Day +757 : Induction cooker

I am fine today.

We planned to purchase an electrical steamboat cooker for a long time. I spoke to my brother Richard about this and he straight away recommended to me the induction cooker.

According to Wikipedia:

“An induction cooker uses induction heating for cooking. A conducting pot is placed above an induction coil for the heating process to take place. This type of cooktop does not work with non-conductive cookware such as glass.

Induction cookers are faster and more energy-efficient than traditional cooktops. Additionally, the stove top does not become dangerously hot; however, skin can still be burned if it comes into contact with the inside of the pot. Also, the induction cooker does not warm the air around it as other cookers do.”

According to the article, the heat transfer efficiency of induction cooker can be as high as 90%, while the Electric and Gas has efficiency rates of less than 50%.

In short, the cooker saves money; another way to combat inflation :-)

I got the induction cooker from Cosway at a price of RM209 with 2 RCs (Redemption Coupons?). The retail price (purchase without RCs) would be RM339. However, if you have 65 RCs, you can get it at RM119 only.

We used it during the steamboat buffet last Saturday. It worked extremely well :-)

If you want to purchase the cooker and need RCs, let me know. I can share some with you, but not 65 as I don’t have that many too :-)

The Cosway brochure about the induction cooker. (Click the picture to get a larger view)
See you next post :-)

Day +756 : Weekend Dim Sum Buffet @ Oriental Spoon (Halal)

I am fine today.

I received an email from foodstreet about the above promotion which is too good to be true; of course only if you imagine that you get instant supply of every promised Dim Sum - hot and fresh.

This attractive promotion has been haunting since I received it on 11st July. The promotion is going to end on 10th August. I planned to try it with my wife this weekend. Let me know if you want to join us :-)

However, I am a little bit put off bysome negative comments on Malaysian Food Blog which said that the customers didn't get the foods they wanted, foods are served very slowly, shortage of foods and quality of foods was not up to expection. Oriental Spoon responded that they will improve the situation. I had emailed to Oriental Spoon to ask if they really have done about the situation.

Now the details:

Promotional period: 1 Jul - 10 Aug, 2008 Saturday, Sunday & Public Holidays
Time: 11.30 am – 3.00 pm
Price: RM18.80+ (Adult) RM9.80+ (Child below 10 years old) (Minimum 2 Persons)
Location : 1-2 (1st Floor), Sooka Sentral, Jalan Stesen Sentral 5, 50470 Kuala Lumpur. Tel: 03-2261 3222 Fax: 03-2780 2055 Business Hour: 11.00am – 8.00pm daily

Foods:

蒸點心 STEAMED DIM SUM

• 黑椒羊仔骨 Black Pepper Short Ribs


• 帶子干蒸賣 Steamed 'Siew Mai' with Fresh Scallops


• 過海蝦餃皇 Steamed Prawns Dumpling – 'Har Gau'


