Morning laughter

This is just too funny, I have to post it immediately.

This morning my colleague F suddenly exclaimed, Oh, you have a cute squirrel!

It's not a squirrel!

Then what is it? Is it a dog?

I'll give you a hint, it's from Australia.

Koala bear?

Are you doing this on purpose? (How can someone call this a koala bear?)

No, no! What was the name of that animal...

Then he asked for A/B/C choices, which I refused to give to him. I told him he could slowly think until he found it.

At that moment, A (another colleague) came by. So F asked her, what is this? The clever girl replied at once, It's a kangaroo!

F wouldn't believe it though... He said, This is a kangaroo? It's more like a donkey, or a rat...

My poor kangaroo... already two people at home identified it as a rabbit. :( Though that is more understandable, because it doesn't have a pouch, and plush rabbits are usually standing up. Even a squirrel is still okay, if you don't look at its tail. But a dog? A koala bear? A donkey or a rat?!?!! *pengsan*

To see a photo of the "mystery animal", you can check out my previous post here.

Edit (same day, at night): Okay, I decided to add this instead:

Please help me, I am having an identity crisis... What am I??

 

That's what I wanted to say!

WW came back from a buffet dinner (his boss's treat, ain't that nice?) I asked him where they ate, and he said he didn't really know the name; just that it was something like "vice-pres" (can't remember exactly how he said it, but that's not the point), and that it was some Italian place. I asked him if it was Via Pré (I had heard that name before), and he said, Yes, that's it! That's what I wanted to say!

Then I asked him what food there was. He showed me a photo of the buffet table. There were some flat quarter-circle things, and I asked him what they were. He said "nandos". I asked him, nachos? He said, That's what I wanted to say! You understand my language very well! He said he was going to tell me they were "biscuits with tomato sauce". I said, those are nachos with salsa!

That's not all... I next asked him about the pizza on the table. What pizza was it? He said it was "maggiata", and I asked him, margherita? Yes! That's what I wanted to say!

Actually I wouldn't have known about margherita pizza if I hadn't been to France. Even then, being a carnivore (like mentioned in a previous post :P ), I never bought it myself. But my Muslim friends bought the frozen ones very often (since it was the only halal flavour available). And I think almost every pizza shop had it on the menu. But I would never order it... vegetarian pizzas are not for me!

I did a quick search on margherita pizzas as I was writing this post, and it turns out that the pizza is supposed to contain the three colours of the Italian flag: red (tomatoes), green (basil) and white (mozzarella). There, did you learn something new today?

A sweet reunion

Remember a certain caramel candy that I raved about before?

I wouldn't be surprised if no one remembers; it was five years ago!

But I haven't forgotten it... and my current department works with Motorola Krakow (which is in Poland!) To cut a long story short, some people came over from Poland and brought this:

I was soooo happy (the number of "O"s does not do this candy justice, but I think it would be kinder towards you :P ) to see this. Just as wonderful as I remembered. This time I took a photo before eating it.

In my previous post, I said that this was called krowki (little cows). Turns out krowka is the singular form.

And this time there is an actual candy wrapper. The first time I had it, it was just a generic wrapper (probably had "Poland" written on it or just a pattern, I can't remember). Which was what made it so difficult to even find out what the candy was!

Trying new recipes

Last weekend, I found a perencah packet for nasi briyani in a mini-market. I was curious about how to use it, because to me nasi briyani is always a dish of rice plus chicken, which are cooked and served separately (though maybe on the same plate). So was the perencah to be used for the rice, or for the chicken? Or were there two separate packets inside?

Turns out that there is only one powdered mix, and it is to be used for both. The instructions were pretty simple; just stir-fry the paste with ghee, then stir in the uncooked rice and chicken before adding water and cooking, all done in a rice cooker.

So I decided to try it out. (this weekend!) Since the preparation steps were pretty simple, I decided to make acar timun to go with it (if the steps had been complicated, I would have just sliced up some cucumber instead :P ).

Here's the end result:

The briyani rice tasted really good. Just the right amount of spices, I guess. Not surprising since I used the same amount of rice as indicated in the packet. I didn't use ghee, though... I just used normal cooking oil. Seems that I need more oil than ghee... at first I put only two tablespoons (the amount of ghee indicated on the packet), but I couldn't even get the powder to mix in properly.

Oh, and I did all the stir-frying and mixing in a frying pan before pouring it into my rice cooker pot. Since my rice cooker is small, I think it would be easier that way...

That was yesterday... and today I made creamy chicken pasta.

