Culinary Musings - Grilled Lemon Salmon

One of my favorite dishes is lemon grilled salmon with rice and veggie salad! This is also one of the easiest meals to cook, as you need to boil rice, cut vegetables for the salad and put salmon in the oven for about 20 minutes! That’s so easy and quick…

Grilled Lemon Salmon

I usually place a slice of salmon in aluminum paper, sprinkle lemon and lime juice over it, add some herbs and spices, let it marinate a little and bake in the oven for 20 minutes in 250°. It has always worked for me and it tastes fantastic! I like adding garlic sprinkle and Italian herbs on top, as these bring a nice flavor to the fish. If you have green onion you can add it also, it adds a nice aroma to salmon... When you take it out of the oven in the aluminum and put the salmon slices directly on the plate, pour the lemon sauce over it. But I serve it in the ‘aluminum boats’ because the salmon does not get dry as it stays in the lemon dressing throughout the whole meal!

Enjoy!

School time! Singapore Education System

Singapore is such a hot country, that it’s really summer all year long in here! I thought of that time back in Poland or any other European country, when kids are awaiting the summer holiday and already in May and June and think of what they want to do in the 2 months school break! Children in Europe also have a short Christmas break and about 2 weeks winter break around January/February. Here it’s all different, the school year starts in January and there are 2 longer breaks: all June and all December. So different, right? But actually this school year organization makes it easier on the students, as they have time to study for 5 months and then rest for one full month and the whole cycle repeats itself till you graduate the university…

The whole educational system is totally different too. It took me some time to understand this whole educational machine; it differs from the European system and they use different terminology to describe certain school levels.

Primary School
A child starts studying at Primary One at the age of six and studies for six years. The overall aim of primary education is to give students a good grasp of English language, Mother Tongue and Mathematics. It finishes with a National Examination (Primary School Leaving Examination) and students are encouraged to participate in Co-Curricular Activities and Community Involvement Programme. It’s quite rich in some extra development activities already at this young age... Most of my colleagues with young kids have to work their weekends around their kids’ horse-riding, dancing, karate lessons or science clubs! And so the rat race begins here…

Secondary School (that’s our ‘junior high’ or ‘middle school’)
Second School Education places students in the Special, Express, Normal (Academic) or Normal (Technical) courses according to how they perform at the PSLE. The different curricular emphases are designed to match their learning abilities and interests. In secondary school, kids can choose based on the examination results to enter in the School Cambridge General Certificate of Education 'Ordinary' (GCE 'O's) level examinations. Kids study there for 4 years if following the express/special route and finish with the ‘O Levels’ or 5 years if they study at the ‘normal’ pace and graduate with so called ‘N Levels’. Of course in here people are so competitive when talking about education that the express route has become a ‘norm’ so when your child goes for the originally ‘regular’ 5 year cycle, he/she is considered ‘behind’… That is a lot of pressure on a child but you need to keep up if you want to stay with your friends!

Pre-university education (that’s our ‘secondary school’ or ‘high school’)
After the secondary level, it's time to decide where to go next:
• Technical (ITE) or commercial institutes (MDIS, MIS, TMC, SIM)
• Polytechnics (Nanyang, Temasek, Ngee Ann, Singapore Polytechnic) to pursue diploma courses (‘polytechnic’ in Polish is a technical university!, here it’s a vocational school)
• Pre-university centers or junior colleges to prepare for the Senior Cambridge General Certificate of Education 'Advanced' (GCE 'A') level examinations and later on tertiary education

ITE – The primary role of ITE is to ensure that its graduates have the technical knowledge and skills that are relevant to industry. ITE is the national authority for the setting of skills standards and the certification of skills in Singapore.

Polytechnics – were set up with the mission to train middle-level professionals to support the technological and economic development of Singapore. Reflecting the wide range of abilities, aptitudes and interests of their students, the polytechnics train students with relevant and specific skills for the workplace to give Singapore a competitive edge as we move into a knowledge-based economy. These two can serve as vocational training schools; students can start working within their trade straight after graduating from these.

