Tuesday, February 27, 2007

i have recently developed into a passable chef. =) i guess i did inherit some of my mother's genes.

due to high demand (if i do say so myself..*grin), this is the recipe to my chu kiok chou. it's really very simple and you'll be amazed at how well you can suddenly cook!

Ingredients:
2 large cloves of garlic (slightly crushed, but not chopped)
2 large chunks of ginger (cut into small pieces)
1 white carrot (cut into cubes)
black chinese mushrooms (stalks removed and cut into half)
pork trotters, OR
pork spare ribs (cut into bite size)
2 chinese bowls of black vinegar
thick, black sauce
sugar
salt

Method:
first, fry the garlic till it's fragrant.
second, add in the pork (i couldn't find trotters so i just used spare ribs. how much is up to you) and fry till slightly browned
third, add in the ginger and fry some more till flavours are infused into the pork or until the pork is cooked.
fourth, add in the black sauce (how much is up to you, you want it blacker, add in more)
fifth, add in the white carrot and black mushrooms
sixth, add in the 2 bowls of black vinegar
seventh, add in sugar and salt to taste (i used 2 tablespoons of sugar)
bring it to the boil and then lower down the fire and let it simmer for about an hour.

if you really like it sour, then add more vinegar. remember to counter with sugar if not your guests will be making sour faces the whole night. the secret is in the vinegar and LOTS of ginger.

this is my mummy's recipe. i know there may be other recipes out there which require different ingredients but this is how she does it. and i'm pretty sure it's gone down well with quite a lot of people. =)

sorry lena, haven't gotten round to asking han nien for his char siew recipe. but i will soon!

and if you guys out there want to try a new lemon chicken recipe,

Ingredients:
2 pieces of chicken thigh fillet
1 clove of ginger
1 small chunk of ginger (grated)
2 tablespoons of flour
250ml of chicken stock
rind and juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons of basil
salt
pepper

Method:
finely chop the garlic and lemon rind and mix it with the flour.
cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and add it into the flour/garlic/lemon rind mixture. let it marinate for about 10 minutes.
fry the chicken till golden brown.
add in the grated ginger, flour mixture, stock and sugar into the pan and bring to boil and cook for 5 mins.
next, blend the egg yolk and lemon juice and add it into the pan.
add salt and pepper to taste.

the sauce will be slightly thick and creamy due to the flour. can be eaten with rice or with pasta.

and there you go. 2 simple dishes. hahaha..relatively. hope you guys enjoy it.

Monday, February 26, 2007

well. it's almost the end of the chinese new year, and i must say that being away from home for the first time kinda sucks. i miss the festiveness. i miss the togetherness. i miss the noise and chaos and ruckus.

the getting ready for the dinner. everyone rushing for the toilet and yelling at each other to hurry up. my sisters and i trying on clothes and putting on our makeup. all the men watching tv and waiting patiently for their grandmother, wives, daughters and nieces to get ready. the convoy of cars heading towards the restaurant. finally arriving and waiting to be seated. my grandparents and relatives greeting everyone they see as they've grown up with the whole of muar. waiting for the food to arrive, scarfing down the same dinner as the rest of the restaurant. teasing cousins and joking uncles. twittering aunts and blissfull grandparents.

the gambling and supper afterwards. the washing of the mahjong tiles. the shuffling of the cards. the 'phish' of the cans of soft drinks and beer and shandy. the cracking open of peanuts and munching of new year cookies. the blare of the tv and the raise voices to be heard over the hullabuloo. the neverending love.

i miss it all.

happy chinese new year everyone.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

FOOD!

had a Chinese New Year dinner tonight. i must say, everyone went all out to create sumptuous dishes. all in the spirit of togetherness and of course, competitiveness. hahaha...but, it was a wonderful dinner. everyone ate to the brink of bursting.

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once again, everyone's gathering at our home.

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sarah, ying wei, me and linda

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lining up for food...

