Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Food

Subjects this term, especially Food Sociology is actually making me scare of eating food nowadays, or shall I say more caution when it comes to food products? If you are a hospitality student who happened to study the same subject as I am, then perhaps you will understand this more, but if you are not, perhaps you will not be aware of all these.

Brillat Savarin said ' Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are'

He is the founder of gastronomy, and what he said, is just brilliant. Yes. Whatever that goes in your tummy, will determine who you are. Whatever that you consume now may not affect you in short term, but when in long run, it will definitely impact you slowly and when you realize it, it may be too late. 

As much I wanted to tell people about what I had learnt, others may not think that it is important. People always said, ' I am still young, I should eat whatever that I want now' Oh well, I do agree with this statement to a certain extend, but hey, it has no harm to educated yourself about what you eat right?

But I am lucky that I have a mum who are as health conscious as I am, so if you can see from pictures of me and my brothers, none of us are even close to overweight. Well, not trying to be proud, but I must say, it is all because of my mum. She had been trying to feed us with oats since we were young, trying to force us to eat celery  making sure that each meal has vegetables in it, now she is pretty much a tea person. And oh, my parents are trying to grow their own vegetables now. I am surprised to find that my dad successfully grown some HUGE pumpkin in our garden, spring onion, coriander, passion fruit, sweet berry etc. So ya, I think my family is turning organic slowly. haha. Which is a good thing!

One fine day, I was so enthusiastic to tell my mum about the benefits about vegetables and wanted to encourage my mum to ask my dad to eat more vegetables. And guess what my mum says? 

'You think I don't know ar? You did not see everyday you dad is eating more vegetables now? I know all these, better than you do.'

At that moment, I feel so proud of my mum. haha. 

Anyways, everyone eats. No matter what race you are, no matter what size you are, as long as you are a living being, you eat. Eat is part of our live, when we sad, we eat; when we are happy, we eat; when we are angry, we eat; and no matter what we do, we will still eat. Of course, anorexia or bulimic does not count. Those are the psychological reasons that are stopping them from eating properly. 


Eating is like a therapy for most of us. You feel good after you eat because you feel satisfied, sometimes you feel bad after you eat because you felt guilty. But there is not doubt, food is a necessity and we have to eat, to live. 


And so, everyone have to eat, and we all eat three times a day, or two if you have brunch. Imagine the amount of food that goes into your body, how much and what our body absorbs from it. You eat fast food, your body absorbs all the fats which leads to high cholesterol, high blood pressure in long term. You eat junk food and your body absorbs all the additives, preservatives that were used to produced the product. 

If you are a nutritionist, perhaps what I am saying now is just peanuts of what you had learnt, yes, I only touch the water a bit, but it certainly has an impact on me. 

Everyone knows eating vegetables are good. Your mum told you so, your teachers told you so, your friends told you so. Yes. Eating vegetables are good for you and it has so so many nutrients that our body acquire. I am sure most of you are aware of it, so I will not touch much on it. But the thing is, as more and more research were being conducted on food, more tacky and wacky things will come out, like GMO ( Genetically Modified food), clones etc. As the demand of food increase, the supply have to increase as well. Hence, you need to increase the food production. But how? Then comes hormones injection, antibiotics, clones etc. All these food are becoming so common now that sometimes, we don't even know what we are eating. We don't even know that we are eating food that were being inject with hormones, antibiotics, whether it is Genetically Modified or not. 


If you heard of some food product from certain country, *ahem* 70 percent of the things you find in the market comes from???  They use coloring to make the food more appealing, they inject sweetening agent into fruits to make it sweet, it adds in melamine in milk powder so it could save their production cost by diluting the milk etc. So tell me, how sure are you the food that you eat are safe?? 

Hence comes organic food which is produced naturally without the use of all those components like pesticides, herbicides etc. In Malaysia, the price of organic food is still rocketing high compared to normal food products. The organic food market is slowly growing, however, it will not grow unless the demands goes up. One thing about organic food in Malaysia is, the regulations are still not strong enough and those that claimed to be 'organic' food may not be organic at all. It may just be a marketing strategy to convince people to buy their products. So why would you buy organic food, when others are 2 times cheaper than organic food? Even I can not convince myself! Because, it is all about money. If the price is cheaper, then only consumers will slowly accept organic food and purchase organic food. But when there is no demand, how would the price drop??

