LeoCW

Simple Soup :Radish and Maize Soup

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Sun, 05 Mar 2017 05:09:00 +0000

Sometimes it doesn't take a lot of effort and time to prepare a delicious vegetarian soup. Using only radish, tomato (optional) and maize (corns), such simple soup can be prepared in an hour or two.

Ingredients
1. Radish
2. Maize/sweetcorns
3.Tomato
Sidekicks : Wolfberry, red dates and slice of gingers.

Steps

Remove the outer skin of radish and cut into thick slices. Next, cut the maize into a few sections and soak both veges in a pan filled with salt water for half an hour. Tomato can also be added as an option.

Soak the wolfberry and red dates.

Fill a claypot with water and put all the ingredients in. Add some ginger slices to reduce the coolness of the vegetarian soup. Heat with strong fire.

When the soup begins boiling, reduce the heat. Season the soup with vegetarian stock, pepper, sugar, salt and mushroom powders. Keep the low heat for around two hours.

Yummy Fried Brinjal with Egg.

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Mon, 27 Feb 2017 01:20:00 +0000

I didn't expect it to be so yummy when I first tasted fried brinjal with beaten egg in Sekinchan. It looks so simple and yet so mouth watering. 👍.

Ingredients
1. Brinjal
2. Eggs
3. Garlic.

Soak the cut brinjal in water with salt for half an hour.

Cut the brinjal into fine cubes. The finer the better as this will make the frying process faster and making them softer and blend easier with eggs.

Put some oil in a wok with low heat .Add diced garlic followed by the cubed brinjals. During stir frying the two ingredients, add pepper,sugar, salt, soy sauce and oyster sauce for seasoning.

When the brinjal cubes are soft enough, pour in beaten egg to the scatter brinjal cubes forming a crust over them.

When the beaten eggs look dried up, flip the crusted egg to the other side. When the egg and brinjal look brownish, it is time to be served on a plate and gulped down the throat.😋

Simple Vegetarian Spinach Soup

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Mon, 27 Feb 2017 00:45:00 +0000

We all know spinach is a healthy food. Boiling it as a main ingredient in a soup making its soft not only will appeal to our taste buds but also making it a healthy lifestyle diet.

Ingredients
1. Spinach
2. Carrots
3. Wolfberry seeds (Goji)
4. Egg
5. Ginger

Soak the spinach in water added with salt for at least half an hour. After that, pour out the water and soak again for another half an hour with water.

Put some slices of carrot and ginger plus goji in a pot and fill it with water.

When it boils, add some vegetarian sauce, sugar,salt and pepper. Lower the heat and when the water boil again, add in spinach.

Cover the cooking pot. When the soup is boiling again, turn off the heat and add in the beaten egg.

Note

For a more simple version, one can use spinach, egg and ginger only. This version is especially suits to those who enjoy SIMPLE LIFE foods.

Moringa seeds : the magical health seeds

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Sun, 04 Sep 2016 02:52:00 +0000

The latest health craze over the last one month is moringa seeds. It is being sold in certain morning markets in Kuala Lumpur, online stores such as Aliexpress, lelong.com.my and eBay.

The moringa tree also known as drumstick tree due to the long slender triangular seed pods that the tree bears,and horseradish tree due to the taste of the roots.

These drought resistant trees which are native in the Himalayas in north western India are now being widely cultivated in tropical areas such as Indonesia, Thailand, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Africa, etc.

Since moringa seeds contains plenty of zinc which is important for regulating the secretion of insulin hormone, the level of sugar in the bloodstream will be normalized. Thus, this leads to its effectiveness in treating diabetes.

Aside from that, the peeled white color moringa seeds are also good for lowering high cholesterol level, and easing constipation, regulate liver, kidney functions and lower blood pressure. Of course, since I am not a doctor, I cannot vouch for the result but I do have a friend whose mum has been taking it for a year who experiences lower blood cholesterol level.

I think since it is very good in detoxify the body toxins, many of the body ailments and diseases that affecting oneself can be getting rid off. With toxin elimination, one will have better skin complexion and it also prevents bad breath. Therefore the detoxification process results in one finding it easier to pass stool.

How to eat?

If you intend to test it out, go slow on eating the seeds so that your body get accustomed to its effects. Initially eat only one or two seeds a day to test and see how your body react to it. Eating too many seeds a day at the beginning (around 5 seeds) stage might bring dramatic scary severe painful effects to one's health. It will deter one's confidence in continuous seeds consumption.

Peel off the fibrous hard outer black layer (hull) and chew the internal whitish kernel seed before swallowing. Then drink plenty of water.

Don't eat the seeds on empty stomach (especially in the morning when you have not eaten anything else) as this will lead to purging. Avoid eating after 6 pm as the seeds give plenty of energy and might make you super active at nite!😁

For majority of us, the seeds will taste sweet followed by a tingling bitterness afterwards. Bitter taste indicates lot of toxins in the liver. This is especially true in this fast paced modern world where people crave instant delicious fried foods.

Taste Indication

Sweet    : overall good health.
Bitter     : impaired liver functions.
Sour      : small intestines, heart deficiency
Pungent :Spleen, lungs,intestines problem

Fishy    : kidney,bladder deficiency.

Side effects

Moringa seeds are filled with vitamins, anti oxidants and nutrients, and have no toxic elements in them. Therefore consuming them long term should present no bad harmful side effects.