The Pre-U Education prepares students for the GCE "A" Level examination at the end of the 2-year junior college or 3-year centralized institute course. Students who completed their pre-university education will receive a School Graduation Certificate (A levels, or Polish ‘Matura’). All students take part in at least one CCA (Co-Curricular Activities). CCA performance is considered for university admission, that’s interesting as well!

Tertiary Education (third level education or university/technical university)
For tertiary education, the National University of Singapore (NUS), the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Singapore Management University (SMU) provide a wide choice of courses. Singapore's undergraduate university education aspires to prepare students not only for today's world but also for a world where there will be jobs that have yet to be invented! There’s some creativity, finally! University students are highly competitive in Singapore; they want to finish their studies as soon as it is possible to start working. I don’t know why they are in such a hurry; the university time was one of the best periods of my life! I wish it could have lasted longer :)

Singapore is a very particular and competitive country while talking about education. I heard that the curriculum is very strict and all students must go thought the same material at the same pace, so it’s almost like education in the army-style environment! (You might know that army is obligatory for every male Singaporean, they serve 2 years at the age of 18 and every year they need to come back for few weeks’ refresher training!) The schools are controlled by the local government, the schedule, teachers, syllabuses, and the school rules all come from the ‘administration’. The students become a part of the ‘system’ from early years of education, and they quickly learn that opposing it in any way will not work to their advantage. This is a little too ‘one-fits-all’ approach, as there is little room for creativity and greatness, as many kids cannot reach for the sky from their rigid educational system. It’s perfect though for training the mass equal-in-brain society with a collective mindset of greatness that gives a constant spin to the system.

Culinary Musings - Skinny Veg Pizza

Our recent change in diet made us experiment with food. At the beginning we were a little lost as we couldn’t reprogram our minds to think: these lovely vegetables are your whole meal! Enjoy! Actually, the typical meal has always been: meat + potatoes/rice/pasta + side salad. This is purely psychological… So now we buy products we never even used before but also, use the usual ingredients in a most unusual way. Here’s one!

Skinny Veg Pizza

I used the wraps/flatbread as a pizza base and topped it with tomato sauce, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes, carrots (Herve’s invention!), parmesan and herbs. You can add any other veg on the top, depending on your personal taste buds or what you have in your fridge! Too easy? Well, definitely easy, delicious and healthy! And quick, as the prep time was about 10 minutes and cooking, between 8-10!

Tomato sauce: tomato paste, pesto sauce, oregano, Italian herbs, oil of olive.

Cooking tip: as the wrap/flatbread is quite soft, you may place it on the aluminum paper instead of the oven grill directly.

Buon appetito!

Going Green…

It is amazing how popular culture and media can formulate our views and habits. No news, that’s common knowledge, right? Well, it is easier to go with the crowd, we eat and drink what we want, we buy and wear what’s trendy, we do what’s common and expected of us in our cultures… We have free will to make life choices that can change our future. Do we really?

Recently we changed our eating habits with Herve and eliminated meat from our diet. What the hell? You have been eating it all your life? Well, a little bit of information and observation (have to give credit to Fred for this), and you realize, wow, we are ones of those people following the mass and eating according to the media standards: fast food, meat, ham, burgers, chicken nuggets and wings, milk and yoghurts, eggs… Here’s a thing, that’s just great marketing that works pretty well, but there is little truth about what we really consume while eating those. Good quality meat is expensive so it must be a luxury; we all want to have it, why wouldn’t I eat a lovely steak with my friends? They say milk is healthy and high on calcium, prevents osteoporosis, really? Again, that’s just good PR…

