Proton BLM - SAGA Replacement

Read more about Proton's new car here. Some local ads for the new car here.

And for tons of photos here.

Watch their official advertisement here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXoCuTBh4RI&feature=related

And a TV3 reporting on this new car launch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82f8O2u-lRo&feature=related

MTU Closed - 30 January 2008

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE...CORRECTED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MARQUETTE MI
508 AM EST WED JAN 30 2008

...WINTER STORM AND ARCTIC AIR TO IMPACT UPPER MICHIGAN INTO
TONIGHT...

.STRONG NORTHWEST WINDS GUSTING AS HIGH AS 60 MPH THIS MORNING IN
THE WAKE OF RAPIDLY DEEPENING LOW PRESSURE MOVING INTO SOUTHEAST
CANADA WILL CONTINUE TO DRIVE DANGEROUSLY COLD ARCTIC AIR INTO THE
UPPER GREAT LAKES TODAY. ALTHOUGH ANY LINGERING SNOW ASSOCIATED
WITH THE LOW WILL DIMINISH EARLY THIS MORNING...EXPECT LAKE EFFECT
SNOW SHOWERS TO PERSIST IN THE SNOW BELTS FAVORED BY WEST TO
NORTHWEST WINDS WELL INTO TONIGHT. THE COMBINATION OF THE FALLING
SNOW AND THE BLOWING SNOW WHIPPED UP BY THE STRONG WINDS WILL
CAUSE LIFE THREATENING BLIZZARD CONDITIONS OVER THE KEWEENAW
PENINSULA AND NEAR LAKE SUPERIOR EAST OF MARQUETTE INTO THE
AFTERNOON. EVEN AWAY FROM THESE AREAS...EXPECT BLOWING SNOW INTO
THE AFTERNOON TO CAUSE REDUCED VISIBILITY IN OPEN AREAS. PLAN ON
WIND CHILLS AS LOW AS 35 TO 45 BELOW ZERO THIS MORNING AWAY FROM
THE MODERATING INFLUENCE OF LAKE SUPERIOR. THE HARSH WINTER
WEATHER CONDITIONS WILL BEGIN TO EASE THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT
AS THE LOW MOVES FARTHER NORTHEAST AND HIGH PRESSURE APPROACHES
FROM THE PLAINS.

http://www.accuweather.com/watches-warnings.asp?partner=forecastfox&zipcode=49931&county=MIc061&zone=MIz003&metric=1

This is the first time I am experiencing this in MTU. The school closes when there is very bad weather like winter storm or blizzard. Donno to be happy or not. Cause will be held back in class. But everyone is facing the same problem.

First Broomball Match I.H.O.P. vs. "No Balance"

This spring semester I am playing as goalie for one my International House broomball teams. There are 2 teams in I-House. My team's name is I.H.O.P, in full "International House Of People".

For those who haven't heard of broomball ever, let me make it simple to you.

It's just like a Ice Hockey game EXCEPT, you make your own broomball stick out of a broom and lotsa duct tape, you use a plastic ball, 5 on 5 and played on a slippery ice hockey rink OUTDOORS in the case of MTU. Broomball in MTU is only played during winter.

More info can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broomball

The rink


The broomball stick (mine)


The ball (made from rubber)

Here are some shots as goalie...

Saved a goal shot between my legs.

The final score was 1-3. So, we lost. But I was "man of the match" cause I saved the most goals in the match (>10).

And now my thigh hurts cause one save of mine, I had to dive, and I somehow dived on the ball and on impact my thigh slammed onto the ball against the ground. On another save, I dived forward and I slammed onto the ball against my stomach. During that moment, my stomach kinda hurt. But it's alright now.

There was another situation where I was trying to grabbed the ball, another player slammed his stick onto my fingers. Luckily my glove give me some form of protection.

I really have to get more protection despite all these....

Shin guards, knee guards, elbow guards

I probably need something like this for my thighs...

On other news, do look out for more posts from me as Winter Carnival is approaching. MTU has lotsa activities to keep us company during the cold, grey and lazy winter.

One thing that I am looking forward to are the Snow Statues. There are 2 categories, all nighter and month long.
Here is the result of one month long of building with snow.

This was done last year by one of the Fraternities. Their theme was "Hanging Garden of Babylon". The main carnival theme was "Ancient Worlds Come to Play in Snowy Drifts of Modern Day"

Check out more photos from last year's Winter Carnival photos here
http://www.mtu.edu/carnival/2007/2007/statue/completedOne/
http://www.mtu.edu/carnival/2007/2007/statue/completedTwo/

This year's theme is Frightful Creatures with Chilling Features. I wonder what "creatures" am I gonna meet.

Stay tuned...

FIDANI - Finest Chocolate Creations - Hell yeah!!

Click on the above photos to go to my
FIDANI - Finest Chocolate Creations Showcase

Something from a loved one...

I just got back from staying off campus, went to grab my mail today... And I received my first parcel from Malaysia!

From my one and only sweetheart... Yiling!

