tidur itu best apabila...

tidur itu best apabila...

1! anda letih, and very-da very sleepy.
2! anda kekenyangan...
3! katil, bantal, tilam anda semuanya selesa.
4! anda ade bantal busuk
5! di luar sedang hujan...whuuu~~~

okay okay. salah 1 sebab sy ske katil sy.
sbb dia besttt. haha. stupid me~
okay. let see. my bed. n my cute pillows!



usually, i used the queen size of bed.
but in this house, i just use single bed.
cuz. nak jimat space. hua3...

bantal butterfly rainbow itu + bantal purple d kanannye.
sy syg sgt sbb ia drpd bff sy.
bantal purple itu ade *blink blink*
sy takot kalo blink2 die tercabut!
dan sy ske rainbow. die tahu ttg itu! =]
thanks babe.



dan di atas bantal "hot stuff" itu, sy letak semua hp time tdow!
tp... bile bgn. selalunye. hp tuh semua merata - rata! haha

dan d sebelahnye, bantal corak bulat2 itu da comot!
da mcm bantal busuk sy! haha.
ia dr khalida. thanks! sy ske bantal itu.
dr 1st time sy nmpk ia d carre4!
tgk2 khalida hadiahkan! hee.



mmg sy akan tdow d atas bantal "tapak tgn" tuh.
so, kalo ade org pijak bantal tuh! sy nak bunuh2! haha.

bantal "i love u" merah, bantal love pink di kirinya.
dan bantal love kecik di depan bantal love pink itu.
dr mama dan abah! skeeee sgt. thanks !!!



semua bantal ini disusun dgn baik dr hujung - ke hujung katil
x de yg btol2 fav, sbb semua sy sgt syg!!!

sy ske selimut sy tuh. murah je! tp best!
n sbb die rainbow! hee...



belon love itu sudah bersama sy 1 tahun 8 bulan.
sy happy sbb die x pecah or kecut! hee.
bunga plg besar ada muke smiley itu dr mama.
dan bunga ros itu dr ex-rmmate sy,salghee.
tin-ka-yu!!!

jadi. inilah kenapa, bagi sy tidur itu best.
sbb bantal2 sy best. sy selesa dgn katil sy.
selimut sy mendamaikan.
dan yg penting...sy. mmg ske tdow dgn bantal banyak2!!!
haha. XD

Never ending laundry

It is amazing how much laundry two people can have. I have been doing laundry since Tuesday and I still have yet to do the laundry from our mini-vacation. I think vacations make it worse somehow. Last weekend (Thursday-Monday) David and I visited his sister Malissa and her husband Craig in Georgia. We had a really nice time with them (I hope to get some pictures up this weekend). Of course, the house being a mess when we left didn't help. So when we got home it was driving me nuts. So I have been gradually cleaning as well as laundry. I finally got some folded last night while watching some of my shows on HGTV. I hate folding laundry. I can only bring myself to do it when I am watching tv so that I feel usefull. But tonight there is nothing on I want to watch, so I am postponing folding for now. I don't see how people with kids do it! I think I will have to be a stay-at-home mom if we ever have kids. I won't be able to manage all of that plus working!

