Quick Lunch - Fried Mee Fun

A quick and simple meal with mee-fun, cabbage and egg. It should take less than 30 minutes from preparation to getting ready to devouring them ;-)

Ingredients (as per serving; treat weight/volume as a guide - more or less of amount based on individual preference)

Mee Fun(rice-vermicelli): 100 gm (dry weight) soaked in water for 20 minutes
Egg: one medium size. Break into a bowl and stir
Cabbage: 100 g. Cut into smaller rectangular strips
Tomato: medium size, about 70 g, slice into smaller pieces
Onion: about 25 g. Slice into smaller rings
Water: half cup (or use soup stock)
Light soy sauce: 1 tablespoon (not those of the Chinese porcelain type)
Dark soy sauce: 1/4 teaspoon
Cooking oil: 2 tablespoon
Salt to taste

Method
Preferably use a non-stick pan so that cooking oil can be minimised;
Use a medium fire to heat up a tablespoon of oil;
Stir in the egg; and fry until cook. Set aside; when not so hot, cut egg into about 5cm strips;
Put in the rest of the oil; and stir in onions and stir-fry until turns soft;
Add in cabbages; increase heat to high; and fry for a minute;
Add in the noodles, water, tomato, light and dark soya sauce
Stir them thoroughly; add more water if the consistency is too dry
Add salt to taste, and if necessary, sprinkle some gourmet powder to enhance taste :)
Cook for another three minutes before dishing out;
Garnish the noodles with egg strips; and serve them hot.
For those who like them chilli-hot, sprinkle with some cut chillies!

Cost per serving: RM 1.00

Quick Relief for Runny Nose?

Common colds are caused by a large variety of viruses such as rhinovirus that we breathe or on things that we touch (which have been contaminated). These can trigger an immune system reaction that can cause a throat sore, headache, nose being blocked and making it hard to breathe through the nostrils. Although common colds are seasonal, with more occurring during the cold weather, there is no direct evidence that having a cold drink or having the hair wet when going outside would one catch a cold. At the moment there is no vaccine to combat the common cold as it seems not worthwhile to make one for each virus strain and moreover they mutate quite frequently during reproduction resulting in different virus strains. So in a way, medicine can't cure the common cold. Like most virus infections, colds just have to run their course or until our body's immune system or anti-body overcome the viral invasion. Medicine that is prescribed for the patient is likely meant for other symptoms such as to relieve muscle aches, headache and fever. Getting plenty of rest and drinking lots of fluids my help feel better while on the mend. Antibiotics, which are often mistakenly prescribed for colds, won't help.

Note this is not a cure but may provide a quick relief to runny nose. With a finger and thumb, pinch the lower soft end of the nose (not the bony part); remember to continue breathing via the mouth ;-) Do it for 20 to 30 minutes at a time. Any relief? If nose still runs later, repeat the procedure.


The rationale behind this approach is to mimic the way the body shakes off a cold by itself. When a person comes down with a cold, it usually takes more than 30 hours to reach its peak. Meanwhile the virus keeps on multiplying and reproducing in the nose - a comparatively cool area of the body. By nature, the body fights back first by sneezing then eventually by building up mucus in the nasal passage to block the nose and so raise the temperature to kill off the offending virus. It takes a long time before nasal membrane areas are so inflamed and swollen they eventually close up together. It is only then the temperature inside the nose raises from the comfortable 30C to the temperature that the kill the virus at about 33C. The rise in temperature in the nose area will trigger an alarm in the immune system ushering in the army of white blood cells which have the power to ingest virus as well as bacteria. Mimicking the way the body fights the virus by closing the nose would quicken the process!

A way to sleep in peace?

Many people are able to sleep within 10 to 15 minutes upon lying on the bed or do you often spend too much time waiting for the sleep to come? People who are suffering from insomnia would understand. Apart from the sleep disorder, this could be a result of various things that prevent you from falling asleep. Many people experience this type of problem each and every night. More often than not, stress, anxieties or depression in our lives is what stops us from feeling at peace. As we get into bed, many think about the problems they have experienced over the day or the things that need to be carried out the next day.

Meditation seems to be a good way to relax the body and the mind. In general, the more relax you are the easier it will be for you to fall asleep. There are many ways of meditation. Among the popular methods without involving religion are:

Breath Watching: Focusing on the air going in and out of your nose;

Visualisation: Listening to tapes that describe beautiful places such as being on a beach for example;

Mantra Meditation: This is a word or phrase you recite in your head repeated over and over for a period of time;

Empty Mind Meditation: Letting the mind go silent on its own and in "full-lotus" position.

These are techniques that make you feel at ease. You may find that meditating ten to fifteen minutes before going to sleep will help you fall asleep quickly.

