Life

Life.

Sometimes it passes so fast, sometimes so slow.

Almost 7 months since we're in Oz. Pitch has gone for a general checkup, trying to set up her blood test, urine test, and dental cleaning now. A lotta money ($$$) so waiting for a while first. And it's not exactly super urgent, seeing that she's not throwing up ever since I dropped her off dry food, and pacing her food intake over a couple hours daily.

Ginger is doing well with homemade diet for a month now, and I've sent his medical reports to Massey Uni for  a complete analysis to determine his balanced diet, which I know is not yet. Deliberating whether to buy a grinder ($$$) to grind turkey bones for his calcium needs. And he's also due for another checkup just to make sure the homemade diet is not giving him problems.

As the weather has dropped a lot over the past 2 weeks (highest in the day is 15°C), so furries are behaving a little differently. Pitch has up her food intake from 2 cans to 5 cans (!)/day, I try to keep within 4.. Ginger is however eating lesser than his usual 150g/day.

The electrician guy came over this morning to fix the house downlights that were not working. He changed a total of 5 transformers, and since he was taking a while, we chatted a bit. He was lamenting how expensive it is to stay in Oz, how the government cant/doesnt do much to help the locals, and how A$2k/week is just enough only.

In fact, I've been speaking to all the tradies who always come by the house to fix stuff, and they all lament. Some say Aussies just like to whinge, some say Aussies are lazy.

Truth be told, Aussies are just people. People are just like that everywhere in the world. Nothing's really that different, and nothing is really that easy. If life is hard in SG, it's also hard in Oz, and pretty much anywhere else.

Fen and I are blessed. We've heard stories from people, from friends. So much drama, so much unhappiness. Life is not easy for us either, but it's manageable. We're contented. We dont have a lot, but we have just enough. We would like more, but that's not up to us either. We're not starving, we're not freezing, we're not at a dead end.

Maybe we're truly living the quote - when life gives you lemons, make lemonade =)
O yes, Fen found a job. He loves his job, and I'm so thrilled for him~

We've moved to a new rental this month, and it's so much better than the last. Same 3 room-2 bathroom-1 garage house, but this place is a tad smaller, and not as long. I swear the last rental is like 30m long, and we only used 10m of the place. I wouldnt even use the backyard coz it was just too far away to get to. Now, the backyard is just out the kitchen/back door, where I do my outdoor workouts and line clothes for some sun. Fen can easily do his gardening too, everything is just together and convenient. The place is also a lot quieter, peaceful. First few months in Oz, the silence was deafening, anyone from SG would not be comfortable with it. Now, I wouldnt be able to stand the constant humming background noise we hear everyday in SG! Lol.

Anyway, with the new place, we got ourselves a rice cooker, this mighty food processor, and Nutribullet. The non-stick pot does a lousy job of cooking rice, so we had to get the cooker. We were tired of mincing up garlic and onions with knives, so the food processor finally came into the list. It's so mighty, I've made butternut squash puree soup, almond butter, and mayonnaise with it! Looovvve it so much, what took me so long to buy this!?

Initially we wanted to bring our Philips glass blender (S$120) from SG to Oz. I love blenders, use it to make soups and smoothies. We decided it was silly to bring a heavy electrical appliance when blenders are sold everywhere. We first got this KMart glass blender (A$30?) urgently because of Ginger's prescribed liquid food fed via o-tube. It isnt powerful, but it did make mushroom soups and smoothies for us. I'm now thinking of chucking it, so in come food processor and Nutribullet.

Nutribullet. What a highly raved popular product. First and probably only con. It is LOUD af. Okie, I'm not thrilled it's not glass either, but something's gotta give for the affordable price point. I am happy with how easy it is to clean up though, because I can get Fen's smoothie done in 10min tops, including cleaning, before he leaves for work. High speed blenders are quite scary though, I admit. Whenever I operate it, I just wanna keep a safe distance away..

We are always keeping our eyes on Philips Airfryer. It was our holy grail in SG, and how we missed it so. We have been using the oven toaster (A$39) from KMart (again. Just know KMart =  cheapo), and now contemplating if it needs chucking.. And that Dyson V10 (A$999) just popped into the market, so we've turned our eyes from V8 to V10.... Even though we own a SG Dyson big ball animal pro..

As you can see, I've just spent 3 paragraphs talking about nothing but household products. And I'm mostly blaming the fact that we have more room space now, to get sucked into all these consumerism blabla. Remembering SG.. everytime we wanna buy something, first question, "does the house have space???"

Just booked my first flight ticket since being in Oz. Will be a family overseas trip with Mum, Sis and her family. Fen wont be joining, and will be taking care of furries =)

This week is exciting, bought a few stuff over the net, waiting for their deliveries due this couple days! From Amazon (OMFG the shipping is rocket high), furries' toothbrushes, cost only $20, but shipping is $60 (muthafucker). Also bought back Cleansui tap filter, heard that Oz tap water is hard (yea, there's a thing called hard water, who knew), and yes we have a a filtered flask, but this is mostly for furries ^^" the things I do for my furballs..

