Nasi Lemak and movie

Met up with Ming for lunch on Friday when we decided to make some M'sian food and hang out on Saturday with him and Brian. The spontaneous plan we came up is to cook Nasi Lemak and a few dishes to go with it.

Nasi Lemak is one of the most popular breakfast dish in Malaysia but it can be eaten anytime of the day. The basic of Nasi Lemak is the coconut rice (which is where the name comes from, 椰漿飯), roasted peanuts (toh tau, 花生), anchovies (ikan bilis, 干小鳳尾魚), cucumber (黃瓜), hard-boiled egg (熟蛋)and most important ingredient - sambal (chilli paste, 辣醬). It is a spicy dish as Nasi Lemak is not Nasi Lemak without the sambal. In fact, the taste of Nasi Lemak is often judge based on the sambal so it is very important to know how to make a good sambal if one wants to make a tasty Nasi Lemak dish. With those basic ingredients, the cook can mix and match them up (with the exception of the rice) anyway they want. I like it best when the sambal is not fried with the anchovies because it will leave the anchovies crispy. Basic Nasi Lemak can be found anywhere and our family favorite is the one at the front of Sri Weld Food Court at Beach Street. Nasi Lemak can also be considered the M'sian fast food because they are typically easily packed and ready to be served within minutes. Such Nasi Lemak are usually pretty cheap, ranging from 70 cents (as I last remember) up to RM 2.00.

There are also more complicated ones that are served with various types of curry dishes. When we were staying at Bandar Sunway, we used to go to the one at a kopitiam (coffee shop) at Mentari Business Park. There, we can get the Nasi Lemak served with mummy's and my favorite ikan pari (some kind of ray fish) or sotong (cuttlefish). These dishes are more expensive and larger in portion. They can cost up to RM 6, especially if one gets a lot of meat or seafood dishes. Of course, there are also more gourmet Nasi Lemak that can be ridiculously priced, mostly for tourists or those who likes their Nasi Lemak to be served on pretty plates and nicely presented. I still like the ones that are served on banana leaves!

So what did we have with our Nasi Lemak? I made vege curry (knowing that guys tend to contribute more meat dishes and Ping cannot go without her daily vege servings!). Vege curry is another easy curry to make. As long as you pick your favorite types of vege, it will not go wrong! I have tofu, green cabbage (am still wondering if this is the same as ko leh chai but I never get the chance to taste them together so have yet to figure it out), green beans, and brinjal. I added a little bit of potato to make the curry thick (instead of using corn flour). The curry base can be thicken by using lentils too.

As for the rice, Ming and I cooked our own type of Nasi Lemak. Mine was just steamed with coconut milk and pandan leaves. Ming added turmeric (kunyit, 黃薑) and lemon grass (serai, 香茅) in addition to coconut milk.
Ming also made curry chicken (a pretty unique combination too because he added lady's fingers, which is typically used in fish/seafood curry) and sambal ikan bilis.
He also bought some banana leaves so that we can eat them on the banana leaves! Yummy!
Brian bought us Green Tea ice-cream for dessert. I hang around at their place to watch "He's Just Not That Into You" which is hilarious!! My conclusion from the movie is - don't try to read signs (which is sooo high school anyway!). Let the guy do all the work. If he is not clear enough, forget it! This is a good reason why I still disagree with girls who tries to 主動告白.
"If a guy wants to be with a girl, he will make it happen, no matter what" - Alex from He's Just Not That Into You.

Also, Ben Affleck is hot! :P

The Little Nyonya

It has been a while since Ping watched Singapore drama series. It is easier to get access to Taiwanese drama than S'pore drama since the piracy regulations there are a lot tighter. The last S'pore drama Ping watched is the Parental Guidance 2, which was two years ago now or some where there. Lately, Ping started checking back to see what's going on (since the Taiwan drama going on now is not as entertaining). Found a new drama that Ping will most likely continue to follow - The Little Nyonya (小娘惹).

