Roast Pork/烧肉 & Char Siew/叉燒

*Non Halal*

I guess we don't need any further introduction about these dishes. Every Chinese will know what are these... The fabulous Crispy Roast Pork/Siew Yok (烧肉) & Char Siew (叉燒). Bear in mind these are extremely unhealthy food.. oily & fatty.. But, the sad truth is that all unhealthy food are delicious food. I don't encourage eating these, but if your cholesterol level is normal and you maintain a healthy lifestyle with routine exercise, then why not eating this once in a while? (But definitely don't eat these everyday lah.. later get "blocked heart vessel" then susah)

The unhealthy Roast Pork aka Siew Yok (烧肉)- crispy skin, thick layer of fat & meat

Most people can't resist eating these.. but of course there are exceptions. I don't really fancy the roast pork, but I love the Char Siew :) Or to some, they will say "hampalang sapu"... What's your preference or what's your saying on this matter ?

The mouth watering Char Siew ((叉燒).

Char Siew (叉燒) is also known BBQ pork usually with a bright red, dark red or dark brown outer colouring.

Name, name.. What's in the Name?

Nowadays, before I see any patients, I will look at his/her name first. (I guess most of us are too used to refer patients with the diseases they have or their clinical conditions instead of their names). Throughout all these years, I come across quite a number of patients with "weird" names.. or at least, those names are "weird" to me. To others, the name might be "unique"... or "funny" in another word? I believe parents should name their kids properly or appropriately ;)

The following names are real examples (which I encountered lately) and the surname or last name is censored.. The followings are Chinese names, Malay names and Indian names..

1) xxx Ah Mooi - I presume this is a gal's name when my nurse called the patient. I was surprised when I saw an elderly uncle walking in instead :) (Ah Mooi = little girl)

2) xxx Leng Chai - mmmm.... This is a paediatric patient I saw a year back. Leng Chai in Hokkien (typing error) Cantonese dialect means good looking or handsome guy. I guess his friends or school mates will surely laugh at him when he enter school in the future. And.. I definitely hope that the parents don't name his sister as xxx Leng Lui ( = pretty girl) :P

3) xxxx Ah Big - Huh? This is interesting.. Luckily the patient is not someone huge or gigantic :D

4) Mat Salleh xxx - I guess all my Malaysian friends what the meaning of Mat Salleh ( = Ang Moh or Westerner), and the interesting thing is that I have a Malay patient with the name Mat Salleh :D

*updated*

5) Brain xxxx (instead of Brian) - might be the parents want the kids to be brainy?

6) Money xxxx (instead of Mani) - might be the parents want the kids to be prosperous later on in life? This one is Indian name.

Have u encounter or come across any weird or funny names that you want to share here?

Beautiful Day

I just posted few photos regarding sunrise in Penang few weeks ago. This morning when I looked out of the window (prior to leaving the house for work), I saw another nice sunrise :) The colour combination of mother nature is so nice..

The day continues as usual. When I reached home in the late evening, I looked out of the window again..

It is really worthwhile to spend time looking at the sky.. If u don't look up into the sky, u will never know or u won't realise what u missed in life !!

And these few pieces of clouds are nice artworks of mother nature.. White cloud at the back with dark greyish cloud in front and the blue sky as background :)

Kuih Kapit / Love Letters / Egg Rolls (蛋卷)

Whatever you called it.. Kuih Kapit or Love Letters or Egg Rolls or 蛋卷...All refer to the same thing :) This kuih kapit/love letters/egg rolls/蛋卷 is not in the conventional "rolled" form but in "folded" form (triangular shape). I found these snacks few days ago inside one of the container. Didn't realise there are still leftovers from Chinese New Year. Still in good condition and still crispy. Give some to my dog and he loves it :)

p/s: Anyone has any idea why is this popular snacks also known as Love Letters?

Flower Crabs

Today I will talk about crabs (not craps !!! although I do talk craps once in a while ...)

I like this picture. The angry crab starring at me when I took his picture.. Too angry till his eyes going to pop out ?? Hahahaa... (This crab had exopthalmos or proptosis - which means protruding eyes). Carcar, I hope u still remember those medical terminology (exopthalmos & proptosis) which I told u few weeks ago :D

Why was he angry? Of course lah.. cos he was tied up... Well, what to do? Have to tie up the claws or pinchers or whatever u call it .. or else, the crab will surely pinch me.. No joke. Don't want to take the risk :) If not, painful leh...

