Wok With Lin

Mom , I burn the kitchen down!!!   Kidding! I am happy to tell you that after years and years of practise I have mastered the art not of cooking but not to burn the kitchen down by controlling the stove!

Mind you,  I did almost burn the kitchen down. oooh it happen in the not far future (acutally last October)  I forgot that I was boiling  a few instant rice packets and the water had dried up! I really thought that I had enough time to turn off the stove to get a nice cube like rice pack . I was slugging  down the stairs when I smelt something foul. I quickly galloped down and was greeted by black smoke coming from the kitchen. The fire on the stove was slowly burning a hole in my pan! Quickly I turn of the stove and in lightning speed put the pan into the sink and drench the small fire with full blast water from the pipe. By this time everybody in the house had been on red alert as the black smoke had floated upstairs and there was an unmistaken  strong smell of something burning.

 "What happen ? What's buring?" Mom, dad and my brothers plus sister-in-law and kids in tho rushed into the kitchen whereby I had this sorry face and showed the big hole in the pan the fire had burn into......


But that was last year. This is 2013....March..... and I was itching to cook again. So today's menu was fish curry, fried soybean with chili paste (sambal) and fried veggie.

First the ingredients:

Ok just if your wondering how come there's no fish.......there is a fish but I was too busy (busy crying from cutting the onions and garlic) to take the fish picture.

Ehhhhmmm...... so I will be your chef for today. For the fish curry , I used pomfret fish. I blended the red onions, garlic and ginger along with the chilie, until everything is beautifully mixed together. I heated the pan with oil and aniseed to give that nice smell (wow I do sound like a chef) . I didn't put the mixture yet , because you have to put the secret ingredients which is ..........curry of course, but for this I mix meat curry and fish curry together with the mixture (trust me it taste nice!).

T

hen I fried curry mixture in a pan, quite sometime as you want the chilli and curry to be really cook, normally  I would stir untill it's slightly brown or the oil that the mixture absorb earlier emerge (follow me so far, no? so do I)

Anyway when you see any of these signs, you pour in tamarind water ( I don't use coconut milk in my curry , more healthy like that but make sure you don't put too much water) To avoid it from being too sour, add a little water but not too much. I mean curry is only garnishing on the rice , you  don't drown your rice with curry do you? Boil the curry for a while before putting in the fish, if not your fish will be overcook and might break into pieces (hey take it from someone who has done this mistake sooooo many times) add salt (up to your  taste but don't make it too salty!)

 

after you put in the fish let it simmer a low fire  for ooooh five minutes (I think) then you add the yummy ladies finger. :)

 

Waaaaaaalaaah the end result, again  the fish is hidden in the curry.

 

 

 

Ooooooh I can't help it here's a picture of my spicy fried soybean and fried veggie.

 

 

That's alll from Wok with Lin. I would have been bursting with pride had I not broken the mop and a

bucket while cleaning the kitchen :P

 

Oh well at least I didn't burn down the kitchen this time right ?

 

 

 

 

 

Where's the Car?

Dear Diary, 

I don't deny that I am a disoriented , dis coordinated (if there is such a word) and disorganized person.

If I have an alter ego in the comic universe, my nemesis would be the GPS.

With the hundreds of 'redirecting' that I had caused I would  not be surprised if the GPS came alive and smack me on the head.

But GPS also has  its  shortfalls by all the near accidents it caused, seriously shouldn't a GPS tells you beforehand to turn right and not immediately after ordering you to go to the far left side of a three lane road! , causing
 A) for you to miss your turning and
B) nearly colliding with a car when you are too absorb in listening to the directions!

And what is it with satellite undetected?!

Anyhow back to my story. I have a tendency to get lost ,getting on the wrong bus is not uncommon to me but it sure gives an awesome story to tell.  Little did I know that my family and I have a lot in common.

Normally on my day off , I would go to Seremban, Lake Garden to jog. Occasionally, my parents and little brother would follow and after an hour and a half of sweating and puffing (lack of oxygen, lack of oxygen)we would go to search for breakfast.

One fine morning , after going our rounds, my parents and I decided to eat breakfast at an Indian Restaurant (which makes the nicest Rawa Tosei :).

There were not many people at the restaurant on a Sunday morning. We ordered our food and  ate.

After breakfast, we went to the car.

