A cheaper way of eating out

As you know, Boy and I have a fondness of eating out. We don't get to do it very often because I usually put us on a budget, especially when we're trying to buy a house and will eventually have a mortgage that will put us in debt for 25 years. But recently I discovered that the Tesco Clubcard points I've been hoarding all this time is actually worth quite a lot in "Rewards Token", that is, £5 worth of points can be converted to £20 worth of rewards token that will pay towards tickets to various attractions in the UK (such as Cadbury World, Blackpool Tower & Circus, Blair Castle, Blenheim Palace, zoos and theme parks, etc). You can also use it to pay for your food at various restaurants and pubs.

That's awesome. The downside is that Lincoln's practically the middle of nowhere, so there are only two three places you could use those vouchers at, namely Prezzo, Pizza Express and Varsity (limited). Out of those three, we're only familiar with Prezzo, the Italian chain restaurants. So we went there yesterday, armed with £20 worth of Rewards Token (with my distrusting nature thinking we'll probably be told we can't use it and have to shell out for the whole amount).

We both had pollo carbonara and shared a garlic bread on the side:

My pollo carbonara and garlic bread on the side to share.

The individual serving, as you can see, is massive. Coupled with the rich, cheesy sauce, neither of us could finish. I managed maybe half of my plate before giving up. It was very delicious though, so no complaints on that.

Our total bill? £25.75. What was charged on my card? £5.75. Dinner for two for that amount, I'm not complaining! :D

Boy and I are probably going to do this more often, within reason, of course. :P I have another set of tokens ordered, should be here by next week!

Although the service at Prezzo left much to be desired - waited forever for someone to do a check back after we got and finished our main because we were thinking of getting dessert, but fifteen minutes after we finished our food, still no one turned up. I ended up going to the bar and asked for someone to come around so that I can pay the bill, because we would've been late for our movie otherwise.

Our movie? Kick-Ass. ^^ And it was hilarious. Chloe Moretz as Mindy Macready/Hit Girl stole the show, she is so cool (coming from a 25-year-old, about a 12/13-year-old)! C'mon, her alter-ego has purple hair! And her schooling consists of playing with sharp objects!

Though I can just imagine someone calling Child Protection Agency regarding her dad's "parenting skills"... I mean, shooting at a kid at less than ten feet away? Seriously?

Awesome movie though, if you ignore the fact that it's not completely in the realms of reality. :P But not as awesome as How to Train Your Dragon! If you have not experience the oozing cuteness that is Toothless (in the movie, not the book), watch it!

Oh yes, whilst we were at Prezzo waiting around for the nonexistent service, I was "admiring" the decor and caught a sight of this beside where Boy was sitting and giggled.

Giant potted plant at Prezzo.

Boy asked me what was up, and I said, "Behind you. I don't know if it's meant to be like that, but it looks like a giant radish."

Cooking Chinese food

Boy was ill yesterday, and it was his "turn" to cook. We tend to take turns cooking dinner based on what shift he is working for that day (if he's doing late or long shifts, I tend to do the cooking). But considering that he was ill, I felt it would be a bit harsh to make him cook as well, so I decided to treat him to one of his favourite Chinese dish, but homemade because I'm poor. :P

I've never made sweet and sour dishes before, so this is a first. I know, how ridiculous, a Chinese girl who have never cooked sweet and sour dishes! Oh well, let's rectify that...

Sweet & Sour Chicken

I fried up so many chicken pieces yesterday, it was mad. There was this mountain of fried chicken pieces made of the measly four chicken breast halves I bought yesterday (and the chicken, diced, could all fit into my cereal bowl!) that we stuffed ourselves silly and still had enough for another meal. Two meals for two for a fiver. :P Will post up recipe if there is anyone who have no idea how to cook sweet and sour chicken.

