A void:

They took all the trees and put them in a tree museum
And charged the people a dollar and a half to see them

Dont it always seem to go
That you dont know what you've got till its gone...

Big Yellow Taxi :: Counting Crows
Sculpture By The Sea 2007

Hair Harakiri

After months of being totally stingy, I finally cut my hair. It was getting too long and a pain to wash/tie up(on account of being too heavy!) This Before-After picture is for Vijay who will kill me (or sue me? I cant remember) if I didnt do otherwise.

The korean hairdresser goes, "your hair is very straight!" Thinking it would make it easier to cut, I said "thats a good thing right?" She said, "NO! Very Hard!"

"When you make mistake, it is big mistake!" Hahaha.

Good Food Month Noodle Markets

The annual Sydney Good Food Month rolls around again, with their famous noodle markets out for business for 2 weeks. The stooges and I havent got together for ages so we decided to have dinner at the noodle markets at Hyde Park. It was massive! There was heaps of stalls selling a variety of asian foodstuffs (not just noodles). Thai, Malaysian, Fusion, Japanese, Himalayan... all were there. Heaps of seafood stalls (mmm salt and pepper calamari!) as well as a bar which sold your usual alcoholic beverages (wine, beer, premixes).

The four of us went abit crazy buying everything that caught our fancy. We had ginger chicken udon, some noodle and green bean thing, satay chicken noodles, curry puffs, takoyaki, okonomiyaki, a mixed rice dish (from the himalayan shop - it had tandoori chicken...drool!). By then I was feeling quite full, but could have eaten more if I pushed myself. However, the 'Dutch Poffertjes' signboard has caught our eye, and we were unwilling to forgo dessert for more savoury food.

We lined up for ages for the 'Dutch Pofferjtes' (very very fluffy small pancake looking things in a variety of flavours). The only thing not so great about the noodle markets was the fact that they only had 2 dessert stalls. There was the pofferjtes shop and the ice cream parlour. Hence, the lines were incredibly long. However, the pofferjtes were absolutely a.m.a.z.i.n.g. We got 'maple' and 'chocolate strawberry'. The maple pofferjtes was my favourite dish for the night. Having scoffed them down (far too quickly), we lined up once again to indulge in some ice cream. I had chocolate fudge, and very very yummy it was! Complete with a Copenhagen-esque waffle cone. Tasty....

The whole ambiance was really nice. They had strung chinese lanterns and various other balloony lantern things on the trees and stalls. Many of the trees twinkled with fairy lights, or were dramatically lit, bottom up, with rich purple, blue or green hues. They also had some mild chinese acrobatics show mid evening, followed by non-specific upbeat music. The air was warm, the company was great, the smells were enticing and the food was delicious. It all adds up to one of the best evenings Ive had in awhile.

The cherry on top of the icing was the thunderstorm that hit us (suddenly!) as I was walking home. I love thunderstorms! I love the smell of an approaching storm, I love the sound of driving rain, I love the distant rumble of thunder and most of all, I love the sudden intensity of lightening flashing across the sky. I got home soaking wet, but I reckon I wouldn't have it any other way.

oh my deities!

This is another fantastic reason why I sometimes wish I had studied in America.

sob!

Soysperiment

Mang and I got to talking about soy one day and we were going to do this experiment at Mando after church last Sunday but I forgot to bring the English Soy (ES). So I just bought some Chinese Soy (CS) at Miracle Grocery Store (hehe) and conducted the experiment on my own.

I first wanted to see what the overall difference was in terms of taste and texture, so I drank it and observed its opacity etc:

Chinese Soy Drink	English Soy Drink
Milky white with specks of white	Smooth milky white colour
Sweet with strong soy taste Doesn’t taste like milk at all	Milky taste with a hint of musky soy taste Tastes abit dusty
Lighter consistency Does not thicken saliva after consumption	Slightly thicker consistency Thickens saliva after drinking

These two drinks taste completely different. Their processing methods must be worlds apart. On its own, CS tastes better and, in fact, its not appealing to me at all to drink ES on its own. So in this instance, Chinese Soy wins.

Out of curiosity's sake, I also mixed the Chinese and English soy drink. It was definately more palatable. The strong CS flavour is what you taste, but you still have that saliva thickening after-effect found in the ES drink.

Then I thought I would try it with a rather bland cereal, like Weet-Bix:

Chinese Soy Drink	English Soy Drink
Tastes sweet and refreshing, like eating a dessert!	Tastes alright, like normal milk with a dusty soy taste, rather bland
Makes me think of Chinese banquet desserts	Makes me think of business suits

Again, Chinese Soy wins.

Finally, since sweet cereals are also a common foodstuff eaten with milk, I thought I would try it with Honey Stars, a wonderful honey flavoured sweet cereal which I brought back from Malaysia:

Chinese Soy Drink	English Soy Drink
Tastes abit weird! I don’t think the strong soy flavour and the honey flavour of the cereal mixes very well	Tastes alot like normal milk with a soy after taste
Sweet to the point of artificial	Nice and sweet
Makes me think of bright Mattel toys with lead paint on them	Makes me think of… honey stars

On this point, I have to say that English Soy wins. And in fact, I think the strong, sweet CS flavour would prolly not go with alot of flavoured cereals. I would prolly stick with ES when eating these foodstuffs.

Overall, Chinese Soy tastes heaps better than English Soy. However, I suspect that its also because CS has alot more sugar and is prolly not as healthy (think diabetes and added calories!)

I asked SA, who loves tofu and soy, about why some CS drinks are white and some are green. She replied with...

"maybe green soy milk is flavoured with pandan or something..? Or maybe it's just past its use-by date"

Insightful.. Thanks :P

Negative Observations:

I was trying to log into my LJ account, but no luck since I had forgotten the password. So I browsed some of my old blogger entries for a clue (still, no luck!). I have observed that:

1) I am less hyper and random nowadays

2) I have become many of the things I had hoped not to have become

3) I should have got that backup degree like I said I should just in case this degree didn't get me a job (and waddaya know, it hasn't!)

4) I seem to have been more proficient at writing back in those days. Abit more flair for dramatic writing, you could say. Now I just write concise, to-the-point sentences to convey mere facts. Nothing else. How scientific I have become. And yet not scientific enough. I have the worst of both worlds. No wonder I can't get a job. +.+

Also, I have heard much about this video embedding tool which blogspot has recently put up. I will now attempt to use it and test it out:

Peanut Butter & Celery

One day I was talking to some of my Furc friends and the food object "Peanut Butter & Celery" came up. Often recieved as a lunchbox snack, it has become abit of a common snack item for them. Most of these Furc friends are american, but I believe there were aussies who agreed that PB & C were common and tasty. Of course, being the foodie that I am, I just had to try it out!

I got myself some celery (which fortunately was cheap), slathered on some PB and had a go. Hm. I'd have to say its really not that great. The flavours from the celery and the PB did not mix. It was like you chewed and you had pockets of celery taste, then PB taste, repeat cycle... the flavours did not blend at all. And I think the food items did not even physically blend despite extensive mastication either. o.O

My theory for this is that celery is mostly water, and PB is mostly fat/oil. Thus the polar properties of the celery and the non-polar properties of the PB rejected each other, forming sort of macroscale emulsion in my mouth. Very disturbing. I would eat the celery on its own. And the PB on its own. But PB & C . . . i think ill leave that alone. Might have to be abit of a nostalgic thing for them. *shrug*

Rate: 4/10