It's my dear sissy R's birthday today! Last Saturday, sister T and I cooked up a western storm for the big family, in R's honour! Yours truly was the menu planner! All oven dishes! Grilled chicken drumsticks, garlic lemon prawns and squid, mushroom caps, twice-baked potato, grilled vegetables and a salad. Oh yes, and my potato bread which turned out to be potato flatbread, but tasty nonetheless!

The hustle and bustle of the market on a Saturday morning was certainly a sight to behold! First stop: the seafood-monger. Wow! Prices are definitely not as low as I remembered them to be! I realised that Ah Ma's mantra - Never stint on food - means that the prawns that she usually buys to steam for dinners are the top grade ones at $18 per kg. Such is the quality of food that she serves to her dearest children and grandchildren, yet we would occasionally grumble about how she should just buy fewer/the lower grade ones to cut down on the grocery bill, which she - of course - would staunchly refuse. And for that, I feel a 'lil guilty now.

Next stop: the vegetable stall. If there's one thing I've learnt from the market trips, it is that buying from the busiest stall usually means that the goods are good and reasonably priced. After all, who would know the workings of the market better than the aunties right? Mom showed me the aunty who always overcharges her customers, whose stall Ah Ma still patronises despite our advices, 'cause she says it's like 意思意思 buy from her. Well, I'm sorry that I'm so not sorry her stall doesn't have a crowd in front of it. She is middle-aged and able-bodied, and I see absolutely no need for her to resort to such means to earn her keep. Especially when many residents here are senior citizens.

Final stop: the supermarket. White button mushrooms are expensive! A box of 7 to 9 for 3++ bucks. Parmesan cheese too! Just a small bag for 6+++ dollars! But yay! We still managed to stay within our budget.

Finally, prep time! The recipes seem easy enough. All we had to do were to marinate the chicken and prawns and leave them in the fridge. Bake the potatoes, remove the flesh and season it, then stuff it back in - sister T ended up taking a whole hour doing this. Cook spinach and stuff into mushrooms. And come dinner time, we would just have to pop all of them in the oven and voila! Piping-hot food on the table! What I didn't foresee was how drumsticks take forever to cook and that delayed the entire schedule because only 2 trays of food can be baked at any one time. Lesson learnt: Don't depend on the oven for an entire meal!

The next time we entertain, I want to cook up an eastern storm! I already have a few recipes in mind, but they have so many 好料 in the ingredient list! Must. Save. Up.

On that note, forex trading update: positive $3123! I'm happy!