of Minis and Cinquecentos

Hey all,

Will post soon about the Rome trip, but meanwhile (foods aside) the visit to Italy has reignited a new obsession in me :) ----> supermini's, i.e. tiny cars

My favourite is the up and coming Fiat Cinquecento!!! It's so similar to the old vintage one, that my hopes of owning a BMW mini or Volkswagen Beetle just vanished ...

Yesh yesh, dream on ... :P

Happy 2007 and enjoy the holidays!

Musical mania?

It had started in London while I was interning during the summer, and somehow slowed down during this busy term. I have so many on my list!

Especially The Producer, which I think is gonna stop soon?

Next up, my most wanted on the list would be Les Miserables, think they'll be having offers still till next term, so still not that pressed for time yet ...

Heard LOADS about how good 'Guys and Dolls' are too! So this is next in the wish list ...
And finally, one of the newest ones on stage, Wicked! Like the poster especially ...
Argh, too many to watch, too little time. Not to mention I have not seen Phantom anyways... :P Well, that classic will always be there for a long time, so better start focusing on the rest whilst the offers are still on!

What have you seen by the way?

Salmon Teriyaki

Irashaimasu!!!!

Is what you typically hear the MOMENT you step into a Japanese restaurant establishment or a sushi joint. Used to scare me (probably still, but not as much) where all of their workers just shout that phrase out to 'welcome' you to their shops.

Craving for Japanese food (unagi bento specifically), decided to have a project on Salmon Teriyaki Bento instead due to ingredient unavailability. It's quite easy and simple to do :D

First, get some salmon fillets (fresh or frozen is okay), dipp it in egg mixture and coat with some corn flour, pan fry them till bright golden, which probably take about 4 minutes per side on high fire. For the sauce, just mix a cup of mirin (a sweet Japanese cooking wine) with a cup of soy sauce (1-1 ratio), adding sugar to taste, heat till it boils and thickens. Then you're done!

I did some random vegetable stirfry to balance it up, and here's what we got! Remember the project with funky cup shaped rice? Well, I tried it with cocktail glasses this time and it's even better, hehe


Or altenatively, a Christmas holiday version.... with cauliflower and a piece of fried extra dough from the cornflour mixture (just for fun)...Well, its up to your (twisted) imagination really ;P


Anyways, hope everyone is enjoying their holidays~~
What shall I try to cook next?

End of Term :)

WheeeeeeePPediDoooooooooo!

That word just popped up in my head, dont ask me...

But term has finally ended (yesh!) and I've been 'lepak-ing' (there's just no exact word for this malay phrase, as we try to explain to S'poreans, it's a mixture of sien +wasting time+hang out :P) for a week or so, catching up with friends before they go home.

Going to Rome in a few days time, quite excited bout that since I haven't been to the land of pasta before. Expect lots of pictures for that trip! All up for freshly made pasta, gnocchi, and squidink's hehe

ANYWAYS, I've been doing some observations on British cuisine. There must be something that is prominently labelled as British food besides Fish and chips and sausage and mash.... It just struck me that this genre of food is commonly avaiable in one location and something that is incorporated only in British culture which is found no where else in Europe .... pub food!

An american friend came to visit recently and we took her out for Sunday roast as its something apparently very foreign to her. Decided to try a rustic looking, family owned pub along the river called Fort St. George, and it was worth the experience though perhaps it may be a bit pricey in Camb terms. But hey, paying for quality and quantity, so let's do it!

They have a friendly fireplace with logs and fire dancing merrily around it, just opposite the kitchen where you can place your order and have a selection of roast beef, roast lamb, chicken, turkey and pork for your Sunday feast. Not to mention the sides like potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, roast vege's like parsnips and carrots etc. Your huge pile of food is then finally drenched under an immense amount of delicious, thick and brown gravy ......HMmmm

There you go! Clockwise from the Yorkshire pudding, I had roast turkey (with cranberry jelly) and lamb (with mint!), potatoes, carrots, roast parsnips, red cabbage ... that's QUITE a load of food, but good nevertheless. Our guest thoroughly enjoyed her meal, nodding satisfyingly, perhaps impressed at what British food has really got to offer :)

So maybe British food has its plus points after all, especially as comfort food, in my opinion. Just have to look out for good ones out there, their stews, potatoes (of a kazillion versions), roasts are just some of the ones they're proud of :)

Formal Marathon

Some awesome formals so far ...

