Simple chicken recipe

Lesson COK1011

Who say cooking is hard? It is very simple and need a bit of creativity as well as as time. Just a little bit of time, you will be able to cook one nice and healthy meal for yourself. Rather than having yourself called up for deliveries and waste your money on unhealthy outside food.

Today I am going to introduce a way to cook a simple and quick dinner by using micro oven. When you browse on the web, usually people will teach on how to use the micro wave instead. However, a dinner for one or two person, using a micro oven will be much easier. Like always, as a lazy person trying to get a good meal, I always think of the quickest and easiest way to do so. Today I feel like eating fried chicken tight, but it will be a hassle for me to prepare the frying pan and the oil as well as marinate the chicken and dip it in flour before cooking. I am only cooking for me and MYSELF!!

Simple. The ingredient:
A pinch of salt
Black pepper
some nicely chopped garlic
and of cause the chicken tight
Defrost the chicken tight well before you start anything. For places with cold weather such as in Australia during the Autumn season, get the chicken out as early as 6 hours before and leave it outside. Reminder: Please leave it at a clean place.
After that, rub some salt on it and sprinkle some black pepper as well as the chopped garlic on top. Now, you can leave it awhile to marinate the chicken for a bit. Simple? The total time you going to spend from taking the chicken out and marinate it is only 5 minutes in the kitchen. Later on, set the micro oven to 50% of its power and leave the chicken inside for 20-25 minutes. It will be cooked by then. In the mean time, you can prepare simple vegetable or other side dishes to go with it.
Today, I prepared steam broccoli and a sunny side up egg. Total time I used in the kitchen is around 30 minutes. It is about the same time as you ordered pizza delivery.
My meal
You can also steam a potato or half instead of frying an egg. By doing so, you can steam it with the broccoli. While waiting for my chicken and broccoli to be cooked, I can read up my things a bit, chat on msn as well eat up some of my house mate Belgium chocolate. Simple and easy?



Some of the cons of using the micro oven:
You don't need to add oil to cook your food. In the mean time, it can heat out the oil from your poultry. You don't need to be with the food while cooking. By using the correct timing and temperature, the food is cooked more evenly than cooking it in pan.

Always remember, anyone can cook too. Just a bit of creativity and passion for it.
So.. Debbie,learn from your mistake and you will be a good cook. Haha.

Two sumptuous dinner

First of all, I would to introduce 'OLD KINGDOM' restaurant. Their special dish is 'Peking Duck'. Situated in Melbourne, one of the best food I have eaten so far. Yesterday was my second day there. However, yesterday was quite a disappointing one. Luckily I still able to enjoy their delicious meal.
From outside we can see that it is a small restaurant. Size doesn't matter when it comes to food. The taste is the thing that matters. Why do I said that my second visit to there was a bit disappointing? The first time I went there, a young guy served us. Throwing us with some stories bout the duck and some introduction on how to start the meal was entertaining. Apparently the best part of a duck is the skin of the neck. The guy told us it was the dick of the duck, but he was joking after I ate the skin. I agree with him, the neck indeed has the bask skin of a duck.
The second time I visited there, an old man served us. "How are you guy?" he asked. That's all and he cut the duck in front of us and walk of. No more stories and a bit of entertainment before our meal. To eat there, we have to book earlier as they need to get places for us as well as to get the duck ready before we arrive. Every time I visit thee place, it was full with customers.

The Peking roast duck with skin wrap and some cucumber.

Place a piece of the thinly sliced duck meat on the wrap with two pieces of cucumber and some sauce.

Wrap all the things together and it is ready to be eaten now.

Leftover duck meat will be fried with bean sprout and served to us as our second dish.

Then the duck bones and neck will be cooked as soup for us as the last dish.

Three dishes. That's all for the meal. It is delicious. For the food, I can give 4.5 out of 5 points. Eight of us ordered 4 roast ducks and each duck cost around 50 Aud. According to my mum, it is worth it. Maybe because I did not tell her how many ducks we had. I just told her the price of one duck.

