A little chinese urban legend goes that if you have conjuntivitis, that means you’re a peeping tom…either spying at your neighbour showering or your brother in the loo. Did you guys get that when you were young? I hated getting conjuntivitis – my whole family would tease me mercilessly and I can’t even cry with my poor eyelids stuck together. Hamsup (seedy/kinky/dirty old man) would be the least insult that’ll be used on me.At 4 years old.

Yesterday I nearly could not open my eyes. It hurts to even blink. My left eye is nearly swollen shut now. Probably due to the fact that I had peeped at bacon bathing OD-ed on chocs & mandarin oranges for my CNY self-celebration. It’s like as if I cannot stop peeling them oranges – best part is any other time of the year I DO NOT LIKE TO EAT CITRUS. Only in this 15 days of Chinese New Year that I go bonkers over it. Sigh.Anyway. I believe that due to the OD I am now ‘yit hei’ (too much yang, too much heaty food ect ect) and I wish i could just pop into any coffeeshop and ask for a pack of ice cold barley water with lime.All I have now is a measly bottle of Optrex, hopefully to keep my eyes free from infection before I get to the doctor’s tomorrow.Which, due to UK’s absolutely failure of a state-supported medical care, I cannot see until 2.40pm tomorrow.You think got 24hrs clinic ar?? Even hospital also they ask you NOT to go – unless you really are dying.

Best part? I have an extremely important interview tomorrow. Which I shall now be going in a Captain Hook eyepatch.

Hello God.It’s me. If you are listening, might as well you just shoot an arrow through my heart and kill me, kill me now!

Nearly all my masak-masak series have been made with love – out of love of gluttony for certain foods.This dish however, is made out of my mothers’ mindless persuasion. I rang home for a recipie of my favourite shallot-based curry, but she persuaded me in the way that only a mother can do to cook ayam masak merah (trans: red cooked chicken) instead.I don’t freaking know why, seeing that I am the one who is cooking and eating it.

Ayam masak merah is one of the regular dishes served up by the malay nasi stalls all around the country. Together with ulam (malay salad) , kangkung belacan (water spinach with shrimp paste) and chicken or beef curry, ayam masak merah has been a mainstand on the dining tables of many Malays.It also makes a regular appearance on the various warungs (streetside malay hawker stalls)

I honestly have no lost love for ayam masak merah. Bacon does not either. So why are we making this? Blame my mother.

Ingredients:
to pound-
6 shallots
2 clove garlic
2 chilli

6 chicken thighs quickly marinaded in cumin
3 good sized tomatos
tomato ketchup
juice of 1 lemon
1 stalk lemongrass
thickly sliced onions (2 onions)

First, pound the shallots, garlic and chilli. Use a blender if needed…as this process takes quite alot of time and energy!

Squeeze the lemons and chop up the tomatoes to small cubes

Stir in the pounded paste and fry until fragrant. Brown the marinated chicken together with the bruised lemongrass stalk.

When it is sufficiently browned (about 5 minutes), add in the tomatoes

Then stir in the onions…mmm..I like big fat cruncy onions

Add lemon juice and a squirt or two of tomato ketchup,and leave for 5-10 minutes.By this time the tomatoes would have disintigrated and form a pulpy texture.Please make sure the chicken is cooked throughly before removing from heat!

Serve up with handful of cilantro sprinkled on top and a steaming bowl of basmati rice.

Conclusion?

Not bad – but did not reach the heights that I would prefer it to. Traditionally, the chicken is deep-fried to a dry crunch before being added to the sauce, you can try that if you like. I think some food coloring usually goes into it as well to make it red or dead, but obviously have been omitted by me.

Enjoy!

phobia ; noun
an intense fear or hatred of something

I have one.You have one. Most people have one. Nearly all of us fear something innately silly – like spiders or cockroaches. Or flying or cramped spaces. Sure, no one loves spiders, but those with a spider phobia shriek at the sight of one and it sends them running like a marathon runner on steroids. I used to have this semi-tomboyish flatmate that is not afraid of anything. One day I heard her screaming like the girl she actually is..thought she accidentaly stabbed herself.Turns out its just a big spindly spider in her room which I swatted out with a rolled-up magazine.

Mine is giving/withdrawing blood. When I was 10, I was admitted to the hospital after developing a high tempreture continuously for 3 days. Afraid that it might be malaria or dengue, I was immediately wheeled to the nurses’ ward to withdraw blood so that they do some testing for it to see what was wrong with me. After 8 tries of poking my arms senseless and leaving me screaming like a hyena, the idiotic nurse got it right at last, with me still screaming and a 1/2 pint of blood in her hands. I imagine her evil smile, chuckling hyak hyak hyak,but she was probably more stressed out with my screaming.

