Ecologicord

GODP Battery review

2011-06-30T19:35:00.000-07:00

In the Search for Portable Juice…

Having posting a few questions on my photography forum at Dyxum.com regarding eBay’s many delicious looking organic Chinese-made branded and genetic aa/ aaa batteries, I decided to take a chance to try them out and placed a few orders for them after no photographers had come forward and inform us that their batteries had exploded or damaged any equipment. It also seems that none of them had actually tried these batteries but their comments were based on the experiences of another user.

For that pricing, I do not expect them to perform as well as established brands such as Sony(s), PowerEx(s), Sanyo(s) or GPs but they should at least be fault-free and usable by at least 65% of what is being written on the labels. So these are the results after they had arrived by standard HK post.

I’m testing Chinese-made batteries with very impressive specs on an un-technical point of view so I’m allowing myself room for experimenting with un-familiar brands.

The eBay batteries started arriving two weeks after I clicked on the ‘Pay Me’ button. Impressive fast delivery for the first vendor! The first package consists of 12 units of GODP “3000mAh” aa batteries. I’m charging them in sets of 4s. However, they would not charge properly … the error light on my smart charger comes up 23 minutes later, the other two sets – 60 minutes later.

Damage Control…

In order to limit damages to my equipment, I am trying them out first on cheap speedlites as a precaution. I managed to squeeze 137 frames on the Yongnuo 460-II Speedlite with the ±ev one bar below full power. That would be quarter of the power of the HVL-F42 Speedlite. On the second last frame, it took 46 seconds for the batteries to power up the flash. Maybe I can still get a bit of work done on the Yongnuo(s) Speedlites at this power since I do not usually use full power.

That’s estimated to be less than 34 blinks if used on the HVL-F42 on full power. That’s not a good start to my introduction of these Chinese batteries.

I Should Have Done This Earlier Before I Made The Purchase.

A search on the Net showed one user wrote that his intelligent charger showed they registered not more than 900mAh. He paid USD 1.25 for each battery whereas I paid USD 0.67 per battery. Another tester reported he only managed to squeeze about 43 flashes during trials against established 3000mAh brands. They calculated based the GODP specs, this battery should be able to deliver at least 200 flashes but sadly their tests for the GODP 3000mAh battery falls extremely short of the target.

The next package to arrive slightly over 4 weeks later after the order was placed was 8 units of BTY aa 2500mAh batteries and a SoShine charger, claimed to have an automatic cut-off power switch. I fitted the batteries on my smart charger… the error light comes on almost immediately. So I switched the batteries to the SoShine charger that came with it.

There was a strong chemical odor when I started charging them so I moved them outdoors and restarted the charging process on a heavy duty extension cord. Cripes…! The batteries have been sitting in the charger for seventeen+ hours before I pulled them out. They were still not fully charged. That’s 34 hours for two sets of batteries, for crying out loud!! I’m now worried about potential fire hazards with the charging process. Anyway, I tested the batteries on the Yongnuo 460-II Speedlite at full power… 49 blinks. That means if they were on the HVL-F42 Speedlite at full power, I reckoned I’ll get just about 24 blinks as the 460-IIs are half the power of the F42s. That’s a bloody expensive battery to juice up.

Look! No Hands!

The seller replied to my email the next day that the SoShine charger’s indicator lights do not turn green when batteries are fully charged… “He hopes I can understand it”. This means this device is a battery charger without even a cut-off timer? I feel like a buyer who just been sold an analog clock without hands.

The third order arrived shortly after the second package and consist of 3 packs of aaa BTY 1000mAh batteries and 3 packs of aa BTY 2500mAh batteries. One can tell almost immediately that they were extremely light. It turns out that the aa battery weights only 13gms each. The aa BTY battery in the second package weighs 24gm each. The BTY aaa battery weights only 7gm against the Imedion (12gms). The vendor tells me to charge them for 12 hours. I opened up 3 packs to charge them up but all of them turned out to be duds on my smart charger. No reason to try out the rest.

I emailed the eBay vendors for solutions. The first vendor suggested I returned them for a full refund or could I accept them for a partial refund? I accepted the batteries for a partial refund because of the time and cost it will take for me to post the batteries back to the vendor. The GODPs are now powering my wall clocks, the rest reserved for low powered appliances like digital weighing scales. They’ll be cheaper to run than on alkaline batteries this month. Still, a small consolation for the money spent here. Anyway, enough experimenting for now.

Conclusion – I’m deeply disappointed with them. All of the Chinese aa/aaa batteries received in these purchases were duds or faulty with the exception of the packs that I have not opened yet. I bet they are duds too. The GOPD, BTY and Chinese genetic brands should be avoided at all cost as they do not match what’s written on the tin at all. The only made-in-China batteries I may use in the future are those backed by established Western brands like GPs and Energizers.

More Feedbacks From Unhappy Buyers At The eBay Forum... something I wish I had come across earlier...

There are quality inconsistencies, safety issues and tons of false labeling by these Chinese battery makers. I popped into the eBay forum by accident and found more feedback on the BTY batteries. Turns out the genetic batteries are even worse. So it was a good thing I did not buy them. These Chinese battery manufacturers in my opinion still have a long way to go before they can produce a product(s) that can compete with the established brands. On top of that, they have to work extremely hard to regain ex-consumer’s confidence with their products.

Can They Dance?

What would prompt me to buy these organic Chinese made batteries in the first place? The Giant has awakened and although well-known in the past for poor quality electrical goods, I have seen some changes and advances in the quality of electrical goods that China has managed to produced. The latest significant event was the launch of a manned craft into space. No nation can sent a man into space with dodgy equipment so it would be correct to presume that the Chinese have finally arrived.

Along with a few electrical goods that I have purchased and good reviews from other photographers on my agencies with such photography equipment like studio strobes, I think it would be timely to test their latest rechargeable battery offerings available on the Internet. Sadly, none of the batteries can deliver… even at this pricing, they are no value for money.

But I do hope China’s future astronauts are reading this page right now because I would really, really hate to be stuck in outer space with these batteries. That ride would be more exciting than Apollo 13.

If anyone is interested to see this article first got started, please visit this link at Dyxum.com...

mAh Battery Ratings

Seafood of Asia, Part II

2011-05-24T01:34:00.000-07:00

Continuing from my last post as more images of local seafood are added; Hope you'll enjoy them!

Click Here To Go To Image at ShutterStock.com

Yum! The End of the Story for the time being.

Click Here To Go To Image at ShutterStock.com

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Hidden Creatures in the Garden

2011-05-24T01:14:00.000-07:00

Hidden Creatures in the Garden

Mother Nature has her ways to hiding gems in our backyards. Even a potted plant sitting on the window ledge serves as a refuge for tiny creatures such as insects and spiders. Some patience is needed to allow these inhabitants to be photographed. Others are just pure luck when they land right in front of your lens.

Macro photography can be challenging but with the correct equipment, attitude and skills, good quality images can be captured.

Slant Faced Grasshopper

An unusual Golden Grass Cricket with feelers 2 ½ times longer than its own body

A pair of Red Cotton Bugs mating on a wild fruit. A serious pest, they have a long proboscis to bit into plants and fruits, causing serious damages to crops. They have a marking on their wings that looks like the face of a man.

A Common Toad making its way to a cooler place

Long face Long Horn Beetle; another serious fruit pest

The Brown Cockchafer… a destructive medium sized beetle that usually emerges after dusk. This fella flew landed on a Bougainvillea bush, crawled onto an orchid plant and started chewing on a leaf and with a mere few seconds, it has already damaged the edge of the leaf.

A baby Praying Mantis, estimated to be a few days old (12mm long) had stalked out its turf on a lemon Basil bush. Other bushes also had its resident baby Praying Mantis patrolling their territory. About 12mm long, this one turned around and started to observe a few ants straying into its turf. This is a hand-held exposure with Kenko extender tubes, un-cropped.

I like the way the light reflects off the eyes. A 300% crop in negative showing the eyes of the baby Praying mantis.

The Locust from the Seas

2011-04-22T01:17:00.000-07:00

The Language of the Locusts from the Sea

As my Soul is my bride to my body

As Christ is the Bride to our Soul

I dreamed that my Soul has departed

A dream whispered in our sleep

The awakened ponders the unforgotten

The sleeping slumbers on

Make peace with your Maker

Tread softly but surely

Sands of time is eroding

A sword held to the side

A bag of coins deadens the pain

Come, wine and dine… the day is short

The truth is bitter

Trumps the bearer of the sword

The victor beats his chest and shouts at the gates of the city

But the mind is of the world

And the sword strengthen by an army

The feast of the flesh beckons

How many more will stay

From the soil comes oil, the wood rots

Tears of the innocent brides rain the earth

The simpleton will pay the price

When the mountains disappear into the seas

Swamps of locust consumes the feast

If the faithful refuses to bow

Sacrifice is never in vain

Gold is refined in the fires

Pain is but a fleeing moment

Sleep is eternal, come swiftly… my Bride

The faithful shall be restored.

