Sebenarnya dah beberapa kali nak selitkan entry yang ni tapi selalu tak menjadi sebab take it for granted hehehe. Tapi kali ni terpanggil jugak nak berkongsi resipi minuman special kegemaran saya yang dinamakan Air Sirap Bandung Soda Nostalgia.




You know sometimes there are certain foods that bring back childhood memories. It has to be a certain familiar taste that tickles the taste buds and ignites a nostalgia. I absolutely love the Anton Ego nostalgia scene from the movie Ratatouille, I thought they did an excellent job at translating the emotion.




Air sirap bandung soda ini saya adaptasi daripada resepi nenek saya belah bapa ~ my Tok Mok. Actually I only got to taste my Tok Mok's sirap bandung on a very few special occasions when I was very young (maybe less than 10 years old) when my uncles got married! I guess this drink was very rarely made because of its relatively expensive ingredients and so no one remembered to ask how to make it. Tapi sebab terlalu sedap I never forgot how it tasted. And for many years I was growing up, I never found any other sirap bandung soda that quite matched the taste of my grandmothers sirap bandung.

Sampailah satu ketika saya balik from UK for summer holidays, saya sempat bertanya macam mana nak buat sirap bandung Tok Mok. Sambil tersenyum dia cuma kata "kena letak susu dan soda sama banyak. Tak perlu tambah air, cuma tambah ais".

This drink can be made at any time, but it is more special when made in bulk and shared with family, friends and guests. For my elder sister's wedding, sirap bandung soda was served for the guests. What the caterer made was sufficient, however it was not sirap bandung soda Tok Mok style. This drink was so special to me such that I personally made it so that it could be served at my wedding. At least for the main table hehehe. (Pengsan la pengantin nak bancuh untuk semua orang hahaha). Wedding adik baru2 ni tak buat sebab tak ada any special request and because yours truly had a million other things to do hehehe.

Jalan2 di blog saya terjumpa resipi sirap bandung soda di blog Mat Gebu credit tu Puan Zura. Melihat kepada resipi tersebut, ya, memang sedap kot kerana susu dan soda sama banyak serta ais digunakan untuk mencairkan sirap bandung. Tapi resepi saya lagi sedap, boleh macam tu? hehehe

Air Sirap Bandung Soda
Bahan-bahan:
(Resipi ini untuk 15 orang. Nak buat sikit pun boleh, adjust quantity accordingly, but the recipe below will give you the exact taste. If it is too sweet for your liking, then cairkan dengan air/ais tambahan.)

2 kampit ais beli dekat 7Eleven
2 botol besar ais cream soda F&N
8 tin susu sejat (any jenama but not susu pekat!). Note that this combination will give the correct 1:1 ratio of soda and milk.
3 tin Sirap Ros F&N (ukur guna tin susu kosong)
1 sudu besar essen vanilla
3/4 sudu besar garam

Cara penyediaan:
Masukkan ais di dalam bekas yang sesuai, diikuti dengan semua bahan yang lain. Kacau rata dan hidang setelah ais mencair.

Tips:
Yang paling penting adalah untuk memasukkan susu dahulu sebelum soda. Jika soda dimasukkan diikuti susu, anda akan mendapati susu akan menggentel dan akan membentuk lapisan terpisah daripada soda ~ it will never mix.


Ada on one occasion minum sirap bandung at someone's wedding. Hubs kata sedap gila, saya rasa memang sedap, tapi tak sesedap saya punya heh :P So to each their own. I'm sure everyone has their own nostalgic food. For me and my elder sister this sirap bandung is very special indeed because it is our personal nostalgic drink. My younger siblings who have never tasted my Tok Mok's sirap bandung have grown to love it and perhaps this will become their own personal favourite. Cuba lah, and judge for yourself ;D



- A juggling act from my iPad

Hohoho! One thing I like about blogging is the amount of information that we share together. Tips, reviews, suggestions, especially on the topics that us women love such as fashion, make up, accessories, diet and so much more! It is amazing to see how much we really inspire each other ;)


Recently LadyVerde shared with us her fabulous first encrypted entry. Being a newbie in the blogging world I am soooo excited about this possibility! Since I am not incognito, sometimes I don't feel comfortable sharing certain information with the public, but having encrypted texts allows me to share with my blog friends things that I like without compromising my professionalism (too much) such as: Shopping! ;D


Blog friends should be able to guess what the password is! ;) *Small letters.
I think Ermayum can guess hehehe.
Kalau ada problem to access, do email me ok. Haih...macam la korang nak baca sangat kan :P



*Sorry entry kurang kemas. Saya budak baru belajar ;)

Dah lama tak buat entry pasal weight management. Fact is, dah lama lapse the healthy food regime. Ada la dekat 3 bulan kot? Semenjak Bibik lama balik kampung.