I still have 10 to go for the year! :)

Here are some nice pics I took for this term:

'Cheesy' Freshers Formal

Just imagine having potato and gnocchi for starters, cauliflower cheese for side, and this beautiful cheese cake for desserts..... I've never seen such a dairy rich menu before in my formal experience LOL :D

And to top it all, we went to Cindies after that for a 'cheesy' night out with 80s music ...
Completely cheesed out that day...

Above it all, this is my favourite picture from Hughes Hall formal, its reputation as the best formal in Camb is undeniable ...

Smokin' hot lamb shank! Love the way the camera captures the steam ...

And this caramel-cream-sponge cake dessert is like a cake version of creme brulee, equally sinful, reminds me of the chicken stir fry project I had not too long ago with French styled presentation, hehe

I self declared my own holiday today, refusing to look at any more never ending pile of supervision work, hence the massive updates for once. With 7+2 essays pending, it'd be quite interesting to see what happens to me by the end of the month, LOL. Anyways it's feels great to kick all the work aside and do nothing!

*Brainstorming on what to experiment tonight*

EU Food Fair

It's kinda funny when I've been going to Msian Food Feast and Asian Food Festivals since 1st year, but when you go to a European version, it is NO WHERE near the scale of mass production (with quality of course) of our events in Camb. The turnout was about 30 people or so, excluding the committee members, but nevertheless very interesting in the point of view of my inquisitive taste buds and food knowledge.

They've Greek, Russian, Slovenian, French, Polish, and Turkish food, quite a nice variety. However the extent of make-it-yourself-ness in producing the dishes is about 50% only. Especially the French outlet, which consists of quiches, cakes and pastries which are mostly Sainsbury-like items. Slovenian food is my favourite, but though most of them seem to have a common salad item which seems the same to me! LOL


This is the pork kebab, Russian cabbage pastry, and Greek lentil mash with bread (forgot the specific names)
Potato sald, pepper with stuffed cheese mix and vegetarian kebab

Pork kebab again with Slovenian sausage and bean stew and bread
The Polish Bigos (mixture of Sauekraut cabbage, and some other things) with bread, and on the right is the Slovenian stew with beans, barley and ham.

Somehow I still prefer our Msian feast or AFF, they take food more seriously LOL

American Pancakes

Having supressed some essays, I must say I can't wait for the workload to stop! Anyways, my posts have been accummulating like crazy, hence this is gonna be a slightly long picturesque post, so prepare for a feast (for the eyes lah)... :P

I had cravings for American pancakes with maple syrup last weekend, having got bored with cereal or English fry ups for breakfast. Was quite surprised with the results, well, its not that hard to begin with and the ingredients are easy to find.

American Pancakes

3 cups (I used my rice cups instead) of self raising flour
1.5 cups of milk
1/4 cup sugar (or less if preferred)
1 egg
1/2 tablespoon salt (very important)
some oil

Basically all you have to do is mix everything up till a nice consistency, i.e. no lumps. Heat the pan till its hot, with a little bit of oil. Then use a ladle and scoop the batter to form a nice round pancake shape. It cooks really quickly if the pan is sufficiently hot, and hence you'll have the time of your life flipping pancakes in the kitchen! should take about 2-3 minutes each side maximum

Spread a chunk of butter and drizzle with generous amount of maple syrup, and you'll get THIS! :D



More follow up posts coming up soon, as I'd already wasted enough time and will have some crisis tonight, LOL. Hope everyone is surviving term well!

Essay Overload

What a crazy past 2 weeks! With all of the sudden inflow of work, tentatively now I have 12 essays left to go, it's actually quite funny if you think about it. Supervisors are getting more and more bold by incorporating many parts in the questions they set now. By this I mean that I have one particular supervisor, who set us 2 questions, with each question have FOUR totally unrelated subparts to it, hence making up the 8 out of my 12 essays left..... Mannnn, but I guess it's good for me in a way, and my course this year is more interesting, which makes it slightly more bearable :)

Have not been cooking much these days, yet I have been brainstorming on new things to try out. Too heavy focus on normal/familiar cuisines, and its time to step out of comfort zone!!! Looking to try out things that I haven't made before, just to spice things up a little bit. Aiming to cook more once this tsunami of essays end, which probably leads us to the Christmas holidays ...

Booked my Christmas holiday to Italy too!!! (finally!) Hence should expect some squid ink pasta post in December!

