On Why Singaporeans Hate Singapore (But Shouldn't)

Found this commentary via Reddit, and I have to say I agree, completely. The writer managed to crystallise many of the thoughts I've had regarding life in Singapore, including the faint annoyance that many locals don't seem to recognise or appreciate what they have.

In the accompanying comment section in r/Singapore (which, full disclosure, I usually avoid precisely because it is full of the appreciation-lacking sort), one redditor commented that the only thing they hate about Singapore is a weather. I... can get behind that, mostly. In a country with a largely consistent climate and a dearth of major natural disasters, 100% relative humidity is the price we all have to pay. On the other hand, that redditor clearly has never been to Melbourne.

I'm a Doctor, Not a... Normal Doctor!

I have my PhD! The graduation represented a final gauntlet - seriously, half an hour before the ceremony they piled on a set of complicated instructions, complete with a map, and pretty much everyone got it at least slightly wrong - but we all survived, no-one tripped on stage or lost their bonnet, and about twenty new doctors stepped out into the world. And then cupcakes were had.

Unrelated topic - since the previous post, I have managed to get my hands on a bottle of kirschwasser! Authentic Black Forest cake is now a possibility. My other recent baking attempts have included two different types of bread - potato rolls and Hokkaido milk bread. Both work with aquafaba substitutions, although for the milk bread I still used a beaten egg for the glaze.

A recent acquisition for my kitchen is this Grilla grill pan from IKEA. The price is affordable but the pan works beautifully, I highly recommend it.

Finally, I think it's someone's birthday or something. I think it's... Iron Man's? Yep, just four days from now, on May 29. Happy birthday to Tony Stark!

Recipe: Black Forest Ice-Cream Cake

I love Black Forest cake - or at least, the whipped-cream-and-sponge confections carried by local bakeries, because authentic Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte is fairly complicated, calls for a liqueur not readily available here, and scorns the notion of calorie control. My brother is fond of it too, so for his birthday I was determined to come up with a version which would be recognisably Black Forest-like without immediately doubling his risk of heart disease. Aquafaba and this ice-cream cake recipe proceeded to save the day.

Black Forest Ice-Cream Cake
Adapted from this recipe at yuppiechef.com

Cake layer

90 g plain flour
50 g caster sugar
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/16 tsp baking soda
45 ml aquafaba (or 1 egg)
2 tbsp milk
3 tbsp canola oil
3 1/2 tbsp water from canned cherries (see below)
1/2 tbsp cherry liqueur or cherry brandy flavouring
180 g Oreo cookies, roughly crushed

Ice-cream layers

411 g can whole tart cherries in water
3 tsp granulated sugar
200 ml thickened cream (35% fat)
45 ml aquafaba or egg whites, chilled
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
190 g sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp lemon zest

Prepare the cake 1 day ahead. Grease a freezer-safe springform or silicon tin and line with baking paper. If using a silicon tin, place on a flat baking tray or flan tin to keep it stable. Preheat oven to 180°C.

Whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda. Make a well in the centre and pour in aquafaba, milk, and canola oil. Place cherry water in a microwave-safe bowl or mug and heat 30-60 seconds on high until boiling; add to cake batter. Whisk together until just combined. Stir in cherry liqueur. Mix in crushed Oreo cookies.

Transfer cake batter to the prepared baking tin and smooth out the top. Bake 30-35 minutes until springy to the touch and cooked through. Cool to room temperature, then transfer the baking tin to the freezer. Chill for 45-60 minutes, until frozen solid.

Meanwhile, drain 125 g cherries (reserve the water); halve and set aside in a medium bowl. Transfer the remaining cherries and water to a freezer-proof container and stir in granulated sugar. Place in freezer, stirring every 2 hours to form a slush. 

