Since my dad was piloting another ship at the time, he was able to take this photo of her from this angle while he was on the other ship. It would have been impossible to get a macro angle of her berthed so gracefully unless you were on another ship!

If you look carefully at the bottom of the picture, you’ll be able to see a guy standing by the side of the port, which gives you an idea of just how big the Queen Victoria is. She came and left yesterday, and word on Facebook has it that she’s headed to Perth next as I type! Sigh…

Twestival to put it in the simplest terms is a Twitter festival that happens one day, once a year where people get together for a tweet-up party to raise money for charity. This year 200 cities will get together on 25th March 2010 to raise money for Concern Worldwide, who are helping the poorest kids in the world go to school.

We’re currently looking for volunteers and sponsors at the moment, and if you’d like to help follow @kktwestival @fooz @twestival @concern @twestivalasia and drop us a line here kktwestival@gmail.com with your name and contacts. In the coming days, we’ll have more information on how you can participate!

Visit our official blog here!  http://kotakinabalu.twestival.com

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Snagged from hubpages.com. Shows blood glucose levels over time after a meal that is high or low in GI

Life got ultra busy again and I couldn’t log what I was eating for my apparent diet. Saying that I’ve been having better carbs as much I can, but it was a challenge during the Chinese New Year week with so many face-stuffing parties.

So what I did was pay attention to the total GI and GL of my meals. If there was a high GI dish like mashed potatoes, I would pad two spoonfuls of that with half a plate of low-GI veges to lower the GI profile of my meal.

Saying that, I’ve been making better choices on an everyday basis. I asked a friend at the gym who had lost heaps of weight how she changed her chubby genes to show a skinny body and she said, “Make better choices!”  and that’s exactly what I did; I made better choices.

Switching from white rice to brown rice, cutting out potatoes, no bread, ho fun noodles, glutinous rice, or flour-based cakes. I also substituted sugar with honey when necessary, and chose to drink calorie-free freshly brewed Tazo teas instead of lattes at Starbucks.

The verdict? My energy levels were steady and I felt my mood was more stable.

In fact I cheated yesterday, and took a few mouthfuls of some my grandma’s Ho Fun and I kid you not it made me feel so edgy, anxious, moody, and restless. I felt so uneasy that I spent an hour at the bookstore feeding myself positive attitude quotes to overcome the foulness of the carb crash. Why does Malaysian noodles have to taste so good and give you the worst carb crash ever?!

Perhaps I’ll substitute my favorite noodles with their lower-GI cousin the bean thread vermicelli, which is also called glass noodles or Tanghoon. I reckon I’ll be eating low-GI foods predominantly from now on to avoid feeling like fecal matter from the backside of a Saharan mammal. Whether or not it makes me lose weight is secondary because I just feel better after eating low-GI foods.

Mestemacher bread is yummy toasted

Here’s the 7 guidelines of Low GI Eating taken from page 183 of The New Glucose Revolution: The Authoritative Guide to the Glycemic Index – the Dietary Solution for Lifelong Health:-

1. Eat seven or more servings of fruits and vegetables every day.
2. Eat low-GI breads and cereals (I eat Mestemacher breads (see left) and oats for breakfast).
3. Eat more legumes including soybeans, chickpeas and lentils.
4. Eat nuts more regularly.
5. Eat more fish and seafood.
6. Eat lean red meats, poultry and eggs.
7. Eat low-fat dairy products.

Alrighty hope you are making better choices!

When my bike started to get really stiff on the pedal, I decided it was time to begin learning how to maintain my bicycle. Since I had no clue how to go about degreasing, oiling, and maintaining a bike I turned to The Complete Bike Book: Choosing, Riding, and Maintaining Your Bike, which I got a year before I bought my GT bike! The book has instructional photographs on how to maintain a bike, which made it easier for me to learn on my own. While it is quite a comprehensive guidebook it lacked recommendations on brands of chain lubes, so I posted a question on Facebook asking for some suggestions.

A few people came back with some ideas ranging from Singer oil to WD-40. Eventually I chose to heed the advice of Clement and headed to Spring Trading to get Pedro’s Lube! While I was there, I realized I needed a couple of more tools to make the maintenance process easier. I got a working stand (RM45), track pump (RM25), cleaning brushes (RM54), and Pedro’s lube (RM 32). The bike shop owner recommended that I use WD-40 (RM 14.90) as a degreaser so I stopped by at the supermarket to pick a can up.

I’m pretty proud to say that my first maintenance session was pretty successful. Pedro’s lube is really silky smooth; took the bike out for a 45 min spin and it rode smoothly and beautifully! Now the next step would be to learn how to maintain the other bike parts and change a flat tire. Wish me luck!!!

To get your bike supplies in K.K., you can head to Spring Trading at Kampung Air:-

Spring Trading Co.
No. 5, Ground Floor, Jln Sentosa,
88000 Kota Kinabalu,
Sabah, Malaysia.
Tel: 088-26 2201

Maybe this is really late, but it was supposed to be my very last post on my Hong Kong trip and life just kind of got in the way. People tell me that you don’t leave Hong Kong without having dim sum and so that’s exactly what Rachel and I did for my last day. We went to West Villa Restaurant in Causeway Bay, which is said to be a favorite for local celebrities.