However as each of us is unique, we might experience different reactions to it (at least at the initial stage when we eat it).

General symptoms include tiredness, good sleep, better bowel movement and certain effects that associated with their own common diseases. For example, someone who is prone to skin itchiness will experience an outbreak of skin rashness and itchiness at the initial stage of taking the seeds as the body toxins are being extracted out of the system.

For those who have sleeping issues, it might give you more sleeping time through out the night after taking the seeds as it promotes deeper quality sleep and giving more time for the body to rest.

If one does suffer unpleasant side effects (maybe after a week) such as dizziness, joint pains, vomiting (might due to weakness in cranial nerve), tiredness etc and cannot bear with it, do not fear. Temporarily stop taking the seeds and when the condition clears, continue taking the seeds again.

These side effects occur as a result of toxins and impurities are being eliminated from the body and blood and excreted out of the body. That's why one passes stool a lot during the initial period.

If one takes too many seeds a day or over dosage, one would have frequent bowel movements and the stool will be watery. In such cases, it is wise to reduce the daily intake of the seeds. Typically, 6 seeds a day will provide a solution to constipation but some people do need more!

Since moringa seed is known for its powerful impurities removal in water, imagine what it can do the water in your body!😌

As time passes by, the unpleasant negative side effects will disappear.

Personal experience

I experienced severe left knee pain until I cannot walk for a week after taking it for a month. Under such circumstance I decided to temporarily stop taking them. After a week has passed, my knee pain was history and I continued my consumption of the seeds.

Before taking the seeds, I do experience on and off knee pain due to wind. Hmm.. I guess this joint pain can also be eliminated by taking a few grains of moringa seeds a day.

After another 2 months passed, I experienced ankle pain in my left limb until I had to limp to walk. Again I stop taking the seeds .Bravo! Within a week, my pain was all gone and my walking resumes to normal. 👍

Moringa seeds consumption also cures my coughing which I am very prone due to heatiness. It with the function of increasing the natural defense body system due to its richness in Vitamin A and C will strengthen the immune system leading to cold prevention.

A TCM doctor of mine mentioned that moringa seeds are used excessively in treating color blindness in Africa. It come as a no surprise as the seeds is also known in improving one's vision due to its excellent source of Vitamin A. It also good in simulate hair growth and enhance skin health. This is made possible by Vitamin A which nourishes the hair tissues and zinc which keeps the sebaceous glands on the scalp unclogged.

Prolonged consumption of moringa seeds will result in weight loss as it reduces fat and cholesterol in the body , better sleep, enhanced body immunity and memory.

IMPORTANT PRECAUTIONS

Take note that moringa seeds are not suitable to be consumed by pregnant and nursing women, severe asthma patients and infants plus people with heart attack. The seeds have a shelf life of 2 years stored away from direct sunlight. Do not take more than 10 seeds a day.

If you are skeptical of its medicinal benefits, please don't take as moringa doesn't has substantial clinical studies that support its benefits.

UPDATE 25 Feb 17

It been half a year since I first took moringa seeds. Reflecting on my "health recovery", I now find that I have no experience of severe cough at all. Before taking the seeds, I will experience severe cough twice a year due to my likings of tea (be it chinese or "teh tarik") which can only be cured by visiting a TCM practitioner near the Taman Muda wet market area. A 3 visits to the concerned lady chinese doctor will put my severe cough at bay and made my pocket lighter by at least $200! 😰

I also discovered that I can sit under the rotating ceiling fan in the morning seeping my favorite "teh tarik" without incurring blocked or running nose plus watery eyes later part of the day (which is a norm in the predawn age of moringa seeds consumption).

Now I can also take fruits daily. Before this, if I took fruit daily, cough will be my best buddy 😞. Also nowadays even with heavy consumption of fried food such as roti canai and nasi lemak plus bak kut teh in a week, my sored throat (another one of my best buddy) seems to be nowhere in sight.

Judging from the changes that I experienced in the past half year, I must say that moringa seeds did wonders to my health. I am of the belief that it clears heatiness which I often experience to my meaty diet. When heatiness is kept at bay, health is being restored in my condition.

Oh yes. the seed hulls/shelves can be used to brew tea (just like tea leaf). Drinking the water seeped in it can be helpful to one urinary pouch and also clearing one's intestines.

Brewing moringa seed shelves in a teapot.

The resultant tea from moringa seed shelves.

I discovered that some people will experience tiredness, some tingling bone pain in the body and prone to be sleepy when they take moringa seeds initially. Don't worry, all these are normal effects. Prolonged consumption at a slow pace will finally put away such effects. Some would even experience thirstiness after consumption. Just drink more water after consumption. I guess the seeds need water to remove the toxic its clear from the body. 👍👍👍.

Hopefully I will discover more plus points in my continuous journey of moringa seeds consumption.

More than half a year ago, a 100 gram of moringa seeds costs $25 to $30. At that time, it is so popular and one can find 5 to 6 stalls selling them in a wet market.

As time passes by, many people especially the seniors had stopped taking it as it caused pain and discomfort to their life. The younger generations like those in their teens are also not drawn to it due its bitterness. So now it only left those super stubborn believers who still taking the seeds. This shrinks the demand market a lot.

