joining in the march of the food revolution

i've been following jaime oliver's food revolution of late and only just begun to realize how much of an impact it is making on my perspective of food, eating and health. my recent post on b3 is probably the point where it really dawned on me (and hence made the burger vow!) that i've become a believer of the movement. it really wasn't a sudden revelation but rather a subtle one, with little things like writing for mojitos, dining more and more at homeand even messing about in the kitchen myself, that prompted me to think that i could potentially play a role and hopefully pass on the spark to start your own revolution. 

many people ask me how i don't seem to put on weight especially after they see the spread of food that we have at our saturday dinners at one six b. as much as i do keep an active lifestyle, i am beginning to think the main reason why not only me but the rest of the regulars at one six b are able to enjoy and indulge pretty much on a weekly basis, is primarily because the food is fresh and home cooked. we do occasionally have the deep fried dish or two, but even in those cases, the food is fresh, not processed or frozen. take the oso bucco dish we had a couple of week's back. made really from scratch, pak law just got a decent cut of meat, threw in some of your regular carrots, celery, onions and tomato and slow cooked it over night in the trusty le cruscet (actually, any slowcooker would work just fine). the sweetness of the veggies and juices of the meat was all that was needed to add flavor and character to the stew, and the fact that food is cooked within its natural content, the nutrition and all is enveloped within. we typically have just normal bread or rice with the stew but pak law having just ventured to the new 313 foodcourt, found a store selling some really  kick ass 'han jim pang' which he thought would go well with the oso bucco. the east meets west flavors did indeed go really well, with the savory doughy fried breads truly complementing the sweet stew. 

we have had two beef dinners since, one with the three kilogram haul ben brought back from melbourne, and another i think was following recommendations from pak law's butcher. in any case, with beef being one of pak law's specialties, both dinners were fabulous. the meat carried back from melbourne of course was a notch better but pak law did both dinners justice but roasting the meats to medium rare perfection. he even had a go at experimenting making a pork terrine from scratch, inspired obviously by a thomas keller program he saw on the asian food channel. it turned out really not bad for a first attempt....more gelatinous than fatty which was good in my book, but nevertheless still very rich. 

in addition to pak law's new terrine addition, he surprised us with a purple cabbage stir fry dish. it looked really quite odd but it turned out surprisingly sweet. mom also jumped on the band wagon and in addition to her classic sesame dressed salad, whipped up some really gorgeous popovers which were really divine with the beef jus.  we did have an additional salad one weekend, due to the larger company we had for dinner, and that was whipped up by ben who garnished fresh baby spinach with deep fried fish skin and dressed it with a lovely citrus based sauce.   

 

desserts are always the highlight for me whenever we have dinners at one six b. auntie ta always spoils us with awesome desserts....i'm not sure why i'm missing a few piccies but she did over the past couple of weekends, whip up some really yummy tarts, using pierre herme's sweet tart dough recipe. she did spoil us with a variation to her awesome pavlova, this time with a touch of tropical flavor and done trifle style. also, she and i entered into our very first collaboration with her whipping up some fabulous sticky date pudding and me, my signature salted caramel ice cream. together, i think we kicked some serious butt, with the regulars at one six b demanding seconds all round! the macaroons you see are courtesy of one of our guests who brought them from canale. auntie ta thinks canale has the best macaroons but i personally still think the ones that she made some time back are still much much better. in any case, it has got me thinking about having a go at making these morsels....i've found a supposedly idiot proof recipe so we'll see. i should be having a go at them pretty soon!