Look Twice

Can you guess what this is?

It's a totally unedited photograph of the skylight of a local mall.

My son Rodney captured it on his phone.

Would you have guessed?

It looks more like a computer generated image than a photograph, don't you agree?

Hakka

Hakka Daikon Meatballs

My paternal grandma passed when I was twelve years old and sadly, many of our traditional family recipes died with her. Grandma was illiterate. She knew all her recipes by memory and never used any measuring devices. She eyeballed everything.

A week ago,  my dad said he missed his mom's *Hakka radish meatballs, a family favourite  we hadn't eaten for a very long time. Dad's sole surviving sibling, my aunt, the only person who knows how to prepare that dish is now in a nursing home.  But dementia has stolen the recipe from her.

I searched the internet for this very traditional dish, expecting images to pop up everywhere: Google, Pinterest, Instagram, etc but surprisingly, I only managed to find  two bloggers sharing this Hakka dish. The rest appeared to be  just recipes copied/shared  from these two sources.

Strange, but all the Hakka restaurants in Malaysia I've visited so far do not have this dish on their menu either!

*I am a 4th generation Malaysian Hakka. Hakka translates as "guest".  The Hakkas were a Chinese tribe who turned nomadic due to social calamities. They wound up in various parts of China, largely in the south and throughout the world. Since they were migrants, they were regarded as guests, hence the name.
Living under very harsh conditions and in strange lands, the Hakka people became very resilient. We, Hakka women, are known for our spunk and fierce nature!

When The Hubs, who is *Teochew, told his grandma he was going to marry me, she warned him that he would be marrying a very fierce woman!

*Teochew - a different Chinese tribe

I  made these from the recipe of  Kit Wai's Kitchen

Dad said these turned out pretty good but they did not taste quite like the ones Grandma used to make.

Hakka Daikon Meatballs

Ingredients :
300g grated Daikon, squeezed slightly dry
minced pork 300g
shredded dried squid 50g , soaked
dried shrimps 50g , soaked
minced garlic 1tbsp
oil 2tbsp

Seasoning :
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp sesame oil
tapioca flour 100g


Method :

1. Heat oil in a wok . Fry minced garlic , dried shrimps and shredded squid until fragrant. Remove and leave to cool .

2. Place all ingredients and seasonings into a bowl and mix well .

3. Place meat filling onto palm then clench it with your fist to squeeze the filling out from the index finger side of the fist . Shape filling into a ball . Place onto a steaming tray coated with a thin layer of oil .

4. Once water is boiling , steam over high heat for about 15 minutes until cooked .

Manja Is A Dad!

Remember Manja, the ornery old goat? I was really surprised and delighted to discover that he's now a father of 2 adorable kids when we visited Uncle Beng during the Chinese New Year!

According to Uncle Beng, Manja's owner got the old billy a mate and now they have 2 beautiful daughters!

Manja's mate and their 2 kids

Manja, the proud father

Isn't she a darling!

Say NO To Toothpaste In A Box

Alan's Theory needs your help with “Colgate-Palmolive: Why Toothpaste Comes In A Box?”. Join Alan's and 36,675 supporters today.

I've just signed the petition. Hope you will join me too.



SIGN the petition on change. org HERE and let's make toothpaste come without boxes!!


Excerpt from Alan Theory's petition page.


Official campaign hashtag: #NOBOXTOOTHPASTE

Why does toothpaste come in a box?

Toothpaste is used by two-thirds of the world’s population on a daily basis. The box makes it more expensive for the makers and consumers, and the only thing we do with it is to throw it away.

Then why? what's the point?!

I did my research, and this is what I found: ¨Toothpaste comes in a box because it looks better¨.

That’s right, and If we consider each person using an average of 3 tubes per year, that´s more than 900,000,000 useless boxes a year only in the United States.

But, there are places where this is done differently, for example, Iceland. The same brands that sell millions of boxed toothpaste tubes in the USA, sell their product's without the box in Iceland. This means that it is 100% doable

Step1: Buy only Toothpaste that comes without a box, I know it´s hard, but if we all do it, it will be hard only for a short time. So stick to it.

Step 2: Tag on this campaign anyone you know that works in the government or in the toothpaste industry

Step 3: Spread the word, share this information so that in one year from today, we can buy toothpastes everywhere without generation billions of tons of unnecessary garbage


Sometimes it feels like we live in a society that is out of our control, but the truth is that big changes, start with ideas and motivation. Here is an idea, let's get rid of the toothpaste boxes. Are you in?

Alan's Theory

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