Jewish/German Cake - also known as Apple and Nectarine Cake

So I happened to have the right kind of inspiration 2 days back. Plus the fact that my mum is still recovering from her minor eye surgery that led to aunts and uncles visiting our home and bringing many fruits over. One of the fruits given was Nectarine. However the nectarine was not too good in its taste and it lacked the natural sweetness. So all these are enough reasons to see me getting some Organic Green Granny Smith Apples from the supermarket and working hard in the kitchen at 7.30pm.

Some websites have mentioned that this recipe (without the nectarine) is called a Jewish Cake whilst some called it a German Cake. But since I've altered the ingredients a bit and added in the Nectarine, let's just call it an Apple and Nectarine Cake (less controversial).

The result: I was slightly disappointed with the effects of the cake. I tried to cut some of the butter and eggs used in the original recipe. This made the cake a bit too crumbly for my own good. So the recipe stated below for eggs and butter are as stated as in the original recipe. I strongly recommend the use of Dark Molasses mixed with castor sugar for the sugar component in the recipe. Dark Molasses has always been my secret ingredient to making superbly rich and delicious cookies and even brownies. Despite the crumbly-ness of the Apple and Nectarine Cake, I daresay that the taste was simply good.

So here's the recipe (Serves 10):

Ingredients A
3 Organic Green Granny Smith Apples (peeled and diced)
3 Nectarines (diced)
30g molasses sugar
1 tablespoon Cinnamon


Ingredients B (Dry Ingredients)
400g Plain Flour
1 tablespoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt


Ingredients B (Wet Ingredients)
170g Butter (cut into smaller pieces - easier for whisking)
150g Castor Sugar
150g Molasses Sugar
1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence
4 Eggs
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
Some Orange Juice


Instructions

1. Heat up the oven. Grease the baking tin.
   
2. Mix Ingredients A together in a large bowl and set aside.
   
3. Sift and mix Ingredients B (Dry Ingredients) together in a large bowl and set aside.


4. Mix Butter, Molasses Sugar, Castor Sugar and Vanilla Essence together using the mixer.


5. Add in Cinnamon and Orange Juice. Mix well.


6. Add in the eggs slowly and mix well.


7. Add in the Ingredients B (Dry Ingredients) slowly into the mixture and fold well.


8. Pour hald of the mixture into the greased baking tin. Add in half of the mixture fruits into the baking tin. Pour in the rest of the mixture on top of the fruits in the baking tin. Lastly, pour in the remaining mixed fruits to the top of the mixture.


9. Bake the cake in the oven until the metal tester shows clean surface - indicating that the cake is properly cooked on the inside. (perhaps around 50-90 mins, depening on the oven).


10. Cool the cake properly (leave for about 30-45 mins before cutting).


11. Serve well. Would be nice if you could serve together with youghurt and real sliced fruits - and not forgetting a nice hot cup of good coffee. :)
    

Free Time = Baking Time

So I've decided to have quality food instead. And the only way to do so is to bake my own. Can anything get any fresher and preservative-free than that?

Turning Flexitarian: Conscience on Health, Ethics and Culture

The first entry of this blog started off on a negative note as I lamented about the disheartening ageing process that seemed to drain my runs and the almost endless search for something deeper and more meaningful in life. I was convinced that my friend was right: that indeed we both have life issues – that maybe we both were indeed suffering from mid mid-age crisis.

But now that the year 2010 is coming to an end, I am surprised indeed that I am no longer preoccupied with the ageing cycle. Indeed the phrase “Seek and thou shalt receive” has its value. It points to the need for an individual to be proactive and take the necessary steps needed to change and transform into what is desired. So for me, I’ve become more conscious of my fitness regime. I no longer just stick to running. Today it is more a mixture of running plus yoga, pilate, weight-training and kick-boxing. With such intensity, my body and mind have undeniably transformed and with that my runs are now more fuelled with energy, zest and most importantly, soul and hope.

However the dedication to fitness together with my constant travels and meeting of all kinds of people while travelling have added another dimension to understanding life and the molding of my identity. After talking to a few and reading numerous articles and blogs online, I realized that it is not enough for one to keep an active lifestyle and declare oneself as fit and healthy. Health and Fitness is not at all synonymous to what I only do but also to what I put inside my body. In short one’s body is indeed like a temple of God. One really needs to take care of what one consumes in order to maintain a healthy body and a healthy mind.

