Birthday gift

As time goes by, gifts become scarce. This year I got a sling bag from sis. ;) already very thankful on that. It's not the gift that is important but the thought that counts.

Today I saw an envelope on my table. It says open with a broad smile which I did cuz I immediately recognized the handwriting. I opened it and saw this...

I was so touched! A gift from a dear friend really brighten up my day! :D Now I know what she was up to when she was grinning cheekily to me like 5 mins before I got back to my desk. 

Cutting a Cobia or Black Salmon

My uncle likes fishing trip and this time, he caught a Cobia. I think this is my first time hearing this name. I did a search on Google and found that it has a lot of names. Also known as black kingfish, black salmon, ling, lemonfish, crabeaters, etc, etc. In Chinese, it's know as 海雷.

The fish weighs at approx. 25kg and about 1m long. I didn't manage to shoot a photo of the whole fish before it was cut up. But nevertheless, I got the 2 halves in photos! haha!

The bone is actually taking a lot of its weight because after finish filleting the meat, there's actually not much to eat, considering that we need to divide and give some to family & friends. 2-3 bags of bones were left for cooking soup and porridge though.. ;p 

The whole kitchen smelled so fishy that my sister couldn't stand it while eating her fruits. She had to run away! ;P

Apricot, dates, banana, almond and pistachio cake

The kitchen is my mom's territory and I seldom venture into this area. Not that mom doesn't let me. She would be delighted if I learn some cooking skill from her. But usually, the 'boss' won't like it if you mess up her territory, right? ;p Just kidding... 

Last Saturday, mom suggested that I bake a cake to bring to the potluck. She has already cooked some beef stew. But since there are quite a number of us going, it's better we bring more food. So, my first attempt to bake a supposed to be prune & pistachio cake, turned out to be a "Apricot, dates, banana, almond and pistachio cake". Reason is that we have a lot of dates (buah Kurma) and banana. These dates are seen selling at most stores during the Muslim fasting month. 

The cake was super delicious and nothing was left at the potluck. Thanks mom for guiding beside me. ;) 

Ingredients :-

• 210g plain flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 6 eggs
• 200g of sugar (I've already cut down sugar because the dates are extremely sweet)
• 100ml melted butter (Corn oil can be used here, but I prefer butter)
• ~ 130g chopped dried apricots and dates 
• 2 bananas
• ~100g grounded pistachio and almond

Method:-

1. Sieve flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda in a mixing bowl. 
2. Melt the butter and measure 100ml.
3. Mix sugar into butter. Add bananas and eggs into the melted butter and mix well.
4. Stir into flour mixture together with apricots, dates, pistachio and almond until well blended.
5. Spoon mixture into a cake tin with grease paper. Bake in preheated oven at 175C for 35-40minutes. Stand for 10minutes and turn on wire rack to cool.

2nd attempt was on banana chocolate cake. But I just helped slightly.. mom did the rest. Mom said i whipped the mixture too long and it turned out a bit too wet at the bottom layer. Not sure about that though.. Will try again when I have the chance lah!

Chinese Painting Exhibition

Dad & I went to a chinese painting exhibition held at Ipoh City Hall last weekend. 

We were lucky to witness some artists in action. This artist was writing a gigantic "神" (means God). Even his signature stamp was huge to match the extra large word. 

This artist is very talented in painting animals. The stroke is fine and you can feel the 'fluffiness' of the panda's fur! ;P

Creations from the above artist. The tigers are so beautiful !

Many different kinds of Chinese calligraphy. 

Some artists are specialised in painting butterflies and some in chinese women with scenery background. The butterflies were very real.. love the color combination. 

The paintings are not for sale. But there was an agent at the exhibition hall who told us that if we are interested, we could contact him for further discussion. Haha...of course. 

Pray for our country

It was a sermon full of fire on Sunday. Maybe it's just me.. i felt a fire ignited in me. The speaker encouraged us to pray for our country, for wise leaders... Not only can Christians pray, he encouraged us to invite our friends and colleagues of different religions to pray and cry out to our God. God will intervene when we ask in unity. 

On Monday, I told my colleagues about this. I'm not sure if they will do it but message has been passed and I do hope that each and everyone of us will spend a short time praying for our country everyday. There have been so many unsolved issues. If you are a Malaysian, you will understand and know what is happening. 

So, let us pray in unity as Malaysians for our government and for our leaders. 

Juniel

Fell in love with a Korean song the first time I heard of it on the radio the other day. The voice sounded familiar..and i checked on google. True enough, it was what I thought..CN Blue's Jung Yonghwa's voice! ;D But the other female vocal, who is she, I wonder... who's having the privilege to sing a duet with Jung Yonghwa..? 

And it came out to be from a rookie soloist named Juniel. They were singing Stupid, a song which Jung Yonghwa produced for Juniel's debut in Korea.

Listen to the song here 

Unsure of who she is, I had a search and found out that she started her career just like CN Blue. She writes her own songs and can sing really well. She performed on the street in Japan too! Listened to a few of her songs...and they do sound really nice! Good that her senior is looking out for her. ;) I'm positive she has a really bright future with her many talents!