云吞

With food/recipe magazines everywhere, anyone can cook! =P

Today I attempted to make wontons which turned out pretty good. The recipe said to use chicken mince but since chicken meat here is so expensive, I decided to go with pork mince. I mean come on, who makes/eats wonton with chicken meat anyway? At least I don't, for all I remember wontons are always filled with pork. I think it would be a completely different texture if it was chicken meat, possibly not as 'soft'? Which defeats the purpose of making wontons cos literally wonton or 云吞 means 'swallowing cloud' which indicates the wonton being so soft it's like swallowing clouds. 

My version is probably a cross between Cantonese and Shanghainese. Cantonese serves it with noodles, Shanghainese uses only pork and wombok (no prawn) and wraps it the way I did. The first time I tried to wrap it, I didn't know how to do it as the instructions weren't clear in the recipe. It turned out looking really ugly and weird so I looked up Youtube and found the right way to wrap them. Seriously, the internet has just about anything you're looking for it's not even funny.

By the way, I just finished watching Lord of the Rings (all 3) yesterday. I know, so freaking late. It was out when I was 15, at that time I probably still didn't have that much freedom to hang out with my friends and watch movies so when the 2nd or 3rd movie came out, I didn't watch it cos what's the point of watching when I didn't watch the first movie, right? Can I just exaggerate how freaking long the movie is? 3.5-4 hours for one movie, are you serious? Lol. Nevertheless, it was good. Next, The Matrix. Yes I haven't watched that either, because the name sounded boring hahaahh.

My Mexican Cousin

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On Sunday we went over to St. Ali for brunch. It's said to be famous for their cofee but I don't know much about coffee so gimme a cuppa macchiato and I'm good to go.

Wk had a latte (1) and the Daffy's Whole Egg (3) which has roasted assorted mushrooms with soft boiled duck egg, sauteed spinach and smoked sea salt. I of course had a long macchiato, and for my brunch I went with My Mexican Cousin (2) which is their secret recipe corn fritters, baby spinach, haloumi and kasundi with poached eggs. Maggie had the Napoleon Complex which is their french toast, you can see it in the second picture.

Loved the corn fritters! Corn fritters instantly reminded me of my Form 5 English literature subject where we had to read a book called The Pearl. Anyone remember that? Anyone? I really enjoyed the book so maybe that's why I can still remember the details. By the way corn fritters is not 'jagung goreng' ok... it's similar to pancakes but with corn in them. I guess traditionally people deep fry the mixture so maybe that's why it's called fritters but I'm pretty sure mine's not deep fried, it didn't taste oily at all.

I'm don't know much about coffee but I did enjoy my long macc. Food and service was good too but I heard they're always crowded and you can't book for a place though. They have quite an extensive menu, would love to go back and try other stuffs.

When we were on the way back to the city we passed by the Convention Centre and noticed there lots of people and some people with costumes so we decided to get down and have a look. I still don't know what was going on that day cos I was too busy looking at all the different costumes haha.

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The Star Wars characters were all getting their photos taken (4). Then we grabbed a Stormtrooper for a picture (5). I did take pictures with them but... gosh I look so fat if I put it up it'll break the screen wtf.

By the way, speaking of Stormtrooper, I never knew they were called that until Wk and Kai Mun mentioned! All these while I've always referred them as "the white soldiers" or "the clones" haahahah. Even my brother calls them clones lol.

Their costume was really, REALLY cool btw. When they talk the voice goes through something in their headgears that digitizes it and make it sound semirobotic, exactly like in the movies. When Maggie and I was about to take a picture with one of them, we dropped our shopping bags ith the boys and the Stormtrooper asked us "Have you been shopping today" in that digital voice hahahaha it was so freaking funny. That day was a really warm, sunny day. I cannot imagine how hot it would be for those people wearing those costumes. Especially Darth Vader hahaha. I was kinda disappointed to not see Chewbacca though.

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Teaching went pretty well last week! :) It was a piano distributing company, which is the sole distributor of Steinway & Sons in.. I don't know if it's Victoria or the whole of Oz but omg... a huge lot full of pianos! Steinway & Sons some more! I would choose to get a Steinway over a car... since Wk can buy a car hahaahah!

Ok time to go.

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Life isn't as easy as it used to be but I am constantly grateful that I am always very well taken care of. If I feel like it, I'll cook. If I don't feel like it, someone is always there to make my meal for me.

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Michelle, my former boss in a music school I used to teach at in Malaysia who migrated to Melbourne, asked me to help her relief her piano classes because she is back in Malaysia for the moment. A temporary opportunity to have a job but I think it's going to be a great experience, to know how it's like in the music schools here.

School on the other hand is getting interesting. I'm now thinking of what I really should do. Initially I wanted to change to another course but I couldn't do it because it wasn't offered to international students, it still isn't offered now. I'm stuck with this current course I'm doing because I'm supposed to change only when it is approved by the government and offered to international students. I was convinced that it'll happen in August. Then September. Then October and the list goes on. The last I heard, it's not going to happen till next February. Which will make it 8 months from when I started this course I'm currently doing! Which makes completely no sense if I were to switch after being in it for so long.

I honestly don't mind continuing to do what I've been doing since I'm doing well and I do see some career prospect in it. The thing is I don't feel excited whenever I go to school. I'm only doing it for the sake of the fees I've paid, not for the love or interest of it. But to change after 8 freaking months? I don't know how's that going to happen without needing to pay some extra moolah, which obviously I'm not willing to. I can only blame the institution for tricking me into agreeing to do this course while I wait... oh wait. Maybe I should blame myself for being so stupid. Haihhh.

So today we went swimming again. It was our 4th time if I remember it right. We've been going swimming pretty much every weekend and Wk teaches me how to swim. My dad taught my how to breaststroke when I was younger but it's not quite right... the technique. I'm guessing he learned it informally/self-taught which explains the wrong technique. I've always wanted to know how to swim... just because. It's a great cardio workout because in the water the exhaustion is somewhat disguised... if you know what I mean. I can never get the motivation to jog. So freaking tiring and boring.

I'm almost getting there with my breaststroke! Even did laps today. Not many but compared to the previous times, today felt very rewarding. Before this I had to break my swimming into 'sections' to complete 1 lap ok, it was that exhausting for me as well as demotivating looking at everyone swimming like a fish wtf. Even kids! Then again, I was most probably swimming wrongly so that's why. 

And each time I was approaching the deeper end, I panicked when I looked at the base getting deeper and deeper, and then I'll stop swimming and turn around as though there's a monster in front waiting for me wtf. Today, it felt so much more in control! There was still a few panicky moments but I tried to be as calm as possible and it really did work - to stay calm.

Once I get my breaststroke right, Wk will teach me freestyle. Looking forward to that! Slowly I shall overcome my fear of the water and swim like a fish too! =D

This was my second attempt at coffee cake, after a pretty disappointing first. This time the cake turned out much better - much lighter in texture and more moist. Finally satisfied.

Thinking of what I should bake next...

I've finally finished reading Kafka on the Shore. And honestly I have absolutely no idea what it's all about. So I Wikipedia-ed it like a loser... and found out that's exactly how the author wanted it to be. Like a riddle. So I'm supposed to read it a few more times to figure out more which I can not be bothered. It was a good read though... very mysterious and strange which kept me going on only because I was as curious as a cat. Ha! What a coincidence for using that idiom cos the book talks about cats as well.

Today marks the start of daylight saving aka the clock has to be adjusted to an hour faster than before aka we just lost 1 hour of the day in this Sunday. Oooooh well.