The important objective is to distract yourself from your endless thoughts. You just need to test out what works best for you or you may try devising your own method.

Mine does two things in one. First of course to fall asleep with ease no matter what you have in mind and secondly to improve the memory by reciting them regularly and in a way exercising the memory cells (mine and not any reference to any biology text).

My method is to "recite the 800 digits that i made up" while lying on the bed to sleep. Until now, i am able to fall into a dreamless slumber quickly way before i finish reciting the numbers. I believe that reciting this number in your head, is also a form of meditation that can distract you from stress, worries or any important task that need to be done the next day.

Actually i use this tactic to fall asleep by accident. Earlier in an incident when i left behind the hand-phone in the office, i found myself helpless when trying to contact the family urgently because i could not recall any contact numbers. I am quite sure most of us would rely on the handphone's memory card to make contact due to convenience. This incident makes me resolve in memorising them. Then later i realised that by reciting the handphone numbers and others during sleeping time, i fall asleep easily.

A word of this 800-digit (or less) number. These are not randomised numbers but is comprised of many individual numbers that may be useful to memorise and remember for example serial numbers of bank accounts, credit cards, passport, etc.

A technique to remember a number with many digits like in a bank account is to link the numbers to associate with some events like those of the mind-mapping techniques.

For example, how do i remember a bank card serial number:
(the number is similar but not identical)

3018 - 4420 - 1308 - 8880

Break them up into smaller groups (but not the sequence) if necessary.
For example, the above number is rearrange into different groups to make it easier to memorise:

30-18 44-20 13-08 88-80

Then, make up a story like
when i was 30 years old, i felt like i am 18
when i was 44, i felt like 20
when i was 13, i felt like 8
when i turn 88, i will feel like i am 80

Another example, a credit number (similar number)
4794 4600 0012 1161

break the numbers up to form a story like
47-94-46 0000 121-161

47: imagine or relate it to a brother's or a good friend's birth year
94: 2 times 47 = 94
46: 47 less one = 46
the last two blocks will be quite easy to remember
00-00
121-161
read them as in a poem in rhythm.

Take a bit of time to make a story for others too.
The next thing is to have a mental guide to remember them in sequence not unlike the naming of the planets in sequence in our Solar System, for example, by referring them as "My Very Educated Mother Sat Upon Nine Pineapples" with M stands for Mercury, V for Venus, blah-blah, N for Neptune and P for Pluto.

In my case, i used this mnemonic, BP-CAT-TIE to help me to recite the sequences of individual numbers. For example:

B for Bank-related accounts such as savings, current, bank card and credit cards; and also B for Birth Cert;
P for Passport and Phone (fixed and mobile); and the phone's unique 15 digit serial number;
C for car registration numbers (past and current);
A for Astro account and its card serial number;
T for Tax account number;
T for Trading account (stock);
I for ID number;
E for EPF number.

Once you are familiar with them, you may extend to include family members too. In a way, i believe that remembering the number and reciting them nightly will help to improve one's memory , and this is liken to sort of exercising the memory cells! Sometimes when filling up a form which require details of personal particulars, and knowing them by heart is very useful and convenient too. Another example is when someone asks for your close relative's handphone number, you can recite them straight away without referring it to the phone's memory.

Whatever method you choose make sure that it is something tailored to your needs and helping you to overcome any problems whether to improve your memory or be able to sleep with ease.

Sleep well ;-)

Magic Tricks

I have always been fascinated with magic tricks especially those that seem to defy logic. The first international magic i witnessed was David Copperfield (DC)with his act making the "Liberty Statue" at New York disappear with a word of assurance from a popular actor, Bill Bixby (actor for the original Incredible Hulk) that there was no photographic trick. DC had done a very good act making several hundred of his live audiences to believe it really make the statue vanish into thin air. Or did he really make it disappear even for a minute or two?

And also those modern magicians who performed in the streets - so called "Street Magicians" - they don't even have "backdrop and props" to support their illusion. Perhaps with the aid of advance technology, their illusions make them more realistic with them seem to go through a thick wall for example or turning a "burger" in print into a eatable burger!!

Criss Angel, a famous street magician who levitates from one building to another building, witnessed by people standing on the building and people in the streets below. No props, no nothing. How did he do it? He would probably be described as a "prophet" if not an angel if this occurred a century or two ago. And also to Cyril Takayama, another famous street magician who is an American-Japanese who amuses a lot of people with his clever illusions performed in the streets of Japan.

Look at some of the best illusions as presented as follows:

David Copperfield making "Liberty Statue" disappeared in New York City.


David Copperfield "walking through the Great Wall of China."


David Copperfield in his levitation


Another amazing magic show from David Copperfield


Criss Angel's street magic (seperating a woman into two parts) as hosted by YNC.com


Criss Angel levitates from Building to Building


Cyril Takayama, an American/Japanese, a street magician turning a burger from the poster into a real one in a Japanese street witnessed by passerby.


