Starbucks and Heroes

You know what it's like during the holidays, when everyday is the same cycle of events, and sometimes the only thing you look forward to in a week is that one day when you get to meet your friends and hang out. Well, last night was one of those. I hung out with some church friends at Starbucks. That's right - we hung out at the airport.

When I visit this kinda 'posh coffee' places, I do the unthinkable thing and order a non-coffee drink. Last night I ordered something called a chocolate chip cream, and man! It was fantastic! Delicious, with chunky bits of nuts, real chocolatey, with just the right amount of cream too! Just the way I like it. I realize sometimes that when I order a venti (re: the largest cup), I end up not being able to finish it, cos like sometimes you've had too much it just gets disgusting. But last night, my drink was tasty down to the very last drop... Ah. That's the sign of a good drink. The baristas serving us were a really friendly, funny bunch as well. Generous too. One of my friends walked off with a free pack of chips, and at the end of it all the same friend walked out with some exclusive Starbucks stickers. Really generous people, these Starbucks baristas.

Anyway, I ended last night by watching Heroes S02E09*, and I must say that this has been the best episode I've watched so far of Season 2. It was really intense from one moment to the next, and I found myself wishing that the episode wouldn't end. But of course it did. And here I am now, left impatiently waiting for Episode 10. The thing is it's quite hard to watch Heroes here. They're just beginning to air Season 1 this very week on tv3, but really it's quite pointless seeing how I've got the entire Season 1 anyway. What I want is Season 2, but even if they did air it, I don't think I'd watch it. Just too many things distracting from the actual storyline when it's on TV - sound quality, video quality, and worst of all, advertisements (the bane of all TV shows)! So yes, I end up downloading my Heroes intake, sometimes waiting up to a few hours for it to complete downloading. No pain, no gain.

And yes, I think that's it from me this time. Not good to have my blog readers pass out from pain.

Cheers!

*S02E09 = Season 2 Episode 9

101 Ways To Cook Instant Noodles

So like, most of you already know that I live a rather unhealthy lifestyle. Too much Coke, too little water, not enough vegies, too little exercise. Add to that equation a strange affinity for instant noodles, and you've got a recipe for disaster. Yes, instant noodles. Arguably the most unhealthy food on the planet, yet all of us have at one time or another resorted to swallowing down the junk. I have several friends who shudder at the thought of having to eat instant noodles, but mention "Maggi mee" and prepare to see my face light up with delight. Yes, I do seriously enjoy my Maggi mee, which is precisely what I had for lunch today. So anyway, since I'm quite 'known' for my ability to whip up a pretty decent Maggi mee meal, I'm gonna be a really nice person and share some of my cooking techniques with the whole wide world.

I think I hear triSh screaming.

I like the new Maggi mee, you know the Kari Letup version or something like that. It's supposed to be extra pedas, and yes, I do admit that it's a couple of notches tastier than the original curry flavour (the non-explosive one). Most people cook their Maggi mee the traditional way, as in they follow the directions on the back of the packet and measure out the correct amount of water needed. Some people even bring out their stopwatches. When you do this, you'll most obviously end up with the usual soupy noodles.

Like, wow. How fun. Soupy noodles.

I, on the other hand, am a connoiseur. I prefer to vent a little of my creative energy into the preparation of my Maggi mee. First off, I don't even use a lot of water to cook the noodles, so what happens is by the time the noodles are edible, there's really no soup whatsoever. I use 2 sachets of the soup flavouring, and yes, it does get a little salty, but hey, I like it that way. So where am I? Oh yes. Pop in an egg or two, but do what I do, and separate the yolk from the white. This next part is the most important part in producing that perfect Maggi mee: Do NOT cook the yolk. Yeah, that's right. I only cook the white, and I usually leave the yolk sitting comfortably at the bottom of an empty bowl. So you see, now you've got your noodles (not too soggy please, I like it al dente), your soup's all evaporated (what little of it, boiled to nothingness), and your little egg white floating in the pot, looking oh-so-tempting and tasty. Pour the whole mess into aforesaid bowl (remember, the one with the yolk floating at the bottom?), and the 'magic' of the whole thing is that the heat of the compressed noodles against the egg yolk will warm it, and the exterior will solidy, but the innards will be gooey and oozy and just nice. My parents have warned, scolded, and reprimanded me for eating the yolk 'raw' (dangers of salmonella poisoning), but I like to eat them this way. And yes, I usually spend a good couple of minutes in the toilet after one of these Maggi mee-raw egg combinations. Don't say I haven't warned you.

But today I cooked my lunch a little differently. Instead of putting in the entire contents of the 2 sachets of soup flavouring, I only put in 1 and a half, and poured the remaining half over the noodles after I'd transferred them from the pot to the bowl. And I cooked the yolk too. So it's a little more substantial, a little extra to savour. I remember though, a couple of years back, I used to shake some soy sauce over the noodles, which resulted in a dark, salty gravy. Yummy. And one of the reasons I enjoy going to KL is because you can have Maggi mee goreng, mamak-style! Fantastic stuff, really.

