Food makes me happy

My friend Amin told me that my passions are:

1. Food
2. Photography
3. Medicine

He’s wrong… sort of. Those definitely are my current top 3 passions but not in that order… it changes everyday depending on my mood and how well my studying is going. Haha!

Vietnamese garlic mayo – my mom’s recipe. One of my favourite with bread.

Banh Mi Xiu Mai – Vietnamese meatball sub with the garlic mayo above, meatballs, sauce and pickled carrots. There should also be daikon radish but I forgot to buy and pickle some!

Mike made some yummy guacamole!

Pasta salad with creamy mushrooms, grilled eggplant, red peppers and carrots

Lemon pepper crusted salmon and creamy mashed potatoes with sour cream and onions

Too much food, haha. Omelette with veggies, salad and bread

Eggs Benedict with cured salmon

 

Last week of Semester 1!

Hello everyone,

Hope you are all having a fantastic day

I have exciting news to share – I’m almost done first semester of second year med, woo hoo! What a great year so far – some downs but definitely lots of ups!

This is my last week of school and then we have next week off to study for exams. I have 4 final exams this semester, spread over 4 days – June 12-15. They’re coming up soon!

I’m feeling confident. Not because I’ve studied and know my material but simply because I have to succeed! There’s too much at stake to be lazy and fail. So much stuff to go through but there’s still lots of time to get everything done.

We do not start Semester 2 until June 25 so guess what I’m doing for the holidays?

Singapore!

Mike and I have bought tickets to visit Singapore from June 18-22 – very excited. It’s a place we’ve been wanting to visit and didn’t get the chance to while we were on elective in Vietnam.

You know what makes it even better? There was a sale and our tickets cost only $200/person for a return trip – how could we pass up that opportunity? In addition, a couple of our Singaporean friends are also going home and have offered to take us around and show us the little gems of Singapore I’m so excited! I will finally be able to experience epic food adventures I keep hearing about!

So great to have this little opportunity to look forward to but until then… study study!

Are you preparing for exam too? Good luck!

 

 

Photo #91: Pink Dusted Veins

May 29, 2012

No plants were harmed in the taking of this photo!

 

Photo #90: Sweet Sweet Nectar

May 28, 2012

Look at that sweet nectar dripping. The beautiful aroma of lillies filling your house – nothing fresher to wake up to! Thanks Michael <3

 

Photo #89: Efficient Rail Buses

May 27, 2012

Once in a while, for whatever reason, certain stations of a train track are not in service. Instead, Queensland Rail uses ‘rail buses’ to shuttle passengers to and from those stations. I like these buses! You don’t have to pay, they’re on schedule, the radio is played overhead and they’re clean. What’s even better? They’re almost always never crowded because people stay away from the train when it’s not running!

 

Photo #88: A Pink Background

May 26, 2012

Keeping only one point in focus while maintaining the flower’s identity – a tropical pink hibiscus

 

Photo #87: Almost a Taste of Home

May 25, 2012

As a kid growing up in Ottawa, Canada – BeaverTails were always a traditional treat to look forward to, especially during the wintertime while skating on the Rideau Canal.

A long time craving has led me to try and make them myself. The dough isn’t exactly the same – but they’re pretty tasty!

For those who don’t know – BeaverTails are a Canadian treat that first started in Ottawa. They’re fried pastries that have been individually hand stretched to resemble a beaver’s tail and topped with various condiments – the traditional one being cinnamon & sugar. My favourite is the Killaloe Sunrise – which is cinnamon and sugar with a spritz of lemon juice.

And the Rideau Canal is a man-made waterway that connects the city of Ottawa to the city of Kingston. It is the oldest continuously operated canal system in North America, and in 2007 it was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (thanks Wiki!). In the winter, a portion of the canal is drained and becomes the world’s largest outdoor skating of approximately 8km. My absolute favourite activity during the winter – skating on the Rideau Canal!

 

Update: Buying textbooks from Abebooks.com

Today I woke up to a pleasant surprise.

I received 2 emails from a supervisor and a manager of Abebooks.com Customer Support regarding an earlier blog post: Buying textbooks from Abebooks.com

In this post, I mentioned my dissatisfaction with some of my purchases which were not as described. I also included pictures of my purchases and email communication with the sellers to support my claims.

The emails I received were polite and professional. They apologized for my bad experience and stated that they would like to give me a full refund for the 2 books I mentioned in my blog post – something that was completely unexpected. Thank you.

The supervisor also mentioned that there was no record of me contacting AbeBooks customer support and that I should use it for future assistance. Honestly, I had no idea customer support dealt with such situations. Always thought I had to contact the seller myself because when you look at your order details on the website there are 2 buttons: Ask Bookseller a Question and Initiate Refund/Return – both of which are direct communications with the seller. With this knowledge, I am definitely more inclined to try purchasing from AbeBooks again in the future.

Lastly, because I mentioned Mike’s book in that post, they’ve asked for his order details so that they can make it right for him as well.

A great example of prompt and excellent customer service. I am grateful and happy – thanks again AbeBooks!

 

Writing recipes

If you know me, you know the way I cook: On the fly and without recipes. It’s been great and has worked well in allowing me to make my own dishes and to learn and grow as a cook.

But recently, I’ve become very interested in actually discovering and writing my own recipes by trying new dishes for the first time.

So starting earlier this week… after deciding on what I wanted to make, I did some online research reading a bunch of recipes. Took a little bit here and a little bit there and just went for it Sandra-style.

I’m happy to say that it’s been successful so far this week – I now have 4 recipes written down that I can truly call my own (The first 2 have already been mentioned here)

1) Apple cinnamon muesli cookies

2) Bacon and veggie quiche

3) Eggs benedict

(Very happy with the Hollandaise sauce (got the Michael stamp of approval!). I had to make it twice because it completely failed the first time. Second time? Gorgeous!)

4) Pear and feta cheese muffins

(My first time making muffins from scratch! I really like all sorts of fruit and cheese combinations so was hoping this would work and it did!)

Of course, I have tons of room for improvement but would definitely love to continue this on a regular basis. Will be slowing down the closer I get to exam time – eep!

 

Photo #86: Jedi Turned Evil

May 24, 2012

Michael has finally succeeded in making me watch Star Wars. Can you tell which ones I’ve seen? Yep, up until Episode III: Revenge of the Sith