擂茶

Today I tried something very new to me. The idea of it is totally foreign. In fact, I didn't know such a thing existed until late last year when my colleague told me so (and I call myself a Malaysian Chinese...)

The thing I had was called "擂茶" (lui cha) which apparently means pounded tea. I pronounce it as "lui cha" because that is how you pronounce it in Cantonese, however I don't know how it sounds like in its native Hakka.

I think there are 2 versions of it, at least. One of them is like a real tea. The ingredients of nuts, rice, soybeans and grains are all pounded together to make a powdered texture. Then, this is added in hot tea, usually green tea, since it's always green in colour.

The one I ate for dinner today, however, is slightly different. The ingredients are the same, except with the addition of french beans and a huge bunch of peppermint leaves and green vegetable leaves. The ingredients are not made into powder form, but rather left as it is. The leaves are sliced in thin strips and all the ingredients are mixed well (something like Bibimbap) before hot green tea is poured over. It is more of a soupy, rice dish than a beverage.

All I can say is that to appreciate this, you will have to have an acquired taste. It's not bad, it just tasted rather unusual to me. Too bad I don't have a photo to illustrate though, it does look kinda nice...

Scenario: My boyfriend/husband/whatever must be 100% like Mr. Darcy

It has occured to me that, for girls who reads Pride and Prejudice, they will soon (either subconsciously or not) conjure up a Mr. Fitzwilliam Dracy model that is to be used, if you will, on potential boyfriends/husbands.

Ok, so maybe not every girl have this whole Mr. Darcy complex going on in their heads after years of reading Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, but some do.

It is not something difficult to understand when me, myself, reads the novel many times and personally admire Darcy's 'arrogant disposition' (I'd like to think of it as an inability to express oneself properly rather than pure arrogance.) However, I find the overt and excessive admiration for a fictional character to a point that a girl/woman wishes to model her boyfriend/husband entirely after the guy is a bit...extreme.

There is nothing wrong with admiring Fitzwilliam Darcy's character. A gentleman with fault is something more charming than a charismatic gentleman who turns out to be a fraud. Although this character is not as warm as Jane Austen's other heroes, such as George Knightley or Edmund Bertram; he is well received on his own right. After all, he is one of the favourite Austen novel heroes.

Having said that, as nice as it is to have a Mr. Darcy or Mr. Knightley around, finding such Victorian (or rather Georgian) gentlemen in our time isn't such an easy task. So give the guys a break, yea? It may not be easy to fill Mr. Darcy's shoes but I am sure there is some gentleman's quality in everyone :)

And for those of you who actually managed to find a Mr. Darcy/Mr. Knightley/Another Jane Austen hero in the real world; congratulations, that is quite a catch!

Hyped up about: Late nite reading

For the past week I have experimented with what I can do with my time after work. Without the existence of a computer and a TV.

I thought it was going to be a great challenge. After all, Youtubing is one of my favourite things to do, so is facebook-ing, surfing the web and sinking into that soft, fluffy couch as I watch TV dramas. How on earth am I going to spend the waking hours of the night?

For the first few nights, I came home late from work. Too tired and weary, I just grabbed a book and hopped onto bed. Before I could even finish a page, I was out cold like a knocked-out drunkard, snoozing and oinking away.

For the subsequent night, when I wasn’t so beat, I was scratching my head thinking of how to kill time. It was only 8.30PM, what am I gonna do?!

As I scanned through the book I casually picked up from my table, I kept asking myself: what to do, and what is wrong with this woman in the book. I felt so ding-dong when I realised I was doing something *ambient subconsciously* and that is reading.

I admit, it was pretty blur of me not to notice that I was reading and debating myself at the same time. Reading has always been my favourite pass time, especially during rainy weekend evenings. It used to be somewhat a routine in the past, but not any more. I had a habit of reading before bedtime when I was a student. Every night, from my high school days up until my final year in university, I would spend half an hour reading before I sleep. I had not notice when my fad with technology *ahem, namely my laptop and my cable TV* overtook this long time habit of mine.

After all that is said, I began picking up the habit of daily reading again, starting this week. I found that reading during the night time calms my nerves and is now added into my daily routine once again as it was before in the past. I may not have as much time as before for the dear friend *The Book*, but I shall certainly make more time for it in the future, considering how I enjoy its company immensely :)