Singapore - Day 4

(Hannah, this is specially for you!) Since my dad had an accident 2 years ago, he is experiencing difficulties in normal daily activities such as walking up and down the stairs, walking swiftly across the road etc. One of the activities that he is experiencing most difficulty was the use of our toilet. It used to be a squatting toilet instead of a seated toilet. Not many people (including Hannah :)  ) like the use of squatting toilets! Hannah even broke the flushing system the last time she was here in Singapore.... I think it was a traumatic experience for her! Anyway, we have "upgraded" the toilet and now we have a spanking, seating, easy-to-flush toilet! Yay!

New improved toilet 

Toady, I decided to stay at home and spend time with my parents and the nephews. Of course, when I stayed at home, most of the time was spend listening to complaints from mom and dad. My dad was complaining that I looked too skinny (nothing new!) and I have forgotten the Teochew language. Thus, he took upon his mission to re-teach me the lost-mother-tongue-of-Teochew. He tested me on Teochew language on every single items, from food to daily items.

I had fried carrot-cake with mom for breakfast. If you are drooling over it - it is NOT the type of carrot cake you are thinking about! It is actually a "cake" that is made of tulips, eggs and flour. It is then mix together and fried to taste good! It can be fried with dark, sweet sauce (dark carrot cake) or with the sweet sauce (white carrot cake).

Fried carrot cake

Lunch was with my dad, and we had "Kuay Chap". It is a dish with is made of parts of the pig such as intestine, skin, meat etc, and serve with broad, white noodles.The whole dish is cooked in soya sauce until it taste really good. The "spare-parts" of the pigs do not taste raw since they were cooked in soya sauce. However, care must be taken to ensure they are not over-cooked, or they will not be chewy.

Kuay Chap

Finally, dinner was at home. Mom cooked two of my favorite dishes - "Ba Kut Teh" and steamed pomfret. Ba Kut Teh is a soup which pork ribs were boiled with a various spices. It was left to slow-cooked on the stove for a whole day, making the meat from the ribs soft and full of flavor. The soup is a bit spicy but not over tongue burning. On the other hand, steamed fish is a very simple dish... pomfret fish steamed with tomatoes, ginger, soya sauce. Light and tasty.

Ba  Kut Teh and steam pomfret

 The evening was spend at home watching tv programs. The numerous new chinese-kung-fu-fighting-serial-drama-shows was a favourite with Hannah when she was her in Singapore the last time.