Degustation at Barat and other Birthday Shenanigans

And so I made my 38th trip around the Sun two Fridays ago.

    

I took the day off and had a wonderfully long weekend as a result, thanks to two public holidays, Maulidur Rasul (Monday) and the Sultan of Selangor's Birthday (Tuesday).

 

    

Started off my birthday by sleeping in and having an artichoke for breakfast... at 1 p.m. Ah, I am very much the life of the party, as you can see.

 

I recently took in another rescued kitten and named her Harriet, after my hero, Harriet Tubman. Harriet is a feisty, beautiful, active little thing and fostering her is a pleasure.

 

My senior cats seem to think that fostering Harriet is a pleasure, too. My cats make each of my days a celebration.   

 

 

 

2 p.m. saw me stopping by The Honest Treat for some raw vegan cake and almond milk, just for me! You wouldn't have thought plant-based raw cakes to be so dense and rich, but they are. They were incredibly delicious and flavoursome too.

 

This is the Minty Chocolate raw cake. Not as minty as I would have liked it to be, but still delicious.

A slice of Berry Banana -- dense, smooth, fruity goodness.

 

 

Banoffee -- again, the toffee flavor isn't as distinctive as I would have liked it to be. It tastes of banana and mild chocolate. Very filling and yummy, just not very distinctive-tasting.

 

 

 

This is my favourite of the lot -- Tropical Surprise. This one really hits the spot with its fruity, tangy, zesty and sweet notes.

 

 

 

Then it was off to the National Blood Bank to keep an annual tradition alive.

   

The nurses wished me a happy birthday, which was nice! 237 of my friends wished me a happy birthday on Facebook, and I received approximately 80 private messages filled with good wishes. I feel very loved, indeed!

  

 

Portion control is out the window at the Blood Bank. This is what they are feeding us vegetarian donors these days. Pile on the fried noodles, Crane Driver! How about another ton of carbs? Thank you most kindly for your generosity, National Blood Bank, but I assure you that we are quite unlikely to die of starvation while in the middle of blood extraction.

 

 

 

And what's a birthday party without treats? I celebrated with my furry friends at the SPCA, with treats galore.

 

 

I had a simple birthday dinner that night at Pine3 Vegetarian Restaurant with Nicole, as I had to be up early the following morning to conduct the Pet Care Programme / Basic Animal Welfare Warrior Workshop at the SPCA. Nic made me a gift of these edgy typography steel posters. Aren't they delightful? Aren't they so 'me'? When your bestie knows your decor style and tastes so well, you might as well give her a free rein in creating a gallery wall in your bedroom for you.

 

 

Conducted the Pet Care Programme (PCP) at the SPCA on the day after my birthday and incorporated a basic Animal Welfare Warrior component. You may recognise this as Rafferty, the stuffed shar pei that lives in my bedroom. He's helping me teach the workshop participants how to collect evidence for an animal cruelty report now.

 

 

 

I taught the workshop participants how to pick up, handle and play with cats, apply Frontline flea spray and clean cat ears without being mauled.

 

 

And then I showed the workshop participants how to clean cat cages and litter trays and got them to help out with some cleaning at the shelter.

 

 

Then it was time for my second round of celebrations with Nic. We went to The Strand Mall for dinner out of food trucks and watched "Underworld: Blood Wars."

 

 

As it was a long weekend, my birthday festivities extended over 4 days. My good friends Angela, Rudhra, Baby Ava and Hari took me out to dinner and for a spot of ice skating. Hari's sons Goutham and Jay and nephew Dinesh joined us for the outing. They made me a gift of a new football to replace my old football, which exploded two months ago due to overinflation. We had dinner at Beyond Veggie and followed this up with shakes at Johnny Rockets.

 

 

 

Ice skating with my squad. Rudhra was pretty amazing for a first-time skater. Dinesh did pretty well too for someone who had never skated before. Jay and I spent much of our 2.5 hours on ice chasing each other down and playing tag. Poor Hari had to sit out due to an injured ankle.

 

The need for speed!

