Mind games

Working mornings are always a rush. Rushing to get ready for work, rushing to catch the feeder bus, train and the bus to work place. Pace is always is a hurry. The other day, I wore heels in the morning as I saw the skies darkening, didn't want to dirty my flats so wore heels.

As I couldn't walk as well in heels, my pace was relatively slower than most people as I exit from JE station. Suddenly, I had the luxury to stroll along the walkway while every 1 zoomed past me. It makes me wonder why do I have to rush myself every morning while I am well ahead of time? Issit a habit or is it when I see people rushing there is an unexplainable pressure to rush along with them also?

I looked around and saw people all around are having expressionless, frustrated, anxious, sleepy faces. No sign of happiness anywhere. Can understand, after all who will be happy to wake up early to go work? 

I was searching for someone that I can observed but all were too fast, they walked out of my sight in a matter of minutes, leaving me no time to observed them longer enough to paint a story in my mind.

Mr Love is always amused at my liking/ ability for observing others and making out story based on my imagination. Sometimes, my guess is correct but most of the times we are unable to confirm my speculations.

The more memorable 1 will be during our last trip to Taipei, we saw a girl at the reception and based on the conversation she had with the receptionist, I had the conclusion that she is a call girl though she is dressed quite decently. Mr Love was amused at my conclusion but later became impressed when we keep hearing loud love making sound for a few hours. Apparently, the guy's room is right below our room. Hurhur.

This is also one of the reason why I do not mind waiting for long period of time for Mr Love sometimes. Sure it takes quite a bit of patience to wait for someone. Before our handphone became "smart", I usually only have books and my mp3 player to keep me occupied.  Now, I have my smart phone which have quite a collection of tv serials downloaded to accompany me during long wait.

Even so, I sometimes would take a break of reading or watching shows and start observing my surroundings especially people walking around. I like to see people's expressions, body language and try to paint a story in my mind.

A bit bo liao, but then it does makes waiting time shorten and more interesting. By observing people, it also makes me more wary of things. Though not always right, I am can safely say that usually I can somehow summarized the person's character at the 1st encounter by sizing them up. Of course, 日久见人心, but 1st impressions are some how not far.

1 of the days when I really wanna de-stress myself, I think I would take half a day off and park myself at a cafe in busy Orchard road. Buy a cup of cuppa, armed with my mp3 and a good book and sit there to observe the busy street of people walking past. It would be nice to be able to sit in the midst of a busy place and watch the world go by, guessing the story of others.

Railway fun

Was reading papers today and came across this news of a British travelling home via railway from Singapore to his hometown in Woking, UK. It took him 32days to reach home instead of the 19hours flight it would normally take. He blog down his experiences along the way and I went to take a look. Interesting journey I would say.

Reminds me of the last trip to Taiwan and we took the train for a longer time this time. I like the idea of travelling on railway over coaches or car. Would love to have a chance to do longer journey by train though I am not sure whether how Mr Love will take it. Haha, he is not a keen long travelling time traveller and would feel bored after a while.

For the upcoming trip, I was planning to either travel to South Taiwan by train from Taipei or to Busan from Seoul. Both requires quite some time to travel and will allow me to have have a good view of the country while on the train.

Perhaps 1day, I will be able to plan a longer trip along either East or  West coast of Taiwan, disembarking along the way to stay for a day or 2 before moving on to the next destination. Hehe though it might not be as exciting as a train trip in Europe, bust.t I reckon can start from somewhere I am familiar 1st.

Eat, Love, Play and be merry

Results of my checkup came back and doc told me due to abnormal hormonal changes,  my ovulation is not normal and thus lower the chances of pregnancy.

I was devastated. Many had told me that it's easier to get pregnant after a miscarriage and here I am with my chances lowered.

Nothing can be done except to wait for it to stabilize, doc did suggest not to stress myself too much too.

Truth to be told, I cried myself to slp the very night, no words can describe the blow I have been dealt with. My eyes were so puffy the next day that my colleague commented upon seeing me.

But life have to go on isn't it? Throw a lemon at you,  u squeeze out the juice n drink though I dislike sour taste. 

As much as I want to wallow in self pity, I decided to take a step back and stop obsessed with trying for baby. Perhaps it's god's way of telling me to let go.

Trying my best to find things to occupy my time and thinking. Bestie mentioned that cooking can destress and I agreed so. Before bedtime,  I would do some reading or watch part of running man to make myself so tired that I would fall asleep immediately after touching my pillow.

