To go or not to go Indonesia...

... that is no longer a question.

I've cancelled my 4 days leave this morning. Supposed I'll be going to Solo/Yogjakarta this coming Monday together with my Sis. But after much persuasion from my parents and most importantly my Sis who is extremely worried about the situation in Indonesia after a series of earthquakes, we decided to call it off. Each of us just loss less than RM200 on the airport tax as the AirAsia flight tickets we purchased is zero ringgit.

Although Bengkulu, in the Sumatra Island is quite a distance away from central Java, I've decided not to take the risk due to last year's huge earthquake in Yogjakarta, which caused 5,782 deaths and almost 37,000 people injured. Earthquake is unpredictable disaster. The recent quakes might trigger quakes or tsunami in nearby places since they are located on the same platonic plate.

Well, seems like my dream to see the magnificent Borobudur in morning sunrise has to be put on hold

Happy People Go Home...

... the unhappy and single ones stay back and work late?

Yes, people might also assume that you are a workaholic, want to please your boss, inefficient in your job, poor time management, and a whole bunch of reasons.

How time flies and we are almost at the end of the week (I know it's not Friday yet). And coming to the end of the week, I'm especially 'motivated' to go home earlier. I love my job and don't mind to stay back once in awhile. But I guess my priority in life is different now. My time is also for my family, love, friends and my hobbies.

Too much time spent on one thing will caused you to lose other things in your life.

So, friends, let's go home earlier this evening to your family and friends. If you don't have anyone, just go and pamper yourself.

Kitchen-krazy #2: Vegetarian Mee Hoon

Since today is chor yatt (first day of the lunar calendar), I decided to cook simple vegetarian mee hoon enough for two person for dinner.

The ingredients are pretty simple:
1/4 of a packet of mee hoon (rice vermicelli)
1/8 of the whole cabbage (sliced)
1/2 of a carrot (sliced)
3 cloves of garlic (chopped)
5-8 cili padi


How to cook:
1. Soak the mee hoon for about 20 minutes until it is soft.
2. Prepare garlic, cabbage, carrot and cili padi.
3. Heat up the wok and pour in 3 tablespoons of oil.
4. Put in the garlic and stir fry till it turns brownish.
5. Add in sliced cabbage and carrot.
6. Stir fry for about 3 minutes and scoop up.
7. Add in 3 tablespoons of oil into the now empty wok.
8. Throw in the mee hoon and 3/4 cup of water.
9. Add salt (athough I prefer soy sauce), oyster cause and dark soy sauce (or caramel soy sauce).
10. Throw in the cabbage and carrot.
11. Stir fry for another 5 minutes and the dish is ready.

Kitchen-krazy #1: Over the Weekend

It's been years since I really cook an entire dinner meals for friends. So I decided to cook simple dishes for the five of us.

The preparation especially chopping onions and garlics kinda time consuming.

And for the first time in my whole life, I clean the fish which includes scraping the scales, cutting the fins and removing the entrails in its cavity. Well, it wasn't really a comfortable experience but I'm glad I was able to do that considering I've only seen my ex-housemate in university did it once. Same goes to the prawn-cleaning session whereby I took off all the shells and the veins.

Earlier of the day, I started preparing jelly as desserts. I tried agar-agar santan but because I don't have a proper mould and I was too impatient with the jelly, it didn't turn out well but still edible. Luckily the jelly in cups (rose flavoured jelly with longans) turns out to be just nice.

The menu for that evening was:

Main dish
Chicken rice (thanks to Sarah!)
Japanese tofu and egg
Lady's fingers masak sambal belacan (with lots of dried shrimps)
Baked beans and eggs (the easiest to cook but turns out to be a DISASTER and not presentable)
Ketchup prawns (which is rather EMBARASSING because I wrongly estimated the portion)
Stir-fried fish with soy sauce (and lots of fried onions)

Drinks and dessert
Sprite mixed with lychees and longans
Jelly in cups (rose flavoured)

Never in my life felt that Saturday can be such a long meaningful day. Think I should start experimenting and cook more And get better pictures too.