comfort food of the day - spaghetti alla carbonara

what is comfort food? what kind of food is considered comfort food? well, the content of comfort food changes with each and every person.  have you ever felt depressed or disappointed, and nothing seems to make you feel better... unknowingly, you find yourself tuck in bed with a pint of your favorite ice cream and each mouthful melts away the pain, that is one kind of comfort food. in general, comfort food are food that makes you feel good, food that lightens you up, food that makes you happier and such.

personally, my range of comfort food is beyond numbers! and for the day, spaghetti carbonara hits every single spot, i was feeling lazy... all i wanted to do was savor a big plate of creamy spaghetti and the carbonara that i managed to whip up was simple yet so good... =)

 

the crispy bacon bits complemented the creamy yolk sauce perfectly, every strand of spaghetti was coated with the rich sauce leaving no room for mistake, each mouthful burst with flavor which leaves me longing for the next... this recipe is definitely in my 'keep' list!

nigella's spaghetti alla carbonara (serves 1-2)

250g spaghetti

150g pancetta (i used normal bacon)

1 teaspoons olive oil

25g grated parmesan

2 eggs

2 tablespoons double cream

dash of black pepper

freshly grated nutmeg (if available)

1. Boil spaghetti in a pot of water with salt till al dente. Make sure to keep some of the pasta water before draining, just in case you need to thin the sauce or such.

2. Pan-fry bacon in olive oil till crispy. If preferred, white wine or vermouth can be added for flavor. (I removed most of the oil after the bacon turned crispy as the oil tends to make the pasta too salty.

3. In a bowl, mix the eggs, parmesan, cream and pepper. Toss the drained pasta with the bacon bits and remove the pan from the heat. Make sure the pan is not too hot, add the egg and cheese mixture, swiftly toss and mix. Add a little of the pasta water to lubricate if necessary, grate nutmeg over pasta for the extra oomph!

another one of my comfort food - potatoes! this dish is just simply numerous layers of thinly-sliced potatoes with dashes of sea salt and black pepper, finishing with a touch of cheddar cheese.

and all time favorite - tiramisu. it is a dessert that takes away all my worries and brings happiness back!

a failed attempt at making pudding but nevertheless, i will keep trying since i love the taste of of it and of course, it falls into my category of comfort food too *chuckles*

a simple but yet... so... so good snack, dried beef or prosciutto with mozzarella cheese on a slice of baguette, finish with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil... trust me, it is good!

london Os

i... i thought i would be typing away like a professional secretary when i managed to hook up the internet as i had loads of things that i was thinking of blogging down... but that was twelve hours ago and my mind is practically empty now after staring at my change board for the past three hours trying to look for swaps that could give me the weekends that i needed without damaging my pocket too much and i hope my efforts do pay off!

oh... i do remember feeling good this morning, it was great to be in london and i was kind of happy to be going around on my own, i missed being here but i miss home too. what's wrong with me, i used to love being abroad, used to love my freedom, but something has changed... i still love traveling and that is a fact that will never change, but i want different things in life now and what i wanted a couple of years ago seems to be so unimportant now... ahhh...

oh... and one of my colleague wants to introduce me to his god-brother because i perfectly fit his requirements. Re-qui-re-ments... nice... it feels like i am some employee going for an interview.

oh... and while i was on the tube, i was surrounded by a group of non-english-speaking people, they were talking and talking, getting louder and louder each minute, when you don't understand a language, everything sounds gibberish, babberish and zibberish. it was like siting in a nest with thousands of birds chirping in your ears! all right, i was slightly irritated and terribly glad that i had to get off the next stop. =)

oh... i bought a lovely dress, thinking i should wear it to my best friend's wedding, hahhaa, but her wedding is not till next year! and as usual, the careless me forgot to check the receipt and i was charged twenty-five pounds more... pounds not dollars... so i have to wake up earlier tomorrow morning to get that settled... thanks to myself.

and that comes to an end of my ohs, time to crawl back in bed and hopefully, a smooth ride to lalaland...

Words that were never said

Have you ever left a conversation or a phone call or even after texting a SMS that you should have said something, feeling that tiny tinge regret of not expressing your opinion or letting someone know something at that moment in time. It happens to me all the time! And I always felt the urge after to turn back, call or text again to finish what I wanted to say, but for some reason, I never let that happen. That feeling is just so 'aaaaarrr', it is as if the words or feelings got stuck somewhere in your system and when they finally make it to the tip of your tongue, it was too late, the conversation or call has ended or the SMS has been sent. So that leave them crawling back, wandering around your throat, not knowing what to do since they simply refused to just vanish into the thin air.

