Warwick Tap coolness!

as mentioned in the previous post, we somehow got ourselves invited to perform at the official opening of the RICOH Arena in Coventry which was to be an all day event with performances, activities and events happening all around the multi-purpose venue. Sophie even got us an interview slot with BBC Coventry & Warwickshire! so there we were, waiting for our turn when Dame Kelly Holmes showed up (because she was invited as the guest-of -honour for the opening ceremony) and the broadcast team swung into action getting an interview with her.
not that we really minded... Marie walked around the media/fans to try and get a picture of her with us in the background... Anna looks like a stalker!
and then at the end of her interview we got a photograph with her! :)
our interview, or should i say 'air-time' was brief - we were expecting to be asked a lot of questions but all we got was to do some tapping into the microphone and to state who we were and what we were performing at the opening. bummer...

we weren't on our best form for our 10min-item... we screwed it up in various sections but i don't think that people really cared, well maybe they were silently laughing but i'm pretending that things were fine. we did however get to teach some volunteers some tap steps. no surprise that the volunteers were children (who were so adorable!) and it was all great fun!
at the end of it, Sophie was psyched that we should start a class for children - obviously that brainwave lasted about 10seconds before we sensibly decided that that would not really be feasible...

I'm performing at the official opening of RICOH Arena in Coventry!

how exciting!! we're doing freestyle tapping in the E.On Lounge and have gotten ourselves an interview on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire!

I LOVE WARWICK TAP!

New Year's Eve Dinner

Thankfully this year, Chinese New Year fell during my reading week so I was able to fully prepare for the mammoth task ahead of me. I had decided to do a mini-Reunion Dinner on the Eve - 8 course + appetiser and dessert (which = 10) in addition to doing a massive spring clean of the house (in keeping with the whole traditional thing).

The preparations for the gathering started on Friday with me doing part of the food preparations and deep cleaning the house. I cleaned the bathroom (toilet bowl, bathtub, sink, floor), kitchen (counter tops, sink, floor, hob), the living room (vacuumed, cleared the clutter off the table, cleaned table top), hallway and staircase (vacuuming), which completely tired me out but rewarded me which such satisfaction that I am happy to declare it was all worth it. :)

What I am most pleased of is the state of my stove - this is what it looked like halfway through the cleaning (more like scrubbing because of the grime that had accumulated in the last month). The white stuff on the right side is the cleaning product that I used (which I am in love with now because of how clean it made the stove even though I did have to use a third of the bottle to get everything off).

and this is what it looked like at the end of the hour...
my clean kitchen and bathroom...
and the hallway...
I had bought these lights in Bangkok in December because my mom thought that I should have some festive decorations and when I saw them in Bangkok I thought they'd be perfect and very apt for the occasion.
Friday night was spent marinading the pork for both the char siew and the roast pork so that by the time I would cook it on Saturday, it would have been seasoned for about 20 hours. I think I had bought a total of nearly 2 1/2kg of meat! mmmm... I also soaked some chinese mushrooms and scallops and braised them in a frying pan with garlic, oyster sauce, sesame oil and sugar (with the water that they were soaked in) before transferring to a slow cooker overnight.

I was so psyched up for Saturday that on Friday night I had even drawn up a plan of action for the day - like what I needed to do at what time and which dish to be done before another.

What a dork I am!

So Saturday began with me going to Coventry market to get my fresh prawns and fish (so that I would a) get fresher food, b) not put a strain on my fridge on Friday because I had quite a lot of other food stored in there and c) not have to freeze the seafood - which would have partially destroyed the texture of the food, important since I was planning to steam/quick cook them). I bought 1/2kg of tiger prawns (completely with shell and head) and a sea bass that I had the fishmonger de-scale and clean out (thank God for markets when you can get them to do all the messy work!). Then I whizzed back home to start the cooking!

I had decided to make Gula Melaka Sago as the dessert for the dinner but realised what I had (that I had brought from home a while back) was gula kelapa laut (sea coconut sugar) - thus a slight change in the menu: Gula Kelapa Laut Sago!

The recipe is really simple but it took ages to do simply because I only had a small strainer and I needed to strain the cooked sago before chilling it in the fridge.it took me an entire hour to strain a full pot (shown on the right) for a bowl (left) of sago. :(
Next I fried some prawn crackers (which were meant to be snacks/appetiser) and created a chilli dip for them with fresh red chillis, garlic, fish sauce, sugar and lime juice.
next it was time to pop the pork belly into the oven (for the roast pork) and wrap the wantons. I rested the pork belly on halved cooking onions so that the fat would drip down and the bottom of the meat would get roasted rather than fried in the oils.Halfway through wrapping wantons I put pork shoulder strips with the char siew marinade into the oven as it does not take as long to cook. I then pre-cooked the wantons in a pot of boiling water (rather than in the soup I was going to serve it in so that the flour from the skins do not destroy the stock) and prepared a simple chicken-based soup with stock, ginger, garlic and spring onions.

