A Relaxing Moment-轻轻松松

Finally, I find time to load my photographs, the relaxing moment in Auckland during Christmas holidays. It was so nice, temperature was around 18 degree C, and with sea breezes, it was, like in heaven (as the saying goes). It was still in spring, though a late one, and summer was approaching, but a change for me at that time (with cold winter in the North), this was nice and worth it. And flowers are blooming everywhere.


I was wearing my Agnis Homme and I like the green color that matches both my sport shoes and that shirt itself, with the green (green) grass, in both fore and background. The tree with full red flower blooming, is the Southern Hemisphere's (or NZ's own) Christmas trees, as I was made to understand by my friend.
The picture of a house on top of the hill, at the time I took it, the feeling it gave me was so nice, because I was imagining, a person staying there alone, on top of the hill, far away from city, quiet and isolated, and with wide open sky, nothing else. At that moment, a sense of freedom, and being able to feel so relax was so good, so great. That was the moment I cherished.

During Christmas day, there were many parties being held at the seasides, and on hillside, parks and gardens. For Christmas here, the temperature is opposite that of Northern Hemisphere. And I was glad to be invited by a friend over to his house for afternoon tea. We were having afternoon tea at his garden, having Foie gras (fat liver, from goose/duck), with sparkling wine, and later, we drank some English tea. What was interesting was that, I was honoured to have the opportunity to use a silver tea port (probably more than 100 years old) and with some porcelain cups older than a century. I have to thank my friend for that. That is actually, for me, a blessing itself and I am contented with that.

And also, having the opportunity to eat plenty (and plenty of) cherries, woooooooo, that feeling is superb too. I love cherry, and I can consume a whole Kg in less than 30 minutes. And I can have that throughout the day, without a problem, even if I have to skip my other meals, I will trade it with cherry. Enak sekali ya, 很开心， 很开心！

Choong, Beijing 8.40PM
I am looking forward to my next trip soon.................!

Red Bean Soup-红豆沙

Making Red Bean Soup is simple, everybody knows how to make it. You need red bean itself, water, sugar (rock sugar), boil it, and then, you have your red bean soup, or "hongdousha".
I have made this for friends in Penang, for friends in Kuala Lumpur before, and know colleagues/friends in Beijing too, and I did not hear any complaint that it was not good (ehm, ehm....!so basically it should be good). In actual fact, I receive many compliments for this (humbly speaking).
So, I can proudly say that I make good red bean soup.
Why is it that, although the ingredients seem to very simple, but there are some that tasted so delicious and tasty and some are not. Good 'hongdousha', I would say, are those, where the beans are soft and yet you still can chew them (the shape of bean is still quite intact), and the soup itself, not too tasty and when it enters the mouth, it has to be viscous enough that makes you want to have the second feeding, and next, and next, continuously without wanting to stop.
And we have to also consider whether we want to take it cold or hot, hence the sugar and water composition vary according to the temperature you want take the 'hongdousha'. (To make it smells better, basically, in Malaysia, we add Pandan leaves).

So what makes my 'Hongdousha' special? When we make it, we just don't mix everything into the slow cooker and set the timer, and then, wait for it to be fully cooked.
We have to choose good red beans for a start. And then rock sugar has to be mixed together and let it boil (we call this first boiling). And there has to be some stirring to make sure the sugar and beans mixed well, and the temperature is even through out. Next, depending on the people who are going to eat this (you should have an idea how they like it to be prepared), a little bit of brown sugar can be added or a spoon or two of raw honey can be added to have a better, improved mouth-feel, especially when you take it warm or hot.
And most importantly, we have make this using our heart (love). Cooking with heart always taste different, and I think this cannot be denied. A person who only uses his hands without his heart to cook, will not taste good, even if he or she uses the best ingredients in the world.
I used to joke with my friends back in Penang, that I have to boil it during the nite time, and have to wake up early in the morning for second boiling in order to have the right texture and mouth-feel when I 'serve' this to them during morning break.
So, now, you can understand that, making 'hongdousha' actually, is an art combined with love (that is why, you always say, mothers' cooking taste good! Of course, for sure, Grandmothers' cooking, uncles' cooking, aunties' cooking, fathers' cooking can taste good too, as long as you cook with your heart, it will taste good irrespective who cooks that).

Choong, Beijing 5.40PM

Maiden Message, First Time Blogging

Being a first timer and an inexperienced, amateur blogger, the task of blogging is not an easy thing. I wrote something, wanted to edit it first, but somehow, one click of button, pewl...! there you were, poorly drafted message without proper editing and was panicking after I accidentally posted it. How could I post a message like that for my first time blogging, that was awful! Trust it will be better the next time around.
Anyway, there is always a price a person needs to pay to gain something (better), right?

Back to my original message of the above-mentioned title, what I wanted to share was on my intention to have this 'blog-site', to give my personal opinions, to share my thoughts especially on things or issues that I see and experienced throughout my vacations, business trips, and articles that I came across through my reading (eg. magazines, books and websites). Hence, I chose the word, "Luah"- a Malay word, which means, to voice it out from the bottom of your heart. It describes very well what I am feeling inside and what I want to say.

I have to thank my friend here, for guiding (challenging would be a better word) me to create my own blog, and now, having this little space is like a child having his first notebook (when I was a school boy many years back, I wanted a blackboard in the house to write and pretend to be a teacher and this is exactly the feeling I have right now). And may be, I have to say thank you to Google for this to happen too.

Well, my first article and I trust more to come later.

Choong, Beijing 28th February 2009