Sauna + Dinner with Sam

Lunch at Kastari

Here's a picture of a typical lunch on campus. We can take as much rice/potatoes/salad/pasta as we want, but bread, milk, meat(if it is separated from the staple) are restricted. I always have the problem of underestimating my appetite, so I really really really must take more food next time. Actually, the above is already more than what I usually eat in Singapore, but here, this quantity is enough to make me 3/4 full. I went to cut a fat slice of bread after this meal as well.

I went back to the hostel after lessons and had a long chat with my family and my hamster. Bet he doesn't recognise me still. Bet he won't recognise me all his life anyway. Then Sam and I went to the sauna. It was a good experience. It was comfortable perspiring after 29 days. The heat... was manageable at the beginning. Just don't touch your hair, because it will get really hot!

After about half an hour, Sam threw water at the hot stones, and we had to escape to save ourselves. The steam was generated almost instantly and made the room feel much much hotter. After a quick and cold shower, it was back to the heat. Song ah! The sauna opens up your pores and flushes whatever is clogged up when you perspire, and when you shower, you feel clean and fresh.. Actually, I feel that soap is unnecessary. Probably just shampoo will suffice. We stayed there for another half an hour, took a last ice cold shower and returned to prepare for dinner. I've got to do this again sometime soon.

Now I've come to the dinner. I brought a big fat sausage, eggs, rice and onions to his apartment. He provided more onions, carrots, (what seems to be) turnips, garlic, ginger, garlic and bacon. I peered into his fridge and realised he had a whole bag of ginger! He told me they were cheap. Cheap also should not buy it in such bulk mah.. Anyway the ginger in Singapore looks fresher.

Sam preparing the carrots

He told me he was going to make soup! So I thought it would be something like what my mother boils at home, which is very tasty (just boil potatoes, onions, carrots, add pork and some salt). Then Sam separated the chopped carrots, diced onions, 'turnips', garlic into 2 bowls. I thought, "That's weird. Don't you need to boil it?" Next, he added hot water, chilli powder and ketchup to it. Okaayyy... So this is what it looks like.

Vegetable 'soup'

The taste was what I expected. Yup.. It was crunchy and kind of spicy, because of the onions.. I almost managed to finish it. It was a healthy 'soup'. All the nutrients and vitamins are kept intact since they were not really cooked. That's all I've got to say for it. Oh and Sam enjoyed it tremendously.

The other dish was prepared by frying chopped onions for about 3 minutes, then placing slices of GINGER and bacon over them. Cover for another 2 minutes and break eggs over the bacon, bring the heat down, and cover again. It was ready in a while, and this was the highlight of the meal. The eggs were runny, the way I like them to be, and the onions and bacon were well cooked. I probably wouldn't add the ginger if I were to cook it myself.

Forgot to take photo before I cut the egg. Haha..

There was also boiled sausages, because we did not managet to put it with the bacon in time, and almost perfectly cooked rice. It wasn't perfect because the rice is lousy. I need good quality jasmine rice! But can eat can liao lah.

I'm looking forward to a relaxing day tomorrow! Yay!

Erm, food again?

Yup, food again.. Lech introduced me to another cafeteria in the school last night, so I decided to look for it today and give it a shot.

Inside Kastari

Another shot of Kastari

The name of this cafeteria is really Kastari. Sounds familiar? I was wondering where I heard that name before, till I recalled Singapore's most-wanted terror fugitive. Haha.. Anyway, the place looks good right? Nice ambience also, so different from what we can find from NUS.

Some photos meant to be shown earlier...

Us at the ice hockey game

From left to right: Yassine, Jukka-Pekka, Me, Lech and Krzysztof

Karjalanpiirakka

This was what we ate when we were at the ESN trip earlier this month, and I simply couldn't remember the name when they introduced it to us.

Some people asked me what type of bread I was eating here, and I took a picture of it just now.

Bread for this week

What it really looks like

So is it multi-grain bread? I cannot tell, but it is nothing like the plain white bread that I eat in Singapore.

When I came back from school, this was the sight that greeted me:

Rémi and Florian preparing dinner

Florian and Rémi posing

Rémi is my flat mate, and Florian is my nieghbour. They cooked spaghetti bolognese, and prepared my share too! How nice of them.. We ate in Rémi's room and had a great time. The spaghetti was delicious and the lighty toasted bread was warm and good. The many wonders of a simple oven... Should try to persuade my family to get one. :)

Oh! Oh! Kazuki invited me to go to his place to make sushi on friday evening! Sure hope to master some sushi making skills!!

