Helo there,

This week, we had a lab on the processing of CheeZZe. My group came up with what was supposed to be a type of Lebanese cheese (Labneh) typically eaten along side with black olives and peppermint. Humm.. It was quite simple to make. All we needed was salt, sterilized condition and a good amount of yoghurt or milk. The hard bit of the lab is in trying to figure out the molecular mechanism that occured during the coagulation of the yoghurt into solid cheese. Wish me luck. Here are the illustrations. Aummm..

The yellow liquid in the bowl is what we called the "whey". It is the excess water in yoghurt that is drained out to allow the other components to solidify. The cheese is located on the top in the cloth! According to mi Papito ( my dad), who is a cheese-lover, the resulted product was pretty impressive. He finished it within one night and is demanding more!. So proud. In my partner's opinion, it was extremely too sour though.

The final product! Eat it with crackers or olives.

Coming attraction: Orange marmalade (next week)

P.s. ( to answer Lisa's question, yes, fishballs do have substances which may cause cancer. In fact, all meats have some amount of carcinogen ( cancer-causing substance). Most meat you buy in the supermarket contain some amount of nitrate, which is commonly use as a preservative. Normal meat with no preservative can stay tasty no longer than a day. To be able to store the meat long enough to sell, producers MUST put preservative. Nitrate after all, is the safest of all. humm.. It is almost impossible to stay completely away from cancer risks anymore these days.

Bye! 

No no no... My fishballs aren't like minced pork-balls you put in noodles. Do not let the exterior characteristics fool your perception towards my beautiful fishballs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It had been passed through well-thought laboratory procedures such as the measuring of the pH balance of the fishmeat, the definate temperature of the heating medium and the water were observed. Accurate amount of chemicals were added to increase its quality.

Despite the exterior bumpy look of my fishballs, they do have a very beautiful inside.  Moisted meat containing minimum pores to give them the smoothest texture. The meat is soft and has high durability when gently sliced with knife.  When slided into ones mouth, he/she feels the gentle passage of world's delicacy.

Actually, despite the crapy exterior look,

and great interior texture,

 my fishballs aren't exactly something anyone would sell or make for anyone. They tasted HORRIBLE.We probably added in too little Sodium Chloride (salt), hence, tasteless. It was so bad that my partner and I only tasted each formulas samples just enough to record necessary data for the lab report. It was terrible to the mouthfeel. Just Terrible. I passed the lab but. will definately get no job at the fishball factory. hheehe.

About the "HUNK" in the picture at the Grand Palace, I did not clearly specify who he is because I though you all knew. He is Maria's boyfriend!!!!!! They have been together for a very long time now. He came to Thailand with Maria just for the holidays so we took him to see Thailand's greatest wonder, the grand palace. Yah!

I need to get back to my internship thing again.. humm Still deciding about where to go.   Ciao!

hey, check this out...

These are the fish-balls I made in our new Food processing lab. We added in preservatives like.. sodium tripolyphosphate to make the meat juicier and more tender. hummm. not so healthy but... this is what's happening in the food industries.  

Helo!

Last Monday, I went out with Maria and Willy to the Amazing Grand Palace. So close yet I had been to the place only three times in my life. It was depressing to find out that I don't really know much about my own heritage! I had no idea how to explain the Ramayana story that was beautifully depicted up on the walls around the Temple. The only thing I know was that the story is mainly about a bunch of holy monkeys.. uhahh how sad is that. I need to take a special class on Thai history before taking anyone else to the Grand palace again. Luckily, Willy (our kind tour guest) was very patient with us.  This experience should also make you guys to pause to review how much you know about Thailand and our history. humm. After a hot afternoon at the grand palace, we also dropped by a very classy spa down in Silom. We all received two hours of pampering; a complimentary from Maria's other friend. It was awesome and refreshing! I actually felt my skin a tiny bit smoother a day after the treatment.. hum. Here is a pic i proudly present...

Isn't this a view we all should be very proud of!!!

I was just talking to Tracy on MSN and she told me a story that really brightened me up. I couldn't resist sharing it with you all.She was telling me about an experience that made her day.

She drove to the library. As she was getting into the library, she remembered that she forgot to put a coin in the parking meter. Fearing that she might get a ticket, she quickly returned her book and rushed out. When she got to her car, she noticed that someone had already put a quarter into the parking meter. She looked around and saw a lady who had her car parked next to Tracy's. The lady said that she was the one who put the quarter in for her. They lady didn't even know Tracy. She just did it for nothing.

Eventhough it was just a quarter, the point of this was that she didn't even know that Tracy was going to come back to find out that she was the one doing the good deeds. She did it "SELFLESSLY". She didn't need to do it but she did it.

It's nice to hear stories about good selfless human beings. It makes you feel like being noble to balance the evils. It's like an enzymic catalytical reaction.  

Anyways, hope that you will meet lots of parking meter ladies or be her in your days to come.

 Chao!