Dumbo @ Art - Chinese Seal #2: The Economy of Seal Carving

On the surface, seal carving may appear to be a moderately expensive hobby, with each stone costing upwards of RM 5 a piece (used to; must be much more expensive now, with the price of everything going up), and we are not even talking about the more expensive types of stone, such as tianhuang (田黄).

But the truth is, it is not an expensive hobby at all. After all, you can actually USE the end product. And it will further contribute to your other works of art (seals are typically used on Chinese brush paintings. That is, if you paint).

What's more, compared to watercolor (my other hobby, so to speak), if you spoil a piece of good watercolor board (upward of RM12 a piece some months ago), that's it: bye bye to the money spent; but if you are not happy with a seal, well, just sand away your mistake and start all over again. There is practically no way you can waste a piece of stone.

***

I have thus far made only one seal with my name. And to be honest, I wasn't happy with it. I had used a huge knife for the first time, and the crude outcome bore proof to how clumsily I handled the knife.

But I did not rework it immediately. I decided to just let it be until I feel in the mood to correct my mistake (haven't we all procrastinated on correcting some of our mistakes?).

***

One fine afternoon, I was finally in the mood. I had completed all my works at hand, and I was looking for something to spend the afternoon on. So, I decided to give that seal a new look.

It was originally done in yangwen (阳文, or zhuwen, 朱文), i.e., the characters are red (on the seal, the non-character parts are recessed); now, I decided it should be yinwen (阴文, or baiwen, 白文), i.e., the characters are white (on the seal, the characters are recessed).

Besides, I was still feeling a bit lazy. Yinwen (carving away the characters) is easier to do compared to yangwen (carving away the background).

And so, with not more than one hour of labor (I think), my seal - the only one that bears my name; but first name only, no family name - is given a brand new look, which I like much better (and may finally actually use):


You may notice here that the seal has some side inscriptions. But I'm not going to tell you what it says. Suffice to say that it bears witness to a phase in my life when I was a bit depressed-ish. It started as something in the line of 少年不知愁滋味，为赋新词强说愁。("[I was] young and not acquainted to sorrow, but for the sake of writing a poem, [I] pretended to be melancholic". These are two famous verses from a poem by 辛弃疾), but it became worse later, complicated by a love lost, and if God had not gracefully called to me to turn me away from the path of self-destruction, I would most certainly not be here reworking this seal. All praises to the God and Father of my Lord, Jesus Christ.


All in all, not a bad way to spend a leisurely afternoon. :-)

Dumbo: Gourmet Extraordinaire - #10: A Satisfying "Tub" of Yong Tau Foo

Last month, in a post, I lamented my mistake of eating at a bull* place. I had commented that I should have eaten a satisfying bowl of Yong Tau Foo (酿豆腐) at Golden Lake Hawkers Center (金湖饮食中心) in Relau instead.

***

Since then, I had eaten the Yong Tau Foo there twice, and on both occasions, I was made a very happy glutton indeed. :-)

What I like about this particular stall of Yong Tau Foo is the variety of "piggy stuffs" it provides: pig stomach (猪肚), pork belly (五花肉) and intestines (big and small). And I like the choice of available vegetables, too. I usually end up with more of the "piggy stuffs" and vegetables than what can be really considered "yong tau foo" (tofu, chilies, lady fingers, bitter gourds etc. stuffed with fish balls or minced meat).

And the soup base is nice. Not MSG-ish at all. I can usually drink up all the soup.

And for a huge "tub" of it enough to feed four persons (but, of course, I am capable of eating for 3), I was usually charged less then RM 15. The last time I was there, I spent only RM 11, for no less than what you see here.

My Cubicle

I only teach there part-time now, but the college is nonetheless gracious enough to reserve a cubicle for myself.

My cubicle used to be on the "dark-side of the moon" - not visible when you first enter the faculty office. But some time ago, there had been a re-arrangement of the cubicles, and now my place is in full-view as soon as you come into the office.

