(You won't find the first letter in this blog... it's in my FaceBook Notes...)
Return to The Island on Friday... reached here around 6pm in the evening.
Brought quite a sizeable amount of supplies to move into The Hive... the procedure always gives me the impression of ... "Urban Camping".
As it is, moving the things unassisted into The Hive necessitated 4 (four) back-and-forth trips to the vehicle. Reminds me of pick-and-place machine... single picking = slow UPH... gang picking = improved UPH performance...
Reminds me of the purchase of many household items that you and I take for granted, some weeks ago... the purchase came up to a total of the princely sum of
RM 200.40... the bulk of which is taken up (33%) by a device called a 'trolley'.
This device, unfamiliar for people with long surface-dwelling experience,
but, absolutely necessary for me now that I live in
L~boîte~en~ciel*.
This kind of shopping experience for me is not the first time, however, and now when I think back about it, I appear to be quite the discerning housewife when it comes to this process...
anti-bacterial rinse-free cleaning solution for floors, branded higher-quality sponges for dishwashing (as opposed to the cheapest possible sponges in bulk) and... microfibre cloths for furniture and kitchen.
It makes a lot of difference, when you clean with a purpose-built scientifically-developed cleaning cloth, compared to using a coarse rag XD I can tell you that the user experience is immensely more pleasurable ~
(fond memories of
"Ebichu the Housekeeping Hamster" come to mind... however, contains content not suitable for minors, and definitely
not to be confused with
Hamtaro. XD )
* French for "The Box in Sky", said in that same charming way, as that Japanese pop-rock group that some of you may remember:
L'arc~en~ciel, which simply means "The Rainbow" in French, or literally, "The Arc in Sky". ;D
Hmmm... so that was basically how my Friday night went, as much as I make efforts to remember...
the other event was supper at 3am... coz couldn't sleep notwithstanding quite a heavy dinner (probably taken too early.)
Saturday...
Ok, took some time off to do that which "my self is screaming at you to not do" ... haven't been doing it since the very beginning of August, when I hurt my arm, anyway I was also out of the country for about 3 weeks... not bad, if compared to doing nothing at all... but still feel that pain again... so no choice, have to go slow about it... at this age, seems that any damage incurred heals more slowly ... than at 16 or 17 years of age... (memories of shin-crunching tackles and ankle-twisting sudden turns, that are shrugged off during the game, and just takes two days or so to get back to normal...)
Somehow,
when you do something that is not easy for you to do, you start to
think of those things that are so easy for you to do, that you could just do with a single thought... and you begin to appreciate these things more.
Took care of dinner quite promptly... and slept at (gasp!) 11.30pm... must be the exertion that brings this about... seldom sleep before 12am (usually 2am, or later...) ... I think this is a good thing. (As doing "what your self is screaming at you to not do", usually is.)
Sunday...
As a consequence, woke up quite early... 4:30 am... in time for an SMS shortly after that, checking with me for "supper"... Well, too early for me, I replied.
The focus of the day was an excursion to
stock up on edible rations (as important today, and indeed at any time, as they were during the Defence of Gibraltar) .. however, as raw materials, rather than finished goods.
Visited the wet market close to Jalan Tengah... about 8am.
Yes, I have a curious affinity for wet markets... the sights, sounds, and including the smell of which. XD
Somehow, I have the (perhaps grossly misplaced) perception that raw food sold in more sanitized environments are 'less fresh'.*
* probably only in our country though; in Japan and Korea, they have "clean wet markets", of which I do not get the impression that the food there is not fresh.
Particularly memorable are the Korean barbecue joints which have fresh raw meat sold on-premises... coupled with "beef sashimi" where beef is eaten raw just like that... not something that I would attempt locally.
However after a visit, this particular wet market is not someplace I'd do my shopping, I decided...
reason is because compared to the one I'm familiar with in my kampung... this one is inside an indoor complex... and what does that mean?
