How to Make Fried Kang Kong

Today's lunch is rice with fried Kang Kong and fried soy bean paste. It is vegetarian meal !!! Sometimes, it is good to be vegetarian - it would bring good complexion, good health etc.
Kang Kong is one of the cheapest dish in Burma. It is remarked, in contemporary literature, as main dish of the Poor. It has been a cheap food to go with alcohol too. There has been a song about fried Kang Kong. It went like : "When I become vegetarian temporarily (some Burmese Buddhists do that), when I have no money and when I consume alcohol, Kang Kong plain (fried Kang Kong without any meat) was a very good friend."
Now how to make fried Kang Kong. Please note that this Kang Kong is the Chinese dialect (not the way of cooking, but the species of the leave itself). Let's start with ingredients :
Oil - 3 - 5 table spoon
Kang Kong - a pack (in Burmese packs, 2-4 packs)
Garlic - a couple of clovers.
Salt - half a tea spoon
Oyster Sauce - half a tea spoon.
Wash your Kang Kong and cut 1.5 inches. Don't take those roots - throw them away. Peal the garlic clovers and chop them into tiny peices.

Now heat the oil for 2-5 minutes. When the oil is quite hot (not so hot), put the tiny pieces of garlic in the pan and stir for a while.

Then put your Kang Kong, put the salt in it too. Stir. Now it is turn for the oyster sauce. If you like oyster sauce, you can put up to a full table spoon. However, notice that it tastes so salty and it smells aweful. Put oyster sauce and stir for next 2 minutes sharp. Then it is ready.
Don't forget to place it in the pan for a while. In that way, the remaining heat of the pan would soften your Kang Kong.
Ok, may your Kang be Kong (Kang Kong - in direct translation - in Burmese - means good luck.)

Friday the Thirteenth

Today's Friday and today's the Thirteenth - Friday the Thirteenth.

Many people think it as unlucky, frightening or spooky. For me, nothing scare me :P

My lunch, today, was instant noodle at home. I was not going to school but worked at home.

Vegetables Are Healthy

Today, I have got big trouble in the morning duty (an idiom :P).

The remedy is vegetables - lots of vegetables. I had Yong Tau Fu with lots of vegetables - I added rice noodle too. 

For dessert, I took papaya :D

Fried Rice with Both Tumeric and Soy Sauce

For me, fried rice means either Burmese fried rice or Chinese fried rice. Burmese version is with turmeric (and possibly onions). Chinese version is with soy sauce. I have never saw a version with both turmeric powder and soy sauce.

Today, my roommate made fried rice with both turmeric powder and soy sauce for breakfast. It also featured my mixed vegetables and fried egg. Since many were left at lunch time, I had fried rice and fried eggs as lunch. It was really tasty. Unbelievable !

Onee Taking Entrance Test

Today's lunch was rice with fried cauliflower and cooked bean curd from Beijing outlet. When I nearly finished my lunch, I'd got an incoming call from my Onee Chan. She's coming here for her Master Entrance test.

She asked me to help with her preparation - yet, most of the works I had done is calming her down. It was a very bad habit of her that she used to panic most of the critical time. She needs to drop this bad habit in order to advance in her life.

It turned out that she passed the entrance test. She's going to have an interview coming Wednesday.

R* Secured a Job

Good news folks, R* got a job. He rang me the good news and asked me some help. I met him at Peninsular Plaza and gave him the help he wanted. We settled at Loi Nai for our lunch.

My lunch is Shan rice noodle with tofu paste spread over. I ordered the vegetarian version since I don't like meat in my warm tofu paste. That food is a very unique food. Although Japanese, Chinese and some Thai also consume tofu, I never saw an equivalent of warm tofu paste on noodle. I like it very much. Our dessert is coconut jelly.

I also got a hair-cut today as he insisted I needed one. It was cheap - just $10.00 for cut, wash and treatment - probably because the stylist was a friend of R*. But I don't appreciate the resulting style - a little crude.

Regret for My Lunch

Just before I left for school, I checked the bus arrival time using my phone. The bus will be at the bus-stop next 3 minutes and, since it takes around 6-8 minutes to walk to bus-stop from my home, I decided to have my lunch at the food-court at the ground floor of my apartment first. That was a gross decision, which I regret.

I had rice with vegetable curry (vegetables in curry paste like you would cook chicken etc), tofu and fried vegetables. vegetable curry is very funny and taste awful. Tofu is not bad but they put dried fish in fried vegetables. I hate dried seafood. I decided never to have meal at that stall.

