Simplicity

AUP Orientation (Jan 2012)

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:22:00 +0000

Okay so as usual... I was asked to help the committee take photographs of the event, it was actually 2 days before the orientation that Jun Qi asked me to help out, and before that I thought they'd forgotten and I didn't need to go. But in the end I did, and it wasn't that bad. :)

Stickers with names. After all, this is an orientation, so if you don't know what's the name of that hot chick, you simply walk up to her and stare at her sticker.

Of course, if you are Adrian or Joyce then that's another story.

New AUP-ians looking so guai right now but I bet they would be just like us after 1 or 2 sems. I think this is the most, um, interesting group.
A-he-he-he-he. Winning group for first round of games.
Wee Nee, Hui Yee, Zen-Zi and Shu Hui.
Personally I like this photo the most. Wee Nee's face is epic (because of the flash, sorry!) and Wooi Keat is saying "thank you thank you" at the back.

As always, AUP-ians rock!

Got my iPhone!

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:13:00 +0000

So after a few weeks' wait, it's finally here: 16th December. I wanted to go to the DiGi outlet at Belissa Row, Pulau Tikus because Chien Ming's aunt is the branch manager there but well DiGi's website updated saying that the Suntech outlet (which is 2 mins' drive from my place) will also be opening at 9am, as compared to the usual 10am. Deciding that I will just buy it and get back home to sync and setup the phone before going to Tg Bungah, I left home at 8.30am.

This is my first time actually QUEUING for some product's launch and I can kinda feel how folks in the US felt when any Apple product was launched: everyone queuing outside a retail outlet ahead of its opening hours, watching the crews get briefed inside through the transparent glass panels, watching them prep the stocks of iPhones, and finally, distributing numbers to us people waiting outside.

So at 9am sharp, they opened their doors and I was 6th in queue so I got number 6. Apparently, they only gave out up to number 50 this morning because the outlet only had 5 units of the white color of each model. So it's 5 units of 16GB white, 5 units of 32GB white, 5 units of 64GB white, and they have more black models, probably because they are not that high in demand and so DiGi can afford to put more stock of black models in each outlet. Anyway, I didn't have my DSLR with me so no pics :(

My 32GB white model was the last of the model, so to others behind me who wanted 32GB white, too bad. :P

The moment when the crew opened the box... It's magical. Sounds cliched, but shit, that's how I felt.

They even gave this Privilege Card thing so you can claim warranty and stuff.

What's funny is that since I'm porting my number from Easy Prepaid to iDiGi, the crew told me I had to wait for about an hour, but after 4 hours my phone still showed "No Service", so I called the Customer Service hotline and was told to wait for a while longer and after 10 hours, still "No Service". GENIUS Adrian then helped me ask and told me to reset my phone's network settings, and YEAH I'm on DiGi's 3G network. ;)

Facetime and iMessage work flawlessly, and DiGi's internet is kinda great, but no coverage on highways and out-of-town areas? That sucks.

All in all, I'm very happy with this phone, thanks dad for helping with the upfront payment! And I hope I can save enough money to slowly pay for the monthly bill and also the RM400 termination fee next August.

Perfect Breakfast

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:55:00 +0000

It was a good Friday morning, just 2 more days until the start of our finals on the 4th of December, so like Kris Gethin said: if you wanna see results, you gotta pump in great fuel. Just crapping, anyway, frozen corn is awesome when stir-fried together with bacon oil! I simply do not have a word good enough to tell you how good bacon is.

I first tweeted a pic about the breakfast during the day itself:

Breakfast this morning, corn with bacon, tomatoes with aragula and almost-soft-boiled eggs. twitter.com/cheeyi/status/…
— Chee Yi (@cheeyi) December2, 2011

This is what I'm talking about. Golden corn with bacon. Awesome combination, really unbelievable.

With almost-soft-boiled egg, tomatoes and aragula (rocket). Too bad the eggs weren't soft enough for our liking.

The yolk's really good though.

Breakfast with eggs is always nice, not just because I love eggs, but also because they pack loads of high quality protein.

PS: 1 more waiting day till iPhone 4S!

Back to CLHS

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 01:54:00 +0000

Last Wednesday, after our finals paper for Java programming, Adrian and I went back to Chung Ling to collect our SPM certs, about time, because most people would've already collected theirs by now. I hate the school clerk's attitude. A bit kiam pa. But I don't blog about bad things anymore, so okay, the Form 5 boys were having their last paper that day, CHINESE! So I got to take a few pics of last-minute grindings.

