Thit Heo Nuong Xa (Vietnamese Lemon Grass Pork Chops)

I love lemon grass. It's lemony, zingy but doesn't quite have the tartness of a lemon. Chop it up, toss into a food processor with a few other ingredients and you have the best BBQ marinade ever. Perfect for your summer cookouts!

The first time I made my Lemon Grass Pork Chops, I almost set my kitchen on fire! I attempted to grill them over an open charcoal stove indoor, inside my mere 1208 sq ft apartment! The closet-sized kitchen was smoking like a chimney! Sparks were flying everywhere!

What was I thinking? Hubby rushed into the kitchen and doused the stove with water. Needless to say, the chops were ruined!

The cleaning up was a nightmare. There was soot everywhere.

I wised up after that incident and learned that firing up the grill indoor really isn't  an option.

I now broil my chops in the oven instead. I don't get that coveted smoky flavour but  the chops still taste amazing.

Thit Heo Nuong Xa (Vietnamese Lemon Grass Pork Chops)

Ingredients
5pcs thin-cut pork chops, preferably blade end, with plenty of fat and marbling

Ingredients A
3 stalks lemon grass, sliced
1 tbsp sliced shallots
1 tbsp chopped garlic

Ingredients B
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
3 tbsp fish sauce
2-3 tbsp sugar
ground pepper

Directions

1. Place Ingredients A in a food processor. Blend to a fine paste.
2. Combine the paste with Ingredients B and mix well to form the marinade.
3. Marinate the chops for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.
4. Grill/broil/pan fry  the pork chops.

Enjoy!

10th Blogaversary

A decade ago, when I started this blog, I didn't have the faintest idea what I was doing or where it would take me.

I still don't! Haha!

When I hit the  publish button on that first post back in 2008, I never thought that ten years later, I'd be blogging still! That post, along with many of the earlier posts, was deleted in a fit of  panic, when I freaked out at the thought that people whom I know outside my virtual world might be able to find my blog! I think I might have deleted a third of my posts! Very stupid of me, I know and I have regretted since.

Whoa! 10 years is a long time in blogosphere! It feels like a blink + a lifetime all in one. However, I did disappear from blogosphere in 2017 for about 8 months when life was bombarding me with lemons. I had too much to deal with and blogging was the last thing on my mind. When I came back, I didn't know what to expect and thought that my bloggy buddies would probably have forgotten about me.

Thank you, pallies, for sticking with me. Mwaaaaaaaaah!!! ❤️❤️❤️

The blogging landscape has certainly changed with much less commenting and even much less posting on blogs as most bloggers have ditched their blogs for Instagram. Many of my favourite blogs have now been in hibernation for a long, long time; some gone private and a couple of bloggy pallies had even passed on. But others have popped up in their place.
It is foreseen that traditional blogging will eventually die a natural death, no thanks to mobile devices. But as long as Blogger isn't retiring its service, I will continue to blog until I drop!

So why am I still blogging?

I GET TO WRITE
I love to write. Having a place where I can write my heart out without judgement is like I have finally found my voice. The process of my thoughts translating into words and leaping off my fingers onto the keyboard when I write a post feels like  magic!  Empowering, if you will.

I GET TO CONNECT WITH  BLOGGERS FROM ALL WALKS OF LIFE AND ALL OVER THE WORLD.
Interacting with bloggers from so many diverse backgrounds has been awesome. I've forged friendships with people whom I would have never known. I've learned about cultures I would have never understood, and have virtually visited places I never knew existed. Blogging has opened a portal to a whole new world.

MY BLOG IS MY OUTLET, MY JOURNAL, MY SECRET SANCTUM...
This blog is an outlet for my creativity and all the things I want to share. I'd like to think that my blog is a legacy to my sons. And if I should croak suddenly, my blog could be a place my boys would find solace. They would know exactly what I was thinking and feeling watching them grow up. I've chronicled their milestones. I've posted photos of them when they were little. I've paid tributes to their beloved pets who had passed. And I have and will continue to post recipes of their favorite dishes on my blog.
Perhaps my future grand kids would want to take a peek one day and read about their crazy grandma and her one-time obsession for cookie decorating.

Someone said that some of the only things that give life value are the things that take sustained effort over long periods of time. This blog is one of those things for me.

To those who have been with me since the early days, I THANK YOU! You have all been amazing bloggy pallies. I hope we will get to meet in person someday.

To those of you who are newer to this party, you are loved here in this bloggihood.

Batu Caves

Sharing this photo of Batu Caves, one of Malaysia's most iconic landmarks that has gone viral since the famed 272 steps leading to the cave temple have been given a colorful paint job recently.

image credit - Seenivasan Rajoo

Batu Caves is the site of a Hindu temple and shrine.

A colossal statue of the Hindu deity, Lord Murugan, guards the caves. Standing at a height of 140 ft, the statue is the second tallest Hindu deity statue in the world.

The stairs before the paint job

I think it's a job done with flying colours.

What do you think?

The Jungle Walk

While we were at the Club Med resort, we discovered a jungle trail that lead us to the beach.

Rodney

Along the ten-minute walk, you see animal sculptures like these.

A hornbill

Josh spotted turtle tracks on the beach earlier in the day which indicated that turtles were coming ashore to nest at night as it was turtle-landing season. To witness a sea turtle laying her eggs up close would be an amazing experience. But that would  mean we had to use the same jungle path after dark to get to the beach as the shuttle buggy service closed after 6:30 PM.

Feeling adventurous, the 4 of us agreed to take on the jungle walk after sundown to see the turtles.

At about 8:00 PM, we left our hotel rooms and headed for the jungle path. Armed with only the torch from our phones, we had underestimated the utter darkness of nighttime in the woods. Traipsing down a trail in the inky blackness didn't seem like fun after all. Besides, we were a walking buffet for mosquitoes. It also just hit me then, that this was the month of the Hungry Ghost Festival — that time of the year when it is believed that the gates of hell are open for an entire month and spirits from the underworld are allowed to roam the earth in search of food or seek revenge on those who had wronged them!

The hairs on the back of my neck began to stand up and my body screamed for us to turn around.

Perhaps my mind was playing tricks on me in the abyssal darkness but I thought I saw a pair of glowing eyes in the distance. I seriously freaked out at this point and wanted to turn back but the three of them vetoed my decision.

Suddenly, we all heard a movement in the brush.

Need I say, we scurried back to the hotel like scared little girls?!