Not cheap to send something from Malaysia to US... (vice versa)

A big big surprise from my beloved Yiling!!! She sent me my favourite chocolates! I can't believe it. She told me last time that it's impossible to send chocolates to US. But but but.... she did not only send one box, but two boxes of chocolate! Gosh, she's full of surprises!

But of all the things, this is my most favourite gift!
She made a scrapbook page about us! The messages on it are so beautiful!

I love you so much Yiling!

THANKS DEAR!

A simple Pasta Meal - Grilled Sausages with Sun Dried Tomato and Celery Cream Sauce

Felt like having pasta again for lunch today.... So.... I made Grilled Sausages with Sun Dried Tomato and Celery Cream Sauce. Might sound fancy, but it's just a simple meal made from Campbell's 98% Fat Free Cream of Celery, Sun dried tomatoes and sausages of your choice.

So, as usual, cook the pasta till it's just right. Then I grilled 2 sausages over a pan in low-medium heat till it cooks. Once done, slice the sausages into thick slices. At the same time, with another pot, stir in a can of the campbells and 3/4 can of water. Cook it over low heat. Next, cut the sun dried tomatoes into small strips and soak it in hot water. To make things faster, I put the tomatoes and water into a bowl and microwave it for 3 minutes. The tomatoes will be soft, drain the water and add them to the sauce. I added some italian herbs and black pepper to the sauce. Next, add the sliced sausages and bring the sauce to boil. Finally, toss in the spaghetti and mix it with sauce. It's now ready to be served.

Voila... Another tasty pasta meal!

Here are some of the ingredients I used.

Cut the sun dried tomatoes into small strips.

I used pork sausages with cheddar cheese inside.

ENJOY!

Roti Telur Bawang with Fish Curry and Sambal

Yesterday I had leftover curry. So for brunch today, I had roti telur bawang!

I bought frozen roti bawang from Jim's Foodmart. You can get some asian products from this grocery shop. I think I have seen this brand being sold in Malaysian supermarkets as well.

It's made in Malaysia, but don't know why they call it Paratha instead of Roti Canai but I think Paratha is the original Indian name. Singaporeans call theirs "roti prata".

Wiki on Paratha, Roti Canai, and Roti Prata

For once I am happy/proud to see that sign on something.

So, all you need to do is take out the dough straight from the freezer and place it over a medium heat pan. No oil is needed. Pan fry it until it's golden brown and when dough is puffy.

Once one side is ready, flip it over, cook it for some time and right before it starts browning, remove the roti canai, pour one scrambled egg onto the pan, let the egg cook partially and then put the roti canai back onto the pan. This will allow the egg to stick with the roti canai. The result...

I know, the original one has egg in the inside of the roti canai. But I don't know how to make roti canai dough, so this is the closest I can get to Roti Telur Bawang.

I served it with the left over fish curry and sambal from last night. I always eat my roti canai with fish curry, seldom chicken curry or dahl.

I

also made a cup of hot chocolate to substitute with milo for this mouth watering meal!

The frozen roti canai really does taste authentic like the fresh one from Malaysia. The egg made the roti canai so much more fragrant. Although it is frozen "roti bawang", you can't taste much of the onion in my opinion. When it is in it's uncooked form you can see some tiny bits of spring onions.

Another satisfying Malaysian meal!

My first NASI LEMAK in Houghton!

I miss my nasi lemak very much, so I was determined to make Nasi Lemak during this holidays! I even bought "ikan bilis" when I was in Chicago's Chinatown. Can't find it here. Invited a few friends over for dinner.

I started cooking at 4.30pm and ended at 8.05pm.

Tonight, I prepared Nasi Lemak (Kenny washed and prepared the rice, I only added coconut milk and salt to it), Chicken Curry with Potatoes (senior prepared the chicken and potatoes, I cooked), Fish Curry (all by myself), Ikan Bilis (by me), Hard boiled egg (Kenny) and Sambal.

For the rice, it was pretty simple, just rice, water, coconut milk and salt. The one major ingredient we missed out for the rice was pandan leaves. Can't find it here.


Next, I washed some ikan bilis and then dried it up with a kitchen towel. I let it air in the room to let it dry even more. Next, I deep fried the ikan bilis in heated oil and waited till it became golden brown. I am proud that it was just right, crispy the way I like it without burning! No photo here, but later you will see some ikan bilis in the overall photo of tonight's meal.

Now for the curry...

I used some kinda curry paste which I got from another senior of mine. There was chicken curry and fish curry paste. The stuff I put in for the Chicken Curry was of course, chicken, onions, potatoes, more curry powder, garam masala, salt, sugar, star anise, cinnamon sticks, fresh lemon grass sticks and last but not least, coconut milk.

Yeap... There was a lot of Curry. You can barely see the potatoes or chicken.

Next up, Fish Curry

For the fish curry, I used one Tilapia Fish, 2 slices of "ma yao" fish, onions, egg plant, tomatoes, garam masala, cinnamon sticks, star anise, lemon grass sticks, salt, sugar, water, coconut milk. The fish curry paste was extra spicy, so I didn't add curry powder. The fish was bought frozen from a international grocery shop knows as 'World Foods' here.