The story revolves around the life of a little nyonya who went through all the hardship during 1930s through the World War II. They bring up the issues of interracial marriage, complicating family trees, the exchange of young girls for money and so forth. Unlike unrealistic Taiwanese dramas, S'porean dramas tend to relate more to the lifestyle people actually experience. Just watching the first episode broadcasted a few days ago, Ping remembers all the story that ahmah told Ping - how she escaped the chaotic WW2 from Penang to Malacca, the complication in her family with family members being sold to other relatives, the unique lifestyle of a nyonya and so forth. While at times, it was annoying have her talk non-stop, Ping acknowledge that those are the information that is pretty rare to come by.

Some of you must be wondering what is Ping talking about. What is nyonya? Let's start with Peranakan. It is a Malay word, literally meaning 'descendents'. Peranakans refer to the descendents of Chinese immigrant from Fujian province, China, (mostly) who married local Malays (mostly within the region of Straits Settlement - Malacca, Penang [at that time known as Prince of Wales Island], Singapore). Ping is not too sure how the British fit into the whole Peranakan origin but it all started when Emperor Yong Le (永樂) of China sent his daughter, Princess Hang Li Poh ( 汉丽宝) to marry Sultan Mansur Shah of Malacca (unreasonable, but I guess people at that time thinks that this is okay, especially since female is almost invaluable to the family...hmm...wonder why her last name is Han...or does all the Hans have Han as their last name?). Does that mean that we are somehow related to her since she is part of the source of Peranakans? Hmmm...

Peranakans typically still maintain their Chinese culture (they celebrate all the traditional festivals like Chinese New Year, Moon Cake Festival, etc.) but adopt the local Malay language and customs to try to fit into the local community. During 'adopting the language', a new dialect evolved - the Peranakan language (or is there an official term for it???), which is a combination of Malay and Hokkien (since most of the Chinese were from Fujian province who speaks Hokkien). So Nyonya refers to the females while Baba refers to the male. Ping loves listening to the language. Like the Chinese language of the olden days, they love to use poetic terms...can't think of any right now though. Ahmah has a book written in the peranakan language somewhere in her stash of stuff that Ping used to love flipping through just to know the language. Hopefully she/daddy (although more like daddy..hehe) still keeps that book since it is a treasure now. The easiest way to pick the difference between the current spoken Malay and the peranakan language is the way they address themselves - saya (or the more commonly use, although rude - aku) for Malay while Peranakan calls themselves 'gua'. 'Gua' actually has a Chinese origin - from 'wa' (我) in Hokkien. Besides Hokkien and Peranakan, most Peranakan can also speak fluent British English since the Straits Settlement are regions where the British have residential officials. So Ping's ahmah can actually speak pretty fluent English (although her pronounciation can be a little off sometimes) and she reads the English newspaper everyday too!

So how does Ping fits into this culture? Err...not too sure actually. If not mistaken, Ping's paternal grandma is a nyonya with 50% peranakan...and Ping's maternal great-grandma (ah chor) has a little bit of it??? But since both Ping's parents are not, Ping is more chinese than peranakan. Ping loves the food and the culture, but no idea how to speak the language, although Ping can understand it to a certain point. Ping does look like one though since Ping is often mistaken as a Malay. Chinese typically has a fairer skin tone while the Peranakans have darker skin tones, looking more like a Malay.

Due to the combination of background, Peranakans have a rich culture. Ping loves their 'baju kebaya', which usually consists of a 'sarung', an inner tank top (wonder what they used to call this?) and an outer blause that is typically slight transparent. Ping is still hoping to get one for herself someday. They are mostly on the higher end of clothing choice these days. Everytime Ping walks into the store, Ping can only manage to nudge mum and say, "mummy ar, that one nice hor". Another thing that is unique to the Peranakan is the 'chiki pai'. It is similar to mahjong, but in the form of cards. Ahmah used to teach us (ahboy and Ping) how to play them but Ping can barely remember how anymore. Definitely one thing to make sure we learn from ahmah. Wonder if the cards are still available in the market. Of course, not to forget the lovely manik shoes that mum makes. Just from the details on manik shoes, one can tell the amount of effort the nyonyas spent on their apparel. By the way, mum is really good at sewing maniks and making new designs. She's working on a hand bag currenty so if anyone wanna get a pair of manik shoe or want to learn how to make them, she's the person to go to!! They might be more expensive than some simple high heels but comparing to what people 'normally' pay for a pair of factory-made shoe, the manik shoe is definitely more worth it.