Also bought this shampoo called New Wash. I actually forgot how I chanced upon this, but had been deliberating on it for months. Again, because Oz tap water is hard, it doesnt do well for hair. My hair has been a wreck, really, hard to tame and style. I've tried buying Lush products, but really only H'suan Wen Hua calms it enough. Also by the way, Lush products are cheap here! If you know better quality hair products, help a lady out here!

I really wanna cut a bob, but Fen is certain I'll whinge =/

Anyway, New Wash is from HairStory, very confident of their product's performance, currently only does online sales, so yep, finally did it and bought it. Only sold in US and a few other countries (not SG) though, for now =)

I am still crazy for Air Max, just cant see the need to buy it, so everytime I walk into stores to ogle at them, I still come out empty handed. Proud of myself, heh.

hiatus

Okay, I've been procrastinating.

Bike's tyre was punctured one day, and I had to push it home. Literally walked 100 minutes, but t'was a beautiful evening, so I'm thankful~ The bike store apologised for pumping lower psi, which caused the tube to pinch and puncture. Pfft.

CNY came and left. We did steamboat and 3 rounds of yusheng with friends, and in the last round of louhei, I must say that I've never tasted yusheng so fresh and yummy!!

Place to go if asian chinese craving is strong

Fen bought a pot of roses, knowing I dont like bouquets, that sweet. It flowered in time for V-Day, hehee. Our other gardening doesnt seem to be doing very well, some pesky insects have invaded and are destroying them. Welp.

Fen and I have been running around. Other than him being obsessed with bleaching/colouring our hair that can take up hours(!), we've visited a couple of weekend markets. He loves flea markets, 2nd hand buys, cheap deals, homemade stuff. We have started attending connect groups too, and as a first timer for me, I did find it kinda nice and cozy.

And well, we've been cooking. Our mushroom soup is spectacular, if I may boldly say so myself. Our clam chowder needs more work, currently quite unsure if the problem is with the clams or milk, hahaa.

Clam chowder tastes fine, but not clam-y enough!

Perhaps I should start a list of dishes we are cooking regularly, like we did before in SG.

• Steak with broccoli
• Mushroom soup
• BCM
• Shakshuka
• Lamb shanks
• Baked rice
• Oyster omelette (耗煎)
• Taiwan oyster mee sua (台湾蚵仔面线)
• Japchae
• Chicken soup
• Smoothies and juices

Received a package from Sharon last week. This sweet sweet angel. I do feel loved by people, even if it's just a few. Have always known that life isnt about popularity and a huge network of acquaintances, but the few precious gems of people you meet, that you hold dear and close.

Didnt lug my tumbler from SG, but it's okie! Hail Hello Kitty!

Fen also surprised me on my birthday. He took half day off, and cooked me Taiwanese oyster mee sua. It was so yummy. I also requested for the oyster omelette, and he nailed it the first try.

Yummier than it looks!!

Recipe from Meatmen

Fen. This man of many talents. So hidden and obscured, why I dont know. I pray for God to shine him to greatness, he's so capable of many things. All he needs is a chance to prove his worth..

In other news, Pitch also celebrated her birthday. She's 5 now! ilovehersomuch

This needy ball of fur =*

Cooking

I've been so obsessed with cooking the last couple of weeks.

I'm pretty good at stir frying bok choy, with just (pork oil), oyster sauce and sesame oil. Bcm is still a wip. Nowadays I make easy meals that can last around 3 days in the fridge.

1. Japchae, a Korean dish. Never knew what japchae is until I came here. A introduced me, and Fen and I love how it tastes!

Pick any 4 of your favourite dishes to mix with the noodles.

These noodles are so chewy despite their dull gray unappetising appearance!

Add desired amount to pot of boiling water and cook for 6-7minutes.

In a bowl, pour some light soy sauce and sesame oil.

Strain cooked noodles.

Add to bowl of sauce. Before mixing.

After mixing.

Add in your 4 dishes. Before mixing.

After mixing! Eat it!

2. Chicken soup with kway tiao. Has to be my proudest achievement yet. I make good soup. YAAAS.

3. Baked rice. Similar to fried rice, you use whatever leftover dishes to mix with rice and bam, dinner.

Used basmati rice, cooked smoked salmon, spinach, mozzarella.

4. Shakshuka, a Middle-Eastern dish. Fairly easy to make. Havent quite perfected the taste, need to try again.

Capsicum, onions, lotsa tomatoes, feta cheese, eggs.

5. Hotdogs and sandwiches. LOL. Mostly for Fen to bring to work. He likes it =)

I didnt add every single photos of the foods or cooking process, only the japchae was more intensive. Lemme know if you would want the whole process or recipe, I'd be happy to share if you'd like to read!
But really, what isnt googleable these days. You can easily search them recipes and make a fusion out of them to suit your taste =)

Fried pork lard

This is a distasteful entry. One that will push me back miles from my aspiring vegetarianism goals.