Using an electric mixer, beat whipping cream to soft peaks, about 5 minutes. Place in refrigerator and clean mixer blades. Beat aquafaba to soft peaks, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle in cream of tartar and continue beating until stiff and glossy, about 5 minutes. Fold aquafaba into cream. Gradually fold in condensed milk, then vanilla essence and lemon zest. Transfer half of the cream mixture to the reserved 125 g cherries and refrigerate the rest. Carefully stir cherries and cream. 

Retrieve frozen cake base from freezer. Quickly spread the cherry cream on top. Freeze for 2 hours until set. Spread remaining cream mixture on top and freeze for 6 hours to overnight, until completely set.

To serve, remove the cake from the pan and peel away the baking paper. Set it on top of a chilled plate and allow to thaw slightly at room temperature, about 10-15 minutes, until it can be cut with a knife. Serve with cherry slush piled on top or on the side.

Notes:

I used two flavours of Oreo cookies (original and chocolate) in equal parts. The cookies can be crushed using a Ziploc bag and a rolling pin, but I find it easier to quickly pulse them in a food processor.

I used homemade aquafaba from boiled soybeans (a little sweet) and chickpeas. They didn't quite whisk past the soft peak stage and collapsed quickly, but the ice-cream came out fine, if a little dense. If you want aquafaba which reliably whisks to stiff peaks, use the water from canned chickpeas.

Canned cherries may look rather pale and unappealing, so you can stir in a few drops of red food colouring to improve their appearance. Fresh cherries can also be used; reserve any juice released while halving and pitting the cherries, and when making the slush, add enough just water to cover the cherries.

Recipe: Pineapple Streusel Cake (Egg-Free)

There are many, many reasons I love J. Kenji López-Alt, but introducing me to aquafaba is probably near the top of the list.

Aquafaba is the slightly pungent, somewhat turbid water left over from boiling chickpeas (or theoretically, other legumes, but chickpeas apparently work best). Recently, it was discovered that aquafaba can function as a vegan egg white substitute.

I'm not remotely vegan, alas, but I have been watching my calories, and eggs are as calorie-ridden as they come. Also, raw eggs somewhat disgust me. I think it's a combination of the slimy texture, the bits of reddish material you can sometimes see in them, the off-putting smell, and those annoying shards of shell which get into the bowl and then refuse to come out. Not that I'd turn down an omelette, or a hard-boiled egg, or even a poached egg on a baguette slice - anyway, the prospect of replacing egg whites with a non-eggy substitute is very appealing. Also appealing: painlessly dealing with those annoying recipes which call for, say, 8 egg whites but only 2 egg yolks. WHY??!!

Yeah, I'm kinda irreverent when it comes to cookery.

So I found this recipe from an old Family Circle book and substituted in aquafaba. It worked really well. Nobody suspected a thing.

Also, I cut out a bunch of sugar and added weight measurements and stuff.


Pineapple Streusel Cake
Adapted from a recipe in Fabulous Fast Cakes, Murdoch Books, 1994

275 g self-raising flour
125 g unsalted butter
150 g caster sugar
90 ml aquafaba (or 2 eggs)
450 g can pineapple chunks or crushed pineapple
50 g desiccated coconut
80 g brown sugar

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a deep 20 cm cake pan.

If using pineapple chunks, crush roughly using a blender, wet grinder or food chopper. Strain the crushed pineapple, reserving 125 ml of the pineapple juice. 

Melt butter and caster sugar over low heat, or in a microwave on medium-low, stirring until

homogeneous. Separately, combine aquafaba and pineapple juice.

Sift flour into a large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour in the butter and aquafaba mixtures into the well, and stir using a wooden spoon until just combined. Transfer half of the cake batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top using a spatula.

Mix crushed pineapple, desiccated coconut and brown sugar until evenly combined. Spread on top of the cake batter in the pan. Carefully add the remaining cake batter and smooth the top. Bake for 1 hour, until the top is crisp and a knife inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to rest for 10 minutes before turning out of the pan. Serve warm.