Well, I guess I better stop now. Not that I want to, but because I have to. All this talk of Maggi mee and raw salmonella-inflicting eggs is giving me a really bad stomach ache.

Cheers.

Cleaning up my table

Why is messing up so fun and easy to do, but cleaning up such a hassle and a chore? Yesterday, at about 4.30 pm, I finally decided to clean up my table. My table. Yeah right. Well, at least it's a start to cleaning up my entire room. So I started off by clearing up all the junk on my table (re: study notes that are now not needed), then I re-arranged all my pencils and pens into their respective jars/glasses. Then I decided, why not take it a little further, so I decided to wipe my table clean of grime and dust. But how? I had no rag on hand for it to be convenient. So I did the next best thing. I took my towel (the one I use when my current towel is in the wash), I splashed it with some water from some bottle, and cleaned. Gross eh? Well, I thought that wasn't good enough either, so I went to the bathroom and poured out some shampoo and facial wash onto the towel, and used that to clean the table. Then I spent quite a bit of time putting back all the items I'd removed (to make way for the cleaning and wiping), and when I'd finished the time read approximately 6.30 pm. And there you have it. More or less 2 hours to tidy up a small table. How long is it gonna take me to clean up my entire room? 2 weeks? And yes, for your entertainment, here are some before and after pictures of my table:

Before

During

After

You've gotta admit my table really looks quite good after the cleaning... So have I inspired you to do some winter cleaning yet? Cheers!

Life as sushi

These few days have been rather mundane, with only the food I eat to spice up my life (pun intended). These 3 or 4 days have been a food fest of sorts at my home, and I've been eating like mad. Like on Monday, we had home-made sushi! You guys should know, sushi is one of my favourite foods. Everytime we go to KL, we make it a point to buy lots (or loads if you prefer) of sushi. You can say that I was the one who introduced sushi-eating into the family. I went through a Japanese food craze (before my current Italian food craze) several years ago, and I remember buying sushi in KL, and literally force-feeding my family. At first, they weren't too keen on it, but the following year they were the ones hunting out sushi.

Talking about sushi, I can't help but look forward to my family trip to KL. It used to be an annual thing, but last year we couldn't make it. Which makes this year's all the more something to look forward to. Some of me dear blog readers probably come from West Malaysia, and they're prolly thinking right now: "Esther has gone nuts! What's there to see in KL?" I'll tell you what's there to see, and in a quick and convenient list! Which brings me to:

Esther's Top Reasons For Going To KL

staying in hotels - the life of luxury
Alor Street - great food in every stall
Midvalley Megamall - I can still get lost!
Nando's - the best chicken I've ever tasted
Marks & Spencer, especially the beauty section
MPH, Borders, Kinokuniya - books, books, books!
sitting in taxis with shopping bags blocking my sight
great mamak food (maggi mee goreng, extra pedas!)
hunting high and low for my Slam Dunk comic books
the fun of flying - takeoff, food (love it!), touchdown
specialty pasta shops (planning to try it this time)
the superb buffet breakfasts of aforesaid hotels
Chinatown - great bargains, food, and drinks
Ikea, for the shopping, the food, and fun
the bright lights of Bukit Bintang

Such a lot of things for me to look forward to, as you can see (or read). For me, it's looking forward your whole year to one spectacular holiday with your family.

It's saving up money, and not spending a dime (or a cent, in our case) on clothes and books and other frivolous stuff throughout the entire year, only to go on a spending spree and blow all your savings on the same clothes and books and other frivolous stuff in the span of a week.

It's about the food, all sorts of food that you really can't find here in Kuching, and even if you did find it, it just doesn't measure up, KL-style. Like mamak food, and sushi, and Penang char kuay teow, and roadsite porridge, and wantan noodles, and Nando's, and air mata kucing, and really I think I could go on for quite some time...

It's about not cleaning up your room, and leaving it in a complete tornado of a mess, only to arrive a few hours later at your very own hotel room, complete with complimentary welcome drink, and buffet breakfast, and having new bath towels each day, and messing up your room but having it magically cleaned up the next day.

It's about spending time with your family, searching for food, taxis, loose change, and the missing hotel room key, and queuing up in lines for food, and getting lost in the middle of a shopping complex. It's about making a list of items you wanna bring, and packing all these up into a suitcase, only to realise you've forgotten something so you mess up your already-packed suitcase only to find that missing something lying tranquilly at the bottom of your now messed up suitcase, and to begin the whole process all over again, before finally realising you can't get it out of your room cos the suitcase is wider than your door.

