FD Day 30: Riceosophy

Self-coined term: riceosophy - a combination of words 'rice' and 'philosophy'. Which really just mean the philosophies of rice. Don't think too much into it, though. If I sound illogical or incoherent, I probably am. :P

Here are some sayings I grew up with that are related to rice, each of which encapsulates the philosophies of life in its own unique way:

1. Finish up every single grain of rice on your plate, or else whatever is left on it will resemble the acne/pimples on your future husband's face. You don't want that, do you?
2. I've consumed more salt in my lifetime than the total amount of rice you've eaten up in yours.
3. It's a sin to let your tears fall into your plate of rice. Go cry elsewhere, then come back to your food. 
4. Too late... rice has turned into porridge. (There's no turning back.)
5. The rice won't cook itself. (Quit talking and go do some real work.) 
6. Best remedy if you choke on fish bone - swallow mouthful of rice. 

Recalling all these "quotes" reminded me of all the assortment of emotions, mixed with mouthfuls of rice and downed with the help of soup (or very rarely, tears--even when my parents forbid me so). For I've eaten it in contempt (not because I was eating it), in sadness, laughter, tears, rage even. I grew up eating rice; and it really was the hard work of those farmers that fed me and made me into this five-feet-four girl, molecule by molecule, over the span of two decades and few more. Yet I don't think I've stopped to think about them often enough, and thank them for the grains of sweet rice I get to enjoy every single day. So today, as I wrap up my 30-day food diary project, I shall dedicate this post to all the farmers in the world who worked so hard to allow billions of people the pleasure to enjoy these grains of happiness, these fruits of their sweat and labor. Thank you all for such blessings that have been taken granted for and dismissed so easily.

So! what was on the list of my last day of food diary?  Let's see:

0030: vege soup - soup I made the other day, with celery, carrots, and corn
Working night shift allows tiny breaks I get to give myself, peppered with snacks like 6 Pringles chips and 15 almond nuts :P
0230: apple cinnamon Nutrigrain bar, green tea
0330: a piece of chocolate
0700: lately I don't sleep right after I get back home from work, so had breakfast like a normal being - cheese jalapeño bagel and coffee, with some cereal in it
1700: early dinner - instant noodles
1830: coffee
2230: instant oatmeal

With that. I'm proud to say, I'm done with my first project! :) Looking forward to many more to come. Many thanks to Jun, Chean and Mandy for helping me out with the guest posts. And to the rest who accompanied me along the way. :)

FD Day 29: Bubble Thoughts

Nasi lemak for breakfast, with extra sambal on the side, and the extra ikan bilis (anchovies) and cucumber that I managed to sweet-talk the nasi lemak aunty for. Oh, and more gravy for the rendang. Yum. :) Then I'd go about my daily activities and before I knew it, it's lunch time. Between chicken rice and chap fan, I decided I prefer chap fan, with lots of greens on my plate and either sesame chicken, curry chicken, or sweet and sour pork. With probably just 3 spoonfuls of rice.
Then comes tea time! My favorite time of the day. I'd drag my mom to get some pisang goreng from the best pisang goreng stall in the whole wide world, 2 pieces of pisang and 1 ubi keledek for each of us and grandmother. Mmmm look at the sizzling golden brown items, taken out directly from the huge wok of oil. Can't wait to sink my teeth into them. Rush home to make coffee, and enjoy our afternoon chat with the glorious snack. It's either that, or I'd have jawa mee if pisang goreng aunty decided to give herself a day off.

Oooh dinner time. What next? Probably my chap fan aunty. Yes rice again, but with a huge variety of delicious home-cooked dishes to go with. The only challenge I face is what I should have with my rice: sting ray, otak-otak, pork and potatoes in black sauce, fish curry, different kinds of greens, or tofu dishes. Cheap good food. *drooling* For the amount and quality of food I'm getting, I don't mind facing this dilemma every day. ;)

Head home after dinner. There are always so many things to do at home. TV, piano, laptop, books. Disturb my brother. Or, clean the house (unlikely, but definitely a choice). Settling for a book... but of course, the phone buzzes. Ah friends calling to go out for supper later. What else - teh tarik and garlic naan/roti canai as we catch up on all the lost years, of course. ;) 

Only, they were as good as my bubble thoughts. Roommate came out of the room, greeting me 'good morning'; her chirpiness just burst my bubble and I came crashing down into my reality. Splash! Smash! Crash! Clank! Clonk! Ouch. I gaze down at my plate and see the crumbs from my bagel that I just ate... Where's the nasi lemak??!

Sigh, dissipated into thin air the moment my bubble thoughts were burst, that's where.