-_- got pressured by stupid Adrian, so I tailgated every car in front of me.

Hello kids!

Don't know what the hell happened to this.

Studying 2010 past year paper, hey we sat for THAT paper!

Remember this question? LOL. It was kinda hard.

The familiar off-limits, no-entry sign.

Either discussing their plans for later or memorizing something. Why is there a ruler lying around?

Time flies, it's already been a year, and I wish time doesn't fly now, because the sem break is so short, I don't wanna get back to being all studying and nerdy and geeky again in college. Looking forward to the iPhone 4S and also the shopping trip to Cameron Highlands and KL! :)

Cat

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:42:00 +0000

Zen-Zi's family got a new pet cat, and his name is Mafia ._.

For about 2-3 weeks the cat remained hostile towards the dogs, but now they are practically lying next to each other everyday on the floor, but the cat is easily annoyed and he seems to hate Duchess more because she's always trying to disturb him.

Family picture. (from left) Duchess smiling, Tasha, and the cat, thinking everything else sucks and looking really down.

Duchess: Ooh I'm spooning the cat, look!

Portrait.

What you looking at?

This expression: what has become known to us as the cat's "epic face" expression.

Duchess shaking, so cute O_O

Looking bored or syiok diao.

Cute pink paws. They are really soft.

The Einstein face.

The iPhone 4S

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:16:00 +0000

We AUP-ians just finished our final exams today (or at least, some of us, the rest are still struggling with American History as I'm typing right now), and I have to say, it was a HELL of a sem. The first semester was great because everything was fresh and nice, but you get sick of the constant quizzes and tests, and I used to think that college is fun, truth is, it IS fun but not as fun as I imagined it to be. That's what happens if you throw a bunch of kiasu people from Chinese high schools and jumble them up together. Second sem was the best. It was a short sem so I only took two subjects as opposed to the third sem (this sem), 18 credit hours and 5 subs: Physics I, Linear Algebra, Java I, Psychology and Anthropology, which is just damn gay, I told myself I won't be torturing myself this way again in the future.

Well anyway, enough with the unhappy thoughts. We still have about a month to go before the 4th sem starts. About time I start to look for universities but oh well.

The hot topic everyone in LYN is talking about lately is of the iPhone 4S, which will be launched by the big 3: Maxis, DiGi and Celcom in Malaysia. And the critics always say: if you have an iPhone, don't bother; but if you are using something else then hop onboard. Well, the news is, I'm getting a 4S! But maybe not on the launch day on 16th December.

It was my first time using Siri, the personal assistant thingy on the iPhone, when Adrian brought his 4S to college today, and he lent the phone to me (-.-) because he bought it off his relative in the US and his phone is tied to AT&T and there's no unlock yet, as of now.

Things I've noticed on the 4S:

Siri works okay-okay with a Malaysian accent, depends mostly on how you phrase your words, and your r's and t's. Overall I'm happy with Siri, 'coz you can set an alarm without scrolling for the time, you can set a reminder and you can check for quick conversion of units/currencies without touching your phone. For texting and regular 'chatting' with the AI, it's not really practical.
Battery life sucks. Probably because of the notification center widgets, and the dual core CPU/GPU.
It's lightning fast. Even with more than 15 apps running in the background it can switch between apps seamlessly, when my iPad running on A4 single core can barely manage 3 apps (without switching over and have the app restart itself due to low memory).

Adrian's 32GB white iPhone 4S

And one more thing, the camera on the 4S can really make a photographer cry. Not that it's like DSLR-good, but apps like Instagram will make the pics look nice, no matter how poorly the pic was shot. With that said, I will update this post as soon as I get the 4S with more pics and hands-on experience.

BlenderBottle

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:41:00 +0000

This is my first time buying stuffs from a seller on Lowyat forum, CoD (cash on delivery) because I can't bank in money. Luckily that guy is a Penangnite and his prices are good.

Bought a BlenderBottle shaker cup because my previous few shakers weren't that good and the one I was using couldn't mix my creatine powder well enough. There is a BlenderBall inside the bottle that acts like a wire whisk so besides health supplement powders you can even scramble eggs or mix stuffs with baking powder etc, kinda useful.