CROAKERS

2011-04-06T21:24:00.000-07:00

Asian Seafood… the Asian Croakers

I must confess that my finger was not quite on the pulse of the market when I bought these fishes to photograph. My mind went a big blank when I was handed the bill for these. The local fish mongers were very amused by my reaction. Partially it was due to my childhood memories when these very often were purchased to feed our two Tabby cats, Tommy and Yankee. They were often considered as cheap, trash fishes and the locals often bypass them for other meatier fishes. This must be the first time in my life I purchased them since ‘I molted into an old grump’ ‘;-) and I had expected them to cost about the same as the Indian Mackerel Rastrelliger kanagurta or better known as Ikan Kembong but my expectations had been out of touch.

Whoa… they cost the same price as the medium sized Black Pomfret Formio niger and they were not very large. Well, I guess the locals now must know a good thing when they see one. Often known as the Ikan Gelama, Sang Gay Yi or Jew-fish by the locals, this family of fishes has a number of species and is well distributed throughout Asia to Australiasia. However, the local name ‘Jew-fish’ is not related to another family of groupers known as Jewfishes. Other names for the Jew-fish are Drums and Hardheads.

There are several species that has been officially documented and are important game-fishes and sources of protein. The Soldier Croaker Nibea soldado in the fresh form is one of the most commonly seen species in the fish markets in this part of the country and their average sizes are about ten to twelve inches.

Silver Croaker

The Silver Croaker is the next most commonly seen croakers in the local markets. The Soldier and Silver Croakers are usually popular with hawkers and kopi-tiam¹ food vendors; they are usually slightly salted before being deep-fried.

¹Kopi-tiams are the Asian version of grease-spoon eateries. Most of them are budget food outlets and non-air-conditioned so the inside environment can be quite warm and stuffy at times. Very often, one will find several food vendors offering a wide variety of affordable and cheap hawker food such as the popular Chicken Curry Noodles (shown below).

A Bowl of KL Chicken Curry Noodles. Typically prepared by Chinese cooks, the suntan curry gravy is spicy and creamy. Standard ingredients are boiled potatoes, fried bean-curd squares, blood cockles and some hawkers add char-siew (red-roasted pork) and bean sprouts. A small portion of Balachan Sambal (Shrimp paste chili sauce) is typically offered by the side.

Most of the smaller fishes are considered too bony and are processed into salted, dried fishes by cottage industries or used as animal or fish feeds. When fried to a crisp, the whole salted fish becomes edible including the bones. They are commonly used by food hawkers where it is used in small take-away packets of Coconut Rice or Nasi Lemak Bungkus.

The Black Croaker Protonibea diacenthus can grow to a larger size and specimens up to three kilograms are fairly common. Frequently sold as white meat fish steaks, the flesh is firm, flaky, moist, good quality and free of small bones apart from the ribcage area. When used in curries or steamed, it has a mild flavor and carries the ingredients used in the dish well. A stronger flavor develops when the fish is baked, pan-fried or barbequed; the sweetness becomes more notable. Do not overcook this fish; otherwise the meat will be tough. Black Croakers are in high demand by restaurants and upscale-food outlets.

Home-Cooked Soldier Crocker Fish Curry in Individual Small Bowls, garnished with a sprig of Fresh Indian Dill. The head of the Croakers can be clearly seen in the top right corner of this image. A bowl of hot steamed rice will go alone very nicely with this dish. A Studio Produced Image.

MINT

2011-04-05T09:21:00.000-07:00

The Tame Adventures of an Urban ‘Gardener’

Common name Mint

Latin name Mentha spicata

Native names Daun pudina

Related plants Peppermint, Spearmint.

After needing to purchase small bundles of herbs from the markets whenever I had a product shoot, it dawned to me (Aahhh… finally, the gray matter is stirring…) that I could plant some of these herbs on my window stills and have fresh, perfect plants to use at any time. Looking for herbs in the markets like mint in mint condition (Oops… pardon the pun) is not easy as the fragile leaves easily get withered or bruised during packing, handling and transportation; damaged sprigs of herbs are so unsuitable for photography purposes. Many times, they were simply not available due to the lack of demand and supply in this quiet corner of the country and they delayed the product shoot.

So for my last purchase of fresh mint I chanced upon in the marketplace, I prepared a small pot with soil partially mixed with sawdust, inserted one of the stems into it and moistened the planting media. The plant was kept in the cool shade for a few weeks to allow it to recover. Once the barren sprig of mint started to wing out small sprouts of leaves, it was a sign that the plant had stabilized and ready to be put outside. I prepared a small wire tray and secured it so that strong winds will not knock it off. A liner made from a discarded food container will collect water to keep the soil moist; I placed it in the wire tray and the pot of mint in it. Now it’s ready to take on the world.

This image was taken against a black background in my studio after it had been placed on the ledge for a few days. Water droplets on the plant make it look even more appealing. This is one of my favorite images and sits on my desktop screen for the month. It looks so cooling and refreshing.

The position of the ledge is in cool shade for the first part of the day and gets a strong bath of sunlight during the latter part of the day. The plant seems to love the few hours of strong light as there is a profuse growth of leaves. However, the plant will slightly wilt during these hours if it has been stressed but it will fully recover in the cool evening.

A weak oil-free nutrition solution made from fish emulsion (water that has been used to clean and wash seafood) is used to water the plant every day where possible. Where given quality compost, the leaves can reach a length of 4-5cm and a width of 3-4cm. Mint has a much better visual appeal than peppermint. The plant releases a very nice, minty perfume when the leaves are brushed against.

A bonus for me is that the small plant has grown quite well and I have a truly organic herb also to garnish my meals and teas. I can also use the whole plant as a interesting background subject. It is not very difficult to grow this herb and I would recommend that every passionate gardener, cook, food lover and photographer should have this herb grown in your garden; as I do not have one in the studio, it certain does well on my window ledge.

Several days later, the healthy growth of the mint plant can be seen in the background of this food shot. This image features the Chinese Fried Red Bean Buns. A Studio Produced Image

Now I have added other herbs such as Indian Dill and Chinese Leeks to the window ledge garden; I am now thinking of adding Sweet Basil as well because my window ledge light conditions are suitable for it.

Asian Desserts

2011-04-03T20:25:00.000-07:00

A few of my Asian Sweets

Many Asian pastries and desserts are in their very own special class which sets them apart from many classical European desserts. While many European desserts have a strong identity like cakes and muffins with a key ingredient based either on fruits, nuts, custards, caramels, cream or chocolate, many of our local desserts do not fit into that profile. Key ingredients can be seeds, beans, lentils or or even an ingredient by itself like rice. One such example is the Teochew Rice-Within-Rice Cake.

Fried Red Bean Sesame Puffs.

...

A favorite dim sum sweet of Teochew Chinese origins. Best consumed just out from the wok and slightly cooled. The medium thin crust made from glutinous rice flour is crispy with a sweetened red bean paste or mash filling inside. Sometimes, a variation made with mash taro or yam is used instead of the red bean filling. It is fried in hot oil until golden brown. The sesame seeds makes it very aromatic. I could eat this all day long.

For the majority of people be it Europeans or Asians; mentioned a dessert such as a Black Forest Cake and the image comes to mind easily. Mention a Blueberry muffin and again, it bridges many cultures easily.

Now mention a 5-spice Fried Cruller (Ham Chee Peng) to a European and chances are, you’ll get a blank stare. Try a different name and call it “Fried Devil” (Yau Chow Kway; fried cake in Oil in Cantonese which also sounds like Fry the Devil) and his confusion is compounded. Recently a well-known American photographer was shown an image of an Indian ‘Murukku’ snack and his reaction was “What the heck is that?!”

Kuih Penyaram or 'Mexican Hats'

...

A fried sweet dough made with brown palm sugar of Malay origin. The sticky thick batter is spooned with a well-oiled scoop into a miniature wok filled with hot oil. Leavening agents creates the typical dome in the middle and a skewer is inserted into the dome to fish out the pastry once it is golden brown. A very sweet snack that goes well with Teh Tarik or the local coffee brew.

Fried Plantains or Goreng Pisang Rajah.

...

Ripe Plantains or Elephant Tusk Bananas are sliced into thick discs and coated with a batter and deep-fried until golden brown. The crust seals the fruit, prevents steam from escaping and cooks the bananas from within. Very ripe plantains makes for a naturally sweet snack. Very popular for a afternoon snack. Best when eaten hot from the wok. What cares about the diet? Fruit is healthy!

