UK Cooking Quest

Ok, the name sounds like I'm going to give reviews of the restaurant outlets I've tried in UK. But its not. This post is merely a post to show off food I've made (ya, I'm damn proud of my own food hahahha) I didn't make any great food for your information. But I am a little bit proud of it, because I never thought I could cook. (or maybe I still can't, its up to your taste buds to judge it)

Having cooked here everyday, I somehow think cooking is more than just cooking. Sometimes I think you have to have creativity in the food you make. You must also have vision of what the final product is like. There are thousands of ingredients here.Most of the ingredients here are great for western food, but then, it might not suit you, or worse...you don't know what they are and their purpose.

Food here, to me, can be considered cheap, especially the raw ingredients, like onions, garlic, eggs, with a catch, if you do earn money here. Even udon noodles sounds ridiculously cheap. Its 30pence. Its like 30cents to Malaysians for them, though its raw udon.

Mushroom and sausage spaghetti. Yum!

There were pretty weird pasta I made so far, or I think so. Initially, the pasta I had was cooked the most normal way it could be, tomato sauce (bought from supermarket, I does not have the ability to cook my own yet), pasta, mushroom, sausage. Very normal, very easy.

Then one day, I got tired of eating tomato sauce pasta, I turned to what Kepong people loves...the fried pasta, Tanjung Style!!! Although I did not use the spaghetti, the shell pasta did alright too. What is lacking in the ingredient is a decent stock soup to add to produce a much more superior taste. A bit of black pepper, lots of basils (its the best ingredient in pasta dishes), onions, and lots of garlic! I managed to reproduce like 60% of the Tanjung famous fried spaghetti. Hahaha. It was hard to get those nice burnt taste there without frying the whole pot.

The "Meatballs" Pasta

Then there's the part where I had too much sausages, and instead of dropping them inside, I took off the skin, rolled the meat into a ball, and made it into a meatball. Or so it seems. It was the weirdest pasta I've ate, due to the weird taste of the sausage (that sausage isn't very nice).

Next I tried making some carbonara, which of course, the sauce I bought ready made at some supermarket. What I did, was just add in extra ingredients into the sauce. Basil (OH YEAH!), double cream (really fatty), mushrooms and some cheese. Turn out to be not that satisfying, not the greatest. So currently I'm on the quest to learn how to cook a carbonara sauce, all from scratch! No more sauce from the damn supermarket!

Cheese Tortellini with normal bolognese sauce with bits of Parmesan. Not bad

The Black Pepper Udon

After so many pasta, I bought some udon at London's Chinatown when I went down for a trip. It is one of the best food I've cooked so far. Black pepper Udon with bits of marinated chicken, capsicum and squid. Everything really taste good, except for that squid. It tasted awful, because its frozen and not fresh. Since I'm a great pepper fan, what I did was simple, add in lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of black pepper. And I do mean a lot. The result was simply fabulous. My first time cooking it, the udon taste great with the lots of black pepper on it, chicken taste awesome, capsicum bit raw (will fry them a bit before dumping in next time).

Then, tired of using raw ingredients, I've decided to do some simple stuff (plus I'm a bit sick). Bought some reduced spaghetti ready meal from the supermarket and some mash potato. Heat up both, make some black pepper sauce out of the black pepper sauce I bought in London, pour over the mash potato, tada! I have bolognese and mashed potato with black pepper sauce. Simple n nice. Haha.

The mashed potatoes, black pepper sauce and the bolognese

Next up in my cooking quest, I shall learn how to make some tiramisu (if I can) and carbonara. Both were pretty much my favourite foods. I'm going to be half Italian soon. Italiaaaanoo!!!

A Visit to London

Over the weekend, I travelled to London with two of my very good friends. We took trains from Nottingham Train Station to London's St Pancras International Train Station. The journey was shorter than expected, it only took about 1 hour and 30 minutes to reach there from Nottingham. I think the train have been travelling at around speeds of 110km/h to 140km/h.

Arriving there, Ai Woon picked us up rather than Voon Yuan (his place is further and he is having class then). Her place turned out to be quite near to the station. About 20 minutes walk. So while waiting for Vy to finish his class and cook the dinner for us (Bak Kut Teh), we walked over to rest.