As a self-parody that I have "hopped over" the partition from the "dark-side" to the "bright-side", and also as some sort of self-motivation, I drew the following cartoon ("Overcome!") on the whiteboard of the cubicle:

The twist-dancing elephant is a later add-on. And some "nasty" colleague added the word "proot!" to indicate flatulence. :-) Oh, and the elephant is about to land on a poor mouse.

A Follow-Up to "The Tragedy of the Number 48"

In April, I experienced a somewhat "traumatic" event, chronicled in my blog post entitled "The Tragedy of the Number '48'".

Some days ago, the "tragic" event had seen some further development.

***

I had lunch with two friends in BJ Complex, and after lunch, I decided to go and see what has happened to the 50-inch tan-colored jeans I had liked (but couldn't wear, because it was two inches too big for me) during the last visit to Kamdar.

To my delight, I found out that it was being offered at a 50% discount! That meant buying this wonderful pair of jeans for just RM 29.90 (I say this as a challenge to a friend who always buys expensive clothes)!!!!

And what's more, it seemed to FIT this time!!!

So I bought it. ^^V

***

But remember, this is supposed to be a tragedy. So, even in happy ending, you should expect a little element of tragedy in it.

The thing is, I just finished lunch when I tried it on to see if it fits. Furthermore, denims stretch.

After wearing it for a couple of days, I found that it had somehow become looser and I can wiggle out of it again. So, I have to be extra careful wearing it, lest it slips off in public. =.=

Dumbo in the Kitchen - #2: What Every Bachelor Should Learn to Cook

Soup.

A good, nourishing, satisfying pot of soup.

***

The other day, I bought two whole chicken legs and half a dozen chicken wings (I don't like chicken breast), a pack of fresh Shitake mushrooms, a "giant" white radish ("lobak", if you wonder), some green leafy vegetables, a pack of rice vermicelli ("beehoon"-lah) and some red chilies (for garnishing and for dipping with soy sauce), and set about preparing a simple but wholesome pot of chicken soup.

There is nothing much to do. Wash the washable ingredients (chicken, mushrooms, radish, chilies, vegetables), cut/chop what needs to be cut/chop (radish into medium cubes; mushrooms into slices; chilies into shreds; vegetables according to the size of your mouth - no kidding, but you should cut the vegetables later if it is not meal-time yet), boil up a pot of soup (about 6 medium bowls of water, or, whatever amount is needed to cover all the ingredients), then put in chicken, radish and mushroom (together, or with 10 minutes of interval between each, according to the listed sequence). Simmer till all the ingredients are nice and tender, and the flavors have been released into the soup. I usually use a thermal cooker (what the heck is it?) or a slow cooker to do the job.

The soup could be prepared well before meal time, if you use a thermal cooker; the wonderful little thingummy will keep the soup piping hot for hours. Slow cooker does the trick, too, but it is not as energy-conserving as the former solution.

When it's time for that romantic candle-light dinner, just soak the beehoon till it's a bit soft (not soggy!) then poach it in boiling water till you get the desired consistency (or what we chefs call "al dente"). Slight poach the green leafy vegetables, too.

Add the soup to the beehoon, add in the vege, sprinkle with a bit of shredded red chilies, and there you have it - a good bowl of beehoon soup to impress your lady friend (unless you have a different preference, that is):

***

If you are a bachelor (or if your wife doesn't enjoy cooking, as in my case), you should really learn how to make soups.

Take this soup for example: I prepared a huge pot of it in the morning; my wife and I had beehoon soup for lunch, then noodle soup for dinner (add a couple of poached eggs for variation), and all the while the soup remained hot in the thermal pot.

At night, before going to bed, I brought the left-over soup to boil, and put it back into the thermal pot. The next morning, 5 scoops of Quaker's instant oat in a small bowl, add the soup (you have to re-boil it, to properly "cook" the oat), and voila! A bowl of nourishing chicken-mushroom-oatmeal for breakfast:

***

Go get a thermal pot, dude.