However, things are easier said than done. Sometimes I wonder whether I am trying too hard or not.

Eat, Love,  Play and be merry,  when can I master the art of it?

Korean Army Stew (부대찌개/Budae Jjigae)

Was contemplating to cook this for the longest time, having tried it during our 09 trip to Korea albeit the non spicy version. Was a bit worry about Mr Love's reaction as he has little liking for other cuisine except western.

Anyways, I showed him the picture I found off the cooking website and he gave me the green light to make this for dinner this weekend.

I didn't follow strictly on the recipe and adjust it according to our liking.

Ingredients

1 can of small hotdogs (6 pcs) - cut into half with slits in between
3 pcs of luncheon meat (can add more but this is all I left in the fridge from last week) cut into big pcs
I brought 1 packet of sliced beef from NTUC which is about 200g. Love more meat hehe
Half stalk of leek (This is for hubs only as I don't like it) cut into pcs
Half a carrot, thinly sliced
100g of flat over rice cake
2 slices of cheese (We prefer a more cheesy taste)
1 packet of ramyeon (Instant noodles)
Kimchi (Didn't put much either)

Beef (200g) was marinated with 2 tbsp of gochujang, 2 tbsp of sesame oil and pepper

Marinated beef slices

Soup paste

2 tbsp of gochujang (Korean chilli paste)
1/2 tbsp gochugaru (hot chilli pepper powder)
1 tbsp of sesame oil
1/2 tbsp minced garlic
1 1/2 piece of chicken stock cubes
1000ml of water
Suppose to add in salt but I gave it a miss as I don't like to add salt to my cooking

Gochujan (Korean Chilli paste)

Couldn't find the Korean ver and brought the Jap ver.Hehe

Preparation

Bring the chicken stock to boil and add in the soup paste. I leave it to boil for 10min before turning it off.

The correct way is to arrange the ingredients in a shallow casserole and add in the soup base when you are ready to serve.

But since there are 2 of us only, and I wanna minimized washing, I threw everything into the pot of soup. Let it cook for 10min with all the ingredients and finally adding the 2 slices of cheese and ramyeon. Viola, it is ready to be served.

All cut up and ready

 Verdict

Mr Love was surprisingly impressed with the thick broth created. I think it's the doing of the extra piece of cheese I threw in. The ingredients used were just nice for 2 pax and we polished off everything. My version is a bit different from the authentic Korean version but we find it as nice. After all the whole idea of home cooking is to cook to your preference isn't it?

End product-Budae Jjjigae

李式笑话- Army styled jacket

I forgot which show we were watching the other night but I saw 1 of the guy wearing a jacket with elbow patches.

Was commenting about it to Mr Love that it seems to be in fashion now to have elbow patches on the jacket and I failed to understand the fashion statement of it.

He then replied me in a very smartass way:

Mr Love : "Oh, I know"

Me: "What?"

Mr Love: " This is for facilitating leopard crawling.." With that, he proceed to show me how to leopard crawl using the elbow..

So, the designer is a Singapore son?

Elbow patches for leopard crawl

Signs of aging

Sign of aging is an alarming thing to women especially those who are in my age group, hitting the big 3 soon. 30 seems so far away when you are 17 but in a blink of eyes, it quietly came to your side without you noticing.

Here my list (not in order of any kind)

1). Lines around eyes

This actually freaked me out 1 fine morning while I was slapping on my face cream. Woke me up immediately and makes me ponder hard for the rest of morning before hastily search for eye cream to buy during lunch. And there, I got my 1st eye cream at 28, hoping to slow down the appearance of fine lines around my eyes. I brought the Laneige 1 though I dunno whether it helps or not.

2). Flats over heels

When I switched to accounts from engineering, I brought quite a few pairs of heels. There is no need to dress up as an engineer but you have an excuse to dress to the nines as an accounts executive OL. I love the clicking sound of the heels. Fast forward to a few years later (presently) whenever I go shopping for shoes, I would now prefer to buy flats. 

I can no longer walk long in heels without hurting my poor feet.  I also cannot walk in poise now I realised, tripping on every little thing in my way. Clumsier as I aged maybe. So sticking to flats is a safer option for me. It makes chasing after bus much easier, I am after all not at the age of walking gracefully while watching the bloody bus goes off.

