Cherry shake and Russian crepe

Spring is great, when girls pull out their skimpy skirts and walk their dogs, dallying with the boys , when mothers stroll with their kids, wiping off their drooling saliva and mightly dads would cuddle them over the shoulder with such love. 

After consecutive papers, i needed a b.r.e.a.k... 

Here are some of the spots i shot by using my faithful N78.

At times i think Russian is vintage

what i always do..

the green is always nice to shoot, giving spectrum of blue and yellow..

my lunch

some of the architectures in Volgograd

The Day When I'm Not a Student Anymore

Want to make this blog short and memorable cz this is the day when i finish my 6 years worth of medical study here in Volgograd State Medical University. 

Ben :' Такая жизнь вольше не бывает' ( this life doesn't happen..literally translated)

That was quite touching and big...*suddenly become emo..*

So, to give ourselves a little treat, we had lunch at Nero..

Ben a.k.a peanut with panini..was over the phone talking about serious matter...like a doctor d..wtf

captured from the tram i took back "home"

I think this doesn't happen all the time after the rain..do you??

-The (official) end of a student life-

No Bunny laid eggs for my Easter

There are so many ways the Christians celebrate the Easter in different part of the world. There are differences in the way Western and the Eastern European Christians celebrate Easter.

The most obvious is they celebrate on different Sunday. There is something got to do with their calender..what Julian??Gregorian???...*tsk tsk*..the Julian was invented in the 1st century during Julian Ceaser's time...and it is an old calendar which the Eastern Church is using now..(meaning-->Russia) ,and it's 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar(which the Western Church is employing). FYI, i googled all this...=)



Easter egg decoration is red, not the colorful ones they paint in the Western...Gee...I'm like making a big comparision here between East and West..wtf..
The red dye is chosen because it symbolizes the blood of Christ. Furthermore, people crack the eggs open using nails, in order to remind themselves again of the death of Christ.




The Western hold Easter sunrise service, weareas The Eastern one last all through the Saturday night.

Russian people traditionally bake Easter cakes, known as "kulich," and make curd paskha.

I bought myself 2 kulich..with Milo Ais would be the best combo..

PS..Every places which celebrates Easter as their public holz has 2 weeks break..except for Russia...
my milo supply has finished...

冬至，Winter Solstice Festival

冬至，Dong Zhi literally translated as the "arrival of the Winter". It's a festival when family members gather and celebrate the good year they had gone through. Usually it falls on the 21st - 23rd December. This is the beginning of the winter, the day when the people who stays at the northern hemisphere will experience the longest night fal of the yearl. Whereas the southern hemisphere will meet it within June 20-23rd. The origin of this festival comes from various cultures and places. For us chinese, it has a phylosophycal trace on the yin and yang, which Yin symbolizes feminine, negative and dark qualities of the universe, and yang masculine, positive and fiery qualities, and when something goes to one extreme it then goes to the opposite. Winter solstice in the northern hemisphere is the shortest day and longest night. After it, days become longer, which ancient Chinese thought meant yang qualities would become stronger, so should be celebrated.

The festival can be traced back during the Han dynasty, it was a day to make offerings to heaven and people’s ancestors, something both emperors and common people did.

And, when i did some readings on this warm festival, i realised that medicine plays a great rolte on this special day.

In other parts of northern China, such as Henan, people eat dumplings in honor of a famous doctor named Zhang Zhongjing (150-219). Zhang is remembered not only as a brilliant physician but as being very kind to the poor.

According to local custom, one year the winter was so cold that many people in Zhang's hometown of Nanyang suffered from painful chilblains. Seeing that his small clinic was no longer able to accommodate an ever increasing number of patients, Zhang asked his brother to put up a tent in the village square. A large cauldron was placed inside the tent to prepare medicine, in which Zhang had dumplings stuffed with mutton boiled. Every patient got a bowl of the soup with two dumplings, and their chilblains disappeared in a day or two. Zhang's mixture soon became a popular recipe, and when he died, people began to eat dumplings on the day of the winter solstice in his memory.

But in parts of South China, the whole family will get together to have a meal made of red-bean and glutinous rice to drive away ghosts and other evil things. In other places, people also eat tangyuan, a kind of stuffed small dumpling ball made of glutinous rice flour. Since most of the Malaysian chinese has southern root, we eat tang yuan with sweet brothand thus the mutton stuff dumplings are stil not our commons. Eating Tang Yuan is symbolic of family unity and family prosperity. For good luck, families prefer to have some pink tang yuan to mix with the white ones.


