Made In Malaysia

Yes, I'm stealing Super Blogger's Post Title.. So wat?? XD
well, unfortunately, the Japanese students in my college aren't as rich as Nagaoka College of Technology's students XD so only two of my friends followed me back to Malaysia for the summer holidays.
And I hope more would follow... with their Baito-dai lolz.. but the next time I'm not offering free accomodation ^^

Let's start with a little dessert..

That's us posing behind a feast of Bak Kut Teh if u don't notice =)
"Dessert?" u must be wondering.. well, u must first understand that there are NO, i repeat NO kopitiams or mamaks in Japan. If you ever got home-sick over something like that, u'll have to get by with Yoshinoya and Ramen-Ya's.

Culture Shock No.1 Food Culture
What is Japanese food? Ramen, Chinese noodles in miso soup, salted soup, soya sauce soup. well, in short, Chinese noodles in MSG soup XD wat else? tempura, fried.. err.. everything? try deep frying a capsicum soaked in flour.. that's tempura.. no, i'm not joking. ^^ sushi, i have nothing against sushi, thank you. i dont mind 3 meals all sushi.. no, i dont even mind the wasabi. hmm let's move to the south islands of japan.. takoyaki, baby octopuses inside this ball of flour.. yes, this is special, i admit.. and wat else? teppanyaki.. to be honest, i've never even seen that in Kantou.. and i really admire ppl who can still eat it after observing the amount of oil poured on the teppan and the vegetable being molested by all that oil on the teppan.. yes, it's that gross. then we have the monja-yaki and okonomiyaki.. oiiiiiiiii wat the heck is with all that yaki yaki?? FYI, yaki means fry in japanese.. u call that HEALTHY japanese food?? ^^; hmm i forgot.. there's also Japanese curry, first came in as English(UK) curry, which is sweet and fruity.. uhuh.. now i know why they have such weird tastebuds for curry ^^

Let me tell you a secret about why Japanese are so 'healthy' and slim compared to foreigners. It's not because their food is healthier, as the international Japanese food business claims, but because they eat one of the smallest portions of food compared to most countries..
Now, let's compare Malaysia and Japan.. Before I mention meal portions, first of all is the 'amount of meals', which I have added as a poll on my blog. In Malaysia, a lot of ppl have breakfast, coffee break, lunch, tea break, dinner, and supper. that's a total of 6 meals a day.. While in Japan, they dont even have a proper translation for supper or tea break, altho there is coffee break (a gairaigo however, which means foreign assimilated words).

Here's a little Malaysian supper.. This is a Roti Tisu.. no, i'm not kidding.. it's just too big to shape into a cone tower.. For those who do not know what a Roti Tisu is, let me give you a hint.. it's an indian dish.. but it's not available in India XD Please visit Malaysia for more info! lol

Now there are so many other differences in the food culture of Malaysia and Japan. Another of these examples is PIZZA. In Japan, the pizza crust is around 0.2 cms thick.. in Malaysia it's at least 1 cm thick. 1.5 to 2 cms for stuff-crusted, not to mention.

My Mum's Handmade Pizza (The Crust is bought at the Supermarket) =)

For those of you Malaysians who actually like Japanese Pizza or Japanese Italian food, just let me say this : What kind of pizza has more topping than flour?!?!? and more oil than pasta ^^;

One more thing I really can't accept about Japanese food is this:

This is Kangkung Fried Chinese Style.. now, if anyone, ANYONE has ever seen a japanese dish like this, please tell me. We eat this much vegetable at least every day (unless you don't eat at home) compared to Japanese, who maybe have a small bowl of cabbage salad (i love it actually) everyday, and some tsukemono (pickled vegetables) a day.. so tell me, which is healthier?

okay, I'll leave this much for you guys to think about for today.. Well, after the trip back to Malaysia with my friends, I've realized a lot of differences in Japanese and Malaysian cultures that I've not taken the time to notice before.. and I've also realized I'm MADE IN MALAYSIA XD

P.S. KFC Malaysia Ltd. RoCkS!!!

