phi

 ever heard of fibonacci? at least people might know this from watching prison break. but no im not talking about that guy. it is a sequence closely related to golden ratio. lets talk about golden ratio. it is a ratio that exist and related to beautiful things in both nature, arts, construction. also in jojo.lol

pretty sure one have come across this at least once.

the number is 1.618. or (1+5^-2)/2. the symbol for this number is phi some sort of o with vertical line in the middle like deathly hallows symbol but without the triangle. so i became intrigued with this golden ratio as this thing occurs naturally in this world. like the angle of the petals, spider webs, seashells. even the ratio of human body using this golden ratio is related to beauty. 

here is an attempt of me making lines using the ratio. each line started from the endpoint of previous line and put at 90 degree angle. they are also 1.618 times longer than the previous line. this is the result. the red line i drew shows the points from the corner making straight line and they intersect 90 degree at 1 point. from this i just have to elongate the red line and and i can keep drawing the black line until it reach the red line and the length will always be 1.618x length of previous line. one thing i noted is also that the red and black lines formed right angled triangle. and im guessing here the size of the triangle increase by 1.618 also. im not sure as i lack the proper equipment to do the calculation right now. im also wondering whats the angle for the triangles but lemme guess one is 34.377 and another is 55.623. this is just a guess but ill need to get my friends help to do calculation. i dont have scientific calculator with me anymore.

why i do this? its just out of curiosity.

this is another attempt of me with drawing pentagon with different sizes but all according to the ratio. this is the result. 

terpesonaaaaa. aku terpesonaa 

i d like to try with other shapes with different angles but yeah all these are done using ms paint only. so its quite limited.

apple juice

 been attempting to make apple juice multiple times. and this time i hit the mark. managed to make the taste similar to the one i bought from shop or supermarket. 

the ingredients are these

3 apples
4 limau nipis
a splash of apple cider vinegar
1 litre water
4 tablets of stevia (dunno equivalent to how much sugar)
aloe vera (optional)

basically just chopthose apples i removed the seeds. squeeze those limes and pour in a bit of apple cider vinegar maybe like 2 spoonful amount. put in the stevia or sugar or honey or whatever sweetener you can think of. fill up the blender up to 1 liter so basically the amount of water i use is less than 1 liter as there are already other ingredients inside. blendddddddddddddddddddd and were done. can drink straight away or if you hate the fibre/pulp feeling. filter using muslin cloth filter and youll get a clean juice only.

add on aloevera to your liking. i read that aloe vera can be consumed raw even with the latex but some advise to wash away the latex first as prolonged consumption is not good. also the aloe vera latex is not goo dfor people with kidney problem or taking antihypertensive/ diabetes medication. how to prepare aloevera? cut the leaves. peel of the skin using knife or peeler.you will get a slimy translucent jelly like substance inside. rinse with water to  get rid of the latex or you can use the latex for your hair or skin then just chop the jelly and put in your drink

smoke house

 in view of covid and returning pkp, a lot of people went for panic shopping. my dad already predicted this earlier and guessing price will increase after this went for shopping spree a bit earlier. he returned with loads of salmon and other seafood. so what do we do with all these salmons? lets try making smoked salmon. 

using things from around my house we build the smoke house using zinc as the wall and metal pole as the pillars. 

now the smoke house is ready time to lay down the salmon. since this is just a test run we just put plain salmon and some of them rubbed with a bit of salt. the hanging thing is a metal collander tied using wire to the roof of the smoke house. i put some chillies to make smoked dried chillies. initially i want to hang meat but oh well, thats for another time i guess.

smoking started at 6pm and left until 7am tomorrow morning and voila the result. i used jackfruit wood as thats the only wood material i have around the house. oh yeah we did put in too much wood to burn and that causes the smoke house to be too hot and cooked the salmon too fast. we had to smother them with soil to prevent fire from coming up. note to self. use less wood

overall the experiment was a success. them salmon taste exactly like smoked salmon you buy from market. its a bit dry but that can be improved next time.

side product. the chillies i smoked became super dried and brownish in colour. probably because of the heat i think. went and blitz em to make chilli flakes. all went well except the blitzing part. the moment i opened the blender to transfer the chillies my eyes started to become watery and the next thin i know im crying like a little girl. not to mention the sneezing that ensues. the smell of the smoked chilies was so strong that everyone in the kitchen started sneezing. i had to stop breathing alot during the whole process to prevent further sneezing. also, not opening up the blender straight after blitzing helps to reduce the chilies particle from flying in the air.

i remmebered i used to love ewating smoked salmon with cheese but that was cold smoked salmon and i cant remember what cheese i ate with it. so far successful combination for the salmon is to go along with honey mustard or relish added with some chili flakes. tastes good.

i wish i can do cold smoked salmon but the idea is not viable in malaysia as this is a tropical country. 

javanese curry

 ive long wanted to try what does katsu curry taste like. tried several times in some japanese restaurant but those are not high ends restaurant so the taste is quite meh. tasted like prepackaged food or canned food mostly which i think dont do justice to the real one. other restaurants though mostly are just non halal as thy usually use pork in the making.

