Enduring guilt of chocolate pleasure

Yesterday I had a craving for moist chocolate cake.

Normally I wouldn’t list chocolate cake among my top favourite desserts. I like chocolate very much, but somehow when converted into an alternative form in cakes, ice cream and drinks… I sometimes find the chocolate richness watered down.

Some chocolate ice creams taste like nothing more than frozen milo. And in case you didn’t know, I’m not a big fan of milo. Call it a result of a childhood trauma, but the smell of hot milo in milk has this ill effect on me and often even produces a gag reflex.

But good quality rich chocolaty desserts are an indulgence I don’t mind enjoying enduring once in a while.

To make sure the cake has maximum chocolate richness, I thought it best to make it myself.

There’s heaps of chocolate cake recipes on the Internet. I chose one from the Cadbury website as I happened to have a bar of Cadbury milk chocolate in my pantry.

Here’s the recipe I used…

Melt 250 butter with 1 standard 200g chocolate bar (I did this in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering pot of water, but I’m sure you can do this in a microwave as well).

Dissolve a teaspoon of instant coffee and 1½ caster sugar in 1½ cups of boiling water (I cut down the sugar a little to 1 cup and it still turned out quite sweet).

Add coffee mixture to melted chocolate/butter, stir to combine and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

I then transferred the mixture into a food processor and added 2 eggs (lightly beaten), ½ a teaspoon of vanilla essence, 1½ cups self raising flour and ½ a cup cocoa powder, and then whizzed up everything in one go (I use a food processor to mix all my cake batters, not having an electric mixer, and my cake usually turns out okay).

Pour batter into a cake tin (I lined mine with baking paper) and bake in a 140ºC fan forced oven (or 160ºC conventional oven) for 1 to 1¼ hours. Cool for 30 minutes in cake tin before turning out onto a wire rack.

For the frosting, I made a chocolate royal icing by whipping 2 egg whites with 1½ cups icing sugar and ½ a cup of cocoa powder.

Enjoy and endure the guilt with the pleasure.

Funny of the day

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Make your own nasi himpit

The other day I made sayur lodeh (sometimes known as lontong) and realised that I didn't have any ketupat sachets left in the larder.

So I quickly jumped on the net to see if I could find an easy recipe for some kind of rice cake substitute or nasi himpit. I found out how easy it is to make actually.

Just cook 1 cup of rice in 4 cups of water in your standard rice cooker (make sure your rice cooker is set to the 'rice' setting and not the 'porridge' setting). When done, tip it out onto a baking tray and roughly mash it up with a fork. Then using the back of a spoon, evenly spread out and press the rice down in the tray. Leave it to cool then slice into cubes.

For more frangrant rice, you can put some pandan or screwpine leaves in the pot while cooking the rice.


Easy right? No need to buy DIY ketupat sachets from the store anymore.

Blurred Lines

I've been following the news on the protests againsts churches using the world 'Allah' in their Malay language publications. The latest count I read that the count is now up to nine church attacks because of this issue. Not many people here seem to be aware of familiar with the situation, so I've posted up two videos featuring this current contention in Malaysia.

The alarming thing for me is this idea that anything Malay = Muslim, therefore all things Muslim = Malay, and Malay = Bumiputera, therefore Muslim = Bumiputera. Which must be confusing for many people who have not lived in or experienced the mixed bag of people in Sabah (and probably Sarawak as well).

On this other side, things are not as clear cut as that equation. Not all Bumiputera = Malay, therefore not all Bumiputera = Muslim. Furthermore, because not all Bumiputera = Muslim, it brings in more dynamics of mixed marriages, multiple faiths in one family etc. etc. etc. (Bumiputera = natives of the country).

In Sabah, there's not a necessarily clear division between Chinese, Malay, Indian and 'Lain-Lain' (others). In Sabah, the 'Lain-Lain' actually makes up a significant part of the population. And sometimes it’s easy to confuse or even equate the Bumiputera ‘Lain-Lain’ people to Malays. Moreover, to these Bumiputera 'Lain-Lain' people, Bahasa Malaysia or Malay IS their Lingua Franca. Also remember that not all Bumiputeras = Muslim, which is why it’s relatively common to see inter-marriages between the ‘Lain-Lain’ with people from other groups.