Instead of all the above, here was what I had yesterday:

0100: McNuggets - 12 pieces. It's the only thing that tastes exactly the same as the ones back home. Fillet here tastes horrible. Eeek.

0730: A cheese jalapeno bagel for breakfast. Then off for a jog.

1900: The same kind of bagel, with a slice of melted Swiss cheese on one side and butter on the other; and coffee - after waking up.

2130: 2 chocolate-coated mini love letters (courtesy of roommate), and a piece of chocolate - before heading to work.

I want a vacation, pronto! (Who doesn't?!) Good news is, I'm getting one! Not to the homeland where I can get all those food, but still. 2 more days!! :)

FD Day 28: Scribbles

Don't know what to think. Or write. It's one of those blanking-out days. Dazed in my own maze.

Could it be the lack of nutrition?

0015: Had some coffee, and a piece of cracker with some butter on it.
0200: Snacked on apple cinnamon fruit crisps, and lots of coffee (half a pot to be exact, by 3am I finished half a pot)

0445: Ooh. Coffee high by now. But what's for breakfast? More coffee I guess, with some cereal in it. What. I ran out of milk okay. Oh and an orange.

1000: Taco truck outside the apartment calling my name. :P Had a pork burrito. (and more coffee)

1830: In class now... just in case, I had coffee from vending machine to keep me awake.

2015: Break time. The lecturer went on and on and on... omg. Non-stop! Got me so hungry I had to have something before the acid burned a hole in my stomach. Guess what's for dinner? Twix! Yay. :)

2230: 10pm at night and just in time for work. Can't function without you-know-what. So yeah, MORE coffee. And cereal in it. :)  Glorious cereal, love it!

Sorta miss my camera, haven't had a chance to play with it. But classes are ending soon, so I'll have more free time to explore the city and snap some pics. Then again... knowing me, I'll be looking for something else to keep myself busy.

 Pondering and cooking up ideas of what to do next. :D

FD Day 27: Canberra Girl Made an Appearance

Andddd... I got another friend to guest-blog for me! Saved by the email again. :)  This friend of mine was trained under a reputable chef in Aussie (of whom I regretfully forgot the name) and was working with her for a while. Though she's not in the food biz right now, I do hope she continues to hone her skills so she can cook me a six-star meal some day. *ahem, hint hint* :P  Who knows, maybe someday she'll own a restaurant (and I'd get free meals whenever I visit her). Hee hee. What a cheap friend I am! XD (No, of course not! I'll be nice and wash the dishes, I promise.)

So here's her food diary. Enjoy! ;) 

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Post #1

Hello World!

My memories of food with this food lover generally consist of my outright terrible diet (you’ll find out in a minute) and her always kindly advising me to eat. Having lived a student life for the past three years, my constant diet consisted of instant noodles (ramen, yes, how stereotypical) and … wait, that’s it. I do, however, get vegetables and fruit every week and try to have a bit of protein every other day.

Anyway, now that I have some income (just a trickle, really) I officially bid my diet of instant noodles goodbye and started to eat better. So here’s one of my food diary entries (Thursday):

Breakfast: Cereal (no I can’t make it sound any sexier. It’s cereal.)

Lunch: Two salmon and avocado sushi rolls – All morning I was actually thinking of having Fillet O’ Fish from McDonalds, but once I walked into my boss’ room and smelled seaweed from her sushi rolls I was hooked. Plus I usually dump the French fries when I get the value sets so thought I might as well be financially efficient.

Dinner: Steamed eggs with bits of lap cheong (Chinese Sausage) and shallots.

Overall I think that was one of my best diet days. Stay tuned for the worst!

Post #2

Just to illustrate how terrible my diet is and why my dear friend wouldn’t quit encouraging me to eat better, yesterday would be a great example.

As it was a busy and intense day at work, my breakfast consisted of:

A flat white (pick me up) and three jelly beans (purple, green and yellow).

Lunch was a small piece of blueberry cheesecake that the office had.

Dinner: A small slice of oven-baked marinated pork and a few mouthfuls of rice.

So my fruit intake is the blueberries in the cake and as for vegetables…one of the jellybeans I ate was green, so that should count, right?? It just reminded me that my eating habit really doesn’t quite change – when I’m stressed or busy, food’s secondary to me. Hmm…maybe it’s time I start my own food diary just to monitor how I eat as well.

In conclusion, I never used to understand my friend's love and passion for food until I pulled a short stint in the kitchen and learned to appreciate and love food. It was then when I thought ‘Now I know where she’s coming from with her food food food…’ Sadly we haven’t had the chance to meet up for awhile now but I’m very much looking forward to doing a food trip with her! Go us!

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Uhm. She'd be disappointed to see what I've been eating these days. Ahem. So much for giving advice to people, hah! But to be fair, that was a long time ago though - about 4 years or so ago?! That's how long I haven't seen all my friends back home and abroad elsewhere.

