My first paid job

I was first introduced to Earl Grey tea when I was waitressing in Coffee Club Singapore - the branch at Holland Village. I had then just completed my GCE 'A' levels exam and was waiting to enter university in Sydney. That is an experience I relish tremendously. Somehow, I enjoyed waiting on tables, taking orders, serving food and ringing tills. Somehow, being around food and people gave me alot of joy. I also loved to people watch. At Coffee Club, I witnessed first dates and break ups; I observed how certain male customers would walk into the joint hand in hand with a different girl each time; I overheard conversations whereby women of a certain nationality plotted to cheat male retirees of their CPF savings. At Coffee Club, I met with some total nut cases from hell, and also some very nice folks who eventually became my friends. I still remember my biggest tip was SGD5 - very small compared to servers at high end restaurant, but it made my day nevertheless. OK. So back to Earl Grey tea. Coffee Club's best seller was Iced Earl Vanilla - essentially, a blend of iced earl grey tea, sugar syrup and vanilla ice cream. Or so I suspect. I never did quite witness the preparation of this beverage, but it is not a difficult guess. Since then, Earl Grey has been my favourite tea blend. It has a distinct aroma derived from the addition of oil extracted from the rind of the bergamot orange. I know not everyone fancies Earl Grey - it's an acquired taste.

My parents visited over the weekend. Alvin and I had good, wholesome fun hanging out with them. They are such conversational and interested (and interesting) people, I love spending time with them. I wish they had stayed longer. They left back for Singapore on Sunday morning, and then my baking itch started. Because I was too lazy to make a trip to the supermarket, I tried to make do with whatever raw ingredients I had in the pantry. Inspired by my new Valentine's Day present from Alvin and love for Earl Grey tea, I decided to whip up an Earl Grey panna cotta to take to the office today. On hind sight, I should have used less gelatine and sugar and also applied normal cream and not thick cream, so I have corrected the recipe here so that you get better results than I did.

Earl Grey Panna Cotta

Adapted from Anna Hansen's recipe in Coco

Makes 6 small glasses

150ml milk

300ml cream

50g sugar

3 gelatin leaves

1 tablespoon Earl Grey tea leaves 

Pinch of salt

Bring the milk, cream and sugar to boil in a pan.

Add the tea leaves to the boiling mixture. Remove from heat and let steep for 30 minutes.

Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and heat to a boil again. Once mixture reaches a boil, remove from heat.

Separately, soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for a minute or two to soften. Remove excess water from gelatin leaves.

Add gelatin leaves to hot mixture. Stir till gelatin leaves dissolve completely.

Fill molds with panna cotta. Be careful not to stain the sides. If this happens, wipe the spillage with a wet tissue immediately.

Cool the glass containers uncovered at room temperature. When cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight before serving.