Some time ago, I found a few one-pot pasta recipes. It basically involves putting all the ingredients into one pot, instead of cooking the pasta separately. I first tried a tomato-basil pasta (in which I substituted parsley for basil, and added chicken; because yeah, we're carnivores in this family). It turned out very well, so I decided to try creamy chicken pasta after that!

Basically you just cook the pasta in milk (plus water) and add a little flour to thicken the sauce. And in the end, right after it is done, you stir in some grated cheddar cheese (I used Chesdale slices which I hacked into small pieces; though not very small, actually, because they melt with the heat from the pasta anyway)

while cooking

serving!

And why not show you pictures of the tomato pasta as well...

while cooking

done, in the pot (I didn't take this photo for the creamy chicken one)

serving!

All the recipes are there; you can try it out too! Bon appétit!

Weekend plans

My weekends have been filled for a rather long time into the future. The only problem is to find enough free time to fill.

For one, I got a huge haul from this year's Big Bad Wolf sale.

Twenty-one books, of which two were bought for a friend (he wants to cultivate a reading habit... unlikely, but at least he might enjoy a few books in his lifetime :P )

The books for him are Jeffrey Archer (the thick book on top of the centre pile, which is actually a 2-in-1 combo, so it's not as scary as it looks) and Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach. I had already read all three stories before; Jeffrey Archer's I already have, and I actually thought I had James and the Giant Peach, but turned out I don't. So I told him, I'll read it before passing it to you. And I did, in one weeknight. :P Loved it all over again. :D

To add on to all those books, I received a gift from my cousin as part of a Pay-It-Forward initiative. It's where each person who receives a gift (you ask for it, so it is voluntary) is supposed to give a gift to five other people, who each in turn gives a gift to five other people.... you get the idea.

I have never heard of Kalkitos before this. Never heard of such a "toy" (I suppose you would call it a toy?) before. But it looks interesting... even though I haven't opened the wrapper yet. :s I've got to find some time to actually open the wrapper and go through it. I don't want to open it and look at it halfway...

So there you go. Weekends filled for at least four to five months to come. (and don't forget the other two books I bought recently...)

International celebrations

Last Sunday was International Women's Day. And Motorola decided to give all its female employees a rose on Monday.

I like how my koala is facing the rose :)

There was also a lucky draw; we drew a slip of paper from a tray. But unluckily I didn't win anything, and my friends didn't either, so I have no idea what the prizes were.

They were giving out the roses at 8-10am at the entrance, not really to each person in particular. So if you happen to be on leave, you would have missed it. A colleague who arrived after 10am didn't receive it either.

Since I didn't put the rose in water, the very next day the petals had drooped. I am pressing it in a book now... not sure how it will turn out.

By the way, the guys weren't too happy that they didn't get anything... they were talking about initiating an International Men's Day, and asking Motorola to give them cigars and red wine. Heh. I told them that was too expensive... make the red wine lucky draw prizes instead! One guy even wanted a beautiful girl to greet him with a kiss when he arrived for work. Poor girl... How demeaning if they actually did that.


And last Friday was World Sleep Day! I found out by accident; they mentioned it on the radio while I was driving to work.

My whiteboard sketch happened to expire on that very day, so I quickly drew a new one:

This one was easy... hehe

No, it's not really a day for sleeping... it is to spread information on how to sleep well (something like that).

Kacang

You know the kuih called "ta pa kuih"? (that's in Hokkien; I have no idea what's its actual name) It is a hollow ball made of glutinous rice flour, with some kind of filling inside. It is rolled in sesame seeds and then steamed or fried. (not sure whether the steamed kind has sesame seeds on it) Anyway, I like the fried kind, with crushed peanuts and sugar filling.

Today I saw this kuih in the canteen. I asked the person there, "Inti apa?" He replied, "Kacang." So I took one.

But when I bit into it, I found out that it wasn't peanuts... it was green beans (or mung beans). Another kind of kacang, I guess...

Sigh. Kena tipu. Such a disappointment.

Edit (15th March 2015):
After posting, I thought that "kacang" would make a better title. But I still wanted "kena tipu" in the post, because it was my thought as I bit into the kuih. So I removed it from the title and incorporated it into the body-text instead.

Trying new Korean food

As I have mentioned before on this blog, I am a big fan of Running Man. And on the show, we see them eating lots of delicious Korean food. One of the street food they always eat (they seem to be able to find it wherever they go) is deokbokki (Korean rice cakes in a sweet spicy sauce). It always looks so delicious, and it is one of the Korean foods that I want to try the most.

