Travis Barker Remix Hip-Hop

 Travis Barker is the drummer of Blink-182. However, he's also into hip-hop. This is his remix of a popular hip-hop track. Enjoy.My lunch today is canned Sardine from my roommate and fried cabbage with carrot by me. Umm, with rice of course.

Doctoral Seminar Was Scary

This morning, I attended a fellow research student's doctoral seminar. It is also called PhD thesis proposal. He is working in a field that is closely related with my research area. (Moreover, his supervisor was my GRP examiner.)

His work was quite good. Not so many professors (please read examiners) and some research students (two from multimedia lab and myself :P) attended his seminar. The question shot were scary - mainly to aim at making the candidate lose his ground. (That's why PhD defense is named that way :P) Since he doesn't have firm application area, that's his blow. I decided to have many mock thesis proposal and defense with my lab-mates.

I couldn't stay there until he's finished since I had an appointment with my supervisor. The lunch was a rush one - at Chinese cooked food stall. 

My lunch was fish in lemon sauce, lady finger and egg plant. Not so yummy.

The D-Day

Today is D-Day. Almost all perishable food that is consumed. My Onee Chan came to my rescue by bringing home-cooked lunch box. It was filled with rice, char siew and fried small fish (my favorite). I also asked her to buy some Hokkien Mee at the stall down there so that we can have it together with rice.

It was really enjoyable lunch although the items are simple. 

In the afternoon, it was so tiresome. We sweat a lot :P

Pau before Lunch with Onee

Today, my Onee E* visited my home to get prepared for her master entrance test - it is just an in-house GRE combined with some IT knowledge. Since she's already well-rounded IT professional, she may not have any difficulty passing the entrance test - the only problem : she ought to worry so much.

She brought one of my favorite foods : Pau. I have them before lunch (like my dad, I also like Pau, Prata and Fried Noodle). She also brought fried small fish and fried sour leaves (Kim Poon Chin). It was a yummy lunch. I felt a little bit sorry for I didn't prepare any food for her. :P

Fried small fish is one of my favorites. When I was young, I was thin and not so healthy. To have enough protein (since I didn't consume rice as much as half of I am now), my mom used to made fried chicken and fired small fish as my snacks. I miss my mom whenever I see/consume fried chicken, fired small fish, sweet potato (which I don't like) and Milo. 

I love you mom !!! (and Aun' Mee of course)

My Aunt Was Robbed in the Lift

Last night, I heard a terrible news - my aunt was robbed in the lift at her apartment. It was fortunate that she was not harmed, the robber only took her hand phone. She reported to the police. Hearing that I was shocked so much. Combined with other social problems (no, no, not about girlfriends) make me stressed out and couldn't sleep last night.

I am supposed to go to school to collect the data today. Instead, I didn't. My lunch was rice with fish curry (left from the other day) and fried beaf and chili. It was a good meal.

I need to move now. I have an appointment with my friends - my former roommate and his sisters - in the city, after which I have to fetch my Onee at air-port. Bye

In the Lab in Sunday Evening

I was at my father's friends place and, again, Mont Hin Gar ! Today's Mont Hin Gar was a little bit more salty and Aunt Y* told me the maid has put too much fish sauce. Since yesterday was Thadingyut festival, I pay homage to those couple offering them some food and health-care accessories. Though the offerings are not so expensive, the essence is not forgetting to tribute the Elders. 

When I left their place at around 1315, uncle asked me if I am going to school on Sunday. Yes, sadly, I was now in school. I found out that my new algorithm needs more fixes. I thought I'd get back home late tonight.

Funny Idea on Names of the Dishes

I have a meeting with my supervisor tomorrow. Therefore, I stayed at home today to do the house works. My lunch was Rice mixed with fried fish oil, fried fish and fried French beans. I made some fried fish a couple of days ago (see the entry of the day that I make fried fish). I fried some garlic before the French beans to get a good smell. French beans are quick to cook. Only a handful of minutes - then Ta Da ! Done ! 

That turmeric fish oil, when mixed with rice and some salt, is so yummy. It made me miss home - and mom. When I was young, I tend to get upset stomach. Every time I get bloating stomach, my mom would fry either fish or chicken with turmeric powder, mix the oil with salt and rice for me. It was really delicious. Like a cup of hot Milo, it is the symbol of my mom to me. :(

We - my land lady and I - were talking about the name of the Chinese dishes. All Chinese dishes are named like "Lucky", "Fortunate", "Stream", "Good", "Healthy" etc. When I told her, one of Shan dishes is actually named like "Fish in a Big Trouble" (Ngar Dote Kha), she was amazed. I was thinking to set up a restaurant whose signature dishes are all bad things - "Fish in Big Trouble" for that Shan fish, "A Pack of Shit" for chive dumpling (I wrote about it here) and many other bad names :D.