Belated Happy Birthday Friend

One of my dearest friends' birthday was on October 16th. I only remembered today. I sent a belated birthday wish using G-talk off line message. He was one of the five of us who have the same word (meaning "Victory" or "Victorious" in Burmese) in our names. We were attending same mathematics tuition in our university days. Happy Birthday M* M* !!!

Today's Sunday, therefore, before I set off to school, I had KFC fried chicken (2 pieces) with coleslaw and root beer as my lunch. I've got some KFC discount coupon (through postage) thus, enjoying the discount. Root beer is a non-alcoholic beverage - which tastes a little bit bitter due to some Caffeine elements just like coffee - similar to ginger beer. At first, I don't like it but later on, its taste is, to me, becomes coffee and chocolate and I started to like it.

If you haven't tried root beer before, you really should try it. It's very famous in the States (at least the sellers claim).

"WE Are Stuck", He Said

Today would be one of the most memorable days in my life. My supervisor replied me that I could see him in the afternoon. After explaining all the mixed results I had got last night, he remarked, "WE are stuck." (note it is not "YOU are stuck") How nice ?  No doubt he's a successful professor here. He is very good in motivation.

In the course of discussion, probably to cheer me up, he told me that there is some kind of dataset - and application - in existence that my algorithm - with some modification - would fit in. I was thinking my current problem as a sort of dead-end. It's clearly not. Although I can't describe the detailed nature of that dataset here, I could say, it is a large spatial-temporal dataset related to genetic/bio research. 

Cheered up, I went on to canteen to enjoy my vegetarian lunch from Beijing outlet. Today's rice was rice with cauliflower and sliced and dried bean curd. It was really tasty. 

In the afternoon, I figured out that the complex algorithm that existed to solve a dialect of my problem is giving incomplete result in at least two special - yet practical - conditions. I promptly sent an e-mail to my professor. 

Now, aja aja fighting !!! (a quote from Korean dramas).

DBS, Starhub and Cilvil Service : an Unfair Comparison

Today's lunch was all vegetable - green beans, bean sprout and a vegetable I can't name in English ("Gar Ra Khar Thee" or "Sukar Thee" in Burmese; both of which term refer/relate to Sikh ethnics but I don't know why). Then I got to rush to meet my supervisor. The meeting went smoothly.
Going back home, I went to the bank (the Clementi DBS branch) as the ATM nearby is crowded but the bank is clear. The counter staff denied my request to withdraw some money as I don't have my passport with me. In fact, I have my student pass with me with my photo on it. She told me that since anyone could rob my cards (the Master Card and the student pass) and memorize my secret PIN (and my signature), she must see my passport. What a ridiculous explanation in the sense that that same robber could also rob my passport :P
However, even if the robber rob my card and my secret PIN somehow, he/she can easily get money from the ATM (he/she must fool the camera by use of flu-mask too). What is the meaning of this ? In this logic, the bank's policy allow the robber to get money from ATM (up to $2,000) but it prevent him/her from getting the money from counter staff. Anyway, the money can still be stolen!
The truth is the bank policy was outdated - being set up before the time of ATM machines. The staff need to verify its customer using their other important document (NRIC or passport with photo) in order to reduce the chance of fraud and protect the customer. It worked well at that time (at the cost of introducing inconvenience to the customers whose other important document is lost etc) but nowadays, with the help of wonderful ATM, the customer is no longer protected. If the robber somehow get the card and secret PIN, the robber gets money.
The result - the customers who don't bring along their photo ID cards still can't get service but the robbers can cheat the bank/customer up to $2,000 (for those customers who lifted that limit it is $5,000). In other words, the protection scheme can no longer protect the bank/customer yet incurring a cost in POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE.
Starhub, also have this kind of problems (See my another post on Starhub Goes NUTS). When I complained using their web-based interface, I received e-mails and phone calls saying they would review their policies to improve their service. But I don't know whether they did or not. :P
For me, I got my money through the very ATM that is in the sight of that staff. So ridiculous. It is NUTS (No U-Turn Syndrome).
When I left the ATM for my shopping, a man was sick and fell down (he was still conscious though). One of the ladies around there made a call to 995 (the department in Civil Service for such case, 999 calls the cops). I noted the time as I'd like to know their response time. It may depend on the location but in this case, the ambulance was there no more than 4-5 minutes later. These civil service staff came with a foldable chair with their equipments. I admit I sincerely praise them.

They were assisting the man on the ground.

Then they raised him up.

Off they went to the medical center.

Think about it, civil service can be said to be the monopoly in their market. If you fell sick or need help, either you call them or you die. They won't get a salary raise nor profit and they won't lose their job even if their service were poor. Yet, they tried very hard. In contrast, DBS and Starhub were in competitive markets (banking and telecommunication industries respectively). However, they were shooing away their customers by their outdated policies and a legion of NUTS staffs. How pity they are.

