1. Actually I was just busy with practically everything that's bombarding in my currently about-to-enter-4th-year-in-college-and-still-struggling-with-time-management life.

2. I am obliged to give an update about my life since pineapple fried rice.

3. Exactly 9 months and 3 days ago, I started a brand new relationship with a beautiful girl from Beijing.

4. About 7 months ago, I crossed the not-so-small pond for the third time to the motherland of MUFC (looks like a swear word). Visited my brother (again), Grace (again), Huei Ming, ex-AJC-cum-ASEAN people and Flaine (it was love at first sight). Thanks bro for the treat!

5. Hmm... what major events happened after that? I can't remember... It was a blur of college, research, church, student association, girlfriend... oh~! I got elected as the president of the Malaysian Students Association. Well, technically, I won uncontested. It came upon me that very few in the association is willing to lead (I myself included initially), but I am very glad that I am given a great committee, mostly still fresh but very eager to learn and serve.

6. I got baptised around May. Sorry mum, I didn't tell you this earlier, but I am still your beloved son :)

7. I got really involved in the church starting June. I was officially appointed as the leader of the Compassion Ministry, taking the helm over from a great sister who is currently working in Singapore now. I have been going to a homeless shelter to serve dinner, writing letters to a little girl the ministry is sponsoring in the poverty-inflicted part of Indonesia, and this weekend will be resuming the old folks' home 'happy hour' service again. Besides that, I was appointed as a rising cell group leader, taking care of the growth and welfare of my cell group members. My members are really amazing; they are so hyperactive that they sometimes climb over my head, but the most happy thing is we managed to organize a car wash fund-raising activity and helped reduce the financial burden for organizing the welcoming service at the beginning of Fall semester.

8. I participated in a research internship program called DURI (Discovery Park Undergraduate Research Internship) during the summer. I continued working with the same professor in the department of Chemistry. People asked me why I did not opt for a lab in biology. I told them that I like working with other departments so that I can gain a multidisiplinary view of research. Plus, the lab project I am working on really interests me.

9. I was addicted to a certain manga called '20th century boys' over the summer. Its story centers on a young man who discovered that the plot for justice over the facades of world destruction cooked up during his childhood became reality (only the destruction part) and he was destined to become the hero who saves the world. The storyline plays out really well, and there are so many twists and turns out of the blue that it thrills me to the bones. Do check it out.

10. Chou-chou means butterfly in Japanese. There's a detective called Chouno in '20th century boys' who dreams of becoming a great detective like his grandfather.

11. Incidentally, I recently watched an intriguing movie called 'The Oxford Murders' (2007). I've never come across a movie that takes mathematics so intricately into the plot since 'A Beautiful Mind'. But the most striking words I remember from the movie is at the end, when the professor revealed that the main protagonist is the cause of all the murders by asking, "Are you that butterfly, Martin?" If you have come across an essay topic as annoying as something similar to 'A butterfly flapping its wings stirs up a tornado at the other end of the world. Discuss.', I am sure you know what I mean.

12. I am writing this blog again to improve my ever deflating ability to type gracefully and eloquently in English. I have GRE coming up. I hope that after this college business finishes, I can once again focus on culinary delights, or maybe a few follow-up analysis of the issues brought up in chedet.com (I am a big fan, and hence the numbering of my information points). Kudos to TDM.

so that's it! both the bread and cookie has different baking time! So how did our hero solve this problem?

Sushi Melonpan!? Oooh! He baked the 2 doughs separately and stick it together using melon jam, much like how nigiri-zushi is made! ingenious!!

Today's Iron Chef is non other than my mum! A gifted cook, my mum has been cooking non-stop since i came back from the States. Some of her creation that i've tasted includes deep-fried taro dumpling, hakka's abacus seeds, niang tou fu (stuffed tofu), stir-fry dry bee hoon, sweet potato doughnuts and many more! This is a photo of her deep-fried taro dumpling:

But that's not our main dish today. Instead she's going to show everyone how to cook pineapple fried rice!