New obsession-Melissa Flats

3). Falling asleep at ungodly hours

Sometimes, while watching 8pm variety shows,  I would fall asleep halfway and then wake up suddenly half an hour later feeling much refreshed. Even Mr Love was amused me as I can chat with him on the sofa this minute and he would find me sound asleep the next.  Not sure whether it is due to work, but I used to watch tv into the wee hours of night at 1 shot from 7pm.

Wake me up when it is December

4). Slapping more skin care than make up

This is not necessary a bad thing as I am still at the stage that I can face the world without makeup.

But as I recall,  I was more hardworking in applying makeup when I was younger.  Mascara, eye shadow, lip balm, liquid & powder foundation..Simple stuff but still take quite a while. 

Now even for work, I applied minimum make up hoping to let my skin "breath" more and not suffocate under the thick layer of chemicals. During wkend unless required, I would not apply any make up on. 

Then again,  I do slap on quite a bit of skin care like toner, essences, night n day cream n eye cream.  Though these r chemicals too, but I do hope it help me to keep my skin as youthful as it can help.

My typical everyday make up now is - BB cream,  loose powder, blusher and viola, I am done within 5min.

Investment on skin care

5). Prefers groceries shopping to clothes shopping

Now, this is getting interesting. Not sure whether it is due to aging, I actually like going to groceries shopping now than going out to buy clothes. I would have shorter patience while shopping for my clothes now. I would usually only buy if something caught my eyes but will end up buying a few at 1 go. But I actually enjoy my weekly trip to supermarket and takes a longer time there, trying to think about what to cook for the weekend or what I can cook with the sauces/ ingredients I set my eyes on.

Weekly shopping

6). Nowhere better than home

My next door neighbour was amused by the 2 of us who is always at home during wkends. So much so that everytime he walked past us, he would asked why didnt we go out during wkend..His kids are a bit younger than us but will keep late nights, on the contrary, he would either sees us nuah-ing on the couching watching tv or 1 will be in the kitchen cooking up a storm or 1 will be doing housework.

There was once he couldn' t help but chide us that youngsters should go out and enjoy and not staying at home to rot. Haha. But then, I seriously prefer to stay at home during non-work days, else its like my house is just a sleeping place only if I spend a big bulk of my waking time outside.

My cosy corner at home

7). Stars now are alot younger than you are

My colleague were telling me a joke the other day that she went for a K-pop star concert alone. And when the teenager gals starting yelling "Oppa" which mean big brother in Korean, she followed suit. Mind you, she is in her early 40s now. I told her that if the star noticed that she is calling him Oppa, he would have killed himself there and then. The guy is even younger than me. Hahah.

This brings me to another aging fact that I have to accept. There was a time where the stars seems to be much older than me and I can idolised them. But looking at the stars now, everyone seems so young, even younger than my brother. It makes me realised at our age, no 1 can debut as a rising star already.

The korean band (CNBLUE) I have been listening to recently have an average age of 24. 24 is like so far away in my memories, the year I got married, the year I got my house. The year I shifted out to start my new life. In a blink of eyes, 5 years had since passed. Man, is 岁月不饶人 the best way to describe my situation now? Haha.

See, all so young..

Though facing the various signs of aging, I am still happie with my current stage of life now. No longer a girl but not yet a woman. I am still trying my best to find my direction in life. A good wife, a good daughter, a good sister, a good worker, a good colleague, a good friend all these needs time to find the best way to become one.

1 fine day when I can become a good mum, I think it would complete the transformation from a girl to woman. Till then, I think I am still somewhere in between. Hurhur..

Miles and miles away

This is a long overdue post, bestie moved to UK for a yr to be her baker who is studying there, brought my god son along too.

Curious Baby G

Though we don't regularly meet while here, its a bit weird to know that she is moving half way across the world from home with a 7/8 hrs time difference.

Yummy fingers

Lucky for us, the advancement of communication tools meant that we can still keep in touch through various ways. Not only limited to the conventional way of snail mail, phone calls, we can now maintain contact thru email, posting recent updates thru FB, message each other during wee hours of each other time zone and lastly skype.

Showing off his new winter wear

Love the skype idea since I can get to chat with god son (not so much with bestie). I was pretty worried that god son will not be able to recognize me after being away for a year. But with this, we get to see each other from time to time although not often. Hey, but at least he sees me occasionally and hear my voice, better than nothing.