How do you think ?

A Good Plot Device

Today's lunch is fried fish fillet with bread plus water. The fish were in the fridge for a long time, so I fried them all to keep them today using tumeric poweder and salt only. I ate some of them with bread (what a very bad combination; don't try). I was supposed to cook rice but a good plot device for a budget movie consumed my mind the whole afternoon.

It was about sins, death and cute girls. It only needs two characters. I now have the plot device, the twist, the ending but still short of the story elements. At first, I'd make it a short story with poem fillers - not in TAH universe. However, I, somehow, was able to fit that in the TAH timeline with the help of a special kind of narrative. Then, I thought, if Sai Sai found that, he'd make it a video. Then I thought how economical if I make it into a short film. I contacted my film enthusiastic friends and my brother.

I was thinking of producing it myself, let one of my friends produce it, let my brother produce it or let NUS film group produce it. I couldn't make up my mind. Wish me good luck. 

The temporary title that is in my mind is "An Interview with Lord of Death".

Algebra Afternoon

Today's is Thursday - my turn to clean the apartment. After sweeping and mopping the floor, I did the bathroom. I need to warn my roommate to do the bathroom. He's like skipping his turn for two consecutive turns I feel it.

Lunch was Si Chuan Bean Curd that my land lady gave me, the fried fish I made this morning and the pan cakes I bought yesterday - spread across all afternoon. Si Chuan Bean Curd is so wonderful, emerged in the chili oil, no preservative is required.

The whole afternoon, I read the old articles on elementary Algebra I have written and polished that up into three blog posts (in my Burmese blog) I found some hasty conclusions in some proofs in those and surf the web to learn in depth of those things and correct them. Wow ! A long day !

Just Don't Praise It, Son

Lunch was Mont Hin Gar at my aunt's place. Since my uncle (her husband) doesn't like it, he just told me not to praise it or he'll have it again next week. I just shut my mouth.

Mont Hin Gar again

Since today's the substitute holiday for the National day - which was unfortunately on Sunday - Onee Yone and her significant other asked us (me and my roommate) to have Mont Hin Gar at their place. It was only a 5 minutes walk from our apartment. They are very nice and friendly people, I had to admit.

Mont Hin Gar was exceptional and we had to say good things about it. It turned out that she made it from the instant-Mont-Hin-Gar pack (yes, like instant noodle). However, making Mont Hin Gar out of instant pack is not as easy as you make noodle out of instant noodle pack. Her skills were more than just "good". They told me I am getting fatter. I didn't believe. With BMI of 22, I am just normal :P

Although Mont Hin Gar was good, MSG make me dizzy the whole evening. :(

For those who has no idea what "Mont Hin Gar" is, you can read in my previous post about it.

National Day 2009

Today is Singapore's National Day 2009 and Sunday. That means tomorrow will also be a holiday. I've got nothing to do but to code. I just ate the remnant of fish curry I cooked yesterday and fried rice. So boring. But this evening, I may visit my senior's place and see his son. He's so cute. I am thinking of borrowing some books to read from him. Really coding and nothing-else to do.

Burmese Fish Curry

Happy birthday, mom !!! Today's my mother's 54th birthday. I rang her early morning and she told me that they were having porridge - our family's favorite. For me, lunch was Burmese Fish Curry and rice. I cooked it also for my senior, whom I am to visit tomorrow as tomorrow is Singapore's birthday, a holiday. I'll share how I cooked my version - derived from Rangoon (aka Yangon) version - of Burmese Fish Curry.
To know and master Burmese Fish Curry, one must understand how Burmese perceive fish. In their eyes, fish is a healthy and delicious but smelly food. Therefore, their cooking style reflects that belief and choice of ingredients aim either to preserve the nutrition value and taste of food or to kill the nasty smell (or both). Here's the list of ingredients (for a meal for 3-4 person) :

• Fish - 400 - 500 g (any fish is ok, however, I prefer boneless fillet sold for sushi as it is safe for my throat.)
• Garlic - 4 - 5 cloves
• Ginger - a medium-sized piece
• Onion - 2 -3 (depending on the size)
• Tumeric powder (Haldi) - 1 - 2 tea spoon
• Salt - 2 tea spoon
• Chili powder - 3/4tea spoon (if you don't like, leave it)
• Green chili - 2 -3 (if you don't like, leave it)
• Chinese Parsley - some

As you may notice, the function of the onion is to enhance the taste and that of Chinese Parsley is to kill the smell whereas ginger serves both. All other ingredients serve the similar functions. Talking about Chinese Parsley, I noticed a strange thing. In Burmese, Chinese Parsley is called "Nan Nan". However, Parsley is, in turn, called "Chinese Nan Nan". Funny, is it ?

