Salmon with Thai Herb Salad & Lime Dressing.

Personally, I enjoy eating fish alot! There are many benefits in eating fish. Firstly and most importantly, fish is high in protein and low in fats. Fish is an excellent source of omega-3, which is good for our brain, eyes and heart.

Staying/studying overseas, it isn't easy to get fresh fish unless you go to the market such as Victoria Market, Preston Market and the market in Footscray. At my place, they don't have markets here, not that I know of.

In my blog, I will only introduce food that I feel is nice and easy to prepare/make as I understand that as students we do not have much time to prepare our meals, or sometimes we feel lazy. And for this, I will advice my readers that this is a fairly easy dish. Not much cooking involed =)

Ingredients:
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tbs palm sugar, grated (brown sugar)
2 tbs fish sauce
200g fish fillets (salmon)

Salad:
1 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh coriander leaves
1/2 cup Thai basil leaves
2 spring onions, sliced thinly
2 medium red chillies, sliced (red capsicums)

Directions:
1. Oil pan, preheat to medium.
2. Make lime dressing by combining lime juice, sugar and fish sauce in a small jug.
3. For Thai Herb Salad, combine mint, coriander, basil, spring onions and capsicums in a big bowl. Set aside.
4. Cook fish on preheated pan until lightly browned on both sides until well done.
5. Serve at once topped with salad and drizzled with lime dressing.

Honestly, as I prepared this dish, alot of my friends did not enjoy the Thai salad as it had a strong smell. In addition, I believe alot of youngsters are not used to eating raw mint, basil and coriander leaves.

Dear readers, this recipe is just for your referral. You guys can just skip the Thai Herb salad. Try the fish with lime dressing. It is really very nice and scrumptious.

Clara's Paratha.

I am sure alot of Malaysians (peninsular especially) have tried this nice and tasty Hot & Roll.

I used to buy this alot in Monash Sunway, especially where there isn't alot of choice of food in the Monash cafeteria.

Well, I was suddenly craving for Paratha wrap, so I decided to treat myself to something tasty and delicious in the middle of the exam preparation night.

All you need:

1. Paratha wrap (you can easily get this from Coles/Woolworths)

2. Cheese

3. BBQ Sauce/Mayonnaise

4. Ham/Bacon

Directions:

1. Heat paratha on a frying pan on medium high. When colour changes to very light brown, flip to the other side and continue heating.

2. Turn to medium-low heat and add toppings ham, then cheese. This is because you wouldn't want your paratha to be burnt.

3. When cheese melts, add in mayonnaise/BBQ sauce. Fold into desired shape and serve

Tips:

Ham tastes fantastic with mayonnaise, and bacon and BBQ sauce are perfect match.

However, these are only suggestions and you can alter to your preference.

Taa-daa~ Freshly made.

Can you see the cheese oozing out?

Weather in Berwick.

The weather in Berwick last week sucked badly. It was cold and wet.

It hailed!!!!!! 3 times in a day (picture below).

*What an experience*

The Weatherzone (app) showed rain and cold wind high on the radar the the week. The wind went up to as fast as 30++km/h on one of the days. I was still having exams. I had to reach out to my woolly leggings to feel comfortable during exams.

For all exams so far, I have had such great luck that my allocated seat was just in front of the exit. Whenever it is half an hour before exam ends, the invigilator would open the exit-wide open. Cool wind would rush into the exam hall. For the first day of exam, I was wearing normal jeans. Trust me, jeans are never meant for winter. It was so cold that I had to shiver for abit. Then I took the hot pad I brought to warm myself a little. For those who wore jeans to exam, good luck! I saw several of them shivering in the cold before entering the exam hall. Some of them couldn't even finish their paper.

Well, there must be several reasons behind their deferement. Coldness may be one of them.

For the next few exams, I wore woolly leggings. Although they felt as though they were thinner than my jeans, but boy they provided me with such warmth during the exams. It wasn't as cold as I imagined. I love and trust wool products since then.

