Aunty Lee's Chilled Revenge (26 page)

OVIDIA YU
is one of Singapore's best-known and most acclaimed writers. Since dropping out of medical school to write for theater, she has had more than thirty plays produced in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, including the Edinburgh Fringe First Award–winning play, “The Woman in a Tree on the Hill.”

She is the author of
Aunty Lee's Delights
and
Aunty Lee's Deadly Specials,
and a number of other mysteries that have been published in Singapore and India. Ovidia Yu received a Fulbright Fellowship to attend the University of Iowa's International Writers Program, and has been a writing fellow at the National University of Singapore. She speaks frequently at literary festivals and writers' conferences throughout Asia.

Despite her writing career, when she is recognized in Singapore it is usually because of her stint as a regular celebrity guest on Singapore's version of the American television game show, “Pyramid.”

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1.
      
At the start of the novel we learn that the victim, Allison Love, had been run out of town by animal activists. Was their outrage warranted? What does Allison (and furry Lola's) story say about social media and its powers? Are we meant to sympathize with Allison or the activists?

   
2.
      
The narrator tells us: “[Inspector Salim] was aware his country's strength came from its ability to attract the best and brightest of foreign talent. Like he had learned as a boy breeding guppies, for the best colors you had to constantly add specimens caught in different canals to vary the gene pool.” Do you think this is an accurate description of Aunty Lee's Singapore? Are there pros and cons to its highly diverse society?

   
3.
      
“As a foreign domestic worker, Nina was exposed to a lot more of the hidden underside of people. Nina had observed that people were generally worse than they appeared socially. . . .” Do you agree? Which characters have a hidden underside? How are those undersides revealed?

   
4.
      
Josephine de la Vega, a former Miss Singapore who feels increasingly washed up, has pinned her hopes on marrying expat Mike as a way to get out of a country where she increasingly feels trapped. Is she right to feel that way? Why does marriage seem like the only possible out to her?

   
5.
      
“Life would be so much simpler if people said what they thought,” Aunty Lee reflects. True or untrue? Does Aunty Lee herself always say what she thinks?

   
6.
      
Do you agree with Cherril's decision to keep her abortion a secret, despite, as Aunty Lee points out, that it was perfectly legal? Was her mother-in-law right to hire a detective to discover Cherril's secrets before she married the family's only son?

   
7.
      
How does Aunty Lee get to the truth about Vallerie's identity? How did the infamous Allison Love manage to hide in plain sight for so long in a place where she was so infamous?

   
8.
      
Who is Aunty Lee thinking of when she reflects: “The reason cold dishes were complicated was the multiple cooking methods involved. . . . A cold, savory mold called for design, execution and presentation. It was the same thing with creating the perfect revenge.”

K
ONNYAKU
is a traditional Japanese high fiber health food that has recently taken Singapore by storm, especially as a substitute for gelatin in jelly desserts. Konnyaku jelly molds come in a range of designs, from sheets of 8 mini-molds each (this recipe fills 2 sheets) to large animal or cartoon character shaped molds.

Ingredients:

2 cups of ripe mango cubes 10g packet of Konnyaku powder Water

Instructions:

Distribute half the mango cubes in the jelly molds.

Blend the other half of the mango to a puree and add enough water to make up 1 liter. (Instructions on the packet will probably tell you to add sugar, but it's not necessary if you are using mango puree.)

Heat the mango-water mixture in a pan and stir in the konnyaku powder.

Bring to a gentle boil, stirring till the konnyaku has completely dissolved (about 5 minutes) then turn off the flame.

Ladle the thick liquid over the fruit in the molds.

Chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours before unmolding.

T
RADITIONAL MOONCAKES
consist of a “moon,” usually represented by a salted duck egg yolk, surrounded by a sweet filling encased in a decorated pastry shell. Most Singaporeans leave mooncake making to professionals but others, like Aunty Lee, love a hands-on challenge, especially when it comes to a tradition of several hundred years!

Note on molds: Mooncakes molds come in two sizes, regular and small. There are some really lovely traditional hand carved wooden molds as well as modern plastic plunger molds. But for hundreds of years mooncakes were shaped into rounds or squares and decorated by hand (legend has it, with secret messages) so you can do the same.

Ingredients for 8 regular-sized mooncakes:

Filling:

2 12-oz. cans of lotus seeds cooked in water

¾ cup of sugar (or more to taste)

Pinch of salt

6 tablespoons of peanut oil (lard is traditional if you can get it and don't mind the smell)

8 salted duck egg yolks (Be sure you buy salted duck eggs and not fertilized duck eggs, which are a delicacy elsewhere in Asia but would be unsuitable and possibly shocking here. Remove whites, rinse yolks, coat yolks with peanut oil, and steam for about 10 minutes over low heat. If translucent, the yolks are still raw. They should be yellow gold and crumbly.)

Pastry:

1 cup of flour

Pinch of salt

Pinch of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

¼ cup of golden syrup

½ teaspoon of Lye water (This alkali solution is what puts springy chewiness in egg noodles and Japanese ramen. You can make a baking soda substitute—boil 1 teaspoon of baking soda in 4 cups of water for 5 minutes and use when cool.)

2 tablespoons of peanut oil

Flour for dusting surfaces and molds

Egg wash (one egg beaten with 2 tablespoons of water) for glazing

Pastry:

Sift the flour, salt, and baking soda into a bowl. Make a well in the center.

Whisk together the golden syrup, Lye water, and peanut oil in a separate bowl (the mixture will not be homogenous). Pour slowly, stirring the liquids into the flour, forming a dough. Gently knead this until it comes together in a lump. Cover and set aside to rest for two hours.

Lotus Filling:

Drain the canned lotus seeds and place them in a food processor with sugar and a tablespoon or two of water and blend until smooth.

Transfer to a pan and stir over medium heat until the puree thickens.

Add the peanut oil and continue stirring until the lotus puree forms a glossy dough that leaves the side of the pan. This should take about 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and set aside.

Compiling

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Gently knead the rested dough mixture. Divide into 8 balls and place on a floured tray.

Roll the lotus paste into a long tube and cut into 8 pieces.

Press each egg yolk on a cushion of lotus paste and form a ball around it.

Roll and flatten (or flatten with your palm, village style!) a lump of dough and wrap it around a ball of lotus paste (thinner skins are considered more elegant, but thicker skins are easier to work with), and press the edges together until the filling is sealed in. Some people prefer to roll out two small balls of dough, wrapping one around the filling and the second over it in the opposite direction.

Dust your mold with flour and press the ball of dough in firmly.

If you are using a plastic plunger mold, press the handle (over a floured surface) and release your mooncake.

If you are using a traditional wooden mold, flip it over and tap to release your mooncake (it may take several taps).

If you are molding your mooncakes by hand, the traditional shapes are rounds and squares, but there are also house-shaped and fish-shaped mooncakes, so set your imagination free!

Place your mooncakes on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

When you're finished forming the mooncakes, bake in your preheated oven for 8 minutes.

Remove the mooncakes from the oven and glaze the tops and sides with egg wash.

Return the mooncakes to the oven for another 10 minutes or until golden brown on top and fragrant.

Now comes the hardest part. You have to wait two days for your mooncakes to reach their prime! After your mooncakes cool completely, store them for at least two days in an airtight container to “return oil” from filling to skin. This will make the skins shiny and soft and the fillings less oily.