 I could hear dad pressing the car key to unlock the car,

CLICK CLOCK!

 I pulled the door handle........It wouldn't open ! Puzzled I pulled again , still it would not open! I looked at my mom and dad and noticed that they were facing the same problem......Mom was still trying to open the door  while Dad was franticaly pushing the button on the car keys ....CLICK CLOCK CLICK CLOCK.

Why wouldn't the doors open.

The three of us backed away from the car. It was correct, metalic silver.

I was still scratching my head when my dad gave a loud guffaw laugh and pointed.

THERE, beside the car that we were trying to get in was our metallic silver Proton Perdana waiting patiently for us .
The one that we were trying to open was a metallic silver Honda!

 If the Perdana had feelings it would have said OUCH! All of us were laughing so hard we could hardly stand. I mean if it was only me , understandable ........but this was all THREE of us, the two voice of reasons trying to pry open a strange car. We thank our lucky stars that :

1. That Honda's alarm system wasn't working. It will be pretty awkward explaining to the owner what we were doing.
2. There's no CCTV there, imagine what the police would think if they saw a family trying to break into a car!

We were still laughing all the way back home.

 Hey , it was a harmless mistake, I'm happy that I finally know where my absent mindedness comes from but seriously, if you notice the picture above , come on they do look similar from the side.

 Right ?  
That was not the end of the story. I had another mistaken car incident  which happen a few years back, when I just started working.

It was late night, around 11  pm and we forgot  to buy bread for breakfast. Dad and I went to the 7 Eleven near our house. At that time we had a green proton wira. We were the only car at the parking lot. Dad waited in the car while I went inside to buy the  bread.

I seriously do not remember what I was thinking about , but I'm sure my mind was somewhere else.OBVIOUSLY.

Anyway, I bought the bread and went out of the store. I did not look left and right.
My dad's car was there just in front of me. The parking lot was dark, the only light was coming from the row of shophouses itself.

I opened the door to the passenger seat.... Got in.
Closed the door ...

I just looked out the window, not looking at my dad..
One minute...
Two minute....

I was curious, why were we not moving?

 'Abah, why aren't we .........Yikes!!!'

There...... At the driver's seat, was a lady. She was looking at me in horror ( If you watch horror movies such as Halloween , when the killer was going to strike and they zoom to the victims face frozen in terror, yup it was exactly like that!) Her handphone was at her ear,her eyes were big and her mouth was wide open,  but no sound came out.

One minute.....Both of us were staring at each other.

I collected my composure.

" SORRY,SORRY, SOOOO SORRY" I quickly jumped out of the car and rushed to my dad's car ,which,was beside the lady's car.


Trembling I got into the car.

'Why so late? 'Asked dad, oblivious to the whole incident.

I didn't DARE to say anything.

Boy , I must have given that lady a scare.

Moral of the story people , always lock your doors...


You never know who might jump in ! Whether innocently or not!

My drawings :) Syazlin's Mini Art galery :)

Trip to Bath 2011

Inspired during my family vacation in Langkawi 2012. This is the first time I experimented with oil pastel.Not bad for a beginner :)

Daydreaming  that I was a princess in a magical castle which floats in between land and sky :) Watch too much fantasy movies :)

We went island hopping during my stay at Langkawi in 2012. There was an eagle island that we stopped at and the boatman fed them fish but alas this was not taken from that event. We did see eagles circling above us . They swooped and dived down to get food but it was too fast  to capture so I had to settle for a website photo instead as my reference :(

OOh adapted this from a website photograph

I love my village in Tg Rambutan, Rembau. Before changes came that is. We were watching our cousins , racing , using palm leaves as chariots. One cousin was sitting at one end of the palm leaf and another was pulling on the leafy end acting as a horse rushing to beat my two brothers at the finishing line.

Now the old dried up sawah padi is gone  and in its place is a corn field.

So sad, we used to run wild through the muddy padi field, and screamed when we thought we saw snakes, which we never did! 

We even flew our own hand-made kites at that field.

 I was 9years old in this painting, and that baby is my cousin, she's 24 now! Good old times :)

Took this from a photograph

Hehe I would like to describe this picture as a symbol of a hopeless romantic drowning in despair :P Story of my life :) Initially I just wanted to draw a rose but one thing led to another and UREKA !

