Oh good December!

December is all about finals and holidays to me. I’ve dealt with my second last term 2 weeks ago with the end of my finals, and that also marks the start of my winter break simultaneously.

This year, I decided to stay put and celebrate the festive season with my fellow Vancouver friends since I had been busy travelling during winter for the past few years. I'm happy with my choice because every little thing that we’ve done in these 2 weeks makes me feel blessed with their presence.

So… this winter break is mainly about baking and cooking to me! Did massive cooking and some simple baking with my friend for our long-awaited ski trip.

First baking session of the term! The oven in my house is not functioning unfortunately, if not I could have foreseen more baking sessions in future. We baked banana and carrot cake as well as the regular brownies, in which both recipes were new to me.

And then there was sushi session! It was my first time making so many Sushis (approximately 50) myself besides my first attempt on making Unagi nigiri. I’ve to say, motivation was really the only pillar strength that kept me going for the whole 3 hours of making sushi alone. I love preparing food for people that I love because I love seeing their blissful faces out of the homemade meal, but I guess my cooking skills are not up to that level yet to witness that blissful moment, so more time for cooking in future is necessary.

Honestly, the effort and dedication I had put in for the trip was unbelievable. It all started from grocery shopping to baking and cooking, and lastly packing up, and it took me approximately 3-4 full days to get these things done.I think the time spent in food preparation was actually longer than the actual duration of the trip, which made me feel a little exhausted during the trip.

However, the compliments I've received from BFFs make me feel encouraged, especially when I was barely a good cook 4 years ago until I can cook decent meals and soup nowadays. The journey is not easy undeniably, and I just hope that my effort will be appreciated someday =). Thank you BFFs, your encouragement is definitely the precious light out of the dark.

Third massive cooking session was done with my lovely friends. We had homemade dinner together on Christmas and it was really lovely. As much as I enjoy celebrating Christmas commercially and doing it the outgoing way, spending Christmas in someone else’s house gave me a new definition of Christmas. Christmas celebration can be simple, lovely, warm despite there’s no Christmas presents involved.

I’m just happy that I’m an easily-contented person to have found this feeling awesome.

2011 is coming to an end although I can’t believe how time has sky rocketeered throughout the year. Hmmm, time for some self-reflection and wrap ups ehh, stay tuned!

I feel loved.

Seoulmate took the effort to send a postcard to me during her backpacking trip. Someday, we should do a backpacking trip together, that way we will not have to see the mirror of ourselves for each other, we will be there for each other, feeling what each other feels.

Thank you Seoulmate, I feel loved.

Black angel brought me into her world of desserts.Nothing beats the gratitude of having someone who makes her time for me. Of all the words she could use to comfort me, she makes herself physically available for my confession. Now I sincerely feel that, ‘I’ll be there’ is definitely a sweeter word than ‘I love you’.

Thank you WX, I feel loved.

I’ve spent a significant amount of time in the kitchen inventing new recipes, and there I am , with a new dish, and I really started to be amazed by my cooking ability. It’s silly when I look back at the effort I’ve put in in improving myself for someone, besides convincing myself that things could work out with more effort.Although the purpose has changed now and I did not fulfill what I wished to do earlier, the skill and interest still remain and I’m now more equipped to serve my friends with more homemade meals.Thus, I should really thank the person who gears my motivation in enhancing my cooking skills.

Thank you, I feel much more matured now.

My new winter collection has finally arrived today. I always love the idea of maximization, whereby you spend the lowest amount of money possible for appropriate accessories and clothes to create various styles. I don’t like to buy expensive things either, simple because I’m not a constant person when it comes to fashion, I need something new in my wardrobe yearly. I don’t really mind people having preconceived idea in relating the amount of clothes a girl has to her expenditure level, because they have yet to discover the rationality I have when it comes to shopping. Most importantly, the thought that all my new winter clothes may convert to a sweater they buy delights me the uttermost.

Ooo I really love my fringe boots and new scarves so much!!

My previous pair of furry slippers is quite worn out, so I decided to fork out another 6 bucks for the extra warmth during the winter. Sheep sheep shall be the sister pair of my previous slippers, and accompany the one BFF got me.

Got a new buddy to replace the old one after 2 years of dream talking. The effort of saving every penny to earn something makes me feel accomplished, although that also implies the requirement of further job hunting and savings. Nevertheless, I'm glad that I worked my promise, and that is the first essential step of the massive upgrading process of the year.

