My First Attempt At Cooking Tom Yam Meehoon
When it comes to food, spicy food is my all time favourite. Since I have all the time in the world now, I’ve decided to try my hands at cooking, hoping to improve on my culinary skills (which is not that great as compared to my hubby’s). In order to overcome my shortcomings, I took the initiative in searching for Asian recipes online and experimenting on different dishes everyday. So far, I’ve tried cooking lemongrass chicken spaghetti, stir fried sugar snap peas with mushroom,carrot and baby-corn and a few other simple dishes.
I tried my very first attempt at cooking tom yam meehoon a few days ago. To my surprise, it turned out quite good 
I was very happy with the result.
This was how my dish looked like. Yummy!
Life’s Full Of Uncertainties!
I grew up looking at my mom, a full-time housewife, rushing here and there, cooking and performing household chores, and seeing how tired my mom was at the end of the day, I told myself, the last thing I want to do is to become a housewife. I don’t mind having a job that requires me to work till late at night and reporting to unreasonable bosses..as long as it is not washing the dishes and mopping the floor, I’m fine with it. I still remember how I discussed this issue with some of my friends, and how confidently I told them..”Me? A housewife? What a joke! I’m not going to be a housewife. I rather work than to stay at home! While saying those lines, my eyes were admiring my nicely manicured fingernails…ooh..how nice they were…long and neatly polished.
There are a few reasons why I disdain the idea of being a housewife. I love shopping and buying clothes. Without a job, that would not be possible. I will not have the chance of parading in my newly acquired shopping loot if I’m to just sit around at home. Without work, I’ll feel so useless and with that much time on hand, what can I do to make myself worthy?
I guess I’ll have to swallow my words and wallow in self pity now. I am officially a housewife. Not voluntarily, but somewhat a few turn of circumstances which resulted in me having to stay at home and become a housewife. Being out of job for a good 8 months and residing in a foreign country with family members far away and few friends around, is enough to drive be crazy. Last week, I was having bad mood swings, easily agitated with very minor things (yes, my hubby was the victim of my frustrations), I thought about a lot of things. I kept asking myself…”am I not trying hard enough in looking for a job?” or “have I been too choosy with the jobs available?” and so on and so forth. All these questions were flying around in my head. NO! The answer is NO. I have been very consistent in writing-in to all the prospective companies. I have been checking out the classifieds regularly. I have also registered myself in almost all the recruitment agencies in Abu Dhabi. So, what actually went wrong? The economy is recovering slowly and I hope that I’ll eventually find myself a job and no longer hold the “housewife” status.
Instead of wallowing in self pity, I have decided to make good use of the time I have now to brush up on my culinary skills. Being an abominable cook myself, I am determined to sharpen my culinary skills and who knows..I might discover a new hidden talent in me…
Procedure – Internal Jugular Catheter
After the 1st internal jugular catheter(IJC) a.k.a. triple lumen I inserted on Saturday under Dr. C’s guidance, I was given another chance today to practice what I have been taught! It came about simply because one of the patient in my cubicle needs it. I was so excited, happy at the same time that Dr. H & Dr. Z actually trusted me to do it by myself. But of course I knew I had to find another more experienced H.O (N, the well-known procedure expert among HOs) to help me(anyway, everyone needs an assistance for this, to at least hold the patient still or touch the non-sterile materials).
The procedure went on very smoothly, unlike the 1st attempt(where the patient had smaller veins, even Dr.C had difficulty accessing the good flow vein). This time, when I prick in to inject the lignocaine, I went a little too deep and while I withdraw the plunger, there was blood(good sign), so I confirmed that this will be where I am going to prick later with the large bore needle to access the *internal jugular vein. I withdrew the needle back a little and injected the lignocaine just under the skin. Large needle was then inserted, good flow was obtained immediately when I punctured the same site. I tested the flow a few times, ensure that it’s not arterial blood, then, followed by quickly inserting the guide wire, dilator and finally the triple lumen catheter. Lastly was the suturing to secure the catheter in place and a chest x-ray to confirm that it wasn’t inserted too deep in(like my 1st time) or to ensure that the lung is not punctured causing an iatrogenic pneumothorax. The x-ray came out alright, just like the way I expected it to be.