The smart looking crabs lining up in style.. just like the police cadets :P But have to bear in mind that these crabs cannot march cos... they walked sideways !!! ( Corrupted crabs ??? )

Final result - the yummy Flower Crabs Curry. My hubby prepared & cooked this dish all by himself ;)

My Weblog First Birthday ...

How time flies... without realising, my blog is one-year-old already - Celebrating the 1st Birthday on 25 April 2006. This is my 386th posts.. I didn't realise I have written so many posts in the past one year. I started blogging end of April last year after some chit chat sessions with friends on yahoo messenger. (Just for fun initially) but somehow it now becomes a past time favourite.

My first blog was another blog - chen99.blogspot.com, started on 24 April 2005.. I told my friend about that after I posted the 1st post on that blog while we were chatting on yahoo messenger. He asked me "How come u put "chen99"? 99 years old ah? So old liao..". Hahha, I ponder about that for a while and then changed my blog to another domain name the next day, and finally chen22.blogspot.com was born on 25 April 2005.. Nope, I'm not 22 years old. This figure 22 has a special meaning to me. U don't have to guess cos u won't be able to guess the real meaning behind it. So far, I only told one blogger how that figure 22 come about, and what is the meaning behind it. You know who you are, right? Keep that to yourself, thanks ;)

At first, I wrote some craps and light topics in my weblog. I didn't include in any pictures or photos in the first two months. But, since a picture means a thousand word, and as time goes, I included in more and more photos in each post.

I started reading weblogs ways back in 2003 but never thought (plus lazy as well) of starting one.. Most of the time, I was just a "silent" reader. Some of the blogs that I read initially are CooknEngr and Fish Fish's blogs. I still remember going to CooknEngr's new house in Kuching during Chinese New Year in 2004. He invited me over for tiramisu cake (yeah!). The tiramisu cake was superb. Met Fish Fish for the first time over there. I still remember Fish Fish asking me whether I have a blog or not. My answer at that time was.. Nope. Things changed with time......

Throughout these period of time, I get to know quite a number of friends from weblogs. You know who you are as well.. Too many names for me to mention here :)

Any birthday cake for this special occasion? Of course...
(Btw, my old blog chen99.blogspot.com is still around..coated with dust and cobwebs... there's only one post inside there. And that was my initial template)

Saturday night gathering with old friends.

Have a sweet gathering with few old friends tonight. Did I mention old friends? Yeah, they are friends I know since university time, more than a decade ago. Although we are from different faculty, but something bring us together, we are all sisters in Christ... We get to know each other through our weekly Christian Fellowship gathering.

Initially I planned to meet up for Thai steamboat in Kocha Restaurant for dinner but after some thought, I decided to do something differently - invite them to my place and have some home-cooked food. Moreover it is more comfortable to chit chat at home than inside the restaurant. I prepared few simple dishes for dinner for the night.

My own version of Siew Kai Yek (chicken wing).

Mixed vegetables - Brocolli, Cauliflower, Young corn & Carrot.

Sweet, Sour & Spicy Fried Fish (Black Pomfret).

After dinner, we have a great time chatting as well as looking back at some of the old photos :) It is fun looking back at those photos and recall back some of the crazy things we did previously. Time flies.. but despite with time, our friendship still remains.

MVA (Motor Vehicle Accidents)

There are quite a number of young reckless or drunkard drivers who speed and drift on the roads and drive/ride like there's no tomorrow - contributing to motor vehicle accidents(MVA) on the roads, increasing the number of morbidity and mortality. This is especially evident on late friday nights or saturday nights or festival eves.

These people, in my humble opinion.. if they met with accident ~ it's really what they deserved (or what we used to say as "padan muka" cos "they asked for it"). If they don't treasure their lives, what else do they expect?? They won't be lucky all the time. If they can be saved on the first time, No guarantee that they can be saved on the second or third time as well, cos all these depends on the severity of the injuries, especially if there is intracranial injury or head injury, then the prognosis is changed... Some people just never learnt their lessons.. till it is too late.

I have seen several young guy patients who are involved with motor vehicle accidents several times.. and suffering fractures at different sites each time. And in one of the case, this is the third time he involved in the accident. The first two times, he is lucky and survived, but he didn't learn the lesson. This time, he suffered severe head injuries with polytrauma with very poor outcome and graved prognosis. Even if he survived, he will forever remain in the vegetative state and this is a burden to his family members.