 

 

 

My good friend and mentor Lin Idrus invited me out for a birthday dinner the day after, and since both of us have long expressed the intention of trying out the degustation menu at Barat Mediterranean Vegetarian Restaurant, we took the opportunity to have a long, leisurely and wonderful dinner there on Tuesday night.

  

What I like best about Barat is its service and atmosphere, and how it makes customers feel welcome and relaxed. There is no pretension about this place. Just good food, friendly faces and exemplary service in a clean and welcoming environment. The staff are helpful, attentive and knowledgeable. Hot dishes are served hot and cold dishes are deliciously chilled. You can tell they take a lot of pride in their food and care about making your dining experience one to remember.

 

 

Towards the end of the dinner, right before serving us dessert, they even brought out a slice of birthday cake for me and sang me the birthday song. What a treat. The cake was a slice of red velvet with berry sauce and edible flowers. Barat really goes out of its way to make us feel good about dining there.

 

Dégustation Dinner at Barat Mediterranean Vegetarian Restaurant: A short review

 

 

1st course: Roasted Pumpkin Soup with ginger infusion and air-dried ginger, served with homebaked bread with apple cider vinegar and olive oil. We start off with a hot soup, and it is creamy and flavourful without being too rich. The bread has the right density and 'chew' to it. Looking forward to a vegan version soon (most dishes here are lacto-vegetarian).

 

 

 

2nd course: Salad of baby arugula, rocket, chard, sweet basil, dragon fruit, radish, dehydrated blueberries and tempura mandarin orange slices with roasted sesame dressing and blood orange press with olive oil. To others, this is the salad. To me, this is the pièce de résistance. The crunchy exterior and juicy tart interior of the tempura orange slices added a dynamic contrast to the cold crispness of the different fruits and vegetables, while the roasted sesame dressing provided a hint of umami. A definite winner, this salad. I could eat this all day, every day.

 

 

 

3rd course: Roasted Romano with pitted prune and cranberry (left), Patatas Bravas with tomato sauce (centre) and grilled sweet pepper with blue cheese and olive oil. The contrast between the savoury romano and sweet prune and cranberry made for an interesting combination, although I enjoyed it more than Lin did (she found it too sweet). The patatas bravas came with burning sprigs of rosemary and was quite mild-tasting even with the dipping sauce slathered on, so maybe it should have been named 'Patatas Dulce' instead. The sweet pepper was roasted a little too long and was a little too soft for my liking but paired very well with the blue cheese and olive oil, flavour-wise.

 

 

 

4th course: Mushroom zucchini aglio olio with grilled lemon. Easily one of the best pastas I have ever had, and it still struck me with its novel and piquant blend of flavours and textures although this was the second time I had it. The grilled lemon slice complemented the pasta and mushroom perfectly and everything about this dish is just really mellow.

 

 

 

5th course: Red endive with blackberry, blueberry, raspberry, mulberry with rose press and chia seeds (left) and golden fried tri-cheese with apricot and pineapple spiced jam (right). Again, I am trying to give up cheese and dairy products but made an exception for this special dinner. The cheese balls disappointed nothing but my conscience. You bite into the slightly crispy exterior to reveal the soft, ripe. full-flavoured cheese within. The pineapple and apricot spiced jam took away some of the cloying richness of the cheese.

The sweet berries, soaked in a fragrant rose-flavoured dressing, and served on the mildly bitter, sharp and crisp endive (if you haven't had endive before -- it tastes a lot like radicchio) was the ideal accompaniment to the savoury, viscous cheese.   

 

 

 

6th course: Basil pesto on fried aubergine and micro greens (left), sundried tomato pesto with ricotta cheese on japanese cucumber (centre) and capsicum pesto on wafer (right). Lin and I are both very partial to pesto, and this trio of pesto was quite delightful. The sweet mintiness of the basil really shone on the slice of fried aubergine, although Lin found the aubergine a little too greasy for her liking. The tomato and ricotta pesto was refreshing and delicious without actually standing out in my mind as being something truly remarkable. The capsicum pesto is zesty and full-flavoured and easily our favourite of the trio.

