Dinner: Gourmet Sausage

It's been a while since my last post. Here are some pictures from dinner. And to change things up a bit, I shot in monochrome:

I usually eat the same thing every time we drop by this place, but tonight I felt like something different, something new.

Change. Sometimes it's a good thing.

Shabu One, Lot 10

The Fam were in KL early last month, and we visited this steamboat place called Shabu One for dinner. Steamboat restaurants are different from state to state, apparently. Here in Kuching, they're pretty miserable affairs, with limited choices and cheapo cuts of meat. For similar prices, you get literal feasts in KL and Penang. Like in Shabu One.

You get seafood. Fat, juicy prawns. Crabs that look fresh enough to grab at you with their pincers. Strange creations called fish noodles that are basically fish paste in the shape of noodles.

You've got the usual raw meat and vegetable section, only here, the sheer variety is mind-boggling. And if you're lazy and don't feel like grilling your own meat, they have a little station where some workers grill salted beef strips for you!

They also have a sauce station, where you can mix up your own dip from the range of sauces and spices and oils and condiments available. They have a section for desserts like fruit and jellies and syrupy stuff.

They even have a tootin' grilling machine just to grill little fat sausages! How cool is that?

But did I stuff my face with the seafood, the meat, the vegetables, the soupy ingredients, the ice-cream, the desserts, the sausages? No. What did I eat then, what caught my fancy?

SUSHI.

They have tootin' SUSHI!!!!

Thinking back, 70% of my dinner that night must have been sushi. I couldn't take much of the soup, especially as the first mouthful was so potently spicy that I nearly choked. The sushi made my dinner that day.

The guy at the sushi booth was really nice, and he said I could go ahead with the photo-taking. Mind you, it wasn't just one quick snap, but many repetitive ones. Thank you, Nice Sushi Guy, for letting me take those pictures. Now I get to put them on my blog! 

The bright side

I've been neglecting the garden the last few weeks. I guess other things just crept up, like rediscovering good reruns on the telly. I've been watching The Walking Dead and Once Upon A Time, and parallel worlds and late-night zombies are pretty fun, especially when you're tired and in need of a little escapism.

Some of my herbs are thriving from the lack of attention, while some others are looking a little rough around the edges. The basil and rosemary fall into the first category. The Thai basil, on the other hand... let's just say that not all flowers are good, hey?

Apparently flowers are an indication that your herbs are gonna start deteriorating soon (or so the many articles I've read online claim). I get distracted for a couple of weeks and the Thai basil is sprouting purple, lavender-like spikes and white flowers! The articles advise snipping off these blooms, which is precisely what I did. *snip snip snip!*

The blooms were actually quite pretty though, and I didn't wanna toss them out just like that. I grabbed the old tin the basil came in, and it still had some potting mix (is that what it is? it looks more synthetic than natural, actually) so I stuck the blooms in.

The old tin can is sitting outside on the little outdoor table, and I think it looks quite quaint. Now I'll know what to do if I neglect the herbs and send them all to flower. Not that that's a good thing of course, but look on the bright side and all that, hey?

Logos Hope

Logos Hope was in Kuching for a couple of weeks in early August. I visited the ship a couple of times, browsed the shelves, got some books and souvenirs, had the ice-cream, even managed to catch the volunteer farewell session because some friends who had volunteered had tickets but weren't in town, and and and and at the end, for refreshments, there was lemonade and chocolate cake!

Brings back good memories of my own volunteer week all the way back in 2009; cleaning toilets and folding laundry and scrubbing floors till the skin of your knuckles peeled. Good laughs, good food, good times. That was a great experience.

Procrastinate

The dust

on my keyboard

is a reminder

of my weakness.

The dry

coughs and sniffles

are just remnants

of my sickness.

Going bananas for bananas

I'm not a big fan of bananas. I get really happy when there are bananas in the house, but mostly because Tortilla the Emo Turtle likes bananas and it means he might eat something and fill his little tummy. Lately I've been thinking of banana bread, though. And lately I've been feeling really happy when I see ripe, squishy bananas, and thoughts of hoarding them in the fridge have crossed my mind quite a number of times. Last month, the right moment came (ripe bananas + free time + opportune moment to use the oven) to bake some banana bread. I found a good recipe and tweaked it some.

You've to make sure you've got all your ingredients ready. You don't wanna be drooling over thoughts of banana bread only to realize you've run out of flour, or don't have enough bananas to push the banana factor to the max. You can rummage around and use a recipe you like, but most recipes will have the following: bananas (duh), flour, eggs, sugar, baking powder, salt, and oil. Spices optional.

Beat your eggs. I like mine with plenty of bubbles. Not sure if that helps the bread, but I think it makes for a prettier picture. And you can work those arm muscles (optional).

Mash your potatoes bananas. Some recipes tell you what the texture and consistency of the bananas should be, and even discuss techniques of mashing, or even if mashing is the way to go. I don't care. A squished-up banana is a squished-up banana.

Mix all the ingredients together. If you're like me, you end up with more banana bread mixture on your shirt than in the bowl. Tastes good, eitherways.

Pour or ladle or throw mixture into a bread tin and put in oven to bake. I had to constantly check on my banana bread to make sure it didn't burn, and really I guess it depends on what temperature you set it to.

Be patient. Don't rush the process. And don't burn your fingers and tongue by grabbing and munching on fresh-out-of-the-oven banana bread, no matter how pretty and yummy and warm and toasty it looks. Because fresh-out-of-the-oven banana bread is really pretty and yummy and warm and toasty.

And the aroma that wafts up and tickles your nose when you slice that first slice of crusty banana bread. And that first taste of crumbly banana-ey goodness, with just the perfect amount of sweetness to whet your appetite for more.

And maybe then you'll understand why you feel that sudden urge to hoard bananas in the fridge.

Out of space

As of this instant, there is only 678 MB of storage space on my lappie. 678 MB, out of a total 283 GB. Why?

This is why:

I take pictures. Multiple pictures of the same thing, just at a slightly different angle. This is what it looks like, where all that space goes.

I need to stop taking clone shots. That, or I just need more space.