bleeding gums blog

make your own ham!

2012-01-06T23:45:00.000-08:00

one day kevin k from my audio forum posted his experience of making saucisson (large dried sausages) at home. inspired, i wished to do the same too but had problems sourcing pig intestines.

a search on youtube gave me ideas. how about this? home made cured pork loin ham

watch the video and you'll know how to make your own at home. it's really easy.

only problem is drying it. if you live in regions where humidity is low, you could dry it in open air. not here in malaysia where humidity is >80%. most likely you'll get mold on your ham. not appetizing at all...

then i got an idea. how about drying it in the refrigerator? the air in the fridge is dry and it's pretty clean inside.

so that's what i did! after salt cure for 12 hours, i cleaned them tenderloins, spiced it and hanged it on the inside of our fridge door. i was told the ham is ready when it has lost 35% of its weight. stupid me only weighed it after 10 days by which time it has lost almost half its weight.

so it's a bit dry but... still taste nice!

spiced with rosemary, oregano etc

spiced with crushed black pepper

taste wise a bit too salty but very flavourful. could be i let it cured too long. i'll try again with more experiments. anyway, it's a lot of fun! goes very well with bread or salad!

notice that the ham is raw. well traditionally this is how ham is done and the salt cure as well as drying kills whatever bacteria is present and allows the flavours to develop slowly.

i'll try this again! will also try the saucisson one day!

real men shave with this...

2011-12-29T23:20:00.000-08:00

earlier this year, i've been converted to wet shaving using a double edge safety razor like this merkur 23c above. and i should have done this sooner!

for the past almost twenty years, been using the disposable razor cartridge types like gillette mach3 etc. now these fellas aren't very sharp. you need to force down the razor to get a clean shave. also, the disposable razor cartridge is very expensive. rm30+ buys a pack of 5, so that's rm5+ for a disposable plastic contraption with 2 extremely thin and tiny blunt blades. damn...

i don't have much luck with electric shavers. couldn't get a clean shave. sometimes it "pulls" the skin resulting in bruises, like i got whack by my wife.

hmm... hairy experience while trying to get rid of hair?

as always, history could tell us a lot. what have our forefathers been using before all these modern junk?

a double edge safety razor like the one above! purist will go for straight razors but these aren't easy to use (i know, i speak from experience. ouch!).

but where to buy one? i searched high and low, asked around, checked here and there, poked my nose around but to no avail. actually i did manage to get some cheap china made ones but these are so flimsy i'd pass...

so i bought this razor from ebay after exhausing all avenues here. [but there's good news later]

it cost me rm150++. well, this includes stupid freight from US of A. but this stainless steel contraption should last forever. hey, it's made of 3 pieces and it doesn't look like anything could go wrong! unless you are daft and use it to hammer nails...

to complete the whole experience, i fabricated this little teak wood stand for my razor as well as shaving brush.

curiously, it's easy to get shaving cream. you could get it from the bigger tesco outlets as well as local mydin malls.

so how's wet shaving with the double edge safety razor?

it's awesome! the razor blades are very cheap (how about rm4 for 5? some go for rm15 for 100!) and some makes are very very sharp. i like the gillette wilkinson sword best.

it's different from using those plastic disposable rubbish. you got to relearn your technique. just lightly glide it over your skin at an angle. what angle? you'll get the hang of it real quick! and it's soooooo easy to clean!

aren't you worry of cuts? nicks? i know you must be thinking of this. actually i find it to be very safe, as long as you hold it at an angle.

in fact, i like wet shaving so much i'm actively promoting it! however, most friends are scared of cuts. sissy! see, all those metro sexual shit is getting to you!

so this will be my mantra for now. real men shave with proper razors! not those plastic disposable nonsense!

and to further promote wet shaving, i've asked dovo (maker of above merkur razor) for distributorship of merkur razors in malaysia. in fact, i've placed an order...

how about straight razors?

not for me! for now!

this takes skill. i tried and suffered some cuts. but i'm sure i'll graduate to straight razor one day...

for now, safety razor will do. again, REAL MEN USE PROPER RAZOR!

roomba red battery woes

2011-12-24T07:20:00.000-08:00

we have been using a roomba red for a few years now. back then, there was only the red and a scheduler. nowadays the red could be considered a dinosaur.

this little fella makes your life a lot more convenient. sure, cleaning the floor doesn't take much time but one could easily be short of time especially on busy days. this little fella, has all the time in the world. so why not use his time rather than your time to clean up the place?

especially now that we have tonto, having roomba clean up all the hair this fella sheds is really awesome. we appreciate having a roomba more than ever!

and the roomba red is pretty tough. been running fine for at least 5 years now, except for... its batteries. its batteries suck! big time! have replaced them twice and a replacement battery cost rm350 here. YES! RM350! SCREW ME!!!

despite paying so much for the replacement battery, it's not very comforting to know that the warranty for the replacement battery is only 1 month (and they only tell you AFTER you paid for it). what? is that a harbinger of impending doom?