As such, before the year 2011 makes its arrival, I have turned a flexitarian. I have contemplated for quite some time about becoming completely a vegetarian but after some time I realized that there may be issues that work against my principles. A flexitarian diet includes mostly vegetarian-based food with some occasions of meat-eating. The switch in my diet plan mirrors my principles at the moment. I believe that eating more vegetables, fruits, nuts and lentils while lessening my intake of meat will help fuel my runs better. In addition, it helps me to be more in-sync with my body, mind and soul as I practice Yoga since Yoga is about Ahimsa (meaning ‘non-harming’ or ‘non-violence’). The act of eating meat can translate into slaughtering and killing of defenseless animals. To add on, I am also aware of the animal farming industry which cruelly rear animals just so as to ensure sustainable supply of animals to meet the high demands. I am trying hard to cut back on eating meat so as not to add on to the high demands. I have added a link to a YouTube video below to show the cruelty involved towards animals. In addition, eating less meat helps sustain the environment as research has shown that more forests are depleted due to the massive clearing of forests just so as to make way for more fields for animal-farming. It is also stipulated that more fossil fuel is used up to produce meat than to produce plants.

But why not completely a vegetarian? As much I would love to I find it impractical for now. My love for culture and human beings are also too great that as much as I care about the rights and the state of animals and the environment, I care more about human beings. And part of culture’s most outstanding creation is the food that binds and identifies the community together. My culture has created tremendous cuisine full of soul and character. These are comfort food that will stay on and that will always be there during joyous occasions and festivities as well as during normal times. These food however are mostly comprised of meat. Sure one can say that one can easily substitute the meat to something that is non-meat. But then I assure you that the result will be different. It won’t be the same. Just imagine the Japanese, who are known for their fish diet culture, making all vegan sushi and tempura and udon instead. Now THAT is weird and completely destroys the Japanese culinary heritage. Thus, to take an oath of being a full-time vegetarian means that I’m missing out and disowning my culture, my roots and my family – which I am not able to take and too great a sacrifice. So for now a flexitarian diet is sufficiently good and balanced for it meets my current purpose and principles in life. I shall be updating on my blog every now and then on my journey of being a flexitarian but until then, here’s cheers to a healthy body, mind and soul~!

The Video: (click on the link below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaHXA1LLB_I

Thou shall not judge…

It seems to me that the human nature is one that is obsessed with dichotomies. We live in a world of dichotomies and we create dichotomies. We like to see the opposites just so as to justify our presence/existence. Among the most talked about dichotomies are as follows: Good VS Evil, Heaven VS Hell, Us VS Them (the Enemy), Men VS Women, Asians VS Westerners, Communism VS Democracy and also not forgetting, the Government VS the people. I presume that the list goes on limitless.

But oddly it is also a part of human nature that the human creatures are anything but simple. So while dichotomies seem to superficially and simply organize people into 2 distinct categories, they instead bring about more complications and confusions. In reality however, most human beings do not fall solidly into just 1 category of the dichotomy. There is never clearly a ‘black’ or a ‘white’. What is blindingly obvious however is the ‘greyness’ that exists.

I believe that I am also guilty of this obsession. And as the harshest critique of my own self, I often have to remind myself of the phrase that “thou shall not judge…”. Not surprisingly however, as if following the order of nature, I often see myself stumbling again repeatedly nevertheless into that dirty track of conceptualizing and compartmentalizing people. You know then that they do not just call it ‘human hubris’ for no reason.

Let’s take a very recent example which I encountered. Let’s talk about the people who belong to the ecclesiastical religious organizations – the monks, nuns, priests, ustaz etc. As members vey closely associated to the religious sphere, one would expect the mentioned groups of people to represent ‘worldly detachment’ as they serve only to God/s. Yes indeed, only to God/s and not to any political organizations or private enterprises which could taint their state of ‘holyness’. So when many of us are confronted with the image of a monk in full robe walking around with an iphone or an MP3 player in hand or perhaps even holding on to a can of Coca Cola and driving a Mercedes Benz car, who could deny that many would feel bewildered and amused as they began judging the monk as being ‘sinful’ and ‘worldly’. Many too would also add on judging the monk as ‘corrupt’ and not really doing much for the community.

In contrast to the description of the monk above, history lovers are also aware that monks are anything but passive beings. Some monks in history were found to be very involved in the community affairs – perhaps too passionately involved that they could be seen participating in the act of self-immolation as they burnt themselves in the middle of the road during the Vietnam War as a symbol of protest against the USA. Many have indeed viewed these burning monks as exemplars and modern-day heroes – oh, never mind the fact that these monks were very much involved in worldly affairs and passionately involved in the politics of the country. They are heroes, their sacrifices were ‘holy’ and as such they remained untainted - no question asked.