Ok, I'm supposed to be asleep now cos I woke up so early today and I still have to get up early tomorrow morning for lesson at 8.30 am. Nitez!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

It's 4.5 hours into my mother's birthday now, and this is also one of the rare times I'm not celebrating her birthday by her side. Maybe I will get to see a birthday cake via the webcam tomorrow. :D

I met Wai Lon when I was reading the papers in the library today, and he told me about a computer lab where the printing is faster than the place I usually go to. I'll have to try it out tomorrow morning. And he also showed me some photos of Italy. There is a really majestic church building in Milan!! I want to go see!!

I prepared dinner today in the hostel. Wanted to make pork porridge, so I went online to find out how to cook it well. Never expected that the rice to water ratio is 1:4! That's alot la.. So I added lesser than that, and ended up having to keep adding water. Haha.. You know what is missing? CENTURY EGGS!!! And chilli padi!!! (and sesame oil and dong cai) Wa, drooling already. My parents can cook the best, the most superb porridge man.. Here's what mine looks like.

Pork porridge for dinner

Ok, got to go do the dishes, shower and sleep already. Woke up very early today - 9.45am. Haha..

Sweet and sour pork

This is on its way to becoming a blog for food. To celebrate Chinese New Year, I decided to be bold and try cooking sweet and sour pork. Shouldn't be too hard right? Just coat the pork with some flour and fry them; make the sauce and just stir fry it together with the pork!

It was a good thing my room mate wasn't around, because it would be so xia suay to let him see the oil keep splashing around the stove. My pot wasn't completely dry when I put the oil in. Haha, lesson learnt - ALWAYS dry your pot when putting lots of oil in it.

The pork was marinated with a bit of salt, a a quarter of a lemon, a bit of soy sauce, and coated with flour. The sauce was ketchup, water, sugar, vinegar, a quarter of a lemon, and half an onion. Everything went according to plan except that the pot was too small for all my pork, so the pieces were not really separated, and the flour did not really stick well. But it was no problem with me, as long as they tasted good. :)

Sweet and sour pork

This was taken with my phone, cos I was very hungry, and I wanted to send it to my sis via MSN immediately, so the colour did not turn out as nice. I think there was too much ketchup, but I LIKE IT! It was good. The texture resembles the version you can get from the Engine Canteen in NUS, which I always order if they are selling it. So I'm extremely satisfied with myself. Tomorrow I will not deep fry it anymore, because cleaning up is too troublesome. Instead, I will just season the meat and stir fry it, then add the sauce.

Now I've got to shower and do my assignment that is due tomorrow. Still have to read through the textbook to know what the topic is about first. Jia lat la..

And here is the picture of me drinking the flaming vodka. It was burning I tell you.. And this will be a CNY eve I won't forget. Haha.. HUAT AH!!!

My First Chinese New Year Overseas

Happy Lunar New Year!!!

In the festive mood in Oulu

The day started off with a webcam session with my family and relatives in the morning. It was nice to see my little cousins and grandmother after almost a month.

Then it was surfing the net and exploring facebook (had to join to view the photos of Matthew's new ride. Cool sports car. Haha..), followed by going over to Gao Xiao's place to prepare for the celebrations in the evening. What appears to be a nice paper cutting in the photo above is actually just printed out. Not so skillful and not so much time available to cut it out.

Thawing the pork for the dumplings

Cooking the crushed pineapples for the tarts

It was a fantastic idea to use canned, crushed pineapples! We should have cooked the pineapples for a longer period of time for the sugar to caramelize and for it to be totally dry so that it would look like the ones found in Singapore, but being inexperienced, we decided to play safe and remove it earlier.

Placing excess pineapple on the tarts

Placing the excess pineapple filling on the tarts was a mistake. You'll see why in the next photo...

yup, the top is burnt

The tarts tasted vaguely similar to the ones you get in Singapore. But for people with no experience, and with lots of improvision, we are quite satisfied with the results. We definitely can do better next time. And having an oven at home allows you to try many different things. Baking is fun. Lucky Cherie. The exchange students liked the tarts we made (because they haven't tried the real thing from Singapore yet. Wahaha..)

Helping out with the dumplings which are much harder to make than tarts

More people started arriving

And they brought food with them

More food!!

The machine providing the music for the night

He goes around with his vodka bottle and makes us drink from the cap, me included

Us squeezing in a lift meant for 4 people

Beer cans and bottles from the party downstairs



Kazuki singing with Wai Lon as calefare

Kazuki is the one who baked the pasteries for us about 2 weeks ago. The ones with jam in it. He's very good looking. Haha..

