Celebrity Chef

Over the Christmas holidays, I've been addicted to watching celebrity chefs on tv.

There's nothing better than watching Nigella Lawson cooking christmas dinner. She has a rather flirtatrous manner of presenting, making everything she cooks so tantalizing. She certainly does tillate the senses ;)
Also she never skimps on the butter or sugar on her recipes. It's almost like watching food porn. She's certainly the stuff men's dreams are made of. Christmas would not be the same without watching some of Nigella's Christmas Kitchen. She's just so sexy. 





I've also recently discovered Rick Stein Mediterranean Escapes. I believe those episodes are not new. But I love how he travels and savours local food. I've been watching his Italian series, where he visit the south of Italy. The recipes look really simple but oh so delicious and he uses such fresh food. I'm addicted to Italian cooking! Pasta is just so easy to cook.


I remember I was asked before by my Italian friends what I put into my pasta, I used to reply, "Sometimes cream, and tomato sauce before." They just looked at me in aghast and lift their hands up in protest and say, "Noo, that's disgusting." and I would just chuckle in delight at their shock and horror.

I mean no offence to the Italians, but spaghetti in cream and pancetta sauce is just absolutely delicious.
I also realise that the real spaghetti carbonara doesn't contain cream, but it's just delicious adding cream to it :) Also everytime I look for recipes for spaghetti carbonara, they always recommend to add cream. Even Jamie Oliver's recipe for carbonara had cream in it!


Regarding how tomato sauce ended up in my pasta- Once upon a long time ago, me and Shiao Wei were cooking spaghetti for a party. We had added in pasta with ready made pasta sauce from the jar, and the pasta still didn't taste quite right. So we decided to add sugar, and it still didn't taste right. There was a bottle of tomato sauce in the fridge and we decided to squeeze some in, and then we decided that it tasted good.

These days I certainly don't add cream or tomato sauce to my pasta, and definitely not ready made sauce in the jar either :) Prefer the real way of making the sauce :) tastes better too :)

Christmas Parties 2011

Had the most amazing Christmas this year!

Finally had Christmas time off :D

The most superb and delicious Christmas meals 2 days in a row.
By the way, I am not counting the Christmas lunch I had in the hospital as well, because it was digusting hospital food, therefore it doesn't count. Although not all hospitals have disgusting food. Inverness and Dumfries hospital had fairly decent food :)



Christmas Eve Party at Martin's

Two German guys in the kitchen! 

 I think their favourite word is Scheiße! :P

See the bread on the far right, it's home made and baked by Felix the cat

Delicious spread..

German Christmas dinner

The greyish matter covered with brown sauce at the bottom of the plate which looks like potato mash actually consists of potato mixed with flour boiled in water. I think it didn't quite turned out as they expected it to. But still tasted delicious with the brown gravy. By the way, brown gravy was made by boiling goose/duck innards till it melted.

Also I'm not sure why brussel sprouts is always included in every Christmas dinner. They're not that tasty. I think perhaps it reseambles mini cabbages.

Lovely, delicious goose

ooooh Angry German with knife!! scaryyy

Felix the cat posing with the knife. He's our master chef, cooking almost all the food.

Too much eating and drinking the whole night.
Martin baked a coffee walnut cake. Wow.
Had superb breakfast the next morning, with goat's cheese,bread etc.
Had a slightly awkward morning as well, someone was opening their presents and half the presents consisted of lingerie. hahahhahaha
I thought they were either gonna end up having coitus in the living room or the elevator.

Mini-rant- some people seemed not to have been taught basic manners. If you finish eating, it would be good to clean up your dirty dishes or put them in the sink even if you don't want to wash them, not just leave them lying around. Really annoyed!

One more thing, heard a crazy story from a friend. How something innocent could have been twisted into an accusation with potential devasting consequences. Guess we all have to watch our backs or just stay away. Wonder who the next victim is gonna be? Although I can already guess...lol

 Christmas Day!!

I got invited over to Bearsden to Marieanne's parents house for Christmas dinner :)
I couldn't fit into the MNG dress I bought last week. So I had to change my dress last minute.
Triste :( It's diet time! booooo..

Me at the pub before going

Their house is exceptionally big and beautiful. Laura Ashley wallpaper in the living room. Nice.