• 金醬蒸鳳爪 Steamed Chicken Feet with Homemade Sauce


• 海皇珍珠雞 Steamed Glutinous Rice with Pacific Clam and Chicken


• 雞肉叉燒包 Steamed Chicken Paste Buns


• 菠菜像生包 Steamed Spinach Buns with Sesame Paste


• 腐皮牛肉球 Steamed Beef Balls in Beancurd Skin


• 木魚花蘿蔔糕 Steamed Radish Cake with Bonito Flakes


• 桂花糠蓮藕 Poached Lotus Root with 'Gui Hua' Syrup

煎, 炸點心 FRIED DIM SUM

• 鳳巢竽角 Deep Fried Yam Dumpling


• 家鄉煎貼餃 Potsticker Dumpling


• 家鄉竽頭糕 Pan Fried Yam Cake


• 雞絲炸春卷 Deep Fried Spring Rolls with Chicken Floss

DELICACIES

• 蘿蔔燜牛腩 Stewed Beef with White Radish


• 燒汁茄子 Egg Plant with BBQ Sauce


• 酸辣雲飩 Hot and Sour Wanton


• 順德釀涼瓜 Stuffed Bitter Gourd with Fish Paste


• Stir Fried Seasonal Vegetables with Garlic


• Fried Rice with Silver Fish


• Cantonese Fried Kway Teow

腸粉, 粥 RICE ROLLS AND CONGEE

• 金粟叉燒腸 Steamed Rice Rolls with Minced Chicken and Sweet Corn


• 老火皮蛋雞絲粥 Shredded Chicken and Century Eggs Congee

甜點 DESSERT

• 冬瓜冰肉酥 Puff Pastry with Winter Melon Paste


• 蛋撻 Egg Tart


• 果凍啤梨 Chilled Strawberry Pudding


• Double boiled Water Chestnut with White Fungus

Some pictures (Courtesy of Jason) - looks very attractive and delicious!

Steamed Spinach Buns with Sesame Paste Steamed Siew Mai with Fresh Scallops. This one alone cost RM10 without promotion. So you already "untung" (earn) if you manage to consume baskets of this :-)
Mini Egg Tarts
Yam Puffs
Rice Rolls with Minced Chicken and Sweet Corn
See you next post :-)

Day +755 : Offer expired already?

I am fine today.

I mentioned on my blog Day +749 : I booked a new car :-) that Citibank is offering 0% Interest Easy Payment Plan (EPP) for up to 12 months on down payment for the purchase of Perodua Viva and Nautical. The minimum down payment is RM1,000 and the maximum is RM5,000. In addition to enjoying free interest, the card owner is also entitled to 5X Citibank Rewards Points for Perodua Viva.

This offer is very attractive. So I decided to use the facility up to the maximum - RM5,000 down payment. With this I will save RM194 (RM5,000 x 3.88%) of interest. In addition to this, I will get 25,000 Rewards Points :-)

When I wanted to pay the down payment, the sales agent told me that the offer had already expired on 30th June 2008. But I remembered very well that the offer only expired on 31st August 2008. Without much argument, I convinced her with the Citibank brochure that published the offer.

The sales agent told me that I am her first customer that took up the offer and this is her first time to process such an arrangement; completing a approval form from Citibank, validating by Citibank officer through phone etc.

I discovered the offer accidently. Sometimes, accident can be good :-)

If you are buying Perodua Viva or Perodua Nautical before September, please don’t forget to take up this offer.

See you next post :-)

Day +754 : Ask and you shall receive

I am fine today.

My nephew Chih Yung – my third sister’s (bone marrow donor) eldest son – purchased a Perodua Myvi a few weeks ago. When he heard that I wanted to purchase a Perodua Viva, he advised me to ask for free gifts from the sales agent.

“Can you give me some gifts?” I asked the sales agent.

“Of course can,” replied the sales agent. “What do you want?”

This question is a little bit challenging to me. I really don’t know what I want. What I could remember from my nephew was that he requested for a full tank of petrol and also got a RM300 voucher for car window tinting.

“Window tinting,” I requested.

“Can.” She answered so easily.

“Another request, full tank of petrol,” I make another request.

“This one…” She hesitated a little bit and then picked up a calculator to do some calculation. I believe she was weighting whether she gave too much.

In the end she also agreed.

The car windows tinting will have value of about RM500 and it comes with 5 year warranty.

With this, I must admit that my nephew is smarter than me. I would not ask for anything without his advice.

Please remember to ask for gifts when you order your next car :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +753 : Attending Malaysia Bible Seminary 30th Anniversary Thanksgiving Banquet

I am fine today.

My wife and I attended the Malaysia Bible Seminary(MBS) 30th Anniversary Thanksgiving Banquet (马来西亚圣经神学院30周年纪念感恩宴会) at Centro Grand Imperial Ballroom, Klang tonight.

The organizer booked 124 tables for the event and considering each table could accommodate 10 people, the total participant of the event was well over one thousand.

The council chairman of the MBS is Prof. Dr. Tan Chong Tin(陈忠登教授). He is the head of neurology division in University Malaya Medical Centre or UH, the hospital that treated my Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.