Fen and I were at A&S' for dinner last night. The menu was bak chor mee ("bcm"). No one was craving for the dish, it was just dinner.

Since we are new settlers, naturally we would compare the taste of A's bcm with what we're familiar back in SG. Fen and I thought "something" was missing. We couldnt figure out, and I just casually mentioned pork lard. Because all hawker stalls pride themselves with this little evil blob.

S got excited because he is a lard lover. He decided then that must be the missing ingredient. I then recounted childhood memories of how I saw Granny prepare fried pork lard once. Of coz, back then I didnt know what she was cooking, except that cubes of white solids turning brown and produced oil. Granny was so happy making it, excited and all. She loves pork lard, she loves cholesterol in general.

Since I was deemed the most free among us, with no job and idling at home, it became a challenge for me to attempt making fried pork lard to make bcm 2.0. Armed with fuzzy Granny memories, and 5 websites sharing fried pork lard recipes, I mustered the courage to drive out to the Asian supermarket, and shamelessly buy pork fat. With my research that indicated the output is far lesser than input, I decided to buy 1kg of pork fat. They came in slabs.

This is a third of what I bought.. For comparison, that's a 16cm chef knife.

The dicing part was hard work. Really laborious, partly because I had a blunt IKEA knife. Bah. WMF on its way in the shipment! Also because the slab was so slimy and oily! Argh.

1kg of diced pork fat. Pink marshmallows? =/

By this time I was quite grossed out with the smell. House smells like Tasman. By the way, I can no longer walk into Tasman, the butchery aura of despair and death has presented a no entry sign to me.

I was also having sore wrist from the slaying. It was a mountainous 1kg pile of 1-2cm diced fats. Took about 40minutes for a novice.

Time to juice the lard. And so began my steps that followed the websites' instructions.. Until I found the lies hidden in the recipes not discussed.

Dunk them in a deep pot

On medium heat. But the pot is sitting on the biggest burner of my cooktop. 

For the record, I did add pink salt. Like... half a tablespoon? More realistically, 6 twists of the salt grinder.

So I know how it should look like when fully done, hawker centers have taught me well (visually).

In just a few minutes..

It could be a bit amusing to watch something so dry turn into a pool of liquid. Mesmerising, if I may.

Wait, what's with the foam?

Turned the fire down to its lowest. Maybe foam will go away.

Shit. What is this. I so did not put soap detergent. Where r my cute little fatty cubes?

Fishing ensued.

 

O there you are. You sneaky little oink.

The foam was not going away and I cant see the cooking process. Perhaps my fire was too big, perhaps my pot was not right.

I decided to switch off the heat and fish out all them cubes. And then think about what to do next.

This is not right. Still got juice in them.

I took out a saucepan, and went for smaller batches.

Them cubes are not escaping my eyes this time!

More manageable this round. Less foaming, more even coating. And I figured each cube needs to touch pan, like, for more direct heat and searing. If you know what I mean.

Looking more right.

Even after this first batch was done, I still picked out the ones that still had juice in them. Not all cubes are evenly juiced. Hahaha, QC -_-

See the difference?

Also, notice from above pic how colourless the pork oil is? It's not yellow. My research found the pictures of oil all pretty yellow. I suspect overheated oil. I disapprove.

Moving on to second batch.. By this time, I realised this fried pork lard is not easy to make! For a novice, at least. For a first timer, a person who doesnt work in hawker. For a no-lard lover. For a perfectionist. You get the point.

So much work.. My back was aching and my legs were tired from standing. Cooking doesnt come with chairs.

1kg slabs of pork fat, a mountainous plate of pork fat cubes, juiced and contained, all in this same plate. It shrank, but still that's a lot of fried pork lard!

END PRODUCT

Let's not forget the juice. The pork oil I mean. Remember I said it's colourless? It also has a very low melting point. Like coconut oil. Also, both oils are saturated fats, creamier. And where I'm at, it's steadily 16℃ this week. So the pork oil solidified in just under 2 hours, to this smooth moisturiser.

1kg slabs of pork fat produces 1litre of pork oil. Interesting. Face moisturiser, anyone?

I did let A&S sample the fried lard. Apparently, it should be crispier. So, I should have let it cook longer. When I tasted it, it burst oil in my mouth on biting, which I thought was the right doneness. But I'm no lard eater, so it was hard to assess on my judgement. Basically, it's disgusting to me. I'm trying to like it, but no.

I'm however, gonna try using the oil. But Fen and I dont stir fry often. We use toasters and ovens and eat raw. I'm guessing everything would eventually go to A&S =/

I'm prolly never making fried pork lard again. It was a humbling experience, fun while it lasted (for 2hrs).