Pineapple is a good source of manganese (a very important co-factor), vitamin C (anti-scurvy) and vitamin B1 (good for heart and neural system); pineapple juice can enhance digestion, prevent inflammation and tenderize meat. And it's refreshing just to drink it during the blazing hot summer.

In cooking this fried rice, my mum choose to use Sarawak pineapple as the Sarawak variety is very sweet and fragrant. You can use any type of pineapple but the taste might be different.

Ingredients:
1 Sarawak pineapple (nenas Sarawak)
4 cups of Somaly's Cambodian Organic Brown Rice
150g lean pork, minced
100g shrimp, cleaned and shelled
100g carrots, shredded
Half a can of green peas
2 green chillis, sliced
2 eggs
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 stalks of spring onion, chopped finely
pepper, to taste
soy sauce, to taste
curry powder, optional

Methods:

1. Wash the brown rice and rinse it twice. Cook the rice using the rice cooker. (note: please add less water than normal so that the rice can have a medium hard texture and not too sticky for frying later)

2. Split the pineapple into 2. Cut out the sweet flesh by leaving a 1 cm border from the skin to form a 'boat'. take 1/4 of the fruit and dice it for later use.

3. Heat frying pan with oil. Fry garlic till fragrant. Add pork and carrot and stir-fry until the pork turns golden brown. Then, add the pineapple cubes, green peas, green chillis, half of the spring onions, and prawns. Stir-fry until the prawns turn reddish. Turn off the heat and scoop up the whole lot.

4. Heat frying pan with oil again. Fry the eggs into bite-size pieces.

5. By now your rice should be cooked. Dump in the rice and the rest of the cooked ingredients from step 3 and stir fry under medium heat. Sprinkle soy sauce, pepper and curry powder (optional) and continue stir-frying until well mixed.

6. Scoop out the fried rice into the pineapple halve. Garnish with the remaining spring onions. Serve while it's hot.

And after you have enjoyed a sumptuous meal of pineapple fried rice, you can remove the pineapple's crown and plant it. Help keep the environment green!

It might bear another sweet pineapple for your next craving :) who knows?

I watched this on Singapore's Channel 5. Kinda like it, esp the idea of 'doing stuffs outside your usual stuffs'. Neat. In Troy's spirit, I confess that I like cooking a lot, although I'm supposed to be a biologist. :)

This is the first time I'm helping out, kinda excited... for those who are coming please drop by booth #31!! Thanks!!

Welcome to another exciting Iron Chef series! In this installment, I'm featuring a refreshing drink common in Asian countries - watermelon juice - and a hybrid bread originated from Japan - melonpan!

I was shopping in Walmart with Maylin one day and we came across $5 watermelons piled up in the fruits section. We thought that since summer is going to be very hot, some watermelon can be an ideal dessert after dinner. Though it's not very cheap if you convert back to RM, the size of the melon is humongous. We had quite enough of it after eating a quarter.

So we thought of making watermelon juice. It's traditionally known that salt sprinkled watermelon tastes better because salt draws water out from the melon, thus making it juicier (we know that sodium cations and chloride anions bond with the partially charged H2O), but after a daring experiment I found out that maple syrup has a similar, if not better, effect. The sweet woody taste of maple syrup complements well with the refreshing taste of watermelon juice. (Maybe this is my personal opinion, but do try out my recipe and decide it on your own!)

After squeezing out the juice, we're left with a bowlful of watermelon pulp. What is seen as dump I imagine as a special commodity by applying a tweak. I had a perfect picture in my mind. I told the Waldron household that I plan to use the pulp to make scrumptious watermelon bread. The idea originated from reading a manga called "Yakitate Japan" (a must read), in which the protagonist has to make melonpan (a kind of Japanese honeydew melon bread).

In this case, I substituted honeydew melon with watermelon. The result is... not so successful, coz there's not much watermelon flavor in the bread. But it's still a decent hybrid bread that's soft in the inside and crispy on the outside.

Click below for the recipe :)

20 oz. freshly squeezed watermelon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs maple syrup
1/2 tbs sugarcane sugar

Combine everything and stir until homogeneous. Serve chilled.

