Porridge for New Year's Eve!

I cooked up something special for my dinner today:

It's really very simple. Pre-cooked rice, a couple of fish slices (cut to shreds), a couple of eggs, half a stick of celery, and a few coriander stalks. And of course, for added flavour, some oyster sauce, margarine, salt, MSG and lots of pepper. I think I might be getting a bit better at this cooking thingy. These days I find I don't have to consistently taste my food while I'm cooking, I just add in whatever it is I want (including the oh-so-important salt and pepper) and only taste it after it's out of the pot and in a bowl. Previously, if I didn't keep tasting while I was cooking, everything would be overly salty or too bland. These days everything tastes just nice. I think I'll call this dish Eggy Fish Porridge with Celery and Coriander.

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone.

15 bucks well-spent!

So I finally got to visit the place that my buddies have been telling me about, this shop selling western food. Pete's Western (or previously known as Scotland Western or something like that) is somewhere near 4th mile (I think), just opposite Boulevard and beside Everrise. I was looking forward to it, mainly because my buddies have visited it so often and always told me I should try it out. So my buddies and I went there for dinner today.

My first impression of the shop was that it looked pretty much like any other shop selling western food, as in they had the usual countertop with the kitchen behind, the typical faux wood tables and chairs, and the worn-out menus and staff. At least this place was air-conditioned. The food was relatively cheap though: I ordered the baked fettucine carbonara with cheese (RM8.50), tomato soup (RM4.50) and a can of Coke (RM2). I waited, not expecting much. When the food arrived I was pleasantly surprised. Very pleasantly surprised. The tomato soup came with two pieces of garlic bread, but these ones were very thick and not overly toasted/burnt, so it didn't feel like you were just munching on sawdust (like some of the other more popular shops selling similar food). The Coke, well, it's just your usual can of Coke. But the pasta, now that's what I call quality! It was, for lack of a better word, simply fantastic! The portions were generous, the sauce was tasty and creamy, and the texture of the pasta was perfect, still al dente (some cooks here boil pasta until it becomes a soggy mess because they think al dente pasta equals uncooked pasta). Best of all, the cheese tasted like real cheese. I was very, very pleased with my meal. And like trishie says, 15 bucks for 3 dishes (counting the Coke) is really worth your money.

So here are some shots of the night. This one here is of trish waiting patiently for her food to arrive... She always has the best facial expressions:

And the pictures below are obviously of my can of Coke, tomato soup with garlic bread, and fantastic fettucine carbonara:

I am definitely planning on going back to that place, at least once more before I have to leave for my further studies. Which only leaves one thing left for me to say: So, dear buddies of mine, when are we going again? Cheers people!

Handmade pasta!

Eureka! I finally did it! I made my own pasta from scratch! Muahahahaha! I've always wanted to try my hand at making my own fresh pasta, but I never succeeded (or rather the so-called product was so rubbery and gross I had to throw it away). After the last pasta-making experiment I told myself it wasn't worth the trouble (and the mess!) and that I'd just stick to buying pasta out of a packet.

Tonight (it's actually almost 2 in the morning so that would more accurately make it last night) I was feeling really hungry and in need of a good munch, but there was nothing edible lying around. So I decided to do the next best thing and attempt another pasta experiment. I wasn't sure if I could use just normal old flour (most pasta are made from semolina), so I checked some recipe books and confirmed that yes, it was possible to make pasta from 'normal' flour. So I cracked an egg, added a pinch of salt, and mixed in flour until I had the required consistency (don't ask me the exact amount of flour I used, I didn't measure!). I kneaded the dough, rolled it out as thin as it would go with a rolling pin, and used a knife to slice it up into thin ribbons (also not measured, so I had uncooked pasta dough of irregular widths). Proceeded to pop them ribbons into boiled water (liberally salted) for approximately a minute. Sieved them out, popped them into some room temperature water, then started on my sauce. This is where I ran into some complications. I originally was hoping to make a creamy mushroom sauce but there were no mushrooms lying around (or growing under the stools) so had to forget my yummy mushroom gravy. Thought about a carbonara sauce but didn't have enough eggs. Didn't even have butter to make a decent sauce. So I thought, oh well, let's just make do with what we have. So I made a roux from margarine and flour and some water. Then I spotted the garlic. The lightbulb in my little brain went off. I grabbed one measly garlic clove and grated that into the mixture bubbling away in the pot. Threw in some salt and MSG, and a very generous amount of pepper. Then tossed in all the pasta I'd made and added in the last slice of cheese left in the fridge. Gave everything a vigorous stir and poured it into my trusty bowl. Mind you, I thought it'd all end up a disaster of a dish right from the very start of this experiment, so imagine my surprise when I had my first mouthful of tasty, creamy pasta! I was so chuffed!