Another culture shock to Europeans and Americans is the usage of chopsticks or fingers to consume desserts. How about another shocker like having a condiment like chili sauces to go with that? Many desserts are also not consumed at the end of a meal but rather as in-between-meal snacks. Typical in-between snacks periods are brunch and late afternoon and of course, the weekends where the diet angel regularly gets banished to the sulk corner and she is welcome back on Mondays.

Bottom line is that Asian desserts are so different in many ways from European desserts and that is a cause to celebrate and eat!

So I would like to start a page(s) to showcase some simple but yummy Asian pastries with the hope that it may create more awareness to the European and American public. This page is on Asian fried or deep fried pastries.

For calories watchers, I’m sorry… this isn’t your page ,;-P

Ham Chee Peng or

5-Spiced Fried Cruller with Honey and Sesame Seeds

...

A chewy, aromatic leavened deep-fried bread of Chinese origins with an inside 5-spices coating and rolled up like a Swiss roll, sliced into thick discs and deep-fried. Very popular for breakfast and snacks especially with the Chinese and Asian communities.

Fried Radish Cake

...

Made from grated white radishes and flour, it is blended into a dough and steamed. Once cooked, the dough is sliced into manageable pieces and fried until brown and crispy.

Pla Salit

2011-03-30T18:38:00.000-07:00

The Case of the Headless Fish

Thai Common name Pla Salit, Plat Salit

If Sean Connery pronounces it Flatt Shawl-lit

Food Name Thai Smoked Salted Gourami

Latin Name of the Fish Trichogaster pectoralis

Common Name Snake Skin Gourami, Ikan Spart

Okay, let’s face it… Sean would never eat this stuff… it does not taste like smoked salmon or herring. It will never be in his genes to put this into his mouth. What the heck is this stuff, anyway?

When I was a young baddie laddie, I always thought this was a local salted fish. After all, I used to catch a lot of this fishes in the monsoon drains or longkangs and kept them as pets (Okay, this longkang thingie would be another story later…). I had no idea that it is smoked, only that it had a unique salty flavor to it and was a great condiment for half-boiled eggs, hot steamed rice, congees and durians. Yes Madams and Sirs, place a generous flake of the cooked Flatt Shawl-lit on top of a glorious stinky ripe meaty durian and many durian lovers will swear… it’s just better than sex.

The dried Pla Salit is usually sold as shown above in Asian supply shops. The strong, pungent smell can be overwhelming to those not used to dried-salted fishes and seafood. Store in air-tight anti-rust containers or bags in a cool, dark place.

Trichogaster pectoralis or the freshwater Snakeskin Gourami is a fairly large and common anabantoid fish found in Asia, especially in rice growing regions such as Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia. It favors shallow, slow flowing bodies of water with abundant aquatic plant life. An anabantoid fish that belongs to the labyrinth group of fishes with a unique body organ called the labyrinth chamber, it allows them to extract oxygen directly from atmospheric air.

The Snakeskin Gourami can grow up to 26cm or 10 inches and the male fishes build huge bubble nests during spawning. In Thailand, gourami fries are released into the rice fields after the rice seedlings have been planted and the fields are purposely flooded for a few months until harvesting time. The Snakeskin Gourami which is an omnivorous fish, helps to control filamentous algae which would choke the fields and compete with the rice plants for nutrients if uncontrolled. The fishes also regulate insect and aquatic snail population which would otherwise destroy the rice plants.

In a period of three to four months, the fish would grow to a length of 17-20cm/ 7-8 inches in favorable conditions. About this time, the rice harvest is at hand and the fields are drained and a bonus after the rice is harvested, are the now adult gouramis.

The fishes are collected, beheaded and gutted before heavily salted in successive layers on bamboo trays and stored for weeks under shade. Then, they are placed in kilns and smoked for several hours using dried oily, coconut shells as the smoking media before removed to cool and packed for sale.

To prepare this fish for cooking, clean the Pla Salit by removing the scales and giving it a good rinse in clean, running water. Allow the fish to air-dry for half an hour before frying in hot oil between 220˚C-260˚C until the fish is golden brown and crispy. Nice! It is at its best when it is hot and crispy. It has got a salty, slightly earthy and smoky flavor.

Another way to enjoy it is to add a generous layer of thinly sliced red shallots, sliced red chili as much as you dare, chopped Chinese Parsley, basil or mint, sprinkle a teaspoon of fine castor sugar and squeeze a few ripe calamansi limes onto it; the senses will just be joyfully overwhelming… salty, sweet, sour, spicy, smoky, crispy, herby and stinging from the shallots. What a culinary experience a humble freshwater fish can give.

Fresh Calamansi Limes for sale at an Asian market.
They are also known as Acid Oranges or Limau Kasturi in Malay

The frying of this fish is best done in an open-air space. If you are cooking this salted fish near Sean’s neighborhood or in other parts of Europe, kindly forewarn your neighbors a year ahead or invest in an industry-grade air filter system in your kitchen like the ones below. Otherwise a team of environmental officers in bio-hazard suits will be visiting you within the hour to investigate bio-terrorism complaints.

Multiple exhaust vents at an industrial complex, Asia.

To pacify the environment officers, invite them in for a cuppa tea with a wee dram of milk and generous wedges of England’s best Blue Stilton Cheese and crackers. On the positive side, you’ll be best mates with your Asian neighbors if you happen to have durians too. Cheers.

Seafood of Asia

2011-03-28T03:10:00.000-07:00

Edible Fishes of Asia

According to a report that I read somewhere in a scientific journal a few years ago, there are at least 15,000 recorded species of marine fishes around the world not including the fresh and brackish water species. Out of these 15,000, there are more than 5,000 species, big and small… considered to be important sources of protein for the human community.

Every year, explorers and the scientific community are still discovering new species in deep and shallow waters. In my previous days as a seafood vendor… a few days after the Asian Tsunami Disaster of 2005, the local fishing industry in Peninsular Malaysia started hauling in species of seafood that I had never seen before in the marketplace like large jet-black groupers with prominent purple lips and crabs that wore bright, flowery crimson coats of amazing patterns and looked very different from the common flower crabs.

Perhaps some of these uncommon fishes are yet to be documented by the scientific community. Indeed, as I researched some of the fishes in the local libraries, many of the materials do not offer much information.

During that time when I came across the blue-lipped groupers, I did not own a camera and the experience was merely a fleeing experience and the haul of the day… someone’s gastronomy gain.

The Indian Halibut - Psettodes erumei (Schneider, 1801).
A studio produced image

It had always been my ambition to photograph commercial fishes and with the purchase of a dSLR early last year, I started to learn imaging the fishes found in the marketplaces and also to build a proper image bank. It is interesting to know that many of our species are not well known outside Asia like the Bombay Duck, Reynald's Grenadier Anchovy and the Shorthead Hairfin Anchovy due to lack of awareness.

These are fishes that many of us enjoy on a regular basis. Those foreign visitors who had the chance to sample the fishes at the local restaurants, food stalls or home cooked meals may recognize these fishes and appreciate their flavors.

If one were to show an actual fish (if where physical evidence is lacking) or a picture of a Reynald’s Grenadier Anchovy to an American or European visitor, they would probably marvel at it at the unusual shapes and colors and find it very hard to digress the fact that some of our Asian anchovies are huge and different in body formation compared to the ones that are typically used in Western cuisines.

Many locals (such as myself previously) would also think that anchovies would be normally the size of the common ‘dried ikan bilis’ until someone or somehow, we discovered that something fishy is going on.

A Trio of fresh Bombay Ducks - Harpadon nehereus. Otherwise also known as the Ikan Lumek, Bummalo or bamaloh in some other cultures. A studio produced image

So I have set up this page to showcase the various species of local seafood. I found the almost translucent, pale Bombay Ducks an extremely difficult subject to photograph on a pure, white background and that took me several repeated attempts over a week before I could get it right.

I have photographed several species properly on isolated white backgrounds so far; on-going efforts will continue to be added to the fish image database. Maybe someday, I will start a new page on preparation on these fishes and also insert cooking recipes with photographs. Would that be interesting… killing two fishes with one stone?

There are not very much research materials available on Threadfin Salmons (Ikan Kurau) and it was revealing to find out that they are one of the largest families of fishes. In fact, not much is really known on their life-cycles. If I do get some of the Latin names wrong, I welcome feedback on corrections or the given local names. Anyway, one must start somewhere so enjoy the collection. Cheers.

The King of Bitter

2011-03-25T05:16:00.003-07:00

Common name The King of Bitter Herb

Latin name Andrographis paniculata

Native names Hempedu bumi, pokok cerita, akar cerita

Although I have tasted many herbal plants and find many of them extremely pleasant and they add flavoring and aromatic properties to food and beverages, the most strongest herb I have tasted is the King of Bitter Herb or Andrographis paniculata. The name itself is a testimony of the strength of the plant’s properties. Totally devoid of any aroma and resemble a lemon basil leaf but it have a more elongated shape. The leaves look like an inviting, benign piece of green vegetable until one starts to bite into the leaves. My first attempt to sample this herb was to substitute it for the Holy Basil that I normally love to have in my stir-fried rice. Needless to say, it was quite a disaster food-wise.

