Normal posting (and by that I mean sporadic posting where I try to forget that I’ve been ignoring this blog so I don’t feel so guilty) will resume shortly. After the last post, it took me all the way until two days ago before my MBP was in any shape to use, and I’m pleased to report that (no thanks to CASE – the utterly and wholly ineffectual Authorized Apple Service Provider in HK) she’s finally alive and well, and one of the things I was up last night doing was going through the backlog of photos that need to be slotted into these draft posts that are Ready and Waiting. (So hopefully the posting won’t be quite so sporadic.)

But in the meantime, I hope you like that picture of Toby. :) Two of my closest friends back home made me that shirt (in regular human size) and made this ridiculously cute tiny version, which we didn’t think about stuffing Rufus into until he was too fat. Toby’s just malleable enough to tolerate us, and looked quite fetching in it. Plus, if you ask me, his expression has a rather appropriate amount of blasé, I do think. In case you can’t quite make it out, the teeshirt reads, “There is no charge for AWSUMNESS” – a quote from the movie Kung Fu Panda. And yes, the spelling was intended. :D

1. Ratio by Michael Ruhlman

Michael Ruhlman’s new book Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind The Craft of Everyday Cooking is out, and I’m beyond excited. It’s a book that deals with – as you can imagine – ratios in cooking and baking, which help anyone who spends in the kitchen to understand the basic relationships between ingredients, as opposed to having to memorise how many cups, tablespoons, grams, ounces of a myriad of different ingredients one recipe requires. Instead, you learn to make bread with 5 parts flour + 3 parts water and from there, instead of having just one recipe, you have the possibility of thousands. Over on his blog, there’s also a post that he’s written introducing the book, and I’ve nicked the video to repost here. I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy!

2. The Miele Guide

Public voting for The Miele Guide is open. Here’s a little excerpt about The Miele Guide that a representative from Ate Media emailed me, so if you’re interested in the regional food scene – or know of a place that you think deserves the recognition of such a publication – now is the time to vote!

“The Miele Guide was created in 2008 in order to better recognise and celebrate Asia’s best chefs and restaurants. This annual publication evaluates restaurants across the region and releases an annual ranking of Asia’s Top 20 restaurants in addition to profiling the best restaurants across Asia. The inaugural 2008/2009 edition profiled 320 restaurants in Asia as based upon the opinions of the region’s most respected restaurant critics and food writers, popular public vote, the votes of The Miele Guide’s invited jury, as well as anonymous tastings conducted by The Miele Guide’s contributing editors and editorial team. Through this rigorous system, The Miele Guide showcases establishments that deliver excellence and exceptional dining by Asian standards.

As an independent guide, The Miele Guide does not accept any advertising, sponsorship or free meals from the restaurants reviewed. The Miele Guide is published by Ate Media and sponsored by Miele, a German manufacturer of premium and innovative cooking appliances for the home. While a naming sponsor of this guide, Miele does not exert any influence over the selection and judging process that determines which restaurants appear in The Miele Guide.”

The picture is really a Jedi mind-trick to distract you from the gross lack of content here. Anyhoo, I’m heading to Taipei this Friday for a weekend jaunt with J, and I’m pretty excited about it ‘cos I’ve never been there before! And there’s going to be so much food! I foresee 48 hours of eating ahead so perhaps this spell of tonsillitis I’m down with now was just a preemptive strike against the face-stuffing that’s to come. Either way, I will do my best to take pretty photos of all the delicious things we eat so look out for those hopefully sometime next week.

Really, I just wanted an excuse to put a picture of some trash up. :) Also, it’s sorta Christmassy, right?

It’s not quite this cold here, but it’s great to finally be having a cold Christmas in a place I’ve learnt to call home, with you finally next to me. :)

(Also, I don’t have any Christmassy pictures ‘cos I’m too full from the massive feast we had to take anything Christmassy to post up here. Haha.)

But anyhoo, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all! I hope all of you are having a Christmas that’s as satisfying and warming-towards-the-cockles-of-your-heart as mine is.

Step 1: Copy the list and paste it onto your own blog
Step 2: Mark all the items you’ve tried in bold
Step 3: Strike through all the items you would never try
Step 4: Leave a comment here (and at VGT) linking back to your results!

