《长歌行》漫画

 我看完了电视剧才开始看原著的漫画。我便拜托姐姐在淘宝帮我买全套漫画书籍，也在网上搜索动漫的视频。

Air fryer pork ribs

We had this takeaway pork ribs from Pura Brasa last week to celebrate our wedding anniversary at home ( thanks to Phase 2 HA restrictions!!) 

I wanted to try to prepare a homemade version as Y loves her meats (her latest addition to her nickname list is "Miss meaty"). I didn't want to have to burn a big hole in my pocket to feed her carnivorous cravings. 

So I got this lovely slab of pork ribs from the wet market at Chinatown. This hit the weighing scale at close to 900+ grams (approx 2 pounds?), and costs $23/kg. 

The uncle at the stall suggested that I precook the meat before putting it into the oven to roast/BBQ, to avoid drying out the meat. So here it is, in my WMF stainless steel pot on a trivet,ready to be steamed.

I chose steaming rather than boil or parboil, so that the juices and flavour do not leech out into the boiling liquid. Besides, it's already so hot in the kitchen! In total, I steamed it for about 15 mins. It was fully cooked when I poked the meat with a chopstick, as the juices ran clear. 

I then rubbed on some store bought BBQ seasoning sauce and popped it into the air fryer for about 5-7 mins at 170 deg Celsius. I just eye-balled and flipped it over (for more even browning, aesthetics, really, since it was already fully cooked) and cranked up to 200 deg Celsius for a final burst for another 4mins. The BBQ smell was so enchanting and the fats sizzling and popping when I opened the airfryer. 

Here's a pic of the final product. 

Verdict: it looks better than it tastes. 

I think I overcooked it and the exterior bits of meat were super dry and tasted like jerky. Personally, I had the small loose piece of rib, which I cut off from the main slab so that it could fit into the airfryer. It was exposed to the convection heat in the airfryer and tasted dry and tasteless. I later had another rib from the middle section and it was much juicier and softer. 

By not marinating in advance, I set the stage for bland meat. The seasoning was only on the exposed parts of the meat. I can only shudder to imagine the quantity of seasoning used by restaurants to get that smoky, sweet, salty taste we get when dining out. I can only console myself that my version is healthier! 

This is a dish that I will definitely try again, not least because Y asked for more (her exact words were "mummy, can you cook this more often") , but also cos I have a bottle of BBQ seasoning dry rub to use up before SG's humidity ruins it. 

《长歌行》电视剧

追看电视剧了过后，总觉得意犹未尽。

A new wallet burn coming our way

24 May 2021 - Picture of our 11 year old (non-smart) TV. Somehow there was some liquid oozing out of those bubbles seen in the picture. So we removed it and hauled it to be disposed. 

Full HBL announced 19May 2021 to end of Term 2

Just hours after my previous post, MOE announced new measures of full Home based learning for schools for the last 1.5 weeks of Term 2. 

Although it is no longer a new development (compared to last year's experience), it was still a development that came out of the blue, and with only 2 days notice, the entire school ecosystem will be in a scramble again for the hours and days ahead. 

Social media (Facebook, readers comments) were a flurry with the usual comments... Why in two days, why not immediately, what happens to segment A /B/C/D of the student population. Sometimes I don't know whether we don't learn from past experiences or we forget, or we just mentally refuse to accept the government's previously stated (usually logical and easy to understand) explanation. 

I only have 1 question unsolved for my own scenario. What happens to Y's mid year exam that was due to take place on Wed 19 May?