I’ve been trying to “snack right” at work lately after demolishing an entire packet of Tim Tams to myself in one day, which is quite an accomplishment for someone who prefers savoury over sweet. But it’s not just Tim Tams, it’s anything I can get my hands on when sitting at my desk – chips, cupcakes, cookies and more.

So in a bid to snack right I took a trip to the fruit store and found these ugly buggers – dried figs. I was never really a fan of figs. It took me a while to get over the ugly factor, but as soon as I did I’ve never looked back.

I love birthdays. In my family when it’s your birthday you get to choose what you want to eat. So I was uber excited when my cousin requested for poh piah.

For those of you that don’t know what poh piah is, just think of a big spring roll that doesn’t need deep-frying. The ingredients vary depending on personal preference, and to many Singaporeans, depending on how your grandmother makes it – because we all know, grandmas are the best cook. In my family we use Chinese sausage; prawns; bean sprouts; shredded cucumber; egg (or egg roll); lettuce; sweet soy sauce (and chilli if you like it hot); and a vegetable stew kind of thing that has carrots, cabbage, bamboo shoots and tofu all thinly sliced.

One of the great things about poh piah is that you sit around the table and make the rolls yourself as you go. You get to pick and choose what you want to put in and, the fun part, how big you make it. When I was a kid, eating poh piah was (and still is) great fun. You got to make a mess of yourself (and the table) if you didn’t roll it properly or if you put way too many ingredients in.

I must admit, it was actually quite stressful making these rolls as a kid. Sometimes when it fell apart, it was like failing a test at school. But after many years of practice and having sauce drip all the way down your arm because you put too much sweet soy sauce in, I think I’ve finally mastered it. It’s all about the right proportions, don’t be too greedy; smart layering, use lettuce as a base to hold the sauce; and neat rolling, tuck
your corners in nicely.

And the final result, a poh piah that doesn’t drip and doesn’t fall apart.

So I had planned to go to the gym last night. I had packed my bag, brought all my gear and even had a light snack in the afternoon to make sure I didn’t get too hungry while at the gym.

But did I go? Nope. I somehow ended up at The Eastern eating pizza and beer instead of running on the treadmill. The Eastern has some pretty decent $10 meals, we got steak and chips, vegetarian pasta and a Marguerite pizza all for $10 each. The steak was the winner of the night, sorry I didn’t get a photo – it was gone before I could get my camera out. Served with salad, Maccas-like chips and mushroom (or peppercorn) sauce, the steak is tender and cooked to perfection (slightly pink/red on the inside). And for 10 bucks, two thumbs up!

Last night crab was on the menu. We had 3 fresh blue swimmer crabs between the 3 of us so it was a crab each. The funny thing was none of us actually knew how to cook it, or clean it for that matter. So after a quick read on google, some scrubbing and 10 minutes of steaming we were on our way to filling our bellies with fresh crab meat. It didn’t go down too well with me but the girls gobbled it up, leaving an impressive pile of broken shell pieces on their plates (and evidence of flying shell in their hair. hehe).

After a mountain of crab with mash, meatballs and risotto on the side (yes those were our side dishes, not main) you’d think we were done eating. Nope. We whipped up a batch of delicious choc-chip cookies thanks to Bill. And a pizza.

As you can tell we love eating.