The picture above is actually of the leftovers reheated for today's dinner. The fried chicken pieces look a bit burnt because I had to refry them. But the sauce yesterday was actually a translucent pale yellow sauce, which tasted perfectly fine, but I kinda knew Boy would think it was weird. So I bought some red and yellow food colouring today and just added a couple of drops to the sauce to make it its usual orange-red colouring. And I was right! Boy said he enjoyed it much better when the sauce is the "right" colour. Roffle. :P

Yesterday reminded me on why I rarely cook "proper" Chinese food nowadays. It uses so many plates/dishes/pots/pans to cook the meal, and I know I'll never like washing up after (and I don't have time to wash during the cooking process because everything has to be done quickly, e.g. stirfry). MJ and MW used to love it when I make Chinese food, but didn't understand how/why I can manage to create such a large pile of unwashed pots/pans/dishes in the process. Well, cooking Western food is a lot simpler, does not require as many preps, etc! And I know this because I cook both nowadays. -_-

I know it's been ages since I last updated about my life in general, but a lot of stuff is happening like buying my first house and sorting out the relevant paperwork, solicitor, mortgage, completion date, etc and work has been tiring (and dramatic, sometimes, but I won't go into that). I promise, I am going to update more but not necessarily on a linear time line, but for now, just assume that you knew I have found a house I like enough to purchase and am buying it.

Year of the Tiger

So how was everyone's CNY?

It didn't hit me until I sat down just now and counted, but this is the 6th consecutive Chinese New Year I've spent in England, away from family and ang pows. I thought it was only the 5th, but no. I started university in the autumn on 2004, so this does make the 6th.

I was 20 the last time I celebrated CNY with my family.

It's a bit scary, how time flies. Initially, for the first few CNYs, I was glad to be away from home, to not have to force smiles and call out pleasant greetings/wishes at extended family and distant relatives that I don't know much about and don't much speak to. Yes, it was interesting for a while to hear who is dating now, who has been kicked out of college, who got who up the duff. But it was just a fleeting curiosity - I soon lose interest, because it's really about as interesting as hearing other people talk about what happened on Big Brother. I don't watch it, I don't know the contestants, therefore I don't give a hoot about who did what when and where. Even if it's juicy and scandalous and gossip-worthy, why do I care? These people mean nothing to me.

My parents would be scandalised to hear that last bit - I can almost hear them now, saying something along the lines of, "They're your blood family!"

I think my interest in CNY and family gatherings waned when I found out how two-faced some of them are. CNY is about wishing people well and prosperous for the new year, but why would I wish people well when I don't like them? For the money? No thanks. The only people I care about and will wish well are my immediate family and Boy's immediate family. Actually, Boy's cousins seem quite nice and friendly too, so they're okay by my book. My cousins? Ugh. No.

Actually, I should be honest. The only "ugh-y, no" cousins are mainly from the paternal family side, the two-faced backstabbing aunts and uncles side. The ones who boasted about themselves like they're gifts from the gods. The ones who wouldn't bat an eyelid when they turn their backs on you if you're ever in need. The only ones I've gotten anywhere near close with is my father's oldest sister and her daughter A, who housed me for ten days whilst I was in Singapore way back when. They were really nice and generous to me (but there are stories that go deeper than this). But again, they live in Singapore, a good five hours away from where I used to live (and about a gazillion miles away from where I currently live, which is worse, I guess).

The aunts, uncles and cousins from the maternal side of the family are actually really friendly. It's a shame that I don't see much of them because there is a huge age-gap between me and them usually (most of them are in their 30s now) and they live in Klang Valley area their whole lives and I've lived in the east coast of the peninsular my whole life (until college and England, that is).

At this moment though, I'm not sure if I miss celebrating CNY or I'm still glad to be away from all that hassle. Enough time has passed for me to think "It's not that bad, surely" and that time may have distorted my view of things/events, but something at the back of my mind still reminds me that there was a very good reason why I like it here and it probably is still valid.

One thing's different this year though - my mother has yet to tell Brother #3 to pass on the message of how this year is going to be for me, the Wood Rat! :P

The Strawberry Sundae that Disappointed

Above is my strawberry sundae from Gateway Park (Brewers Fayre) that was a disappointment because it lacks the promised wafer on top, and strawberry syrup drizzle were all stuck at the bottom of the sundae (kinda stupid, right?), and the strawberries were still frozen chunks of ice!

*sigh* I miss the days of Knickerbocker Glory from Tootsies. Why oh why did they go into administration? :(

Dinner on Friday was made of...

Rib steak and cheese petit pains, +onions on mine.


Gooey delectable chocolatey goodness in a ramekin, hot from the oven.


Mmmmmm...

You love my food posts, really. :P Considerably non-witty, non-wordy, and more diet-breaking than any of my lengthy posts.

Re: iPad

I'm not a geek reviewer. I don't review. I typed out a review about the BB Curve, and gave up on that because I got lazy.

