Eating In Eating Out

Most of the time here in Singapore, we cook at home but after a while with two not-so-experienced cooks, I quite miss eating out.  Jason has a lot more experience than me in cooking but I crave meals from other countries and other types of cuisines as well.  My experience in the kitchen is a lot less than him and I like experimenting with recipes from the internet.  However, after a few botched trials and pathetic results, I felt like throwing in the towel.  What held me back from giving up were the prospect of getting it right, improving on previous failures and expanding the repertoire of what we eat.  

One of my and my mom's favorite place is the Salad Stop where they serve a dizzying variety of veggies in salad or wrap form.  Jason and I like trying out the hawker's stalls and we've had both good and bad forays but at least we save money.  There was also a place that looked like a hawker's stall but with restaurant prices and the food was great.  Our family favorite is a Korean hotpot-grill-buffet where you can order through a computer screen menu and Joshua can have all the ice cream he wants after.   

My turn at cooking yielded some passable, some good and some sorry results.  One time, it took almost two hours of preparation time and the food except for the tofu, was barely edible.  That was when I wanted to quit but then I couldn't because I wanted more variety in home meals.  Twice, I prepared for a picnic and my pasta sauce-making skills was so lacking (sauce with the consistency of cottage cheese!) and I ended up buying ready made sauce.   I still can't get the white cream sauce correct, which thankfully Joshua is not aware of since he gobbles up the cheesy pasta no matter how wrong the texture.  The second picnic time, there was an improvement so I can only look forward to the third try.

     

                                      

                                      

Here are the fruits of Jason's efforts and labor of love.   Quite touching.  The bottom line is, despite my complaints and hankering for other types of food, I am one lucky wife.

                                      
                                      
Joshua likes to join in the cooking spree trying to assist in any way he can like cutting cheese for an omelette or stirring the Maya hotcake mix.  We discovered a new Filipino favorite of his via Lucky Plaza Singapore -- champorado!   How could I forget such a no-brainer staple for kids?

The question of how to merge conflicting needs of husband and wife when it comes to food was still jostling in my mind, disturbing my peace.  He wants to cook at home because it's cleaner, healthier, cheaper and she wants to dine out because she wants to eat more for the baby in the womb and doesn't want to constantly scrimp on meals.  The solution?  Go gaga at the grocery stores!