Advice

Here is what the Nutritionist says! Hear, Hear..

"1. Fried food is made by completely submerging a food item in hot fat(some type of oil). The degree to which this method of food preparation is"bad" depends on A) how long the food is submerged B)The temperature ofthe fat C)Most important! The TYPE of oil used. Basically, because I knowyou arent THAT interested in this, try to avoid eating too many friedfoods! They contain high amounts of both saturated and trans fats. Bothare very bad for your weight, heart, and arteries. These fats clog bloodpassages--Some people describe blood flowing through the arteries of aperson who eats fried food akin to trying to suck thick soup through astraw! Grooose. So, STAY AWAY from fried foods! (P.S. It wont hurt too bad to indulge in them once a week or so)" -Molly Eyler, Nutritionist.

I am really scared that my blood flow is going to be as describe. It is enough a picture to keep me a good distance from fried food. Though I definitely think that they should be indulged in once in a blue moon, I think it will be nice to know my blood does not look like thick soup!

2. Coke! Also a good question. Like fried food, alot of people want to stay away from drinking regular Coke because it contains rediculously high amounts of sugar. Its basically like eating a ton of candy. It contains this horrible form of refined sugar called "high fructose corn syrup"--this you can see on almost any food label. Sugar makes you fat AND makes your teeth rot out! Also, "According to numerous household cleaning Websites, soda can clean your toilet, eliminate rust from a car bumper andremove grease from clothing." So, imagine what it does to your stomach! So, then, everyone wants to know if DIET Coke is the way to go??? Good question! The reason it's "healthier" is because it doesn't contain any real sugar. Instead, it gets its sweet taste from what are called"artificial sweeteners" (chemicals that are made in a lab to resemble the taste of sugar--Known most commonly as Splenda, Aspritame, etc.) These aren't supposed to be bad for you, but personally I don't trust anything that is made in a lab and hasn't been out on the market for more than 10 years. I still drink diet drinks though, just try to drink mostly milk and water."- Molly Eyler, Nutritionist

I think it is good knowing that except for the sugar coke doea not kill. A very valid evidence is that I am still alive. And since coke can clean the grease from my intestine, so much the better esp after eating fried food. But of course, I am going to drink bottle water as I think the water in Singapore, otherwise known to me as toliet bowl cum drain water has toooooooo much "purification chemicals"; and milk, my favourite: if babies can live of milk, so can I!

And finally for the last question of the blog:

"3. BK vs MacDonalds! HA! What a question! Avoid both, for goodness sakes!Actually, these days it really isn't necessary to. Both offer GRILLED chicken sandwiches, salads and fruit--all good things! What you want toavoid are the fries, hamburgers, and fried fish and chicken. And the coke of course!"- Molly Eyler, Nutritionist

Well, I think that means (in other words or in short) stay of the fast food whosoever they be. But I really think that is a HARD saying. I mean we go to these places to chew on the fries and drink the coke and just sit down there and watch tiome fly by. OK, anyhow I am going to try. Next time we want a meeting place it won't be the fast food it will be Cold storage other wise known as the Fresh food people!

Final advice:
"Heres what I recommend for a healthy body and healthy mind! (For, eating the right kind of food and exercise GREATLY benefits the mind) Think back to the early days of civilation...When people were sustainable, they lived off of fresh, home grown fruits and veggies, bread, meat, eggs, and water! Nothing processed or chemical! This type of diet is what our bodies can handle easiest---simple, no chemicals or weird things that might cause cancer. If you're REALLY feeling interested, check out www.mypyramid.org to see more about nutrition!"- Molly Eyler, Nutritionist

Ok, class anymore questions? Seriously, though, I am really going to eat healthy, not for anything but just that I know that when I do I feel 10 times better about my body than when I don't. Not that it worries me so much, what I eat, because as they say what goes in will come out, but I think that to live healthy is very respectable to my body and so it is a positive attitude, though once in a while a leeway to indulgence (afterall life has to be fun), and so I will feel more respectable to life as a whole!

Gourmet (cont.)

Why I have to cont talking about food? Because we eat everyday, it has become such a hot issue unless you don't care about food and all you eat three times a day is cold food.
Yes, people in Singapore and Malaysia eat almost 24-7. It is a past time. When they have nothing to do they eat. The other day when we went out to a coffee shop, there were about 9 Malay food stalls and multitudes of Chinese stalls and all selling like hot cakes. People make such a business out of food. Nobody goes hungry. I leave it to the conscience to answer if there is an element of greed involved. The difference between need and greed is a fine thin line.
I don't think that we should dispel oil or frying from our living, I think to do it in moderation is necessary. Also on the other hand people who are careful about their means of cooking are too selective, they do not get the whole stroke of the gourmet. I still distinctively feel it is about balance rather than lopsided consumption. Of course there is such a thing as substitution but what go would subtraction do?
Finally, I think there are a lot of food theories out there. How we should eat and live. But I don't think everything must first be taken with a pinch of salt. There really is nothing that does not kill. Anything can kill. You can eat a harmless cherry and choke on it's seed. And, yes, die from eating the cherry. I have heard so much about what can maim our health, I wonder why we are all not dead yet. And yes, it may be killing us softly and slowly but I suggest that most htings do wear and tear the body in one way or another. It is moderation that helps to preseve the body and postpone its decaying eventuality. Some say coke killss. Others say stay off oil. There are some who determine to know if BK or Macdonald is better? And all are encompassed by the fear that these empires are set up to kill. Yes they definitely do have a potential. But after that they prosperity will fledge. Let me say, that I wonder this finally, what will kill us first? fear or food?
To be back soon, HG

KL pictures.

internet conection is slow so i have given up posting pictures for now. later.

