Pasta Aglio Olio

I love to cook and these days, it seemed that Mama is letting me loose in her beloved kitchen. So, I decide on our daily menu. YES, full authority in the kitchen, baby! Today, by request, I made aglio olio. My younger sister, Gegel is CRAVING for it and this is probably the third time I made this in less than a few weeks.

And yes, I used my precious DSLR to take these photos. I'm a total camera-ignoramus, but they turned up well enough.

That said, I'm sharing my aglio olio recipe. Bear in mind, aglio olio belongs to the Italians and this may not be the original recipe as I've NEVER even set my foot in Italy. I've searched the definition of aglio olio and found out that it is basically garlic and oil. So, with these 2 ingredients in mind, you can go free with anything else that suits your palate (or in my case, whatever I have in my pantry).

Pasta Aglio Olio

Serving: 4-5 persons

Ingredients

• Pasta 250g (any sort, my favourite is always spaghetti but I've used linguine and other sorts before)
• Olive oil (olive oil is super duper delicious and healthy, but just in case you don't have it, just substitute with butter, margarine or any vegetable oil. That said, the taste will change as some oils have their own distinctive taste and some are quite neutral)
• Garlic (LOTS of it, I've been known to use more than 20 cloves for 250g pasta, adjust to your liking)
• Vegetables (my favourites are bell peppers, carrot, broccoli, cauliflower and shiitake mushroom. Okay mushroom is not a vegetable but who cares)
• Protein of your choice (my most favourites are prawn and calamari, but I've used chicken, beef and beef pepperoni before)
• Herbs (I use mixed herbs)
• Chilli flakes/dried chillies
• Cheese (parmesan is my poison of choice)
• Salt 
• Water

Cooking Method

1. Boil your pasta. I put the pasta in after the water in boiling. Stir the pasta every now and then to prevent it from sticking to the pan. Add a tablespoon of salt into the boiling water.
2. Once pasta is al dante (it is slightly firm but not mushy soft, or the colour of your pasta become a bit lighter), drain the water and immediately run tap water along the pasta to stop the cooking process. Add a pinch of salt to your pasta. Your pasta should be a bit firm and taste nice.
3. Cut all your vegetable and protein into bite sized pieces.
4. In low heat, add oil, chili flakes/diced-up dried chillies and garlic.
5. Once the oil turn red and the garlic turns translucent (and a heavenly aroma is produced), add the meat (or you can cook your meat separately as I've done sometimes) and vegetables.
6. Add mixed herbs and salt. At this point the vegetables and meat will smell beautiful (and taste beautiful too!).
7. Finally add your pasta! Toss it around for a few minutes and we are done!
8. Serve with cheese shavings.

Growing Up

Watching my baby nieces, Yaya and Nafisa, growing up is just a miracle. My beautiful babies grow up in a blink of an eye and I'm astounded. I always wonder, when do they grow up? From a little bundle of happiness into babyhood and toddlerhood, time just passes so rapidly. 

Yaya is 2-and-a-half years older than Nafisa. However, last time, whenever I see Yaya, I kept thinking, 'Yaya is so small and precious.' It seems like Yaya has never grow, even though she can speak full sentences and is very very very precocious. Just yesterday, she seems not to like me as her 'friend'. In fact, she just told her mother previously, just after she 'fought' with me, exactly how she 'fought' with me. She told her mother (my younger sister), 'Yaya cakap dengan Nana, sana Nana, sana'. Translated: 'Yaya told Nana (aka me), move Nana, move.' In other words, she told me not to be in her orbit *cries* She is smart and beautiful. And she is my precious girl. I always wonder where has all the time go.

Now here is Nafisa, my other younger sister's daughter. She is a small (not so small now as she grows up SO FAST) and super duper cute. This cutie pie is even called 'tapioca' by all of us as she is just so round and fluffy! I know, I know, tapioca does not sound cute at all, but in our language, 'keledek sebuku' is just so cute. I'm repeating the word cute for the upteenth times but that is the only word that best describes Nafisa.