So sweet..

With bestie far away in UK, I lost my bitching partner. Its not easy to remember what you wanna tell her when we are 7/8 hours apart. Sometimes, when I wanna bitch, I would check the time over at her side and realized its pretty late over at her side. Will makes me think twice about dropping her a message for fear of disturbing her.

Showing me his new trick

Really looked forward to having her back here next year for good and I can pop by her house to play with god son during his toddler phase.

6 teeth already!

Till then, I guess we need survive on our skype sessions, her occasion videos of god son and our trusty whatsapp to keep in contact.

My handsome god son

Lucky..

I couldnt upload the original version to my blog player so had to make do with the Korean English version that I managed to find.

How apt the lyrics are here:

"I'm lucky that I am in love with my best friend" - Yeah and I married him

"Lucky to have been where I have been"- Many a times, I count my blessing to be born here in Singapore, in this modern age that makes things easier for a female.

"Lucky to be coming home again" The other day, news was showing a girl who was born on the day Haiyan hits her home and her parents struggle to keep her alive by manually pumping air into her. She survived for 3 days only and pass on when help didnt come earlier. This news hits me hard. The child was already brought to the world but because of a natural disaster and prolonged delayed of help, the child passed on. Had the child came to a different part of the world, she might have lived and led a normal life. This is why I always have to remind myself despite so many complaints I have against our government, deep down I know I have to be grateful to be able to call Singapore home and can come back to home everyday.

"Lucky we will love in every way" Much had happen recently and I am glad we are still in love in every way though tired, stressed about everyday life.

I guess I must be too emotional after going for my follow up checkup today....

Now reading-Empress Dowager Cixi （慈禧太后）

I remembered visiting The Forbidden City （故宫） in Beijing back in 2007 and was wowed by the magnificence of it. Took us 2 hrs to walk from 1 end to the other straight through. My tour guide was still joking with us that 1 of us might be a princess/ concubine / servant here in our previous life.

Born and raised in modern Singapore where my family don't practice favoritism on boys over girls, I totally cannot comprehend how women during the olden times took it in their stride that they are of lower status than men. 

Anyways saw this book in Popular the other day and was super tempted to buy but was too bulky. Then I walked past the shop last night and realised there's a 20% off store wide for English titles and immediately went to get this book. Hahah How auntie..

My latest read

My impression of Empress Dowager Cixi is only limited those shown in various dramas. More often than not, she was portray as a villain responsible for the downfall of Qing Dynasty. But how did a woman at that time managed to garner so much power to control the male dominated dynasty was interesting, at least to me.

Having only read through 3 chapters of the book, it strikes me that she is actually smarter and more far sighted that those portrayed in the dramas. But then again, its dependent on how the writer wants to portray her.

It is an interesting book, having to read the descriptions of the Qing dynasty in english is somewhat different. I struggled to try to understand some of the description since am more familiar with the chinese descriptions or words. Nevertheless, I think I am gonna enjoy this book.

Life is good when you find 1 good book to read every now and then. Brings me peace and relax my mind.

Airfry Pandan chicken

Saw this in a FB post bestie shared and decided to try it out..
Turns out to be not bad but I dun think I will be making it anytime soon cuz it is simply too troublesome to prepare.

 I did not follow the recipe strictly as I didnt have all of the required marinating ingredients. Instead, I used what I had at home.

Brought 3 thighs and got the uncle to de-bone for me. Came home and further cut them up.

I brought 2 stalks of panda leaves and since I could not find bigger leaves, the chicken was cut into smaller pieces to be able to fit into the leaves.

I also cut away the bottom of the pandan leaves and soak it for a while to get rid of the soil in between the leaves. Then, I rinse and leave them to dry.

Marinating:

2 Tablespoons of Oyster sauce
1 Tablespoon of sesame oil
1 Tablespoon of dark soy sauce
1 Tablespoon of light soy sauce
Pepper(I put quite a lot since I like it spicy)

Mix the chicken pcs in and marinate at least for 2 hrs.

Pandan leaves

Taking a leave at a time, I start to wrap it ard the chicken. I had a hard time trying to secure the leaves around the chicken as I forgot to buy toothpicks which can be used to secure the leaves. The leaves are also pretty fragile and would tear easily if you use too much force.


After wrapping, I sprinkled 1 tablespoon of olive oil on top of the wrapped chicken. Then, air fry them at 200 deg for 8mins and flipped them to the other side to air fry for another 8mins.