Now when the fad was over and the demand waning, it is selling for just $65 for a pack of 500 g. If one would like to buy a lesser amount, $25 will get a 200 g pack. Those without wings (as shown in the picture) are of higher quality than those with wing (pic below). Higher grade (eg. AA or AAA) moringa seeds are without wings, and of bigger size.

Braised potatoes with minced pork (lemon juice)

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Tue, 19 Jul 2016 10:05:00 +0000

A simple yet delicious dish with a combination of meat and veggies. Best eat with steamed rice. This braised potatoes with minced pork recipe dated back to my beginning 2014 post. The new recipe come with added lemon juice.

Get 2 to 3 potatoes. Peel off its skin and sliced them into thin pieces. Then soak the sliced potatoes in water.

Next, slice the pork into thin pieces and then chop them into fine pieces. If the slicing process is skipped, during frying session, the minced pork will stick together to form big section of minced pork.

Now, it's time to chop some garlic into tiny pieces and fry them in the wok with some oil to give the fragrance smell.

IMPORTANT.
Remember to set the fire to very low level so that the small pieces of garlic won't turn into black carbon garlic.

What followed next is the minced pork. Mix and stir fry the minced pork with the fried garlic pieces. Add in pepper, oyster sauce, sugar (optional, for health conscious individual, this ingredient can skip) and some water.

Finally, it is the sliced potatoes turn to make their appearances in the chinese wok.

Stir fry all the ingredient. Add soy oyster sauce, dark sauce and more water to let all the ingredients simmer in the wok for about 10 to 20 minutes. Remember to cover the wok to quicken the simmering process.

The longer the simmering process, the softer and tastier will be the potatoes. Keep in mind the longer the simmering process, more water is needed as this process will dry up the water very fast. During this simmering process, I also add a few squeezes of lemon juice!!! This will make the meat taste of the dish to be less "profound".

Felda Residence Hot Spring Sungai Klah Park (Sungkai) -2

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 14:35:00 +0000

My recent visit to Sungai Klah Hot Springs Park is definitely not the first time. Many things have changed since my first TRAP visit backed in 2010.

First is the entrance ticket price.

Adult ticket price has increased to RM15 from RM10 back then. Children ticket is priced at RM12 now as compared to RM8 previously. Thanks to inflation, GST and increased cost of living, price of ticket for adult and children have increased by a whopping 50%.

After paying for tickets, we got our ticket wrist bands.

With that on the wrists, we proceeded to take the tractor cart which will fetch us to the hot spring pool.

Without the tractor cart, one can still reach the main hot pool. After the wrist band ticket and food checking, take the small lane on the right hand side of the tractor cart lane. Walking along this lane in no time will lead one to the main hot pool.

We proceeded to the egg boiling area. Yes, indeed, the Felda operator has upgraded the boiling area. A small wooden platform has been built to accommodate those who intend to boil eggs at the steamy hot water area.

In addition to that, 4 yellow plastic chained stainless steel mesh strainers are provided to boil the eggs to your likings.

In case you are unsure how long you should immerse the egg in the boiling pool, here's a guide.

Okay, time to get the chicken eggs from the nearby stall. A bowl of 6 chicken eggs with a pack of soy sauce and 2 spoons will make your wallet lighter by RM5 while a Rm20 bill will get you a pack of 30 eggs.

A new addition a cendol stall beside the egg stall.Hmmm, a good gulp of cooling icy water should be good for the heated body after soaking feet in hot water.

Water areas around the egg boiling pool are suitable for soaking feet. One can feel the rush of blood flowing around the body, and a few minutes dip in hot sulfur water will redden the skin of the soaked area on the legs.

If one suffers from high blood pressure, do not soak your feet in the hot sulfur water for too long. It might make you dizzy as it will further increase your blood pressure.

So what next? Well, it's time to eat the boiled egg...

And...

next stop is the mountain spring pool. The water here is cooling. I couldn't detect any changes in the mountain pool since my last visit.

The shooting streams of chilling cool mountain water brings immense relief from the sweltering heat.

Yup, the lower wide and the higher narrow slides are still here. Not only the kids love them, but also adults. There is a food stall nearby the mountain pool. Burger, bun, soft drinks.. just make your choice...

And yes, if you forget to bring extra clothes after dipping wet in the mountain spring pool, the clothes stall will come to your rescue...

Finally, we headed to the hot main pool.

This natural hot pool offers therapeutic effect to one's health. But beware, if you have abnormal blood pressure, don't dip too long. I saw one old man leaping out of the pool assisted by his wife due to the prolonged time dipping in the waist high pool.

A beautiful neon butterfly landed at the side of the hot pool.

A new attraction has been added near the hot pool. An archery area. RM10 for 12 arrows. I guess it is too pricey...

After five years from my first visit, the thermometer and the "mushroom" in the hot pool are still there.

Well, despite the sweltering heat, the cascading hot water is buzzing with flowing water compared to dry up in my first Felda Residence Hot Spring Park visit.

Beware...a 100 deg hot spring water near the cascading hot water.

Look like Felda Residence Hot Spring Sungai Klah Park or Taman Rekreasi Air Panas (TRAP) is officiated in 2005.

Braised pork ribs with fried chicken feet

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 08:44:00 +0000

Normally I only prepared braised chicken feet with mushrooms which is a popular local Oriental delicacy. This dish usually make its presence during the Chinese festive seasons.

