When A Foodie Talks About Arts

Assalamualaikum wbt

One day marina texted me, asking me about my opinion on her designs for her final project and exhibition. She was asking me about her poster design, on how to alter it to make it look balance and all, and my suggestion went something like this.

Oh screw me. Hahahaha. As much as I love designing and arts and everything related, I must be honest that I am not a creative person. Not at all. I can only be good at getting inspired and produce the exact design that I'm inspired with. Hahah. 

You know, when I was little, I had the ambition to become a doctor, and that could make any parents proud and hopeful, until just one day, when I about to finish my high school, I decided to become a graphic designer. Being so close with Marina since childhood and having to share the same interest, we both had even planned to pursue graphic design together, and we applied. We plan, Allah plans too, and His planning is always the best of all. Marina got it, went for interview, and passed it, but I didn't. So right at that moment, our path started to deviate. Maybe because I am not that creative, God forbid me from graphic design and let me be in the food industry instead.

Me and Marina, we both rarely meet up but once we do, we would talk like there is no tomorrow as there are too much things to share all at a time. And often, at the end of the talk, we would went sentimental and always amazed at how much this friendship could last. Meanwhile, I would always added that how I am proud with her pursuing graphic design and excel in it. The fact that she is pursuing what we both love is a kind of happiness to me and is just so exciting as well. It's like, since I don't get the chance, so she is somewhat pursuing it for me too. Get it? hahah. Although I am not in the designing industry as much as I wish for it, Marina would always asks me for opinions on her designs, and that make me feel appreciated. She knows that I love it so much and still, now.

That's why I love you *oopss* hahah, and will always do insya Allah!

"Pray for our life route okay. Hopefully each of our step takes us to something better and bigger." - Marina

Just Do It

Assalamualaikum wbt

This is a very quick one.

Dear beloved Muslims,
Had you come to a point of break down or frustration,
Or you just feel lazy to do your ibadah,
Please wake straight up and JUST DO IT.
Seek forgiveness and ask to keep your iman at its highest position.
Please. I beg you.
You JUST HAVE TO DO IT.
Because one missing prayer, one missing quran recitation,
Can make you vulnerable,
And syaitan can invade you JUST RIGHT AT THAT MOMENT.
So please.

Oojengster Shell Out Feast!

Assalamualaikum wbt

Final exam has already ended finally, and so, in order to celebrate this happiness (as if we had never have final examinations before hahaha), we held an Oojengster's Shell Out Feast!

Yeah, Shell Out has been so famous lately because of its uniqueness of having the dining concept on the table, WITHOUT the plates, forks, spoons and other proper dishware for dining. That is just a very cool and casual way of eating out, especially when they serve seafood, where you need to fold your sleeves up, and get all messy to dig out and enjoy the tender juicy meat inside the shells.

However since the news saying the restaurant does not own a Halal certificate went viral, everybody just freaked out and decided to not go there (plus, the expensive price). I do not know who is the person who started the Shell Out at home, but it also went viral afterwards as it save much more cost, and of course Halal guaranteed. Since then, everybody seems to be trying the Shell Out concept at home, doing it for family events and friends. And we.... decided to try it out too! Hence, the Shell Out Feast at our little college room.

We started all by doing the groceries, buying all the ingredients and of course, the seafood needed.

Before the groceries took place, we have had all the items needed listed down, including the recipes! We allocated a RM20 budget per person, so that's a total of RM160 all together. That seems a lot. Since none of us have the experience of buying seafood on our own, we did our survey to search for the standard prices for the seafood that we wanted to buy. Looking at all all the prices, we freaked out! 

RM20-RM30 per kilo of crab? RM25-RM27 per kilo for squid? So how about prawns? And and, we still have clams to buy okay, don't forget! Oh, and chicken tooooo! Is our budget enough? How much can we get for a kilo? And there you go, the googling and blog readings started. So after some readings on some of the blogger experience having Shell Out at home, it looks like the budget that we had seems to be enough. At that time, we just surrendered and hoped that it will be adequate. We had even be ready to cancel out some items just in case the budget went over the limit.  