true enough, few months later, the replacement battery gave up as well.

well, i had enough! i searched around and found that there are folks who reconstruct the batteries themselves. this i got to try!

the worst part was prying open the battery cover. damn, it uses some special triangle screws. damn, the cover is glued.

fortunately you could get this special screw driver from jalan pasar. a bit more work later (and some scratches on the battery), managed to remove the cover. i already know what's inside. it's just 12 C size batteries in series.

now C batteries aren't common here. a pair cost rm50. we need 6 pairs, so this isn't cost effective. worse still, the batts are spot welded, 12 in series. damn.

then i got an idea! why not just replace the C batts with something that's more common here?

and that's what i did! bought AA size holders which house 4 in a pack. so some panasonic hermatite batts too. 3 holders is needed for 12 batts. secured them back, soldered the connections and...

our roomba is working again! and the 12 AA batts only cost rm150. best part is, you could replace them any time you want as these are cheap and common.

easy!

a stack of wood plus some elbow grease gives me...

2011-09-27T00:39:00.000-07:00

... quite a lot!

i bought some salvaged timber strips, or known as "kok chai" in cantonese, some months back for some home improvement project. gabriel introduced these timber strips to me and i have lots of fun with them. for a half baked, low skilled nitwit wood worker like me, the flexible kok chai can be used to build just about anything. have built quite a lot from just a stack of these strips. they are usually sold in bundles of 120 ft, or 10 pieces of 12 ft strips. cost? less than rm50 for such a bundle!

besides, i find wood working to be therapeutic. it is so calming to work with our bare hands. fyi, everything i built here is accomplished with hand tools only. a band saw, wood glue, screws, wood brackets and some clamps.

first thing i built, is this "creeper's aid". the base though is not made from timber strips but rather some bed frame someone in my neighbourhood threw away! yes, during my walks with tonto, we scour around the neighbourhood for rubbish. as the saying goes, one man's rubbish is another's gold.

this fella stands at 6 ft tall but unfortunately the plant is taking so slow to grow. hmm...

also built this compost rack. i'm tired of hearing the excuse of "not enough space" to compost. how about 3" by 1"? this is all the space taken up by our compost rack.

but the most fun i have, is building this food dehydrator. a year ago, i blogged about making your own food dehydrator. well, that crude thing consists of 4 pieces of wooden plank (salvaged from the neighbourhood) and some L brackets.

since we use this quite often, that ugly piece got to be retired. and so i built this fella. since it is only oiled, you could see the timber strips clearly.

at the lower end, a 100w incandescent light bulb is used to provide heat.

in case you are wondering, a 100w light bulb manages to heat up the upper rack all the way till 50 degrees celcius. just nice for a slow dehydration.
the thermometer is a roast meat thermometer. excellent for this purpose here!
oh yeah, among my wood working tools, i could print some letters too. nice eh?

on the left, drying some pig ears here. tonto absolutely loves this!
on the right, drying some tomatoes. there's 7 tomatoes here. 8 hours give us some wonderful semi dried tomatoes.

so with some elbow grease, you could accomplish all this from just a bundle of timber strips of less than rm50!

best of all, these are all YOUR handiwork. there's no commercial stuff like this!

Mooncakes!

2011-08-27T04:15:00.001-07:00

I was supposed to be on leave last Friday but worked harder than usual.

It's almost mid autumn festival and mooncake is part of the celebration. This is also the time of the year I hear lots of complaints about mooncake prices heading the way of gold.

Word has it that a cartel of Chinese businessmen set the prices but the public is resisting >rm10, hence the huge discounts we get on these >rm10 mooncakes.

Those who lament but still buy justifies it by saying it's a once-a-year thingie. Hmm... if I screw you once a year, it's okay huh? Hey, it's only once a year!

I have a better solution. Make it yourself!

It's really easy if you buy those pre-mix mooncake mix and pre-cooked lotus seed paste. So all you have to do is concentrate on making the dough.

The most trouble I had was stretching the dough nicely then wrapping around the fillings. Either I kept tearing it or I just couldn't get enough dough to cover the fillings. Hey, after a few "ugly" mooncakes, you'll get the hang of it.
Oh yeah, my wife's colleague kindly lent us the molds. Thx to her!

Baking is really easy! 180c in ten minutes, then apply egg wash, then another 180c in ten minutes.

After applying egg wash, the mooncakes develop a nice shine.

Note that my oven's heat isn't even. Mooncakes on the right hand side of the black tray is a bit burnt.

hey, all in all, about rm100, we have about 24 large, 24 small mooncakes and about 10 "piglets".

So stop complaining, lazy bums!

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i want to build this!

2011-08-23T23:02:00.000-07:00

you could get the shelving system from ikea, pvc pipes/fittings from hardware store etc. all i need is a fluorescent light which mimics sun light. anyone know where to get one?

more details about above build here.

serendipity

2011-08-22T01:29:00.000-07:00

serendipity is defined as
1. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.