Since we don't have the coloring here, we just made white ones..:) with the brownish罗汉果 sweet broth, a chinese gourd 。

Reincarnate from chocolaty heaven!

Craving cakes make me indulge into heaven..atonia for awhile and reincarnate.

Today i just had a ride to heaven..

I took the recipe from a friend of mine, thinking of making my own home-made choc-moist steam cake. Had the recipe but we had trouble in finding the ingredients from a single supermarket.Eventually we had to run into 2 different places to get the ingredients. Russians do have their own way of cultivating their boring lifestyle and we have to put them together by running here and there. Is finding enjoyment that hard here in Russia? Please prove me wrong if you could..well never mind,it is my final year here and I'd like to make my year as happening and meaningful as possible...(with my coolest and best friends a.k.a housmies)



Mum...you would be proud of me..love.

Pizza fiesta

Ham Delight de Kalinina

recipe:

1. Pizza dough
2. toppings: ham
tomatoes
olives
capsicum
onions cut in ring shape
origano
3. cheese of choice: Mozzarella and Gauda(recommended by a friendly Russian)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Seafood Extravagant

recipe:
Seafood extravagant:
1. pizza dough
2. toppings: tuna+ mayo+ corn +sugar +salt+ pepper
crab stick
Tomatoes
Capsicum
Olives
onions cut in ring shape
Origano
3. cheese: Mozzarella and Gauda

Check out the crispy crust!

satisfactory: 85% ( why it wasn't 100%, it's because we didn't make the 3rd chicken Hawaiian pizza due to переедание= surfeiting..ha ha)

NewYorKNeWyoRk

NewYork in Sabah! This bar and restaurant concept lets you feel like in New York without leaving in New York.

float bloat (RM7.90)

And funky menu created like a piece of post, updating you about every new recipe which they serve.

Beef burger with Hawaiian sautee(RM 18.90)

Iced cream=Ice cream

VedaBlu...the Fererro Rocher and the Belguim Chocolate blew my mind off..it was simply delicate and cheaper compared to Haagan Dazs.

Was thinking when does this parlour would come to Western M'sia??? Who would resist an extra delicacy to your life?

Small history of iced cream:

the word ice cream was originated from "iced cream",a frozen dessert made from dairy producs, combining with sweeteners and flavouring.

Ice cream was called The Great American Dessert, and it's origin can be traced back to a least 4th century B.C. The Roman emperor ordered ice to be brought down from mountains and topped with fruits to serve for he royalties. And, in China during the Shang dynasty, the method of creating ice and milk concoctions was invented. Ice cream was likely brought from China back to Europe. Over time, recipes for ices, sherbets, and milk ices evolved and served in the fashionable Italian and French royal courts.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My last winter visit to Italy, being welcomed by Italian Gelato, a more denser and flavourful ice cream.

My personel fav, Italian Gelato

Facts of Gelato:

Gelato, much is still hand-made by individual gelateria. Italian ice cream is made from whole milk, eggs, sugar, and natural flavorings. Gelato typically contains 7-8% fat, less than ice cream's minimum of 10%.

Order your heart's content

1. Bitter Gourd or a more delicate term Balsam Pear stuffed fish ball
2. 叉烧包 Char Siu Bao - Chinese Steamed Pork Buns ( + turnip)
3. 菜糕 steamed Dumpling with Vegetable Filling
4. 梅菜包 Mei Chai Bao - Chinese salted leaves Bun


Dim sum is one of my favorite dish back home. Literally it's translated from the Chinese word "点心"，or the traditional chinese "點心" , meaning "dotted hearts" in Mandarin, and "touched heart" or "order your heart's content (by Wikipedia)" in Cantonese . So, when you look at the dishes, it makes all sense, the delicate molding and shaping skill would easily win your heart out and keep you mouth watering. Dim sum was originated from GuangDong, China, where it was served in teahouses along the main roads where the merchants, travelers, farmers stopped by for naps or tea.
Now, the Dim sum is served by a trolley wheeled by waitresses and waiters around or you can order from the menu. Usually the serving is small, 4 or 2 pieces in a dish. And the pricing are based on the sizes, quantity, or the color of the plate serving the dish.