俺風焼きそば Fried Mee My Style

Sorry for the longgggggggg blog holiday.. hehe.. to be honest, it's just not that fun blogging anymore.. maybe coz i dont get comments >.< Well, anyways, here's the appetizer for today! haha.. might update more later tonight.. anyways, let's see how good u are at guessing my recipe/diet XD the ingredients are at the bottom! ^^






1. Ibumi Mee Goreng





2. Chicken Floss (Bak Hu in Hokkien)






3. Sweet Corn (Jagung)

炒飯物語 Fried Rice Story

昨日の晩御飯でした。炒飯です。なぜか橙色ばかり。This was last night's dinner. Fried Rice. Somehow it was very orange. ^^

今からジョー特性炒飯の作り方を教えます。I am going to teach you how to make the Jo Special Fried Rice now.

まずは色んな材料を用意します。お米はもちろん、たまごちゃん一個、炒飯の素、コショウが基本。そして、おかずとしては三つぐらいの肉類や野菜。僕の場合はにんじん、きのこ、と鶏肉。基本的には自分が好きなものをいっぱい入れてください。
First of all, prepare all kinds of ingredients.. Of course you'll need rice, an egg, essence of fried rice (^^;), and pepper. And for the side ingredients, have about 3 types of vegetable and meat. For me, I got carrots, mushrooms and chicken meat. Basically, just put in lots of anything it is that you like.
[質問：炒飯の素がなかったらどうする？　自分の素を作る。基本はコショウたっぷり、塩を少し、と砂糖少し水で薄めたしょうゆにいれて、素の代わりに入れます。ふりかけでもいいけど。。
おかずがなかったら？　たまごちゃんの数を増やします。
Question: If I don't have any fried rice essence? Make your own. The basic is lots of pepper, a bit of salt, a titbit of sugar melted in some soy sauce lightened with water.
If I don't have side ingredients? Add more eggs.]

次はご飯を炊きます。（ご飯の炊き方分からないとか言うな）　ご飯が出来上がるまでにおかずを軽く炒めます。油はできるだけ控えめにしてください（僕の場合は油を入れすぎて、それが大失敗）。調味料は特に要りません。おかずのそのままの味でいいです。
Next, cook the rice (Don't tell me you can't cook rice). While waiting for the rice to be done, stir-fry the side ingredients. Try to use as little oil as possible (I put too much oil, and that was my big failure). It is not a must to add any seasonings. It is okay to go with the natural taste of the side ingredients.
[質問：ご飯の炊き方本当に分からなかったら？　冷凍のご飯でも買ってください。
油を入れすぎたり、おかずを炒めすぎたりしたら？　捨てます。大事なおなかを壊すな。
Question: What if I really don't know how to cook rice? Buy some frozen ready-made rice.
If I put too much oil, or overcook the side ingredients? Throw it away. Don't destroy your stomach.]

出来上がったおかずは別のお皿に置いといて、ちょっと多めの油（ご飯がフライパンにくつかないように）をフライパンの上で温めて、中火で溶きたまごを炒める。たまごがちょっと出来上がったら、ご飯を入れて、どんどんかき混ぜる。それから、おかずを入れて、ちょっとかき混ぜたら、炒飯の素とコショウをふりかけます。ご飯に焼き目がついたら、炒めすぎ。うすい茶色の炒飯でいい。
When the side ingredients are done, put it in another plate and pour quite a big size of oil onto the frypan (so that your rice does not stick), heat it up and fry the stirred egg under medium fire. When the egg is half done, put in your rice and stir it hard. After that, put in your side ingredients and after stirring it a bit, pour in the fried rice essence and pepper. If your rice turns dark brown, you have burnt it. A light brown fried rice is good enough.
[質問：　ご飯を置きっぱなしにして、悪くなっちゃたりしたら？　まだ食べれる状態なら、そのまま炒めます。熱を加えると菌はだいたい死にますから。
コショウが嫌だったら？　唐辛子でも何か辛い調味料でいい。
わさびでいいの？　あほか？
辛いものが嫌だったら？　じゃあ、コショウと一緒に塩をいっぱ～い入れてください。塩で味覚が乱れたら辛くなくなります。
Questions: If I left the rice and it turned bad? If it is still edible, fry it as it is. The bacterias will die when you add heat.
If I hate pepper? Red pepper (tongarashi) or anything spicy would be okay.
Will wasabi do? Arse..
If I don't like spicy? Then, along with the pepper, add lo~ts of salt. When your taste buds are spoiled, it won't be spicy anymore. ^^]

さて、召し上がり！いただきます！Let's eat!