For the uninitiated, the bitterness creeps onto your palate and then proceeds to invade your taste buds and overpowers any other flavors. Salt and soy sauces compound the sensation of the strong bitterness. The aftertaste of the bitterness continues to linger on my palate for a few hours and eventually fade away but apart from that, there are not any other unpleasant side effects.

I supposed that during cooking, the compounds of the herb strongly flavored the rest of the fried rice and the whole dish tasted bitter and bitter. Perhaps, I should be a bit more apprehensive on my first tasting attempt. Nowadays I prefer to have it raw and I find it be more palatable… a rush of bitterness initially and it fades away, then the rest of the food’s flavor comes into play. The younger leaves are much mild than the older leaves.

Known as a traditional herb for several ailments, it is used by the South East Asian community and in Ayurvedic medicine for many decades as a laxative, digestive and stomachic aid. It has also several uses for the traditional treatment of internal worm infections, flatulence, diarrhea and skin disorders such as ulcers. More accolades are bestowed on the herb as a recognized agent for treating diabetes and high blood pressure (Ahmad & Asmawi, 1993; International Conference on the use of traditional medicine and other natural products in health care, USM). Traditionally, it is also known to have anti-fertility properties and may cause abortions in pregnant women. Excessive consumption of this herb may produce some unpleasant side effects such as heart burn or insomnia.

International interest in the pharmaceutical research industry has picked up on the potential properties of this herb to treat diseases associated with autoimmune disorders. Research is being conducted to assess the potential of using the herb as a treatment for AIDS. Complex, powerful compounds have been identified by the scientific community as promising agents to treat blood clots, infections, skin diseases and cancer. It is interesting to note that it is being used for treating malaria patients. In Europe and America, King of Bitter as herbal supplements are gaining popularity for more than fifteen years in combating respiratory infections and colds. Like the Neem Tree, this humble weed’s powerful medicinal properties are mind-blowing, which leads me to conclude that this plant should have a confirmed place in every herb garden in spite of my “bitter” experience.

Found as an annual weed in Asia, it thrives in several types of soil but ideally a rich, moist soil with some partial shade is preferred. The plant in my garden grows up to the size of a small bush besides a row of orchids that provides it with some shade. It can be grown from stem cuttings or seeds. Young plants are sensitive to hot weather and 50% shade should be given until the plant starts to reach the flowering stage where the plant becomes more woody and puts out smaller and lesser leaves. Once the plant has matured, it will flower profusely and produces a lot of seeds. Eventually, the whole plant will consist of mostly terminal and axillary panicles with very small flowers. It is highly resistant to pest infestation and does not require a lot of care apart from daily watering and feeding.

Demons & Pantangs

2011-03-17T06:22:00.024-07:00

The herd of black and white cows leaped onto my tin roof, stood up on their hind quarters and amazingly began a fast tap-dance number. The din was deafening. It went on for quite a while. One of them started to lose her footing and a black hoof shot through the ceiling. In seemingly slow motion, the rest of the cow followed the direction of the hoof and crashed through the roof and directly onto me. Meanwhile, the rest of the herd was still dancing in unison and the din just got louder as more cows jumped onto the roof.

Just before the big chunk of kicking beef made body contact, she faded away and I woke up groggily to the sounds of firecrackers on a Sunday morning at six o’clock, ten days before the Chinese New Year. The firecrackers ended with a rip-roar as I lay subconsciously in bed with my head on the pillow, expecting more cow hooves but there was silence. My ears strained for the sounds of my neighbors’ babies crying and heard sound of stirring.

Both the babies must have been in deeper slumber than I thought and did not wail. Perhaps, their mothers had managed to pacify and comfort them back to sleep. What a relief, I can get a few more hours of eye shut. Snuggling back into my warm bed, I would not let this annoyance get in the way of my Sunday late slumber; dreamland is in sight again.

The owner of the next house had made major renovations to it and it was almost ready after several weeks of feverish construction. The evening before the incident, excited discussions could be heard as the family came to examine the outcome, excited about the prospects of moving back in. The commotions eventually faded away as the black night took over.

Surveying the scenery later that morning, the evidence was clearly in sight. There was a carpet of red shredded remnants of firecrackers scattered on the almost completed front porch as the workers continued their finishing touches. The new tenants must have stood there in rapture and glee, watching as thoughts of imaginary spirits and demons fleeing the house from the ruckus, ran through their minds.

Like a house cleansing ritual of old Chinese customs, the firing of noisy fire-works would serve to chase away any bad spirits lurking in the foundations and bring in good luck and tidings.

I wondered over morning tea and breakfast how the rest of the neighbors might have felt. If the house owner had hoped the exorcism rituals would work, I think it would have to be a futile exercise because sleeping angry spirits had been aroused from its slumber by the thoughtless racket at an unholy hour.

That got me thinking about superstitions and myths that infuse our Asian cultures. How far do we subconsciously allow these beliefs to influence our daily walks in life that it sometimes becomes counterproductive? An example is the number four as it sounds like the word ‘Sie’ or ‘die’ in most Chinese dialects and is considered inauspicious or ‘Pantang’ in Chinese feng shui.

Living proof is in the family of a friend who frequently objects to outings when the chosen date falls on inauspicious days. Work appointments with clients are often rescheduled should it fall on a fourth day of the month. Interestingly, many of them agreed to the rescheduled dates. I am also advised not to do anything unusual outside my normal routine on the fourth of every month.

So let’s examine how much more these superstitions will influence our daily lives if these demons are let loose in our minds and have free rein?

Today, I am interviewing the Oriental Pantang Demon whom I had the utmost good fortune to encounter as he rolls around playfully on the messy red firecracker carpet that morning.

Q : Pantang Master, what sort of car should we drive for good luck?

A : My unlucky mistress, the Number Four Demon says you should not drive a car at all. Cars have four wheels on the ground; the spare tire does not count because it does not touch the ground. Therefore your choice of vehicle should be a bicycle, rickshaw or a motorcycle with a sidecar if you are a family man or better still, a truck with five or more wheels.

Q : Why a truck?

A : Most modern cars have four side doors. The rear door or boot does not count if it opens skywards… it’s no longer a side door. A truck normally have only two side doors and six wheels.

Q : Okay, this feng shui tip is only for wheels and doors, right?

A : No, most modern cars are based on the four-stroke combustion engine design. There is a ‘Sie‘ element in this design.

Faithful “pantangers” who wish to observe the religion of “pantanging” should always use the two-stroke-driven motorcycle, diesel or electric powered vehicle. There are many unlucky designs and elements in the modern car like the four-big-eye-small-eye Mercedes and ….

Q : Excuse me, (as I cut in) does it mean I have to change my car?

A : Yes, you have to choose a two or three-door car... with three wheels. Five wheel cars have not appeared on the market yet. So the Piaggio Ape is ideal.

Q : What if we meet you or your mistress while driving on the road?

A : Avoid all road junctions. Big unlucky trouble lurks at the four sets of roads on the cross-junctions. Traffic light junctions are simply bad feng shui.

Be suspicious of the four sets of traffic lights blinking at you. It’s my wife’s twin brother, Number Empat Demon in disguise winking at you. Take the long way home to avoid any junctions that breathes on fours. Never drive under flyovers that have four lanes. Drive carefully, and never use the fourth gear.

Q : All this talk is making me hungry. Are you hungry? I’m so hungry now I could eat a lucky horse. Any other auspicious foods we can eat to improve our fortunes?

A : When you order from the menu, avoid beef, venison, lamb, mutton, rabbit or pork. After all, they come from four legged animals. It’s bad feng shui to eat unlucky foods, you know. So good-luck foods are chicken, duck, quails and pigeons. Ahhh… here comes the waiter with your fourth dish. Wonderful done, your goose is cooked just right.

Q : “Aiyoh! Die, Lah… what to eat like that!?” I cried angrily as I bang the table hard with my fist. The sound echoed around the four walls of the Chinese restaurant.

A : Careful, don’t bang the bad luck out from the furniture. Take a hard look at your tables, chairs, and cupboards with their four legs. How long has you been sitting at your unlucky table and on the chairs? I hope you will not add or subtract a wall in your existing house to achieve feng shui equivalent. Otherwise, I can't visit you that often.

Q : What about tips on traveling and shopping?

A : Avoid Lucky Valley at all cost. You can’t shop there. They have four corridors called North, South, East & West. My children are always playing around in the East and West wings.

You can’t holiday in New Zealand, China, the Western hemisphere or for the matter of fact… any countries that experience the four seasons of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Very pantang one.