Today, I would like to present something more innovative :

Braised pork ribs with fried chicken legs.

This dish takes a long time to prepared, so if you are in a hurry and hungry, try other "instant" dishes. Peanuts are also added.

Boil the groundnut in some water for 10 to 15 minutes. Then pour out the water and keep the peanuts aside.

Next, prepare a wok full with hot boiling water. Then add in the pork ribs to remove some of the fats.

After a few minutes, take out the pork ribs and soak in cold water. Then stir fry the pork rib with chinese wine, soy sauce, a dash of sugar, black sauce, pepper, oyster sauce and five spices.

Do the same for the fried chicken feet. ( I bought fried chicken feet, so need to fry!). Put the fried chicken feet to hot boiling water and then soak in water.

Now, fry some spice with oil in the wok.

Add in the chicken feet, and peanuts, and after some a few minutes, the earlier prepared stir fried pork ribs.

Here's the complete ingredient in the hot wok. Add in a bit of chicken cube, oyster sauce,sesame oil and black sauce.

Now, pour the chicken feet and peanuts to a pot for braising. Cook with small fire. When the chicken feet are soft, add in the pork ribs as the meat is very easy to get overcooked.

Now, after all the hard work, get your chopsticks and rice ready.

Teriyaki Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 05:00:00 +0000

If you have a sudden craving for those teriyaki chicken ordered in Japanese restaurant, you can easily prepare it at home under 30 minutes.

You can either use chicken thigh or chicken breast.If chicken breast is used, flatten the meat with a meat mallet while if chicken thigh is used, you can skip this step. Marinate with pepper on both sides and leave it for a few hours to let the flavor seeps into the meat.

Heat some oil in a frying pan until shimmer. Then add chicken to the heated oil. Flip the chicken after a few minutes and continue doing so until the skin or meat brownish color.

Next, remove the chicken from the frying pan and pour some teriyaki sauce to the pan. Add in some water, and bring to a boil.

For home DIY method, use soy sauce and honey. Continuously stir the mixture until the honey is dissolved.

When the teriyaki sauce is boiled, add in chicken to the pan. Boil for a few minutes so that the sauce can seep into the chicken.

Finally, it's chopping time. Cut the cooked teriyaki chicken into pieces and serve it with rice.

Oh yes, you can add in some veggies such as cucumber or carrot. I must say that this is one simple easy delicious dish to prepare.

Improve HDD/SSD performance, reduce wear and tear and freed up disk space

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Sun, 05 Jul 2015 05:28:00 +0000

Freeing up disk space (especially on C: drive) is paramount when you find your system running slower and slower as the time passes by. A small system drive will be filled up quickly with frequent windows patches and updates plus software installations.

This problem can be solved by using Sysintenal's Junction . By using Junction to move the program to another disk/SSD or even a RAM disk without reinstalling the software, the system disk content can be lightened and the wear and tear reduced.

1. Copy the Junction.exe file to the c:\Windows\system32 folder.

2. Let say the program we want to move reside in c:\Program Files\Sample. Copy the content of the entire Sample folder content to d:\Sample (d:\ can be SSD or RAMdisk).

3. Delete the c:\Program Files\Sample folder or better still, rename the Sample folder in C: drive. Renaming the sample folder will keep the content intact, so that if you make any mistakes in the process, the content can be recovered.

4.Open command prompt and type the following command after the c: prompt.

c:\Junction "C:\Program Files\Sample" D:\Sample.

This command will create a symbolic link in C:\Program Files\Sample for D:\Sample where the actual program resides. However, a checking with Windows Explorer will show the program in c:\Program Files\Sample.

Here, we have saved the space on drive C: without re installation of the program. When we run our program with the original short cut, the program runs without a glitch.The actual accessing of the program storage location can be confirmed by viewing the activities with Process Monitor.

If our main system disk is a SSD (which most of us worry about its wear and tear level with frequent write), we could move the software program location to a RAMdisk (example using Dataram or Gilisoft RAMdisk). Aside from that benefit, we also enjoy speed improvement when running the software as RAMdisk is multiple times faster than a SSD.

Braised minced pork with potatoes

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 05:22:00 +0000

A simple dish that you might find in the local mixed rice stall, braised minced meat with potatoes takes about a half hour to prepare.

Ingredient
Main ingredient
chopped garlic
minced pork
potaoes cut into small cubes

Seasonings
soy sauce
fish sauce
pepper
thick black sauce
oyster sauce

Method
Put a bit of oil into the wok. Put to small flames and after 20 seconds or so, pour in the chopped garlic.

Then add in minced pork and other seasoning ingredients plus some water.

Next put in the potatoes and add in more water.

Cover the wok and put to small flame and wait for around 20 minutes. The potato cubes should be soft in texture by then and if it so, it is ready for serving.

Open those files with "The above file name is invalid" message

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 04:04:00 +0000

Have you encountered the following when try to open file by clicking on it?

The above file name is invalid pop up after clicking on it.

Nothing happen.

"The file name is invalid" message pops up.
And then you try to move it, delete it, and find that you can't do so. Even by right clicking on it and trying to "Send To" or "Open with" fail to open the file.

If all of the above fail, you can try to open it with the following method :

Move or copy the whole folder to another location. Try to open the file now.

Chicken with Preserved Mustard Greens (Mui Choy)

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Fri, 12 Jul 2013 02:26:00 +0000

Another "black" meaty with veggies sidekick dish that goes down well the throat. Very suitable for those with a salty die hard tastebud.

