Beauty is a Depreciation Asset

A young and pretty lady posted this on a popular forum:

Title: What should I do to marry a rich guy?

I’m going to be honest of what I’m going to say here. I’m 25 this year. I’m very pretty, have style and good taste. I wish to marry a guy with $500k annual salary or above. You might say that I’m greedy, but an annual salary of $1M is considered only as middle class in New York. My requirement is not high. Is there anyone in this forum who has an income of $500k annual salary? Are you all married?

I wanted to ask:

what should I do to marry rich persons like you? Among those I’ve dated, the richest is $250k annual income, and it seems that this is my upper limit. If someone is going to move into high cost residential area on the west of New York CityGarden(?), $250k annual income is not enough.

I’m here humbly to ask a few questions:

1. Where do most rich bachelors hang out? (Please list down the names and addresses of bars, restaurant, gym)
2. Which age group should I target?
3. Why most wives of the riches is only average-looking? I’ve met a few girls  who doesn’t have looks and are not interesting, but they are able to marry  rich guys.
4. How do you decide who can be your wife, and who can only be your girlfriend? My target now is to get married)

Ms. Pretty

Awesome reply:

Dear Ms. Pretty,

I have read your post with great interest. Guess there are lots of girls out there who have similar questions like yours.

Please allow me to analyse your situation as a professional investor. My annual income is more than $500k, which meets your requirement, so I hope everyone believes that I’m not wasting time here.

From the standpoint of a business person, it is a bad decision to marry you. The answer is very simple, so let me explain. Put the details aside, what you’re trying to do is an exchange of “beauty” and “money”: Person A provides beauty, and Person B pays for it, fair and square.

However, there’s a deadly problem here, your beauty will fade, but my money will not be gone without any good reason. The fact is, my income might increase from year to year, but you can’t be prettier year after year. Hence from the viewpoint of economics, I am an appreciation asset, and you are a depreciation asset. It’s not just normal depreciation, but exponential depreciation. If that is your only asset, your value will be much worried 10 years later. By the terms we use in Wall Street, every trading has a position, dating with you is also a “trading position”. If the trade value dropped we will sell it and it is not a good idea to keep it for long term – same goes with the marriage that you wanted. It might be cruel to say this, but in order to make a wiser decision any assets with great depreciation value will be sold or “leased”.

Anyone with over $500k annual income is not a fool; we would only date you, but will not marry you. I would advice that you forget looking for any clues to marry a rich guy. And by the way, you could make yourself to become a rich person with $500k annual income. This has better chance than finding a rich fool.

Hope this reply helps. If you are interested in “leasing” services, do contact me…

signed,

J.P. Morgan

Chinese Dumplings Recipe

Although Singapore is renowned for its diverse food culture, I have heard my own share of voices telling me that our local fare is ‘unauthentic’.

Occasionally, I will hear my Malaysian friends telling me that our ‘Char Kuey Tiao’ never taste as good as their Penang version or our Chinese counterparts proudly displaying their patriotism by saying our food is ‘mixed up’ – the result of the integration of our early immigrant ancestors’ culture with the native’s.

On a more personal note,I admit they never really taste as good as its country of origin but I do acknowledge the fact that our food still taste great, just that it’s on a ‘improvised’ level. 🙂 If you are a Singaporean, you will probably know that the truly authentic food never comes cheap. Ever paid a whopping $5 for a plate of Chinese dumplings, commonly known as Jiao Zi, 饺子 or Gyoza in a food center?

The truth is, it is so easy and affordable to make at home that after reading this post you will never ever pay for a plate of this delicacy again. You can even make them in bulk when you have the time and freeze them, only taking them out to boil on those busy weekday nights. I learned this recipe from Dizzy’s mum, a Chinese PRC, who has been making Chinese dumplings for years. So this recipe is definitely ‘authentic’!

Taste great regardless in soup, pan-fried or boiled!

