"Marblelous" Gift

After more than a year of staying in our home, Louis and I still love it very much. Coming home after a few hours away or after work is always pleasurable and restful. Its definitely more than a house. Its our home. Filled with creature comforts, knick-knacks and memories that we like and love. And I think Faith feels the same way too. Whenever we are out after a day and when we bring her home, we'll put her in her cot and turn on the mobile at her bed. And she would have a delighted smile, at times, kicking her hands and feet in excitement and pure pleasure.

Louis and I took nearly half a year of intense house hunting before we finally found this unit that we loved at first sight. Everything felt right about our house. Naturally, the kitchen takes pride of place in the entire house and its where I love to potter, cook and bake. The wall between our kitchen and living/dinning room is separately by glass halfway from the waist up to the ceiling. While I'm in the kitchen doing my baking or preparing Faith's food, I could always see what she's up to in the living room.

Really, there's nothing that I don't like in the house, although I sometimes daydream that if we have another house and/or a bigger renovation budget, I would like to have a marble kitchen counter top. We currently have a gray with white speckles solid surface that looks pleasing and serves its purpose. Except that when I want to roll out rich doughs (doughs enriched with more butter), its a little of a challenge given our humid and hot weather.

I used to bake and make a lot of apple galettes, a type of open, crispy and crusty apple tart, when I was in France. When I returned and tried making them in my kitchen, the toughest challenge is always rolling out the dough. Just out from the fridge, it would be too cold and hard to roll. After a few minutes of rolling, the dough goes from softer and pliable to become wet and sticky, that no amount of flouring would help. And I would end up having a holey dough at the end as I try to transfer the dough from the counter top to the tart tray.

A marble counter top would be useful as it is cool and would hopefully make it easier to roll the dough without it getting wet and sticky too quickly. I've read that in some professional kitchens when they do a lot of rich doughs (e.g. those for croissants), their steel counter tops would be fitted to have cold water running underneath it so that counter top remains cool. That makes it easier to handle the doughs. I'm not a Michelin-starred chef nor am I'm running a professional home-kitchen myself. Which is why I am perfectly happy with just a marble kitchen counter top ;)

My friend, Ching has been renovating her new house and has generously given me a rectangle slab of marble cut out from her bathroom sink. Actually, she was so generous that she gave me the bigger of the 2 marble slabs she had. Plus, she had her contractor chamfered the marble slabs so that there wouldn't be any rough edges.

So, while I do not have a marble counter top, I have the next best thing now... a nice slab of marble (very heavy though). I think I shall make me (and her, of course) a nice apple galette with it very soon ;)

Thanks much, Ching :)

1 + 1 = 2

No... I'm not out to prove any mathematical equation or show my mathematical prowess (as if such simple addition would make me a Math Olympiad!). Just that Faith has "sprouted" her 2nd tooth, right next to the first one that came up a few days ago.

For a while, I had been feeling her gum with my finger to check if the other would break out when I realised she had one coming out. But I couldn't feel anything until this morning, as I was admiring and checking on her first tooth that I saw another whitish spot to the right of it.

Ahhh... now she has two and I'm secretly glad (not so secret anymore with this post) cos I think she would look cuter with 2 teeth rather than 1. Altogether now, let's chant: "1 tooth good, 2 teeth better! 1 tooth good, 2 teeth better" (to the rhythm of Animal Farm's "2 legs good, 4 legs better") ;)

Macaron madness

Flavours from left to right:- hazelnut macaron with truffle cream & roasted hazelnut, green tea macaron with green tea cream, almond macaron with sesame cream, almond macaron with pistachio cream and brandied cherry, almond macaron with green lime cream and chestnut cream and candied chestnut.

I was all of 28 years old when I had my first taste of macarons. In fact, Louis and I have never even heard of them until we were in France and our Japanese neighbours brought a gift of macarons for dessert when we had them over for dinner.

I only knew that they mustn't be cheap, cos the nicely decorated box of macarons came with a little booklet with information about the Patisserie that made them. And that Patisserie, Frederic Cassel, was well-known among the Insead partners to be The Best pastry and sweet shop in the entire ville of Fontainebleau -- I think it could rival some of the better patisseries in Paris too. Its also the one that served champagne to its long queue of waiting customers who were lining all the way out of its store on the eve of Christmas and New Year, waiting to collect their orders of cakes for the festive season (dig that!).

