20 Jun, 2022 | Events
BY TANG LENG ZE
On to our sixth Brown Bag session, we have Ong Hai Xiang sharing his hobby of fermenting and making cocktails. Just like how every superhero has their origin story, Hai Xiang’s story began when he bought a bottle of poor-tasting Bacardi Carta Blanca rum at the age of 18 – his first alcoholic drink in fact. To tune the flavour into something more edible, he endeavoured to create a cocktail. He added 23ml of lime and 23ml of sugar syrup to 60 ml of rum; the end result was a daiquiri.
On his first sip, Hai Xiang felt an epiphany; he could not believe that he managed to transform something so rancid into a concoction of complex but balanced flavours. Down the rabbit hole he went, as his passion for alcohol and cocktails ignited (simply put, he has become an alcoholic who makes his own alcohol).
Hai Xiang immediately went geek mode and started reading books on fermentation. After reading the “Cocktail Codex”, he learned that there are 6 different base drinks and every single cocktail is a variation of these bases. Starting from the bases, Hai Xiang started substituting the ingredients with other food of similar taste. For example, the flip cocktail is one of those bases. By substituting the egg with another fat, coconut cream and the cane sugar with pineapple, one would get the pina colada. Additionally, Hai Xiang created his own rendition of the pina colada, adding Italian amaro and Italian bitters.
Looking for a challenge, Hai Xiang started preparing cocktails that required longer and more meticulous preparation. He also started visiting bars to learn preparation tricks and even worked as a waiter in one of those bars. As a waiter, he learned about the ingredients behind every cocktail on the menu and the story of the inspiration behind each cocktail. Eventually, he had the opportunity to prepare cocktails for the bar. His time in the bar greatly sharpened his skills. Having access to high-end machines like the dehydrator iSi whipper and rotovap, Hai Xiang learnt how to prepare cocktail ingredients in a culinary manner. Some of the cocktails he created even entered the menu!
To this day, Hai Xiang continues to make his own alcohol and experiment with new cocktail ingredients. One of his latest creations, inspired by tide pods, leans towards the avant-garde. The result is a cocktail sealed within an edible casing made of calcium or alginate salts, such that, upon biting, would burst into our mouths.
Capping off his sharing, Hai Xiang shared reasons why one should try out fermenting – it is surprisingly healthy, provides flexibility in controlling the desired taste and some drinks are even rich in probiotics. After reading this, if you feel inspired to try fermenting drinks, do take a look at the slides. Hai Xiang has shared a simple recipe for making 2 drinks: Kombucha and Mead. Do keep a lookout for our next Brown Bag Session!
Check out the slides shared here.
20 Mar, 2022 | Events
BY GOH KAIXUAN
Yarn over, hook, pull through, yarn over, hook, pull through.
As the second part of our post-mid-terms Brown Bag Sessions, we had Leong Zi Wei sharing about crocheting! Having been a self-taught crochet expert for the past year and making ornaments and items for her friends and family alike, Zi Wei thought that spreading her love for crocheting could help to find a new hobby in others.
To introduce everyone to the basics of crocheting, Zi Wei first explained the materials used which included the crochet hooks and the yarn. She proceeded to demonstrate basic crocheting steps such as forming slip knots, yarn overs and chaining.
Zi Wei spared no effort in her demonstrations, showing the avid new crocheters step-by-step crocheting techniques and even touching on the double crocheting technique.
The most important step in crocheting was to perform repetitions and close the chains. And with all the new knowledge gained, the participants now embarked on their task to create a circular coaster. Whenever the participants needed help in their creation, Zi Wei would come over and patiently help to guide them along and correct their mistakes.
All in all, the participants enjoyed the short yet informative session for beginners to pick up a new skill, and they all loved how interactive and fun Zi Wei made the session. Many looked ready to embark on a new hobby. Perhaps we could look forward to having a crocheting interest group soon? Do look out for our next Brown Bag Session which might interest alcohol and fermentation enthusiasts!
Check out the slides shared here.
20 Mar, 2022 | Events
BY FELICIA LEE
CNYSP’s Unspoken Rule #1: Work Hard, Play Harder
After a brief pause of our Brown Bag Sessions from midterms and the recess week, we invited our next speaker, Chew Jin Hong, to talk about his experience playing MOBA, also known as Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, a specific game genre. Specifically, Jin Hong based his sharing on Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB).
Being an avid gamer and member of NTU’s MLBB team, Jin Hong structured his presentation to cater to both new and more advanced players. He started off his session by introducing the basic game mechanics of MLBB. This included how teams could win games (by destroying the enemy’s base) and how players could actively level up during the game by farming (to get gold or more benefits). This was extremely eye-opening for players who were new to MLBB and provided them with a fast way to pick up the basics of the game from a seasoned player.
With a whopping number of 114 heroes in MLBB, players might face a dilemma in choosing which hero they want to use or wish to be most accustomed to. To combat this problem, Jin Hong provided his very own hero ranking system, where he judged the hero based on their skills, attributes, difficulty level and roles. It was eye-opening to hear about which hero was the best from the perspective of a pro-gamer.