Here’s what we ordered:-

Rachel was craving for some Char Siu Bao so we got some. The top of the bun is like a Mexico bun and the filling inside the bun is a Char Siu pork filling with sweet gravy. I really liked the texture of the bun as I could really taste the freshly baked goodness from the first bite.

We also got some steamed Pai Kuat which tasted classic, unpretentious and good. I was however most impressed with the Siu Mai. The pork meat and big prawns were really fresh, juicy, springy and delicious. I’ve never had Siu Mai quite like it; not in Malaysia, not in New York, not even in London. It was arguably the best Siu Mai I’ve ever had in my life (so far) so if you eat nothing else in Hong Kong, eat the Siu Mai at West Village Restaurant.

Perhaps what was the least familiar to me was this Dim Sum style frittata. The glutinous rice with meat is coated with egg and fried like a frittata, then sliced and eaten with a dipping sauce. Apart from the virginal visual sensation, it was not bad but something that will probably come in as the last choice if I had to order it again.

Since I was missing the ritual Sunday dim sum sessions at Yi Ban and The Laureate in London, seeing this Kuay Tow wrapped with Cheong Fun dish on the menu was a pleasant delight. I was glad we ordered it because it was crunchy, chewy and had the subtle flavors of five spice. Chewing through this made me think about  how incredibly well the British-Chinese have tried to retain the best of Cantonese food and offer it to Britain.

Finally, Rachel insisted that I have the Tau Foo Fah. OUT OF THIS WORLD, glad she suggested it! I’ll be sure to head over for some Tau Foo Fah on my next trip because it’s really so smooth, silky and absolutely beautiful with the shaved palm sugar topping.

Overall, the meal was beautiful. I’m really glad we had dim sum on my last day because now I know what the big deal is. Here’s how to get there:-

West Villa Restaurant
Room 101-102, 1/F., Lee Garden Phase 2, 28 Yan Ping Road
tel: 852 2882 2110

So I hope you’ve enjoyed my blog series on Hong Kong. I love it so much I will definitely be back for more munchies and partying!

Jinx Chin

This morning I’d like to introduce you guys to my friend Jinx Chin.

After he move back to Malaysia from the United States, Jinx poured his heart and soul into composing jingles for commercials. Though you may have heard a few of his catchy tunes if you live in Malaysia, you probably don’t know who Jinx is nor heard of his true melodic prowess.

For the longest time I’ve been waiting for him to put his romantic pop rock music out there. Finally, in November 2009 his music hit the Internet and the airwaves of SBS radio in Sydney, Australia.

Jinx has a YouTube channel where he uploads videos of himself doing beautiful covers and a Jango channel featuring his original songs. He’s already got 543 fans from simply uploading his music to Jango.

Here is his first original song of 2010, Back At The Start:-

Back At The Start by J I N X C H I N

P/S: If you can’t access the widget above, please go to his SoundCloud page.

If you like what you hear, you can buy his music at Nimbit for the sensational price of $0.99 a track. For more information on Jinx’s music and to nosy into his wonderfully whacky world of music composition, visit his website at JinxChin.com

Here’s a video update from me to you.

Jacky Cheung's Jazz Album, released on 29th January 2010

Cantonese superstar Jacky Cheung (張學友), one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Hong Kong’s vibrant entertainment industry has selected to use a song my friend and schoolmate Roger Wang wrote as part of his new jazz album entitled Private Corner (Released: 29 Jan 2010).

Roger composed ‘Love Scale’ for Double Take’s debut album, which was released in 2003 with Mia Palencia taking the vocals for the original English version. Seven years later, the track has been rendered in Cantonese to ‘十二個音’ and is finally having its moment of glory in the international scene.

It just blows my mind to think of the idolatry of Jacky Cheung in school, Roger’s lone madness with the guitar and the hundreds of times we’ve heard wannabes at karaoke bars yelp Jacky’s songs…

The fact that the ‘God of Songs’ is now singing a tune written by Roger is amazing and unbelievable! I bet Roger is pinching himself now; he shares how it happened on his blog. I’m beaming with pride for him. Congratulations Roger… you deserve it!

Check out 十二個音 (Love Scale) here:-

The glycemic index, glycaemic index, or GI is a measure of the effects of carbohydrates on blood sugar levels. Carbohydrates that break down quickly during digestion and release glucose rapidly into the bloodstream have a high GI; carbohydrates that break down more slowly, releasing glucose more gradually into the bloodstream, have a low GI.

The New York Times Bestseller by the World's Leading Authorities on the Glycemic Index

After spending the last three posts sharing the recipes of what I made and ate for my Low-GI experiment, I realized it is impossible to make all my meals at home or lavish at that. The Low-GI diet is just a matter of knowing what to embrace and avoid and I’ll try to introduce some of the concepts to you throughout my experiment this week.