These past 3 months saya tak berpantang nasi. In fact tak berpantang apa2 pun, semua pun belasah aja. Kesian badanku huhuhu. The only thing I have done is to properly wear my full PB set. Adakah saya naik berat badan?...


If only I dare to, I would love to try out an experiment to see how much PB plays a part in helping digestion and increasing metabolic rate. Percubaan 6 bulan katakan, dimana 3 bulan pertama tak pakai PB, tiga bulan berikutnya pakai PB and lihat perbezaannya. Tapi sekarang tak berani nak cuba hehehe. Hanya boleh merujuk kepada pengalaman tidak memakai PB yang lepas sahaja.

Sangat kesal tidak mengetahui tentang kewujudan PB right after my slimming centre treatments!!! From 58kg after giving birth to second child I reached my ideal skinny weight of 48kg with the help of SlimWorld. Kurus tuuuu! Lepas tu two years on I gained 4kg; naik 2kg after raya tahun 2008 and another 2kg after raya 2009. Itu pun throughout the year generally memang sangat kurang makan nasi and generally control jugak portions. Cuma raya je let loose gila2 hehehe. If only I could turn back time...sigh...

Fed up with the weight gain, in May 2009 I turned to PB and tried a more healthier diet and exercise the good old way. Eh bukan aku dah cerita ke pasal benda2 ni semua? Ngeng!

But wait, I bought PB in May 2009. So why did I gain weight during raya that year then? To be entirely honest, I did not wear my PB properly at that time. The reason was that I accidentally bought a girdle one size too small (70) and hence tak selesa and hence malas pakai. Kalau tak pakai girdle, macam mana nak pakai long bra, so pakai the waist nipper je. However, several months back I got myself the correct saiz (76) and realizing the fact that it isn't entirely cheap, I thought hey what the heck, alang2 dah beli pakai je la the full set of 3 items.

Back to the question, adakah saya naik berat badan? Surprisingly, alhamdulillah tidak, maintain sahaja. (Ceh..relax je,padahal relieved gile kot.) Tetapi yang agak mengujakan ialah I have lost nearly 2 kg since berpuasa ni! Terjojol bijik mataku melihat weighing scales cos I have never been 50 point something kg (dry/morning weight) in a long time! And I believe this time it is definitely due to help from PB (I am not a PB distributor mind you). Of course if you over eat, then tengok scales you would see an increase in weight due to the mass of food you have consumed in your stomach. A doughnut takes 3 days to properly digest, I read somewhere! But in a few days of normal and controlled eating the weight returns back to its original state. The fact that I eat once a day during iftar only, means that I managed to lose weight. Faster.

So based on my own experience, I have noticed the trends below:

Without PB
Over eating consistently = weight gain
Over eating sometimes + normal eating = weight gain
Normal eating = weight gain
Controlled eating = weight maintain
Under eating = weight loss

Of course if you added exercise to the equations above, you would get

Over eating consistently + exercise = weight gain
Over eating sometimes + normal eating + exercise = weight maintain
Normal eating + exercise = weight maintain
Controlled eating + exercise = weight loss
Under eating + exercise = weight loss



With PB
Over eating consistently = weight gain
Over eating sometimes + normal eating = weight maintain
Normal eating = weight maintain
Controlled eating = weight maintain
Under eating = weight loss

I have never tried it myself, but If you added exercise to the equations I suspect you would get

Over eating consistently + exercise = weight gain
Over eating sometimes + normal eating + exercise = weight maintain
Normal eating + exercise = weight maintain
Controlled eating + exercise = weight loss
Under eating + exercise = weight loss



From the above equations I can deduce that the benefits of using PB personally for me are:

• Using PB allows me to overeat sometimes without experiencing weight gain. (Ni yang best ni, I never crave anything anymore)
• Using PB I can get away with not exercising. (This is a huge advantage. At least for the time being, whilst still relatively young and hormones are relatively stable.)
• It is important to wear the complete set of 3 items.

