A friend is in need of a smile.  She is turning the big THREE O this year.  Hasn’t quite yet accepted the joy of getting older, she feels a bit down now that she is entering her 30s.

She got married a few years back and now has a two year old baby girl, yet she still feels this is a BIG deal.  The poor girl wanted to plan a solo trip to South East Asia to wave goodbye to her 20s, but canceled due to a lack of financial means and the need to be with her family.  Guess there will be no tropical sunshine on her b’day later this month, instead, a winter grey in New Hampshire, USA, where she lives.

So I’m handwriting her a brief letter to wish her a happy birthday and as an attempt to boost her low dose of merriness.  I’m guessing it maybe better than a regular Hallmark b’day card.  And since it is February, I thought it is only fitting to use a cheery red ink that I have been saving for few years for special occasions/letters.  A limited edition from the J.Herbin line of inks.

And just to make it a little different from the b’day cards she’ll be receiving, I thought it would be neat to use a sealing wax as well, using carved name stamps/seals by an awesome maker in Taiwan.  Hope all these will be enough to put a smile on her face, even just for a day.

Lately I’ve been heavily distracted by a couple of hilariously whacky dudes to a point that I’ve been loosing sleep on many nights.  They constantly joked around and made fun of themselves, and I can’t stop watching them.

I’m talking about SUPERFRUIT.  A weekly video posting on YouTube made by a couple of young musicians.  They are members of an awesome acapella group PENTATONIX, who won the Acapella Sing-Off back in 2011.

Since I don’t watch TV or follow the happenings in the music world, I have only found out about this awesome group last year.  A couple of years late, I know.  So shoot me.  But better late than never, right?  And when I discovered them on YouTube, man, they blew my mind away with their off-beat futuristic take from a traditional acapella.  So cool.

Since then on, I’ve been a fan.  I kept watching the videos of their many performances from the sing-off, over and over again.  Then I discovered a couple of the members actually have a weekly video blog on YouTube.  Their videos made me laughed out loud.  And that’s when they started to rob me of my sleep.

I’m better now.  I think I’m starting to get over the urge to keep watching their videos right before bed.  I’m trying to repair my damaged sleeping pattern.  And I got a dark ring around my eyes to prove it.  They are so fun to watch that I often loose track of time, and before I know it, it is almost 2AM.

Anyways, hope everyone had a great weekend, especially to those who celebrated CAP GO MEH.  May you all had a satisfying food-coma on Friday night, like I did

here’s Pentatonix latest video (remember, NO musical instrument what so ever used in the making of this video, which is what acapella is all about):

daft punk by pentatonix

The rain has eased its intensity in these past two weeks.  Flooding problems seem to be almost a non-existent, leaving behind many potholes on the roads.  The sky still casts a gloomy grey on most days, yet the world seems more forgiving when you get clouds to break open and allowing sunlight basking down on the city from time to time.  It is during a rain season like now that weekends are almost always making one feels melancholy.  The humidity is more forgivable when in this season, making one craving for soupy noodles and teas.  And what a great way to spend this past solidary weekend by sipping a cuppa tea.

No.  Not Teh Tarik.  Not Matcha.  Not Masala Chai either.  Chinese blood runs too thick in my veins to want anything less Chinese at this particular mood, although Pu-er will never be an option of mine.  In most cases, I’d vote for Oolong.  I have a long love affair with this sensuous Taiwanese, with root linked to the province of Fujian in Southern China.  But this time I’d settle for something more floral in scent.  Something just as delicate, a touch feminine, with an easy-to-please character.  Enough to make want to cheat on my Oolong collection.  This will be my first date with Jasmine Mao Feng Tea.

Call me a snob, but something about an upscale teashop that just speaks my language.  It is easy on the eyes and a tempting ground for my palate.  Sophistication written all over it.  Such moneymaking spot is never difficult to lure me in for a stop-by.  And Fook Ming Tong did that.  A well know tea shop with many branches all over Hong Kong, it drew me in as I walked pass the shop and whiffed a scent of brewed tea.  It had me at hello.

