coriander in pho

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  • Exercising is a go!

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    With the risk of jinxing things (because I tend to jinx stuffs whenever I talked about it,) I’m pretty proud to say that I’m starting doing exercise since early June.

    I haven’t done anything super intensive as I don’t think I would be able to do it (I once tried Stair Master equipment on my apartment’s gym and suffice to say, I almost passed out after trying it for 5 minutes.) Right now, my routine is 30 minutes of treadmill walk with 4.0 speed and 4.5 – 5.0 elevation.

    I usually do it in the morning time — I found it works better for me to release some kind of excess energy. I’m not sure if it’s excess energy or something else (SHOULD I BE WORRIED?) but I found my hands trembling in the morning and feeling restless whenever I’m not doing my exercise — whenever you found me referring myself as “a hamster in caffeine”, yep, this. Some said it’s a sugar rush (I usually take my morning coffee with sugar) so doing exercise helps me to get rid of the rush and focus better on my work.

    When I am unable to do treadmill in the morning for whatever reasons, I usually do yoga (I once shared the video a couple of posts before this) then do the walking in the afternoon.

    Right now, I’m also thinking of rechecking my meals. I really don’t want to do drastic no-carbs no-sugar no-salt method because: 1. I love food, and 2. You will find yourself trying to pry my beloved bread and rice from my cold dying hands. The key, I guess, is “moderation”. I really really can’t giving up tteokbokki, ramen, dim sum, and garlic bun. What I can do, though, is to be mindful of the portions and increase the protein and fibres.

    I’m actually tempted to buy whey protein powder, thanks to my friend — but I’m actually not super sure because I think my protein intake is already enough on daily basis (I usually have two half-boiled/hard-boiled eggs for breakfast) and adding whey protein to the pattern will be a moot point.

    How about you all? Do you have any methods on ensuring you are consuming enough nutrients on your meals and stay healthy? What is your favorite menu?

  • (Leftover) chicken porridge with sweet pumpkin

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    I suddenly remembered one of my colleagues once asked this question: “Do you have any tips on how to combat post-lunch sleepiness?”

    This is one of the tips.

    Recently, I’ve been taking a liking to pumpkin and sweet potatoes. My favorite is steamed sweet pumpkin with soy sauce and a bit of white pepper.

    Just now, I noticed we have a leftover from our Sunday lunch: Korean fried chicken with honey coating (by Kyochon 1991.) The chicken was on the fridge, so I went with my usual route: Add it on oatmeal porridge.

    I took 4 pieces of chicken wings and pulled all the meat/deboned it. At the same time, I boiled a quarter of sweet pumpkin (the smaller variety.) Once the pumpkin is soft enough, I put them aside.

    Then, I prepared for the porridge: Four tablespoons of oatmeal, water, and chopped green onions. As for the seasonings, I added garlic powder, MSG, and half package of instant noodles seasoning (Maggi noodles. My son once made a couple of Maggi noodles soup and he left one seasoning package so the noodles won’t be too salty.) I didn’t add any salt because the seasoning powder is salty enough.

    As I stir the porridge, I put some of the chicken and the pumpkin into the porridge to add more flavor. I put aside some of them as toppings.

    Once the porridge is ready, I put the rest of the chicken and the pumpkin as toppings. Garnish it with green onions.

    This gets me through the afternoon without feeling lethargic and hangry. Highly recommended.

  • Kecak Dance at Uluwatu Temple, Bali

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    Watching this IRL has been one of my bucket lists. As of now, Youtube should suffice.

    Kecak dance is telling a story of Ramayana ballad — a story about a prince (Lord Rama) with his wife, Sita (in Indonesia, we named her “Shinta”) and their battle against evil force: Ravana.

    The story opens with kecak dancers singing and dancing when Sita and Rama entered. Soon, a golden deer entered (with jingling and twinkling sounds.) Unbeknownst to them, the golden deer is actually Ravana’s lackey, being sent to lure Rama and Lakshmana away from Sita so Ravana can kidnap Sita.

    Lakshmana joined Rama and Sita, then both Rama and Lakshmana chased the golden deer — but before that, they created a holy circle to protect Sita so no harm can come upon her.

    Enter Ravana (you can hear the gasp from the audience.) Ravana tried to pull Sita, but the circle protecting Sita (the kecak dancers wave their hands and standing up — symbolizing protection.) Ravana, defeated, decided to withdraw. Sita was safe, for a moment.

    Enter a rekshi, an old holy man, asking for Sita’s help. Sita, sweet soul she is, wanted to help the holy man so she opened up the circle, only to find out the rekshi actually Ravana in disguise.

    Jatayu, a garuda (giant bird) swooped down, realizing Sita is in danger. Jatayu looked around and tried to attack Ravana to no avail. Jatayu got defeated.

    Rama and Lakshmana enter the scene, clearly distraught with Sita gone missing. Then they received a help: Hanuman. The all-powerful white monkey.

    Hanuman, dude, this guy is like the OG. The superhero. Iron Man who WE ARE TALKING ABOUT OUR BOI LORD HANUMAN HERE. You can hear the literal gasps from the audience when Hanuman enters the scene — twice. Hanuman tends to move freely too, even sitting with the audience and taking selfies.

    Hanuman, hell-bent on rescuing Sita with Rama and Lakshmana, decided to take a drastic approach: He burns down Ravana’s kingdom (there is a special dance for this: Hanuman Obong. Obong means burned/burning/burns/lighted on fire.)

    The mission went successfully. Rama, Lakshmana, and Hanuman managed to defeat Ravana and bring back Sita.

    Ramayana story is a full Hindu epic from India — and thanks to the trading activities between Indonesia and India at the beginning of civilizations, Indonesia is really familiar with Hindu stories and epics.

    The featured image is taken from here.

Nindya’s quick blurbs

  • A month too late, but I just stumbled upon IKEA France’s Tiktok video, hinting a possible collab with Animal Crossing. Unfortunately, no further information about this other than IGN picked up this news when the video was posted.

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