Eating at a Dim sum restaurant in Malaysia is not costly, yet it's a must-go. It's been a trend for families and friends to gather at a Dim Sum restaurant or teahouses as early as 5am, or after a morning exercise, often enjoying with newspaper reading. Some goers prefer to call it for a brunch, as most restaurants serve Dim sum till noon.

The above were the dishes which me and mum ordered, plus a pot of tea = RM 12.50 only

It was a loooooooooong hour wait for the first dish to come, then another one....then another.....
Russian management lack of efficacy. Here is a good example which i experienced lately.
17 of us ordered 34 bowl of rice, and guess what, they said they could only provide 10/34.(p.s. there isn't rice cooker in Russia, so the only method to cook rice is to steam). Guess what the manager recommend? Asking us Asians to eat dish without rice...so some of them protested..insisted that we need RICE.
More excuse...they said they would need 2 hours to steam the rice......

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

taadaa...the 1st dish arrived and upon snacthing and grapping owns portion, some one suggested to take it slow while waiting for the 2nd dish to come...
It reminds me of mickey and the beanstalk.


And here's the receipt which showed that a surcharge per entry! aiks!50 rubles is approximately rm8

Boat on steam=steamboat

Guys,sorry that i post this late which was supposedly to be posted 2 days back.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Day before 1st of May 2008
My Chinese friend YanYan insisted that we called for a makan. Well, why not?
The initial plan:
Me and Tong buy squid and mutton (Manda, YanYan's Indian bf,who's a Hindi, is not allowed to eat beef, which is my own fav..)
Danny,Shuyu buy fish fillet.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Went to Ramstor...alas!Out of mutton!!!
Called Danny n Shuyu(they were at Real,another 'major' hypermarket),asking them to get mutton there...also out of stock!!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Me n Tong bought squid and fish at the market nearby my place
Danny & Shuyu, empty handed with mutton(...sniff sniff......)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

May 1 2008
Tong woke up early in the morning to fry the fish fillet, wearers i was kacauing him but not helping...

12:30pm
4 of us left the hostel to YanYan's flat.

1pm
Reached her place.
Start the choppings and washing...

The scene looking from from YanYan's kitchen...this is how Volgograd residential area looks like..peaceful..


Before the makan, we took a nice and serious picture in front of the foooooooooood!

taadahhh....

There wasn't enough chairs for 6 of us and Manda would have to sit on a bed-side table. P/s, see his upset face compared to Shuyu's winning smile!



We ate and watched The Oscar's award non-stop for 2 hour....after 2 hours of stuffing food to ourselves...here's the result...

roti jala

Our malaysian community here is very keen on the Sunday bola match organized by the bola fans, and partially the fame is being played by the malaysian food being sold during the day. Orders are taken few days prior to the match. And, one of my favorite is roti jala.But unfortunately, the girls were having practical test last week and decided to study and close orders.
So, i got the recipe from Teta and borrowed her acuan (crepe maker) which looks like a bronze spaceship which is preparing to take off...
This is the recipe if anyone is interested to try out. It's very easy!
1. 2 cups of plain flour
2. 2 cups of milk
3. one spoonful of butter
4. 2 eggs
5. a pinch of salt
you can replace the (2) with 1.5 cup of water + 1/2 cup of santan(coconut milk).

utensil: Non-stick frying pan and acuan or Lacy crepe maker

1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and beat until well blended.
2. Strain batter through a fine sieve to remove lumps. Set aside for 15 minutes.
3. Lightly heat a non-stick frying pan.
   
4. Grease lightly with oil and run the batter in a lacy pattern into the pan from the lacy crepe maker. Fold crepe whilst still in pan.Do this fast as it gets burn easily!!
   
5. Repeat until all the batter is used up.
   
6. Serve hot or cold with Chicken Curry. yum yum!

well... ShuYu, Danny,Tong and I tried out our 1st roti jala...it didn't go smooth at first few attempts....

The lacy pattern of the batter ..er...deformed
(looks more like a berlubang-lubang pancake for me!)

failure...




well, the roti folded together...TOGETHER!

We thought that the consistency of the batter is too thick. So, ShuYu added a little bit of water to dilute it...wooolaaaah!
she's got the correct fomula!

The success grin from Danny!

Tong also got the chance to share the glory

Here you go....roti jala with chicken curry.