First image of London...its full of cars and people. Just like KL. Nottingham seems to be very quiet and serene now. Haha. After the excellent dinner (kind of miss Malaysia food after 1 month =/ ), we travelled down to Westminster area using the excellent Tube (subway train of London). I still think its the best public transport albeit a bit pricey for us Malaysians. We then have plenty of photoshots of the night view of the area. For your information, Westminter area houses London's most famous clock tower, the Big Ben and as well as the Parliament, London Eye and so on. We arrived home that night quite late, which all of us went to sleep straightaway so to conserve energy for tomorrow's journey.

The Big Ben

The Parliament & River Thames

London Eye

Night Skyline of the two icons

We went to Madame Tussaud's first thing in the morning. Tickets costs 22.50 pounds if I didn't recall wrongly. But then, it was worth it because you get to pat Spiderman's head, touch Nicole Kidman, give the Hulk a low-blow, see Hitler & Saddam Hussein, scold Simon Cowell and even punch Muhammad Ali. Its not bad finally seeing those wax figurines with my own eyes. Exciting adventure. =D

Then we head on to Chinatown of London (finally a Chinatown!!!), which Nottingham fails to possess of one, to have our lunch. Roasted duck rice, Kailan and Ma Po tofu, is the meal we ate. Succulent meat with crispy outer skin, the duck was absolutely fabulous. Only the duck is the real deal. The others were OK only. We then went to buy food from the Chinese shop in Chinatown. Absolutely fantastic. I sweeped the shop of practically anything I can. At one point I even wanted to buy a lotus root to make good soup, but then its too hard to transport, leaving me no choice but to leave it out of my list. I bought 7 packs of fresh Udon, black pepper and char siew sauce, 2 bottles of sesame seed oil, a bottle of rice wine and a bottle of Kaya (a must have!). These stuffs might not be rare elsewhere, but it is rare, extremely supremo rare in Nottingham, all because Nottingham DOES NOT have a Chinatown. Sad...

Four Seasons, the Restaurant that serves excellent duck rice

Next we went to Covent Garden, which is a must go in London in my personal Opinion. Its equivalent our Petaling Street, with more shows than sales. And boy, the people here are really into acting. Some come with full body paint, clothings and things you really can't imagine. They are really good too. There quite a lot of little stalls selling food around, one which sells Paella, a Spanish rice which I bought out of curiosity. First spoon and I have to say, its Godly!!! Its really one of the best rice I've eaten. Simple, delicious, beautiful. =)

Covent Garden!



The Paella

Next we cover the Oxford Street or the shopping street or the ladies' heaven, which is again a must go for London, especially on Boxing Day (Big Discount Day). If you go then, you'll be terrified by how many Londoners there is, especially the foreigners like myself. Hahaha.

Next day, we went back again to Oxford Street for the girls' second round shopping. Unfortunately...I have neither the passion nor the money to do a second round. Girls can get very unhappy when they fail to shop a single thing, I learned this that day. Girls can browse a long time, up to one hour in a shop of a brand, with only 2 floors for them. I learned this rule that day too. Unbelievable.

Oxford almost made us late for our train back to Nottingham. I left with Ai Woon to take our luggages (which we left at her place prior to shopping second round at Oxford St) at 2pm, we arrived at the train station at 2.45pm (the train's scheduled to leave at 3pm sharp!) after a great deal of running up the stairs at tube stations, walking with extremely big strides, and rushing. We made it!

Notts UK Fresher's Fair

Today I went to my Uni's Fresher's Fair. Its a fair by the Student Union in the university. All the clubs and societies of the university will be having their own booth here, pulling in new members to their club.

This fair is what I would call a fair. The societies here were no jokes. There are plenty of societies. From adventure to books, to martial arts, to literature, photography, and lots more. What captivated me the most is the skydiving society. It seems fun and they do sky dives plenty of times per term. I'm not sure bout the price. Should be alright. I might be joining. Going for the class as well. Why not eh?

Second most interesting thing is the Duke of Edinburgh Award society. I first heard it from Ai Woon, and I must say, it seems quite interesting. What they do is, you need to complete 5 different category of stuffs, before you can get the award. If I'm not mistaken, its adventure, community service, expedition, something something and something. Can't remember. Hahaha. Chance to do something good, and earn a medal for it. Hehehe. But it require up to six months to complete the bronze medal. Argh...I wouldn't mind a gold for this. Haih...see how first la!

