When I was in Tokyo last summer, a friend ordered this delightful snack for me to try. It’s fried sweet potato wedges coated with melted sugar and tossed with toasted sesame seeds.The word “daigaku” actually means “university”. Apparently, this snack is usually sold at university festivals where they have lots of food stalls, games and even amusement rides. Such a divine snack yet so easy to make. Here’s the recipe for the ones I made today.

Daigaku Imo

Ingredients:
2 medium sized sweet potatoes
1/4 cup brown sugar or a knob of palm sugar (I used palm sugar)
2 tbsp water
1 tsp soy sauce
3 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
oil for frying

Method:
1. Scrub the sweet potatoes clean and cut up in little wedges. No peeling necessary.
2. Fry the sweet potatoes until golden in colour.
3. Meanwhile, place a small pot on the stove with low heat and melt the sugar with 2 tbsp of water. Add soy sauce and let thicken.
4. Take the sweet potato out of the frying pan, drain for a while.
5. While still hot, toss the sweet potatoes into the melted sugar syrup and coat thoroughly.
6. Add the toasted sesame seeds and serve while still warm.

So, it’s been a while. I’ve been busy living life but I got up early this morning and made scones for breakfast. I didn’t know what to expect, since this is my first attempt at making this English breakfast delight, but hey, I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. Here’s the recipe if you want to give it a go. Happy baking!

Sultana Scones
*adapted from: Masterchef Australia

Ingredients:
150ml full cream milk
150ml cream
1 egg
3 cups self-raising flour
2 tbsp caster sugar (I used 3 tbsp)
1 cup chopped dates (I used sultanas, you can use any dried fruit)
Finely grated rind from 1 lemon
Cream & jam, to serve

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200°C fan forced (I forgot to turn on the fan). Line large flat oven tray with baking paper.
2. Whisk milk, cream and egg together until well combined.
3. Combine flour, sugar, dried fruits and lemon rind in a large bowl.
4. Add milk mixture into the dry ingredients and stir gently using a wooden spoon to form a soft dough, adding a little bit of flour or milk if necessary.
5. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently until dough comes together.
6. Press dough out to 2cm-thick. Cut scones from dough using a cookie cutter and place onto tray flat-side up.
7. Place scones about 2cm apart and brush the tops with milk and sprinkle with a little sugar.
8. Bake 12-15 minutes until golden and well risen. Serve hot with jam and cream.

Tips to consider:
- Don’t twist the cookie cutter when you’re cutting the scones. Cut through the dough using the sharp side of the cutter and lift the cutter quickly without twisting.
- I used cold milk, cold cream and a cold egg for this recipe. Scones turned out perfect.

We took the early morning flight to Prague from Milan, a day after arriving at the fashion capital. I remember being quite impressed with the Ruzyne Airport in Prague. It was surprisingly spacious and clean with a really high ceiling that seemed airy with lots of light beaming in from the outside. We arrived around 9 in the morning and were taken to the apartment in a blue shiny Caravelle. The drive to the apartment was pleasant and we passed by the famous Dancing House with the children ooh-ing and aah-ing all the way through.

Prague has that romantic old-time feel to it and we immediately felt comfortably at home. Our rented service apartment was on Spalena 27 located in Praha 1, in a district called Mala Strana. It sat on the 4th floor and I remember it being rrrrreally nice. It exceeded our expectations and had a big bedroom with a large window overlooking the street below. We could see the trams whizzing by if we stuck our heads out the window and on one morning, I even saw the dentist in the building across the street get ready for his practice that day.

We strolled along Charles Bridge a gazillion times and sipped hot coco at Prague Castle, huddled in our jackets and hats. We climbed all the way up to the tower on Charles Bridge and marvelled at the view of the Vltava River down below. We went to Christmas markets scattered around the city and ate lots of yummy local delicacies with funny names. We sat at one of the street cafes and watched as the 600 year-old Astronomical Clock strike and chime its tune. It even snowed on one of the evenings when we were walking home from the famous Prague Christmas market in Old Town Square. The sky had just turned grey and we were almost home when all of a sudden, snowflakes started to fall around us. It was the prettiest sight ever. Click here to see a 360 degree picture of the Old Town Square and here to see the 2007 Christmas market in panorama style. Trust me, it’ll make you want to go there!