I really pity those innocent victims who involved in the accidents because of other drivers' reckless behaviour.. And I pity the family members of those who are reckless in driving or racing on the road in the middle of the night and injured themselves - with permanent disabilities or get into coma or vegetative states. The family members have to take care of them for their whole lives till the day they succumbed . I have see too many cases like this. And we, who work in medical professions, have to resuscitate these sort of people and rescue them (cos we treat everyone equally). If they learnt their lessons, it is alright.. It is definitely not easy to manage a polytrauma case.

What I want to say is drive safetly on the road. We are not lucky all the time. When you are driving on the road, please do show some consideration to the other road users as well. Treasure your life and think of your loved ones at home.

SzeChuan, China : Baby Pets

I was looking through some of the photos taken in my previous trip to China few days back. The first few photos were taken in the street in Chengdu near the Chengdu Zoo. Along the street there are numerous hawker stalls as in my previous post, Street Hawker Stalls in Chengdu.

What caught my attention is that.. the little animals cute pets are kept inside the small cage. The cages are so small that the rabbits, guinea pigs and hamsters hardly have any space to move around.. Torturing..

Just like being kept in jail. No freedom to move around ...

And the hamsters are kept inside the small running wheels. They are "forced" to run on the wheel. Well, although hamsters like to run on the running wheel, but.. if they have to run on the wheel whole day & night long... Mmmmm...

These were taken in Huang Long. The cute puppies and rabbits are for sale. They were very well behaved. They just stay quietly inside the willow baskets/trays with no intention or attempts of jumping down or escape...

The white & fluffy rabbits with red eyes.. Red eyes are not equivalent to evil look :)

And more interestingly, I found a guinea pig hiding among the rabbits :) One big happy family.. Hahha :)

Flower

This post is specially dedicated to Selba (or should be Selba's mum?), Robin and those kaki who likes flower, including Cynthia whom I missed out earlier on... Who else is flower lover here? Hands up, please ... I'm not a flower-lover and I don't fancy flower, but I like to take snapshots of flowers. And... don't ask me what is the name of those flowers, cos I really have no idea :)

One "sesat" pink-coloured flower.. "The Lost Sheep?"

Yellow-coloured flower is very eye soothing. Nice to look at.

This one ah.. no comment :)

This one ah.. look like fake flowers to me..pink + yellow + green.. Bad colour combination.. hahaha.. but those are real flowers :)

This one leh.. too orange. See also headache. Cannot see for long .. :)

Flower being "punished" - I mean "wrapped up" cos they are not "well behaved" - Oops, I'm talking craps again ??

Guess where I took all these shots?

This is the place.. Inside the Wet Market !!! - The Batu Lanchang Afternoon Market. Surprised?

Meet up with Dr Nurul

Gembiranya aku hari ini, dapat berjumpa Dr Nurul.

She told me few days back ( I guess that was few days back, or a week ago? Well.. short term memory in certain things, but at least I remember she is coming to Penang today :D ) Mmmm.... Initially I was thinking whether to wear the surgical cap & surgical mask to meet her or not? Better still if I add on the green coloured sterile surgical gown. But after thinking for a while, I put that thought behind.. later she think I'm ninja, then susah. Maklum lah.. hanya nampak mata kalau aku pakai semua tu.. :)

I was planning to meet her during our lunch break. She smsed me telling me that her lunch break was from 12:45 pm till 2 pm at 8th floor conference room. When I received this sms, I was puzzled.. and I really scratched my head... Aiks...Why ah? Cos there are no 8 storey building in my hospital leh.. The tallest building is only 5 storey high. Mana nak pergi cari bangunan 8 tingkat ni ? Underground building keh? Hehehe.. rupa-rupanya orang yang prepare programme itu salah taip kot.. Ground floor dia orang salah taip 8th floor. Pening habis aku dibuatnya.. Nasib baik pening sekejap saje, cos aku perlu sambung balik kerja ku :) Kalau pening lama, teruk lah.. tak boleh sambung kerja. Perlu EL pulak :D

Yeah, I went to meet Dr Nurul at 1 pm kat Pathology Department. Sorry, this is a bahasa rojak post. Lama aku tak post dalam bahasa rojak :) Have a nice chit chat with her for almost an hour. Time flies... Tibalah masa untuk berpisah.