Never underestimate the allure of macarons. You may snub your nose at these little button-like nibblets that seem to anything but innocent and unassuming. Yet, one bite into a well executed confectionery of meringue-like, chewy maracons will start you on your way to a lifelong addiction. You would be reaching your hands into the box and before you know it, all the macarons are gone.

I can't figure out exactly what makes them so enticing. Be it the slightly crisp crust of the macarons as you bite into it, or the chewy interior sandwiched between either a jam or cream centre, that is sometimes accompanied by a little nutty crunch (for the ones with cream centre). Altogether, they certainly make a bewitching combination. Personally, I prefer the cream centres to jams as I find the latter to be a tad too sweet for my taste.

The good macarons can be so delicious have you devouring a load of them before you realised that you've over consume your daily calories. And the mediocre or lousy ones are enough to turn you away with the tasteless and toothache-inducing cookies and bland cream centre that simply lacks the oomph. And I've had my taste of those even in France and in Singapore.

When we first return from Singapore from France, I was extremely excited to see a popular local-chain of cafe, well-known for its French cakes and pastries, offering macarons. However, my first bite into one turned me off and since then, I've never attempt to order them anymore even though I love their cakes and other dessert selections.

My favourite macarons in France is from Laduree. They have an outlet along Champs-Elysee and another on the 2nd floor of Printemps at Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissemont. I've never been to the one at Champs-Elysee but whenever I make a trip into Paris and if I head towards Boulevard Haussman for my favourite pastime -- which is to window shop and admire all the clothes at Galleries Lafayette and Printemps -- without a doubt, I would find my legs carrying me automatically towards the Laduree outlet. I would buy myself a precious box of 7 macarons and resist the urge to eat those delicious cookies even though I'm itching to do so the entire trip back to Fonty just so that I could share them with Louis at home.

A box of 7 macarons would cost around 8 euros (which costs around S$16). Hence, we considered buying and eating macarons from Laduree to be a real treat back then cos we were a poor student and spouse on a shoe-string budget. Oohhh... but the fun of choosing the 7 flavours from the myraid choices of macarons while the waitress looks on impatiently and with a little imperious air about her. You would be simply spoilt for choice becos other than the 11 staple flavours, they would have seasonal and other special/temporary creation available

After the disappointing order of macarons in Singapore, I had thought that the only opportunity that I would ever have of eating these delicious little cookies would be when we return to France. And then we went to Bangkok 3 times within a year in 2005/6. Amazingly, they had a Lenotre outlet (another chain of French pattiserie) located at the basement of Siam Paragon (I've heard there's another outlet at the new BKK airport but the items are a bit more expensive there). Guess what? We chanced upon a strip box of 5 macarons at 80 Baht (approx S$3.50). These were the cheapest macarons that I've found.

You can imagine too that we would stuff our face with it whenever we were in BKK and bring home more. We once bought back almost 20 boxes of these for souvenirs and gifts. Of course, I'm rather proud that I've managed to convert a few friends to become macaron lovers/addicts after they had their taste of it. I'm biased but these macarons weren't as good as the ones in Laduree and they only had 5 flavours (chocolate, coffee, vanilla, pistachio and strawberry). However, they were the best substitutes in Asia.

That was until we discovered something closer to home... Canele Patisserie Chocolaterie, under the Les Amis group. The macarons by Canele are good (although not as good as Laduree's, IMHO) and now, we could satisfy our macaron cravings anytime -- especially when Louis workplace is right smack where Canele is at Robertson Walk. Best of all, they have a caramel sel flavour which is my absolute favourite when it comes to macarons :)

On Monday, I was reading Chubby Hubby* when he wrote about the Macaron Festival at Canele for the month of October where they were featuring 6 "exotic" flavours of the moment. Certainly we had to try these new flavours! So, I told Louis to go buy them the next day.

A word of caution... I feel that they are a little exorbitant though! The usual macarons costs about $1.80/pc and Louis simply told the girl over the counter that he wanted the macarons on promotion for Oct and headed to pay for it at the counter. He (and I upon hearing it) had a rude shock! It cost S$22 for a box, albeit it was a nicely packaged one.

For such a pricey item, you bet the both of us are savouring every single bite of the macarons. In fact, we had a taste of the sesame and the almond with pistachio cream and brandied cherry. We both prefer the sesame. Tomorrow night, we will try another 2 flavours, and Friday, the last 2. We'll give our verdict then.