Anyhow. I'm trying to eat better lately. Had some vege soup for dinner yesterday, so that's a start! And I finished my jar of peanut butter. NOT buying anymore of those... at least for the time being. ;)

Now off I trot! Have a lot to do today!

FD Day 26: Time-Out

The homeless guy went missing for two days, and I found myself wondering where he had gone. Maybe he has another "spot". Or maybe he went off on a 'weekend trip', to the beach or something, you know, for a change of environment. ;)

Everybody needs time-out every now and then. The homeless dude, myself. I'm getting a wee bit sick of the PB-pizza-cereal-noodle routine, so I treated myself out for a late night supper last night. :)

Ze list:

0150: Break time at work - salty fish fried rice, coworker's "dinner" and but he was nice enough to share some with me. Hee hee.

0500: Almost end of the work week! Crazy busy, got hungry ergo had some apple fruit crisps and green tea.

0700: Got home, winding down with some rice and kimchi, coffee, and just a few small bites of PB (ehehe couldn't help it!). :P

1600: Slept and woke up - an apple for "breakfast", and then some rice vermicelli with tofu (mixed with soy sauce + chili) and green tea.

2300: I guess this would be my late lunch/dinner? Dragged roommate out for some scrumptious juicy Korean BBQ and soon tofu (tofu and seafood in spicy broth). Finally!! Real human food! :P

Oh I've been deprived. The late night meal made up for past week of odd combination of stuff I've had though! It'll last me for a week I bet, after which I'd be on the hunt for some real food again... but by then my FD project would be over and I won't be boring you all with my PB-pizza-noodle diet. :P (I must add, I'm usually healthier than that... with lots of tofu and broccoli as my dinner. But it doesn't go far from there. heh.)
Righto. Off to read up for class later!

FD Day 25: Think Outside the Box

Long time ago I experimented a different way of eating cereal and came up with the oddest combination. It was a lot of fun eating it. Now I certainly don't have the urge to eat my cereal that way every single time, but I wouldn't say it tasted horrible either. Years later, I've yet again tried something new with cereal, and it's definitely much better than the first 'invention'. At the very least, it's less odd. ;)

Yesterday's food consumption:
0130: "Lunch" break at work - had a Nutrigrain cereal bar.
0150: Still on my break, had my boiled carrots and black fungus (aka cloud ear fungus). Jun said it's good for slimming, so maybe I should go get more of those and have it every meal. :D
0250: An orange and coffee.
0900: Back at home, catching up on class readings - had apple cinnamon fruit crisps (not enough), had rice with kimchi, and chamomile tea (bad idea - it made me feel so sleepy I conked out!).
1930: My "breakfast" at dinner time - more rice with kimchi, and some tofu this time! Love it. :)
2200: Work time! It's become a habit of mine to have coffee before I start a night's work, so as usual, I'm sipping my coffee and binging on my cereal. Then it hit me - why not eat cereal with coffee? Hehe. And of course, I did. :)

Doesn't look quite appetizing, but it's actually quite good! ;)  

Cereal: Kellogg's Special K Almond & Vanilla Cereal (I think).
This is going to be my office food from now on!

FD Day 24: A Chocoholic Friend of Mine

It didn't take a lot of persuading to get my ex-roomie to write me a food-diary post. She lives far far away from me now, so I have one less buddy to hunt for desserts and coffee. Actually, she was the only constant dessert buddy I've had over here--here as in the U.S. So now I'm down to none. :(

Anyhow. If you think what I eat throughout the day was weird, you should check out what she eats every day. :P With that said, I'm sharing with you my darling friend Chean's food diary. You can take a sneak peak of what she writes (only awesome and entertaining stuff of course) at her blog, whose blog titled "Because Chocolate Can't Make You Pregnant" says A LOT about her. ;)

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One of the first few times I had cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory was with Joan. The moment we both took a bite of the sumptuous cheesecake, we looked into each others eyes and swore we were in love. That was probably when we started becoming dessert buddies. If you've ever lived with me, you would know that I have the worst eating habits in the world. "Rabbit food" was what Joan would call the stuff I eat. We haven't been roommies for about two years now, but my eating habits probably haven't changed at all.

