It was the last day of the term, and this time round, the school term closed with a Chinese New Year festival that was round the corner. To celebrate the occasion, the school has once again requested for parents to allow their children to come to school all dressed up in a Chinese New Year  garb or “anything red”.

Like the Cultural Day they had last year, we don’t have special costumes all ready for Spud to wear. I was wrecking my head as to where I could get one of those cute Chinese cheongsam for kids at such a short notice. I KNOW I should not have felt bothered to oblige, but I kind of felt a little gutted that I was not able to get one for Spud and that she had to go to school costume-less once again. For kids, I can imagine that it would be a fun thing to do.

So I asked around, and a colleague of mine had the foresight to suggest that perhaps I should try my luck at one of those makeshift “tent area” usually opened at lunch time near my office. I went on a fly, with no more than 12 hours to spare till the next day where she’ll be needing her costume.True enough, I found just what I was looking for and ended up buying 2 pieces of those cheongsam dresses for Spud.

As soon as I got home, I showed Spud what I bought for her to wear for school the next day. She got excited and was immediately drawn to the red dress. She liked it so much that when she got defiant and refused to listen, she immediately behaved and complied when I threatened to take the dress away from her. (Ahhh! The power of taking away something she likes lives on!)

I walked Spud to school with her donning her cute little red cheongsam and I was genuinely amused at the attention she got from passer-bys ; some being familiar faces as we see them every day.  The moment they saw her, they all started smiling, laughing, grinning, saying hi to her and telling her how “narak maak” (very cute in Thai) she was with her little assemble.

And we walked together, hand-in-hand, chatting and singing and laughing while Spud basked in the look of adoration from passer-bys all around.

Spud may not noticed all the attention she had as she was busy looking everywhere but in front of her. I thought it was quite amusing at how excited Thais can get with little kids. It was, nevertheless, pretty endearing.

Gong Xi Fa Cai, everyone! May the year of the Snake bring may more good fortune, happiness and love all around.

Spud’s dress of choice for school

Spud’s in her other cheongsam dress

Cookbooks are great when it comes to getting me inspired for dishes on days when I don’t know what to cook for meals. Flipping through one of my most trusted Asian cook books, I came across this fairly simple recipe and decided to venture into this Eurasian-inspired dish.

Wilhelmina’s Pickled Chicken

2015-07-13 17:21:01

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Ingredients

1. 4 pieces chicken breasts cut into pieces
2. 3-5 tbsp olive oil
3. 250 ml water
4. 4 tbsp brown sugar
5. 4 tbsp lemon juice
6. 120 ml coconut milk salt to taste
7. Tumeric leaves, crushed

Spices

1. 4 tbsp coriander powder
2. 4-5 pcs cloves
3. 4 cardamom pods
4. 1 tspn cumin powder
5. 1 tbsp tumeric powder
6. 5cm piece cinnamon stick
7. 1 tspn ground nutmeg

Paste

1. 12 medium-sized dried red chillies (seeded and soaked in warm water then drained)
2. 1 stalk lemon grass (sliced)
3. 2-3 inch fresh ginger (peeled and sliced)
4. 4 cloves garlic 8-12 shallots (sliced)

Instructions

1. Grind all the spices in an electric grinder. Mix and set aside.
2. Coat the pieces of chicken well with the spices and let it stand for at 15 minutes
3. Grind the paste ingredients
4. Heat oil in a pan and fry the ground paste until light brown and aromatic.
5. Add the seasoned chicken and stir-fry for about 10 minutes.
6. Add water and coconut milk.
7. Simmer till tender.
8. Add in the lemon juice, sugar, salt to taste. Stir well. Then add turmeric leaves on top
9. Stir again and cook until fairly dry

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Enjoy!