An Introduction To Bargain Hunting

I am a bargain hunter. I feel the most satisfaction from bargains and sales. I bought MOST of my stuff on discounted price. So, I rarely buy latest fashion/products. And since I am also a creature of habit, I buy most of my products over and over again.

For an example, I have used my body wash since ages ago. Since high school days. That is YEARS. It is the same with my facial wash.

So, I tend to buy my personal products during sales in bulk. I'd buy my shampoo, conditioner, body wash, facial wash, deodorant etc in bulk and at discounted price. Bulk as is usually more than 1. I would usually buy 2-3 the least at a time.

I get serious anxiety if I find my stock running to 1-2, so I tend to go into flurry of buying spree.

So, based on my annual accounting, I actually saved A LOT of money buying my essentials in bulk.

I'd advise the same for everyone. Buy your personal products during sales period in bulk, if you are a creature of habit like me, that is. I have saved more than hundreds of Ringgit this way. And on the plus side, I've never have the need to go into an emergency run for toothpaste or body wash whenever I ran out of them.

Maybe one day, I'd do a list of great bargain hunting places and webstores.

P/S: I don't know whether this advice is useful for those who use high end products eg SKII, Estee Lauder etc. Since I personally do not use these products *SHRUG*

Dobukki AKA Spicy Rice Cakes

Today both my Mama and Aunty asked the recipe for this dish when I posted it on Facebook. 

I have loved this snack ever since I tasted it. It is mildly spicy and a little bit sweet but delicious nonetheless.  

Yesterday, I was suddenly inspired to make it (aka 'forced' to make it by my housemate Fatin). And it is super duper easy~

Dobukki

Serving: 2-3 persons

Ingredients

• Rice cakes - A handful (you can put as much and as little as you want, I put about 2/3 of the frozen package or around 200g worth into mine today). I am too lazy to make it from scratch, I bought it frozen from a local specialty store in Batu Pahat. You can actually find this at a lot of supermarket these days, especially those with an isle dedicated especially for Korean food. If not, you can actually make it. It is quite easy, it is just a litttle bit time consuming if you want something fast. I bought mine for RM12 for 300g.
• Gochujang (spicy hot pepper paste) - 2/3 cup. Again this amount is quite versatile, if you want more sauce (like me), then put a bit more. To be honest, this sauce is not spicy. At all. It is mild in flavour. Again, this is widely available in our local supermarkets. I found mine at the same shop in Batu Pahat, but again, I also saw this in Aeon, Giant etc.
• Chilli powder - 2 tablespoons. This is mild to medium heat. I love spicy food, so usually I add more. Adjust according to your preference. More chilli power = spicier your dobukki will be,
• Anchovy stock - Actually, it is a kelp/anchovy stock, but I forgot to get kelp, thus I just use anchovies to make my stock. This is super important coz if you just add gochujang into boiling water, well, it is less tasty as using a base stock. You can substitute with any stock such as chicken, beef or vegetable stock. Koreans love their fish-based stock in a lot of their dishes and I love it too.
• Sugar - 1/2 tablespoon. I tried to not put sugar in any of my dishes, especially savory dishes, but the gochujang make the sauce taste a bit bitter without sugar, so I add a bit of sugar. You can substitute sugar with corn syrup. Maple syrup or honey have distinctive taste, so if you add those, beware that it can alter the taste of this dish.
• Spring onion - 2-3 stalks. The base with whitish part, you can chop it and put into the sauce while the leafy green can be used as garnish. 
• Fish cakes - I LOVE LOVE fish cakes. I put as many rice cakes as my fish cakes, that is how I love my fish cakes. For this part of the ingredient, you can substitute with basically anything, chicken/fish balls, sausages, any meat tbh. Fish cakes absorb the flavour of the sauce more, so I love to put fish cakes into mine.
• Water - 4 cups

Anchovy/Kelp Stock

1. Boil water with 10 anchovies and a small strip of dried kelp (around 5-10cm) for around 10 minutes, you can opt out the kelp if it is not available in hand (like how I did it today hahahaha)
2. Remove the anchovies and kelp from the stock

Instruction

1. Add rice cakes, gochujang, chilli powder, sugar into your boiling anchovy stock
2. Then add your spring onion and fish cakes once the sauce is boiling
3. Once the sauce thickens (it will coat the back of your spoon), you can switch off the gas and voila! It is all ready! 
4. Garnish your dobukki with spring onion. Or seaweed. Your poison of choice tbh

Bonus: Since I love the sauce, I usually make more, so you can add instant noodles (or ramyeon) or rice and mix them all up once all other ingredients (the fish and rice cakes) are finished. If you want more, you can also add cheese. Any cheese, sliced sandwich cheese or gourmet cheese.

