Roti Bakar

A brunch on a Saturday morning started off with a hearty bowl of 'Koay Teow Soup' at the wet market of Penang Bazaar. Yummy.... and adjourned to nearby so-called-famous Toh Soon Cafe at the alley of Campbell Street.

Nasi Lemak... Simple coconut milk rice, with anchovies, and a quarter of an egg. Deliciously packed in traditional banana leaf and newspaper...

Then, the toasted bread and coffee were served.























And the verdict: The toasted bread was nicely done. Contrasting texture of the soft and fluffy texture of the bread, versus the crispy outer layer. Guess it must be the wonderful way it's being charcoal-toasted. The kaya wasn't that great, but was complimented by the generous rich spread of butter all over the toast.

For the coffee, it's unique, but didn't have much aroma of a coffee. Although it's a little bland, but was made thick, enough to awaken the dulled senses of morning drowsiness. According to unconfirmed sources, the owner self roasted the coffee beans again, adding secret ingredients of his own after buying in from wholesaler of coffee beans.

For those who is up for a food adventure, I've included the Wikimap of the location.
Bon appetit!

Ringgit likely to strengthen

Bank negara raised overnight policy rate to 2.25% citing strong Malaysian economic growth. (sourced from TheStar)... As cited in my earlier post on GBPMYR, the Ringgit has risen substantially against the Pound.
Riding on the optimism of the strong Malaysian market, and the debt problems and high unemployment claims of Britain, we will need to see if the Ringgit will break the support level at 5.00.
If it does, I would be seriously looking at ways to take advantage of the weak pound.

Junctionless Transistor

Courtesy of EEtimes: The world witnessing the first junctionless transistor.
"The breakthrough is based on the deployment of a control gate around a silicon wire that measures just a few dozen atoms across. The gate can be used to "squeeze" the electron channel to nothing without the use of junctions."

"Of course, crimping a silicon nanowire to control current in a lab setting and manufacturing these junction-free transistors en masse are two completely different things, and it remains to be seen whether the innovation can scale effectively across the chip industry. But if the technology does indeed pan out on a large scale, the breakthrough could lead to a paradigm shift in chip architecture."

So, basically, we will only be using a gate to 'squeeze' the electrons out from flowing across the nano-sized wire. If these become a reality, it will contribute significantly to cheaper transistors in the future, and more energy efficient devices as the leakage current will be significantly lower.

Therefore, we will see less of gated-channel transistor:

and more of this in the future:

Cross section of a silicon wire with wrap-around insulator and overlaid gate

More geeky info can also be read at PopSci.

Feeding time

Captured the mum feeding her kittens, and I think she has grown accustomed to me. No longer run away or being defensive when she sees me. So, took the opportunity to take a pic of feeding time... Apparently, it seems to be quite a relaxing procedure.
Sucking on the nipples is a good relaxation activity! Hahah.

Carbonara spaghetti

For the evening, I endeavored to try making carbonara spaghetti for 6 (dad, mum, nephew, sis and bro-in-law) using an ingredient meant for 3!... Letme explain.

I started off with a gift from sis, a can of Prego Carbonara sauce with the recommended serving for 3. Guessing that the contents will be quite salty, I improvised like Iron Chef (i can hear your thought bubble "OH Puhleeezzz")... opppsss. I mean experimented.

Ingredients:
1 can Prego Carbonara sauce (Campbell's)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup cream cheese
enough spaghetti for servings of 6
2 slices ham coursely sliced (not bacon. bought wrongly)
5 cloves garlic (chopped up)
6 button mushrooms (sliced)
1 stalk of coriander leaves finely chopped (should be parsley)
pepper and Formaggio cheese to taste
olive oil

Started off by doing all the normal things. Cooking the spaghetti to al dante and dishing it up and added olive oil to prevent sticking.

Boiled the milk in a small pot to reduce it to about 80% then, turned off the heat to add cream cheese and egg white from 2 eggs, and stir until it was well mixed up. Supposingly, the egg white won't be too cooked but I added when it was still hot, and it didn't turn out quite smooth.

Having made that blunder, left that aside, and continued to fry the garlics and mushrooms until a little golden in a wok. Then, the ham into the wok, until it's a little golden as well.

Then, went in the opened can of Prego sauce (tasted it a little and quite salty) into the wok and mix it up a little over low heat. Then, turned the fire off before it starts to bubble.

Then, to salvage my blunder, I sieved the contents of the pot into the wok, and discarded what must be the over-cooked egg whites. Then, turned back up the fire to low heat, and threw the spaghetti, 2 egg yolks and coriander (couldn't find parsley in market, and thought this is almost similar) in to mix well. Formaggio cheese and pepper to taste, depending on individual.

Result... YUMMY.. and I'm not boasting. Good testimonials from everyone. heheh... apparently, I had successfully neutralised much of the saltiness from Prego sauce.

Reflecting back, I think I could have done better with a cup of cooking cream and half cup of Parmesan cheese to add up to the sauce, instead of the milk, cream cheese and eggs.

The salad didn't turn out that well.... 1 lettuce, 1 stalk 'yau mak', 2 tomato, a small bowl of mint leaves, and an orange for the juice. The orange didn't give enough ooomphh...

Ended the dinner with a HUGE juicy watermelon. It cost only RM9 for a 9kg++ jumbo sized 92% H2O container! Sweet, thirst quenching dessert to end an evening. FYI.... my palm is pretty big.

Signing off.... [burp]....

GBPMYR almost 10 year low

The pounds is getting pounded, as explained by fundamental analyst supremo, Kathy Lien ( 5 reasons why the pound is being pounded). As reflected by the chart that I have below, the MYR (Malaysian Ringgit) is enjoying its own strengthening against the pound.
It's approaching a 10 year low, (almost 5.00) and the last time it happened, was early 2009 when the world financial turmoil started. During that time, the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch (to name a few) has sparked a worldwide panic and the lost of confidence of the world's financial market. Well, this time, the GBP (Great Britain Pound) is down partly because of concerns about the upcoming elections.
When will the rebound be!? Noone knows... But probably we've entered a period to pick up some good bargains. However, the downtrend hasn't been broken yet. Good luck profiting!

Dusk...

After a long tiring session at the gym, the sky unfolded in a crimson hue.
The simple pleasures of life, and what a sight to behold!. And my Samsung Omnia captured the moment...


Shifting to the left..............

















And the new apartment 'Sky Homes', towering above me, providing a cooling shade over the pool in this hot sweltering weather.


Anyways, time to relax my muscles!! *splash*