Thinking about it now, it seems like Peranakans might be have pretty upscale lifestyle...not too sure though. Anyway, that's Ping's spill of Peranakans. Will definitely be looking forward to the drama. By the way, why is it called 小娘惹? Is 娘惹 the translation for Nyonya?

周杰倫 Collection of Jay’s works.

Woooohoooo!!!我終於拿到了!! Can't help checking the mailbox every day since Ping saw that it was shipped on the 16^th. It is actually earlier than expected because initially, they were going to ship it out on the 20^th. Ping had plans to finish reviewing for a quiz on Monday and get groceries on Saturday but when Ping saw Hobie posted that she got her cd on Friday, Ping knew it was gonna get here that day. So Ping finished up all the stuff that she had to do in the lab and head home…there goes the plan to review and go to Kroger. *Phew* Caught the postman just in time!!! After an entire year!!! We finally get to see Jay again!!

After listening to the album, Ping decided to take a photo of Ping's Jay collection. Was listening to the album while cleaning up the room too! Had to clean the room 'coz the room was super messy to the point that there is no floor space to arrange all the albums and stuff. This weird working hours that Ping is going through right now makes Ping tired every time she gets home and she just shower and crash.

Starting from his first album in 2000, with songs he wrote that were rejected by other artists. From then on, it was one album every year, all songs that he wrote himself. Yup, he wrote EVERY SINGLE song in ALL his albums. Most of the lyrics were written by 方文山 (Vincent) but in every album, there will be at least two songs that are penned by Jay himself. While his albums stayed pretty constant in style throughout 依然范特西 (Still Fantasy) released in 2006, the drastic change occurred when he started his own company with his lyricist (方文山) and manager (揚峻榮) – JVR Music (杰威爾) for Jay, Vincent, and Rong. Probably because now he can do whatever he wants, as long as 方文山 and 榮哥 agrees to it. Oh, and of course his mom too! Ping didn't start collecting the originals until 2004…when Ping had some extra money to spend. Hehe…Ping's favorite is his second album – 范特西 (Fantasy), especially the EP, where he wrote and penned 3 extra songs. But he's the only artist that has no song which Ping does not like.

While he started as a singer, like most Taiwanese artists, he eventually stepped into moviedom. Although not as active as others, and started out as a minor (Hidden Track, 尋找周杰倫), he did acted in 3 of the Asia's top movies – Initial D (頭文字D), Curse of Golden Flower (滿城黃金甲) and recently, Kung Fu Dunk (功夫灌籃). In addition to that, he also wrote, directed and acted in his own movie, Secret (不能說的秘密), which was pretty impressive. He's currently writing the script for Secret 2, which apparently is not related to Secret at all so we'll just have to wait and see what the storyline is about. Like these are all not enough for him, he have also had 3 world tours, in 2001, 2004 and 2007, which is still going on – Ping got a chance to see him in M'sia earlier this year and, yup, AND, will be going to see him again in December at Mohegan Sun, Connecticut. Ping is still missing his Curse of Golden Flower movie and KFD EP.

