Learning Chinese Poetry in Songs

This is one of my favourite classic Chinese poems by Song dynasty's poet Su Shi titled Thinking of You (水調歌頭)..also sang by beloved Teresa Teng titled Wishing We Last Forever which was again made popular by lovely Faye Wong :) 

The wordings are old Chinese style which has very deep meaning compared to the more contemporary ones and i will always cherish to find out more of its meaning thus my love for old Chinese poetry. Learning Mandarin also is a favourite pastime and i'm hoping to slowly build my vocabulary and reading simple characters albeit the old traditional ones are still my first choice :)

Below are translations and explanations from wikipedia..

明月幾時有？ 把酒問青天。 不知天上宮闕5， 今夕是何年？	Bright moon, when did you appear? Lifting my wine, I question the dark night sky. Tonight in the palaces and halls of heaven what year is it, I wonder?
我欲乘風歸去， 唯恐瓊樓玉宇6， 高處不勝寒。 起舞弄清影7， 何似在人間8！	I would like to ride the wind, make my home there, Only I hide in a jade room of a beautiful mansion, As I could not bear the cold of high altitudes. So I rise and dance and play in your pure beams, this human world — how can it compare with yours?
轉朱閣9， 低綺戶10， 照無眠11。 不應有恨， 何事長向別時圓？	Circling red chambers, low in the curtained door, you shine on the sleepless. Surely you bear us no ill will — why then must you be so round at times when we humans are parted!
人有悲歡離合， 月有陰晴圓缺， 此事古難全。 但願人長久， 千里共嬋娟12。	People have their griefs and joys, their togetherness and separation, The moon has its dark and clear times, its waxings and wanings. Situations are never ideal since long ago. I only hope we two may have long long lives, So that we may share the moon's beauty even though we are a three hundred miles apart.

Shui diao ge tou (simplified Chinese: 水调歌头; traditional Chinese: 水調歌頭; pinyin: Shuǐ diào gē tóu) is the name of a traditional Chinese melody to which a poem in the cí style can be sung. Different poets have written different lyrics to the melody which are usually prefixed by the title "水調歌頭". The poem by Song dynasty poet Su Shi, also known as Su Dongpo, 水調歌頭·丙辰中秋 being the most famous. Cí(詞) is one of the literary genres that are unique to the Song dynasty, and can be sung to melody. Many ancient melodies are lost to history, but modern composers often compose new melodies for cí.

In 1983, Liang Hong Zhi (梁弘誌) set Su's poem to new music as the song "Wishing We Last Forever" (但願人長久). This new setting was recorded by Teresa Teng in her album Light Exquisite Feeling (淡淡幽情), which also contained songs based on other poems from the Tang and Song dynasties. Later artists such as Faye Wong, Jacky Cheung and China Flowers (芳華十八) covered this song in albums and concerts.

you can find more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuǐ_diào_gē_tóu

Homemade Pizza Recipe

     

I just love pizzas and pastas! When the cravings hit me, I usually would call Dominoes for delivery :) When not working or out for the weekends, then I most often than not would prepare pasta or pizza for a lazy meal in front of the telly. 

The pizza dough recipe below is pretty close to the authentic Italian style pizza which is thin crust. I've tried many pizza dough recipes over the years and this one is a recent discovery after several trials and adjustments. Always when working with dough (and yeasts) so many factors will affect the outcome - quantity/quality of ingredients,weather, oven used, baker's mood and even location! This recipe is so far the best and tastiest-it's light, crispy and yet not too hard and does not have the yeasty smell...and of course the reason I post it here is because it's so so eazy to make - if you can boil a pot of water then you should really try this! 

You can also freeze the dough after Step 3. When you want to bake your pizza, just thaw the dough in the bottom of the fridge, take it out and continue with Step 4. 

Super Eazy Pizza Dough

5 Cups fine flour ( I use MFM superfine flour)

1 Tablespoon active dry yeast

2 Tablespoons sugar

2 Teaspoons salt

500ml hot water (not boiling!)