2. The fact or occurrence of such discoveries.

3. An instance of making such a discovery.

the 3rd statement is what happened over the weekend.

attended markets at jaya one for the first time last saturday. this is a bi monthly event but i missed the april and june edition as i learned about it late. well, finally managed to attend one!

though mostly clothes, clothes and clothes [malaysians are such vain pots?], i'm glad we visited the place as we discovered 2 "gems".

we met a farmer practicing organic farming. we buy food from the market and we lost this connection with the person who's responsible for the food - the farmer. by meeting the farmer, we make a nearer connection with our food.

well, yahqappu is not your average farmer! he used to run a restaurant business but gave up and went into farming. and guess what? he blogs! check out the lord's garden. hell, more farmers should adopt an internet presence like him. surprisingly, he knows martin too! small world!

and just beside his stall, there is a chicken farmer, known as the happy farmer. again, it's wonderful that they maintain a website. not your ordinary commercial chicken farmer, as they adopt the free rangeing method of raring chickens. chickens free from antibiotics, growth hormone etc. did i mention he does delivery too?

both yahqappu and happy farmer's farm is in batu arang, 60km north of kuala lumpur. both are open to visitors. i'll have to organize a trip one of these days!

follow up on victor's interview

2011-08-21T22:57:00.000-07:00

remember my friend victor? couple weeks back, i did an interview with victor and blogged about his remarkable physical transformation?

from an extremly high risk case of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high blood glucose level (triple whammy), he has reduced everything done to healthy levels. also, from being over weight to ideal weight, all in all in just months!

some visitors to this blog couldn't believe what i wrote. they kept asking "what did he take to reduce cholesterol/blood pressure/blood glucose [pick your poison]?". when i replied victor accomplished this by eliminating junk, processed food from his diet and ate good wholesome natural food, coupled with some exercise... guess what? nobody's interested! ha! it's true that people only listen to what they want to hear.

All lies and jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest (hmmmm....mmmm......)

---- paul simon "the boxer"

not only that, people are only interested in an easy solution, a magic pill that could magically reduce their cholesterol/blood pressure/etc. no lifestyle change required, no diet change required. go on eating whatever you want to eat... well, good luck to you!

anyway, here's victor's blood test results, which victor has kindly shared with us.

oct 2010, his triglycerides (very bad cholesterol) exceeds the limit of the measurement! although total cholesterol says 6.84, it should be higher as we don't know how high is the triglycerides reading. notice also his uric acid is very high. his liver is also working extremely hard. note the readings under LFT (liver function tests) are very high.

and in may 2011, his triglycerides fell to 0.69! in fact, his total cholesterol fell to 3.48 which is now a little on the low side! his liver is easing up now, the readings in the LFT are all normal. this is more like it! uric acid is improved marginally but still on the high side. this takes time but as you could see, overall, everything improved!

isn't this amazing? talk about a physical transformation!

bfm interviews judy cheng-hopkins

2011-08-18T21:54:00.000-07:00

i blogged about bfm 2 years ago. it is by far, the BEST radio station in malaysia, if not in this region!

a common misconception is that it only talks about business, stock market etc. far from it! there's also talks on culture, on people, interviews with doctors, as well as ceos, business owners etc.

[you know, the best way to access a person's mind is to speak to him/her personally. observe how he/she answers, the thought process behind it and also the body language. all these tell a lot more than some press cuttings or some journalist's summation. now, on the radio, we can't study the body language but we could still pay attention to the tone, and pay more attention to the wordings and the content. often times, this is more than sufficient to read a person.

this is why it's great to listen to interviews. you learn more "in between the words", rather like reading between the lines.]

anyway, i'm digressing! this morning, listened to this interview of a fascinating malaysian woman. fascinating as she is really doing something that has a profound impact on society. you must have heard of folks going into politics to help out the needy? well, here's one lady who's doing it and not via political means.

she is none other than united nations assistant secretary general for peace building support judy cheng-hopkins. here is some info about her.

on the interview, she talks about her role in helping to rebuild a country after war. hey, after years of fighting, sooner or later, people will get tired of fighting and will lay down arms. so this is where he group steps in to help them get back on track for life to go on.

here's the podcast.

by the way, did i mention she's also the first malaysian listed by forbes as among the 10 most powerful women in united nations?

so next time you listen to the radio, why not listen to bfm rather than some juvenile station? great content, great music!

"freshly squeezed" orange juice?

2011-08-18T02:26:00.000-07:00

If you buy orange juice at the store, you may lean towards the kind that advertises itself as “100 percent juice” and “not made from concentrate”. But have you ever wondered why every glass of it tastes exactly the same? That’s because the flavor of store-bought orange juice has more to do with chemistry than nature.