What I did during the Top Chef finale

February 26

Tom Colicchio spent the night of this season’s Top Chef finale at Pier 60 on the Hudson River, at the annual C-CAP benefit. I know because I saw him there. I took his picture and spoke with him briefly, too.
Someone tried to introduce us, Rita Jammet, maybe, or Drew Nieporent, but we’d already met.
“Sure, I know Bret. He likes to say very mean things about me,” he said.
He was referring to my attack on Top Chef, a show that I barely watch but whose fans get on my nerves by showing up at food events and being the idiotic groupies that they are.
Well, that some of them are. Most of my friends watch Top Chef and they’re not idiotic groupies at all.
I sort of tried to explain myself to Tom, but he just smiled and graciously waved it off, in the way that you do when you don’t really care when someone quibbles with you, or when you’re Tom Colicchio and the ramblings of a little guy like me matter not a whit in your life.
At any rate, I took a picture of Tom, third from the left, along with consultant and cookbook author Pamela Morgan, Gotham Bar & Grill chef Alfred Portale, and Rita Jammet, who with husband André owned New York landmark La Caravelle for many years. Now her son Nic is a partner in Sweetgreen, a fast-casual salad and frozen yogurt shop in Georgetown. She said they’re adding new units at Dupont Circle and in Bethesda, Md.
The C-CAP benefit is one of the great events of the New York food scene. It’s an excellent cause — funding and nurturing at-risk students pursuing careers in culinary arts — and so many of the city’s great chefs and restaurateurs show up rather than sending their minions. The food is great, the crowd is fun, and even the wine is usually pretty good.
So I caught up with Ben Pollinger at Oceana, who has a newborn at home, so congratulations to him, and Marc Murphy of Landmarc and Ditch Plains — he says business at Ditch Plains in particular is booming, especially the bar.
Marcus Samuelsson saw me fussing with my camera, so he took it from me and took quite a good picture of me and Wylie Dufresne (that’s us on the right; Wylie’s in the apron, I’m the little gnome over whom he’s towering).
Drew Nieporent’s hoping this will be his year at the Beard Awards. I think he’d particularly like Corton to be named best new restaurant. Drew’s also on the long list of semifinalists for Outstanding Restaurateur, but he said he didn’t much care about that, and that everyone on that list would be a worthy winner.
A C-CAP spokeswoman told me they wouldn’t be discussing how much money was raised this year, but rather stressing how great it was that the whole chef community participated in the effort. She didn’t correct me when I assumed that that meant receipts were down. Of course they’re down. Business is lousy.
One fine dining chef did tell me he was starting to see light at the end of the tunnel — that after an abysmal January saved only by restaurant week (or really fortnight), some people are gradually shifting back from the cheap-o prix-fixe menus and ordering with a bit more gusto. After all, New York still does have a large moneyed class, and they can only refrain for so long from drinking deeply from the cup of life.
Tony and Marissa May were at the event, and they said construction on SD-26, the successor of their recently closed landmark restaurant San Domenico NY, was coming along.
Michael Lomonoco of Porter House introduced me to his longtime chef de cuisine, Michael Ammirati, with whom he’s worked since they were at Windows on the World, as he handed me a slider.
Michael's on the right in this picture, and that’s not ordinary schmootz on his forehead; yesterday was Ash Wednesday.
Oh, speaking of sliders, I had a tiny pork belly slider from Aureole, where Chris Lee is the new executive chef. Chris wasn’t there when I was, but I got to the party late as NRN’s culinary pages closed last night and I, naturally, had to stay until they were ready to ship.
Still, I had plenty of time to nibble my way through the C-CAP festivities and still make my 9pm reservations at Inakaya.
It’s a Japanese robatayaki place near Times Square (in the New York Times building, in fact), part of a Japanese chain, and I think it very much belongs in Times Square. It’s a gigantic space with a lot of yelling.
Yelling — or at least speaking with great enthusiasm and gusto — is par for the course in proper Japanese restaurants, where it’s customary for everyone on staff to greet you with a hearty Irrashaimase! when you arrive. It’s terrifying when you’re not used to it, but then it becomes kind of sweet.
They similarly yell to you when you leave.
But at Inakaya they yell about everything. If you order something, the server shouts out the order and the guys preparing the food behind the bar repeat it. It kind of reminded me of Cold Stone Creamery and the way they all have to sing with great enthusiasm anytime someone drops something into the tip jar.
I loved the guys behind the bar, dressed in loose-fitting garments that allowed them to nimbly climb around and reach for ingredients on display as they needed them, like acrobatic elves. Then they'd use long wooden palettes to deliver the food to you. Sometimes they would shout at you to tell you what it was, but sometimes they’d just say something to the effect of “here you go, sir.”
Yes, very Times Square.

What I ate at Inakaya:
grilled eringi mushroom
grilled shishito pepper with grated ginger
grilled ginkgo nut
grilled skewer of chicken thigh
marinated scallion in miso vinaigrette
wakame in chef's special vinaigrette
dried stingray (served with a side of mayonnaise)
red bean ice cream
And I drank some sake and a dark beer called Asahi kuronama, or “black draft.”

To finish off this blog entry, here are some guys with tattoos, from the culinary staff of Union Square Cafe. On the left is chef tournant Louis Opoku. Executive sous chef T.J. Steele is on the right.

Homemade Pork Scratchings - Part Two

It seems to have taken ages to get round to this, but thank you for your patience. You’ve been very kind. Ready to roll? Good.