Burning Monk 1





Burning Monk 2

Again to cite another interesting example, a good friend told me that Oprah Winfrey once interviewed a group of Catholic nuns for the Oprah Winfrey show. When a call was made to a particular nun about the interview, the nun seemed confused, asking “What is Oprah Winfrey?” – indeed an indication of how detached from the worldly affairs this nun was, tying in nicely to what we initially expected of those in the religious order to be. Is this really what we want from the people belonging in the religious organizations? Do we really want them to be detached and oblivious of society and the world, keeping their focus only on serving the God/s? Or should these people play a role in politics or even in the economic affairs of the country or even in the technological innovation in the country or even perhaps be a spokesperson of the ruling government as seen in this article http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/11/26/open-letter-to-ustaz-fatris-bakaram/ ? How much and what kind of involvement of them do we want? How could we be so quick to judge others when a lot of times we are confused about our own expectations of others and that even if we say that we are clear about our expectations of others we fall into the trap of not making ourselves heard of our expectations to the concerned others?


“Thou shall not judge” – I say that’s a pretty mouthful obligation for the human me to carry out…

Thinking with the Brain VS Thinking with the Heart

I always tell people that real education for me occurred only when I was in my second year in the University. Now that was the place where I intensified my study in the History Department - where I was, by God’s will, “found” and properly guided by my American Professor, the bald-head man who specializes in the history of religions in China and Japan.

I know what’s on your mind… what a late-bloomer right?

Actually no. At the very least I thought that I was indeed lucky to have found the real value of education. I know many out there who have not, despite the impressive grades and awards they have acquired. I remember that despite performing very well for my Cambridge examination, resulting in me being awarded a scholarship upon entering the University, a part of me felt that the kind of education that I have had prior to that was superficial and inconsequential. It was education never a doubt but it was one gained as a result of a lot of thinking solely with the use of the brain. But the result is an automaton-like human being – unfeeling, lacking in identity and character, concerned only on the end-effect, mundane, uninspiring and sadly, worthless.

Under the supervision of my professor, writing an essay is not about the need to score an A-grade. I became more in tune with my inner self, more reflective and more involved in the subject content. My writings took a change as I saw the need to be somewhat like the “voice” of the oppressed, of the subaltern, the people at the ground. History changed – from that of stories and perspectives of the well-known and the people of power (and usually men) to stories and perspectives of the ordinary folks, the powerless and often than not, women. Writing for women is undeniably an emotional subject for me, especially based on my own experience having to fight for my own education despite the family convention imposed on me that the place of a woman is that at home and in the kitchen. And I remembered vividly that essays after essays, words just spewed out uncontrollably on the paper – but not so much the result of brain processes but mainly because I was feeling too much and I committed all emotions to the subject content. It was then that I realized that in thinking with the heart, I began developing an opinion, my own voice and most importantly, a passion that I would commit myself into. All these consequently led me to a research in a village community in Malacca as published online at my professor’s website http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/histdd/notes/malaysia.html . The paper has also been mentioned in a book recently published in 2009 by Paul Katz (a passionate academia whom I respected although I’ve never seen him before) entitled “Divine Justice: Religion and the Development of Chinese Legal Culture”.

I enjoyed and relished the true meaning of education. It was free flow and has meanings. However as an educator, I can’t help but contrast what I’ve experienced to what I see much today. Look around you and you’ll see students studying too much. They mumbled eccentrically to themselves at the train station, on the bus, even while crossing the road trying so hard to memorize the information in their textbooks hoping that all these will help in answering the questions for the exams. I swear if they could all burn their books/ notes into ashes and stir them into a glass of water and drink them all up (just like how one would to a Chinese paper amulet) just so as to help retain information, I am pretty sure all these students would do exactly that without thinking twice. Stupid and eccentric as it would sound, I would even think that the parents and the schools would probably help them in doing something as eccentric as I had mentioned earlier. Education turned meaningless. Students merely studied…oops memorized would be a better word… to get the perfect grade so as to get into a supposedly perfect school, which would consequently result in them getting a supposedly perfect job which pays them a perfectly hefty sum. It becomes a selfish endeavor, stripped off any positive principles. So today, if you end up at a workplace and suddenly you are confronted with office politics, I would say that’s not surprising given the kind of superficial education that most have been exposed to. The end result of today’s rigid education – I say breeding another generation of political animals who scheme and well, thinking only with the brains, completely detached of the Heart.

"I'm a Hopeless Pragmatist!" OR "I'm a Hopeless Romantic!"?

