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Bahmi with Sambal Udang Geragau

Sambal Udang Geragau

100gm Udang Geragau (tiny dried shrimps) - wash thoroughly
3 cloves garlic; crushed
4 shallots; crushed
chili paste (I ran out of chili paste, so I add the spicy chili sauce; not the thai sauce, ya)
cooking oil

Simply dump the crushed garlic and shallots into the pan with heated oil. Sauté for a while. Dump the chili paste in. After a while, dump the shrimps in. Stir and stir. You don't need to add salt because the shrimps are already salty.

Sautéed Veges

Half of red bell pepper/capsicum
Half of yellow capsicum
Some chinese cabbage
Garlic
A dollop of butter
A dash of salt

Dice the bell peppers and cabbage. Crushed the garlic. Heat butter in pan and throw the garlic in. I like to let the butter melt while getting the garlic golden. Dump the veges into the pan. Stir a while and take it out from the pan while the cabbage are still crunchy and green.
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Prepare 2 packets of Indomie as normal. This time I did not do anything extra like frying them in the pan with garlic and maybe some red pepper. Just stir the sauce and spices provided.

Serve with the sambal, sautéed veges and garnish with boiled egg. Ready to eat. All was prepared under 20 minutes.

From My Mobile

This was dinner.

New "Grocering" Joint

There's a new supermarket that I frequent now. Okay, I'm exaggerating. Today is my second time doing grocery shopping there. And all because, it saves time. It's Mercato d'Marketplace in Pavillion.

First off all, it's walking distance from the office. Secondly, I do not have to pay for extra parking ticket. The downside is that if I want to buy frozen food or fishies or shrimpy or squidy, I have to do it after work and not during lunch hour. Price-wise, it's not too bad. It's the same like spending in Bangsar Village Grocer or Cold Storage.

Before you get the wrong idea that I'm being uppity and snotty, I do shop at Giant and Tesco. Some of my clothes are from Tesco. But when it comes to freshness, these so called foreign oriented supermarkets win hands down. This is talking about going to buy them after work. Besides, there's no Giant or Tesco nearby where I live. There's UO Supermarket that I frequent for ad-hoc purchases and the fish or shrimp that I buy there has to be cooked on the same day. And the fishies look so sickly and limp when I drop by after work.

Other than that, these supermarkets also have a wide range of selection when it comes to preparing non-Malaysian dishes. He he he...

Anyway, today I plan to cook noodles for dinner. I canceled my plan to buy shrimps because after work I want to head home straight, so while doing the shopping just now I came across udang geragau. These are tiny little shrimps that usually end up as belacan or cencaluk. Upong seeing it, I immediately recalled the sambal that Mak used to make when I was still schooling. This sambal made with udang geragau is fingerlishingoodness. Great with hot steamy rice with kicap kipas udang as well as the filling for either toasted or non-toasted sandwiches. YUMMY!

So, tonight I plan to prepare Bahmi noodle; made from original Indomie (with extra goodness) with the sambal. Can't wait!

By the way, sapa yang blom ganti posa tuh, mai la posa sama-sama...

War of Wills

Radical thoughts are exciting. They are like the dark side of the force. They seduce you. There is no secret or question then why people tend to go against establishment. Some feel it's just fun and exhilarating to protest. It's interesting to see how people in an establishment react to protests and disagreements.

Like Joker, the agent of chaos, he strikes terror in the people who don't understand him. His actions are random yet deadly. His motives are unexplainable neither understood. There is no way to stop him because he is so cunning he'll be able to turn good into evil. More shockingly, the switch would be done voluntarily and he won't be blamed for it; because his persuasive skills make you think you made the decision to be evil.

Like the Dark Side of the force, it's the realm that is full of suggestive power. It's force is so electrifying that you would think it's the best and the strongest. It can be corrupted once you let it consume you. And the Light just flicker out.

Radical thoughts and radical people have this effect on other people too. Radicals are not necessarily evil or bad. They are just different. But ultimately they have their own objectives that again, do not necessarily include the people they are recruiting to the program.

So, like Batman and Joker, this dance between an unstoppable force against an immovable object will continue. Or like the battle between the Jedi's Light and the Sith's Dark Side, the force is shaken. Until the end of time.

God bless.

Happy Birthday To You!

If you're anything like yours truly, you'd be reading the manual every time you buy a new appliances. Although, if you're like me, whatever that was read, would be forgotten the moment the manual is put down. So, I guess if there's such thing as a manual on how to handle other drivers on the road, I won't remember a thing even if I spent hours reading it. Mute point. I know.

So, what is the connection between reading manuals and drivers, you asked? Frankly, nothing. This is just another stress relieving post.

If I was blessed with super powers, I'm sure there would be a lot of casualties on the road whilst I'm driving. The number of killer stares that I give everyday or the silent swears that could equate to mortally dreaded magical spells are endless.

The number of queue cutting on the road is unbelievable. I spent 15 minutes of queuing up to make a simple turn at the junction, when all of a sudden another vehicle just cut in front of me, as if shouting that the driver's urgency is the utmost importance. Once a while, I admit, I am guilty of this action as well, so I guess, I am getting the payback, eh?