But I'm just so disappointed about the iPad.

Nevermind the horrible name, but the features are unexciting after all that hype. Don't get me wrong, it does look very good - Apple hasn't lost its touch on that - but seriously? No multitasking? No Flash support? It's effectively what you get if you crossbreed the Kindle and the iPhone - a touchscreen eBook reader that runs some other apps.

I already read eBooks quite happily on my tiny BB screen so I have no need for a glorified eBook reader. I'm more likely to get an iPhone than and iPad - after all, iPhone is infinitely more portable and does pretty much the same things. No, scratch that. The iPhone might actually be better for it has a camera, which the iPad sorely lacks.

I don't know about you, but I like doing more than one thing at a time with my gadgets. I don't only read the news - I have several tabs open, and sometimes even a game running in the background, plus my camera downloading into the HD. Researching for things and bookmarking and copying items into other programs for future reference? Requires multitasking too.

Even browsing the net it may fail at, as the iPad does not support Flash. A lot of websites have Flash. Will the iPad then give you the best web experience? I doubt it.

I don't think I'm an Apple fangirl - I love Apple stuff. MacBook, iPhone and iPod all look fantastic and I lust after them with every fibre in my body. I suffered internally of extreme jealousy when I saw that SN had both a new MacBook and an iPhone when I visited him. But one thing I did not like about some of the Apple gadgets are the fixed battery. All batteries have a habit of dying, not holding charge properly after x number of recharges. It's unforgivable to pay the price Apple demands on their goods and realise that it isn't going to last as long as you hoped due to wear, and you can't replace the part most likely to wear out with time.

I'd hate that.

Might be a better idea to look at Modbooks, after all - it's a tablet and it runs on Mac OS, so it does everything a MacBook does (save for having a physical keyboard). Or just a plain old MacBook if a touchscreen is not necessary. And you can actually replace the battery for a new one.

Me, I'm debating between a MacBook or a cheap-and-cheerful Asus Eee T91MT (after Always Innovating's Touch Book failed to impress).

Simple fares - bread and butter pudding & homemade vegetable soup/stew

Sometimes I forget the simplest things are the best.

Two nights ago I bought a loaf of bread on the discount shelf at Somerfields after work and decided to make some bread and butter pudding. I made some before ages ago whilst I was still in first year of university, and it was really yummy (despite never having bread and butter pudding before... but the taste is confirmed by a recent bread and butter pudding I ordered whilst we were eating out). So the result from two nights ago:

Bread and butter pudding.

To those who aren't familiar with bread and butter pudding, it's made of layers of sliced buttered bread in a deep dish with generous sprinkle of ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, sugar and raisins/sultanas/fruits. Then you beat egg and milk and sugar in a bowl and pour it into the dish, letting the slices of bread soak up the liquid mixture and then baking it in the oven until the top is golden brown.

So basically ingredients that you can find in most kitchens.

Couple of mistakes I made whilst doing this:

1. Putting sultanas on the top, which got a bit burnt in the process of baking it.
2. Baking it for too long; it was just slightly too dry to be proper bread and butter pudding.

It smelt great whilst it was baking in the oven! All buttery and cinnamony. Heaven! I didn't put much sugar in it because I didn't want to oversugar it since I wasn't following any recipe, but I ended up eating it with a drizzle of golden syrup and it was fantastic! <3 Leftovers in the fridge that got a bit hard can easily be softened again by drizzling some golden syrup and milk over it and then microwaving for 2-3 minutes before eating. :)

I also made a self-imposed rule yesterday that I will not buy anything more from the grocery store until Boy gets back on Sunday so that I can finish up whatever else that is in the kitchen. This includes a whole lot of the vegetables that I bought which I might as well finish because Boy isn't that much of a fan of vegetables.

I chopped up a whole load (potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic, Savoy cabbage) after work today and dumped them into my slow cooker with some chicken stock cubes and hot water and pepper and Chinese five spice and cracked two eggs over everything to make a familiar childhood soup. Because of the amount of stuff I put into the slow cooker, not only did it fill it up as if I were feeding yet another army, it also turned into more of a stew than a soup - more solids than liquid!

All the same - nice and warm in my tummy for this cold, cold night! And comfort food that is also relatively healthy!

Vegetable stew.

Yum yum. ^^