Watermelon bread (good for 24 medium sized buns):

1 packet of yeast
60ml water
1/4 tsp sugar

1. Heat water in microwave oven to 37-42 degrees C.

2. Dissolve sugar and then add yeast. Let stand for 10 minutes.

500g flour
1/2 tbs salt
1 tbs + 1 tsp + 1/4 tsp sugar
3 tbs butter
200ml water

3. Mix the above ingredients and add the activated yeast solution into the mixture. Add some more flour and knead until less sticky.

4. Scatter some flour onto a flat table and knead the bread dough on it for about 20 minutes. If you have solar hands you can speed things up :P (read Yakitate Japan and you'll understand).

5. Oil the surface of a bowl and put the dough in it. Cover with a pan or something high enough to give it some space to expand. Leave it in room temperature for 2 hours.

300g flour
1 pinch baking powder
5 tbs butter
10 tbs sugar
1 egg
5 tbs watermelon pulp (not too watery)

6. While the bread dough is expanding, mix above ingredients and keep it aside.

7. Take out the bread dough, punch it down and knead lightly. Then separate the bread dough into 24 equal pieces and put them on a cookie tray. Let 2nd rise for 15 minutes.

8. Cover the top of the bread dough with the mixture done in no. 6. Bake at 190 degrees C for 15 minutes. After that, switch to broil function for 1 minute to give the top surface of the bread a brownish, crispy layer.

9. Serve with watermelon juice.

(The recipe for watermelon bread is modified from Melon Pan Recipe)

Note: If you still have not read Yakitate Japan, you might not know that there's a flaw in the bread design... the answer will be revealed in the next installment of Iron Chef series!

This is the complete version of last week's feature, authentic nasi lemak from Ms Lyndel! Because we cooked in bulk, nasi lemak became our staple food for almost a week until the Midwest Games weekend. Woooooo! such extravagant culinary week spark me on breaking the frontier in my bread baking voyages! My first bread was melon bread. Crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Goes well with watermelon juice from my own recipe. Pictures and recipes will be posted soon. :)

Today's Iron Chef is Ms. Lyndel! Majoring in Hotel, Tourism and Management, Lyndel has experiences in handling big food catering events and restaurant businesses. She hasn't been home for 4 years, and her craving for authentic Malaysian food has spurred her on to create her own recipe list! To date, the inventory boasts a range of cuisines including kiam chai ak th'ng, 3-egg porridge, nasi beriani, wonton mee, etc etc.. and today, I'm featuring her authentic nasi lemak! Believe me, it's super nice. I had a super long reaction after biting into the fresh basmati rice with a hint of pandan and coconut richness, the hot and spicy sambal, the cooling cucumber, and the egg just complete everything in a punch. Literally stimulate my taste buds and send me to heaven.

For the nasi>>
1. Basmati rice (long grain) - 6 cups
2. Coconut milk + water - 7th level in rice cooker
3. Ginger - 4-5 slices
4. Pandan essence - 1 1/2 teaspoon or less
**(Iron Chef can't find pandan leaves here, so pandan essence is the next best alternative)
5. Salt to taste

For the sambal>>
1. Sambal Olek with garlic - 2 bottles
**(If can't get the sambal olek w/ garlic, use garlic - 1/4 bulb per bottle)
2. Baby anchovies - 5 rice cups
3. Onions - 2 bulbs
4. Tomatoes - 1 1/2 big can (or 3 medium cans), diced
5. Sugar - 2-4 rice cups, depends on the level of sweetness you want
6. Kicap manis ABC - 1 1/2 rice cup
7. Tamarind concentrate - 2 tbs
8. Chicken stock granules (without onions) - ~1/2 rice cup

Tumeric ayan goreng>>
1. Chicken drumsticks - 10 pieces
2. Tumeric powder - 2 tbs
3. Salt to taste

Sides>>
1. Anchovies, deep-fried
2. Eggs, sunny side up or hard boiled
3. Peanuts, roasted
4. Cucumber for garnish

Modus Operandi:

For nasi>>
1. Put all ingredients into rice cooker, mix up well, and let the pot do the rest. Done.