For industrially-produced orange juice, after the oranges are squeezed, the juice is stored in giant holding tanks and the oxygen is removed from them, which allows the liquid to keep for up to a year without spoiling. It also makes the juice completely flavorless. So the industry uses “flavor packs” to re-flavor the juice.

wait a minute. so oxygen is removed from "freshly squeezed" orange juice, thus it could last longer, but as flavour and nutrient is lost in the process, some flavouring is added back in to get it to "taste like orange juice" again. huh? wtf???

you sure you want to buy/drink commercial fruit juice?

what do we expect of our bread?

2011-08-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

last sunday, 8tv's "ho chiak" featured a few bakeries. among them, mardia & mustafa's bakery which i blogged about 2 years ago.

i find it amusing that the 2 hosts introduced martin's bread as "chewy" and unlike the typical off-the-shelf soft sandwich bread. martin also explained that this is the way bread is supposed to be and this is how it's sold in europe.

so why does martin have to explain himself? and why does folks here (malaysians, singaporeans etc) have only one expectation of bread, namely soft and fluffy?

i think it all has to do with our introduction to bread.

now bread is a western thing. it's not asian at all. asians have own versions of baked goods like mantou, pratha, capati etc. bread is different, mainly because the wheat grown in this region isn't the high gluten type so it doesn't lend itself well to the development of bread.

but bread gained a foothold in asia, thanks to the chorleywood bread process. this method, invented by the british, simplifies the production of bread and instead of high protein flour, it could make bread out of low protein wheat.

excerpts from the wikipedia page,

The aim of the Chorleywood bread process is to use cheaper, lower-protein wheats and to reduce processing time, the system being able to produce a loaf of bread from flour to sliced-and-packaged form in about three and a half hours. This is achieved through the use of chemical improvers, solid vegetable fat, higher quantities of yeast, and intense mechanical working by high-speed mixers to incorporate air into the dough. The last requirement means that the CBP cannot be reproduced in a domestic kitchen. Solid fat is necessary to prevent the risen loaf from collapsing — in traditional methods, this structure is provided by the gluten produced by higher-protein flour.

see? so instead of the traditional sourdough, or long fermentation, organic, artisanal bread, the chorleywood process reduces bread to a commodity! so there is no difference between different makes of bread. in fact, MOST bread manufacturers use this method to bake bread, including some organic varieties.

note that why does bread, despite being touted as a health food, needs to be enriched with vitamins and minerals? because there isn't much in low quality flour!

why is it so soft and fluffy? because it packs more air inside than the real stuff. a huge loaf of commercial sandwich bread weighs 300-400gm. a loaf i bake which is 1/3 the size weighs 450gm.

note also all the nonsense ingredient? understand this, to bake a loaf of bread, we need only flour, water, yeast and salt. NOT chemical improver, NOT enrichment by additional vitamins/minerals, and certainly NOT preservative.

i guess because of the industrialization of bread, we the home bakers, now have our own artisanal bread.

if you care about your own health (and your loved ones), bake your own artisanal bread. use organic flour, long fermentation (or sourdough) and incorporate higher whole wheat (wholemeal) rather than white flour.

speaking of which, i better call martin as i haven't called him since he came back from uk a year ago!

what to eat if you care about the environment

2011-07-31T19:34:00.000-07:00

each type of food have its own carbon footprint. if you are a greenie, you want to know this.

ewg.org (environmental working group) released this simple, easy to read, but so informative chart that shows the carbon footprint of different type of food.

in summary, less meat, more plants.

vanishing of the bees

2011-07-20T20:40:00.000-07:00

if you care about the environment, you must watch this documentary!

beautifully presented (how i wish more documentaries are done this way), this documentary showcases bee colony collapse disorder as encountered by many bee farmers in the united states back in 2007. a colony collapse situation is whereby a whole colony of bees leave their beehive, leaving only a few bees along with the queen. this beehive couldn't sustain itself any more and slowly dies off.

this strange phenomena puzzled the bee farmers as they helplessly see their bee hives falter one by one. this phenomena was later discovered to have been experienced by farmers in europe as well.

much effort later, the most likely culprit is the use of systemic pesticide. unlike conventional pesticides which are applied topically, systemic pesticide is absorbed by the plant and manifests itself outwards on its leave, stem and of course pollen as well. it is believed that the pollen which is then accumulated by bees contain this poison and thus affect the bees so badly that they abandon their hives.

Vanishing of the Bees - Trailer from Bee The Change on Vimeo.

to support this hypothesis, none of the organic bee farms suffer this disorder. so again and again, a lot of the ailments of the modern age is man made!

watch it. learn from it. have new respect for bees and of course, organic farming.

more info from the vanishing bees website.

problem buying whole wheat flour?