Fried Chicken

Here's my dinner today.. Fried chicken.. first time fry chicken.. hehe.. looks good right? but actually half success half failure lar. don't have a proper frying pan for deep frying, so the chicken wasn't cooked evenly.. some still have raw flesh.. >.< and blood coming out.. imagine that! heh.. Well, anyways, it was quite nice nevertheless.

And a fried egg as a side dish.. well, actually, it's the egg left over from the fried chicken lar.. hehe.. my first perfectly round fried egg.. but very oily.. lolz..

Ichigo Kiss!

Yes yes! One of the few lovely things you get during winter is...........

As written on the wrapping(for those who can read Japanese), this type of strawberries is called Tochi Otome.

とちおとめ [3]
「とよのか」と「女峰」を交配し、さらに「栃の峰」を掛け合わせ、栃木県農業試験場によって育成された品種。品種登録は1996年。女峰より粒が大きく甘さも強い、日持ちが良い品種。従来の二大勢力であった「とよのか」や「女峰」に代わり、本記事の執筆版現在、日本一の生産量を誇る。

Wikipedia Japan
Tochi Otome
A Strawberry breed raised at the Tochigi Prefecture Agriculture Test Centre by crossbreeding the Toyonoka breed and Nyohou breed, and interbreeding with the Tochi No Mine breed. The breed was first recorded in the year 1996. This good breed has fruits bigger and sweeter than the Nyoho and lasts longer. In place of the two monopolizing breed, Toyonoka and Nyoho in the past, as of this article's writing now, it is now famous as Japan's number one strawberry produce.

The one I bought isn't that sweet, but still quite nice. Well, it isn't the peak season yet anyways. It should be really tasty towards the end of winter and beginning of spring.

And did you know?

甘みがあるため果物として位置づけられることが多いが、草本性の植物であるので正確には野菜に分類される。

Because the strawberry is sweet, it is usually placed as a fruit. However, as a plant having herbal properties, in accurate terms, it is classified as a vegetable.

Itadakimasu!

今日某氏からケーキをいただきました！前に約束されたものですが、忘れたかとおもったら、本当に作ってくれて、ちょっと驚きました。ごちそうさまでした！おいしかったです。僕手作りのケーキもらうの初めてです。本当にありがとう。

I received a cake from someone today. ^^ Hmm, how to explain ler? Err, basically, she said she'll make some cakes during december after the exam, and asked if anyone wanted to try.. But I thought she already forgot, so when I received it today, I was a bit surprised. heh. It was a chocolate cake and it tasted great! =) This is the first time I received a handmade cake. ^^ Thank you so much!

Mega Egg!!

The Japanese McDonald has introduced two more new products! This is one of it, the Mega Egg! Before this, I tried the Mega Mac which is a two-pounder version of the Big Mac. And now, they've changed it to an egg and a piece of bacon on top! Tasted great! The McWraps are also quite nice.. Soft succulent flour baked to perfection and the sweet aroma of chicken/shrimp.. Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas!! lol.. Oh yea, the Mega Mac is 380 yen, and is guaranteed to fill your stomach up and turn you into Santa Claus by Christmas next year. haha..
これはマックの新品メガたまごです！写真では一口噛まれたってわかる？なんちゅうことだ。。食べる前に写真撮れっつの。。まあ、おいしそうでたまらなかったってわけだ。（笑）これはまさにメガマックをはるかに越えてますね。肉の代わりにたまごとベーコンとはすばらしい発想だな！しかも、単品で380円だぞ。こんな低価格でおいしくて「栄養満々」の食事ができて幸せだな。。＾＾

Third Quarter of Hokkaido Trip

Sorry for the long wait, guys. Was busy watching Jigoku Shoujo, an anime which is quite interesting. Will talk a bit about that later. For now, let's continue with Hokkaido..

Actually, this is going to be quite a boring post.. That's one of the reasons I didn't really want to update on this. But if I don't update, that Calvin bising bising pula.

So, where were we? Sapporo right? We stayed at Hokudai(Hokkaido University) for 3 nights. I've posted up the pictures for the first day. Where did we go the second day? Going by our friend's suggestion, we planned to go to the Hokkaido Historical Village. The place is about 30 to 40 minutes(bad memory) from Sapporo by train.

When we reached there and got the map, we realized that it was not just the historical village there. There were lots of museums and 触れ合い(touching,as translated from my dictionary) centres. And the paths were mostly through the jungle, with distances of over 2 kms.. First stop was this tower.


