seriously, I have much to tell... :)

28 May 2007

How to cook rice

-Just some old pics of food-

We, humans, love food! When we don't have to cook it, that is. It is a common fantasy to have a personal cook. For the first 18 years of our lives, our mommies did a good job filling in that position. Now, 4 years on, we are expected to take over. "Like, why?!" I hear some whine. A Malaysian answer: What to do. Big girl already. Must know how to do house chores and cook!

Some might even add: "Hey, at this age last time, you already have 6 kids!"

How typical but we hear less of this nowadays. Standard of living is on the rise(6 kids?!How about college?!). Also, parents are trying hard to keep their kids from unwanted pregnancy and stuff.


OK, back to the point. Last week, Shobeedee raised the point that her mom was worried about her cuisinability. So this post is dedicated to Shobie and all you college students. Here's how to cook rice for one person(or two to appease Sathya) quickly, without wastage (such as rice sticking to the rice pot) and with minimal mess (such as washing the damn rice out of the rice pot). And the results are almost always guaranteed because of the cooking method. Here goes:


















First, measure the amount of rice in the little cup usually provided with your rice cooker. If you don't have this, I think you can use your yogurt cup. Anyways, for one person, it should be 1/2 cup. For 2, then 1 whole cup. For Yvonne, it usually is 1/3 cup because I believe in eating more dishes than rice. :)



















Next, pour the rice into a glass/porcelain/clayton bowl and wash with clean water.



















After draining the water which you washed the rice with, add more clean water to cook the rice with. Measure the amount of water by placing your fingers flatly on the surface of the rice. If the water level is about where the picture shows, then it should be alright. I think. This is when you need to "agak-agak". Trial and error. However, there won't be much damage because we are using the Steaming method.



















Next, place the bowl of rice and water into your faithful rice cooker which was earlier washed and filled with some water.



















Always remember to press the lever! I once waited so long just to find out that I was keeping the water warm. -_-



















Check on the rice in 15-20 minutes(Not every 5 minutes because then you will lose the heat and steam). If it has risen and looks solid, then it is done! Use a chopstick or fork to "loosen" up the rice and steam for another 3 minutes.



















Ready to serve! But you can choose to decorate it a bit. Make it look Kim Gary-ish or Japanese. For that moment when I was taking these pictures, I only had limited resources (egg and canned meat). Here are some suggestions.



















Et voila! Healthy food! (Munch on a cucumber to make it balance and make mommy proud)


Here's another serving option:




Well, as long as you get the basic rice done, it should be no problem. The accompanying dishes can be any vege, some eggs and meat to make it a balanced meal. Happy cooking and bon appetit!


ps: I miss mommy's cooking. :(

first day @ work!

Today was my first day as a nine-to-fiver in KL. All my other internships has been in Subang or Langkawi so this one is a first. I have to take 2 trains to get there. TWO! And oh, how packed were they. All of us commuters were packed like sardines. No, wait, more like Ayam Brand's tuna in mayonaise (Not the tuna chunks types; too much space. Tuna in mayo.) Have you ever poured out the contents of a can of Ayam Brand's Tuna in Mayo and realize that that little can could fit one whole cereal bowl of tuna in mayo? I was amazed when I first realized. Today, I was also amazed by how an already packed coach can actually still fit in 10 more people at each stop. I wonder.

Anyways, this is the way of life and this is how it will be for the next few months. Doh! I should have signed up for "Uncle Van". This uncle drives a van and caters only to students doing internship in KL. Each trip is RM5 so if you go to and fro, it is RM10 per day. Not bad for the luxury of being driven from and to the doorsteps. Also, I suspect this uncle is very rich. He makes a few trips a day because of the various working shifts of hotels. Smart entrepreneur. Where there is a demand, there is a supply. My two trains cost me RM5.80 plus people stepping on the tip of my pointed shoe (new) and risk falling victim to pickpockets and also having to walk an average of 600 m (through KLCC and the convention centre) and having to cross the railway tracks which is actually the cause of the death of an unlucky man about a week ago. Sigh. Do pray for my safety.


Hmm.. Maybe I should ask Jiawei to think of doing an "Uncle Van" stint during his 3 months break.



Yeah right.



