Chef Ak in action - Long Bean Rice

Here I am to test run my cooking skill again. I was thinking to cook for my housemate and was wondering what type of dishes is simple and easy to cook. Suddenly, I remembered my mum cooked a simple dish for us whenever she is busy. Long Bean Rice aka Chai Tou Fan (Chinese) So I started to recall what my mum had put-in her long bean rice and how do I cook this dish. I finally came to conclusion that I need long bean obviously, chicken or pork meat chunk, dried shrimp, ginger, pepper, garlic and mushroom. All I need to get from the market when I am back home from work was just the long bean and ready fried onion. I already had the rest of ingredient at home. No pork but I still have left over chicken meat. A simple call to my mum while I was working in the afternoon to ask some tips from her. She told me to fry the long bean and chicken first before putting it into the rice cooker otherwise it might be a little raw for the long bean and chicken. So I started to fry all the garlic, then add in the chicken chunk. After a while, I simply put in the long bean and boiled mushroom to fry. Lastly I added some light and dark soya sauce as the seasoning. I didn't put in the salt and our food is low sodium base. After cooking for about 10-15 minute, it was being transported into the rice cooker. It was then cook together with the rice. The soup in the other hand is rather simple. Corn (I love corn), tomatoes, chicken meat ball and chicken skin as flavour. Add a small teaspoon of salt and that's all for the soup. Simple isn’t it? How is the outcome? Well, the soup tastes good to me. As you know, I really love soup so maybe I am a little bias on that. Now come to the main dish, the long bean rice. I would have self grade myself a 'B or B+' if the rice is a little softer. The rice is a little bit hard thus indicated that the water is a little less. I wanted to add in more water on that time but it looks to me that the water is sufficient enough. I wonder is it because of the long bean or some other thing that absorb the water off. My final verdict, I only grade myself a 'B-'. Again, I felt happy to see that my cooking is fully eaten up by me and my housemate. The satisfaction is there. It's kinda fun to cook and I guess my housemate will continue to be my white mice a little bit longer. *as they are more than willing to*

Chef Ak in action - Chicken Rice

How could my big mouth challenged somebody that eats like a monster? Loser will have to cook. Yeah, I lost to a monster that can eat like Godzilla. Seriously! I dun really know how to cook. Not even rice. Normally, it was me and Daph that do the cooking. She will cook the rice and some dishes while I cook the soup. Most of the thing I cook will either end up chau ta (burn out). Soup will never be chau ta and that's why I ‘love’ to cook soup. Lol. But today, I need to cook for my housemate all alone by myself. A quick check on the net and some tips from Daph, I prepare a few simple dishes. 1. Chicken Rice 2. Steamed Taufu 3. Ngar Choi (bean sprout) 4. Chicken meat ball cook ala tomato sauce 5. ABCDEF Soup. I took my lunch hour time to go Tesco to get some vege, chicken meat and a whole lot of list. I started to cook around 6.30pm after working today and everything is ready by an hour time. So how was the result? Well, for my personnel view, I would say the chicken rice is too salty. Maybe that's because I have pour in too much of serbuk pati ayam. The chicken is a little overcook hence a little hard to chew. Others, I would still consider them as acceptable for me. I am not sure about my housemate but they seem to be fine. An hour has passed and so far nobody is being rushed to the hospital yet. Well, this is my first official chinese dishes cooking. It turnout to be ‘still acceptable’. Although it doesn't taste good, but somehow the satisfaction to see my housemate to sapu it all clean is good. (Though by forcing them to finished up) Haha. If I would to rate A which is excellent and F is Failed, I would rate myself a C+.