Cyril Takayama performs another amazing illusions in Japan


Cyril Takayama (blind folded) is driving at over 120 km/hour and making his Japanese lady guests pee on their pants.

Quick Lunch - Spaghetti with Steak

Having this combination is a sort of fusion between Asian noodles with Western Steak. If only i have recorded the diners' remark, you would hear them said, wow nice and tasty ;-))

Ingredients meant for 4 servings, if not adjust accordingly.
Soup Stock for meat and noodles - Need 5 cups of stock (or 500 ml). Please refer to the last quick lunch regarding this here ;

MEAT
Ingredients:
Any type of fillet would be all right. Need about 125 gm per serving. Use the blunt side of the knife (or cleaver) to pound the meat gently. Marinate with some light soy sauce for about 10 minutes prior to frying;

Onions: 1 medium size (about 80 gms). Slice it into smaller pieces
Potato: 1 medium size (about 100gm); cook it and and mash it up
Cooking oil: 4 tablespoon
Butter or margarine: 1 tablespoon
Mayonnaise: 1/2 cup ( 50 ml)
White Vinegar: 1 teaspoon
Dark soy sauce: half teaspoon
Soup stock: 2 cups
Flour: 1 tablespoon of sieved wheat flour or tapioca flour
spring onion for garnishing
salt and pepper to taste.

Tool: Non stick pan, a pot and a spatula

Method:

Use a non-stick pan so that cooking oil can be minimised.

Heat up the oil

Put in the steak and fry for about 5 minutes on each side. Scald both sides.

Dish them out and leave aside.

Transfer the left-over oil from the pan to a pot;

Add in some butter or margarine to the pot;

Add in the slice onions in and stir-fry until it becomes soft and light brown;

Sprinkle a tablespoon of flour; stir gently the mixture until the mixture turns golden yellow;

Add the rest of the ingredients - soup stock, mayonnaise, dark soy sauce, vinegar and mash potatoes;

Cook until it starts boiling, then add in the steaks;

Reduce the heat to low and simmer gently for another 20 to 30 minutes;

Add salt and pepper to taste;

Test the meat if it is tender; if not, let it stew longer.

Watch the cooking, don't let it get dry-up. Add in additional soup stock if necessary;

Dish out the meat with some sauce on the top of the meat garnish with spring onions;

Keep the remainder of the sauce to be used for noodles later.

NOODLES
Ingredient:
Spaghetti Noodles: 100 gm (dry weight) per serving. Refer to the above link for details.
Garlic: 1 bulb of garlic (about 10 gloves) or about 40 gm. Skin and cut into smaller pieces;
Tomato: medium size. Slice it into smaller pieces
Cooking oil: 2 tablespoon
Oyster Sauce: 1/2 cup (50ml)
Soup stock: 2 cups
Salt and pepper to taste
Spring onions for garnishing

Tool: A pot and a spatula

Method:

Use a medium fire to heat up oil and fry the minced garlic until it turns light brown.

Add in the noodles, oyster sauce, slice tomato, soup stock and the remainder sauce from the meat.

Stir them thoroughly

Cook for another 5 minutes and keep stirring

Add spring onions and dish out to serve immediately.

Time management:
Get all the ingredients ready including cooked noodles, soup stock and meat being marinated.
When cooking noodles, do it together with the potato (quarter it).
Start doing meat until the heat is lower to stew the meat for 20 over minutes
Prepare noodles and when ready serve immediately with the steak.
Get knives and forks ready too.

Cost per serving: About RM5 per serving

IN SEARCH OF UFO

Short for Unidentified Flying Object, they are normally associated with alien's spaceships, and these have intrigued humans as long as civilization. Many people have reported seeing UFO flying over the country though many had lied too. Their shapes have been reported as being spherical, cigar-shape and triangle, among them. Because of the tremendous speed they travelled and the sound they created were those of the humming noise, many people speculated that they may have come from planets other than those in our Solar System. It is likely that they are using advance technology such as superconductors to create the electromagnetic flux as well as anti-gravity propulsion or perhaps totally new technologies that Earthlings may take a century to catch up! That may be the reason for their humming "engine" noise unlike those of sonic boom generated by the USA or Russians' supersonic jets.

Below are some of the most credible evidences hosted by International News Media or those witnessed by fighter pilots and confirmed by their Military Air Force.

** 26 September 2008. This was the event when Yves Rossy, a Swiss, was attempting to be the first man to fly across the English Channel, from France to Dover with a jet wing ((homemade jet-propelled wing powered by 4 tanks of kerosene). Unknown to him and many others who were there to witness this event, a UFO was following the jet plane. It was only later, the footage revealed a shiny cigar-shaped flying object. Expert, Nick Pope who investigated UFO's for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) said the mystery flying craft was too defined to be a cloud yet does not resemble a plane. He believed the Fridays' sightings was significant. However, MOD said it takes no active role in identifying UFO sightings unless there is evidence of a potential threat to national security.

