Captain Kantang

Kantang means potato.

Evan is a total kantang. In every sense of the word.

We met with his teachers today and no surprise that the subject he struggles most with is Chinese and the teacher basically told us that his biggest problems are comprehension and sentence construction. No surprise once again. We're told the old adage; read to him, expose him, speak to him, let him watch Chinese stuff. Basically, as the teacher very succinctly and hysterically put it, 'no input, no output.'

Basically, he's living up to the expectations of him being totally anglo. In other words, kantang.

The local phrase for someone who is Asian but is totally anglo. Because the anglo-white stereotype is one where many potatoes are eaten.

And once again, that's Evan, described to a T.

He does love his kantang. If I let him, he would eat it every meal of the day in any form. Shepherd's Pie, hash brown, mashed. Cubed and fried Asian style with carrots and minced pork atop rice.

There's no convincing him that it's high carb and he should cut down on it.

It explains the chubbed up version of Evan.

And since he was home today while we were waiting in the sweltering heat to see his teachers, it was perfect time for him to learn to cook his favourite kantang dish.
 
Happy is the boy who has his kantang.

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Muffin bakes cheese buns

It's the 3rd week of the school term and I've finally got enough of my bearings working to actually start baking again for JED. The twins have been going to school with sandwiches, fruit or Pocky. While they don't mind, I'm not quite sure my conscience allows me to let them bring Pocky every day.

So, this morning, I baked. Or rather, Muffin baked. JED all love playing with flour and dough so to Muffin, this was nothing more than an extended play dough session. He saw me get out the flour and asked immediately to play with dough. Since he is soon to be 5, I figured it could be a collaborative effort to bake 40 minute cheese buns.

I prepped all the ingredients and kneaded the dough.

He proceeded to roll, flatten or rather pound the dough and then spooned the cheese onto the dough.  He wanted to seal it together by gathering all the ends and crush it shut.

And that's when I had to step in.

I told him it wasn't a good idea so I pinched it shut and he did the egg wash and the cheese garnishing.

Then we waited.

But what fun he had and how chuffed he was to be able to make cheese buns for Kor Kor. Evan loves, loves, loves cheese and what an act of love on the part of Muffin when he spooned a mountain of cheese onto the dough. When I told him it was too much, he told me that Kor Kor loved cheese and it wasn't too much for Kor Kor.

True that.

10 minutes later the buns came out smelling divine and oozy. Muffin, who had earlier elected to bring Nutella rolls to school (same bread recipe essentially!) changed his mind, took out his Nutella rolls and carefully stuffed an oversized cheese bun into his lunch box.

The only thing I want to right is to get the buns smooth rather than little erupted volcanoes. But that's just me. The little people eating them wouldn't really give two hoots about how it looks. In fact, if it had lava of cheese flowing out from it, Evan would not stop eating it!

Yet another reason to love The Domestic Goddess Wannabe   because a recipe doesn't get anymore dummy proof than a 5 year old succeeding in using it to make cheese buns for his beloved big brother. All in 40 minutes with enough time to shower, change, put said bun into his bag and get onto the school bus!

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The chili gene.

One of my biggest dreams for JED is for them to love Peranakan food like I do; after all, it is part of our heritage. In order to enjoy Peranakan food, they would first need to learn how to eat chili and spice. The twins gave me hope, just shy of 24 months when we managed to catch them on video eating mee pok ta ai hiam jio (dry noodles with chili). Unfortunately, that was a fluke.



                                

For years after, the twins avoided like plague, anything that would set their mouths on fire; chili, pepper, mints and garlic.

Then we went to Phuket where out of sheer desperation and hunger (the pool made them so hungry we couldn't keep up with their food demands), they ate what was on the table. Since it was Thailand, one of the staples on our meal table was tom yum soup. The first time required copious amounts of cold water on stand by. But the two boys kept going back for more.

I haven't wanted to get my hopes up but it looks like it's here to stay. We have taken to buying bigger packets of noodles so that Evan and Muffin can take some off us without us still feeling hungry at the end of the meal. Muffin has taken it one step further and has asked on three consecutive mornings, dry chili noodles ('hot noodles') for breakfast and finishing the entire pack all by himself.

So now, we'll try other things like Ayam Merah (spicy fried chicken) and curry. We've got 2 Baba boys in the making now though Jordan is still staunchly refusing!

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#macsnewicedteasucks

Hi, my name is Ondine and I am an addict. For the last 6 years, I have been hooked on one thing; the McDonald's Iced Lemon Tea.

It first began when I fell ill while still nursing the twins. Falling ill while nursing meant that my milk supply plummeted. For someone feeding twin babies, that was really something close to a national emergency. To calm me down while I was flapping and impersonating a headless chicken, Packrat went out and bought me an iced lemon tea from McD's. It was something that I had already drunk a great deal as a young adult and was a great source of comfort.