So now I've got another recipe to add to my culinary repertoire, albeit from the simplest and most basic of ingredients. Bear in mind though, this one takes a long time to prepare. I must have spent an hour or so in the kitchen, but it was all worth it. And now, at least for a while, I've satisfied my craving for pasta... Cheers!

2 Dinners And 1 Supper

It's been two nights of feasting, and I know for a fact that my blue jeans don't fit anymore. It's funny how food can influence a person's emotions. Like, when there's good food (or when I'm anticipating good food), I'm really one of the happiest people to be around. When the food isn't that good (or if it sinks beneath my expectations), I can't help but feel rather disappointed. The last two nights have been great though.

On Saturday some of my relatives came over, so that night we had a great home-cooked dinner. We had fried chicken, roasted beef (with gravy, yummy!), stir-fried vegetables, bubur cha cha, and soy bean milk to wash it all down.

Last night was grand too. My church had a dinner at Crown Square, and the whole place was filled with people. The 8-course meal included the cold dish (consisting of spring rolls, sushi and some sweet-and-sour meat thing), soup, sweet-and-sour fish, roasted duck with pineapples, chicken cooked with wine, noodles, mixed fruits, and fruitcake.

Because of the free-flowing drinks, I must have had 8 or 9 (maybe even 10!) glasses of Coke. And after all that, I still thought it'd be nice to try out the double cheese moo - is that what it's called? - from Chicago7. By the time I got to eat (had to wait for a few hours to clear up some space in my stomach) it was kinda cold, but it was still juicy. The beef patties (was it beef? I'm not very good at distinguishing between the various meats!) was well salted, maybe a little too well salted, and the tomato, cucumber and lettuce really added a refreshing crunch to the burger. The best thing - of course! - was the two cheese slices. Unlike some other burger franchises, you could really taste the cheese in this one. Not bad really, this burger for RM5 plus.

So now I've got to think of ways to get rid of some excess baggage. I've got approximately 45 days before I leave for my further studies, and really, I was thinking of bringing my favourite items of clothing (most of which I can't fit into these days)... So cheers you all, and here's looking forward to the last 3 days of 2009!

Curly Spaghetti

So the other day I went out shopping with triSh and we stumbled upon this curious little packet sitting nonchalantly on the shelves amidst a crowd of dried pasta and bottled sauces. If you know me, you know I like anything pasta, so of course I had to grab this precious little parcel of Curly Spaghetti. I mean, spaghetti in 4 minutes is really a very attractive notion, and it was only 1 buck and 80 cents, so I guess I thought I'd give it a try.

It was only tonight (oh wait it's past 2 a.m. now so that would make it last night) that I decided to cook it up. Y'know, it being Christmas and all I thought it'd be nice to have a little something tasty for supper. So I cooked up my packet of instant, "ready in 4 minutes" spaghetti. Even got out some cheese from the fridge to garnish, that was how much I was looking forward to it.

Really, all the signs were there, if only I'd bothered to take heed. Firstly, there's no way you can cook up a decent pasta meal in under 4 minutes. Okay, it's possible, but it's just not gonna taste as good as the real thing. Secondly, when I opened the packet and took out the 'pasta', it looked exactly like instant noodles (read: Maggi). Even smelled like it. Thirdly, I wondered how long the "yummy red sauce" (yes it really does say that on the packet) had been sitting in its little individually-wrapped packet. Convinced myself not to think about it.

Cooked it, drained it, mixed it with the aforementioned red sauce and my precious slice of cheese. Tasted it. Frowned. Hmmm... If you'd just cooked a packet of instant noodles, smashed up some Twisties (barbeque or tomato flavour) and mixed it with the noodles, you'd get something similar to what I tasted. The portion was very very small, and the smell wasn't right, and the taste was definitely nowhere near what I expected (ever so excitedly) but hey, it's quite addictive, really. All I could think of afterwards, with more than a pinch of sarcasm, was:

And I'm officially 24...

This is how I celebrated last night:

Happy birthday to me!

Welcome home, Lappie!

