Friday, February 13, 2009

Dumpling making... Round one

Strange things can happen when a man ties the knot.
He becomes lazy...
Too tired to do the chores after a hard day's work, he claims.
The missus takes over the kitchen and the man enjoys the meals.
For many years, used to do the dishes after meals.
Even that, these days, the lady of the house says, 'it is ok, I'll do it'.
So, the man not only 'forgets' how to cook, he forgets how to wash the dishes, he forgets how to iron the shirts or he becomes clueless on how to turn on the washing machine.
Suddenly, after over two decades of pampering, yours truly one day said to himself... I would like to try my hand in making dumplings.
From scratch, that is...

He takes out the flour, throws in a dash of baking powder, a spoonful of brown sugar... and added water...
He kneads the concoction...
He pops in the meat and greens, and steams the 12 dumplings for 15 minutes under strong heat...


And woah.... here it is...


The taste?
Low on salt but quite yummy, I must say, if taken with vinegar and yellow mustard...
Am looking forward to trying a second time... soon...

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Motor-assisted commuting

Weight 61.8 kilos...
Body fat 13%...
Height 175.5 cm...
Hmmm, am I too thin or what...
Was told by my doctor that I was on the borderline of hitting the 'metabolic syndrome' some months ago...
Put me under some stringent tests on diabetes...
Luckily, no problems...

Still, went on to control my intake of goodies...
And now, this... did I over-control the food intake or what...

Meanwhile, yours truly continues to commute with his mountain bike...
On fine winter days when there is no rain or wind, he'd be crawling through the 20 kilometers or so to the university, and 20 kilometers back home again in the evening... tail wagging and tongue dangling for that hot supper meal...
But ooh, the finger tips, the toes... go numb in the cold... this, despite, double gloves and double socks...
Other than that, it remains a joy to cruise the backlanes...

Still, there is no way to stop the old dog from aging...
So, had been eyeing the motor-assisted bicycle...
When the current bike goes kaput, shall certainly be shopping for one of those motorized bikes...
Truth is, while shopping for this current mountain bike, a friend suggested that I get the motorized bicycle. I shooed him off, saying that I am no wimp to rely on the motor to propel the bike.

Now, imagine yours truly gleefully cycling up the slopes, motor-assisted of course...hehheeheeee...