Celebrating Winter Solstice (Dong Zhi) 2008

Winter Solstice - the shortest day or the longest night of the year on the northern hemisphere and vice versa on the southern hemisphere, occurs between December 20 and December 23.

It is the only day the sun shines brightly on the South Pole.

Every year, many cultures around the world celebrate this day for various reasons and significances.

Winter Solstice celebrations worldwide:

• Amaterasu (Japanese)
• Beiwe (Finnish)
• Dong Zhi (Chinese)
• Hogmanay (Scottish)

• Inti Raymi (Incan)
• Saturnalia (Roman)
• Sol Invictus (Roman)
• Soyal (Hopi)

• Tekufat Tebet (Jewish)
• Wayeb (Mayan)
• Yule (Germanic)
• Yalda (Persian)

(Click here to know more about Winter Solstice on Wikipedia)

Since I'm a Malaysian Chinese, I will only tell you how the Chinese celebrate this festival.

The Chinese call it Dong Zhi, (Chinese: 冬至; Pinyin: dōng zhì; "The Extreme of Winter").

This festival is also a time for family members to get together and the main activity of the day is the making and eating of glutinous rice balls (Chinese: 汤圆; Pinyin: Tāng Yuán).

Tang Yuan is a dessert of colourful glutinous rice balls served in hot syrup. The dessert symbolises reunion and prosperity.

Glutinous Rice Balls (Tang Yuan). Notice the bottom right one, it looks like a pokeball.

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How I celebrated this day...

Just like every year, I celebrated the festival with the big family (on my dad's side) - my grandma, uncle and aunt's family, cousins to my dad's family, and not forgetting my cousin's girlfriend. As usual, my granny makes the Tang Yuan in the morning.

She always makes 2 types:

- the usual one in syrup boiled with a bit of ginger (shown above) -- we call it sweet Tang Yuan

- the unique Tang Yuan served in soup -- we call it "salty" Tang Yuan

I personally love the one in soup, it's like eating a soup noodle.

I think we are the only family around the world who serves this type of Tang Yuan.

You can put in any type of soup. This year, the soup of the day is the pork stomach soup (猪肚汤).