Weight management will be a never ending issue for women, so every little thing helps ;) In a society that revolves around food and lack of time/motivation to exercise, PB really helps the juggling act!

I don't actually believe the ridiculously long list of health benefits claimed regarding PB I see in blogs including cancer prevention and all that jazz. As far as I am concerned I use it to prevent weight gain from unscrupulous eating habits. And so far it has helped me achieve that.

I am adamanet not to gain weight after raya. Let's see if I manage to do this! ;D


*Controlled eating means consuming not more than the recommended daily calorie intake.
*Normal eating means consuming for example our typical malay style food choices in controlled portions, nasi lemak + teh tarik for breakfast, nasi lauk + air sirap for lunch, kuih muih for tea and nasi lauk lagi for dinner.
*Overeating means consuming any type of unhealthy food in large, uncontrolled portions.

Happy Monday Morning!

Minggu ini minggu yang penuh dengan keazaman.

Ada deadline for paper submission on 31st August 2010.

Sempatkah?

If you don't see me around this week you'll know why.

Mudah2an sempat memerdekakan diri pada tanggal tersebut!




Crash Boom Bang.

Tak ada kena mengena pun tapi tetiba je that phrase came to mind.

Do you know the song?

Woweee...agak mencabar untuk membuat entry sejak dua menjak ini...asyik letih je memanjang...By the time malam, sudah keletihan tahap maksima. Anywho, entry ringkas pada pagi ini adalah mengenai topik kegemaran berkisar tentang handbag of the month hehehe.


After more than a month of continuous service since the day it was in my posession, a few days ago I finally decided it was time to let Ms Mahina Solar take some time off, relax, and let another handbag enter the bag rotation.




And wow, have I enjoyed the service! I am pleasently surprised at how deceivingly big she is.









The only downside of a big bag is that you really do tend to overstuff it, especially when you bring it travelling! Tanpa belas kasihan Ms Solar telah dilanyak dan direnjan sepuas hati.










- A juggling act from my iPad

It is 9am on a lazy Sunday morning. I am sure many of us are still snugly rolling around in bed. Ye ke? As for me, I am in an examination hall, conducting the first test of the semester for my postgraduate students taking masters by coursework degree.







The Master of Environmental Engineering and Master of Environmental Management are very popular degrees. Over the years the number of students enrolling each semester have grown by up to 100%. Since there are now close to 50 students enrolled for any particular course, classes are split into two. This means that instead of teaching one class for the Principles of Environmental Engineering course this semester, I am teaching two. By keeping the number of students per course small, we endeavour to maintain the quality of teaching and learning here at the Faculty of Engineering.

It is a good thing that courses are shared by two lecturers according to topics otherwise the workload is quite considerable. Teaching two classes the same topics is not much of a problem. Furthermore, for an 8 hour class conducted on a Sunday for example, lectures are limited to a say a couple of hours only. The rest of the time we act as fascillitators for group active learning; more of a student-centered learning approach. The same applies for a 4 hour class conducted on Saturday afternoons. This means that for a particular weekend, we conduct 12 hours out of the 42 hours required per course per semester. 3 such weekends make up the 36 hours out of the 42 hours, and the additional 6 hours are allocated for tests.

The Faculty of Engineering's Masters by coursework degree is a paid program. This means that lecturers are paid per hour for their service. Just for the info of other young academicians, typical lecturing rates in Malaysia are on average RM200 per hour. I believe that other universities should have similar programs, perhaps even better paying than us. However, it is not just about the money. If you are a young academician wanting the fast track up the ladder, do grab the opportunity to increase the number of courses you teach to strengthen your CV.

