Orphanage, Batam

Two weekends ago, the husband and I went to Batam with our church to visit an orphanage that we help to support financially as well as medically. The 30-odd children housed in the orphanage were originally from Sumatra, and were displaced by the 8.7 earthquake that hit Nias in 2005. While they survived with painful memories of the rest of their family not making it, it's also a blessing for them to have been given shelter, food, clothing and an education.

The plan was to do a simple Bible lesson, worship, play games with as well as cook for them on the weekend that we were there - the last part was to give the usual cooks a rest for the day. I volunteered to run the food part of the programme, and stopped by the wet market to do the grocery shopping before going to the orphanage. Contrary to popular belief, food isn't necessarily cheaper there as Batam has so few natural resources and has to resort to importing things from the other islands.

All types of dried fish

We bought this whitebait to cook in omelettes

All the veggies on display looking very fresh
We stopped at this restaurant called Pak Datuk for lunch. It was an amazing spread, with plates set out in front of us, double stacked.

The variety was mindblowing - every single type of meat and vegetable cooked in different ways.

Food filling the length of the entire table.
The perfect ending to a perfect meal - avocado juice with chocolate. Rich, sweet, thick - absolutely yum.

Finally, we made it to the orphanage.

The children are housed in a one-storey building that is made up of a simple concrete structure with brick walls. There's nothing elaborate about it, and everything is extremely basic.

It was not an easy kitchen to cook in - the utensils were old, and loose in various parts, and there was no real benchtop to use. The tap was about 15m away outside in the garden.

Cooking the omelette was easy enough. The real challenge was the 5kg worth of kangkong (not pictured)!

Starting the chicken curry - frying garlic, shallots, lemongrass with the curry paste, with cinnamon sticks and star anise thrown in.

Putting in the coconut milk - this was 3 one-litre packs for 8 chickens and 50 potatoes.

Everything cooking nicely - one of the team members brought tau pok too.

The final touch - adding curry leaves before covering and leaving to boil.

Matthew 19:14 - Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

JB Makan Tour

Behind every greedy foodie....is a bunch of greedy foodie friends.

Friends who know good places to eat, and who are willing to drive a long distance in search of good food are even more valuable friends to have. The husband and I have been told many times by the Tan Family of an amazing beef noodle stall in JB, and not only did they tell us about it, they also gave us the offer of a trip there. We may not be the smartest people around, but when a good opportunity arises it has to be capitalised on quickly. So one miserable drizzly Saturday morning, the 3 Tans and 2 of us set off for a morning of eating and drinking in JB. The causeway was super crowded! But this was no deterrent, since there was good food to be had at the end of the road.

The coffeeshop they brought us to can be seen on the way to the new Checkpoint, just next to a bright blue building. It's in a 1960s-1970s modern shophouse, and judging from the number of Singapore-registered vehicles in front, appears to be very popular with Singaporeans.

Old-school coffee corner. There's nothing quite like Malaysian coffee.

While waiting for the food, I decided to take photos of the coffeeshop. There was a roast duck stall that was rather popular, and a laksa stall that looked pretty good as well.

The beef noodle man doing his thing.

The sign for the stall. He's closed on Mondays, and I've been told that the noodles run out by lunchtime.

The wait for the beef noodles was rather long, so we started off with a bowl of laksa. This was very enjoyable - the soup was not too thick but was more soupy, and it was easy to drink.

Finally after about half an hour, the beef noodles arrived. It was choc-a-bloc full of ingredients - the normal sliced beef, beef brisket and tripe. It also came topped with crunchy peanuts and salted vegetable.

Apparently the best type of noodle is this thick bee hoon - it's even thicker than the type they use for laksa in Singapore. It's more like an elongated bee tai bak.

All mixed up - gooey and yummy and absolutely heavenly. The sauce was full of beefy goodness, unlike other places where it's all cornstarch.

It was so good that we had another bowl! This time without tripe, which made the husband happy.

More shots of the stall - this time he paused long enough for a posed picture, but failed to look at the camera.

All the different beef cuts

Look out for Kedai Ang Kim Chwee

Before heading back to Singapore, we stopped by another coffeeshop for a char kuey teow lunch.

We were back in Singapore by 1pm. All in a morning's work : )

Baked Cauliflower and Mashed Potatoes

So the poor husband and his band of merry men had to work on Christmas Day, and the only thing that I could do to try to make it less sad was to make sure that at least they got some decent food instead of some catered msg-laden grub without killing myself trying to prepare some ambitious roast. So I bought roast chickens from Cold Storage, and prepared accompanying dishes.

The baked cauliflower with cream and cheese sauce was really simple. I got half a cauliflower, and boiled the florets until they were just cooked.
The cream sauce was prepared by melting butter and then adding plain flour and milk and stirring. I had some leftover cream, so I added some of that too. After that, I shredded some tasty cheddar cheese into the pot, and added some dried herbs - a mixture of basil, rosemary, thyme and tarragon - as well as salt and pepper.

The sauce gets poured over the cooked cauliflower in the baking tray
Before putting it into the oven to bake, I shredded more cheese on the surface. I was most pleased with the result : )

I also made mashed potatoes with garlic and truffle oil.

If anything, I hope the husband gets to sleep tonight.

Christmas Dinner 2010

We had our Christmas dinner with the inlaws on Christmas Eve since the poor husband was rostered to work on Christmas Day (well, someone's got to do it!). The MIL is a simply amazing woman. I thought that last year's spread was virtually unbeatable, but the MIL managed to put together a top-quality feast again this year that rivalled - if not surpassed - the 2009 dinner.

Everything cooked and ready to go
The turkey

Chestnuts and brussel sprouts

Carrot and raisin salad

The ham. Oh, the HAM!

The MIL baked it with mustard, honey and cloves

Potatoes

Salad

Stuffed Portobello mushrooms

The entire spread...inside

Salmon stuffed with herbs and baked with lemon

Mushroom soup

The entire spread outside

Dinner from the perspective of....the turkey.

Close up of the ham being sliced. Moist, sweet, sticky, and absolutely delicious.

Home-made Tiramisu courtesy of the SIL....top quality as usual.

Isaiah 9:6 - For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Have a blessed Christmas everyone : )