January is also the month I’ve heard a lot of ‘I love you’ and ‘I miss you’. Thank you all, I feel loved from the bottom of my heart. It seems like a good start for the year, and I shall forget my achievements and glory to focus on my goals. Despite of my inability to foresee my future, there’s one thing I can be sure of- I will make 2011 a better year, I promise.

Minasan, ganbare!

Cupcakes!!!

I had my first ever cupcake baking session with my buddies last week. Thanks to the online recipe and everyone’s effort in baking the cupcakes, our first attempt turned out to be a success and we felt so accomplished while decorating these little cute stuffs. Even my niece enjoyed the baking session because I gave her a few stars to decorate her cupcake.

5 more days before I go back to the Mapleland, so I’m cherishing every moment here while anticipating to meet up with my Vancouver buddies. A new semester, I know I’m ready.

Gloominess is leaving.

“Happy angel lost her way in finding you, but I’ll remind her. So don’t worry, be happy.”

I don’t want to sound so melancholy from this blog post onwards, it makes me feel sad when bestie reads my blog and tells me that my blog has become so gloomy nowadays. The previous post is just a minor problem of me, and the only healing potion is time, so just let me walk through the stage myself because I understand that no one can help me with this.

Don’t worry because it’s not the first time, therefore I can do it.


So, this is my recent life.

Cooked a hearty dinner for Eu’s birthday. We had a simple but chatty dinner session together, and this was definitely the most relaxing and content birthday celebration ever.

Why? Because we were all in pyjamas.

She rewarded us with a super-good-looking fruit platter which she made it by herself.



You know what? This platter also marked the first official banana I ate in Vancouver. Before that, I always had the illusion that bananas in Vancouver weren’t nice. After living here for almost 2 years, finally I know that they taste good.



Paralympic Opening



Dyed hair on my own for the first time. It’s reddish brown now, but I can’t seem to take a good picture with obvious hair colour in it, so more pictures next time.



Before dyeing my hair, I actually chopped a bunch of hair off because I couldn’t bear with its super complicated tangling. The daily task of untangling my hair annoyed me, so I decided to put an end with the annoyance. A scissor, 5 seconds, and it was settled.



Went to take pictures with WX and Eu on the second last day of Paralympic. It was so hilarious when we were busy taking pictures while the volunteers were busy clearing up the banners and flags.


Prom with the girls.
P/S: We shall go to a more decent prom next time.


Became Eu’s temporary Maria and cheered for her on Storm the Wall. I actually wanted to participate in this year’s Storm the Wall, but couldn’t find enough people to form a group. However, I’ll definitely climb that 12-foot wall before I graduate, that’s for sure.



Invented 莲藕汤板面. I never expect soup and noodle to blend together so well.

I did it!!

I bet with my housemate that I will learn Teriyaki Chicken this term. However, I tried on Chicken Katsu Don before getting a hand on the teriyaki chicken recipe.

Here’s my final product.


What I need to improve on my next attempt is to enhance the colour of the fried chicken (to make it look more golden brown), besides controlling the liquidity of the egg so that it’s brown on one side and liquid on the other side.

For those who’re interested in the recipe, please refer to

http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/1076810-Chicken-katsu-don

Probably I’m going to cook for the next birthday boy/girl around me since I think this is one good and practical idea.



Secondly, I just received the V card Winney hubby sent to me 2 weeks ago. I really thought it was a Chinese new year card at first glance due to the super bright red colour.

是，我知道你很尽责，也知道你是大大大老公，更不会忽略你是我的‘合法丈夫’刘伟泥。
谢谢你的那一句，‘你的幸福就是我的快乐’，因为我也是抱着同样的心情去祝福你跟超人。
我很开心能够参与铁人跟超人从相遇，相知，到相爱的列车，
因为你的幸福就是我快乐的泉源。

Happy Chinese New Year and Happy V day!

My creative BB meals

One day, I was craving for Korean cuisine-Bibimbap, and I couldn’t find anyone up for it. So from that day onwards, I promise myself to learn Bibimbap so that it won’t be out of reach when I want it so badly.For those of you who have no idea on what Bibimbap is, it’s like Korean mixed rice whereby you mix your ingredients with the Korean chili paste with some sesame sprinkled on it.

So, I looked up for some simple recipes of Bibimbap and bought the important ingredients, and then modified some parts of it. That was how the first ever bowl of Bibimbap(I call it 拌拌饭(ban ban fan) )was born in my kitchen. Don't be deceived by the look, it was scrumptious and healthy because a lot of ingredients were added (sliced baby carrots,minced chicken,vegetables,egg, and fish tohu)

Thinking that I could make more use of the chili paste since it’s quite a big bottle, I went out of the box and tried to cook something else with the paste.