1. Mix all dry ingredients with a wooden spoon or your fingers. Add hot water.

2. Mix and knead the flour mixture with the water until the dough are well mixed. (about 10 mins)

3. Let the dough rise for about 1 hour. Punch the dough down and knead for like 5 minutes.

4. Let the dough rise again for another 1 hour.

5. Drizzle the pizza pan or any shallow baking pan with a little olive oil.

6. After the dough has risen, punch it down again and cut into 6-8 equal portions. Shape into balls. 

7. Flatten the dough on the oiled pan using your fingertips making sure no broken spots or holes.

8. Spread pizza sauce over the dough. ( I use Prego thick spaghetti sauce from the can) 

9. Voila! You can add any toppings as you like :) 

10. Bake in preheated oven 240°C for 12-18 minutes depending on your toppings.

Beautiful doughs even after frozen and thawed                                           

Right before going into the oven - salami with vegs

  Seafood Alfredo with almonds and mozzarella

Favorite toppings:

Cheeses - mozzarella, parmesan, cheddar, pepper jack, goat cheese

Meats - Grilled chicken pieces, pepperoni, salami, sausages

Veggies and Fruits - green peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, artichokes, olives, pineapple 

You can also knead in dried herbs(onions/oregano/etc) and cheeses(parmesan) to the dough just before you flatten it on the pan :) 

Also don't forget about grilled veggies(peppers/onions/eggplants) or even sundried tomatoes are excellent for toppings!

Bon Appétit!

Eazy Meals - Thai Red Chicken Curry with Bamboo Shoot and Beef Salad with Roasted Brinjals

Red Chicken Curry with Bamboo Shoots - Gaeng Ped Gai Naw Mai

2 Chicken Breasts Sliced

2 Cups Bamboo Shoots Sliced

1 small packet low fat coconut milk

2 Tablespoon red curry paste

2 Tablespoon Fish Sauce- nampla

few lime leaves or lime zest

pinch of sea salt

sugar to taste

crushed chili flakes/powder for garnish

1. Heat some coconut milk to boiling and keep stirring. Add the red curry paste. Stir until well mixed.

2. Put in the chicken. Stir until the chicken turns white-half cooked.

3. Pour the rest of the coconut milk and bamboo shoots.

4. When chicken and bamboo shoots are cooked, add in the rest of the seasoning.

5. Serve hot with some sprinking of red chili flakes or powder.

Beef Salad with Roasted Brinjals - Pla Nuea Makreua Orn

1 Cup sliced beef

4 smalled sized Brinjals -sliced lengthwise and quartered

2 shallots sliced

2 Green Bird eye Chilies - cili padi sliced

2 Tablespoons Lime juice

1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce - Nampla

Sugar to taste

1. Line a baking pan with aluminum foil and spread the brinjal. Drizzle with olive oil and sea salt. Broil in the oven.

2. Stir fry the beef in a little oil until cooked but not too dry.

3. Mix cooled brinjal and beef with the rest of the seasoning.

4. Can be served at room temperature or hot (just heat it in a pan). Eat as a meal with rice and other dishes or wrapped in lettuce leaves as appetizer.

Eazy Meals - Healthy Lamb Chop

1. Marinate any cuts of lamb slices-rib, loin or t-bone in your favourite marinade or just get the one already marinated from good supermarkets.

2. Broil in the oven (using the top heating element only) and the meat should not be less than 4 inches from the heat source. Remember to line the bottom rack with aluminum foil to catch any drips from the cooking lamb. Turn over when the top is done to your liking with a pair of tongs.

3. While the lamb is broiling, line a square baking pan or the metal oven tray with aluminum foil.

4. Spread washed and dried vegetables on the pan or tray. Asparagus, capsicums, broccoli, onions and garlic are some of my favourites. Be adventurous with other vegs too!

