MooPig & The Babe

Being in a foreign land without proper chinese food sucks.

I've been craving for Char Siew Pau for quite some time. Too bad, I can't get any of them in this little town. So, I decided to make some over the weekend. Cherry, my housemate and I had fun making them. I made the filling a night before and made the dough earlier in the morning. In the evening, we assembled the paus. Eating fresh from the hob Char Siew Paus was fantastic! Having them in a cold winter day was even better! ;) The paus turned out delicious (kembang!) but they looked really horrible. Since I couldn't find any Hong Kong flour over here, I subtituted it with self raising flour. Probably that was the reason why the paus turned out slightly yellow-ish. I am not creative enough. I twisted and turned the dough, tried many ways but could not shape them like the paus in restaurants/shops.

This is turning into a food blog soon! haha..

Here's a picture of the Yellow Char Siew Pau. :)

Posted by MooPig at 20:13 | Permalink | Comments

I just learnt that KZ's eldest son passed away yesterday.

His body is in Liverpool hospital at this moment. I'm not sure what are their plans since I haven't got in touch with the other friends. A few friends drove to Liverpool yesterday night.

I don't know what actually happened. I know he had skin problem. My friend told me KZ's son's face was bleeding so they admitted him to Liverpool hospital for an operation. Shortly after that, he passed away.

Boy,
I don't know you well
I don't even know your name
But,
I remember you well
And I shall always remember you.

Rest in Peace.

Posted by MooPig at 00:32 | Permalink | Comments

Dear Spring,

Do you know how much I miss you? I've been waiting for you since last year. We only meet once a year. I'm eager to see you. Do you know how painful my heart was when you went away and Autumn visited me? It was even worse when Winter came. I can't wait to see you. Winter is nice but it has been too cold lately. It's exceptionally cold in the attic. I'm tired of wearing 4 layers of clothes everyday when I'm in my attic. I dislike wearing thick jackets and coats. It's annoying to dress up in thick layers before stepping out the house. I feel like an eskimo sometimes. Winter has been here a bit too long. I've been waking up every morning, cursing the cold weather. It feels like -3C today. No snow yet but the gloomy sky makes me sad. I can't wait to see you, Spring. I want to wake up to the morning sun, walk out and see flowers. I can't wait to smell you...

Won't you visit me earlier this year? I miss you dearly.

Posted by MooPig at 11:44 | Permalink | Comments

My friends went crabbing at Menai Bridge last weekend and they came back with 3 big bags of crabs. It was very kind of them to give me 30++ crabs. Now, before you go thinking '30 over crabs! That must be a lot', let me tell you that the crabs are no where near the size of the crabs in Malaysia. They are tiny! I cooked some on Monday and gave some to my friends. One of my housemates got fed up eating them because they were too skinny. ;) But then again, being able to eat seafood over here is luxury. Crabs cost about £40 in chinese restaurants. That's Rm280. No joke. Helluva expensive.

Here are some pictures

The crab- 2 legs missing. Very small huh?


Sweet and sour crabs

Today's the 15th day of Chinese New Year. My housemates told me that in China, they take 'tang yuan' during CNY. Since I have some glutinous rice flour I decided to make some. Turned out not too bad. Made some with chocolate fillings. Girls and chocolates. :P I tried to make some with peanut filling but only 3 turned out to be alright.

Posted by MooPig at 20:49 | Permalink | Comments

I just finished watching 30 episodes of TVB drama- Shine on you. The story is about life of high school students. It made me think about my high school life. It wasn't as as happening as the drama. My high schoo life wasn't that colourful. There's one teacher I always remember.

My form teacher when I was in Form 4 and 5.

He is a sissy. He walks like a sissy, points with his index finger like a sissy, talks like a sissy and believe it or not, during rainy days when he caught a flu bug, he would put a scarf around his neck. I'm not sure if he still does that nowadays. I'm hardly in touch with my juniors. Wearing a scarf in Malaysia when the weather is so darn hot and humid! Madness! He's famous for his nick name- Hoi Chiu (海潮) Our seniors were the ones who started calling him Hoi Chiu then the juniors followed. Our seniors said he looked like Lydia(?) Lin (林青霞).

