A Belated and An Advance Birthday Party

Alex birthday was yesterday, 27th November whereas tomorrow, 29th November would be Ken's birthday. Since there's only one day gap between these two birthday, me, Ah Wei, Jun and Guat Shan decided to organized a small party on the 28th November to celebrate both Alex's and Ken's birthday.

Credits to YK lady boss who took this lovely pic.

The party was intended to be small but somehow, it turned out bigger than expected. There were about 25 of us attended the party. Initially, it was only Ken's group and Alex's group. Then somehow Khai Chiah, Wei Chyi and the others came as well. I did not say it was a bad thing. In fact, the more the merrier, right? It was amazing how the Sarawakians, 7 of them (and they're tall) managed to fit into a little Kancil. It was really a waste I did not capture that moment like how Henry (about 6ft tall) and Alex (about 190cm) fit in the front passenger seat and how Henry rolled out from the car when he opened the door.

3 groups of cho tai tee kakis.

Just like all other birthday celebrations there were food, drink, games, chats and of course, cakes. The few differences between our party and normal parties are in normal parties, usually the birthday boy treats the rest or the birthday boy get treated but for this case, we paid for our own food. The second difference is in normal parties, we play games like maybe musical chairs, dance-and-stop and public canning but for us, the word 'game' only bore one thing to our mind. CHO TAI TEE!!

Birthday boys in baby blue (Alex) and dark green (Ken).

Why is Khai Chiah feeding Alex?

After eating and playing, comes the cake singing. Since the party was for 2 person, there were 2 cakes- a Black Forest and a White Lady. We sang several times for no particular reason and then we performed the usual tradition of biting the candle from the cake, which was pretty interesting. We ate and the excess bits of cakes were collected and smashed onto Ken's face. Alex was smart enough to run around and hid himself for a whole 30 mins! He actually went to a mamak shop, had a drink, went 7-11 for I-don't-know-why then only return also to have his face smashed with creams.

Some played cards while waiting and others waited patiently for the 'celebrity' to appear.

When Alex ran away, we patiently waited for him at first then we decided that while waiting, why not spend the time wisely and play some cards? That's Kampar entertainment for you ^_^ The party end not long after that. We paid and well, another round of cho tai tee, then we went home. As brief as I may describe the party, every minute spent on that moment was filled with details.

Loving Birthday Boys.

Happy 18th Birthday you two giants!!

Pot Luck!

We've actually planned this pot luck event a day after Halloween and here it is, a month after it was initially planned.

We, as in me, Ah Wei, and Sito started cooking at 5.50 p.m. Guat Shan started earlier since she needed longer time to boil her soup. Everything went smoothly over our side except that Kenny did not cook anything which was kind of like annoyance to me because it was agreed that everyone that wanted to attend should make something and he agreed to cook as well until the very last micro second he announced that he won't be cooking. Even Jun, who attended at the last minute at least made some drinks.

Toto-chan 'drooling' over my dish XD

Anyway, we went over to the Sarawakian's place at 7.50 p.m. When we reached there, they were still cooking. At first sight, I saw Alex and Robert cooking whereas Bernard and Michelle were in the kitchen as well helping out. After Alex done with his dish, Michelle proceeded to cook her spaghetti. There weren't enough utensils so we went over to the restaurant we visited on Halloween to borrow some utensils (and since the neighbourhood is still empty).

The Sarawakian Chefs.. except for the young lady.

Finally, at about 8 plus, we had our 10 course dinner! The food was first of all, too much and second of all, too delicious! I was really really impressed at Robert's cooking. Alex and Bernard wasn't that bad either.

Our ten course 5 star dinner.

This is the list of our 10-course dinner and its respective chefs:

Eliza - Kong Pow Chicken
Ah Wei - Sweet&Sour Meatball
Guat Shan - Golgi Body Soup
Sito - Mixed Veg
Robert - Mixed Egg, Black Pepper Fish, 'Shark Fin' Soup
Alex - Plain and Simple Chinese Cabbage
Bernard - Kong Pow Chicken Sarawak Style
Michelle - Spaghetti
Jun - Ribena Drink

After the food, we watch a movie brought by Jun entitled 'The Boss's Daughter'. It was funny but I didn't really get the message behind the movie. The cards, like always, soon follow. We played quite a number of rounds of 'cho tai tee' and finally call it a day at 12.30 a.m.