I was thankful for the sweet and cold goodness. I am not sure what it was, whether it was the sugar, the tea in itself, the fact that I was taking long swigs of fluid or just that the tea put me in a happy place but my milk supply bounced right back up. Since then, my relationship with the iced lemon tea has been a one-sided one that borders on unhealthy.

It is a drink that now costs $3.10 - $3.35 and is chock full of sugar. Empty calories as my primary school health education teacher would say and while $3.35 is still much cheaper than the smallest drink at Starbucks, it is still quite a chunk of small change to shell out every day.

On the days when I've been incredibly stressed or exhausted, this acts like coffee for me. It rouses me from my sleep-deprived stupor and enables me to function. On really hot days, all the ice in there makes it a plenty refreshing drink. I used to drink it everywhere. If I didn't finish my cup, it would take residence in the fridge and I would have it as a 'pick me up' as and when I needed one.

The kids have learnt that if we swung by a MacD's drive through, it wasn't because I had had a change of heart and was buying them a Happy Meal. Most of the time, it meant that Mommy needed her fix. They learnt to holler "ONE LARGE ICED LEMON TEA, PLEASE!" at the drive through for me.

There have been many times in my life that I have tried to convince myself that I should wean myself off all this tea. The sugar and as I see myself inching surely toward 40, cutting back sugar would be prudent. But I've never been able to stay off from it long. Unfortunately, the fates of the stars and the cheapo management at McDonald's have taken away that decision from me.

Some months back, I ordered my usual fix and it didn't taste right. Then I realised it was happening more and more frequently. According to the their website, the tea was supposed to be 'a brisk blend of black tea and a refreshing spritz of lemon, served ice cold.' But it tasted like toe curling, cloying sweet syrup with perhaps a spritz of tea that deserved to be nowhere but the bin. It's tragic because even though it was McDs, the tea was something different. It wasn't brewed like the Carl's Jr one or the ones in the US and it definitely did not come out of a can. It had its own mark of identity and now they were swapping it for a generically bad tasting one.

I have taken to asking at McDs when I buy tea if they are serving the new or old one. This has been met with either surprise (that's usually good because that means they are still stocking the old tea) or knowing resignation as they nod their head and I thank them and prepare to leave, empty-handed.   I knew the day would come when the McDonalds nearest me would cross over to the dark side. But it still didn't prepare me when it happened. I genuinely felt depressed. 

Yes yes, how very first world of me to spend an entire post lamenting and whining over the loss of my favourite fast food beverage.  But seeing how much I have depended on it for the last 6 years, I think I'm allowed to whine just that little bit. 

We decided that this warranted some social media action so we've left messages on the McD's FB page as well as commenting on others complaining about this new tea nonsense by leaving the hashtag #macsnewicedteasucks. So, if you're like me and like the old McD's tea, spread the hashtag round too. It can't hurt and at least, it's our own little way of taking on the multi-nationals!

 

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Surprising Us

The twins have such a busy week in school that we generally try not to do very much on the weekend. It's time for them to wind down, chill and do what they want. It is also the much awaited TV time though thankfully, they do choose to do other things apart from sitting in front of the TV. And with this free time, they roam the house and discover things that they get into and occasionally, it is so out of left field, it surprises us.

Jordan
We found Jordan stretched out on our bed reading to herself with a note pad beside her. The words that she could not read, meaning she could not pronounce went on the list.  So words like Maurice (from Beauty and the Beast) and candelabra appeared on the list. It's one step away from reading with a dictionary which I think we all did at one point or the other. But unlike me, she's doing it without any sort of prompting.

Evan
One of Evan's favourite foods is spaghetti. In fact, anything with meat sauce and carbs. So, spaghetti, shepherd's pie or hash browns with meat sauce and cheese to top it off. Because he asks for it so often and frankly, everyone is tired of cooking it for him, Packrat asked half jokingly if he wanted to learn how to cook it, himself. Surprisingly, he said yes. He gave up precious TV time (while it was on instead of it misbehaving or something) to learn from his dad. And now, he knows the order in which the ingredients go in. He just needs to do it again to get used to the heat over the stove.

Muffin
For some strange reason, Muffin loves the music from Les Miserables. We thought it was because he was bored in his grandparents' car (that was where the CDs were) that caused him to hum along to the songs. But when Packrat put on the 10th anniversary concert, he was riveted and refused to have the channel changed, despite repeated pleas from his bored siblings.

Thanks to these little discoveries that kept them busy, I managed to take a glorious two hour nap, only waking up to the credits of Star Wars blaring and Jordan blaring on top of it that she did.not.want.to.watch.Star.Wars. That was the end of (what is in my book) the long peace. But it was good while it lasted.

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Food

One thing we do a lot of when we travel is to book accommodation where we can cook. It cuts costs, is much healthier and reduces the aggro of eating out with 3 children. In the Northern Hemisphere and in the USA, eating out is expensive. For a party of 8, just eating Tex-Mex pushes the bill over $100 easily.

