Cafe hopping in Georgetown

Before going on about street food in Penang, my inner caffeine and cake addict would like to write a post about cafe culture in Georgetown.

I've since grown tired of Singapore's increasingly pricey and crowded cafe scene and have returned to traditional coffee shops for my caffeine fix. But I still very much enjoy experiencing the cafe culture overseas, especially when a cup of coffee and a slice of cake are much more affordable. 

Besides being a trendy and gorgeous neighbourhood, Georgetown has plenty of cafes to choose from and in our short two days there, we managed to visit three lovely coffee places. 

While looking for Behind 50 and subsequently discovering that we were way too early since it only opens from 6pm, we stumbled into a charming place, Cafe 55. The place, which would probably do well as a part time art gallery, specialises in presenting cups of coffee topped with 3D latte art. Besides the cute coffee, the cakes were amazing too. The lemon/orange cake delivered a refreshing burst of citrus goodness to our sunburnt selves.

After a short rest, we trooped on to check out the street art around Armenian Street and settled on the amazing China House. This was my favourite cafe of the lot. We were spoilt for choice at the selection of cakes and spent the most time sitting around chatting and reading its eclectic selection of available books. Before setting off to feed our hungry stomachs, we were pulled into a short film festival of sorts upstairs. 

The next day, we went in search of siphon coffee and cakes baked by the Le Cordon Bleu trained owners at Été cafe. The friendly shop assistant taught us about brewing and enjoying siphon coffee and pairing the flavour with the available cakes. While it was a charming little place, we were slowly turning into mosquito feed!

The food is better on the other side?

Ever since my first plane ride out of Singapore, I've always lamented being "stuck" in my regimented and 99% man-made country (that probably sparked my insatiable desire to see the world). Yet when I recently read a post written by a former expat who quit the country and the subsequent comments left by readers far and wide, I was left blurry eyed and burning with a fierce sense of patriotism (or maybe it was just my emo-nemo self bursting forth). But! This post is not about my struggle to keep from crying in the train (!) It is about my love and hankering for street food across the border, even when my country prides itself on its food. 

A few weekends ago, I hopped onto a plane for two days in Penang. Our main priority was eating our way through Georgetown at a leisurely pace. And boy did we have a feast! It was street food at its best and Penang quickly won my stomach over!

I stubbornly refused to eat anything at home and promptly regretted it when my stomach began churning in hunger while up in the air. Once we arrived and checked into our hotel, I herded my girlfriends out in search of the traditional charcoal toasted kaya bread with soft boiled eggs in a narrow alleyway. Tradition never tasted so good! I loved the crispy toasted bread that won our home grown Yakun just by its simplicity and authenticity.  

Greed took a firmer hold on us when the nasi lemak seller delivered a tray of piping hot packets of soft fluffy goodness to the alley. It was simple - consisting of just kickass chilli, hard boiled egg, ikan billis and rice - but done to perfection. 

Breakfast was quickly washed down with fragrant cups of coffee. This first taste of Penang street food left our stomachs wanting. 

Why we fear silence

Silence remains a rarity in a world that chatters on ceaselessly. It is wonderful when friendship progresses to the point where friends are truly comfortable resting in each other's company in silence, without the need for mindless chatter or to turn to digital distractions.

As we move swiftly and surely into the digital age, we are increasingly confronted with distractions. Indeed, it has become common to see people whipping out their phones when out with friends or loved ones when real life conversations slow momentarily. The quiet moments between friends are shattered by the constant need to fill the void by checking emails and social media, or typing texts to distant bodies. Why can't we just sit in each other's presence?

In my pursuit of a change in careers, I've signed up and attended night classes in subject matters that are related to my areas of interest. My final class was in counselling where we explored the value of silence in therapy. It seems counter-intuitive to use silence in a session that clients pay to attend. Yet I have learnt that the strategic use of silence can be immensely powerful.

Silence is not a void but a space for consolidation, reflection and growth. It allows for deep reflection, and when afforded to someone in crisis, communicates understanding, consideration, and patience - a treasure in our ongoing race for time. 

Recently, I've also came across a post about why God is silent. A friend opined that this silence could be for us to reflect and come up with our own solutions. I have moved on from being religious but can definitely see the value in such an opinion. It is like in person-centred therapy where the counsellor provides a therapeutic relationship and believes in the client's potential for growth and transformation. Isn't finding solutions when one is stuck a sign of maturity? 

As an introvert, I greatly appreciate such moments of solitude and silence. How can you know what to do and where to go, when you haven't taken time to be still and really think? 

Orange and chocolate chip scones

Breakfast is my favourite part of the day, and even if I wake up at noon on the weekends, I will still choose to have breakfast food with a steaming hot cup of tea. So imagine my disappointment when I checked the kitchen for food to bring to work for Monday's breakfast and found nothing.