Onion soup- The secret ingredient is sherry

Turkey, trimming etc- All from Marks and Spencers. Yummmyyyyy!!!!

 Cranberry sauce is just tooo nicee served with Christmas dinner!!
Embarassingly, I'm the only person who asked for the second helping despite probably being the smallest person there.

Sorry can't help it. Christmas dinner only come once a year!!! whatmore M&S Christmas dinner!!!

One big happy family with Marieanne missing

Relaxing weekend

Had a super relaxing weekend last week.

I was invited over to Nuno's for brunch as he was leaving to go back to Portugal for Christmas :(

Wonderful spread made by Nuno :) This guy just makes the absolutely most fantatic breakfast ever. That's why I like hanging out in his flat so much! Also he does have a beautiful flat!
I love sit down breakfast at Nuno's. It's so civilised and proper, and he has the best collection of music ever.

So there was cheese, chorizo, sausages, scrambled eggs....the list goes on......

Alden and Eimear came over for breakfast as well as they were dropping Nuno off at the airport.


Fabulous company, great conversation on a Saturday morning :D
By the way, I knew I was invited as Nuno wanted to talk to me about the naughty thing I did last weekend of writing the references :P I do see his point of view, but I still don't think what I did was entirely wrong although it did kinda backfire on me. But all is sorted now :D

Anyway I hope Nuno has an enjoyable Christmas back in Lisbon and also enjoy his New Year's in Berlin :)


I did some shopping in town after brunch, wanted just to get shampoo and toothpaste.
But saw Mango on 50% off, thought I would support spanish economy by buying their brand.
Realised that most of the clothes in there are now made in China :O
I think the quality is not as good.
But anyway, did end up buying a dress from there :)
Could not resist!!
Bought another top from a charity dress!! yesss!!! another great find from charity shop!

Met Daniel and his friend Thomas later on.
We walked around Great Western Road looking for all tbese specialty shops.
They've got these little shops selling different things from Spain and America.

Daniel made dinner after.
He loves doing this european asian fusion dishes.
It was a curry and spaghetti combination with eggs.
I thought it was going to be strange tasting.
But it was surprisingly tasty :)
almost tasted like curry flavoured maggie mee :)
This guy always makes really nice food.

I also re-watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It's on bbc iplayer at the moment.
That show is really hilarious. I forgot lots of bits of it.
and Jessica Rabbit is smoking HOT as always.

There was another movie I watched over the weekend which was Heavenly creatures by Peter Jackson. As in the same movie director for Lord of the rings. He's an amazing director. The movie was great albeit slightly screwed up, also it was starring Kate Winslet. It's a story about 2 girls who have such a deep friendship that the parents tried to separate them and they end up murdering one of their mothers. Highly recommended!


Later that night, we decided to go to Stereo in town for a drink and to meet up with some people.

hahahahhaa, Daniel drew a picture of me on the blackboard.
Yup he did lie to me and I tell him all the time that I hate him. it's true.

Went pub hopping a few times. met up with Ophir as well, and we were having a nice long chat. 
Had a really good night, despite a certain person's behaviour.

Also Daniel cooked a really nice Spanish lunch the next day.
I kept having to ask him if it was really Spanish or if it was his invention.

I feel like I am obessesed with food.
I seem to go on a LOT about food on the blog.

3 days to Christmas

Yayyyy!!!!!!!!!

Guess what!!!
It's 3....T-H-R-E-E-E!!! days to Christmas!!!!!

Also I just found out that I've been invited to 2 Christmas parties this year!!!
One on Christmas eve and one on Christmas day itself.

Gonna have such an awesome wicked time!!! Whoopeee!!

Just had a pre-Christmas dinner on Monday, thanks to my housemate Marieanne's cousin's parents (very long winded). LOL.

So I've not had Christmas in like 2 years!? since starting work!

Actually I tell a lie. During FY1, did come back for a nice amazing Christmas dinner prepared by Lyndsey courtesy of M&S food :D

So pre-Christmas dinner on Monday.....had superbly amazing food...of four roast...which means a bird within a bird within a bird, stuffings, mini sausages, yorkshire pudding, with bread sauce. Delicious! Dessert was millionaire shortbread with lots of thick double cream. Decadence!