I felt successful, happy, instant satisfaction and confidence. Anyway, it has been said time and again that inserting triple lumen is 30% luck(which is a lot) and the rest is skill. Probably luck happened to be on my side today.
*Internal jugular vein – the large vein in the neck, lateral(away from midline) to the prominent neck pulse
About Baking: Cakes
Baking is on my ‘Thing to do Post-Exams’ list ever since I saw beautiful pictures of various home-baked cakes, muffins, and cookies in my friend’s Facebook pictures. I have even bookmarked a website (www.joyofbaking.com) with all these recipes for my coming mission then.
Having in mind to bake butter cake (also known as pound cake) we visited this shop that sells everything you need to bake, from ingredients to baking equipment. We were introduced with ‘easy bake ingredients’ where all the dry ingredients (e.g. baking flour, sugar, salt etc.) were mixed ready in a pack enough to bake a 1 kg cake. Dummies like us are recommended to buy this ‘easy bake pack’ before trying our hands on baking from scratch. Weighing and sifting every single ingredient is too tedious and messy!
Everything sounded so easy that we bought 3 packs (butter cake, moist chocolate cake and sponge cake mix). The salesgirl even promoted the ‘snowskin mooncake made-easy packs’ that it was hard to resist from buying. Again because it seemed so simple and the sample tasted as good as the commercialised ones.
Too excited that we baked moist chocolate cake on the evening itself.
Just mix together 500 g of cake mixture, eggs, water and some melted butter. Beat until smooth and bake at 180 degrees C for 1 hour.
Butter cake:
Cream butter until light and fluffy. Add in dry ingredients pack and beat for 1 minute until blended like this:
Add eggs slowly and cream until smooth.
Whip butter until mix well, pour into round mould.
Bake at 180 degrees C for 60 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.
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I overdid the beating step as I was too obsessed with achieving a smooth texture. I beat for 2-3 minutes in between each added egg, and there are 6 eggs in total to add, so imagine the amount of time spent on beating. By right, I just need to add the subsequent eggs once the previously added egg has just blended in/disappeared (without the unnecessary long gap of continuous beating).
The blunder I committed made the cake end up not only extra smooth but EXTRA FIRM as well (too much beating will deflate the cake). It ended up like a giant muffin instead.
The top is really crispy when it's fresh
Giant muffin with a defect at the bottom
!Update: I tried to bake a better butter cake last Wednesday. This time I shortened the beating duration and used an oven to bake instead. I even divided the batter into 2 baking pans so that it has space to rise/expand, unlike the previous one.
Result: Still quite firm but not as bad the first.
Reason: This time I blamed on overbaking. Longer duration spent baking in the oven makes the cake dry and hard.
Sponge cake was a total failure.
At least butter cake is edible, the sponge cake failed to rise and just the top part (the skin) is edible. How sad. So disappointed that I don’t bother taking a picture of it.
Snow skin mooncake
1. Mix the pack of dry ingredients with the mini packet of oil provided
2. Measure 70g of water and add most of it together with step
3. Leave just a little to wet your hands in case the dough becomes too sticky.
4. Knead the dough till smooth.
5. Divide the dough equally into 50g each and flatten them
6. Take 100g of lotus filling and wrap with the flattened dough
7. Press it in the mould to create the patterned top and sides
The result
Supposed to make 9 mooncakes from the pack, but we ended up with 7 due to inexperience, resulting in usage of slightly more dough to wrap a 100g lotus paste). We still have leftover lotus paste in the fridge.
The result is not too bad for a dummy’s standard.
Correct ratio of dough and lotus paste
Wrong Terminal!
4 days flew by and we had to board the plane back to KL on Monday noon since our flight was at 3.05 pm. I always have the idea that if I ever step into Hong Kong I must take a picture with the ‘Hong Kong International Airport’ blue fonts printed/stuck on the glass window. Anyone who is a TVB fan will automatically know what I’m referring to. TVB dramas are bound to have some touchy-feely departing scene between family members, couples etc. and all they show will be those giant blue words (HKIA). Does that ring a bell anyone?
