Oops, I did it again!

Malaysia Airlines is currently offering RM0 on 1000000 (yes, 6 zeroes) free seats. I have been hesitating of purchasing the MAS ticket for December, just in case RBA will offer a better Bluesky fare. But the Bluesky fares for December are still not out yet.

After several days of calculation, budgeting, consideration and prediction, I have finally decided to purchase a return ticket to KL on MAS. I didnt however get the FREE seat on the Brunei-KL leg, but the KL back to Brunei is RM0. Total cost after taxes and surcharge is B$346. Fuel charges nowadays are sky-rocketed high.

Travelling on AirAsia may be cheaper but it will be a bit troublesome for connecting flights on other airlines. AirAsia uses the Low Cost Terminal, and the transportaion to the main termianl may be time consuming for connecting flights. By the way, it is only B$50 extra to travel on MAS vs AirAsia.

KL will just be a transit point for me. This 'troublesome' way of buying tickets still works out cheaper than I buy a direct ticket from Brunei to Europe or Middle East.

So, where am I going in December? KL for sure. As for other continuing destinations, I am still undecided till September, based on several factors. So at this moment, I am very sure to answer "KL and beyond".

Dragon Boat and Glutinous Rice

Today is the 5th day of the Chinese Lunar month. It is the day we Chinese eat the glutinous rice dumpling. The dumpling is called Zongzi (in Mandarin) or Ba Chang (hokkien pronunciation, commonly used in South East Asia).

The glutinous rice is wrapped into a pyramid shape using bamboo leaves, and boiled till the rice is cooked. Fillings - pork belly, salted egg yolk, dried shrimps, mushroom, and dried chestnuts. Another version is white in colour. Fillings - Pork belly meat with crushed peanuts. Nowadays, there are many regional variations: in black bean paste, without fillings, chicken to cater different tastes and lifestyles.

I had two just now for lunch and the former is my favourite. Nowadays, the Ba Chang can be bought from most Chinese restaurants any day of the year. I have yet to learn how to make it as I am dummy in wrapping things, worse if it comes to wrapping food.

So, what is the history behind this? Every food has a story to tell. That is the delight of gastronomy.

This is to commemorate the death of Qu Yuan, a famous Chinese poet from the kingdom of Chu during the Warring States period. Known for his patriotism, Qu Yuan tried to warn his king and countrymen against the expansionism of their Qin neighbours. When the Qin Dynasty general Bai Qi took Yingdu, the Chu capital, in 278 BC, Qu Yuan's grief was so intense that he drowned himself in the Miluo river after penning the Lament for Ying.

According to legend, packets of rice were thrown into the river to prevent fish from eating the poet's body. This is also believed to be the origin of the Dragon Boat Race in which the race will deter the fish from the poet's body.

My Friday culinary skills

Pot luck Brunch at Staffroom F tomorrow - usually held just before every school term holiday. Also, it is an excuse to show off culinary skills and to put on the extra calories.

Initially I planned to bake Pineapple Cake for dessert. However I forgot to bring the recipe to my 'kitchen' at Sengkurong. So I just had to cook whatever I could recall.

Passion Fruit Trifle. For the base, I was supposed to use a chifon cake or sponge fingers, but I could only find pandan (screwpine) flavoured chifon cake. It wont go well with the passion fruits. So, I bought the Apollo layer cake (butter flavoured) snack, and pile them up. Pour Ginger Beer over them, top with whipped cream and decorate with passion fruit pulps and seeds. Voila! my Passion fruit trifle is done in less than 10 minutes.

Oh yeah, what is passion fruit? Here is the picture. They are available in the local supermarkets.

Thai Massaman Buffalo Curry. Gosh! It was hard work. First of all, I had to blend in all the spices: Lemongrass, Cloves, Cinnamon, Cumin, Galangal, Garlic, Chili, Nutmeg, Cardamon. Then cooked the buffalo meat in coconut milk for 1 hour. After that, cooked the blended spices in coconut cream and added all other ingredients, with potatoes and peanuts and cooked for another 30 minutes. Eventually, the curry was done. The picture doesn't do it justice; but honestly it tastes good.

It tastes a bit like Malaysian curry. With the peanuts, it tastes more like a satay sauce. So I did a google search and found that this type of Thai curry with its Muslim origin originated from Southern Thailand, near to Malaysian border. No wonder! I spent hours to cook something different. In the end I almost cook a 'normal' curry.

I wonder how popular my food will be tomorrow :)