Greek Affair

The way to my heart is music - so I tell many. Those who really know me, however, know that food is the truest way. Oh, where do I begin... How do I love thee? Hubs calls me a wookiee - what can I say, the man knows me.

Saddled next to my love for food is the love of entertaining, and of wine. Had plenty of both this past long weekend. (Sidenote: We've concluded that the only way we'll ever keep our place clean and uncluttered is if we have company over... all the time.)

On Saturday, we invited E's undergrad minions student workers from the lab to dinner. Two of them were Singaporean, so I toyed with the idea of making down home hawker fare (eg. Hainanese chicken rice, rojak). But it's too frumpy. Then I considered local fare, like steak or salmon filet and a casserole, but they can find that anywhere. Finally, I settled for neither here nor there - Greece.

* Olive and cheese platter, black mission fig compote
* Spring mix salad with fig-infused white balsamic vinaigrette
* Melitzanes Imam - roasted Greek/Turkish aubergine with cinnamon
* Spanakorizo - spinach and rice with tomatoes, sprinkled with crumbled feta cheese and freshly squeezed lemon
* Mint-garlic lamb chops
* Tzatziki - cucumber yogurt dressing
(Most recipes from allrecipes.com)

Paired dinner with a good California chard. Dessert was chocolate fondue with an assortment of fruits. (The guests brought an Alsace Gewurztraminer and Michel Cluizel chocolates - good taste!)

The next day, we had a friend over to catch up on Grey's Anatomy. Made more spanakorizo and melitzanes imam, and performed an encore of the chocolate fondue with creme de menthe. Kicked a bottle of Jadot's Macon-Villages (meh).

I had the day off on Monday, so I spent the afternoon reading at the cafe. Dinner was a break from Middle Eastern to Far Eastern - hae du bop at our favorite Korean restaurant. Baked a double-layer white cake with strawberry filling and Cool Whip frosting for a colleague's birthday today.

And... back to Greek today - leftovers. :) Got a 2006 La Crema Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast; my first La Crema, and I picked it over the Russian River Valley version. Very good! I was already giddy with excitement when I uncorked the bottle and caught a whiff of it. It was buttery, silky smooth, oh so palatable.

I'm saving the rest of the bottle to savor later, but I think I'm done with the Greek/Mediterranean/tomato stuff. 'Twas good while it lasted, but the kitchen will be taking a break for now. Phew!

Vignettes

Pics and stories from Christmas/NYE 2007.

* It was a 10-hr drive from the B&B in South Carolina to Tierra Verde, FL, where we'd be staying with E's uncle for a few days. He lived in New York/New Jersey for many years before moving to Florida. Every stop we made, we noticed the weather getting warmer. As we were unpacking the car, he picked up the snow brush and said, "What's this artifact?" Hardy har har... rub it in. ;P

*
The condo is 5 minutes from Fort De Soto beach

Around the corner from the apartment, where we took long walks, is a nice posh neighborhood of million-dollar homes. (One we passed was rumored to be Kevin Costner's vacation home.) A few Hummers in the driveway, marble columns, grand piano by the floor-to-ceiling panels of glass... Oh, and a yacht in the back.


Canal that runs through the back of the houses

* Tampa Bay was gorgeous. The Florida sun and the sight of sparkling water did us good. We had grouper, yellowtail, and blue crab, the local specialties. Walked around St. Pete and visited the Dali Museum.


Blue crab salad at Fish Tales; boats docked at a marina

* Beaches everywhere! Sugary sand and pretty seashells. We threw around a frisbee at Fort De Soto, walked along Honeymoon Island, and watched the sun set at Treasure Island.


Fort De Soto, Christmas Eve


Honeymoon Island State Park - hubs venturing into the water, sand in his toes


Sunset at Treasure Island

* Orlando Eats: Ate at Wolfgang Puck's in Downtown Disney. Had dinner at Thai Thani on International Drive, one of those Zagat-rated restaurants. Nice atmosphere, but the food was comparable to our favorite Thai digs in Pittsburgh. Lunched at Briarpatch in Winter Park before visiting the Morse Museum for the Tiffany collection. Food was interesting, overpriced. No, we didn't go to Emeril's... (next time!)

* Epcot: 14 1/2 hours! New Year's Eve. We were there till 1.30am.


The famous golf ball... Spaceship Earth


World Showcase - France


Ceiling of China


Shrine in Japan

Epcot's World Showcase features 11 countries from around the globe. (It also does a clever job of incorporating pieces of Disney in each.) Most have short films about the country, performances; each place serves food and spirits, and of course, has a massive gift shop. One can eat at a variety of places, from snack booths to fancy (pricey) sit-down restaurants, all in the country's theme.

At dinner...
(In UK eating fish 'n chips)
In-laws: "Where's E?"
Me: "He doesn't want fish 'n chips, so he went to Morocco."
(A few minutes later, we joined up with him in Morocco. A couple offered us seats, but saved one for their daughter.)
Couple: "She should be back any minute now... she's just in Japan."