You can smell the pandan leaves half way through the air frying which makes the whole kitchen smell of pandan. Great if you like the smell.

Verdict: We liked the marinating sauce though it is nothing special. Air frying the pandan leaves gives the chicken a pandan taste (duh!) which is surprisingly nice and fragrant.

But since I didnt do a good job in the wrapping, was quite dishearten by the dish, guess it will be a long while before I will try to make this again...

Da-tah!! End product

施比受更有福 (It's a blessing to be giving than to be receiving)

Its been a week since Haiyan or Yolanda hit central Philippines, causing mass destruction, deaths and displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

Pictures and videos of the super typhoon are emerging,  images of the devastated towns are shown on news, everyday u see reports of how people are waiting for help and holding on to the last glimpse of hope that it would come soon to get them out of the suffering. 

I was hoping to help, even it's a small part of my own, I sincerely hope it does help even 1 person to get thru this disaster. Someone has to start somewhere isnt it? If everyone thinks their help is too insignificant to make a difference, den there's really no hope left for the victims. 

I haf fwen telling me that my compassion is overflowing, I haf fwen telling me that we shouldn't only help in times of needs but shd be doing it on a regular basis.

These I agreed but if u could juz stop having all these negative tots and start to do something more constructive, it would meant a great deal to the survivors. 

Being in the shipping line, we do have quite a handful of crews coming frm Philippines. Thus, there was a circulation the other day, urging us to help to donate relief packs to the victims. 

We are to pack according to a list of essentials into a shoe box or similar package and seal them up. Got up earlier than usual and went to buy the items. Cannot believe that this is the 1st time I am buying water purification tablets which is now an essential item in ground zero. We r that fortunate , really. Some pharmacy even dun sell as it is basically of no use here. Yet for the survivors,  it's a life saver. 

Went home and start packing away, took me 4hrs to finish packing n sealing 10boxes, in between I went n brought more biscuits n cereals to fill the boxes up.

While packing, many a times I thank god for placing me in Singapore.  Things we took for granted is now a luxury in Philippines.  I was still complaining about the endless rain here the other while people juz woke up 1 day to find all their possessions gone when the super typhoon hits.  There is no where to hide for it's their homeland when the typhoon makes landfall.  

Though they may be evacuated, but losing their assets are inevitable. I shudder to think about having to lose everything that I have painstakingly brought/built up in juz a day. 

Therefore in this Chinese saying that its a blessing to be giving than to be receiving is very true.  Though the amount is small, but I sincerely hope that some of the survivors can benefit from it. No matter how small my donation is, I hoped it help. For this, is the only thing I can do within my limited capacity.

Relief boxes

Day and night

The other nite Mr Love and I were looking for some place to grab a late dinner but couldnt find anything besides fast food.

Was a bit frustrated with the super limited choice and couldnt help but to miss Taiwan's night market.

The vast difference between home and Taiwan is that we have a more vibrant morning market culture while Taiwan had the night version.

But then again, I didnt been to any morning market place in Taiwan to check out what they have to offer. Base on the areas I been to, mornings are considered slow in there.

While we have no problem finding places to dine during the day, its a different story once we enter nightfall here. Most market place will be closed by late afternoon, those who operates till 8pm will have limited food left. Often, you dun get much choices to choose from.

But if you have been to the night markets in Taiwan, you will be spoilt for choice till you dunno what you wanna eat.

On days we need grab dinner late here, we would be reminded of the good food we could get in Taiwan night market.

There is no good or bad in this case, it pretty much depends on what you are looking for during that particular time.

But, I am still pissed off by having to settle by fastfood.

Teardrops in the shower. .

I am considered a strong headed person who seldom shed tears. But today I am so frustrated that I couldnt help but burst into tears during shower so as not to alarm Mr Love.

Its like my efforts are being diminished, things tat I done right, it shd expected frm me. Things that I erred are being magnified 3000 times n kept in the heart.

It's disheartening to be in this situation,  not that I am expecting any thing in return but not to even haf appreciation for wat I did was the triggering point.

Its like 有事钟无艳,没事夏迎春。 It seems as though as on days there isn't any problem for me to help out, I am creating problems instead.

It does hurt to hear this kind of comments, coming from someone dear. I tot I was being understood but realised I am the 1 misunderstanding the whole situation.

