I'm Happy, So Very, Very Happy!

Well, before anything else, I would like to wish everybody (ada kerrr??) a Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha!! Hope the day has been enjoyable and that you had a great time with family tercinta.

This year I'm celebrating Aidiladha alone (though I'm flying home next weekend so maybe will celebrate it then so does it count?). Woke up slightly later than usual, but come afternoon I went out to my friend Sam's place for a little Raya makan-makan. Other friends also came, and we had a good time chatting and eating Raya food. That was the most Raya feeling I had today though.

Anyway, that was not really the reason for my overhyped happiness today. It's what I got afterwards that really made my day.

One of the greatest,simplest joys in life for me is in reading. I buy lots of books, and though I take a long time finishing them, I still find myself spending unplannned trips to the bookstore and bringing home at least one reading material.

My favourite bookhaunt is, and always will be the Amcorp Mall in Petaling Jaya. I remember feeling like a giddy kid in a candy store when I called my friend Diane about a cheap bookstore that I had just discovered at that time. I still love going to Book Access (top floor, a few doors aways from Kenny Rogers Restaurant)and everytime I went there I'd surely bring home at least one book.

Even at home, I have a sort of mini library. One three-tiered bookcase is already full and I know I should get my lazy bum off sometime and rearrange those books properly.


I actually have another similar shelf which is SUPPOSED to house my burgeoning number of books. However, nowadays this second shelf serves a purpose of a different kind;)


It's my cats' private shelf, their viewing tower to the outside world. Over and over again I kept telling myself I ought to just move it and fill it up with those overflowing books from the first shelf, but then again looking at how they enjoy being up there and it being their window to the outside world stopped me from doing so. Well, I might just get to IKEA and get another one to store them books then:)

Back to yesterday's happening, after makan-makan at Sam'splace, I thought I'd better pop by somewhere and remembered reading about a book sale in Amcorp Mall, so I drove there right away.

Suffice to say, I returned home a happy reader:D..All the books there were dead cheap, and if not because of the big crowd, I would've spent more time there browsing through the selection and probabbly bringing home plenty more books.

But I guess five will do for the time being. And the fact that there were really cheap was the icing on the cake.

5 Books=RM40.00 only!!!

And these are the lucky five I brought home. A nice mix of travel, adventure, humour and chick lit:)

Soo...this is the reason why I'm so happy today:D...

In the meantime, I'm not the only one enjoying getting new books, because..


My babies definitely are enjoying getting cosy with them too;)

Project Kitchen: Tempoyak Goreng

Dah dekat-dekat nak hujung bulan ni, weekend kenala duduk rumah hehhehe..Bukan apa, last month awal sangat dapat gaji due to Deepavali celebration. So macam last week, pegi masak kat rumah my friend, Kamal and jamu kawan-kawan, so hujung minggu ni pulak I opted to just stay home. Lagipun sebab cuaca sekarang sejuk je, sedap jugakla duduk kat rumah, dahla malas nak bersiap-siap and melaram;)

Anyway, this weekend memang dah plan nak buat this favourite dish of mine. Unlike in Semenanjung where tempoyak is just eaten raw, dibuat sambal ulam atau dimasukkan dalam gulai dengan ikan, di Sarawak, in addition to dimakan mentah (bersama dengan cili dan ikan bilis), tempoyak is also ditumis dengan udang, jadinya tempoyak goreng. Kalau udang takde, or bagi yang allergic dengan udang, ikan bilis pun jadi la. Jangan tak tahu, I don't eat durian hehhehe, tapi tempoyak makan pulak. Bak kata orang, yang fresh taknak makan, nak yang dah buruk jugak!!Pelik kan? Tapi taula, dah bau dia kuat sangat, hidung pun tak boleh tahan;)

This dish has been my favourite dish for the longest time, and boleh takde lauk lain pun takpela kalau tempoyak goreng dah ada depan mata hehehhe. Teringat pulak when I was in uni, I rented an apartment with a group of friends lah. So ada la satu hari ni I cooked this dish, which surprised my Semenanjung flatmates as they've never seen it before. Nak dipendekkan cerita, one of them terus berkenan sesangat dengan masakan ni, siap suruh tuliskan resipi lagi tu for her to try. Cumanya tak tahu kot sekarang dia suka lagi ke tak dengan tempoyak goreng ni. Yelah, mana nak carik tempoyak kat Holland kan Hasni? Kalau kau baca entry ni jangan jealous tau!!Hehehhe..

