Of Food And Memory [Recipe: Honey-Soy Grilled Chicken]

I must be honest with you. I’ve had three drafted posts thus far containing nothing but edited photographs and jotted recipes. It seems I may have been struck by the writer’s block, though it feels a little more solemn than that. Somewhere along the line I had lost my mojo, both in the culinary aspect and that pertaining to the written word. In fact, even my unspoken words these days, much of which my years had pivoted on all these while, sound a tad lacklustre in my head.

I’ve had requests to share the recipes to specific posts on my Instagram, but it has become apparent that blogging is possibly the last thing on my mind, since I rarely bother measuring out ingredients these days, opting for the oft-mentioned agar-ation, its Malay equivalent being campak-campak;- the act of uncalculated throwing of random ingredients to whip up something in the kitchen. I’ve actually had thoughts of just dropping the blog, and resume my social media life through square-formatted photos and ramblings of 140 characters. However, coming across these photos of honey-soy grilled chicken, it reminded me of the primary reason I had set up this blog. And as selfish (and possibly offensive to you, dear readers) as it may sound, I’m sorry, but it’s not so much to share, but more to preserve. To memory, that is.

I remember vividly the mister taking a bite from his plate, he looked up and said, “Please, please, don’t forget this recipe!”. And that right there was the it moment, if you may call it that, for me; a trusty tried-and-tested recipe book without its yellow pages and dog-ear folds, this blog to me is the repository of my kitchen escapades interspersed with precious moments I hold dear each day. I’m sure fellow food bloggers can attest to this; times you refer to a recipe from your blog, and go “Ah, I remember that day. The smiles and laughter made all the cake effort worth it”. And the beauty of sharing the recipe(s) is the promise of a possibility to press replay on that etched memory, to a rekindled smile and laugh.

Thus, as much as I know I am horrid at keeping a regular blogging schedule, and though words may keep failing me each time, this blog is here to stay, and by the taste of it, this juicy sweet honey-soy grilled chicken recipe is too.

winging and remembering [recipe: simple sausage shepherd's pie]

You can tell this is a way overdue post when your partner in crime glances over your screen, and goes, “Wait, how come I didn’t eat this?”. To be perfectly honest, I only vaguely remember making these shepherd pies one afternoon, after a twitter exchange revolving around shepherd pies from a local store (oh, the power of olfactory words and alluring adjectives). Suffice to say, my curiosity was piqued, and I proceeded to place an order browse through several recipes, and come up with a just-wing-it pantry version for a late lunch for two. A disclaimer though, I would’ve placed the order had the menu not boasted cheese as one of the ingredients, and well, you know me and cheese don’t exactly see eye to eye. And all thanks to the aforementioned vague memory, this post had been hibernating under drafts because dear old me simply couldn’t quite put a fork to the recipe.

From the Mailbox: 5 tips on packing a lunchbox (recipe: smoked paprika chicken with mushrooms burger)

Recent tweets about fixing the mister’s lunchbox for work had garnered quite a bit of interest from some of my lovely tweeps, via the network itself, along with e-mails. Aside from the most common question of whether I prepare his lunchbox everyday (the answer is yes, albeit they are mostly sandwiches), I’ve also been asked how much earlier I have to wake up, and how I’ve managed to find the time to fix these lunches. In response to the former, I actually wake up later than the mister (hah!), and as for the latter, the secret lies in cutting your actual-day preparation time, so you won’t have to rush sorting out the ingredients you need, etc. Let’s face it, regardless of how perfect a morning person we can claim to be, it’s forgivable to have your brain on auto-pilot mode at 5:45 am. So here are five simple tips to help you ensure you’ve got that lunchbox filled!