I once told a friend how stunned my students went when they heard that I am 27 and I have no plan to get married yet. The questions that they bombarded me with right after went something like the following (in no particular order of merit):-

1. "Don't you want to be married?"  OR 

2. "Don't you want to have children?" and the most classic question that never failed to make me bewildered and stunned is... (drum roll.......)

3. "Don't you want to be a 'COMPLETE WOMAN' by giving birth to children and calling them your own?" 

And hei, we're talking about kids here who are like 15-16 years of age. Seriously I don't know which is more troubling though - the fact that I am not married or the fact that these kids are way too young to be thinking of marriage and having children in a country that is... shall I say expensive? 

I told my friend simply that maybe I'm not yet married because I am a super pragmatic person. I mean seriously one really needs to be damn stable financially to be living a life and having a family in this country. Divorce rate is increasing last I heard and one reason stipulated was the lack of financial stability in young married couples. I wish I could believe in romantic love..fall in love with a man and get married like that and live happily ever after but the reality distorts that notion of romance. 

Now I was so convinced that there is no element or tinge of romance in me until of course my dear friend pointed out that maybe...yes maybe, I am still single because deep inside I am a romantic person. Yes... a hopeless romantic person. 

Perhaps there are some truths in her remark. You see to me marriage is more than just planning a wedding, choosing the best wedding gown that suits me, creating a list of names for the wedding invite...etc etc. It's however a matter of what happens after the wedding. What kind of life will it be? What next? Yes... WHAT NEXT? I guess I have some fears when on the issue of marriage. If marriage is just about 2 parties marrying, sharing a bed and living under 1 roof and having children, watch their children grow and break their hearts and slowly they will age and wait for death to come, then I'm scared of marriage... then I'm scared to even go through marriage as it means entering into that inevitable cycle. Look around, most married couples seem to have that same kind of life. However if life after marriage is an adventure, then that's something to look forward to. While many would splurge on weddings and go for a luxurious honeymoon at some lavish resorts or hotels, I would gladly settle for something ordinary for the wedding and take 1 month off on a backpacking adventure trip around the world with my new-found husband. Now THAT'S exciting because I can't predict what can happen and will happen. 

To find the right man is also another issue for a hopeless romantic. In fact one American professor at my University once mentioned that there is no way that I will ever marry a man who is of the same race, religion and nationality as me. Let's evaluate the scenario: There are currently 2 kinds of men that exist around me: the conventional men and the dependent men.  The conventional men are peculiar...really, completely beyond my understanding. For a woman, I'm independent, confident, strong-willed, feisty, have an opinion of my own (i.e. critical) and worse, I dare to voice my thoughts. These characteristics are unfortunately not seen as desirable for the conventional men. They would easily interpret me as stubborn, arrogant and a bra-burning feminist. They would instead prefer women to be "conventional women" - soft, submissive and flattering the men's ego. The dependent men are however slightly less creative and as such they lack initiative and imagination. 

I wish not to have any of the above men as a life partner. I think the romantic instinct in me wants somebody witty whom I can have an exciting adventure with, yet also somebody reliable, one who takes initiative, cultured and most importantly, one whom I can depend on for comfort and to soothe my fears. And until I meet that person, I'm glad I'm single. Yes... I truly am both a hopeless pragmatist and a hopeless romantic. 

Rustic Penang!

"Oh God, just bring me anywhere... yes anywhere away from the country. Allow me some form of escape... perhaps to Penang maybe...?"

A friend of a friend's wedding.

Ethnic pottery colums.

Vandalism or Art?

Big Bike

Fire Hydrant

Letterbox with "Polis"

Chicken

Interesting letterbox

Happy Me!

A local

Chinese temple food offerings

Shophouse

Mosque

happy me part 2

If I could run away to the Ashram and just meditate...

Being an educator (and especially one who specialises in the field of the arts and the humanities), the topic of education, culturedness and graciousness have always been central to my thoughts and reflections on the world that revolves around me. 

My country prides itself to be a very modern and advanced nation. The citizens pride themselves to be highly educated, ingenius beings with the capacity to score "A" grades in almost all subjects, especially Mathematics and the Sciences. 

And yet we need frequent reminders that we shall not litter. Actually we need frequent threats to remind us not to litter. Here, if one is caught littering, one shall be fined and the old Confucian punishment of shaming the individual publicly through the act of Corrective Work Order (i.e. sweeping the floor in the crowded downtown) will be imposed...

 

And yet we need frequent reminders in public transports to give up seats to those who really need them (i.e. the pregnant women, the elderly, the handicapped...etc)...