Anyways, back to work, its gonna be a geeky weekend :P

Claypot Chicken Rice etc

In for a treat this week, my wave of 5 supervision just finished, now it's just a matter of attending them and not zoning out ... :)

In between the madness, still managed to cook something once in a while, and these are some of my 'creations' last week

Claypot Chicken Rice

Tried using wholegrain rice and it tastes nuttier, with lettuce, fried shallots, chinese sausages, spring onion and chicken pieces flavored with ginger juice and soy sauce. Really good reward after the string of essays...

This one is a bit of a fun 'project' with food, chinese food in French styled presentation ...

Rice on a bed on lettuce ....

and then ...


Chicken stirfry with gravy on the side, even chopped some spring onions for deco hehe

Must be too free :P But it was good fun! Same ingredients, 2 different styles ... must wait till the next craving strike for more inspiration :)

Had this beautiful thing too last week ...


Waffles with vanila ice cream and pear compote ... out of this world! Warm waffles against the background of melting cool ice cream :)

Nah, I didn't make that, LOL, not really a dessert person, though yes I think most people do have a sweet tooth

It's already midway of Michaelmas term, term's going way too fasttttt ...

Craving for Wah Tan Hor

Term's getting busier as it goes by, and its only Michaelmas!

Nopes, I haven't forgot about what this blog was set up for, and yeap, did some cooking last week!
Don't think you'll ever guess what this is ....

Yup, its GREEN... Yeah, green peppers, seafood, and ... green looking noodles?
Haha, let me explain...

Was craving for wah tan hor, yet I just substituted the original ingredients with what I have, i.e. leaves for green pepper, kuey teow for green tea noodles that I have, and produced this. :)
It taste quite authentic fortunately, just with some deceivingly healthy color, hehe

Formal madness II

It's the weekend again! Weather's getting foggier, but still not that cold YET, which is a good thing :)

Only 12 more to go!!!

I just realized how long I haven't been to formals! Which gets me in the mood and craze to finish my mission of going to all (or at least as many as I can) before I graduate.

Here's my list :)

• Christ's College
• Churchill College
• Clare College
• Clare Hall
• Corpus Christi College
• Darwin College
• Downing College
• Emmanuel College
• Fitzwilliam College
• Girton College
• Gonville and Caius College
• Homerton College
• Hughes Hall
• Jesus College
• King's College
• Lucy Cavendish
• Magdalene College
• New Hall
• Newnham College
• Pembroke College
• Peterhouse
• Queens' College
• Robinson College
• St Catharine's College
• St Edmund's College
• St John's College
• Selwyn College
• Sidney Sussex College
• Trinity College
• Trinity Hall
• Wolfson College

Might be able to do a few more this year, *fingers crossed* hehe

Autumn weekend

It's a lovely lovely Saturday, with the weather (for once) consistently sunny and breezy on the streets of Cam...

First week of lectures are still okay, having to get out of the clueless rut very soon :P All the societies' events are lined up, its pretty much meeting up old friends and making new ones again, with all the Fresher's Squash ahead ...

Going to town on a Saturday is also like madness, with cyclists hating pedestrians and vice versa, ice cream vendors everywhere whilst the weather's still pleasant and tourists aplenty ... Guess all these are the little things that create fond memories and make your day :)

Oh, forgot to mentioned that my beloved mini BMX style bike was stolen during summer, :~~(
Only had a picture of it with Hui Li when she came to came for a visit not too long ago ... Need to go search for another one soon, probably looking to try those town bikes now, with traditional big wheels and one metallic bell, and a nice basket, hehe

Anyways, time to enjoy the remaining weekend, hope everyone had a good Mid Autumn Festival Celebration!

Back in Cam

Woohoo, finally finished with most of the unpacking! Yup, I'm back in Cam as a final year student *shudders* This cooling autumn weather combined with the sun is great~

Its quite strange looking at the new bunch of freshers this year again, hits you that university years are really short! Well, unless you continue with a PhD ... No offence taken yea to those who did ;) Anyways, I could still passed off as a fresher whilst acting as the resident spy during the tea party, there's gotta be someone who does it, hehe

Ohh, I signed up to be a boatie this year too! Yesh, don't laugh. Foresee myself not even surviving for a week of it. But, yes, its just me like my Mission Impossible 5 target to attend all Cam formals (only 14 more to go!!!), I just HAD to sit the boat and row at least one stroke in Cam. :P

Looking forward to a new year, though it'd be great without the work, LOL... With a DoS who asks its students to do a personality test before the meeting, I've no clue what to expect next ...
Anyways, back to room decoration!