Jin Hong then proceeded to talk about the 3 skills of Chou (an MLBB hero who is a fighter and assassin). Besides covering the skills and providing video demonstrations on how Chou’s skills work, he went through the special combos Chou had which can help players to sneak up on enemies to secure the kill. Besides providing new players with a suggested way how to start exploring and playing Chou, more advanced players definitely gained insight into the hero Chou (which may help them in their future games to avoid Chou’s sneaky attacks)!
Finally, to end off the session, Jin Hong shared general tips that players could follow to help them on their path to the highest rank in MLBB, mythic glory. We hope that everyone had fun exploring MLBB (and maybe discovered their inner desire to be a professional gamer) with our own very talented gamer in this Brown Bag Session!
Check out the slides shared here.
18 Mar, 2022 | Events
BY GOH KAIXUAN
The order of numbers goes 1,3,2. Is that right?
You, attentive reader, may realise that MasterChef Yang Episode 3: Nasi Lemak and Ondeh Ondeh aired before Episode 2. What gives? Originally, MasterChef Yang Episode 2: Char Kway Teow and Tau Huay was slated to happen on 10th February 2022, which would put it in the proper lineup. However, due to a COVID-19 exposure incident, we had to postpone Episode 2 (a re-run if you will) to the 3rd March 2022. After weeks of sitting in the oven, we finally got to prepare the long-awaited Char Kway Teow and Tau Huay.
Both Char Kway Teow and Tau Huay are local favourites of Chinese origin, and Chef Priscill (from TaiTai Chef Academy) spared no expense in procuring the ingredients for us. With the plentiful ingredients ranging from Halal Chinese sausage to Lala clams and even eggs flown in from Ukraine, Chef Priscill hoped to simulate the type of ingredients we could get overseas. This is, of course, not forgetting staples in Char Kway Teow such as yellow Hokkien noodles, kway teow and bean sprouts!
For the Tau Huay, which is a beancurd pudding made from soybeans itself, Chef Priscill pre-soaked the soybeans for 24 hours for them to absorb water and hydrate. To achieve the pudding texture, coagulants were needed. However, in the interest of health, Chef Priscill swapped out those with chemicals for a safer alternative, agar-agar.
So let the work begin! First things first, we had to blend our soybeans with water to obtain the soya milk ourselves.
Unbeknownst to us, Chef Priscill had intended for us to put in some elbow grease to obtain the clear soya milk ourselves. Working those muscles, everyone had to squeeze the milk and bean grounds mixture through a coffee sock, to force out the soya milk. Trust me, this was tougher than it looked and definitely called back to the past of having to make soya milk by hand.
After we were done, we got our soya milk! But that was still far from the end-product we desired. You might also be wondering, ‘wah Tau Huay so high effort, there must be an easier way…’ and you’re right! Chef Priscill added that we could use canned soya milk in lieu of preparing the soya milk from scratch. It was then time to put our agar-agar powder into our hot soya milk!
You may be wondering, why was this green? Tau Huay ain’t green. Well, there was a little mishap that led to some tables using green-coloured agar-agar powder instead, infusing their Tau Huay with a different personality altogether, perhaps giving the illusion that it could be pandan-flavoured Tau Huay instead. With that, the Tau Huay was left to cool and set! Onto the main star of the day.
With so many fresh ingredients on our hands, we began to prep them. Chef Priscill went straight into it, showing us various knife skills which would definitely prove useful in the future. Her bubbly and engaging nature stole the show as she taught us seemingly mundane concepts and techniques with her own twist.
Surely, we could prepare the ingredients as we cooked the Char Kway Teow to save some time…? Wrong! Char Kway Teow is a stir fry dish, meaning that the ingredients would be tossed in relatively quick succession with little to no time between to tend to something else.
Starting with the aromatics, Chef Priscill continued to add ingredient after ingredient. She highlighted to cook the noodles first in the garlic-infused oil to enhance the texture of the noodles. Then, a combination of sweet sauce and light soy sauce was added to give the dish the distinctive dark colour of Char Kway Teow, with the participants adding different amounts to get the “darkness” they so desired.
Stirring in the rest of the ingredients, the shredded carrots, eggs, Lala clams, fishcake and Chinese sausage, in their pantry and a few minutes of stir-frying later, the participants have whipped up their very own Char Kway Teow! You could tell from the smiles on their faces that they were proud (and salivating) of their dishes!
With that, we concluded our 3 episode journey to tackle 3 different local cuisines, and we hoped that MasterChef Yang has indeed egged people on, in learning to cook. What will you cook up on your OFYP or OGEM? If you do prepare any of these dishes, do tag us on Instagram @cnyangscholars from wherever you are in the world!
We would like to sincerely thank Chef Priscill for her liveliness and for making cooking lessons fun and simple. Do drop her a follow (@taitaichef on Instagram) if you would like to see what else she teaches (you will be surprised by the sheer variety!)
Photos courtesy of Chef Priscill.
Check out the recipes here.
