Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Last year's Warwick Malaysia Night

Trailers for 2009 (not 2010!) MNight:









Wished I was here last year to watch it. The trailers are fantastic, especially the first one. Almost made me shed a tear.

Home... What could be better?

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The Chinese New Year Effect

Refer to this article: http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_493317.html

The most intriguing parts of the article:

In China, young people, to avoid nagging from their parents, have resorted to 'renting' a boyfriend or girlfriend to take home during this new year period, Mr. Lee observed.

Still, a little social pressure is useful but more importantly, parents and relatives need to encourage them (to start families) and show them support.

Is there some hidden meaning in my dear brother-in-law sending this article to me (and my sister)? Hmmm...

Imagine Mr. Lee behaving like all the aunties, pestering all the younger generations in his family, ”快一点结婚!”.


Sunday, February 21, 2010

Cooking blog updated

Two blogs one brain makes this blog even more dead.


Thursday, February 18, 2010

Knowing when to fork out the money to eat out

I rarely eat out, I go on weeks (no months yet) without outside food. I am easily satisfied with homemade food.

Every time I eat out, first question I would ask myself is, "Can I cook this?". Usually, I have the confidence to say yes. Obviously I have not been fine dining much.

Thus, knowing when to fork out money for good food is immensely important. I would not want to lose my taste for food and lose the ability to know when a food is inedible (although I have been doing some quite crazy dishes - pepper garlic fried rice last night!).

That is why today's expenditure of £4.50 is justified. There was a Vietnamese food social by the Vietnamese Society (I am Captain Obvious). Together with Nicole and later Tze Xuan and Yeok Yin, all of us were immensely happy with the food the Vietnamese prepared.

The great thing about the social was that for £4.50, I tried so many different things. Unlike outside, for the same amount, I would only get a single dish. I tried almost everything (with the exception of aubergines. Bleh! An acquired taste. It is not that bad I suppose but I would not choose to eat them.) There were the usual noodles and rice. No pho bo though=( The braised pork was excellent, and the chicken soup... MMmmm..

And dessert, I went ga ga. Fruit Salad, I had two servings (bye bye £2). I found the recipe (I think), cannot wait to try.

Unsurprisingly, I could not bear to wait another minute to take pictures before gobbling. Thus no photos. In fact, I only thought about the camera right before my last bite=)
Yum yum..

I PLAN to post something up from Chinese New Year.

A different Chinese New Year (I am Captain Obvious).

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

To take cooking seriously in uni

I have always had an interest in cooking and baking (more so with baking because its experiences is something that was absent in my childhood and I do not need to cook to get good food back home).

Cooking and baking are now (for quite awhile) been my obsession, ever since we (the eight of us) decided to split up and have dinner on our own on weekdays. Suddenly, I would be thinking of my menu throughout the whole day. Forming my groceries list throughout the week (an effective method to keep spendings in shape).

Anyways, Yu Min bought this whole lot of pandan/screwpine leaves back from London (I was planning to make seri muka soon and I just needed a few). So there I was stuck with possibly 30 to 40 stalks of pandan/screwpine leaves, which are surprisingly cheap (at least in the biggest Chinatown in Europe) if you actually need that many.

Anyways, I decided to put it to good use and make red bean soup. So in goes the red bean into the slow cooker, left to be simmered for at least two days before consumption (the way I like it! Thick and gooey. Yum!) Because my housemates were going to have a party tonight in the kitchen, as usual. I had to resort to....

No worries, the rubbish bin next to it is only for paperXD

By the way, I have (another) new blog=)