Notes

To prepare aquafaba, cover about a cupful of chickpeas with water and allow to soak for about 4-8 hours, until the peas have swelled up. Transfer to a saucepan, topping up the water to just cover the chickpeas, and bring to the boil. Simmer for 45 minutes, until the chickpeas are soft. Remove chickpeas with a slotted spoon and continue simmering the water on low heat, until reduced to half the initial volume. The aquafaba will be more viscous than water, but less viscous than egg white.

Alternatively, just use the water from canned chickpeas directly.

The base of the cake may be very moist, so be careful when turning it out of the pan.

Excess

Last year, through a combination of stress, stress-eating and a hitherto unsuspected food addiction, I gained 10 kilograms over the space of nine months, catapulting me into the "obese" category. This year, I tried to shed them.

I had tried to address my weight in the past, but it never really stuck. I think it was partially because food consumption was a major coping mechanism for me (see "food addiction" above), and the more out-of-control my physique became, the more ashamed and helpless I felt about it. Also unhelpful were the comments from friends urging me to eat more, suggesting that I eat something highly fattening "just this once", or who told me that I shouldn't call myself overweight. Perhaps they meant well, but they eroded away at my resolve, made it harder to control my diet, made me question if I was doing the right thing.

And then there were the worst, the very worst, the allegedly good, supportive friends who fat-shamed me to my face. Perhaps they thought they were being helpful, that the blunt criticism was expected of a close friend, but all they did was make me feel defensive, inadequate, a failure. 

On reflection, perhaps the sort of attitude I desired from my friends was silence. In my own (accurate) estimation, I was unhealthy. I didn't want it pointed out to me, but I didn't want an excuse not to deal with it, either.

My father - who has long been my rock - gave me the key to pushing my weight down. He suggested that I record my weight daily. Of my own accord, I also started recording what exercises I had done that day. And somehow, somehow that worked. The mere fact that I was accountable - that I would have to admit, even if to no-one but myself, that I skipped exercise or stopped losing weight - gave me control, and the will to reduce my weight. I began to monitor my caloric intake, calculating how much I could have per day, how much was in my food, which put me even more in control. Granted, focusing on calories alone is a bad idea - if one plans on fulfilling ones' caloric requirements solely through consumption of, say, pure unsalted butter, a very unhappy future awaits - but the mere fact that I was paying attention to the contents of my food was significant. I learned which foods were high in calories, which foods were extremely high in calories, which foods appeared healthy but were in fact extremely energy-rich, and which foods would fill me up without a major nutritional contribution. I reduced my sugar intake, and got used to the taste. (I took aspartame only occasionally - I'm not a huge fan of the odd, synthetic flavour.)

I did make sure I had a balanced diet. I had long gotten over my childhood dislike of vegetables, and I could eat a lot of them without going over my caloric restrictions. I rotated between different protein sources each week - chicken, fish, beef, tofu. I had a daily chocolate ration - chocolate is extremely rich in iron, which justified the intake - and I allowed myself dessert, either modified to be low-fat or in small portions. I ate four times a day, at roughly four-hour intervals, but would skip or reduce a meal if a previous one had been heavier than usual. I made sure that my weight-loss was gradual, about 0.5 to 1.0 kg a week.

And, well - it's working. I've lost ten kilograms over the course of three months. I've been exercising every day. My body looks better, and feels better. I used to have food cravings all the time, but now I rarely get them.

And I'm shocked at how much less I'm consuming. How much my grocery bill has gone down, how little I really need in order to survive. There had been so much excess. So, so much excess, and it was making me miserable.

It's not over yet. I wasn't exactly a healthy weight to begin with, last year, so there is still some distance to go. I still have to deal with lack of support from others, from people asking to meet up at fast-food restaurants or otherwise pushing unhealthy food on me. But I'm not helpless anymore. I know what to do, I know how to lose weight, and for the first time in years I'm not ashamed of my own body.