Ingredients

1. Chicken
2. Preserved mustard greens (mui choy)
3. Garlic and ginger
4. Seasoning ingredients such as soy sauce, thick sauce, oyster sauce, pepper, sugar and salt.

Method

Soak the preserved mustard greens in a bowl of water (add salt). After an hour, remove the preserved veggies and cut into bite sized pieces.

Also cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and simmer them over boiling water for a few minutes.

Pour some oil into the wok and add ginger and garlic (for aromatic smell and also to remove the gaminess of the chicken meat).

Add chicken to the wok and seasoning ingredient and stir fry the chicken for a few minutes.

Then add preserved veggies and water and cover the wok.

Let the meat and veggies simmered over half an hour to an hour so that the taste of the preserved veggies as well as the seasoning ingredients can absorb into the chicken meat. You can also marinate the chicken with the seasoning ingredients and leave it in the fridge the day before the dish preparation.

The Trick to Money is Having Some

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 04:03:00 +0000

This Stuart Wilde's book is not a "How To" book, rather it is a mindset and perspective book on money making. It is a book that stresses on the importance of associating abundance with one's life and in due course, money will flow in naturally. Surround yourself with scarcity (for example cheap and shoddy junk), the quality of your life isn't going to head north and most probably you would stuck in it for the rest of your life. How do you know whether you believe in abundance? Simple, just look at the things around you. Are they of excellent upmarket quality and creativity or are they in drab, ugly and dead?

Sound a bit like "The Secret" to me or did "The Secret" borrowed and repackaged the concept in this book?

In order to be rich, one have to be in congruent with abundance in one's current standing. Contrary to the majority belief that one can only enjoy the finer things in life when one makes it, Stuart Wilde points out that experiencing abundance can be free of charge, for example one can go to an expensive hotel and sit there. If the waiter come and bug him, he can always order a cup of coffee which won't cost so much. This just shows that we don't have to spend much to enjoy quality life.

Well, of course there is more to make money than just believing in abundance. Intent and clarity are the foundations in one's money making effort. People who have these make it in life while those lacking them don't make it. For staunch religion believers, they will find Wilde view on religion unpalatable. Wilde said,"God is up there pulling the strings, deciding who's going to make it and who isn't...that idea is tribal and childlike."

Many logical and common sense views are shared here. In dealing with people, don't presume anything. Clarity of communication is vital. When starting a new business, creativity is utmost important but finally it boils down to motivation and management of people. So hire "unstoppable" and focus on "how many, how much" in your business. Real success depends on WHO you know rather than WHAT you know.

I find one interesting stuff reading about Wilde's book. He offers an intriguing explanation why religion is normally associated with poverty. Religion, directly or indirectly, implies money is the root to all evil. Religion often preaches money is no good. Why? As religion is meant to reach the masses, and the majority of us are not rich, so in order for the masses to embrace it, it emphasizes the way of poorness or moderation in money matter. So it is OK to be poor, at least according to the religion.He also offers an enlightening view on this matter. Some of the followers will ask one day why God let them starve Well, the answer is "The religion will promise the poor a special place in heaven". A workable and saleable concept which is simpler than solving one's desperate condition.

Stuart really infuses some comical perspective to his views. We often hear the term "it is better to give than to receive". He said of course it is so as the person who coins this term is actually on the receiving end. I like the way he explains releases and imbalanced. He stresses that all our possessions are on rental (from God). Finally we need to give them away but just make sure the give aways do not cause a problem to yourself and any emotion attachments. Does one give away one's trousers who is admired by someone and go home in undies ? This will cause imbalance.

In conclusion, this book is very entertaining to read, that is, if you keep an open mind. Stuart Wilde is humorous and at times controversial but what he said are not far from the truth and full of sense.

Braised Minced Pork Meat with Soy Bean Sprouts : Specially for the Kids

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 04:06:00 +0000

Kids will love this tasty dish. Braised minced pork meat with chopped soy bean sprouts will lead your kids asking for more. It seems as though no amount is enough to satisfy their cravings.

Ingredients

1. Pork meat.
2. Soy bean sprouts.
3. Seasoning ingredients such as oyster sauce, salt, sugar, pepper, and thick black soy sauce.

Method

Cut the meat into small cubes and then chop the cubes with a chopping knife until minced condition. You can use a blender to ground the meat cubes if you are in a rush .

Chop the soy bean sprouts into almost "ground" condition.

Put bit of oil into the wok, followed by the minced meat and seasoning ingredients

Remove the stir fried minced meat from the wok and add the chopped soy bean sprouts to the wok. Add seasoning ingredients and stir fry for a few minutes. Then add the minced meat and water. Add more water as the kids love the brownish gravy immensely.

Mix the ingredients and water and cover the wok. After 30 minutes, remove the wok cover and pour the dish into a bowl.

"Hmm... yummy! yummy!"I heard the kids murmuring.

Bitter gourd and Carrot with Black Bean Paste

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Here's another nourishing vegetarian delight which is ready for serving in less than 20 minutes.

Ingredients
1.Bitter gourd
2. Carrot
3. Fermented black soy bean.
4. Vegetarian soy paste sauce
5. ginger, pepper, sugar and salt.