2011-07-15T20:54:00.000-07:00

is it just me or do you have problem buying organic whole wheat flour lately?

i used to see stacks being sold at hock choon, cold storage, country farm organic store etc but nowadays could hardly find them!

juslife still sells the australian variety but at rm9/kg, I prefer the turkish variety from karahan mill, distributed by country farm organics which goes for rm6+/kg.

uh oh, i hope this is just a temporary stock issue. i hope the retailer is not considering dropping this product line. to be honest, i wouldn't be surprised if they drop this line as i imagine they don't sell much of it. this is not surprising considering this is a nation whereby 15% of malaysians >30 years of age are diabetics! and you bet this number is rising!

just ask around. how many prefer whole wheat over white bread? brown rice over white rice?

my friend victor

2011-07-10T22:42:00.000-07:00

i salute victor. i have seen many folks who complain about poor health but wouldn't do anything to improve it. "food too good, can't resist.", "no time to exercise", "i don't eat much meat (yeah right)"...

but victor took it as a challenge and improved on his health. in september 2010, victor was diagnosed with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high blood glucose level (on track to develop diabetes). a triple whammy.

but about 7 months later, his health has improved so much. so how did he do it? what medication did he take? what method?

september 2010

the "before" pic

june 2011

the "after" pic

here's some questions i sent his way.

1. what made you decide to lose weight? how much weight you lost in how long the time period?
Obesity always my main issue since childhood. So what made me decide to to lose weight? Well, health of cause. Mid of September last year, I was diagnosed with diabetes with a reading of 20.85 after fasting (blood test) [>5 for after fasting is bad!]. My cholesterol was off the chart as well... At that time I was 219 pound plus minus. [that's 100kg]

After advised from doctors, they set a target for me to achieve. from 200 plus to 170 to 175 pound (approx 80Kg). I did that in 2 months managed to bring down to 175-176 pound. Then they wanted to bring down to (65Kg)143.2 pound. With this new goal it is a bit difficult to achieve and I have maintained at 175 for about 3 months....

In April, 2011 I decided to set that target and re calibrate my food and exercise... from 175 to 168 in 2 weeks. I maintained this weight till June. A week ago I decided to bring down again my weight... and now is 165pound (75Kg)...

Currently: my walk is about 4Km/hour (2.5Km flat land and approx 1.5Km trail). Workout 2 hours in total (8Km). 3 to 4 times a week.

Will continue this routine and see how it goes...

2. what was your medical test results before and after? if you still have them?
For the blood pressure before September was somewhere around 138/85 to 148/90 at times was 158/98...[normal range is 120/80]

Now around at 123/68 to 127/72 sometimes 106/60 to 110/62 (at this point I think not enough rest and my food intake was too little on that day)... with average heartbeat of 72 to 75...

Glucose level in blood
September 2010 - 20.85 (Blood test)
October 2010 - 16.5 (2 hours after meal) (High dosage pill)
November 2010 - 10.5 (2 hours after meal) (High dosage pill)
December 2010 - 4.8. 5.7 (2 hours after meal) (reduced dosage)
January til now 2011 - 5.5 to 6.2 (2 hours after meal) (maintain at minimum dosage)

On average after exercise 5.0

3. did you have difficulty sticking to this diet? did you feel like giving up? what was the motivation to continue?
For the first one month, it was end of the world for me.

September to October 2010
1. Morning Oats
2. 10 am. Biscuits and kopi O kosong
3. Afternoon Oats
4. 4 pm Biscuits and kopi O kosong
5. Dinner 200 gm of fish (stream) and Raw Salad (without mayonnaise)

No other food beside than this...

The motivation kicked in when my eyes when blurry even at the distance of 3 feet. The vision turned white like seeing through a filter lens... after taking high dosage of pills. That was from 20.85 to 16.5 in 3 days. In my mind I am still young and I still want to live on like a healthy person. There is no way out and accept the facts that i am sick and decided to take a very drastic action and fight this war. I don't want to depend on pills only but to push my organs to function properly. To do that only through proper Diet and exercise can achieve that at this moment.

[to be honest, such a diet is quite extreme but if you got such a diagnosis, you'll start something extreme right away! good thing victor realized this diet isn't enough so he changed his diet. also please please understand that medication is not the way to go.]

4. any advise to anyone who wants to do the same?Yes:

1. read and know the contains of your food and drinks. Observe every intake of food/drinks and your body reaction. You will know when you sweat. Taste your sweat.
2. Eat in small quantity rather than large quantity at a time. With small quantity you can increase your intake 5 times a day.
3. Reduce taking white rice or replace with brown rice (taj mahal) 3 - 4 spoons per meal.

Drinks
4. Cut Off all soft drinks including 100 plus...
5. Cut off all fast food.
6. Cut off all oily food.

[this means cut out ALL fast food]

Increase intake of vegetables and fruits however. fruits that are forbidden for diabetic patients are:
1. Durian
2. Banana
3. Pine apple
4. Water Melon
5. Grapes
6. etc avoid fruits that are sweet

Take a many lemon and green apple as you can... but you need to monitor your glucose level...