Ping also got quite a few of his merchandise. Not as complete since there is not much that Ping feels is worth keeping or spending the money on. The first black shirt on the left and the handphone strap are from this year's concert. So are the 2^nd black one and the white one but they are from Jay2U, rather than the official concert merchandise. The black one is for the VIPs while the white one is for regulars. The black bag from his 2007 concert in LA was given to Ping by TT, who did go to the concert (Ping wanted to go too but since Ping was already planning to back to M'sia, decided that it would be more worth it to go to the one in M'sia, which it really was because Ping was sitting at the third row from the front!!!). The rubik cube and poker card is the added gift with this year's new album – Capricorn (魔杰座). Ping's favorite piece of all is the AUTOGRAPHED KFD photobook. Yup! It is AUTOGRAPHED by Jay himself!!! Thanks to SM for spending all the time and effort to get it for Ping.

Next on Ping's list is the DVD with MVs for all the songs in 魔杰座. Another thing he does very well is directing MVs, with the exception of 我很忙, all his songs have MVs, which he usually add to EPs but it seems like it'll be sold individually this time as the 龍戰騎士 MV is a super expensive MV and will be a pretty long one, kinda like a short movie which he used to do quite a bit when he wasn't so active in movie-making.

Off to bed, while listening to 范特西…開不了口…只能遠遠看者一直到老.

Happy Easter!

Nope, Ping don't officially celebrate Easter but being brought up in a multiracial country, we tend to participate in any celebration, curious to know the significance of a certain celebration, and of course, we enjoy the holiday along with it. Easter always falls on the first Sunday after full moon after March 21st - the Lunar calendar is not only a guide to the Chinese occasions - which is March 23rd this year since full moon is on March 22nd.

Ping's Easter weekend started out to be a pretty white weekend. Just as Lin Pei and Ping were already enjoying the Spring weather walking along Grand River Avenue drinking bubble tea on Wednesday evening, the weather decides that it is not done snowing yet. We got 3 inches of snow on Friday!! Yup!! It certainly is pretty but it did not last through the entire Saturday as most of it were gone by the time we went out for lunch. Went to Fazoli's for lunch - Italian fast food. That is one of Ping's favorite place too. Reasonable and portions are big enough that you can bring it home for another meal. Ping got the Chicken Parmesan oven-baked pasta this trip but another one of Ping's favorite is their Alfredo Fettucini..yummy!!

After lunch, Ping went home to bake chocolate cupcakes for the early dinner potluck at Jim and Karen's place (they are Gylin and Boon Keat's mentor from church). A bunch of us M'sians met up at their place and spent some time there 'socializing' before heading to Trinity church. That was where Ping learned about the significance of Easter day - to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ after his death on Good Friday. Right after the Easter service, we 'joined' the kids in egg hunting! Okay, so the egg is to symbolize rebirth but Easter bunnies - those are just Hallmark's attempt at making money. *bleh* At Jim and Karen's place, they gave out little ziplock bags of different colored Jelly Bellies and a little note that says:

The Jelly Bean Prayer
Red for the blood He gave,
Green for the grass He made,
Yellow is for the sun so bright,
Orange for the edge of night.

Black for the sins we made
White for the grace He gave,
Purple for the hour of sorrow,
Pink is for the new tomorrow.

Give a bag full of jelly beans,
Colorful and sweet,
Tell them it's a Prayer...
It's a promise...an Easter Treat!!

Isn't it sweet?

As 9pm approaches, we were all geared up to start cheering for Spartans in the NCAA games! Wait, Ping have to go start some cultures first. So Ping went back to lab but made it to Lin Pei's place for the 2nd half, which was the better part of the game and guess what! We're going for Sweet Sixteen!!!! Yippeeee!!! Go Neitzel!! He was totally high and confident in the last 10 minutes or so!!! Awesome game!!

Ping's day ended with a movie with TT, Jo, Fred and Tim at NCG watching The Shutter.
It is a ghost movie based on a Thai movie also with the name Shutter, with just a little different story-line. It was an okay movie, Ping was expecting it to be a little more 'geli' or 'mo kui chang' but there was only 2 main scene that got Ping almost jumping out the chair. Surprisingly, the main actor is Joshua Jackson from Dawson's Creek...just couldn't picture him in such movie. Haha...

