Hot Pot on a Cold Windy Night

Great success!!! We even had side dishes!!!

Monday evening: cold and very very windy. As usual, we had a predictable pattern of unpredictable weather. PY suggested hotpot, and what a good idea that turned out to be. The soup base was kim chi flavoured chicken stock, and we had some home-made sour and spicy pickled cucumber and stewed potatoes. This was the first time we ever had a proper hot pot!

We had some soup leftover, and it'll be the same thing tonight, except that the weather today is, if you haven't guessed it, hot!

Hot Pot on a Cold Windy Night

Flower Festival Trip to Canberra 21/09/2008

We didn't get much of a spring this year. The weather has been on either extreme - too hot on one day, too cold the next. Thank goodness for air conditioning.

What about today's weather? Cold and dreary, rainy. We had a late night yesterday celebrating a friend's birthday, and daylight savings started today, too. I woke up at about 9am, neither here nor there.

Spring is a pretty season, and I'm glad that we made the trip to Canberra to see the Flower Festival, held mid-September each year. The flowers were amazing, planted in patches, each patch with a movie theme (e.g. Babe, Happy Feet).

For a rainy day, these pictures brighten up the screen, and my mood. :P

Flower Festival Trip to Canberra 21/09/2008

Mid-Autumn Festival Sunday 14th September 2008

The moon was full and round that night, swathed in a chiffon of clouds.

KT, PY and I were at a friend's apartment (a block across from ours) celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival. We had Korean / Japanese / Chinese fusion hot pot (for the occasion, KT bought the hot pot "kit" - the hot pot pot :P and portable gas stove).

Afterwards, we were treated to Mei Sum's "bing pi" (snowy skinned) moon cakes of different flavours - blueberry, mango, and even mocha. I love bing pi moon cakes. :P

Back at our place, we have some mini lotus seed paste moon cakes - I made them!!! My parents bought over a moon cake mould knowing that I wanted to make some, with a recipe of Betty Yew's. First attempt proved successful, although the moon cake pattern wasn't well-defined. I could have added a little bit more flour to make the dough easier to mould and used a finer pastry brush to brush the egg wash.

KT and PY said that it tastes yummy ^_^

Mid-Autumn Festival Sunday 14th September 2008

Wall.E - One of the Most Meaningful Animated Movies in a Long While

Wall.E is another production of the geniuses at Pixar. I love the story-telling with the characters with minimal dialogue. It's not a "fluff" animation either; I had to think a bit to understand the storyline.

In a way, Wall.E reminds me of Hayao Miyazaki's animes - it relies more on visual impact and interpretation, and the environmental message is unmistakable.

The main character, Wall.E, is so lovable. I just couldn't stop crying throughout the film, even the funny parts were heart-wrenching.

I love the part where Wall.E gathers "junk" and carefully puts them away in his "home" as if they were treasures - Wall.E was going about his usual business of compacting junk and collecting trinkets when he came across a ring box, he opened it to reveal a ring, proceeded to throw away the ring, was instead fascinated by the box and put the box in his storage box for keeping.

I like it that Wall.E is portrayed to be a complex character, human-like, and yet, with a "mind" and "heart" of a child - simple and pure.

It's a story about love, the ability to feel, and the appreciation for the Earth on which we live.

Wall.E - One of the Most Meaningful Animated Movies in a Long While

Merdeka Feast

KT suggested Malaysian fare for dinner, so we went to Paddy's market to get all the necessary ingredients to cook chicken rendang, nasi lemak, sambal prawns, stir fried kangkung, and rojak. We even got canned petai to cook the sambal prawns! Yummy yummy, I can't wait. Whilst KT is slaving away washing up in the kitchen, I'm taking the opportunity to write up and laze around. :P

OK, KT is giving me the go-ahead to cook. :P

Merdeka Feast

Merdeka!

Today is Malaysia's Independence Day.

Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!

Semoga Malaysia kekal aman dan damai, dan merdeka dalam semua aspek!

Merdeka!

Obsession

I've always had a thing for dark chocolate. Ever since KT took me to the Lindt store for some chocolate goodness, my obsession with all things chocolate (especially of the dark variety) has escalated.

Recently PY and I went to the grocery store around the corner to get some grocery, and I saw this DARS bitter chocolate bars displayed on the check-out countertop. Point-of-sales positioning is so effective. We had some on our way home, and oh my, it was very good. Bittersweet, smooth, melt-in-mouth, concoction. Even PY, who's not a fan of dark chocolate, said it was good.

I'm hoping to use some of the chocolate to make chocolate shortbread. Hopefully I'm able to get some good results. :P


I'm happy to say that I made a decent batch of chocolate shortbread, as shown in the above picture. The shortbreads in the jars are not those of Lindt and Barby, but mine!!! Compared to Lindt's, it's not as chocolate-y rich, but I'm hoping to improve on that. :P I'm pretty happy with the result, because the shortbreads are crumbly and melts in the mouth! Here is the recipe (I modified it so much that I really can't say if I have a source for the recipe :P)

Ingredients:
230g plain flour
70g corn flour
250g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
100g brown sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
A pinch of sea salt
150g dark chocolate, chopped up roughly (I used some Meiji's and Cadbury's)
11/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celcius.
2. Grease a 32cm x 22cm baking tray.
3. Sift plain flour, corn flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and sea salt into the
food processor.
4. Add the brown sugar.
5. Pulse ingredients until mixed.
6. Add butter, cube by cube, and pulse ingredients until just combined.
7. Add vanilla extract, and pulse until combined.
8. Stir dark chocolate into mixture.
9. Press dough into the baking tray.
10. Prick evenly with fork.
11. Bake in pre-heated oven for 30 minutes at 160 degrees, then another 5 minutes
or so at 140 degrees.
12. Cool in tray for about 10 minutes.
13. Cut into squares.
14. Wait until shortbread cools thoroughly, then transfer into jars to store.

