HPB & Angie's Bento Making Session

Finally, the day we have been planning together with Health Promotion Board is HERE! The bento making session is held at Cairnhill Community Centre from 10.30pm-1pm.


As usual, I hired my buddies as my part time maids. On my left is Wolfgirl, otherwise known as Yati during the session. On my right is Joyce, who prefers the name Maria. :D The third maid was late because she was making seaweed egg rolls at home and shelling 20 eggs and 15 quail eggs. We set up the stations for bread, vegetables, fruits etc and stick the bento pictures on the window panes for "teaching purposes". Well, I am a teacher by profession what. :D

Preparing the food before the event starts.

The lovely organisers from Edelman and Health Promotion Board. From the left: Farhana, Letty, LiRu, me, Vanessa and Suelyn. Such nice people they are! Angela was busy so we didn't ask her to join in the picture. Carmen was the main person who corresponded with me and she is on annual leave during this period. Pity that I do not have a picture taken with her. :(

My 3rd helper was finally here with the rice and the eggs.

First to arrive, LEVINE AND IVAN!! Levine is also the FIRST person to place her order for my first book and first to collect it from me. THANK YOU, Levine, for giving me so much support!

2 major groups of my friends came for the session-- my mommy/ blogging friends and my ex-colleagues. These 2 groups of friends are frequently mentioned in this blog. They are no stranger to one another and now they meet the real person!

Letty giving a 15 mins presentation on healthy eating.

My turn to take over to conduct the hands on workshop. I was a little nervous. Forgot that I should introduce myself a little more, forgot to mention about my blog, forgot to emphasize on the 2+2 part...

Oh well.

Being a teacher, I am quite good at "smoking" my way through. Heehee.

Showing the participants how we can "make fun" from the eggs.

Each participant gets a goodie bag with lots of goodies! 2 nice bento boxes, some bento making tools, a recipe book from HPB and my book. :D

Idy checking out the bento kit. She had bad a allergy reaction and her eyes were completely swollen. Yet she still came after going to the doctor for a jab. Thanks for your support, Idy! Hope you are okie now!

Sharing my bentoing experience and my favourite tool.

Showing (off) my collection of bento tools. :D

Hands on time! Some participants have bentoing experience while some are totally new. For those who had no idea how to start, I showed them how to make rice cubes with cute faces.

The only male participant, Philip, aka Koropok Man. He is GOOD at making bentos!

Leonny's kids enjoyed helping their mommy too!

I went around to help and to give some suggestions on how to enhance their bentos or showed them how to use the bento tools. Most were very fascinated by the nori punchers.

Viv and Joyce with their creations.

Nice bentos, aren't they!

From left: HappyPig, Violet and Jessica.

From left: Ai Wei and Merlin, the 2 beauty queens. Merlin is not in her top form now because she is 7 mths preggie. She is THE fashion diva, I tell you!

My wonderful, wonderful friends!

We cleaned up the place by 1pm, took a few group shots and went for the lunch reception.

I had a lot of fun doing this workshop and it is definitely an unique experience for me! I hope those who turned up had fun too! It would be great if we can have a slightly longer session and I will be able to share more of my bentoing experience. Nonetheless, I hope more people will enjoy making bentos for their loved ones, sharing food, sharing joy, building love and friendship!

Stay Real

2 days ago, Clement passed me a parcel gleefully, waiting to see the pleasantly surprised look on my face. He had ordered something online for me.

I opened the parcel happily and found a tshirt. One look at it I knew it was one of the tshirts designed by Ashin of Mayday. I was overjoyed because this design was out of stock in the Stay Real stores in Taipei! However, when I lifted up the tshirt, it didn't feel real.

I have 2 genuine Stay Real tshirts and this one is certainly different from the ones I own. The material is obviously of a lousier quality. Clement didn't know it was an imitation when he bought it online. He thought he got a bargain as he was only paying a fraction of the price. I was battling to wear it or not because it was Clement's goodwill to get me something I like but wearing it is so difficult because it would mean not staying real to my idol!

I examined the tshirt carefully and I found some bloopers which I suspect was a deliberately effort to do so.

StayBeal?!?!

The AnswerI

I cant even figure out what they are trying to say in the last line. I am sure Ashin can do better than this.

The UFE we UVE? The life we love?

Ahhhh... no way. Sorry dear. I cannot wear this tshirt. I must Stay Real. But thank you. Love.

Bento #105

Bento east meets west.

Wholemeal spiral pasta with chicken cubes, mushroom and jalapeno fried in oyster sauce. I added water into the chicken when they were 3/4 done and thicken the sauce with corn starch. That makes my sauce for the pasta.

It tastes oriental. :) Another easy and quick recipe.

Jaimie's First Omni Theatre Experience

This morning we brought Jaimie to catch "Under The Sea" at the Omni Theatre.

Jaimie went "WOW" when the movie began and told us "好像在海底hor!" (It feels like under the sea!) Then she went on talking non-stop, asking questions like "What is the name of that fish" or making remarks like "So cute!!!". In the end, I think I made more noise by asking her to keep quiet.=_=

Her interested only lasted about half the show. ie, 20mins. For the next 20mins, she was fidgeting and getting up and down her seat. This is a documentary and has no storyline to entertain her. However, I do enjoy the show! The narration is funny, the animal kingdom is always very fansinating and marine life is so interesting. Oh, the narration was done by Jim Carrey!