Method

Cut carrot and bitter gourd into chunk sizes and add water and salt to the veggies. Next crush the black soy bean with mortar and pestle till the bean become paste form.

Then add a bit of oil to the wok and followed with slices of ginger. Add carrot, soy paste sauce, sugar, salt, pepper and stir fry for a minute or two, followed by bitter gourd. You can add a bit of thick soy sauce if you prefer darker color gravy.

Stir fry for another minute and add the bean paste prepared earlier on. Add water and cover the wok. After 5 to 10 minutes (when the veggies are soften to your liking), pour the dish to a plate for serving.

Chinese Emperor Chicken : Fast and Easy

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Thu, 04 Jul 2013 01:02:00 +0000

Chicken mixed with herbs is very good to rejuvenate one's health and energy boosting. Since the mouth watering dish is steamed, all the precious health benefits (minerals plus whatever vitamins it might have) are preserved to give one immense nourishment when the soft and tender meat plus the essence is consumed. As this delicious Chinese dish is easy to prepared, let get to it.

Ingredients
1. Whole chicken ("kampung"/skinny). Don't use "normal white colored chicken as the resultant steamed chicken meat will taste hard. Remove legs, head, neck and internal organs.
2. Red dates with the seeds removed.(less heatiness)
3. Wolfberries
4. Dang gui (Chinese angelical root) to give the aromatic herbal smell.

4. A pack of Emperor Chicken herbs and spices. I discover Claypot Emperor Chicken herbs is tastier than A1.

Method

Put the whole chicken into the plastic sheet and aluminium foil that come together with the Emperor Chicken herbs and spices pack. Put the wolfberries, dang gui and red dates into the chicken body as well as the area surrounding the chicken.

Marinate the chicken with the herbs and spices pack by pouring in some mixture into the chicken belly and sprinkle the rest to the chicken wings, thighs and external body. Add a bit of water and salt if you like to have more heavenly aromatic gravy.

Wrap the chicken with the plastic/aluminium foil and then steam it for two hours. Constantly add water as the water will bound to dry up over the steaming process.

Ta-da. the Emperor Chicken is ready which not only nourishing but also mouth watering..

VLC: Download movie subtitle while watching it

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 14:06:00 +0000

I believe many of us (English is a second language) would like to have the subtitle displayed at the bottom of the video movie while the movie is playing.

In the past, if I want the subtitle to appear in the movie, I would look for the subtitle file (.srt) and download it. After ensuring that the subtitle filename is the same as the video name and sit in the same folder as the latter, the subtitle will then appear during the video playing session.

Well, with the VLSub addons, one can kiss goodbye to such a time consuming and irritating task. By putting the vlsub.lua file in the vlc/lua/extensions folder, one can practically make the subtitle appears on the fly. While watching the movie in VLC player, click the View tab, select VLC sub 0.9.

The VLC sub windows will pop up, letting you to search the movie subtitle by name or hash. You just have to click either one of the selection tab and then the add on will search the appropriate subtitle and display them on the big empty space in the middle. Next select the subtitle file by clicking it once (it will be highlighted) and then click the Download Selection button.

The add on will then download the file and display its corresponding dialogue at the bottom of the screen. The best part is while you are doing all these, your movie watching can proceed in the play mode as normal (no need to pause the video).

Braised Pork Leg

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 01:18:00 +0000

For pork meat lovers, I'm pretty sure that they like to taste the soft, tender and aromatic skin and smooth flesh meat of the soy braised pork leg. Prepared over a two hours duration, this dish will surely entice those who try it for the first time.

Ingredients

1. Garlic
2. Old ginger
3. Spices (cinnamon sticks and anistar)
4. Pork Leg
5. Black soy sauce, sugar, salt, oyster sauce

Method

Pour the chopped pork legs into a wok of boiled water. Cover the wok and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. Next drain the hot water from the wok.

Pour oil into the wok. When the oil is hot, add garlic, ginger, black sauce, spices and pork leg. Stir fry the pork leg and then add sugar, salt, water, oyster sauce, pepper, five spice powder. One can also add a bit of chicken stock to enhance the flavouring.

I transferred the dish to a flame free cooking pot to reduce the cooking time. Of course one can continue to cook the pork leg in the wok until its skin are tender. How to know the skin is tender enough? Poke with fork or chopstick. If it can thrust through the skin and meat with ease, then the dish is ready to be served.

With the flame free cooking pot, two hours is sufficient is soften the pork leg skin and meat. Even after switching off the gas stove, the braised pork leg still continue to boil due to the hot plate attached to the bottom of the pot.

Start task manager in system tray automatically : Win XP

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 01:18:00 +0000

I like to see the task manager green icon sitting in the system tray when I start my computer. And I would like to see the CPU load indicator starts automatically in minimized mode without taking up tab space in the task bar at the bottom.

So how do you make it starts in minimized mode automatically in Win XP? Well, it is achievable with a few simple steps.

1. Create ShortCut that run the Program in Minimized Mode
Go to C:\Windows\System32 to locate the taskmanager file. Next make a shortcut of the taskmanager program. Right click and select Properties. Select "Minimized" for the Run field.

2. Make the Program Start Automatically After Win XP Boot
Go to Startup by navigating to C:\Documents and Settings\\Start Menu\Programs\Startup where is the current computer user name. Copy the TaskManager shortcut (made in step 1) to here.