Serve hot! It is yummilicious hot and spicy!

Best Friend

If there is one person I love on this earth other than my loved ones (my family, that goes without saying), it is Joyce.

She is my best friend. I may not grown up with her, I may not know her long enough (but I've known her for more than 10 years, about 1/3 of my life, all of it in adulthood) and has loved her as long.

I met her in Auckland from a peer-to-peer programme both of us volunteered for. It was, if possible, love at first sight. We just clicked. She is so grounded and practical. While I was more whimsical and emotional. But we fit. Sometimes, we don't need to be similar to just love each other.

She became my family away from my much-loved family. We were both each others' sidekick. We lunched, we brunched, we dined, we gossed, we karaoked out of our lungs and lives. We did weird things. We talked about random things. We watched weird stuff. We went to concerts (sorry I am SO not into movies, so we missed that). 

Her home was where her beautiful cats and family welcomed me. 

When she got married, I was her bridesmaid. I am truly honored to be beside her on her big day. I get to know Alex (well, that mysterious catfish is OUT THERE I AM SURE, or was it EELS?).

I met a lot more people from Joyce. She is that person who knows everyone and she is friends with everyone. 

There are too many stories to tell. Good and bad, she went through a lot with me in my last 4 years in Auckland and we kept in touch since the wedding last year.

She is having a hard time now. That is her story to tell.

I miss her and I wish her the best and all of my prayers. There is always more love around.

Love you and miss you.

Stay healthy and happy, both you and Alex.

Thinking of you.

I am not there physically but my thoughts are always with you. 

THERE WILL BE GOOD DAYS AHEAD. ALWAYS.

Food For Thought....

I don't get this.

Why the sudden hate towards Malaysian public schools? Why the sudden harsh criticisms and downgrading opinions towards our own education system?

Yes, there are a lot that we lack and can be improved upon. But, seriously, you look down on our own public education so much, do you forget that YOU are a product of public education?

You got your own education from, yes, surprise, surprise, our very own public primary to high school. 

You look down on it so much, claiming private schools are MUCH better, but hey, you get where YOU are from public schools, no?

Let me tell you a story.

I, myself, and my youngest sister, our attendance for our high school probably amount to half of it. If we are being optimistic. Most of the time, both of us DO NOT go to school. Not to 'lepak lepak' or jadi 'bohsia', mind you, we just don't like to go to school. BUT. Both of us scored all perfect As in our SPM. We were usually placed in top 3 in our school. WE DO NOT GO FOR 109734902 TUITION or whatnot. Since we do not bother to go to school, why do we even WANT to go for tuition? This is not to boast. This is a perfect example that YOU can be whomever you want to be, as long as you are willing to learn, PUBLIC or PRIVATE schools notwithstanding. You can learn where ever you want to be IF you want to.

Now.

I do understand parents concern nowadays.

They want their children to mix with the 'right people' aka the rich and well, rich. To build relationships early on. Then to get that frou frou education from private institutions that they can boast of. Some aim for their children to study overseas, thus this is their way to fast-track their offsprings' education. That is totally FINE. It is your RIGHT. Your MONEY. Your CHILDREN.

What is not right is putting down our very own fine education system (which can be tweaked but that is another story for another day). Each private and public school has its own pluses and minuses. Just understand that while it is great your children now can enjoy great environment for their early education, our education is fine to educate almost 90% of our Malaysian population.

If our own education system produce YOU and YOUR PARENTS to be who we are right now, then it is not as bad, eh?

Unless you did not turn up into 'orang', bak kata orang Melayu.

TL;DR