Wednesday, January 16, 2013

"Yellow! Yellow!"

My Ozzie Hubby like to have some fun at my expense at time, mimicking my Singapore speech phrases.

Came the other day, he kept saying something which I didnt know what he was trying to say, except that it comes across sounding like "Yellow! Yellow!" with his Ozzie accent.

It wasnt much later, like days later, that I discovered he was trying to copy me in saying
"Yeah Lor! Yeah Lor!"

OMG! I had such a good laugh!

The thing about some girls...

Had lunch with one of my HK friend today and we talked about some recent encounters we had with people around us, primarily their relationship problems that they like to drench us in.

The one thing my friend and I had in common is that, we dont agree with the often heard statements on "How lucky you are to meet a good husband.."

Luck may play 1% role in our relationship but excuse me, a good marital relationship isnt dominated by luck. 99% of it is about management of relationship, management of expectations, compromise and adjustments, shared values, efforts to go extra mile for the other party and lastly, do everything with a dash of optimism and forgetfulness.

"Forgetful" is useful in the aspect of fights and unhappy incidents where one dont dredged up old ancient history or fights , while Optimism is essential in every forward looking relationship where both welcomes each brand new day looking forward to good things in your life. Without all those ingredients and constant hard work, all relationships will be doom to fail eventually regardless what kind of man or woman one meets or get involved with. Relationship is also about communication and knowing what to expect when you get involved with someone, and asking yourself if the tradeoff or shortfall from your expectation is something you can live with. In the same brush, u have to rem that you aint that perfect and the other person reserve the right to evaluate you too.

You enter a relationship with BOTH eyes open, and you dont go in EXPECTING the other person to change for you. It doesnt happen that way, not unless that person is a spineless wimp and u are a domineering person. But even so in this case, both enter the relationship with one willing & expected to be dominated while the other calling the shots. However once u are committed, you close one eye. That's where adjustment of expectations and compromise comes in. Yet, I have heard many girls who complained about not getting their way or their other half dont do what they want. Hello? He is his own entity too, not your slave boy. If he has always exhibited those traits and habits, then dont complain about it when you commit yourself to him. It was your choice. Dont act like a spoilt princess about this and that.

Also, another rule that I hold close to my heart, dont air your dirty laundry esp in public forum. It's one thing to vent frustrations and problems with close frens over a meal and completely another to update your status with EMO messages. That is immature and childish and nonconstructive, if not destructive in long run. Dont ask for sympathetic votes because you are not that perfect and friends who go fawn over u or outpouring of "support" is doing your relationship more harm than good. What makes you think you are soooo perfect in the first place? Every couple has its ups and downs and couple tiffs, what makes you think your problem is such a big deal? Have you even done any self reflections before you start to bemoan about how "pathetic" your life is?

You might think you are soooo right, but not everyone will agree with your viewpoints. Writing it down not only damages your partner's image, it should gives an insight of how immature the author is. Over time, people will form their own perception about you and your partner. Seriously, is it necessary to broadcast to the whole world "if you are bored, upset or those cryptic I am so tired" messages? Even worse, some have daily blow by blow updates about their relationship status. It's mind boggling that some people find enjoyment in such activity.

To me, frankly, social platform is NOT a place to air your grievances about your relationship. Unlike a personal diary where u can bare your heart, social platform is at best for you to highlight happy or funny incidents, or daily mundane events or if pissed, its at people not closely related to you. If you truly cherish and treasure the relationship with that person, you should learn to hold your tongue or in this case, your fingers from writing something that is so widely read, for both of your sakes in the long run. Words once spoken cannot be taken back, just like words written cannot be erased once its out there. Be prepared to bear the consequences.

In the last 20 years, from stories and personal experience, I have come to discover there are TRULY alot of immature Chinese/Asian women out there who seemed to think that Mr Right comes in a cast and concrete package deal. That means, they dont have to do anything but expect the other half to dote on them and treat them like Queen. Much of these wrong thinking to do with the impractical and unrealistic idol Chinese dramas and ridiculous romance books that these silly girls grow up with, with some even spoilt with wrong encouragements from their parents that "My daughter is a princess and u must treat her like one."

Apart from those with relationship problems, I too find it annoying personally with girls who are only concerned about how they look, act helpless.