5. Drizzle the vegs with extra virgin olive oil and some sea salt.

6. Chuck them below the broiling lamb chops.

7. After the lamb chops are done, put the vegs near the broiler and wait a minute or two when its done and serve with mint sauce! Yumm

This is hubby's favourite western food. He says he could eat these everyday :)

Watching local TV concerts-Mentor

Last Sunday Jeremy and I went to Shah Alam to watch the Mentor final concert. We got free tickets courtesy of Ujang, our dear friend who is a talented guitarist..we always look forward to catch him on tv for live shows in TV3, RTm and the other channels and watching him on the telly makes hubby and me appreciate more of these local shows...I happened to catch this show called Mentor where a few well known artists auditioned and selected their proteges from thousands of hopefuls, and the journey began from there for a few talented and lucky people..Thanks to Fara and Ujang we got the good seats and best of all we were in the middle of Black's group of fans..i've been rooting for him since I first saw him on the show and I am glad he won in the end..he was the hardest working protege from day 1 and shown the most improvement too...now i just hope his shining star won't end at the final concert but he'll continue to rock the local music scene..

If you've never been to these local shows before, do give them a support..most of the concerts are free and listening to live music is just awesome plus we get to mingle with other Msians...one Malaysia?? its eazier than u think if u only start with yourself :)

Visiting Friends...Day Trip to Muar, Johor

As we did not arranged for a long vacation this CNY, we managed to do a couple of day trips..one was to Muar with a friend, to visit another ex-colleague who had been inviting us to visit her hometown there.

The three of us worked together before with a property developer but in different departments and we left the company one by one for almost two years now...but it's so great that each of us still do try to keep in touch with one another...the eaziest way of course is using the phone and we do sms occasionally too..but having a long week ahead and squeezing one day to travel to a distant town knowing someone is there waiting for you and would be bringing you around was so terribly eazy I thought... esp more so when my sweet Muar friend's hubby is a professional tourist guide! just need to get the direction over the phone, filled up the gas tank and off we went!

Muar town is about 2 hours away from KL city. We left the city sometime before noon meaning to reach Muar for lunch. We reached Muar in good time and proceeded to meet my friend at her family house which is located in the heart of the quaint town. It is a 3 storey tall shophouse and her family has been living there for generations. Now the ground floor is rented to a local cafe chain but the family still gathered at the top floor of the house during the holidays. Even one of the floor is already so huge! I can only imagine the house in its most glorious form...when the ground floor was a shop where rubber was traded and the family lived in the upper floors.

The building with my friend's family name...amazing history behind it..the exterior now are painted yellow as there's some kind of law where different streets have their own colour coding...interesting concept!

The ground floor is a now a modern kopitiam or cafe

After some historical lessons on Muar and the Chiew family, we headed out somewhere 30mins away to the beach for lunch. It's a fisherman village and we could see the jetty where they docked their wooden boats

Lunch was a simple affair as everyone needed a break from all those days of pigging at home and relatives houses! A must have is the Muar Otak-otak or grilled fish paste..here it came in a big slab, fried and cut in pieces..but it's still as fresh, with lots of chunky fish meats and off course fragrantly yummy as what they're most famed for!

After the light lunch, we walked around the jetty a bit and then drove around for some sightseeing around the beach and the park next to it. It was a sweltering hot day! We saw a huge government officer's house..can't remember what his position was but it's a govt house located just next to the beach. What a great place to call home! The barricade at the foreground is just feets away from the sea..it's to prevent motorists from entering the beach...

Somehow, part of the beaches and the govt house reminded me of Tanjung Aru Beach, where I grew up in Sabah... and especially when I saw the park adjacent to it..it doesn't look too similar but Tanjung Aru Beach has a park next to it too..Back then when I was still in trainer bras I used to walk to the park and beach nearly every evening for a jog and sometimes for rollerskating as it used to have an open air skating ring too.



Can you count how many monkeys there are in the picture below? It's pretty difficult for animals to live at the beaches..unless you're a crab or cockroach I guess...I don't think there's many fruit trees or any good sources of food for that matter but thankfully this beach always have some kind people visiting to unwind alone or with their families. I saw a few of them stopped to feed the monkeys some peanuts and breads. As it was still CNY holiday week, saw a lot of kuaci (roasted sunflower seeds) skins on the ground too..



