Friday, March 30, 2007

You should wash your clothes at night

Did you know that Electricity is cheaper at different times of the day?

Rates from Origin Energy (Melbourne CBD)

Peak
7 am-11 pm @ 16.29 c/kWh

Off Peak
All other times @ 7.07 c/kWh

That is double the charge for using electricity during peak hours! Therefore, we should only use electrical goods that require more energy after 11 pm. e.g. Washing machine, dryer, maybe we should bake at night too? Surely we will save a few more dollars in our pockets!

I do my laundry only at night and dry them on the rack the next morning. The clothes do not smell as long as you do not fiddle them after they're done. However, if you've got delicate items or clothes that might change shape, it is best not to leave them overnight.
Easter is every CHOCOHOLIC's Fantasy Dream Come True



Its that time of the year again...where everyone deserves chocolate...don't care whether you've been good or not. Every year the Lindt Rabbit is the cutest chocolate around but consumers should be aware of the vast differences in price around. I only checked two shops and it was a whopping $2.50 difference.

The Most Overpriced Shop Award goes to "CHOCOLATE BOX" - $6.95
The Reasonable Price Shop Award goes to "PRICELINE" - $4.50

Therefore, everyone should shop around for the best price. Be a smart consumer. Maybe you can get it at a cheaper price elsewhere (Big W, Safeway, Coles, K-Mart, Aldi) but I'm lazy. Two price checks is enough. Actually today I bought some more chocolates but this time from chocolatier Darrell Lea...got myself some solid egg chocolates. Didn't take pictures but will do so during Easter (if there are any left).

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

New Look

I decided to pick a new template for my blog. Is it too plain? Is there a way for me to use my own pictures as the background instead of the pre-selected ones?

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Mr Engineer was the best!

Went to watch Miss Saigon the musical on Friday. It wasn't that great afterall. I didn't enjoy the musical that much...as the story was kinda silly because how can someone fall in love with a prostitute after one night? and then supposingly got married in some vietnamese ceremony in a nite club and bring her back to his home country to live the American dream? HmmMmm... maybe things like that do happen.

I'll have to say the Engineer was the best performer of the night. His cabaret-style dance routines were entertaining and definately not OTT cheezy like the main leads (i.e Kim and Chris). Too much lovey dovey stuff....

I'll be watching Phantom of the Opera in August. Hopefully it will be better...actually I'm sure it will be much better. The music score and backdrop will be breathtaking (i hope).

Friday, March 23, 2007

Curry No Worries




How weird is the packaging for Eclipse mints? Actually its kinda cute ^^ No worries for people after eating curry....No curry breath...only minty breath. This is true as it has been tested on me. Hehhehee..




Because....I made some Japanese curry two nights ago. It was the 'most bestest' curry I've ever made (so far). Even my bro's gf said...'wahhh....hen hau chi ohh'. Also that night, I made cantonese pork chop but I forgot to take pictures! I only managed to take a picture of the raw ingredients needed for the curry...but not for the porkchop. I think I'll be making more porkchops this weekend so I'll take some pictures then (if i memory doesn't fail).

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy



tink tink tink tink tink tink tink tink tink tink tink tink tink tink tink tink tink tinkkkkkk.. I suppose everyone's heard of that song before. I apologize for my lack of sanity. Blame the weather today....33 degrees! Its Autumn...its supposed to be breezy, maybe a little wet, but not this warm.

Anyhow, Autumn is here and the plum fruit is in season...and very yummy, healthy and is supposed to help in bowel movement (^o^)
Pictured here are two types of plum. Besides the obvious colour difference, they have their individual taste too. The darker plum has a slighter darker yellow flesh and is sweeter. The brighter plum has a lighter flesh colour and a sour-ish taste. I prefer the darker plum. Dark skin wins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I think its got to do with my own skin colour too....tanned skin wins huh???). Cheers to Autumn...and soon we'll have chestnuts too.
Pamper Time


How I love the smell of this product. The combination of sweet almonds and milk concentrate gives it a very light yet moisturizing effect. It leaves your skin feeling smooth and hydrated. I don't know about the firming and toning properties its supposed to do...but I love it just as it is. I've even bought it for my friends! (I am such a sweety pie). Oh don't get me wrong here...I'm not getting paid for promoting their product.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Coffee Lover



I use to think that coffee was really really really EXTREMELY bitter and only old people drink it. I think my first ever coffee experience was in a cafe at Crown with a dear friend. It was so bitter that we complained to the waitress..hehheee...and she said she will give us something "sweeter". I think we ordered an iced latte. After that incident, I stayed away from coffee until one sweet Sunday morning before church, I decided to give coffee another chance at Laurent. I ordered a skinny latte and then found myself hooked to beans til now. Maybe my tongue's taste buds have changed...but I'm loving the change.