The beauty about being in academia is that you are not only working for others, you are working for yourself because everything you do contributes towards strengthening your CV. It is entirely up to you how or even IF you wish to climb the ladder ;)


- A juggling act from my iPad

Bulan Ramadhan menjadi kebiasaan saya masak dengan lebih bersemangat daripada biasa sebab masa ni tekak nak makan masakan yang lain2 sikit. Lauk2 simple yang biasa masak setiap hari rasa jemu nak makan. Saya masak juga yang simple tetapi saya harus memastikan ramuannya sempurna ataupun saya akan tambah satu lauk special ;) Saya kurang gemar berbuka di luar atau di hotel kerana terasa seperti kena melantak bila dah bayar for buffet. So not good for digestion and diet! Bulan ramadhan yang lepas2 rajin keluarkan bbq set!  Rasa macam seronok membakar sementara tunggu waktu berbuka, tapi beberapa hari ni so far belum berasap lagi lah belakang rumah tu ;)

Semalam saya singgah ke Little Parlour untuk mendapatkan inspirasi menu berbuka...Best, kecur air liur dibuatnya. Lady kalau buat buku masakan, mesti saya beli tau!  Ada macam2 lagi lauk nak try tapi hari ini saya masak Kari Kepala Ikan dan Daging Dendeng. Kari ni lauk biasa, tetapi ada pelbagai cara style orang masak. Walaubagaimanapun saya setuju cakap Lady bahawa kari ikan memerlukan sedikit perhatian berbanding kari ayam. Kali ini saya ikut style Lady masak iaitu potong tomato dadu ;) Saya pastikan rempah betul-betul garing dan saya lebihkan asam jawa supaya cukup rasa masam tanpa was2. Kali ini juga saya perah santan fresh daripada kelapa parut daripada menggunakan santan dalam kotak. 






Dua hari lepas jiran sebelah bagi bubur kacang durian yang sungguh sedap, terus teringat pada entry Ermayum tentang bubur kacang durian. So hari ni untuk pencuci mulut saya masak bubur kacang, cuma durian je tak de, kalau ada laaaaagi kaw ;)  Ooopsss, lupa amik gambar hehehe...



Sebenarnya apa yang dikatakan oleh Puan Nani Rostam tentang tekak orang Johor memang betul. Ibu bapa saya dua2 orang Muar, dan taste buds mereka agak terhad kepada masakan sebelah sana. Selepas berkahwin dengan suami saya yang berasal daripada Perak, negeri yang kaya dengan pelbagai jenis makanan, saya terus terpikat dengan makanan seperti rendang dan tempoyak. Saya dibesarkan dengan menu2 simple kerana ibu saya juga sibuk menjuggle career dan membesarkan 7 orang anak *gulp*. Suami pula dibesarkan dengan menu yang berpelbagai kerana walaupun arwah MIL juga bekerja, tetapi mereka tinggal berdekatan dengan rumah neneknya iaitu sebuah markas catering. GMIL saya memang pandai masak. Kalau balik ipoh saya suka ambik peluang belajar masak ikut style GMIL.

Di sini saya ingin berkongsi buku resipi kegemaran saya iaitu A Taste Of Batu Gajah ~ Traditional Malay Family Recipes. Saya suka buku ini kerana lauk2 kegemaran saya dan suami memang lauk2 classic dan tradisional. Resipi yang dikongsi oleh Datin Norsiah Bakhari memang menepati citarasa dan ada yang sama dengan cara style GMIL memasak. Perhaps because she herself is from Batu Gajah ;)



Some excerpt from the book:

"While A Taste of Batu Gajah is about life - and the tastes -of this unique historical town in Perak, it is more importantly about authentic Malay cooking with lots of heart and soul thrown in."

"As you go through the pages however, you will come to understand that A Taste of Batu Gajah is so much more than a cookbook. Besides imparting the delectable recipes that Batu Gajah is renowned, it is simultaneously a tribute to a town rich in culture and heritage."
~ HRH Raja Permaisuri Perak Darul Ridzuan, Tuanku Bainun Mohd Ali.




With that being said, nothing beats mum's good old asam pedas and sambal sotong ;)




- A juggling act from my iPad

Ooooohhhhhh.....beginilah rupanya perasaan malas nak selenggara blog yeeeeee....finally I succumbed to this feeling. It has been more than 10 days since my last entry. After the conference in Kuching terus rasa macam tak larat nak buat apa2, nak take it easy aja. Although day in day out I subconciously collect material for this blog, tapi ada aku update kat sini?....o_O

Sebenarnya over the past few days ada juga terfikir tentang hala tuju belog ini...hasrat asal diwujudkan belog (seperti yang tertera di tepi itu) tak tau lah samada tercapai walaupun sedikit...yang benornya lebih menyeronokkan menulis tentang benda2 personal dan merapu2 dan handbag2 dan shopping2 tetapi since aku ni bukanlah incognito maka perlu la ada sedikit cover line di situ...