For sambal>>
1. Blend onions and mix it with sambal olek w/ garlic. If sambal olek w/ garlic is not available blend in garlic also. Then mix in baby anchovies.
2. Heat up some oil in a big pot and pour the mixture in. Stir until fragrant.
3. Put in chicken stock granules, tomatoes and tamarind concentrate and stir again. Stir constantly under high heat.
4. Add sugar and kicap manis ABC according to your taste (the measurements above is perfected by Iron Chef lol)

For tumeric ayam goreng>>
1. Marinate chicken with salt and tumeric powder until it's orangish in color. Wrap and refrigerate overnight
2. Take out the next day and deep-fry.

Tips from Iron Chef for the sides>>
1. When boiling eggs, remember to add salt to the boiling water (~1/2 rice cup worth) so that the eggs won't crack easily.
2. After the eggs are done, transfer them into ice cold water to prevent the membrane layer of the egg from sticking to the albumin (in short, it's easier to peel the eggs).
3. Roast raw peanuts with a little bit of salt to add flavour.
4. Before slicing the cucumber, cut one tip of the vegetable and rub the cut surface together. This helps in getting rid of the latex which is the source of its bitter taste.

I had Easter program at church today. And at the age of 20, I think this is my first time celebrating Easter Day. Everyone seemed to be consciously aware of the approaching celebration for the past week and prepared themselves to commemorate our Saviour's death and rise. A sister even fasted for a week for the event. We had more singings than usual today, and I must say I like all the praise songs, especially "Seperti yang Kau Ingini".

Bukan dengan barang fana
Kau membayar dosaku
Dengan darah yang mahal
Tiada noda dan cela

Bukan dengan emas perak
Kau menebus diriku
Oleh segenap kasih
dan pengorbananMu

Ku telah mati dan tinggalkan
Cara hidupku yang lama
Semuanya sia-sia dan tak bererti lagi

Hidup ini kuletakkan
Pada mezbahMu ya Tuhan
Jadilah padaku seperti yang kau ingini

After sharing/service by a senior, we had an exciting egg hunt competition. My group received the first clue which sounds like this:

Dewey decimal classification
No food and no drinks
Parchment and papyrus
Be a missionary

It was clear that the clue refers to the library in the church, and we went there and found the second clue in the shelf labeled 'missionary'. It sounded like this:

"For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free--and have all been made to drink into one Spirit."

We thought, oh no, maybe they want us to quote where the sentence can be found in the Bible. Luckily we had a diligent/ardent Bible reader and found the verse straight away (Christians out there, take this challenge to and quote the source). We went to our supervisor for the next clue, but he said our answer was wrong! We need to think out of the box, he said. So after some wild guesses, we finally hit the point: orange, the color in which the verse is printed, was the answer. And we had to find as many orange plastic eggs as possible littered in the church in one hour and a half.

The supervisors were so creative in hiding the eggs: in kitchen mittens, in between metal poles of the heater, in between chairs stacked on top of another, behind a television set, inside the piano seat (the one with a compartment to keep music books), on high shelves, under a pile of toys etc etc. In the end we found 15 of them. But the game did not end there. Inside the eggs were questions of various sorts (arithmetic, general knowledge, Bible trivia and Bible verses) which we must answer in a certain time limit to gain points.
The arithmetic ones were easy. The Bible verses were hilarious; we were supposed to find a certain word in the Bible and show the actual object to the supervisor. One group found 'Oil' in the greasy leftover plate in the kitchen, and another took off their shoes and threw them at the supervisors. The general knowledge and bible trivia were the hardest, but at least I learned that the shortest book in the Bible is 3 John, Vontrap is the last name of the family in the 'Sound of Music', the first ruler of Hawaii is King Kamehameha (!) etc etc..

Some questions which we got it right:

Who is the manga artist for Doraemon?
Who is the famous Communist leader in Russia?
Where is the painting 'Madonna of the Rocks' exhibited (not to be confused with 'Virgin of the Rocks')?

In the end we received 131 points and ranked 2nd. $30 gift voucher yayy!!

Only today I truly appreciate the meaning of Easter Day. It is not about bunnies, not about a basketful of colored eggs, and certainly not about Easter Island. It is about Jesus Christ who died for us and rose from the grave. And thrilling egg hunts.