 

 

 

7th course: Spiced couscous with grilled asparagus, baby carrot and pomegranate dressing. Ah, the versatile couscous! Usually a little on the bland side, but fancied up with spices here at Barat. Grilled vegetables makes this wholesome dish livelier.

 

 

 

8th course: Watermelon gazpacho with a japanese cucumber stirrer and edible flowers. Lin and I decided that we will return to Barat soon just for the soups! If the roasted pumpkin soup were the warm, hearty sibling, the watermelon gazpacho is its trendy, sparkling, blinged-out sister. Refreshing, light, and flavoursome, this gazpacho simply sparkles.

 

 

 

Dessert: Poached peach with red currant, coconut ice cream and chocolate cake, served with balsamic reduction. Lin and I were too stuffed for the final pasta and jumped straight to dessert. Of course, like all women, we have special Dessert Stomachs which can hold prodigious quantities of sweets. This dessert trio made us want to stand up and applaud. The chocolate cake was in itself nice without being exceptional, but it paired very well with the balsamic reduction (I eat pretty much everything with balsamic reduction) and poached peach and red currant. The peach is still firm and warm, not squishy and soggy with syrup as with the canned variety. The smooth and fragrant coconut ice cream is light enough to stop a little short of being sinful, and is the perfect foil to the chocolate cake. I confess I licked the ice cream dish clean.

 

This meal is something that has been on my list of things to try for a long time, and I highly recommend it to everyone, vegetarian and non-vegetarians alike.

 

It has been another amazing birthday week and I am continually surprised and delighted by the friends who took time out of their busy days to make my birthday so memorable and lovely. So many things to be thankful for in this troubled world of ours.

 

 

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Mission Accomplished

Too many things going on in my life, and no opportunity to blog about all of it. Still trying to keep up with my goal of reading 52 books in 2016, as I had in 2015. I actually surpassed my goal of reading 52 books in 2015. List of books I read in 2015 as follows. 