I remember in school, sometimes we had to stand up and state our ‘race’ for the record (can’t remember why we had to do it). And almost every third or fourth person will state their race as ‘Sino’, which means they are mixed Dusun/Kadazan (Sabah Native) and Chinese. They state it very proudly too. It was considered pretty cool if you were a Sino. Sometimes I used to wish I could say I was Sino-Kadazan too.

Actually my friends used to ask me, “Are you sure you are not Sino, you look like you are?”. Because I did have that kind of look, a lot of people did anyway. In fact my paternal great grandmother was Kadazan. But apparently you only get to say you are Sino if you are 50% Kadazan. In my case, it was more like 12.5%. But like I said, a lot of Kadazan had Chinese blood, and a lot of Chinese also had some Kadazan blood. We were all perfectly comfortable living among this varied blend of races and blood… everything chapalang together.

However I was never actually fully conscious or aware of all this, until I came to Australia. When I first started attending a church here which had many Malaysians and Singaporeans, I was frequently confronted by comments and teasing like “Assamualaikum!!!”or “Eh, are you Chinese or Malay?” or “No you cannot eat, isn’t it puasa time for you?” or "Malai moi". All this in addition to the "Do you Sabah people live in trees?" jibes. It seemed like people just couldn’t place me in a particular category, and it just threw them off a bit… never in any malicious or mean way of course.

So this dispute around this current point of contention in Malaysia on ‘ownership’ of a word due to religion and linking it to race… the world will not always be split into clean lines. Where then will we draw the line?

Cats are so random

I’m trying not to write too much about Mishu, lest it come a Mishu-blog. But this last incident was really funny so I just had to share.

First off, let me tell you something… cats are decidedly weird and random creatures. They will catch you completely off guard, looking as if they are all dozy and sleepy... and then the next minute, they can do something completely random, like tear around the room with a sudden burst of energy.

So anyway, it was Sunday night and I was in bed, with pillows propped up behind me, immersing myself in my book. Hubby was already snoring away. I was feeling all nice and cosy and sleepy, when…

…Out of the corner of my eye I spotted an orange creature creeping into the walk-in-robe/ensuite area. He can be quite a night prowler at times, so I wasn’t alarmed. I heard a thump, which I took to be him just playing with his ball (his toys are scattered around the house) or pouncing on a spider.

Then suddenly… and I really mean SUDDENLY… I heard an excited meow, followed by a orange/ginger streak shooting past, and a trail of something green along with it.

“What on earth is the creature up to now?”

I got up and went out to investigate.

This is the sight that confronted me…

My favourite army-green  pants!!! Kidnapped by my cat for reasons I can never hope to understand.

Some more he dare to look up at me with such sweet innocent look as if to say “Oh hello! What’s up mummy? Is it breakfast time already?”

I suppose this is nothing compared to the shoe-chewing, plant-digging, welcome-mat-destroyer dog back in KK.

I guess I can live with this.

Excuse me while I go and check that my army-green pants are safely hidden away out of sight.

Mishu’s earthly possessions

Following various questions by curious people, I thought I’d post up some pics of the different objects Mishu’s life revolves around so you can get a picture of his daily routine and how he amuses himself (and us!) every day.

First off, very important: The Scratching Post. Cats just have the need to scratch something every day. So to avoid it scratching the furniture or cushions, best to set a designated spot. Mishu usually does his scratching just before meals… so every morning before breakfast, and in the evening when we arrive home, just before we give him his dinner.

After scratching time is meal time. We feed him about quarter cup of dry kibble and 50grams of wet food twice a day. Every day before makan time, he will meow and rub his body against our legs, scratch his post and look up expectantly for manna from heaven… or from his perspective, the kitchen counter.

After makan, it’s toilet time. Again, pretty routine… almost immediately, or not long after licking the last bits from his bowl, he will make his way into this little corner in the laundry. Moments later we will hear a rustling sound as he covers up his ‘business’ with his paws and emerges again to see what we are up to.

If we are not doing anything particularly interesting, he might creep into his little ‘bed’ under the stool next to the couch. He will just hang around while we watch TV or surf the internet… sometimes dozing off, until we decide to ‘disturb’ him, giving him a little poke, at which he will open his eyes slowly, gaze at us nonchalantly, yawn, then look away, as if to say ,“whatever!”

We try to play with him for a few minutes every day. As you can see, he has a variety of toys to choose from….

But he generally has only a couple of favourites…

Like this small roll of cellophane. It started when we happened to be using it to tape something in the living room, Mishu was sitting nearby, so hubby thought just for fun to roll it toward him. He got really excited and started chasing it, pawing at it and pushing it around. He enjoys playing with it so much, it’s now been left as a permanent addition to his toy collection.

