Open Sesame

I wandered into a high-end department store today, drawn by the Canada Post signage on one side of the building. Wanted to find out the cost of postage and shipping back to Singapore. Well, I got that piece of info - and much more! I found out that I could wear stuff from the kids' department, and lingered over the many lovely dresses for little princesses (new season - Fall trends apply to kids as well)! My bigger surprise was finding a cheap pharmart (pharmacy + grocery store) in the basement. Totally out of place, but who cares? It carried Lee Kum Kee products! So I bought the holy trinity of oyster sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil, and now had self-proclaimed invincibility.

That is, until I tried to open the sesame oil bottle. It had a metal cap, like those glass-bottled drinks. And I didn't have the right tools in my apartment; just a potato peeler. Got it to work somehow, but not before wrestling with the sleek tiny bottle for at least 15min. I smelled sweet victory when the fragrance of the oil filled the kitchen :-) I learnt - you may not always have the 'right' tools to do what lies ahead of you, but with enough motivation and some thinking, you'll come round right in the end.

Dinner tonight gave me inspiration to try creating a chicken rice-flavoured spicy pasta. The stuff I got today somehow added up to that kind of taste. I'm beginning to see a picture of chilli- speckled pasta with steamed chicken slivers, topped with fresh scallions. An interesting experiment...

Left: Atas Pringles. Right: the irony - quality Angus beef appearing in McDonald's burgers.