I mind you:From here onwards, be prepared of some really weird stuffs which you may not have seen or even heard before. That’s because I just invented them also, and that usually happens when I miss out certain ingredients and I'm out of time.Therefore, the best way is to mix ingredients I've in the fridge which 'seem' to make a good blend.

Fusion+fusion, it’s even more complicated than a mixed blood baby because basically I combined anything that I could think of and put my cooking skills into maximum use. I mixed several types of cuisines together and there it was-another baby was born in the kitchen.

拌拌乌冬面 Ban Ban(BB) Udon


My housemate was not convinced that this tasted good, she told me not to eat 拌拌(mixed)stuff always, because one day I would become 笨笨 (stupid). To her, 拌拌饭=笨笨饭 (Bibimbap= Stupid rice)， and therefore 拌拌乌冬面=笨笨乌冬面 (BB udon=Stupid udon) which is quite funny when translated into Mandarin.

Of course I know that she was joking, hence I did not give up on my ban ban’s cooking recipes so easily. I proceeded down the route and one day, I invented another new thing.

This was totally unexpected because I created it under ‘pressure’. Few days ago, I so wanted to stuff my stomach with pasta, but halfway cooking the manicotti, I noticed that I was running out of pasta sauce.

Worst thing was I did not have milk either, so I couldn’t cook carbonara pasta.

AHHHHHHHH.So how?

Deng deng, there comes the life saver of the day- Korean chili paste. I quickly stirred it with water , sliced some baby carrots, and put it on the saucepan without hesitation, not even a second of hesitation because I knew I didn’t have a choice.

‘I’ll just eat whatever that it turns out to be’, I whispered.
(p/s:Shh, don't laugh at me.)

拌拌pasta =ban ban(BB) pasta



Third baby was born this year, and trust me, it was really good (2 thumbs up for BB pasta). It tasted better than baby Udon because the chili paste had a better blend with the chewy manicotti. It’s kind of like an Asian version of pasta, without cheese, milk, and butter. Also,the appearance reminded me of ddeokbokki, since it was reddish with some pasta-alike noodles in it.



I think it’s really worthwhile to buy the Korean chili paste because BB meals have been served as my dinner quite frequently since the day first baby was born. Oops, it looks like I’m indulged in my own world with all the BB meals, but who cares,I've pushed the utility of Korean chili paste onto the next level, at least to satisfy myself.I'm really glad that so many babies were born in my kitchen in these few months,and they were all good looking(internally and externally of course).=P

And who says only babies can have baby meals?

I have my own BB meals too.

When I look back into 2009 Part II

2009 was a challenging year; I left home for 8 months for the first time in my life. It meant seeing my buddies once a year, it meant reduced outing time with them, and it meant that we were really apart now, geographically.

Not seeing them every month like how I used to for the past MANY years was a torture to me. Life was so dull without pasar malam night with MK, Kim Gary with the hubbies, and also K-day with Susie& Lian, but I think this is something I’ve to cope with for 4 years. I should have expected the circumstances since the day I decided to study abroad. But I have so much faith in our friendships, I believe in our efforts to maintain the friendship.

A lot had happened in 2009, some friends fell sick, some faced dilemma in love, some struggled with their studies, and I, witnessed every incident that took place. My words wouldn’t do the magic on them, so I ran with them, hoping that they could find comfort from my support.

Some say ‘you’ll never learn to appreciate things until you lose them’. I say, I don’t have to lose things to grow my appreciation towards people who mean a lot to me. They’re the pearls in my heart; they remind me where my home is.

The life cycle requires everyone to grow up and make a decision which determines their future. Some friendships may be distorted and ruined halfway, but those which survived will eventually blossom and be guaranteed a place in the ‘friends for life’ list. In 2009, I learnt that in some cases it’s not entirely my problem when a friendship fails to maintain, but it’s reality that changes a person’s personality, and that’s when a friendship begins to crack when 2 souls can no longer compromise with each other.

No life is perfect, even when it comes to friends. I’m glad that I’ve found out the rotten tomatoes,because they remind me to treasure my pearls.



I made some changes in my dietary plan last year. To my surprise, I managed to pull it off quite well. Hopefully I’ll go on with the determination and invent more recipes this term, so that I can cook a proper dinner for my family when I go back. Ganbatte ne

A lot of times I feel like advising some of my friends who have certain unhealthy habits because it’s a torture to me to see them overloading themselves with tones of sugars, oils, and meats which are ‘healthy’ and ‘satisfying’ choices to them. But I know, it’s difficult to change a person, you know my style, I don’t talk about it anymore when I realize that person doesn’t give a shit on what I say. The true value of food scientist and nutritionist is to give verbal advises to those in need and are willing to make a change. If I did my part, then it’s your choice to take it or leave it.