UFO follows plane


** Presented by Fox News. This video is very revealing. Three objects were pulsating, changing directions, then NASA guy was saying that over the years we have chased many of these things and always that they just ignored our contacts.


** Buzz Aldrin talks about the 'UFO' which the Apollo 11 crew saw on their way to the moon.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin Recounts Apollo 11 UFO Encounter

** MEXICO CITY - 05/11/04 - Associated Press :
Mexican Air Force pilots filmed 11 unidentified flying objects in the skies over southern Campeche state, a Defense Department spokesman confirmed Tuesday. A videotape made widely available to the news media on Tuesday shows the bright objects, some sharp points of light and others like large headlights, moving rapidly in what appears to be a late-evening sky. The lights were filmed on March 5 by pilots using infrared equipment. They appeared to be flying at an altitude of about 3,500 meters (11,480 feet), and allegedly surrounded the Air Force jet as it conducted routine anti-drug trafficking vigilance in Campeche. Only three of the objects showed up on the plane's radar. 'Was I afraid? Yes. A little afraid because we were facing something that had never happened before,"said radar operator Lt German Marin in a taped interview made public Tuesday.

"I couldn't say what it was ... but I think they're completely real," added Lt. Mario Adrian Vazquez, the infrared equipment operator. Vazquez insisted that there was no way to alter the recorded images.

The plane's captain, Maj. Magdaleno Castanon, said the military jets chased the lights" and I believe they could feel we were pursuing them." When the jets stopped following the objects, they disappeared, he said.

A Defense Department spokesman confirmed Tuesday that the videotape was filmed by members of the Mexican Air Force.

"This is historic news," Maussan told reporters. "Hundreds of videos (of UFOs) exist, but none had the backing of the armed forces of any country. The armed forces don't perpetuate frauds." Maussan said Secretary of Defense Gen. Ricardo Vega Garcia gave him the video on April 22.


** Belgium in the early 1990's had a massive wave of ufo sightings all over the country, The Belgium government finally came out and informedthe public about the issue and said about an incident where they scrambled Belgium air force F16's to intercept one of these objects. Eventually one aircraft had a lock on to the object and then it zipped off out of sight at thousands of miles an hour, interesting stuff.
UFO in Belgium chased by Air Force F16's


** TV News Station Records UFO
On the 25th of May 2005, a reporter from KPVM TV 41 News interviews Mr.Yahweh (he referred himself as Prophet) from Los Angeles, California who claims to be able to call UFOs on demand. The News reporter looks in shock and disbelief as a white ORB actually materialises for the cameras in plain day light.

Yahweh seemed to be calling UFO on demand

Quick Lunch - Clear-Soup Noodle (清 汤 面)

(clockwise - spring onions, minced meat and preserved salted radish)

Quick lunch is meant to be simple meals suitable for people who wish not to indulge in "hawkers" food, meal after meal.

Ingredients:
Soup Stock - refer to the last quick lunch recipe here

Minced Meat - any type of meat should be all right. Need about 30 gm per serving. Cut into small pieces and mince it. Marinate with a teaspoon of soya-sauce for a couple of minutes.

Preserved Salted Radish (大头 菜) - need about 15 gm per serving. Soak in water and clean the radish; then cut into small pieces. Put these into your palm and squeeze the water out.

Noodles - any "wet" types like yellow mee, rice-vermicelli (mei-fun) or flat-rice noodles(kway teow). About 200 gm per serving or roughly use a serving bowl to fill up the noodles as a guide for each serving. Soak for a couple of minutes over some boiling water and drain. If dried rice-vermicelli is opted, then it has to be soaked in cold water first for about 10 -15 minutes, prior to soaking them over the boiling water. When noodles is ready and drained, put them in the serving bowl.

Spring onions - get some for garnishing (if not available then it should be okay as they are meant for decoration but it does have some traces of minerals like Fe, K, Mn and vitamins A, C and K).

Cooking oil - a tablespoon (15ml)

Salt to taste and pepper

Others: Prawns, Fish-balls, etc. (optional)

Method: Use a non-stick pot so that cooking oil can be minimised. Use a medium-fire to heat up oil and put in the minced radish and stir-fried for a minute; then add in the minced meat and stir-fried for another 2 or 3 minutes. Pour in the soup stock and heat it up and boil it for about 5 minutes. When ready, pour the soup stock over the serving bowl of noodles. Garnish with spring onion with pepper. Serve immediately.

Cost per serving, excluding options: about RM 1.20