After we were done checking in our luggage, I told mum about this oh-so-important task. It was only 1.15 pm, ah…still lots of time to kill. I checked out all 4 corners of the large departure area and what I saw was just ‘Terminal 2′ in the EXACT BLUE FONTS on the glass. I was sure to be on the correct floor because that’s the only departure level, the rest of the levels above are all restaurants/souvenir shops and the one below is for underground I think. Not satisfied enough, I walked from end to end of the glass windows just to make sure that I have not missed out on those HKIA words, worse still, dad and mum had to tag along just in case I found those words, then who’s gonna take a picture for me if I was alone? 
No, there’s no sight of the sign anywhere. Mum claimed that it probably only exist in dramas just to indicate to audience that it’s the airport. I knew that it’s secretly hidden somewhere but I had no choice but to believe her, because I had done my best looking for it. 
I thought about this all of a sudden yesterday and found this!
Terminal 1 Departure Hall entrance
Map
Why do I not think of Terminal 1?!?!
We were in Terminal 2 then, and it will take a 2-minutes walk between T2 and T1 through covered walkways.
Never mind…probably dad wouldn’t agree to go all the way there, paranoid of losing our way and missed the flight as a result. No, reassuring his mind is of 4th degree difficulty. -_*
Random pic:
The wings actually 'flap'
HK Trip: Food – Day 1 to 4, Breakfast to dinner/supper
Day 1:
After hotel check-in, we headed to the nearby coffee shop (a.k.a char chan teng (CCT) as the locals call it). I had egg tart and coffee. The egg tart pastry was done the shortcrust style. Coffee was just right, does not contain sugar; it is up to you to add it on the table to suit your taste. Dinner was included as part of the tour to the Peak and wax museum later. It was in this restaurant where there’s a room with other tables filled with tourists. More like a tourist trap to me. Food were super oily. The roasted goose meat was rather tough, but it was the best dish of the lot. So you can imagine the quality of the rest of the food.
Day 2:
Breakfast in another char chan teng near our hotel. We tried their breakfast sets. Food was bad and overpriced. We felt cheated. We swear that we will never step in there again, and had to repeat the ordeal every time we passed by the shop. -_- Lunch was great! We took MRT to Central and hunt for Mak’s noodles right away. The shop is small and crowded and the customers turnover was rapid. They served the smallest bowl of wantan noodles I have ever seen. Just the perfect portion for me, as my next plan in mind was to look for Tai Cheong Bakery nearby after that.
Since the bakery was just a little further up the road, I was still quite full. There was a vast selection of pastries displayed. The sight and smell of freshly baked egg tarts from the oven sent signals to the receptors in my salivary gland. We bought 3 egg tarts, 1 lotus pastry with salted egg yolk (ham dan sou) and 1 red bean paste stick (tau sar tiu).
Tai Cheong
Egg tarts: Just the right amount of sweetness and the egg filling’s consistency are soft and smooth like tau foo fah. Pastry is thin and crumbly, made the shortcrust way, unlike the puff pastry, more flaky in nature found in most famous KL bakeries. I actually prefer the former, although the puff pastry is held in higher regard.
Lotus pastry with salted egg yolk: Thin pastry, soft lotus filling and an entire preserved egg yolk in the centre. Heavenly…
Red bean stick: Just a bite of it to try. Dad loves it that we bought another two (one of it includes lotus paste stick). Mooncake in the form of an oblong stick shape, will be how I describe it.
Dinner was actually pre-booked for 7.00 pm, but we dined at Yung Kee(YK) at 5.30 pm instead due to the bad weather. When there are no large shopping centres in sight during a sudden rain, restaurants provide the best shelter. As usual, we ordered YK’s famous roasted goose(half portion). Other dishes include barbecued pork (char siew) and vegetables. These were eaten with noodles (lai fen) instead of rice.
Goose
Vegetables
'Lai fen'
There were room for dessert since we had an early dinner. So off to ‘Hui Lau Shan’ we went (around 9.30 pm) to try the shouted about mango pudding. Doesn’t taste as great as what people describe. Probably this is not the authentic branch.
Mango platter
Day 3:
Breakfast in the 1st restaurant we stepped in HK. We ordered ‘Teng zai’ porridge. Different kinds of ingredients inside the porridge, although mum said there should be more as she had eaten it before last time.