Q : Are we ever safe from you anywhere?

A : When you are flying fifty-five thousand feet above the earth and the aircraft has four engines, you’ll be sure my mistresses, children and I are in First Class.

Q : Do you like pets, Pantang Monster? I could adopt you as my mascot, you know… maybe put you in a round fish bowl like a lucky goldfish for good charm?

A : I just love bad luck pets. Pets are my favorite subject. Cats, dogs, sugar gliders, hamsters, lizards or any four-legged animals are potential candidates for bring bad luck into the household. And there is the year of the Rabbit. And the Tiger. And the Dragon. And the Goat… (I could hear an evil chuckle).

But I hate spiders and crabs… they all have fatt legs.

Q : Next question is for the punters. When will 4444 strike the first prize this year?

A : Sie lor! You can not play the 4D lottery! Even the word ‘Luck’ is not on your side for it is spelled with four letters. But don’t be surprised to see your ‘pantang’ friends there. Many of them are life-time customers at the 4D shops.

Q : What about languages? We speak no evil, right?

A : My other mistresses, the Colorful Slang Devil says you have to avoid using any words with four letters in it or four-letter words. I’m not sure what she is trying to tell me but maybe somehow, I think conversations may be less interesting without them when you can’t even describe the object. You can’t even play [censored] golf. The word ‘Fore’ sounds like ‘Sie’! The other golfers on the course will not be amused with you.

Q : Does this affect modern life as well like computers?

A : You can’t use a computer keyboard. From F1 to F4, there are four keys. From F5 to F8, there’s another four keys… bad feng shui comes in series. See what happens when you press F4. Bad luck pours out… maybe your hard disk will crash! Who knows? So the only way to avoid using the F4 key to execute the same command is to press F3 and the ‘A’ key together.

Q : Sie-For! This bad news will spread like wildfire.

A : He he he. Be careful when you use the word ‘Fire.’ It’s a four letter word and in the Chinese Language, it sounds like “Four” and therefore, sounds like “Sie”.

Q : So, last question, Pantang Monster. Are you afraid of firecrackers?

A : Ho Ho Ho. Be careful when you use the word again. Plus, you know I love red.

So the interview has ended. He did not quite answer the last question to confirm if the firecracker exercise had worked at all as the Pantang Demon and his mistresses skip their way merrily into the nearest pyrotechnics shop to check out the meanest bang and flash sticks for their children.

Conclusion, the ‘pantang taboo’ list is still long and distinguished. So how far will one allow the “Pantang Demons” to get in our daily lives? Being pantang these days is not quite practical, so as to speak. Sensibly, one should not allow the Pantang Monsters to dictate our lives.

As for me, I would take all these with a pinch of salt; sprinkle it on my delicious shank of lamb curry tonight before dinner starts. Yummy. Oh, one last word on this subject… do remember to clap five times loudly to chase away the bad spirits before you exit your Piaggio Ape.

Meanwhile for the duration of that Festival Season, I had prepared for the sound of thousands of polka dot horses dancing the Flamenco in my dreams.

I wanted to post this article in the fourth month of this year... pantang lah but what the heck… Happy Chinese New Year, belated… anyway.

Peace, Prosper and Long Life.

Rasbora pauciperforata

2010-09-02T01:57:00.004-07:00

Rasbora pauciperforata, (Weber & De Beaufort, 1916) from the Family Cyprinidae, (The Red Line Rasbora)

A small freshwater fish with a streamlined, compressed body, the Red Line Rasbora has a wide habitat range from West Malaysia, Indonesia (Sumatra) and Borneo. It is an inhabitant of peat swamp basins, pools and natural ditches. It is usually found in clean, tannic, soft waters (2-4˚H) with a pH ranging from 3.5 to 6.50. Water temperatures in their natural elements are typically 25˚-28˚C. It favors indirect sunlight and quiet, deep-shaded waters with very gentle currents.

Although the body is well developed, it struggles in fast flowing currents and will usually seek refuge in crevices or less turbulent waters. It can be found in depths ranging from shallow up to a meter deep. Banks with well-developed vegetation such as weeds, over-grown grass and floating plants are their favorite haunts where they typically swim within mid-water levels. When they encounter danger, they usually attempt to escape by diving to the floor bed or seeking refuge in thick vegetation where they will remain until the danger passes over.

A single red band runs from the tip of the mouth to the base of the tail. The scales above the line have a peppery dust pattern on the edges while the scales on the belly have a wedge-shape pattern comprising of small dark pigmentation cells. Fins do not have any markings. Overall, captive fishes kept in acidic, tannic waters will bring out true colors.

Sensitive to heat, light and vibrations, the Red Line Rasbora is quite shy and generally avoids open spaces devoid of plants and bright spaces. In a bare tank, specimens usually sulk at the bottom of the darkest corner. A school of at least five fishes is recommended. Singular fishes are timid but gain confidence in the company of fish schools, even if it is of different species.

Wild caught specimens acclimatized fairly fast in captivity, accepting frozen and dry foods readily. Bright lights should be avoided. A typical tank set-up should comprise of a heavily planted tank with indirect light. Frequent water changes with the replacement water filtered over peat moss is highly recommended to encourage the fishes to show their prominent red line. Once properly acclimatized, the Red Line Rasbora will be emboldened to show itself in open spaces but they will usually not stray away from nearby plants or cover. They typically swim in short distances, hover momentary by twitching their fins to stay suspended and dart around in bursts of speed. The fish is a fairly good jumper so a tank cover is recommended.

This fish’s diet in the wild is not really known but their habitat usually supports a wide range of plankton matter such as aquatic larvae, insects, tubificid worms and small crustaceans such as Daphnia. The Red Line Rasbora will adapt to frozen and dried foods readily.

The Red Line Rasbora can reach a length of 6 cm. In the wild, they typically form small to medium sized loosely-formed schools. Females are larger than the males. A very peaceful fish, this is an excellent species for a community bio-type tank.

Rasbora kolachlorma

2010-08-25T02:21:00.031-07:00

Rasbora kolachlorma (Bleeker, 1851) from the Family Cyprinidae (The Clown Rasbora)

The Rasbora kolachlorma’s any closest resemblance to a clown are the two or three big dark green spots that flank both sides of the fish. It is also known as the Iridescent Rasbora. It has a rich, brown color that is overlaid with scales that have beautiful iridescent colors which is very evident when taken out from the water. A greenish fairy-dust pattern can be seen decorating the top of the fish from head to base of the tail. Fins are maroon-ish brown and do not have any markings. Found in peat swamp basins, it has a wide range in Borneo and Indonesia (Sumatra) and inhabits a wide range of habitats which includes shallow streams and peat swamp forests.

Their favorite habitats are submerged areas with thick vegetation, tree-roots, overgrown grasses and knee-deep waters under shade. They have a stream-lined body which enables them to traverse in fast currents especially during heavy rains but they prefer quieter bodies of water. This is a relative large, elegant Rasbora attaining a length of 11cm, as observed in the author’s specimens.

This fresh water fish’s habit parameters are usually clean, tannic, soft (2-5˚H) waters with a pH of 4.0-6.8 with a gentle water current. Water temperatures can vary from area to area but generally in the jungle and peat swamp fed streams, temperatures range from 25˚ -28˚C. Occasionally, they can also be found in stagnant bodies of waters, which usually is the result of a heavy rain overflow which traps them temporary. When the water levels rise with the next rains, they usually slip out of the stagnant pool to new hunting grounds. In the wild, they form small, loose schools with an average of three to five fishes.

Breeding is observed during the rainy season when the water levels rises and floods the jungle floors, sometimes for several days. Mature fishes gather in larger schools sometimes as many as thirty fishes and make migratory trips into the flooded jungle to breed. Favorite breeding platforms are peaty, grass over-grown areas with thick jungle canopies. Low light levels due to the jungle’s thick canopies are commonly observed.

Hatched fries are usually found in these flooded jungle floors in very gentle currents but fish count is usually about two to three fishes per square meter. As the waters slow ebb, some fries will follow the currents out and a few will be trapped in pools until the next rains come. The flooded jungle floor is rich in suspended microscopic food such as daphnia and aquatic larvae, and these form part of the foods for the fish and fries.

Juvenile fishes are observed to be competitive as they frequently chased and push weaker siblings away to dominate food resources and territories. This behavior is also observed in wild-caught adult specimens.

Scraping behavior is usually limited to their own specie. Otherwise, this is a very peaceful, benthopelagic fish that will fit a large community tank.