I'm now wondering if I should go learn to make my own macarons. In fact, Shermay's Cooking School has been offering classes by Jocelyn Shu (of Kuidaore) which are always full the minute they broadcast it online. CP has recently gone for a class. He once asked me before if I would like to go for a class together with him. At that time, I snubbed him and snobbishly told him that it would be too much of a hassle to make my own macarons. I would rather buy them off the shelf and enjoy them. Now, I'm eating humble pie and begging him to come to my house to make a batch and show me how to do it ;) It just goes to show you never say never. Kekeke....

*Note: Chubby Hubby also wrote that the best macarons in Paris were from Pierre Herme. I've never tried them but you bet I'm going to the next time I am in Paris.

Almost pickpocketed!

Buying something for my mom is always a challenge. For one, she's a vegetarian and a rather fussy one at that -- she only likes chinese cuisine. The other reason is that she is a woman of simple needs and wants.

For the longest time, whenever I holidayed overseas, it would always be difficult for me to think of what to buy for her -- she usually wouldn't like any of the food product that I bought, even if they are suitable for vegetarian, and she doesn't need a lot of things.

Inevitably, I would always end up buying a bag back for my mom. I've bought her a Coach leather bag, a Liz Claiborne bag and a Longchamp pliage bag. All of which she would either complained that the handle of the bag was too thick, too short, not enough compartments or too small. And so, she continues to carry her worldly possessions in one of those kiddy-looking cloth gusset bags that she buys cheaply from the one of the shops in HDB Hub all over Singapore.

Last year, I finally nailed down the right features and specs and gotten my mom a bag that she would carry -- one of those signature Harrods gusset bag, with a lining and build-in zipper compartment inside the bag. And I pestered her for a while to swap her cloth bag for the Harrods bag.

In the afternoon, as she was reaching into her bag to grab her ringing cellphone, she suddenly realised that there was a long sharp slit on the side of the bag. With a loud exclamation to me, she told me her bag has a hole! For a while, I had thought that it was a defective side seam or something. But when I had a good look at the bag, I realised that the slit was too sharp, long and straight to be a bag default.

In fact, it looked as if someone had taken a very sharp knife or penknife and slashed the side of the bag, slitting through some parts of the inner-lining. And I observed too that there was a slight slit at the top of the bag, as if a person has wanted to slashed it from the top but becos it was double-folded and stitched, was too thick to slit through.

Checking through the items inside, thankfully, nothing had been stolen. However, my mom's ancient wallet (its a bulging crocodile-skin wallet that looks like it belongs to a museum and my mom has used for nearly 20 years!) was placed near the slit. We figured that the pickpocket must have tried to slit the side of the bag to get to the wallet. But becos my mom's wallet was so fat and crammed full of I-don't-know-what, the pickpocket couldn't extract it out from the bag after slitting it.

What's most amazing was that my mom has no idea when and where her bag got slashed. In fact, the slashed might have been there on Sat when she went to a crowded temple or along the way from her house to mine. Still, its amazing that everything was intact. Thankfully!

It has taken me years to find a bag for my mom and now, with a slash of a penknife, my mom's back to carrying one of her kiddy cloth bag. See, she's now carrying this red "Strawberry Shortcake" bag. Sigh...

Water fun

Saturday, Faith experienced her very first dip in the pool. And I really mean dip. We were having a potluck dinner at P&E's place and they have a pool in their condo. So, we decided that it would be convenient to bring Faith for her first swim there, after which, we could adjourn upstairs and shamelessly borrow bathtub, soap and baby cot and all to bath and clean Faith up ;)

The day started out promising, but around the time that we were about to leave for P&E's place, the sky started to look a little overcast, with dark clouds looming ahead. By the time we reached their place and changed Faith, the sky looked even more threatening. Nevertheless, we decided to bring her down still for a dip. Or rather, Faith's dad was looking for a good excuse for him to go for a swim after that ;)

Despite the dark clouds and all, Faith seem to enjoy her time in the pool. As it was rather windy at the poolside, we quickly got her out after about 5 minutes of play. Let's hope we would have better luck with the weather on our trip to Bintan in another 2 weeks time.

Faith is featured in UK Magazine :)

I was at lunch today when Eve called me. She sounded rather excited and her first words were that Faith has been featured in a UK magazine. I was a bit speechless for a while because I was thinking if Eve had meant something like a bunch of Baby Faiths from UK were being featured in this UK magazine. Or some other play of words. After all, my dear wife has been spending quite a bit of time on Scrabulous.