Hoi Chiu set up rules for us:
1. We could only speak English during English lessons
2. We had to bring English dictionary
3. We must bring a story book which is at least 200 pg to read while waiting for teachers to come for class in between lessons

I was in a chinese school so our medium of speaking was obviously, mandarin. We would whisper during his class. More often than not, he would..ehem..accuse us for speaking Mandarin but we always denied, obviously. Who likes to be punished by singing songs out loud in front of the whole class, or do vampire jump around the class.

He is particularly fond of boys. I kid you not! Once, he brought his camera into class. As we did our work, he used his camera and focus on our class monitor. I happened to look up and saw what he was doing and I hissed, hoping that the class monitor would realise. When Hoi Chiu realised that his mission failed, he looked rather pissed :P.

He has a unique way of punishing students. Whenever we broke the rule, he would go.. 'Sing a song!' or 'Pick a verb'. If you pick 'sit', you would be made to sit like a Buddha. If 'read' is picked, then the student would go out from the class and read out loud. Sometimes, he would punish us a la shao lin by half squatting with both hands laid out straight in front. I remember one of my classmates brought a song book to school- just in case someone got punish, he/she could search for songs in the song book.

He wasn't the best teacher in school but he did add some spices in my high school life. Laughter is the best medicine, they say. I agree. I think I laughed most during his class when he was in a good mood. When he was in his PMS-y mood, don't even think of getting near him. He bites.

He hardly remembers me. I met him a few times when I was back home during the summer. We didn't talk much- just Hi, how are you and all those greeting stuffs. But I remember because he's one unique teacher. I still respect him for who he is.

Posted by MooPig at 14:26 | Permalink | Comments

A blogger sent an email to me teasing me that Accountants are boring people who have no sense of humour. (I know you're kidding ;)) I disagree. I don't deny that there are some really *boring* accountants out there but my Dad, who is an accountant by profession, definitely does not belong in that category.

Let me share a true story with you.

When I was younger, my Dad used to play mahjong with his friends. One day, while playing mahjong in his friend's house, a cockroach climbed up his leg. Obviously, my Dad felt that little nuisance crawling up his leg so he bent down and caught it. Instead of killing that roach, he decided to play a prank on one of his friends. He threw that cockroach at his friend across the table with the intention of giving his friend a shock. Coincidentally, his friend yawned at that very moment. Naturally, his mouth was wide open and Tada! That cockroach landed IN his mouth. My Dad was stunned. He 'hit' the jackpot. His friend went berserk. Thank God they didn't put up a fight. But I think that cockroach brought him good luck. They continued playing after that and Dad's friend was the big winner!

This happened a long time ago- more than 10 years. Everytime we talked about it, we would laugh at how cheeky Dad was and he still is. Everytime he talks to me on the phone, he never fails to amuse me. I miss you, Dad.

Posted by MooPig at 21:51 | Permalink | Comments

I was spring cleaning the Inbox of my mobile phone 2 nights ago. Without realising, I've been keeping quite a number of messages sent by that someone. Not that special someone. The messages are very sweet. Whenever I read them, there was always a big grin on my face.

'Morning dear dear, what are you doing now?'

'Good night sweetheart, hope to see you in my dreams'

and so on.

That moment, a mood of melancholy descended on me. It has been quite some time since he last sent a text message to me. I remembered how sweet he was, how close (emotionally not physically) we were. That feeling! I have totally forgotten about it! He sent me messages that made me smiled before I tucked in bed, that made me smiled in the morning, that brightened up my day, that made my bad hair day a good hair day and so on. But, deep down inside, I knew we weren't meant to be together and will never be together. It was purely affection, not love, not lust. How can I love him when there's a special someone in his heart? I'm no where close to being his special someone.

