The Big Apple Doughnut Experience

Growing up as a kid in this part of the world, it was difficult for me to imagine what a doughnut would taste like. After all, the only contact that I had with doughnuts then was through American TV programs.

I learned very quickly that all American cops ate doughnuts.

Even their cartoon cops did it.

So did every single average, oversized, American citizen.


Doughnuts was a national obsession.

But in those days, there were no doughnuts here. The only thing closest to it was Kong Pia.

And it wasn't even American in the slightest bit. Instead, it was full blown Foochow.

But later on, I was lucky enough to have dougnuts as part of my student life. They accompanied me through the many nights & early mornings, & successfully saw me through my studies.

And now, it has finally arrived in Kuching.

Well, actually, this place is not a new as I made it out to be. It opened a few months ago at tHe Spring, & for a lot of people, this is really outdated news - news that their grandma would tell them.


So today, I bought a box of 6 to try, & it was a wierd box cos it was advertising lust, sensual & luscious.
Now that was something new for me. I didn't know doughnuts could be all that!


There were lots of other colourful lavour with funny names to choose from but I didn't bring my camera at that tme. So I ended up with these.

Cool Blue (blueberry)

Mango Tango, my favourite.

Doh! nuts.

I could be wrong, but then again, I could be right. I thought Big Apple Doughnuts taste way better than Dunkin Donuts.

Napolean's Arc de Triomph du Carrousel

As great as he was, Napolean was a very short guy. And he had to do all sorts of things to remind people that he still existed, even though he was always below eye level. You know what they say, out of sight, out of mind.

Lord Farquaad had that same problem too. That's why he resorted to bullying small Gingerbread men to assert his power & dominance.


The Arc de Triomph du Carrousel was built by Napolean to commemorate his victories at battles in 1805. This arc is located right in between the two palace grounds - The Louvre & Tuileries. So in way, it was something like a gate. If you walked through it, hey, it's Touleries! If you walk back, hey, it's The Louvre.

Napolean probably didn't spare a single dime when he was building this. The intricacies of the floral sculptures purposefully reflect the richness & power of his vast empire.

In today's terms, it'd be something like driving a mercedes or a BMW. And like those luxury cars, this arc is a statement. It's basically saying I can afford this & some more. Can you?

The arc was probably designed to overwhelm all potential enemies. Look at the old man.

Do you prefer him to keep holding that girly bunch of flowers, or do you want to make him take up his sword at you?

I think Napolean's message here was quite clear, I win. You lose. Don't even think about trying.

Meanwhile, a little bit closer to home, Mahathir also erected gigantic monuments like his twin towers, in the spirit of Napolean.

I bet he liked to think that Malaysia's winning, but in actual fact, we've been losing for 51 years now.

Sesame Spare Ribs

This is one of the recipes for spare ribs that I've always loved and have made it dozens of times eversince my uni days. But even so, I have never sat down to think about the ingredients & the measurements as I've always been doing it by instinct. So since I did this dish last week, I thought I'd better jot it down ASAP before I forget all about it. What a wonderful motivation writing a blog is!


I am really not sure whether it is my Kim Ma (Granduncle's wife) or my Yi Po (Grandaunt) who started making this dish. But it could be from Yi Po to Kim Ma since Yi Po is the cook of the family. My feeling is that this dish is similar to Kingdu Spare Ribs without the sauces.


Serve 3-4
700- 800gm of spare ribs, pork*
1 tbsp of light soya
1 tbsp of cooking wine
1/2 tbsp of sesame oil
1 teasp of salt
1 tbsp of sugar
4 tbsp of self raising flour
1 tbsp of rice flour
Oil for deep frying


* I was thinking about beef ribs. I think it may do as well.


1) Get your butcher to chop the spare ribs into even pieces. Clean and season with seasoning overnight or 3 hours in the fridge. Drip dry before deep frying. Coat with flour and deep fry till golden brown and crispy. Dish out and set aside to let oil drip off.



Sauce:
1 1/2 tbsp of chilli sauce, i use maggi
3 tbsp of tomato sauce, maggi too
2 tbsp of sesame oil
1- 2 tbsp of sugar
1 tbsp of oyster sauce
1 tbsp of light soya
2 tbsp of roasted sesame seed


2) Stir and mix sauces together till sugar melts in deep bowl. Add the warm spare ribs.When I did it last week, my sauce was not quite enough to cover the entire ribs. So here, I upped the sauce recipes by about half. Please adjust seasoning to your taste.


3) Cover the bowl with a plate on top and shake the spare ribs till they are evenly coated with the sauces. Sprinkle sesame seeds to the coated spare ribs. Serve with rice.