I tot I was appreciated but realised I was being the bad guy here.

So, why should I do so much in return for those unkind,  ungrateful words? Why should I worry myself to nearly insanity while all people think is I am stirring shit?

I should seriously consider washing my hands off anything n everything so that I would not be embroiled in such situation. How many times had I tried but failed?

While I cried out of frustration, I am also crying over my naivety and my inability to shut things out and put things down.

Currently playing -Best of CNBLUE-Favs on my play list

As mentioned previously I was watching running man series, till now is only half way done. Love the creativity and the ridiculous games they came out with and how the participants were game enough to carry the tasks.

From this show, I also learnt the places of interest in South Korea. Many a times, if I see somewhere interesting, I would google it for more information. Ditto for songs, tv series, stars..Most of the time my knowledge of Kpop or Kseries, K-stars come from here. Haha.

I recently came to know of this Band named CNBLUE. Its a bit late I think, given their popularity in Asia. Haha But then I am not interested in the guys of this band since they are all so young. What I am impressed is the music.

This band is different because 1st they dun have that many members like Super Junior or SNSD that I couldn't even tell the difference between each and every 1. All look so alike to me. I think I can only recognised Siwon from Super Junior simply because I seen him twice in Running man, Oh and the other fat fat 1 who appeared in 1 Xmas special of running man and makes me wonder how the earth he got into the boy band with his size (my bad)..

2ndly, they are a band who played the instruments as they sing. No fanciful dancing that makes me feel faint while trying to figure out who is singing because all of them move at the same time..cannot find the vocalist. 

As much as I love seeing the pretty faces, I'm well past the age of idolizing the pretty faces, thus the songs or rather music must catch my attention before the performers...but it does not hurt to have pretty face la..who will wan see William Hung's band rite(just an analogy).

And so, with the help of Google and Youtube, I expanded my music collection thanks to this band. Here are the few songs currently looping in my player. Not that others are not nice but simply I prefer these few more.

1). Love revolution (English version)

There is a Korean version to it but I prefer the English version sung by the bassist. Truth to be told, the pronunciation was a bit out but I realized most of the English version songs I heard by Koreans have similar problems. So its not really a problem since it is not oral exam and I dun speak perfect English either.

I like the way that this song is performed by the bassist with a tinge of mischievous in it. Love the guitar solo during the start of the song.Watched the live version on youtube and it was much nicer that the CD version(duh). The tune is also catchy that makes you wanna move your shoulders along with the song.

Something I realized is the lyrics is somehow composed using Korean grammar. I did a search and it makes more sense if I translate the meaning to Chinese than it's English lyrics. But then its my best guess only. Nevertheless, I am more impressed by the tune.

 2). Love

I must say I totally dun understand what they are singing and didn't bother find the translation. This is 1 of my favourite for 2 reasons. 1st 1 being the drummer's part. I think it makes up the spine of this song. Though the drums is present for most of their song, but it especially stands out in this song if u listen carefully enough.

The 2nd reason is due to the guy who had a more high pitched voice than the main vocalist. The main vocalist has a more coarse and manly voice but it is the 2nd vocalist who makes the song stands out with his softer and girly vocal. This 2nd vocalist is the guy who act as the son of 张东健  in A Gentleman's Dignity.

3).依然爱你

This is sung solely by the main vocalist I think, given the coarse voice. Not sure what he was singing but it sounds like some heartbreaking situation as I can only make out the words "Sarang ah" which is loosely translates to "Oh my love". But judging from the way of performance it is not about some sweet love song. Hehe.. Love the light parts of the song where the singing can be hear more clearly while the instruments take a back stage.

4). Intuition

Never a rock song lover but this song did stood out. Its a more heavy piece in my opinion. The main vocalist coarse voice match this song perfectly, giving it a very 旷野 feel. But too much of replay of this song will gives me a headache..Old le.. haha

5). Teardrops in the Rain

I actually like the Korean version that Park Shin Hye sang in the show Heartstrings, touches your heart. Stumbled across this English version sang by the 2nd vocalist and find it as nice. His vocals is really suitable for belting out ballads. I found 1 live version by the drummer but still prefer this.

These are currently the 5 songs looped in my player every morning on my way to work or evening during after work . On a bad day, I will choose to loop Love revolution only which has a magical effect of lifting my spirits.