Mid summer rants

A month with absolute nothing-to-do-ness after the internship is so far so good :)

Finally visited all the malls and explored the changes ;P Revived high school memories of playing arcade games too! Man, RM1 gets you one game of everything, its great! Miss those good ol' days of going to arcades, playing Virtua Cop and Daytona's, hehe

Reality suddenly hits me that this is gonna be my last 'real' summer as will probably wont be able to go home or do much next summer due to work. *sigh* Feels like you have to grow up finally and enter the real working world...

So much for graduation traveling plans...

Michelin Star Spanish Food

Hey all!

Yesh, I know, the word 'FINALLY!' should be amongst the first few words uttered, but I'm glad you all miss my random posts :P

Internship finally ended, officially back for a week and holidays have been great so far! Now for the long promised 2nd part of the Madrid trip... Nopes, I didn't forget =)

My previous trip to Valencia and Barcelona taught me that besides Sangria, another not to be missed must-eat is churros. It's simply a Westernized version of yau char kuay (a.k.a. Chinese crullers), but then later DIPPED IN CHOCOLATE SAUCE :P One of life's 7 deadly sins ...


We had these too for lunch one day, seafood medley salad and salami with bread


And don't forget the 100% freshly squeezed Valencia orange juice, zumo de naraja...

However, the highlight of the trip would be the visit to a Michelin star equivalent restaurant, for my beloved paellas, and yes that would be arros negros, the squid ink paella. The place is called La Baraca, and we booked it the day before due to queues


Didn't get to take a pic of the LARGE paella pan which they presented us with, as the waiter hurriedly scoop it on our plates ... YUMS


Best part was the price was really reasonable too, for food of that superior quality, think we paid about 15-20 euros only :)

Next morning, we had calimari sandwich for breakfast, which was quite heavenly. But I was starting to feel a little queasy after too much 'good' food for the past few days

All these dishes are commonly found in other cities of Spain, but one thing uniquely Madrid would be their cucido a la Madrid, which is a Madrid style stew = must try. I felt that the guide book Yan Lin uses (Yan, whats the name of it again?) is a really good alternative to the wordy Lonely Planet versions, and more informative about local culture. Hui Li and I ventured some distance to locate the best shop for this dish, called La Bola (they even have a website for it, try googling)

We achieved star celebrity status for Asian tourists who managed to find out about this special place, as all eyes awed upon us when we entered. One of the key features of good places to eat, is where all locals do ;)

The cucido is a dish containing meat, lots of chickpeas, cabbage, Spanish sausages and some spices, stewed for a long time to produce a lovely 2 course meal, with a soup starter formed by adding spaghetti-like noodles with the soup from the stew...

And then 2nd course is the fillings and ingredients themselves. You don't eat it like normal stews with the soup and ingredients together.

It was great and super authentic, and the waiter was teaching us how to eat the stew properly, explaning some history along the way :) With tourists with lousy Spanish, and a waiter with lousy English, it was pretty comical trying to communicate, but all the more fun!

So that's all for the Madrid part 2, hope you all are enjoying the hols, and let me know if you're up for a visit/drink/shopping/movie!

Weekends

I love weekends! And usually try not to let work interfere with them, which usually results in hectic Friday nights and panda eyed Saturday mornings, free to charge the London hot spots. :) Last week was great, had a relaxing weekends, watched 'Cars', the new Pixar cartoon, its my favourite Pixar production so far. Went and watched Blood Brothers, the musical as well, and hence now humming the sound track all the way to work! It has a typical story about twin brothers separated at birth, but the nice sets and witty acting made it so good! Also after the movie, I was told that the lead actor was actually a member of Blue, the boy band! No wonder he looked so familiar! So thats celebrity watch for you :)

This week was relatively more relaxed. I've officially went to all 3 markets in London, so I'm a happy bunny. Portobello market is great for walking and its antiques market, also if you want to do some fresh food grocery. Borough market is much smaller and indoors, with lots of yummy local produce and home made burgers. Spitalfields market, which I went with Jo today, was great place for girls with lots of funky clothing, surprisingly the vendors were mostly Asians as well. A lot of nice deco items for your home too, food wise not as great as Borough, but so far its my favourite.

