Meme On Ten Things I Miss Of Mum's Cooking!

I've been tagged by Bozo to blog Meme On Ten Things I Miss Of Mum's Cooking! Well my mum is typical Hokkien and she started cooking when young because she is the eldest in the family. She like to test and try when comes to cooking.

Ten dishes I love is:
1) Mee Hun Kuey ~ made of flour, knee and dough, then make into pieces and cook it in clear soup.

2) Macaroni Soup ~ I am a fan of Macaroni, so thou its a simple dish, its my favourite.

3) Fish Porriage ~ Porriage with Fish slice, soy sauce, peanuts, fried beancurd cube, ginger.

4) Lotus plus corn soup ~ Corn and Lotus is my favourite too, and i like the sweetness of the soup.

5) Fish with salted vegetables ~ I love salted vegetables and it goes very well with fish and tomatoes.

6) Vegetarian Braised Zap Chye~ With all the vegetarian ingredient such as mock meat, beancurb skin (dao ki) plus vermicelli noodle (dan hoon), mushroom, black fungus, gim zam (duno the english name) etc, braised in dark sauce.........

7) Yam abacus ~ this is a Hakka dish, my mum learned from her friend and start making. She fried it in Hokkien style. Thou its not original but its tasty.

8) Curry chicken ~ alot of people like my mum's curry chicken because its so thick and rich with coconut milk. We try to persuade her to use carnation milk instead of coconut but she insist on coconut milk....

9) Yam Cake ~ She learned this recently too. I love it because it is rich with yam and yam cube, peanuts and shrimps.

10) Bak Zhang (rice dumpling) ~ typical hokkien style, red bean bak zhang is my favourite. She is generous with the ingredient, shrimp and meat paste with lean meat, chestnut and mushroom, the rice is fried with red bean with black sauce. Each year she will make more then 20kg of rice to distribute to her sibling.

Sad to say nobody inherit my mum's cooking.........weird.......

My Stray

This little sweet fella, she has been regular to our house, so I started feeding her at my door. She now has a routine. She will wait at our door early in the morning 5.30am. When my mum turn the door knob, she will start meowing. The moment we open the door, she will walk into my house and then walk out to have her food.

After eating she will lick herself and walk away for her daily adventure. She will then appear again sometimes in the evening, sometimes at night. No matter what time she appear, she is still so sweet.

She is so affectionate, whenever she meet me along the corridor, she will rub herself against me, sometime she hop alittle, lifting her front legs and rub against me...... when u are not looking at her, she will meow to get ur attention.

She is Ah Niao.......

10 habits wellness enthusiasts and health aficionados

HERE are 10 habits wellness enthusiasts and health aficionados may find worth remembering.

Eat well
There is no bad food—only bad diets and, worse, bad dieters. Your regular diet should contain basic nutrients: vegetables/fruits, carbohydrates, fiber, proteins, dairy, fats. A new food guide pyramid now includes a major component—water.
The three "musts" for life are oxygen, water and food. Without these three, one faces certain death. So eat to live but, for a healthy life, eat well. Remember that five small meals a day is reco mmended for better health management. This is because three hours after a meal, the body needs to replenish, via the food we eat, energy spent.

The best diet is moderation, one that includes all your basic needs. Any diet that excludes a component may not be balanced.

Drink well
Water is life. Your body may be suffering from dehydration even as you read this. Hourly intakes of one glass of water d uring your waking hours is ideal. Drink water that is clean and safe (preferably not distilled as it may have already been stripped of minerals). If you have frequent headaches, drink glasses of water. You may just be dehydrated.

Work well
Excellence in the work environment is certainly a notable standard. Love what you do and do what you love. The best kind of job they say is one that doesn't feel like a chore. While it is good to focus on your career, always give yourself enough time for…

Play
Playtime is "letting your hair down" for a reason. And that is to balance your energies. And if, in the process, you rediscover the "child in you," so much the better. It only means you can recapture the innocence and loving nature of the child you were once (and are still childlike by nature).

Pray
Give yourself some quiet time to connect with the Divine. This can only enlarge and expand your spirit. By tapping into the immortal in you, your own sense of divinity is affirmed and strengthened.

Learn
The human mind is an almost inexhaustible powerhouse. You can teach yourself new skills, adopt new ways and expand your knowledge. You can redefine yourself at any time, any point of your life. There's no one stopping you—except yourself.

Laugh
Even if life is all about living, there is such a thing as learning from your mistakes. Or, you can simply laugh at them. Taking life too seriously can lead to stress and eventually illness. Yes, laughter is still the best medicine. It's not a worn-out cliché but a medicinal truth. When you laugh, your brain releases endorphins (feel-good hormones), flooding the body with a sense of well-being. They are also called natural painkillers. So, the next time you have a problem, have a strong dose of laughter. It will only help you feel better.

Love
Only the greatest force on earth, its by-products (the result of tapping its powers) are healing, understanding, forgiveness, perseverance, kindness, selflessness, generosity. But before you give love away, generate it first in yourself and for yourself. Remember, one must have enough love inside in order to…

Share
The best policy of all is to be generous: share your time, energy and attention. The good news about wellness is that, living by its standards of health, you can certainly derive more pleasure in life. Also, share the best of who you are with humanity. Humankind, beginning with your family, would benefit from your presence in this world.

Relax
There is a time to simply enjoy doing nothing more than relaxing. Take a break. You deserve it. Or, better yet, plan your next vacation. Relaxation aims to recharge and revive you. So, go ahead. Sit back, take a deep breath and smile.

Beware When Paying Airport Tax At Ho Chi Minh City

This morning, my friend told me that her colleague had the same experience I had when I was at Ho Chi Minh Airport paying airport tax. (refer to May 04, 2006)
Her colleague's encounter is worst off as compared to me.

She reached the airport late due to the jam on the road. When she reached the counter to pay the taxes, she took out her stack of left over currencies, the counter girl sort of scretch out her hand and snatch it from her. After calculating, the counter girl only pay her back USD4. My friend's colleague was shocked! She actually has about S$700 worth of Vietnam Don, which is more then USD200 but in the end she got back only USD4! She try to confront the counter girl but that counter girl just ignore her and sort of ask her to go away! Goodness Gracious me!

My friend did pre-warn her colleqgue and told her about my experience, but because she is in a hurry when she reached the airport, she cannot recall the story. How sad! I am quite pissed off when I heard what her colleqgue had gone thru. She suffered a heavier lost then I did.

I know how she is feeling now, and there is really noting we can do, so please, everyone out there, please warn your friends who is visiting HCM, dun be the nxt victim!