I can feel that I’m walking towards my future career and doing what a food scientist should do in her life- to be responsible of her own health before convincing the others.

2009 is the year of health

I think my housemate really influences me a lot in terms of my diet because she’s very health conscious and eats healthy food. She can practice a dietary habit with very little dose of coke, junks, and fatty foods because those things are usually out of her healthy list.

Really, I started thinking about my health since last year, when health-related problems occur among my friends. They emphasize to me on the importance of eating healthily because health is irreplaceable and it’s not something that can be bought by money. I somewhat find it true and these words of wisdom hit me hard, because I’m a student who is going to scrutinize on the food products in future, therefore I should start paying more attention on my health before I can convince the others on the best choice for their health. Also, I didn't want to worry my parents on my eating habits, especially my mom because she will become worried if I did not take good care of myself.

Because of them, I revised my dietary plan and tried to be responsible of my own health. Here are the few changes I made since I started second year. Well, I’m not trying to be a health freak here, but I do want to eliminate a few things which I feel I can live without them.

My accomplishments in Semester 1 were:
1. No instant noodle since day 1 of Semester 1. No, not even a sip or a bite, I really did not buy any instant noodle this term, and surprisingly it was not very difficult to resist the temptation because I had only thought of it once.

2. Less than 6 packets of junk foods. Gone were the days when I had a bar of chocolate weekly to satisfy my sweet tooth.



3. Less than 10 cups of bubble tea. Considering the fact that I used to have bubble tea once a week, I think this is the biggest success in my dietary plan.

4. Eating fast food for not more than twice monthly.

5. Self-invented more recipes to eat at home instead of eat out. More fruits and “greenery” in my meals.



So far, I find the plan easy to follow because I did not put a complete full stop for some of my favourite foods. Instead, I reduced the portion so that I'm humble to my stomach, meanwhile maintaining my health. Also, I feel so proud of myself for trying out a variety of recipes from Chinese cuisine to Japanese and Korean cuisine (I learnt how to make Bibimbap and fried Udon.)

To me, I feel that there’s a limit to everything, nothing is infinite. My age is not the factor that allows me to stay wild and careless all the time anymore. There'll certainly be a time where we have to be responsible with our actions.

If we found a balance to be satisfied with what we eat, meanwhile we can keep up with our level of fitness, then there’s no harm to make a difference in our dietary plans. Having said that,I still eat out once in a while, or bite on that juicy BIG MAC without feeling guilty. We don’t have to eliminate our favourite foods completely, but eating them considerately is much more approachable and lasting.

I guess I found another new motto this year, “be happy, stay healthy.”



Would you?

If only a picture could tell a story....

My recent life is pretty eventful because I ....



experimented mom’s recipe-fried pork chop and I realized there was still room for improvement.

It was on the 1st October 2009.



finally had my first cup of Starbucks in Vancouver.

It was on the 3rd October 2009.



went to UBC farm for a field trip. I won’t bore you here with the lesson taught, but there I discovered another piece of tranquilizing land in UBC.

It was on the 7th October 2009.




spent a good evening with the UBC symphony orchestra group.

It was on the 9th October 2009.



went to the UBC rose garden and enjoyed the feeling of being hugged by the roses in the entire garden

It was on the 10th October 2009.



modified my recipe of Tomyum Fried Rice and it turned out to be a great success.
=P No ,the picture is not deceiving, the taste was as good as the picture.

It was on the 11th October 2009.





satisfied my tummy with a real good treat. Steamboat and beer time with my housemate-Eugenia JJ.

It was on the 12th October 2009.

Looks like it's a good start for October, I hope everyone out there is having a good time despite in times of failure or depression. There's always an exit waiting for you, so don't just wait for the entrance to enter, learn how to go out of it.

Happy thanksgiving to all my dearies!!

The greatest achievement in my cooking life so far

I went to Lian's place for a sleepover just few weeks ago. We decided to cook our own dinner.

No, it wasn't a simple one or anything like fried egg with rice. We did everything by ourselves, from menu, to grocery shopping till the entire cooking process, all by ourselves.

I've never cooked a heavy meal like this before, because I'm too pampered by my mom's cooking. Even back to those days in Canada, I would only cook 1 dish for a meal since I was the only one eating it, so no point cooking so much for leftover right?

Our end products.It took us nearly 3 hours to cook it.