Ohh, so tired now, this is the way weekends should be, work free and max sleep/rest :P
One more month to go home, can't wait! But means summer hols ending soon too :S

Madrid

I know its been ages since I updated, and Madrid part 2 has yet to come. Been busy with work and catching up with friends during the weekend, hence not much of a time to post pics, in addition to this mighty slow lap top I'm using... takes 5 minutes to load a webpage, give up...

Time just whizzed by and its halfway through my internship (and summer :S). So far its been great fun, lots of people stayed back to work, and I've got the chance to have a taste of London as well. Been to Portobello and Borough Market (sorry la, I like strolling in food markets) and watched Women in Black last week. It was fantastic! Thoroughly enjoyed the thrilling ghost story, because they manage to make an impact given very basic and simple props. Truly 'efficient' haha

Can't wait for the weekend, have yet to explore Regent park :) Parks and markets .... =D That's life (don't forget the seaside)

World Cup Detour

So its Italy VS France!!! Supporting France though Italy is a team hard to beat :)
Anyways sorry for the lack of update, the 2nd part of Madrid post will be up soon!
How's everyone doing, enjoying hols, catching up on sleep, travelling?

Bon Jovi Concert! and etc

Finally, a long awaited update!!!

Loads, or rather way TOO much had happened last week. Trying to balance fun, and the dreaded packing all in one go before going off to London for summer...

Let's backtrack a little here, back to MY Bon Jovi concert :P
Will let pictures do the talking :)

It was a blazing hot day and we were pretty much sun burnt that day, despite layers of sun block. Crowd was about 70K people apparently, and this was only one angle of the random shots I took to remind me of the crowd :


Bibi took a photo of all of us, while still waiting for Bon Jovi to play later in the late afternoon...
Finally, he came in style in a heli, captivating the audience with his charming smile, oh and of course his voice and dance antics LOL
Next up was Madrid for me, and it was a very artsy/cultural experience, visiting so many art galleries with artworks from Picasso, Goya etc. Did visit a Hyde Park sized park called Retiro Park and really enjoyed myself there! The food scene was especially good, and luckily (maybe?) for some of you, my camera was focused in taking pics of food, whilst Huili was responsible for other 'human' posing with scenery ones LOL. She has yet to send me the pics, so I shall be enticing you with some spanish food pics then!

What's Spain without the beloved Sangria? :P
It's basically a drink consisting of red wine and lemonade, some fruit juice. Slightly sweet, hence deceiving, this one was particularly potent too, but nice all the same :)


This is a tapas we ordered, spanish omelette, forgot the spanish name for it, (Yan Lin maybe u can help me out here?), typical omelette but with chopped potatoes, nothing special really, and it's cold .
Gazpancho, a really refreshing tomato based soup with minty cucumber and croutons, like it.
Forgot what we ordered again, really looks like typical British stew isn't it? But this was really good, like the ultimate comfort food, haha.
We tried everything possibly Spanish in the menu, and I introduced this to Yan Lin and Huili, which they totally love and I'm glad they share the same craze as I do with this dish with baby squids and blank ink! Yumz
Apologies for the bad lighting in this pics, it was already dark at that time. Will post up the 2nd episode of the Madrid trip soon, where we go more in depth into blank ink madness!

Wifey business

How various people search for a wife

This is hillarious ... guys and girls, take note!
The farmer and accountant one are my firm favourites, LOL
Relax and enjoy Mayweek/holidays people!!!

Fisherman
Wife wanted, must be able to dig, clean, cook worms and clean fish. Must have own boat with motor. Please send photograph of motorboat.

Salesman
Once in a lifetime offer, to get yourself the original, genuine article. One of the most handsome and smartest bachelor's around is now looking for a wife. And you could be the lucky one he chooses! Has own house, car and successful career!

Economist
I am in demand of a wife. Supply is great though my requirements are high. However the Elasticity of my demands should not bear too heavy a burden upon the national interest.

Mathematician
Wife required to complete the formula of my life. Must be numerate and understand complex algebraic logarithms. Needed to help further my family unit.

IT Consultant
Well there is definite room for improvement in my life. The speed of my current flows of information and processes is slowing down and the injection of a wife into my life is bound to improve efficiency. Compatibility could be an issue.

Businessman
Wife wanted for company.