Hopefully you managed to get hold of some pork skin and went through the laborious procedure of putting it on a tray, grinding some salt over it and popping it all in the fridge. It should take all of two minutes.



If not, here is a quick recap (homemade pork scratchings part one).

Unlike most methods, this one needs no deep fat fryer - just an oven.

Turn it on to about 180 degrees C. Remove the tray from the fridge and dry the pork skin. The salt will have helped some of the water leach out – this will give you supremely crackly pork snacks.

Grind a little more salt over both sides of the skin and put it all in the oven. Then wait.

This is cooking so easy that it should come with a pair of slippers, a velvet robe and large armchair for relaxing in.

After ten minutes or so turn the oven down to about 140. You are doing two things here: One, rendering out the fat and two, drying out the pork skin nice and slowly to get that beautiful flavour and texture.

Roughly every twenty minutes, you’ll need to drain off the fat (of which there will be much. Keep it. Seriously. Pig fat has a multitude of uses, all of them tasty. You could make rillettes?). Take this opportunity to turn them as well.

They should take about ninety minutes in total. This is quite an instinctive recipe – you just know when they are ready. The colour will be deep and rich, they will have curled up into neat little shapes and the skin will be starting to bubble.



Leave them to cool. Season with black pepper (and more salt, if you wish) and then eat them with many bottles of cold beer. Depending on their size, two or three should be enough for each person.

Seriously.

This is one of those snacks that you take one bite of and say ‘I could eat those until they come out of my finger nails’ but by the third mouthful you are ready to throw in the towel and have a nap.

The perfect pork scratching has a reverse side so crispy that you fear for your teeth and an inside with a little fat and meat left on so you get a textural contrast of such deliciousness that you are almost guaranteed to make that noise. Go on, be shameless. You know you want to.

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Paddys day plan for Seoul

Info from here
http://www.iak.co.kr/

Korea’s Most Celebrated Foreign Festival Saved by Seoul Government

- 2009 St. Patrick’s Day Festival to focus on community spirit thanks to “rub of the green” –

First Release – To Be Updated Later – Times Subject to Change (since we’re Irish)

(Seoul, 09.02.17) With business tightening its belt buckle in the face of the prevailing global economic downturn, one of Korea’s largest and most well-attended foreign festivals has received last-minute funding to ensure its celebration in 2009. Thanks to sponsorship and assistance from Korean Air, Diageo Korea (Guinness) and the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Seoul’s 9^th Irish Festival – 2009 St. Patrick's Day Festival – will go ahead as planned in Daehangno on Saturday, March 14^th from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Attracting an estimated 18,000 attendees in 2008, the Irish Festival, organized by the Irish Association of Korea (IAK), was in danger of not going ahead this year as significant corporate sponsorship was not renewed. The traditional and colorful street parade is a costly venture, and the festival in Seoul had also traditionally been accompanied with a free open air concert and fair. However, thanks to our loyal support from long-standing sponsors, this year’s festival will focus on continuing to build community spirit.

“Guess we got the rub of the green again!” joked Kevin Tobin, Chairman of the IAK. (Editor’s note: Ireland is commonly associated with the color green and good luck, particularly in North American and the United Kingdom.) “Every year we get more and more involvement and participation from Korean and non-Irish community groups and individuals, and there is an unwritten expectation in Seoul that this event will take place.

“As a group of volunteers, both Irish and Korean, we rely on the spirit of the community and other groups to make our event a success. This is what St. Patrick’s Day is about: sharing and celebrating cultural diversity together.”

The Festival will feature both Irish and Korean music and dance, including brass bands, rock ‘’n’ roll, traditional Irish music plus traditional Irish dance. The audience will be invited to participate in what has become a Seoul Irish Festival tradition – Irish folk dancing. There will be an informal parade through the streets of Ihwa-dong, east of Daehagno Boulevard, starting and ending at Marronnier Park. The IAK is calling on all Koreans and members of the foreign community to participate in and support this friendship march and to celebrate Ireland's national holiday by wearing green. The IAK will accommodate all non-profit groups into the street parade sequence.

1. Traditional Irish Concert & Fair – Marronnier Park, Daehangno, (Hyewha Station, #4 Light Blue Line, Exit 2) 11 a.m., to 5 p.m., March 14^th
2. St. Patrick's Day Parade – start @ Marronnier Park, Daehangno, 1 to 2 p.m., March 14^th
3. 'Hooley' at Dublin Terrace in Gangnam, 5 minutes from Gangnam Station, Exit 7 – from 7 p.m. to late (tickets at 50,000 won, includes free Guinness, drinks and food), March 14^th
4. 
   