Misty mountain,  remind me of the Hobbit song Misty mountain cold

Picasso :)

Enlightenment

This drawing was inspired  from two photographs. The clouds and sea was inspired by a picture I took from a trip to Pangkor. The ship , was adapted from a magazine photo.

I have my head in the  clouds :)Totally had no idea what I was doing when I painted this but hey before I knew it , it formed something!

My friend went to Switzerland and he took loads of pictures. I particularly like a photo where it was used as reference to this drawing 

Storm is coming!

Aaaaah fresh calm , waterfall.

My very first try at acrylic!

Oooh tried to do a video which you can view at this link :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SawYg777FUQ

Lasagna :)

Hi ho ,
New adventure! Been a while haven't written anything I actually forgotten how to write ! Oooooh tried to make lasagna today and I'm proud to say after years of practice from my muffin escapade I have finally able to bake without smoke coming out of the microwave (plus this is a brand new high tech microwave design to accommodate to the most handycap baker aka bakers who do not know how to use the microwave) plus it comes with its own safety precaution measures for toddlers (yeah right as if toddlers can bake I scoffed at the manual until my mom says what it meant by toddlers is new beginners) ooooooohhhh.....With the confidence of an experience cook (hehehe three times a year cooking ya) I diced the garlic, onions, and fried the meat to let out the juice (waaah I should be in master chef until I nearly burned it......but the main point was NEARLY) chucked in tomato, tomato spaghetti paste, mixed veggie into the wok.Yes you heard of Wok with Yan this is Wok with Lin. trash some oregano, parsley and black pepper. I had the smell right!! Then comes the white sauce, butter, mixed with flour (now I was struggling here cause the ingredients didn't say which flour, I contemplated corn flour, baking , herb flour , plain flour or pulut flour. In the end what the heck I put two tbspoon of plain flour some milk (I snitch my dad's low fat milk, hey at least we're health conscience !) and melted the cheese for that cheesy goodness.
White sauce done, put a little salt and black paper so that it won't be too cheesy. I was about to spread the lasagna sheet on the casserole when it dawn on me, man the sheets were too hard.....will it cook? I tried to call my lifeline (which are my friends who normally cook!) but alas none of them could give an answer, so it is up to Wok with Lin to make the call. So I put the sheets in hot water to loosen it up (I know, sheets are also stress you know!) and spread it in the baking pan Haha! bet you think I forgot.... I greased the pan with butter first!!!!! So it won't burn...then pop into the microwave for 35 minutes . Ate it for lunch , dad loved it but I think the white sauce wasn't that thick ....oh well this Picasso is going back to the drawing boards....... nite nite. till then....ok i'm gettting hype up. 
(Ps : Dad totally wolf up the remaining lasagna.....Pretty proud of myself :) pat pat pat......

birthday adventure

2nd July 2009

Waaahhh, today I am officially 23 years old  😁. Man, how come i don't feel that old.

Let me tell you what I did the whole day.......

I was thinking how I could spoil myself on this auspicious day;
 1. One whole  day of relaxation at the mall, go see a movie and just sit at one of the bench oogling and go shopping......And then I realized that it was an everyday thing to do...so common.

 I came up with another plan..... Except that it needed six people inside.Problem is I didn't have 6 man power to pursue my dream unless I kidnapped the whole student central with Elvin in tho and we go Whitewater Rafting!!!!!!!

I can just imagine Mr Tung's eyebrows shoot up if I mention that :P Him and the whole department.🤐The idea had to be shot down.

Another idea was ....horseriding....Brilliant...Except that my car's water tank was leeking the whole week and today was the only day I could send it to the mecahnic.

8.00 am in the morning .
I was still indecisive whether to go or not. The only place that has horseriding BESIDES titiwangsa wasBukit Tinggi.

9.00 am.
 I couldn't bare it anymore, there was no possible way I was going to waste my birth-day. I grabbed my car keys and vigirously searched for a repair shop (which wasn't that vigirously cos after 10minutes of futile search, a dim light bulb slowly switch on above me....DANG! isn't there a mechanic just infront of my apartment.

Stunt coodinators would have been impressed how I U-turned back to myapartment from Jaya jusco maluri. Is there such thing as 'cornerbaring' in the car ?