Wild adult fishes are observed to be surface feeders, preying on insects on the water such as water skaters and floating foods. However, domesticated specimens will readily adapt to frozen, dry foods with a high protein matter and low carbohydrate content. Wingless fruit flies are an excellent source of protein for them. Dry foods should be of the floating type. Rasbora kalochlorma often exhibit the ‘Squirrel Syndrome” as I called it. They will aggressively collect as much food as they can in their mouth or cheeks while consuming it. Hence in a community tank, it is necessary to closely observe that the rest of the occupants will have sufficient food to eat.

Properly cared for specimens are generally long-lived with an average life-span of three years. Rasbora kaloclorma is an excellent jumper with the ability to even jump out when they are netted so a tightly covered tank is recommended. Adult specimens are often observed as solitary fishes in the aquarium but will readily regroup as a school of fishes during feeding or mating times.

This is an excellent fish for the community bio-type tank. No commercial breeding has been observed for this fish and most of the Rasbora kalochlroma for the aquarium trade are wild-caught. Again with encroaching development into their habitats, this would be a good fish for breeders to include in their list.

Rasbora sarawakensis

2010-08-13T05:20:00.009-07:00

Rasbora sarawakensis, from the Family Cyprinidae (The Sarawak Rasbora)

Although the name suggests that Rasbora sarawakensis is a freshwater fish from Sarawak, it has a wider range that includes West Kalimantan (Indonesia) and the Kalimantan Barat River Basins. This small fish is endemic to the island of Borneo and grows to a length of an average of two inches although larger specimens may have been reported.

In Sarawak, it can be found in shallow, highland streams. However, it is noted that water levels can rise dramatically during heavy rains, the streams experiencing pH and temperature variations during this time. Habitat parameter for pH is 5.50-7.50 as it also has been caught in streams in limestone areas. Favored water temperatures are an average of 23˚-27˚C as it tends to avoid warm bodies of water. Hardness is 2-11˚H, however, soft waters and a pH of 5.0 - 6.5 is considered most ideal. It also have been caught in waters with a strong Fe (iron) content, noted by red colored aggregates and soil matter in the stream beds and soils.

Rasbora sarawakensis is a schooling fish, but do not form large schools in the wild. Groups of three to ten specimens are the norm in Sarawak and generally, they favor mild currents in deeper waters and fairly strong, shallow currents. In fast currents, they love to huddle behind large stones or rocks on the stream bed. It is not really known of their exact dietary habits but they are opportunist feeders in the wild and have been observed to nibble on ripe wild fruits that sit in the water. Perhaps, they are not exactly eating the fruit but the maggots and organisms that feed on the rotting fruit.

Rasbora sarawakensis fries have been collected from the wild in slow moving waters with a slightly warmer temperature (28-30˚C) as these waters are usually sun exposed areas with vegetation (usually overhanging grasses and small bushes) leading to a boom in microscopic plankton that thrive on algae growth. The fries feed on these until they have grown and develop the proper body muscles to swim out into the water currents. The adults are generally spotted in sun-drenched and shaded areas of streams but are not exactly fussy with terrain types but generally prefer clean, clear, cold waters.

Domesticated specimens given the correct condition and foods are generally robust and long-lived about two to three years. They are excellent jumpers and tank covers are strongly recommended. A school of at least five specimens is recommended. The metallic bluish-black strip with a golden edge on the top of the strip and back that runs from the gill-plates to the base of the yellowish tail makes the fish a very desirable aquarium fish and colors typically are very strong in a medium school. Very healthy fish will have a very beautiful peppery scale pattern that stands out well. This is a very peaceful fish for a community tank but requires decent swimming space and will not do well in a small tank. Among themselves, they may chase each other but do not bother other tank mates. They generally occupy the middle and bottom strata of the tank and will happily at the surface to inspect anything that catches their fancy.

Easy to acclimatize to domestic conditions, these fishes will adjust decently fast to their new habitats. The tank should have gentle water currents to replicate their habitat. Healthy specimens usually will accept food within a few hours. During feeding time, they have a tendency to collect as much food as they can in their mouths while consuming it. Given the opportunity, they will gorge themselves until their bellies extend to a frightening bulge. A high protein diet with a low carbohydrate content brings out the colors of these fishes. They will readily accept dry and frozen fish feeds.

It is not known if this fish have been bred successfully. Most fishes for the aquarium industry are wild-caught and it would be good for breeders to work on this specie to meet demand and reduce loading on wild populations.

ANOTHER BAD DAY?

2010-05-15T23:50:00.010-07:00

WHY ME? ANOTHER BAD DAY?

After a recent harrowing experience with my first on-line trade in May 2010 with a bottle of cologne, I realized that I had opened myself wide to potential predators who would have no qualms of ripping up unsuspecting victims. I had done a foolish thing not to have taken the time and care to list the group of sales properly and I've made corrective action to prevent another incident from happening again.

If this event had happened many years ago, I would have an amygdale attack. In layman’s term, that means I would have reacted poorly and my hot temper would have taken over my grey matter, pushing aside any possible means of logical reasoning. In many cases, it has lead to dire personal consequences… hurt lives, lost opportunities, lost relationships and a loss of self-worth and respect.

As a young lad in a foreign land, I got picked on by a superior who always found fault in everything I do. I’m never good enough, my boots are never polished enough, my uniform is this... he always have something to pick on. Besides, no one else on the crew ever got chewed on. I had a venomous relationship with him. Why me? When the right questions are asked, the answers may surprise you and perhaps, doubted upon at that time. He shared that with me. I sneered and I’m right back in boot camp.

Reflecting back many years later, I would want to hug him and shake the hand of this drill-sergeant when I meet up with him. He was one of the key people who shape up my maturity.

Unfortunately, sometimes it takes time to appreciate a gift. That gift can come in unexpected forms. Like the 1985 recession. Why me? But like that drill-sergeant incident, I learned nothing from it. It took another major crisis to wake up my senses. The 1997 Asian economic crisis was one main event that shook me up. Why me? Again? When one is picking up the pieces after the Asian crisis and predators in the guise of a friend swindled me. Why me? But I’d supposed in a way, I had a small laugh by naming a newly-discovered worm after him.

Today coming this far, I am thankful to my family, a group of close friends and strangers who are now friends and especially my current business partner who have been supportive of helping me bridge through difficult times. I also want to thank the person who gave me that harrowing experience I wrote of in the beginning of this article as it reminds me that another bad experience is not necessary bad. Bad events are sometimes good teachers and they build, strengthen and develop a person’s self-worth and respect.

So if you are one of those who had a bad experience recently? Perhaps you could just take a breather in a quiet corner and ask… what good can come out of it? We all will have challenges in our every day lives. Will you become a stronger person or become a bitter person as an outcome of that experience? I have also learned to lean on a Greater Power for strength to weather through difficult storms. I find that during these difficult times, when I lay my troubles before God, I can find peace and a solution. Have Faith, He is Our Strength. God Bless You All.

Philippians 4:8 Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, what is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or trustworthy - think of such things.

DILL WHOLEMEAL BREAD ROLL

2010-05-12T22:57:00.008-07:00

I love breads, especially country breads. The aroma of freshly baked bread stirs up memories of wood-fired ovens. Every bite tasted lovely with ingredients made from extra virgin olive oil, whole-wheat flours, fresh herbs and the smokey oven.

Back here in Kuching, it’s pretty hard to buy something like this in the local bakeries as they cater mostly to the white sandwich bread lovers. If one looking for German rye bread without the baker taking out the stout or a no-cheat sourdough, the nearest one can get in Kuching would be someone’s home kitchen you know of. With a little bit of adapting, you can enjoy something that close. It would be perfect if you own a wood-burning oven.

So here’s one of my favorite own recipes for dill whole-meal bread rolls with spices. Using cold water instead of warm water delays yeast action, allow the flour gluten to develop and improves the bread through slow-rising.

Finding fresh yeast in Kuching in small quantities is quite impossible so I have resorted to using instant yeast. If you are using fresh yeast, double the amount. The smaller amount of yeast also contributes to a slower rising time and with the lemon juice altering the pH of the water, adds character to the bread.

DILL WHOLE-MEAL BREAD ROLLS

This recipe is good for 15 rolls.

Whole-meal flour 491g
High-protein bread flour 132g
Brown sugar 18g
Water, chilled 418g
Instant yeast 4g
Lemon juice 7g
Rock salt 15g
Extra virgin olive oil 20g
Fresh dill, stalks removed 36g
Oats 74g
Combined spices of choice (caraway, cumin, fennel or any small seeds you liked) 2g

My favorite seeds are caraway, mustard seeds and cumin for this recipe.

Extra flour for dusting

METHOD

Combine the bread flour, brown sugar, water, yeast, lemon juice, salt and sugar together in a tall bowl. Stir them until they are thoroughly mixed. Stand aside at room temperature for an hour or until yeast starts showing signs of activity, that is bubbles begin to form on the surface.

Place the whole-meal flour, oats, dill and seeds in a mixing bowl and stir them together. Make a well in the center.