Lunch in Mongkok. Stepped into the wrong restaurant again. Service was bad, like the frequent quote in some HK movies, “Service in this day and age is unacceptable.” Apparently, every occupied seat will be charged HK$10 if you do not order anything. So we had no choice but to order 3 dishes instead of 2 despite not feeling hungry. Never mind if the food taste good, but no it sucks. Gahh…this was worse than the cheated breakfast on the 2nd day. Dinner in some random CCT in Tsim Sha Tsui after watching Symphony of Lights. Ordered pork tendon rice, fish ball noodles and fried fish skin, Not too bad…
Fried Fish Skin
Pork tendon rice
As I have suggested on Day 1 that I want to try the potato fries opposite our hotel, we bought it after dinner, since that was our last night in HK. LARGE cup of fries and I ate most of it by myself, half an hour after dinner ~9.30 pm, and I dozed off 2 hours later after shower. Super guilty plus bloated stomach.
Potato Fries with minced meat gravy and melted cheese
Day 4:
Breakfast in Kimberly Road. Ordered 3 bowls of wantan noodles. haha..wasn’t bad, but tasted nothing special. I thought the milk tea, was good, dense and smooth.
1 milk tea and 2 coffee
I insisted to try ‘Polo bun’ before we leave. Bought 1 in another CCT on the way back to hotel. I ate it half an hour after wantan mee breakfast too. Or else the chunk of butter sandwiched in the bun will melt…Never mind the guilt, because it’s worth it. Burrpp…
Polo bun
The end of my foodies journey in HK. Now I regret for not eating more egg tarts. -_-
The English language
This blog is 99% in English. The other 1% may be some colloquial words. I attended national school in the late 80s (till the late 90s) and I still managed to benefit from the group of ‘old school’ teachers who took great pride in teaching the students good English. In any event, the standard of English during my schooling years gave me a false sense of security – that my level of English language is considered ‘good’. Why do I say a false sense of security? English was a subject that I was certain I will score an A for every national exam that I sat throughout my schooling years without having to try too hard. How was that for talent?
Since I left school, I attended private college and subsequently university in the United Kingdom. Looking back, I am of the view that the standard of English that I was exposed to was no where near good for a few reasons.
The main reason is that the exams, teaching materials and expectation were low so only minimal effort is required to get an A and subliminal effort will almost guarantee a pass. Hence, the A at the end of the day does not necessary mean that I or other students are good.
Due to the first reason above, there is no need to increase the level of English during my own time. I spent most of my time reading up other subjects and those subjects were thought in the Malay language.
Thirdly, there is just lack of awareness on the importance of the language. Those who speak the English at home tend to have an advantage, those who read extensively (in English of course) whether out of their own interest or encouraged to do so will be a cut above or those who do not. Those who attend church and read the bible religiously will tend to have better English too.
As for myself, I do a bit of everything during the formative years although I admit that my command of the language would be more natural and better had I read extensively then. I do not speak language at home but I do converse the language with a few of my friends and most of my colleagues when I entered the working world.
I realised the importance of the language and how shaky my foundation of the language was when I was in university. Since then, I picked up the habit of reading and even ‘train’ my brain to think in English. Previously, I think in my mother tongue. Now, I know for a fact that I think in English because at times, when I am arguing in Cantonese with my mother, I was on the verge of articulating my points in English.
Anyway, if I remember correct, sometime in 2002, the government made it compulsory that mathematics and science shall be taught in the English language. The objective of this is to achieve the high level of English that all Malaysians regardless of race are able to speak in the 60s and 70s. However, and unfortunately, as of this year, the Malaysian government has decided to revert back to teaching mathematics and science in the Malay language. To say the least, I am disappointed. The reason of such reversal is because there are insufficient competent English teachers and students in the rural areas are unable to cope. What can I say? I am not in the government or a lawmaker, but as a good citizen and a layman, all I can say is that going back to the old ways will not solve any problems because the problems will just manifest into something else – perhaps the wake up call will felt when Vietnamese, Chinese, Burmese and Mongolians are able to speak and write better English that us (that is provided they are not doing that already).
