GETAI CHALLENGE 歌台星力量 (Episode 5 : 29 June 2015)

Here are for the fans out there, photos and video which I managed to snap at the recording session of Getai Challenge on 22 May 2015.  Not many though, since they did not actually allow taking of photos and videos initially.

Getai Challenge (歌台星力量) TV programme is being telecast on MediaCorp’s Channel 8, at 8pm, every Monday.  The recording session (Episode 5) which I went to was telecast tonight.  There are going to be 13 episodes for this programme.

From left to right – Emcees : Wang Wei Liang (王伟良), Pornsak and contestants : Xie Wei Na (谢伟娜), Cheng Ze (承泽) & Xiu Ping (秀萍), Luo Yi Qi (罗翊绮) & Bao Bei Sisters (宝贝姐妹)

 

Contestants : Zhu Li Li (朱莉莉), 2Z Sisters (2Z 姐妹), Li Bao En (李宝恩) & Chen Jian Bin (陈建彬)

Contestants : Hao Hao (皓皓) and Huang Zhen Long (黄振隆). 

Seen on the screens were the judges for episode 5 (left to right) : Huang Lei (黄雷), Liu Ling Ling (刘玲玲), Irene Ang (洪爱玲) & Lin Qi Yu (林倛玉)

Chen Jian Bin & Li Bao En listening to comments from the judges after their performance.  Their unique costumes might have won them some additional points.  Chen emerged as the winner in this episode and maintained his number 1 position since episode 1.

Pornsak is definitely one good and talented emcee but I think the chemistry of emceeing would be very different and even better if Pornsak were to partner with Mark Lee (李国煌) instead.

While the judges were busy finalising the results for this round of challenge behind the stage, audience were treated with some entertainments by a few of the younger contestants.  Here’s what I have put together – their performances which were not shown on TV.

It was new to me that these Getai singers do have their pools of fans too, many of whom are middle-aged or senior citizens.  This goes to say how little I know about Getai.  Just like the fans of Mandopop or K-Pop singers, these Getai fans seem to follow their idols through their performances everywhere.  I learned about this when I briefly chatted with one of the fans while waiting to get into the theatre for the recording session.   In fact, she (a fan of Hao Hao) asked if I would like to join the group as a fan, and she offered me a T-shirt (with Hao Hao’s name printed on it) to wear into the theatre.  I politely declined.

If I remember correctly, Getai began to gain its increasing popularity after the movie 881 (by Royston Tan) in 2007.  There have also been annual Getai Awards in recent years, to honour popular Getai singers.  Surely these Getai singers deserved to be recognised and awarded too.  In my opinion, Getai is one important cultural aspect of Singapore and it needs to be preserved.  It is good to see that there are actually quite many young Getai singers.  They sure boost the vibrancy of Getai performances.  I don’t have any issues with Getai singers speaking/singing in dialects like Hokkien, Cantonese etc. on stage but I think it is time for them to do away with all the less refined jokes or raunchy contents, and raise the sophistication level of Getai performances.

If you are interested to find out more about Getai in Singapore, Singapore Infopedia offers a good read.

Entertaining Getai Challenge  (歌台星力量) But With Pains (my previous posting).

SHARE A COKE

Come, Share A Coke with Qing!

The “Share A Coke” Campaign debuted in Australia in the summer of 2011/12.  It has arrived in Singapore for the first time, and now making its rounds on the island, in celebration of SG50 (Singapore’s 50th Birthday on 9 August 2015), as I understood from one of the staff at the Coca-Cola Roadshow.  Oops, SG50 again?  I think we are getting SG50-overload these few months!  Anyway…..

I can’t remember when was the last time I had a glass/can of Coke or any other gassy drinks.  Gassy drinks are just not my cup of tea.  However, I find this personalised can of Coke too hard to resist.  It requires a minimum spend of S$10 on Coco-Cola trademark products in order to get it.  Not that much, I think.