I was texting a friend yesterday while enjoying the movie - You've Got Mail. I... cannot explain my love for old movies just like this one, they are simply magical, watching these movies bring back so much memories! For example, the way of connecting to the internet ten years ago, the dialing of the line with the 'beeeeeeep' sound whenever Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks logged onto the internet brings smile to my face, remembering that was how I did it so many years ago! Oh yes... that friend, so I was texting and I wanted to share, or maybe just to let him know that I was watching You've Got Mail, it was just a though of wanting to let him know more and such but in the end, all I managed to text was: '=) all righty, I will try my best!' I know... it's pathetic, the thought of sharing the never got across in any way. Maybe I was cowardly, or maybe it would seem 'too much' to share so I back off. With so much words that were never said, I am always feeling tinges of regret here and there, so I am wishing one day, these regrets would see the world... that would be nice =)

"Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower?" ~ Kathleen Kelly (You've Got Mail)

I do... =)

你是否是他。。。或者是她？

你可曾感覺自己表現出最糟的一面
就像潘朵拉的盒子
裝滿了秘蜜，討厭的東西
傲慢，惡意，自已為是
全都跳了出來
有人激怒你
你沒有一笑置之
反而出言攻击
你好，我是討厭鬼。


我被激怒時，舌頭就像打了結
腦袋一片。。。空白
然後整夜翻來覆去，思索自己該說什么
說什么呢？
想不出來
什么都想不起來，即使現在
過了好幾天，還是想不出來
你好，我是膽小鬼 。

Crying... has its uses too...

Have you ever come across people saying that crying is not going to help in anyway or make things better? Well, I beg to differ. From my personal experiences, I find crying does help in some ways and do make things better. I am not saying crying is the best way to solve things or it would be good to cry in every kind of tough situations.

I  have to admit that there were many times that I felt much better after each big cry, it was as if every tear drop that came out carried with it a tiny bit of my sadness or anger. And with each tear, the sadness seems to fade and the anger gradually dissipated. I am sure many girls or women cried because it seems to be the only way to address the sadness, disappointment, anger or sometimes even happiness since words cannot describe how they felt at that moment in time.

Maybe that is the reason why woman tend to live longer than the men, they express their feelings by crying instead of bottling up everything like the men who might find crying - a womens' thing.

From my point of view, crying does not represent that one is weak... rather a person who is strong or confident enough to express himself/herself emotionally, I like people who are able to express themselves in such ways compared to mind games... don't you?

the cravings never ends...

i may be sick, down with flu and fever, but the flu medicine works like a wonder, not how it cures me but how it makes me drowsy, one tablet and i am sleeping like a baby... *yawns*

oh, wondering happily away from my true intentions for the post again... sick but my cravings never dies! my usual clicks on the remote control always bring me to the Man V Food where this guy travels all throughout the states and feature all the best food he can find in the city or town. Food Safari, another channel where the host travels to different parts of Australia and learn about the different cultures and famous dishes other foreigners residing in Australia have to offer. All these shows always leaves me salivating and worse, cravings that can never be fulfilled.

tonight, as i watched Man V Food, the Red Mill juicy bacon deluxe burger and crispy onion rings stole my heart, as my mind flew to seattle and never came back. i made up my mind to visit washington if a new york trip ever comes up! what came up next tore me apart, seafood! my love for seafood beats anything, the alaskan sea feast featured in the Crab Pot Restaurant blew me away, another major reason to get myself to seattle! there is no way i can get back to sleep, but i hope my dreams will be filled with all the glorious food i have just seen... *giggles*

The Gloomy Old Man

I am so sick of trying to be encouraging and nice to the old man in my family, he is always dumping cold water in my face whenever I try to organize some trips or plan for some family events. Asking them if they are keen to visit Australia at the end of the year, I had two extreme reactions, my mum was delighted but the silly old man was throwing ice cubes at me, telling me how many people died in Australia recently because they rented a car to go around. Gosh, it was as if I was trying to drag him to hell and to think that I offered to stay at home to look after my dog, Tiger, if they decided to go! And what response did I get from the old man...

"What for go so far, just go Bangkok near and good, old already, also don't when will die..."

I was pissed, no matter how I tried to duck the ice cubes that he was throwing at me, I couldn't avoid the pail of cold water that was dumped on me, so I replied.

"Whenever everyone is in a good mood, trying to plan something, all you do is to discourage every one. Yes, you are right, you might die soon, every one has to die someday, maybe I will die tomorrow, you never know!"

What can I do, I have tried so many ways to make things better, but I am a human after all, there are days that I am tired too, there are days that I feel discourage too, one day, I will stop making an effort, making an effort to plan trips for the family, making an effort to ask friends out when they keep postponing the dates, I gotta a feeling that one day may come soon....