Third, is the photography society. They do all sorts, lending out equipments, tripods, lightings, tips and tricks, and even dslr cameras to members. That is damn good. I wanna learn more bout photography. Its one of my favourite things. They even have trips to take photography. I think that'll be more valuable if I go back to Malaysia with great photos rather than some crappy photos which only I think is good. Hahaha.

They actually have a light aircraft that we can pilot when they flew it for u up there already. All just for 3.75 pounds if I'm not mistaken. That is damn cool. I hope to go up one day if can. Hahaha. I haven't found out much bout that one yet. Maybe some time later. Hehehe.

Fly~Dive~Photo!

UK

I think this is the first time I'm able to use Internet in UK. There's still no Internet access at my house, so I'm blogging from the University's computer lab.

Arrived on Monday at Birmingham International Airport, then we took a train to Beeston (the lovely town where I'm staying at), got off, then took a cab with all our luggages home. The house is quite "lovely". Hehe. Quite small, but the rooms are actually not bad. Mine's kinda big. The heater is a real problem though, quite a weak heater. But then again, as I'm not that scared of cold, so I don't really see much of a problem. Well, if its gets colder in the winter, probably I'll go off buying some portable electrical heater. Gas is expensive like mad here. Electricity is way cheaper.

I can't believe I departed from Malaysia without trying at least to cook. But then, I managed to survive well again. Basic survival instinct =) Well, first time I cook, its pasta, I know its easy, but then, I over estimated the water needed for the sauce, therefore its a bit watery. But we ate ok. Second time, we got a bit better (I cook again XD). I added mushroom and sausages inside the sauce. Excellent, not too watery this time. Breakfast I cooked my own omelette too, with mushroom inside. Add some fruit juice as my breakfast....sweet. Then I cooked some carbonara (with the bought sauce of course haha), added double cream (I know its fattening), bacon (bacon in UK smells like shit), and mushroom again. Turn out to be quite ok la. Not the best carbonara. Hahaha. Tommorow going to try to cook ABC soup, and menu for tonight, is rice, fried vege and probably some baked beans. Not bad I suppose. Hahaha.

Transport here is great...but the price is not. £1.5o per ride to anywhere? It is quite expensive. Unless you decide to go somewhere far far far far. But the buses are very accurate. 10mins between each bus. This put KTM in Malaysia to shame. Can't even arrive accurately. And the most amazing part, I think buses in Nottingham is equipped with hydraulic suspension. They lower the front left part when someone is getting on or off according to the height of the pavement, therefore, what you get is a small gap between bus and pavement, but at the same elevation. Very friendly for the disabled. I think thats why I see so many disabled people here in Nottingham. Don't know why, is it the food? Or Nottingham City trying to pull in the elderly?

Well, seeing I'm using the University's computer to blog, I won't post any pictures I've took in this post. Maybe the next. =)

Drag Me To Hell

One of the most terrifying movie I've ever watched. And of all cinemas, I've picked a theater with the THX qualification sound system (which means more ooooooomph!!) I went to watch with Sue Lynn, my brother and a cousin.

OOMPH!!

The theater was quite empty...making the whole movie 10 times scarier. Among the 4 of us, 3 of us did not watch 50% of the movie...

Basically the movie is about this girl who is working at a bank, approving loans and stuffs. She met this grandma (sort of) who somehow looks damn horrible, scary and...demonish. And so damn lucky, she knows a curse which is just pure evil. And so bla bla, she cursed the girl because of some failed loan thingy. So the story revolves around her torture from the curse. The ending is quite good also. Hahaha.

Aunty...you look scary lar

My overall rating of this show, out of 5, is 4/5. Its quite scary. Plus the story is new to me (maybe because I didn't watch much scary show). Hahaha. To me, its a definite must watch, but only with THX. Or else the oomph might not be there =P

Come N Go

Come and go...I think this is what is happening to my group of friends nowadays. The old gang no longer stays together as we all are pursuing our own path of life. There is always someone missing from the group. Trips no longer contains the whole gang too.

Vacations can only be done within a short span of time where almost everyone is free to join.

How sad life has become. But this is life.

I hope we all do stay together as friends till old age.

Transforminators...Hahaha!