Fill in the blank Friday

Woo, the topic for the a Fill In The Blank Friday is FOOD! Couldn't help but answer all the questions right away! May be I haven't tell you, I am crazy about food. I don't cook very well. But I know very well where you can buy the best organic vegetable or where you can buy the most traditional Shanghai food. I even have very good relationship with those little store owners who sell those ingredients. Food! Here are my answers !



1.If I could choose my last meal it would be Beijing Style Dumpling noodles made in the little restaurant around my neighborhood in accompany with Iced cold Soy Milk. Follow with a bar of Godiva Dark Chocolate. Ok, they are not perfect match. It's a bit fusion. That is exactly the reason why I want it to be my last meal. Last meal would be a combination of all the food I like.. so here they are.

2. My favorite person to share a meal with is my younger sister. She is the only person on earth I could mock and laugh at during meal without being piss off. It's not about the food after all. It's the joy of sharing. She is perfect for that.

3. The best meal I've ever had was a bowl of Chinese soup - Parseley with perserved egg fish soup cooked by my grandpa. When I was in England for a month, the first thing I wanted to eat when I arrived Hong Kong was this soup. Hot, Yum and I missed the smell. I rush to my grandpa home for this soup. This remind me my life worth living.

4. The one food that makes me feel instantly better when I'm having a bad day is a bar of Dark Toblerone Chocolate. (Ok, any brand of Dark Chocolate would do. I just very fond of Toblerone recently.) No explanation require I guess. Girls born to be kidnapped by chocolate. (The photo at left: I filled the already emptied Toblerone box with Candies and mail it to my friend! The box arrived to her mail box safe and sound! Thanks postman! )

5. My absolute specialty in the kitchen is Instant noodles? Does that count? If you are asking for real cooking and real food, Spaghetti with pesto sauce plus a fried egg. I only cook when I am alone. And this dish is easy to cook plus I can share some plain spaghetti with my dog LEO and he always love it.

6. The city that has the best food is Hong Kong. Please allow me to explain. It's just because I live here for 20+ years. I never spent that much time in anywhere on earth for that long. The weird thing is that Hong Kong has all sort of dishes and restaurant coming from around the world but I can't think of one presentable dishes that can represent Hong Kong. (Dim Sum does not count, coz it is from Canton, Not solely Hong Kong)

and my favorite restaurant there is 巧興, the little restaurant I mentioned in Q1. Lovely couple from Beijing cooking the best dumpling noodles in Hong Kong. The important thing is the shop is just 5 minutes walk away! Convience and cheap! (A bowl of lovely dumpling noodles is less than 5 bucks!)

7. My favorite healthy snack is Golden Kiwi.I like the gel-ed hair style. My sis call it the bad boy because of the "hair style" it has. We call the regular green one the good boy.

8. In my opinion the nationality which has the best food is Chinese. HUGE variety. Super diverse. Go to China and the dishes will drive you crazy.

9. If I could learn to cook anything in the world (and be really good at it!) I'd choose spaghetti. Simple, fast, and comforting.

10. The most outrageous dessert I've ever had was Pile of Chesscakesssss. My friend and I went to ALL YOU CAN EAT Cheescake Buffet. We eat at least 15 piece of cheescake. I skip the breakfast, lunch and dinner the next day. NEVER TRY IT AGAIN! Got Cheesecake phobia for two months!

Christmas came to me

For the best viewing experience in reading this blog post, may I present you my beloved Hong Kong artist Jacky Cheung singing "Everyday is Christmas"? The song share the same theme of this blog post. Trust me, this will be the first and best Christmas song you ever listen this year. (Of coz.. It's only June.. It's a little bit early for Christmas. But Christmas just came to me! )




Did I tell you I pick up reading again? Bookmark is the best companion during reading. So I decided to make my own.

When I was wandering in the craft store, I found the lovely reindeer charm. When I bought it, I had no idea what was purpose for me to buy it. The reindeer is so cute and I had to bring it home.

In the evening, I decided to make something. So, I pull out the bookmark I bought and the reindeer. But that is quite dull if my bookmark just has one reindeer. So sad and lonely. I looked over my crafting materials (translation: A pile of stuff ranging from scrape paper to ribbon, from scrape fabric to plastic bottles. ) and found the ribbons I brought last Christmas in the thrift store.

Voila, Christmas came to me just like that!

I may be naive
　But I do believe
　That reindeer fly on Christmas Eve :)

Happy Holiday~!

I could draw?