Joe bought me this espresso machine as my birthday present and its doing its job marvellously. I haven't bought coffee from outside eversince........thank you for the present....i really love it and will continue making u coffee before your drive down to Hamilton.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Catch-up with my girly pals @ YERING STATION
(Note: This place is worth the drive!) 8.5/10



While my sister and pals were busy with the chilled oreo cheesecake, I was on a road trip with my besties...newly married Adriana and her hubbie Alex, sweetie + gorgeous stefie, and my trusthworthy/mr organiser/fiance Joe. We went to Yering Station for my belated birthday lunch. The weather was great...boys in the front seat trying to get us there...the girls chit chatting in the back seats. There is simply no better way to spend a nice Saturday afternoon than this. I'm looking forward to more Saturdays....We've got a few things planned for April.

The food was really good....and we even talked about 'future-kids' running on the grass. Which is kinda weird because it made me felt OLDer....but in a good way. Growing up is part of life and I'm happy to grow older this way with friends keeping us company along the way. Thank you Stef, Adriana, Kan Li and Siew Mei (if u're reading this) for always being there. I wouldn't change anything we had while we were in Science (hmmm maybe except the bit when i failed a subject!!!hhehehe). Those library gossips...and muffins....and hot chocolate. We'll have to arrange a lunch at Union house one day. I know the food aint that great but it'll be fun.
There's too much to talk about the food we ate at Yering Station....so here are the pictures only. I'll try and annotate them.

A) Seafood Plate (Scallop with something on the base/King Fish/Chargrilled tuna)


B) Duck (sorry can't remember the description)


C) Snapper with Mango, Nectarine and crab salad

I'll do the desserts next time...
What can one do with Oreo, Cream cheese and John Legend?
+
Last Saturday three girls gathered in my place (Yi, Vera and my sis). They joked, mixed some stuff, broke some biscuits, listened to sexy Legend and produced a CAKE!!! Magic! Aww its really really good.... I think I should try and make it myself next time. I saw a restaurant selling the same cake except in a much much smaller portion (i.e. single serve) for $6.50. Maybe I should quit school and start selling chilled oreo cheese cakes to cafes? Will it pay better?

Ingredients:

Base:
200g Digestive biscuits, crushed finely (bash it up in a sandwich bag^^)
100g Butter
2 tbsp brown sugar

Topping:
500 g cream cheese (mascarpone cream cheese if feeling luxuries)
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon
65 g butter @ room temp.
100g castor sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
3 tbsp of gelatine
1 1/4 cups of whipping cream, whipped til just stiff
50g Oreo biscuits, crushed coarsely

Method:
Base
-grease a 20cm spring form pan
-melt butter in a small contained on medium high until melted. Add brown sugar and stir until roughly dissolved. Mix the mixture with the crushed Digestive biscuit.
-transfer mixture into spring form pan, spread it evenly. Use glass to press the mixture evenly. Refrigerate for 30 mins.

cheese bits
-blend in cream cheese, sugar and lemon rind until smooth. Add butter and continue to blend til smooth
-mix lemon juice and gelatine in microwave. Heat in high power for 30 secs uncovered. Stir until gelatine dissolves then pour it into cream mixture.
-gently fold whipped cream into cream mixture into spring pan.
-refrigerate 3-4 hours (or freeze if desperate for CAKE)

Friday, March 16, 2007

Celebrity endorsed Meals


This colourful/handsome disposable placemat next to my super dooper yummy pork chop rice is from a frachise Hongkie restaurant 'Kim Gary" in Kuala Lumpur. I'm not very sure if its from HK but i think it is. That guy in the picture is some hot actor at the moment. I can't remember his real name but I do remember his on-screen name the first time i saw him act.


Checkout my baby sister's black nails. It was painted kinda badly...hehehe. Goth nails....do not touch my rice....