Both of them are equally precious to me and I am still amazed at how rapid they are growing. I wish I can tell them to grow slowly and savour this innocence. However, time waits for no man. And we will all be here to help them through life, if time permits.

Honey Garlic Chicken

I made honey garlic chicken today. It is my new favourite dish and I made it once for my friends in Sibu (shoutout to Ida and Mastura!). It's super simple, you just need to fry the chicken and make the sauce and mix both together!

The sauce is made up of water, vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar before and both tasted delicious!), honey (good quality one), garlic (LOTS) and salt.

Ingredients made simple (for 3-4 persons):

Sauce (for 3 pieces of chicken breasts)

• Water - 3-4 cups 
• Vinegar (apple cider vinegar is delicious too!) - 2-4 tablespoons
• Garlic (the more the better, I even used 8-12 cloves at a time) - 8-12 cloves
• Honey (good quality one) - 2-4 tablespoons
• Salt - a pinch

Mix all the sauce's ingredients in a sauce pan and cook on low heat until the sour/sweet taste is blended well together. Usually, the garlic will turn golden-brownish and tastes deliciously sweet and sour at this point. The sauce will be reduced to a small fraction from the original mix (around 2-4 tablespoons in total).

 Fried chicken (3 pieces of chicken breasts)

• Chicken breasts - 3 large pieces
• Flour - 2-3 cups
• Baking powder - 2-3 teaspoons
• Salt
• Cold water - 2 cups
• Oil to deep fry

Cut chicken pieces pieces into bite sized pieces. Mix flour, baking powder, salt and cold water. Add bite-sized chicken pieces into the mixture. Heat up oil in deep fryer/pan under medium high heat. Double fry chicken pieces (I love double frying as the chicken will stay crunchy).

Then, mix both fried chicken and sauce. Voila! It is done!

P/S: Pardon my shitty photography skill.

The Boys Foodtruck, Wangsa Maju

I was pretty excited to try out this new joint after a recommendation by my sister. My sister, in fact, has never tried this place. She saw it from a foodie show. That said, I researched online and found out that the name of the foodtruck is 'The Boys Food Truck'. Thus, I set out (with my parents) to Dataran Wangsa near KWSP and RHB to try out the food.

There were 2 trucks, one selling all the grilled stuff (burger, steak sandwich and hot dog) and the other one was selling spaghetti and drinks. The system was meticulous, you write down your order with your name and they will call you up once your order is ready.

The problem is mainly with the grilled truck. I came early, before 9.30pm (the opening time) and I was behind less than 10 people. My order SHOULD be less than number 10. Weirdly, after waiting more than 1 hour and seeing the previous people AND a few people who ordered AFTER me left, I was feeling iffy about this. I went and asked about my order, and voila, to my surprise, my order was behind about 5-6 people whom I saw came and order AFTER me. I was really really surprised. I mean, I honestly remember seeing the guy taking my order BEFORE a few of them and those patrons have long gotten their order and went off. So, I left. 

One good thing was the line for spaghetti truck was short. In my case, again, coz I arrived earlier, even before they opened up, so I managed to get my order fast. The thing is, my complain is not the waiting time. I get it. The line was long, all I can do is just wait. My complain is that they messed up the order of my order. How can my order was way behind a few people who came LATER than me? 

Next, and my last rant, the meatball has hair. Yes, human hair. Black and long. It's disgusting. It put me off the meatball.

Sadly, I'd love to give the food truck a great review but alas, it's really bad. Messing up my order and hair are a no-no, especially for patrons who come before opening time. Imagine those who come later already getting their order while you have to wait for your freaking turn. It is ridiculous.

Dear Friend

Dear Friend,

I know I am a selfish person. A cold person. A person no one will think of when you need a helping hand.

However, know this. You are my friend. Anytime you are in need, no matter what, you can come to me. I may not be able to help, but I can at least listen. In the smallest way, I hope I can be a friend to you. 

You are my friend. I may not be the best friend in the world, but I will always be your friend. Just reach out. I am blind and deaf to your suffering. The only way I can be aware is for you to come to me and share. 