So I parted S$13+ from my wallet, and brought home 6 cans each of Coke, Coke Light and Coke Zero.

Surely, it is unlikely that hubby and I are going to consume them all.  Before I bought them, I happily thought that it would be a good idea to give them away to people like the cleaners of my block or children from low-income families.  After all, Share A Coke is about spreading happiness.  But alas, a surprise when I opened up the packs!  The cans have words such as You’re The Best, BFF, Chio, I Love You, I Miss You, Dude, Hubby & Wifey printed on them!  Most of these expressions are just not appropriate for the people I have in mind. 😦

I have taken time to speak with the staff at the roadshow to find out what the campaign is all about, how to preserve my personalised can without opening it etc., but I missed taking notice of the small prints at the bottom of the pack or I would have made a clarification first.  It says “This pack contains a mix of limited edition can designs.  So words said to be terms commonly used or classic expressions in Singapore, have been printed on these cans to make them a limited edition.

I have decided that I should keep a few cans for our own consumption but how can I best make use of the rest?  I am still thinking about this.  18 cans will be too much to consume, and 12 of them are expiring by the end of this year.

HOME-MADE CHAR SIEW

I have not been eating pork since my secondary school days.  I am not a vegetarian (as you can see from my postings on food) and I can never be one since I love seafood.  It is also not due to any religious reason but a scary story about some sort of bacteria found in pork (if not cooked properly) that my biology teacher told the class in my secondary school.  Since I trusted my teacher (and I suppose all students do), and there was no way to verify the truth of that story then (internet was not available yet), I became paranoid and kiasi (a Hokkien word meaning afraid to die).  So I stopped eating pork completely.

Many years later, I did try to eat a bit of pork again but I have somehow become very sensitive to its smell, and still don’t feel comfortable eating it.  Memory of that scary story can’t seem to go away too, even after such a long time.  So, you can imagine that my hubby has been deprived of pork at our dining table but I am trying to make a change, though not a drastic one.  I began to cook pork in recent years but only very occasionally, so that hubby can have some rare treats.  I had been able to do only two pork dishes – Lor Bak (Chinese braised pork) and Bak Kut Teh (pork ribs soup with herbs and spices).  A few months ago, I expanded my list of pork dishes a little bit by adding Char Siew onto it.  It was my third time making Char Siew yesterday, so we had Char Siew rice with braised beancurd for dinner.  I could see that hubby was satisfied with it, and of course, that made my day.

Hubby’s portion with a lot more Char Siew. 

My Char Siew was prepared with reference to the recipe found on this website called Guai Shu Shu (click here for the recipe and instructions).

I used fresh pork fillets which are normally lean and suitable for Char Siew, according to the butcher in the Fairprice Finest outlet that I went to.  About 250g only.

Pork was marinated with lots of ingredients as per the recipe with quantity adjusted to fit the amount of pork used.  I also used less five-spice powder and sugar but more honey, and I did not use the red fermented beancurd since that’s more for colouring effect.

The meat was kept in the chiller for 3 days.  I took it out every day to toss it around in order to get a more even marination.

I used a different method to cook it.  It was a two-step method which I came across somewhere on the internet.

Firstly, it was cooked in a wok, using small fire, until the gravy turned thick (see next photo), and then it was roasted

Since I didn’t have skewers, I used bamboo sticks instead.  A cake tray lined with aluminium foil was used to hold the sticks.  The cooked meat was brushed with honey before being put into the oven.

It was roasted at 180 degree Celsius for about 8 mins, brushed with another layer of honey, and put back in the oven for another 7 mins. 

You would probably wonder why I put a layer of aluminium each in the baking tray and also on the chopping board (above).  That was just to make it easy for my cleaning.  Just see how dirty the base of the tray was after the Char Siew was removed.  It would be a chore to scrub the dirt off.

The Char Siew tasted great but I would say it didn’t have the same exact taste as the Char Siew bought from stalls.  The missing reddish look did not really matter.  So, it was nice to be able to have home made Char Siew this way.