Categories: 2008 | May 1st, 2008 | by shiokman | no comments
Heh, heh, heh!! Happy Labour Day everyone but sorry for those unfortunate ones down under who still have to go to work today 
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Ya, you guys in Perth have already enjoyed your Labour Day holiday, well today is our turn.
Sometimes during public holidays, we usually have some kind of special dish other than the usual daily rice with dishes kind of thing at home. So today, we decided to have Mee Siam (Nonya style with thick gravy).
Irene & I started preparing the rempah & gravy last night after dinner until the wee early morning at 2.30am. Got up at 8.30am & went down to the market to buy prawns, eggs & ku chai for our Mee Siam lunch. We also needed an excuse to try out our newly purchased grinder from Harvey Norman & also, now they have a 10% discount at Parkway Parade 
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Check out our new powerful 800 watts grinder :
This baby can really grind those chillies into very fine paste in quick time.
Ya, maybe you say it’s new but then …… 800 watts man, POWER!! ….. wohoo!
Before I get hyper, back to the Mee Siam.
Here is the finished product after all our hardwork & late night :
If you want to try out this recipe, here it is :
Mee Siam (Nonya Style)
or you can also click on the link on the right column.
OK going for my 3rd round of Mee Siam after this blogging, bye! ….. shiokman!!
Categories: 2008 | March 12th, 2008 | by shiokman | no comments
I must first apologise for my late entry of “The Knight” because I have been very busy lately & did’nt have the time to blog for the past 3 weeks. I was given the honour of preparing dinner & sometimes lunch for the family eversince Dad who is the chef in our home was not feeling well. It has been an interesting journey into the world of cooking as I’m more incline to baking. At last, I have the excuse to pull out all the cookbooks that have been collecting dust on the bookself. Tried quite a few dishes which the girls enjoyed & of course some that could’nt make it in their scorecard, but biggest critics of all were Dad & Mum
OK enough of my cooking….
The 1st butterfly to come out of it’s chrysalis happened on the 22 Feb in the morning but we were not fortunate to witness the metamorphosis. It was already out & hanging on to it’s empty chrysalis shell when I spotted it.
As we were admiring the butterfly, the other one suddenly started to twitch & I excitedly shouted “Hey! this one is coming out!”
Michelle then said why don’t I capture the metamorphosis on tape & so I threw down the camera & switched to the videocam. By the time I finished filming the event, I only managed to snap the 2nd butterfly already out & hanging with it’s wings still curled up & wet.
Here is a shot of both butterflies still drying their wings.
If you look closely at the wings of both butterflies below, you will notice that one has white tips. This belong to the male species whereas the wing tips of the female is not white.
A close-up of the female.
And a close-up of the male with spread out wings.
As I removed the cover of the container, the female knight was the 1st one to fly away but the male knight stayed for awhile to say his last goodbye.
Sad to say that the 3rd one did’nt survive & is still in it’s chrysalis to this day.
Well that’s the end of my experiences in the butterfly kingdom & now back to my cooking…..see ya!
Categories: 2008 | February 15th, 2008 | by shiokman | no comments
Hee..Hee.. I’m on a roll here.
After the successful breeding of the 3 caterpillars which all transformed into beautiful black swallowtail butterflies (Common Mormon), I could’nt wait to get my hands on different species of caterpillars to breed again.
So Irene & I went to the East Coast Park for our morning walk & at the same time in search of caterpillars among the many flowering plants there. We also saw many different types of lovely butterflies fluttering among the plants & bushes. I have never really appreciate & admire the beauty of butterflies until now. They are really one of God’s many beautiful creation.
Let me tell you that it sure is difficult to look for caterpillars hiding among the leaves in the bushes. After much bending down & straining our not so young eyes, we finally spotted not 1 but 3 caterpillars of the same species on different bushes. Wow! this one really look nasty with spines covering it’s entire body.
Here are some shots of them :
Scary looking right? Anyway, this particular species belong to the “Nymphalidae” family of caterpillars & will eventually transform into :
Lebadea Martha Parkeri (The Knight) & you may have guess by now why I name the title of this post as such.
So as before, 3 caterpillars in the fish aquarium tank filled with freshly plucked leaves from the host plant & 2 twigs for the caterpillars to cling to when they are ready to transform into chrysalis. My guess is that these caterpillars are already at their final stage (instar) & are ready to molt in a matter of days.
If you are curious as to what the butterflies will look like when these caterpillars metamorphose,
stay tune…… 
"You'll see that simplifying is not necessarily about getting rid of everything we've worked so hard for. It's about making wise choices among the things we now have to choose from. It's about recognizing that trying to have it all has gotten in the way of enjoying the things that truly do add to our happiness and well-being. So it's about deciding what's important to us, and gracefully letting go of the things that are'nt."