Once we started the grocery at Giant, we went straight to the seafood dept. I was hesitated to choose the crab at first. I mean, come on, what do I need to check before choosing the PERFECT crab? Is this okay? How about this one? Uncle in front of me must have been laughing inside while watching me choosing the crab. Huh. But in the end, I just thickened my face, matter no more on the criteria and chose them like a PRO! Bhahaha. I took only 4 pcs while my mind whispering "Cukuplah tu. 4 kerat 2 jadilah 8. Sorang separuh. Yang ni entah-entah dah lebih sekilo.". But then after weighing and pricing, "Eh, RM11 only?". So I immediately asked my friend to get more of it. We added 4-5 pcs after that hahaha. Well, amateur seafood buyer. Full of drama. 

Back to the college, we started to unpack all of the things, separating the veggies and the seafood items. Since the budget seemed to be more than enough, we even got to buy some more items that were not in the list such as the dory fish, some surimi (fishball, crabstick etc), wedges, and more veggies. After the tasks have been delegated, works started to begin! Some were cutting the veggies, the paste ingredients, some were trimming and washing the seafood, the chicken, overall, everybody were working together splendidly!

So here is our menu and rough budget for the Shell Out dining:

Chilli Crab and Squid

Butter Prawn and Clams (Lala)

Dory Sweet and Sour

Tom Yam with Surimis and Veggies

Salad

Buttered Shittake Mushroom

Fried Chicken

Potato wedges

8-9 pcs Ketam Bunga (Medium)  = RM23

1 Whole Chicken = RM10

2 pkts 400g Frozen Peeled Baby Shrimp (because fresh shrimps are not available) = RM23

Approx 900g of Surimi (Fishball, Crab Stick, Seafood Tofu) = RM19

1 pack of Lala =  RM9-RM10

1 pack of 600g Frozen Dory Cube = RM9
5pcs of Squid XL = RM14

All the balance are used for veggies, spices, sauces, wedges and other miscellaneous ingredients.
A total of RM160 for 8 person (or more actually) and there are still leftovers after eating. 

We started the preparation at about 5.00pm, and officially finished all of the cooking by around 8.00pm. After everybody took their shower, we then laid the 'plastic mat' on the floor, pulled out all of the dishes on it, recited the prayer, and started digging in!

Everybody was having a good time eating, chit chatting but still in disbelief that everything was prepared on our own. We were scared at first having the thought that it might gonna be a disaster because we never prepared these kind of dishes on our own. Besides, seafood is quite sensitive in terms of its preparation, the cleaning, the cooking method and so on and we just don't wanna ruin it. So having the dishes all set in front of us, was just a part of the satisfaction. Alhamdulillah. Creditlah sikit come onnn, we never cooked such expensive food and make it delicious hahaaa! 

It was nice to hear compliments from each other on the dishes that have been prepared. A kind of appreciation you know. We were having such a good time together. The fact that this is the last gathering with complete all 8 of us was quite an emotional feeling although none of us really show it to each other. We don't know when are we going to have the chance to gather this way again. Mache and Syu is leaving for their practical soon. So it will be only all 6 of us left, and the most painful part is, I'm going to be left without a roommate after almost 4 years of being with the same person. It's going to be a very tough and challenging final semester and I can no longer go crazy, gossip or spill out all of the emotions to my roommate when there are things go wrong. I'm sorry, I'm just quite sentimental when it comes to this matter. Okaaayyy let's move on! *wipe tears*

Anyway Alhamdulillahhhhhh the plan went very well. Everybody enjoyed the food, enjoyed the talk, enjoyed the laughter, enjoyed having bloated stomach for eating too much hahaha, enjoyed everything! I am very very very grateful, having to be blessed with this kind of friendship and FRIENDS like them. I know myself very much and I really do not deserve all these kindness around me, all these wonderful people around me. May Allah grant each one of you and myself His blessings, His kindness, and shower us all with His unconditional love. It has finally came to the final semester and may we all graduate with flying colours, and most importantly, may we all in the end be united in the paradise. After all, that's our life goals. Amiin, insya Allah.

Hiks. 

Will Not Always Bloom

Assalamualaikum wbt

You know you can learn a lot from a withering flower. 

That as much as it appears so graceful and flawless with its colour and its petals, 

it will in the end wilt, decayed as its fall on the humble earth.

And so do human. 

We will not always bloom.

Time passes, and death shall come and retrieve us to be returned to God. 

Last Paper Syndrome

Assalamualaikum wbt

One more paper. Come on!

Pinterest Inspired. Doodles and sketches since I was so bored. 

I really do not have the mood already as this is the last paper for the final exam. Plus, it's my least favourite subject of the semester, how can anyone expect me to give my all for this? I'm all for Oojengster's Shellout Feast (I'll make post about this hehe), roommate dates and going back home now. That's all in my mind (plus the worry of tomorrow's paper). Sigh

Welcome 2016 with Excitement!