But mostly, it's about the memories.

Funny how a little sushi can spur the imagination. Onwards into the future! And with all that, I bid you adieu!

On pasta and double cheeseburgers

The long-and-eagerly-awaited holidays are finally here, and ironically enough, I think I might be more stressed out now than when I was in uni. There's just so many things to do, and I don't have enough time to do them all! I think Calvin (or Hobbes) summed it up best: "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want." Seriously, I have so many nothings to do! There's the late-night television programs, the Internet, I still need to clean up my room, play computer games, pack for the family trip, hang out with my buddies, read 19 more books... Argh! I just don't have enough time to do all these. I'm so stressed out.

I was really happy on Saturday night. I finally managed to have my double cheese carbonara for dinner, although it was a take-away dinner consumed only at 10 pm. But still, good stuff. I always pester (yes, I do believe that's the right word) my family and friends to go to this one stall in Peach Garden just so I can savour the culinary delights they have to offer. So far, the last three attempts to eat there have failed miserably. The first attempt was made together with my buddies triSh and Vivian, and they wanted to introduce me to this new stall also serving pasta, but I was determined to stick to my guns. I wanted my pasta from my stall, and I wanted it badly.

They weren't open.

The second attempt was made with my family. We frequent the area quite a bit, and I always have the same thing. So there I went, almost floating a few inches off the ground in anticipation of the delicious pasta dinner I was about to have.

They weren't open.

Saturday was my third attempt, and they were open. Only thing was, I wasn't there! Talk about situational irony... But I did tell my dad my dinner specifications, so I did manage to enjoy my double cheese carbonara (RM6, single cheese is RM5), although it was cold by the time I finally got to it. Sigh. Am currently impatiently counting down the days to my fourth (hopefully successful) attempt. Wanna wanna, triSh and Vivian?

Then last night, another of my culinary daydreams was fulfilled! I went to McDonald's! Weeeeeeee... Funny thing was last night was supposed to be my fourth attempt at having my pasta at Peach Garden, but we (triSh, Vivian, and I) ended up making a last minute detour to the welcoming arms of the Golden Arches... I ordered the double cheeseburger McValue Meal, which also came with a large Coke and large fries (upgrade!), and I succumbed to the temptations of TV advertisements and ordered a chocolate sundae. No chocolate though, so it was just plain ice-cream. So there we were, the three of us, sitting in the coldest corner of the restaurant, when I eagerly opened the wrappings of my double cheeseburger... Only to be rather disappointed. It was smaller and looked less appetizing than I remembered it. But oh well, it's still a double cheeseburger, and it's still from McDonald's, so yes I was quite contented. Chocolate for my ice-cream sundae would have made me happier I suppose. But yes, here are the pictures from my previous two dinners:

Double cheese carbonara... Slurp slurp.

Double cheeseburger looks good... When it's still in its wrapper.

Er... Yummy?

My chocolate sundae, sans chocolate.

Nothing like a large Coke to end dinner!

So there you have it... The lovely dinners I've had in the past two nights. Okay, that's it. Now I'm going back to Facebook-ing.

Cheers!

The horrors of holidays...

It is now precisely 9:19 a.m., and I haven't slept yet. Yup, I stayed up the whole night reading Wikipedia articles, and clicking the "Refresh" button on Facebook. Basically, I did nothing. My fingers are freezing up, my typing speed slowing down... Need sleep. Need rest. Good night everybody... Or rather, good morning.

Yaaaawn...

Off to a great start!

What a great way to start the holidays! I celebrated the end of exams for my third year, first semester by going to this really cool place in town called Hornbill Steamboat, which obviously is a steamboat restaurant. It's kinda something of a 'tradition' of sorts for my so-called gang in university (re: the circle of friends I hang out the most with in uni), and we kinda go into this sort of maniacal frenzy near the end of each semester. Like this semester, it was during class when one of us suddenly brought up the subject of celebrating the end of the semester, and this was followed by a rather animated discussion (more like drawing of lots) on where we should go to celebrate. Of course, we ended up settling for a steamboat feast, like the 2 semesters before this.

So I left for this steamboat place at approximately 6.50 p.m., and this time I didn't forget to bring my trusty sidekick - the digital camera! So yes, there are pictures to chronicle the evening!

First thing in a steamboat is making sure you have water. And to make sure that water is boiling. Like no fire means no boiling water. No boiling water means cannot cook anything. Cannot cook anything means no food. No food means not good. And yes, also make sure you have some ice cold drinks (with plenty of ice). Especially useful when scorching oil splashes onto your skin. Trust me.



My friends seem to have really interesting ways of making sure the water is hot. This is what they call "first hand experience" and "hands-on training". This is where the aforementioned ice comes in handy, too.