After that the real frenzy began where I had to juggle chopping ingredients and cooking multiple dishes - i boiled the egg noodles and stir-fried some garlic, spring onions, fishcake and beansprouts and after adding the cooked noodles, finished the dish off with some scallop sauce. While stir-frying the lotus roots with asparagus in garlic, I sliced up some lap cheong and quickly fried the pieces (to get a nice smoky flavour) before adding the eggs for an omelette. I blanched some spinach leaves to use as a base for my braised chinese mushrooms. While my sea bass was steaming (simply with oyster sauce, pepper, spring onions, ginger and sesame oil), I finished my last dish (drunken prawns).

They were all really simple dishes and turned out really well (though I was disappointed with my noodle dish). I think it was only difficult because I was cooking the entire meal on my own - which was do-able but tricky in my very small kitchen).

So the final pictorial menu (and some recipes!)

Chinese Roast PorkRub some salt and pepper on the top of a slab of pork belly (scored at the top to get a crispy skin), and salt, pepper and five spice on the bottom. Roast for approximately 1 1/2 hrs at medium heat, turning it up towards the end to crisp.

Char SiewMix marinade in zip-lock bag (so that meat will evenly coat) and place sliced up strips of pork shoulder (or neck - which my mom uses). Pop the marinated meat into the oven and glaze once in a while so that the meat does not dry up. Recipe is my mom's concoction which I have tweaked to my taste - have not quite decided if I want to post it... will think about it. :)

Stir-fried Lotus Root and Asparagus in GarlicLap Cheong Omelette
Stir-Fried Egg Noodles with Fishcake and Beansprouts, in Scallop Sauce (i cheated and used a bottle of sauce that I had brought from home)
Chinese Mushrooms Braised with Oyster Sauce on a Bed of SpinachWantons (sans soup) - filling: pork mince, water chestnuts and spring onions Steamed Sea BassDrunken PrawnsHeat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and 1 tablespoon of sesame oil in a hot pan. Add chopped ginger strips, followed by 500g fresh prawns. When the prawns begin to have some colour, add 400ml of chinese rice wine. Add salt and sugar to taste. Serve immediately once the prawns are cooked, garnishing with coriander.

Gula Kelapa Laut Sago

Soak sago (about 200g) in water for about 10mins. Boil in a pot with 5 cups of water. Once they turn transparent, strain and run under cold water to cool. Divide into moulds and chill in refridgerator. Mix 400ml of coconut milk (= 1 can) with 200ml of water, add some pandan leaves (or essence in my case), bringing it to boil but continuously stirring so that it does not curdle. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar, remove from heat and chill. Dissolve 100g of gula kelapa laut (or gula melaka) with 2 tablespoons of hot water and chill. Serve by pouring coconut milk and syrup mixture over the sago (as desired).

We decided to end dinner with some poker and while Josh and Jon went to Jon's place to get his poker table (which was very nice!), Johann, Phoebe and I sat there chatting. Till I mentioned that I had lost one of my pot covers a while back and was not sure if it had fallen behind the stove. That led to a completely geeky attempt to rescue it using a small flashlight, a mirror, a coat hanger, a pair of kitchen tongs and a broom stick. Go figure...
hehehe... :)

annoyed with the university squirrelmail

GRR...

have been trying to top up my eating card and the email that i am supposed to receive after completing the first bit of the sign-up hasnt arrived. and i'm not talking 15mins, it's been 4 hours.

and as i refresh my email account, emails that were supposedly sent on saturday are slowing coming in (and mind you, today is monday).

i know this sounds terrible, but how am i supposed to function like this?!?

errands-and spring-cleaning day

today has been designated as an 'errands and spring-cleaning' day because tomorrow is the eve of Chinese New Year and i am having a mini Reunion dinner at my place for 5. and also a great time to actually get the house nice and spotless because my housemates are not very fussy about cleanliness/tidiness and the house has degenerated into a rather messy and uncleaned-for-months state. in fact, i think the last time the toilet floor was cleaned was in july when i cleaned it. and the stove was cleaned last month when i spent about an hour scrubbing it (which by now, has collected grime again). and since my housemates have gone their separate ways for chinese new year, i get to clean and it will stay clean at least till sunday (or hopefully monday).

:) ahh the joy of living in a spotless house...

i've even written down a list of what needs to be done in the house and what order it will be cleaned. as well as a detailed plan of what needs to be done tomorrow to churn out my 8 course dinner (+ starters and dessert). mmmmmm...

i love organisation!