Resident Evil

Just got back from Steph's. Had a Resident Evil movie spree - watched the first and second one in a row. The third one is out and Ping have yet to see the first two so Steph and Jen was nice enough to spend our Friday evening activity watching the first two so that Ping can catch up to watch the one that is coming out today.

Played the PS game a long long time ago when ahdik had his first PS console. Love the movie! The effects during the action scene was awesome! They gave it a very nice storyline too. Ping like the last part of the second one when the bad guy had expected Nemesis to attack her but in the end, Nemesis remember her and attacked the bad guy instead. Chun!

Ping accidentally deleted the old layout. Found a really nice sunset template but too lazy to edit the frames to fit Ping's liking. Most of the new frames for the Beta seems to be very narrow. It makes some of the pictures way too small. The bigger ones are mostly html templates. Ping wanna get the xml one so can add the widgets at the sidebar. Ping prefers the xml one 'coz it is way more intuitive. The html one is a bit more mahuan to edit. Or can Ping edit the html one using the same codes as the xml? Don't think so right? Since the xml codes are much easier than the html ones. Oh well....will make do with this layout for now, until Ping has time to edit the sunset ones, or find something nicer.

Lust, Caution

Guess what??!!! While watching the previews, they showed the preview from Lust, Caution!!! Does that means it will be showing here at Lansing Celebration Cinema???? Ping hopes so!!! Wanna see Lee Hom in action again. His first movie - China Strike Force - he was a pretty lousy actor. Ping didn't see any of his Japanese movies since they were not big enough to get here in the US. Given that Ang Lee praises his improvement, now Ping is excited to watch it!! Even though it seems from the preview, he is just a sideline and Leung Chiu Wai is the main actor. But never mind ler. He he!



Wonder if the storyline will be exactly like the short story written by 張愛玲 - 色, 戒. Ping have read a few of her stories and Ping's favorite is 紅玫瑰與白玫瑰.

Jane Austen

The plan was to watch Stardust. Then Skin Walkers. Eh..wait. Haven't had dinner. Need to get dinner. So can't make it to Skin Walkers. Last choice - Becoming Jane. Went to Boston Market for dinner. That was Ping's first time there. Ordered the chicken potpie (the one that ahmah likes to get from Dave's Deli) and it was good. It is a much nicer fast food place than McD or the other burger places. The movie - it is a fictional biography of Jane Austen. So who is Jane Austen? She is the author of 7 awesome novels about marriages for various reasons. The first time Ping knew about her was when Ping read her "Pride and Prejudice". Later, Ping bought "The Complete Novels of Jane Austen" and Emma became Ping's favorite Jane Austen story. Definitely one of the best novels - one where the English is proper without much slang and a happy or contented twist to the ending just when you thought it would be a sad ending. Awesome enough that it is one of the few books that don't make it's way back to Penang, but stays right there on Ping's bookshelf. If not mistaken, Ping still have her "Pride and Prejudice" or "Sense and Sensibility" somewhere in PJ...hmm...have to ask mummy since she's been digging through Ping's books at PJ lately.

As for the movie, the storyline is was much faster than Ping had expected for a biographical drama. Anne Hathaway - yup, the princess of The Princess Diaries - did a really good job with the emo scenes. The ending - Ping usually don't like sad ending movies. But it is really not that sad in this because she sort of got what she wanted. Definitely worth watching for drama lovers!

Pirates of the Caribbean

Just got back from watching Pirates of the Caribbean. It is a 2 hr 45 mins long movie! However, the middle part is slightly unnecessary. It has great graphics and action scenes but the storyline in the middle is kinda boring - almost 'tuk ku' in the cinema. Love the beginning - using the kid to start the song was definitely a great idea! And guess what! Chow Yun Fatt is actually a keh leh feh! There are also a few Cantonese phrases but Ping didn't catch it all. LP caught all of it and Ping had to ask her what it means. Best of all, Ping get to kap Orlando Bloom! Sooo yau yeng! Haha!

