Fried rice

Hi Honey!  How are you today, my darling?  It's a crazy world out there today, huh?  I know you're smart enough not to get involved with their silliness.  So please keep your precious self safe, because you are so precious to me, and I love you lots.  How is work?  I hope you are making lots of money for yourself, and easily and safely too.  Might as well, while you're waiting for me.  Rejoice in the world, but this world is but little comfort in the Hereafter.  So please pray.  Floofy had been digging in my spice basket lately, that's how she trashed the jar of vinaigrette.  Apparently what she was after was my block of fermented shrimp, known here as "belacan".  Pronounced "buh (as in "duh")-"lah"-"chan", not "belliken".  The locals use it to add flavor in just about everything.  Smells like hell.  Smells worse than durian.  I used it the other day to make curry.  Very tasty!  Are you planning to cook with it?

Hi Natty Honey!  Are you hungry?  What are you having for dinner?  I made some fried rice today.  There are so many versions of fried rice in the world, and most of them are bad.  I am of the opinion that fried rice should be light and refreshing, and not bogged down with heavy sauces and flavors.  The simpler the better, but today's fried rice was more complex than I anticipated.  I started off with frying up chopped garlic in anchovy oil, then added bamboo shoots, and frozen vegetables (corn, carrots and peas).  Then the rice went in, which I cooked last night and kept in the cooler.  Cold rice is easier to fry up.  I use soy sauce for color, and a little vinegar, but the salt comes from anchovy bouillon.  Then some sliced chicken, an egg (which I fry up in the middle of the rice), turn off the heat, and chopped scallions last.  Lots of stuff, but very light and mild.  All the flavor comes from the sweetness of the rice and the flavor of the vegetables.  Great for sensitive tummies.

Today the computer wants you to watch the very first James Bond movie, from 1962, "Dr. No"".  Wow, he looks so young!  007 didn't have any gadgets back then, just a new gun and a lot of brute force.  What a tough guy.  As far as I understand, that's how Ian Fleming intended Bond's character to be: a womanizing brute.  I love Ian Fleming's stories.  So much intrigue.  This is the also only time that James Bond sings.  Er...  Awesome movie, though.

The early morning mess

Hi Honey!  How are you today?  Are you staying busy as usual?  I miss you, and I wish we were together.  Not in this bachelor pad I live in right now.  It makes a great studio/doghouse, but I wouldn't house a wife in here.  You must have your own house.  I have 4 cats in here, and you would be right to think that it's a lot of work keeping up with them.  Cats are masters of chaos.  But I have my routine, and I do a fair job in keeping the floor clean.  It's when I go to sleep, that there is a 4 hour window when I'm too helpless to chase after cats.  The first thing I do when I get up is get mop water.  But when I got up this morning, I discovered that the house smelled of vinegar.  Oil and vinegar, to be precise.  Floofy had dumped the vinaigrette I made for you onto the floor, glass jar and all.  So the first I had to do this morning was clean up oil, vinegar, and glass.  At 5 am.  No, it's not all gone.  It's going to take some time to totally disappear.  At least the house smells of vinaigrette instead of cat.

Hi Natty Honey!  How are you?  I'm sure you are coping well, as the professional you are.  You must be having lots of excitement, traveling and exploring new places.  And don't you worry Honey, you are never alone.  I'm always with you, and checking up on you, and making sure you you are doing OK.  You have many people who love you, me included, so post snapshots all the time and show us what's happening to you, and how you are feeling.  OK?  Make sure you get plenty of rest, and please make time to pray.

So serious

Hi Honey!  How are you today?  Say, it's July and it must be hot hot hot over there.  I'm sure you like the hot weather.  I'm not too fond of it myself, but we can't expect it to be spring and autumn all the time.  That would be heaven.  It is NOT hot here.  It rained all last night, plus all yesterday morning.  I sleep so soundly when it's cold like this, a little too comfortable I'm afraid.  So comfortable, that I wasn't able to do my morning chores because the morning was gone.  Have you noticed that extra sleep makes you sleepier?  That's what happened to me today.  As a result, I didn't really do too well for voice training.  So sleepy.  It's still gloomy right now so close to sunset.  I think it's raining all over Asia.  There is an aura in the air- it feels like people are plotting.

Hey Natty Honey!  Being serious is perfectly fine if you don't screw things up for yourself by doing things that are not serious.  If you're in Asia, I'm sure you know that I am well known in Asia, mashaAllah.  People will be super interested in you because I want to marry you.  So it would serve you best to hide behind our marriage inshaAllah as much as possible.  You may feel uncomfortable, but don't test your tummy.  Stick to familiar foods, and keep sober OK?  Keep your wits about you, take many snapshots and post them to show the world what is going on with you.  Don't worry, everything will be just fine inshaAllah.  I love you.

