Bracing for Gustav

Storm of century set to batter US

WASHINGTON: Desperate to avoid a repeat of the 2005 Hurricane Katrina catastrophe, residents of New Orleans fled their city yesterday as a new hurricane hailed as 'the mother of all storms' threatened the already disaster-scarred metropolis.
Hurricane Gustav, though slightly weakened, has already killed more than 80 people in the Caribbean, and if current forecasts hold up, it should make landfall today somewhere between eastern Texas and western Mississippi.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, keen to prevent a replay of the Katrina catastrophe, ordered the city be evacuated yesterday in the face of what he called 'the storm of the century'. Roads out of New Orleans were jammed with fleeing residents.
In Cuba, Gustav's screaming winds, packing an intensity of nearly 220kmh, tore off roofs, flattened buildings and plunged communities into darkness as they smashed through the Isle of Youth, then tore across mainland Cuba south-west of Havana, which has a population of more than two million.
Gustav lost some of its punch in the process, prompting officials in the United States to downgrade it from Category 4 status to Category 3.
Cuban civil defence chief Ana Isla said there were 'many people injured' but there were no reports of deaths.
In tourist-friendly Old Havana, heavy winds and rain battered crumbling historic buildings. Tourist Lidia Morral of Barcelona, Spain, said Gustav had marred her holiday plans.
'It's been following us all over Cuba, ruining our vacation,' said Ms Morral, who was queuing up at a travel agency, trying to make other plans. 'They have closed everything - hotels, restaurants, bars, museums. There's not much to do but wait.'
Gustav roared into the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico yesterday. About 35,000 people working at offshore rigs and production facilities were evacuated ahead of the storm.
Forecasters said Gustav could hit the US Gulf coast today as a Category 5 hurricane, with winds above 249kmh. That is the highest rating on the Saffir-Simpson scale used to gauge the intensity of tropical cyclones.
More than a million Americans made wary by Katrina took buses, trains, planes and cars as they streamed out of New Orleans and other coastal cities, where the hurricane had killed about 1,600 people in 2005.
Mr Nagin issued a mandatory evacuation order and warned that anyone found off their own property could be arrested. An estimated 30,000 residents - the elderly, the disabled and the poor - were slated to be evacuated by bus and train.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

http://www.straitstimes.com/World/Story/STIStory_274023.html

We are situated 3 hours from New Orleans and are bracing for the thunderstorm Gustav will be bringing with him.

Fish and Chips

Our 1st and only attempt at DIY Fish and Chips
The batter is just normal all purpose flour + beer, using basa fillet dusted in cornflour and dipped into the batter.
The kitchen/whole apr is so smelly and smoky by the time we finished frying and it is not half as nice as those served in Joe Patti (haha, why are we not surprised). Also it is hard to keep the oil at the correct temperature such that the outside wont cook faster than the fillet.

And hence our only attempt at DIY Fish and Chips.

Cute!

I saw this little grocery kart/kid's car at the carpark of Walmart yesterday. Well well, there is ample car park space in US to allow parking for any kind of vehicles.

As American As Apple Pie

If you have the chance to visit this small charming town, Julian, California, a must-try is Julian Pie Company. They serve the most delicious apple pie, perfect baked crust sprinkled with cinnamon filled with Granny smith apples. I can still remember the charming backyard with the swing, nice.

Campbell's

I saw this Campbell's adorable advertising board at the supermarket and it reminded me of Carina and the vintage Andy Warhol poster which we saw in Salinas. Reminded me of Carina and her craze with Campbell.

I miss my girlfriends...

Home alone with Thunderstorm Fay

Kimchi Fried Rice

http://lilyng2000.blogspot.com/2006/01/kimchi-fried-rice.html

Baked Chicken Wings

http://lilyng2000.blogspot.com/2008/08/baked-chicken-wings.html

Home alone with thunderstorm Fay which did not progress into a hurricane (thankfully), it is heading right towards Pensacola, the whole weekend will be raining and we are on a flood watch.

Kenny is at Washington DC over this weekend for work, leaving me at home with Fay.

A new found friend through a Singaporean Woman Forum has introduced a blogger who lives in the same state as her. Her name is Lily and she posted many yummy and easy to prepare recipes. Big thanks to Lily! Of course my food does not look half as nice haha but it taste yummy.