I am probably not afraid of needles…as demonstrated by my tattoo.But somehow, smelling the sterile bed at the doctors always makes me panic at the sight of a huge needle…then I remember I have a tattoo and the world is happy again. It’s like comparing a dip in 100c water to 30c water..I can take a needle up me any time after going through that pain! As long as it is not on my veins on my elbow.

Fast forward 17 years later, I am still afraid of withdrawing blood. Since that incident 17 years ago, I had never had to be admitted to the hospital ever again, and I’ve avoided the instances where I had to withdraw blood, preferring not to do it at all.I love the idea of donating blood, just that I might faint from it before the needle even come close.

Bacon and I decided to take out a life insurance policy on each other, just in case the other choke on their food. The requirements of the health check (to make sure you are not already dead) is a full body check up. Inclusive of urine. And blood.

AND BLOOD?!

When I first heard that I went hysterical.Completely bonkers. After I had cooled down, I decided that in my year of zen, I need to face my fear. I had become such a scardey cat lately that I am ashamed of myself. I kept telling myself that I was only 10 the last time, so it was more like childhood trauma than anything else.

Today at my checkup:

me: Urm, nurse, I have a HUGE phobia of needles – specifically withdrawing blood.Can I have my husband with me?
nurse: no.
me: Urm, but when I was 10, some nurse took 8-10 tries on both my arms to withdraw blood
nurse: don’t you worry luv, I won’t do that, it will be quick and painless

10 minutes later

nurse: Hmm…let’s try the other arm (after poking me TWICE on my right arm. I quietly sat still and stared at the sink…did not even wince ok!)
me: okay. here you go. this might be better.

10 minutes later

nurse:*pokes again* you have no blood. Hmm…sign here anyway.Let me get the doctor

10 minutes later

doctor: (on the phone with the insurance people) she has poor veins, cant’ seem to extract more than a drop, so I am going to give her a salivia test instead.Ok? Thanks!

OMG. Should have given me the salivia test from the very beginning right!? OMG OMG OMG after all that trauma of being poked on both arms!! AND THAT NURSE DID NOT EVEN GIVE ME PLASTERS FOR MY POOR WOUND! She gave bacon a plaster though…marxist sexist flirt.

But at least I now have a very valid reason to be afraid of blood donating. I am allergic bloodless.Yippie! So you see, there is a reason for every phobia!

I like happy colorful places. I like pretending that I am crafty. SO one saturday afternoon, me and the cat headed towards hotch-potch, which specializes in pottery painting. Not pottery itself, just painting. I used to go to one in Fresno nearly every week and I’ve still kept my plates, soap dishes and the first ever mug I’ve painted.

Painting pottery isn’t cheap. Heck, it’s expensive like hell. My latte mug cost me £15 – I have an exact same shape/size mug at work taht cost me £1.50.

The cat contemplating her design choices.

whilst i started off with a swirly inside

The cat’s fancypants lotus design. I’m just jealous la ok?

because mine is so lame…..see my bee???

yeah, that’s how lame my painting is. I like bright colors. I like big pictures. I like simple lines. I am 2 years old.

….and I should probably taken a picture of our completed product.I still have the cat’s herb pot and bacon’s already putting his sexy latte to use.

Hotch Potch runs parties as well from £10 per person – a tile for you to paint,cookies,drinks and invites are included. This will probably be more of kids, but I LIKE.Great place to while away the afternoon just painting. For more information, please visit their website

me: Hmm…i want to eat something cute
bacon: okay, what do you wanna eat?
me: I want cupcake with choc orange frosting! please.
bacon: Do you know how to make then?
me: I dunno…but,but..i wanna eat…but…*snoozes*

2 hours later, I was woken up by a lovely aroma of butter and vanilla…

can you tell the difference which one is burnt and which ones are just choc flavoured?

Recipie : to be updated tomorrow..I forgot to ask bacon.heh.

Of course, the fun part about baking is the decorating – other than the eating! We bought premixed icing, but you can also make your own icing with icing sugar & water mixture;which will form a paste. We bought the tub just because it was dirt cheap.

So pretty innit?mixed some cocoa powder into the icing towards the end and came out with delcious choc frosting!

My favourite – easter-egg nest

Bacon’s favourite – scary spaceship themed choc buttons.

Will do more cupcakes in the near future – this time we will have other decorations that are not choc flavoured/colored! If you can’t wait, visit the crew at chockylit -its absolutely cutelicious!*drools…