Of Food, Fun and Friends

Gathering around tables is something most people do. Whether it is over dinner or over a round of drinks, the table has always been a place for conversation and company. Unsurprisingly, I've been doing the dinner/drinks rounds with various friends over the last week or two. I've been constantly away for so long that I'm losing track of what's what and who's doing who, so it was good to finally be back for a longer period of time.

So around I went, though they were all spontaneous gatherings. From fine dining with the who's-whos of blogging (or rather, more appropriately, who-weres) at Alexis, to sinful dining at Delicious; from dai chow at Kota Damansara, to teh halia in Puchong and Bukit Jalil; it's been seriously fun. And fattening.

But heck, it's all in the name of compadre-ship.

In the end, I figured for once, I'd do the catching up in the comfort of my own home. It's about time to polish up my rusty culinary skills, anyway. So I whipped up a simple meal in my simple kitchen, and simply called some people over for a simple dinner.

No, I didn't plan a party, nor was I doing a do. It was, for all intents and purposes, instant noodles and canned tuna. With a side of mushrooms. And of course, fruit salad for desert, while we watched High School Musical on my 14" TV (gawd, I really need to get a much bigger one).

The simple things in life can be nice, so long as there's good company :-)

Thanks to Slim and Kevin for bringing drinks, and to Chris and 38kia for doing the dishes!

A Salad, Stolen

Once upon a time, I made a salad. No, not the kind meant for rabbits. A fruit salad. Of fruits, for... fruits.

Easiest dish I ever made, and as it turned out, it was a crowd pleaser at the pot luck where I had presented it. That was quite a while back, and I hear my salad's been making the pot luck rounds. Without me.

Humph. That's what I get for coming up with something that's easier to make than stewed pork and cabbages (and much healthier to eat too!). Okay, admittedly it wasn't quite an original idea. I simply picked up the idea from a Paddy's Pancakes dessert dish and did a drastic simplification of it.

Anyway, I figured I shouldn't keep something so simple and scrumptious all to myself (and who knows how many others who've been having it without me), so here the recipe for anyone who just needs to make something without much effort.


The what:

canned peaches in syrup
fresh strawberries
ripe bananas
roasted peanuts, unsalted

The how:
Drain syrup off the peaches.
Dice the peaches, strawberries and bananas into bite-sized chunks.
Crush the peanuts.
Toss everything together.

Voila! Shiong's Simply Summer Salad is served.

If it's too peasanty for you, you could always glam it up by substituting the peanuts with pine nuts, add some dollar pancakes, throw in some boys 'n berries with whipped cream on top, or perhaps sin it up with a scoop of ice cream...

Did I say boys 'n berries? Oops. I meant boysenberries. Haha, silly me...

Anyway, there's leftovers from the batch I made for dessert tonight, so looks like I'll be having a healthy, fruity breakfast tomorrow.

Well, healthy, if I can stop myself from dumping on dollops of the choc/vanilla ice cream that's in my freezer. But still fruity, nevertheless.

Sunday

But things just get so crazy, living life gets hard to do
And I would gladly hit the road, get up and go, if I knew
That someday it would lead me back to you
That someday it would lead me back to you
Maroon 5 : Sunday Morning

It's been a while since I spent a day like this. A lazy Sunday, staying in, lounging on my sofa the whole day long.

My sofa, my place.

No hotels.
No work.
No gym.
No braving traffic and window shopping.
No cafes with wifi and cholesterol-laden drinks.

Just some games of Scrabulous, and countless turns at Bogglific (my latest obsession), and catching up on episodes of Samurai Champloo.

Ah, it does feel good to be at home.

In A State Of Gluttony

It seems not a month goes by without me blogging at least once about what I've been eating and how much rounder I get because of it. It's not quite rightly a rant, since I am enjoying the food too much and cannot be bothered to (a) eat less; and/or (b) exercise more. But it won't stop me from blaming a job that keeps me away so much that going to the gym is most inconvenient, whereas eating is way too convenient. Hehe.

So yeah, I've been (over)indulging in repeat servings of all sorts of local and national delicacies these past number of months. Char kueh tiao lah, KFC lah, nasi lemak lah, chicken chop, roast duck, even belacan fried chicken, okay! The list just goes on and on. Then on some more.

And it doesn't help to have buffet breakfast at the hotel I've been staying in recently. Damn my small-town-Chinese-family upbringing for programming me to waste not food, and to maximise the value of a meal already paid for (especially when I'm not the one paying for it).

I won't blame you for thinking I'm a blimp by now. Heck, I already feel like one. Thankfully, my friends have courteously refrained from calling me one.

At least, not to my face, anyway

Times like this, I just wish a bubble belly is about as sexy as a bubble butt. Obviously it isn't, so I'll just resign myself to being a glutton (and be damn proud of it!).



Anyway, a l'il fat monkey had been urging me to go do lunch at this place he had found on a trip to Penang earlier this year - a shop called Restaurant Minah, tucked away in a place called Gelugor. Now, this place is rather out of the way for me to have lunch. But find the time I did, and last week, I finally made the trip across the bridge to check out what the monkey had been raving about.