We ate at KFC just because their slogan “Finger Lickin’ Good” sounded really funny in Czech. We had one too many trdlos, the popular Czech sweet bread sprinkled with sugar, shaped like a giant bracelet. On one evening, we stepped into a restaurant near our apartment and ate beef goulash served with countrystyle bread. We kept going back to the Christmas market at Old Town Square to buy the traditional Czech pizza-like bread called langose, topped with only minced garlic, tomato ketchup and loads of grated cheddar cheese.

I remember on the first day there, I made it a point to go on this quest for the best apple strudel on earth. I first heard of Susta Strudl in Samantha Brown’s Passport To Europe and have made it my mission to go find it if I ever I set foot in Prague. It’s located in the Zizkov area and we took a tram here and walked to this little homelike kiosk, simply relying on the directions that you see on the program’s forum posted by a guy called Father Orange. It was quite an adventure trying to find the place but it was bloody worth it! The strudel was delicious with a sweet sour taste and we got to watch from behind the window while the strudel man made our order.

One of my biggest regrets was not finding the time to visit the Kafka Museum which is located on the bank of the Vltava River.  But we did go to the Lobkowicz Palace Museum, located within the vicinity of Prague Castle and saw some of Beethoven‘s precious pieces.  They were celebrating Beethoven’s 237th birthday when we came, so, there were cakes and memorabilia displayed on the table near the entrance when we stepped inside.

I must say that our trip to Prague was one of the best holidays ever and I would go back there in a heartbeat. Hopefully soon. But in the meantime, we’ll just make do with the photos below.

It’s my last night here. My home for almost four years since I first moved to Singapore. My sanctuary, my hideaway from the world when I want to be all by myself. Tomorrow we’ll be living in a new place. Not too faraway from here, but still, it’s a new place. We will have to get used to it, get to know it well before we can call it “home”. Hopefully, that shouldn’t take too long.

We did the handover earlier this evening and after that, 4 of my very good friends helped me move a majority of our stuff to our new place. In fact, they just finished dinner and left a few minutes ago. There are still a few big pieces left and they will be dealt with tomorrow morning.

I wasn’t able to lift a single thing, not tonight and definitely not tomorrow. My supposedly one-night trip to Jakarta two weekends ago turned out to be a week’s affair with four nights spent in the hospital as a result of me having my appendix removed. I just went back to work yesterday and it’s still a bit painful when I move. And since I’m not allowed to lift any heavy objects until I’m properly healed, I’m thankful I have a few good men in my life who are nice enough to help me with my move. God bless their souls.

But to sum it all up, what has happened in the past two weeks really proves that everything happens for a reason. I still can’t figure out why I made that sudden and impulsive decision to go back home for just one day two weekends ago. I only know that if I hadn’t done it, I probably would be dead by now. The doctor said that if they had not performed that surgery on me that night, the results would’ve been fatal. I guess I have to thank my sister and her husband for dragging me to the emergency ward that fateful Sunday, two weeks ago. So yes, everything does happen for a reason. I’m just thankful I’m still alive to be able to write this down tonight.

And by the way, the pictures above are of my soon-to-be old place. I’m putting them up here as a keepsake :-)

I didn’t take any pictures, and instead, was the object of the many shots taken by my darling travel-buddy. I met up with a few good friends and shared lots of laughter over great food and drinks. I exhausted my feet inside out and when I wasn’t walking, I held on to dear life on those crazy fast tuk-tuks. I developed a liking for lemongrass, from drinks to shower creams and aromatherapy oil and gulped down fresh starwberry slush from a street vendor.

My world has been really crazy lately and I’m in dire need of a break. I packed my bags again last night, just a few hours after I got back. I have another flight to catch tomorrow evening, but this time, I’m coming home.

We left the next morning and drove out to Lake Maninjau, one of the biggest lakes in West Sumatra. What was surreal was finding a waterfall on the right side of the road we were on and a river on its left in the Lembah Anai area! Not only that, the drive up Kelok 44, the famous curvy road uphill above Lake Maninjau was really something, too. Monkeys crossed the street now and then and that in itself was entertaining. The drive to Mum’s village in Sulit Air, Solok, was even more picturesque than I had imagined. Beautiful green rice fields lined both sides of the road but what was even more spectacular was the 19 km drive up the hills heading to my grandma’s house. I’m telling you, the view overlooking Lake Singkarak was just simply breathtaking.