Gourmet

I am not a food fanatic. Definately not. Sometimes when I have to eat lunch (esp) or any other meal, I feel like it is so routine. I don't see that I am doing it out of necessity but mere tradition. Why should we have three bloody meals in a day or four including supper. I just wish I could eat when I need and as much as I want or not want! Blistering Barnacles and Thundering Typhoons!

Now after this vent of ridiculous babbling, lets go on to GOURMET. Well, you know Singapore is food paradise but sometimes I wish food would not be all reeved up, all the noise and flowers on it. Just a simple meal. Today, I had that for lunch. And I loved that. I felt that it increased my appetite.

It is miraculous thought the different cusines available. The choices given, I believe I will never make a choice. The different measurements upon which different cultures work. I need to think more intricritely on this but one thing for sure, after some thought, I do know that the food made in a culture can help you appreciate it better.

Sometimes choices are fun. Not making too many yet having a good options can really spice up life. Singapore does offer that to an extent, but too much also (errrr) takes the fun out of it and it becomes cumbersome. The problem with a lot of local food though is that it is toooooo oily. Take it from me, it may taste good but it is not worth drinking oil. Maybe if you go to Iraq one can do that but not here where food is abundant and one is spoilt for choice. I feel that local food esp is drenched, soaked, made in oil. And I really feel sick after eating not too much of it. I am turning to other sources available, until I miss the local oilycacies.

Lost in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Ok, new year, new blogger.

I should like to start the new year with answers to some of the questions. I wondered that at the end of my life I will have all my questions answered. I don't think so. As I grow, I seem to have more questions with no certainty of finality.

Anyway, I want to write about something that happened last year when we were in KL. I should love to put some pictures up but not now. Now, I am only in the mood for typing as fast as possible whatever there is that is needed to say. We went to KL with two friends from India. So we were staying in an apartment P&B Darby. Apartment overlook different aspects of KL. I liked the room we slept in it had a clear view of KL buildings. I am not a big architecture critic or anything like that. In fact, the gigantic, grotesque structures do scare me sometimes; the way they awesomely tower over me expanding my minuteness. And the crowded cities overwhelms me negatively. I feel pressured and hardly at ease. Cars flying by and people hurrying incessantly between now and then. You got to stop and catch your breathe every now and then. But putting aside all these negative structures, I think the aspects of a city are also magnificent. The way they look, sometimes shaped from different dimensions. Mostly this tainted windows at the differnt angles reflecting the sunlight. And then the city is also about people living together. Compactly framed almost to suit an ideology- the mordern nomads. Hardly nomadic but still constantly evoloving, upgrading and running through life. And yet all in one place. There is so much more fascintaing approaches to life in a city. I wonder if all the cities of the world have the same aroma-- and stench..

So, we watch the Petronas tower, Twin towers. All really cool, exciting! Yet it send chills up my spine to see the city busking in such gory excitement. And then the shopping, train, food, etc...

What was though a very exhilarating experiance and more personal one was our visit to another side of KL- Chinatown. I thought it would be as boring but alas! down with my skepticism! I was rebuke with that experiance. Chinatown is cramped and jammed. The multitude of people and the slow pace at which that thin human line squeeze through the small tentages of busisnesses. One never touched anything until one was sure she was going to get it. You touch and they press upon you to get it! Run! Flee! It was as if this people had such hard dignity when it came to fighting for life. Another kind of dignity- uncouth dignity. The revelation of the market. Every one for his own survival. I learn the trick and skill of bargaining. YEA! If you don't push it down I will just go to another and then we will get on with life. Walking around flaunting the power of demand so that I could push down the equilibrium price. Economics seems so real amidst the sweat and toil of the night heat and humidity and the scram at which every one was just doing as he saw fit. In essence, it was the rat race. TRADE. Merchants for the right price. I felt as if I was fighting for my survival- monetary survival. Alright, it was not that bad. But it was very tense, even mentally I was on the edge; physical I was strain and emotionally I was vexed.

I liked that experiance because firstly it was cruel yet real. So like everything I know is out there but scrapped off the outward superficiality. It was human beings at its worst and yet best- cunning foxes, wise foxes; however you see these brutes you know deep down when man are left in the survival of the fittest, out there in this modern jungle, it boils down to selfishness. But then maybe, just maybe for a tiny second there was humanness in that selfishness- the way people fought for their lifes. In that moment some things in life just stringed togehter so sensiblely.

After a while, I was tired. When we back that night, I really felt relief; I was safe in the apartment on the 13 story. I had a few success stories of good bargaining deals.