Thursday morning, 6:30am
One Cinnamon Roll pop tart (These things are SO FREAKING GOOD! They're like my favorite breakfast-on-the-go)

Lunch, 12pm
Multi-grain bagel with cottage cheese

Snack, 5pm
One Xooro, Jordan's Favorite (churro with nutella filling, coated in milk chocolate and drizzled with white chocolate)
If you're wondering what the heck is this heavenly-sounding food, click this - http://www.xooro.com 

Dinner, 6:30pm
One banana, five pieces of prunes, and a cup of green tea

People usually frown upon the food I eat. My mom, for instance, would cry, "你要做仙啊?!" (translation - Do you want to be a deity/Do you think you are a deity?!) because, you know, deities supposedly don't eat, and if I keep eating nonsense like that I would eventually wither away into nothingness. How dramatic. I am aware that my diet is definitely not model diet of the year, but I do try, in my own little way to balance it out. So my dear Joan, don't feel too bad about the junk food you eat. Just as long as you also get some nutritious food you should be fine!

p/s fyi both pics were stolen from the web heh

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I *heart* all my friends, especially those who mitigate my guilt of eating so much junk by telling me "it's okay", even though I know that's not true at all. :D  So, Chean, when are you moving back to LA hmm hmm hmm? :P

FD Day 23: On Lists and Food

I realized I've never listed all the food I love to eat... but that's mainly because I love almost everything. No I'm not joking. The list would look something like this:

My Fav Food
1. Uhm... (Almost) everything. 

Which would make it completely pointless. -___-

Except, thank goodness, I don't love everything. Durian for one would not be on my Fav-Food list; nor durian flavored dodol, durian flavored ice cream and durian shake. It used to be on my Never-Eat list, but I upgraded it to Neutral-Food list ('"neutral food" as in food that I have neutral feelings for, like a 3 out of 5 star rating, not food that has neutral taste) some time ago, which is even better for me because now I have one less list to keep track of (yes durian was the only item on that list!). :P

But still. Just as it's hard for me to list down all the food I hate or don't eat (because there's barely any), it's impossible for me to come up with a list of my favorite food. In fact I don't think I can ever compile an exhaustive list. I actually attempted to do so for this post, but only ended up getting so frustrated because I can't get it right--too many items and I don't even know where to begin!! Grrrr!

Clearly this list is something that needs more thoughts and time to compile, but I'm making a mental note to self that some day I'll come up with an up-to-date list of my favorite food. :)  But here's a couple of pictures of what I'm craving for right now:

and 

Sigh. But all I'm eating is anything but. Soon...!! Soon I will get them! After my last day of classes. :)

FD Day 22: To My Rescue!

Hee hee. Giggles. :)
It's a relatively good day today. No, there's no particular reason. Just because.

My diet hasn't changed much yesterday, (yes the same old routine), but here's a little treat for whoever's following this. My darling friend Jun came to my rescue by recording her "food trails" the other day. ;) Too bad she didn't snap some photos, else it'd be a double treat!

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Hello world, here I am again, rescuing my dear friend from Food Diary Fatigue Syndrome. Rest assured, I'm not here to talk about cheese curds. Cheese curds don't treat FDFS. What she needs is reprieve from the mundane repetition of her pizza-coffee-PB-noodle cycle, just like how I needed a 7-day break after being on 11-hour shifts for 7 consecutive nights. My food choices during my night shifts don't exactly inspire, do they? But! Now that I'm on my week-long break, im gonna slot in some food for thought with what I ate today, just so that my dear friend would be able to eat her pizza, coffee, PB and noodles in peace without broadcasting it again to the whole world :P

Brunch: Dim sum (note to friend: avoid dim sum if you're gonna keep a food diary-- you'll see why in a bit)--> har gao, siew mai, scallop dumpling, shark fin dumpling, beancurd skins, prawn rice sheets, char siew pau... (my mind's blank by this point because I ate so many things I forgot what I've ingested T__T) and mango pudding. All coupled with chinese tea, of course.

Coffee: Mocha.

Dinner: Taiwanese rice bowl with minced pork, one-half of a braised egg, and some pickled veggies.  Side dish of braised beancurd skins. Plus yam flavoured bubble tea.

Note to friend again: At the risk of sounding very stereotypically Asian, have you not eaten rice since starting your Food Diary Project??

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In response to Jun's note: NOOO I haven't cooked rice at home ever since I put my rice cooker away!!! Which was probably half a year ago! I did, however, have rice: lamb bryani (on day 2 or 3?) and some time last week when my roommate cooked dinner for both of us. :) How can an Asian girl like me survive for long without eating rice?! Hehe c'mon Jun you know me better than that!! ;P

Hmm. Maybe today I'd find some time to cook a vege dish and have it with rice, eh?! :)   Aih but now you post just made me crave for mango pudding and dim sum!!! and bubble tea! and minced pork! How now brown cow??

