Refreshing Cheng Tng

Cheng Tng means "Light Soup" in dialect.

I am not sure why this Chinese dessert is called Cheng Tng. It is probably because this dessert is cooling and can get rid of “heatiness” in a person. Surprisingly, The Husband says he has never heard about this "sweet soup" in Hong Kong when we first had it together in a local hawker centre. It must be a dessert unique to Singapore and Malaysia.

Cheng Tng is a nice dessert to have on a hot day, especially when served cold.

Cheng Tng can be made with a variety of ingredients. The one I made today had white fungus, sterculia seeds (pong dai hai), barley, dried longans and some fresh chinese pears.

 

Fried Laksa

I wished I could say that I thought up of this dish myself.

But I got the idea for frying this beehoon in laksa style from C's mum, when we went to her place for party before her wedding.

I have always like fried mee siam. But I thought fried laksa is even better. I liked how it still taste very much like laksa, but without the coconut milk.

You could make the laksa sauce yourself, of course, but I opted for the easy way out. Hai's laksa paste did the job really well.

Ingredients 
(For 3-4 people)
500g thick bee hoon
100g bean sprouts
2-3 hard boiled eggs
8-10 medium-sized prawns, boiled
4 pcs tau pok, finely diced
2 pcs fish cakes, sliced
Half a packet of Hai's laksa paste
A handful of laksa leaves, finely chopped
Fresh calamansi (optional)

What I did
1. Fry the taupok and fish cakes slices with very little oil separately and set aside
2. Heat a work and fry the laksa paste
3. In a separate pot, bring some water to boil and add in the thick bee hoon. Boil for 1 minute and add in the bean sprouts and then strain the bee hoon and beansprouts immediately
4. Add the cooked bee hoon, beansprouts, tau pok, fish cake slices into the wok and mix well
5. Add the laksa leaves and stir fry further
6. Decorate with the boiled prawns and hard boiled egg slices
7. Serve with some fresh calamansi (Squeeze some calamansi juice onto the bee hoon just before eating)

My version of fried laksa

Fried laksa by C's mum - lots of laksa leaves!

What is your greatest fear?

If you had to answer this question in a single sentence, what would it be?

Would it be fear of being poor? Fear that you would not have enough when you grow old?

Or fear of loss of youth? That wrinkles will creep on your face, neck and hands.

Would it be fear of "losing out" to your friends? That you'd be that one loser amongst all your peers?

Or perhaps fear of being alone? Without a spouse or a lover to love and care for you. Or perhaps that your children will abandon you in your old age?

Maybe it would be fear of rejection - by your family and people you love the most.

Whatever your greatest fear is, life is rather sad if we live our lives to prevent our fears from coming true.

But that is what many of us do. Everyday, we work hard at our jobs, work out to keep our bodies in shape, keep in touch with our friends and stay on top of our investments. We work hard at our relationships and try our best to please the people around us.

There is nothing wrong with all these - but if our motivation is from our fears, then life is really rather sad, isn't it?

Shouldn't our motivation be based on our dreams and hopes of the future? Rather than on fears from our past experiences.

My greatest fear is that of rejection. I've sometimes jokingly thought it might be a middle-child syndrome. The need to be liked by people has always been very important to me. Why, I feel sad even when some anonymous folks leave less than gracious remarks on my blog!

But I am tired of having this fear guide the way I live my life and make my choices.

I want my greatest fear to be that of the fear of God and from there free myself from fears.

View of the clouds and the setting sun from 

my seat in the plane back to Singapore from Haikou

 As the sun sets even further, the colours became even more beautiful