Gotta Dance!

Wig Party with Taptastic people!

anna decided to celebrate her 20th birthday yesterday with a wig party since her actual birthday fell on the day of Pizazz (which i personally think is really cool as well!).

i initially thought of getting a bright red wig to match my bright red boots and bright pink tights but at the costume store, the red looked hideous so i got an auburn one instead (which looked WAY FABULOUS). in the end i went for the red, black and grey look (classic with a dash of colour) with a black beret and boots, red tights and my new grey dress.
me and the birthday girl! i love her red bob!
kirsty looked sooo Pulp Fiction-ish in her platinum blonde do (which at some points made her look a bit poodle-ish... heheh...)
hayley and her black curly afro - we had a bit of twin-ness going on: hayley and ian mcd had similar ones and jodie and i had identical ones except in different colours (well, i got hers for her so...)Tap people doing some funky dance moves... and Laura W with her adorably 50s-style wig (which kind of looked like an old lady's badly dyed hairdo)after a while we got so amused with each others wigs we tried on each others' wigs!
and ian mcd looked sooo like one of the 'Dumb and Dumber' characters...
after a while, tamzyn finally came - her wig was actually called 'cheerleader wig' at the shop!
and ian g came with more hair than the required dress code... hehe...we are SO going to have another wig party just to have an excuse to wear them again! :)

good, proper snow

the weatherman predicted snow for today - and at first i was skeptical. but then when several other weather websites said the same thing and the transport authorities started issuing warnings of delays during rush hour (and the fact that some teachers had decided to cancel lessons due to these forecasts), there was anticipation building up inside of me as i went to bed. apparently it was supposed to start snowing at 4am and i actually got up around that time (to go to the bathroom... though it didnt hurt to peek out of the window) but there was nothing. NOTHING!

at 8am, i received a text from Josh who was in London. it simply said "SNOW!". and i looked out of the window...it wasnt the usual pathetic British snow. it was a blanket of snow! :) "SNOW-ING!", i corrected.
the chavs (read: the English version of Ah Beng) that live a few doors down across the street were having a snow fight. as i sludged to the bus stop, i was so excited by the sheer amount of snow that had fallen in the early hours of the morning. the last time i saw a decent amount of snow was in Oslo and it seemed like such a nice gift from above, considering i had given up hope for a proper nice snowfall this winter, seeing as it is already February.
i must comment though that the snow in Earlsdon was a lot nicer than on campus because by the time i got to university, it had become defiled by people sludging through it (and making snowballs to throw at each other).

everyone was in a cheery mood today - met Jon outside the sports centre where he was washing some kayaks and apparently a few of them went to Kenilworth with their kayaks to use as sleds down Abbey Fields.

by the way, do you not think that snow brings out violence in people? hello! snowfight?

which brings me to the next point - snowfights. there were some students outside the Arts Centre that were throwing snowballs at each other when they decided to start attacking the buses. and you know what? the bus driver decided to join in the snow fight and went out to throw snowballs back at them. which led to a 10min-long volley. and then when he had to drive off, he told the people at the bus stop who were waiting for another bus that they should be having fun throwing snowballs as well (instead of just sitting at the bus stop waiting).

strange... but i'm just going to enjoy the snow...

a taster of Pizazz (thanks to sneaky people who took photographs during the performance even though they were not supposed to)

*here are some photos from the show - not the official ones from the show photographers but from friends of friends who were happily snapping away in the audience... these are the nicer-looking ones (which is good enough for now) but more will definitely come when i get hold of them!*

me and ian mcd in the hallway waiting for the show to start - eyeliner buddies! (and a hint of mascara)
STAMP! (co-choreographed by ME! so pleased with how it turned out!)Latin & Ballroom's 'The Rhythm'the REALLY entertaining Beginners' Tap (old-skool cheese 'Notorious' by Duran Duran)
C&M's 4min 30sec-version of Swan LakeStuart Carroll (our ex-Tap Dog freestyle teacher) and the impressive music-less routineclassic Tap by the Advanced dancers - 42nd Street was AMAZING! (also love this photo of Chris - he's a REALLY good dancer! strange how all the male dancers in Tap are either doing Maths or Engineering or Physics!)
our SENSATIONAL exec dancenew addition this year - Bellydance!Blood on the Dancefloor - Michael Jackson medleyIntermediate Tap's 'Teardrop' (the theme from 'House')
a very funky Advanced Ballet to 'When The Doves Cry'StreetVibe's super cheesey choice of 'The Message' - very un-street but oh-so-cool!
a Tap version of Riverdance!THE FINALE! 'Do you thing' by Basement Jaxx ROCKS!