"Salty" Tang Yuan, Tang Yuan served in soup. yummy~

~~~~~~~~~~~

Dinner at my uncle's house...

My cousins - young gamblers

Dinner time!!!

We had...(drumroll....)

Soup of the day - pork stomach soup

Fried chicken

Spicy stir fried fish balls... nice!!!

My favourite dish - Stir fried prawns with curry leaf & X.O cognac

Kailan & carrot

Mushroom marinated duck

Roasted pork with tofu & onion leaf

Steamed arrowhead(nga gu) & Chinese sausage

Deep fried nam yee pork & more X.O prawns

and salad for dessert -- Sliced cucumber & tomatoes, simple as that.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Last but not least,

Arghhh...

I'm starting to hate Blogger for 2 reasons:

1. Font problem:

• It looked nice in Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari, but it turn out to be jaggy in Internet Explorer.. What the hell?  (I need your comment on this. How did it looked like to you?)
  
• I wonder how did the others managed to make it look nice?
  

2. Alignment probem:

• The preview in my draft and what it turned out was totally different. This sucks... Big Looooong Time!!!

For this 2 reasons, I was unable to publish my drafts.

Damn!!!

p/s. I need your comments on how the font looked like on your screen. Thank you. =)

Burning regards,

Jyphoon

UM's Only Non-Muslim Food Stall Ordered To Close

This was just in:

University of Malaya's only non-Muslim-owned food stall situated at its 12th Residential College has been ordered to close.

This is one of the measures taken by the university authorities to make sure all food stalls within the campus are Halal a.k.a. PORK-FREE.

The stall operated by a Chinese couple has been a popular dining spot for Chinese cuisine to the university's NON-MUSLIM community, especially students, due to its cheap price, quality food and good service.

Customers could get a plate of rice for as low as RM3.50 along with 4 choices of vegetable & meat and a cup of Chinese tea.

The public working within the vicinity were also the frequent customers of the stall.

 

I'm sure the university authority's action would spark a series of anger from the university's NON-MUSLIM community.

 

So much for multiracial country.

So much for democratic country.

So much for human rights.

 

THEY ARE VERY, VERY RACIST!!!!

AND

THEY DO NOT RESPECT OTHER RACE'S RIGHTS AT ALL!!!

 

NO FAIR!!!

DAMN!!!

 

Bellow is the article taken from the ChinaPress website (source):

I'm sorry that it is only available in Mandarin.

 

馬大第12宿舍
華人熟食檔接令關閉

（吉隆坡12月18日訊）馬大財務處強制推行清真食物，導致馬大第12宿舍唯一華人熟食檔，被令關閉。

馬青教育局主任張盛聞指出，大學應擁有各族傳統食物，但馬大一意孤行推行清真食物，馬大第12宿舍唯一華人熟食檔終于12月14日被令關閉，並交由另一間公司經營華人餐。

他說，馬大財務處已委任一間新公司，提供中式餐。

張盛聞今日在馬青總部會議室召開記者會時，發表談話。出席者包括馬青教育局成員鄭錦騁與蔡易樺。

校方強制推行

張盛聞說，馬大于7月17日發函，勒令終止華人熟食檔營業權。翌日，馬大中華文化協會致函宿舍校長，要求保留華人熟食檔，並于7月24日獲得宿舍校長支持，事情告一段落。

“怎知8月20日，再接獲宿舍校長函件，勒令盡快關閉。不過，在中華文化協會協助下，校方答應讓熟食檔繼續經營，考慮保留。”

張盛聞說，12月3日，校方再度發函要求該檔必須結朿經營，須于12月14日前清理所有物件，否則允公所有物件。

他說，馬青教育局昨天（17日）接獲馬大華裔生投訴后，決定介入此事。

馬青教育局指校方
藉清真食物下禁令

馬青教育局主任張盛聞指出，該局堅決反對馬大校方，以不是回教食物為由，下令關閉華人熟食檔。

他說，據資料顯示，該檔口雞肉來源擁有清真証書，並雇用印尼回教徒佣人熟煮食物，所以符合大學條例。

他指出，馬青教育局無法認同大學，竟有如此苛刻條例管制食堂，令非回教徒在大學無從經營飲食生意。

張盛聞說，馬大第12宿舍擁有14個檔口，其中一個交給華裔經營並不為過。況且，馬大第12宿舍是華裔生最集中的宿舍，人數約600名。

他指出，馬青教育局要求馬大重新讓華人熟食檔，繼續經營，尤其是華裔眾多的第12宿舍。避免在齋戒月非回教徒沒足夠食物供應，而必須到校園外尋找。

讓學生選擇食物

張氏說，大學是容納各族的知識殿堂，應有開放及包容環境，不是為單一族群或單一宗教而服務，因此，馬青教育局要求全國大學檢討食堂條例，允許不同民族食物進入大學，為學生提供選擇。

“大學食物應以清潔、營養、口味及價格作標準。”

張盛聞建議，由各族學生評估及決定希望獲得哪些食物，並最受歡迎的食堂經營者應獲獎勵，降低租金以降低食物價格。

Project Gift A Kid!

This Christmas season, help us make a difference in a child’s life.

What is it?

“Gift a Kid” is a project by the Rotaract Club of Kuala Lumpur (RACKL), supported by the AllMalaysian Bloggers Project (AMBP). Its aim is to enrich the educational experience of 100 underprivileged children in the Klang Valley.

We hope to achieve this by:

·         Providing back-to-school material - books, stationery, uniforms etc - for the 2009 school year, to 100 underprivileged kids, aged between six and 15 years.

·         Encouraging leadership and confidence by conducting interactive sessions and educational trips.