Aunt Irene cutting up the four roast :)

My flatmate-Marieanne

Cousin Lynn and I forgot the dog's name....sorry...

oooooohhh Eating together....:D

Had such an enjoyable night!! Listened to some blues with Uncle Bob after, and he was on the guitar and drums. Superb live music! Also really nice house in Bearsden.... :D


So I will start my diet pretty soon....
because my stomach is expanding each and everyday...

Last weekend Part 2

 Photo from Neil's camera from the night before, obviously better quality than my photos as it's a SLR and he's a bettter photographer than me :D

Continued..

so next day, woke up at about 10-ish am.


All of us had a nice cooked breakfast together in the HUGE dining room :D

Had more coffee....

By the way, I'm a coffee addict if you haven't figured out already.

Decided to go out hill walking after.

 

About a 20 minute drive there I think....sorry this is just my guess-timate.

 But I was suffering from really bad car sickness during the journey there. I had severe nausea, headahce, dizziness, and nearly threw up.

 

The weather was fairly rotten, drizzly, rainy, and cold. Typical Scottish weather I'm afraid. 

I had on silly shoes- wellington boots. It wasn't great for climbing hills but it did keep me clean from the muddy grounds.

 Sorry the photos actually don't do the place justice at all. The views were actually so beautiful from the top!

Definitely worth the long walk up :D

yayy we made it to the top!

 

 

I think not everyone was looking at the camera...

We sang a birthday song for David at the top as well- it was his birthday, and we shared a bar of cadbury chocolate :D

Catherine and David 

 

 

 

It was really dangerous for me going downhill actually. The grass was muddy and slippery. Daniel and Catherine were kind enough to hold my hands walking down. <3

Catherine also enthralled us with all her travelling stories. I love her French accent :D

Daniel actually fell on the way down even though he had on proper walking boots, but I held on to him on the way up, so I was lucky not to fall. 

danii flying at the top

When I got back to Michael's house, I was really feeling extremely unwell by then. I couldn't even finish the cheesecake Maeve baked, and everyone knows how much I love my desserts.

I vomited twice in the toilet, and had this horrible headache, and I had to lie and rest on the bed.

Catherine was really kind to me, and she made us all hot chocolate and was so sweet and caring.

Catherine and David also gave me and Danii a lift home..soo nice :D

Arrived home in Glasgow and felt so weak the I spent the rest of the night in bed and yakking away on the phone even though I still felt ill.

Crazy Weekend

So had a bit of a mental weekend.

Ate too much on Friday night.
Also decided to eat the chocolate pudding from M&S which had been left out in the fridge for a few days at Daniel's place.
It tasted okay, a bit sourish...but was chocolate pudding afterall...how can anyone resist.
Was not unwell after that, watched a french movie- Le Choristes-- amazing movie by the way! the full movie is on youtube.


Woke up on Saturday morning, still feeling alright, decided to do some studying.
Drank some coffee and tea.
By the afternoon, felt positively unwell, headache, dizziness, nausea and ended up vomiting a couple of times in the toilet. Was wondering if I could still make it to the kitchen surfing party in Loch Lomond...

Ended up in bed for 1-2 hours.
Felt better after taking some paracetamol and vomiting.

By 5.30pm felt well enough to go for party, decide to go for party.

Car-pooled to Loch Lomond. Felt car sick along the way, but was alright after.

Had a great time cooking/eating/drinking chatting with some good friends :D not to forget crazy french lady Catherine- but she's simply amazing actually, je t'aime! <3

Busy cooking..

Dinner time!!

Had some really nice, delicious food :D

I made roast chicken. Didn't do much, just shoved it into the oven and it cooked itself :D

And after............


Time for......Hot Tub on the roof!!

This was just simply magnifique!!

Hot tub-ing

We were in the living room after, had some nice chat, decorated the christmas tree.
Also apologised to the somebody, I am still not sure if I am entirely forgiven actually :( :(

Okay next day's event to be continued........suspense! 

Party at Nuno's place

Had an awesome pot luck party at Nuno's flat last Friday :)
Met loads of nice people, had some good conversation.
Lots of nice food to eat. Thanks everyone!
Stayed overnight and spent the next day cleaning up.
Khaled never fails to make me laugh! :D

Feels like Christmas already

Beautifully decorated christmas tree :)
Delicious dinner of salmon and spinach lasagne.
I guess Christmas came early this year :D

Blogging again...