And I don't know what's up with US products that they have to make you feel elite because you use their products. Protected by US Patents: XXXX, XXXX. LOL. Okay so if everyone patents stupid ideas then there won't be any room for innovations in the future already, think Lodsys. Anyway, just crapping.

Also got a new tub of Nitro-Tech (works, but overpriced piece of shit) from the guy since my ON powder only has about 2 servings left.

*Since this is my first time posting openly about supplements, I must clarify that:

You don't need to consume supplements to get big.
Your workout routine comes before supplements.
Consuming supplements is just a way of saving money because you can't eat 3 pieces of fried chicken in every meal.

Heritage Walk 11/11/11

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 10:12:00 +0000

This post will be a bit messy and photos are not arranged in chronological order because I'm lazy, and it's my first time using Blogger's interface, AND I seem to have lost my 'feel' on how I used to blog.

After a hard time of deciding upon a date that fits in everyone's schedules, we've reached a verdict that the World Religions and Anthropology classes together with several other students who were interested would go on a trip to some religious venues in Georgetown, along Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling, seriously, it amazed me how they are located so closely together (they are within walking distance).

If you ignore the fact that my Crocs was giving me small blisters and that I was sweating all over, it was actually kinda fun, but well those two things pretty much killed my mood for the morning.

And we can see couples dressed up in their pretty wedding outfits signing the goodbye-to-single-life contract at the Chinese Town Hall, since 11/11/11 was such a nice date, and if they are blessed with a child next year, then the child's zodiac sign would be DRAGON. What a coincidence -_-

I won't be putting all the pics here because it lags the site and makes the post lengthy, so for more pics just visit my Flickr photostream.

We visited St. George's Church, Masjid Kapitan Keling, an Indian temple along Little India and the Kuan Yin Temple.

I personally like this shot, taken from a low angle at a tree that has photos and small statues of deities.

Temporary Redirection

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:14:00 +0000

You probably reached this site and read this post because you typed in 'cheeyi.net' but you were redirected. The redirection from cheeyi.net -> cheeyi.blogspot.com is only temporary as of now because I'm giving Blogger a test-drive before I decide whether I wanna renew my server package or not.

And to woo you guys out there who are still using WordPress, here's a video of Blogger's new Dynamic Views system built into every blog, but to enable it you have to make sure your blog:
1. Has a full feed (find it in settings)
2. Is not a private blog

Another thing to note is that Google has also updated Blogger's interface to mirror those of other Google's services such as Gmail, so you get the clean modern look, but the blue buttons are orange instead, that's the only difference.

For now, you can witness the capability of Dynamic Views by clicking the top left corner where the word 'Classic' is, and select Flipcard and all sorts of different views. I personally LOVE the Classic view, it's so simple, and white. :)

Good night, and stay tuned!

Apple Event - October 4th

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 23:32:00 +0000

Let all the rumors stop! After what seemed like ages, and countless articles, speculations and flame wars from the rumor mill, it's finally here.

In case you haven't noticed, the Calendar icon shows 4th (Tuesday) - October 4th is a Tuesday. The clock shows 10am - 10.00am Pacific Time. The Phone icon... I don't know, maybe only one iPhone will be announced?

Nobody knows for sure if it's the iPhone 4S or 5 yet, let's just wait and see (because that's the only thing we can do right now).

The new iPhone will probably have these new features. And I haven't posted anything about tech in a while, so you can probably feel the excitement I'm feeling right now. :)

Free Hugs & Jamie's Recipes

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 08:51:00 +0000

Free Hugs

The INTI Humanities Club members are giving away free hugs to everyone at the campus's second floor this whole week so don't be shy (because most people were shy when approached by them during the first day yesterday), and here are pictures of the funny signs held by the members throughout the activity.

I especially like this two because they look really funny and the color combination is nice :)

And the person who made all these signs is...

iPad Cooking

Zen-Zi's mum just bought an iPad 2 and this is actually the first time I've really seen someone cook using instructions from a dedicated iPad app. She used the Jamie's Recipes app which contains recipes from celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.

The screenshot above is a file photo from iTunes, not the one her mum cooked, it's actually to the left of the center image.

