Masak Masak IV

Kinda sick of the usual Japanese taste, so I have been cooking almost everyday.. Not the kind of banquet style cooking, but more of a simple easy to make type of stuff..

Although I have mentioned, more than once, that the raw food prices in Tokyo aren't cheap, I still wanna cook my own food, whenever I can and whenever I have a craving..


Few weeks ago saw that there were sweet potatoes on sale at the market and I bought some.. Not cheap though.. the price as seen in the photo, 298 yen (about SGD$4 or MYR$9).. these were the cheapest, with the most expensive ones at around 498 yen (about SGD$6.5 or MYR$15).. who would have thought that sweet potatoes could cost so much.. in the older days, as the poor had no money to buy rice, they ate sweet potatoes instead which were dirt cheap then, but looking at the price right now, I don't think the poor could afford to eat much of these nowadays..


Using my trusty rice-cooker again, I just cut them into halves and added some water... And Voila! Nicely steamed sweet potatoes!! :) They were rather sweet, so nothing else was required..

I could still remember my younger days where my dad would plant sweet potato in our backyard.. I love to eat the leaves of sweet potatoes (番薯叶), especially when fried with chilli.. Mmmm.. yummy!! :)

According to Wikipedia, "Considering fiber content, complex carbohydrates, protein, vitamins A and C, iron, and calcium, the sweet potato ranked highest in nutritional value. According to these criteria, sweet potatoes earned 184 points, 100 points over the next on the list, the common potato.(NCSPC)". Wow! No wonder people are advocating a balanced diet that includes sweet potatoes .. Some are even using sweet potatoes to lose weights! Mmm.. maybe I should give it a try... :p

Chua-san's BD Makan..

With only a handful friends in Japan, I wouldn't miss the birthday celebration dinner of one of my fellow Malaysian-cum-classmate, Chua, about 10 days ago..

Received an email on my phone on that day from another fellow Malaysian, Aishah, asking if I would be available to join in the birthday dinner for Chua. Frankly, I had plans for that evening - to do my Japanese grammar homework that was due the next day and do some reading up... but I decided to join in, nonetheless.. homework can wait, birthdays only come once a year.. :)

As my classes for that day ended around 2.30pm and the time they arranged to meet up was around 7pm, I had plenty of time to kill.. I went to my lab and I did..... my homework! :p Although I must say I was very tempted to go home as it was raining heavily and the soft warm bed in my room was beckoning me.. but I resisted, just barely..

Met up with Aishah in the University and then we went to Shinjuku to meet up with the rest.. There were 7 of us - 4 girls and 3 guys.. 5 of us were here since Apr 2007, while 1 came over last Sep, and 1 new girl who just arrived in Tokyo less than 2 weeks earlier.. but one thing in common: all are Malaysians on scholarship! ;)

Then the "fun" began. With no map and no concrete direction, we went looking for the hot-pot restaurant that the birthday boy had chosen.. We walked around the east side of Shinjuku for almost 20 minutes but we can't find the restaurant.. Everyone was cold and hungry... In the end, Chua went into one of the police posts and asked for directions.. With our half-past six Japanese, we managed to find the restaurant after listening to the directions given.. Yippee!!

As one of us do not eat pork, we spent some time discussing and deciding what to order.. While waiting for the food to arrive, we did some catching up and some "getting to know you" stuff..


From the left: Chua (the birthday "boy"), Chun Kit, Jessie, Aishah, Lee Feung, me and Jeffrey (who was holding the camera and taking the picture, which explained his extra "lighting").


Then it was food!! Food! Glorious Food!! :p We ordered lots of beef, chicken and vegetables.. With the rainy weather and all, it was good to have some hot and spicy soup... :) But comparatively, I still prefer the steamboat we have in Singapore or Malaysia.. there wasn't much variety in Japan, just slices of meat and vegetables.. unlike back home, we have fish/squid/prawn balls and various kinds of fish.. not to mention the fact that the price here is super duper expensive as compared to Malaysia.. The total bill came to around 15,000 yen, which is roughly SGD$200 or MYR$450!! Personally, I didn't feel full at all.. :p but it was okay since I didn't want to sleep with a full stomach anyway...

