i am glad there is no rioting in london on this labour day

london 7.08pm 11C cloudy sun. bank holiday monday 2017

rioting in paris, and elsewhere in the world. they still call it labour day, unlike here where they may have realised it is a provocation to disorder and rioting so they call it early spring day and remove all connections to labour day. i think the authorities have refused all requests for marches on this day, because there are none.  edited. it looks like i am wrong about that, there are demonstrations, but they went off peacefully. and why shouldn’t they be peaceful. 

 maybe just as well, if what we see in paris today is taken as an excuse by those who wish to make trouble to make it happen. throwing molotov cocktails is really not on. and i dont care what their excuse is. 

i think people have to accept we got a capitalist form of economy… and those with little to no skills will always be at the bottom of the pile. society can try to take measures to alleviate their condition, but we all realise that if u make it too cosy, you will take away the incentive to better themselves. after all why work if u can get it given to you anyway. society does require workers to do the menial work. in the past we used slaves. now maybe we still use them, but we call them by a different name.

but that is what life is like in this early part of the 21st century. most of us like the system. we can go about our lives without fear of being killed and the laws are upheld. i like the system i dont mind telling you. it gives me a peaceful life. for those who say it is an unfair system, i would like to ask them what they hope to replace it with. is any system ever fair? even nature is unfair. why should the innocent herbivores be food for the carnivores?  its not fair is it? but enough of this heavy thinking. the world is what it is. 

i was wondering what to eat for dinner. there dont seem to be any ready made food left to eat. there are two frozen fish in the freezer. and that is all the uncooked meat left in there. at least any that belongs to me. there are mysterious packages that belong to simon. i have eaten everything else, it seems. so i thought i shall do a quick dish. microwave the two fish slices, (cover the fish with a lid so that it gets steamed a bit). that should cook them.

then in a wok, fry some ginger, and onions and pour over it a can of tomatoes, put in some chilli powder and some dried herbs, and a spoonful of malt vinegar and a bit of suger and presto i have a hot, sour, and sweet tomato sauce . thickened with a bit of cornflour and there u are. almost instant sauce. pour over the fish and eat with left over fried rice warmed up in the microwave. quite delicious even though i say it so myself. i arranged them all in the trolley and asked simon to wheel it into the  lounge for me. along with a mug of tea that i have heated up in the microwave.

it really is great to have a freezer where u can store frozen meat or fish. but it looks like i need to do a big shop soon, to replenish it. 

Friday Snapshot: Banana Fritter Vendor

london 5.13pm 14C friday 2017

proust rememberance of things past when he ate a madeleine, but for me it is banana fritters. i dont even have  to eat it, but to see it makes me remember. i saw this picture of a pisang goreng vendor by makadto and it brought back floods of memories of times past. the more ripe the banana the better it is in a fritter. it  has the consistency of  a custard. 

makadto

View original post

even the smallest food shop is a chore when u got a bad foot.

london 10.20am easter sunday 2017 11C very sunny

i am running out of my basic foodstuff, like the tesco basic oats , milkpowder, sultanas. the trouble is they are cheapest at tesco, and only available in their big branches. not the little convenience stores outlets that are near me. even near me, it is quite a job walking to them. they are too near to get a bus. so i have to ask simon to get them, and he could not be bothered to go to the big tesco in vauxhall, and prefer to go to the the nearest supermarket. ah well. perhaps it is only me who dont like to pay over the odds for these things. i guess i do understand now what they meant when the elderly have to shop local and pay more for it, because it is too difficult for them to travel to the large supermarkets.

i mean the local sainsburys near me sells very small packs of milk powder for £2 for gawd’s sake. milk powder i find has really gone up tremendously because sainsburys has stopped doing their basic brand, which was 500mg for £1.15.  ah well, perhaps it does not matter much. as i hardly use a lot of it. the only time i use it is to colour my coffee and that only uses a small teaspoon. what i find rather miffy, is that john my usa friend will use my milk powder, when he runs out of fresh milk. and he uses lots of spoonfuls too. i have noticed this about people. they always use hell of a lot of it. i remembered i was so shocked when a friend came to visit me, and i offered him toast and jam, and he proceeded to spoon out half the amount of that full jar of jam to spread on his toast. he uses so much. and he was not even aware of how much he used. to him, it was so normal, he must think everyone does it like he do.  i was thinking here is one candidate for diabetes all right.