Then, what's with not giving way when I already give signal that I want to change lanes. It's not because I want to get ahead, but because I need to be in that lane to go towards my destination. One moment there is a space for me to go in, but seconds after the driver sees my indicator light flashing, the car increases in speed, making it absolutely dangerous for me to change lanes.

There is no courtesy on the roads in Malaysia. People are getting increasingly selfish by day. There is less generosity. If you're a virgin on the road, you'd be a tramp in just a month.

The 51st National Day celebration is looming. What has changed? Malaysians attitude are going down the toilet. National stability is in question because politicians are getting greedier. Teenagers are getting older than they really are day by day because they are more exposed to the world as compared to teenagers in 80s. Or 90s. People used to be proud displaying the flag as early as 1st August but these days you hardly see any. People are increasingly losing respect to each other and getting paranoid for no reason.

After half a century of sovereignty, I would expect the people are more open and confident. Therefore, open discussion should not be shunned. Seriously, if the other religion or races could not understand what Islam is all about, how can they understand why we say things that we do? Why is it so difficult to have a sincere knowledge sharing? Are our ulamas not expert enough in their subjects to be able to discuss with people from other faiths? What are we afraid of? Isn't it better to educate people than to leave them in the dark and speculate?

And what's with all these warnings to ward off inter-faith discussion? Is it actually a reverse psychology to ensure the Malays and Muslims really go on riots to protest the discussion? Come on, friends, we are matured enough to have a healthy discussion. It's not a matter of what's right, it's a matter of educating.

But then again, that's just my two cents about it.

We pledge unity because we're Malaysians but our actions speak otherwise. Why?

Happy 51st Merdeka Day! May our country prosper and our people unite.
Peace and Love.

Review: Sepulchre by Kate Mosse

Sepulchre means tomb or grave. A burial chamber. Although it has such grave title, by no means it's a horror read. It's more like spirits and magic spells and apparition.

The story is about Meredith and Léonie, both lived in different times but their lives are linked by a deck of tarot cards. Now, I am not familiar with Tarot cards, but apparently they have several versions. The one that is being used in this book is created by the author to reflect the storyline.

The book is about love and betrayal as well as family connections and a lover's vengeance. The book kept me awake, although I managed to drag the reading in the span of almost two weeks! That is an accomplishment for me.

Kate Mosse's first book that I read, Labyrinth, has a similar trend. Where the past and present is intertwined. If you like supernatural reads, a little magic spell or going back and forth following the storyline, pick it up and enjoy the ride. I like it. And it's going to be a good idle reading in future.

I'm going to start re-reading Labyrinth soon.

The Weekend

For the first time, I did not take even one single picture during the trip up north. I have missed Penang so much. And during the weekend, I just want to take everything in and just feel the place. Not even a single shot!

Weather up there is not much different from KL. Hazy. High temperature. It did not rain the two days we were there. We went to eat at Hammediyah, a must go destination every time we're in Penang. The place has been refurbished, neater and nicer looking. Although CapalPerak said somehow the food did not taste as good as it was when the makan place was not so pretty.

While we were there, I came out with lots of ideas that CapalPerak reminded me to write everything down. Other than that, everything else is looking up. InsyaAllah dreams will be realised. Can't wait to get everything moving.

Owh! I learned some new skills too. I can now laugh myself to sleep AND sing myself to sleep. Impressive, ey?

Auspicious It Is! Ameen!

It is a Friday. It's the Olympic Games Opening Night.It's a day with auspicious number. Even so, it is not suitable to get hitched today (according to the numerological guru).

Few days back one of the skeleton in the closet came knocking. Instead of answering the knock, I again repeated the same question that I asked every year every time it came knocking for the past five years. And the answer remains the same. This time around it's because there will be some celebration in November. I finally decided that enough is enough. I hope this time the skeleton understand where both of us stand. And I'm leaving it to the Almighty to decide on the outcome. Although I hope everything will turn out great for all.

Friends. You can't live with them, you can't live without them. Sometimes they are well meaning in their actions without thinking of the consequences. I am blessed with great friends. Just this week I made contact with several of my old friends. I'm glad. It has been years.

What goes around comes around. I believe in Karma. And I believe that what we face as challenges are the reason why we're still here. God tests us with things that He knows we're able to face.

On this day, the king of all days, I am taught by Him the greatness of being fair and just. Of being able to put yourself in someone's shoes (and I'm not talking about the skeleton, because skeletons don't wear shoes!).

Yesterday morning, the front desk lady was extremely rude to me. Never had I experienced a stranger screaming at me like that. And I did nothing wrong at all, I was asking for her assistance. So, instead of screaming back at her, I went straight to the management office and filed a complain. Today I met with the manager in charged and my suspicions were correct. She's a single mother and she was having trouble at home. I just put that image in my head yesterday to stop myself from saying not so nice things to her... And it turned out to be true. I told the manager that I do not want her to be terminated, I just want her not to repeat that attitude again because no one deserve to be treated like that. I hope whatever they do, they won't terminate her. I was told that she had already being given warning letter yesterday evening and a talk this morning. I hope that would be it.

So, lesson for today, before reacting to intimidation or rudeness, maybe it's wiser to step back and be the person for a while. We're humans after all. We're not spared from being emotional when trouble is brewing at home, kan?

Famous saying, what goes around comes around. Karma bebeh!

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