Sydney & SEASONINGS #1

We just got back from Sydney last week! Just beautiful blue-skied days basking in perfect sunny but not hot weather, being out in nature and eating to our heart’s content.

The most memorable bites were also the cheapest.

Enjoyed a good slow breakfast at a Lebanese eatery that served complimentary cinnamon tea.

Had premium sausages for breakfast in the Blue Mountains.

Tasted my first feijoada, a Brazilian black bean and sausage stew with farofa (toasted tapioca flour), at a roadside stall. It left such an impression that I started looking up recipes when I got home and realized that it was a dish borne out of poverty - African slaves gathered the leftover pork bits that their Portuguese masters discarded, like tail and nose, and cooked them together with black beans. Reminded me of dishes back home like feng and what Dan Barber said about how great cuisines spring out of not abundance but lack.

The funny thing was that we chose to drive from Daylesford to Sydney and back just to save money on plane tickets, and after ten hours of being on the road and being a mere ten minutes away from home, a kangaroo leaps in front of our car out of nowhere.

We felt the impact, and sat stunned for a good 5 minutes while driving, before deciding to go back for it - to move it to the side of the road if needed. But when we went back, we couldn’t find it. It might have been flung back into the bushes in the collision.

I felt genuinely bad for it. And Wex did too… and then the bill for car maintenance came (the car’s left panel was destroyed) and it was double the cost of the entire holiday lol. But what can you do? There’s nothing that can be done to prevent these things from happening. Kangaroos are crazy and irrational things that jump out at cars even in broad daylight. The only consolation is that we were both safe and unscathed.

Now that we are back I’ve been working really hard on Singapore Noodles’ new collaboration this year with HAFI. We are producing a quarterly food publication SEASONINGS, which celebrates festive foods through the seasons. The 2021 planner that I did with Qin Yi last year is like the appetizer, this is the main course hahaha. With a planner, you cannot delve too deeply into each season because it has to be light enough for people to carry around daily.

Our first issue is going to be on Hari Raya Puasa - we talk to kuih makers about the stories behind their signature sweets, reminisce about pre-COVID days of going to Ramadan bazaars, and explore the intricacies of rendang (the quintessential Raya dish) amongst other features.

Very fortunate to work with fab contributors of different backgrounds - Firdaus Sani (Orang Laut), Azfar Maswan (Baweanese), Taahira Booya (Indian Muslim), Hairil Sukaime (Javanese), Nor Hadayah (Banjarese) and Delfina Utomo (Indonesian Muslim). Learnt so many things from them - did you know that the Baweanese make rendang with fish? Or that there’s a laksa dish, originating from Johor, with kerisik in it? I have been testing the recipes for the issue and I ate so well - that opor ayam was just… 🤯 and I have rendang, sambal goreng, and a home-style version of lemang in my freezer just waiting for Hari Raya!

One thing that I never realized, prior to working on this issue, is how Hari Raya/ Ramadan is really all about community and ‘gotong royong’ (the joint bearing of burdens)… and surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, Hafi and I have experienced that in the production of this issue. People have written to us offering help, telling us stories of their family’s sambal goreng, contributing recipes - all without us asking. Our page count has now exceeded our original expectation because we want to fit in all this good content, and we both feel really moved by the support of everyone!

The issue will be sold mainly in print but for those of you who are overseas, you can also opt for a digital subscription for 4 issues (1 year). The issue will be in your hands early next month before Ramadan ends. In the meantime, we will be sharing lots of sneak peeks and our contributors will be taking over @sgpnoodles to share about their Ramadan. More details to come, till the next newsletter!