a friend who lives in brixton text me to ask me how i was. and when i told him about my foot, he offered to help me with shopping, and well, i jumped at his offer, because i really wanted chilli and ginger from brixton. so i asked him to buy them for me and then come to my flat to give it to me. oh dear , it is quite a imposition, but then he did offer to help. but it would be nice to have a visitor to visit me, too. nice to have a chat with a visitor.

i could ask simon or john to buy the chilli, and ginger, but it is out of their way to go to brixton. i mean if simon dont want to go across the river to vauxhall to the big tesco store, i doubt he will want to bother driving up to brixton just to buy chilli and ginger. and john is a stranger to london, and it would take too much time to explain to him where to get those packs of ginger and chilli.

 added 2.14pm i sent simon out to buy those things, and he returned to say all the supermarkets are shut. i forgot it is easter sunday. oh dear i sent him on a wild goose chase.

only ones open are like the sainsbury convenience ones near us, and that dont stock milk powder or anything useful. haha.

christmas is the only other day when all of the supermarkets close. in years past, the supermarkets open on easter sunday. but this year they must have realised sales are so low, it is not worth it.

added. 9.48pm . this thing about milk powder. the price rise has got me thinking… and looking more carefully into the ingredients. i was shocked to find it has 10mg of suger per 200ml. (about 2.5 teaspoonful of suger in a glass of milk).how strange i did not realise it has so much suger. i thought it has just got dried milk in it. but of course i should not have been so naive.

 it is just like the case with the yoghurts, i was happily buying them until they jack up the price, and that made me look at the ingredients to find it has a lot of suger in it. so i stopped eating them. now i think i shall stop buying milk powder and just drink my coffee black. the cafe au lait look is just psychological really. i could use whitener , but that has coconut oil in it. and lots of other chemicals. all to make the coffee look a certain colour. not really necessary i think. so let me drink my coffee black and see whether i can get used to it. afterall, i stopped putting milk in my tea and drink it black, and like it, without suger. so i think i can get used to coffee black without suger too.i want to cut out suger from my life or at least cut it to the minimum possible. so this price rise might turn out to be a blessing in disguise. and it means not having to bother buying milk powder ever again , i can strike another item off my shopping list and never have to buy it again. its the same with ketchup. i used to buy it, but saw the suger content and that shocked me into dropping it from my shopping list. 

what would u do on a cool day

london 5.56pm 13C (feels like 12C)cloudy/bright monday 2017

it has certainly gone cooler very fast, only yesterday it was so hot. such a swift reversal of fortune as they say. but i have not been out at all, all day. i have found a new weather website to tell me what the temperature is outside. this weather website that i have found will also tell you how it feels too. they say taking into consideration wind etc. 

what does feel like mean

The temperature displayed here refers to human thermal comfort. This value takes into account a number of environmental and personal factors, such as wind, air temperature, air humidity, and radiation from the Sun.

i dont know personally from first hand experience what it feels like, as i have not gone out of my flat. haha. i had thought of going out until i realise i dont need to. haha. there is nothing i have to do that cannot wait for another day to do. 

 earlier today in the morning, it was sunny. strong sunlight streaming into my lounge windows, and it did cross my mind that i maybe should take advantage of it and go out and sit in the sun. but the feeling passed. haha. and when next i look it was cloudy, so i can happily ditch that idea.

i am alone now in my flat, as both my friends have gone away. john, my usa friend have gone up north to visit friends, and simon have a break and has gone to his mum’s house in essex. so i have the place to myself. haha.