I first pan fried the fish to reduce the "fishy" smell and also to speed up the cooking process for the curry. Before frying the fish, I dried them and coated them with a thin layer of flour.

The final product...


The hardest part for cooking the fish curry was cutting up the fish. I bought it frozen and it hasn't been cut. I thawed the fish but it was hard to cut through the bones even with a meat knife. Maybe the knife wasn't sharp enough.

Next for the sambal

I blended dry chilli (first soaked till soft in hot water), one tomato, garlic, onions, salt and sugar. Missing here is belacan and tamarind juice. Once they were well mixed and fine, I fried it over some oil. Fry for some time untill the sambal starts drying up.


As you can see from the above photo, I was a lil too generous with the dry chilli and ended up with a really super duper spicy sambal.




The one scary part when cooking the sambal is that when it boils it starts splattering everywhere. I had to wear an apron to protect my t-shirt.

Another friend of ours stir fried some vegetables to neutralize this meal.

Voila... One Spicy Malaysian Dinner...


See the ikan bilis on the small plate(left). Hidden behind was the sliced hard boiled eggs.

This is me when I was cooking the Chicken Curry





The Chicken and Fish Curry.

Overall, it was a satisfying meal. Would have been better if I had all the necessary ingredients but it was definitely better thann nothing. Got thumbs up from my guests, so I feel happy too!

P.S. I bought fresh curry leaves to cook the curry, but guess what? I forgotten to put them in!

New PASTA recipe!

I had to prepare my own dinner tonight as Kenny was out for a party. I felt like eating pasta today so, I went out to a grocery shop to pick up some ingredients for my dinner. I don't think I told you guys that the house that I am living now is right next to "Jim's Foodmart" which is a medium sized grocery shop. So, shopping for ingredients was just a 1 minute walk away.

When I was in Malaysia I really loved pasta but over here I was sick of it cause they serve it daily in the dining halls. But right now it's break, so I haven't been eating pasta for some time.
Today, I made up a new dish. It was inspired by Seed Cafe's Anchovy Pasta(forgotten it's real name". I never knew what they actually put in their pasta but for sure I know there are sun dried tomatoes, dry chilli, oyster mushroom and anchovies.

Their sauce is the dry type, not really tomato based I think. Lotsa olive oil and it was pretty spicy.

So, here goes... My newly created pasta dish.
Shrimp and Mushroom with Anchovy Sauce Spaghetti (serving size: 2)

Ingredients:

- 1 small (7oz) pack of pasta - This sauce is best eaten with Spaghetti
- 1 small can of tomato sauce (not ketchup!)
- 1 small (1.6oz) tube of anchovy paste
- 1 cup of water used for cooking pasta (after the pasta had been cooked)
- 2 Cups of Sliced fresh white button mushrooms
- 2 Cups of small sized shrimps (i used a small pack of frozen cooked shrimp - commonly found in USA)
- 4-5 pieces of roasted bell peppers
- 1 tablespoon of sun dried tomatoes cut into strips
- 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
- 2 tablespoon of White wine - I didn't have this so, I used chinese cooking wine
- Italian herbs (basil, parsely, chives, etc)_ - I bought a small bottle of dried italian seasoning which had all in it)
- Salt to taste

A few of the ingredients I used.

Steps:

1. Cook the pasta until it cooks. Try and take it out just before it starts become soft completely. This is because while you cook the pasta with the sauce later on, thew pasta will soften more. Drain the pasta and run it under cold water, this will wash away the starch and also make the pasta more "bouncy/springy".

2. Now for the sauce. First, sauté the minced garlic in some heated oil. Once it is fragrant, throw in the mushrooms and stir fry it. Sprinkle some salt and sugar to it. Control the amount of salt as the anchovy paste used later will be salty too.

3. Next throw in the tomato sauce, sliced sun dried tomatoes, roasted bell peppers and the "pasta water". Try to simmer for about 10-15mins at low-medium heat to ensure that all the flavors from the sun dried tomatoes get into the sauce.

4. Next, squeeze in the whole tube of anchovy paste into the sauce. You can control the amount of anchovy paste to use as it may be to "fishy" for some people. Once the sauce starts thickening, throw in the shrimps. make sure you constantly stir the sauce to ensure the sauce wont burn and also to make sure the ingredients are well blended together.

5. Finally put in the pasta into the sauce and stir fry them together. To finish it off, put in the wine. Once the sauce has covered every strand of the spaghetti, it is now ready to serve.

Voilà!

Serve it with a glass of cold beverage or wine if you can! I had mine with lemonade.

YUMMY!

and for dessert... I had Dairy Queen's Oreo Ice Cream Cake

ahhhh.... What a satisfying dinner!

Hope you enjoy my new recipe!

P.S. If you like spicy, add some dry chilli at the beginning when sautéing the garlic. I didn't feel like eating spicy today, so I skipped it.