Home Cooking

After a rigorous day of monkey trailing, KT and I decided to take it easy the next day.  Mark wasn't too keen on the idea of sleeping in and hanging out for a day, so he rose early and set out to adventure on his own.  KT and I woke up in the late morning and hung around for awhile, catching up on each others' lives while Bryan made us his famous, scrumptious sour milk pancakes.  As we laid around digesting, we thought that it might be a good idea to cook up something fun for dinner that evening.  We headed off to IMM, where KT would get her first dose of a Singaporean grocery store (which Mark had already endured with me on his first day, when we stopped at the store en route to the money changer).  At Giant, we picked up all the ingredients to make a sushi and miso soup feast.  Also while there, KT gaped at all of the unfamiliar foods offered there- the deli offers raw, blue chickens.  If that's not your thing, you can purchase the entire front leg of a pig, hoof still intact.  No?  How about an octopus tentacle?  Or a big bag full of crunchy, dried fish that you can nibble on like trail mix?  An entire cooked duck, including its beak?  A case of black, fermented garlic?  Smelly, squishy durian?

We managed to navigate past all of the stomach-churning local specialties to get the necessary ingredients for our meal, then we headed home to make an extraordinary mess of the kitchen.  And so we did- we whipped up a whole mess of sushi and a big pot full of miso soup (using this recipe).  I've made sushi a few times, and although it won't ever win any awards for being pretty, it tastes great.  This was my first run at miso, and I thought it turned out pretty well, although it wasn't as flavorful as I'd like.  I think Bryan was grateful to have KT in the kitchen, because it meant that he got some fish in his sushi for once, instead of just the vegetable kind that I always make.

Japanese Feast

Miso Soup

Mark got back in time to eat some of the feast we'd made.  He regaled us with stories of all the tasty food he'd eaten on Orchard Road, including SIX pieces of cake (I told you he could eat!).  He showed us pictures from his wanderings, and it looked like he'd had a great day, but KT and I were happy to have kicked back and hung out at home for the day.  As you might have guessed, we had big plans for the next day!