Monday 24 March 2008

Tzatiki & Salsa

Was in the mood for some Mediterrenean food recently. Searched a few websites and recipes books and made these 2 on Friday night. Grilled some nice baguatte to go with it. Nice, comfort food.
Tomato Salsa
3 tomatoes, diced
3 stalks of coriander, finely chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
Dressing:
3-4 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1.5 tbsp of red wine vinegar
juice from half a green lime (Thailand type which is bigger, not the local small ones)
pinch of salt
Whisk all the dressing ingredients with a fork and set aside. Add in all the chopped ingredients and toss. Set the salsa in the fridge for at least an hour to let the flavours develop.
Tzatiki
300g of unflavoured yogurt ( I used Pauls. Just make sure there's no sugar, starch or other funny ingredients in the yogurt)
1 medium cucumber
3 cloves of garlic, minced.
Dressing:
1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp of red wine vinegar
Juice from half a green lime (Thailand type which is bigger, not the local small ones)
Some dried oregano
Grate the cucumber and add some salt. Let it sit for 15mins and squeeze out all the water, leaving behind a compact mass. Whisk all the dressing ingredients and add the minced garlic. Add in the yogurt and the cucumber. Mix well, and set it in the fridge for at least an hour. The longer you leave it in the fridge, the stronger the garlic flavour. So, if you are not a garlic fan, you can choose to omit it. :)

Friday 7 March 2008

International Woman's Day - Bye to Bangalore

Compliments from the hotel
Flowers from the Local office

Today is my last day of work in Bangalore. My flight back to SG is 11pm, and my meeting was changed from 1130am to 5pm. It's such a dissapointment as we were looking forward to going off much earlier than normal and settle in a cosy pub in the early evening. Too bad... have to rush later. The local office celebrates International Woman's Day in advance as tomorrow is weekend. All ladies receive a bouquet of flowers and a letter signed by the MD. It's such a nice gesture by the company. I am going back and tell the SG office about it. And in the CN office, ladies gets 1/2 day off to go shopping!!! What in the world is the SG office doing???

Anyway, Happy Woman's Day! And gals, its TGIF! Yeah!

Saturday 1 March 2008

Instant food- Yummy



I am in Bangalore for a week now... no time to blog...of cos, with the kind of work I have. For a start, don't get me wrong. I like Indian food. Go to any Straits Kitchen restaurant for their buffet lunch and I will queue for the Indian food first, or maybe desserts first... :P But...but, the Indian food caterer at the manufacturing plant is not one I want to eat everyday. Moreover, my cold and sore throat is forcing me to keep away from the spices.
So... before I came, I was in Chiangmai for a short holiday with W and bought these 2 types of instant porridge and rice. Actually, I never like instant food...NEVER. Had all the instant noodles during my uni days and after knowing the load of msg that goes in, I don't want to have even a pack of Maggi mee in my house. Buying these were not easy too, lucky for the limited English wordings and the big 'No MSG' label! HAHA. The porridge came in handy as I was pretty sick and the Indian food was rather cold. The hot porridge was comfort food, and you won't believe, cos I couldn't believe it as well... it tasted so damn good!!! I have no idea how they made it, but when hot water was added in, the fish flavour was just so strong and smell like the fish porridge I order at the food centre. Sedap! Next on is the Thai basil rice. I just had it.... it was so spicy! But did you see the whole basil leave inside? I was expecting those dried basil flakes sold in supermarkets. Boy... I was so impressed by the fish porridge that I had an impulse to email the coy and ask them to import to SG...hahaha. If I dish them out into a proper bowl, they wont look instant at all!

CNY Bakes








This CNY has been a very tiring one. Till today, it's almost finally over. According to the Lunar Calender, today is the 18th day of the 1st month. The most important period is the 1st 15 days. The CNY holidays was good, a continual break from my full month of medical leave. Lots of cleaning and baking was done. Not that I am complaining... I am enjoying it!!!
But, now it's back to reality... going to fly off to Bangalore in 18hrs time for work... i am really enjoying those moments at home as much as I can! :D

**Delayed post due to network glitch.