It's spaghetti cooked with cheese, zucchini and Italian sausages (GOTTA LOVE THESE!). The pictures don't do it justice, and I have no idea why the colors turned out to be not so good, but if you have an iPad, then the app is highly recommended.

Thank You TheStar for the YES Huddle!

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 10:31:00 +0000

Finally got my YES Huddle few days ago after they informed me that I was one of the consolation prize winners for the iPad Feedback Contest, the deadline to collect the prizes from their office is 16th September. I had to drive down to their HQ near the airport just to collect it but well, it's worth the time.

Only the Huddle device itself was included though, so I still have to pay to use it.

I heard from a few friends that the upload/download speed is superb, any thoughts? :)

Doggies!

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 12:49:00 +0000

These are not my dogs, by the way. :) they're Zen-Zi's.

Duchess.

Mama Tasha.

Ecco Cafe

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 23:20:00 +0000

As I've mentioned in the previous post, Zen-Zi and I had lunch with Wei Ling since she's back in Penang for the summer holidays after she won the Miss Malaysia Earth Water title (congratulations again!), so we decided to bring her to Ecco Cafe. That is my second time there, as Zen-Zi's mum brought us there for dinner last time, and the food was really good so we decided to go again.

The restaurant is clean and cozy to dine in except for the fact that it's located at Chulia Street, which is among the few busy streets during workdays, and the occasional rumbling of RapidPenang buses' engines are.. well, unappetizing to some. To go there, go to Chulia Street and the restaurant is located just opposite the junction turning into Cintra Street.

Lovely decors.

The girls deciding what to order.

Ordered focaccia, 3 slices of Italian bread with pesto dip. Tasted a bit weird at first but after that it got okay (compared to the rest! Keep reading)

We then ordered Truz, which is pasta with Cajun spiced chicken and BANANAS with cream sauce. Yes, bananas. Don't get me wrong, it tasted really good and that was the second time I've tasted it.

Next up we have the Ecco pizza, which has the same name as the restaurant itself. It's basically pizza with tomato, capscium, aubergine (eggplant), onion and basil. The pizza dough is handmade and the crust is especially thin and crispy so you can sink your teeth right into the topping and the crust will be ripped clean off by your teeth.

I have to admit, I Googled up Ecco Cafe before we went, so a lot of websites seem to recommend the chicken pot pie so yes we ordered that as well. IT TASTED HEAVENLY. So many food blogs can't be wrong. The chicken, potato cubes, peas and the soup-sauce blend in perfectly. It's under Chef's Specialty on the menu and indeed, it does not disappoint.

Before we went back.

Fancy having Italian food at a prewar shophouse beside a busy street while people go about their daily lives? You won't want to miss Ecco Cafe.

Info:

Ecco Cafe
402 Chulia Street,
George Town, Penang, Malaysia
Tel: +60-4-2623178
Business Hours: Open daily except Sunday from 11:30am to 2:30pm and 6:00pm to 10:30pm

Porsche Boxster S

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 10:45:00 +0000

Okay so I know I'm a bit late, and statistics show that my visitor/day has dropped to an average of 20 - more than 50% of which are from search engines with stupid terms like Umbrella Corporation, 2PM abs and more - but I hope you guys will continue to support me as I was busy preparing for my AUP final tests since a few weeks back, so now I'm on semester break until 15th August, when I will return to college as a sem III student.

Wei Ling is back from UK for her summer holidays so we brought her out for lunch at Ecco Cafe, an Italian restaurant at Chulia Street that is famous for its handmade pasta and pizza, and hopefully I will be able to blog more on that later because the food tasted really good, and I actually heeded the advice of several food blogs that recommended the chicken pot pie and ordered it!

So anyway, this is the first time I'm close enough to a supercar to be able to shoot a few closeup shots. The car belongs to Wei Ling's family and it's a Porsche Boxster S. I would so love to go on a ride in this baby.

The name of every Porsche model can be found at the rear end of the vehicles.

Not exactly a killer post, I know, but I can only say that the photos don't do the car justice. Stay tuned!

AUP Gala 2011: One Night In Vegas

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:08:00 +0000

[dropcap]T[/dropcap] he AUP gala is an annual event and those from the January intake already got a whiff of it since our first semester in INTI, around March-April, and unsurprisingly, the who's-gonna-ask-who-out rumors spread like wildfire. There were conflicts among friends, awkward moments when people got rejected or turned down, but at the end of the day, I think everyone will agree with me that it definitely was an amazing night! A night to remember.