Today as in just now...
All of us prepared some dishes for our dinner.
We can see that, Carolyn and Boon Hong getting busy in the kitchen. Basically, Jolyn, Vern Liang, Weng, Boon Hong and I cooked for our dinner. Dinner for 7 people and we prepared 5 dishes.





We had snow peas, fried vegetables, sweet and sour pork, omelet, and fried snapper fish. Seem like no more steamboat this time.







Well, today I manage to watch 2 hours worth of Spongebob Squarepants.
<< The plankton trying to steal the Krabby Patty from Mr. Crab again. Haha. However, I still prefer to watch South Park more.

Jee Wei's birthday (late post)

This is a late post that I promised to put two weeks ago. So, I won't touch much on it. Just a brief run through on the day event.
First of all.....
The birthday girl on that day!!










From right, Kah Ho, Justin, Wei Lyn and Me. This picture was suggested by Wei Lyn.








During the party, Jee Wei 'cried'. Well, she...... (come that one)

It was only a joke. She sat on the bench with water beside the swimming pool.








HOT DOGS!! Brought by Choon Yauw. He claimed growing them everyday.









There was only a few hot dogs. And yet we like to pose around or to say we are cooking it.










The birthday CAKEs!! There is a lot of cup cakes with different colors. Home baked by a few of the girls.










As usual, no birthday celebration is complete without pranks being played on each other. Wei Lyn hand phone drop into the pool as we all push each other into the pool. Luckily the guard at the 'Verve condominium' didn't care much.

Group picture.

After the party, I did went to Melbourne University to visit the Night Bazaar. It was fun to see Vern Liang and gang getting busy at their 2 AUD dessert stall.
The gang busy selling their food.








That's all for the post that I promised.
When I was about to browse the Monash website, I accidentally went into the Malaysia's campus site and came across this.
Stanley in the Monash advertisement section.
Seem like he didn't change much since I last saw him.

ANZAC day

ANZAC day. A day to commemorate the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. (Not some New Zealand day because it sounds like N-Z day. By the way, the alphabet 'Z' is pronounce as 'zee' not 'zek')

It was funny when my friends were talking bout the coming holiday which is today, ANZAC day. At first I was curious. Since I know that New Zealand has a close relationship with this country so I thought Australia is also having the same holiday with New Zealand. I thought it was New Zealand day. =.= What a lame thought!!

It always fall on the 25th of April. One of the most important day in the Australian calender. The commemorative service are help at the dawn, across the nation. Marching through the major cities and some centers by ex-servicemen and women during the day ans ceremonies were held at war memorials around the country. It is a day when Australians reflect on the different meaning of the world.



ARGH!! It will another day for me to do my assignments and study.

2nd day of work.. My BOSS!!

Ah Sui: Kam zhou lei? (Come so early?)
Me: yea. (Yea)
Ah Sui: Lei zhu KL bin dou? (Which part of Kl are you from?)
Me: Gombak go tou. Fu kan Batu Caves. (At around Gombak. Near Batu caves)
Ah Sui: OH.. Wo kei tak. Ko tou yau freeway to Ipoh ke.. (Oh. I remember. There near a highway to Ipoh.)

Talking to the chief when I arrived at work early. He was from Malaysia too. It has been around 20 years he is in Australia. He only manage to get back to his hometown twice so far.

Jason: Cepat sikit.. Cepat sikit.. (Faster.. Faster..)
Me: oh..
Jason: Terimia Kasih. (thank You)
Me: *smile and continue my work..
Jason: Sama-sama. ( you are welcome.)

Talking to my boss, Jason. Practically we all call him by his name even though he is 41 years old. It has been 28 years since Jason arrived at Australia. The place I am working is his 5th restaurant which is a successful one. The others was closed down because he need to sell them of to open this one. Guess when he open this EAST EMPRESS? When he was 20 years old. Jason has not gone back to Malaysia once even for the passed 28 years. Formerly a KL boy too. He is from Methodist Boy School, situated near the Stadium Merdeka. He did economics in Monash before. I think he stopped halfway trough. His wife helped him out in the restaurant. Formerly an aeronautical engineer student but stop halfway after married to Jason.