In 2006, I was admitted to a postgraduate degree in a local government owned and famous university. Both DBS and OCBC were giving tuition loans to the students like me. I went to DBS first (since I already had a saving account with them), to apply my loan. The staff asked me if I have my admission letter (the latter addressed to me saying "I am admitted to which course and the classes will starts on which day and such such things). Since I have already completed my registration formalities, either the university retained the original copy or I lost it (I couldn't remember), I only have my student card. They denied my application for incomplete documents. Isn't it ridiculous (again) ? Which school (especially government owned university) would issue a student card to those not admitted ?

In the end, OCBC won my business. So long DBS !

No Meat Today

My lunch is semi-vegetarian again - no mood for meat. I had fried cabbage, fried vegetables - which I can't name in English (in Burmese it is called "Hin Nu Nwe") - and tofu in sour soy sause. That tofu is so good, so yummy. 

Finishing my lunch, I met Vam* on my way back to my lab. He seems to make a visit to canteen and, since I'd like to talk with him, I asked him to walk along to the canteen and talk. However, it turned up that he also had had his lunch. We ended up with a soft-drink each. Mine was papaya juice mixed with lime (Onee E*'s and Hn*'s favorite).

He has some problem in debugging his current work - some modification of Postgre SQL. We talked about some of the research problems we encountered. I may need to talk with him more in near future, I noted.

A lots of vegetables and papaya juice ended up as a visit to the toilet shortly.

Point-N-Eat Meals

It is not point-n-shoot cameras, but point-n-eat dining. I think it is kinda ugly for canteens in an international campus hosting a huge portion of foreign students and researchers. The worst cases are Beijing outlet in the Terrace, Si Chuan and Claypot outlets in the Deck.

While many foreign students are taking basic Chinese courses to adapt in new environment, why can't Estate and Development Office mandates culpulsory basic English courses for canteen workers ? Those poor canteen operators don't even know their food items' names in English nor say the price in English properly. In one instance, the operator asked me like $5.25 but, when I gave a $5 and $2 notes, she gave me $4.50 back.

Many exchange students (many of them are caucasians) came here for at most two semesters, yet they are going to basic Chinese courses. Those canteen workers work here forever, dealing with many Vietnameses, Burmeses, French, English and you-name-the-race students. Taking two-three hours of their time every week won't harm so much, I think.

I really didn't know the name of meal I took today. I just pointed the plate, which is for the one before me. Remember the term "point-n-eat dining". It contains some vegetables, pork legs and rice. 

Enjoying the meal, I wondered why many Si Chuan (Szechuan) food are similar to that of Shan food. Modified Dan Dan Noodle, for example, contains peanuts, sesame, pickled vegetables, cooked meat and, most notably, fried chili (oil). It is closely resemble to the hybrid of Shan noodle and Mee Shay (not Law Shay's Mee, its name is really Mee Shay).

I wikied for an answer and found out that a lot of Tai resides in southern Si Chuan (I also noted that there are Li Su tribe in that province). In fact, Tai are ethnic superset of those Siam (in Thailand), Shan (in Myanmar), Assam (in India), Isan (in Lao) and many tribes in southern China. An interesting fact is that many Tai ethnics resides in Hainan, too. Since Hainan is famous for their Chicken Rice, I suspect many Tai involved in the Chicken-rice (almost like Singapore's national food) behind the curtain.

Healthy Instant Noodle

Today's lunch was Maggi Mee with sausage and mixed vegetables. Here's how you'd prepare a nutritious meal from instant food - instant noodle, sausages and mixed vegetables. Boil some water first, then put the noodle and sausage. After two-three minutes, pour the water out - there goes unhealthy chemical in instant noodle and some fat in sausage. Put some hot water back into the pot and mixed vegetables with half of that MSG pack used to come with the noodle. Put some salt for taste. After another two-three minutes ready to serve!

Coup in Heavenly Realm

I got up late this morning (almost noon :P). Since my little sister kept on insisting on her Pizza I promised her, I brought her to Mega Bites (a cafe within school compound) to feed her and have myself a brunch. I had BBQ Chicken Pizza and vegetable salad with black coffee (without sugar).

That's the problem with Singapore. Many coffee shop workers don't know black coffee. They think it is just the coffee (without milk nor sugar). They name coffee with sugar as Coffee O - which the chinese in Myanmar pronounce as Coffee Aww. Complication even persist as I did say coffee O after uttering out black coffee as I used to. Whee !