Anyways, can't tell you much about my work yet because we spent the day doing our orientation, looking at hundreds of slides and oohing and aahing during the House Tour. The staff at Human Resources were mostly away at training in their mothership hotel and so we were briefed by another trainee who has been there for 5 months. He is also our junior. By leaps and bounds. But we were too polite to point that out when all the staff who met him said, "Wah, so now you are the senior showing your juniors around ya!" -_- *roll eyes* Thinking to myself, "Like, can't you tell who are the pioneers here? Hello?"

Anyways, he was nice. I must say.



It was a tough day. Really tough. What a chore! Such difficulty to stay awake! I knew this was going to happen as it always happen on the first day of work and so I even took some time to heat up my essence of chicken and took it before I left home. No such luck. Still yawning and tearing. I wonder why. We also had our nametags done and they told us we can request whatever name we want to on the nametags and my friends who saw a permanent staff with "Ronaldo" comtemplated getting "Ronaldhino". I don't know what is the outcome yet. I put Yvonne. (Surprise!)


Other summaries include that we found out that the food at the cafeteria is somewhat not what I have expected to be getting since I expected that a hotel in the middle of KL should have somewhat fantastic cuisine to fatten up their staff to face the higher stress of commuting. What irony. No wonder the staff are so thin. Maybe I should think of this as an advantage. And oh! we got to leave early today! Wheee! For one day only but it was still worth a mention. :D! I am looking forward to tomorrow for another day of fun and excitement(I sort of 50% mean it)!


PS: I can't wait to watch Shrek this Saturday! :D (I sort of 100% mean it)

15 May 2007

One after another...


A picture paints a thousand words...

This paints that I'm going to face my finals soon (coming Monday) and that I'm not in the mood to study at the moment. But at the same time, the skull and bones sort of paints that I sense I'm in trouble. But the lackadaisical attitude shows in the fact that it has perfectly straight teeth and loves to brush its teeth. At the same time, the Purple Eyed Monster looks scary, like I'm really scared, but actually it was a mistake. My "e" turned out too ugly so I turned it into a monster. I couldn't think of anything for "a" so I made it a capital "A" in yellow and singing because that's what I want to achieve... I hope... I wish... I pray... As for the "m"... well, no comments. A lazy excuse which paints that I am really not putting much effort into this. Trust me. With effort, you could sell this on eBay. Last but not least, the "s". I have always used snakes as "s", ever since I knew how to draw and they were always green with black zig zag pattern on its back. How original, right? Anyways, it is actually wiggling to get away - don't know from what. I got a feeling it is headed for the beach. Wow. It really does paint a thousand words.

14 May 2007

Food Life Style of Tomorrow!

Convenience Food Exhibition 2007 - Food Life Style of Tomorrow
11 May 2007
Taylor's College School of Hospitality and Tourism.




The exhibition that me and my classmates have been fussing about for the past 3 months was finally over. Here is a short summary...

It was a success! Everybody showed really good teamwork and were independent in that everyone knew what they had to do and somehow everything just turned out really well.


The exhibition covers 3 areas. The Exhibition Hall where the exhibitors exhibit their products and also give our food and drinks sample, which were the main attactions. Then there is the Auditorium where we held our Convenience vs. Health Forum with speakers from SJMC,UPM and also our own lecturer who have done studies on food sociology.. or something like that. Then we have the courtyard where all the fun stuff and happenings happen.
-The exhibition hall-

-The panel of speakers at the Forum-

-The courtyard early in the morning-

-We never resist photo opportunities-


We thought the crowd will not be so fantastic but we were wrong. It was overwhelming.

Part of the attraction was the chance to win 2 air tickets to Jakarta courtesy of KLM-Air France. Therefore you can see the little blue booth on the right being crowded with people filling in contest forms. The crowd was also there to cheer their friends on in the Lunch Munch competition and the Best Zest Squeezer contest!

-What a mouthful and squeezeful-

The guys mostly took part in the Lunch Munch where they have to eat up 4 pieces of healthy Gardenia Breakthrough bread and the girls took part in the Best Zest contest. The guys who failed the Lunch Munch were also spotted trying the Best Zest. Haha.. our prizes were too attractive? Maybe. RM50 cash vouchers for Daorae Korean BBQ and even RM100 Hampers from Boh Tea. Even losers get RM20 cash vouchers. What's not to like, eh?

The participants had a lot of fun. Even our lecturers couldn't resist and took part too. The last picture on the bottom right are some of them. Haha!

All of us had fun too!
-Some of us-


-All of us-

In a nutshell - success! Hopefully our photo will appear in the front page of our next college magazine. I'm working on it. In the mean time, yay!