My favourite 15min meal-Airfry salmon

Saturdays are usually busy for us, waking up late, grabbing brunch and running some errands den rush back for Mr Love to prepare for his evening run with our dear SAF( IPT). The training usually ends at 7pm and thus cooking a proper chinese meal (3dishes, 1 soup)is out of the question as I cannot grasp the timing well enough..

By the time he reach home, he usually will be too tired to go out for dinner but also cannot do without dinner as he will be starving by the trainings. I tried not cooking and we always ended up with Mcdonalds which is not the healthiest choice around.

So, I racked my brains for meals that is fast enuff to prepare within the time frame of his bathing time when he reached hm from the training. I find western cuisine to be most easy and thus sat is usually western menu.

This is 1 of my favourite, air fry salmon. Tasty, full of omega 3, healthier and of cuz much cheaper than eating out for the same food.

I will grab 2 pc from NTUC during brunch. Usually at 5 or 6 bucks each. I will try to choose thicker but short 1 as I wanna make slits in them to put in the butter.

After coming home, I would wash them and make some slits in between. The slits should not cut through the salmon, so essentially it is still in 1 pc though with 5 or 6 slits in it. The I will sprinkle som salt and rub over them, some will stay on the surface while some will fall into the slits.

Personally, I love buttery taste therefore, I would but the butter into pieces and try to stuff as much as I am able to into the slits. This is to enable the butter to melt into the flesh during air frying. I dun wan the butter taste on the surface only.
 

Preparation

1 day during groceries shopping, I cam across this bottle of coarse black pepper, not knowing what I can use it for, I brought it. Haha.. And viola! Its just nice to sprinkle lots of it on top for this dish.

Alot of people will pan fry the salmon, but being the lazy me who try not to use the pan in order not to have much washing afterwards, I decided to use my super air fryer. The 1st time, I just placed the salmon on it and end up with skinless salmon. Not to mention that it broke into small portions when I tried to remove it.

So, I came up with an idea of placing it on a piece of foil and then air fry it at 180 deg for 8min. The natural oil inside salmon will be "forced" out during air frying. To make it looks like restaurant like serving, I would fry some fries along with it and sometimes throw in some side dish like cheesy mushrooms depending on what I brought that morning.

End product

Mr Love seems to like it alot whenever I make this for dinner. As I go along, I can better estimate the amount of butter and black pepper required for our liking. While I loved a more heavy seasoning, Mr Love likes the taste to be milder..

Guess I will be coooking this more often since its a healthier choice of us and most importantly Mr Love is fond of it :)

台湾春天之旅 2013- Dinner in Hsin Chu (新竹凤城之月)

After our visit to  Natural Science Museum, it was time to make our way to airport for our night departure. 姗姗姐had offered to drive us up from Taichung but we declined as it is too far journey. The Taiwanese 热情 was not to be underestimated and thus we settled to let her drive us to 新竹 where we will catch a HSR to Taoyuan and transfer to the airport. This is on the pretext that we are accompanying her back to 新竹 from 台中...

The journey to 新竹 is ard 1 hr and she kept telling us it pretty near..We were so apologetic as she had drove from 新竹 the day before down to 台中 where she stayed at her parents' hse for a night before picking us up this morning. Even her parents' place is a good 45 min away from where we are staying. Faints...

Anyways, before dropping us at the HSR station, she suggested dinner as there is still abit of time left and we left the choice to her since she is the 地头蛇 hahaa..She brought us to this special restaurant named 凤城之月..The 之 is actually a Japanese word "no" since I am unable to type it out, I translated it to chinese. Hee..

Menu that looks like a textbook

The restaurant is decorated to be like the olden days of Taiwan. Its like we are seated amidst an old street in the 60's of Taiwan having our dinner. They have quite an array of display of olden days toys, discs and also make shift barber hse, provision stalls street vendors, moive theater that let you have a glimpse of the olden Taiwan.

As we were rushing for time, I didnt have the time to go ard taking pictures of this special restaurant. Furthermore, it is quite rude to leave my host there alone while we venture to take photos. So, I settled for whatever is infront of me and took some photos. Hehe.

Chapter 1

Even the menu was designed to be like an old chinese textbook, with chapters inside separating the various specialities they have to offer.  Again, we told 姗姗姐 to make the decisions of what to order.