The argument of arts vs science: which one is a better field should have been flung out of my mind a long time ago after 5 years of pursuing science. somehow i feel like i'm leaving out a big possibility of changing my lifestyle in a totally different way when i chose science. Had i ever given arts a chance? I did learn how to draw, how to use crayons and water color, how to draw perspective views (i loved that a long time ago actually) etc.. If the arts class in school back then included making straw stars and origami, or weaving ketupat and bak zhang, i think i would go for arts without a doubt. Haw haw haw...

Maybe i like to do those stuffs because it fills up my leisure time.. and i think it's a sort of intangible skill which has to be passed down from generation to generation.. it would be sad if no one in the newer generation knows how to make bak zhang or ketupat just because they don't know how to weave them anymore (if you are thinking that plastic bags can replace the woven bamboo and coconut leaves in cooking those savoury food, you are sick don't know what real deal food is)

Science can be an art also, in some sort of sense. Like burning flies after you are done with them (sounds cruel right.. i'm evil) ethanol can be a handy liquid. just joking haha.. now the serious part: the sense of art in science came to me as the design in drugs to combat diseases; as the deciphered mechanisms and pathways in which DNA, RNA, proteins etc mesh together to form an intricate web of life which function perfectly, in ways beyond how a Picasso impressionism can ever be appreciated. This art is beyond Mankind. This art is the work of God.

Oh btw, Christine and Jeanette, Congrats to you both! You gals made your big 'sis' (aka yours truly) here proud! :P

and this mall (and here) is so beautiful! What happened to my old small Summit-monopolized hometown in my 2-year absence!?

I was eating dinner with a bunch of friends when I saw a Calculus 3 TA I had when I took the course in the first semester in Purdue. Try as I might, I couldn't remember his name properly.

Li..... something. Li.... what? Li..... Hao? No... Li....... Mao? Limau (lemon)!? lol... heyy.. focus here.... Li.... Jia? Li Jia!

Then, suddenly, another similar name popped up in my brain, as if the extraction method I used to tug Li Jia out of my memory box pulled out something else. It's like typing 'Jay' into iTunes search box and get songs by Jay Chou, Jay Z, Jay Leno.. (Jay Leno?! I made that one up :P)

Anyway, Li Yong Jia came out of my brain too. This name striked to me as an awfully familiar person I've met from the past. Instantly an island loomed from my mind. Hmm... that's familiar too, I thought. I've been to many islands but none are as heavily imprinted in my mind as Singapore aka stress-fun kiasuland.

Oh! I must have met Li Yong Jia in Singapore! Yeah, it must be! because I instantly remembered the lavender cake I gave to him before I leave kiasuland for good! That heavenly cake made by Family cake/breadshop in Batu Pahat aka sweet-old hometown! Why did i gave him the cake in the first place? Oh! I remembered! As a token of appreciation for bringing a peking duck all the way from beijing which i shared with the Asean Gang! Not all la, i think some of you guys went back ady, it was during some holiday.. I can remember Grace was there, as well as Jon who was the excellent fowl carver. Other than that... sien, jason, ben, sp, hl, cp, hw, hm, eric, foo, victor, were you all there? Somehow i couldn't remember anymore..

So I came back to reality aka eating my Unagi don (Japanese baked eel and rice with special sweet sauce) while marveling how by meeting Li Jia again triggered a chain reaction in my brain to dig so extensively back into past memories involving a long lost friend, a very good lavender cake, ASEAN bunchies and a duck. A real deal Peking duck.

*drool*

Just talked to Alvin about going back to Malaysia aka easy-fun bolehland. BPians, miss you guys! I'll be back from June 12 to Aug 19. Someone please inform me if there's any gathering/reunion/makan-makan sessions k!! Ah how i wish i have everyone's msn/emails... If you guys happen to read this please email me k?