So where ever we go, one of our first stops is always the supermarket. When in the US, shop like the Americans. Well, sort of. I take full advantage of the fact that a million grained, organic, hormone free, non-processed alternatives are available at a quarter of a cost they are in Singapore.

Jordan loves the fruit that we are able to get, Evan asks for spaghetti and meat sauce every moment he gets. He is in heaven because there is so much cheese and potatoes available at every meal. Muffin just keeps asking for fried rice, which is difficult to produce when we are out.

Their unanimous favourite, the Horizon milk that we got for them. In 4 days, they drank 6 litres of the milk.

Their grandparents derive a great amount a lot of joy seeing them eat with voracious appetites. Muffin and Evan have truly chubbed up in the recent months though Jordan still stay lithe (then again, she doesn't eat all that much)



I remarked to no one in particular that the children were getting rapidly Americanised. Milk at meals instead of water, something they have never ever requested in Singapore. They claim the taste of the milk is 'yummy'.

Every mother worries about how much their kid eats and it is a relief that they are eating well here. My only fear is that they demand the same kinds of food in Singapore. That truly, will break the bank.

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Foodie Friday: Sausage monster

There was this picture that was making its rounds on Facebook, where you stuck raw pasta noodles into cut sausages and you boiled them and there you had it! A meal that the kid would eat. It looked like a whole lot of fun.

There was just one problem.

I am averse to feeding JED processed food, as much as I can help it. So I couldn't in good conscience give them this even though they would polish it up and ask for seconds. But then, I really wanted to do this with them.

I am in the midst of what I call my nightmare 14 day work week. I have to teach for 14 days without a break. It is crazy ridiculous, downright exhausting and I miss JED and JED miss Mommy being home in the evenings. That made me want to do this with them even more.

So I went out to hunt for sausages I would approve of. NTUC would not have anything unless it was a Finest. We have one Cold Storage nearby and I prayed that they had a better variety for me to choose from. Packrat later informed me that I could have gone to the gourmet butcher across the road. It.Did.Not.Occur.To.Me. Noted for the next round of these guys.

Anyway, there wasn't a lot of choice.

Things I realised, trying to find 'kosher' sausages.
1. What I realised was that not only did most sausages have loads of nitrates, most have monosodium glutamate. The stuff that makes you thirsty and rumoured to make your hair fall out. Present in most Asian food. I had no idea that made in the USA sausages had them too.

2. Sausages that didn't have any of those things quadrupled in price.

3. I really wouldn't know if there was horsemeat in any of the sausages I bought. 

What I eventually ended up with were sausages that cost $10 for 4 that were raw, pure pork meat, no filler, low sodium, gluten free sausages. On the ingredient list, it listed 'lean pork, white pepper, black pepper, salt' and I can't remember what else but nothing with numbers and nothing that wasn't already present in my kitchen. Unfortunately, our helper ripped the sausages out of the packaging before I had an opportunity to take a photograph of it.

I would have loved to use wholemeal spaghetti but Muffin can't swallow the stuff so the regular spaghetti had to do.

JED had a great time stealing cooked sausage slices as they impaled the spaghetti into the sausages. A word of warning, the noodles break off so it would be wise to teach the kids to be gentle yet firm with the noodle. (What an  allegory for bringing up kids!) Evan, whose fine motor skills resemble that of an elephant trying to do embroidery broke a whole bunch of noodles but had a lot of fun chucking them into the pot to boil. 

The result looked like something we could do for Halloween. In fact, with a bit of tomato sauce and a lot of imagination, it would be great Halloween food. Muffin and Evan called them Sausage Monsters and Jordan called hers Sausage Jellyfish. Whatever it was, they wiped the plate clean. I kept some for them to eat cold the next day in school as a snack. They wanted to know why there were so few in their snack box.

Being the crazy food mom, their eventual dinner comprised of this topped off with a lot of carrot and spaghetti with home made baked fish nuggets on the side. No pictures unfortunately because JED inhaled the food too quickly for me to move.

We're toying with other derivatives of this.

Meatball Monsters
1. Boil the pasta first
2. Make meat balls, press in the cooked pasta
3. Pan fry them.

Bleeding Sausage Monsters
1. Same thing
2. Pasta sauce with vegetables cooked in.

Bleeding Brains.
1. Pan fried meat balls with pasta (assuming our Meat ball monsters work out)
2. Douse meat balls in pasta sauce and they'll be dripping blood! (sauce)

The kids are into zombies and monsters now, hence the gross food names!

We had fun. I think it justified my $10 sausages and seeing it fed all 3, it didn't come up to all that much. As long as I don't have to do this every day.

And since it's Friday and Dinomama has a foodie Friday, I'm linking to it!



Technorati Tags: JED, Healthy Eating, Kids Food

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