Look, talk and eat like a Chinese campaign

Color-treated my hair…. completely BLACK. Back to my black hair roots!
I've definitely always looked very Chinese, but now looking more Chinese than ever …the next step is to brush up on my Mandarin.

I had dinner last Tuesday with my former colleagues, whom I suspect took up Chinese as first language when in school. My ex-manager used a mandarin phrase “wu yi si wei ...” and I thought he was speaking Hokkien! Need to watch more Taiwanese talk shows to brush up on mandarin language skills.

As a race, the Chinese have a lot of pork. Main meat staple, in fact. Hope we're not what we eat. Hmm...recently, I had alot of sweet soupy Shanghai xiao long baos dipped in vinegar with ginger slices. Fresh pork is so good.

During a sunday coffee session with my girlfriends, who were Chinese Chinese or Chinese Peranakan, we realized that we all had, at one point in time, stopped taking pork for various reasons, but later resumed pork-eating habits again.

For instance, one of the Karens started eating much more pork when she was posted to Vietnam. After she got there, she realized that all the local specialties involved pork in one form or another. So for practical gastronomic reasons, she consumed more pork, and concluded Vietnamese Pork is the Best in the World! If my sister were here, maybe they can argue on Vietnamese Pork versus American Bacon.

The general consensus was that air-flown pork (pigs can indeed fly!) does not taste as good as pork transported in other manners. T**** said it’s because the air-flown pork pigs were not neutered, so there’s a lot of hormones in the meat and that’s why it's relatively smellier. Never knew it was all due to hormones.

Friends disgusted with air-flown pork:

Dilly is a pesco-vegetarian now (more pork for us then!) and couldn’t contribute personal opinions on pork taste, but, when she was in Chiangmai, Thailand, she witnessed a baby pig that got neutered with a very thin wire. And the severed parts were promptly thrown into the fire, I assume she means BBQ pit to be cooked. And all this while, the poor baby pig was squealing away. But we know it will grow up to be a big, strong, hormone-free pig, and provide non-smelly meat for all.

Hokkaido Food Fair Report

There were food sampler stations everywhere! The Aunties manning the various stations were very generous and it's almost like a FREE food fair. Had corn chocolate, healthy Yam juice, peppermint candy, melon chocolate, pumpkin soup...

I checked out the horse oil counter. Predictably, it was not very popular. There was a TV at the counter showing happy healthy horses galloping away in green fields but I think you need more that that to convince Singaporeans when you’re selling skincare.

Isetan imported a sushi master and he was stationed at the supermarket, so I had Surprise! Surprise! Mouth Watering Fresh Scallop Sushi!

I bought an Otaru Sweet Potato cake, but didn't get to try it as the Parents had it for breakfast before I woke up. I didn’t buy the biscuits after all which were too expensive. Hai! Disappointment in both instances though I’m happy the Parents liked the cake (they said it was "not bad" which means "quite alright!").

I also bought packets of pumpkin and Hokkaido potato flakes.
Mix the flakes with milk and water, and stir repeatedly, and you get pumpkin soup, or potato soup. The imported-from-Japan salesman was very funny. He pointed to the flakes and stated firmly.. Salad..Oishi… Soup-p…Oishi … Ice-ce Creame…Oishi… Cak-ke…Oishi. Multipurpose flakes will transform me into a master chef yet.

Minotaur in Singapore

The Singapore Tyler Print Institute is currently hosting the Vollard Suite, a collection of 100 prints (etchings, aquatints and drypoints from 1930 to 1937) by Picasso.

The institute proclaims that this collection is regarded as
“one of the most important graphic series in the history of art, comparable in quality and importance only to the prints of Rembrant & Goya”.
It doesn't say why though.

I’m pleasantly surprised that a CF firm I worked for is one of the sponsors of the exhibition. I’ve always love prints so I enjoyed this collection. GO see!

The Vollard Suite reveals Picasso's then obsessions, the classically derived (meaning often naked) subjects of the Minotaur and Pygmalion.

Picasso identified himself with the mythical MINOTAUR. Ego ego ego. Sometimes the Minotaur is the artist, or lover in a studio setting, and on other occasions, a bull in the ring of a bullfight.



Picasso's interpretations of PYGMALION were also autobiographical. Images of life in a sculptor's studio, and idealised self-portraits of Picasso in "relaking" couch potatoe mode, working with nude models and various pieces of art dominate.





"In a group of prints made towards the end of 1934, the themes of the man–beast, the artist and the model merged. The Minotaur is finally blinded by his own unbridled passions, and is led away by a young girl whose physiognomy recalls Marie-Thérèse."



Picasso had met Marie Therese Walter in the mid 1920s outside Galeries Lafayette, and became obsessed with her. With her "classical" countenance, Marie-Thérèse soon became both lover and inspiration for Picasso's art.

Meet Marie Therese Walter [not part of the suite]:














I would like to pick up studio art again. I do like printmaking, which is therapeutic, though it does get messy, smelly and health hazardous at times - wiping turpentine-soaked cloth off your arms to remove paint, and sore arms from laborious polishing of sticky paint off plates, wearing unfashionable fisherman rubber aprons to protect clothes.
But end of the day, great sense of satisfaction when you look at beautiful or "interesting" stuff you've created.


The information above on the Vollard Suite are derived from the following websites:http://www.nga.gov.au/exhibitions/Picasso/index.html, http://www.marlboroughfineart.com/exhibitions/view.asp?id=161, http://www.shareholder.com/bid/downloads/news/20060914-211070.pdf.