With an elegant slant of blue cheese

dispositional optimism, 4-ingredient cake

Food of the week:

Kicking off strong with Quiec by Olivia’s melty cheesecake, not traditional but a full-on sensual excursion. The chocolate one’s great, but the original with a hint of blue cheese literally takes the cake. Then, skip overhyped Cafe Gyoen – crappy service killed a vibe but the food did hold up – head to Ask or Narrative instead. Both know their brew, the latter offering a smooth and rich matcha latte, which I pair with their not-so-secret sweet treat (last section). Jalan Besar continues to deliver with the creamiest, sharp mafalde and shrooms on toast at Moonchild, while new kid Romme kills a vivid hit of matcha to go with their specialty of focaccia; they do everything from kaya to garlic butter focaccia. Finally, today’s recipe is my favorite kind: throw in a bowl, whisk, done.

now that’s mushrooms on toast

Science of the week:

I get most of my insights from random podcasts or snapshots from Blinkist, i.e. one of the best investments anyone can make if you like to read/learn but feel like you don’t have time to properly sit down and catch up with a book. This week it’s James Doty on the neuroscience of manifestation, and the idea of dispositional optimism – your brain anticipates good things so your energy and behavior naturally become aligned with what you believe will happen, be it starting a business or losing 10 pounds.

Insight of the week:

I don’t know or understand much about philosophy, but a small, amateur insight for a beginner: Hegel and Kant essentially opposed each other – Hegel believed that human nature and morality can be shaped by culture and from generation to generation, while Kant believed there are universal rules for morality that people should and can stick to, like that of duty and reason (correct me if I’m wrong or add to my beginner anecdotes).

Recipe of the week:

It could be called many things: protein bread, egg bread, egg cake. My friend called it macro-coded, I call it laziness.

One thing’s for sure: it’s a no-effort, no-fuss, no-mess sort of situation cake, made from just 4 ingredients and takes less than 30 minutes from start to finish (including the bake time) to put together. It’s got bounce and is a perfect base for additional flavors if you wish to jazz it up with some dry ingredient like matcha or kinako (soybean) powder.

Ingredients:

4 eggs

150g (around 1.5 cups) almond flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

80ml maple syrup (or honey/sweetener of your choice)

optional but pretty: almond flakes for sprinkling

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 180C. Add all ingredients in a bowl and whisk together until all well combined. Pour into a prepared loaf tin and bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle emerges clean. Let cool in the tin for 10 minutes before slicing and serving. It is so perfect with greek yoghurt and an extra drizzle of maple syrup on top!