1. The Secret Agent - Joseph Conrad 

2.  The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne 

3. The Comedy of  Errors - William Shakespeare 

4. This Side of Paradise - F.  Scott Fitzgerald 

5. The Winter's Tale - William Shakespeare 

6. Anthony and Cleopatra - William Shakespeare 

7. No Logo -  Naomi Klein 

8. Coriolanus - William Shakespeare 

9. Love's  Labour's Lost - William Shakespeare 

10. Company Meetings: Law and Practice in Malaysia -- Priscilla PY Yap 

11. Beyond Good and Evil -- Friedrich Nietzsche 

12. The Merry Wives of Windsor -- Shakespeare 

13. The Dhammapada, translated by F. Max Muller 

14. The Two Gentlemen of Verona -- Shakespeare 

15. Twelve Years A Slave -- Solomon Northup 

16. The General and Special Theories of Relativity -- Albert Einstein 

17. The Last of the Mohicans -- James Fenimoore Cooper 

18. Anthem -- Ayn Rand 

19. At Home -- Bill Bryson 

20. Gulliver's Travels -- Jonathan Swift 

21. The Riddle of the Sands -- Erskine Childers 

22. The  Island of Sheep -- John Buchan 

23. The Moonstone -- Wilkie Collins 

24. Palms of Controversies: Oil Palm & Development Challenges -- Alain Rival and Patrice Levang 

25. Walden -- Henry David Thoreau 

26. Siddhartha -- Herman  Hesse 

27. The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined -- Steven Pinker 

28. The Golden Age -- Kenneth  Graham 

29. The Art of War -- Sun-Tzu 

30. Diary of A Nobody --  George and Weedon Grossmith 

31. Greenmantle -- John Buchan 

 32. The Origin of the Species -- Charles Darwin 

33. She -- H. Rider Haggard 

34. The Pilgrim's Progress -- William Shakespeare 

35. The Life and Death of King John -- William Shakespeare 

36. Tao Te Qing -- Lao Tzu 

37. 12 Steps To A Compassionate Life -- Karen Armstrong 

38. The Portable Atheist -- Christopher Hitchens 

39. What Should We Be Worried About: Real Scenarios That Keep Scientists Up At Night -- Edited by John Brockman 

40. Some Turns of Thought -- George Santayana 

41. The Valley of Fear -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 

42. American Standard Version Bible, Book of Genesis. 

43. The Enemy of the People -- Henrik Ibsen 

44. Civil Disobedience -- Henry David Thoreau 

45. The Mystery of Cloomber -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 

46. We Can Be Heroes -- Catherine Bruton 

47. Bhagavad Gita 

48. War of the Worlds -- HG Wells 

49. Pericles, Prince of Tyre -- William Shakespeare 

50. The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare -- G.K. Chesterton 

51. Dear Enemy -- Jean Webster 

52. The Lost Continent -- Edgar Rice Burroughs 

53. The Home and The World -- Rabindranath Tagore 

54. The Mystery of the Yellow Room -- Gaston Leroux 

55. The Prince -- Niccolo Machiavelli 

56. My Man Jeeves -- PG Wodehouse 

57. Deliverance -- AJ Adams 

58. The Age of Reason -- Thomas Paine 

59. This Explains Everything: 150 Deep, Beautiful and Elegant Theories of How The World Works -- Edited by Jon Brockman 

60. Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic -- Oliver James

Monthly Bucket List May 2015

I received the keys to my apartment last month right after the inauguration of Kedai Jalanan, and have been (predictably) spending most of the last 3-4 weeks cleaning up my apartment and moving in. I could not have done it without the assistance and companionship of some very amazing friends -- Serina, Shalan, Shekin, Atan, Karen, Nicole and Joe, who all came over on different days to help me with different tasks. It has been a tremendous journey. 

1. Make a new friend 

The SPCA has hired several new Animal Welfare Officers, and I got to be friends with two of them, Rohan and Kiumars. It's interesting that after being an SPCA volunteer for 19 years, I am now seen as a source of institutional memory. Still, I am always ready to help, and it is good to get to know the youngsters and learn what motivates them to work for non-profit organisations. 

On 3.5.2015, my friends who work at the SPCA sent out an urgent appeal for volunteers to re-turf the yard of the new shelter premises. It has been paved with water-permeable paving and we need to plant grass in the bald spaces in between the paving tiles, and so I sent out a Facebook appeal for help. Shantini was one of my friends who responded, and she brought along her young couchsurfer, Ludovic, who spent many hours helping us in the sweltering heat on 4.5.2015. 

(Photos courtesy of Ludovic. He is the one in the brown polo shirt and red cap, and I am the one in the lime green shirt and camo cap)

2. Help a stranger. 

When my friend Lin Idrus invited me to help her with Kedai Jalanan, I was only too glad to. Although she and her students did most of the work, I did help to publicise the project, collect and sort through donations, transport donated items and draft the basic Curriculum Vitae form we would be using to help our homeless friends find better employment. 

One of my goals at the start of the year was to get all the Mayang Oasis food court cats spayed and neutered before I move to my new home. This was completed in May when I got the (for now) final two food court cats, Fenton (ginger) and Arwen (white), neutered and spayed respectively. They have since been ear-tipped and released and they are doing very well in the food court. They are regularly fed and treated kindly by the food court workers and customers, and I just need to drop by once or twice a week to check on my TNR cats. 

One of the first things I did when I inspected my new apartment was to make a list of things I did not want but were in good condition and to call up a charity organisation to collect the unwanted items. Persatuan Amal Seri Sinar agreed to pick up my donations, and apart from the furniture, appliances and other items I cleaned up for their removal and redistribution, I donated to their scholarship and education sponsorship fund and gave money to their truck driver and driver's assistant who came to pick up the preloved things. The driver seemed pretty blase about the tip, but his Burmese assistant was positively beaming. 

3. Eat something/at someplace new to me. 

 The Kedai Jalanan volunteers and I had tea at the Malaya Hainan Cafe after 'closing shop' for the day, as I had detailed in my last blogpost. 

