Nyonya Food

I am always fascinated by nyonya food. Their taste is completely out of this world. Nyonya food, real good ones, command respect.

"...making Nyonya food is no simple affair. The unique and highly flavourful cuisine requires abundant amount of time, patience, and skills. A true Nyonya would spend hours and hours pounding her rempah (spices) with batu giling (a flat slab of stone to grind the spices) to cook up authentic Nyonya dishes such as Perut Ikan (pickled fish stomach with vegetables stew), Salted Fish Pineapple Curry(Gulai Kiam Hu Kut in Hokkien), and other scrumptious Nyonya concoctions". http://nyonyafood.rasamalaysia.com/introduction-nyonya-food/

Precisely, it is the amount of time, patience and skills involved that make nyonya food so different. Please do not mistake good nyonya food from "copycat" nyonya food where premix is being used to replace all the spices. Due to this laborious task of preparing the rempah, yours truly has no guts to take up the challenge until now.

I was flipping through some old food magazines and came across one nyonya dish which I thought (thought) was easy enough to give it a shot…



Fatty? Well, at least it is not processed!

It was indeed laborious. Peeling those shallots alone have made me "cried" buckets. But the end result was extremely fulfilling. My highest respect for the nyonya who sit on a tiny stool, pounding the many spices manually and relentlessly just to produce a great dish. *SALUTE*

An animal activist in the making?



I find her writing very matured. I have not contributed my views nor my comments in her writing. She did this in school for her speech and drama class and I just saw it in her file. Yes, I am so proud of her. Having your own opinion towards an issue is one thing, able to put them forth is quite another. Great job, my little princess.

Track and Field Day

The kids were privileged to be able to use the brand new running track. It was built only last summer and this is the very first time, the school has an official Track and Field Day. However, it will also be the last for the kids as we will be repatriating this autumn.



Beautiful track and field. A couple of kids fell during their events. In tracks like these, one has to put on proper running shoes. Something the kids will learn.

Kids marching in…


Now, who do I see here? Can you spot Kai with his book? That is my boy, no matter where…he must always have a book with him. Hello…my son, it is Sports Day lah!



Waiting eagerly for his turn. On lane three, he was doing the 60m hurdle….and yes, he came in first. Thanks to his long legs.


Can you spot her? It is pretty obvious. She is one super expressive girl


Focused …"how should I do it"….

The erratic weather of Shanghai threatened to dampen the special day. In fact, the school was prepared to change the date. For the whole week leading to that day, the kids were praying heart for good weather. Well, Jesus loves the little children. The weather was more than perfect. No rain, no sun. Just a nice cool breeze throughout the day.

When we were on our way to school that morning, I reminded Kai and Ann. Go out there and do your best, win or lose, it really didn't matter. Don't cry and don't blame your friends for the loss. It was a timely reminder. Sometimes, kids do get carried away with just winning. Ann's team didn't win and she took it very well. In fact, we all cheered for the last boy who finished the race. Yes, I am not the typical kiasu Singaporean mum and I am not the tiger mum. I push them of course. I push them all the time to do their best because, one cannot be slothful. Whatever the result maybe, if you can tell yourself honestly, I have already done by best…that's all it matters!

The day went so well until Ann's pre-school class teacher and the pre-school head of division came to tell me an unfortunate event. Ann had knocked herself and was badly bruised. You know what, it had nothing to do with the sports day, she got injured in class. When I went to see her at the sick bay, she was crying profusely. I know her so well. She will never shed a tear if the pain is bearable. So, it was a nasty fall.  I wanted to bring her home but she insisted on staying back for the rest of the games. Yeap, that's her. Forcing her to go home will bring her greater pain than her bruised head!


Bruised and swollen forehead but now, all's well.

The great divide…


Compare the condition of the two buildings

The story of dual language

The good thing about being able to speak both English and Chinese….

Promoter A : 小姐，买这个，　这个好。。。blah, blah, blah
Yours truly : (Give her the super blur look and shake me head)
Promoter A : (Stop promoting and talking to herself) 听不懂？是外国人

Phew, I can now go back to my grocery list.

Promoter B : Mdm, let me show you this mop …..
Yours truly : 听不懂
Promoter B : Have a nice day!

Oh yes, I will. Thank You *Grin*

Just in case you think I am trying to act like an arrogant expat taitai. Nah, I just like to buy what I need and if I need help, I will ask. It takes a lot of high level patience to tell these promoters that I really don't need what they are hard selling.

Never give up….

It took numerous reminding, haunting and of course nagging for my dear son to realise that he needs to plan for his revision. He finally did it and he really took it seriously.


Never give up, mamas!