Chinese Dumplings ( Yields 50 )

Ingredients

Chives 韭菜 – 600 grams

Minced pork – 500 grams

Medium-size shrimps – 25, shelled and devined

Eggs – 2, beaten

Pre-packed Gyoza skin – 3 packs

Light soy sauce – 7 tbsp ( I prefer to have mine light, you can add up to 9 tbsp if you prefer a saltier filling :))

Pepper – 1 tsp

Sesame oil – 3 tbsp

Oil – 1/2 tsp

Directions

1. Heat up a small saucepan. Add oil and spread beaten eggs to form a thin omelette, cook until golden brown, around 1 min. Set aside.

2. Wash chives by rinsing off the dirt and remove the stems. Drain all the rinsing water and chop into small pieces. Place in large mixing bowl.

3. Mince prawns with a cleaver, make sure not to leave any chunks. Place together with chopped chives.

4. Chop the omelette into small pieces after it has cooled down. Combine together with chives/prawns mixture and add in minced pork.

5. Add in light soy sauce, pepper and sesame oil. Use hands or blender to combine all ingredients, making sure everything is integrated.

6. Wrap the dumplings in the gyoza skins. If you need directions to do this, check out this video

7. You can choose to freeze some of them at this point of time. Just remember, when you need to boil them, standby 1 litre of cold water. Once the water is boiling, add the frozen dumplings. Cover and simmer at high heat until water is boiling again. Add in 1/3 of the cold water, cover and repeat the process another 2 times, until you have used up all the cold water. This will ensure your dumplings have completely defrosted and ready to eat or pan-fry once you dish them up!

Enjoy!

Hot and sour fish steak recipe

Over these years, I have never picked up the habit of eating fish despite the fact that my dad used to work in the fish market, and the well known fact that fish is a healthier meat choice due to its high level of Omega-3. Fish is always the last choice on my marketing list and I even try to avoid the seafood section in supermarkets because of all that fishy smell.

Also, Chinese believes eating more fish, especially the fish’s eyes can aid better eye sight. Maybe that’s the reason why I’m the only person in the family that has Myopia? All my sisters and parents are of PERFECT eye-sight. My dad has always chided me for not eating enough fish, so he trys to slip in some fish steaks every now and then into the fridge and ask me to cook it before it spoils.

Last Sunday, this typical episode happened again. And perhaps I had run out of ideas for lunch with Dizzy, so I decided to look up some recipes to cook the fish steaks before it rots and I get a scolding again.

The outcome was prettty unexpected! The execution of this dish had surprisingly drowned the fishy smell that I disliked and added a tangy, spicy taste to it. Be prepared to whop down a few more bowls of rice, as the sauce can really whet your appetite!

Hot and Sour Fish Steak (Yields 2)

Hot and Sour Fish Steak

Ingredients

Fresh water fish steak – 600grams

Salt – 2 tbsp

Tomato – 1, sliced into wedges

Chopped garlic – 1 tbsp

Chopped ginger – 1 tbsp

Sliced red chilli – 2 piece

Oil – 5 tbsp

Water – 200ml

Chopped green chives – 2 tbsp (optional)

Seasoning

Light soy sauce – 1 tbsp

Salt – 1/2 tsp

Sugar – 1 tbsp

Tomato sauce – 2 tbsp

Chilli sauce – 2 tbsp

White rice vinegar – 3 tbsp

Corn flour – 1 tsp, mixed with 2 tbsp of water and stirred well, for thickening

Directions
1. Rub fish steaks with salt on all sides and let it rest for 15 mins. After this, wash the steaks under water and pat dry. Set aside.

2.  Heat oil in wok and add the steaks when the oil is hot. Pan fry each side for around 2-3 mins, or until golden brown. Remove from pan and get rid of excess oil. Reserve 1 tbsp.

3. Heat up the oil, saute garlic and ginger until fragrant. Add in red chilli, tomato, water and seasoning and bring to boil.

4. Thicken with corn flour water and mix well. Pour over the fish steaks and add green chives as garnish (Optional)

5. Serve immediately!

Chinese Fried Rice recipe

I always wondered why the fried rice sold at chinese restaurants always looks like it is glistened gold with all that eggy-goodness while the ones I made at home are not.