The gala was themed One Night In Vegas, and true enough, we got to gamble! (which is not something you get to do often, normally) Tables were set up, covered with green cloth to simulate an actual casino table. There were about 6 tables, with Blackjack, Baccarat, In-Between, Texas Hold 'Em and well, I forgot what the others were. The dealers were standing (with some sitting, but most were standing), with chairs occupied by players surrounding the table, like how it is in Vegas.

Everyone was given a starting fund of $2000 in chips, with a combination of $500, $250, $100, $50 chips. The only thing worth criticizing that night is the chips. They simply don't look like casino chips. Casino chips are, look, feel like plastic and our chips were made of scrap metals which were sprayed on. Nevertheless, it's still an ingenious idea by the OC.

[info title="Details"]Date: 2nd July 2011

Time: 6.30pm-11.00pm

Venue: Equatorial Hotel - Main Ballroom[/info]

Events like this provide everyone with the excuse to dress up nicely. Put away your usual college shorts, sneakers, t-shirts and jeans! Everyone looked really good that night with some exceptions of those who overdid their makeup. I shall not elaborate more on the attire that night, after all, in Vegas, you get to be who you want and wear whatever you like.

Someone on Facebook commented on Yan Yao's photo of the same situation:

Eunice: Come here to mama.

Lroy: AAAHHHHH.

Important people talking.

Emcees for the night: Eureka and Adam.

OC: Jun Qi and Pei Liang. Casino floor managers ensuring that everything runs smooth and nobody tries to beat the system.

Of course, there were performances as well but I only managed to take pics of a few.

The Baccarat table. Kok Keong was dealer and everyone earned a lot of money. :)

The food was good, but not awesome.

The tables.

Joyce and Wei Xiong. They look like some married couple in Vegas, both putting on poker faces.

BLACKJACK BABY!

[title1]Drinking Competition[/title1]

Every table had to send up a representative to participate in the drinking competition. The participants raced each other in downing glasses and glasses (and in the semifinal and final, JUGS) of orange juice. Most of them puked in the end, seriously.

Not for the faint-hearted..

[title1]High-rollers' showdown and slow dance session[/title1]

And so only 6 of the players with the highest amount of $$ in chips got to enter the high-rollers' showdown, which is essentially a Texas Hold 'Em table with higher minimum bets than the usual tables. During this time, the other tables were already closed and this was the only table left playing, so people crowded around to witness the showdown.

The bets got higher and the player who won a round automatically becomes the leading player. There were 5 (or 6?) rounds so in the end Hui Yee, the winner of the 6th winner is obviously the winner of the night, she walked away with a PRINTER!

After that, there were the prize-giving ceremony and speech by Jun Qi who is the president of AUPEC (AUP Executive Committee). The night ended with a performance by Daniel's band and a slow dance session. :)

The photo above is the 'pre-slowdance dance', didn't have time to take pics for slow dance as we went home earlier.

All in all, it was a really great night. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. On Monday, I went back to college and I had a strange feeling that I just woke up from a strange fantasy. During that night, everyone was high-rollers; but back in college, we are all just students with a bag fighting for our own futures.

A quote from One Day

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 22:17:00 +0000

I know from your letters and from seeing you after your play that you feel a little bit lost right now about what to do with your life, a bit rudderless and oarless and aimless but that’s okay that’s alright because we’re all meant to be like that at twenty-four. In fact our whole generation is like that. I read an article about it, it’s because we never fought in a war or watched too much television or something. Anyway, the only people with oars and rudders and aims are dreary bores and squares and careerists like Tilly-bloody-Killick or Callum O’Neill and his refurbished computers. I certainly don’t have a master plan I know you think I’ve got it all sorted out but I haven’t I worry too I just don’t worry about the dole and housing benefit and the future of the Labour Party and where I’m going to be in twenty years’ time and how Mr Mandela is adjusting to freedom.

