Still Feeling Peckish

I grew up liking the colour green. And this preference has stuck and friends know that because my iPad case, water bottle, pencil case and files are all green in colour, and to be accurate a cheery shade of lime green! When I was a kid our family home was undergoing a repainting and for some reason my dear indulgent dad painted the house a light shade of green. I never asked for it but one day it just happened. If you know houses in Singapore, that was not a common shade and we had the dubious distinction of standing out in the neighborhood for the next few years until it was time to repaint again.

I realise in food however that apart from vegetables, green is a rather surprising colour. Some years ago we had some visiting professors who had come as external examiners for our post-graduate exams. The office staff had bought light and fluffy pandan chiffon cake for tea time, which, to any Singaporean is perfectly normal and in fact, would constitute a really happy meal. But I remember them looking bug-eyed at the green cake and politely turning it away. I was taken aback because in my book there is nothing that speaks more about South-East Asia than the pandan-coconut flavour combination and, well…green just happens to be the colour of pandan leaves.

Anyway in this part of the world, green is common in pandan desserts like kueh salat, or pandan coconut jellies. So I guess this recipe is probably more for my Asian friends.

I’ve been mulling a lot lately about what people eat for breakfast. Most Singaporeans grab and go, and besides breakfast noodles and rice porridge which you are obliged to sit down to eat, most breakfast options are on the go, like kaya toast or curry puffs. I remember when working in NY, I used to be dumbfounded watching the other fellows demolishing giant muffins in the morning. Back home, muffins are probably a third of the size of those American goliaths. So the muffins I made were in smaller cup cases. I guess if I made them any bigger they would have looked Incredible Hulk-ish. As it was, the muffins looked very green but the flavour and texture speaks of my home in South East Asia.