Well, I came across the answer in the most unexpected manner.

I was watching a really cliché Taiwanese drama about an aspiring young chef who was only good at making 1 kind of food.

Make a guess? Yea, fried rice!

Although the show was crap, it clearly demonstrated how fried rice should be cooked in a chinese-restaurant style.

In order to attain that golden sheen, lots of oil and egg has to be  included… so one thing for sure, this dish is not meant for health-conscious people!

Anyway, here goes –

Good fried rice will have eggy-goodness on each and every grain of rice!

Chinese Fried Rice (Yields 2 servings)

Ingredients

Rice – 1 cup, cooked, cooled and left overnight

Vegetable oil – 5 tbsp

Eggs  – 3, beaten

Minced garlic – 1 tbsp

Prawns – 5 medium, peeled and devined

Ham – 2 pieces, sliced

‘Lap Cheong’ Chinese waxed sausages – 1 piece, sliced (Optional)

Salt – 1 tbsp

Green chives – 2 stalks

Dash of pepper

Directions

1. Combine salt and pepper to beaten eggs.

2. Stir half of the beaten eggs mixture onto rice. Make sure rice is covered with eggs mixture. Leave the rest of the mixture for scrambling later.

3. Heat oil on wok, add garlic once oil is hot. Stir fry til fragrant. *Note: having less oil will result in a dryer and less appealing rice… I only added 4 tbsp of oil as I couldn’t overcome my guilty conscious :p

4. Add in prawns, ham and wax sausages and cook til prawns have turned pink and the rest have browned. Set aside.

5. Scramble the rest of the egg mixture in the wok for 15 seconds. Add the rice and continue to stir fry until rice is completely coated with eggs and has turned golden.

6. Stir in the prawns, ham and sausages until combined. Add chives and continue to stir-fry for 1 minute.

7. Serve immediately.

The good thing about fried rice is that it is very flexible. I did not manage to finish all the rice, so i made myself a bento for lunch the next day, adding in some kimchi and pork loin asparagus as my side dish!

Kimchi, pork loin asparagus and fried rice for lunch!

Tada! Enjoy~~~

Yonia

Pasta Salad

My healthy breakfast!

My own version of healthy pasta salad! This recipe is packed with my favorite anti-oxidants and sweet tangy Italian sauce

Pasta Salad (Yields 3 serving)

Ingredients

Pasta shells – 200 grams

Salt – half tbsp

Olive oil – 1 tsp

Water – 5 cups

Red Capsicum – 1

Japanese Cucumber – 1

Whole Kernel Corn – Half cup

Picnic Ham – 150 grams

Italian salad sauce – half cup

Directions

1. Add salt and olive oil into boiling water. Pour in pasta shells and cook for 13 minutes or until al dente.

2. Remove seeds from capsicums and cucumber and dice them together with picnic ham. Set aside.

3. After pasta shells are done, remove from heat and drain water. Make sure all water is removed, else use a salad spinner to get rid of excess water.

4. Add pasta, capsicum, cucumber, ham and corn together. Toss til combined and chill for at least half an hour.

5. Add Italian sauce only when ready to serve or it will turn soggy!

Voila!

Enjoy~

Yonia

Baby back ribs recipe

Hey yo! I have been wanting to post the recipe for baby back ribs for the longest time, but it’s really not easy to find this succulent piece of meat in Singapore. Finally I found it at Carrefour! Again, like other “angmoh” ingredients, the price don’t come cheap.

But I’m such a sucker for western food! In the end, I wasted no time in getting the best slab of ribs and was already in ectasy by the time I reached the cashier.

Anyways, here goes!

Broiled to divine goodness!

BBQ Baby Back Ribs (Yields 1 serving)

Baby back ribs – 1 rack

Marinade

Garlic salt – 1 tbsp

Brown sugar – 1 tbsp

Paprika powder – 1 tsp

Pepper – half tsp

BBQ sauce – 1 cup

Directions

1. Rub all dry ingredients onto ribs in the following order – garlic salt, brown sugar, pakprika powder, pepper. Leave for 15 minutes. Place ribs in a zip-lock bag and pour BBQ sauce into the bag, make sure the whole ribs is covered. Chill for 24 hours or longer.