-Dexter

Just find this very hilarious. :)

Beef buritto

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 09:53:00 +0000

And so it was a beautiful morning. I just finished my tests for Calculus II and C Programming I last week so it was and still is a relaxing weekend for me. We hadn't been making our own breakfast in a while already so I suggested that we make our own during Saturday morning when I'm at her house, so we Googled some nice breakfast ideas. I wanted this at first but it's too fattening. I'm on diet. :(

So in the end we decided to make beef burittos. Okay I admit I was confused between the terms buritto and tortilla, so I Googled them up and buritto means "a Mexican dish consisting of a tortilla rolled around a filling, typically of beans or ground or shredded beef," so tortilla is actually the flat cornmeal pancake made of flour that is wrapped around the fillings.

You see that? CORNED BEEF. I cannot describe how awesome it tasted but imagine beef that is so tender and with just the right amount of saltiness. When Zen-Zi's mum fried it with onions and olive oil, it smelled so good that we just had to sneak a few (okay 'a few' is a bit of an understatement here) fingerfuls off the plate. My guess is that if you like luncheon meat, odds are that you would love corned beef, except that it's not pork, of course.

Tomatoes, avocado, onions, garlic. I helped chopped the first 3. :D

And lime.

And after almost 45 mins of preparation, we put the tortillas on a frying pan with a small drop of olive oil. After a while they started to look like roti canai, which means they were getting crispy enough.

There you go, bon appetit!

California Roll

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:43:00 +0000

Lazy post alert.

I first knew about California Roll when dad brought me to Sushi King few years back and he ordered one each for everyone. He seemed to really like it.

Okay, I'm lazy.

The sushi powder is made from sugar and vinegar to give the sushi rice the familiar taste of sushi.

And there's also salmon flakes.

I absolutely love sushi rice.

Crabsticks.

Oh and there's also fish roe.

Wrap it up and there you go, your very own California roll.

Give me some time

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Thu, 26 May 2011 22:40:00 +0000

Just one of those few times when I find the idea of updating my blog a sucky one. Yes I am lazy, and I don't know why, but I will get back to you guys soon enough when I have everything sorted out and when I have time.

Thanks for viewing. :)

Mega food post

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Mon, 09 May 2011 20:47:00 +0000

[info title="Note"]All the pictures in this post were taken during the past week. [/info]

I'm sorry for the lack of updates lately (hence the low pageviews too). The promised Phuket post is coming up soon, I kept on telling myself, and on Twitter, and in the previous post, but there's just too many pictures to sort out and I'm spoiled for choice because they all look so nice *COUGH*.

So anyway, instead of posting another preparation-cook-serve blog post, I decided to compile the pictures of food I have been eating lately into one single mega post. And also, because the Jan intake AUP-ians just finished their finals for the first sem, I've been going out a lot and my gym timeslot.. kaboom. So I actually look a lot fatter now. Okay that part was unnecessary. Moving on.

[title1]Jawa mee[/title1]

It's been a long time, like, REALLY long time since I last had Jawa mee. My first and only Jawa mee experience was during Standard 2/3, and it wasn't very pleasant because I ended up with food poisoning and I vomited non-stop for a few days, probably because I'm not much of a sticky-sour soup guy.

However, this second experience of having Jawa mee was a great one because there were a lot of prawns and squids (my favorite!), and because it was cooked by Zen-Zi's mum.

But still, Jawa mee's not really my type and I will steer far away from Jawa mee stalls in hawker centres.

[title1]Tea & coffee[/title1]

A self-confessed coffee addict, there's nothing for me to elaborate on in this section. The tea was brewed using a fragrant Boh fruit tea sachet (ignore the JUICE label on the glass).

[title1]Quiche and pancakes[/title1]

The quiche should be no news to you people, but the pancake was MMMM-MMMM.

The pancake batter used the 3 basics: flour, milk and butter. Add to that a few healthy slices of caramelized banana and sweet raisins, it made for a hearty breakfast. Of course, there's also honey drizzled on it, with a small cube of butter to top it off.

[title1]Mi egg[/title1]

Okay, I bet you guys have not had one of these before. Mi egg (or egg noodle, literally) will BLOW YOUR MIND. Imagine noodles embedded in an omelet.

That was my first time having mi egg and it tasted a lot better than I expected. First you put the sachets of flavoring powder in a plate, then you mix them together with your noodles (already cooked and softened in boiling water) that came in the instant noodles package. Lastly, throw in the noodle-spices mixture and crack an egg on it, the egg will then start to solidify, so you move it around so it forms a flat round shape (or whatever shape your frying pan is).

The pictures aren't impressive, yes, but you have to try it for yourself to really know how good it tastes.