You need to check with your doctor before switching your diet because every person has different physiology. Some may suffer from low sugar level....

so as you could see above, if you want to do it, you could do it. if desire/will is not strong enough, excuses abound.

by changing his diet, taking more veggies/fruits, eliminating all junk food (soft drinks, fried/processed food etc) and incorporating exercise to his routine, victor managed to lose 60 pounds in 9 months! as you could see his blood glucose level and blood pressure all dropped considerably. he will do a blood cholesterol check later as he doesn't have the equipment to do it at home.

victor did it. i salute his determination and his discipline. i have no doubt he could maintain his weight.

once your health is good, you may indulge in those "unhealthy" food sporadically. the key is that this indulgence is the exception rather than the norm.

so... what's your excuse?

malaysians are really healthy

2011-07-05T21:13:00.000-07:00

"Statistics show that the prevalence of obesity among Malaysian adults increased by a staggering 250% over a 10-year period from 1996 while the number of overweight has increased by 70%.

The National Health and Morbidity Survey in 2006 showed that two out of every five adults or 43%, were either overweight or obese and an alarming situation where the number of obese adults had more than tripled over a decade, from 4% in 1996 to 14% in 2006.

According to statistics, 14.9% and 43% of Malaysians aged above 30 suffer from diabetes and hypertension respectively, with 20.7% of adults over 18 suffering from high cholesterol."

the above is quoted from a news article which appeared in a local english daily.

so if you are a malaysian adult, you have a 40% chance of being overweight, 15% chance of being diabetic, 43% chance of suffering from high blood pressure and 20% chance of suffering from high cholesterol.

if i may add, i think this statistic is painting a very bleak picture as i personally know of friends who suffer ALL these concurrently!

young at heart

2011-07-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

i was cruising on the road one sunday afternoon, listening to bfm (by far, the best malaysian radio station) when they had this show called "a bit of culture" where different presenters will present something unique or interesting they encountered, be it food, music, place... hence culture. that day in addition to nepalese food and other goodies, this young at heart acapella group is so damn interesting. at an average age of 80 years old, you may imagine some geriatrics singing some evergreen oldies... but spare the thought!

i managed to watch the documentary/film and it begins with a 93 year old (oldest member) lady singing the clash's should i stay or should i go! and what a performance!

but the best performance goes to this heart warming rendition of coldplay's young at heart. (this song was also played on the bfm show that day) i couldn't care less for coldplay and this song always gets on my nerve but this singing, this gravely voice, this "very old singing about loss" voice resonates deeply in me.

watching the documentary, it's like a celebration of life. sure, life is fleeting. we each have a limited number of years on this planet but please do not do not let old age slow you down. this group prepared for 7 weeks before their concert and during that time, 2 members passed away but this didn't stop anyone from continuing. no one gave up. in fact, the 2 who passed away attended every practice session all the way though.

as one concert goer commented "i'll never complain feeling old or tired ever again!"

to know more about the young at heart choir, go to their website.

make your own nutella!

2011-06-22T15:53:00.000-07:00

yes, ever tried nutella before? i haven't as i reading the label, i'm not tempted to try. the label doesn't "read" healthy to me.

but chocolate and roasted hazelnut as a bread spread... hmm... it must be good! so make a healthy version!

through google, found this nice little recipe, good for one big ikea jam jar above.

you need

2 cups raw hazelnuts
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

for sugar, i used brown sugar. start off with 1/2 cup and add to taste.
for cocoa powder, i used organic raw cocoa powder, which sells cheaper than hershey's cocoa powder.
for vegetable oil, i used coconut oil.

hey, all three ingredients above is the same i used for making chocolate! :)

the coconut flavour may be a bit strong here. sub for other less strong tasting oil if you prefer. i won't bother with olive oil either.

i didn't use any vanilla extract but added in a pinch of salt.

first you need to toast the hazelnuts. you could use an oven, ~20 minutes @180c but you could get faster results on a frying pan. use medium heat and stir once in a while. once you smell the aroma and the nuts start to brown, it's ready! (it's sooooo hard not to much a few here!)

once the hazelnuts have cooled down, put into a food processor and blend till about fine. then add in the rest of the ingredients and blend further to mix everything up. taste it, and if you need more sugar, add and blend.

that's it! to clean the blender, use a piece of bread and mop up the remainder nutella. it's good stuff, don't waste it!

remember to refrigerate to keep it.

for coffee lovers

2011-06-11T00:04:00.000-07:00

i used to be a coffee junkie but my insomnia got so bad that i only drink probably a cup or two in a week.

however, if you want to drink coffee, do it the right way. go for a quality cuppa.

drink it black. this means no sugar, no milk, no creamer, nothing else!