What do you think? Do you think I could draw judging from these two inchies? Swap-bot had a inchies for beginner swap. Anything that welcomed either Beginner or Newbies always draw my attention and tempted to join. These inchies above are all for this swap.

My friend who knew me since I was 6, we went to primary and secondary school together, asked do you remember that you hated Art class when you was in primary school? Why are you picking all that art and craft stuff lately?

I have no idea why I picked art and craft up, despite the fact that I am still suck at it. At least I have fun. And, hey no one is judging, right?

Exactly! When I was in school, teachers was judging. Maybe this is the reason why I hated Art class. My works are not here for you to grade, it's for me to have fun. It's the process that I enjoy. But after all, I need an excuse to pick up drawing, so I enter swap.


OK, I know, this is too much pick going on. An ATC for Newbies from swap-bot which I signed up. This is my second ATC. Now, you have more evident to tell me, do you think I can draw? Or I am still suck? Would you smile when you get this ATC from your mail box? Tell me the truth. But, no matter what you told me, I will keep on making. Hahaha. (Ok, I am just trying to make conversation here. )

Regain the joy of Reading

I forgot how great it was when you were reading a book.

When I was in high school, I loved to read. (I hate all the must-read recommended from teacher though. Coz.. I'm a rebel ?! ) Later, when I got admitted in translation studies, it introduced me to a lot of great authors on earth. Most of the book I read at that time was contemporary Chinese literature and some popular English fictions. It's like open the gate to heaven. Translating them become one of my hobby. But this hobby didn't last long.

After finishing the diploma in translation, I got admit to Cultural Studies in the university. I find myself reading huge amount of academic readings. That was the time I stop reading any books. Reading to me at that time was so target-oriented. You gotta read these "materials" to get your essay done. Reading was not a enjoyable but stressful. Sorry books, I gave up on you. And I won't do that again.

So, now I am graduated from the university. 24 hours of spare time. You gotta spent it somehow. Book come back to my life.



Few weeks ago, the bookstore was on sale. And I was wandering at the fiction section. And I pick up this amazing book call Gargoyle. It's the cover that draws me in. I read a few pages and headed to the cashier right away.

I forgot the joy of reading, specially a fiction. A good book should be keeping you to turn page-by-page, chapter-by-chapter, and you really wish you could finish it straight away. The joy of reading is that you can imagine your own picture of the scene. The words can translate themselves into picture when you was reading it. This is the joy you won't gain when you are watching TV or a movie.

The way that Andrew Davidson arrange the chapter always keep me wondering what could happen next. I like the way of guessing till the end when I was reading. Especially when you are reading Gargoyle, it's more than a detective story, it keeps make you ponder is Marianne telling the truth or she just a crazy woman. I have no idea on how to write a review. So many people had already written about this book on GoodReads and other media. So, my book review should stop here.

So, I joined GoodReads. It keeps recommending me to read books that I may like.

Thank you book. I am back. Please do let me come back to you.

Dear book lovers,

Could you help me a lost-and-found book lover here?
In the ocean of million books,
How do you decide to pick up that particular book and read it till the end?
Could you recommending me some book review blog(s) that you like?
Any tips?

Sorry for asking too much questions. You know, I gave up on reading once. And I am trying my best not to make it happen again. That's why I ask those questions. To prevent tragedy from happening.

Love,
Vicky

Quote from Gargoyle.

Hell is a choice because salvation is available to anyone who seeks it. The damned choose their fates, by deliberately hardening their hearts.
~Andrew Davidson, Gargoyle (p. 390)

Envelope Adoption Programme (Yah, Free Envies!)

June 20th UPDATE: Sorry that I made a typpo mistake on my email address in this post for the past few weeks. Many thanks to Ana for correcting me. So if you send me an email and got no response, please do send it again at write2five[at]gmail[dot]com. A million sorry.

Introduction: Envie Adoption Programme is specially designed for anyone who want some free envies made from Hong Kong magazine pages.

Aim: The graphic and design in Hong Kong magazine is too pretty to toss away. In order to give them a second chance to live, I will turn them into envelopes. And send them to the kind people around the world. The aim of this programme is let the magazine envies to see the world. Also, they deserve a chance to be seen!

Quality of the envie: They are magazine pages after all. Soft and fragile. A piece of unwanted flyers/A4-size papar is sticked inside the magazine envie in order to support and strengthen the magazine envie. They are strong. They can travel long distance.

Graphic/Design of the envies: Mostly drawings or pictures from local artist. But sometime there will be photos of delicious dishes or travel destination. No, never, no advertisement.

Size: Around 3.5' X 5'. It depends on the size of the magazine pages.