Add the olive oil to the water-yeast mixture and stir briefly. Pour this into the well of the flour and gradually stir the water-yeast mixture from the sides of the well against the side of the flour until the water is absorbed. At this point, the dough would quite wet at some places.

Empty the contents of the mixing bowl onto a flat, work surface and start kneading the flour for 5 minutes. The dough should be smooth and elastic and will not stick to the work surface.

Cover with a damp cloth for 45 minutes and allow to rise at room temperature or until the dough has doubled in size.

Meanwhile, oil a baking tray lightly with olive oil and set aside.

Knock back the dough and knead for another two minutes. Divide the dough into 15 equal parts (about 83g each). Roll them into a ball-shape dough and pressing gently against the sides, roll it into an oval shape. Dust the bottom of the roll lightly with flour and place slightly apart from each other. The dough will push against each other as they rise. Repeat for the rest of the rolls.

Cover with a damp cloth and allow to rise for another 30-45 minutes or until double in size. You may want to brush the tops with olive oil and sprinkle them lightly with rock salt before you place them into the oven.

Preheat oven to 180˚C/ 350˚F/ Moderate/ Mark 4. Bake for 25-35 minutes until rolls are light brown.

Remove from oven and rest on a wire rack for 10 minutes before serving.

The bread loaf shown here were made into a singular loaf instead of bread rolls. A spoonful of turmeric powder was also added in as I love the richness of the spice

LIVE FOODS; Lumbricucus sp ‘chungming’

2010-05-11T23:03:00.002-07:00

In the hazy, crazy days of bell-bottoms, Brooke Shields and Saturday Night Fever, looking for live foods such as tubifex worms to feed your fishes was quite a breeze. One just had to look for a drain with soil embankments and work towards finding a mass or patches of red, wriggling worms on a warm day. To collect it, it involved lots of elbow grease, a pair of Wellington boots and rubber gloves (or a willingness to wade in bare footed and hands… aha, I know what you are thinking right now), a pail and the ability to withstand the stench of rotting vegetation and gases that will floor an upper-crust gal within milliseconds.

Those days, it was a miniature feat to balance the-boy-on-bicycle with one hand on the handlebar and the other clutching the pail and boots (and nose, too). Fish shops would also stock this item and it was a common inventory for fish-shop operators.

It’s different these days. Much of the infrastructures have been upgraded to divert the floods that regularly awash Kuching during the Landas season. Cement embankments are the norm now. These days, natural T. tubifex population(s) is an item extremely difficult to find. I believed that chemical pollution also diminished the population of T. tubifex.

I visited a spot that used to yield aquatic worms which I used to collect when I was a teenage. It is a small patch of sandy ditches that had withstood development and managed to collect a golf-ball size of worms over a period of several days. It could only be done during early morning or late evenings.

I attempted to breed them in 2008 and 2009, using methods described for breeding tubifex and blackworms and all attempts failed. During the beginning of March 2010, I decide to try another time. By now, parameters had been correctly established for conditions needed to breed. This time, the worms started laying creamy colored cocoons which when hatched, appeared as red botches across the surface. Eventually as they grew, they start spreading into a wide maroon-colored patch across the media.

However, my success was short-lived as parasitic invaders in the form of tiny moths started to breed in the troughs they were housed in. Clouds of these moths swamped the troughs and laid masses of eggs that hatched into small creamy larvae and competed with the worms for food. To make matters worse, the creamy-colored larvae developed into black-colored larvae about 10mm long and started to feed on the baby worms and almost decimated the worm population.

Most of the fishes refused to eat the black larvae. The only fishes that seemed not to mind them were the halfbeaks Hemirhamphodon kuekenthali and freshwater glass prawns Palaemonetes paludosus. So it was a time-consuming task to rip out the troughs, collect any remaining adult and juvenile worms and quarantine them for several days before housing them in new sterilized troughs housed in a different area. All this for a worm. Oh, there is this funky² smell too.

After prolonged, close observations, I have concluded that this worm is neither Tubifex tubifex or Lumbricucus sp. blackworms. Stirring the soil or media and allowing it to settle, T. tubifex will start clumping together into a tight ball of worms on the surface of the media but this worm will not clump together unless the container is bare. L. blackworms thrives in cold water whereas this worm does not like cold water. So I shall nickname this worm Lumbriculus sp. chungming, aka Khoworm after a certain low-life-form-from-Kuching I know of.

There is another type of worm with different behaviors although they look almost the same. This worm was extremely difficult to extract from the media where they were collected from. Once unearthed, each worm will curl into an individual knot and will not clump together unless the container was bare-bottom too so I decided to nickname them Lumbriculus sp knotti.

This worm is of special interest as it seems to be very tough and can survived polluted, anaerobic waters, dried-out media and warm conditions including being under the sun. A trial involves placing a culture in a small bowl with media that receives direct sun during the afternoons and they have survived for more than three weeks without much food and water, wringing their tails after showers fill the bowl. L. sp. knotti also does not attempt to escape from the container they are housed in whereas L. sp. chungming demands specific water conditions, temperature and other parameters otherwise they (Bless his soul, they are as slippery as he is) will crawl out very fast from the container they are housed in. L. sp. chungming also will not clump into a ball like T. tubifex unless they are housed in a bare container without any media.

My juvenile wild-collected Betta brownorum started losing their shyness once they were fed with chungming and knotti worms and quickly adapted to their new surroundings and grew into healthy adults. I hope to be able to establish a large population of disease, virus-free chungming and knotti worms for my fishes and offer any surpluses to hobbyists who share the same interest as we do.

BETTA BROWNORUM

2010-05-11T18:59:00.002-07:00

Betta brownorum, a wild dwarf fighting fish was once found in numbers in the swamplands of Sarawak. This is easily the most beautiful member of the Coccina family. Unfortunately, rapid development take over many of their habitats and it is not easy to find these beautiful gems these days. They still exist in very small pockets of swamplands in highly tannin waters with pH sometimes as low as 3.5. These are wild-caught fishes last January 2010.

Breeding this fishes requires extremely clean water with a pH of 3.5-6.6. My experiences have shown that they will breed in shallow water with a depth of 3 inches up to 7 inches with a lot of Java Moss with the tank receiving indirect sunlight. The down side is they produce extremely small clutches of eggs (9-17 eggs) in a single breeding.

Field Trip to the Kayan River Basin (Revised)

2010-05-11T18:49:00.004-07:00

21st October, Wednesday started out as a fine warm day with an ambient temperature of 31'C. A field trip to the Kayan River Basin was the order of the day. We headed up East first as my partner-in-crime (P.I.C.) wanted to visit his parents first. Upon arriving, they were out tending to their rice fields. Rice harvesting has started several days ago.

Lunch was the next order of the day as we drove into town in search for grub. We headed towards the shops to grab some food to tank up. I, particularly warmed up to the Mee Mamak the first time, cooked by one of the stall operators.

Unfortunately, the dish tasted different every other next visit. The last meal was quite a disaster as the dish did not resemble Mee Mamak at all, so I’ll be looking for new grub on my next visit.

After lunch, we started heading back towards Kuching and turn into a kampong (village) on the right side, we decided to look around in that area. Pushing our way into the thick undergrowth, we trekked towards the interior until we came across a shallow, clear stream. The temperature difference was immediately noticeable as we entered the jungle canopy as it was cool and comfortable. There were a few persistent mosquitoes determined to make a meal of us. My eyes are now on the lookout for leeches and Assassin bugs, the latter which can cause a really painful bite that last for days.

P.I.C. started sampling and immediately netted a few wild adult Betta ibanorum. This is a common fighting fish in this area. Meanwhile, I had started sampling further upstream. Dipping my net in yielded a few Rasbora caulimaculata, Rasbora einthovenii and Rasbora pauciperforata. Sweeping under the leaves on the sand-bed, there was a small maroon colored fighting fish caught in the net. Betta brownorum but without the greenish-blue spot. I thought unusual to have found this fish in this type of topography.

Several specimens were caught later, and all fishes lacked spots, which led me to conclude that these could be Betta rutilan. Collecting this fish was time-consuming as they could only be found scattered, almost always singularly. As seen in these photographs, the paler fish is the female as the other fish is the male.

This was a surprising find as I had thought that this specie can only be found in Indonesia. The day was already late so it's time to pack up. There will always be another day. Who knows what one may find next.

Ants Carry Death Home

2010-05-09T03:31:00.003-07:00

We had problems with ants a few months ago in our premises. Small armies of ants had invaded our workspaces and made several nests in impossible places. Soon, any foodstuff not secured properly attracted these critters and made them unpalatable. Even Bablu, our resident cat had a problem as these ants invaded her food bowl. We had to resort to placing her bowl within a larger bowl filled with water as she has the habit of not finishing her food all at once.