It was just after church. My senior Andrew was sending a friend to Payless and was on the way back. I was still in the church waiting for Andrew to fetch me back. Suddenly i received distressed call from him; he told me he was involved in a minor accident. I was shocked, both by the news and by his oddly calm voice. As he explained, I learned that his car skidded at a corner and drove straight into the snow-covered sidewalk path. The snow was so deep that his car was stuck. Luckily he was unhurt. I quickly asked Andrew Ng and Dodoi (church members) for help.

The hailstorm was still pelting down like mad when we reached the scene. Andrew's car was driven deep into 10-inch snow, not the soft flurry kind but the hardened crystallized kind. The 3 of us pushed with all our might while Andrew shifted into the reverse gear and stepped on the gas pedal. The car vroomed and bellowed but the wheels did not move at all. We tried to remove the snow below the car but to no avail. We tried to push the car again for 3 times but to no avail too. In the end, Andrew called a towing company. Andrew Ng and Dodoi went back to the church while I waited with Andrew for the towing truck to arrive.

We waited for an hour. During that time, there are actually 2 passing cars who stopped by and proffered help. And a police patrol came by too. We're just sitting in the car listening to music while watching the ice plunking down on the windscreen and melting away. Other passing cars were so extremely careful while driving pass us, as if we're a reality advertisement on road skids. And Andrew said he was merely driving at a speed of 20 miles per hour when he skidded. Tough luck.

Finally, the towing truck pulled Andrew's car out. $50 spent and shoes soaked wet thereafter, we reminded ourselves to be satisfied what we have experienced, and went for dinner.

Met Maylin at Harrison Grill doing her programming homework. She showed us this photo of frosted pine tree taken after the snowstorm last week. It looks so magical that as if it's straight from Disney cartoon. It was something wonderful, considering after we just had experienced how bad Indiana's crazy weather can be.

Here's the photo:

Thanks Maylin!

In the past, Chinese New Year had been a much awaited holiday, when I could lay back and sleep and enjoy the sumptuous reunion dinner with my Dad's family, followed by days of visitings and festive cheers (not to mention lot's of angpaos haha).

This year's CNY celebration is my second one done overseas. Like last year, together with the Malaysian Students Association gang, we played host to the CNY dinner program for about 70 Malaysians and tens of friends from other nationalities. Although things started late and, much to our panic and everyone else's chagrin, a power short circuit crisis occurred, everything else went well; we made a total of 10 plates of yu sheng and tossed them together with the guests, our 2 MCs were so great in organizing the games and getting the audiences' enthusiasm pumped up, Pei Shan's great dessert (red dates and white fungus soup), and my little concert :P (that actually didn't go as well because my voice went coarse haha)

That aside, I was touched today by several people's assistance and help. I think they show total relentless, selfless spirit of unity to make our event a success.

1. Thank you Andrew and Malcolm in assisting with the power short circuit crisis. To be honest, when I was informed about the crisis, the first person I think of to ask for help is Andrew, since he's an ECE Masters student. He was already up and going about checking the extension, finding the source of the problem and mending the fusebox together with Malcolm and Boon.

2. Thank you to those who willingly lent their rice cookers for our event (though I apologize if you guys didn't get your own rice cooker back coz I messed them all up during cleaning)

3. Thank you Pei Shan who willingly shared the burden of the committee (aka cooking and cleaning) although she's not part of the committee. Thanks to her 'brother' Sam too for helping out in the cleaning process.

4. Thank you Frank and Hui Yi and I'm sure lots of others who came into the kitchen and help out with the last step of preparation as well as with serving the food.

5. Thank you How Jian for being multipurposeful :P

6. Thank you Maylin and Huey Sywu. You both can consider being Grammy hostesses.

7. Thank you Wooi Chen, Suan Aik and Winnie, for their help in preparing the food, and doing the multimedia presentation. You guys should consider asking Ube for posts in the committee haha..

8. Thank you Boon for organizing all this.

9. Thank you everyone for your support!

(the above list is not put forward in ascending or descending importance. They just popped out of my mind i that order)

I was happy because we earned a bit of profit this time round hehe..

After the event, I called back home. It's great to hear all the familiar voices again! I suddenly had an urge to go back home instantly and enjoy a sumptuous dinner with the people I missed so much. Wah, homesick liao!

Happy New Year to all!!!