Just the other day, was watching this cooking program on TV with my Hubby. It was about making some korean noodle dish. This Korean girl who is also part program host was interviewing her Korean mum on how to make her fav noodle dish. Her mum was trying to teach her on TV how to slice the beef and carrots etc. The stupid Korean girl acted squeamish and so fucking useless like the beef was gonna bite her and she kept giggling senselessly, saying oh how difficult it is to make the dish. It's a slab of cook meat for heaven sake!!!! Her mum prob had enough of her bimbo laughs and took over the cutting instead. For some reason, she annoyed me and my husband tremendously. We had to change channel as we couldnt bear continuing with her silliness and incompetence.

It's one thing to not know how to do something and try, but I draw a line at someone trying to play the damsel in distress role over something so simple. It pissed me off. What era are we in? Didnt woman scream for equality treatment? If so, then please spare us the "acting so stupid and behave like all you are good at is slapping layers of makeup on your face with fake eyelashes and flashing polished nails" act. Looks fade girl, its what is left behind that is important and follows you for the rest of your life. So do yourself a favor, build yourself some spine and a good strong character that leaves a lasting impression. Cut the flimsy act if you crave for other people to take u seriously.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Dinner review: Carnevino, Central HK

Had dinner at Carnevino Italian Steakhouse@ Central on Sat nite. It was good!

I am generally not a big steak eater and so as expected, I struggled with my 10oz steak and couldnt finish it. Primarily, that;s also because I had a large serving of Calamari starter.



To begin with the starter...it was KICK ARSE good! I havent had good calamari for a long while now in HK and this is the first time that a spicy tomato based calamari had me lapping for more! Squid was cooked nicely and the heat flavor was awesome! They didnt go easy on the spiciness and OMG! Soooo good!


My partner had the pork belly starter and it was also super moist and tenderly good. It took us 2 bites to finish the meat so its def a smaller portion than the calamari.



Then I had my moscato wine. IT WAS SO GOOD! I know..moscato is moscato. Sweet wine. But this one is fantastic. More bubbly and a very refreshing sweetness that doesnt linger and go stale at the back of your throat. I gulp down so many glasses that I might have been better off getting the whole bottle frankly....

Side info: (The La Spinetta Moscato d’Asti Biancospino is pale yellow with a constant stream of small bubbles topping up the delicate mousse. The nose is fresh and overflowing with aromas of lemon, mandarins and honeysuckle. The palate is sweet but with a remarkable acidity, making it refreshing and not cloying. The finish is long and leaves you with lovely floral notes, and hints of white peach.)

We ordered 2 extra sides, cream spinach and shitake mushrooms. Frankly I think we over ordered for 2 pigeon like Asian eaters. The mushroom was a tad too sweet for me and spinach is spinach goes...what do u expect?

The meat was good quality though i couldnt really tell the difference between my requested medium and medium rare....they look equally reddish on the inside right in the middle segment...so....


Dessert is amazing! I truly love their lemon semi freddo! It was so refreshingly good! The last time I had such a good semi freddo was at Quay, Sydney. So yeah, u HAVE to try this esp if u are already pretty full and sick from all the meat and want a lighter dessert.



Service was good except the only thing that marred the ending was the silly waiter poured tap water into my glass of still water, completely ruiningthe taste and rendered my glass of water undrinkable because I HATE the funny taste emitting from the mix. They should have at least confirmed with me if I wanted tap added but before I could stop them (since I was busy chatting with my companion), damage was done. Sigh.

All in all, a good place to try and have yourself a good time

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Recipe: Shrimp Dumpling Soup

Deleted some old post to make space for this since I still havent gotten round to setting up a new blog in continuation of this.

Had a go at making shrimp dumpling for the first time tonight. The wrapping of 60 dumplings took me about an hour to finish. Good thing for home video to entertain me while my hands were hard at work:)

For the soup based, instead of chicken stock, I went with pork bones and with carrots instead. Turned out relatively well in my humble opinion...except I got to rem to add black fungus and add more pepper next time round. Recipe will be up next few days when I get round to it ;p


Dumpling Ingredients

1. 100g minced pork
2. 250g of prawns
3. 4 stalk spring onion
4. diced 4 water chestnuts
5. 3 cloves minced garlic
6. Sesame oil, pepper, salt
7. 3 Tbsp light soy sauce 
8. dash of ginger juice
9. (Black fungus/ bamboo shoots) optional
10. dumpling wraps

Soup

1. Pork bones and meat
2. 1-2 carrots
3. 2-3 whole water chestnuts
4. 4 stalk Spring onion (bottom white half) - upper green half for garnishing
5. coriander garnishing