Assalamualaikum wbt

A very hellooo to the first day of 2016 that is going to end just a few more hours. Hah!

My first day has just been wasted with internet browsing almost the whole day. Gaaahh! I even had my lunch in front of the laptop while watching Youtube videos. A 'fried' Mee Sedap and coffee although I already had one in the morning muahahaha. Coffee has always been a very good companion to me. Always faithful. Hiks. 

Few days before, Instagram has been flooded with people posting their best 9 photos of the year, recapping on their countless and best memories that they had, looking at where they are now and amazed at how much they have gone through in a year despite of the ups and downs.

Basically, it's what everybody is going through. 

Unlike any other years before, I didn't felt so sentimental or the need to write a special post, looking back at the past or how much I've been through before entering the new year. I just thought that everyone is having the same feeling more or less. We will go through the hard and easy part. We will eventually rise up after being defeated in a battle. We will eventually heal ourselves after having a break down. Don't we?

Or perhaps this is a sign of maturity? I'm getting old I know. 

Although this new year is not really celebrated in Islam, we cannot deny the fact that we make every single planning and sum up our life achievement based on Masihi calendar. Now everyone deserves to take that as somewhat a 'border' of the present and the past, and use it to make positive changes with the resolution of getting a better ME. If we are not doing any positive progress for ourselves and the people around us, then it is going to be 'JUST ANOTHER YEAR'.   

As for me, I'm very much excited to walk through each day of 366 days in 2016. It's a leap year everybody! So much big things are going to happen this year insya Allah. Graduation, convocation, my first official job and I'm expecting many others. Pheww so nervous! 

So bismillah, may Allah ease and bless our journey, no matter where and when. 

Amiinn.  

I'm Not A Muslim, But...

Assalamualaikum wbt

After the Paris attack that occurred recently, Western medias have make it such a huge headline in the newsfeed, causing so much stereotypes to the Muslims entirely without knowing the fact that the so called ISIS are not even Muslims. Even if they are, they are not true Muslims. Seriously, which religion taught a human to do such cruel act to the innocents?

I was browsing on Youtube videos recently, and I stumbled upon this video. "I'm Not A Muslim, But...". It's a video containing little 'speech' and thoughts by some random people saying so much beautiful things about Muslim. Watching it made me feel a little (actually so much) relieve that not all are badly influenced by the media spinning on the terror attack. We still have lots and lots of wonderful people that believe that true Muslims would not do such indecent and horrible act, and that Islam means peace =)

Bahagia

Assalamualaikum wbt

Petang ini terasa untung dan bahagia. 

Terima kasih buat rakan,

Yang sanggup bersusah bawa kudapan ke kelas sebagai hadiah, 

Juga buat rakan, 

Yang sanggup datang ke kediaman semata menghantar makanan untuk dijamah. 

Ketahuilah bahawa setiap usaha kalian itu adalah sedekah.

Insya Allah. 

Moga Allah sentiasa rahmati!

MindRant 20

Assalamualaikum wbt

Kitchen: DONE!

Assalamualaikum wbt

"Alhamdulillah, tamat sudah event terakhir, bermakna tamatlah sudah segala amali in the kitchen. No more shouts of "MAIN COURSE 10! DESSERT 6!" And "KITCHEN CLOSE!". No more WAR in the kitchen, especially the main course dept. No more argument of which dish to which table when it comes to serving time. No more. Or at least, no more with them, beloved coursemates 😥. Thank you to all that have been with us throughout the 4 years time (almost), hehe. The lecturers, the staffs, Kak Zani, Abg Hadi, Kak Dila, Kak Ira, Kak Ainol, Pn Mala, Chef Reza and others. No worry, we'll meet again insya Allah! Towards a wonderful final year, yeay!"

I posted this in my social media and as I was writing this, a feeling of sadness and happiness are all mixed. I guess the happy part of of it was the fact that we do not need to attend anymore super exhausting kitchen classes and go all crazy to manage events, and the sad part is when we realised, that this is the last day for us to have that feeling of accomplishment after an event is finished. We gonna miss all the craziness and stress and team work, and of course, the best part ---- finishing up the leftover!

Alhamdulillah it is finally over. Alhamdulillah for all the great memories. Just can't believe that we've managed to go through all of these. looking forward for the last semester!