i dont mind either way really. as i do my own thing whether there are anyone here or not. but i do get nice meals out of them when they are here. simon cooked a delicious fried rice with pork before he left and i hadn’t intended to eat a lot of it, because i actually had my lunch earlier, but it was so delicious that i ate it all. that pork was so tender and i am still savouring it with my memory. i dont know how he did it, because when i cook pork it does get a bit hard. maybe it is because he used pork cutlets, so that might come from a part of the pig that is tender. whereas i always use shoulder pork and that is a bit tough.

he got that pork as part of the haul from the freezer hoard that has accummulated as a result of his mum’s foraging of reduced meats in her local supermarket. hope he brings  some more when he comes back. 

found some leftover in the fridge and could not resist finishing it off.

bargains

london 6.28pm 15.8C (it is warm) night time, saturday 2017

i stopped off at the chinatown bus stop, thinking i shall have a look to see if there are any bargains in the grocery stores .

there was a long queue, snaking down towards the chinese looking gateway on wardour st. they were all waiting to get some freebie at this shop that sells bubble drinks. at least that is what i assume, because on the shop window was a card saying ‘card needed’.

these bubble drinks seem popular, but i have tasted them, and i am not too keen on this kind of drink. too sweet. they are a version of the chinese drinks u can buy in malaysia, with jelly like something in it. i think, chendol is another version of it. chendol is delicious. unlike this.  here the western version is really horrible. a round jelly like thing which have a glutinous texture when u bite into it that is horrible.

but it seems they like it, all those people , there were families with kids in the queue, if they are willing to wait for so long in the queue.

as for me, i carried on to the grocery stores, and saw the new loon moon have 24 instant noodle mee packs for £2. so that is still available. but i did not buy it, as i find this instant noodles rather tasteless. i think i prefer to buy the ordinary flat noodles or vermicelli noodles, even though they cost more.

anyway the loon foon supermarket opposite i saw have two packs of fresh chillis, about 250mg, for 30p each. in their bargain box. they are large chillies, so not so strong. but they are cheap at this price so i bought the two.

talking of freebies, there will be a free ben and jerry icecream given away at selected stores on dec 4. every year ben and jerry gives out free icecream, at this time. i did not realise that the time is near.  but luckily noticed a website that i go to now and then. it is called coconuts ,who sent me an email notification to  tell me of their revamped website  about news from s.e.asia. and there was an article there mentioning they were giving ben and jerry icecream in a branch of ben and jerry in bangkok. and mentioning it is a world wide thing too.

that made me go into the ben and jerry website in uk, and found it is so, too. but only in two stores in london. this is unlike last year when more stores participated. notably the one in leicester square. but this year not all the stores branches are  doing it. only  two stores doing it this year in central london are in odean camden, and odean holloway. there are other stores in wimbledon, walthamstow, etc. but rather far for me to go. 

added 29.3.17. seems they have changed the venue for the free icecream. it is only at fulhum vue, walthamstow, and sutton now.

 

food in the borough market.

london 3.13pm 12.2 cloudy friday 2917

i was hoping to see the food demonstration at borough market this afternoon by a chap , miguel barclay who is going to publicise his book which makes dishes for £1, and he was giving a demonstration of it in the market. but i went too late i think. when i got there he was no where to be seen. so i guess he must have finished. some recipes from him.

it did give me a chance to see the market. i heard so much about it, with people saying it is a foodies’ paradise. 

Digital StillCamera

Digital StillCamera

Digital StillCamera

Digital StillCamera

Digital StillCamera

Digital StillCamera

Digital StillCamera

Digital StillCamera

the one with the two guys cooking, that is very tempting, they were cooking prawns and fish and selling it wrapped in a taco for £6. u can see part of a group of chinese people enjoying eating his food in the background. and the other pics show malaysian curry, and paella. 

saw quite alot of chinese people there. it was around 2pm, so the bulk of the office workers have gone.

not a lot of places to sit, so people were eating  standing up or sitting on the pavement. there was a stall selling pulled pork in a bun, and another even alligator meat in a bun. it is a novelty item, cant say i am tempted to eat alligator. i thought it might be tough , but of course it is all shredded so u dont really need to chew much. like the goat meat, it is shredded. or what they call ‘pulled’. they all cost £6. pulled meat seems to be the rage now. or rather they are realising it is a quick way of making hamburger- like takeaway fast food. usually it is pulled pork. its very easy to do. i hear if u go later in the day when they are closing, u can get these for half price. 