Red

Hi Honey!  How are you feeling today, my beautiful love?  I love you so much.  I hope you are taking life easy, and having a great time.  It's been raining all day today, so the weather is nice and cool.  Which is a good thing for me, because I heat up so easily, plus I'm kind of antsy today for some reason.  I still have lingering chest congestion from the flu, which is very frustrating, but it generally takes 3 weeks to clear up.  The rain stopped in time for voice training, then the birds came out to play.  I decided to make chicken chow mein for dinner, so I went to the night market for the noodles and scallions.  Oh they had cuttlefish going for only RM20 per kilo, but I couldn't even afford that.  Fried calamari would have been so nice.  But I made chicken chow mein instead.  It looked dark red in the wok, but I guess it's not so bad in the bowl.  It didn't taste red.  It tasted quite creamy, actually.

You want some chicken chow mein, Natty?  I think you would like my fried noodles, and today's batch is very tasty.  I was about to finish the entire wok, but I guess I shouldn't.  Too many people my age are bloated beyond return.  I guess I should be too, if I want to be average, but I never really got that greedy.  Or is it that I can't afford to be...  I started out in white when getting ready for the dance club, then it turned red.  Great outfit though, I am quite happy with my look last night.  The down side is that I attracted a lot of creeps.  How about you Natty?  You are gorgeous, after all.  Mwah!

Hi Honey

How are you feeling today, my love?  It's a Sunday, I hope you haven't been working too hard.  Take some time to relax and enjoy what you've earned, because you deserve it.  It is a Sunday, and I always clean my mother's bedroom every Sunday morning.  But otherwise, nothing all that special happened today.  Not even on the menu.  Just home fries for lunch, and I had rice at Ina's for dinner.  I could have done more yard work, but I didn't.  I'll be back doing the dancing queen later on, inshaAllah.  I'll be there if you want to talk to me.

You too, Natty Honey.  But you do a great job with your Instagram.  I want to do more food projects, but I'm low on cash for the rest of this month.  I'm getting really tired of bland food, so I have to figure out how to go gourmet on small budget.  Maybe it's time to dig for herbs and roots.  Anyway, please try not to walk around paradise naked.  😜

Pepper steak with steamed rice

Hi Honey.  How are you, my love?  I long to be with you, because I love you.  A lot of money would definitely speed up our marriage.  But I am the last to be paid for what I do, and I cannot ask the humans to give me money.  Because I cannot serve the humans, because I serve Allah.  The humans would pay me for working for them, we would marry, then they would separate us. 

There are some banana trees growing right in front of my front door.  I don't eat these bananas: I planted them there years ago for my mother.  Sometimes there are too many bananas, so she has me give them away to the neighbors.  Like today, I harvested a bunch of bananas to give the neighbor, then cut down the tree because it's useless after bearing one bunch of bananas.  I was bending over to remove the tree, when I was attacked by a swarm of mud wasps that had been nesting in the tree.  Those things hurt!  It's a good thing that rubbing alcohol has an immediate effect on mud wasp stings.  The moral of the story is that since the music generates revenue for the community and I don't ask to be paid, some people regard that I remain a slave and do what they please because they think that I belong to the people.  But I don't belong to the people.  I belong to Allah.

Hi Natty Honey!  Are you excited?  Well relax Honey, and take your time.  Are you hungry?  For dinner I made pepper steak with steamed rice.  Andre showed me this recipe.  He played guitar for Shadowplay, he died in 2002.  I had some steak in my freezer, and it's a good day to make pepper steak.  The peppers (called chillies here) are more sweet than hot, like red bell peppers with some heat.  I cooked the steak separately from the onions and peppers.  You can't overcook the veggies, because they need to have some crunch to them.  So cook the meat apart from the veggies, then mix them together later.  I enjoy steamed rice the Western way, which is rice and one entree, like you would buy at a Western Chinese restaurant.  The locals here enjoy their white rice with several entrees.  They call it "nasi campur" ("rice mixed" is the literal translation).  You want some?  Sweet!  And hot.

Eating contest

Hi Honey!  How are you today, my darling?  Has your schedule calmed down a little?  I hope you take time for yourself to just relax and enjoy.  No need to be speedy- big wheels turn slowly.  Ugh, those eggs and beans I ate last night gave me heartburn.  Imagine that!  They were so bland and boring, but they gave me heartburn.  Maybe it's my stomach's way of telling me to next time turn it into chili.  There are so many strangers in town, it's as if the tourists never left.  You can hear them putting around and about the streets at 2, 3, 4 am.  Who knows how they entertain themselves, maybe they cross the border to look for transsexual hookers or something.  They most certainly eat, and new eateries are popping up like mushrooms.  Word of advice to restaurant owners from someone who has experience: just because there is a crowd, that doesn't mean they want to eat the food you sell.  You have to be GOOD.  You have to be SPECIAL.  You have to be UNIQUE.  All of the above.  And clean.

Hi Natty Honey!  How's it going?  Are you planning your next fantastic post?  It's so impressive to me how clever your posts are, albeit naughty.  Here's something you probably don't know: Google really likes your Instagram page.  So have fun with your posts, and don't go looking for fame because you don't need to.  Today the computer wants you to watch "X-Men: Days Of Future Past" (2014)  This story first appeared in the comics back in the 80s, and it was Kate Pryde that went into her younger self, plus it featured my favorite mutie Rachel Summers who got forced into the past.  But after doing all they did to ruin the X-men stories, and completing the destruction, Marvel will probably never make a success out of my Rachel.  Not even on TV.  Is it over for the movie career of X-Men?