FD Day 21: Food-Dice

Imagine having a device to help you decide what to eat when you're in a hurry or short of time to cook. Or even when you just needed something to munch on when you're sitting in front of the computer screen. I think I have the magical device--my very own food-dice. :D  Because most of what I've been consuming for the past 3 weeks can fit onto the 6 sides of a dice, (namely coffee, pizza or bread and cheese, cereal and milk, oatmeal with Nutella, granola/cereal bar, and Cheetos/Wheat Thins) it's as if that's all I'm doing throughout the day--rolling the dice to see what I shall eat next. -____-||

Sick.

Of course, that wasn't my intention. Nor are all those food my favorites in the whole world. I guess right now I just don't feel like I have the time to prepare some real food. You know, stuff normal people eat. Like meat and vege dishes with rice. I guess given the choice to catch up with sleep or prepare some good food, I'd choose the former. :P

And because of my schedule, the food dice was heavily utilized yesterday: 

- 2am: munching on cereal (a lot!)
- 830am: coffee, oatmeal with nutella
- 2pm: mango
- 630pm: coffee
- 10pm: coffee, wheat thins, cereal, Nutrigrain bar (some kind of breakfast cereal bar), celery & carrots

Perhaps one of the future 30-day projects should be "preparing one good meal or unique dish every day for 30 days", and share the recipes here. That would've been a much more interesting project. At least that would be better than eating the same thing every day and letting the whole world know about it. Bleh. How embarrassing! :(

FD Day 20: Monday Madness

"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. 

Willing is not enough; we must do."

 ~ Goethe

Usually it's not until after Monday midnight that I really get started on my schoolwork. I'm glad to say I was rather productive: read lots of papers/articles and... and nothing. Uhh... It doesn't sound like a lot, but it sure felt that way. Yet while I was reading pages and pages of health IT stuff, strategy and marketing for health care organizations, and quality improvement for health care, I wonder when I will ever use these knowledge. Thing is, knowledge as such becomes pointless if it's not applied in an actual real-life setting - you'd soon forget them after some time (unless of course you keep yourself updated and self-study on it every now and then). Hmm. No matter. Maybe if things don't turn out as I wish, I'd consider doing Masters in Health Informatics. Or PhD. But it's just a thought. I'm still sticking to my original plan.

Anyway. Here's yesterday's junk food intake:

- throughout the long night while I was studying: 100-calorie popcorn, 100-calorie apple cinnamon fruit crisps, and munching on Special K's blueberry cereal

- 5:30am - the said cereal with nonfat milk

- 9:00am - an apple

- 2:00pm - 2 slices of bread with scrambled eggs in between, coffee

- 6:30pm - in class: had coffee

- 11:00pm - more coffee; roommate made glass noodle (the instant kind) with crab stick and 2 fishballs for us. yum. :)

Off to study again! Later.

FD Day 19: Sunday

i woke up and it was 6:30pm already. :( seriously. where did my Sunday go?! lately i've been sleeping for an average of 7 hours, which is a bad thing if you're in my position. the more i sleep = the less time i have to catch up with my school work, which means i'm gonna have a hell of a time clambering to get all my work done by the end of this quarter.

i'm having food-diary fatigue. anyone else want to guest-blog my food diary for me? haha does this mean i'm cheating if i ask friends to help me write it?! well, it doesn't really matter, does it. :P the point is just to have some fun and try to monitor what i eat every day. doesn't seem to work very well though... hmm. at times i sit down and think to self: does my food diary project bring any value added to whoever's reading it? *long pause* .... *more pause* probably not, except perhaps it'd provide shreds of entertainment to whoever who is reading this. and if it puts a smile on one person's face, then i've done some good, eh? :)

anyway. after the pizza marathon last night, i swore to stay away from unhealthy food (limited to only fast food) for the rest of my food diary.(we'll see if i stick to it, eh?!)  :P

and for sunday's (yesterday's) list:

woke up, went out for a walk with roommate, got a Starbucks frapp, came home, had 2 slices of bread with PB, leftover soup from the prawn mee the night before, and some tea.

righto. no more pizza for me thankyouverymuch,... for at least the next few weeks!

FD Day 18: Fat At Heart

You see a pretty girl at a fast food place, picking at her fries and combo salad. Her other hand next to her diet drink. And, as you notice her other pretty friend (same meal) you wipe the ketchup and mayonnaise from your lips. You think to yourself, as you love each bite of that cheeseburger, why do college girls even come here? And if she would lean forward just a little bit more, you could see her underwear.

You ordered extra cheese because it's gooey and delicious. It's lunch on a Saturday. These girls obviously had a great time last night. You argued with yourself: should I go in or use the drive-thru?

You eat a bunch of fries, salty and satisfying, knowing you made a mistake. Your hand, like the girl whose undies you can almost see, is resting next to your regular soft drink. The cup beading moisture due to the difference in temperatures. The girl's friend wipes her hands on a napkin and answers a text. You take another bite of your yummy burger. Wash it down with your drink, your lips tingling like a ghost-kiss.

