Thursday 18 September 2014

Lean Pork with Preserved Vegetables

I got the idea of cooking this dish from the MediaCorp TV drama serial,  "Spice Up" 《幸福料理》. I thought it was quite easy to prepare so I tried it out two days ago.

I did not follow every step exactly as it was shown by Gao Mingjun  (starring Patrick Lee) in the show. This was what I used.


250g lean pork (frozen pork)



80g preserved Vegetables

Steps:

1. I cut the lean pork into smaller strips. I used the preserved vegetables that were bought from NTUC. No further cutting was needed for this.

2. Then I added some salt, pepper, 1/3 egg white, sesame oil and tapioca flour to the lean pork.

3. I heated up some oil in the wok, added some garlic and stir fried them. 

4. I put in the marinated lean pork, stir fried until they were about 60% to 70% cooked.

5. Then I added the preserved vegetables to the pork and cooked until the pork was tender. 

6. I added some chilli powder to the dish. (original recipe used fresh red chilli). 



This dish turned out quite nicely. The pork was tender and the colour was white instead of the usual light brown. I believed it was the egg white that made the pork tender and white. Lynn almost thought it was chicken meat. The preserved vegetables wasn't as crunchy as Gao Mingjun's dish since I did not soak them and squeeze out the water like what he did. We didn't mind though. So overall, I would think it was an appetising dish. This turned out tender and tasty.



Thursday 21 August 2014

Episode 14 to Episode 20 (Last Episode) of 《祖先保佑》("Blessings")

Meiren had suspected Wenrou of getting a man ( Wensheng, who happened to be Wenrou's cousin) to stage the robbery that caused Wenrou to temporarily lose the use of her legs. However, Wending refused to believe that a nice girl like Wenrou would do such a thing.

Wending initiated a breakup with Meiren so that he could take care of Wenrou who was handicapped. Ouyang Xuan and Meiren's father came up with a plan and made Wending realise that he should be with the one he loved, i.e. Meiren. Wenrou was, of course devastated and decided to up the ante. She got Wensheng to splash acid on Meiren. Luckily he did not succeed. In the end, Wenrou wanted him to set fire to "Xiji". Meiren saw Wensheng walking past her nail shop and followed him to "Xiji". She saw Wenrou and Wensheng inside "Xiji". Wensheng was pouring kerosene inside "Xiji". Meiren told him that she had already called the police. Wensheng scurried off in fear.

After some arguments, Wenrou set "Xiji" on fire accidentally. Meiren tried to help Wenrou even when the fire had already spread but Wenrou pushed her away. Wending managed to get there on time and carried Wenrou out of the fire scene. So both Meiren and Wenrou were saved from the fire.

Wending kept having the nightmare of Daxi, Shuangxi and Alicia disappearing. This dream arose from the conversation he previously had with Alicia (his great-granddaughter). Alicia (the only one who believed that Wending travelled forward in time when he first told her) reminded him that if he were to stay in this era and marry Meiren, then Daxi, Shuangxi and Alicia would not have existed because he did not marry their grandmother/great-grandmother. He then brought up the topic of breaking up with Meiren again. He told her he was actually from the 1940s. Of course Meiren thought he was either bluffing or he was delusional.

Meiren then got Daxi to find out the truth behind Wending's reason for breaking up with her. Daxi and Shuangxi searched Wending's belongings and found an old box with a picture of their father, Mengyong (who had passed away a few episodes earlier) and their grandfather but the face of their grandfather was already torn off the picture. Based on the scar on the hand of their grandfather, they deduced that Wending could indeed be their grandfather. They also recalled that Mengyong had called Wending "Dad", Wending had mentioned a few times that he was their grandfather plus the DNA testing. They found it incredible.

They could not contact Wending. Alicia then mentioned that he could have gone back to the 1940s. She said he came to the present on the night of the Mid-Autumn festival last year, so he had to go back on the Mid-Autumn festival this year and all other conditions must be satisfied. After Meiren went out to look for Wending, Shini went into labour.

In the next scene we saw Wending jumping into the swimming pool where he first arrived in this era (2014). He came out of the pool wondering what had gone wrong. He wore the same clothes at the same place and the same time. Then Meiren came to look for him. At the same time, Daxi was praying to their ancestors at home to bless Shini with a smooth delivery of his nephew. At this point, a mysterious force pulled Wending away and, in the next scene, he was at the river and Xiaomei pulled him out of the water. After some confusion, he realised that he was back in his time (1948). He realized that he was only inside the river for a few minutes but it seemed like a year had passed. He told Xiaomei that he had a "strange dream". He learnt that if he wanted happiness, he should have the courage to pursue his love. Hence, he wanted to marry Xiaomei.

Fast forward to 2014 again.  Wenrou turned up with her boyfriend to congratulate Shuangxi and Shini on the opening of a new branch of "Xiji". Shuangxi and Shini had a son and a daughter (Alicia). Shini was pregnant with a third child. Daxi and Ouyang Xuan were a married couple, and surprise, surprise, Mengyong was still alive (unlike the strange dream that Wending had). There were reporters interviewing Mengyong. Daxi was an award-winning writer who had written many popular novels. Shuangxi was the able assistant of Mengyong who had created many highly popular new flavours. 