2 bottles of Vodka


Preparing flaming vodka

I tried a flaming vodka today. It was smarting my eyes, but I managed to finish it. Didn't get drunk though. Many of us tried it. Was it supposed to be nice? Haha..

And this is Sam, who went naked this afternoon after he lost his swimming trunks during ice hole swimming

It's 2.10 am now, and I will eat a piece of bread and go to sleep. Gotta wake up by 1 pm tomorrow to webcam with my family to bai nian.

I'M MISSING THE GOOD FOOD!!!!!

Very hard to wake up ah!

I had to wake up at 7.30 am this morning. Was supposed to sleep early last night, but couldn't get to sleep, so it was sheer torture waking so early. Really had to drag myself out of bed.

The exercise (lab) went fine. Just had to follow the instructions and with some help from the teacher, I completed it in about 2 hours, and missed one of my other lectures that was on-going at the same time. I was seated beside the teacher and he asked if I was from NUS. Turns out he was in NUS doing some research with a guy called Balaji. I think this Balaji was my tutor for EE2006 when I was in Year 2.

I just webcam-ed with my family. We made an appointment to webcam again on Monday afternoon, 1pm, because they'll be at uncle's house at (1+6=)7pm, so, I'd still be able to bai nian when I'm 9343km away. That's the distance between Oulu, Finland and Paya Lebar, Singapore.

I'm going to have a late (because hnger pangs struck, and bread+jam conquered) sumptuous dinner later tonight. Can't wait. Cooking is fun, washing up is not.

One more thing, I am missing EUR 4.50. Dunno where it disappeared to. Hmm...

Stupid Course Materials

Today I bought this for EUR 7.80.

Very expensive course materials

No choice la, cos the textbook is too thick, so I'll have to try to read this course materials which is in Finnish and see if I can figure out which part of the textbook it is from. I must say again, EUR 7.80 for this thin booklet?? Hai.

I just had my large dinner (and finished my biscuits. I'm really really not going to buy them for this week!!!), so now going to throw away the rubbish, finish the next episode of My Girl, drink lots and lots of water (cos of the unbelievable amount of biscuits that I just ate), study for tomorrow's exercise, bathe and sleep early. The exercise is at 8.15am tomorrow morning. So early lor, sian. Cannot wake up late again.

Biscuit Mania

So... I couldn't help but buy biscuits again...

Shiny pack of digestive biscuits

I haven't had it for a day and one third is gone already. Simply can't help myself. This pack costs EUR 1.15. There were the Mcvities Digestives which were nicer, had 25% less fat(not that I care) and were cheaper, but they stopped selling them already. Sian... Should have bought many many of those when they were still available.

Lessons tomorrow at 12 pm, so I will be going to school to print notes and have an early lunch. These days, it's no longer a problem waking up at 10 am. In fact, I regretted booking the dryer at 9 am tomorrow to dry my clothes. These days I'm becoming like a pig already. Eat so much and sleep so much.

And I actually dreamt of walking to my bedroom (the real bedroom in Singapore), marvelling at how comfortable and how the temperature was just right before lying down in bed. Then I realised I was still in my bed in Finland. Haha...

Better Cabbage

Today's topic is obvious from the title. I have prepared much better cabbage compared to yesterday. :) Pictures are larger than before too, so don't have to click on it for a larger picture.

Dinner on 190109

It doesn't look much on the photo, but it tastes almost as good as I wanted it to be already. The cabbage was boiled for about 5 minutes before placing it in the pan with a little oil and some water. Add light soy sauce, and let the whole pan simmer for a short while. I probably should add more water next time so that there will be more gravy.

The spaghetti was good too. I added chopped meat patty and ham to the sauce, and added a bit of water to dilute the mixture. Finally, dump everything together and I got a great meal. Yay... The cabbage was a little out of place. But it doesn't matter. They go well together in my stomach.

Oh, last night I finished my digestive biscuits. They taste so good. Can't stop once I started. So I ended up feeling very thirsty in the middle of the night. Good thing I did not fall sick from it. Too greedy already. So, I will not be buying the biscuits for a couple of days to wean off the addiction. However, thinking about it makes my mouth itchy for it again.

In school, I was reading the papers (Sunday Times, 180109), when I saw this!

Recipe for pineapple tarts!!!