I’m not sure whether this is actually one of Mishu’s favourites, but it’s definitely one of mine. This is Mishu’s ‘prey’ when he’s in the mood to play the role of mini-tiger. He will wrestle it and attack it as if he is trying to tear apart a real zebra. I like it because it’s so hilarious to watch him ‘wrestling’ with it.

So this is just a glimpse into some of the little things that form part of Mishu’s every day life. Hope you enjoyed it.

Two-dollar treasure

One my favourite lunch time haunts is Elizabeth’s Second Hand Bookstore, corner of Hay St and King St in Perth. Even if I don’t plan on buying anything, I enjoy browsing through all sorts of books, new and old, and looking at early editions of classics.

Late last year (near Christmas time), I happened to pass by their bargain bin and decided to pick through to see if I could find any hidden treasures.

And I found it. A treasure for only $2.

I knew of the story from the movie ‘Love is a Many Splendored Thing’. (If you don’t know yet, I am a sucker for old movies. I still flick to the SBS channel every now and then to see if I can catch any good old classics and was ecstatic at being able to catch Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ on that channel recently. I also received a stunned look from my pastor because I knew exactly what he was talking about when he mentioned seeing the exact spot in Hawaii where the iconic beach scene from the movie ‘From Here to Eternity’ was filmed. But I’m digressing…)

This is absolutely one of the best two dollars I have ever spent. I’m savouring every word of the book as I read. Han Suyin is a genius with words. In a few poignant sentences, she describes a scene, a feeling, a thought, and immediately I am transported, and I see the colourful market scene in Hong Kong right before me, smelling the pungent scents, hearing the clamour of buying and selling.

On strength vs. gentleness she writes…

“…you must decide for you are stronger.”

“I think you are stronger.”

“I am not, for I am always on the defensive. And you are gentle, you carry no armour. There is nothing stronger in the world than gentleness. I will follow you.”

There is nothing in the world stronger than gentleness. It sounds like a contradiction of words. But it makes perfect sense.

Here is another quote…

Most people do not wish to remember suffering. My concern is not to forget it. It is not merciful to forget; to obliterate the live sore of remembrance with creeping, bloodless scar tissue. For me always the unabated rawness, the fresh profitable spur of pain. But alas, in vain I wish, for I too shall suffer healing.

Intrigued by this Eurasian author and her tremendous skill with words, I googled ‘Han Suyin’ to learn more. Here are a few things I learnt from Wikipedia and various other articles and websites featuring Han Suyin:

 

Han Suyin (her pen name) was born Rosalie Elizabeth Kuanghu Chow, 1917 in Henan, China, to a Belgian mother and a Chinese engineer of Hakka heritage. She completed her medical degree in London (1948) and went to Hong Kong to practice medicine.

In Hong Kong she fell in love with war correspondent, Ian Morrison. Their love affair was the scandal in Hong Kong at that time - she a widow with a young daughter, he a married man with children. The affair ended tragically when Morrison was killed while reporting on the Korean War. Han then poured her grief into writing ‘A Many-Splendoured Thing’ as a kind of closure for her - which puts some context behind her quote on ‘remembering suffering’.

In 1952 she married a British Officer from Malaya, Leon Comber, and went with him to Johore where she opened two clinics in JB and Singapore. The clinic in JB is located on Jalan Ibrahim, next to a motorcycle service shop where Universal Pharmacy used to be (I have no clue where this is, but just putting this in for the benefit of those from Johor).

In 1955, Han Suyin played a key role in the establishment of Singapore’s Nanyang University. She was actually offered a role to teach literature which she declined because she said she wanted “to make new Asian literature, not teach Dickens”. Inside the backcover of my copy of ‘A-Many Splendoured Thing’ she wrote…

People often say to me: ‘Why don’t you give up medicine? You write such good English.’ Nothing displeases me more. I am a doctor, not a writer. If I had to choose between the two, unhesitatingly I would choose medicine.

She has written numerous works in English, Chinese and also French, primarily around the cultural and political conflicts in China and East Asia, many of which feature the colonial times in Asia during the 19th and 20th centuries. She is also known to be conversant in Hakka, Mandarin, Cantonese, Malay.

She now resides in Lausanne, Switzerland.