Prof. Dr. Tan he has been serving the seminary faithfully over the past thirty years. During his welcoming address, he said that the initial monthly expenses of the seminary was only RM2000 but now the expenses is increased to RM50,000 per month.

The theme of the anniversary celebration is "Renewed & Moving Forward".
Part of the participants from my church.
A photo with my wife :-)
The restaurant
The menu (Click to have a larger view)
The tidbit
Palace four seasons combination

Shark fin soup
Deep fried sea Garoupa with sweet and sour sauce
Chinese herb chicken
Baked fresh prawn with garlic
Braised mushroom with bean curd and vegetable

Fried glutinous rice
Dessert of the day
Palace style two varieties
The drink - Orange juice. But in order to strike a balance diet, I tried all drinks that were available - Coke, Sprite, Orange juice, Chinese tea :-)
See you next post :-)

Day +752 : A homemade buffet steamboat dinner

I am fine today.

We invited our cell group members to have a homemade buffet steamboat dinner. We didn’t have steamboat at home very often. My wife told me that we had one at home in 2001; also having it together with church members.

In contrast, my brother Richard has steamboat at home quite often. It is their tradition to have steamboat as the Chinese New Year dinner. I got many advices from him on preparing the steamboat soup and other ingredients for the steamboat dinner.

There were about 25 children and adults attending the dinner.

Ingredients
Ingredients - a closer view
Prawns. Quite a big one. Richard brought 2 kg from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. 1 kg cost RM17kg only.
Inductor cooker that I purchased a few days ago.
Table 1
Table 2
My wife, Adriel and Aaron
See you next post :-)

Day +751 : 2nd visit to UH’s Ophthalmology Clinic

I am fine today.

I had my routine eyes examination this morning at UH’s Ophthalmology Clinic.

The eye specialist said that despite extreme dryness, my cornea is still very good. Extreme dryness of eyes can lead to ulcer and infection and eventually causing damage to cornea. The vision can be seriously impaired if such situation arises.

“You take good care of your eyes,” said the doctor after examining my cornea.

In all honesty, I should say that I didn’t take care of my eyes so well. It is my God that designs my eye so well that under extreme dryness, the scratchy or sandy feeling makes me unbearable without applying artificial tears :-) So I give all credibility to God.

“Is there any chance that my condition will recover somedays later?” I asked the doctor.

“You just have to maintain it,” replied doctor. This means it is quite unlikely that the situation will improve. The only thing that I can do now is to take care of my eyes carefully by regularly applying the artificial tears.

I will have to go back to the clinic for another examination 3 months later.

See you next post :-)

Day +750 : No luck this time, let me try again

I am fine today.

I participated in GIMPS (Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search) project since 22nd May, 2008 and was given a task to determine if M42097619 is a Mersenne Prime.

I wrote about the Mersenne Primes and the search of them in the following blog entries.

• Day +687 : A US$100,000 award! Just to find a number :-) (1)
• Day +688 : A US$100,000 award! Just to find a number :-) (2)
• Day +689 : I join the search :-)

After two months of almost non-stop computing, it turned out that M42097619 is not a Mersenne Prime :-(

The result (Click to have a larger view) I was given the task to test another number - M41504741 which means 2^41504741. The expected completion date is 3rd, September. The chance of this number a Mersenne Prime is 1 in 343579.
Wish me luck this time :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +749 : I booked a new car :-)

I am fine today.

I booked a Perodua Viva 850cc yesterday. The one with metallic colour cost RM32,900, and after a discount of RM1,500, the on-the-road price is RM31,500.

My wife and I are not very particular about cars indeed. Anything that serves the purpose would do. In fact the current two cars that we have are sufficient for our needs; my wife’s Daihatsu Charade and the company car Proton Perdana.

A few weeks ago I heard that my niece who studies at Universiti Teknikal Melaka would like to have a car for convenient sake. Her mother – my second sister - would like to purchase her a car. Initially she decided to buy a second hand Perodua Kancil. However, she changed their mind later, and would like to purchase a new Perodua Kancil. After sometime, my niece told her that Perodua Viva looks nicer and consume less petrol. So she planned to purchase Perodua Viva.