just coffee and hot water of around 80-90C. or just before it boils. feel free to go above boiling point if you love bitter coffee. :)

since 15% of malaysians are now diabetic and this figure is projected to rise, it'll do you lots of good to reduce your preference for sugar. why heck, all of us are already guilty of taking too much sugar in our food! even if you go entirely sugar free, chances are you still consume simple carbohydrates (like white bread, white rice, potatoes) and this still converts to sugar in your body. if you drink your coffee black, you will slowly but surely cut down your preference for sugar. btw, do you know that sugar is the most addictive substance in the world?

and this is the coffee i drink nowadays. le bistro fine coffee is available at most organic shops. a huge pack of 30 sachets cost rm60 and it includes a french press, like the one pictured above. sorry i don't know how long will this free offer.

each sachet contains about 12 gms of coarsely ground coffee beans. so to make your cuppa is really easy.

boil water till almost boiling.
empty sachet contents into french press.
fill up with hot water.
few minutes later, push down the plunger and pour out your coffee.

good for about 2 medium sized cups. please don't add anything else. drink it black.
the coffee grounds can be used for compost or as a fertilizer.

i sincerely believe one should only take coffee in the morning and best avoided after noon.

what you are today...

2011-06-08T23:40:00.000-07:00

... is a result of the people you met, the books you read, the music you listened to, the movies you watched, the conversations you had etc etc... 5 years ago.

so what will you be 5 years later is also the same thing --- the people you meet, the books you read, the music you listened to, the movies you watched etc today. in other words, your sphere of influence.

meaning that if you wonder why are you seemingly stuck at the same phase in life without making any progress, perhaps you are still doing the same thing over and over again!

so stop wasting time. develop a habit of doing something useful. follow your interests. 5 years later you can look back at all your accomplishment with pride. and if some ventures didn't work out well, well, at least you tried! and got wiser from the experience.

act now rather than figure what have you done wasting the past 5 years.

no idea who came up with the above quote but it's so true.

make your own pickle!

2011-05-07T19:59:00.000-07:00

as we eat healthier, we find ourselves doing things our ancestors have been doing all this while.

making bread the traditional way, using natural soap, omitting processed foad, eating more organic vegetables, getting more exercise... all in all, what our ancestors have always done!

and there is something else we should do. back in the 1930s, dr weston price did a tour around the world to study the health of natives around the world. as he is a dentist, he is interested in their food and also their dental health. as we know today, our dental health also correlates directly with our physical health. [you could extend this to the health of our gut and intestines.]

dr price is surprised to find that people eat all kinds of foods and still live healthily. his studies pf the eskimos for example, show that they eat lots of fish and fats and hardly grains/vegetables but do not suffer high rates of heart disease. you can find out more from the weston price foundation.

he also found out that many traditional societies eat a lot of fermented food. be it fermented meats or fermented vegetables. folks those days ferment food so that they last longer.

today we know that due to the process of fermentation, the food is now easier to digest, more nutritious (more b vitamins) and is packed with lots of bacteria beneficial - probiotics, to our gut, like lactobacillus.

so how do we "eat" more of probiotics? eat raw fermented vegetables! like pickles!

a great resource is this guy sandor katz who runs a website called... wild fermentation.

we gave it a try. it's so easy!

bought 2 medium sized organic cucumbers. (go organic. don't be cheap.)
cut into slices, lengthwise. you could halve, then quarter them lengthwise as well.
put in a tablespoon of rock or sea salt into a glass. fill it up with water. stir well.

this is your brine solution. how much salt to use it's up to you. i started off this. it's quite salty but no worries!

use a large glass jar, put in 2 cloves of crushed garlic (skin removed), some dried oregano, thyme, the sliced cucumber and pour in your brine.

make sure the brine covers the cucumber completely. if you do not have enough brine, make more and top up.

that's it! no heating, no vinegar etc. that's it! it's so simple!

i closed the cap loosely and kept the jar in a cool place and monitored it for days. every one or 2 days, i'll taste the brine solution. day by day, it gets less salty. and on the 7th day, it's sweet and sour! once it's sour to your desire, keep it in the fridge to halt the fermentation.

what happens is that due to the brine solution, water from the cucumber seeps out. thus the cucumber starts to shrink in size. look at the picture above, the cucumbers are now floating and there's lots of brine solution underneath. on day 1, the brine solution just about covers all the cucumbers nicely.

as the cucumbers shrink, it gets crunchier! the salt inhibits growth of bad bacterias and allows lactobacillus, which is salt tolerant, to grow. thus the cucumber starts to ferment. and the acids is the byproduct of the fermentation.

so day by day, more and more acid is released. so taste the brine and cucumber to see how sour you want it to be. with the addition of garlic and herbs, you get more flavours.

now commercial pickles use acid to speed up the process, colouring (so that the pickles look "aged") and god knows what else.

what for? why buy when you could make your own? a commercial pickel of less than half of what i did sells for rm20 and i spent less than rm3 to make.

and it's so freaking simple!

you bet we'll be making more ferments later

good4u

2011-04-30T07:36:00.000-07:00

good4u.com.my is a local (as in malaysian) web based organic store.

they do delivery too, at only rm3 but with a minimum order of rm50. right now they only cater to klang valley but hope to expand to other parts of malaysia later.

they have quite a range of products. do check them out!

make your own chocolate!