Saturday, 28th November 2009 - what a day to remember. I brought home my new friend on that beautiful day, and when I switched it on, it literally blew me away, I was so impressed. You might have guessed by now - the picture above is surely a great hint - that I'm talking about my new lappie. My old one has been giving me some trouble for quite a while now, and I don't see why not, after all it's nearly 5 years old (ancient by laptop standards), and although it's been a faithful friend, I thought it was time to put it to rest. Coincidentally, the PIKOM PC Fair was going on, so it was very convenient, no waiting around eagerly, albeit impatiently, for the postman to come with his precious cargo.

Everything's so fast, so brilliant, so shiny and new! I haven't even removed the plastic cling wrap that protects some of its surfaces! And best of all, I don't need to download various programs to open up my videos and stuff, in fact I can play my multimedia files using just one program! Shock and awe! And all this while I thought I was being so clever... All my technologically-superior friends must have been snickering and smirking behind my back. Oh the shame! And I got so used to going through long and winding procedures just to connect to the Internet, that I spent almost an entire day trying to figure out the same with my new lappie. I was so embarrassed when I finally realized I just needed to press one little button. Oh the shame, times two! And with my old lappie, it could take anywhere from 5 to 15 or even 20 minutes for Internet Explorer to be running smoothly, and some of the more 'advanced' games (the ones requiring fast action clicking) were practically unplayable, or would jam up the entire system; with my new lappie, it takes only 90 seconds for it to boot up from start to functionality, an additional 30 seconds (even less at times!) to get the Internet up and running smoothly, plays all sorts of games (hurrah!), has about 3 hours battery life when I use it like I normally would, and takes up only approximately 2 hours for the battery to charge up from dead to full (yeah I actually timed it all with a stopwatch, I was that enthusiastic and excited!). It's even got a webcam (so I can Skype now if I want to) and some strange hi-tech thingy called a FastAccess Facial Recognition program.

It's so mind-boggling at times I just sit back and stare at my new friend. I'm scared to press the wrong button in case it all disappears in a poof of smoke! I'm scared of clogging up the hard disk space and memory logs and rendering the lappie slow and obsolete again, so I'm saving most of my programs on my Maxtor external hard disk. Silly I know, seeing how my new lappie claims to have 320 GB of free space (I checked - it's really only about 283 GB). And the biggest - and most humiliating - lesson I've learnt from this whole adventure is that I'm really not that tech-savvy after all. Cheers!

Old Roommates

Well, my temporary job as a part-time language instructor at a local university has finally come to an end, and I have approximately 28 days left to enjoy whatever's left of my holidays. I'm still quite undecided about the next step, although plans have been set in motion and it's only a matter of time before I really have to let more people know.

All this thinking about my future really has me thinking about the past. Ironic, I know, but it's true: my thoughts wandered back to a time when life was more simple, just a matter of waking up, going for lectures, completing assignments, and sitting for exams. And to think I thought that stage of life was complicated. So I decided to meet up with my old roommates. Not that they're literally old, but they were the very first roommates I had when I first entered university. So on Wednesday morning, we met at Hartz Chicken Buffet at Sarawak Plaza for lunch. I ate to such a point that I thought my stomach was literally going to explode, and it took a good hour or so of walking around to finally get rid of that bloated-I'm-gonna-puke-all-over-the-pretty-floor feeling. We also did a lot of catching up, just talking, laughing and reminiscing over our mischievous antics back when we were younger and much more naive. It was a good thing the place was quite empty, or we would have annoyed them out of the place, we were that noisy. So here are some pictures from that day:

We've made some plans to meet up in about a month's time, in some very far-off and foreign place (relatively speaking). Here's to manic memories of the past and more exciting escapades in the near future! Cheers!

Update!

I can't believe it's almost 2 whole months since I last blogged. The lazy bug has really hit hard this time, and at times I've even forgotten that I have a blog! So I guess it's time for a short and sweet update.