Dumbo in the Kitchen - #1: Pita with Homemade Pork Patties

Forget McDonald's and KFC. Make your own patties and satisfy your fast food cravings at home.

***

I'm not a precise cook, so I'll just roughly point out what I bought and put into the mix:

600g minced meat (I used pork, but you could substitute with any other meat, including poultry)
16 pcs (slightly more or less depending on how much of a "meat-person" you are) of Jacob's high-fibre crackers (pounded into powder)
5 or 6 eggs (enough to make a not-so-wet dough out of the above two ingredients)
soy sauce (1/3 cup, I think) or salt to taste (or a combination of both)
black pepper to taste

Mix these into a pliable dough (can you call a dough "pliable"?), which is then divided and pressed into 1/2 cm-thick patties just a bit smaller in diameter than your pita bread. Fry these patties on a pan (on medium flame) with whatever amount of oil you can allow yourself to indulge in, till cooked inside and golden outside (I know this kind of instructions are rather vague; but you should not be in the kitchen if you can't judge if something is cooked). Use butter if you wan't extra creaminess. Use olive oil if you want to appease your conscience a bit. :-)

***

You can buy pita bread from most hypermarkets these days.

Cut the pita bread into halves, and bake them to moderate crispness (if too crispy, they crumble as you try to stuff things in). Bread toaster on low heat does the trick just nice (and faster and easier than using an oven).

***

You should also get some lettuces, tomatoes and a cucumber. Slice them thinly. For extra punch, I also bought some coriander. But you can leave this out if you don't have a fancy for it (not many people do; but it's a favorite ingredient in Teochew and Thai cuisines).

For the sauce, mixed up some mayonnaise, tomato ketchup and chili sauce, in roughtly 7:2:1 ratio. Replace chili sauce with mustard if available.

***

Next? What do you mean "next"? Just stuff those ingredients (patties smeared generously with the special sauce, a huge leaf of lettuce, a few slices of tomato and cucumber, and a bunch of chopped coriander) into the toasted pitas and eat up!


By the way, I forgot to put the lettuces into the picture above.

The picture below shows what it looked like just before landing inside my mouth. Yum!


Salivate, man, salivate...

Dumbo: Gourmet Extraordinaire - #9: Best Pan Mee in Penang

IMHO, the BEST pan mee (板面) in Penang is found in Nibong Tebal.

***

The stall is run by a middle-aged couple. They also sell Hainanese Chicken Rice, Hot Plate Noodle, and Hot Plate Rice. But their best serving is this pan mee:


The noodles are home-made (translation: free from boric acid and other nasty stuffs): they kneaded the doughs at home, and when you order this dish, they press the dough into this fettuccine-like flat thick noodles right on the spot.

And they make it nicely thick, as pan mee should be. For a few months last year, they tried to make the noodles thinner - perhaps someone who knew nothing about food complained that the noodles were uncooked; bah! whoever it was knew nothing about the meaning of "al dente" - and somehow, it tasted different - well, not nice, really. But I think they realized after some time that it was ruining their reputation and they reverted to the original thickness. And I'm glad they did.

And I love the soup. Real anchovy soup. I'm not sure if it is MSG-free, but it certainly tastes like its MSG-free.

And above it all, you get what you won't get anywhere on the Penang Island: loads of shrimps, chicken fillets, fried anchovies, fish cake, shredded mushrooms, shredded black fungus, and lots and lots of vegetables (in the picture, I have already stirred the noodles, so some of these have been buried beneath the noodles). On Penang Island, you should be thankful if you get some fried anchovies, a bit of minced meat, and some greens. No competition compared to this, I can assure you.

And the big one - enough to satisfy a fat glutton like me - costs only RM3 (used to cost only RM2.70 when we first moved to Nibong Tebal about 5 years ago).

***

If you ever go to Nibong Tebal, look for this stall in front of the Yawata Supermarket.