·         Allowing kids to be kids by organising “fun” trips. The first of these is a movie outing (possibly on Dec 19), the tickets to which are sponsored by United International Pictures.

Who benefits? 

Why, children of course, but to be more specific, children from the following organisations:

·         Rumah WAKE 1: A home for HIV+ children and their affected siblings under the Pertubuhan Wanita dan Kesihatan Kuala Lumpur)

·         Underprivileged children from Sekolah Rendah Jenis (Tamil) Cheras: Many of the children from this school come from the surrounding low-cost flats and squatter areas. Most of them can’t afford school uniforms, let alone school fees.

What Can I Do To Help?

·         Simple! You can choose to sponsor a kid from as little as RM10 to the full pack of RM150. A small step from you goes a long way in empowering these kids’ futures.

·         Let your family, friends and colleagues know about this project and encourage them to sponsor a kid. Alternatively, you could pool your resources together too!

·         This season of giving, why not sponsor a kid on behalf of your loved one (sure beats having to think of a material gift!). We’ll give you a gift card which comes nicely packed with an inspirational quote and ribbon that you can pass to them. That way you’re giving two people a gift at once!

How do I go about sponsoring a kid?

Here’s what you’ll have to do:

1.     Print out the Sponsorship Form, then fill in your details.

2.     Together with the sponsored sum, return the form(s) to us at the following address:

The Rotaract Club of Kuala Lumpur
c/o Star Publications (M) Bhd
New Media Department, Level 7
Menara Star
Phileo Damansara II
15 Jalan 16/11
46350, Petaling Jaya Attn: Michael A. Fredericks

For enquiries, or to get a form (if you can't find a printer), you can get in touch with Michael A. Fredericks (019-2184 307) from the AMBP, or Kavita (016-259 3818), Anu (016-254 6995) or Sumitra (012-246 9109) from the Rotaract Club KL (email: rotaract_kl@yahoo.com.sg).

All payments can be made via cash or cheque written to “ROTARACT CLUB OF KUALA LUMPUR”, and handed to the people listed above.

Closing date for sponsorships is December 25, 2008.

 

Sponsorship Form

(Click on the picture for a larger version)

 

Do Something Meaningful, Help A Child.

 

_________________________

Brought to you by:

I Want To Eat Bryan Mum's Seafood Pizza & Awana Genting Resort's Seafood Salad, RIGHT NOW!!!

Gee, I couldn't believe that I'm writing this. I guess this is the only way to satisfy my desire for now.

The best seafood pizza I had ever tasted was during Bryan's 17th birthday party at his house 3 years ago. It was his mum's home-made seafood pizza. Her pizza was jam-packed with generous amount of seafood varieties, from shrimps, squid & crab meat to mussels & oysters... you name it, it's in it.

That pizza was SOOO DELICIOUS that when I turned back for a second slice, I couldn't see any left on the pizza plate, only some bits and pieces of the crust.

I lost my crave for Pizza Hut, Shakey's & Domino's after that pizza. I daresay they can never beat Bryan Mum's pizza!!!

This is how jam-packed Bryan Mum's seafood pizza looks like.

The toppings look more or less like this, but the size of the pizza is much larger.

.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

While the tastiest seafood salad I ever had was at my mum's company family day 5 years ago in Awana Genting Resort. I remember that I ate so much of it till my tummy was fully stuffed without mercy. Hahaha...

You might think this doesn't look nice. Never judge food by its look.

Wait till you try it, you'll definitely love it.

Although I had tasted them years ago, I could clearly remember the taste of both dishes in my mind till today. Why? Because they were EXTREMELY YUMMY & I'M SOOO HUNGRY NOW!!!

BRYAN, COULD YOU ASK AUNTIE TO MAKE A PIZZA FOR ME...

PLEASE...

I will pay for it... 

I will also drive to your place to get it...