还没真正搞清楚何谓 zakka。但是能感觉到，如果再用“手工”二字，就是意图给自己贴上老土的标签。在淘宝，当当或胡乱search一下，“手工”条目所列，几乎都是一些无精打采的玩意儿。输入“手作”，“杂货”，却是另一番令人振奋，富有个性的创意作品。
嘿嘿，尽管落后了几年，亡羊补牢的工作还是是要地。就算不能成为什么手作杂货达人，也可以学学一些应时的潮流新语。在纪伊国屋书店买了夏米的《初学橡皮章的12堂课》和小间敬子的《橡皮章生活杂货》，芷遥也挑了一本《用纸粘土做超可爱娃娃屋》，回来后上网查了一下，发现实在是付了许多冤枉钱。算了，要我等上3个星期后回北京再上当当订购，我打死忍不住。先忍痛解解馋，稍后再回北京扫货。
手作－生活，随兴，情趣，创意。
真的是超可爱。
最后买了一本《乌龟饲养方法》，准备回北京后，好好为家里两只可怜的小乌龟打造一给优质的生活环境，希望它们能长命百岁。
I haven’t mention that I partially bid goodbye to my previous lifestyle of not having to prepare meals, have I? It was an almost immediate surrender after I tried cooking our first lunch and dinner here. Yah, I know my skills are mediocre and rusty, but the food were still consumable. It was 弟弟 that made me quit so soon. He simply refused to let me cook in peace by crying out loud, demanding to be carried and trying to drag me out of the kitchen. So the next day, arrangement was made to have the part time ayi cook dinner.
Preparing lunch for two person is easier. Anyway, I was in my usual lazy mode today, didn’t even feel like making lunch if not for the sake of little 弟弟. Thanks to my sister’s crepe recipe, we end up having crepe for lunch and I must say that was the easiest, quickest and yummiest lunch I have made.
Now, I have a new entry in my wish list. To get those portable eclectic cooker with double heating plates, 2 more smaller size skillets and have crepe party as often as we can.
It was weekend again, so another round of learning to cook something. This time, I was supposed to learn to make fried stuffed glutinous rice balls coated with sesame seeds.
These balls were much more challenging to make. It took me quite a while before I could stuff the filling in correctly. The frying part is horrible, so much oil spilled on the floor. And when my mother-in-law filtered the oil to rid the sesame seed, I almost fainted when she threw a big scoop of seeds into the sink. I quickly moved the rubbish bin next to her to catch her second dumping. Blockage is not something I enjoy clearing!
Sad to say, the sesame balls of labour didn’t turn out well. Although we fried them using very low heat, many of them burst with oil spilled all over my kitchen. The exploded balls lost some of its sesame coating and looked patchy. The dough didn’t turn golden brown, which further highlighted the uneven sesame coat. The mung bean filling seemed too dry to me, though my mother-in-law said it was just right. And lastly, the whole thing was just too hard and chewy. It was a good jaw exercise eating it. Though not fantastic and definitely ugly looking, we still managed to finish up the 15 odd balls. If they were bought from hawkers, we would have cursed and sweared at such bad quality.
My mil said the chewy texture might be due to omission of certain ingredients, probably corn flour. She will check that out. And maybe some sugar needs to be added to the dough so that the balls will caramelise e and brown after frying. I will secretly add some water into the filling to moisten it. Going to try it again.
Frankly speaking, I am not a big fan of kueh like Onde Onde. However, I was very keen to learn how to make them. I have strike a pact with my mother-in-law to teach me a dish for each visit she makes. Advices given to parents to allow children to help in preparing meals so as to improve their eating habits applies to adults as well. I think I enjoy these sweet tasting coconut coated sticky balls now.
Onde onde is surprisingly easy to make, perfect for beginer like me. One thing I don’t like about the commercial ones is they are usually so huge, look like a big tennis ball (ok, maybe not so big, like rambutan), and the skin are often too hard. And also, I prefer the more traditional version, just gula melaka, no coconut inside. The skin just burst with a gush of palm sugar attacking the mouth when bitten. Yummy!