I had raved about Leena's pear compote which she brought to Serina's picnic gathering at the Lake Gardens, and learned that it was basically a combination of peeled and cut Chinese pears, and red preserved fruit.

We celebrated Mother's Day by going out to dinner at Hometown Steamboat, a popular steamboat place near the parental home, which we have not previously been to. We even had a chocolate fondue for dessert. 

4. Go someplace I've never been. 

My best friend Nicole has the privilege of being born on May 1, a national public holiday, so we always get to do fun stuff until late on the eve of her birthday. This year, we had a party at Neway Karaoke in Puchong, which I have previously never been to. It was quite possibly the most Chinese thing I have ever done ;) 

We had a great time, ate way too much food and sang ourselves hoarse. 

Although I live and work mostly in KL, I don't recall ever having really spent time in the Lake Gardens as an adult. I passed through once for the Terry Fox Run but have not seen other parts of the park. And of course, like many lawyers, I can recall only drinking at the Lake Club but not walking through the park. Serina's picnic potluck gathering was a good way for most of us city dwellers to appreciate the beauty of the KL Lake Gardens. 

As previously described, I patronised Malaya Hainan Cafe in Jalan Panggung for the first time in May after the inauguration of Kedai Jalanan. 

Another place I went to that I have never previously been was, surprisingly, the dental surgery near my previous rented home. I had a horrendous toothache on a Thursday night and had to take the day off on Friday and have a broken molar remove and a frightfully expensive root canal done at Woo Dental Clinic in Mayang Plaza. The waiting room looked like someone's home. I've never been in such a home-y clinic in my life. Service was efficient and professional, though. 

5. Learn something new. 

In May, I learned: 

(i) How to plan, prepare for and set up a pop-up street store. 

(ii) How to perform the Valsalva Manoeuvre to get water out of my ear (be careful not to blow too hard or you could damage your eardrums); 

(iii) How to apply the theoretical knowledge I have on house painting and home repairs. 

6. Declutter and cull 100 items. 

In May, I removed over 40 items for recycling, approximately 70 items for donation to Kedai Jalanan, and around 10 books for The Revolving Library. 

By July 2015, I plan to change this goal to only 50 items, as I now live in my own apartment and need very few things and keep and accumulate even fewer. 

7. Give up something for a month. 

I gave up snacking in May because of my carbon guilt over consuming more food than is necessary, when I may not be necessarily hungry. So now I restrict myself to 3 square meals a day and only drinking water in between. This had the desirable side effect of bringing my weight down 3 whopping kilograms in just one month. This is definitely a habit I want to keep up -- for environmental, financial and health reasons. No doubt I may occasionally suffer lapses but good habits aren't 'all or nothing'. You fall off the wagon, you pick yourself up and you try again.

Monthly Bucket List, April 2015

I've given up on the idea that my blogging could ever keep up with my real life, but at least I try to keep up with the Letters to the Editor and my Monthly Bucket Lists. It has been one year since I started doing Monthly Bucket Lists.

1. Make a new friend

On my second trip to Penang by train on 3rd April, I had the good fortune of sitting next to a lovely older lady, Sheryl, with whom I chatted about everything from religion, feminism, political activism, and town planning to edible gardening, green living and public transportation systems. I learned later that she was the first female mayor of Nedlands, Australia, and had been active in local planning and community issues. I hope to stay in touch with her, and am glad she made my train ride so much better with her company and conversation.

During Green Living's Earth Day cleanup at the Ampang Recreational Forest on 25th April, which was attended by 15 volunteers, my friend Shyam brought with her 3 volunteers from Yellow House KL, namely, Herlinde, Jon and Philip, who I got to befriend, along with Dee Lu of Corezone Malaysia, who is also the founder of the Malaysian chapter of Leave No Trace. It is great to get to know others who are as passionate about nature and volunteering as I am.

On 27th April, my friend Petra and a friend of hers, Nina, joined me at the Beacon of Hope community learning centre to volunteer their services as teachers. Petra was hijacked by the 9-10 year olds almost immediately, as they had no teacher for the day, while Nina assisted me in teaching the 11-12 year olds. So that's another perk of volunteering -- you expand your social network and get to know lots of similar-minded volunteers.