One of the reasons why my friends and I always return to the same steamboat place is because they really do have a wide variety of food items. In the picture below is just part of what we had to choose from. Personally, I always aim for the marinated lamb and the prawns (bottom left). I like to grill the prawns with butter, salt and pepper - my very own version of butter prawns, ala steamboat! And of course, there's always the usual condiments of vege, nuggets, sausages, crab sticks, fish, chicken, cuttlefish, fishballs, meat rolls, and even ice-cream! No pics of the ice-cream though. As you can see, I have two pairs of chopsticks. Why? Because a friend of mine once told me that you shouldn't use the same chopsticks you use for cooking (re: poking at the fire) for eating.



Part of the fun of steamboat outings is the squealing and yelling when the hot oil sizzles and pops. Here you can see how we cook our food. I'm cooking the nuggets and the clams. Slurp slurp. Feeling hungry yet?



And yes, the main purpose of going for a steamboat dinner is of course the steamboat itself, though I tend to focus my energy on the grilling part (can you call that grilling?)... I usually leave the soup part to my friends. They're much better cooks than I am. Especially when the food is supposed to be eaten. Teehee!



A close-up of my nuggets and clams... Sizzling, frying, the aroma of frying butter wafting up your nostrils and sticking to your clothes, hair, skin, blah blah blah... You can also see what my friends were cooking - some juicy morsels of meat (left) and a dim sum (that's what the green thing is) peeking out on the right.



So there you have it, one of the best ways to kickstart the holidays, and a tradition that has been observed for the past two years or so. Me and my friends split the bill four ways, so each of us paid RM21.50, which is really not bad for a great night out with friends! Nothing better than coming away with a little souvenir or two - burns and blisters!

Cheers!

Freedom, after a week and a half!

Finally! Freedom after 8 gruelling days of facing books, lecture notes, and exam papers. I know 8 days don't seem like much, but seriously, it's hampering to a slacker like myself. And in this age of technology, where all assignments and miscellaneous works are completed by laptop, it really is very strange to have to hold a pen again, and 2 hours straight some more... Waaaah. I'm so glad my holidays (the official one, not the self-declared study break one) are finally here. Now I can literally sleep the whole day and not bother a whit about exams and stuff.

The first thing I did when I came home was switch on the idiot box. Then hunt out lunch, which was pizza! Muahahahaha! What a great way to kickstart the holidays. Then I took a nap (if 3 hours of dead-log sleep can be considered that), and started surfing the 'Net! Ah... The wonders of the Internet (especially if you haven't been online in 1 week)...

So what am I going to do these holidays? Although, really, I'm quite disappointed that it's so short - just a mere 45 days! That's not enough for the average undergraduate! Anyway, my holiday plans are as follows: blog, sleep, eat, watch TV, go crazy online, prepare for family trip, go on holiday trip, have Christmas celebrations, catch up on Bleach and Slam Dunk episodes on Youtube, blog + eat + sleep some more, etc. And yes, I have to finish reading 20 books by Dec 31, just so I can proudly say I read 50 books this year. And maybe I better clean my room up a bit too. It was actually really clean pre-exams (I had nothing to do one day during study break so I went on a 2-hour cleaning frenzy), but during the 8 days of exams I kinda went wild, flinging books and lecture notes here and there. So yeah, that means some spring cleaning for me, although really I think it's closer to winter than spring.

Anyway, that's it from me this time around. Cheers you all, and happy holidays!

Clock is tickin' but I'm still playin'!

The time for exams is drawing near, it's just next week (horror of horrors!), and I know I should be studying, or at least trying to study, or at the very least of the very least trying to try to study, but somehow I just can't bring myself to do it. I've learnt from past mistakes that it really doesn't do to cram one night or even two before the paper - it wreaks havoc on your brain and body - but knowing this, I still can't force myself to study. I just can't help it. It's just too much fun lazing around. Too much fun doing nothing. It's what I do best, y'know... Doing nothing. But then again, come to think of it, at least I'm doing something... I mean, thinking about studying is something, isn't it?

Muahahahaha!

And yes, I suppose while I'm at it, I might as well explain some relatively new 'features' on my blog. If you were to look at the top of this page, you'd see the words "Currently Obsessed With" on the upper left hand corner, followed by a list of things. These are the TV programmes, websites, comics, cartoons, things, objects, books, etc that I'm currently obsessed with, i.e. I spend the most time on currently. Will be updated really regularly. My interest in stuff shifts almost as fast as the weather. Then scroll down some more, and you'd probably see the word "Links", which really is self-explanatory. Just links to miscellaneous sites that you should surf only if you have nothing left to do, or you're dying from boredom, or just out of plain curiosity.

And I suppose that's it this time. If you don't hear from me after this, don't worry, I'm fine. I'll just be in the midst of thinking about studying... And maybe I might even start studying. But that's just maybe.

Cheers!