I started to cook “again” for myself while I was living alone for the last quarter of 2011.  It was about 8 years ago when I last touched the stove.

I try to make things easy, but it seems not really easy.  The easiest way is to go to a restaurant or a hawker stall to have my meals, but there is not much choice in my area (since I am a vegetarian), and it is neither economically efficient nor healthy.

Therefore, I cooked my own meals “sometimes”.

There was one time I cooked 60% of dried mushroom with 40% of green (it seems like an unusual ratio), because I didn’t buy enough vegetables.

This recipe is given by SiewPeng, and it is very easy to prepare.

I cut the carrots, potatoes and tomatoes into pieces, boil them in water and add some salt, done!  - My favorite soup.

Another meal I like to cook is the porridge.  I do not have to measure how much water I need to add to the rice, and just put all the ingredients into it.

To make life easier, I prefer to use an electronic stove, I am also worried about explosion if I use a gas cylinder.

I also ate some canned food.

I fried hash brown.  I have a few metal bowls, the reflection makes the food seems like duplicated.

These are the ingredients I added into my porridge.

These are the ingredients I used for frying spiral macaroni.

50% of spiral macaroni + 50% of add-on (mixed-vegi, greens and mushroom).

This is tomato version of fried spiral macaroni.

I fried rice twice only after I have got a rice cooker.

Sometimes I used shortcut when I was lazy to prepare food. - Instant Noodle.  However, I don’t like the taste.

This was even easier.

I bought an apron and used it not only when I was cooking, but also when I washed dishes to prevent water splashing onto my clothes.

The tough part of my life has gone because now SiewPeng has joined me for a new living environment.  She prepared the most delicious food for me, and I want to thank her.

Next I will show you the food I ate in restaurants, sometimes with my colleague, sometimes I ate alone, and sometimes I bought it and ate at home.

I have very minimum knowledge in cooking, but I have been staying alone since weeks ago, therefore I picked up cooking again since I last touched the kitchen tools years back.

From what I have discovered within these few weeks, I have learned that first thing first is important in order to prepare a meal efficiently.

The first thing is to prepare ingredients, and the first ingredient to be prepared is the dried mushroom.

It is a very common material in Chinese style cooking, but the mushroom take a bit longer to turn soft, therefore the first thing is to dip it in water, and I can prepare other things while waiting for it to be ready.

SiewPeng told me that this process can be made faster by dipping the mushroom in hot water.

After the mushroom turn soft, I cut them into slices.

I will tell you more on the my kindergarten-style-cooking stories.

… …  To be continued … …

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We have not updated since more than a month ago, we were really busy.  

This moment is another turning point of our life.  SiewPeng and I will be experiencing different life style and pace of life.  We will be seeing different things. — Yes, I have moved to a “big” city, and SiewPeng will be joining me very soon.

Happy Deepavali to those who are celebrating the Festival of Lights, especially to the Indian community in Malaysia.  :)

This is the first time in my life I have a public holiday for Deepavali in Malaysia.  Previous years I was in East Malaysia where it is not a public holiday.

I have visited KL for quite a few times in the past, but have never come during this festive season.  I am surprised to find that there are Kolam(s) in all of the shopping malls I have just been to recently.

Instead of 3D decorations (which can usually be seen in shopping malls), this time I saw a 2D decoration.

Kolam is a type of painting painted with coloured rice powder.

I noticed that most of them have peacocks as their theme.

Some of these decorations are labeled as Rangoli.  I don’t really know about their differences.

There are 2 separate entries in wikipedia on Rangoli and Kolam.  From what I understand, Kolam is a type of Rangoli?  Correct me if it is wrong.

Other Deepavali decorations at a shopping mall.

I thought of going to Batu Caves (KL) today, and see how crowded it is but I have other plans.  I recalled someone told me that it will be more crowded during Thaipusam.

I will wait for SiewPeng to join me in KL and we are going to visit Batu Caves during the festive season, and I am sure that we will have a true life experience on how crowded it is.

I believe that there might still have a comfortable space between people so that visitors can still move around even it seems very crowded from the pictures (same thing as a picture of a crowded shopping mall), compared to the space on KTM train (city route) where the space on the train is sometimes zero or negative (terribly squeezed among human).

Once again, Happy Deepavali to everyone.

Our tortoise has not been very active for some time.  We were quite worried about him and we really don’t want to lose him, which is our only pet now.  We took him to the vet the other day and she said that he is lacking in vitamins and maybe we should consider changing his ‘house’.  And we did.

We bought him a round box instead of the usual rectangular ones.  I was quite attracted by the accessories that are mounted to the center of the box.  There is a bridge, a coconut tree and something like a ladder.  And I like the little slope too.  Initially, he was still not moving much in his new home.  Then, we put him nearer to the windows.  And one fine afternoon, I found him basking on that little slope!

And the next minute, he was ‘climbing up’ the ladder!  He pressed himself against the ladder with his front legs stretched out.  It was such an adorable sight!  I have not seen him gone up the bridge though.  I hope Mr Tortoise likes his new place!

I like the shape of these trees because they seemed like dancing in the wind.

The power cable is distracting, I can crop it, but I don’t want to miss out some parts of the cloud.

Some other trees with the sun ray.

This is a big tree on a piece of open land, I can see mountains, a communication tower and again trees far away in the background, can you?

Coconut trees in this area gave me a kampung (which means village) feel.

If I am not mistaken, these are palm trees.

Again, each of them are unique.

Coming up next, I will show you the mysterious clouds which created the beautiful sun ray.