2. Help A Stranger

In April, I:

(i) Responded to an appeal by a first-time animal rescuer, Qin, for funds to pay the vet bills of Blanket the Cat via GoFundMe and am now receiving updates about the cat I had helped;

(ii) Organised and coordinated Green Living's Earth Day cleanup at the Ampang Recreational Forest on 25th April;

(iii) Collaborated with  Leave No Trace Malaysia in coordinating the said cleanup;

(iv) Provided free legal and tax advice to many small business owners on matters related to the Goods and Services Tax Act 2014 and how it would affect their businesses; and

(v) Got another food court cat spayed under Project Second Chance. I've named her Maya and she is doing very well after spaying.

3. Eat something/at someplace new to me.

During our trip to Butterworth, my parents and I ate at many different restaurants and cafes, including at the Dim Sum restaurant and frozen yoghurt bar downstairs from the hotel where we were staying.

I also utilised a KindMeal coupon to dine at a sandwich and juice bar new to me, Vinegjoy Plus. The food was wholesome but I was disappointed to find that everything was packed in plastic and styrofoam. I don't see the need to pack food for dining-in so securely in disposable plastic packaging. It's not likely that the sandwich will make a daring escape from a plate, or the juice cup would need to be insulated against extreme weather conditions and steep drops off high places. Until they make some changes to their packaging and waste policies, I don't think it is likely that I will eat here again anytime soon.

April has been quite a month for trying new foods. I want to focus more on fresh produce rather than just new places to eat the same old things. In April, I tried and loved four new things:

i. - Kiwiberries

ii. - Tamarillo

iii. - Butternut squash

iv. - Artichoke

The next items on my list would be champagne grapes, Australian yellow squash, horned melon, rutabagas, parsnip and kohlrabi.

4. Go someplace I've never been.

My good buddy Arnaz returned from his posting in Egypt for a break, and Karen, Shamini and I took him out to the KL Heli Lounge for dinner and drinks. The view was fantastic even if the food wasn't. Next time, we will have dinner before going there for drinks and the view.

During our trip to Butterworth, my parents and I stayed at the intriguingly-named Aroma Hotel and visited a new Taoist temple in town.

On my second work trip to Penang Island, I had the opportunity to visit Penang Hill and ride the funicular train.

And believe it or not, Green Living's cleanup programme at the Ampang Recreational Forest on 25th April was my first visit there. I have never previously been inside the forest. But I know that there's bound to be litter in it, as with all recreational parks, forests and beaches in Malaysia.

After our Earth Day cleanup at the Ampang Recreational Forest, I offered to give the 3 volunteers from Yellow House KL a ride back to their volunteer hostel, which is nearby. I've been friends with Shyam for years but I have not visited the volunteer hostel she coordinates and manages. It was a fun visit, and I took Shyam and the 3 volunteers out to lunch and to play with the guinea pigs and other animals at the SPCA in the afternoon. It seems odd to me now that I haven't been to the Ampang Recreational Forest and the Yellow House volunteer hostel until then.

5. Learn something new.

April wasn't that great a month for learning. I did, however, learn many things work-related. My knowledge on corporate and commercial matters is expanding, and I hope my skills are, too. We had a Lexis Nexis staff come in to our office to show us how to use the legal research software, but it counted more as a memory refresher than actually learning something new. I had been a Lexis staff member years ago and had used their legal research software for work back then.

After my infuriatingly useless Samsung Galaxy SII died out on me, I had no choice but to buy myself a new phone. It was the day before the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax, and many of the better cellular phone models had been sold out thanks to panic buying by people wishing to avoid tax. I had to settle for a cheap Lenovo, which turned out to have a better battery life that the rubbish Samsung I had before, and all the same functions for only half the price. My only complaint was that I had to settle for a phone with a lousy camera which doesn't focus well. I learned to install and use Camera360 to take slightly better (more focused and less blurry) photos, and purchased a FlashAir card to use with my digital camera so that I could upload the photos onto the phone directly. I'm adjusting well to the new phone and getting used to carrying the camera around, so it's no longer an inconvenience.