[title1]Grilled Norwegian mackerel in miso paste[/title1]

I don't have a lot of pics for this one because it was already cooked by Zen-Zi's mum. :) again, I love sauteed potatoes.

The fish tasted really awesome and the deep-roasted sesame dressing for the salad was just MARVELOUS.

[title1]Pretzels and froyo[/title1]

I know these 2 aren't related but well, they are somehow related in my head, okay whatever.

I always feel sad when I throw away the paper bag for the pretzels because there will be a lot of dried chocolate inside :(

Nope, not tutti fruiti.

[title1]Homemade salad[/title1]

Not just any ordinary homemade salad. Baby romaine salad with bacon pieces, smoked cheese and poached egg, with a sprinkle of cayenne and black pepper.

I only just knew that you don't need oil to fry bacon slices because the bacon itself will release rendered fat.

So in the end you get this.

Oh and there's also that deep-roasted sesame dressing I mentioned earlier.

[title1]Nasi lemak and kapitan chicken rice[/title1]

Again, the nasi lemak was cooked by Zen-Zi's mum (geez I owe her a lot T_T). IT TASTED REALLY GOOD ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUWXYZ period.

The picture of the kapitan chicken rice was shot earlier today when I was having lunch with Zen-Zi and her parents somewhere in town (forgot -.-)

[title1]French toast[/title1]

Okay, here we go. We were trying to make a French toast just like the one in OldTown because it was really good but it turned out okay [JUST okay (but I LOVE IT) because the OldTown one was deep-fried, I guess]. Yay maths bracketing! *laughs to self* - *booed by readers*

Ingredients: Fresh roti bangali, fresh milk, egg, peanut butter, butter and honey.

A must-try for you people who want something better than cereals or a typical Gardenia breakfast.

I know, I know, long post. -__- it has been so long since I last did a long post with so many pictures. For this post, I'm using ZZ's laptop to publish the images, hence the different watermark (but before you know it my old watermark will be back :))

Kthxbye.

We're baking chocolate chip cookies!

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 18:29:00 +0000

I'm actually feeling real crappy right now, because I'm tired from the Phuket trip, and the internet really sucks now (uploading pics taking ages), plus the full-size images are really killing me here because the loading time sucks too if I upload them 900x600 pixels to match the blog's page width. I finished typing a draft of this post, with images included 5 minutes ago, then I Ctrl+A-ed and deleted everything because there are too many pics. So, I decided I will only upload the best of the best here while for the rest of the pics you guys will have to go to my Facebook album to drool.

We planned to bake the chocolate chip cookies 2-3 weeks ago but we only had time for them last Thursday because of the tests and assignments thrown at us in the past few weeks. Just an update, the first semester for the January 2011 session of AUP is coming to an end, so we are having our final tests right after our studying week this week, and after that there's the semester break before a new semester begins, but well our semester break is only 1 week long so it's not really that fun.

Anyway, I used to think that chocolate chip cookies are hard to bake, like maybe it involves some very complicated process, but it's actually very straightforward if you follow the recipe to the book, and in my iPad baking app it only has 5 steps (WTF?). Now I can see why I love Chipsmore and how they earn money just by baking yummy cookies. :(

I LOVE that mixture on the right, it's a mixture of white and brown sugar. If you think that's a lot, think again, because the junk food we consume everyday amounts to more than that amount of sugar, in excess.

So you mix everything together and blend them. Throw in 1.5 egg whites and continue blending it. If you wanna add a pinch of orangey taste to your cookies, which really complements the chocolatey taste and make the whole cookie more.. flavory, then you might wanna put in some orange.

And here comes my favorite pic of the day!

After that all you need to do is to use a spatula or a stick or something to stir them together until they stick, then put them on baking sheets on your baking pans and let them enjoy themselves in the oven. So the end product will be like the picture first shown in this post.

From left: Zen-Zi's mum, Zen-Zi and khun gai, a family friend of Zen-Zi's who lives in Phuket and brought us out to experience the Phuket night life last Saturday. :)

No promises on the Phuket post by the way. I shot about 1.8k pictures and the post-processing's gonna be hell. Plus, I have finals coming up, good luck to all AUP-ians!