So tell me, will it change your mind of food after reading what I had written so far? Like my lecturer said, we all know, but we don't do anything about it. UNLESS, there is a huge impact like what happen to the melamine case, then only the authority will do 'something'. 

I know what I wrote may be boring to you, but this is my interest and something that I take really seriously. If you are interested, I can tell you which video to watch. =)Hopefully everyone who reads this, will start to take what they eat a little bit more seriously. =)

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Never ending work

I have a lot of things to do!! =( =(

Let me see what are in my hands now. I am an obedient student who does her financial homework because I am scare that I will be lost in the class..I studied contemporary health and nutrition because I wanted to score in this test so it will pull up my grades for the finals..And yes, I am thinking of doing another transcript because I feel guilty for not touching my Dissertation today. I have one discussed assignment on Organizational Behavorial and has yet to type anything so far, another untouched assignment on Tourism Econs because we just completed the first assignment on this subject..and thats 'all' ! Hopefully we won't have assignment on food sociology.

I still need to write on my methodology, do my analysis of my findings, conclusion, compilations of dissertation and ALL these, have to be done in less than a month time! Oh yea, life is great isn't it?

Who will ever thought that hospitality student will have to learn Accounting and Financial? Health and nutrition, tourism Econs? Last term of degree is ain't easy ya!

Everyday, I have to set a goal for myself. Today I will complete this and that. Tomorrow I will do this and that. I got a feeling I will go out of my mind very soon.

Then comes weather who are being really crazy nowadays..It is torching hot that I can get sun burn just by walking under the sun for a few minutes. And it causes me headache and uneasiness as my brains can't really function properly with me constantly sweating like no one's business and running back and fourth to the bathroom just to refresh myself.

Seriously, let's get everything done ASAP because I am sick of all these writting, typing, thinking and researching 24/7. Okay, maybe I am getting stressed now. Oh great.

*edited* Screwed my dissertation..I am going to watch drama for self relaxation..

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Awesome

Life is awesome....

As a kid..

I thought I had a rough childhood, but I was wrong..

When you are a kid, you always think that getting scolded by your parents is the worst thing that could ever happen to you..

You will only remember the time when your butt gets whack, but not those happy and innocent times. 

As you grew older, you know that it is for your own good. Sometimes, you just need some canning so you could understand that this is wrong. 



Then comes primary school where you are expose to science, math, history and not forgetting boys..

I remember asking my friend when I was in 10 years old

'How do you know whether you like a person or not?'

Then my friend said, 'Go and sit and talk to that guy then you will know' 

Of course, it doesn't work that way. 


Secondary school is where everything that you are today, forms slowly..

You have fun in co-curriculum activities, you enjoy having your friends as your company, you have fun being in class, and of course, you have 'fun' taking exams.

This is where you meet true friends, true companions who are willing to go through thick and thin with you.



Your parents will tell you study hard, so you will have a better future. And that, is where you are exposed to the word - stress.

It is the stage where hormones played an important role. It teaches you what is loneliness, and it teaches you to be jealous. 


Not everyone has the chance to be chosen to join the National Service in Malaysia, I was the fortunate one.

It was one big huge step towards independence, and self discipline. 

It thought me how to live with so many girls in one dorm for three whole months, taught me how important hand phone was, and oh, it opened my door to love. 


College life...

First stage of college life, naive, innocent, big happy family, everything is so new and fresh.

I learnt how to live by myself away from family


Then, you meet friends who will help you, you meet friends that back stab you, you meet enemies, you meet lover, and you meet cheater.

You learnt that people come, people go. There are people who will bring you up and built your personality.


There are also people who will hurt you and bring you down.

You go through emotional ups and downs, you gained your confidence, you lost your confidence.

You learnt that life can be very tough, you learnt that sometimes, you just have to move on.


Nevertheless, you know who are your true friends, the ones that hold your back when you fall, the ones that share happiness and sadness with you.


For better or worst, they are with you.


They make you smile, they bring light into your life.

Whether it is the most dreadful assignment or the dirtiest work in the kitchen, we walked through all these together. 

