Red Zinfandel by Gallo

Finished a bottle of red Zinfandel by Ernest & Julio Gallo yesterday. Since studies say that moderate amounts of wine is good for health, I finished this bottle with a fellow foodie over two dinners. It is a light and drinkable wine. Fruity with a hint of blackcurrant. Went well with home-cooked bread, salad and mushroom omelette.

Safety and life - don't be naive

23 November 2007, five dragon boat paddlers lost their lives in Cambodia. 1 June 2008, there are still paddlers who "doubt that capsize drills would be useful locally. Most said they have not experienced or seen a dragon boat capsize here." Having not experienced a capsize does not mean it will never happen to you. Look what happened in Cambodia? It is just like saying, "Why can't I drive recklessly when I have not experienced an accident?", "Why study when I have not failed?", or "Why exercise to lower my bad cholesterol when I have not experienced a heart attack?"

Eugene Wong said, "It will be quite dangerous to practice capsizing a boat, too, because it is heavy." (The Sunday Times, 1 June 2008) It will be more dangerous to not know how to re-act and free oneself from a real capsize situation. Therefore, capsizing drills in a controlled environment, supervised by experts and/or professionals are needed.

In every sporting activity, there is always the possibility of accident and injury. Before I was allowed to rock climb in an indoor gym in Kuala Lumpur, I had to show the staff I knew how to tie a proper knot, belay safely & re-act quickly if the climber slipped and fell. That was despite of my belaying many, many times. Before a mountaineer embarks on a high altitude alpine trip, he or she needs to know how to perform a crevasse rescue, recognize altitude sickness and prevent frost bite.

Preparation for an outdoor activity includes preparing the brain, not just the brawn. Just because it has never happened to you does not mean it could never happen to you.

Pancakes for breakfast

The thing I like about Saturday mornings is that I can wake up when I want to awake, stretch, think about the day to come.. enjoy a leisurely breakfast. Especially when it had been raining all night and still was drizzling. That meant no inline skating at East Coast Park today.
Decided to fix some pancakes - something holiday like about eating pancakes drizzled with syrup, oozing with melting butter, accompanied by a cup of good latte. Mmmm
Spied some slightly overripe pears sitting forlornly on the kitchen counter and decided to incorporate them into the pancakes. The bits of pear kinda prevented the batter from spreading out nicely - so instead of nice round pancakes, I ended up with ones that looked like a map of some island with crenulated coastline, with many little bays and headlands. (Freudian? I must be wanting a beach holiday!)

Pear Pancakes

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 0.25 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 0.25tsp ground cinnamon
  
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 Tsp melted butter/oil
• 1 cup chopped pears

Mix dry ingredients together, make a well in the centre and add beaten egg, milk, butter and vanilla extract. Add pears.
Heat non stick pan, spray with oil if desired.
Use about 1/4 cup batter for each pancake
If nice round pancakes are desired, add the fruit on top of the batter after pouring onto griddle.
Cook until bubbles are seen on the surface, and edges are dry
Flip over and cook till nicely golden (2nd side cooks faster than 1st side)
Serve warm with butter and honey/maple syrup