3.Prevent the Program Tab Appears On the TaskBar
Start TaskManger. When the Windows TaskManager pops up, select the Options Tab and select the Option "Hide When Minimized".

If you would like to see more detailed pc usage data at any time, just double click the task manager icon in the system tray and then it will pop up.

Note
To automatically startup a program in Win 7, navigate to the following folder

C:\Users\(User-Name)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Drag and drop the corresponding shortcut program to the folder.

Mixed Vegetable Curry

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 13:37:00 +0000

This vegetable curry is very suitable for vegetarians as it contains no garlic, onion and meat at all. This spicy dish can really increase one's appetite and make one eat more !!!

Mixed Vegetable Curry Ingredients

Potatoes cut into bite sizes and soak in water.

Long beans cut into one inch length.

Tomatoes cut into small slices (can be crushed and peeled).

Brinjal/eggplant cut into bite sizes.

Carrots cut into cube sizes.

Vegetarian meat (to enhance the curry dish taste and make one stomach more full).

Curry powder (fresh from morning market) plus coconut milk.

Lemon grass to make the curry dish more aromatic.

Cooking Method

Pour some oil into the frying pan. Add potatoes, eggplants, carrots and vegetarian meat. Add in some vegetarian oyster sauce, black soy sauce, sugar and salt. Saute the mixture for a few minutes and pour out the content into a plate.

Pour some oil and add curry powder plus lemongrass, tomatoes and long beans. Mix the content for a minute and add in the flavoured stir-fry veggies.

Add water, mix the dish and then cover the frying pan. After 15 to 20 minutes and the veggies are soft enough (especially the carrots and potatoes), add some coconut milk and stir for a minute or two. The dish is ready for serving.

We normally eat the vegetarian dish with rice but you can also substitute the rice with bread. You can put some gravy and veggies to the bread and then send it down your throat. Sure taste yummy!!!

VLC: Setting Dialogue Louder

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 06:59:00 +0000

Have you encountered the following situation when watching movies using VLC? The dialogue audio output barely can be heard but the sound of the action plus background music are blasting loud?

It is sure not a fun way to watch video movies in such a way as despite all the blasting fantastic captivating action sounds, you have no idea at all what the actors and actresses are talking about.

Luckily, there is a way to make the dialogue louder in VLC player. Go to Audio Effects and then click on the tab Compressor. Place the various sliders in the positions as shown.

There you have it. Now the dialogue sounds a lot louder and you can enjoy your movie to the fullest and make sense of what is really going around. t

Youtube Song Lyric Appears Automatically

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 07:24:00 +0000

Thanks to Rob W, it is now possible to have the song lyric appears automatically when yo play it in YouTube.

The YouTube Lyric by Rob W plugin extension is available for Chrome, Firefox and Opera. With this extension, one can look at the lyric without scarifying the song visual scenes.

The lyric will pop up at the upper right hand corner of your browser window when the song is played. Therefore, one no longer have to look up the song lyric and can easily sing along while the song is played.

For Chrome, go to Chrome WebStore, select extension tab and key in "YouTube Lyrics by Rob W" at the Search Aps bar. Then click add to Chrome.

Or you can simply key in this tab and then click the Add to Chrome Tab.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/youtube-lyrics-by-rob-w/lifkpflabnobkgbjpcmocmgcajlecbcp

For Firefox users, key in the following link and then select download now
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-lyrics-by-rob-w/

Opera users can select "Add to Opera" button after visiting this link:
https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/youtube-lyrics-by-rob-w/

If you find that the lyric that appears doesn't match with the song in play, you can click the "Different Source" link at the top of the lyric pop up bar.

Hulu Langat Traditional Bone Specialist "Tit Da"

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 04:03:00 +0000

What would you do if you "twist your nerves", pull or strain a muscle or break your bones? Many people opt for western practitioners to treat their bones fractures and normally had their broken bone parts cemented and takes months to cure and for muscle strain, you would get a pain killer injection (I think).

Seem that is the conventional way to treat our broken bones but what to do if we "twist one of our nerves"? No sign of injury but somehow we feel a painful and tingling sensation in our muscles. More like our muscles has been pulled accidentally. How do we treat it?

Well, there is a famous place in Hulu Langat which is well known to treat such an ailment. It is known operated by Traditional Bone Specialist Chin Yek Leong 2nd Generation. They specialise in rejoining broken bone, spinal cord, crack in bones.

How to get there? With reference to the map below, one can even take Bus no. 11 from Kota Raya, KL to the Bone Specialist Center in Pekan Hulu Langat .

This is the Traditional Chinese Bone Specialist Center.

Yup, the place looks pretty rundown and unassuming. Not professional at all but if it is effective in treating one's ailment, I guess people won't mind. Actually this was my second visit there since my patience is very thin.

It operates from a shop lot and doesn't have any proper signboard. But you would be surprised that it is visited by tens of patients each day (of course Sunday, and Public Holiday it is closed). Not only Chinese visits the place but Indians and Malays also join in. They closed for 9 days during Chinese New Year.

Once entering the shophouse, walk to the inner part of the shop and take one of the number hanging by a metal hook there. The place is open from 10:00 am to 9:00 pm. I reached there 10:30 am and got the number 20. That means there are 19 persons in queue. One of the patients told me people have been waiting even before the place is open.