2011-04-25T02:54:00.000-07:00

i love chocolates! who doesn't? i love them, especially the dark dark variety.

unfortunately commercial chocolates are anything but healthy. too much sugar, too much fillers like soy lecithin, soy protein etc... why all these fillers? to bulk it up! cocoa powder and cocoa butter is expensive. to use more butter is also expensive, hence all the "substitutes".

as the saying goes, if you want something done the right way, you better do it yourself.

natural health strategies' website has this page on making your own healthy chocolate. it's really easy! you could make it in 10 minutes!

key here is to use good ingredients.

for cocoa powder, i used radiant wholefood's unsweetened organic cocoa powder. it's worth getting this, it's cheaper than hershey's! check around organic stores, jaya jusco and cold storage.

i tried searching for coconut oil but it's not easy! the only one i could find is the organic variety. quite costly... i asked our indian friends and was told you could probably find in indian specialty stores. hmm... for centuries, indians have been eating coconut oil and they live fine. no heart disease etc. but nowadays with the advent of cheaper oils like vegetable oils, we have a rise in heart disease! i know i know i'm over simplifying things but there's food for thought.

but coconut oil is high in saturated fat no? it is! but it raises mainly HDL - good cholesterol which has a protective effect on your heart. it is also rich in lauric acid which has anti bacterial properties. lauric acid can't be bad for you since breast milk is also high in lauric acid. since we can't drink breast milk every day... coconut oil will have to do!

raw cocoa is great as it's know to have anti oxidant properties.

so how about combining both super ingredients into one tasty snack?!

from the site's recipe, i modified it somewhat. i didn't put in grated coconut for bulk but put in quite a handful of roasted hazelnuts and roasted cashew nuts. put in some brown sugar as well. you really got to adjust this to taste. if you prefer it sweet, then put in more. i love it bitter! how much sugar is really up to you but go for brown sugar or molasses. do not go for those "sugar free" sweeteners like aspartame, xylitol, malitol etc. remember, use only natural ingredients. if it sounds like some chemical or you have problem pronouncing it, you shouldn't bother with it!

and when i taste it... it's fantastic! the darkest bestest dark chocolate i have ever tested!

it's super rich, immensely gratifying, brings a huge smile to your face and you know it's very healthy as coconut oil is one of those good fats that we should eat more and eat less those unhealthy fats.

there you go! enjoy!

earth day

2011-04-22T07:36:00.000-07:00

what is your earth day pledge?

http://act.earthday.org/leaderboard

we do practice some here. let's see.

we use recycleable shopping bags.
we reuse all plastic bags.
we don't buy bottled mineral water.
we reduce our consumption of meat.
we eat organic produce.
we use natural soap/cleaners.
we car pool.
we compost our waste.
we recycle newspapers, all paper products and glass bottles.
90% of our light bulbs are of energy saving variety.
we only use rechargeable batteries.
reduce further our consumption of water and electricity. current monthly water bill is the minimum charge of rm6 and electricity bill averages rm40.
we don't use air conditioning at home at all. on very hot nights, we switch it on for only 2-3 hours to cool down the room.

hmm... this is all i could think of, the initiatives we are taking right now. will definitely add to it!

so what's your pledge?

if you love fast food, read this...

2011-04-11T19:26:00.000-07:00

... in 1996, karen hanrahan bought a mcd hamburger. she didn't eat it but kept it in a sandwich box.

in 2008, she took a photo of the burger and updated her site in 2009 with the photo of the burger as well.

in total 13 years has passed and the burger still hasn't decomposed. not sure about status now though...

it doesn't matter. if it hasn't decomposed in 6 months (and this is already a stretch), it's not food!

photo below is taken in 2010. 14 year old burger on your left. new burger on your right.

check out these links.

http://bestofmotherearth.com/2009/09/23/1996-mcdonalds-hamburger-revisited.html

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/10/25/mcdonalds-happy-meal-shows-no-sign-of-decomposing.aspx

from dr mercola's site, this is info taken from mcd's site. this hamburger bun consists of

"Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, enzymes), water, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, yeast, soybean oil and/or partially hydrogenated soybean oil, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, wheat gluten, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, dough conditioners (sodium stearoyl lactylate, datem, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, mono- and diglycerides, ethoxylated monoglycerides, monocalcium phosphate, enzymes, guar gum, calcium peroxide, soy flour), calcium propionate and sodium propionate (preservatives), soy lecithin."

simple life maxim.

if you can't pronounce it, don't eat it!

if you don't know what is it, don't eat it!

we bake our own bread here, using artisanal methods of yesteryears and our bread consists of :

organic whole wheat flour, salt, oil and water

if you don't bother baking your own bread, perhaps you'll think twice about buying those "healty" commercial bread?