We whined, we complaint, we procrastinate, but and the end of the day, we still get our work done. 


Then, you meet that special someone.

That person who doesn't mind doing crazy stuffs with you, that person who make you smile, make you cry, make your hair stands..

That person who just make you crazily in love with.


Family


As you grew older, you will realize that family is really important.

You will appreciate all the time that you can spent together, you will slowly learn to understand them and to appreciate them more. 

Life, is awesome.


It doesn't matter if I had many caning when I was a kid, it doesn't matter I did not get my medical scholarship, it doesn't matter if I made a few enemies, it doesn't matter my heart was broken, it all doesn't matter.

Because there are so many things in life that I should be appreciating and looking forward to instead of all those negativeness. 

It is how you think, and how you perceived life as it is. 

No matter what shite other people gave you, what kind of obstacles you faced in life, it is you who decide how you want to look at it.

You can choose to look into the brighter side, you can choose to be happy, you can choose to be great. 

Appreciate the little things that make life great, appreciate the special moment that make life amazing.

No matter what other people says, I know, that

My life, is awesome.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

A glimpse of our future

A glimpse of what we are getting into for the next four month of internship..


Perhaps the perfect sun rise or sun set on the mountain


Cooling and chilly weather on the mountain without all the hassles of sweating and enduring the hot sun downtown


Fresh mountain air with amazing views


Lights, entertainment, people from everywhere ( China, Singapore, India etc), smokes?


Or perhaps more green tea latte and blueberry muffin after work?


Jacket and formal wear most of the time? I need more formal blouse, skirts, black pants, and oh, please remind me to not get anymore high heels but ballerinas? I can not walk on heels during work. =p

Not forgetting the never ending walking from this end to another end, conflicts at work, harassment perhaps? and of course, getting tired mentally and physically. Oh yes, that will be our working life up on the hill. The good thing is, I don't have to worry about money because I won't be spending much when working, food signing facilities provided so no worries on pocket money for nom nom, accommodation provided though I am worried for the safety of my belongings and I get to experience something that I had never experience before. It is not about food and beverage anymore, it is not about housekeeping nor kitchen, its all about bets and 'ka ching' ($$). 

Motivation to work? Try something different every time so you won't get bored of it. That is what I am doing and also, testing the water for my future career. Who knows, this may be the next big thing for me. Time flies, and it is speeding like a shooting star. Opportunities won't wait for you, either you put it all out, or it will never come. Ever since I graduated from high school, I stick to every decisions that I made. Parents may need some convincing, but at the end of the day, they know that I know what I am doing. So yes, we will see what happens next. 

All of us during Genting FAM trip. XD

To be continue




To be continue~~

Thursday, March 24, 2011

BrB

Today is a good day. I had enough sleep, ate enough, did something out of a blue moon, and B's new toy is in town!

Well, they say it takes time to heal and it takes time to finally get over something. Yeap, it does really. After two long years, I finally took the courage and step out of my comfort zone. I don't know whether it is the hormonal effect or any other reasons, today, I just felt like it is time to get rid of it. Whether I really got over it, or still hanging there, I believe that as time goes by, I will be able to get rid of the insecurities in me. Even if it requires me to take one baby steps at a time. I believe that I can do it! =) 


Days after days of gruelling over specs after specs, my b finally get hold of his very first lappie!! *clap clap clap* 


Don't ask me what specs this and that, I am pretty much noob in this. So ya, it is a ASUS A53SV said b. =) and he practically on high now..hahaha..


The cover quite cool ya, can even camwhore with it. =p 

Happy for him and happy for me too! Because I can main main with it also. wheeeee~ 

Anyways, tomorrow as early as 6.45am, we have to leave to Genting for our FAM trip. It is basically some introductory trip to explain about the management training program to us and we have some visiting trips to different different departments including casino this time!! WHEEEE! A lot of sitting down listening to talks and also walking around Genting. I am pretty much excited because this is what we will face in our coming internship. So yeap. A slight glimpse of what to aspect in the future. As excited as I am, I am suffering from headache due to unknown reason and I better off to bed now. Good night people! Loves

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Eat oh Eat

It was a truly 'makan-makan' trip back home last weekend and what I can remember was, eat eat eat and eat. haha. Actually there are a few family events going on so everyone gathered together and makan makan.