Chicken Parmigiana

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 19:18:00 +0000

From last week:

A bar of Cadbury to relieve stress while doing Calculus assignment, and it's still there actually, I haven't finish it yet. I used to think that Cadbury bars with this type of purple are from another country (like Australia?) because they are not like the usual Cadbury I see in the supermarket. This wrapper is shiny. But it's still buatan Malaysia, now I know. :)

iPad 2.

Cute, random. Plushies!

Okay so back on topic.

We didn't make or cook anything in the last 2 weeks, nor did we go anywhere, so I have nothing to update about. My apologies for the lack of updates, but *hint!* you people are in for some surprises in the next 2 weeks, there will be so many photos that your browser will just drown loading them.

Allow me to entice you: sauteed potatoes with French beans. I absolutely love the potatoes. Oh and we didn't make this, Zen-Zi's mum did. :)

If you search for chicken parmigiana on Google Images before, you would think that it comes standard with pasta, but in actual fact, pasta is just an optional side dish for chicken parmigiana and the most important thing is in the name: CHICKEN!

Just by looking at the pic below, you would never guess how it's really made. There are chopped tomatoes, mushrooms and cheese on top of the chicken, which was fried with breadcrumbs.

The chicken is placed on a roasting tray and put in the oven. When we took it out, the parmesan and mozarella cheese on top had already melted.

So there you go, chicken parmigiana.

The chicken tasted VERY tender for a breast part, and AGAIN, I absolutely LOVE the sauteed potatoes. They tasted so nice with the onions. I'm not a huge fan of veggies but the French beans was crunchy and tasted refreshingly sweet. In the end, it all comes down to the chicken, which was perfect with the blend of flavors you can taste: you get that slightly salty taste from the cheese and also the sour tomato taste, it all blends into something I cannot describe. You will have to try it out yourself!

Nasi lemak, waffles, pasta, Tasha and Duchess

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 22:56:00 +0000

[info title="Full width photos"]This will be the first post featuring full width images, since I decided that people visiting the blog are those genuinely interested in viewing the content, they wouldn't mind spending another 30 secs to finish loading everything, LOL. And also, someone said full width images look better :)[/info]

So, right after AUP's orientation day (themed The Amazing Race) for the March intake peeps, I 'went home for lunch with my family'.

Well if I were smarter I would've said 'my mum prefers me to have lunch at home today', because there's no way I went home earlier just to have nasi lemak. ;)

Holy crap look at Tasha the greedy monstahh. She was at that position the whole time I was having lunch.

Then after lunch, it's time for some snacks. HEHE I love this part.

Ingredients for the waffles. Savory waffles topped with minced meat, and waffles with honey, butter and ice-cream today. Only-know-how-to-eat me got assigned to sieve the mixture of flour, sugar, salt, etc.

The corn flour can looks so nice and has a vintage feel to it, like the type of can you would see in old Georgetown's coffee shops.

Separated the egg white and yolk, then beat everything together, and there you go, the mixture for the waffle dough/crust/whatever. So now we've got the dough/crust/whatever done, it only needs a few minutes in the waffle pan, so in the meantime we prepared the topping for the savory waffle. Minced meat fried with onions.

[title1]Final product:[/title1]

[title1]Second batch:[/title1]

After we finished the ones with minced meat on top, we put honey, butter and ice cream on the other waffles made with the remaining mixture. I have to say, both tasted wonderful, BUT the ice cream + honey combo really made me crave for more.

[title1]Dinner:[/title1]

Zen-Zi's mum cooked us pasta for dinner.

Sorry for the abrupt ending, more photos HERE.

Maxine

noreply@blogger.com (Chee Yi) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 14:22:00 +0000

Due to the fact that
[list type="check"]
[li]The dogs' fur color is dark[/li]
[li]It was raining[/li]
[li]I didn't really check my camera's settings[/li]
[li]We were concentrating on taking the photos without scaring the dogs away[/li]
[/list]

So some of the photos are heavily/slightly edited with some converted to black/white, my apologies for that, but some are made so intentionally. I really need to go learn how to shoot nice pics in full manual.

It was raining last Friday so when we reached my home from college, we saw two dogs: a mother and a puppy. After a few minutes, we managed to get them out of the rain. Trust me it's not easy to gain trust of a protective mother, you have to squat down near the dogs until the mother is sure that you mean them no harm.

Sorry, head spinning, not really in a mood for a blog post.