Chapter 2

姗姗姐 decided to order Hakka cuisine（客家菜) as she reckon that we didnt really try it in Taiwan before. True enuff, Mr Love and I usually will concentrate on the 小吃that Taiwan had to offer.. Haha.. So here's what we had:

1). Pork stir fry with 竹笋

I am not a veggie lover, in fact can be consider a carnivore  and thus for this dish, I totally didnt touch the bamboo shoots, only eating the meat. Though it is abit impolite to do this infront of our host, she totally can understand me since we had meals together prior to this. Hehe..

The pork served is super tender and when stir fryed together with bamboo shoots, cashew nuts, chilies and some other veggies I cannot pin point, gives it a very fragrant taste.

Stir fry pork with bamboo shoots

2). 水莲根

I do not know the english name of this dish but I was told that this is a speciality in Taiwan. I had neber seen it in SG before. But since it looks similar to my favourite 豆苗, I decided to give it a try. This is stir fry with mushrooms and 枸杞子 and is quite tasty. The taste is similar of that to 豆苗 and thus I can accept it better though. We polish this off the plate in record time.

水莲根

3). Hakka Style chickedn - 白斩鸡

This is similar to our SG version of Hainanese chicken. The version here is steamed too I believed. The meat is tender and juicy. This is not much of a surprise to us due to the similarity of it to the SG version. But if you really want a comparison, I can only say that the chicken they served here tastes fresher than ours. Haha

Hakka 白斩鸡

4). Salted egg bittergourd - 咸蛋苦瓜

I nearly fainted when I saw this dish served. This is my nemesis. Not only I neber eatten bitter gourd before, any dishes that have this in them, I totally stay away. I mean who likes bitter taste? But then I was too paiseh to decline to try this by now given that I didnt touch the bamboo shoots earlier.

Furthermore,  姗姗姐 keep saying that Taiwanese bitter gourd is not bitter at all. I was not convince at least, if bitter gourd is not bitter that the name itself will be an irony isnt it?

Well, I am a big gal now, I cannot always pout my out of such situations and I decided to give it a chance since it is stir fry with salted egg(my favourite 配料）。

I took a small piece coated with alot of salted egg and tried. Surprisingly, there isnt any tinge of bitter taste to it. Zero, nil, zilch! 姗姗姐 was rite! The bitter gourd in Taiwan is not bitter at all...Yay... All I can taste is the salted egg taste..Furthermore, they have fry the bitter gourd till so soft that it is not crunchy..Another yay since I hated crunchy veggies. Haha.

She later told me that she dun understand why the bitter gourd she brought in SG is always so bitter as compared to the Taiwan version. Neither do I! haha I cannot give her an explaination too..

This is indeed a nice dish and I too helped to finish them all. The bitter gourd I eaten here is more than what I have took in the past 29 years of my life. Haha..

咸蛋苦瓜

The billed came out to around NTD 1000 which is about SGD 50, in my opinion its quite the price since the ambience is good and interesting. I would love have more time here to take pictures of the special settings they had but we are simply rushing for time. Perhaps the next visit, I would be able to appreciate the settings more :)

Restaurant page

台湾春天之旅 2013- Random stuff - Donations of another kind

Not sure whether you notice but the receipt that you get at the stores is actually also a lottery ticket. This is known as 统一发票 (uniform receipt) in Taiwan. 

I actually didnt know of this when I 1st visit Taiwan in 2010 as I usually will not keep receipts. It is Mr Love who told me that it is also a lottery ticket and the draw date is every alternate month. But since we are always there for a short period of time, this is of no use to us.

But then, I did notice there will be an old lady standing infront of the 7-11 in Ximending during night fall, waiting to collect the receipts that any 1 is willing to give her. So, I always make it a point to keep the receipts from my purchases in the day and will pass all to her when we go and make our usual night snacks purchase from the 7-11. Not sure whether did she win anything but I didnt see her for my next 2 trips oredi, I hope she did though, as she look pretty poor.

Bento shop at Taipei main station

As you go ard Taipei, you can smtimes find bins that collect receipts that states that the winnings will be donated to some charity. If I am not able to give away the receipts, I will usually put in the receipts as I come across the bins.

Instead of throwing them away, why not do someting good? For all you noe, yours might be a winning ticket that can help others.

I am not able to remember the exact place of these bins but can recall 1 as I took a photo of it. Its located outside the bento shop in Taipei Main station near to the West 3 gate. This is where I deposit my 5days worth of receipts into. Hope it does help someone :)

The donation bin