Entry kali ini terpanggil pulak untuk menulis sedikit tentang penerbitan jurnal; an entry mostly targeted to other young academicians who may be reading this blog...

KPI penting untuk seorang pensyarah adalah jumlah penerbitan yang diterbitkan pada setiap tahun. I learnt the hard way last year in 2009 that one needs to plan one year in advance in order to ensure that papers are successfully published for any particular year. I had already published 3 papers in 2008; coincidentally due to submitting them in 2007; that I let complacency get the better of me.

What was I doing in 2008? So distracted and engrossed was I with my quater life crisis that I forgot to plan for my 2009 publications. By the time I got back to my senses in 2009, it was already too late to achieve more than the minimum 1 paper requirement for a senior lecturer. Even though my KPI was met, but it felt like a huge blow when a couple of young high flying colleagues were churning out close to 20 papers! It is certainly no easy feat to publish papers especially ones with high impact factor! Nak publish a couple of papers pun sikit punya payah, ini kan pula berpuluh puluh! No wonder they were awarded Anugerah Penyelidik Cemerlang 2009 from the faculty! Apa kelebihan mendapat anugerah tersebut?

• Their own designated parking space for the year 2010, which is quite convenient considering the lack of parking space close to the faculty ;) I had already tasted this privelage when I was awarded Anugerah Pengajar Cemerlang 2008 and was allocated a parking space for the year 2009.
• Monetery incentives yang agak lumayan. Based on the quantity and impact factors of the papers I reckon they got around RM20,000 to RM30,000 each. Which is pretty decent considering that a few years back this kind of incentive was nonexistant.
• Of course the long list of publications contribute towards that Professorship baby!

Sebab aku dah sentap kan, I had to clean up my act. I invited my successful colleague to hold a publication workshop for my students at the end of 2009 to share tips of the trade on successful publication. My subsequent application from the university's Research Management Centre to bring my students for a publication retreat at a nice hotel was also granted. Alhamdulillah, most of the papers submitted following that workshop and retreat were successfully published in ISI Thomson citation indexed journals in 2010. Even though we have less than 10 papers this year, but I am really satisfied that our hardwork has paid off. I want to squeeze in a couple more publications if possible this year before preparing for 2011 publications. However, to do so I'll need to spend less time on here though...T_T

What are the tips of the trade for successful publication? Some are listed below...

• Ensure you have high quality figures and diagrams. Shoddy or unprofessional figures will often lead to instant rejection.
• Ensure the diagrams tell a story so that editors can quickly scan the paper and decide whether it is worth publishing or not.
• Sometimes it is usefult to directly contact the Chief Editor prior to submission mainly to introduce yourself and to build rapport with the journal.
• Aim for a few high impact factor journal publications or many low impact factor journal publications or even better, many high impact factor journal publications!
• Once you have penetrated a certain journal, it becomes easier to publish subsequent papers there. This is why it is useful to target high impact factor journals since once you are successful, subsequent papers are easier to publish there hence publication incentives become extremely lucrative!
• And what about writing papers even BEFORE you have any results in hand? Unheard of!!! But that is one of the effective strategies for mass publication. Because writing a couple of papers is one thing, but churning out 10, 20 papers each year is another. Nak apply for Professor pun you only need 30 papers, so bayangkan je lah!
• Unless you do everything on your own which is absolutely impossible considering the amount of multitasking in this career, supervising and managing your postgraduate students is key.
• Encourage teamwork among your students to produce papers together. This approach ensures better quality work for you and more papers for each student which is good for their own CV. A very desirable win-win situation.

Thank you Dr. A for sharing your success tips with my team. I look forward to the second workshop on mass publication with you after raya naaaaaa...Mudah2an meletup2 la publications macam anda ;)

So if you want your own Elsevier tree; a tree big and strong that provides shade and shelter and bears fruits for you throughout the seasons, start planting the seeds today and insyaallah you shall enjoy the fruits of your labour...



*Apart from Elsevier, other popular publishers include Taylor and Francis and Springer.


Kalau korang bosan baca entry ni, lepas ni saya buat entry handbag pulak eh hehehe! ;D


- A juggling act from my iPad