There are 5 masters treating the patients. For normal case, one would take around 30 minutes in attending to the patients. Ladies sifu will massage women patients while the guys will be attended by the men master. The last short limbs bending sending session will be done by a guy regardless of the patients gender. I got my "massaging" session at around 12:30 pm. Since I pulled a certain muscle nerves in my left shoulder, the master massaged my left limb, shoulder and backbones for around 30 minutes with warm herbal massaging potion. Feel so painful and yet comfortable.

Yup, if you really strain your muscles, you would feel the pain during the massaging and rubbing session.(No pain, no gain). I would say they rubbed/massaged you almost non stop and vigorously during the treating session (unless of course, you could always ask for the non massaging session). My advice is don't feel afraid, let your muscles loose during the session or else you might injure yourself and feel more pain.

The treatment cost RM45. I was issued with a Medical Card. Sorry, this card cannot be used to claim your MC leave.

A bottle of Chinese home made herbal massaging potion was also given to me plus some herbal medicine capsules.

If you suffer some broken bones in the limbs or pull a muscle, you can pay a visit to the place. Go early as my Indian friend waited 5 hours before having his treating session in the afternoon.

Yes, it definitely requires tons of patience to see the traditional doctor and of course, the fee is very reasonable considering the non stop massaging service they give to the patients.

UPDATE 270213

Went there again this morning. I used the windy road from Taman Muda and passed by Lookout Point. With the sighted Batu 14 mosque at the traffic light, I knew I was near my destination.

When I reached the place, it was only 9:30 am. They hung the patient waiting number outside their metal folding gate so that patients that arrive early can always get the number even before the center is open..

Got the number 10 and waited till 11:00 am to get the treatment session. If you didn't take your breakfast or feel hungry after getting your number, you can go to the nearby coffee shop or mamak store at the junction right in front of the mosque.

Fo Guang Shan Dong Zeng Temple

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 02:38:00 +0000

Fo Guan Shan (FGS) which is located in Jenjarom, Selangor is getting more popular as the years passed by. Thousands thronged the temple on the first day of Chinese New Year this year.

The image shows a cobra protecting Buddha during mediation is the theme for this year. The snake body is made of recycled bottles filled with water to give an added weight. In fact, many decorations this year are using recycled bottles in their designs, promoting a eco friendly environment.

At the entrance of the main shrine, you can pick your "Advice Pencil" (dun know what to call them, they contain time tested and enlightening guidance on life). I got the following advice on the pencil "Distilling Three Hundred Years Into One Lifetime". Hmm.... wondering what does it mean...

Lord Buddha in the main shrine.

Miniature versions of Lord Buddhas...

Buddha Murals adorn the wall in the main shrine.

Here another one.

Another mural depicting the ever popular Buddha position : the sleeping Buddha.

The type of 10 Offerings in the main shrine temple and why do we make offerings.

This year, an unique decoration can be found in the garden. If you lift your head there, you can see many upside down colored umbrellas fitted with LEDs.

Once the sun goes down, the transformation begins.

The red, pink, purple, blue, green,white and green umbrellas are litted with bright white shining LEDs, livens up the garden in the FGS temple.

If you want to understand the message brought by the umbrellas decoration, read the text below, "Happiness and Peace".

Another smart uses of white LEDs presents us with the white Buddha.

As this year is the Snake year, we can't miss the Snake zodiac symbol.

Located right at the feet of the "Snake Mountain", these lucky wishing bowls will grant you the wishes in them if you successful throw money coins into them. Perhaps the tingling sound created when the coins fall into the bowls alerts the "Wish Master" to do his job!!!

Well, if you wish to have improvement in your study or success in your career or a reality in whatever you wish for,aim and shoot with coins...

A visit to the FGS temple won't be completed without some display of the floral there. Yellow orchids in the background line up the garden perimeter.

Since we have Buddha here, we must also have Buddha faithful disciples presents as well. There are 10 of them in the temple area.

We can't possibly miss a temple bell when we are in a garden, can we?

A tribute hall is dedicated to the well known Master Hsing Yun. He is in the background, OK?

Some unique artworks created with paddy.

Yup, these are made from paddy leaves, not silk shining golden wires.

Aren't they magnificent? Here's another one. Must have taken ages just to create a single one of these masterpieces.

There are many beautiful scenes in the FGS temple compound when night falls. Here's one of them. Lord Buddha sitting in a lotus seed flower. Nice, isn't it? That's why so many people snapping photos here! So pardon me for the camera at the lower right hand corner.

Some Chinese Zodiacs on display. You guess it right. It's none other than the Pig. See the similarity?

Here come the Horses.

And now, it is the Rabbit turn.

Finally, Goat!

In the Chinese New Year, let do some good deeds by getting our hands wet.

Finally for those of you who find problems in finding your ways around the area, here's the floor plan.

If you like to bring your family to somewhere different instead of the shopping malls, then visit FGS temple in Kuala Langat. The celebration takes place till Feb 24. You can also get some discounted vegetarian sauce at the side entrance of the temple (beside the Cultivation Center). I bought one for RM5 instead of the usual price of RM5.70. It took around an hour to drive from KL to the temple. (of course no jams lah).

Where's the leopard?

noreply@blogger.com (LeoCW) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 08:58:00 +0000

Could anyone spot the leopard in the picture?

No? The leopard must be real smart 'cos it found itself a perfect camouflage spot.