tennis dudes

from left: ben, mark and jordan.

they used to be on the school's varsity tennis team before it was cancelled.

i lost to mark 6-1, 6-3.

i got my rackets from jordan

ben strings them for me

they play good.

traditional saltiness

there's this eatery a few miles off the place i stay that offers one of the best hot chocolates. the price on the menu is $1.65 beside, the fine print reads "complimentary refills" so immediately the spirit of kiam-siapness took over. my plan was to order one and get as many refills possible. but then i was told there was only 3 refills. nonetheless, 3 was still filling :) i was abt to pay the paltry sum when i realised that it was customary to prepare a 15% tip. i thought: the few cents change would do. then i recalled the waitress tirelessly shuffled to and fro just to get me the refills. so i left her a dollar. sigh. should have gotten the onion rings instead

traditional saltiness

cold, starry night

followed fab and ty (seniors) to denver for reasons i wasnt too sure of. went to this place where the smeared the back of my hands with grafitti. everything was a blur after that. left shortly

dinner. again.

i called upon the mighty power of oyster sauce to juice up my dinner again. this time it was califlower with mushrooms. i ran out of garlic so i fried the onions first. a little starch, and then i let the oyster sauce work its magic. tip-top. stil felt hungry after that so i fried an egg. i thought of making eggs with biscuits but i dun have any. i used cornflakes instead. its not too bad a substitute. overall, dinner was satisfying

a special dedication to ah teng

here's to ah teng, the one person who made a lasting impression in my life. thanks for everything man, dont think i would be where i am now if it were not for u. all our escapades rates higly in thrills. rintik all the way. all the best, bro.

me against the revolution (circa dave chappelle@ prince vs charlie murphy. im rick james bitch)

the last picture is of most significance. gonna miss kuching

a lame attempt at recreating ah po's pig leg

i was bored during nature and human values class. so i drew upon my limited experience of culinary skills to try putting together a decent meal for dinner. a lightbulb flashed. i saw from a distance, ah po's highly touted sweet sour pig leg. immediately, that beautiful sight stuck itself to my mind. i had to try it that night. i had the thigh left from the first fowl carcass i bought from walmart(pork leg in Golden puts the capital "S" in SCARCE). i defrosted it in the microwave, and set about my latest project. i filled the rice cooker with water and set it to boil. i then seared the skinned side of the meat with a little oil. i followed that with the frying of onions and garlic. i poured the ingredients into the rice cooker and sat back, full of excitement and anticipation. the broth started boiling and i squezzed in half a lemon. i then dissolved some corn starch in water and poured them in( bearing in mind that too much of that stuff makes food turn out like oh jian) i bought soy sauce the other day but to my horror, it turned out to be light soy sauce, not the all famous kicap. the last essential addition to the soup according to ah po was sugar. i din know how much to put so i started with one tablespoon. the soup tasted funny, so i added carrots to sweeten it up(there's not even a single hint of it in the original recipe) the word "FAILURE" flashed. oh well, life goes on.

sheer euphoria

stefan edberg has always fascinated me. alex corretja at the 1996 us open semi finals played a wicked match against pete sampras. the first time i saw uncle raymond play was against nick adams back in 1997. all of them wielded this stick. the stick that has withstood the test of time. the stick who's legacy shall forever be remembered. the wilson prostaff classic 6.1. jordan sold two of them to me for $25. it was strung with gamma synthetic gut 16(!) it was wrapped with tourna grip(!!!) its still in perfect condition (!!!!!!!!!!)

somebody pinch me

the one thing i cant live without

with this precious gem, i can afford to leave my house 10mins before class starts ( it used to be half n hour, initial experimenting with the times caused me to be late a few times) i got this from ted raines, the nice guy who repairs bikes and let international students have them for free ( ok ok, i admit i called him almost everyday of the week till he got irritated with me) with this, a whole new world of possibilites just opened up. i can ride to places with the aid of google map ( yay!) i even got extra spalding cushion padding from the school garage sale and a lock from walmart. everything seems perfect, and all i have to worry now is the lung busting rides back from school everyday. there is a 25degree slope which increases to 30 degrees on the final stretch. no problems, its a good start for a cross-country runner wannabe

mexican food

yesterday i watched kim possible(consult dodo for more info) the movie ( no not the drama? ) so i bought a soft taco ($1.49. its basically warm flour tortilla with ground beef with shredded chedar cheese) and nachos ($ 1.19. with warm, melted chedar cheese) for lunch. it was a pleasant surprise when tax was not included in the final price. after a bite of nachos dipped in cheese, i now know why Ron loves nachos
k

the magical touch : oyster sauce

after yesterday's oh jian lesson, i made sure to use just a little corn starch. less is indeed more. initially i wanted to try out mum's tomato califlower wid pork. but i din have any. so i tore off pieces of chicken breast meat and fried them together wid garlic. then i added the califlower. i mixed a little corn starch with water and poured it into the pan. after that i added the carrot. i was about the squeeze the tomato ketchup bottle when i thought abt oyster sauce. a few globs later, i had the best vege dish since leaving kuching.

while preparing for the first dish, i left the remaining top quarter of bird carcass to boil. the chunk of califlower had green leaves growing beside it and i added that to the soup. i broke an egg and poured the contents inside before adding a little salt. the leaves had a weird texture. guess it wasnt meant to be eaten. the chicken tasted solid though.

to top up the wonderful dinner, i decided to give myself a serving of pancakes for a job well done. bad idea. now i feel bloated. till the neck like dad always says. oh well, an increasing waistline wont hurt too much.

tomato mee which turn out like oh jian

today after getting high from all the adrenaline that drove me to try out tomato mee and garlic butter fish, i was brought back down to earth with an entry that would embarass even the most amateur of cooks. i splashed in way too much corn starch and the gravy ended up like oh jian. sadness. i let my housemate try the other piece of the garlic butter fish.

but thank goodness dinner didn't taste as bad as it looks. looks like there's still hope for me

the day dinner went wrong

i wanted to try cook garlic butter fish today.
after getting worked up watching the pros strut their stuffs at chef at home, curiosity got the better of me. i got a pound worth of cat fish fillet (4.99/lb) and sliced the piece in half.









after that i chopped up some garlic and took the margerine out of the freezer. i then slathered some paprika powder and a little flour on the fish





after the build up, the frying of the fish was anti-climatic. i think i had the stove on too high heat and the seasonings on the fish kinda burnt a little. so much for being the next great culinary master .