Sapporo's 100 year commemorative tower. 百年記念塔.

Second stop was the Historical Museum of Hokkaido.


In front of it was this little statue.. cute? no, I don't think so.. but it's interesting coz when you clap your hands near it, you'll be able to hear a bird's cry. I tried, and there was a subtle sound like a bird's cry.. but sorry, no video..

The first thing in the museum was this little attempt to bring back the stone ages.
Not to mention, mammoths too..
Which bear is more likely to bite? *wink*
Japanese version of the voodoo doll.
Ancient Ainu(the natives of Hokkaido) clothing.
The general interior of an Ainu hut(house?)
If you're interested in hunting seals... they have as many spearheads as you have fishing hooks..
Some old rusted swords
Does this remind you of the Vikings? Be grateful these Ainu were not as vile!
Anyone for Bear worship? "Oh, Mighty Bear, lend me your ClAwS!"
These photos show how Hokkaido was stained by the foolishness that is called Civilization over the decades.
After that, a long walk around the place for the whole afternoon before reaching the Historical Village. I will not be posting the pictures of those boring adventures, except this..
Notice the leaves turning orange and red? That's the sign of autumn! Tanoshimi!

So, we reached the Historical Village.. Lots of buildings.. Including Western buildings.. From a conversation with an old lady in one of the houses, we got the information that the village was rebuilt from the ruins of the flood in Asahikawa a long time ago. Geographically, Asahikawa is actually very far from Sapporo. The flood actually carried off the whole town down somewhere far from Asahikawa, and they used the materials from the ruins to rebuilt the Historical Village.

There were a lot of old building including a Post Office and a barber shop and grocery stores.. But I won't be putting them up coz they're just not interesting to put up. There was also a railroad in the middle of the path, like tram tracks.. Actually, a horse pulled the car and brought the tourists around. We didn't try this (costs money of course). And I'm not putting up the picture of the horse either, coz it looked so pitiful.. sighs..

This is a sort of farmhouse or some kind of structure that Calvin mentioned looked something like those Dutch(Holland) farmhouses. Since the weather was cloudy until then, Calvin began fussing on getting a good picture of the building and the blue sky background. Okay, I admit I was trying to get a good shot too, but I'm not a camwhore, at least. =P

And a bit further up was a farm, and there was also this apple farm.. (Did I mention Calvin seems to be an apple fan freak?)

Hmm..... who's that?? Seems like they're stealing some apples..
Uh Oh! Caught red handed(literally)! Too bad couldn't get Calvin's face.. If not can blackmail him and make him confess about his girlfriend.. >.< And a fishing village..The place wasn't near the sea, although the real village was near the sea.. So, they built a lake beside the model so that it "felt" like the sea.
Here's a preview of the Historical Urinal. That's all for the Historical Village.

For dinner, we went to an Indian Restaurant, Taj Mahal.
First dish, Tandoori Chicken! Nyum Nyum..
And Naan! There are no Roti Canais in Japan, btw. Only Naans.. Boring~
And Nasi Briyani with curry! woohooo!

Okay that's all for Sapporo. The next morning, we took the train up to Furano.. The plan was to see the lavenders of course.. But when we reached there and went to ask at the Tourist Information counter, we were told that the lavender season was almost, if not already, over..But of course we still had lots of time, so we went around the city on this rental bicycle.
I like the keychain. ^^
With the bicycle, we went up some hills and reached this cheese factory(or park).
Got Milk?
Yes, we got milk, and a small cheese cake too.The milk was fresh and thick, unlike the ones sold at supermarkets.. And the cheese cake was very nice too!
And this is supposed to be Cheese Ice Cream.. right.. just the flavor, anyways..
This is the bridge we crossed to get to the place.. The statue's cute.. One of the reasons I stopped to take the picture.. heh..
After that, we went to a Wine Factory on the other side of the city..
100 years capsule.. these wine will be kept for 100 years.. high quality.. >.< Wine with a touch of lavender taste.. I drank a small cup of sample, but didn't taste much like lavender.. too bad.. If it did, I would've bought it straight away.. heh..

After that, we went to a nearby Grape Factory. Nothing much there, but there was a pony and a donkey there..
Calvin said they were both male (I'm gender blind when it comes to animals). Gay? ^^;