I must say that I am proud that I am well prepared to combat coldness throughout the exams. People have been telling me that exams held in the Racecourse is freaking cold. The wind would go in the exam through the crevice all the plastic walls. So these are things that I brought and came in handy:

1. Scarf

2. Hand mitten

3. Hot pad

Hailing at night:

The spots that you see on the floor, are not pebbles or stones. They are ice! Little cubes of ice, melthing away so fast that it was hard for me to capture a clear and precised picture with my iPhone. I must say iPhone camera function isn't that strong and powerful.

I missed the one in the afternoon. I heard it hailing at 11.30am, and my friends told me it lasted for an hour or so. I bet those hail, or pellets of ice were much larger than the ones I saw at night. They were pouring down, hitting the roofs and windows so loudly that I, a well known pig, aka tidur mati, was awaken by the loud sounds.

Star Dogs.

,

Smartest and cutest dog ever!

Any idea how to train the dog like that?

Scams in Australia.

I have been looking for a room to rent in the city, which is near to RMIT University, and convenient and access to, possibly everywhere, clinics, dentists, restaurants, asian groceries, cinemas, tram and train stations, you name it!

I applied to many ads I found online.
None replied except for one, which stated that he is in urgent need of someone who rents his apartment.

It was unbelievably cheap, for $100 pw in the CBD of Melbourne!

As gullible as I can be, I sincerely replied and ask for more information and had a good conversation with him.

Luckily and thankfully, my friend Eugene Ng came in time and told me about scams that has been happening in Australia which uses similar stories.

I believe that piece of invaluable advice he gave me, is a blessing in disguise.

*click the picture to read the contents of scammers*

COINCIDENCE???

The man below is even worse. For I did not reply him, he sent the exact same email,

'JUST IN CASE" I have not received it.

Amazing II

I received a sad news yesterday. That was the first call from baby. Baby said he cannot come to Australia to study anymore. Tears rolled down my cheeks. I wasn't ready for this, as we have been planning on his arrival and others more. The news hit be badly.

Then, baby went out to talk with his dad. He is not my dad, and I don't have time to bug him or his dad forever. So, I'm sure this is my final chance, to put all my faith to believe in Jesus. I did my final prayer on this matter, said that I'll leaving everything onto Jesus, and that I don't have to worry about anything already.

True enough. I called baby after a moment. And guess what, he can come study in Australia!

Oh Lord Jesus, thanks for answering my prayer.

I'm sure alot of people will think that this is ridiculous, God doesn't answer prayers in minutes. Well, firstly, I have been praying on this matter. Secondly, miracles do happen.

Stevie Hoang - I'll Be Fine

Is this how you feel?

'cos this song has expressed parts of mine.

Stevie Hoang - I'll Be Fine

Clara's Fried Spaghetti

As university students, we tend to have a lot of leftovers. Rice, noodles, spaghetti, etc. If we are to eat them again, we would probably feel bored of eating the same food we had the day before. But, we can't just throw them away! It's just wasting - bad habit.

So me as a university student, I totally understand how it feels to see leftovers in the refrigerator. So, here are 5 easy steps to leftover food.

I found this recipe in the internet and altered and customised it abit to suit my taste buds! In this recipe, I use leftover spaghetti.

Ingredients:
- olive oil
- 1 tbs of butter
- chicken breast meat (optional: leftover sausages, ham, etc)
- 2 small onions, chopped
- mixed vegetables
- half packet of spaghetti
- pinch of salt and pepper
- 1 tsp of sugar (optional)
- 4 tbs tomato puree
- BBQ sauce

Serves: 4 person

Directions:

1. In a large pan, heat oil and butter over medium high heat.
2. Add onions and meat and saute until meat is cooked. Add mixed vegetables.
3. Add in tomato puree and sugar.
(Reason to adding sugar is that tomato puree tends to be a little bit sour)
4. Add in spaghetti and mix until the tomato puree evens out. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Serve immediately.
6. Squeeze in some BBQ sauce for additional taste.