Nice meeting u, Nurul :)

Balitong @ Siput Sedut (Part 2)

What happened to all the cute Balitong aka Siput Sedut in my previous post? What else? Of course they ended up as delicious, yummy food. Else... it would be such a waste :) I bought one kilogram of Balitong and asked the Balitong seller to clean the mud & chip off the Balitong tails for me (pay another extra RM1 for that, but worthwhile.. hahha, since it is troublesome to chip off the tails (1 kilo Balitong) one by one).

Since there were few bloggers asking me how I cooked the Balitong, so I will give a brief summary here:

I heated the oil in the wok & stirred fried the chopped ginger, chopped garlic and chopped chillies together till fragrant. I mixed the curry powder, belachan powder, oyster sauce, black soya sauce (one tablespoon each) together with a pinch of salt & sugar and water as sauce in another bowl. I poured in the sauce and simmered with slow fire till boiled. Then I added in the balitong and cooked using medium heat till the gravy thickened.

I guess I can hear the Balitongs yelling for help inside the hot wok or hot kuali while cooking.. Sob sob.. (Was I hallucinating???)

This is the final result

The dish was very hot & spicy (well.. ginger, chillies, curry powder etc..), but nevertheless, I like it that way.. Finger licking good? I'm lovin' it ;)

And once again.. Not forgetting... hope all the cute balitong @ siput sedut R.I.P in Balitong heaven :)

Astro Decoder as MyKad Reader

In collaboration with MSC and MSCTrustgate, MyKad holders can now read the details of their identification card/IC - MyKad on Channel 800, Astro by inserting their MyKad (chip facing downwards) into the second slot of the Astro Decoder and follow the on-screen instructions.

The Astro decoder will display the following information:
• Name • NRIC No. • Address • Postcode • City • State • Religion • Race

I check my religion on the astro decoder.. bravo.. it comes out correct - Christian (I know there are quite a number of people who gets their religion printed wrongly on their MyKad). Great, don't have to waste $$$ to buy the MyKad Reader :)

Not only we can check the information on our MyKad, we can check our credit cards information too on Astro Decoder.. Mmmm...But too bad I can't read the balance of the credit card, Hahaha...

Easter Sunday

crossdaily cards

Have a Blessed Easter

~For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son,
that who ever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life~
(NIV John 3:16)

Starfruit ( 楊桃 / Belimbing)

Another "fruity" post. Going Fruity is always better than Going Nuts ;)

Starfruits aka 楊桃 (in Chinese) or Belimbing (in Malay Language, not "Buah Bintang" though..). Nice, refreshing fruit to have especially if served cold together with a pinch of salt. That is my favourite way of eating this fruit.

Why is it called starfruit? Cos the starfruit has five-pointed star shape when cut in cross section. I can get these fruits at very cheap prices in my hometown (Sarikei) eg. few big fruits for just RM 1. I missed those days...

Selba is very lucky. She has a starfruit tree in her house compound. So, she can eat fresh starfruits all year long...

Sunrise in Penang

Not long ago, I posted few photos on sunset @ Balik Pulau. I remember Cynthia commented there asking me to take photos on sunrise.

When I looked out from the window this morning, I saw the sky is beautifully litted up with the morning ray. I can't resist taking out my camera and took few snapshots of the beautiful orange-coloured sky.

Mother nature is beautiful. Orange coloured sky is nice to look at. But since I was in a rush to go to work, so I just took few shots, or else I really need to speed to reach my workplace in time ;)

Balitong @ Siput Sedut

I have written two humorous posts on Clam/Baby Lala & Cockles/Kerang not long ago. Today I will continue with another shellfish post on Siput Sedut or Balitong. I'm unsure what is the English name for Balitong - is it Whelk?

Bought these Balitong from the Batu Lanchang afternoon market. Yeah, they were still alive and very active. Climbing all over the places like naughty kids.

This Balitong has Long Neck.. Looks like a Giraffe :P

Notice the two little antenna? This Balitong is busy looking around.. and sniffing with it's long nose..

Another naugthy Balitong trying to escape.. Climbing down from the bowl..

I can't imagine I cook and eat this cute little creature few hours later on :P

Don't u think this Balitong looked like riding scooter ?

Guess what happened to all these cute Balitong or Siput Sedut??? I guess u all know what is the final outcome, which will be revealed soon..

to be continued.....