Back in the Race!

Hello everyone!

Hope every thing has been fine and dandy the past few months while I have been slaving as the maid in Malaysia.. hahaha!

Anyways, I am back at work! *yay* I had been entertaining a few offers, and in the end decided to pick sunny old Malaysia! So come visit me! *hypnotise*

You can find me in my clinic, do drop by with cake... I like cake...

My bruises are aching =(

Call me Guru

Asia is pretty big on titles and positions of power. Everyone wants to be the CEO, the COO or the MD in a billion dollar company. No one wants to be the little guy. If you are say... the janitor... you wouldn't get the girl. However, if you decide to call yourself the 'Hygiene Engineer' in a big multi-national corporation, then you are more likely to score with the ladies.

But then, if you look closely, just about everyone and anyone is vice-president in the company (I don't think banks need so many of them VPs). Insiders tell me, the way the letters are arranged can tell you if they are really the guy in charge, or just another pretty face.

Why do they do this? The clients demand to speak to someone in a position of power, thus they put one of 1342 vice-presidents on the line. The client speaks to someone they think is in charge, while the minion thinks he is the king of the coop. It's a win-win situation. What is there not to like?

However, while this up-marketing would give everyone a glamorous role in the rat race; it is not a very accurate description of the work one does.For example, I am currently on a career break. It's a lovely way to put 'I just want to bum around, see the world and be a sloth'. Or I could be known as 'unemployed'. Now that could imply 'I was laid off/fired/incompatible with the directions of the company' or 'I am taking a sabbatical to discover myself'.

All those fancy titles in 'em name cards that are handed out like candy, they are just spin. But we get taken in by the polish, and assume the grubby little guy is less worthy than a speck of dust (Okay, I exaggerate). We should be looking beyond the pretty faces to find the true characters and personalities that lie behind. Therein, lies the path to a true partnership.

Now call me Super Love Guru buahahahaha!

Kimchi 101

Hello everybody!!

Ah... good to be back... I have no excuse.... none whatsoever for not blogging, besides the ever so tiny issue of blogspot being blocked in the Motherland...

Anyways... I have just come back from.. making kimchi haha.. so not exciting, but so yummy.

I.should.stop.watching. Korean.drama.series.and.drooling.over.the.food.

I have made it my mission on this career break of mine, to cook better. I can make basic stuff like bake cakes, pies and quiches... and roast lamb, chicken, fish... but I needed to learn how to fry an egg and cook rice in a rice cooker.

For those who are wondering how to make yummy fresh kimchi from scratch, here goes!

Ingredients:

A head of cabbage (about 2kg) - get one that's heavy and compact

1 cup of Korean chilli pepper powder - Szechuan chilli powder is spicier for those who like it

30ml Fish sauce (or to taste)

30ml light soya sauce

30g sugar (or to taste if you like it sweeter)

10g grated ginger

1 bulb of garlic sliced lengthwise

1 small radish julienned - I had pink lemonade preserved radishes which I made earlier

Bunch of spring onions julienned

15g toasted sesame seeds

A sprinkle of cinnamon because I like it

1 puréed pear/apple/chunks of tinned pineapple -optional as I used pink lemonade

Rock salt - lots of it

Method to my madness:

1. Split the cabbage into half or quarters. Sprinkle generous amounts of rock salt all over and including the inside leaves. Leave in a bowl for about 3-5 hours until the water is drawn out.

2. Wash the cabbage at least twice to remove the salt. Squeeze dry and leave to drain.

3. Mix everything else together to form a paste then using your hands, rub into the cabbage. Using a spoon to apply all the spices just won't cut it... Remember to wash the hands well especially under the nails!

4. Put into a earthenware jar to ferment for 6-24 hours. You can use any jar or a large Zip-lock bag. You will see excess liquid formation after about 6 hours, and a zip-lock allows the kimchi to be rotated for a more even coating.

Store in the fridge and consume within 2 weeks for best taste. If you leave it longer, you get a stronger and more pungent smell. This kimchi is very good for stewing cuts of meat and frying rice and making omelettes!

Bon appetit!

How Asian/Chinese are you?