As it turns out, it was literally our Faith that appeared in a women's magazine a few oceans away - all the way in UK :)

First, some background on this magazine. According to the website, "My Weekly" is "a widely read magazine aimed at "young" women of all ages. We are read by busy young mothers, active middle-aged wives, and elderly retired ladies. Although their ages cover the full spectrum, they have one important factor in common - they want their weekly magazine to be entertaining."

I had a brief glance through at the content and I felt it was probably similar to our 8 Days.

In this magazine, they have this section known as "All About You" in the opening pages. This section is "the place to share your news, views, thoughts and dreams..and especially the photos that make you smile". This was the section where Faith's picture turned up, along with other baby/kids photos under the caption "Little Treasures!"

So how did Faith's photo end up in this magazine? It was all thanks to Auntie Catherine who is now currently in UK. Eve had some time back sent her some pics of Faith at 2 months. Aunty Catherine then submitted Faith's photo to the magazine. Unexpectedly, they actually published it in the Sep 22 2007 installment of the magazine. Talk about a surpise! :)

Cutting tooth

Many weeks ago, I've posted on my suspicions that Faith might be teething becos she was exhibiting some signs of of salivation, gnawing/biting on items and sleepless nights. The weeks passed and as there wasn't further signs of any tooth sprouting, I had dismissed that thought and pushed it to the back of my mind.

For the past few nights, Louis and I were kept awake by Faith's incessant crying or roused out of sleep in the middle of the night. Even at 6 months, Faith continues to wake at least once a night for feeding. More often than not, she would promptly fall back to sleep after. For the last few nights, she was still awake after feeding and resisted our attempts to pet her back to sleep. It was trying when you are so sleepy and tired and have on hand a baby that wouldn't want to sleep.

We thought that the problem was becos she doesn't know how to grt back to sleep on her own after waking up. Louis and I are guilty of being overly anxious parents. Every time she wimples or cries a little, either or both of us would rush into the room to comfort her. Deciding that it was time for our baby to learn how to fall back to sleep on her own, we've decided to put her right back into the cot in her own room. If and when she roused from her sleep and starts crying, we would wait 5 minutes to see if she can quieten down and fall back asleep on her own. If not, we would go in, comfort her, put her back to sleep and retreat out of her room. This time around, we decided that the both of us would remain sleeping in our room.

We also decided to leave her and our doors ajar and not use the baby monitor -- I'm guilty of picking up the baby monitor once in a while, putting it very close to my ears to listen if she's making any sounds. Between the time that we put her to sleep till our bedtime, she woke about 4 times, crying each time for 5 minutes before went in to help put her to sleep.

Thankfully, she sleep soundly after that till 3-ish in the morning, roused a little for her night feed and promptly fell back to sleep until 7-ish this morning. That's when Louis and I woke and decided to bring her back to our room so that she can sleep the rest of the morning with us in our bedroom. Actually, I'm always in a dilemma. Whenever she's in the room sleeping with us, I would feel that we need to get her to sleep in her own room. But when she's sleeping in her own room, I miss her so much :( What a conflicting mom I am. Fortunately or unfortunately, Louis is of the same sentiments too. ;)

When Faith and I finally decided to stir our lazy bones and get up for the morning, I usually play with her on our bed for a while, tickling her to make her giggle or pulling her into a sitting position. And as usual, my little one would try to grab hold of my fingers to put it into her mouth to gum it.

That's when I discovered today for the first time something sharp when she gummed down on my finger. I let her gum my finger a few more times, got her to open her mouth to examine her gums and what do you know???!!! I saw a tiny speck of whitish tooth breaking through her gums. Its so small that its easy to miss it but for the sharp sensation when she gum my fingers.

Finally! There's a logical explanation for her restless sleep and constant waking over the last few nights. My baby was uncomfortable becos she was teething! What a dummy mummy I am -- it rhymes!

I hope with the breaking of the tooth, Faith would be able to go back to her normal routine of sleeping again. While its rather tempting to bring her back to our bed so that we could pamper her a little more during her teething phase, I think we should continue to stick with letting her sleep in her own room for now. Or more rightly, I hope we wouldn't cave in and bring her back to our bed ;)

Still, I'm rather happy and proud of my little one for going through yet another of her development milestones.