so i ended up buying this prepackaged curry sauce from this japanese shop in mid valley. my friends recommended this item as they say it is quite good.im not really into cooking using paste actually. i prefer to cook things from basic ingredients but meh just make use of everything available. so why not since i dont know how to make japanese curry from scratch anyway.

this is the curry im talking about. its quite expensive. well, imported stuffs are always expensive

the cooking directions are super brief and skipped some steps during the saute process. nevermind that. im the type that never cook following instructions step by step. usually i just see how things a re made roughly and tried cooking them my way but this time i tried to adhere to the instructions as close as possible just so that i can get the taste as close as i can to the normal japanese curry. heck i even weighed my meat this time which was never done before. it just happened that the bag of frozen meat i have in the freezer is close to the instruction actually. even if the frozen meat is way off the weight ill still use them all too.

prepping part. chopped up everything that need to be chopped up. notice how cooking in professional kitchen or restaurants are fast? thats because the prepping stage are done way earlier before opening time and the only thing left to do is to mix them in fire thats how you get food to be served fast.i now this looks like a lot of waste of bowls usage but for presentation purposes they are necessary. im cutting these things while getting my meat thawed in microwave. forgot to bring them out earlier. oh yeah i decided to cut them because its easier to eat everything in bite size rather than chunks of everything. smaller pieces also means they cook faster  

oh yeah right off the bat i didnt follow the instructions as i mentioned before. its really hard for me to adhere to instructions step by step when it comes to cooking. i ran out of carrot so i replaced it with tomatoes, celery, brinjals, and mushrooms. the other 2 ingredients are potatoes and onions. i decided not to  put any chillies in as my parents cant stand too much spiciness also iwant to try these non spicy japanese curry. also it rained alot nowadays and the chillies in y backyard are going to be hotter than usual.

now first part of cooking sauteing the ingredients. onion first, then the root vege (e.g carrot/potatoes) as they take more time to be cooked. then only you add the other ingredients. leafy stuffs usually will go in last. meat was added together with the roots vege. i dont care if theyre still half frozen as long as i can break them into small pieces instead of one big ice block. let the thawing process continue in the pan

add water get them to boiling and simmer for 15 min. this looks like im making stock. oh yeah the frozen chicken turned out to be marinated with black pepper that my mom prepared earlier. oh well more flavour i guess. now while waiting back to playing game for 15 min.

looking good. tatoes are staring to get soft after 15 min.  time to add the curry sauce

once the curry sauce added up the whole thing become thick. no need for me to add thickening agents at all nor do i need to reduce the the curry by heating. no wonder the instructions stated to get everything cooked first then only adding up the sauce. just put on low flame while awiting to serve.

itadakimasu. well the result is better than any low end restaurants ive tried so far though they have similarities in term of the flavours. also the taste is completely differet from south east asian curry. i think the decision to add more vegetables made the curry taste better than it's supposed to be. my parents accept the curry well and they even had seconds. that means this curry can be 6-7/10. its not spicy at all so they can eat it happily but its still a bit heaty since the chicken was marinated with black pepper earlier. 

the bowl with the green content is just mashed avocado. we eat it like a condiment as it bring creamy texture to food and lighten up any spicy or mellow down sharp flavours. its like eating rice with tempoyak but Juan style instead of Ali style. 

overall this is one of the better curries ive made. time to get to know how to cook it from scratch.

another one bites the dust

this refer to one of the laptops. i did mentioned my mom need a desktop due to her laptop died. yeap that one. one fine day it just decided to went black screen upon booting up. start the comp, the windows logo appear and then its supposed to be the windows with all the taskbar and icons but nope. it went pitch black. so yeah i know theres a way to fix this problem but im gonna shove it to the side for now. hehehe

the thing is there are files and documents that she wanted still inside the computer hence i need to extract the data from the drive. dead people tell no tale though. so im just gonna necro the hard disk and get all of the data.

this is compaq presario cq40

an the view from back

unscrewing the cover for all parts just because i can. i rarely monkey around with a laptop so yeah just wanna have a peek at the inside a bit. the hard disk was removed

this is how to remove the hard disk. unscrew t 3 screws holding the hard disk and pull the black plastic tab to unlock the disk.

so i went to the other computer to borrow a sata cable from the cd rom drive as this cable was missing. without it i cant transfer the data and files. 

using this device it allows me to connect hard disk to computer like an external hard disk using usb cable. the device though have multiple ports to allow it to connect to various type of hard disks. notice the red sata cable? yeah i found it in my stash. no point in borrowing from the other computer

everything connected and running

voila. time to transfer. also praise the sun

ill probably try to fix the laptop one day. or not. its an old laptop anyway

cyber cafe

back during college, i used to arrange my room so that it can handle lots of people coming in to play games together. my room can afford 8 laptops and we would be gaming all night together. it was fun. its like im managing a cc in college. people come and go to play games or sometimes just to do assignments together. they prefer using my room as there are mattress to lie down during break time and most of all they can smoke. ash trays are even provided even though i myself dont smoke. the maintenance and cleaning is a bit of a hassle though. soot and dust build up quickly. 