Transit in Changi airport
As the airfares soared during the summer, hubby and I decided to grab SIA’s sweet deal airfare for our flight home to Kuala Lumpur, our home sweet home. The only downside to this deal is to waste a couple of hours being on transit in Changi airport. Anyway, since we are not in any rush of time, what the heck. We can save a few thousands of dirhams for just a few hours of “lepaking” in Changi airport. A sweet deal indeed!
And we were not a wee bit upset with the few hours that we spent in Changi airport. We were actually quite impressed with all those facilities that are made available to passengers on transit.
Sunflower garden
The Runway
Music Area
Comfortable seats with built-in speakers for us to enjoy the soothing music.
Free movies and internet access
Internet access at almost every corner
Beautiful indoor garden
Osim Foot Massagers
Osim iSnug
Free Gadget Charger
Spa/shower/room for rent
I went back to Kuala Lumpur, for 2 fabulous weeks. I had a great vacation back home. Hubby and I managed to eat almost all the food that we craved madly for when we were in Abu Dhabi.
Dubai Toll System
- Dubai’s Toll Gate
To-date, there are 4 tol gates in Dubai. Dubai’s electronic toll collection system, known as Salik (in Arabic meaning: open or clear) utilizes the latest technology to achieve free flow operation with no toll booths, no toll collectors, and no impact to traffic flow, allowing vehicles to move freely through the tolling point at highway speeds. We don’t have to queue and stop to pay anymore! Or perhaps, we should call it the quiet blood sucker ( as most Singaporean called their ERP system) If you are new in Dubai you may not even realised that you have passed through a toll gate!
Salik Tag
A Salik tag, loaded with sufficient credits must be affixed to your windshield. It operates with no battery or moving parts and must not be removed from the windshield without damaging the tag (something like our road tax, once affixed, can’t be removed). Each time one passes through a Salik tolling point, the toll of AED 4 will be deducted from his prepaid toll account using advanced Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.
There is, however, a downside to this Salik tag. It is “tied” to the car instead of the owner. If an owner has 4 cars, he has to buy 4 Salik tags, unlike our Smart tag, whereby, it is portable.
The End of A Beginning
The anticipation of waiting for final results drove everyone to the verge of insanity, me included. Refresh after refresh of the college’s intranet page since 9 a.m, and finally at 12.26 p.m…I PASSED! Yes, the ‘delusion’ that I’m going to pass final year exams has turned into a reality. The chronic 3 weeks’ exams stress, not to mention in addition to the month before exams started (during General Practice posting) was too much. I was burnt out, to the point that I tell myself, I’ll be happy to just pass, doesn’t matter the honours score (60 marks and above). Previous continuous assessment marks for medicine and surgery (contributing 20% to our final score) have been good, that I actually stand a good chance to score well for finals, but written papers were much more difficult this time. Nevertheless, I did well for long case in both medicine and surgery, as the examiners expressed satisfaction with my presentation and justification of answers.
Long case is conducted whereby the 1st hour will be given to the student clerking the patient’s history alone including full physical examination, and when the hour’s up, 2 examiners (1 internal, 1 external usually; though I got both externals), will come to you and you will be expected to present the history and physical findings followed by discussion about the case in the next 20 minutes.
However, I tend to be weak in OSCE, probably that’s where my marks were lost. Objective Structural Clinical Examination (OSCE) consists of 5 stations, 5 minutes in each station where we perform a focused physical examination on a patient, pick up relevant signs, correlate them and formulate a diagnosis. Additional questions will also be asked in the end. All in 5 minutes. FAST is the keyword. So, there’s no time for thought blocks or feeling stoned (which I frequently do), get into business once you enter a station.
I remembered very clearly Prof Kevin’s words, while we were still in 3rd year, of which he repeated again when we were in final year. He said, “Your graduation day will be the happiest day for most of you, as you feel that you are at your peak. But ask yourself, do you deserve this? Is your 50% pass mark granted as a pity from the examiner or do you really deserve to pass?”
I asked myself the similar question again today. Yes, will be my answer. I very much deserve this. Proud to say that the 5 years of medical school have been a smooth sail.
“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
-Sir Winston Churchill-