Firstly, my uncle and family from Singapore came for 'qing ming' which is earlier as usual. So after visiting the graves, we went for breakfast together and after two hours, we went for lunch, eat again.@@ Everyone was complaining they were still full but what to do, they have to rush back to Singapore. Hence, early lunch at Reagent Restaurant near my house. 

Other than those above, we still have a soup and one whole huge plate of chicken. @@ FYI, the portion above is for 11 people ya!

As for dinner, my cousin sister who went to Tokyo Japan to further her studies had came home safely a day before and my uncle wanted to treat all of us for a dinner. My cousin sister said the situation there is actually not as serious as what that had been reported in local newspapers. It was pretty calm in Tokyo . Only the northern part and southern part of Japan where it was hit by earthquake and tsunami the situation was pretty bad. She even said everyone in Tokyo is trying to save electricity so those affected areas will have sufficient electricity. 

Another round of food food food! 

My aunt even bought a cake for her. haha

Picture with baby again! =) =)

Then comes Sunday lunch where all of us in my family work together in order to make 'Pa Mee' which is homemade egg noodle in Hing Hua dialect. I am telling you, making homemade noodle is serious business and you needs lots of stamina and patience. 

Who said men can not cook? haha. Everyone including my dad helped! =p

After rolling, squeezing, flattening and cutting the noodles for an hour or so, we finally managed to make mee that can feed up to 20 people! haha

Some were cooking in the pot already..=)

All our hard work!!! 


The end result, my grandmother's specialty that was passed on to my mum = Pa Mee!

Nothing beats homemade noodle where it is springy and had absorbed all the wonderful soup with no trace of MSG at all.=p Slurrrpsss. It is a once in a while thing as too much of hard work required, or shall I say manpower? keke


Other than Mee we will have Siew Yuk, Roasted Chicken and Steamed Chicken..

Roasted Pork! Awesome thing!

This! Is the best sauce ever. It is a coriander oyster sauce based chili paddy shallots sauce. It goes really well with the noodle o! =)

So what do you think? Did we ate our hearts out last weekend? Definitely!! One fine day I will master the homemade noodle making skills! That will be my life long goal in order to pass on the Pa Mee tradition. Well, in the past, my Ah Ma used to sell Mee, like the ones that we made.So every one once in a while, my grandma will cook Pa Mee and ask us to come over to eat. Me and my brothers love to eat my Ah Ma's mee   as we had been eating it since we were a kid. Ever since my Ah Ma had passed away, this noodle making tradition had been passed on to my mum and my aunty. So therefore once in a blue moon when my mum's mood is good, she would ask all of us to help her to make noodle. The next person to master this art? Who else but me and my brothers? haha. Yeap. I had written down the recipe and practiced it a few times with my mum watching us like a hawk. So wish me luck people! =p Who knows i will be a noodle master in the future! 

 
Lub lub fella and lubo lubo fella came all the way from KL to visit Seremban also o! haha. 

In a nutshell, nothing beats eating home cook food, especially those that we had been eating since young. =)

Monday, March 21, 2011

These people

I can not believe that there are such similarities between certain type of people in this world and seriously, it is unforgivable. I don't care who who who or whatever, just that some people just don't know how to appreciate people's good inside and condemned it in every way they can find. Or perhaps they had forgotten her good while being distracted by those equally immoral whores.

'Good girls are like that. They tend to wait for him to change...'

But certainly, this kind of thing is like a 'one in a million' thing. It does not happen all the time no matter how hard you convince yourself you can help him. I do not respect people who treat girls like that, and certainly hate anyone people who cheats on people, whether it is guy or girl, its the same thing. You still want to have fun in life and enjoy the most out of it while you are young, then don't get into a relationship and claim another victim. Go out there be single and have all the fun you want. Don't only find that girl because you suddenly felt lonely inside because all those fun that you have outside is merely a glimpse of light and once it turns off, what's left is darkness and loneliness.

When you realize it is time to get serious, then put away those thoughts that is lingering in your mind and set your goal straight, to treat that person with all your heart. Not straying halfway, playing the blaming game, then regret as hell. Once is enough, repeating it over and over again and thinking that she will still accept you back, you better not think this way because it will never happen.