 

Terror kan this woman? I was like “wauuuuuuuuu…what a life lived!"

If you have actually read through this far, I congratulate you and thank you. I am sometimes apprehensive about sharing this kind of thing (i.e. reading old books and watching old movies) because it might scare some people off thinking I'm some old boring woman. But I can’t help myself. I just have the need to share this.

This is really one of the best two dollars ever spent.

Once I finish this book, I will hunt up for her next book ‘And the Rain My Drink’ where she writes of the Malayan Emergency of the late 1940s and 1950s.

I shall now resume reading my two-dollar treasure while listening to Andy William’s ‘Love is a Many Splendored Thing’.

Real Molotov Cocktails

Just days after my post on Molotov Cocktails, I was stunned to read the news of church bombings in Malaysia over this dispute of the world 'Allah' by Malay speaking Christians.

It's truly saddening to hear of such news of this kind of thing happening in my home country. Words are inadequate to describe my emotions. I actually cried as I read the news and saw the pictures - evidence of the seriousness of the situation.

Photos below are taken from Marina Mahathir's blog.


These photos are of Desa Melawati Metro Tabernacle Church, where Molotov Cocktails were thrown into the compound causing the fire and damage.

BBC News reported that three churches in KL so far have been attacked by Muslim protesters.

It is encouraging to hear some Muslims standing up to condemn this act and some groups even offering to help these churches clean up the aftermath of the destruction.

If you can, please spare a moment to reflect and pray over this situation.

Mishu’s summer look

After numerous jibes at Mishu being a ‘fat cat’

Here is fully revealed and stripped of all his fluffy ginger glory

Yes, with the onset of the summer heat, his shedding fur was becoming a chore to maintain. We also suspected that the heat was making him rather listless and lethargic.

So today we took him to the groomers to get his fur clipped. They clipped his whole body except for his head, tail and legs. It looks like someone plucked off his head and plonked it on the body of a sphinx cat.

I know he looks hideous and rather ‘naked’, but it actually feels nice to stroke him… he has a soft downy undercoat, which is quite velvety to the touch.

So now Mishu is all set for summer!

Here's to Auld Lang Syne and Ringing in the New

Since I have not posted an official Happy New Year greeting, here is a special something for all of you...

 

A rendition of the familiar tune 'Auld Lang Syne'... played on a harp guitar by well renown Roger Wang from KK

 

Some people may have wondered what the phrase 'Auld Lang Syne' means...

Harry: What does this song mean? My whole life, I don’t know what this song means. It says ‘Should old acquaintance be forgot.’ Does that mean we that should forget old acquaintances or does it mean that if we should happen to forget them, we should remember them which is not possible because we already forgot?

 

Sally: Well maybe it just means that maybe we should remember that we forgot them or something. Anyway, it’s about old friends

 

~ When Harry Met Sally ~

(Trivia time) 'Auld lang Syne' is a traditional Scottish phrase which translates to something like 'long long ago' or 'old long since'... or something that brings to mind days of long ago... like the way we start stories with 'Once Upon a Time'.

 

I remember my mother once explained it to me as something like 'for old time's sake'

 

The tone of some my posts have been somewhat reflective and reminiscent of late. Because you see, you can’t forget about your past because your past is what makes you who you are in the present. It's good to look back every now and then, just to see how far you've come in the journey. To pause and be grateful. Yet not stopping there because to move forward, your eyes need to be focused ahead of you, not behind you.

 

So on the first point, looking behind, my toast for the new year is... "for auld lang syne, guys... for auld lang syne"

 

And on the second point, looking ahead, my toast for this is (to quote Tennyson)...

...Ring out the old, ring in the new,

...The year is going, let him go

 

...Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

...Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

 

Holding up my glass, I say "Here's to Auld Lang Syne and Ringing in the New!"

Molotov Cocktails

How did you spend your new year’s day? Probably sleeping in, lazing around or recovering from the previous night’s revelry…

Mine was spent shooting witches and ghoulies and blowing up hoards of zombies with motolov cocktails

Yes… hubby somehow managed to convince me to ‘test’ out the LAN gaming network he set up.

Which turned me into a nervous shrieking lunatic… you would be too if you found yourself in a world surrounded by zombies who are determined to kill you for no apparent reason.

I survived and escaped.

But hubby died a martyr’s death… well actually he accidentally fell off the roof of the building in the last stage.

Hubby is now pestering me to play another round. Sigh.

Oh, and happy new year.