Before the 20th century people cultivated land, lived more active lifestyles and ate plant based foods, there were no cancers, diabetes, heart and cholesterol diseases, metabolism-related illnesses, obesity, etc. Today, we are at a high risk of suffering from high blood pressure, high cholesterol, excess weight, and many others death causing heath problems. Why? Unhealthy shift of lifestyle choices: consuming animal based foods, often in excess, smoking, alcohol, high amount of calories intake vs. very low physical activity, increased use of mechanized transportation and a greater labor-saving technology at home, less physically demanding work, taking up less active recreational pursuits such as TV or computer games, living fast-paced lives that force us to rush forward without thinking of our health and lifestyle. Shall I continue? No need I think…

According to a 2006 report by the Livestock, Environment And Development Initiative, the livestock industry is one of the largest contributors to environmental degradation worldwide, and modern practices of raising animals for food contributes on a "massive scale" to air and water pollution, land degradation, climate change, and loss of biodiversity. Factory farming requires large areas of land and large quantities of feed, what leads to forest cutting and increased rate of species extinction. What is more, producing a certain quantity of food in meat requires much more water than producing the same amount of food in grain; it roughly takes 60, 108, 168, and 229 pounds of water to produce a pound of potatoes, wheat, corn and rice respectively; a pound of beef however, requires 12,000 gallons of water! Factory farming is also known for its cruel treatment of the animals… (more details: Wikipedia)

Using your link Ivano :)

So going green starts here, in our house, in our kitchen, with our family and friends. Do not let popular culture and society habits take control over your lifestyle choices, this is your life, your body and your future. If eliminating meats can have such enormous benefits to my health and the environment, we choose to go green!

Made in China 中國製造

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole, which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do. After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream. “I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.”

The old woman smiled, “Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side? That’s because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.”

One year older and richer!

Where there are new beginnings, there are also endings. New Year and new plans for the 2011 made us think and talk about the last year. We were in the swimming pool on a sunny Sunday afternoon, on the 2nd January and realizing, wow, we would never think we would be doing this in the middle of the winter time! As January is a month we know as snowy, cold, white and with minus temperatures! So here we are, in the pool and talking about the last year. I didn’t realize this until Herve asked me, but the last year was really full of changes and abundant in new wonderful experiences!

It was the first time I had to quit a job I really liked at EMC Cork; I moved to Singapore; I came to Asia, first time ever; in my new EMC job in Singapore I work on projects that include all Asia Pacific HR Teams so I get to know how things work in all Asia Pacific!; I started to co-lead our regional volunteer projects at work; I started dancing West Cost Swing, Hip Hop and Contemporary Dance; I learned how to play netball; I attended a Kali Majapahit outdoor Marital Arts outdoor workshop; I went to a Tahitan dance class; I became semi-vegetarian; I learned how to use the shotgun and short guns; I went to Muslim mosques and Hindu shrines; I tried totally new cuisine and variety of Asian foods; I got to know some great, creative and generous people here (and still miss those I left behind…); I can swim in the pool more less every day of the year as the weather here does not change much (apart from occasional monsoon showers); and finally, I set up a blog and started writing!

This last year brought some changes for the rest of my family too, as my mum moved to a new place, my brother relocated to Nanjing in China and got married there with his fiancée… Only my sis stayed put, still in Ireland and happy out...

With all changes came new experiences and I must admit that my whole life shifted to this totally new dimension last year! I started getting a different perspective on life, food, religion, spirituality, relationships, tolerance and how one chooses to live their lives! They often say that travelling broadens your mind; I would even say that getting to know other cultures and traditions influence and change your life in most unexpected ways. My last year’s experienced taught me that, at any stage of your life, you shouldn’t take things for granted and think you are the person you have always wanted to be, as your perceptions change constantly as we learn new skills, meet new people and grow from personal experiences. I hope you find some time to stop, that’s not easy in modern and fast-paced society, and reflect on all you learned last year, as we tend to think of problems and failures more than successes and happy moments… I think it’s quite rewarding to realize that there are so many of things that made our lives so interesting and colorful! Have another colorful year and thanks for reading…