It was my childhood dream to trek up the hill in front of my grandma’s house, for it was here that Mum had her little picnics with my uncles. Grandma would pack them rice and sambal in a banana leaf packet and they would then head off to this hill and enjoy lunch while looking at the village down below. Mum took us to see Grandma’s rice fields, coconut plantations and clan house. Being a matrilineal ethnic group, the idea of the Minangkabau clan house is that it gets passed down to the daughters in the family. Each daughter and her descendants would own one room in the house. This one room would then get passed on to that daughter’s future generations. The house is usually made of wood with beautiful handcarved flower patterns painted in bright stunning colours.

On the first evening we were there, we headed down to Lake Singkarak and had dinner at a restaurant on stilts. As we ate, we watched people fish and pull out their catch under the dark evening sky. I must say, being surrounded by these magnificent hills and lakes made me realise how small I am. The kids had fun watching villagers get ready for boar hunting on the last day we were there. Lots of men led dogs on leashes up the hills to the rice fields where boars usually destroy the farmers’ crops.

After 2 full days of rest and absolute tranquility (and I really mean tranquility: no mobile phone signal, no television and no internet!) we headed down to the cool town of Bukittinggi and spent another 2 days there. Here, I did nothing but eat and while the kids swam with my dad at the hotel, Mum and I went back and forth to the marketplace, located just 5 minutes away from where we stayed. We bought all sorts of traditional cakes, tried all the delicious Padang dishes and brought back delectable food for Dad and the kids. I took the kids to ride the bendi, Minang‘s version of the horse-pulled human cart. I’m glad I finally had the chance to explore my roots. It was truly a divine experience. Maybe one day I’ll write about the days I spent at my grandpa’s village in the eastern part of Indonesia with its white sandy beaches and beautiful diving locations. It’s been 18 years since I last visited the island.

The kids have gone to their friend’s birthday party by the pool downstairs and I’m just going to enjoy the rest of my weekend reading magazines and an LP guide I just bought today. Sheer indulgence, that’s what I call it.

I wanna hang a map of the world in my house. Then I’m gonna put pins into all the locations that I’ve traveled to. But first, I’m gonna have to travel to the top two corners of the map so it won’t fall down. –Mitch Hedberg

And on a totally different subject, this baby is finally out. I’m thinking of converting.

Tokyo is indeed a city of lights and I never even once saw her doze off to sleep during our stay there. The food was heavenly delectable and a stroll in Asakusa on our last day was just filled with food galore as we stopped at every stall and bought traditional Japanese snacks to indulge our taste buds. Ueno was a heaven for shoppers and the scenery in Odaiba was just breathtakingly beautiful. The kids ate onigiri in the streets of Ginza after a gentle evening drizzle and we had mugs of hot steaming chocolate in Shinjuku at the end of our first evening in Tokyo. The trees in Roppongi were sparkling with white and blue lights during this festive season and we took pictures of ourselves with Tokyo Tower as the backdrop.

We strolled through the Imperial Palace gardens and for a moment thought that it was autumn in Japan instead of winter. Abang and Dede had a blast at the Sony Building where they tried all sorts of Sony’s newest technology and they befriended an old man selling yakitori near the Ushigome Yanagicho subway station who they call Grandpa Yakitori. This old man kept giving them bonus sticks each time the kids went there for his delicious chicken on skewers.

And since they wanted to see snow as well, a few days in Hokkaido in Northern Japan was also added to our itinerary. The island is famous for its beautiful scenery in all 4 seasons and at the time we were there, it was minus 18 centigrade. We stayed in Niseko in the western part of Hokkaido and it was an experience we’ll cherish our whole lives. We bottled mountain water from a natural spring in front of our hotel in the mornings, played with snow in the afternoons and soaked our tired bodies in the hot onsens at night before sitting down to delicious Japanese dinners.

But apart from the magical time we had in Hokkaido, Disneyland and Disneysea, probably one of the highest point of our winter adventure was a visit to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. If you’re a big fan of Hayao Miyazaki, like the children and I, you’d be squealing with delight, too, once you enter its gates! Here, I managed to get DVDs of Kiki’s Delivery Service and My Neighbour Totoro which I’ve been looking for since ages ago. Too bad we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the museum since I really wanted to take a picture of Miyazaki’s desk, filled with his sketches, pencils and crayons along with his coffee mug and unfinished snacks. But the kids did get to play in the giant cat-bus and we saw a short movie in the Saturn Theatre inside the museum. I’m now using my museum ticket as a bookmark. Click here for an illustrated guide to the museum and here to see how to buy tickets from overseas. Anyway, that’s all for now.

Pictures will follow soon. I’m still compiling the 700 something frozen moments I captured with my camera.