Visit http://www.iak.co.kr for up-to-date information about the 9^th Irish Festival in Korea

(or www.seoulshamrock.co.kr).

Editors Note

The festival commemorates Saint Patrick, Ireland’s patron saint. It is sponsored by Ireland’s No.1 beer, Guinness, to promote the festival in Seoul alongside similar festivals in countries from Ireland to the USA, Canada, Australia and Japan. People visiting Marronnier Park, Daehagno on the 14^th are welcomed to enjoy traditional Irish dance and traditional music performance, and take part or support the Grand Parade by wearing green costumes.

About the Irish Association of Korea
Founded in 1996, the Irish Association of Korea promotes Irish culture in Korea by organizing events of interest to Irish people in Korea, and that are opportunities for Koreans and other people living in Korea to experience and learn more about Irish life. Among other events, it organizes the annual St. Patrick's Day festival in which over 18,000 people participated in Seoul in 2008.

If you wish to develop a feature or interview members of the Irish community in Korea, please contact:

For English For Korean

Mr. Eoin O’Colgain Mr. Jungmin Kim

010-3160-5850 or 010-6299-1854 or

orocolgain@gmail.com kjm811022@hotmail.com

wed, thurs.

hurm. sy selalu mengalami kesukaran dlm memikirkan tajuk utk post sy.
haha. serious. so. kalo selalu nmpk tajuk & post x de kene mengene.
harap maaf! huhu. baeklah. berckp ttg semlm...
cett. cam skema da. okay.
this post is a combination of yesterday & 2day.

25th feb 09 - wednesday. wen to TS. whuu~ jauh lak rase. haha.
yer la. gune public transport. kalo drive, maybe dkt.
sampai serentak. i mean, me n khalida. huhu. 10:40am da d sane!
then 2 movies marathon lg. eden lake & punisher;war zone.

eden lake sakit mental!!! hero n heroin mati.
cett...ingt kan ade hantu.
skali pembunuh nye bdk2 nakal yg...psycho! seriously! gile~~~
punisher;war zone. best. not bad.
esp bile semua gangster da tembak2.
hebat woo punisher tu. he's alone. n lawan2 die...x terkira!
tp. kate hero. mesti menang.
hehehehe... but, overall, memuaskan.

balik agak awal. b4 6pm dah sampai umah!
then...as usual. berlari!hee. then mlm plak.
tibe2 ade org kasi slm dr luar umah.
skali tgk. nana dtg dgn nora. whee~ nora kasi chocs!
owh ferrero roche~ mlm semlm jgk abis. haha. trimasss!

last jmpe mereka b4 mereka blk rumah bercuti. hee.
then. semlm. lmbt jgk tdow...bout 3am. lalalalala~~~

26th feb 09 - thursday. take a break, at home. huu...
not really. but, x g mane2 sgt la. bgn awal2 pagi. mandi!
sejuk yg amat! sbb asyik hujan je kl lately... gi bank.
then g JJ lg! XD beli brg dapur skit n singgah bakery.
blk umah. da tgh hari. tgh menggeliat. tibe2...

sy nmpk die dpn umah dah. haha. die dtg. hantar tanah.
tanah utk tanam pokok. die da janji dgn mama...
wheee~ n die bwk choc! wahh. akhirnye ade jgk choc dr die.
wakakaka. then. borak sebentar. bnyk jgk dibualkan.
sy advice die mcm2. n yg best, die dgr. and sy still harap.
someday die benar2 berubah. b a grown up guy.
sy x ske org burukkan die. sbb die kwn sy. sape2 pon.
yg burukkan kwn2 sy sy x ske. then...hujan. die pulang.

itu saje! hee. esok? owhhh. nak tunjuk koleksi paper bag plak!
ke cute pillow? wahhh...tgkla rajin buat yg mane! XD
till then. good nite. =D

Lentils

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lentil

I stoked the lentils over night then boiled them till soft but not mushy I cooked them in a little cumin and curry .I cooked the carrots and onion and garlic. A splash of hot sauce and a pot of plain yogurt. It is super tasty.