Cho Tai Tee players and their own advisers.

In short, I had a good time and I'm sure everyone else did. The food was delicious and the cards were entertaining. If there was a contest to determine the best cook, it would definately go to Robert. I quote Leon, "Robert should really try to open a restaurant. If he don't, he's damn stupid." It's a good thing that our friendship with the Sarawakians improved so much since the Halloween gathering and well, I hope there'll be more events like this in the future! ^_^

Public Speaking Presentation

One of the subjects in my course this sem is Public Speaking and our first presentation was held today. It was a free 10 minutes talk in which anyone can talk about anything. It's pretty interesting in a way everyone can spread about what they know, what they like and what they want the others to know. As for my topic, well, if you know me well enough, you'll certainly know what my topic will be. Simple, JAPAN!

Ingredients needed to make sushi rice.

The day before the presentation, which was yesterday, my housemates and I made some home-made sushi to be distributed to the audiences since my topic did touch a little on Japanese food and some were gave out to my fellow close friends.

Sushi in the box!
Joe: You make wan ah? Nice.
Kenji: This is nice weh!
Khai Chiah: The rice isn't cook. (^^;)

We made makizushi with 2 different fillings which are crabstick and tamago (egg). We packed it and distributed during lecture. To my surprise, some of them ate on spot and even complemented the sushis. I was so pleased!!

There were 5 presenters before me and I made 2 appearances in 2 of the presenter's slide. Yay! One was Ah Jin's presentation where he put a picture of me with this 'falling-in-love-look' and the second one was Guat Shan's to describe a Gemini.

"The sign of falling in love on Eliza's face." Ah Jin.

"Gemini flirt a lot and never get into serious relationship." Guat Shan.

I guess all in all, I liked best was wearing my yukata during my presentation. One of the must for the presentation was to wear formal attire. So, I wore my yukata. It is formal after all, right? Being the first and only one wearing something like this to uni was somehow embarrassing and proud. Embarrass because there were tonnes of eyes staring at me and proud because I got to spread the influence of Japan. And there were lots of photo taken too!

The tall Alex and the short me >_<

I was the sixth person to present today and being the second last, I was initially worried that the lecturer and audiences would be bored or tired from the previous presentation. However, I received good comments from the lecturer and well, I guess it's a good thing.

Looks Can Deceive

Food -any nourishing substance that is eaten, drunk, or otherwise taken into the body to sustain life, provide energy, promote growth, etc.

That's right. That's exactly what this entry is all about. Not the best food in the world nor the most expensive food in the world. It's about special home made dishes. More precisely, it's about special home made dishes you can't get anywhere else.

1. Chocolate Cake

Earth Quaked Cake.

This cake, though the facade can be a little 'destructed', never underestimate the taste of it. It was baked by our very own Pastry Master, Eunice! I don't know if it was on purpose or it was an accident but the half baked-half not baked formed a solid-liquid state of cake. Together with the enriched chocolate content, it feels as if the chocolate melts in your mouth when you eat it. Yumm~


2. Water Lily Root Soup

Overcooked?

No, you did not read or see wrongly. It is in deed a type of soup by our Tuesday Chef, Ms. Tan Guat Shan. This soup turned black due to the kind and caring deed of the chef. She put in too much 'dates' for extra nutrition until it turned black! Amazing how much she cares for her housemate's health. Despite the colour, the soup tasted wonderfully normal and sweeter than usual, which made it unusually delicious.


3. Lamp

No metal in my meal, please.

Lamp not lamb? I did not try the food maybe because my room is bright enough ^^

As weird as the food appear to be, the taste is undeniably good. Do not let the look deceive you.

