Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS


2 days have gone by..
The sound of the falling rain in Melaka have blocked the rain deers' bells from Cat's hearing. Please forgive Cat for the overlook. Cat do wish that you have enjoyed your Christmas Holiday.

'May joy and happiness snowed on you, may the bells jingled for you and may Christmas spread cheer in your lives! Merry 'belated'Christmas Wishes!'


Our Gingerbread House guarded by a smiling Gingerbread man. Hectic Christmas at the hotel.


The brick and artificial fireplace created by boss. A warm glow to the troubled heart.

Something Cute

Cat was reading a book and in one of the pages, there is this 1 title which catches the eyes : 'Conditions In Order to Be Loved'. Feeling curious on what all this is about, Cat went scrolling further into the article ( since when does loving someone comes with a guide book?)

And curiosity kills a cat.

'Do you know which elements need to be there for people to feel that you are 'cute'?
The answer is : small, powerless, warm, soft, circular, have big eyes and.. a little bit of stupidity.'

Ouch! That goes deeply straight to the heart,

These have been scientifically proven when they test the theory on pets: dog, cat, baby bear, penguins...etc.etc.. People just want to hug them because they are 'cute'.

Pets? !! Hmm..but then, being cute only meant that you only trigger the protective instinct inside people. Would caring and being protected equals to love? Would that be one of the conditions?

Funny book.. Cat would rather not continue reading it. Words sometimes just mess up the mind.
Action does speak louder than words.

Greener Grass

Today, cat was invited by a friend to join a group called "BlogMalaysia.com'. Curious cat accepted and went to see the site. Wonders of wonders! The site shows a snapshot of all the 10 000 blogs from all it's member bloggers..and this is cat's summary of it:

a) Bloggers are getting younger. There was even a blog created by a 10 year old girl. God..that does make cat feels so ancient.
b) The blogs are nicely done. From the pix to the gadjets to the articles
c) The topics were everything under the Sun. Hmm.. things that were new to cat were old stories to them. :p Ouch..that hurts the ego a bit
d) The way to attract attention nowadays are by using provocative titles and provocative attitudes. Hmm.. cat's blog must be the most boring thing compared to all of them. Hip, up to date data and new ideas.

It does make cat wonder if cat is just wasting cat's time and everyone else's by continuing to write at Cat's Memoir. Nothing provocative, nothing new, no news, no gadjets..just a gentle touch of cat's personal thoughts. It won't change the world. Like a small breeze.. you could hardly feel it. Would it be better just to stop writing now?

Then a thought came to mind. (Guess, there is something in that "Law of Attraction"..this mind of cat is now acting like a self activated motivator. It just won't let cat wallow in self pity for long. Smile)
This blog might be nothing to most people..but it would mean something to someone. It has helped cat a lot: finding old and new friends, learning new things, helping cat to tell things that cat sometimes was not able to say face to face with someone. The grass always look greener on the other side of the fence. So, cat will still write in cat's own long winded way (ouch..don't you dare laugh at cat :p).
Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Signing off n Good Night,
Cat

Lompat Tikam

It's interesting sometimes to know how a thing or a place got it's name.

It's a hot Ramadhan day and there there were dozens of stalls selling all sorts of delicacies but still I couldn't find anything that I feel like eating. Nasi Briyani..hmm.. not in the mood today, Nasi Ayam..nothing special, Ayam Percik,,too spicy.. maybe next time. Hmm, those red colored jelly do look yummy :p

Then suddenly, something colorful caught my eyes. There were some funny looking cakes that I had never seen before. Hmm.. it looks a bit like some kind of sweet and sticky glutinous rice.

'Give it a try, miss. Kuih Lompat Tikam. Lepas Lompat, Dia Tikam' the seller laughingly joked.

Do not ask me what it means. I also do not understand what's the joke is about. Hmm.. isn't the Lompat Tikam supposee to be green and white in color?



The name 'Lompat Tikam' ..if you literally translate it, means to 'Jump and Stab' ..where and what to stab or what is being stabbed, that's a big mystery. It seems that in the north area (Kelantan & Trengganu) this sweet dessert has always been cooked like a pudding and it has a variety of colors. It's best eaten cold and served with 'Gula Melaka' syrup.



What is the taste like? Well, I really have no idea.
As I mentioned before, I loved looking at the colors.
But to taste it, I'd rather leave it to mom. :p She's the brave one.

The dessert certainly passed the test. Mom says that it tasted sweet (but too sweet for a Southerner's tongue), as there's coconut milk and Gula Melaka syrup mixed inside. I would give it an A based on the colors and because Mom seems to like it. hehehe. For the recipe, you can try looking at this site : Halaqah which is however in Malay language or try asking Umihoney who has a good repertoire of recipes and videos of how to make delicious dishes.

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Chocolates Delight

I was reading the newspaper, when I saw.. some of the most creative objects or food items made with chocolates. ohhh.. drooling at the photos.



Chocolate is also known as the Food of Gods as it has always been considered a heavenly delight. Everyone knows the goodness of chocolate: It's stimulating and has a positive influence on the cardio-vascular system. Some say that it has an aphrodisiac effect (hmm :)): it triggers feelings of happiness and desire...
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Well this is the story of how 'chocolate' inspires 3 persons decided to trade their current professions for the love of chocolate.


