Dinner at Fran & Margaret's

Finally caught up with Fran Conan and his wife, Margaret. If you think Fran, the ang-mo looking fellow on the right, looks familiar you've probably seen him in various local TV productions playing token ang-mo roles. His biggest role was the terrorist in MediaWorks' Frontline (like it says on his T-shirt). Anyway, he's a great guy and a real professional to work with, whether onstage or behind-the-scenes. This could be our last opportunity to meet up with him and Margaret as they are returning to Winnipeg soon. Since he can't take back his rather extensive videotape collection (video format from here isn't compatible with Canada's) he gave us his entire set of Amazing Race tapes up to Season 4. June is so thrilled.

We had a simple dinner at the Conan's. A vegetable-shrimp stir-fry and Fran's specialty crock-pot pork rib stew, made from pretty much anything he could get his hands on in the kitchen and thrown into the pot to slow cook until dinnertime. He said he threw in some Grand Marnier, hollandaise sauce, barbeque sauce, a selection of assorted herbs and spices from his spice rack including some clumpy tumeric, honey, worcestershire sauce and dark soy sauce along with potatoes and celery. Margaret surprised him by throwing in some black mushrooms and fungus when he wasn't looking. The stew was delicious and the 4 of us cleaned up, leaving little room for dessert, Wall's fruit cocktail, which I like.

Nevertheless, we just had to make room for a glass of his brother's homemade Canadian ice wine, which was very sweet. Ordinarily, ice wine would be quite expensive on the market so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to sample something so hard to come by.

As they are leaving soon, they need to rent out their flat until they can legally sell it on the open market, but they're having difficulty finding a tenant, times being as they are. Anyone whom you know might want to rent a 5-room HDB in Punggol?

We're going to miss Fran and Margaret. Take care, guys!