Politician
I feel there is a need in this world, to improve the ways we live, to harmonize the processes of life and to build upon past differences and short comings. I believe that we the people need someone to share our lives. To feel the joys of parent hood, and bear the social responsibilities, as we should in a civilized society................. (etc etc and never getting to the point)

Car Dealer
Wanted a sturdy, reliable, low depreciating wife. Should be in excellent working condition.

Farmer
Wanted a wife from good stock. Required for breading.

Lawyer
I hereby propose to solicit myself as an eligible candidate for the post of wife after marriage. The person whom I'm looking for should be strictly -a girl. The girl should be strictly a girl, with evidence to support this view that she is a girl. The girl should be willing to surrender to the service and jurisdiction of My Lord i.e. Myself.
Any objections would be overruled and will not be sustained. Apply in limited confidence as all liabilities are null and void in the event of failure on our part of any kind whatsoever.

Pilot
Wife required to complete my life. Please only level headed applicants. She must not have her heads in the clouds, but have her feet firmly on the ground. Her heart must be in it for the long haul. And she absolutely must also be aerodynamically sound!!!

Banker
Wanted wife who takes interest in me and credits me with her service.

Accountant
Required a girl - 5'8' & 36' 24' 36' with a good head for figures. She must be averse to making unnecessary expenditure and her very nature should be one of generating as few expenses in my life as possible. She should profit from a nice personality and be a credit to her family.

Sharabi
Wanted a girl. Girl's father should preferably have a drinks factory. I am an occasional alcoholic who drinks only when friends come round. Friends come round only seven times a week. Girl preferred who can carry me from bar to ghar-bar. Meet personally in a bar or send drinks for trial. Sample should be ample.

Minicab Driver
Hello! Hello! number 9 calling. This is number 9 I'm calling from base, erm a wife is needed for pick me up. Driving license not necessary, but map reading skills are a bonus.

Builder
Wanted a wife to help build upon the foundations of my life. Must be homely and willing to build relationship from the ground up.

Doctor
I am looking for a wife to cure the emptiness in my life. However if you feel the need for a second opinion then it's fine by me.

Army Commando
My mission in life is to find myself the perfect wife. Successful applicants must be able to use a penknife and a compass. She who dares wins. Camouflage provided.

RaceCar Driver
A model wife required to fit in with my fast track life. Must be able to keep pace!

Astronaut
I'm searching for a wife to fill the space in my life. Someone to share my universe. Must have looks that are out of this world!

Football mania

I'm BACK!
Phew past few days had been a blast, with Bon Jovi concert and Madrid all in one go! :D Had to maximize play time since I'd be working soon. Will post on those events once I get the pics sorted out.

Meanwhile, football frenzy is still on, and here are the list of matches I hope I can watch:

18th June Japan Vs Croatia (3pm), France Vs Korea (9pm)
20th June Sweden Vs England (9pm)
21st June Portugal Vs Mexico (4pm), Netherlands Vs Argentina (9pm)
22nd June Italy Vs Czech (4pm), Japan Vs Brazil (9pm)

Not sure if the timing is correct, but can't wait! (provided I get my packing sorted :S) The highlighted teams are the ones I support in each specific game. Sorry, not much of an England fan :P Brazil is too strong anyways. Japan, Spain, France GO GO GO!!!

Finito

Finally FINISHED!!! WOOOhooooooooooooooo!

But yea, I'm probably too tired to shout that out :) But feels that way inside. Exam was a killer especially the last paper..... (Maths)... I guess at the rate I complain about how dry Linear Algebra/Calculus/Stats were, they finally took their 'revenge'. I was basically clueless and would be lucky if I get half the marks. Should have drew a smiley face there as a sign of mercy or something. LOL. But anyways, enough bout boring stuff.

It's PARTY time!!! (well temporarily at least) Had a dozen different things I had to sort out right after exams, travelling plans, room, pack, etc etc. Oh and of course play :)

Can't believe 2nd year just breezed past again so quickly, slightly daunting at the thought of being a 3rd year next year, and no more fooling around as the degree finally counts this time. Ah well, I'm such a worry wart, ain't I?

Looking forward to the World Cup games, and staying here for a few months for summer. Haven't seen England all shining, bright and warm like these, it's always been linked to gloomy temperamental weather to me, since I'm always back for summer.

And I missed cooking too or messing about experimenting with foods. Here's what I had a week or 2 before the exams started.