I knew that I am not suppose to like him but I did anyway. His gestures, his text messages and the way he talked to me melted my heart. I fell into the trap. I knew I was wrong but I couldn't help it. Cold turkey treatment would mark the end of our friendship; but liking him won't bring our friendship to another milestone further either. There I was, in a self-induced dilemma.

Then the opportunity came. For one month, we weren't in contact. It just happened that way. It was pretty hard. For the first week, I realised how much I missed his text messages, how much I missed his voice and how much I missed seeing him occassionally. Then the second week came and went, so did the third and forth week. After that was exams. Time is the best solution to everything. Everything became normal after exams. We were in contact again. I have erased almost everything in my memory and started all over again. I now keep a tad distance away from him. I've made my mistake, rectified it and I do not wish to make the mistake again. He's still sweet and all but I have to keep reminding myself that I don't want to repeat the same mistake again.

No more mushy-mushy conversations, it's alright.
No more mushy-mushy text messages, it's alright.

I'd rather have a 'healthy' friendship than a 'unhealthy' friendship. I know I'm not desperate for his attention, his love. I have wonderful friends around me. As for another relationship... I'll let fate do the job.

And I'm glad that the text messages are deleted. =)

Posted by MooPig at 21:45 | Permalink | Comments

Yes, I'm joining a badminton tournament. Can you believe it? Even my own Dad couldn't believe me. He teased me when I told him I was playing badminton last week. Dad said, 'You? playing badminton? you can't even play tennis, can't even play table tennis. Squash... maybe, a little bit. Badminton?' Huh?! My Dad!! I've never held a badminton racket all my life until I came to uni and now I'm joining a tournament. =P

I'm joining it for the fun, not for the prizes. I'm supporting my fellow Malaysians who organised this event. It's not a big event, just something small among us Malaysians. I think there are about 30 of us playing. I'm not too sure although I'm one of the committee members. My duty is to wrap presents and also organise the 'sukaneka' for the kids. Hmm.. I should spare a 'rotan' in my bag just in case the situation gets out of control. ;)

When I woke up this morning, I remembered Mommy's words. When my siblings were younger, Mommy used to bring them to various parts of Malaysia for tennis tounrmant- Penang, Kedah, Perlis, KL/PJ and Terengganu. Sometimes I followed them sometimes I chose to stay at home and be a naughty girl. ;) Whenever I followed them, Mommy never failed to tell them: Down the line! No double daults! Cross court! Keep your score! Don't let your opponent cheat you! I've heard these a zillion times. Sometimes, at the dinner table, my parents would repeat the same old thing to my siblings. Now that I am joining a badminton tournament for the first time, I am going to do the same thing. I shall remember Mommy's wise words when I play later!

:)

Posted by MooPig at 10:34 | Permalink | Comments

My third Chinese New Year away from home.

I just came back from a 'reunion dinner' with my housemate and I. Just the two of us. We had Chinese buffet in Menai Bridge, Isle of Anglesea. I can say that this dinner is the worse Chinese I've ever eaten in my whole life. The starter was pretty alright but the main course were horrible. I think I can cook better than the chef. I guess I can't expect much from a small town like this.

My other housemates decided to be anti-social by staying at home. One said she wanted to rush her lab reports and the other girl said she wasn't feeling well so that was why Cherry and I ended up having buffet. We can have more varieties. Imagine if both of us went a-la-carte. We might end up with half a crispy duck, a plate of vegetables and noodles. But with buffet, we had more choices. Too bad, the dinner sucked big time.

I don't feel the Chinese New Year spirit here. It's all quiet. It's just another Tuesday, just another Wednesday. When I was having dinner, there wasn't any chinese new year songs. Instead, they played English oldies. I would be content if they played songs by Jacky Cheong or even Anita Mui.

I miss home. Called home twice today. I managed to talk to my family but didn't manage to catch my relatives. They have just left when I called. I guess I'll stay up late tonight to call them. Tomorrow, my parents are having an open house for around 200 people. The cook? My mom! =) She's SuperMom! I wish I can be home right now. I really miss having 'Heng-hua mee sua' for breakfast on the first day of CNY. Mom says it signifies long life so that's why we have that on the first day of CNY. I miss seeing my friends whom I only meet once a year. They only go to KB on Chinese New Year. I miss seeing all my classmates. I miss everything about Chinese New Year.