Thankfully, the kitchen is well stocked with ingredients for baking due to my penchant for baked goods. So I searched for some recipes online and decided on orange chocolate chip scones. I developed a taste for scones while on a semester exchange programme in Leeds, UK and really miss having scones straight from the oven.

Ingredients
2 cups of all-purpose flour
150 ml of milk
60 g of butter (cold and in small pieces)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of baking powder
Juice and grated peel of one orange
Handful of chocolate chips

Directions
Measure butter and set it aside in the freezer then pour the grated peel and orange juice into milk. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl. Quickly grate butter into the dry mixture using a cheese grater (this makes rubbing the butter in quicker and prevents the butter from melting). Make a well in the mixture and slowly pour the wet mixture into the well, stirring to mix it until it becomes dough-like. Stir the chocolate chips into the dough and place the dough mixture into the fridge for 5 minutes.

Use an ice cream scoop to scoop individual scone portions onto a floured tray surface. Place scones into the oven (200 degrees celcius) and bake for 15-20 minutes.

This is a quick and easy recipe and I could not help myself from gulping down one freshly baked scone despite being really bloated from dinner.

Gravity

Gravity blew me away with its amazing visual effects and the contrast of space and claustrophobia. I have an inexplicable fascination with space movies (not quite the likes of Star Wars and Star Trek, even if I do enjoy the latter, but those that are more grounded in reality) such as the films focusing on the Apollo missions, the documentary on the 2003 Colombia space shuttle accident and the more science-fi-ey Moon and Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. I have been equally awestruck and chilled by the immensity of space and man's efforts towards scientific progress.

Space - the final frontier, as Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles called it - is equal parts majestic and equal parts threatening. I held my breath as Sandra Bullock's character spun out of control in the vast expanse, harrowed by the loneliness evoked. Space figured as the third character in a small cast; a force that threatened survival while being a space to survive in.

The failures and catastrophic series of events in Gravity left me pondering on the insignificance of man in light of greater forces.

Of course, there was also the whole birth sequence that many made reference to. I guess it is only appropriate since people are changed when confronted with their own mortality and powerlessness.

So far, my top three movies of 2013 are Cloud Atlas, Pacific Rim and Gravity, in no particular order. What is yours?

To be a doer

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

- "The Man in the Arena", Theodore Roosevelt

Lately, I've taken to reading speeches of great men, especially those who spoke during uncertain times, like Churchill's famous WWII speeches. I have a fear of public speaking and frequently find myself tongue-tied and with jumbled thoughts when asked to give a speech or a presentation. This happens even thought I am well prepared for it. It is comforting to know that some of the greatest speech givers struggled to keep their nerves from showing.

Zen Pencils did a wonderful comic based on Roosevelt's "The Man in the Arena" and that brought me back to reading the speech once again.

It is a great reminder to be a doer and to not worry about falling short. And yes, that is what I will do.

Focaccia

Garlic rosemary focaccia

I'm munching on strawberries as I type this post, waiting in anticipation for my garlic tomato focaccia to cool down.

Sundays have become my bread making days simply because I love munching on freshly baked bread. I've also learnt a lot from baking bread that can be applied to life. Like being patient and all. I think that bread takes a bit more experience and skill to get right, unlike cakes and pastries. Everything from the humidity, temperature of water added, kneading time and dough consistency can and will affect the final product. Who knew that something made up of only 4 key ingredients - flour, water, yeast, salt - could be so temperamental!

Garlic focaccia with tomatoes

After experimenting with recipes and watching some videos on kneading focaccia dough on YouTube, I've settled on the one below:

Ingredients
2 3/4 cups flour (I mixed all purpose flour with bread flour)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 large clove garlic, finely minced
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup warm water

Toppings
1 tomato, chopped, or,
1 sprinking of rosemary leaves and
1 large clove garlic, roasted in the oven for an hour

Directions
Mix flour, salt, sugar and yeast together and tip the mixture onto a large working surface. Make a hole in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in half the water and olive oil. Slowly incorporate the liquids with the flour mixture, gradually adding the remaining water and olive oil to dough.

Add the garlic and oregano to the dough and continue kneading for 5 minutes, or until elastic. Form dough into a ball and place it in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a wet towel. Leave to rise until doubled in size (about an hour).

Preheat oven to 220 Degrees Celsius once dough has risen. Deflate dough and spread it out onto a tray and make half indentations with fingers across the surface. Press chopped tomatoes or olives (if using) onto dough and pour olive oil over, letting some oil pool in the holes. (If using oven roasted garlic, squeeze garlic out of skin and spread over dough before pouring olive oil over). Sprinkle salt and pepper and let sit for another 10-15 minutes. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until dough sounds hollow when lightly tapped.

I enjoy eating focaccia with cherry tomatoes tossed in balsamic vinegar