How to Join? Send me email at write2five[at]gmail[dot]com with your postal address and please state "Envie Adoption Programme" in the subject line. Through the delicate care of the postman in Hong Kong and your area, 5 envies will arrive in your mail box. As simple as that.

Deadline? No. No deadline yet. It will run forever, I guess. Given the circumstance that this is not a popular blog and I am guessing there won't be a lot of requests. So, I am guessing this will last forever. =p

Repeat customer is welcome.

Spreading the words are more than welcome, by putting the button on your blog would be a nice idea~! Just copy and paste the following code and the Envie Adoption Programme button will be appear in your blog. Yayay

<a href="http://showonfire.blogspot.com/2010/06/yah-free-envies.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Adjd73ULOmRoC4sQCQgrleR4HiLYEyxS3a5dzlye3Qi_dF8gxsiEfN_Yc3E9MzGWTE3RmCltYoicEYZoVFhxlRShvyJQl7f1JcY_62IGPr2ZbnqKRfGf8r45mk0ET9ldB0IcdaSy0MQ/s144/circles_orange.jpg" /><alt="=" 0" /><a>

HappY Envelopes. Open for adoption.

As you can see, I made tons of envelopes from magazine pages. All those pictures in magazine are so pretty. They deserve a chance to see the world and be seen by the world! So here they are!




I made some small envie (4' X 5.5') for the swapbot handmade envies swap. Two partner, five envie for each. Of course I need a bigger envie to put them all in. So, yummy summer treat envie with other pretty one inside!



Don't you just love masking tape? It doesn't block the whole image of the envie. It put on some mysterious feeling to the envie. The color of the envie is being revealed in a subtle way. Oh, that is for handmade envies swap.



There is one artist/food-stylist/cook I really like. He is Mr.Au Yueng. So I made a series of envies by his magazine column. I hope he doesn't mind. (You know, those copyright issue is super scary! You have no idea when you crossed the line.. sigh)




Kaytd89 from Swap-bot came up with an amazing idea. I have made seven small envies each of those contain a notecard with either silly or witty quotes or graphic or poem that hopefully will put a smile on the receivers' face when the receiver is not having a good day. I have fun making all those small envies. That is just so kind and cheerful that something is there to encourage you when bad day happens.

It just because I made tons of envelopes. And they are all from Hong Kong magazine pages. And they are all pretty (in my prespective.. ). I guess they deserve a chance to meet people around the world.

So Adoption?
If you are kind enough to give them a chance to see the world, then write me a email at write2five[at]gmail[dot]com with the subject line "Adopting envies". Put your mailing address in the content. Through the delicate care by the postman in Hong Kong and also in your destinated area, 10 small envies will arrive in your mail box, hopefully safe and sound.

They're waiting for you!

Delicious! Homemade yogurt with homemade strawberry Jam!

CAUTIONS: THE BLOG POST YOU ARE GOING TO READ IS EXTREMELY DELICIOUS! Be prepared!

Who ever thought that yogurt could be made at home? It's just so normal for me to buy them in supermarket. Million thanks to Jennifer's brother-in-law's mom for this delicious homemade yogurt recipe! If I can make it in Hong Kong, so can you!



It's super simple. Just heat half gallon of milk. Cool it down. Mix with a small container of plain yogurt. Leave at the counter overnight. Put some tissue paper on top of the homemade yogurt. Pop it into the fridge. And Wow, here you go, delicious, super creamy, and inexpensive homemade yogurt! Don't follow my instruction here, do check out the wonderful and funny recipe at Jennifer's blog.

The pink thing in my yogurt is another great recipe find in p for perfection. It's Strawberry Jam. Take only 30 mins to make. Super simple, super Yum!

Russian Tea
Strawberry Jam not only could put on bread and yogurt. But also you could put a tablespoon or two of Strawberry Jam in your Darjeeling Tea, we call that the Russian Tea. Little bit sour (coz of the lemon juice in the jam recipe,), little bit sweet, plus the scent mix with the tea and fresh strawberry. De-Li-Ci-O-So!!!



I tried to spell YUM with my homemade strawberry Jam here..

The first thing I think of, when I was still in my bed, just open my eyes, is I gotta see what my yogurt become! I gotta eat them! I made them last Friday. It was about 2L of yogurt according to Jennifer's recipe, and only me and my mom were eating it. The yogurt went into our tummy in only three days! I just make a new batch and using my first yogurt as starter. They are now sleeping in my kitchen counter, hoping that everything will be delicious!

Give it a try! Easy to get addicted! Simple Gourmet make with your lovely hands!