I think the next time, I might increase the chocolate to about 200g, maybe melt 50g to be mixed into the mixture, than the remaining 150g chopped roughly to be stirred into the mixture. I might also substitute half a teaspoon of vanilla extract with some sort of liquor, rum or marsala, perhaps? Stay tuned for the next experiment!

Obsession

Love Exchange

Disclaimer: This is not a review of the television drama Love Exchange. This entry is the sole opinion of the writer.

I think I'm becoming one of those archetypical “师奶” (housewife) who can't go through the day without TV drama. I would have finished watching TVB's Love Exchange in three days - I forced myself to slow down because if I finished the series, I would have no dramas to watch for a couple of days until I get hold of the next episode of currently aired Moonlight Resonance!

I'm down to the last two episodes of Love Exchange. So far, I've found it to be an entertaining watch. There are a couple of sub-plots / character(s) that I didn't care for - Tracy Ip's one-dimensional character as the rich daddy's girl Sophie. I fail to understand how a 20-something year old beautiful, born with a silver spoon in her mouth, accomplished, seemingly intelligent, woman could be so appallingly pathetic when it comes to love. Sophie seemed to have it all - an intellectual Paris Hilton - and yet she is Play-Doh in her husband's slimy hands, choosing to ignore her husband's unfaithfulness and wrong-doings. The crowning glory to Ms. Sophie's beautiful head is - shock horror - she's actually a NICE rich girl.

Her most memorable line from her lacklustre performance:
"I don't mind (my husband's) philandering, as long as he knows the way home."

I don't think many - if any - rich girls would act this way. Hey, if I were a beautiful rich girl, why should I tolerate any nonsense from anyone?

I could have done without Sophie's insipid character or Tracy Ip's acting - frustrating to watch and a blow to feminism. I don't even consider myself a feminist. :P

Enough ranting from me. I'll get back to watching Episode 19.

UPDATE: HK police investigation was portrayed to be some sort of a circus - laughable. Best character portrayal - Crystal Tin. The twist at the end was a bit of a surprise, but not a shock. The ending - realistic enough.

Verdict? Better TVB drama of recent times. Some parts were reminiscent of older dramas (e.g. the scene where Sophie's father rolled down the stairs and became a vegetable), but I can't be able to pinpoint which, perhaps it's because scenes get rehashed so often that it's difficult to keep track.

Now that I have finished the series, perhaps I could go about doing something more constructive. Banking? Grocery-shopping? The list goes on.

Love Exchange

I'm having one of those "oh another day, what am I going to do?" type of morning. I have had many of these mornings in recent times, more so when I anticipate a change in my life. I think I'm one of the lucky ones who have inertia rooted deep into their beings - I think I'm quite resistant to change. Ironically, I probably have gone through more change than the next door girl.

On the other hand, I dislike monotony. I loathe to do the same things over and over again without having even the slightest change to the routine. My life, at this stage, it monotonous. Wake up, laze around, get dressed for work, catch the train, work, go home, cook / order take-away, shower, eat, watch TV / DVDs laze around, sleep. Sometimes I try to pick up a book or magazine to escape from the routine, by the time I get to it, it's almost time to end the day, and start again. :P

Yes, I'm having one of those mornings, where I sit and ponder the mornings prior to this. The only difference to this morning is I've decided to air my thoughts on the World Wide Web.

I need to get changed for work.

Congratulations

PY has become an elite member of Registered Pharmacists of NSW. For those who do not know, registration is a grueling ordeal. Nearing the end of 2000 hours of supervised practice, one must pass both the written and oral components of the examination before the Pharmacy Board is satisfied that one may be let loose onto the community. Or the other way around. Into my second year of being let loose, I realise that there are some prized customers out there who derive morbid pleasure out of seeing a pharmacist being put in her / his place. However, this could arguably be my sole opinion; the Board obviously thinks that the community is a herd of meek lambs. :P

We went to Azuma as Chifley Plaza for dinner on Saturday 09/08/2008. KT has been itching to try out this one chef hat Japanese restaurant. We have PY to thank for the golden opportunity!

Pre-dinner entertainment

I would call this an entree: deep-fried prawns with home-made tartar sauce and Ponzu dipping sauce - yummy, but PY and I both agree that the prawns were not too fresh.

Of course, we had more than just the prawns - we then went on to have the yummy Azuma specialty - deep fried flounder fillets with Ponzu dipping sauce - the flounder pieces were like M&M's - they melted in my mouth! :P Don't forget the sushi, soba, and tempura ramen - all very yummy, and I was left wanting more!

Yes, the Pièce de résistance - the famous Double Bay ice-cream extravaganza - we ate so much ice-cream that night that I couldn't be able to tell the difference between the many different flavours!

PY is worried that she might not get a job - I worried too when I first started out - but I'm sure she'd have no troubles in finding one, and I'm hoping that it would be the "big break" - a wonderful start of a new chapter in her life. Here's to you, my friend. :)

Congratulations