Chng, an engineer and a father of three, quits his job because he found that metal is not pliable enough for creating elegant designs. Then he found chocolate.. and the love story continues. Chng has even made an 1.8m long dragon and a chocolate tiger mascot which needed 10 men to move it!



Chng also has discovered his talent in crafting delicate chocolate couverture rose bouquet (A 0.152m diameter rose bouquet can cost no less than RM 600!). Romantic chocolate notion.. His one man dream has now became a little enterprise of 6 persons. Chng sometimes spend 16 hours on his feet experimenting on his ideas.



Chin Siew Hua, 55 years old former banker, met with friends at a reunion where they decided to go with the idea of making chocolate slabs embossed with text messages and photograpic images. Six months later, her entire life savings were gone and her partners run away. Luckily her eldest son came to help her, giving his special help in accounting and taking care of the finance side.. and saved the shop. The best thing is that they became much closer and 'stick' to each other since then.. :p



Lastly, there is Koay, who previously worked as a jewellery and fashion designer, she fell in love with chocolate designing when she went visiting her sister in law in Los Angeles. There she discovered novelty chocolates in a cafe which serves colored chocolates on it's menu.



All in all, the 3 of them agreed that it needed patience and hard work working with chocolates. For example, chocolates cannot be taken out directly from the chiller and exposed to the room temperature because it will make white spots or 'milk bloom' comes out on the chocolate and mar it's appearance.





Nevertheless, while these chocolates are commercialized and made for big occasions like weddings and door gifts..it's still able to sweeten a broken heart and as a tantalizing/poetic/romantic gesture in a love affair. Chocolates.. known to uplift the spirit and send a smile to the lips as the sweet and bitter taste melt on the tongue..



And of course,do remember, everything good should be taken in moderation..even love:)

Rising Temperature

The weather today in Melaka is 33°C (91°F). Phew..it's that hot.
She is melting and so is the brain. Keep thinking of ice cream, 'cendol' and 'abc'. All things, thoughts and items that can be associated with the word 'cold'.
Hmm.. ice cream.. that would be nice..

Sorry, she needs to stop writing..(laughing)..Going to reserve it for night time when it's colder. For the meantime.. :) going and getting something cold. When the temperature rises, better watch the words and stay away from traffic. It's bound to make the blood boiling and turns friends to foes.

Keep your cool and smile..

P/S : Talking about ice cream and cool things, take a look at Teikakawashi's pix on things to do on a hot day. (see example above and below). Her photos will make just make you drool with envy! :)

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Bon Appetit

Let's talk about food tonight.
It's not about eating, but about the things that we and other people eat. Living in an Asian Country, people would not be surprised to hear what we in this part of the world would eat. But that is not totally correct. We eat 'almost' the same thing as everyone else in the world: McD, KFC, Pizza, etc..etc.. :p hehehe

I guess the main reason that we seems to eat 'odd' things is because of the various type of weather, landscape, culture, and habits. (See, I still remember a bit of the old Geographical lessons). Even in Malaysia, every state has it's own favorite local food that would be regarded as weird by the other states (Except Kuala Lumpur, perhaps, which is the capital of Malaysia, and where people from north, south, east and west reside there. So, there's bound to be every type of food that you can think of.)

It might be a surprise for a Johorean, from the south, when invited to a Northern state friend's house, to see people eating durian or mango with rice (a fresh fruit eaten with rice? Guess they have sweeter tooth than us). The opposite is also true. Our northern counterparts gets the same surprise when they visit Johor: we do cook with lots of hot and spicy chili as well as with lots of gravy on our rice. But the real winner in the 'hot' cuisine competition, would be those from 'N9'. If we were all cartoon characters, you would see smoke coming out from the ears and tears streaming from the eyes, trying to vanquish the hotness of the red chilis used.

In some states, a cow is like a coconut tree. There are thousands of uses for the coconut tree : from the leaves right down to the bark and roots. The cow is also eaten from the leg right up to the head (except for the horns, of course, which were made into deco items). I am not joking. The tongue..(err..you would not eat it if you saw it inside a live cow and you would also not want to eat it when you saw it on the cutting board), with every bit of it's tentacles like form, were boiled for hours until it's swollen and soft, then cut to small pieces and cooked in curry. I was enjoying the meal, especially the tender 'meat' in the curry. And got the biggest surprise in her life when I was shown the balance of the uncut 'tongue' in the kitchen. Luckily the toilet was only a few feet away.

I might be an adventurous person but please do not show or tell me in detail from which part of the animal it was taken from. And no visuals please.

Hmm.. I might convert myself into a dessert eater only :p hehehe if this continues. Jalil Hamid's song the title 'Makan' always make me smile. The song goes a bit like this:

Let's us talk about 'eating': While other countries lack of food, most of our people die for eating too much food.

Our people eat lots of things, be it in the morning, evening, day or night time.
Eating anything and everything: stone, steel, knife and also wood. :p

Bon appetite everyone!