I was again amazed to listen to Jason's story. His fifth restaurant at the age of 20? To me, he can be consider successful. Especially when he started his career at the age of 20 and it was stable till now. I am 20 this year. WHAT FARK!! I am still using my parents money. I am nowhere to compare with him. I admire his capability. However by just admiring is useless. I will have to start something from now. It is still not too late.

Working with them remind me of Malaysia. Jason nearly forgot how to speak Malay language. Can't blame him because he hasn't been using that language for 28 years. Spoke Hakka language with the chief. (Hakka is a Chinese dialect.) So far working there is not bad. However I will still need another job.

Today has been a good day. Andreas lend me his monthly Metcard since he is not traveling anywhere today. I need them to go to my workplace. Later on, my friend from work fetch me home after work. Save me a lot of trouble. All this lead me to a conversation I had last night. Kyle said that my friends here are lucky to have me. However, all this while I am the lucky one. I am lucky to have known every single one of my friend. Without them, I won't get this far. I don't think I will become who I am today without them
(Kyle, it is the other way around. I am lucky to have friends like you guys.)

Luckily I don't end up like the E robot. Gazing at the star alone.

New inspiration.

After reading NicoleKiss blog, I was inspired by her experience in life. It is the first time I read about a girl who goes backpacking alone and had travel to so many different places. She is so cool. I had her link to the blog. You guys can go over to have a view. She had seen a lot of things during her trip and along that she indeed had met with a lot of people from a lot of places. After reading her blog, I shall work hard to pursue a similar life to her.

Just got back from the university library. Tried to finish up the maths assignment over there but failed. Talking bout maths, I had an interesting video to post.



Anyway, I am not going to study till I look like the boy in the video.

A so-called SAD birthday..

Monday. Today I have been running around for the whole day. From the moment I woke up at 10am till 11pm. Luckily Dean called me up at 10 for our meeting in the library. I totally forgot bout the discussion that I must attend for my physic project. The discussion was suppose to star at 10am but I and Daniel was late so it started at 10.30am. It lasted for an hour and I headed home to change my bag as well as my clothes.

Later on, I had class from 12.30pm till 5pm. I was only able to concentrate about half since my brain keep wandering off. It is not easy to concentrate in the class at times. Then it was 5pm when I have to rush to Clayton to get ready a small surprise party for Boon Hong. Happy 20th birthday to him.

According to the plan, I helped Jolyn out in decorating Boon Hong's house while Vern Liang bring Boon around after their test. Meanwhile, Weng will be buy some dinner for all of us. It is sad that some of them couldn't make it or it will be merrier.

Balloons everywhere on the floor as a welcoming gesture for the birthday boy.






'POP'.. 'POP'.. Party crackers. They are to enlighten the party a bit.






His bed being decorated with colorful papers.







Choosing the candle for the cake. The candles seem like those Chines prayers candles.






A cake stolen from Boon's own refrigerator. We were suppose to give the cake 1st before showing him the real one.





Jolyn decorated the place.







Look at the scene. A big party had gone on at the place.







Boon posing near his banner.










At last a group picture. The group seem small.









The 2nd video was not correctly formatted. Due to insufficient time and also lack of computer skills. So sry..

The party was over at around 9pm since Jolyn has to go back to study for her test. The party was a big surprised for Boon Hong even though it was a simply one. At first, he did not expect anything from us till weekends because we were all busy with our test and assignments. However, even though we are busy, we decided to celebrate with him or else he will be having a sad lonely dinner for that day. In the end, he had a big surprised 'POP' at his face when he came in, and a slam at the cake while he is trying to get the candle with his lip from the cake (5L'05 tradition). We can't play any other pranks as we did not have much time to prepare one. I did think of adding things to his food. Nah.. We don't have enough time and opportunity. I only manage to go home at around 10.30pm because Myth Buster was on at the discovery channel and Boon Hong got a NEW flat screen television.
(Boon Hong, hope you don't mind that it is a simple one. Guess that we will all be having another dinner this Friday to make it up. 20th birthday. Nice!! Looking forward to the dinner at OLD KINGDOM 'again'..)