It does look possible to make them here, since there is an oven in my kitchen... But I only have a tiny knife, which will surely spoil if I use it to cut the pineapple and try to grate it. Would canned pineapples do? Then I won't have to buy sugar too. And they're much easier to cut. Won't spoil my knife. Haha. And I don't have an electric mixer. Everything done by hand should be alright right? I certainly hope so... Hmm, I do not have clear plastic wrap as well. Probably won't need it la. And no milk powder... Can substitute with coffee powder? Vanilla essence also dun need la. Don't even know what it tastes like.

Yup, so maybe I will try this out in February if I'm feeling adventurous enough!

Cabbage overdose

Today should revolve around the ice hockey match that I went to see just a while ago, but my dinner overshadowed that...

It was my first time cooking cabbage, and I stupidly put too much of it in the pan, which was kinda small for it. So they did not end up very nice, nor evenly cooked. But I still finished it all anyway. I cooked alot of other liao also, so it wasn't that bad. I believe it's the cold weather that's making me hungry all the time. The last time I felt like this was when I was in my Tri-Service Term, where we were exercising all the time, and my appetite was amazing. Now, it's comparable to it. Plus the lack of exercise here, I will probably get fat. Yay. Back to the cabbage. I dunno how my parents cooked their cabbage at home. It tastes so much better, and the gravy is nice also. Must ask them for instructions next time I see them online. It is important to find out, because I still have alot of cabbage left in the fridge. And I'm determined to cook proper, delicious cabbage.

Some thoughts about Chinese New Year before I get to the game. I am so sian I cannot go bai nian! Hai, going to miss out on both reunion dinners. I really really love them. All the good food - steam boat and all. What about the different brands of pineapple tarts that different people's houses have? All can't eat. And the snacks and drinks and mandarin oranges!! The slacking around at houses, meeting relatives that I only get to meet once a year. Although there were awkward times, the whole experience is not to be missed! Go uncle's house den go grandma's house. Go uncle's house den go another uncle's house. That's what we do every year. 2010, must make up for all that I've missed. I wonder what I will be doing on CNY this year. Surely cannot be compared to the fun that my family is going to have. When I get back to Singapore, I am going to buy a box of Bengawan Solo pineapple tarts. They are kind of expensive though. I was looking through the Bengawan Solo website for the link to their tarts when I saw these! Premium pineapple tarts!!! And they come at a premium price too. :( What to do? I WILL BUY THEM! Going crazy over food already.

Ok, the game now. Lulu and Karina did not go for the ice hockey game today, probably because they were out till very late last night. They were still sleeping at 3.20pm this afternoon. So only 6 of us went in the end. 2 Singaporeans, 2 Polish, 1 French and our Finnish Kummi student. I managed to get this shot on our way to the arena.

-9 degrees celsius, cold like mad

Oulun Energia Areena, where the match took place

Inside the arena

Another view inside the arena

Making the rink even. I have no idea what this vehicle is called.


Entrance of the teams


Warming up

The ones in blue are HC Keski-Uusimaa, while the ones in white are Kiekko-Laser. I think HC are a stronger team, so I'll be rooting for them. People around me seemed to be supporting the other team, so I'll just keep quiet. A match is played for 20 min, a rest for 15 min, another play of 20 min, final rest for 15 min, and a last 20 min of game play. They were playing crappy music all the time. The kind where the lead singer is screaming and there are the lamest lyrics you could ever think of.

Some action

The match did not seem very entertaining in the beginning, but it got much much better during the second and third 20 mins. It was a fast paced game, with lots of players slamming into the barriers. I cringed everytime they slammed near where we were seated. There were also some shoving and pushing, even a near fight, but the team players and referees broke it up before anything serious happened. Cool man. Those were one of the more exciting segments. Haha..

More action

It was possible to tell the the players in blue were better. However, they were down by a point in the middle of the game, and managed to tie with only about 15 minutes to go. Finally, they scored the winning shot towards the end. They won 3-2.

End of game

P.S. I didn't study today although I was supposed to. Better buck up tomorrow.

A Special Dinner

There are no photos today. I wasn't going to blog today actually, but something different happened, so here goes...

I went to campus this morning to read The Straits Times from the library. It is in electronic form, not the actual paper, but it was good enough for me. After reading the papers, I went to read my super thick electrical engineering textbook. Some of the topics were taught before, but others were very foreign. Jia lat la... And there is quite alot to cover too. I gave up after a mere 2 hours, and I went in search of bread and biscuits to stock up.

The bread I was looking for was sold out at Tokmanni, so I went to Sale. They still had the bread, and it was slightly cheaper than Tokmanni, so I will buy bread from here in the future instead. I also bought digestive biscuits there. I'm eating them not because of digestive issues, but because they taste very good! I've always liked them, and I will eat alot of itin Finland.