Cos that was how my body was when I made that sharp turn.I was 75 degrees towards the passenger seat!...... THe young mechanic was just opening his shop. Bless his soul as he listened to me rambling about water coming out from the tank and making a big puddle (I exagerated a little bit on that one :)) under the car. He calmly checked at the tank and fiddled around and did some experimentas. I fidgeted behind him. Then....

Ever so calmly he looked at me and said I found the problem.

 WHAT?

'You didn't close the lid properly/"

"Ssure one kaaa.... I'm going to bukit tinggi you know. I don't wantto stop midway if not I call you , you know" I said threateningly.

After gettting assurance for the 10th time I left for bukit tinggi at 10.30.
Except that knowing me.... it wouldn't be Syazlin if I actually DO reach to the place without getting lost.

First round - got lost all the way to Sungai buloh and turned back......

Second round - took the turn all the way up to genting and only turnedback midway when I realised my mistake.

Stopped at McDonald GentingSepah....sebab tak tahan had to pee :P

I reached Bukit tinggi horse ranch at 12.00pm.

Leela the staff there,was so friendly and talkative and hyper...(Yes, people, there is someone who is as hyper as me).
 She showed me aound the stable . Before I went into the stable I was greeted by this gigantic sebastian watch dog at the gate. Well I wouldn't say greet as he was laying on a mound of sand, surrounded by flies and looking up at you with a droopy mouth and an equally droopy eyes as if to say......oooohhh it's you...

He wasa mixture of black and brown color  or was it  brown because he's covered in manure....hmmmm....but he is an adorable thing and he doesn't harm anyone. When I was having lunch with the rest of the ranch staffs he came up hoping to get any tit-bits. I was afraid that he would come and brush at me but when I signalled for him to stop, he stopped and looked at me  sadly and slowly turned away as if saying

 'oooh shucks, rejected'


The instructor was Vietnamese, I forgot his name, I'll call him TK then. He's a friendly guy. He asked me to choose a horse and my eyes went straight to a tall white one looking at me from across his stable...his head sticking outside his stable door,  mouth munching on hay.

I could even imagine him saying like Joey from 'Friends ', 'How you doin?'


Our eyes connected, human to animal.

And that was how I got to ride Charlie. TK took me through a beginners course at a
riding ring.

He taught me;

How to get up and hold on to Charlie.
The proper footing on thesadle, how to hold the reigns....Truthfully if you give me a mark, I think I got 2 over 5. One way to move a horse is to loosen the reigns and then kick his stomach (while your on the saddle, while your on the saddle, not when your on the ground!) and say walk on...

I followed his instruction ...nothing happen ...then without warningCharlie put his head down, I was holding on tightly to the reigns forgetting to lengthen it and was pulled infront having a clear view of his lowered head and the mercilous ground.... hoohhooohohoo flashes  of christopher reeds accident came into my mind.....was he pulled downby an unmoving horse?
'Macam mana lin tu accident?' 'How did the accident happen?"
Ganas sangat ke kuda dia  'Was it a violent horse'?

Tak lah tak bergerak pun.....tiba-tiba KEPLET jatuh!!! " No lah, it was a gentle horse minding it's own business. It just lowered  it's head and suddenly KEPLET! I fell.."

TK taught me what to do when a horse started to gallop. I failed on that one...my bum kept hitting on the saddle and I knew Charlie was annoyed because I was hitting the saddle hard...KABOOM...KABOOM...

After half an hour training , TK wanted to take me on the beginners horse trail outside the ranch.

He stopped Charlie in front of the other horses stable. Tk went to prepare his horse, leaving Charlie with me on him....
 All alone. .....

Everything was well at first, Charlie sweet natured as he was, kept still.

Then he moved slowly to a mound of stardust not far from his stable. I pulled on the reigns hard and cried STOP but Charlie just ignored me (now you know whose the dominant one) and happily snuffing the pile of stardust, his head moving side to side nearly pulling me off of him! Then he moved to his stables with me still on the saddle. I looked at TK and he didn't see what was happening. I pulled on the reigns again... HELP...TOLLLONG!  I cried as I held on the reigns for dear life....Pooor me being bullied by a horse....

Hi ho a roadtrip shall we go!

(April 26)

Hi ho,>>>

Been wacky this weekend. Felt really bum out and felt like the whole world was going to explode.