Claypot chicken rice, with typical chinese style vege and gravy. So it's sort of mutated into a different dish, but nice all the same...
And this was what I had when I retaliated and had enough of cereal/toast for breakfast, guess? It's Thai Red chicken curry and vege, with rice noodles. Random concoction, but I felt like something spicy in the morning, and this was the end result :)

Ooooh, so tired, time to take a rest, and enjoy the sun!

End of exams

Finally
Summer is here tomorrow :)
And so is my exam this Monday -_-''
Hallelujah~~~

Antics in the library ...

There are just so many things you could do in the library when you 're supposed to be studying, for example:

1) Pinch yourself on the cheek while trying to study Linear Algebra/Statistics, to stay awake

2) Promote the World Cup spirit by going for a one hour break playing table football, until your wrist and muscle hurt, good workout

3) Groove along to Bee Gee's "Night Fever", showcasing your best dance moves, when trying to activate the motion sensored lights in the library. It's either you've been sitting still concentrating too long (I wished), or staying still SLEEPING for too long.

Eeks, less than 2 weeks left till exams....

Chill out Sundays

Decided to have a change for breakfast and had sweet potato rice (?) instead. Had a yam rice craving, substituted sweet potato for yam as it's hard to find yam over here. Added a few non standard stuff which probably transformed it to a different dish all together, but still nice :) See the piece of egg at the bottom? Was having fun putting the rice in a mould and shaping it, keke (too 'free' on Sundays)

Gave up on Selwyn hall food, as I always seem to go when they serve the weirdest dishes (try Sambal burger), but dont blame them for being adventourous. :) So tried out a new recipe for dinner. It seems to me that teriyaki or some cream sauce is always the standard thing for salmon. This version iswith honey ginger sauce and stir fried spring greens.

Around Cambridge

There goes the sunny week with frisbee's, sunshine and ice cream. It's back to the rainy and chilly one again. Hmmph, strangely, either way, either weather makes me sleepy. Maybe because it's just when you have to face the books (duh).

Anyways, whilst the weather was good, I did some exploring and tried to find Girton. Having the best sense of direction, I ended up in Cavendish lab and Nanoscience area, which I'd been before, but its even prettier on such a fantastic day...

It's like the newer face of Cambridge, state of the art design and building, just like the Maths Department.


And this looked like it was a resort or something, as if having a Bintang Walk in the midst of the research center, hehe, see the water sprouting out?


Took these pics using the nokia 6280, came out quite clear don't you think? :)

Economics

What you actually learn in economics ....

I saw this in a text book,

And the question was:

"How can I get someone to do something for me?"

-_-''

I never knew economists were magicians, LOL
It's about the economics of incentives, how cool is that! Haha
Sounds like an interesting topic for a dissertation.

But how come economists don't 'rule' the world since they technically should have superior knowledge to 'get people to do something for them'?

Conclusion:
All a bunch of waffle, :P, but still very interesting all the same :D

Eat in any language

Forks and Spoon

then it became Spork and Foon (Yi Jin's joke)

then now guess what?

It's Forkchops!


o_O'''

Craving for Kon Loh Mein (Dry tossed egg noodles)

Yes, it's one of my favorite breakfast food back home, and I'm really tired of bread/cereal etc, hence...

My original plan to make some comfort food, i.e. Bah Kut Teh, went down the drain as my cravings hit, and irrationality sets in. With the pork ribs originally intended for BKT, I improvised and made char siew pork ribs instead!

It's my first attempt, and I'm quite happy with how it turned out!

Although the strange thing is that the bottom bits seemed to get charred (i.e. chao tarh) more than the parts at the back, still haven't figured out why yet. Taste wise, it probably needs a stronger marinade, but I still like it as its not too sweet/salty. Oh, and the best part was I forgot I had to chop the pork ribs, and it was hilarious as I was banging around the kitchen with my mini butcher knife in vain, till my housemate came and chop it all macho-ly. HAHA well rewarded with pork ribs! Didn't I tell you all I always 'terrorize' my house mates with Asian/foreign food they haven't tried before? So far they had kaya jam, yee sang, Chinese style fried rice (they love lap cheong's) and rice porridge. LOL

Here's my not so nice looking version of Kon Loh Mein, with a lot of substitutes as you can see, LOL. I didn't even mix the sauce properly with the noodles before I devoured it happily. Oh well, better presentation next time okay? :)