During the brunch, she asked me to help her get a part-time job. I explained her that foreign students (from private school) here are not permitted to work part-time. It's violation of law - which can lead to humiliating punishment followed by life-time visa-ban. She didn't head my words. I need to settle with her guardians here. I hate to do that again.

Getting back home, since I was way too sleepy after the food, I thought about how to code a Moving Object Database (for my research works). However, when I got home, Channel 8 shows a TV series. In this episode, I saw a coup in the Heavenly Realm (the Chinese one which is quite similar to that of Greek). The former heavenly emperor let the human - mortal - enjoy freedom, even when they choose not to respect the gods. However, the empress - the one who did the coup to rule the Heavenly and Mortal Realms for 30,000 years - thought, since Heaven created them, the mortal should pay respect - and worship - the god. It make me think many similar thing in the reality. I like this series now.

My Friend's Dad - R.I.P

My stupid roommate told me he'd have dinner at home last night. I cooked rice for two but his definition of home is not the like mine. The result, my breakfast and lunch was fried rice of the rice that remain overnight. I have fried vegetables remained, too. I stir an egg into the pan - the one with heated oil - and, after a while, mix with the vegetables. Then, rice. Bingo ! Chinese fried rice. (My land lady was so amazed to see me cooking that way. I don't know why)

During lunch time, I rang one of my friends - whose father, I believe, was hospitalized - to encourage him. I was shocked when he said his father had died like a month ago. Upon hearing my voice, he wept. My heart was shaken. I tried my best to say soothing words, but I am not so good at that subject. He is one of my best friend. He is an honest man. He is a very simple man. He taught me calculas back in my second year (i.e. sophomore for those who aren't familiar with my university's system) I really feel pity for him. May his dad's soul Rest In Peace.

Talking about I was bad at soothing mournful friend, I remembered the time when our geography teacher broke the news to the class that our class monitor's (TT's) father had passed away on one 25th of December back in my high school days, I even laughed out - despite my hard effort to control it. My reasoning, on 25th of December, many celebrate the BIRTH of Jesus and his father DIED. I found the fun in the contrasting idea. By the way, that teacher, too, had passed away. R.I.P my beloved teacher.

My cousin's G-talk message was that she feel ashamed of being Asian for the first time. When I asked how, she replied the Vietnameses, Chineses and Indians in her class cheated during the exam. "The Caucasians wore wide eyes ! " she said. I had to told her that since she's been honest, there is no need to be ashamed of. However, I am glad she has that kind of attitude - the spirit.

After my lunch, I attended a seminar - about overcoming the quality curse in data management. That was a good one. I noticed some area that need works. Now, back to the code, bye !

Lady Finger Memories

Today, I am still coughing but managed to get to school by noon. My breakfast was a small pack of instant noodle and I was hungry by the time I got school. I had my lunch at the Deck (Arts canteen). I had no appetite for meat/fish so I had all vegetable meal (though I consumed some curry paste from chicken curry and fish paste that come with lady finger). You can call my lunch today as semi-vegetarian. I had lady finger with fish paste, fried cauli flower and fried cabbage.

Lady fingers here are almost always cooked together with pickled fish paste. Fish paste tend to make the dish salty. How come those fast food outlets know in advance each customer's like and tolerance to salt (due to hypertension etc). Back in Burma (aka Myanamr), lady fingers are cooked first and served with fish paste in a seperate dish. That's a better way I think.

Talking about lady fingers and fish paste, the first time I consumed them together was just before I left for Singapore (at the age of 22). Before that, I used to eat lady fingers without fish paste - just as my mom always cook. One of my closest friends, LMT, who's also like a little brother to me, made me a parting party (for I am leaving). There was only three people, me, him and one of his close frined - who had been here. Drinking beer, I tried lady finger and fish paste together. 

LMT, now, has got married. His wife's name is much sound like my name with the last syllable the same. I lost contact with him for a year. I must try to contact him not only because he's like my brother but also because his mom is one of the teachers I loved most. His mom taught my 6th Standard (7th year in basic education for those who are not familiar with Burma's education system) class English. She was an exceptionally kind teacher. (She, once, bought me some ice-bar :P)

Leaving the canteen, I met prof Terence Sim. He was the one who introduced me with Bayesian network. He's a little bit confused when I smiled to him - seem not recognize me well or was very hungry. Walking back to my lab, I met the whole graduate office walking up (yes, it's an uphill) to canteen. I waved hand :P.

Back in my lab, my computer is still running the experiment. I need to figure out some optimized (internal)  parameters that that code need to run for my dataset. It's wield and boring.