My breakfast musings

9.28am 30 July 2006 Sunday

I love Saturday and Sunday mornings. They always feel so fresh and full of... prospect. Unfortunately, that all disappears once you get past the.. 10.30am mark. Before that, it still feels early and anything is possible. After that, you'd better have a plan for the day, otherwise you'll be stuck in an unproductive rut.

So breakfast today was a fruit juice blend of TJ's Limeade (cuz I was out of any other juices), a small handful of fresh blueberries, a slice of mango, a small clementine for a citrusy kick, and a handful of frozen strawberries; and a cheese toast. I love starting my day with a good meal that's not your typical bread and jam (because I don't even like jam to begin with) that's easy and will sustain me for a while.

Last night after eating some leftovers from a couple days before, I came to realise that:

a) I hate eating leftovers, because you can never really feel safe with them,
b) I can't bear to cook for myself every day either.

So last night I cheated a little and bought a bag of curry naan and a jar of roasted peppers. Here's the plan:

Day 1: Naan with peppers
Day 2: Naan with peppers, mango, sundried tomato
Day 3: Naan with peppers, onions, cucumbers
Day 4: Naan with cream cheese spread -> zucchini, peppers, onion, garlic, cucumber..

And then I ran out of ideas but I'll think of something. Hopefully.

Of course, nothing beats eating in SG, where lunch breaks are spent agonising over the myriad of possibilities. Over here, it's more like, shoot, I'm going to get hungry again and I don't want to spend too much money - what can I possibly come up with this time..?

Last night I watched Alton Brown's show, Feasting on Asphalt, and thoroughly enjoyed it. For once, there was no "mmmm, this is soooooooo good" commentary that doesn't say much except that the host is really bad at acting. In its place was typical A.B/ documentary style cinematography with real people and real stories. Maybe A.B just has a better way of communicating with people and asking the right questions that make you feel like he is really interested in what you're doing. Within the first half of the first episode, he tackled a bright pink pickled pork hoof, took a bite gingerly and... there was no fake "mmmhhh" or any attempts to wrap it up into a pretty package. Another scene that I really liked was A.B talking to a cook in a family owned biscuit shop when she was making her famous biscuits, and admitting that she didn't know who A.B was. He seemed really down to earth and eager to connect the food/ people/ place with viewers than to... give a pseudo orgasmic sounding moan.

Her: So you went to a culinary institute?
A.B: Yeah, yeah, but that doesn't mean I cook any better. I don't even know how to make biscuits.

OK, so I'm prejudiced. I used to like Rachael Ray's programmes until I watched an episode of her show, $40-a-day, shot in Italy. She completely blew her credibility away when she said that USD$40 converts into 45 euros. Can you give me the name of your money changer? I mean, I can understand if you say that you need more money for food in Europe (although that's rather incredulous too), but to say that the conversion rate, something that is tangible and easily verified, is way different from the actual rate? An utter no-no. I was steaming mad the whole show because she kept emphasising on how cheap it is on American terms, as if Europe is a poorer cousin of USA. Arghh! Thinking of it just makes me mad, and I've decided to boycott her magazine although I was very excited about it when it first came out.

Anyway. That's relatively unimportant compared to MH's photo being splashed across national newspaper without her permission, and without any citation. According to her, there's nothing she can do because there's no law in SG that protects the right to privacy. H said it's basically the same in Germany, unless the photo offends you. That's when personal rights kick in and you're able to take action of some sort.

Time to start on my O Chem revision... Think I'll finish my packing first though.