Breakfast 8:00am – 9:00am

I had an Anjou pear with an orange sprinkled with lime juice and cinnamon powder. At first, the sweetness of the fruits seemed counter-intuitive, but the point of my experiment is to eat foods that are published to have a low G.I. effect even if it seemed counter-intuitive. I also made 2 eggs, had 2 slices of flaxseed bread with a bit of rocket and cherry tomatoes, and a few ounces of the leftover bean salad I made the day before.

How I Felt for the Morning

With 5 hours sleep again, I was feeling tired before breakfast. After breakfast though, I felt really energetic. It was as if I had been given an energy drink. Again, I think it may have been the sugar rush from the fruits but the surprising thing was that I didn’t get a sugar crash and my energy levels were good. My heart rate was steady, I didn’t feel sleepy and it kept me full until 1:00pm.

Lunch 1:30pm

For lunch, I just took some of the leftover brown rice from the night before and put 50% vegetables and 50% rice and stir-fried it with a little bit of canola oil. Knowing that brown rice has a medium GI but high GL (Glycemic Load), I made sure I didn’t have too much of it. The effects of carbohydrates on your blood sugar is not only determined by the type of carbohydrate you consume, but the amount as well. That’s what the GL measures and so I had a medium-sized plate of it.

Snack 3:30pm

I kind of faded a little about an hour after lunch and nodded off once. I’m wondering if I should have thrown in some protein into the rice to bring down the GL even more. I wasn’t hungry by this time but I definitely had that moment when I felt the blood left my head and rushed to my stomach. I’ve read that adding some slow-releasing beans will regulate insulin levels so I snacked on 2 spoonfuls of leftover bean salad. I also had a cup of freshly made ginger juice with a teaspoon of Kamahi raw honey and cinnamon. After that snack, I got my energy back without any of the dozing off sugar crash.

Dinner 7:30pm

The snack from 4 hours ago sustained and maintained my energy levels. By dinner time, I had some of the rice I made in the afternoon with half a plate of green vegetables, and some pork bones and lotus root soup. This time my meal had some meat and a lot more vegetables.

Snack 11:00pm

Didn’t feel hungry so there was no need to snack on anything solid. I didn’t get the sluggish feeling from dinner like I did momentarily after lunch, and I think it is because of the added protein and increased fiber in the meal. I had another cup of ginger tea with honey and cinnamon to help with digestion and went to bed right about midnight.

Summary of Day 2

The brown rice meal without protein actually made me nod off. The Fresh Ginger Tea with Kamahi Honey and Cinnamon was really good. It was spicy and I could feel it helped with my digestion…

8:40pm -  Even though I still felt full at dinner time, I knew that skipping dinner would be a bad idea so I made Pla Nung Baan Rai for dindin and got my maid to stir-fry cucumber shoots and broccoli with a little garlic and salt.

THAI COUNTRY-STYLE STEAMED BLACK COD

Ingredients

• 1 medium-sized fillet of Black Cod
• 6 fresh shitake mushrooms, julienned
• 1 small tomato, sliced
• 1 tbsp oil
• 2 tbsp rice wine (sake or huang jiu)
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 3 tbsp lime juice
• 2 stalks lemongrass, sliced into rings
• 3 fresh kaffir lime leaves, sliced finely
• 1/4 cup sliced shallots
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
• 2 red chillies, cored, seeds removed and sliced (you can use bird chillies if you want the heat)
• 1 tbsp slivered ginger root
• 1/2 a lime, sliced thinly

METHOD

1. Place the cleaned fish on a non-metal heat-proof dish separately.
2. Whisk the liquid ingredients in a bowl evenly and season with salt and white pepper.
3. Pour the liquid mixture onto all other flavoring ingredients, mix well and place on top of fish.
4. Finally, steam the fish at high heat for 15 minutes.
5. Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with steamed brown rice.

Nutritional Value: The cold-water black cod is high in omega-3 fatty acids and the rest of the herbs, spices and vegetables are high in vitamins, minerals and much more. As will fresh whole foods the nutritional value is high.

Taste verdict: It tasted good but it wasn’t hot enough. I used a base recipe from an ethnic Thai cookbook and left the basil out, but I regret not using bird chillies.

Summary of Day 1

All these recommended portions from the many books and internet articles are preposterously generous. I am so stuffed, there’s too much food, I feel like it’s going to shoot out of my ears! Whoever told us to get our 5-a-day (some think you should get 7 portions a day) of fruit and vege is insane and deserves to be locked up in the Priory. Along with the proteins, fats and small amounts of wholegrain carbs, it’s simply too much bulk to stuff into a gut on an everyday basis. I am surprised how the measly amount of bean salad and that dense sandwich kept me full right up till dinner, something that would have been impossible with your regular humongous plate of Asian noodles or white rice with side dishes.

How I’m Feeling Right Now

9:23pm - Earlier on I mentioned I was surviving on 5 hours of sleep. Truth be told, for the whole day I felt really wired. The kind of feeling I get when I’ve had one too many cups of coffee minus the heart palpitations. Maybe it’s the enzymes from the raw foods in the morning, maybe it’s the slow-releasing properties of low-GI foods. I feel exhausted but my body is fully alert. The food fuel has been overextending my body while my brain is telling me it should be resting. Does that make sense? I’ll check in again tomorrow morning…