I am also very surprised when Jaimie sprouted out words like "stone fish" when she sees one that assembles like one (I am not sure if it is stone fish. I was busy "shh-ing" her) and she pointed to the corals and said "珊瑚". I didn't teach her that. That's why I wonder where did she get all the knowledge from. It is good, though. :)

Jaimie's Third Swimming Lesson

Part 1: Revise breathing/ blowing bubbles in water.

Part 2: Revise blowing bubbles while submerged in water.

Part 3: Revise hand movements for breast stroke.

Part 4: Learn to coordinate breathing with hand movements.

Part 5: Revise kicking.

Part 6: Gets encouragement from daddy.

Part 7: Kick a few rounds in the pool.

Ohh. It so happened that the pictures I chose to post today didn't show Jaimie crying during her lesson. She still did. It was 10% less teary than last week but she was still crying a lot. No, we are not giving up. She will go for her lessons next week. We just have to be more patient with her.

About Friendship

When I was a teenager/ young adult, I didn't value friends very much. I used to think that friends come and go and I can always make new friends.

However, as I mature both in age and thinking, I begin to value friends very, very much. There is a difference between colleagues and friends. During the many trying period and challenging episodes in my life, I realise that true friends are the only ones who will stand by me besides my family. Their trust, faith and support is so real and it touches my heart and soul.

To a dear friend who is like a little sister to me:

This may be a challenging period. Your dreams may seem very far away and perhaps you may even feel that your dream has been taken away from you. Do not be disheartened. Nobody can take your dream away from you. You just need to find the courage to continue dreaming and one day, you will achieve it. Just keep focused. Do what it right, not what is told.

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Too emotional now. Dont know how to end the post.

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Some of my friends bought me some gifts which I would like to blog about!

XinXin bought me this when she went to Beijing. This is one of my favourite snack and she couldn't understand why I liked it so much. I couldn't either! I just like it! It tastes like 2 peices of waffle paper sandwiched with jam. It is supposed to be a healthy snack, I think.

HappyPig went on a family trip to Tokyo (and she saw Sharon Aw there!). She bought me these bento tools! WOOOO HHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~~~~~~~~~~~~
I asked her to help me buy a Burberry Blue Label dumpling bag. Yeah!! This one must pay her back, of course!!! :)

Such nice friends I have!

Woody and Jaimie

Clement has been preparing Jaimie for Toys Story 3. He bought Woody for her for Xmas and now... a WOODY SUIT!

Jaimie is, of course, more than delighted!

Recipe For Long Bean Rice

Me: Mommy, my friends are asking me about your long bean rice. What's the recipe?

Mom: Is it? They tasted it?

Me: No lah. I posted up in my blog. Some friends asked for your recipe because it looks good.

Mom: First you wash the rice.

Me: *roll eyes*

Mom: Then you add a pinch of salt and some seasoning if you prefer.

Me: Then?

Mom: Then press the rice cooker lor.

Me: *roll eyes*

Mom: Fry some dried shrimp, mushroom, and pork slices. Ah, mushroom must cut into strips hor. Add some lap cheong (chinese sausage) or lap yok (chinese dried meat). This is a must. It makes all the difference. Lastly you add the long beans. Long beans must cut into small pieces lah. Then you fry fry fry.

Me: How much lap cheong or lap yok?

Mom: Huh? Up to you one mah. No need too much. But cannot too little.

Me: *roll eyes* Ok....then?

Mom: Add seasoning. A pinch of salt, some pepper and dark soy sauce.

Me: How much dark soy sauce?

Mom: You agar-agar lor.

Me: Orr. (sigh)

Mom: Pour in the stuff into the rice cooker when the rice is almost cooked. Stir well. Wait for the switch to jump. And it's done. Very simple.

Me: Ya... very simple. I'll tell my friends.

Mom: Do you want some long beans? I still have some in my fridge.

Me: Oh no no no. I will just take home some when you cook long bean rice.

Mom: You know har, that day I went to Shop and Save, the long bean was only $2 per kg. Guess how much it was in the wet market?

Me: Huh? Oh. How much?

Mom: $4 ahhhhh!!!! So ridiculous right? But the vegetables in Shop and Save is not always fresh. Sometimes fresh only. NTUC is better. You know, that day I bought....

Me: *bored to tears*

Bento #104

This is one of the yummiest bento I have made so far because of the drumstick! And the best part is, I didn't cook the drumstick! I bought them from a chicken rice stall! Heh heh heh... no need to cook everything from scratch, right? I do not have the luxury of time.


Roasted drumstick, boiled broccoli, boiled carrots, egg roll with seaweed and sushi rice. Personally I love the colour combination. This bento is for Clement, who is unwell, again. I think he started off 2010 with not-so-good health. He has been down with flu and sorethroat quite often. Too many late nights lah.


This one is for my colleague, S. He was my best friend in JC and now we are working in the same place. He definitely helped me a lot in all areas so the best way to thank this father of a pair of 2 year old twin boys, is a bento. :)

This is mine. Everything is the same except I do not have the egg roll. I had to cut the egg roll so that they look good in the other 2 bentos. Where did the leftovers go? My stomach, of course.

Close up of the delicious drumstick. :p

Making bentos indeed makes me happy.