Orlando is a little too touristy - the whole place is practically owned by the Mouse. I think I'm Disney-ed out for a while. Overall a great trip though.

Back to reality... (bills! reading! bedtime!)

Ten Years

Right about now, I've passed the ten-year mark. Ten winters that I've experienced here, and countless lessons learned. Time flies.

Many people have asked me about The Moment, the one decisive turning point that changed the course of my future - to be honest, I don't remember how I decided to leave home and come here. I was 16 and hadn't given my future much thought; I could have gone to the better high schools in Singapore, so why do it any other way. Until one day, my parents suggested something different. Follow the white rabbit! Took the SSATs, talked to relatives and friends about the pros and cons of going to high school in the US. An interview was arranged with an admissions rep who was recruiting in Jakarta - my mum wrote an excuse for school, we hopped on a plane there and back in a single day. We flipped through pages of glossy brochures with smiling Caucasian faces, quaint Colonial buildings, and sweaters, and then the admissions rep took us out to a fancy lunch. Didn't understand much else of what happened at the time.

I got my acceptance letter in the mail. In a time before Wikipedia, I knew little of the place I was going to, except from the brochures. I was 'in', but I still worked hard for the 'O' level exams in case I changed my mind. In the end, it was decided that I was going to America. Oh there are no cats in America, and the streets are paved with cheese...

Jan 1998: I remember the knots in my stomach at the airport. A group of my closest friends had come to see me off with gifts and flowers... I bawled inconsolably. Even after the farewell troop was out of sight, in the departure hall I was still crying a river. (My mum quipped that I should stop so onlookers wouldn't think she was child trafficking. Ha!) It was an unbearably long flight... what a long way from home. When we got to the Land of Opportunity, I realized my English needed some work.

Just like that. One moment I was at home; the next, I was in Massachusetts.

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I learned a lot. Doing laundry, balancing my checkbook, eating well (I was often tempted to skip meals or overeat), being alone. I've never been alone - I mean truly alone, but I slowly learned to appreciate the beauty of solitude. I was so excited when I booked my first trip home through a travel agent (in the time before Expedia and Orbitz). When I started getting to know people, my new friends and I would take the train into Boston for a day, or walk down Main Street in our coats and boots for a hot cocoa and fresh scone. Meanwhile, my old friends in Singapore were moving on with their lives on a divergent path. I questioned my decision almost every day.

Then came college - sharing a common bathroom with 25 other people didn't faze me anymore. I could make instant noodles with my eyes closed. There were many more 'firsts'.

Despite finally adapting to life in the US at the cost of much heartache, I wanted to go home after graduation. E, who was supposed to be a quick fling and last hurrah, became my permanent derailment. My parents had a clue when I insisted that he visit them in Singapore a few summers ago. Then the rest, as they say, is history.

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Ten years is a long time.

The same friends who saw me off at the airport ten years ago are now married too. I regret not being there to witness their ups and downs, just as I wish I could've shared mine with them more intimately than over e-mail and the annual cup of coffee. As for family, I've kept every letter, newspaper clipping, recipe, postcard from my mom. My occasional letters to her have been returned with red ink correcting my Chinese. (Bah!) I still think of home every day.

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Anyway. Hubs and I celebrate our leather wedding anniversary in 2 days, and we go home for Chinese New Year in 20+ days. Yay!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Quick sketch of this year's holiday highlights:
* Stayed at a bed 'n breakfast in Piedmont, South Carolina - Jesse and Amy tied the knot on 12/22. Had lots of grits and sweet tea.
* Visited E's uncle in Tierra Verde, Florida. The weather was perfect; no chestnuts roasted by an open fire, but the spirit of Christmas was well with palm trees dressed up in lights and much caroling and revelry with snowbirds at the waterfront dive bars. Gorgeous beaches. Ate sushi (fresh fish!), German crepes, and co-conspired with FIL, fellow Alton Brown fan, on a 6 lb standing rib roast for Christmas dinner.
* Went to the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg and the Morse Museum of Art (large Tiffany collection) in Orlando - artsy fartsy. Learned a good bit about both.
* Watched Cirque du Soleil's La Nouba. Pretty cool! Dark, beautiful, surreal. The Diabolos performance stole the show, I think; the four Chinese girls were insanely young and talented.
* Spent New Year's Eve at Disney's Epcot. 14 and 1/2 hours on our feet, 2 1/2 of which were spent waiting in line for Soarin' (a 7-minute hang glider simulation). The fireworks at midnight were okay, but the feeling of celebration shared by the 70,000+ crowd, mostly tourists from all over the world, was incredible.

Kitties were excited to see us when we got home. They wouldn't let us out of their sight. After almost 2 weeks in T-shirts and flip-flops, it was hard to come back to the notorious Pittsburgh cold and bundle up like a Yeti. It was 20 degrees F this morning and I had to brush snow off the car before work.

Will post pictures!