However, Korean food is rather expensive in Malaysia, and a friend of mine (who has been to Korea and is a big fan of all things Korean) told me that most deokbokki that we find in Malaysia is not good. So the other day when she told me that there was a restaurant serving good deokbokki at a reasonable price, I just had to go and try!

Three of us went to try out this restaurant (okay, more accurately, one regular customer brought us two new customers there :P )

The restaurant is called K-Pot, and it is run by a Korean couple. So the dishes are more authentic than most.

On to the food! We ordered three dishes:

First up: deokbokki with kimbab.

To me, kimbab is something like maki sushi. It doesn't matter if the ingredients are different; as long as it is rolled up in seaweed and cut into slices, it is the same thing to me :P

The deokbokki comprises mainly of rice cakes (the long pieces that look a bit like penne pasta, except that they are solid with no "tunnel" inside (haha, I use a lot of penne pasta at home so that's why I chose that comparison)), cabbage, and fish cake. With some shreds of carrots and onions, and sprinklings of sesame seeds. The sauce was sweet and slightly spicy (I think the spiciness will depend on the chef's preference).

I was a bit surprised that they served the end of the kimbab roll. Usually restaurants throw that away, for better presentation. But since I care more about taste than presentation, it's okay, bring it on! lol (and I like seaweed... so the extra seaweed is nothing bad!)

Second dish: kimchi jigae (kimchi stew) served with rice.

This was recommended by the regular customer. They gave us a choice of adding pork or tuna, and our friend recommended tuna (she had tried it before). The taste was good, spicier than the deokbokki, but somehow I still preferred the deokbokki.

Third dish: cold noodles with mustard.

I had seen this on Running Man; they ate it for a mission (ate it with blindly chosen utensils, which turned out to be toothpicks for some :P ). So when my friend (who had also seen it on a show) suggested that we try it, I agreed even though I would seldom choose a cold dish (the reason I never order soba noodles in Japanese restaurants is because it is served cold).

The noodles came with ice in the soup. :O And a bit of mustard on the side.

It tasted good, but I was still a little put off by the temperature. Not sure whether I would have liked it better if it were hot.

And as in all Korean restaurants, they served refillable side dishes. They had three kinds: kimchi, broccoli (with some Korean chilli paste), and egg. I have never really liked kimchi, and this one couldn't convert me either. On the other hand, the sauce on the broccoli was rather nice; I dipped the egg in it as well... until the deokbokki came and I dipped the egg in deokbokki sauce instead. :P

They also served us water free of charge. The water was in a bottle that had a tea bag inside. Unfortunately the water was cold, so the tea couldn't really steep in it. It wasn't until my third or fourth refill that I realized I was drinking tea instead of plain water.

The dishes cost about RM15 each, which is considered cheap compared to other Korean restaurants. My favourite is the deokbokki, but then I don't think it is something I would eat very often. Once in a while would be good enough!

In any case, the highlight here is that I finally tried deokbokki. Made my day! :D

Judging a book by its cover

I was in a bookstore with some friends and I picked out two books while they were looking at other things. When they came back, one of them looked at the books and told me, "I want to read this one after you're done with it." But the thing was, she had only looked at the cover!

Now she isn't one to have read enough book reviews to know that she wanted to read a book by just the title. And the book happened to have the picture of a woman carrying a handbag on its cover. So I told her, "You should read the synopsis first!"

These are the two books I bought. The one she wanted to read is on the left. (But you already knew that, from my description...)

So she read the synopsis on the back cover. And she said, "Iyer... so geli one!"

Here is the synopsis. You decide whether you would want to read the book.

I don't find it geli... I find it interesting! I love detective stories. :D

Balancing act

On my way to work this morning, I saw a woman crossing the road. It was just at the traffic light going into Sunway Tunas, and the woman was walking from the new place opposite Elit Avenue towards Sunway Tunas (details, details, I know... just so I can visualize it again one day :P )

It wouldn't have been so notable if she hadn't been balancing a large bag (a Sunshine recyclable bag) on her head.

I was approaching the traffic light when I saw her (the traffic light was red, so she was crossing the road). Since I saw her from the side, I saw her carrying a plastic bag with her right hand, and at first I thought maybe I was just not seeing her left hand holding the Sunshine bag steady. But as she walked on, her left hand came into view... also carrying a plastic bag.

I applaud you, lady. I wish I had such balancing skills.

(A tudung-clad lady. Not sure what was in the Sunshine bag. Maybe something that was easier to balance on the head? Like... a sack of rice? Easy to balance, maybe... but it would be really heavy!)