So what did I do?
 Packed my bag and went on a roadtrip by myself.

 My initial idea was to go to Cameron Highland as its really really hot  and I wanted some shades and a place to cool off. I couldn't find a sidekick to kickstart my plan with.

I tried any of my friends ( I messagesed them at 1 am in the morning) It didn't take Einsten to acknowledged why no one replied me back :P  Anyho, I tried again at 7.30 am, waking up almost all my late risers friends (having to bare their disgruntle tone of voice for raising them from the dead) Alas still no partner in crime. By 9 am , I was like Gunung Karakatua ready to explode. I had to get out of KL and go ...Anywhere...Cameron Highland was shot down as one of my cousin gave me a good advice.

"Lin, it's a windy 4 hours drive up, unless your thinking that Tarzan knows how to repair cars and has a Digi line on his mobile. Nobody will reach you in time if anything happens."  What she said  did make sense.

 By 9.30 am I was on the road. Where to? Headed to Port Dickson in my mom's kelisa. The highway was smooth, no cars and the sky....the sky was beautiful, clear blue cloudless sky.


 

 I reached Port Dickson around 10. It was blazing.....BLAZING hot. My first stop was at Teluk Kemang. During that time there wasn't many people around and the shop was just opening. But the weather, man, I felt like a roast turkey (CUTE ONE!!) in my red T-shirt, walking along the beach. It was at that time that I decided I didn't want to spend the night in Port Dickson. Plus the hefty price rate of the hotels ...(well actually the price was the reason whay I didn't stay)

For someone who wanted to RnR, I was really unprepared. I had only 300 in my pocket and the ATM had rejected any further withdrawal.

 So I got into my  trusty Kelisa car drove along the beach. I was daydreaming and driving at the same time when I realize that I had drove all the way to Masjid Tanah in Malacca.......MASJID TANAH?!

*TING*

 The memories when I was small filled my head especially the time when my family stayed at Tanjung Bidara (a nice beach area, the water is clean, not many people there yet not too isloted.). So off toTanjung Bidara I headed. It was 12 o'clock when I reached the small cove and my stomach was growling. Luckily the foodstalls were still there. Har!.....even the bottles stacked on the table were the same as I remembered. What was unique about the stalls was that they still have ancient old glass bottled drinks, when I said ancient I mean ancients, before the time of Coca Cola. The bottles looked like 'Bottle Kicap' and the labels were almost unreadable. Intrigued, I contemplated to drink one, but> suddenly Elvin's (my boss )face emerged in front of me as a warning that in any event that occured after me drinking the bottle will not be included  in my job hazardous clause in my company's insurance contract :(

 I booked a room at sort for the night. It was a pityful sight. Far then what I remebered when I was a teenager. I opened the door to my rom and was greet by a swarm of mosquito (and this is no exageration) I switched on the light , luckily there was an air-cond, there were two beds (comfortable enough to sleep) The bathroom was not flashy but decent. I tried to turn on the pipe and a gush of brown colored murky water came out. After a while it turned to chalked color. Tired I slept.

 4.pm headed to Ayer Keroh in Malacca. Stoped at a restaurant near King's Hotel. No, I didn't go there to eat . A month ago I had ate at the restaurant and forgot to pay for a piece of kueh, so I went there to pay for the food. The kid behind the counter stared at me with open mouth like I  was E.T. especially when the piece of kueh was only 20 CENTs!

 I went to the Hutan Rekreasi, Ayer Keroh. What was supposed to be a 10 minute look- around turned to one hour. I got lost inside! Walked around in a big circle almost three times and asked for directions 3 times.....(OOOOhhhh and one of them ws from a super cute guy). I should have done my damsel in distress act! Darn my pride and machonism at> that time !

 Got back to the resort by 7.30pm. I was laying on the bed, watching the news when POOOOF !Blackout. I could hear angry voices outside and babies crying but I didn't move from the bed. At that time my mind was like wandering off thinking about mass murderes lurking underneath the bed ready to pounce. "This is the first," I said out loud in the dark. About a few mintues later the lights came back on and then it went off. Good thing it came back on for good at the third time.... There was nothing to do execept BEDTIME....

