And there’s no need to panic. One year of bad fishing doesn’t mean ecological breakdown.
And on Friday the catch was good. Three boats came in, and apart from ahi, there was also opah, which you can see in the next picture, and swordfish, which you can see in the picture after that.
Our conversation with Brooks focused mostly on regulation, and on how the rules that are made tend to be based much more on what sounds good than on what actually helps to protect fisheries. It is very aggravating for Brooks. I told him the story of goose farmer Jim Schiltz, who wanted to sell his geese in Whole Foods, but that self-righteous grocery chain wanted him to raise his geese on all-vegetarian diets.
Vegetarian diets became de rigueur for cattle after it was discovered that “mad cow” disease developed when cattle were fed other cattle, including their brains and other parts of their nervous system, which contained prions that catalyzed the formation of prions in the cattle’s brains, which is how they developed bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease).
Now, that’s all very gross, but what does it have to do with geese, who in fact are not ruminating herbivores like cattle, but waterfowl, for whom it’s natural to eat fish? Jim says if he didn’t give them fishmeal at specific stages in their life, a third of them would die.
So we all had a good laugh about that, and then after taking a look at some of the fishing boats, Mavro and Donna took me to Nico’s at Pier 38, a restaurant by the wharf where I had breakfast of Hawaiian coffee (hurray!) and marlin and eggs, with a scoop of rice. Donna had the same thing, while Mavro had loco-moco.
From there we went to Sumida Farm, where about 70 percent of Hawaii’s watercress is grown.
The farm is on a wetland fed by natural springs — scratch that, obviously they’re natural. They’re springs.
Anyway, a number of hard-to-find birds frequent the farm to eat insects and snails and crayfish and other creatures that live in the water in which the watercress grows (the plant itself roots itself in gravel). My first bird picture is of a black-crowned night heron. I’m not sure why it’s called a night heron, because there it was, sitting around in the middle of the day (okay, it was actually around 8 a.m., but it felt like the middle of the day to me).
The next picture, the blurry one, is of a Hawaiian stilt.
David Sumida explained that a lot of Asian cuisines use watercress as a vegetable, stir-frying the stem, for example.
The farm is on a slight grade, so water is always flowing around the cress. Their main weed is a sort of algae, that has to be removed daily, although Filipinos do eat that particular type of algae. David knows that because his workers are almost all (maybe all, but I didn’t ask) ethnic Filipinos, who make up a big chunk of the Hawaiian community. David allows his workers to have garden plots on the outskirts of the farm, and some of them let the algae grow longer and harvest it to eat.
Each plot of watercress is harvested every eight weeks. The plant is pulled up, the roots are chopped off and the rest of the plant is bound into 1-pound bunches, which are then wrapped into 35-pound bundles and vacuum chilled. They are delivered to David’s customers three times a week.
Mavro insists that it is the best watercress in the world. He’s French, so you’d think he’d declare anything French to be the best, but of course he left his hometown of Marseilles many years ago (he used to say that only Marseillais knew how to cook fish, then he learned about Japanese cuisine). One of Mavro’s early jobs in the U.S. (maybe his first, but I don’t remember) was in my hometown of Denver, at a fine-dining restaurant called Château Pyrenees, where he worked for a couple of years before being courted by the Halekulani, where he worked at its French restaurant, La Mer, before moving to Maui to work at The Four Seasons.
After we left the farm, we went to Leonard’s which is famous for its malasadas, a type of Portuguese doughnut coated in granulated sugar. There was a long line at Leonard’s which pleased us all, because it’s nice to see a restaurant doing good business.
Then we drove to Kaimana Beach, to eat them. Donna took a picture of me eating a malasada. That’s a plain one, but I also sampled one filled with haupia. In case you’re wondering, I didn’t finish either one, because, believe it or not, I do believe in practicing restraint from time to time.
Donna and Mavro dropped me off at my hotel, at around 10:30 a.m. After I regrouped, I began to explore the city.


To view all the blog entries about my trip to O‘ahu, click here.

tanjung malim & mary kay

saturday, 20th june

sy bgn awal pagi2 hari ni. erm. actually, agak lmbt jgk. sbb sy terbgn lmbt.
pas subuh blh plak g tdow blk. kul 730am terjage, terus sy mandi dan siap2.
dlm 830am sy dgn mama gerak, ke highway duke utk ke UPSI tanjung malim.
owh. bkn sy nak further study. but it's my mama. yes yes. haha.. [jealous nih~!]
master in account. grr~~~ sumpah sy x minat setitik pun account. haha.
time f3 menggelabah gle ade account dlm KH. nasib baik PMR dpt A. alhamdulilah~
tahlah. minat mama yg mendlm dkt account tuh... x diwarisi oleh anakanda die ni.

UPSI

UPSI dkt tg malim, bout 1 hour dr kl. with duke highway, it's easier.
ermmm. i love all the classic buliding there. small town. and owh...perak sudah~
time otw, bnyk convoy volkswagen + harley davidson. owhhh...semua kacak!!!
x tpu x tpu! x de yg tua2 pon taw. ok ade sorang 2. but majority, gile handsome~!
haha... yup. bwk kete comel3 plak tuh. owh seronoknya kalian. nyway.
mama mendaftar as soon as we arrived there and it ends at 530pm...
jgn tnye sy nape lame gile sbb sy penat tnggu~!!! dgn panas dkt luar. oh ho.
sy duk dkt taman, then bwh pokok, then dlm kereta. all my 4 magazines habis bace.