My Acer Aspire 4935

I seriously can't leave without my computer. *Gasp*! Am I that geeky? Old one gone, new one is in da house. Oops, I must rephrase the words saying “Old one gone, new one is in da house IF I am in da house” This time, he will follow me wherever I go. No more letting him staying alone in my house anymore. I went to Low Yat searching hi and lo for my Asus F3F replacement. My mind has set for Acer Timeline 4810T when I saw it in some of the website. So there we are spending almost a day in Low Yat doing all sorts of analysis, calculating, formula, fishbone chart and etc just to find the right choice. Alas, there are a few listed finalist bases on certain criteria such as price, performance, design, mobility and last but not least, genuine Vista HP. The notebooks that have made it to my finalist are: 1. Acer Timeline 4810T 2. Acer Aspire 4935 3. Acer Aspire 4730z 4. Asus X58 5. Toshiba Satellite L310 I wanted the Timeline badly as the design is damn nice. It's only an inch thick with aluminum exterior. You might wonder how thin is thin? It's like you open up the lid of your normal notebook and that is how Timeline thickness with the lid closes! With the ultra elegance design and overall weight at only 1.9kgs and a battery performance that last up to 8 hours (as advertise), it's everyone dream notebook. (do not compare with pricey Macbook Air)I was so hooked on that lappy that retail at Rm2699 but in the end, I couldn't bare with their ULV Single Core processor. They have a model with ULV Dual Core processor which cost RM3299 which is far fetch for a person that have just lost a notebook! My budget is to get any notebook that cost below RM2.5k. The lower the better. I have been told by the sales person that this Timeline can barely or struggling with CS2. Furthermore to be frank, she told us that Timeline series having some problem with the bios and need to send to Acer to flash bios first. A quick check on Vista Experience index shows that 4810T only score a mere 2.7 which is lower than my 3 years old Asus. It’s seriously for lightweight user only. After hearing all this problem it’s surely a letdown so we decided to try Asus X58 but compare to Acer 4935, Asus spec is lower and price is more expensive. Toshiba is about the same with Asus which is also lower in spec and price is higher than Acer. So what else can I choose? Surely the only choices now I have are Acer. I dun like Dell design which is too boxy and thick. Acer after launching Gemstone back in 3 years ago, I must admit their design have significantly improved. So alas ended up buying Acer Aspire 4935. Upgraded to 4GB of DDR2 ram and the total price came to Rm2.4k+. The spec is as below. Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T6400 Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 5100/5300 14" HD 16:9 aspect ratios, Biometric Fingerprint Dolby Home Theater 4GB DDR2 320GB HDD Vista Home Premium So far I am quite satisfied with the performance of this Acer. Vista Experience index score 3.1 and after upgraded from 2GB to 4GB, the graphic performance increase to 3.7. This is because of the shared memory from X4500MHD up to 1759MB. One thing that I dun like is the bloated bundle software by Acer. I have deleted almost all the useless junk and install useful program such as Klite, Winrar, CS2, AVG, Ccleaner and others. There is a futuristic touch-sensitive interface on the left side of the keyboard which consists of volume slider and other media control stuff. On the dark side, I have heard a lot of Acer user having problem with their computer. Let’s just hope that this Acer will not give me any problem.

Adidas Daroga Trail CC M

This is a little too old to blog it out now. I bought this Adidas shoe on Saturday, 13th June 2009. I am sure some will ask why another Adidas shoe? The reason I bought this was it is kinda cheap and furthermore there is additional 40% discount. You just need to buy 4 item in Adidas warehouse, Summit and entitled to 40% discount. Fortunately, I met my colleague there and together we combined our item and get the huge discount. It was selling at retail RM160+ and after the discount is about RM96+. It's dirt cheap and furthermore this shoe is very unique. I saw the same shoe and it was selling at RM270 in Adidas outlet, Sunway Pyramid! Wow, what a huge price different. Yes, it’s genuine goods. For your info, I have sold my Adidas Quick Cut as I dun need two pair of shoes. The uniqueness of this shoe is it was made for hiking. The name Adidas Daroga sounds like some ancient dragon. This shoe is really comfortable and soft. Once I tried on it, I really love it. It's soft, light weight and it just feel very comfortable. It’s like wearing a comfortable soft cushion inside your shoe. You won't even feel hot when wearing it long as there is lots of tiny ventilation mesh at the shoe base. Click here for more info of Adidas Daroga Well, of course I am not using this shoe for hiking but rather than normal using. It's good for my coming trip to China as it will help to comfort my leg and toes when climbing The Great Wall of China. We will have a lot of walking in China.

Nokia 7210 Supernova

My previous China mali Iphone is a messed and I am relieved that I have sold it away. Last Saturday, we go to Low Yat with the intention of getting a Nokia 5220. In the Nokia website, it looks promising. When we reached there and lay our hand on the Nokia 5220, it doesn't look and feel good. It's a little too thick and looks clumsy. We used to hold thin and slim phone such as Nokia 5310. So, we look for other alternate choices like Sony Ericsson, Samsung, and LG. In the end, we still go back to Nokia. After choosing the brand, we hunt for the model. My budget is not more than Rm500 phone. Cheaper the better as I only sell my Iphone for Rm350. Alas, we found the best buck for the phone we want. Nokia 7210 Supernova. Thin and slim, a normal basic phone. It only cost RM400 with 2GB memory card, 18 month warranty and screen protector. Not to mention free two kawaii soft toy. Lulz. One thing I am a little skeptical about the phone is he said that this one is a Limited Edition Supernova as the colour is all black. Normal one will be either blue/black or red/black. I suspect it's not original casing but anyway, it look better with black casing. This software version is v05.61 and I have flashed it today by my own to v06.51. So far, I didn’t see any different yet. There is only one problem I faced even after flashing to latest firmware. I can't seem to turn on screensaver for digital clock. It will go completely goes blank eventhough I have put time out. Yup, sleep mode turn off and every possible solution I look in the net also couldn't solve the problem. Maybe when I am free, I might head back to Low Yat and see he will say about this. Overall, this phone is good for me as there is all the basic mobile phone thing, not too fancy looking, small and slim, easy to use and most important cheap. We was heading home happily when we received a bad bad news from my housemate… Blog