it is fortunate that i ate my lunch earlier, so did not feel hungry. i did  a stir fry noodle. so quick to do and so nice to eat. i got to the stage now that i can cook these dishes well enough to prefer it to buying it.

i must say i miss the food court that we get in malaysia, or singapore, where all kinds of foods from india, or china, or thailand, as well as malaysian foods from all the different races, can be bought and eaten in the same place. those were in the old days when i was growing up there, where all the races cook under the same roof.now of course we have separate places for malay foods, because they are halal and they dont want to mix with the others. 

food nowadays are broken down into separate categories , gluten free, meat free ie vegetarian and itself broken down into vegan, and god knows what else. its so compartmentalised. its taken the fun out of eating out.

but nevermind, there are other things that are new that we dont have when growing up.

perhaps when we are young we never bother about calories or getting fat, or eating lard being unhealthy. we just enjoy it , but now maybe the curse of getting old is that u have to start thinking of healthy eating. so i think even if i am back in malaysia now, i still wont be able to eat with abandon and carefree ness, like in the days of my youth. haha. 

 

 

 

 

msg, airports. capitalism

london 7.26pm 7.4c rain monday 2017

rather interesting tv program i have just seen about heathrow using passengers as captive customers by getting them to shop in the airport. seems to me it is the only way to get the modern up to date facillities that heathrow has. it might not seem fair to the passengers, but then they are the cash cows aren’t they.

if they want the service of a airport and be able to fly all over the place with ease, then they must pay for it. so i dont really think it a bad thing at all. i dont know what the program hope to achieve. are they saying it is bad, and so the govt should change it? it wont work because we have seen airports closing down in other countries because they just dont make money to allow them to continue in operation.

so are they saying the govt should subsidise it? not sure about that, because you are going to subsidise a group of travellers who are quite priviledge, people who can afford to fly. they are not poor. that is for sure. i say lets tax them and screw them for all we can get. haha. i used to be a air traveller myself, and i do know we are a very priviledge group of people. i dont expect the tax payer to subsidise my jaunting and gallivanting all over the world. perhaps not everyone agrees with me? anyone? 

following from that tv program came a food program and in it they are investigating why in uk msg (monosodium glutamate) is the bad boy, but in thailand, they have it everywhere and in fact welcomes it, as it makes the food delicious. so how come? why here in uk is this attitude that msg is bad for you, but in s.e.asia. and perhaps everywhere else in asia, or middle east or china, india,phillipines,etc, people are more laid back about it and recognise it as just another  extra factor in cooking to get the umami effect. it seems it is  natural and u get it through mum’s breast milk. cheeses have high glutamate, potatoes and peas have some glutamate too.

and the program mentioned that stock cubes and dried noodles have msg. (but not all of them , maybe?. i had a look at the knorr chicken stock cube that simon bought, and it says no added msg… of course the operative word is added… it is curious that they use that word. why not just say no msg?unless, it occurs naturally and they have got it as a natural product in one of their ingredients.)

 it seems the consensus is msg is safe to eat. yet we hear of people dying from it. is that a false news?  this report says glutamate is low in toxicity and it is safe to eat. talking of this makes me hungry so i decided to cook that instant noodle. and i read the ingredients list, and sure enough it has got flavour enhancers, and that is monosodium glutamate. i knew it! something that tastes so good has got to have it. haha. it was very quick to eat the noodles, and it leaves me wanting more, but not more noodles. something else . that is the trouble with these food programs, they make you think of food and want to eat. ah well, it might be i am hungry. i dont recall i was affected like this in the past. i am usually very good at detecting these hidden messages. but i guess, even if u know they are hidden messages , you still can not resist it.

a nice report of glutamate which asks if msg is so bad for you, why doesn’t everyone in asia have a headache?