ARGH!! Got home late and now I am having a cup of hot mocha to boost myself up so that I can continue my work now. I didn't regret coming back late. Able to watch the Myth Buster on how they trying to bust the myth of 'Snapped high tension cables can actually cut people into half' and 'Are there such things as sound recordings in clay work of the ancient people?'. Both myth were busted in the end. Sweet.. Miss those shows on Astro as well as the television and the couch back in Malaysia.

This is how I watch television back in Malaysia. I am not watching the show naked. A prank played by my friend. Was wearing a short pant..

Watch till I slept on the couch. I miss that!!

Tomorrow's post will be on my new found inspiration. ^^

What a day.. Vic bar school ^^

It was Sunday today. Can't go anywhere today cause I have got lots of things to do. Prepare my Lab report. Get my lab report done, assignments, and study a bit for the coming exams. SHIT!! And I have just finished my lab report only. Have been watching movies and dramas again. I also did my groceries. ^^

Two great movies:
A walk to remember









Crash

Two highly recommended movies.

Back to the title of my post. Victorian Bar School. Recommended by a new friend of mine. A hospitality school situated at Melbourne city. Guess that I can learn to be a bartender from there. It was only a week full time course. Learning to be a bartender is my interest. I don't think I will be able to work as a bartender but making cocktails, and learning more bout liquor is just my interest. To me bartender can make any occasion or party more exciting and fun.

EMO.. When people around me to get emo then this can be my way to cheer them up. A small emo glass of cocktail.

This can be my favorite. A glass of cocktail by the beach.

When romance come into place. Different type of cocktails can also do the trick

Lastly and most important. PARTY!! Sometime, even common parties can have extra bit of fun and entertainment.

From all these, isn't it great to have a bartender around? For those who are interested, you can visit the site: http://www.vicbar-school.com.au/. Haha. Seem like I am ahead of Kok Wai again. I still remember him saying that he wanted to learn to make sushi as well as to learn up some bar tending skills. Maybe I can rev up his party when i am back in Malaysia.

The banana that bought this morning. U-Jun got a shock when he came over to my place with Jee Wei and gang.

"Cheong Chin Sam, your banana so big!?!?", he looking at me.

"Ofcourse", I replied.

Wow.. Nearly forgot bout this..

Suddenly got an e-mail stating that Yue Ann tagged me in a photo from Wesley Methodist group. The picture remind me of something that I had done before and I had completely forgot bout it.

I am the one with the so call fishing hat behind Galvin. It was our former school fashion competition. Kean Soon and I got dragged into it by Miss Mano because there aren't any representative from our class at that time. It was some last minute preparation and we got some old clothes to wrap around with as 'sarong' and a food cover as the fisherman hat. Our role was the fisherman for the fashion show.

It was very funny on that time. I think it was form 4 after exam activities. Seem like Wesley group in facebook did bring us closer. Form 5 year '05 still goes on...

BFF=Best Friend Forever..

Justin: What is BFF?

Choon Yauw: Best Friend Forever...

I heard their conversation when I was using Choon Yauw account to chat with Suat Ling. After that I had decided to use that as the title of this post.

Before this, I once heard my friend dad telling me that, the friends you meeting in college and university will be very important as they are those people who you will meet again in your future. Does he mean meeting them back while we are pursuing our career? Or they shall be your friends in the future that you can count on? Maybe both?

Among the people I had chat in msn today include an old good friends of mine, Kah Shing. It has been quite awhile since we chat. Ever since I come to Australia, I start to meet back a lot of friends. All from my high school. Beside meeting them, I also make new friends in the university. College friends seem to be very far apart now.

Friends from high school are very different from friends from college. Maybe because I only manage to spend a year in the college and went into the university after that. However, I spent 5 years on my life in my high school. No matter how long we all didn't contact each other, the bond is still there. So far, I think I have lost contact with almost all of my college friends. Wherever I go now, I will be able to get along with at least a few friend from my high school.