Love,

Harley

A Primary School Teacher Of SK Taman Setiawangsa

I went to a primary school called Taman Setiawangsa from Standard 2 to Standard 6 (I think). What I remember well is not a rosy childhood school memory but one particular teacher. She never really taught me directly, but we have interactions as she was in-charge of all the prefects at the time. 

I remember, when I was in Standard 6, the 'best' classes were divided into 2 for some particular reasons. Best classes as in students who scored the highest marks in examination the year before. Somehow, this teacher was the class teacher of one of the best classes. 

I was in the other best class. The funniest shit is, the teacher looked very religious with her wide headscarf (you know, the one that reaches below your chest level). She wore a pair of spectacles and she was quite short and dark. She always speak as if she's very gentle and reasonable. This is not a story of how I like her.

This is a story how a teacher can be a bitch even though she is a teacher. You see, my impressions of a teacher is that a teacher SHOULD be a role model to youngsters. However, she left a sour taste in my mouth. She has a daughter my age, who has 'Ning' in her name and the daughter went into her class. 

What I particularly remember is how she always favoured students from her class, thinking that they were all superior than students from my class. Hello? If your students are so brilliant, why was my marks and standing is always way higher than them? I didn't even need to study or take extra class *smirks* She even gave all the high posts in the prefectdom to all her favoured students from her class. 

Guess what, you bitch, even though I was a prefect, that post is not all the shit. It's not real life and in a long run, it is not something that I can even be proud of. It's just part of my childhood memory, nothing more, nothing less. It's not brain science. It's not going to change the world, feed starving people or cure cancer.

My siblings who later all went to the same school complained the same thing. That she was such a bitch. I guess, not all teachers are good teachers. A bitch is always a bitch. If most students hate you, you should realize already that you are a bitch.

Actually there are more things, but those are going to take 1000000 more words to type out. Safe to say that her bitchdom is a done deal.

Productive

See, I can be a productive human being too, just like any other persons out there.

List of activities I did today:

1. Typed 3 study notes
2. Cleaned the kitchen (cleaned the counters, stove, sink, threw the rubbish and mopped the floor)
3. Mopped my room
4. Cleaned my shower (toilet, sink, floor and walls)
5. Cleaned the stand fan
6. Hand-washed my laundry
7. Washed the mats

I feel proud of myself.

Little Tricks In Flying AirAsia

I moved to Sibu about a year-and-a-half ago and I think I can fairly and safely say that I am quite experienced in AirAsia Sibu-KL flights (that is a short 2-hour flight, if any one of you is wondering). Here are a few little tricks I've learned in surviving a short 2-hour AirAsia flight. Bear in mind, I've accumulated these experiences with my almost-frequent, almost-monthly trip back to KL from Sibu. I may be inaccurate or wrong but I can 99% assure you that these are all based on my personal experience so far.