Boy, was the monkey right on the money about the yum-factor of this minah's servings. The food there really was sedap-sedap belaka (ie, very yummy). There's what I had, up in the main pic.

The kerabu was nice enough, though kerabu (sort of a Malay-style salad) tastes more or less the same everywhere, the importance being the freshness of the ingredients. The ikan bakar (grilled fish) stuffed with sambal, a dish I've always enjoyed, was pretty good as well. They were seriously generous with the sambal stuffing, giving this one plus points.

What really got me hooked, however, was the chicken kurma. This dish was really delicious - the meat was succulent and had thoroughly absorbed the flavor of the kurma spices. The kuah (gravy), surprisingly, was extremely mild, compared to the meat. Now, I normally favor more flavorful gravies but I have to say this one really worked. The gravy was much thicker than the usual kurma sold elsewhere, so it clings well to the steamed rice. The mild flavor lent the rice a fragrance without overpowering the taste of the other dishes accompanying the meal. Slurp!

All in all, a satisying meal, worth the trip I had made (two trips, actually - the first time I went, it was closed) just to try it out. Truly, madly, deeply sedap!

Memorable Musical Moments

Ah, The Man has tagged me with yet another meme. Well, I'm not saying I'm not doing it but, erm... it's going into my KIV tray. Indefinitely :P

Meanwhile, since my last post, musicals have been playing in my head. So I'm gonna pull out a few of the more memorable (as far as I'm concerned) scenes to share. Haven't caught as many theatre musicals as I would have liked, so I'm gonna throw in some from the movies too.

Belle (Beauty And The Beast)/Good Morning Baltimore (Hairspray)
"There goes the baker with his tray, like always, the same old bread and rolls to sell. Every morning just the same, since the morning we came to this poor provincial town"
"Good morning Baltimore, there's the flasher who lives next door, there's the bum on his bar room stool, they wish me luck on the way to school"

These two share a spot, since they're so similar. Perky girl wakes up in the morning and goes out, all bubbly, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and sings her hellos to every fucking person on the street.

How fun!

Peron's Latest Flame (Evita)
"We have declined to an all-time low, tarts have become the set to know"

The one I watched was the movie (actually a feature-length MTV) starring Maddy. Aside from the superbly bitchy lyrics, this particular scene stands out in my memory thanks to that full-frontal shot of strapping, young, well-endowed army lads showering. Well, yes, they were clad in towels. But those towels were small. And white. And wet.

Very wet.

With One Look (Sunset Boulevard)
"To my people in the dark, still out there in the dark"

With the lights off, and Norma Desmond singing directly to the audience, you just know she's singing to you, for you. All of us, sitting out there in the dark.

Best tribute to the audience ever!

Overture (Phantom Of The Opera)
Tuh... tuh tuh tuh tuh tuh...

Like, so there are no lyrics. Just that famous Phantom pipe organ piece. But who's listening to lyrics, when the chandelier lights up and floats out and up above the audience, as the stage transforms before your very eyes into the Paris Opera.

Sheer theatrical magic, and an unmatched opening!

Finale (Les Mis)
"To love another person is to see the face of God"

Starting off slow, with Valjean and his regrets, he is soon joined by whine and whinier, erm... Cosette and Marius. My favorite part's where the spirits of Fantine and Eponine sing him to death. In perfect harmony, mind. Then the entire cast appears, marching behind a gauze curtain to close the show with Do You Hear The People Sing.

Revisiting the major musical themes and then bringing the entire cast on stage to render a rousing finale. What a way to end a brilliant show!

Life In The Wastelands

Don't you fret, M'sieur Marius, I don't feel any pain
A little fall of rain can hardly hurt me now
You're here, that's all I need to know
And you will keep me safe, and you will keep me close
And rain will make the flowers...
A Little Fall Of Rain (from Les Miserables)

It's just not funny. Project's dragging way past the due date and I've pretty much been stuck in this provincial town for almost half a year now. Sigh.


Alright, so it could be worse. At least this provincial town's got malls and wired coffee. And it's only a bridge away from a reasonably sized city. And oh, time does go by a little more quickly when you're cracking your pretty head over a game of Scrabulous. Or two. Or three. Or... a dozen.

In any case there's been time enough in my hands to get blogging a little more than usual, not to mention opportunities to get snaphappy. If you're wondering just what there is to shoot in the desolation of a wastewater treatment plant, well, not much. But, as they more or less said in Jurassic Park, life finds a way.


Wastewater treatment plants aren't just about getting the water clean enough to discharge out into the rivers and seas. Large enough plants actually form ecosystems of their own. I remember once, as a student, I visited Melbourne's Western Treatment Plant. Sure, there were places that stunk of rotting eggs. It's part of the process. What really impressed me was that, by the time the treatment reached the final stages, you'd find a wetland environment serving as haven for local and migratory birds.


In a nutshell, treating wastewater produces microbes, which go on to become a rich food source for higher organisms. Worms thrive, plants propagate, insects flourish. With enough of these around, even fish and birds will come along for the feast. And there we have it, a living habitat, generated from waste.


Indeed, rain will make the flowers grow.