User-friendly packaging

Recently I received free samples of a cleanser. When I saw the package, I noticed the screw threads on the opening and thought to myself, "Nice, we can open and close the sample packet."

However, when I opened the package, the top snapped, and I thought, "Eh? It's supposed to break after all?"

For a while I didn't think of it any more...then last night while brushing my teeth, I was just looking at the package in front of me...and I thought again, what are those screw threads for then? It's not like it makes the package look better.

I had left the cap partially stuck on (instead of twisting the whole thing off), so I now twisted it off and rinsed it to see whether the cap was actually hollow and could be fitted onto the screw-threaded opening.

And that's when I noticed that even though the part of the cap that was attached to the package was flat, the other end was hollow! So we are supposed to snap the cap off, turn it over, and screw the cap on to close the package.

And voilà!

On the left is the unopened packet, and on the right is the one that has been opened, and closed back after using!

This makes me think of the other kind of cap that is used on ointment tubes. The kind of tube that has a sealed aluminium surface under its cap, that you need to poke through when you first use it. At first we used a knife or a screwdriver to poke through the foil, then one day I saw a package that had instructions on how to open it: Unscrew the cap, turn the cap over and prick the seal with the top of the cap. The cap of these tubes is always hollow with a pointy cone inside the hollow space, with the hollow space just the right size to fit over the tube opening, and therefore with the cone nicely-positioned to prick the seal! And the genius of that kind of design is that the pointy end will not prick your finger because your finger is not small enough to enter the hollow part!

I wonder how many people don't notice this kind of genius packaging...it's kinda a waste if they are not put to use!

Heating up

Last week's theme was hot. Which was the complete opposite of the weather!

But I do have a hot oven!

Scent of a teddy

I'm watching this drama where they switch the kid's teddy bear twice (up till now). Once to replace it with a teddy bear with a location tracker, and the second time to check the bear for a tracker. (different people switching it, of course) But how come the kid doesn't notice? It's a bear she carries around all the time. Like a bantal busuk, there should be a smell!

Bye-bye, teddies!

This is the last instalment of the TeddyVille posts!

We have now reached the gift shop. I snapped a few photos before they told us that we were not allowed to take photos in the gift shop. But I won’t post them here...since I guess they don’t want to show people what they are selling?

Actually there is one place where we can take photos in the gift shop, which is at the mirror.

But when I tried on a hat and went to the mirror to take a photo, the employee came up to me and clarified, “You cannot take photos of what we are selling, you can only take photos of the mirror.”

So I guess we can only share reflections of what they are selling. :P 

There is writing above the mirror too!

I bought a postcard...and they gave me three stickers.

Then we exit to the area near the entrance...which you have seen a bit of in my first post on TeddyVille.

There is a Steiff Welcome Bear (only one in Asia). I guess it must be quite old, because it is ugly. :P

Then we have this huge tribute to Beary…

What's that hanging from the top? Let's take a closer look!

It's a tiny teddy bear!

Seems like the museum received a few recognitions.

There was also a bear catcher machine. Which we didn’t try (would need money :P ), but it was probably not available during Covid season either.

Are these two bears visiting TeddyVille Museum too?

I just noticed that the handbag is heart-shaped. :P 

That's all folks! Guess what? This is the 21st post for TeddyVille Museum. I took five months revisiting the museum, so I guess the entrance fee was worth it!

Stories that shouldn't have existed

I just watched the movie Recalled. It is very interesting! I would recommend it if you like thriller/mystery.

But there's a problem... at the conclusion of the story, I was left with a fundamental question. Asking it would be a minor spoiler, so I shall put the text a little smaller: Why did the guy have to pretend to be her husband in the first place?

It is similar to when I read The Da Vinci Code: Why did the dying guy have to leave all those clues in the first place? The ending basically told us that it was unnecessary to pass on the secret!

But Recalled is still good...it keeps you guessing about what is actually going on! And though there were many curious events, I didn't have any problems accepting the chain of events once everything had been explained.

Only that one question. The one that would mean the whole story didn't have to take place...

P.S. There is a superman in the story! (you'll understand only if you watch it; it would be giving away too much to say it here :P )

A blue coffee shop

This coffee shop that I frequent when I go to the market has a blue sign board and also a blue zinc roof.

I was just going to snap a photo of the blue sign, and saw that the colour of the zinc roof was also blue when taking the photo. Then it was only upon looking at the photo that I noticed the giant cup of kopi-O!

Sleep sleep sleep

A friend shared this on Facebook, and I just wanted to store it here. :D

To the windowwwww to the wall.
To my comfy bed I crawl.
Don't need to hang out with y'all.
Ahhhh Sleep Sleep Sleep.

Other flavours of mackerel

At the beginning of the year, I started cooking mackerel. I wrote about my saba shioyaki here.

After cooking it several more times (and buying frozen mackerel two more times - each packet comes with 3-4 fillets), I decided that I should look for different recipes to cook with mackerel.

I found several recipes from Jamie Oliver, and some were really simple.

The other day, I grilled my mackerel after marinating it in honey and orange juice (plus some orange zest too). It was inspired by this recipe, though in the end it was nothing similar since I changed it a whole lot :P 

The skin looked nice until the very end when the liquid had evaporated, then it caramelized and turned black. Taste-wise, it was okay.

Then today I tried out this simplest recipe which involves just grilling the mackerel and adding lemon juice. It even starts from a cold pan, definitely a recipe for children! And you don't even need oil!