No tomato and extra cheese. Pickles and ketchup and mayonnaise. You tell yourself it's the crunchy, powerful onions that are making you feel like you're going to cry. The pretty girl stretches and you do end up seeing her underwear. Of course it's a thong, you think. And you take some more hot-to-the-touch fries and shove them in your mouth.

There's a hole that needs to be filled.

With cheese.

And mayonnaise.

With meat and eye-stinging onions.

[Disclaimer: I didn't write the above text. Read the excerpt from an image file a long time ago, but didn't save the link. :( The image, however, can be found at istock.com.]

What I ate last night at work and early morning today, made me feel like the subject in the above excerpt. Here's why:

- at around 2am at break time: had cream of mushroom soup (saved from the previous night's dinner), and 4 slices of pizza that the lab manager brought for the lab cuz they stayed late to work. Four freaking slices! That's twice of what I usually eat!

- 5:30am: an hour before I got off work, I got hungry again. 2 more slices of those devillish pizza.!!!

- 5pm: woke up from sleep, had coffee and an orange.

- 7pm: at work since 6pm; snacked on wheat thins (didn't bring dinner). 

- 7:45pm: coworker brought me a surprise treat, from a Malaysian restaurant!! :)  Penang har mee (prawn noodles--picture below). Yumm. :))

- 9:30pm: coffee time!

But that's not all! The company buys food for us on weekends, as a token of appreciation for us to come in to work, guess what they got us tonight?! Yep--PIZZA! -____-||  So:

- 1:45am (today): Shamelessly had 3 slices of pizza...

- As if to help alleviate the stress that my poor stomach is undergoing, I had green tea, and lots of hot water.

- 7am: (which was really just a couple of hours ago) got home from work, raided pantry, had some PB, and coffee.

That is just way too much fatty food for two consecutive nights--even for my standard. I'm going running later, to burn off some calories. Staying off junk food for the next few days.

Alright, signing off- Till tomorrow!

FD Day 17: Untitled

Just got home. Weather's a little gloomy out there. But of course, it's only 7 in the morning, and you can't really tell how the weather will turn out later in the day. Not that it matters to me- I'll be in bed anyway. The homeless guy was up early as usual; he looked at me, and I nodded at him, with a half-smile. "Hey." I mouthed. "Hey," as if I knew him for years and I'm just greeting him as an old pal. It's one of those times when two of the contradicting feelings can occur simultaneously. The moment was awkward, yet it felt natural. Awkward, because we are complete strangers who are forced to see each other every day (heck I see him more often than I see my roommates!) because of our "residential location"--he who sleeps under the moonlight every night, on the sidewalk 45 degrees towards the left right across the street from my apartment; and me who resides behind four walls and under a roof, sheltered from the unpredictable outside world. Yet it is in a way natural, too, because ever since I started the night shift, it's been like this from day one, thus becoming a fixation in my life that I don't think much about it anymore.

Today, however, I thought about him. It takes me thirty-three and a half steps to walk from my car to my doorstep; and during that time span I wondered where he was born, who his parents were, if he even knew them, how did he get to where he's at right now, and when was the last time he took a shower. Everyone has a story, I wonder what his story is like: incredulously dramatic, or downright boring? But me being a kid with ADD, my thoughts on him didn't last for more than thirty-three steps. I did, however, tell myself that if I ever talked to him, I'll be sure to compliment him in his skinny jeans. Wished I could fit in one!

As soon as I stepped into my apartment, the strong stench of seafood smell and chili oil almost choked me. Roommate must have had some leftover food from that Yunnan restaurant again. I should make them get me some the next time they go there. It's so unfair they get to eat good food, while all I get is the smell of it the next morning, damnit. In fact, it's not just today- every day there'll be some food smell floating in the air, waiting patiently to attack my ultra-sensitive olfactory cells as soon as I get home. In a sense I blame it on the smell that stimulates my appetite every morning, which prompts me to scavenge my pantry for something to munch on; and usually the one thing that falls prey would be my jar of peanut butter, which explains why I'd have PB almost every single day. XD

Anyway, this was what I had the previous day:

- had my jalepeno burger from Carl's Jr at around midnight;

- snacking on wheat thins and had some green tea at work;

- got home from work - rummaged the pantry, had coffee, seaweed crackers and the last of my Cheetos (finally hehe! not going to buy Cheetos anymore!);

- woke up at 5pm - had coffee and a slice of bread with cheese;

- made some cream of mushroom soup for dinner--well, technically, it was out of a can and I only heated it up, and added some broccoli, corn and carrots in it.

What a day. Wait till you see what I had today in the wee hours of the morning! -__-  Be warned, of my atrocious diet tomorrow. Off for now, toodles!