After enjoying watching the antics of the adult monkeys and trying to count all the baby monkeys that we could see from the safety of our car, we adjourned to the next beach where we could see the other side of Johor...

This is the ferry cruise that brings tourists along the straits...


Later we went back to Muar town to buy some goodies to bring home..bought a lot of local biscuits, candies, crackers and even its famous local coffee mix...we had a jolly good rest at the spacious top floor of the house, someone even managed to catch a wink or two! and then we had dinner at a popular food court to have more yummy local dishes before we headed back to KL.

It was a very relaxing and carefree trip, no rushing around..it was like we were just regular Muar townfolks coming home to visit our hometown kind of feel...nothing touristy done..well except that shopping for local goodies but when we were there, there were more local people compared to tourists! My friend even got to met her old hometown friends buying stuff at the same store! They now live in KL so they were stocking up on their favourite snacks!

It was a very productive trip-we get to keep up with each other's news and at the same time created new memories to talk about at our next meet up!

The girls...looking so fresh and happy...and we all agreed this is due to having left a particular terrible place with lots of horrible people you won't believe exist in this world hahaha...

The hubbies-guess which one is Muar's very own homebred warmest and best tourist guide you could find in Johor and some say even in KL?

Proudly showing off the heirloom hand carved calligraphy of the family business name..it used to be hung on top of the front door of the olden day shop..really heavy and solid wood..they don't come like that in this time and age anymore..it's also been restored using 24k gold leaf!

The two vertical boards are beautiful poetry that incorporated the characters in the family name and has a flowery way to describe the business and give good wishes..this is believed to bring good feng shui for the family and business. If you see the first character on the horizontal board is used on the first vertical board on the left and the second character is the first character on the right board! How I wished I could read the Chinese characters and understand the subtle yet powerful meaning!

Thank you Alan and Jennifer for a most delightful way to spend our day in a new town. It's so eazy when you have caring and loving friends around you! May the Most Gracious God bless the Chiew and Kok families for many many more years to come!

CNY Annual Gathering with the In Laws

Gosh, it's already been over 2 months! but I felt like it's only 2 weeks ago! So let me pick up from where I stopped...

On the first day of CNY, it's tradition in DH's mother's side of the family to meet at her mother's house. They usually started coming in after their breakfast and just hung around the house catching up with everyone and playing some 'family' games such as mahjong til late nite. Usually DH and I would come over somewer around 2 to 4 when most of the family members were already there and in good time to start the bbq fire. My day would actually started much earlier at home where I would make lots of lychee konnyaku jellies and two pairs of gold fish jellies to bring over. Just realised I never took pictures of these! It's always a hectic mad dashing day I would say, that's why but I do hope next year I'll remember to take some shots!

So here's a quick glimpse of what we would normally do every year at PoPo's house...



Play mah jong and other 'family' games...






Toss the loh sang...

Eat a lot..we usually have a bbq with prawns, chicken wings and lamb chops...this year we also had grilled hotdogs and mushrooms..

Loads of drinking...some had started in the morning..

Last but not least, collecting ang pows and taking family pictures!

This year's gathering we had a new addition to the family...he had already started contributing to the craziness...well actually he was a really nice baby n didn't cry that much n sleep a lot too...looking forward to see more of him awake next year :)

that's me with the loh sang.. this year we actually used the whole round table to be a giant 'plate' for the loh sang! covered the whole table top with layers of aluminium foil and arranged 4 sets of store bought loh sang on it...had a feeling this will be a new tradition for years to come!



The next day is reserved for visiting the other side of my in laws..usually around lunch time after a short prayer at a Chinese temple nearby. Ah Ma , DH's paternal grandmother, usually will have a fiesta of a lunch prepared for us...and always the same menu too hehehe..lots of roasted pork, duck, fish ball soup, stir fried veggies, steam chicken, more pork and duck dishes and always a can of 100plus! Did not take much pics coz something wrong with my SLR camera which need to be sent for service soon...I think something to do with the zoom lens...altho I still have the 50mm lens but it had already spoiled my mood to take any more pictures after that...just managed to take some portraits of the elders in the families for keepsakes.