You know those online quizzes that everyone seems to be taking to find your life partner/ideal job/inner superhero etc? Yea, those.Well, there are also quizzes that give your your inner ethnicity.

I have been called a 'banana' - Yellow on the outside while white on the inside. One of those people who look Asian but are anything but. Growing up, I always felt pretty annoyed at the labelling of people. I don't believe in stereotyping and name-calling and was very upset by the juvenile tactics of other children to differentiate themselves from you. Just because someone has a different upbringing does not mean they are odd and that you should not hang out with them. I would also be the first to admit that my upbringing gave me an edge over others in many areas. The isolation and constant upheaval also makes you tougher and you lose that rose-tinted view of humanity very quickly. After all, life is about the survival of the fittest.

Anyway, Facebook showed me a way to put the taunting to rest for once and for all. There was this quiz to determine how Asian a person is. I did the quiz quietly confident that I will pass and silence those sceptics forever! =)

I FAILED MISERABLY. =(

Undaunted, I did another quiz on how Chinese I am. I like wontons, I have good grades yadda yadda yadda... I had a very good feeling about it!

I FAILED AGAIN. =(

My friends and family had so much fun *rolls eyes* laughing at me. I am probably the only Chinese person in the whole entire universe who is 0% Asian and 0% Chinese. In fact, everyone tells me, one fine day, they are going to take my Malaysian passport off me! =(

I guess I need to train my cute poses V^^V, watch more Korean dramas and eat more dimsum.

Life is tough.

It is OFFICIAL!

I purchased my ticket departing Cantoland today. It feels so good to cross the 't's and dot the 'i's.

Kuala Lumpur here I come! For two weeks anyways! I will probably drop by the Dark Side for a few days in between. I can't decide where to celebrate Halloween.

Friends and rich men please come out to play!

Oh, and six boxes was just a dream.

Hello Goodbye

It is official. In fact, we now live in an environ where things are official when it's announced on blogs and Facebook. There is no need to go register at your nearest Marriage Registrar's Office when you just click 'married' on your Facebook status.

Anyways, I digress.

I declare to the world (yes, you) that I am done with Cantoland. Finis! I have finished the last museum on my to-do list last week. In it's own way, it was bitter-sweet. As I finished up, I couldn't help but feel melancholy. The American and I have spent a considerable time exploring the museums of this place. There was this unwritten rule that once completed, we would have finished up with Cantoland and it would be time to leave. I also had this 'I must go to every shopping mall in Cantoland' list; I am sure I have completed the majority of the malls according to my trusty map I have done 78/104... (I added another 32 off the top of my head which are not in the list)... Which is considerably more than most people I would believe! =)

It's now time to move on and up in the world! I am moving up north to the world of Giant Pandas! Wonderful creatures though they don't do very much.

Packing is always a nightmare when you don't have the company packers at your disposal. I hate to declutter and have to choose to keep books or shoes.Now is a good time to get it in my head that I don't need so many shoes/bags/books/clothes. You get the idea. I have only dug out half the stuff and already I am panicking. There is no way I will ever be able to condense everything to six boxes.

At least I have set me a target. No more than six boxes. *groans*

Real Chinese

It is official...

I am a real Chinese person! =) I get the 'yellow on the outside, white on the inside' and the 'cannot take spicy food' jibes all the time. Believe me, if they can take away my claim to Asianism they will!

So I got me a proper certificate. In fact, I should have scanned it as a jpeg file for the whole world to see. Our esteemed Chairman Mou once said:

'不到長城非好漢' which literally means you're not a real man until you've been to the Great Wall. Some people dispute the saying alluding to the actual 8000+km walls but most tourists are happy to accept it as are the travel agencies raking it in.

Needless to say, yours truly climbed all 193 steps of it.. Did I say 193 steps? Well there were too many people and it was too hot. Anyways, I got my certificate by arriving at the site. We got a spare cert for er the Fifth Sibling... Fat Eagle can go get his own when he gets to Beijing. So Lamby Chai Ming Noodles is a real Chinese too, even though my little sister has always known that by the 'Made in China' tag on his bum (Lamby not Osbert).

So if anyone ever questions my authenticity, I have a certificate to prove!