It means that the floor is wet and slippery with foul gunk, and you're too worried about keeping your footing when jostling with the peasants to be able to take your time to comfortably make selection of prime cuts (aaaahhhh.... FRESH MEAT)
And the crowd is such that... "whereever there is a space enough for a person to stand... there will be a person standing there"
With this, after breakfast, quite quickly adjourned to a supermarket... but before 10am, hardly time yet that it opens... sit around doing some reading while waiting for it to commence operations (brings back memories of lining up for much-anticipated cinema and concert tickets... hardly congruous with the task of shopping for groceries... but in this view, brings to mind the advance lining-up tightly holding on to ration cards... ala Japanese-occupied Malaya.)
Two large pieces of chicken keel = RM 4.43
Vegetables (unknown species) = RM 3.10
Brown unpolished rice = RM 23.99
Oranges, ...
Drinking water, ...
Chopping board = RM 21.90
Kikkoman soy sauce = RM 10.50 (price is in double digits, if compared to other brands, even in bottles of higher volume)
"Secret ingredient" = RM 5.40 ...
Got out of there as soon as possible after grabbing all those things... again, the process of moving everything into The Hive (I could so get used to this)
It's about 1pm then... time for lunch...
The process involves cleaning the rice grains, breaking out the rice cooker, and cleaning and using the utensils as I go along... washing the vegetables and finally slicing up the meat ... 1.30pm.
Put rice, water and meat into the rice cooker, and the "Special Ingredient"... woooo...
2:10pm: rice is ready, pop the vegetables into the rice cooker for a while
2:20pm: Serves romantic lunch for one (1), quantity enough for two servings.
Oho... why chronicle this? Hehe... just a thought, since recently saw this photo album on FaceBook entitled,
"My Wife's Cooking"
by my ex-housemate Chen Kiat. :D
Brings to mind that feature that those highly-networked blogs use (but I don't really know about) ... "Trackback"... "XX blog responses"... etc... :D
Anyway, the content of that photo album, as we always used to exclaim, "bahagia" XD
あぁ、 とても幸せそう。。。 羨ましい。。。 ～
ここに、 今は全部で寂しい自分でやる。。。 本当にかわいそう。。。
優しいだれか。。。 少し愛をくれるか？ ～ T___T
Aa, totemo shiawasesou ... urayamashii ... ~
Koko ni, ima wa zenbu de sabishii jibun de yaru... hontou ni kawaisou...
yasashii dareka... sukoshi ai wo kureru ka? ~ T___T
Back to the main topic,
this meal (looks to be dinner as well)
- no salt
- no oil
- no cornstarch preparation on the raw meat before cooking
- no garlic (could and should be added)
- no spring onions (could and should be added)
Not because health-consciousness is the primary concern, but I found out some years back, that trying to add the first two or three items in the list above... gives you more things to do XD
Here are some photos:
Minimalist in ingredients, but to my palate, eminently edible+ (and definitely better than anything I could get outside here.)
+: The opinion stated in this article represents the author's opinion only and does not constitute an invitation to order or eat.
( Keeping in line with the trend of excessive litigation prevalent in today's modern society XD )
Oh, just to add.
Since I mentioned "Special Ingredient" and "The Hive"...
Some weeks back, went for some Thai food with Melv... including one chicken dish, with that intriguing mention of "Special Sauce (tm)"... woooooo.....
But found out later that night, I am allergic to something in that three/four-course meal... which I identified that I've eaten everything there before, so it could only be..... the "Special Ingredient"... and when asked "then what is it you're allergic to?" ... Answer: "Don't know... 'Secret Ingredient' mah... how would I know what it is..."
Anyway, it caused me to break out in hives*, which took a day to cresendo to a climax of rashes covering 70-80% of the body, and a further day to subside, without any anaphylactic frothing of the mouth in between.
* hives, the curious condition that the main guy character in harem-type animes always seems to get, when all the comely anime girls throw themselves at him... due to his being
allergic to girls.
All girls, except for one.
The One.
(cliched, we all know XD )
Anyway, preparing the meal, for the entire day, took much faster than I expected (in seeming contradiction of The Only Law, which states "Everything takes longer than you expect.")
So with the fun, exciting and dramatic events of the earlier part of the day done, and since everything took much faster than I anticipated it to be... I have an entire evening ahead of me... hmmm, let me figure out what do I want to do and where do I want to go next... (or just eat until full, and ZZZzzzzzzz...)
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