First of all, wash your fish and chop it up into 1 inch squares (not cubes, fish are thin :P). If you are thawing a freezed fish, you should try to chop it before you thaw it since it is easier to chop that way. After that, marinade the fish with a tea-spoon of salt and half-a-tea-spoon tumeric powder (if you like its smell, you can put a full tea-spoon of tumeric powder). Tumeric powder will reduce the smell of the fish - especially after frying in next step. It doesn't add much taste.

Then, peal the garlic cloves and onions off. Slice the onion into thin slices. If you are fancy with your knife-skills, you can chop them into small pieces. Or if you have right equipments, you can pound them up. Peal and cut the ginger into small pieces and hammer it down (using your knife handle or similar equipment.) Doing so help the juice in ginger to come out when you finally cook it. That ginger juice, again, is to reduce the smell of the fish. Smash your green chili, too. Those green chili will bring a lovely smell to your curry. Remember, Burmese don't like the smell of fish and all tumeric powder, ginger and green chili are to make the curry smell nice. Then heat your oil up using a deep frying pan.

When the oil starts to boil, place your fish into the pan. The main purpose of this frying nonsense is - yes, you are right - to reduce the smell of the fish. Therefore, you don't need to fry them until they are well-done. One minute is just more than enough and remove the fish (into some temporary bowl). Now pour the heated oil into a larger pot, where you might do actual cooking (for a healthy meal, pour only half the oil).
Put the garlic and, after 10 seconds, the onions. Stir them until the onion become soft. Put a tea-spoon full of chili powder (for visual appearance and, if you don't like chili, you can leave it). In Mandalay style of cooking, they also use tomatoes in this step. However, many Rangoon-style advocates - including me - feel that tomatoes would add an awkward smell to the curry. Moreover, you can't left the curry overnight if you use tomatoes. So leave them. After a short while, your curry paste will be something like this:

Now, it is time to put your half-fried fish in. Don't forget to put the fish slowly into the pot. Put your hammered-down ginger, green chili and some water, too. Stir up from time to time. Be careful as the fish are soft and tends to break apart as you stir hard - making your curry ugly. However, if you don't stir, your curry paste (made up of onion) will be over-cooked. Don't worry. By setting aside the curry-paste (onions and garlic etc) before you put your fish in, you can stir the curry paste one side leaving the fish in the other side intact. You have to cook for 15 - 30 minutes (fill more water if you need) depending on the kind of fish you use. For the sushi fillets I used, 12 - 15 minutes is enough.
Note: for those who love their microwave ovens (like me), you can switch to microwave after the first round of water is gone. Just don't forget to put a quarter cup of water into the container before you cook it in microwave. And also don't forget to use only Microwave Safe Container for safety reasons.

When the fish is done (the curry paste will also formed at that time), you need to continue cooking until the water is gone and the oil will re-emerge out of nowhere. Although Burmese people like it with a layer of oil - as thick as about half a centimeter - above their fish, you don't need to follow it closely for the sake of your health. If you don't like oil, you can use less oil (simply don't pour all the oil you used to fry the fish into your cooking pot as I mentioned before).
Shut your stove (microwave) off and, while it is still hot, cut (and wash) your Chinese Parsley and spread it above your fish. Now, it is ready to serve ! Yummy, isn't it ?

Supplier's Market

Western as usual from the same old pasta shop (whose owner is quite friendly with me). Today, I was a bit late so that there ain't no pasta anymore. Therefore, I had fish cutlet (fried fish) and mesh potato. Canteens during school holiday are really suppliers' market. Either you have what they have or you starve, no third option. I hate it.

Mesh patato was so tender, today. May be I was very hungry. You can say I was lucky that I get meshed potato, not French fries. Yesterday, I watched Rachael Ray's show (a cooking show I guess), which featured someone who wrote a book named "Eat This, Not That". The guy (the author of the book) explained that, although potato is carbohydrate, it is better meshed than fried for your health. One should rather eat meshed potato than eat fried potato. They (Rachael Ray and the guy) warned not to have more than one fried food in your plate. 

Back to my lab, my heart was pounding since my SoC's standard issue was running an experiment using someone else's code (I modified it though). I am quite relieved to see it's still working (no error). At least, till now.