Dramas like this do happen in life, sometimes it takes a years to realize who a person really is, and it takes years to finally step out of that endless drama. Whether it is guy or a girl, if you are not ready to be in a stable relationship, then it is better off to stay single without hurting anyone's feeling. Cheating is a worst thing that could ever happen in a relationship, it is a mind torturing and physical straining illness that can only be heal through time. Even after it heals, a permanent scar will still be imprint within, which is insecurities.

There is a certain type of people that i hate most other than cheaters, which is people who knows that he/she has a partner and still crossing the line. They are either mentally ill, or attention/affection seeker, people who do not deserves to be respected at all.


Okay okay. Enough of scolding people. I just hate cheaters and whores. Thats all. Peace out. Time to continue my work and study.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Oh French Food!

Tourism econs is SO ANNOYING! what SC plog what SCP paradigm what supply demand microcosm diversity all. Seriously, this assignment is so freaking annoying! Causing me mental stress and mood swing. grrrrr~~

Enough of ranting about work for now. =p

Everyone who came back from France seems to be missing every bit of it especially the food over there, oh not forgetting the weather over there despite it is freaking cold. I miss I miss! Anyways, we flew back to Malaysia some white asparagus and also ham from France.One fine day, we decided to have it all for breakfast. haha There you go, to satisfy your cravings for French food.

Bottled white asparagus we bought from Andorre

Blanch it with hot water and there you go, white asparagus. =p

Jambon Serrano or also known as Jamon Serrano in Spanish. SLURPPPSSSs!

Because this is just tooooo good, it deserves a XL picture..=p =p I miss it I miss it!

Our breakfast -- Blanched White Asparagus with hollandaise sauce, Jambon Serrano with Croissant and bull's eye egg. AWESOMEEEE!

I wish I have breakfast like this every once in a while just to satisfy my French food cravings. Oh well, it is not every expensive only ma! Just spend like Rm20 bucks +/- on Serrano ham that you can get in Bangsar Village or in some Cold storage. =( =( Why does it have to be so expensive in Malaysia. Deng! Don't even think about getting cheap fresh White Asparagus in Malaysia. Oh my favorite pate will cause me Rm20+/- for 100g. TT

It is time to go for cold cut buffet when I am really really REALLY missing French food! XD Oh. That will only cost you like RM25++ for unlimited cold cuts. Slurpppsss! If you are interested to go, please ask me personally! =) =) For some reason, I do not wish to disclose the name of the restaurant here. haha. If you know, its the restaurant I had always went and train or work in the past. =)

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Oh Friday

Facebook is being ridiculously slow these few days, hence lesser pictures in blog except for those that had been uploaded earlier.

Do you always do things last minute or get everything done earlier so you would not suffer at the end? Well, I believe I am a person who always start my work earlier or do my revisions earlier because, I am kiasu la maybe. haha. Anyways, recently i realize, there is no point doing your work so early because in the end, the whole game plan may change and everything that you do is just a waste. I am dead serious. For example like my dissertation, I started last year in December and I thought everything will be just fine because my tutor said it was okay bla bla bla. And then, suddenly before I went to France, my tutor had changed and I have to start over again. Meaning I need to see my tutor and explain to him a bout what I did etc.

And so, I had consulted him about my dissertation and he gave me tips on how I should do it and how I can improve it. But the thing is, I started earlier and I already have my data. So now what I need to do, is to do the opposite of what other people is doing. I need to find my hypothesis referring to the results that I had obtained just to make sure it answers my hypothesis. haha. It is funny in a way because I am doing it from backwards instead of following the steps.


My dissertation is not even half way through and lots of work to be done still and we still have quite a bit of intensive assignments which the due date is just around the corner. Oh degree life degree life. 

I am not really feeling chatty online other than appearing online in FB because I am suppose to focus on my work! haha..Yes I do procasinate a bit by clicking things in FB, but I do try and set a goal for myself each day so I won't feel so guilty. It is crunch time now I know, but the worst has yet to come. TT 

Anyways, I suppose to start on my work now. So yeaps, Bon weekend people!

Me is liking the fish eye thing! =p