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

No to Kobe Jones
(My rating : 6.5/10)




Last Friday, we went to tryout Kobe Jones @ Docklands. The food is not that great. Menu wasn't impressive especially their mains. The taste is alrite...and price was OK. I wouldn't go back to that place again.
I tried to take some pictures and then was told that "you can't take photos of our food"!!! But too bad....i did. hehee

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Smiley Face Noodle




Ever cooked instant noodles and presented them like this? I went overboard last week when I decided to make the noodle "healthier".

Ingredients:
1 x Nissin Tonkatsu Noodle
2 x Fu zhou fish ball (with pork inside)
Carrot as much as u desire (can be replaced with tomatoes)
Spring onion to garnish
Obviously you try and cook the fish balls first...etc etc... then noodles are the last to go in. Voila...yummy and healthier version of Instant Noodles.

Kung Fu Tea Experience



While I was in KL with my sis, mum and fellow aunties...We stayed at the Park Royal on Jalan Sultan Ismail. There is this really cool restaurant called the Si Chuan Dou Hua Restaurant. They served Sichuan (Szechuan) and Cantonese style dishes. However, the dining experience was made memorable by the master tea pourer serving the restaurant's signature Eight Treasures Tea with his 1 metre nose tea kettle with such precision. It was totally awesome to see him perform his KUNG FU stances before pouring the tea. I took a video of him but I don't think I can load it. But here's the picture.


Apologies...

Hehehee....I made someone comment on my blog and then I didn't even update it for a week. So sorry... I got carried away with Uni stuff and had a busy weekend. I'll make it up to you my loading up stuff NOW.

Monday, March 05, 2007

Back to my books (Nerd mode)

Summer holidays are over. Its time to fill my days with crowded tram rides..sweaty people..(hopefully without any BO)...icy poles and all things yummy. Its my 2nd week back at Uni and I should really start reading. I'm so glad I did some Anatomy pre-reading on head and neck today (even though i dun remember much by the time i got to the lecture!hehehe).


All I can do for the next few months is to just close my eyes...and think back of the happier times I had when I was back in Malaysia. No books to read...no Trigeminal nerve (V1-V3)...no bones...just plain kampung style relaxation filled with Nasi lemak, kan lao mien, durian, sang nyuk mien, Yoyo, satay and Salim's roti roti.
Giving is a wonderful thing



A few weeks before chinese new year, I had the chance to follow mum and some church members to do some charity work. The congregation donated money and we bought 300 bags of white rice and collected boxes of clothes. These were to be donated to the villagers that had their rice paddies damaged during the floods. Most of their homes are not affected, just their source of income was ruined.



Whilst they were giving out the rice, I mingled with the children...taking snap shots of them..they were absolutely POSERS. So cute. And they had such clean big teeth! hehhee. The village was very neat and tidy. They even have their own church. Which is awesome to know.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Feeling pineapple-ly


Checkout the little UFOs i made with mum. Each one is handmade to perfection. The pastry is 10 g and insert is 5 g. We weighed each one!!! So much time and effort put into it. We just had to make everyone eat it when they came to our place during the lunar new year. Pineapple tart...yummm.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Dessert Land



In HK...they never run out of mangoes. Be it winter or summer...mango is always on the menu. This time round, the King of the fruits a.k.a the DURIAN was also a major dessert. They put whole durians into jello..then whack on some ice-cream. With mangoes, I tried them wrapped with mochi and sprinkled with coconut shavings. Kinda weird but taste yummy.
Busy little bees






While in HK this time, my sis, future mum, Joe and I did lots of wedding preparation. We went crazy and got all the traditional red stuff....including red lacey umbrellas..the 'Kua'...made a cheong sam....cute embroided shoes...etc etc. Won't reveal too much on the blog. Will let u have a 'surpise' on the wedding day....


Oh and we went to Victoria Peak too.....the night view was a bit hard to catch with my camera....not that my photo taking skills are lousy but it was SOOOOO windy and very dark. Ok ok ... i admit...my skills are not that good after all. But hey....i got a new camera!
We also caught up with Joe's best man Frank who was also holidaying back in HK. Guess what? We had dinner at Felix @ the Peninsula Hotel. Food was not too bad....my fish was rather salty but the view was fantastic...skycrapers everywhere. I can't load the picture of the Felix restaurant. Must be my technical skill again...*_*




Thursday, March 01, 2007

Snowy









Joe's dog in HK. We found this scary looking mask in the garage and decided Snowy should have a go at it. I think someone used it for Halloween. The poor dog decided not to move after we covered its head...hhehee...
Note: This is not animal abuse.
This dog uses Pantene so she smells absolutely fresh.