After discussing with my wife, we came to a conclusion that it is better for us to purchase a new car and give the Daihatsu Charade to my niece.

Am I rich? No :-) The sales agent asked me to pay a booking fee of RM500 but I have RM70 in my wallet only. So in the end I pay RM50 only :-)

I accidentally came across an attractive offer from a Citibank brochure that offers a maximum of RM5000 interest fee one year repayment facility for those who use the Citiban credit card to pay down payment in purchasing Perodua Viva or Nautica only. I took up this offer without second thought :-)

This is the second time we purchase a car in 14 years :-)

The car :-) We choose ligth green colour.
See you next post :-)

Day +748 : “You have no choice.” (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

“You see. Your dad is afraid,” the doctor said when he saw me quite undecided on whether to let Daniel having injection.

“Absolutely not,” I answered, “I had gone through a bone marrow transplant and had been hospitalized for 150 days.”

“Oh I see. You dad is concern about you,” he changed his tone quickly :-)

Then I told him a little bit about my disease and the treatment.

“I know. I know,” the doctor answered.

Even this answer also half true. It is probably quite true that he know how the disease should be treated but in any case, not a single doctor knows exactly how a patient feel during the treatment. This is because every patient can have different reaction towards certain drugs or treatments, not to mention the emotional aspect.

“I really don’t know how you all feel,” a young doctor told me while administering the chemo drug (Daunorubicin) to me. I admire his honesty.

Anyway, Daniel did go for an injection in the end. He is getting better today but in the afternoon, hives appeared all over his body again. Fortunately, the symptom is suppressed quickly after taking the medicine for allergy.

I noticed that the medicine is actually Prednisolon, the type of medicine that I take to suppress GVHD. Now both the father and son are taking Prednisolon :

See you next post :-)

Day +747 : “You have no choice.” (1)

I am fine today.

Fried Kueh Teow is one of Daniel’s most favourite food. He wanted to have fried Kueh Teow for his lunch after church service yesterday. When I advised him not to eat fried Kueh Teow so frequently, he quickly struck a deal with me – eating Kueh Teow once per week :-) This mean if he took Kueh Teow yesterday, he can has his next fried Kueh Teow earliest the coming Monday.

Daniel developed allergy for the first time ever not long after enjoying the delicious fried Kueh Teow. Hives (raised rashes on the skin) grew rapidly all over his body and limbs which itched severely. I really pitied him when I saw him scratched his body and limbs frantically.

Doctor said that the allergy was most probably caused by eating prawns in the fried Kueh Teow.

“May be the prawns were not clean properly this time,” explained doctor when I asked why Daniel didn’t develop any allergic symptoms previously after eating fried Kueh Teow with prawns.

“You have no choice but to give him injection, else he will suffer a lot.” The doctor tried to convince me giving Daniel’s injection.

“How much faster is the effect of injection compared to taking medicine only?” I asked but the doctor could not give me an answer. He just repeated the same thing, “You have no choice…”

“Who say I didn’t have choice?” I said to myself. In fact, I have plenty of choices. The first choice is to look for another doctor :-) The second choice is to deny the injection and take medicine only. The third choice is to take part of medicines prescribed by the doctor.

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +746 : Home cook Roasted Herbals Duck (当归烧鸭)

I am fine today.

I came across a Roasted Herbals Duck recipe in one of the cook books – Delicacies of China Town – that I purchased last week. My wife and I decided to try out this recipe.

We purchased a duck weighted at least 2.5kg from the market yesterday. Then we marinated it based on the ingredients described in the cook book. Based on the recipe, we need to dry the duck under the hot sun for a few hours before we roast it in the oven. We felt that the duck was not dry enough yesterday, so we kept it in the refrigerator overnight and continue drying it under the sun today. Drying the duck under the sun helps to make its skin crispy after roasting.