anyway, now that was in the past. now im setting up computer corner in my house for my parents they both use the computers more than ever now that they already retired. also my mum's laptop keep on hanging and going slower now that i think its high time for her to have a desktop. she has a massive storage of pics and documents a desktop is ideal for her. manage to reuse back an unused cpu with other accessories set her one. its not as fast as my computer but it would be suffice for her usage. i just change the hard drive to a new ssd so that it can be faster. ram sadly is 2gb only though haha. i really want to add another ram card for this computer. i think its a 2nd gen ram for this computer though. dont know if the price will be higher as it is considered an antique stuff by now.  

tadaaa cyber cafe in da house. the big tv used as a screen as my dad mostly used it to watch dramas and movies. the other cpu is placed behind the tv. 

dhal curry

Yesterday i decided to cook dhal curry after a long period of not cooking. theres no exact reason why i decide on  dhal though. just want to eat some indian themed food. besides i already bought lentils in advance. after watching 2 videos of making dhal curry here goes my attempt. oh i've made an attempt for dhal curry few years ago. it was edible but the quality is below par. i blended the beans nad used too much of them for my consumption alone. it ended like a thick broth. not gonna repeat the same mistake again. since i know theres a possibility that my parents wont eat this as im planning to make it a bit spicier, i decided to make a small portion only enough for one meal. my parents cant tolerate spicy food as much as me. 

ingredients are as below:

-150mg of lentils it is

-3 dried chilli (theyre are spicier than normal dried chilli. dont know where we bought this batch of chillies)

-some cili padi i dont remember how much i just pluck them to my liking from my backyard. just count them in the picture

-1 bulb of onion

-a splash of cumin (jintan putih) i just pour a bit of them in the pan. probably a teaspoon amount

-vindaloo curry powder (around 2 teaspoon i think. i just poured them) this curry powder is made to be spicier compared to other curry mixpowder. and the smell is good too

-butter (i just put 1 chunk of spoonful of butter)

-1 cinnamon stick

a bowl of meat

-1 lime (limau kasturi)

-tumeric (i used tumeric powder and 1cm of fresh tumeric the size of my pinky finger just because i have it in my backyard)

- salt

note that i dont have proper measurement for the ingredients as im too lazy to measure things just like any other malaysian. agak-agak is the key. i only measure lentils because i bought a small weighing scale for my mum few months ago and i just want to try it. i only watch the videos to see how they cook it and the ingredients used for the cooking. didnt use tomatoes because i forgot to add them in.

smash those chillies to paste. mortar and pestles > blender

wash and toss the lentils, boil em in potand simmer until soft. skim the scum made during boiling. add some tumeric powder and salt. i used 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of tumeric powder. adding them will make the water not boiling over the pot when you cover it with lid. keep on adding water if it started to become dry during the process. it took me almost an hour to soften the lentils. use pressure cooker next time to hasten the process or soak them early on. 

on side note, the boiled lentils tasted like kacang kuda that we used to buy in rnr. yummeh

cumin, vindaloo curry powder and meat (i have a bowl of leftover meat that i stir fried with carrot cubes, oyster sauce and soy sauce. so might as well use them rather than let them turn bad)

firstly melt the butter over low heat. dont wanna burn it. boiling point is way lower compared to other vegetable oil. id prefer to use ghee but dont have it for now. then add cumin, cinnamon stick and chillies followed by curry powder after 1 minute. slice the onion however you like or you can even cube them. sautee them together oh you can use big flame when you start sauteeing. add the fresh finely chopped tumeric. missing here are the garlic and ginger. theyre unavailable in my kitchen currently. 

onion soft enoughand well cooked. time to add the meat. tomatoes are supposed to be added here too. continue sauteeing and stir frying like a pro. 

add the soft, boiled lentils into the misxture and add a bit of water to let them mix together. i put too much water though. gotta simmer it extra long to get rid of the excess water.

squeeze some lime juice into the mixture. i use a flour sifter to filter the lime seeds. lel. 

stirring to remove the water faster. you can make it thick or watery based on your preferences. i dont use corn starch or thickening agents because i dont want the volume to be high.

taadaa the result after thickening the curry using water reduction. the lentils are soft but still intact which make it better compared to blended lentils.

the curry was a success. my parents tried and they like it. thumbs up from them. yeap it was finished clean eaten together with a roti canai. guess it isnt that spicy. the amount of chillies can added more. i can try to make it again spicier next time.

oh if you want to make a vegetarian version just switch the butter with vegetable oil and the meat can be substituted with mushrooms. to provide the umami flavour. personally i always go for the king oyster mushroom as meat substitute. its not that expensive and it gives the springiness like meat when eaten. just cut them to small cubes and people will think theyre eating meat.