Back at my room, attempts to study were futile, so I played games and watched Korean dramas. I decided to cook at 6.45 pm - rice, pork, onions, cabbage, egg. Sounds good lor... Then my room mate came back and said that the shops were all closed. He would probably have to survive on bread and biscuits for tonight, so I asked if he wanted to have dinner together. Remi was a little pai seh, but I prepared his share anyway.

I prepared a whole pan of stir fried pork and onions, but somehow they ended up looking lesser than what I put in. Seems like food will shrink after cooking. The seasonings were: a little salt, a little pepper, some light soy sauce. I was so afraid the food will end up not totally cooked, or it will taste bad, so I allowed the pork to simmer under low heat, and I added more soy sauce.

One thing I learnt was that onions taste better when they are very slightly burnt. There is a nice sweetness to it.

If I were cooking for myself, I would have prepared cabbage and the egg too, and all the dishes would be combined as an ugly, large stir fried dish. So since I did not want to offer him a za-pa-lang dish, I ended up serving white rice with the pork and onions only. The other food would also be cold if I cooked all the dishes seperately lor, so just one dish is enough.

Remi said the food smelt good, and I told him it was because of the light soy sauce (I did not mention my cooking skills. Haha..) He offered to let me eat in his room. There was a big table, so that made it easier to eat. Then he asked if I had bread. Remi explained that the French have bread at almost every meal. So I asked if he wanted ham. Cos that's how I would eat my bread. Turns out he was intending to eat it plain, with the rice and pork and onions.

I tried the food I cooked, and was pleased to find that they tasted good. Heng ah.. Did not xia suay myself. He also said it was good, and seemed to enjoy it. I had a piece of bread too. In my haste, I did not take a picture of the meal. I will definitely cook this dish again and post the photograph up. The supermarkets here do not sell Japanese sauce, or it would have been much nicer.

Another thing, always soak the pot used for cooking rice in hot water immediately after you scoop the rice out. It was troublesome trying to get the sticky/burnt rice off the base after I left it there for half an hour.

Tomorrow afternoon I'll be going downtown to watch an ice hockey game, between Kiekko-Laser and HC Keski-Uusimaa at 4.30 pm. Hope to get some good photos there as well...

Finally, I hope that we do not get upset stomachs from the dinner (and we probably won't la. Cooked for very long liao...).

A short tour

There were no lessons today, but I still went to school to have my lunch and to find a teaching assistant regarding my courses. I'm nearing the end of the second week and my studies have not been sorted out yet. Good job. But there should be no problems.

In the morning I went to take a short walk around my neighbourhood. Here are some of the shops and buildings that are in the vicinity.

Tokmanni

I have to describe this Tokmanni. It is a well known place where you can find probably the cheapest items in the area. It is frequented by exchange students on a budget, like me, and some families living nearly. A wide range of items can be found here. Eg electronics, home appliances, clothes, shoes, rugs, curtains, bike parts, bulbs, tools, stationary, food, plants etc. The range is even bigger than Carrefour, but the quality probably isn't as good. You must check the expiry dates of the food you buy from here, and some of the fruits have parts that went bad. Otherwise, it is a very good place to get everything you need.

R-Kioski - sort of like 7-11, but it's not 24/7

Xiao Long

There's an obsession with the word 'Dragon' for chinese eating places. Hai Long, Xiao Long, there's even a brand called Blue Dragon for instant noodles... I had a quick peek inside, and this Xiao Long seems to serve burgers. But Xiao Hui went for dinner inside before and they do serve proper Chinese food.

Pizza Parlour

Post Office

A place that sells stationary and handicraft

Pharmacy located beside the stationary shop

Sale, a small supermarket

In school, Xiao Hui and I had our luch together. There was some purple stuff at the 'salad bar' and I gamely took a pile of it, together with lettuce and cherry tomatoes. We had no idea what it was, but it tasted sour and soft. There were the usual staples - rice and potatoes, which i took some of both, and a large piece of breaded pork with brown sauce. Bread is always provided during lunch, and I took 2 slices with the garlic spread, a slice of dark rye bread, a glass of milk and a glass of water. This meal costs EUR 2.50. Lunch in this cafeteria generally is of this form, with changes to the meat and the staples. When I'm bored of the food here, I'll go try out the other cafeterias.

Here are some photos of the stuffed animals in the museum located near the main library.

Owls

Dunno what this is

Another dunno what this is

merikotka - it's written at the branch...

Finally
.
.
.
.
.
.

Chillli crab!