Basically we put the mackerel fillets skin-side down in a non-stick pan, then turn on the heat to high. Then we season it a bit, and leave it there for 4-5 minutes for the skin to crisp up. After that, flip and just cook for 30 more seconds. Then comes the flavouring: Put lemon juice in the pan (without touching the crispy skin), and shake the pan. The recipe says to turn off the heat before giving the pan a shake, but I forgot, and left my lime juice (I used lime because it was cheaper...and a lime is smaller than a lemon, so it suits my portion :P ) there to evaporate while soaking into the fish.

Overall, it was nice. A little bit too sour, maybe? But it was fine eaten with rice.

The end result looks practically like my saba shioyaki... I think that I will try this don't-touch-for-four-minutes method with saba shioyaki in future.

Also, since we use lime here, the fish didn't need to be treated with cooking wine. I might also just try it with orange juice next time, but I'm not sure whether that would be acidic enough to take away the fishy smell.

Tourist bears

In the last post, we were at the photo section at the end of the TeddyVille Museum. Here’s what else they had there.

There was a map on the right of the doorway. There were two photos on it, and I think that they are trying to get customers to buy a teddy bear (called Beary) from their gift shop, then send them a photo of themselves with the bear somewhere around the world. Unfortunately (but understandably :P ) it doesn’t look like they have received a lot of photos!

Beary went to Japan!

For this next photo, I didn’t know where this was, but I was curious because it looked like it was in Malaysia! When I searched up “the grand old lady”, I found that it is situated in Miri, and is the first oil well in Malaysia.

There are also bears sailing in the sea!

Then there was a bear taking a selfie…

...with this as the background.

See?

Note: Here we have our back to the doorway in the previous post (or should I just say that the bear is facing the doorway?), and the photo booth is on the right.

After that, just before the entrance to the gift shop, for some reason there was some trivia about the Malayan sun bear, which is the world’s smallest bear.

With an ugly fake bear :P

Five times poaching eggs

I had tried making poached eggs before (I found that I had already posted about poached eggs six years ago!), but stopped trying because I always lost too much egg white in the process.

But recently a friend posted a lovely poached egg she had made, and also shared a video that helped her. She said that the method worked for her immediately, so I decided to give it another try.

Well, it definitely did not work for me on the first attempt. The first attempt was so bad that I did not even bother taking a photo.

The video that she shared does it this way: Boil two inches of water in a non-stick pot, add vinegar and reduce to a gentle simmer, then add eggs, cover and turn off the heat, then leave for 4 minutes. After that, scoop the eggs out with a slotted spoon, drain the excess water, and serve.

I tried this, but the egg white disintegrated and I was left with just an overcooked yolk and a bit of egg white not really sticking to it.

I decided that the simmer may have been too “gentle”, so I tried again with adding the egg when the water was actually boiling (I figured that the first thing I should do is to keep the egg white together! Otherwise each attempt would be such a waste, which is why I gave up on it all those years ago)

Attempt 2: Did it work?

This one turned out beautiful! Except that both the egg white and the egg yolk were extremely cooked. The white was as firm as a fried egg. The good thing about using a non-stick pot was that the egg could be taken out easily.

But my non-stick pot is huge...and boiling the water takes ages, too much just to cook one egg! So I checked online whether it was really necessary to use a non-stick pot. And at the same time, looked around for more tips.

Here is what I found:
- Practically all recipes that talk about poaching multiple eggs say that we should put the eggs in a clockwise/counter-clockwise direction, so that we can take the eggs out in the same order. Makes sense.
- Some people add vinegar to the water. Some people say it’s not needed; your eggs just need to be fresh and the egg white will stick together better. Someone says that vinegar helps to “cook” the egg white so that your egg white won’t fall apart even if your water is a little less hot than necessary. (I still plan to use vinegar as a fail-safe because it is most important to me not to waste my egg whites!)
- Some people say that using a non-stick pot is a must because eggs are not non-stick and they will stick to the bottom of the pot. This is why I decided to try using my smaller non-non-stick pot, but put my sieve in and cracked my egg into the sieve. That way, I could just take the egg out in the sieve.
- Everyone says that the water should be simmering, not boiling. Some leave the water on the stove (without turning off the heat). The time is 2 minutes for a soft poached egg, and up to 4 minutes for a firmer one.

Taking into account all these tips, I tried another poached egg in my small pot (with the sieve method that I mentioned above). I tried to use a gentle simmer (they say, lovely small bubbles!), but my egg white disintegrated again. :(

Attempt 3: What is this?

At least the yolk is not that much overcooked this time.

This morning I was going to make half-boiled eggs for breakfast, but I suddenly figured that I could make poached eggs instead. So I tried again, with a boil instead of a simmer (again, I just wanted to avoid losing egg!). The egg white still separated into pieces, but at least most of it stuck together in clumps and I didn’t lose so much.

Attempt 4: Very ugly

For the second egg, I decided not to turn off the heat. So I cracked the egg in again when the water was boiling, but instead of switching off the fire, I turned it to low so that the water would continue simmering. And...voilà, finally it works!

Attempt 5: Looks nice...

both eggs on a plate

after seasoning and poking the yolk

It may be hard to see from the photo, but the first egg had a slightly oozy yolk. The second one is more watery, so we can see it flowing out. I just hope I can replicate it next time. I am still not sure how much of it is due to my eggs being fresher (my first attempt, the one without a photo, was using older eggs, and the four with pictures here are using eggs that I just bought). Seeing that attempt 3 was actually quite similar to attempt 1, maybe the eggs don't need to be that fresh if we use vinegar...there might still be hope for slightly older eggs!