My temporary job is almost coming to an end. It's been 4 months of working as a part-time instructor at a local tertiary institution, and at times I've wanted to scream and cry. Conclusion? I don't think lecturing's the job for me. Which brings me to the same old crossroads. What do I want to do next? And no, I still don't have the answer. And my mind's not made up yet. I still don't know if I want to pursue my postgraduate studies either. Remember the lazy bug I mentioned earlier? Same old insect. I've received offers of admission from three different universities and am still waiting for a reply from one more. Two of these would be quite improbable options without a scholarship of some sort, which leaves the other two. One of the things holding me back is the same question of what I would do after I complete my postgraduate studies, if I so choose to re-enter the university life. I don't want to come out two years from now - older and hopefully much wiser - and still have to face the same old dilemma that I'm facing now. It'll be like going back to square one after hitting the pause button for two whole years. And if I choose to work? That's a whole other can of worms. I'm still waiting for news of my posting, and the way I see it, almost everyone of my friends who have been posted have all been posted far away from their homes, in some near-interior region of their home state. And you know what a homebody I am.

So what to do, what to do, what to do? I'm still waiting for the next best thing. And I guess I'll just continue waiting. And I'll try to blog more often in the process.

Cheers people!

Reminder To Self

Must blog more often.
Must blog more often.
Must blog more often.
Must blog more often.
Must blog more often.
Must blog more often.
Must blog more often.

I can't wait!

I'll be officially graduating in less than 15 hours.

Ready or not, here I come!

Puppy Love

This little creature came waddling into our house more than a month ago. We weren't there to watch him arrive, but when we drove the Jeep into the porch, a little shadow creeping along the wall hinted to the fact that we had company. He must have felt very out of place, being in a strange place and all, because he didn't budge from amidst the flower pots. Just stayed there, head resting on the floor, and slept.


This little puppy stayed with us for just over a day or so, but that was enough for me to learn to like him, and immensely. Each hour would hardly pass without my thoughts straying his way: was he hungry? did he sleep enough? why did he look so sad? why didn't he bark? was he a he or a she? To this day, I still wonder if he was really a he. We didn't know whether he had a home or not, but he seemed toilet-trained. It was funny how he would strut to the grass and do his tiny business after every munch and slurp. It was adorable, the way he'd roll around in the grass and play snap-munch at things that couldn't be seen by weak human eyes.


He was so hungry, he would lick his plastic aeroplane cup even though it was all out of milk and bread. Then continued licking it slowly and noisily across the floor, tiny curious nose still attached to the bottom of the cup.


He must have been very sleepy, because he spent most of his time snoozing. He was one smart puppy alright. He found our shoe rack, pushed aside all the offending footwear, and nuzzled himself into the corner, brown furry head atop one smelly old shoe. Slept as if there was nothing that bothered him. Without a care in the world.


One night it stormed. You see, I've never had a puppy before, so I forgot all about him. Minding my own business, I forgot all about him. Until the thunder sounded, then it suddenly hit me, quick as lightning, that maybe he was scared. Maybe it was the small whimper I heard, but I wondered if he would be alright. The next morning he was in his usual spot, hiding amongst the flower pots.


When I woke up from my afternoon nap, he was gone. One of the shopkeepers in the row of shops outside my house had decided they wanted to keep him. I didn't get to see him being taken away, and in a way, I'm glad I didn't. It would have broken my heart. As it is, my memories of this little puppy remain happy, but bittersweet, because I knew, even while I spent every minute playing with him, that he couldn't stay. So for that short period, I spent most of my time snapping pictures of him, trying to store away as many happy memories as I possibly could.


I had the opportunity to visit him in his new home about a week later. He was bigger, but he looked different. Less vulnerable. Less needy. He couldn't remember me, but I remembered the time when he used to follow me in that bouncy way of his, every time I stepped out of the door for a walk. You see, my memory may far outlast his, and his eyes might not light up in recognition when I call his name, but those days when he was staying just beneath our windows, a mere call away... You see, those were my happy days.

The Magic of Photo Editing

So that's how you get those brilliant colours, I thought as I tweaked a button here and toggled a button there. Anyway, to cut a long story short, apparently there's this program called Microsoft Office Picture Manager that allows you to 'edit' your pictures. Which is what I did to some of the pictures I took of Reservoir Park and the new DUN building. It was trishie's idea really, to forget a relaxing Sunday afternoon in favour of a wild goose chase. And what a chase it was - it took us close to two hours just trying to locate the new DUN building! But here are some shots from that day, with some tweaks courtesy of Picture Manager (which I only just discovered!):


I know they're not very good, but hey, I'm just trying it out. From the pictures, you'd have come to the realization that I like sepia tones. Why? Dunno. Maybe it's because they remind me of autumn. And they have that timeless feel. I'll try to blog more regularly. But then I say that in almost every blogpost eh? So cheers people!