每逢佳节倍思亲- it's so right. I miss home every festival. Be it Chinese New Year or Moon cake festival, I miss home even more.

Hopefully, I'll be able to make it for next year's Chinese New Year. Fingers crossed.

Have a prosperous Chinese New Year everyone!

Posted by MooPig at 21:50 | Permalink | Comments

In northern part of China, having dumplings on the first day of CNY is a tradition. According to my housemate, the whole family makes dumplings together after reunion dinner and they start eating when the clock strikes 12.

This year will be the last CNY which I'll celebrate with my housemates. Sad, I know but parting is part of life. Life has to go on. Instead of celebrating CNY with my fellow Malaysians, I decided to spend CNY with my housemates, the Chinese way. :)

Unfortunately, CNY falls on a Tuesday and UK being UK, there's no holiday and we can't possibly 'self-declare' holiday on that day because my housemate and I have 7 hours of lectures on that day. :( So, instead of having dumplings on Tuesday midnight, we decided to have it on Saturday. :)

I tell you.. dumplings are not easy to make. Making the dough was tough! Poor Cherry (my housemate), her palms were so red after knitting the dough. I was struggling with tears when chopping the onions. We used minced beef, onions, carrots, spring onions and ginger as the filling. It took us about 1 hour plus to knit the dough and prepare the fillings, and another hour or so to wrap the dumplings! But it was all worth it. The dumplings were fantastic!

Some pictures to share :)


Dumplings


This is just a teaser


3 plates!


Final product. :) Pot stickers. Yummy...

Posted by MooPig at 03:11 | Permalink | Comments

I called Mommy this afternoon after I finished 2 games of badminton.

'Hey, I have a news for you'

'Good news or bad news, Mommy?'

'We've signed the agreement to buy Uncle Mike's house'

'That's good news! Yay!'

'But we're selling off our present house....'

The moment I heard that, tears started rolling down my cheeks. I just couldn't control. Tears just flowed freely. Shikin, who was sitting right beside me, was taken aback when she saw me crying. I couldn't help it. I've been staying in this house since the day I was born. Never in my life have I thought that I'm going to move out from my house. Call me naive. I've always thought that I will stay in my house forever. Even if I ever get married one day, I will still come back to this house everytime I go back to KB. That's where I belong.

But now... my parents have to sell off this house. The new house costs quite a bit of money. My parents are going to demolish and rebuild it. I will get a room of my own and I'll get to design my own room. Currently, I'm sharing a bedroom with my sister and brother. Besides, what's the point of having two houses? Mom does have a valid point.

The new house is quite a distance from the town. It's by the stream. Sounds like a holiday villa huh? =P I've only seen the house once and that was years ago, when I was still in primary school. As far as I remember, the land is pretty big. It's called the Japanese botanical garden for some reason. Everybody in my family likes that house. But to sell off the present house? I'm not too keen.

Mom said if I really want to keep the house, she can sell that to me. Or maybe, I marry a rich man and he can buy over that house. :P A good way to get the best of both huh?

My parents have just signed the agreement. There's still a long way to go before we move into the new place... but thinking about it already makes me sad... Sob sob.

Posted by MooPig at 16:05 | Permalink | Comments

A 7-year-old boy told me this joke a few days ago.

A man saw a poo when he was walking on the street one day. He thought it was unusual to see poo on the street so he decided to do some experiments.

He approached the poo and looked at it.
'Looks like poo', he told himself.

'Let me smell if it's poo'. He then squatted and sniffed.
'Hmm... smells like poo'.

'Let me taste if it's poo'. He then tasted a bit of the poo.

'Yeah... tastes like poo too.. Thank God I didn't step on the poo!'

He continued his journey.

Happy Tuesday!

Posted by MooPig at 11:28 | Permalink | Comments