Back to Ping's trip to Canada, here's a pic of the car we rented for the drive. A Nissan Altima. It is a huge car! Feels so tiny sitting in it but it was worth it because it was a comfortable ride.
Isn't that big? It also don't need a key to start the car. There's a button that you have to press. Thankfully, we have Steph to drive us there. Otherwise, there's no way Ping or Kristi would have made it there with this car, or even know how to start it. It is also pretty 'seh eu' because we made it to Toronto and back with just one tank and 3 gallons.

Off to bed.. 晚安!

Full House

Remember this K-drama series that was on Malaysian tv sometimes last year? Ping got to watch it during her break back to Penang 'coz Aun Aun bought the VCD set. Definitely an addictive one. Dad nagged mum and Ping for watching few episodes continuously. It was one of those drama where you would always make the comment 'aiyoh, an neh dong eh lang pun u' or 'geramnya!' but yet it has attracted viewers who don't understand Korean. The VCS series that Aun bought was dubbed in Mandarin so Ping understood it.

Two days ago, Nokkie came home with a stack of cds. This afternoon, Ping came home from lab and she was watching them...it was in Thai but the moment Ping saw the casts - it was definitely Full House. Then if you go on youtube.com, you'll find those with English subtitles and from the comments section, you'll know that some of them are Americans! What is so special about this series that attracts people from all over the world who don't understand the original language? Isn't this amazing? Furthermore, there are only four people in this entire series! Even the scenes are all in that one crazy expensive but lovely house.

This was also the series that got everyone in M'sia so gila over Rain (Bi). Seriously, people would even describe him as 'hen shuai' but he is nothing compared to Jay..and of course that is Ping's bias opinion (Ping actually managed to get three of his albums from Fan!). Anyway, mum told Ping that he'll be performing a concert at Bukit Jalil end of this month and the tickets range between RM82 to RM752!!!! Would anyone pay that much just to watch someone sing songs that they don't understand? He only has one English song. Every other is in Korean. If it ends up to be a full concert, all Ping can say is 'u lui bo lor kai'.

Wouldn't it be such a disappointment for his fans if Jay really did take up a larger part of Full House 2? But then this is not really a trusted source...another kay poh chi story. Oh!, by the way, Ping can't wait until Jay's Slam Dunk is out on vcd...that's already on the Ping's list of stuff to get from M'sia during Ping's next trip back..kekeke.

The Red Kebaya

Went to watch Red Kebaya with parents yesterday at Gurney Plaza.

Definitely not a movie that Ping would pay to watch in the cinema. However, Ping wanted to watch something M'sian or Chinese, which is why we ended going for that movie. Another reason was because the movie has scenes in Penang but disappointingly, there were not many scenes. Most of the show were situated in a house that we don't know if it exist and Cheong Fatt Tze mansion, which Ping has been in before.

Anyone gone up to the 1st station of Penang Hill? Ping wonders if the house in the movie is real. Is there really a house there? Passing the 1st station countless times, it didn't seem like a place that is easily accessible. Now Ping is curious and wants to go there but parents are not keen into exploring places like that. Chai chai lah, Penang u chin chia che ko su...especially areas like that.

Akeelah and the Bee

Wheeeee...Ping's car just reached the mileage of 99999. Went out to rent a dvd and get a snack. Realized that the mileage was at 99997 so by the time Ping got back on campus, it just hit 99999. And Ping got her camera with her!!!
Drove to Hollywood Video to rent Akeelah and the Bee. It is a really good movie. Definitely highly recommended as a motivational movie. If only Ping had such a good coach when she was taking her GRE. Ping could hardly remember any of the word Ping studied for GRE right after the exam ended. Just like Akeelah's coach said, it would be easier to understand if learn how the word is used. But Ping only had a little more than a month to elucubrate and that wasn't full time GRE either since Ping was still trying to finish up her senior thesis. Anyway, Ping still got thru to grad school...so maybe the words wasn't all that important. Kekeke...