Using contact and aerosol insecticides was out of the question. One potential problem using aerosols means air-borne insecticide will land on the surfaces of the water in the aquariums. Contact insecticides were considered but not used as we were also concerned that toxic fumes given off would be drawn into the air pumps and into the tanks. Personally, I do not react well to aerosol fumes too.

This problem became serious when they invaded the mealworm racks and dented the larvae and pupae populations. We had to do something to eliminate these ants. Keeping the premises as clean as we could had not improved the circumstances. An effective measure had to be found.

We found a very effective solution in the form of a grainy powder in a sachet. Instructions were to place this grainy powder into the path of active ant trials. The powder has nutritional value to the ants but it is laced with slow-action poisons who do not kill the ants immediately. Foraging ants will carry this back to their impossibly out-of reach nests where they will feed it to the rest of the ant community including the queen herself. In a few days, any insects which had consumed this powder will expire and the results can only be seen a few days later but the results are remarkable and long-term. The powder was also not easily blown off as we were concerned that they could land inside the aquariums.

We started by locating several ant trials at arm's level as the powder had to placed out of reach of the cat as well. Various locations were plug-point boxes, window ledges and shelves. We used three sachets for the whole premises and one sachet for the mealworm racks. The disposal bag was emptied and cleaned out, and another sachet with contents poured into the bag. It was that simple. Within a few minutes, ants started to cart death home.

A few days later, results were very encouraging. Most of the grainy powder had disappeared and we could now see a few dead ants outside the impossible-to-reach nest later. A week later, most ant activities were not seen and we had also not seen any cockroaches for quite sometime since we had used this method.

This product works very well. We thought that some of you folks out there might have the same problems we had, and might be looking for an effective and inexpensive methods to overcome insect infestation in your homes or workplaces. This effective product is USD2.95 for six sachets (before postage). Do drop us an email if you do. Otherwise, you can visit http://www.mudah.my/ecologicord (Under 'Home & Garden') to order there.

Microworms

2010-05-07T23:10:00.002-07:00

Extracting most of your microworm culture

How do you extract up to 98% of your expiring microworm culture(s) and have as little wastage(s) as possible? It's easy when you have the correct tools and method. Many writers have offered ideas ranging from a stack of matchsticks, a piece of cotton cloth, coffee filter to placing them on top of a warmer.

We had a field day, trying out these methods without much success, not to mentioned that it could be messy too. Now I don't know about you folks out there but I hate cleaning up funky-smelling messes and not having much to show for it. Now if you have been following my earlier microworm discussions, you know by now we love the K.I.S.S. principle. And you'll know by the end of this discussion why we only use bread flour or all-purpose flour.

You'll need the following;

Note: All food-contact equipment should not be used for human or other pet (dog, cat, bird etc) food production.All utensils should be free of oily deposits.

Your expiring microworm culture(s) which should have a funky smell by now. If they have a foul, evil smell, discard it. It's poison.
A 306-stainless steel micro-mesh mounted on a ring and handle. You can also buy this item from us for USD1.50 (Before postage). Just drop us an email or visit us at www.mudah.my/ecologicord (under 'Pets' catalogy).
A dinner spoon.

Fill up halfway of the culture container with clean, conditioned water. Stir up the contents with a spoon thoroughly. Place the micro-mesh strainer over a slow-flowing tap and slowly pour the contents of the container into the micro-mesh. Do not let it overflow. Because bread and all-purpose flours do not contain large particles, they will be easily flushed through the micro-mesh. This leaves only the microworms trapped on the mesh.

Continue to rinse the micro-mesh under running water until all traces of flour is gone. You will now be able to see a mat of clean menatode(s) on the micro-mesh. They can now be fed directly to the fishes. After you have finished, clean up the micro-mesh with a soft sponge, hand it up to air-dry for the next use. It works every time. No waste! Hurra!

Microworms

2010-05-07T01:23:00.002-07:00

MICROWORMS CULTURE

Microworms thought to be Panagrellus redivivus are part of an important live food inventory for fish breeders as it is an important food source for raising tiny fish fries such as wild betta(s). Much have been written on this subject and on our initial trials, found that many of them are not suitable for us as they were written by and for the hobbyist with a small number of tanks.

With more than one hundred and seventy tanks to upkeep, we eventually come to a conclusion that a consistent principle, K.I.S.S. (Keep It Straight and Simple) is good practice as it eliminates waste, unnecessary work and save us time and effort.

After several trials, I use this simple in-house recipe in our breeding facility because the ingredients are available almost any time, anywhere and inexpensive. These are found in most bakery supply shops, supermarkets and the grocery shop.

They are;

200g ordinary bread (high-protein) or plain flour; bread flour give a slight better result in yields. Avoid refined or expired flours.
Baker’s yeast or instant yeast (Standard 11g packet).
And 100g boiling water.

For your equipment, you may need the following;

Note: All food-contact equipment used for micro-worm production should not be used for human and other pet (cat, dog, bird etc) food production.

A weighing machine (We use a Tanita KD160 digital scale with a tare function. This machine is affordable and importantly, reliable. Newer models have replaced this range)
Four clear, clean plastic containers with tight lids. Capacity is 400ml with a wall height of 60mm. A wall too shallow do not contain the nematodes properly when they crawl up the sides
New dish-washer sponges
A heat-resistant soup dish or bowl
A metal dinner spoon
Pastry brush
Dish of clean water
A starter culture
A water spray bottle, set to ‘fine mist’

The thumb of measurement is 1:½ meaning for every part of flour, half part of water In Weight, NOT Volume applies. With this ratio, one can use it regardless of either metric or imperial measurement. Example; if you use 160g of flour, add 80g of water. If you use one pound of flour, you add eight ounces of water.

Firstly, make a hole in the middle of the container’s lid. Cut the sponge to a cube size and make side slits to allow the cubes to fit snugly into the hole(s) and they will not slip out. Set aside.

Place the dish or bowl on the weighing machine and press the tare button. It will calibrate the weighting machine by bring the scale reading back to Zero. Weigh out the flour into the dish or bowl. When you are done, continue by pressing the tare button on the weighing machine again to reset it. Make a well in the center of the flour; pour boiling water straight from the stove into the well until it reads 100g. The hot water basically cooks the flour, and breaks down the starches.

Use the metal spoon to mash in the flour to make a stiff dough. Do this while the dough is hot. Once the dough cools down sufficient to be handled, knead the dough by hand until the dough is smooth. It should not stick to the sides of the bowl or your hands or fingers. If it is too sticky, add a little flour. If it is too dry, add a little water until you obtain the right consistency. That’s why I love the digital machine. It takes the guesswork out and delivers consistent results.

Divide the dough into 4 equal parts and form them into ball-shape dough. Flatten the dough into a thin disc to fit neatly into the base of the containers. At this stage, before I place the dough into the container, I will coat them with a wet brush to make the surface moist on both sides. Once the dough is inside the containers, sprinkle the yeast very lightly on the surface. Imagine that you are shaking salt on that favorite ribeye steak you are going to chow on.

Before you introduce your micro-worm culture, ensure that the dough is at 30˚C or room temperature. A lump the size of half a green pea is sufficient. Cover securely with the lid and place in a well-ventilated location that is not exposed to the sun. Make sure the location is free of ants and mites. You also might want to consider the location as it does generate a faint aroma which may be a turn-off to others.

By the second day, you should be able to harvest your first microworms. The surface of the dough should be dry by now. Apply a fine mist of water into the container after you have harvested the worms. The mist should only moisten the surface, not flood it. Several hours, you will be able to harvest another crop of micro-worms, and again, and again for up to six days. The image below shows a culture on its sixth day.

Some writers have expressed that after a week, you can add new food and yeast into the cultures and they can be recycled for a few more times. We find that microworm production is greatly reduced after eight days when the dough breaks down, gets polluted with waste products and have a funky smell. It's really more logical to harvest them all out and start a new batch. Quality matters and your cultures will not crash.

Pterophyllum altum

2010-04-14T05:02:00.002-07:00

Pterophyllum altum, the "mother-of-all-angelfishes". Difficult to come by, extremely difficult to rear, these three fishes were the survivors of a batch of thirty juvenile fishes. Extremely demanding in water quality but lovely to behold.

Garra ruffa

2010-04-14T04:41:00.003-07:00

Garra Ruffa, the so-called spa fishes named for their skin-grazing habits on human skin. Because of their popularity, there have been many similar looking fishes marketed as Garra ruffa. Clear, running water is required to keep them in healthy form.

Betta patoti

2010-04-14T04:18:00.003-07:00

Betta patoti, a member of the unimaculata family, this is a large fighting fish from the Indonesian side of Borneo. This fish is an F1 from a wild-caught pair. Found in clear, cold running streams, this fish demands a pH of 4.5-6.5. An excellent jumper, the tank must be covered at all times.