Exam Week

It's been a while since I've updated my blog. I'm in exam mode right now and there are quizzes and presentations in the same week so I'll be right back as soon as I'm out of the hell week I'm in now. See you =)

Mummy, I miss your cooking~

Working at the dining hall is a lot of fun! I get knowledge, experience, friends and food! However, the setback is: I don't have as much time to do some personal activities like updating my blog, reading novels etc. My first day at work cost me extreme body-ache when I woke up the next morning. (I know you are laughing at me! :P). This is the price I have to pay for my sedentary lifestyle, but I can say I'm much fitter now! Thanks to all  the walking and standing for more than 4 hours per shift.

My beloved "jie jie" (elder sister) took pictures of my mum's CNY dishes and I was drooling all over my laptop when looking at them. Thank you~ ;) How I've missed them! But no worries because mummy has promised me to cook the exact same dishes for me when I go home for summer holiday. Yay!

Sushi King's "lou sang". Jie jie and mummy said it's really good. Too bad, I can only look at it's 2D image. Next time, next time~

CNY eve lunch: Steamboat! Note that all the ingredients are fresh (even the fishballs). This is because my jie jie doesn't like processed food LOL! 

I miss the feeling of having every meal with everyone together around the table.  >.<

CNY eve dinner: (Clockwise from left) Steamed grouper, Braised trotter in dark soy sauce, Stir-fry cabbage (quite simple, don't you think? But I love all of them!!!! There's no such fish here in Bburg - sad isn't it?) Yumyum~

CNY Day 1 lunch: Since it's the first day of the Lunar calendar, my family had a vegetarian meal. (Clockwise from left) Braised dried beancurd in oyster sauce, Stir-fry cauliflower, Fried oyster mushroom, Fried imitation beancurd prawn. Wonderful!

CNY Day 2 lunch: Now all the CNY ingredients are coming out! (clockwise from left) Abalone and pig's stomach from the soup, Fried "ma yau" fish (Four-finger Threadfin) with dark sauce, Braised sea cucumber with Chinese black mushroom, Soup, Stir-fry turnip. *Drools*

CNY Day 3 lunch: My sisters were returning to their schools very soon so this meal's really, really "rewarding". Hahaha. (clockwise from left) Ayamas Roast Chicken, Lotus root soup, Braised bamboo shoots, Pan-fried prawns, Braised stuffed fish maw. Yummmmmm~

As for today, I tried, for the first time in my life, to make two hard-boiled eggs for my lunch because I was too lazy. You know what I mean. It's kind of irritating to wash a whole frying pan just because of one fried egg. XD Since I forgot what my mum told me, I went and searched online. I got the recipe here and I got perfect hard-boiled eggs. 

Aren't they beautiful? My peeled work of art~ 

The yolks are cooked to perfection, no gray tint! Success! They looked a bit rugged here - my bad, I cut them with a teaspoon. These were really great with some light soy sauce~ haaaa

Till then...

My first CNY in Bburg

Happy Chinese New Year!! How time flies huh? I could clearly recall my mum telling me CNY's menu-of-the-day and now almost a week is gone! Both my sisters are back to their respective schools and my mum has returned to her faithful duty of skyping with me every night (her morning).

Even though there are not many Malaysians here, I still had a very eventful weekend! Mind you, when all of you in Malaysia are having your feast, I was studying for my quizzes and doing my homework. There is no CNY holiday here :( So instead of celebrating it on the real day, I did it during the weekend on Saturday. 

My first stop was at a Malaysian-Chinese family's place. We had steamboat and most of the ingredients were artificially-made and frozen. They weren't too bad considering that we are surrounded by mountains and not seas hence no fresh seafood (except the shrimps/prawns). I enjoyed it a lot and thanks to SW and family, I can still have steamboat here in Bburg. What's more, I got an "angpau" or red packet here! Who doesn't like receiving angpaus correct? :P

Pictures are not that clear - I will consider a dslr when I'm rich enough

Plate #1

Plate #2

Plate #3

My next stop was at a Malay friend's place. They were having a celebration for their newborn daughter and since it's CNY too, it's the best time to have everyone over! There was a sea of people, so I was not able to take pictures because my bag (with my camera inside) was buried somewhere deep in the corner of the house. (lol) Too bad, but the chicken rice was awesome and there's even "Char Kuay Teow"!! I missed it so so much. 

The CNY event that I went to at Tech with a bunch of Chinese (from China) students

More on CNY to come! Stay tuned~

Chinese New Year is here!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! Even though I am not home to savor the joy and Chinese-New-Year-only FOOD, I am glad that my sisters are able to accompany my mum and dad besides finishing up all the home-made festive cookies at home :P For your information, since Chinese New Year is not celebrated in places other than Chinatown here in the US, there is no holiday and life goes on for me as usual. I still have classes and lab.

However, this day is always special for me because I got a lot of happy surprises all on one day! I managed to get a job at Shultz Dining Center (and my job schedule), met a dear ex-classmate after class and had a wonderful lunch with 2 of my Korean friends, as well as an extremely fun and exciting lab session =)

My lunch - turkey, steamed green and yellow zucchini side and a mixed vegetable side - Awesome!

My dear Korean friends!

A few hours after the lunch session is my lab at the greenhouse:

Groupmate #1 (note his muscles lol) 

Raw lettuce seeds on the wet paper towel. Note how tiny they are =)

Groupmate #2 with her primed lettuce seeds.

Tired though I was, today was one of those eventful days that I really enjoy having. I always look forward to happy times like this because nothing is more important in life (maybe there is/are for others)  than to be happy!

Brownie Mania

It's Chinese New Year eve! Happy Reunion everyone! Hope those who are at home with their families would get the chance to enjoy all the good food and entertainment! How I miss those times, but my mum has promised to cook all of them for me once I'm home this summer! Can't wait!

I'm going to work at one of the dining halls here at Virginia Tech very soon, and for each 2 hour shift, I will get a free meal pass. Since I went for the training last Sunday, I got one and I went for the all-you-can-eat meal at D2 dining center yesterday. There's too much to say but I had a "Rockyroad brownie" and a piece of carrot cake for dessert and they were SO GOOD! Then I remembered that I have a packet of brownie mix at home and so I made brownies today right after I'm back from class =)) Easy and not bad at all.

Brownie - first take

Closer shot

Since I had a fulfilling lunch yesterday, I did not really feel like cooking rice. Don't blame me because I'm still using the conventional way to cook rice - on the stove. For unknown reason, I don't feel like buying a rice cooker. I remembered that I still had some leftover Sesame Oil Chicken in the fridge, so I boiled some Korean Somen (Korean wheat noodles, very similar to Chinese longevity noodles) and added the reheated chicken on top. Very nice!

Somen with Sesame Oil Chicken

Since I cook on my own, I have loads of pictures of my cooking. No worries, I will update them slowly, especially when I'm out of topic :P