To be frank, going to a new place alone isn't as easy as I think before this. Imagine going to a new place alone without anyone to accompany you as well don't know anyone in the new place. I don't think it is easy. I had indeed lead an easy life since I come over here. Got a place to stay at Boon Hong's place. Then having Kenneth to settle everything for my accommodation as well as have a large group of friends to hang out with from time to time. That is why coming here alone is not a big problem for me.

That's why, everyone friends that we make is very important. There is no such thing as which group of friends matter more.

STEAMBOAT again..

It is about 2 months since I am here in Australia. I had already eaten three steamboat at three different places with different group of friends. First time was with Boon Hong they all. I still remember Jolyn keep saying that she had got new recipe. Yea, they did accidentally came out with a sauce for the steamboat.

This time it was at my place. Since Cheng Haw came over from Adelaide to Melbourne, it will be good to spend some time with this old high school friend. Daniel which is my course mate came over for the steamboat dinner too.

Things that we prepared for 5 persons. It was a bit too much. So Kenneth join us as his has a sudden change in his plan. It was good as we were able to finish up the food.






The steam from the pot suit the cooling weather that we are having now at Melbourne.







Boiling soup with fish balls. Tom Yam soup.








Dipping in for the food.








After the meal, it was time for a poker game. 5 people playing against each other. It is fun.







As it was a all-guy dinner, we just leave the things around after the meal.







Everyone was more engross in their game rather than cleaning up the place. DOTA and CS lan game in unit 17 Monash Green Drive.







Life in Melbourne is not bored with friends around. Even though people might say that there are no night life here, I don't think it is true. You can find life anywhere with friends around. Since Cheng Haw going to be here till next Tuesday, we are still thinking of where to bring him during for the weekends. Till now I think I had things to do every weekends. ^^ Still enjoying life even though I am far from home.

Tiring!?!?

It is 12.54 am now. Just woke up feeling refresh and nice. Still wondering why am I so tired today. Is it because of the class or is it because of yesterday work? I don't think it is because of my job. I did get enough sleep after that.

I had physic lab class for 3 hours in the morning. Maybe I got tired after that. Trying to figure what to write and also what to show the lecturer wasn't easy. We have to keep reading the experiment and understand them as well as discuss around hoping that we can get something done. Luckily I have got a full mark for the lab analysis report. The next class was 1 hour physic lecture. Fendi, Dan and I have to keep each other awake in the class. Mostly is them trying to keep me awake. At last, Shimpei gave me a sweet and I manage to stay awake for the rest of the class.

Another 3 hours of mathematic tutoring. This class is to make us finish up our maths tutorial. Luckily I have done some question before the class so I can relax a bit in the class. Having a full day class can really fry me brain. We had a good laugh in the class during the maths lesson. Have a look at the picture below.

In the picture above, Shimpei trying to imitate the maths lecturer. I pity Fendi.
"Shimpei, you should wash your ass. It smells", commented Fendi who was beside him.

After the class, I went home. Rest a bit and cook my dinner then fell asleep at around 8pm and woke up at 12am. Felt so nice after Thursday class.

My first day of work last night was a good one. I have learned a lot. The staff there are very friendly. There was this chief who talk a lot, told me a bit of his life in Australia. He was from Malaysia too. To be exact, he was from Kedah. He came here on 1988 and he went to Perth first before coming to Melbourne. According to him, he came here without knowing any English language at all. During that time, he don't even know where is the toilet while on the plane. His main point was "Don't be afraid of this place". He was telling me this because I just came here not long. "I come here that time, one word also don't know. I am not afraid. Got into anything then NAH!!", said him showing his middle finger. Good advice.

The site to my working place 'http://www.eastempress.com.au/'. Nice place. The Chinese food there was good. The second Chinese restaurant that I find it good beside Old Kingdom.

Maybe that's all for today. Enjoy.. ^^