Mengyong told the reporters that his father always did things that baffled people. There was one year, whenever it rained, he would stay in the house and not go out. He was afraid that he would be killed by a falling tree. The reporter wondered if Wending could foretell the future. Ouyang Xuan then told the reporters it seemed that he could foretell the future. She mentioned that there was also once when he suddenly wanted to move house. Two days later, the old house caught fire. Wending did these because he learnt from his "strange dream" that he was struck dead by a falling tree on a rainy day at the age of 40. Hence, he would not go out whenever it rained in that particular year so that he would not die young. He moved house so that his wife would not get caught in the fire and hence, would not die too. In preventing his and his wife's early deaths, he was able to pass on his superb pastry making skills to his son and grandchildren. In doing so, "Xiji" was still enjoying a good business and reputation to this day.

Another surprise? Wending and Xiaomei were still alive in their 90s.

Old Wending was at the park and saw Meiren. Meiren was pregnant and her hubby was Yuanbing (her ex-boyfriend in Wending's "strange dream") Then, Xiaomei came to him. Both of them held each other's hands and walked off...

So did Wending just have a dream or did he actually travel forward in time from 1948 to 2014? Did he change history? I supposed it's up to us to decide or figure it out.

I really enjoyed this drama serial. My only dissatisfaction was that there was no mention of what happened to Xiulan, the girl whom Wending was supposed to marry. How did Wending get away with cancelling his marriage plans with Xiulan when his parents were so adamant in wanting him to marry a girl of equal status?

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Sunday 10 August 2014

Episode 1 to 13 of 《祖先保佑》("Blessings")

《祖先保佑》("Blessings") is a MediaCorp drama that had started airing on Channel 8, on 23 July 2014, every Monday to Friday at 9 pm.



Lian Wending (played by Shaun Chen) was the only son of Lian Xuegeng (played by Li Wenhai), the boss of "Xiji". "Xiji" was a famous traditional Teochew pastry shop in Singapore in the 1940s. Lian Wending was in love with a songstress Lin Xiaomei (played by Jesseca Liu) but his father arranged for him to marry a rich merchant's daughter, Sun Xiulan (played by Sora Ma).

Xiaomei was upset over Wending's decision to marry Xiulan. At about the same time, Xiaomei's mother (her only kin on earth) passed away. Xiaomei lost hope and attempted suicide at a river. Wending, upon receiving her suicide note, ran to the river and tried to save her. The next moment, he was saved by someone at a swimming pool. He was delighted to see a woman whom he thought was Xiaomei. It turned out that the woman just happened to look like Xiaomei. 

He had a hard time trying to get back to "Xiji". He was fortunate to meet a kind hearted girl, Ouyang Xuan (played by Youyi) who brought him back to "Xiji" and offered him some doughnuts to fill his stomach. 

Upon arriving at "Xiji", Wending realised that it looked quite different and the bosses were Lian Daxi (played by Chen Hanwei) and Lian Shuangxi (played by Yao Wenlong). Business at "Xiji" wasn't good either. It took him some time to realise that he had actually travelled forward through time, from 1948 to present day (2014) Singapore. Lian Daxi and Lian Shuangxi were his (future) grandsons. Lian Shuangxi had a wife named Du Shini (played by Yvonne Lim) and a daughter. Lian Daxi and Lian Shuangxi thought Wending was their relative from China and took him in. Wending was a very competent pastry chef and proved to be of great help to "Xiji" .


Lian Mengyong (played by Chen Shucheng), father of Daxi and Shuangxi, recognized Wending as his father when he first saw him. Mengyong was senile so nobody believed Mengyong when Mengyong said Wending was his father.

Subsequently, Daxi tested the DNA of Wending and Lian Mengyong and showed that they were father and son respectively. As Wending looked so young, naturally people thought of him as the son. Who would have thought that he had travelled from the past to the present?

Wending also got to know the woman who looked like Xiaomei as She Meiren (played by Jesseca Liu), the boss of a chain of bakery shops called "Le Kalla" in Singapore and also the boss of a nail shop. She Meiren was also the godsister of Ouyang Xuan. 

Wenrou (played by Sora Ma), Du Shini's cousin from Malaysia came to Singapore later. Wending was shocked to find that Wenrou looked so much like Xiulan, his fiancee from the 1940s. Initially, Wenrou set her eyes on Daxi and treated him and his family very well hoping that Daxi would get her to be his girlfriend and, eventually, his wife. She appeared to be very virtuous. However, after some time, she realized that the girl whom Daxi loved was Ouyang Xuan. By then, she herself also had a change of heart. She was pretty much impressed with Wending. So she initiated a breakup with Daxi and tried to get on Wending's good books. 

Initially, Wending had a few misunderstandings about She Meiren and thought that she was a shrew. Eventually he got to know that she was actually a very kind soul beneath the strong and seemingly "heartless" exterior. He fell in love with her and they began going steady .

There were a few scenes which showed Wenrou eavesdropping on the conversation between Wending and Daxi, peeking at the contents of Daxi's laptop and checking on Meiren's background. That got me thinking. Was Wenrou as good as she seemed to be? Now, I am wondering how the story would go on. Could it be that Wenrou was actually not that virtuous? Maybe even devious? There were also a few occasions when Mengyong saw Meiren and called her "mum". Could it be that Wending travelled to the present so that he could make the right decision on his life partner in the 1940s (apart from the task of reviving the business of "Xiji")? I shall continue to watch to find out.

On a side note, there was this song "明月千里寄相思" sung by Xiaomei in the drama. I thought it sounded very much like it was sung by Jesseca Liu herself and I checked the credits shown at the end of one of the drama episodes. Indeed, it was sung by Jesseca Liu. Perhaps MediaCorp should consider giving her a role in a musical drama if they ever do film one.


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