• Buy your ticket during promotion period. AirAsia basically have 3-4 HUGE promotion periods each year. HUGE promotion as in 0 fare aka you-only-pay-for-airport-and-GST-taxes-which-are-cheap-enough. Once in a blue moon, AirAsia will have some fantastic sales such as the recent RM3 base fare promotion to celebrate certain things such as 300 million passengers. That said, grab this chance by registering as a member on AirAsia website and grab a Big Prepaid Mastercard (if I'm not mistaken it has this RM10-fee-but-refundable-once-you-topup). Why? Coz AirAsia usually send an email (yup, subscribe too) a day or a few days earlier informing you about an upcoming promotions and that is the perfect opportunity to grab a few flights for next-to-nothing. Plan your flights well and you can grab seats that are cheaper than your regular bus tickets.
• Get AirAsia Mastercard and use it extensively. Use it to buy your flight tickets, to pay your electric and water bills, to pay for your petrol, food etc. Get points. Those points are valuable as you can exchange them for an almost-free flight (again, you just have to pay for the taxes). I've gotten a few return flight tickets (Sibu-KL) for RM20. Can you imagine that? Return 2-hour flights for RM20? I collected my points from my online shopping, paying my utilities and petrol using my AirAsia Mastercard. One thing I have to point out though, AirAsia has this super shitty rule that if you are not using your card within 30-day of your last use, they will charge you shitty RM2.50. So, make sure to use it at least once a month. It won't be a problem if you use it on petrol (as I do).
• If you are an AirAsia frequent flyer, like me, get AirAsia ezpay card. Why do you need 2 different cards from AirAsia? Well, AirAsia Mastercard allows you to collect points which translates to almost-free flights while AirAsia ezpay allows you to get AirAsia flight without paying that bothersome payment fee. Yes, AirAsia collects payment fee aka you-pay-through-your-nose-for-every-little-thing-including-paying-for-your-own-freaking-flight. Imagine you have to pay an extra (the cheapest) RM4 for each flight every time you want to get one. So, by getting AirAsia ezpay card, you can wiggle out from paying any payment fee. That said, it also has the same shitty rule of RM2.50 fee for non-use of 30 days. Beware.
• Check-in free online and check-in fast. Check-in 14 days prior to get a decent mid-way seat. If you check-in exactly 14 days before your flight, you will definitely get a row 16 seat. That is mid-way through the aircraft and that is decent enough for a free seat. Too far back is too annoying since you have to wait for people to slowly board out during arrival. I hate that. And there is a HUGE chance that you may not have a place to put your luggage in the overhead compartment since AirAsia passengers usually have tonnes of hand luggage.
• To my next point. Line up early. Get into the flight early and place your luggage in the front overhead compartment (aka the overhead compartment for those paid seats in front) if you don't have much valuables in your hand luggage. Why? So that you can cruise easy when you disembark since your hefty luggage is in the front area and you can just grab it once you are nearing the front exit. Remember this, in a very full AirAsia flight, overhead compartment is a commodity that everyone fights for. Each person usually have at LEAST one luggage and a few will have 2-3 with super HUGE luggage. If you board in late, you will have to fight for a space for your luggage. I know, we are supposed to have only one standard hand luggage but hey, people are rule-breakers and AirAsia mostly ignore that rule for local flights so....Yeah.
• Buy everything online. AirAsia prices are much cheaper online. So, get your meals, check-in luggage, bus etc online on AirAsia site. Get it early. AirAsia is all about early.
• Lastly, this is a so-far-unsuccessful thing for me, but so-far-quite-successful-for-my-friends. Check-in at 12am at the day of your flight (provided it is at least 4 hours before your flight coz any later than that, you may not even check-in in the first place). This way, there is a chance that you will get the front seats. Front seats=Faster boarding and disembarking. A reminder though, so far, I've not been successful in this. For checking in at 12am the day of my flight, I always get the back seat aka seat in the row 26 or 27. So, it is a myth for me. However, a lot of my friends seem successful in getting great seats from doing this.

So. Good luck. It's all about planning well and doing things early. Early bird gets the worms and all that.

2015

What does this string of number means?

It is for me to know and for you to guess....

Hello

Time flew by so fast. Since starting this, my life has underwent a lot of changes. Some are good. Some are bad. That is life.

I never expected that I will reach this point of my life and for my life to turn up this way. While I want to say that I'm having the time of my life or I'm having a shitty life, it is not so. I can definitely say it is different and I am experiencing a spectrum of experiences I'd never thought I would go through when I was an optimistic 17-year old.

When people say that life is a journey, indeed it is. I've journeyed through a forked path that most people traditionally would choose the easier and much expected path. I took the other path. The one less traveled and full of uncertainties.

While I want to say I am strong, I am not. This is a choice I made by a cumulative of mistakes that, on a hindsight, I should've not make. In the process, I've involved many people in my mistakes. That said, I am relieved that in 2 months' time, this part of journey will end. Hopefully, it will end well. 

I will soon take another path and re-start again. I am again feeling my optimistic 17-year old self. 

This whole post is a mumbo-jumbo of very philosophical wanderings of my mind. I've reach this far by making a lot of different decisions.


I am thankful for my family. For my Mama, Baba, siblings and grandmother. They are here for me. Always here for me and will always be. I love you. Always.