2. Pre-heat oven at 110 degrees Celsius. Remove ribs from marinate and place it on a large piece of aluminum foil. Wrap the ribs tightly in the foil and pop into oven. Bake at 110 degree Celsius for 3 hours and if possible, 4. Remove ribs from aluminum foil every 1 hour to add more BBQ sauce to the meat. This will ensure the meat falls off the bones when it’s done!

3.  After 4 hours of baking, remove ribs from foil and place ribs on a broiler rack. Add more sauce again. Broil on high for 15 minutes or until the sauce has caramelized and meat has browned nicely.

4. Serve with a side salad (optional)

Voila!

Enjoy~~

Yonia

Anti-anaemia remedy 2 – Asian Spinach Soup

Woo hoo! I found another iron-rich food to add to my anti-anaemia diet – Spinach!

This recipe is fast and flexible. Most importantly, it doesn’t add on to the calories 🙂

Simple and heart-warming!

Asian Spinach Soup ( yields 2 servings)

Ingredients

Home-made chicken stock (or add 4 tbsp of Konbu 昆布 powder with 5 tbsp of concentrated chicken stock to make instant soup) – 5 cups

Spinach – A handful, cut into 4 quarters

1 egg – beaten

Whole kernel corn – half a cup

Soy sauce – 1 tbsp

A dash of sesame oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Heat chicken stock over high heat until boiling

2. Add spinach into soup and cook until soften. Scoop up and set aside.

3. Using a chopstick, add the beaten egg slowly into the hot soup while whisking soup (beware, it can be hot!). Make sure egg is whisked slowly until fluffy, around 30 seconds. Remove from heat.

4. Pour soup into bowl and stir in spinach. Top with whole kernel corn.

5. Add sesame oil, salt and pepper (optional). Serve immediately.

This whole process only took me 15 minutes!

It’s an awesome idea for working mums and single ladies who are in need of some iron and protein… or simply want to cut down on fattening dinners.

Enjoy!

Yonia

My anti-anaemia remedy – Beef Yaki Udon

My 2009 resolution was to stay healthy and lose some weight… So I went for a routine medical check-up and guess what?

I was diagnosed with mild anaemia. Can you believe it? I mean, which part of my oversize frame suggest that I’m anaemic?

*Roll eyes*

Anyway, in order to boost my red blood cells I have to increase my intake of iron-rich food.

For a start, I need to eat BEEF. Lots of beef. Cos’ red meat contains the most iron.

Unfortunately, this is not exactly my favorite meat so I’m required to come up with many different ways of preparing my beef.

So, here’s a recipe fpr my dinner today:

My dinner for tonight!

Beef Yaki Udon  (1 serving)

Sliced Beef – 100 grams

Instant udon – 200 grams (prepacked)

Small red onion – 1 (sliced)

Green chive – 2 stalks (cut into sections)

Garlic – 1 clove (minced)

Oil – 3 tbsp ( I used olive oil)

Coriandar – 1 stalk (Optional)

Marinate (For beef)

Mirin – 1 tbsp

Light soy sauce – 1 tbsp

Dash of sesame oil and pepper

Sauce

Mirin – 2 tbsp

Oyster sauce – 2 tbsp

Soy sauce – 1 tsp

Water – 2 tbsp

Sesame oil – 1 tsp

Red pepper  – 1 tsp (optional)

Directions

1. Combine all the marinating ingredients and pour over sliced beef. Refridgerate for an hour or overnight.

2. Mix all the ingredients for sauce in a mixing bowl. Whisk until combined. Set aside.

3. Pour boiling water over udon  just enough to cover. Once the udon has soften and separated, drain the water. Set aside.

