Bee Hoon Kueh

I like Bee Hoon Kueh, everytime my mom cooked it, I would have eaten three to four bowls of it. It is a comfort food for me. Apart from nasi lemak and spicy food, Bee Hoon Kueh was one of the food I craved in Japan. 

One time, I was craving for it so hard that I actually cycled out to supermarket to buy flour. After I went home with the ingredient that I remembered that I didn't know how to cook Bee Hoon Kueh. So, thanks to skype, I called my mom and she told me how to cook it. 

Ingredients:

Flour, salt, dried anchovies for the soup stock. 

(I added prawn too because I had it with me that time, and prawn really didn't go well with Bee Hoon Kueh)

flour, salt and soup stock

Discounted Food Items Near Expiry Date

In Japan, it's easy to find near expiry food items being heavily discounted in supermarket. I bought many food stuffs on discount there and I don't mind the expiry date. To me, as long as the colour and taste remain the same, it is safe to eat although it is over the expiry date. (Well, at least this is what my friend in food industry told me)

The items near expiry date I bought include meat, bento, bread, fish, dairy products and even tofu! Sometimes, I would even eat the tofu one or two days after the expiry date, as long as the tofu didn't smell bad.

I was staying alone in Japan then, so I had difficulty to finish up the salt, sugar, miso paste before the expiry date, I continued to consume all the items after the expiry date. I think it is absurd to set a expiry date on salt though, sugar does become less sweet after awhile (my feeling), while miso paste is a fermented stuff, it couldn't get any worse, right? I did dispose my cooking oil after I realised it's over the expiry date, I was worried about the oil getting rancid.

For meat products, the supermarket would start to offer discount 2 days before the expiry date. Hmmm, I wonder how they determined the expiry date of meat!

pork 50% discount (半額=50% discount)

Mind Boggling Stuffs I Bought From Japan

Well, it's normal to buy stuffs during travel. I would buy things that I normally wouldn't buy when I was in a foreign land and I bought a lot of things that don't even make sense of myself. I bought a lot of accessories in Japan, the problem is I don't wear accessories, I don't even use key chain, I only use a ring to hold all my keys. Now, all of these accessories are wrapped in a plastic bag and kept under my bed, I will occasionally take it  out to admire before putting it back. Hahaha!

I got the below accessories, brooches and key chains in a shop in Kobe, it was having sales! I think every simple piece cost 500 yen, since it looks cute and not so expensive (I was earning in Japanese yen then), I bought all that! 

accessories

Shiseido Aqualabel Prefect Protect Milk UV (Blue) & Moist Protect Milk UV (Red)

After I had a very bad sunburn from just one day of snowboarding, I realised the importance of applying sunscreen. My first sunscreen was from Nivea (can be used on both face and body), it was not expensive too, however, I had to stop using that on my face because my eyes were irritated by the sunscreen, everytime I applied the Nivea sunscreen, I would have itchy eyes. So, I went shopping for another sunscreen. Since I was using Shiseido products on my face prior to that and it was ok, I decided to get a Shiseisdo sunscreen, I didn't go for the expensive one though, I bought a drugstore Shiseido sunscreen, a Aqualabel Prefect Protect Milk UV SPF 50+ PA+++.

Initially, I felt it was too heavy for me, however after around a week, I got used to the texture. After that, I got another sunscreen from the same line, a Aqualabel Moist Perfect Milk UV SPF 28 PA++. The Moist Perfect Milk has a lower SPF and PA, but it is more runny and for the same price, 5ml more! The Perfect Protect Milk has higher viscosity than the Moist Perfect Milk too. So, before applying the Perfect Protect Milk, there is an instruction to shake well before use "よく振ってから、お使いください". (There are metal balls inside the bottle)

Now I am using both interchangeably, and the Perfect Protect Milk is almost finish. I think I will buy the same sunscreens after I clear up these 2 bottles. 

Aqualabel Protect Milk UV

Make A Gif From Video Using VLC & PhotoScape

I am quite free today, so I decided to learn how to make a Gif from video. I have installed Photoscape in my computer already, however Photoscape can only make Gifs from pictures. So, I googled around, netizens provide a lot of ideas and tips. There are many online editors that are able to convert video file to Gif file directly, however I am afraid that those free editors are malware. Finally, I found out that VLC player can convert video file to multiple screenshots. I didn't have VLC player, so I downloaded and installed it in my computer. 

*I have confidence on VLC player because many people I know are using it.

my first Gif on wind up tin robot!

There are 2 options to screenshot in VLC

1. one screenshot at a time
2. multiple screenshots as the video file is running