well actually. mule2 sampai sy sempat jgk masuk hall with all the students as well.
sy ddk belakang2, then kerusi dpn sy kosong. pas2, ade 1 sista ddk dpn sy.
die student i guess, nak ambik master / phD. die susun2 file, and sy kan duk kak silang.
die pnye file langgar kaki sy. die x ckp sorry pape pon, ok lg. sy alih kaki.
then note book die jatuh ke belakang, sy angktkan elok2. pon die buat bodow.
i was like... OMG~!!! u're just another rude educated ppl with no common sense.
eh hello, if die senyum pun ok taw. nie die x pandang lngsng pon. grrr~~~
excuse me, but like seriously, what the use of being so well known in academic,
but lack of respect towards everyone else? ishhh...

then we arrived home bout 800pm. itupon sbb singgah sg buloh utk solat & dinner.


sunday, 21st june

abah. happy father's day.

i'm soooo excited when i called u at 1157pm last night.

yes, u were sleeping. but then when i said "happy father's day"

u're just sooo happy & not sleepy anymore. LOL.


abah. i love u so much.

and, i'm sooo lucky cuz i still have u by my side.

thanks & sorry, 4 everything.

sy bgn awal~! pas subuh x tdow2 da taw. buat kerja umah, siram pokok bunga. etc.
then jogging. LOL. da lame sy x jogging since da last time i did. berderet sakit hari tu...
so, jogging. semlm jogging 20 min je. hari ni, 30 minutes je. haih~ dlu 1 hour slalu.
patotla badan sy makin mengembang dan kembang dan kembang perawan~~~ LOL.
then tgh tahan mengantok around 12pm, sofia call. owhhh... sy lupe da ttg tuh.
die ajak sy ke rumah sbb ade survey yg dibuat oleh kwn kakaknye. ttg skincare.
mary kay products. ermmm... it's fun + the products = great. yup.
it's cheaper than SK-II, clinique, estee lauder etc. but it works as good as that.
basically, its good 4 skin sbb no chemical, and mcm body shop jgk. i like~



and. ade 1 part... kene pakai mascara taw? taw kan mascara?
yg utk lentikkan bulu mate tuh. and...sy kan jrng amat pakai make up.
i mean. most of the time, sy just pakai cleanser, toner + moisturizer.
compact powder? jaranggggg amat. lip balm sbb bibir sy sgt cpt kering.
so. td kene pakai mascara. yg lain sume pakai sdiri. sy? haha. akak tu tlg.
tlg pakaikan sy sbb sy x reti. ye. eyeliner pun sy x reti pakai. sekian~! =P

Dining at cliff house With Martijn Kajuiter.

Are you a Foodie ? Are you in Ireland ? Have you been to the cliff house hotel . I say you must go, Here is my visit to the Cliff house Hotel in Pictures have a look at their website for more info http://www.thecliffhousehotel.com/dining.html. We had the Tasting menu (below) at the chefs table .

Helvick Oyster and Guinness
Oyster Meringue , Gooseberry , Hazelnut

West Cork Scallops
Green asparagus textures And Mizuna

Local Suffolk Lamb
Mint Broad Beans Verjus and Brix

Organic Clare Island Salmon
Carrot Marsh Samphire , Smoke

Skeaghanore Duck
Beetroot , Sweet potato, Amaranth Spinach

Pre Dessert
Lemon verbena ice

Strawberry collection 2009

Dark Chocolate 70%
Coffee ice ,Olive oil, Sea Salt

A wonderful night was had by all . The hotel and chef Martijn Kajuiter where more then welcoming to us . Not only is the food fresh and local but the staff where very friendly . Even appeared to really enjoy their jobs . Not all that usual for Ireland .

For Old Time's Sake

I never cooked in college since I lived in the dorms, but after college I was lucky enough to live with roommates who loved cooking. In our three years together, a pattern emerged. Weekends were spent perusing cooking magazines and cookbooks, creating lists of dishes we wanted to make, and grocery shopping together or ordering Peapod. During the week, we'd email all day about what to have for dinner and who would be home first to start cooking. We took turns cooking for each other, but the best nights were when we cooked together. The kitchen was just big enough for three - one at the stove, one chopping and prepping, maybe one peering into the oven or refrigerator hungrily.

Whether we cooked together or separately, everyone had their specialties. Somehow, I became responsible for salad dressings. It became my habit to dip into the condiment cabinet and fridge shelf, pulling out random vinegars, mustards, oils, or the occasional worcestshire sauce. I'd whisk them together, seasoning with salt, pepper, or lemon juice as I saw fit. Now at this point you might be thinking that salad dressing comes in a bottle labeled "Kraft" or "Hidden Valley" and resides in the refrigerator doorway, lasting for years all hyped up on preservatives. But why ruin a perfectly fresh, homemade salad with that? To quote Julia Child, "The perfect vinaigrette is so easy to make that I see no reason whatsoever for bottle dressings."

One of my standby dressings was a tahini dressing, which will help you use up the tahini you bought to make hummus. It's quite good on a salad of mixed greens, cucumber, red onion, and chickpeas, but it's basically quite good on any kind of salad or just as a dip for carrot sticks and the like. I usually whisk up a small batch in a bowl, but you could make a larger batch in a food processor or mini blender. The dressing is so memorable that when I recently made it to welcome my former foodie roommate back to Chicago, she recognized its creamy pale complexion instantly.

"Is that your tahini dressing?" she asked. When I acknowledged that it was, she was excited. I made it for old time's sake, but it was like bringing an old friend back into my life. It was just as good as I remembered and I'm happy to have it back gracing my table or huddling in the kitchen with me, making any ordinary salad taste phenomenal.

Tahini Dressing

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons tahini
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 large garlic clove, minced and mashed to a paste with 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
1/3 cup olive oil
water to adjust consistency

In a blender, blend together the tahini, lemon juice, garlic paste, and cayenne. With the motor running, add the oil in a stream, blending until the dressing is emulsified. Add water to adjust the consistency to your liking. Season with additional salt if desired.