By the way, I am blogging again because

no.1 I'm on holiday

no.2 I am trying to get rid of my facebook addiction

no.3 there is no no.3...

If there is I would think of a no.3 later.


Now back to my studying again...


This is stupid and distracting...


oH reason number three is...I would like to look back at my online diary in future and remember things I did in the past.


That's all for now.

I guess it's better than all those bloggers who now blog for ?money-making purposes and everything llittered with advertorials.

So lame. There's no integrity left.

I hate this stupid word lame, it's almost as bad as using the word retarded. It's too American. damn all those American series I watch.

Vino Tinto

A bottle of wine from a patient for coming up with the correct diagnosis!! :D

WHooopeeeEeeeee!!!!!

Totally made my day!!!

Happiness!

Was having brunch with Lyndsey at Kember and Jones on my day off, and he walks in and takes out a bottle of wine from his bag and congratulates me for being 'spot on' with my diagnosis.
Felt totally surreal.
 

Shoe addict..

Beautiful new shoes!!!
Three on the left are made in Italy, and the on blue one on the far right isfrom Spain :)

I ain't wearing made in china shoes anymore when the ones from Italy/Spain are far better quality and design :D and not to forget real leather shoes as well!! 

26th Birthday

Urghh Can't believe I'm so old already.
I know I like going on and on about my old old age.
and the fact that my life is over.
It's overrrrr

Anyway weekend before birthday, headed down to Manchester to celebrate with my beloved Lisa, Eileen etc.
Went out for too much food! and dim sums, buffet hot pot, chinese dinner, shopping!!
Lovely Lisa bought me mango cake from the chinese shop. Yums. I'm pretty sure I finish eating more than half the cake by myself. Since going back to Malaysia last year, put on like 3-4 kg in a week? How is that even possible?? Okay diet time again perhaps?

Birthday girl i.e. Moi

I'm on holiday again!!!

Bonjour, oui I am back in blogger land!
Time to type type type!
Lisa is currently listening to Usher ft. Pitbull- DJ got us falling in love and she got me addicted as well!
Cause baby tonight DJ got us falling in love again, so dance dance like it's the last last night of your life...
Love the song, makes me feel like going clubbing.
*slaps face*
Seriously I'm 26, no more acting like a 18 year old kid!

I've turned my nights and days upside down again since coming off a week off nights on orthopaedics.
Last Sunday night, there was a match between the Celtics and the Rangers, they drew the match.
But lots of supporters has been out drinking all afternoon, they were out fighting/looking for fights after the match. Resulting in riots all over the city. So saw lots of random stabbing incidents coming into A&E. Very scary. Remind me never to venture out when there's a football match going on.

It's been constantly raining again. I hate the weather so much, I end up sitting at home most of the time. I'm at home even more nowadays compared to last year, because I have the internet in my room now! And I can just spend the whole day watching tv online. Currently addicted to 90210, Glee, Gossip girl, Desperate housewives, and the list goes on and on. Decided to venture out in the late afternoon to jump start Boonu's car. I was so tempted to drive off with the car, but I have almost certainly forgot how to drive a car. I couldn't even remember how to get the car out of the parallel parking space. How sad is that! Later, met up with Alex and Callum for coffee. Those two are hilarious, the stories they tell about GP land. I told them they could do stand up comedy cause they are too funny, and Alex is too cute as always :)

Came home and ended up cooking my belated Chinese New Year feast again! I'm gonna grow obese from cooking/eating it. Also used up the last of my poor lap cheong. Mon dieu! How I love lap cheongs! Anyway too much ho liao in my rice, therefore rending it too salty. Oh well.

MRCP exam

I got my MRCP exam tomorrow!
HELPPP
I hate exams. Seriously.

I just finished my GP exam today.
I have no idea what most of the answers were and just used my logical head, which isn't very logical sometimes.

Okay another 150 more questions left on pastest to do.
Gambate!

MRCP exam

arghh
so sick of doing questions!!!!!!!!!!!!
help me!
I can't believe I paid so much to sit for the exam.