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ying wei's A1 soup

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daniel's black pepper chicken

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han nien's char siew

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linda's potatoes

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dexter's sweet and sour fish

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sarah's woh tip (dumplings)

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su-ann's eggplant with mince chicken and bean paste

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daniel's brocolli with mushrooms

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and finally, my chu kiok chou (pork trotters in vinegar)

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and this is chef han nien, slicing his really, really tasty char siew

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sarah and me

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tucking in

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me, su-ann and rand

yes, i wore a cheongsam. was the only one who was festive enough to dress up. but then, i'd use any excuse just to put on a pretty dress. =)

so yeah...everyone ended up just sitting around, chatting and watching tv. none of the gambling and mahjong playing like back home. hahaha..they'd all still be here if we were gambling, that's for sure.

Friday, February 16, 2007

the tummy was making weird noises this afternoon. ended up in the toilet repeatedly. so concludes my first case of lao-sai in Queensland.

hahaha...

just got back from PEC (psychiatric emergency center) in the hospital. apparently tonight was a record in their history.

no patients.

didn't get to see a single one.

it was so quiet. except for this one guy who acts crazy so that he gets to come in and get a free meal. and this other lady who was caught walking around in her underwear behind a police station. but she said she was tired and didn't want to be bothered.

so...

it was a boring night.

or...was it?

ying wei and i walked into PEC full of anticipation over what this night would give. and we weren't disappointed. not one bit.

as we walked in, we were greeted by really nice nurses and hit it off straightaway. but it gets better. we met THE doctor. and oh my word...what a doctor. he was oh..so..cute. not hot. but cute. tall, dark hair. slight 5 o'clock shadow, glasses, nice dark brown eyes, but he wore his pants in a weird way. probably because he was so tall. we couldn't help but stare and giggle everytime we looked at him. but not in front of him of course. sigh...it really helps to have someone nice to look at. so...we were chatting with him about mental health when we were interrupted.

by...

and oh..so..gorgeously macho man. at first i thought he must be a nurse since he was in jeans and had long hair and was so deliciously hunky. but then i saw his name tag and was pleasantly tickled by the 'medical' title on it. oh yum...second helpings plea-se. so he sat down with us and started to discuss patient cases with dr.Cute and so nicely let us sit in and learn as well.

but halfway through the discussion, dr.Cute had to intervene with a patient that had been waiting in the corridor. it was a 22 year old guy with a history of mental illness for the last 7 years. but only now is being treated. so it was his first psychiatric episode. he looked completely normal and very handsome. the type of guy i would look twice at on the street. tall, dark haired, nice deep set eyes, very nice nose and a very pleasant smile. so anyway...they had to give him some medication and were trying very hard to coax him into taking it even though he kept saying that he didn't want the medication. clearly he thought he didn't need it. but...oh well. they had 3 very burly security guards around him, ready to tackle him and pin him down in case they had to forcefully administer the medication. part of me was hoping that he would keep refusing and i could get to see him get aggresive. but then i felt bad for him as well. so young and already his future is so bleak. luckily he finally agreed to take the medication on his own. probably got scared by the security guards around him.

phew.

then it was back to dr.Cute and dr.Gorgeous. halfway watching the scene with the handsome patient, i casually mentioned to dr.Gorgeous how difficult it must be to coax a patient into taking medication. to which he replied it is definitely easier for a normal patient. and then he proceeded to show me how intimidating it would be if someone were to just stare at you with 3 burly security guards around. and he gave me the most intense stare as an example. and oh my LORD...his eyes! i first noticed them as a light, icy blue. but when he looked at me, they turned a magnificent shade of turquoise! *sigh* it was disarming. my hand flew to my chest in awe and sheer delight. hahaha...seriously.

all i know was, throughout the discussion with dr.Cute and dr.Gorgeous, ying wei and i kept trying to catch each other's eye just to convey our delight and euphoria over getting such magnificent specimens to be our doctors for the night.

and dr.Cute is really nice. he felt really bad that we didn't get to see any patients that he gave us a mini tutorial/grilling of the mental state exam. which was really nice of him since most doctors would just leave us there to rot anyway.

my night...is complete.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

i've finally got internet. was so happy i was bouncing off the walls last night. yes! it's all finally coming together. and we've got a couch that was delivered about half an hour ago. so the house is finally looking like a home.

fate is dealing me quite a pretty hand at the moment, i must say. how? do i hear you ask? pray sit and i will elaborate to my highest possible ability.