 

And yet we need frequent reminders to be ceourteous and graceful to fellow human beings through campaigns such as "Kindness Begins with Me" or "Pass it Forward Movement"... Actually if my memory is right, sometime last year, there was even a campaign to get citizens to SMILE more as there was a special world conference held here and we needed badly to give a "good" impression to these foreign visitors...

And yet we need frequent reminders to stop violence on the public bus by not using aggression on bus captains... 

And we call ourselves "educated" and "civilised"? Surely something is not right in our education system. Too much centered on paper-chase and accumulation of mundane awards perhaps? A superficial education that we are focusing on here? 

You see there is something wrong with our education, our mental views of things around us, and our values. We are not treating people right. We treat people only with money and power with utmost respect. We view the caucassions as superior while we discriminate our Asian neighbours ... well, unless they are rich and they speak with some American or British accent. Otherwise the Indonesians and the Filipinos are known only as "maids" and the Thai and Bangladeshi men here are known as only "construction workers". The Chinese from China are known to be "uncivilised" with them speaking so loudly in public places while the Indians from India are known for their "distinct smell". The Malays from Malaysia are known to be lazy (lepak)  drug-addicts, or if not they, together with some Indonesian men, are conveniently labelled as terrorists! 

I, as an educator, have failed terribly. Although I tried so hard to nurture some "human" values in my students, it has little consequence as the societal culture here is too overwhelming. Day after day, I start questioning on my role as an educator and whether I should continue to be one. A lot of time, I find bliss in travelling to the so-called "Third-World Countries", where the people are said to be poor and with no or little education but interestingly, they seem to be more "human" with more interesting characters when compared to my fellow citizens. Things are simpler. People are less arrogant. Stress level is lower and who cares about Gross Domestic Product when in another country, they measure national development through Gross National Happiness?  

So what prompted this long post? Of course the fact that my long weekend has been dampened by students who are spoilt and in my view "non-intelligent" and of course, an ugly, rude and unreasonable parent. If only I could run away from all these to an Ashram in India and do some yoga and meditation to clear this angst and negative vibe from me. Unfortunately I can't. So I shall just drink some caffeine, chill and read an entertaining book by Lucy Edge (a travel writer) called "Yoga School Droupout" while school reopens tomorrow. Adieu readers. 

  

Strengthening to Recover

While I travelled a bit and realised some unthinkable dreams in the year 2009, age started to come down hard on me. Stress at work has made me aged more than I ever thought possible. Time passed by too quickly that almost often, I could hardly catch up. 

Indeed 2009 was the year in which running took on a back seat. Sure I was still running now and then, here and there, but it was more "off" than "on". It went from bad to worse as I finally admitted that my runs in 2009 lacked vigor, enery and zest. If running was once inspirational, a way to de-stress, to reflect, to recover from setbacks in life, to dream big dreams for the future, later it however became completely uninspiring. And it became evident especially in the beginning of the year 2010 when a sharp setback in life made me turn again to running as a form of comfort but only to realise that I have grown weaker. An activity that once gave me so much comfort, and security, a pillar of strength, suddenly played an insidious joke on me as it became the very thing that made me extremely insecure and self-conscious. 

Nah, I have not recovered from the sharp setback which I experienced in the beginning of the year. The "no-confident" and uninspiring runs thus far meant that I have more or less lost a pillar of comfort and consolation for spiritual recovery. I have since withdrawn myself from outdoor running although I really and truly missed meeting the regular runners,  exchanging the big smile and waving the big "Hi" during our regular running encouters. I have yet to run for any major race this year. I still fear another disaster which could dampen my spirit even more. And while I am now in my "hibernation" mode, I instead enrolled myself in a fitness gym with a personal trainer to see me through and attending yogasana and pilate classes - indeed attempts on my part to build my physical strength as well as my mental strength. It has been about 2 months since the hibernation-cum-strengthening period. Today I feel good. I feel stronger. But I don't know if I really am stronger and better - both physically and mentally. 

This coming Friday will be my first test as I run my first 2.4km outdoor. For the first time in months, I'm coming out of my "hibernation" mode. Now the thing is I don't have to run this Friday. I could walk if I want to - just like how most of the other male and female colleagues merely walk. In fact I could be the only female or if not, just one of the other 2 or 3 femalesat my workplace  who will be running. I am tempted to give in and just not run - and not to be tested. But then again that does not do God any justice, righty? God blessed me with 2 able legs - perhaps not the most fantastic legs I agree - but definitely still 2 legs capable of not just walking but running too. I feel obliged to run and hence, I shall be tested this Friday. Wish me luck.