I occasionally help out the Buddhist Tzu-Chi Merit Society with their charitable projects, especially with their recycling programme at the community centre up the street from my house. One Friday evening, I was invited over for what I thought was a normal recyclables sorting session, but was quite delighted to find that one of the members was conducting a vegan cooking class. We learned how to make a dish called Fried Golden Mushrooms in Spicy Pineapple Sauce and got to sample it too.

I reproduce the recipe here:

Ingredients: 300g Monkey Head Mushrooms
Ingredients (A):
- Small pieces of turmeric
- 3 pieces of Buah Keras
- 6 pieces of dried chillies. 
1/4 of a fresh pineapple
Seasoning: 
- 2 teaspoons of sugar
- 1 teaspoon of mushroom powder

(The written recipe left out salt, cornflour and cooking oil, so add your own)

Directions:
1. Grind Ingredients (A) into a paste.
2. Put the pineapple through a blender.
3. Clean and slice mushrooms. Coat / toss in cornflour. Fry mushroom slices in oil until golden brown. 
4. Fry Ingredients (A) in a pan until fragrant. Add pineapple paste and mushroom seasoning powder. Let it simmer until the sauce thickens. 
5. Add mushrooms into the sauce and stir evenly. Turn off heat and serve

6. Declutter and cull 100 items.

I lost count of the number of items I decluttered and purged from my Bachelor Pad in April, but I believe it goes into the hundreds. There was a surprising number of things I forgot I had left in the tool cabinet and ironing drawer. Now I just have to keep them in a prominent place to remember to use them, and get rid of things I am not able to use.

I had been spring cleaning the parental home as well each weekend, one drawer and one shelf at a time. Most of the items I end up culling are outdated documents and papers, so most end up being shredded for use as cat litter liners.

7. Give up something for a month.

I have to be honest here. I haven't been very good at sticking to things for an entire month, and there are occasional lapses. I had planned to go low-carb and gluten-free in April, but found it difficult to do so on weekends when I meet up with friends for meals. I ended up having low-carb gluten-free weekday meals for 3 weeks in April, which I consider no small success considering my love of carbs.

I replaced gluten and carbs with brown rice, cauliflower rice, butternut squash and garbanzo beans. Here are some of the bentos I made for my meals in April.

Butternut squash with brussels sprouts, kale and dried cranberries. Cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, physalis fruits, starfruit and mango on the side.

Earth Day build-a-bowl bento with cauliflower rice, brown rice tinted blue, organic broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, jackfruit and starfruit.

Cauliflower 'rice' with garbanzo beans, fresh capsicums, dragonfruit, pickled nutmeg, an orange, tomatoes and carrots.

I think the reason why people lose weight when on a gluten-free, low-carb diet is because it takes so darn long to munch on a large bowl of grated blanched cauliflower. Starches are so much easier to eat. I can sit in front of the computer and shovel down a mountain of rice or pasta. But switching to cauliflower rice and squash with sprouts and kale made me eat more slowly and mindfully. I couldn't even finish everything in my lunchbox by the end of lunch hour. I was just chewing and chewing the cud like a cow. I like the increase in energy levels all the fibre, vitamins and vegetable proteins give me, though, and will probably prepare gluten-free, low-carb meals as frequently as I can after April.

8. Letter to the Editor

Upon reading the news that the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries wanted to increase exports of Malaysian coral reef products last month, I wrote a Letter to the Editor and sent it to all the major local papers and news sites, stating the reasons why the sale of coral reefs would cause irreparable harm to the environment and would not be as economically viable as the Ministry would have us believe. An edited version was published in the Star on 1st of May. They had removed a short paragraph in which I had commented on Malaysia's reputation as a wildlife trading hub. That's fine by me, I can understand the reason why they cut it out of my letter. I just hope that those in a decision-making capacity reads my letter and considers the points raised.


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~Live Better. Help Often. Wonder More.~

(Motto of the Sunday Assembly, a secular congregation)