i was on a bus heading towards a one, crystal tan soo yi's apartment in southbank. and as buses do, they make numerous stops. at one particular stop, a group of young men and a young woman hopped on. in the group, there was this one asian guy, which i must say, IS OH SO HOT! seriously. he just oozed confidence, and raw sexuality, i couldn't stop staring at him. seriously. thank God i had on my shades if not he'd see the bulging eyes of a one grace lau der wen. so, i feasted my eyes on the magnificence which was him and sighed in disappointment when he hopped off the bus when he reached his stop.

sigh...

ok. that was incident number one.

i think it was last week. ying wei and i were walking around in the mall, grocery shopping. and this mall, like all new, modern and ultra classy malls had little foyers and concourses where they would have nice, plush sofas for weary shoppers to rest their worn out flat feet. it was here that fate, again stepped in and threw me a bone. there he was. just sitting on one of the sofas. and as we passed him, i glanced his way, and he was looking at me! *swoon* of course, i didn't make any sudden movements to betray the excitement coursing through my veins. on the other hand, i played it subtle and cool, and looked back at him with that lazy, sexy look that i have. eye contact. check.

and THAT was incident number two.

today, after a mini tutorial session with a really nice consultant. where i displayed my total inability to answer questions without making a fool out of myself, fate again held out it's carrot to dangle in front of me. we were hanging out in the corridor waiting for plans to be made, when from behind, 2 guys passed us. and yes, you've guessed right. one of them was mchottie. *bliss* of course, he didn't see me and i didn't really see him. but oh...i saw his best side. his back side. mm mmm mmmm...those gluts. sigh..they filled out his pants like hot buns in the oven waiting to come out.

*ok, i sincerely hope my parents aren't reading this. LYN..it's YOUR job to KEEP THEM AWAY*

so as you all can conclude, it's a matter of time before we end up literally BUMPING into each other and introductions are made.

and..i've learnt he's a fourth year medical student in the same hospital i'm in and that he's a friend of pang's.

now...who's pang again?

Monday, February 12, 2007

went to the city for a bit of shopping and sightseeing on saturday. didn't buy anything though. wasn't exactly in the mood. brisbane's actually quite a cute city. it's not too old, it's not too young. but it IS the fastest growing city in Australia. apparently there wasn't a skyline about 3 years ago, (according to one crystal tan soo yi) and now there is. might have to go dig up a before and after photo to prove it.

so there are all these nice places to shop right, but i realised, a lot of the clothes here are geared towards the younger crowd. nothing that i'd wear very often since...i'm not that young anymore? hahaha...i'm just telling it like it is. but then again, the bargains are FANTASTIC!! was itching to buy stuff but then always stopping and wondering if i would wear it or would just end up chucking it to my sister and wasting my money. not like i haven't wasted enough on them. just sent back a whole bagful of sweets and clothes for them. hope they like it.

mental health has been pretty relaxed lately. turnover of patients aren't really that high. so one can only go to the ward so many times to see and interview the same patients before they get pissed off at you and end up relapsing just to have a reason to throw things at you to get outta their face. but i kid. patients here are so highly sedated, partly from the valium the hospital staff literally pump into their veins or the electric convulsive therapy which shock their brains into mush and make them so disorientated, they can't tell their left hand from their right. it's quite sad to see them so...helpless? they can't really help themselves so when they check themselves in to GET help, they get this. hmm, not for me to ponder. can't argue with the Health Board of the state of Queensland.

oh well...i know i won't be this relaxed once i get started on my internal medicine and surgery postings. oh...i am so not looking forward to that.

pictures

Friday, February 02, 2007

VERY STRESS!

just had my first tutorial of the year. whooo...luckily i read up last night if not sure die.

had a GREAT tutor. she's absolutely fantawasomtic. she's like a genius or something. or maybe all older doctors are like that and i'm just lagging WAAAAAAy behind.

so...yeah...stress.

this is how stressed out i look now. while everyone else is jolly-jolly. especially su-ann.

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and here are some pics of the valley aka chinatown.

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didn't take much. since it wasn't my camera. hahaha...leeching off people's pics.