Last year, we celebrate Chua's BD in Shakey's Pizza, I think.. then, there were a couple more fellow Malaysians, all who came to Tokyo on the same flight!! but as school progressed and/or research work became heavier, we never quite meet up as often.. and I must admit, I was one of them.. I was either too busy with school work/work from my Prof., too busy getting sick or too lazy to get out from my cozy room.. :p :p

Anyway, hope that Chua will have all his wishes fulfilled this year, whatever that may be.. :)

Out of Service II

Haven't been updating my blog much the past 10 days or so, due to some reasons.. either I was busy with school or busy getting sick/recovering from it, especially the last 4 to 5 days...

My nose started acting up last Tuesday. I was sneezing away through-out my classes that day and my nose was leaking non-stop.. I used up almost 10 packets of tissue during that 2 lessons. Would have been more if I hadn't sorta "control" it by deep breathing and squeezing my nose tightly through-out the lesson.. :x Then it got worse in the evening.. my head started aching and my body became feverish..

On Wednesday, I was totally KO-ed.. headache, fever, sneezing non-stop, sore-throat and running nose.. My nose was like a burst pipe that "water" just kept rushing out.. I couldn't even hold my head upright for 5 minutes without having to get something to "catch" the "water"!! I stopped using tissues as it will be too expensive, judging from the rate I would be going through them.. Instead, I use face towels.. It is more economical and more environmentally friendly.. and not to mention, much easier on my nose.. My nose turned red and raw, and started flaking from all the blowing and contact with the towels.. Took some Panadol (a brand of Paracetamol) and slept and slept and slept..

On Thursday, felt slightly better as the headache was gone, but the rest of the symptoms still persisted.. Drank plenty of fluids, including fruit and vegetable juices that I had stocked up earlier.. Again, rested the whole day..

On Friday, the sneezing sorta subsided while my body still felt feverish, but not that often.. One sure sign that my body is winning the battle is that I felt hungry.. :P but still the burst pipe continued.. by this time, the skin on my nose has begun to start peeling.. every wiping of my nose became painful..

Yesterday, instead of leaking non-stop, the "pipe" got stuck!! But I felt much better overall.. I could even go grocery-shopping in the morning.. Well, I had to as I am running out of fresh food... I needed some fresh vegetables and some fresh ingredients to cook.. and I need to take out the rubbish from my room too.. I shall rest a bit more today but I would make myself read some chapters of the economics book.. ;)

Think by tomorrow I should be well enough to go to school for my lessons.. :)

Making My Life Difficult...

Yes, that is what I am putting myself through this semester, voluntary... :x :x

As a challenge, I have signed up for 3 economics/finance related classes and 3 IT-technology classes (in areas that I have never done before). On top of these, I have decided to commit myself to 3 Japanese classes this semester (1 Japanese writing and 2 grammar classes)... As the crowning blow, I chose to attend a weekly seminar conducted by one of the most feared and not for the faint-hearted, thus most avoided, Professor in my graduate school...

All in all, for my Masters classes I have a total of 6 books to digest by the end of this semester... so I will be doing lots and lots and lots of reading... :x

1. Economics by Walsh and Stiglitz
2. Principles of Corporate Finance by Brealey and Myers
3. Modern Banking by Heffernan
4. The Economic Structure of Intellectual Property Law by Landes and Posner
5. Hyperreality - Paradigm for the 3rd Millennium by Tiffin and Terashima
6. Artificial Intelligence: Concept and Theory by Terashima

Seriously, I do not know if I am doing myself a favor or disfavor by putting myself through this, quite unnecessarily many said . Not even in my undergrad years did I have so many books to read... But I think since I am here to get more knowledge to help me move up in my career, I think all these will not be done for nothing.. I always believe that people can take away everything from me, but they can never touch the knowledge that is kept between my ears... :) :)

So what more can I say except 頑張りましょう!!! Gambarimashou!!

I hate Noise!!

Noise and me isn't best of friends.. I am very sensitive to noise or sound.. I get irritated easily by noise.. and two days in a row, those irritating PNs on my floor are having a karaoke session at full blast in the common lounge just diagonally opposite my room!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :@ :@ :@

The last time that I almost wanna kill someone was in AMK, Singapore, where I lived before coming to Japan.. The lady next door would scream at the top of her voice at her niece the whole day!! And she talks just as loudly!!! :@ :@ :@ I was going to move house if I didn't come to Japan.. I need my peace and quiet!!!! I am going crazy with the noise pollution here!!! It was blissful the last 2 semesters before those bloody PNs came into the dormitory..

Already I didn't have a good impression of PNs before coming to Japan, and those PNs here in the dorm are not scoring any brownie points with me.. in fact, unfortunately for them, they made me "HATE" them instead of just "disliking" them...