A fresh duck cost RM16 only but after roasting, it cost RM40. So roasting it our own could achieve quite a considerable amount of saving; another way to counter inflation :-)

Let me know if you need the recipe. I could scan it for you :-)

Bathing the duck with bathing ingredients - boiled malt sugar, Chinese rice vinegar and water; treatment to achieve crispy skin later. After roasting for about 1 hour 15 minutes
Ready for the final stage - bathing it with boiling cooking oil to produce crispy skin
Ready to be served. We failed to make the skin crispy but generally the roasted duck taste good. The sauce that we made was based recipe from another cook book. It taste incredibly good :-)

Even though we did not achieve full success in our first attempt to roast a duck, we believed that we already did quite well. We should achieve better result the next attempt :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +745 : “You should take some not-so-clean food.” (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

His mother came to visit me with another auntie February this year as I blogged on my blog Day +602 : Dinner with three great mothers.

He told me during his last follow-up in Singapore, the doctor say to him, “You have to take some not-so-clean food.”

We all wanted to eat clean food. What is the justification of a doctor asking a cancer patient to have not-so-clean food?

After the bone marrow transplant, the patient’s blood and thus the immune system is rebuilt from scratch. Since the system is new, it is “innocent”. Slowly introducing not-so-clean food serves as a mean to train the immune system to be smarter.

I don’t know if this explanation is accurate but if it indeed works in this way, then it is also reasonable for the patient to take some not-so-healthy food which I have been doing it for quite sometime :-)

You see, I have to always find some excuses to take unhealthy food :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +744 : “You should take some not-so-clean food.” (1)

I am fine today.

During last follow-up, I met a friend who did his non-sibling bone marrow transplant in Singapore. I first met him in the ward while I was doing my 2nd round of chemotherapy in the hematology ward in UH.

He was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia at a date much earlier than me. Then he went through chemotherapy treatment but relapsed some time later. Without much choice, he went for another chemotherapy treatment but he experienced another relapse. In the end he opted for bone marrow transplant.

He failed to find a match among his siblings, so it was not possible for him to do a related bone marrow transplant. It was very lucky that the doctor managed to find a match for him in China through international bone marrow donor database.

He then raised almost half a million Malaysian Ringgit and went to Singapore to do non-sibling bone marrow transplant. The transplant was a success. He is now doing very well. Unlike me, he does not need to take any medicine now. However, he needs to have insulin injection everyday as he has diabetics, probably as a side effect of some medication during the treatment.

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +743 : A buffet dinner with Pastor Andrew and family

I am fine today.

We had a buffet dinner with Pastor Andrew family at Sun & Surf Café in Sunway Resort Hotel today. The buffet cost RM78++, but Citibank credit card holder will get 50% discount :-)

Apart from my wife, I also bring along Daniel for the dinner. He is charged at children rate but he manages to eat like adult :-) So it is extremely worth to bring him along. I just need to pay 25% of the adult rate, a double 50% discount :-)

Richard and his wife also attended the dinner.

I have too much eating for the past few days. I think I have to slow down a little bit.

If you are a Citibank credit card holder and would like to enjoy the 50% off, please have the buffet earlier as the discount will end at the end of the month. Buffet lunch cost RM55++ only before the discount and the discount is valid on Monday to Friday.

Group photo
Daniel is enjoying his meal
My wife Angela
My first round :-)
This is my first time eating raw oyster after I was diagnosed with Leukaemia :-)
Self-served Chendol
Water apple
Twin water apple?
See you next post :-)

Day +742 : Another free lunch :-)

I am fine today.

My boss treated us a lunch in a nearby restaurant yesterday, exactly one week after I treated my colleagues a Domino Pizza lunch in the office. We celebrated birthday for three staff during the lunch – my boss and another two colleagues’ birthday.

Apart from a very relaxing working culture – at least physically, enjoying free meal is another uniqueness of working in this company :-)

Now the food again :-) My blog is overloaded with food these few days...

The cake
The birthday boys and girl. Guess which one is my boss?
Cutting the cake
Tidbits
Chicken - recommended by Richard
Bean curd
Claypot pork
Vegetable
Steam fish

See you next post :-)