Green Capers, Gherkins and Soldier

The mood came for me to cook. Decided to test out the Oven-baked Fish & Chips in one of my newly acquired cookbook from Kinokuniya. My DG's having a farewell-cum-Christmas party in the coming weekend. Since the theme is SEA, I thought fish & chips will do it well. Moreover, its oven-baked, which means a healthier version. A simple recipe but somehow I think there was something wrong in the way I baked it. Turned out a bit dry but it tasted yummy with the tartar sauce I made!

One of the ingredients of tartar sauce involves "gherkins" and "capers" (G&C). Sua Ku me don't know what they are. Sms one of my girlfriends who often cook. But she don't know. Sms my 'mummy' and immediately, her reply was "They are pickles at the ledge above the frozen peas area." Boy, I learn something new! So G&C are pickles!! But I guess they are too special. I couldn't find it at Carrefour. Managed to find it at Isetan Supermarket this afternoon!! Found it right beside the cold storage of ham and meats. To my excitement, there was more than one brand and type of G&C. They are all imported goods. The gherkins I bought was from Germany and capers from Morocco. Anyhow, I was thrilled to have more words added into my food vocabulary ;) Here's how the G&C looks like...

Capers and Gherkins

Anyhow the G&C really made good tartar sauce! I am glad to be able to make home-made tartar sauce :) Now I need to improve on the fish before the party...

How about the green soldier? That would be my brother. He has just been called to serve the nation. Being the only male child in my family, his entry to army is a big deal for us! It was half a nostalgic feeling yet excitement on my part. Close to a decade ago (gosh!! I'm so old already???), my guy friends from Junior College went to the army. I recalled those stories I heard from them in the various postings they had - OCS, commando, infantry, guards, scout, air force, etc... And of course being young girls then, many of us are very excited to listen to those stories.

This time, the excited one is none other than my mum. Besides fussing about his plentiful of logistics to bring into camp, she also fuss about how he has been doing there, if he's eating well, if he's losing weight (actually we all hope that he would lose many kilos) and getting excited about his stories. I guess there's plenty of chances for her to get excited since my bro's only been in for 2 weeks of basic military training and he's got a total of 2 years of military service!

Here's my bro getting ready to book into camp:


Enough said. Just as I had commented how army turned my guy friends from boys to men, I am looking forward to my bro maturing too!!