Smile!

Food make our day!

Toto-chan!

Robert went to Cheras last week, during Deepavali to visit his sister. He came back on Monday, with a gift for me!

Toto-chan!

Cute isn't it? It's Totoro, an anime character from the anime produced by Studio Ghibli entitled Totoro.

Robert, the guy with black and yellow sleeveless.

It is understandable if I knew Robert maybe since I was 10 but no, I knew who Robert was at the end of my first sem, which was like a 2 months ago and we only started talking to each other during the Halloween night onwards. And here came with a gift for me! Amazing how friendly some people are, huh?


Whatever it is, thanks so so much, Robert! I'll take good care of Toto-chan ^_^

Multi-Expression Tong Yuen

A couple of days ago, my family came over to Kampar for a visit. The best thing was, we made tong yuen! Not just any ordinary tong yuen we eat every year but the tong yuens we made have expression!

The process of making these 'expressive' tong yuens started with molding the dough.

Ah Wei playing 'God'.

Then, the 'factory' comes in. Being organized students, we segregated our jobs.
Guat Shan & Guat Leng - Eye production factory
Sito - Mouth production factory
Eliza - Face production factory
Leon - Merging factory

The factory and it's workers.

After merging the tong yuens, we have our results!

Happy Tong Yuens :)

Confused Tong Yuens O_o?

Sad Tong Yuen :(

Speechless Tong Yuen :|

Oh? Tong Yuen :0

Runny nose Tong Yuen :-

My sis was responsible for the 'maturation' (boiling) of the tong yuens while my mom was more like the supervisor, supervising her workers.

Maturation of tong yuens.

Of course, all these expressive tong yuens were copyrighted with our very own trademark.

Our Products.

Trademark.

P/s : Multi-Expression tong yuens will not be available in your nearest 'tong sui' shop.

Halloween Night

Last night, my house mates and I attended a Halloween gathering organized by well, a group of Sarawakian friends. Well, since it was Halloween and we've just sat for our Mathematics paper that noon, why not attend and have some fun, right?

There were about 21 of us attended the mini gathering. Mini but fun! After our Maths paper, we went home and rest for a bit then Michelle came and guide us to the Sarawakian's house. All of us gathered there and walked to the venue, which happened to be a 'lonely' restaurant. It was the ONLY opened shop in that area.

The only restaurant.. no shop available in that area.

Initially, I felt somewhat awkward because though we're from the same lecture, but we weren't very close. But thank God there're still a few that I can talk to like my house mates, Ken, Joe etc. Upon arriving at the restaurant, the first thought that came to my mind was 'The food is definitely not enough.' But no, it was far more than enough. The aunty kept refilling the empty plates after that.

Yummm..

Since Robert (one of the Sarawakian) booked the place earlier, the aunty prepared everything before we arrived. Everything except the utensils. We have to arrange everything by ourselves. This the the first time ever I visit a restaurant where only food is prepared. You'll have to settle the others yourself.

Robert arranging the utensils.

When it came to the eating part, well, we ate. I would say Robert is a very good organizer. He kept walking around making sure we eat properly, our food is not uncooked or overcooked. We chatted, ate, chatted, drank, laught, ate. The interesting part was teaching Ken and Joe Japanese. It was hillarious! The words spoken, the slang implied, the expression portrait, they were all so hillarious!

My talented Japanese students.

The most important part is.... SNAPPING PHOTOS!

Halloween special- the blacks!

The TE1 representatives.

The majority, TD1.

The playful, TD2.

The only, TD3 (right).

We, who attended.

After eating, we walked back to the Sarawakian's place and resume our activities. Some played cards- 'cho tai tee'.

Kaki judi!!

Some played DOTA..

The calm (front) and not-so-calm (back) players.

The rest of us watched horror movie.

Horror movie on, lights off!

The entire gathering was fun! I managed to talk to people I never talked before and we even talked in Uni today. My impression on certain people who I used to have negative impression on changed. They're actually really nice people.

Trick or Treat?

Happy Halloween!