A lot of my friends say I love cooking,that's because I think it's a must-learn skill in life. I certainly won't enjoy eating outside for 3 times straight everyday, I would want to try out something that suits my appetite of that day. Furthermore, I feel girls just need to learn cooking, not to prepare themselves as a housewife in future, but to equip themselves with an useful skill which will be important when they're out of the house, out of the comfortable kingdom.

Lastly,as a future food scientist, I definitely need to learn the healthy way of cooking and eating for myself.

=) Shower me with comments on the dishes just by their looks, I'll be appreciating all these comments!

How I spent the last few days of March

Earth Hour 28.3.09



I headed straight to Downtown to have a glance at the panoramic city view of Vancouver in dark. My curiosity overwhelmed my support towards this campaign because I strongly stick to the point that changing our daily practices to conserve energy and resources is a much more practical way to save the planet. And what I saw was a street party outside the house. So they turned off the lights at home, then all went to the same place with lights striking everywhere to celebrate earth hour with reporters live broadcasting about it when the surrounding was bright.
I find it contradicting to the initial aim of this campaign. It’s either that you do nothing about it at that particular hour, and then save it in daily lives or do it in a proper way to show a significant difference.




Then they managed to save a little bit of energy, with tonnes of party leftover on the floor.
*end of story*

Storm the wall 30.3.09

So I watched the Storm the wall, also known as the not-to-be-missed event according to the UBC REC website. This is how the competition goes, 4 people in a team, each completing a different sport (swim, sprint, bike,run) and then 4 of them reach the destination to climb over the 12-foot wall to complete the whole cycle. It was held for a few days , each day for a different category, and I just stopped by for a while to watch some of the teams climbing over the wall. It’s very entertaining watching them doing this because I find it difficult to climb over it, especially in the rain since the competition will continue regardless of the weather. I enjoy the feeling of anticipating something exciting and lively everytime I walk pass the SUB building.It simply makes life better by hearing cheerful,supportive noises passing around us.Some girlfriends of mine say they’re going to get a taste of this event next year, asking me to join in the fun. I will definitely support them all the way, but turtle like me obviously need some time for training if I were to join, they seriously have no idea how ‘excel’ I am at sports.

I will try it. But it’s just a matter of time to step up.



I've also tried cooking a new dish in March. It was fried eggplant(brinjal) with chicken+seafood sauce.I must admit, I thought it wasn’t going to be difficult until I scanned through the online recipe. I realized that it wasn’t a breeze at all. This was the most time-consuming dish to cook so far, as I spent almost 1.5 hour to cook it, mainly because of the process of frying the eggplant (brinjal) which can take up to 45 minutes on a small frying pan.-_-“ Luckily it wasn’t a failure afterall, I was satisfied with my first trial.Next two dishes to try on will be curry chicken and teriyaki chicken.

‘70% of Malaysian spend time with their friends in the kitchen.’-IKEA

I doubt this but cooking time is definitely a chance for you to see a person’s inner quality. Forget about the taste of the dish, it’s sensible through her/his way of handling the ingredients till cooking it. Watching it could be an art, or a disaster.

Cooking time!

I've been cooking a lot since I came to Vancouver, self-creating some recipes during free time.

I'm glad to have met some awesome housemates who cook quite frequent as well, so we sometimes cook together while chit-chatting.I build better friendship with them through cooking, mainly because our meals are usually quite different. They can have salad whereas I have fried rice for dinner. This difference allows us to create more topics for conversation.

Cooking can be quite fun at times, from the process of choosing menu and ingredients till the cooking part finally arrives, I don't feel it's time-consuming to have spent 1-1.5 hour for cooking per day, since I will usually cook for my dinner only.
However, I've only tried on a few simple dishes so far, haven really attempted on those difficult ones. Of course, those are meant to be reserved,at least after I enhance my cooking skills.*I miss Mom's cooking*


Here are some of the pictures.

Tom Yum Potato Fried Rice

Sausage+Egg Fried Rice

Tom Yum Noodles

My all time favourite-Potatoes+Chicken

Fried Potatoes with Omelette


I prefer cooking at uni residence than my previous place because I have much more flexibility here. Previously,I often skipped cooking meals to not interrupt the family dinner time of my house owner. It's either I cook extremely early or skip it.
However, this no longer happens anymore.=)

There was one day when I was cooking instant noodle, and 1 female housemate of mine with 2 other guys from the next door came to cook at the same time. Then we started chit-chatting about the instant noodles since they have never seen Maggi Asam Laksa flavour before. Then we expanded our conversation to casual things like Asians, countries and Westerners etcetera.

See, cooking makes people talk more !

Coming Up Next: Halloween Party