A new beginning : Day 1

Let's get things straight. I am 5 feet 6 and weight 200 lb (93kgs) and I have been trying to run regularly on and off. All these while when I run around the area a live in, I have been trying to gauge my performance. Unfortunately without a realiable pedometer I couldn't really measure the distance I was running. If you are a person like me, not built for speed, you would understand perfectly when I say that when I run any distance feels far and any speed feels fast. So yesterday, after such a long search and wait, I finally was able to splurge in getting a pedometer. Today is a new day and a new beginning.

So I started off as usual with my stretching and then a slow, very slow, if I am to be honest, jog, and tried to maintain some form of constant speed. Lo and behold I ran 1.29 km in 39 mins... now that really redefines SLOW!

So tommorow let's step up the gas a bit and burn a little rubber....

Ayam Goreng Lengkuas (Fried Chicken with Galangal)

This is one of my favourite recipes. A sure hit with my kids. It is a bit tedious to make as I highly recommend that the galangal be grated and not chopped using a food processor, but worth it as the shredded galangal makes it more palatable. Try using younger galangal as the older one gets a bit to difficult to grate. Another thing that I recommend is that you use a fry-siever to catch all the tasty fried morsels. Try as best as possible to get all of it before proceeding to frying the later batches as these will get burnt and ruin the over all taste. I sometimes resort to pouring everything through a sieve lined with paper towels to catch everything and pour the oil back into the wok, reheat to be used for the next batch.

Ingredients:
1 chicken cut into 8 parts
1 stalk lemongrass buised
4 tablespoon shredded (or coarsely grated) galangal
2 pcs of bay leaves
1 tablespoon oil

Finely grounded (using blender or food processor)
5 shallots
3 cloves of garlic
3 candlenut (dry roasted in a pan)
1 small pc of fresh tumeric ( or a teaspoon of dried turmeric)
1 tablespoon of tamarind - use quarter of a cup of water to extract the juice.

Salt and sugar to taste.
Oil for deep frying Photo above from top left: Chicken, galangal, tamarind juice, bay leaves, roasted candlenuts, fresh tumeric, garlic and shallots and bruised lemongrass.

Clean chicken and place all ingredients into a roomy saucepan or wok.

Using medium heat cook the chicken. Once half cooked remove from pan. Reserve the gravy. Continue cooking the gravy until the gravy is dried. Heat oil in wokDeep fry the chicken. Drain the chicken and any residue from the frying (that is the delicious part of the dish!) Once the chicken parts are fried to golden brown, drain on paper towels. Serve with the dry-fried gravy and fried residue. Delicious with Nasi Lemak!

Today...

...is another saturday. I am actually standing in front of Sunway Pyramid at 1.41 pm waiting for my ride back home. An idea that sounded good this morning proved to be a huge mistake. I forget how ugly things can get. The steamy heat, the cacophony impatience of traffic, gaggle of tourists - oblivious of their surroundings and other people around them, all leaves me reeling. Teenagers, with their state of the art hand phones, miniskirts, wrap around scarves, latest trends of underwear-showing jeans a scene that confuses. And right this moment a luxury car is left idling, passively poisoning me to death.

Starting fresh

I have new toy and I am liking it. Though I am reduced typing with my thumbs, I am loving it. I am officially mobile and I am enjoying it.

I have always liked writing but apart from my indiscipline of doing it everyday, i hate my handwriting. Chicken scratching is what my mother labels it and most of the time I agree with her description. Now, it's time to start fresh.