Chen wanted to know what’s on my desktop… there must be a lot of kay-poh-chee’s out there.

I had shown my real desk top recently, and now here it is… my uncensored windows desktop:

Sorry to disappoint Chen… Joseph’s not here.. it’s still the same wallpaper that came from Dell.

OK … it’s my turn to be the kay-poh-chee and tag….

1. Bengbeng, the Sibu Post.
2. Dr ve thru a.k.a. Pandu lalu.
3. Eve Leng Leng, who hasn’t done a meme yet.
4. George, of the jungle KayElle city.
5. Her majesty, the HijackQueen.
6. Yenjai, who got upset I tagged him the last time, but this time I’m sure he’ll get upset if I DON’T, cos it’s so easy, mah.
7. and Titoki, who’s got the most enviable job can die, aitelyu.

And I must append this very good instructions from Chen on how to do it, just in case :

Instruction :
Minimize everything (as in all windows) until you only see your desktop. Now look at your keyboard and search for the “Print Screen” (or Prt Scr) button. Press that once. U can press twice too if your finger is itchy. Tarak masalah. Open your fav graphic editor. Paste and save tu gambar. Post that up on your blog & share your leng picture with the whole world. Dun forget to drop me a line after u hit the publish button.

AhPek .. sorry I haven’t done the meme that you tagged me with yet.. it’s a very difficult one.

I just CAN’T NOT share this with you…. You know what “pasembur” is right? It’s also called “rojak” in KL and Singapore. But you’ll get lynched if you call this “rojak” in Penang. Rojak is reserved for another dish that Penangites “worhip”. *ahem*

Anyway, what I wanted to share is this Mamak stall in Market Road opposite the express bus station in Sungai Petani, called Tajudeen. The man cooks up the best pasembur in town and, dare I say it, the whole northern region. Woww.. that good? In my opinion, yes.

He was, according to local “folklore”, a cycling pasembur peddler before his business grew. That’s entreprenuership 101 for you. So what makes his pasembur good? Everyone has his own hypothesis… perhaps the sauce - it’s has a good potato taste and rich groundnut aroma, with a tinge of cuttlefish sweetness. Perhaps it’s the prawn fritters, crackers and taukua that he puts in - emmm… crispy and munchy. Perhaps it’s the cuttlefish itself that makes it special - the red pieces of tender, mouth-watering cuttlefish. But…

My own theory is that the taugeh is great! The taugeh (a.k.a. beansprouts) are fresh, look good, feel crispy and taste heavenly. I’m sure that’s the reason. Aya’s got a huge bucket full of taugeh for each day’s business. I don’t know how much taugeh he uses a day but it looks like at least 20 kilos in the bucket. All looking inviting. I think I could just eat taugeh. Err.. no I’d love some sauce with that… and cuttlefish… and crackers… and, oh yes, the cucumber and turnip shreds.

And if you want to try something else, there’s mee rebus and mee goreng, both are good too:

Of course the peony must be accompanied by this:

Are the small pink flowers that dot the thin, long, straight branches (or should I call them twigs?) “plum blossoms” or “cherry blossoms“? I thought they were “cherry blossoms” and have always called them that. Now I know… they’re PLUM BLOSSOMS, ?? (méihu?), Prunus mume. What’s the difference?

Here’s a commentary from simplesongs:

In any case, you’ve probably heard about how cherry blossoms are a big deal in Japan. They bloom in the Spring, creating an amazingly beautiful display for about a week or so and then they are gone…. Less celebrated is the plum blossom. Typically blooming in late February/early March, plum blossoms signal that Spring is coming rather than that Spring has come. Blooming in shades of pink and white, most plum blossoms have 5 petals (many varieties of cherry blossoms also have five petals, but you are also likely to see cherry blossoms with 10 petals, 50 petals, up to 100 or so).

There’s an amazing photo site of Asian images by Kevin Kelly; there’s a photo plum blossoms and an insight into the difference.

A reader named al writes:
“Has the plum blossom come into bloom? How about the Cherry blossom??” These lyrics are part of a famous traditional Ozashiki Uta (Geisha Music) song, “Ume Wa Saitaka? Sakura Wa Madakaina?” Every year people in Japan impatiently wait for the arrival of spring. Plum tree comes to bloom in February and cherry does in April. They have similarity in representing people’s yearning for spring but they do have difference: Firstly the two trees don’t come to bloom in the same time. Secondly most of cherry blossom has pink color while plum has either white or dark pink (like this one in the picture). Thirdly, each petal of plum flower is smooth round shape (like this) while cherry’s has a sort of notched cut on top. So we know this is a plum not cherry.

In Japan, plum and cherry blossoms are called “ume” and “sakura” respectively. They bloom at different times. The Sakura is Japan’s unofficial national flower. Plum blossoms are Taiwan’s national flower.

Plum blossoms ??(méihu?)

Cherry blossoms ?? (y?nghu?)

Plums blossoms have become a traditional decoration during the Lunar New Year simply because of the timing of the blooms, i.e. just before spring, in February and March, during the New Year festivities.

The Chinese see the blossoms as more of a symbol for winter rather than a harbinger of spring. It is precisely for this reason that the blossoms are so beloved, because they bloom most vibrantly amidst the winter snow while all other flowers have long since succumbed to the cold and died. Thus, they are seen as an example of resilience and perseverance in the face of adversity, and thus has also been used as a metaphor to symbolize revolutionary struggle.

… from Wikipedia.

The fruit, plum, is used in various ways in Chinese cooking, including sauces and condiments and pickled plums. Umeishu ?? (méiji?) is a liquor made from green ume in clear liquor. Dark plums, ?? (w?méi) are used to treat parasites, ulcers and a tonic for the digestive system and the heart.

A finally, here’s a piece of art from the Song dynasty (?),

Update: I just noticed that Vista, a Nippono-phile apparently, included a Sakura song on his post, with translations. Go and listen.

References:

1. http://simplesongs.blogs.com/head_shoulders_knees_and_/2006/02/plum_blossoms.html
2. http://www.asiagrace.com/detail.php?i=376
3. http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2013.html
4. http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2011.html
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plum_blossom
6. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mqin/ho_1986.493.2.htm

The theme for this week’s Photo Hunt is “Broken“. Since I’m in South East Asia, I get a “headstart” cos it’s Saturday earlier than everyone west of here.

Here’s something that got broken in motorcyclist who flew off his machine in a road traffic accident. He came with abdominal pain. He was stable and the abdomen was soft. Listening to the lungs, the breath sounds were reduced on the left side. We took an X-ray, followed by a CT scan (computed tomography). This was what we found on the CT:

The diaphragm is a muscle that separates the chest cavity from the abdominal cavity. It makes sure that abdominal contents stay out of the chest or they might crowd on the the lungs. More importantly, it keeps an airtight space in the chest to create a negative pressure space to expand the lungs, and it contracts to expand the chest cavity. In short, it helps us breathe in and out.

This photo is marked to show the structures in the CT image. The thin red line shows the normal position of the diaphragm. The stomach normally sits below that line. Now it’s moved up into the chest cavity.

The treatment would be surgery to bring the stomach back into the abdomen and repair the diaphragm. He recovered and went home well.

Update: for those of you who thought that coming off a bike was bad for this one.. drop by this older post. Of course, there are worse injuries that I would rather not show on the blog.