FD Day 16: Guest Post from Down Under

Remember I said I'll have a friend to guest-post for my Food Diary? Well today is the day! :)

Let me start off with a little introduction to my darling friend, Jun. We go way back, back to when we were innocent kids in uniform and over-sized T-shirts, shorts, and geeky glasses (and in my case, with braces too). :D Jun is now "Dr. Jun" residing in Melbourne, and she one proficient writer who blogs about everything from her physician-insider's stories (here's one), to food (yes she's a foodie just like me that's why we get along sooooo well hehe!), to her travels, and everything else in between. Above all else, she's one of my few oldest, best-est friends, and my inspiration and motivation. She's my starbucks buddy; and she promised to VISIT ME SOMETIME AND VISIT THE BIG APPLE TOGETHER (ahem woman hint hint I'm still waiting for you to fulfill your promise before I run out of my time here in the US)!!! :P

So yes, if you're too busy and have no time for anything else, her blog is the only other thing you should read. ;)  Having said that, here's her food diary post. Enjoy!

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It's like you're a daisy who's grown up in a buttercup field all your life, and all of a sudden, you're plucked from the field and the next thing you know, you're sharing a crystal vase with a bunch of roses. How do you introduce yourself? Do roses speak the same language as buttercups? What do you talk to them about? Discuss the different types of soil? Ask them if they know anything about life of a hydroponic plant? Or, if all else fails, talk about the weather??

That's precisely what I'm going through now as I pen this post for my dear friend as part of her Food Diary project, though of course, I don't really wanna tell you how cold it is here in Melbourne right now. After all, do you really wanna listen to weather-speak? Exactly. But then, at the same time, are you really interested to find out what's gone down my digestive system in the last 24 hours? I have a sneaky suspicion that my dear friend so kindly asked me to guest blog in her Food Diary series just so that she wouldn't be the only one advocating junk consumption with a conscience :P 

Then again, looking at the list below, her cheetos and graham crackers and oatmeal are beginning to look like gourmet grub compared to what I've eaten:

- Breakfast (1930): Chewy penne with canned tuna, carrots, tomato and cheese gone horrendously wrong. Reminder to self: Never buy wholemeal penne again. Ever. (Trust me, people, it's made of plastic. No, really.)

- Coffee (2000): Hey, coffee is a meal in itself, if not an INSTITUTION. It's the rich, dark, elixir that keeps us doctors alive on the wards, which, in turn, means keeping sick people alive-- unless they're palliative or NFR (Not for Resuscitation).

- Lunch (technically, could've had it at midnight, but after starting my night inserting a urinary catheter into an elderly man with thrush on his penile tip resembling curds of cheese, and then having to perform a rectal examination on another lady with PR bleeding, my appetite was completely suppressed for the next few hours, so I ended up eating only at 0330): Hospital remains of a sandwich pack consisting of, let's see, hmm...

1. Egg and mayo
2. Semi-dried tomato (like, literally, not the actual semi-dried tomatoes that you get in the dried goods/ gourmet food sections) and a leaf of wilted lettuce
3. Ham and chesse with chutney spread (don't ask, at least it's not Vegemite)
4. Ohmygoodnesswhatthehellisthis??? (Seriously, sometimes, I don't even know what I'm putting into my mouth...)

- Dinner (0800): Peanut butter and banana + multigrain Weetbix with Milo. Best meal of the day ever!

Okay, gotta sleep now. We can talk about cheese curds another time ;)

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End of post. Many thanks to my dear friend who's kind enough to humor me by doing this. Hugs and kisses.:)

FD Day 15: Of Home and Love

One of my favorite dishes* made by my (maternal) grandma used to be stir-fried lean pork with potatoes drenched in black sauce--it's one of those comfort food** that I looked forward to after a long day at school. So during my college years when I was living outside with friends, I tried replicating it as many times as teenagers would lie to their parents to hang out with friends with the excuse of "doing homework together", but it just didn't come out quite the same! I asked gramps why and what did I miss, and she couldn't tell me what's wrong. One day I decided to watch her cook it, and soon enough, I finally figured out what she forgot to tell me, the one ingredient that made the subtle yet distinguishable difference. You could imagine the joy and relief I felt when I found out the "secret ingredient", it was almost like when Siddhartha was enlightened and floated up in a circle of light--or the milder version of it: like something clicked and the light bulb lit up (with the sound effect 'ting!')--and everything made sense as I brought to my eagerly-awaiting taste buds the dab of sauce on my little finger that tasted exactly like how I used to remember it. It was a priceless moment, to me, one that I consciously recorded in my memory so I can recall in the future. (Like right now.)