Hodad's Burger San Diego

According to SL and Yvonne, this is the BEST burger joint in SD.

Hodad's Burger -5010 Newport Ave, Ocean Beach, San Diego, CA 92107

We were not disappointed, the fried onion rings, fries and chocolate shakes were so yummy. The beef patties were juicy with melting cheese, mustard, onions, tomatoes, pickles (and so much more!).

Hainanese-style chicken rice or Lo Mai Kei?

I promised to share this easy recipe for chicken rice with Minyi, this was published in Woman Weekly (brought from Singapore by Irene).

Ingredients:
400g chicken, cut into 3 cm pieces
2 tbsps light soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
2.5 cm young ginger, peeled and grated
2 cups rice, washed and drained
1/2 tsp sesame oil
21/2 cups chicken stock
cucumber & tomato slices

1) Marinate chicken slices with light soy sauce and sesame oil. Set aside for 10 mins.
2) Heat oil in a pan over medium fire. When hot, stir-fry garlic and ginger. Add rice and stir-fry for 1 min, till the grains are evenly coated with oil. Remove from heat.
3) Divde marinated chicken among 5 to 6 Chinese rice bowls. Pack rice over chicken, but fill only 3/4 to leave space for the rice to expand during steaming. Pour chicken stock equally over the bowls.
4) Place in a steamer and steam over high fire for 25 mins.
5) To serve, turn bowls over plates to unmould rice. Serve with cucumbet and tomato slices, garlic chilli sauce and dark soy sauce.

Ps, I had used Japanese short grain rice hence it turned out wet and sticky. I will try with jasmine rice the next round heh.

Whoopee...Finally Indian cuisine

Yet to have a chance to take a proper photo with the 3 new boys who just joined us in July, Alex, TY and JS.
Welcome to Pensacola.
Poor fellows, have to pack up in preparation of evacaution if any, after 3 days of unpacking their stuff and setting up their new rooms.
Linda found an India restaurant in Mobile (ard 1 hr 20 mins drive away) - Cuisine of India
Very delicious and affordable indeed!
On a happy/sad note, Linda's husband, David has passed his flight training (Congrats!) and will be departing for Washington state in end Sept, there goes my only new-found female friend in Pensacola. Booo

My Cayenne Plant

Woooo...so exciting to see the 2 tiny sprouts growing out of the flowerpot after 3 weeks of planting the seeds. Thanks to Y and SL who passed me the seeds and also for convincing me that it was really easy to grow the chillies.

Hurricane evacuation? I hope not!

We are on high alert for the next few days for hurricane evacuation. We spent the whole day packing what we need and what we will leave behind and the dried food we can bring with us. Crossing 10 fingers and 10 toes praying it will not happen because it is a logistic nightmare and I can't bring my precious spices from Singapore with me! Arrrrrrrr......

Ngster & Khookie

Meet the 2 new family members!
Ngster (name inspired from Carina) = Ng + monster
Khookie = Khoo + cookie
I hope we will not get hurricane evacuation, I am afraid for the safety of our 2 fishes.

Wacker Weekend

A lazy weekend, we decided to head down to the beach to chill out. To our surprise there is some sort of rock festival going-on. It is the Wacker Weekend, whatever it means, the beach was full of people, we walked out to a nearby jetty and just sit beside alot of people enjoying the concert on the jetty. The rock band flew in by helicopter and they are from California, that's as much as I know, I dont even know what is ROCK!

Scomas at Fishman's Wharf, highly recommended for fresh seafood!

The Cheesecake Factory, no introduction needed.

Photos were take by Carina

A lovely day for picnic

I think it should be Irene's feet in the first picture =)
A day of chilling out with simple and delicious food from the supermarket...on of the most enjoyable day of doing absolutely nothing.
We ended up getting a tan after sleeping in the sun, a true indication of one who has been to California and back!

PS: Photos are taken by Irene (I think) because Carina and I knocked out like the moment we hit the grass.

La Jolla Cove

The most beach I deemed the most beautiful in California. Adore it!

Water sprinkler going off over the cabbages. (Salinas, CA)

New items on the menu

Cabbage rice (as taught by Irene)

Sambal Kangkong (as taught by Carina)

Yummy... Sour Cream cookies, the recipe is from allrecipes.com