Dinner with Te and Choon Howe

Just came back from a small cookout with Te and Choon Howe. Was a very pleasent dinner. Held it in a kitchen at the Fenners Building overlooking the Cricket grounds. The kitchen was spacious, and Te's a great cook! And it was a nice time of chatting without the thought of work looming at the back of the mind.

Had initially dreaded the hols for fear that there might be few people to hang out with, but realised that it grants me more time to hang out with people I don't normally get time to interact with during the term, because of all the time pressures. Think I'm beginning to find friends whom I can casually hang out with and confide in over here in Hughes Hall. (Though they aren't mathmos so I cant seek comfort in them when it comes to work.)

The three of us represent three geographically connected countries in South East Asia. Te's Thai, and will be working for the Thai government after he's done his Engineering PhD. Choon Howe's from Malaysia, and will be working as a lawyer in a Malaysian firm when he completes his Masters at the end of the year. And I'm from Singapore!

It's very enlightening listening to them discuss South East Asia politics. How Taksin is in great trouble, and how businesses and law works. The history of Siam, and all the disputes within South East Asia I wasn't aware of.

And Te's a great cook! It's good to watch the way he cooks different dishes, to give me an alternative to the Singaporean style that I'm getting bored of, and which may not be the most effective way of making certain dishes.

Watched Te making onion omellete and veg today. And it tasted very nice!

What he did with the onion omelet was to mix the sliced onion in the egg, add some soya sauce and fish sauce, and a dash of sugar, then heat up the oil for a while, and pour the whole cocktail of omelet into the hot oil.

As for the veg, he got Hearts of Romaine, and washed the veg as he tore the leaves up, then chopped it up perpendicular to the spine of the veg into about 4 parts. And he fried the garlic with lots of oil, and threw the vegetable into the garlic, and stired the garlic and oil up into the veg. Added soya sauce, and fish sauce, and a little bit of sugar also.

Besides that, I made curry chicken from the Singapore Curry, and agar agar for desserts. And we had green tea to top it all off! Observe the cups and the strainer in the picture.

Its great to finally find people to hang out with. And hopefully next year, when I do physics and can handle the course better, I won't feel so much need to mix with people doing the same course.