May 13. A year and four decades ago on this day, there was a massacre in my country, where different races lashed out at each other, with parang knives and rifles and whatever was accessible. So much hatred floated in the air, villages were covered in red. In school we were taught to be thankful it was all in the past and that we should never ever bring it up or talk about it, for fear that it might incite another such incident. Yet what struck me is the stark irony: there's not a single day (especially of late) that passed that we are not reminded of the existing racial bigotry! I'm not exaggerating the fact either- look at the daily news and the political strangling going on. It's nauseating. Yet home is still home, and my heart is still there (well part of it anyway :P). Which is why it hurts. The thorn that's pricking the people might be just an annoyance for now; but who knows what would happen when people lose their patience? Or worse, when they lost hope and decided to leave. Blood, when spilled, can't be differentiated by race. They're all red regardless. Anyway. I don't know why I'm spewing all these when it's irrelevant to food.

Oh I remember. Because we're talking about home-cooked food. :) Home-cooked food-->home-->today's date. Hmm. But back to food and food diary!! So here's what I had throughout the day. And as usual, captured in a snapshot of my food diary notes on the phone:

And here's a very nice song/video I stumbled upon, titled "Here in My Home", by various Malaysian artistes. (Old song, dated 2008.) Enjoy!

End notes:
* I love all my grandma's cooking, so there's really no 1 fav dish. This is just one of the many. :P
** Comfort food- I have too many and it's probably easier if I list them out in another separate post. This is by no means the top of the comfort-food-list, and it certainly isn't the only comfort food of mine. (But it's a little redundant to even mention it right?! You should know me by now. :P)

FD Day 14: Experiment Gone Wrong

I'm almost tempted to draw out (more like copy from my old notes) the 5 sensory pathways of tastes and post it up here... but that would be too nerdy and this food diary is supposed to be fun and easy. Some other time perhaps. For now you guys are off the hook. :P

Anyway, I got bored of the same old stuff--Cheetos, PB, oatmeal, bread and cheese etc.--and decided on a whim to try out something new. So new I don't even know what to call it, except the only possible word that aptly describes it: FAILURE!!! Yes. Embarrassing to say, it was a failed experiment. What did I make? Ugh, trust me you'd rather not know. But too bad, I'm going to tell you anyway. I stir-fried celery and carrots with some Indian spices--anise seeds, cumin powder, cardamom seeds, chili and curry powder, and drench it over my Chinese flat noodles. Not sure if there's a specific name for that kind of noodle, but think of it as somewhat similar to ramen except its thinner, flatter and tastier. (And if you're Malaysian, it's the Hakka mee's noodle.)

I guess I must be missing some ingredients, or perchance it was just a horrible combination. For starters, I don't even have garlic, onions and ginger--the 3 most essential ingredients in Chinese cooking--in my kitchen (can't blame me, I rarely cook these days and I don't want to buy them and let them go to waste). It could be a lot of reasons why it didn't turn out right... But I haven't had a clue. So when I perfected my noodle dish I'll take a picture of it and share the recipe here! For now... I think it's safer to stick to my PB and Cheetos. Hah.

That's pretty much what I had for lunch and dinner- hey, someone has to finish the cooked food right!? Had cereal and fat free milk for breakfast. And lots and lots of coffee that got me a little too hyped up.

Highlight of the day: my failed experiment. Midterm paper's progress: 80% done. :)

Fd Day 13: Ne Pas Bien...

Remember the story about the hare and the tortoise? I feel like the tortoise today. And yesterday. When I'm working on the midterm paper that is. Wonder if I'd ever get to the finish line. (And if I do, when the heck is that! Hopefully not next week, that's for sure!) On a side note, I wonder if it has to do with my poorly balanced diet. Too much carb and too little greens, protein, fiber, and other nutrients. Will carb make you less efficient? Hmm. Maybe I should minimize carb intake for a week and see if I feel any different. (Or. Maybe I should STOP BUYING CHEETOS!!! That's definitely more realistic, eh. :P)

FD Day 12: Because I'm Running Out of Time

... and have tons of homework to do, articles to read, and midterm paper to rush for, I'm going to just put up my food diary like I did for the past two days. On top of that, I'll be asking my friend to guest-blog for the food diary. Coming up soon. It'll be fun, stay tuned. :)

FD Day 11: Missing Home and Mother

She's my shield, my shelter. She has this smell that is uniquely hers which I love so much. She's cute in her own way, most of the time (other times not so much :P). She's my mom.

From left: mom, maternal granny, paternal granny, aunt (mom's sis)

occasion: paternal granny's birthday 4 years ago.

It's mother's day. Have you said your thanks? To all mothers in the world, happy mother's day, and thank you so very much. :)

flower for all mothers on this special day. 

and of course, my food list on saturday.