 I woke up late the next morning (or should I say this morning) Ate breakfast and went for a walk along the beach. It was windy and the weather was just nice, not as blazing hot as yesterday. It was blissful walking along the beach with my feet knee deep in salt water. There was a jetty there stretching out to the sea and there were stairs climbing from the sea up to the jetty. I sat on the> stairs, staring out to the sea for almost half an hour. It was when I was heading back to the resort that I realizde my pocket was wet and my handphone was inside. Bugger!!!! The screen was blanked and I couldn't switch it on. I felt like hitting my head for idiotcally bringing my handphone to the beach ......But what had happened had happened. I went back to the room, packed my stuff (which was not much) and checked out.I headed back to Seremban through Alor Gajah, Tampin and Rembau. I made a detour to Hutan Lipur Gunung Dato'. Warning to those who want to go to Gnung Dato':

1)NEVER GO THERE WHEN YOUR TANK IS NEARLY EMPTY.

2) NEVER GO THERE ALONE.(  Its better in a group , not fun playing in the waters alone and definetely you cannot go on a hike by yourself, especially with my history of direction dysfunctionality)

 Number 1 wasn't the case I had the sense of mind to fill up my tank the day before. I would like to stress on number 2. Why? It was very isolated. You have to drive through rubber and palm estates. There were very few kampung houses around . Once you turn into the junction towards Gunung Dato', the road is small and windy and trust me if your car break down theres no coverage or anyone> to come and help. I'm not sure whether you can shout through the rubber estate there.

 Between Jeram Toi near Jelebu and Gunung Dato in Rembau, I would much  preferred Jeram toi, because once you step into the forest you will be greeted by it's waterfall, different from Gunug Dato, theres streams and small waterfalls. I guess you have to hike up deeper into the forest to see the waterfall -which I didn't feel like doing. Isplashed myself with cold stream water and climbed up some rocks to see an overview of the forest. I can understand how anyone could get lost in Gunung Dato. It is a forest! It's not like the recreationalforest that I've been to.

* for those who love hiking and love nature , ignore my grumpy rambling as it is a beautiful place and as mention bring a friend well a group of friends, enjoy it together go hiking, go to the peak of Gunung Dato and see the breath taking view. (I'm sounding like a commercial here)

For more details you can look at this website :http://www.malaysia-traveller.com/gunung-datuk.html


 After spending 15 mintues there I headed back to Seremban passing Rembau and Pedas on the way. The view on the way back was peaceful. On my left lucious greenieries and on my right mountains sceneries. I blasted the radio out loud and croaked along to Beyonce, Pussycat dolls and even Mariah Carey. It was quite an adventure and at least I'm feeling much ...much better now :)>Cya later for other adventures.....

Muffin no enemy

May 2009

OOh I tried to bake a muffin yesterday. Yes me.....the one who had never dared to bake anything (after my first mishap a few years ago where I tried to bake a cake and completely....I mean COMPLETELY forgot that you need flour to make a cake. So I baked the batter of butter with sugar and Waaaaalaaaa a crusted and burned sugar caramel!!!!!!!!
Hmmmm....I bet your asking whether my second attempt would fare better....

Alas, even the optimistic book of Secrets couldn't avoid the disaster to come.
The mixture had looked beautiful and it tasted yummy, normal flour mixed with chocolate syrup, baking soda, butter, sugar and chocolate chips. I had preheated the microwave at 200 Celcius and set the time 15-20 minutes.

The muffins had rose the first few minutes and I was beaming No
GLOWING with pride like, a mother looking at her child through the windows of the baby ward (I know I'm exaggerating) until........the muffin did a double turn and sank down...leaving a crater of a hole in the middle of the supposed muffin.
Luckily my mom was in her room ,upstairs, if not she would have heard me wailing....NOOOOOOOOOOOOO . I tried to put on a brave face and I was staring at the muffins hoping that it might rise again, PPPOOOOFFF the whole muffin combusted and were in smokes.

Hmmmm, I thought this wasn't natural....(delayed response as I was)
The alarm went out when the smokes got thicker and my dad came into the kitchen carrying the fire extinguisher (no, I was joking) but he did come into the kitchen asking what was burnt.
>
Tearfully I pulled out the charred remains of my supposedly dream muffin.

Never fear,after an hour of analysing and self pity, I have gain my
strength and will again make another batch of muffins. Just not this week.
>
> Well thats from me .