Note: There’s something wrong with my blog and it fucks up the syntax, so I’ve just marked [x] next to the ones that I have NOT tried, and noted I WOULD NOT TRY THIS next to the two (#63. Kaolin and #75 Roadkill) that I wouldn’t try. I’m quite pleased to find that there are only 19 out of the 100 that I haven’t tried! Anyway, now it’s your turn!

By the way, there’s a picture of roadkill after the jump which umm explains why I would never eat it. Just in case anyone was wondering. And also to warn squeamish stomachs.

That, ladies and gents, is ROADKILL. (Click here to see a slightly bigger picture.) So NO, I’m not going to eat it. EVER.

Then again, for those who were at Under Bridge last week, I’d probably pick roadkill over chinese mushrooms, if I could cook it any way I wanted. Okay here goes!

The w&d omnivore’s hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses [x]
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper [x]
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda [x]
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal [x]
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more [x]
46. Fugu [x]
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear [x]
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine [x]
60. Carob chips [x]
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin [x] I WOULD NOT TRY THIS
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis [x]
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette [x] < -- but I've eaten kway chap which sounds a lot yummier!
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill [x] I WOULD NOT TRY THIS
76. Baijiu [x]
77. Hostess Fruit Pie [x]
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse [x] < -- I hear it doesn't sound great, but I'd try it.
90. Criollo chocolate [x]
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano [x]
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake [x]

*cracks knuckles*

Okay. So quick update before I get back to rabidly posting. I’ve been getting some rather nasty emails and texts from various people whom I’ve kept in the dark about my supposedly life-changing meal that I had in Spain. TOO BAD. You guys have to wait a LITTLE longer. As most of you know by now, Bunny and I are now in HAWWWWNGGG KAWWWNNGGGG living it up (well not really), but just meeting people and getting settled so that also took precedence over blog-fixing.

I AM NOW THE PROUD OWNER OF AN iPHONE 3G so sucks to all of you in Singapore who were neh-ni-neh-ni-boo-boo-ing me ‘cos I had to go and move to HK just when DCFC was coming to Singapore, ‘cos SCREW YOU that’s one night and I have all their music anyway so I can have my own concert at home and I don’t need to A) get squashed with the rabid people in Singapore concerts nor B) deal with everyone sitting down and stoning at Singapore concerts depending on how it all pans out. BLEHHHHH.

Wow that felt good. Haha. Okay anyway. I’m going to go and install more apps in my sexay new phone so I will be back and blogging like a fiend in a bit. MUCHOS LOVEOS TOLEDOS CIAOOOO!!!!

PS: Oh fuck I just realised all my categories disappeared. God I’ve got a long day/night ahead of me.

Edit: Okay so I’ve deleted like maybe 2.5k of the comments, and there’s still another 6k to go. I categorised the recent posts, the rest of them I really can’t be bothered. (By recent I mean post-Whine&Dine era.) kthxbai.

I’ve pretty much decided that when I’m done with this stage, I’m going to write a book. (Check back with me when I’m actually done with said stage to see if I really get down to writing it or not.) Not about my experiences with this kitchen/restaurant in particular, just some things I’ve found out, been taught, and in general want to scream at the world at large.

The first chapter is going to be titled after this post. Salad leaves are the single greatest bane of my existence in a professional kitchen. Salad leaves get wet, bruised, START TO SMELL FUNKY, and always – ALWAYS – need to be treated with the utmost care. In my first week, I really did little more than sort out buckets and buckets of salad leaves – for which I’m glad. Because now I respect them, now I know how they need to be treated, and – frankly speaking – if I didn’t, I wouldn’t trust myself with a knife.

Yesterday was my first day into the second half of my stage. It’s growing to be the sort of experience where you wake up each morning with half of you excited about going to work, and the other half has to be dragged kicking and screaming out of bed. I love that I’ve become more comfortable with my surroundings; that I now know (more or less) exactly what I need to do, that a grey tub slightly over half full of salad dressing X will likely last me at most 3 more days before it’s time to make a new batch, that I need to defrost the chicken first thing in the morning so that I can get it grilled before dinner service starts. I just wish there was something that would make it easier to yank myself out of bed when it’s a Sunday morning and my girlfriend’s fast asleep next to me.

As much as I hate having 3/4 of my non-sleeping hours locked up every single day of the week, I know I’m going to miss this terribly when it’s over. I guess I might be having one of those existentialist moments where I wonder if I’ve found something I could do for the rest of my life.