I disapprove of fat-shaming. I was on the receiving end of it, and it had a horrible effect on me. But I think that anyone who suspects they might be unhealthy - not overweight, because it is possible to be weight a lot while being perfectly fit, and BMI can be extremely misleading, but unhealthy - should try and do something about it. It can be difficult to find out what works, since health is such a terribly individual thing, but I think it is worth the effort.

Made It

I have been unforgivably neglectful of this blog. However, I did have good reasons. As of today, barring the graduation ceremony, I am a doctor! (The PhD variety, not the other kind.)

I don't really know what to think, it's all so unreal. I fought hard for this day, and just like that, it's over.

Now it's time for the rest of my life, I suppose?

Culture, Cuisine and the Occult

Aww man, it's already November, where did the year go? Also, apparently I've only posted here five times previously this year, this is a new low.

I watched The Martian in the cinema shortly after it came out. It was a thoroughly brilliant and enjoyable film. I don't think 3D viewing added much (I have yet to view a film where it did), but it was not terribly distracting, either. I am also stupidly proud to have known of Andy Weir before he became famous (I have been a longtime fan of Casey and Andy).

I think its slightly less meaningful to be stupidly proud of any Homestuck alumni, since Homestuck was a force of nature, but I do remember when Toby "Radiation" Fox was relatively nobody. If video games cannot be art, then what is Undertale? For example, without Undertale, this cinnamon butterscotch tart would not have existed.

(Recipe available here - all I changed was to cut the amount of whipped cream topping in half, and use sweet potato flour instead of cornstarch. Also, I suggest allowing the tart to sit in the refrigerator overnight before consuming.)

Contrastingly, spaghetti recipes (for that animate skeleton in your life) are not difficult to find, but this one for Tagliatelle al Ragu Bolognese is my favourite.

Overall, this has been a good year for independent artists. Scott Cawthorn's Five Night's at Freddy's survival horror series, which I have been following vicariously through Let's Plays since I am a huge coward, will be getting a film adaptation from Warner Bros. Pictures. I'm ...not sure if I will overcome my fear long enough to watch the film. Or even the trailer. I enjoy horror prose, as embodied by the SCP Foundation, but visual elements are...harder to ignore.

On the subject of prose, I recently came across the satirical works of Saki, which are freely available via Project Gutenberg. The style rather reminds me of Jane Austen's, but with a mostly masculine viewpoint and greater usage of biting social commentary. Saki's heroes are witty and intelligent, contrasting with their dull, greedy, self-centered antagonists, although over-cleverness is not rewarded either.

My recent readings have included Charles Stross's works. I loved the Laundry Series from about a page into the The Concrete Jungle. The protagonist works for "The Laundry", an organisation very much like the SCP Foundation in function and scope, but with a distinctly British flavour to contrast with the Foundation's faintly North American air. The stories read like detective fiction, in which the protagonist has to figure out what new supernatural creature is involved in the latest case and how to defeat the creature, and any humans who might be assisting it. However, the sheer delight of these stories is how the paranormal is described in terms which allows it to fit into the known scientific world. Equoid is particularly wonderful in this regard. (Note that Equoid is mildly unsafe for work, and very much unsafe for sleep if read immediately prior.) The novella's explanation for the appearance and behaviour of a certain mythical being is fleshed out with gradual, creeping horror, small details inexorably building a final, sickening picture. At the tale's conclusion, I felt both ill and enlightened.

Returning to video games, I think A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky is another strong contender for the video-games-can-be-art argument. It's a thoughtful game, deconstructing some video game tropes while playing into some others. It's also, frankly, underrated. Perhaps the long title, somewhat subpar graphics and plodding pace put off some players. It is a long game, and it takes a while for its true brilliance to be apparent, but it is very much worth playing until the end.

This was another edited stream-of-consciousness post. It's almost the only type of post I write. Also, I'm not good at closing paragraphs, possibly for the same reason. My mind certainly doesn't stop, not just yet, so how should this prose end?