Anyway, making this dish is super simple. Ni dia bahan-bahan nak buat tempoyak goreng ni.

Tempoyak dah wajib ada la kan...Dah namanya tempoyak maaaa...

Udang fresh. Kalau ada udang besar-besar sikit tu lagi best, tp janganla pulak sampai guna udang galah tu yer...Hhehehe. Kupas kulitnya dan cuci.

Cili kering, blended.

Bahan lain cuma bawang merah and kalau cili kering tu tak cukup kick, bolehla tambah cili padi ke, ikut suka memasing nak pedas macam mana. Kalau boleh tumbuk je bawang merah tu dengan cili kering/cili padi tu, lagi best:)


Panaskan minyak. Minyak kena banyak sikit la, bergantung kepada berapa banyak tempoyak yang nak kena tumis ni. Sementara tu, campurkan semua bahan-bahan yang dah ditumbuk tadi dengan udang ke dalam tempoyak. Bear in mind that udang ni walaupun nampak besar, tapi bila dah masuk kuali nanti sure dia akan kecut, so tempoyak pun tak payahla banyak sangat. But still, ni ikut selera masing-masing jugak ok;)

Lepas tu bolehla mula menumis. Guna api sederhana sahaja sebab kena make sure that semua bahan-bahan masak serata. Lagi satu tempoyak ni kena sentiasa dikacau sebab takut nanti berkerak, so jangan tinggalkan kuali tu ya. Kejap-kejap takpe:)

Actually the menumis part ni can be a bit tricky. Ada orang tu bila tempoyak dah bertukar warna brownish sikit dah tutup api tu. But bak kata my mum, selagi tempoyak tu tak pekat, jangan tutup dulu apinya, sebab tempoyak tu tak masak lagi. Teruskan mengacau sampai tempoyak tu pekat, dan pecah minyak. In the meantime, jangan lupa tambahkan sedikit garam dan gula untuk cukupkan rasa.


Inilah hasilnya, my ultimate favourite dish, tempoyak goreng. Camne plak nak makan? Ala makan dengan nasikla -gaul je dengan nasi, ngap la udang tu, oh heaven!!!

Adios!

So Lazy...

Need I say more??;;)




**Model tersohor di atas adalah my beloved Mimi. Mimi memang bolat, but she's still my adorable mummy baby:D

Warkah Terakhir Rosli Dhoby

Work-wise, it has been a pretty quiet couple of weeks for me. As I have a lot of free time at work (ssshhhh...) I spent the time by surfing blogs, drooling over cuppies blogs and youtubing:)

Anyway, in one of the blogs I went to mentioned about Astro Citra's Warkah Terakhir Rosli Dhoby. Yeah it was screened sometime in June/July over Astro Citra. I had wanted to watch it so much but that required additional subscription, which I wasn't so willing to do at that time.

But I managed to catch all episodes throughout the week. It was a very excellently done mini-series, and I actually cried in a lot of the scenes. More importantly, it really opened my eyes and widened my appreciation to the struggles and sacrifices of those who fought for our independence.

Rosli Dhoby was barely 18 when he was hanged to death by the British, after he assasinated Sir Duncan George Stewart, the 2nd British Governor in Sarawak. I know that my grandparents were among those who also fought against the cessation, but the movement in Sibu was more radical. Rosli was the courageous one who shouldered the responsibility of murdering Stewart.

I won't talk about it much as I'm sure it's written in our history text book, but still, I am proud of what he did, and I'm proud that this mini series was done in a very, very classy manner. And the fact that they did it in Bahasa Sarawak was really the icing on the cake, which made this really a genuine work.

Here's the original soundtrack of the series. Do watch it of you haven't, even if just over the youtube, and I guarantee you you will cry and your patriotism is back.