The Power of the Media

Prior to this, I had never cooked bamboo shoots because I never thought of it. I saw this can in the JUMBO supermarket by chance and decided to try it out.

I have never heard of Taksan Noodles. Yet its texture seemed a little like the Indo Mie instant noodles. So I got this. It contains no colouring at all. When I shop now, I avoid all E colouring if possible.

Our lunch for today was hubby's favourite. I am glad he liked my noodles. For an extra oomph factor, I had added in a spoonful of sambal while cooking. 

Today my Dutch class spent nearly three hours exclusively on the issue of media, hitting bulls’ eye on the television and its effects in distorting our impression on real life. In the end my teacher had dismissed the research article. He said that television enhances our daily life and we humans are not that stupid to be influenced by everything aired on the black box.

Yet to a certain extent I believe that the television is a mighty tool for brain-washing. To rephrase it nicely – to put us in awe – hit me straight in the tummy…

I had watched Jamie Oliver on telly just three days ago and now I was either brain-washed by him or he had put me in awe on living a healthier lifestyle. Note that I believe that I am already healthy but of course, there is always room for improvement and wacky jump-starts. His programme had people as voluntary guinea pigs. Each person’s food preference, intake and fitness were measured. One volunteer said that she always indulged in a small cupcake daily, believing it to be no big deal. After all, she was eating healthily.

Our good (or maybe not so good now) Jamie Oliver listened to her. Then he said that it was her choice naturally and there was nothing wrong in having a small cupcake (maybe it was not cupcake but a little snack) daily. Yet he had to go one step further. He had a computer programme which took a full body mug shot of her from the front and side, like a criminal. Then he calculated the amount of calories the cupcake contained and included it in her mug shot data. He multiplied the calories taken with 365 days – exactly one year from now on her mug shot.

Perhaps he did it for dramatic effect. The woman’s size ballooned quite drastically and she became obese. Jamie pointed out that an extra cupcake a day would have a long term effect on the body. So even if we believe we are not doing ourselves any harm short term, we might be well growing seeds of obesity in the future.

This woke me up…I have indulged sometimes in the occasional snack a few times a week. Perhaps it is now time for less is more.

I told this to dear hubby who said that Jamie Oliver did not take into account exercise as a source of losing weight. If that woman had exercised, she would not have been obese with just one cupcake a day. Hubby’s ever rational reasoning makes sense. Jamie Oliver was not 100 % correct!

Perhaps hubby had wanted to justify himself with his chocolate eating habits; I am not sure. Yet since Monday, I tried to avoid any food stuff in the market with E colouring or preservatives. Although I was craving for Indo Mie instant noodles with healthy salad, I forced myself to cook healthier noodles without any E colouring at the very least.

So this was what I had for lunch today. Noodles with bamboo shoots and salad vegetables. The tin of bamboo shoots only contained bamboo and salt as its ingredients. Hubby liked it a lot but I found the bamboo shoots to be a tad salty.

Good lunch; it filled the tummy and now I am hungry again! But no, I am not going to eat unhealthily. I am going to eat my two apples per day…by the way, apples really fill the stomach.

So moral of the story – the television is indeed a powerful tool for brain-washing in a nice way! Now, perhaps I should join his fan club…

1814, July 20^th, 2012

On an unusually late warm evening

Tea for two?

Today I bought some tea in De Tuinen store; literally translated as "The Garden". I hope the organic echinacea will stop me from sneezing in the mornings :) I have read that echinacea is good to prevent colds. This is also the first time I have chosen decaffeinated green tea.

For dinner, I had decided to make French onion soup with pasta. I added in my own onions and bacon in the soup.

Jamie Oliver Day

I had dried miso noodles with red bell peppers and pork slices for brunch. I used the miso soup package but the noodles were quite tasteless...wonder what went wrong.

While brunching on my miso noodles, I watched a Jamie Oliver show on BBC advocating for a healthy lifestyle. Yes, it is always the same issue over and over again...yet this time, I was motivated to buy my own fresh vegetables at JUMBO instead of pre-packed ones so common here.

A tip from Jamie Oliver was to cut all the vegetables and store them in containers. Use when and as needed when you are too tired to cook. So now I have one weeks worth of vegetables all in three containers. It better be worth my hour long effort of cutting vegetables and clearing up the subsequent mess! I had to clean up soil from the cabbage on the table and vacuum the carpet for cauliflower bits as I cut the cauliflower in the living room...probably not a good place to cut vegetables.

April - May 2012

April was a month full of activities for us. We celebrated Easter at my in law's place. It's a traditional Dutch meal of hard boiled eggs, bread and butter.

While the family cat, Tigetje looks at us from his cozy home...

April was also a time when tulips finally came in bloom...although in this photo, I think they are the bluebells in the foreground, and the pink ones are tulips.

The tulips in my garden balcony have blossomed!

April was a month of lots of bread. Made plenty of tosti.

May 3rd was my big 3 0 birthday. We went for a romantic trip to the Black Forest in Germany. The views were lovely. Here is the Triberg waterfall.

We had a meal at an Italian pizzaria, and this is what I had - pork fillet, fries and salad.

This is the view from our apartment-hotel. Initially we thought we were going to get a hotel room but they gave us a spacious apartment unit. It was a pleasant surprise.

The view of the valley from the mine mountain in the Black Forest. They mined silver here.

A dinner provided by our hotel. We could not choose our dinner as everything was already pre-planned. Glad to say though that everything was delicious.

Me at the ruins of the All Saints Monastery on the German High Road on the way back to Holland. We had made a detour going through the countryside instead of straight to the highway.

The imposing ruins.

We hiked to the monastery waterfall which was part-ravine, part cliff and lots of steep stairs.

We had this bacon bread on the way home - it was really hard but tasty.

This was our lunch together with the bacon bread. We had irregular meals while travelling and lunch was at 4 pm.

The view of a village from the mountain.

It was a wonderful 30th birthday celebration. We arrived home in Holland after 3 nights and 4 days. The Black Forest was a big difference from flat, tame Holland. Everything here was rugged and wild.

2 month old baby Weng

I anticipate motherhood. I fear the responsibilities and sacrifices which comes along too. Baby Weng's mom whom is my sis-in-law told me to go with the flow. LOLXX. Don't stress myself out.

-Hubby's adoring look-

For now, i am enjoying the aunt role very much. She's such a cutie. Thousand hugs and kisses to you baby Weng...

I pray she will grow up to be a strong and sincere person with a big heart.

Love, your aunt.

My all time favourite...

Yes, vermicelli is one of my all time favourite and hubby prepares them very well. The soup version.

The soup gets intensely aromatic from the minced pork, mushroom and eggs. ;-D

Best enjoyed on a Sunday night. Soothes the soul before another busy working week ahead.

I hope you are having a good Sunday morning there as i am typing away here.

Miss ya gal! XOXO from home.

Brunch @ Antipodean

A few Saturdays ago, hubby and i had brunch at Antipodean, Bangsar. Food and presentation was lovely as you can see from the pictures above but the place was too crowded for a slow and relaxed meal. It is unlikely hubby and I would return there anytime soon.  It would be ideal if the tables were arranged slightly away from the next table as we sat only inches apart from strangers and that is not the loveliest brunch idea we had in mind. ;-)) How is your ideal brunch like?