4. Heat a wok or pan on high heat and add oil. Add minced garlic followed by red onion and stir fry until fragrant.

5. Add the beef in and brown til half-cooked. Set aside. *The secret here is to add the beef when the wok is super hot, almost smoking and toss them in the hot oil for less than a min before dishing it up*

6. With some sauce left in the wok, add the udon noodles. Once the noodles looks a little brown, add the chives and beef. Pour the sauce in and stir- fry for another 1 minute to make sure the noodles absorb the sauce.

7. Assemble onto plate and add coriandar as garnish.

Tada!!! Hope you will enjoy!

Yonia

Chocolate dipped strawberries

I was looking for ingredients to make chocolate dipped strawberries at Cold Storage the other day and I came across some really pretty ones indeed. But good things don’t come cheap.. these fruits cost me almost 16bucks!

But the results were really sweet and juicy strawberries half covered in milky chocolate! It’s totally different from those frozen strawberries that you can purchase in MOS Burgers.

Here’s the recipe!

Sweeeeeeeeeet

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries (Yields 16 pieces)

Ingredients

Strawberries –  16 pieces

Semi-sweet Chocolate or milk chocolate bar – 250 grams

Butter – 50 grams

Milk – 50 ml

Directions

1. Wash and pat dry strawberries.

2. Melt chocolate over a double-boiler. Once chocolate has slightly soften, add in the butter to the mixture.

3. Combine milk to the chocolate and whisk til smooth. Remove from heat.

4. Pierce the tip (center of the leave) of each strawberry with a toothpick.

5. Hold the strawberry by the toothpick and rotate the fruit into the chocolate so that the chocolate sticks smoothly on the strawberry.

6. Place each dipped fruit on parchment paper and chill until ready to serve.

Voila! Enjoy~

Yonia

Valentine’s Day cookies!

I have a love-hate relationship with most ” hyped-up” festive seasons here in Singapore.

Most of the time, I would love to join in the fun but it’s just freakin’ expensive to dine out or simply go to a club on such occasions.

Chinese New Year has just passed and I haven’t even recover from all the New Year goodies catastrophe and then came Valentine’s Day . I was racking my brains thinking of what to make for Dizzy on our 4th V day together and voila! I found what I need on my favourite magazine Nonno.

Here’s the result of my experimentation:

Chocolate heart-shape cookies for ma' man!

It was so easy to make and the only problem I had was finding the heart-shape cutter for it.

Luckily, the shop that I swear by my life — DAISO — did not fail me and I found the cutest looking cookie and vegetable cutter there for only 2 bucks!!!!

Since the original recipe is in Japanese, I will be providing the translated version here for the benefit of everyone!

Chocolate Heart Cookies ( チョコレートハートクッキー )

Ingredients (Yields 15 servings)

Butter – 100 grams

Sugar – 70 grams

Egg Yolk – 1

Semi-sweet or milk chocolate bar – 60 grams

All-purpose flour – 170 grams

Corn Starch – 30 grams

Cocoa Powder – 15 grams

Directions
1. Soften butter at room temperature and place into a mixing bowl. Add in sugar and whisk until both ingredients has combined (mixture turns whitish-yellow). Stir in the egg yolk and continue to whisk til combined.

2. Melt chocolate bar over a double-boiler until it liquidfies. Combine mixture 1 together with it.

3. Combine all-purpose flour, corn starch and cocoa powder and sieve this into the chocolate mixture. You should get a thick sturdy dough after this.

4. Knead the dough into a ball and use cling-wrap to cover it tightly. Chill it in the refridgerator for 1 hour or overnight.

5. Remove the dough after chilling it and flatten it out using a roller. You can do this while the dough is still wrapped in cling-wrap. *Warning: Do not over flatten! Give a wide range of 1-1.5cm height in order for the cookies to turn out pretty*

6. After flattening to the desired size, use the cookie cutter to cut heart shapes out of the dough. Place cookies on a bakin dish and bake for 8 mins at 170 degress Celsius. You may choose to ice the cookies after it has totally cooled down.

Hope you will enjoy this recipe!

Yonia