I made my detour in the shop before I could make up my mind.  So many teas, so little time.  I sniffed a few variety.  My nose was begging for it.  I almost settled with another Oolong, when my conscious got the better of me and had me realized that it was best to settle with something different this time.  It was then that I saw Fuding Jasmine Mao Feng tea.  No tester available for my nose to sniff at.  But I knew it had to be it.

A souvenir for myself, it is something special that I brought back with me all the way from Hong Kong.  It would be unthinkable for a tea enthusiast wannabe such as myself to NOT bring back tea, any tea, when visiting China.  I even brought back some from Cambodia when I went to visit Siem-Reap, even though it is not a nation known for its tea.  So it is only appropriate that I spent some Hong Kong dollars for some dried leaves that may bring warmth to my weekends.

Now that it is in my possession here in Jakarta, I can confirm to you that it is an all around pleasant soft tea to sip and savor.  Came in a bowed box of 8 individual-serving silver colored packets, it had an instruction card attached to it, to inform buyers of the many more varieties of tea the brand sells, and how to properly prepare them all.

Upon inspection on the content of the packet, I was introduced to silvery-green needle-like dried leaves, unlike the typical round rolled leaves of Oolong tea.  It came with specks of yellow and pale orange colored petals of jasmine flower, which what the tea is infused with.

The skinny leaves fell easily into the depth of my teapot, as the hot water touched and steamed them one by one.  Each floated briefly on top, before falling down and start steeping the water with its intoxicating scent, and painted the liquid, slowly, into a light golden hue.  A little green and grassy, it imparts a very subtle toasty flavor, allowing its floral note to take dominant.  One that I don’t normally would look for in a tea, but still find it agreeable.

It is a personal pleasure when I later searched for the meaning of the words ‘Fuding Jasmine Mao Feng’.  Mao Feng is the name for a type of tea, which denotes the shape of the tealeaves.  Something I had not come across before.  But the real pleasure is when I found out the meaning of the word Fuding.  It is a city located in the province of Fujian, the birth province of my late fraternal grandfather AND the province of origin of my favorite tea of all time, Oolong.  This is such a wholesome surprise.

In general, I don’t favor much for a jasmine flavored anything, including tea.  It just somehow screams perfume to me.  But sometimes one comes along and had me to rethink of my preferences.  Especially now that I know what Fuding means.  It just makes drinking this Fuding Jasmine Mao Feng tea a sweeter experience of a moment.

It was in the month of December, prior to my 2013 end-of-year vacay in Hong Kong, that I went to my doctor to get a vitamin C shot.  It was to be a precaution to prevent me from catching that brand new mutant bird-flu-like virus that’s been going on in China called H7N9 (from which the new virus H10N8 is born).  As usual, my sensei doctor, who practices Chinese medicine, wanted to do a general check-up on me by checking on my blood pressure, my heartbeat, and the look of my tongue and eyes, prior to me getting the shot.  A standard procedure that he does to all of his patients.  No biggie.

He started out checking on my heartbeat by softly pressing his index and middle fingers on the back of my right and left wrists, to feel and read the pulse.  As he examined me he felt my heart was beating slower than it should be.  He then measured my blood pressure.  He knows how I genetically have a low blood pressure at an average of 110/70, but this time the reading showed that it was a tad lower than we expected.  Not only that, my heartbeat measured at upper 50s per minute, when on average it should be at least 70s beats per minute.

My doctor calmly shared his concerns, while confirming that my liver, kidney, pancreas, and inner abdominal areas seemed fine (yes, he got all that from touching my wrists).  I got all puzzled by his new finding.  I told him that I felt fine, though sometimes got tired easily.  I was not ill with any sickness, still went to gym on a regular basis, and ate normally. Knowing that I was to leave for Hong Kong soon, he advised me to return to the clinic after my vacation, for me to receive treatments to remedy my lazy heartbeat.  I succumbed to his request.

Upon leaving the clinic, it then hit me.  I remembered the result of last year’s medical check-up at a hospital.  One of the many tests I took involved a cardio examination and a mammogram scan of my heart.  The doctor in charged explained that one of the two valves, which regularly open and close to regulate the blood flow to the heart, didn’t close properly.  A minor condition that a lot of people have, he assured.  However, a concerning condition enough for him to caution me to stay away from strenuous activities that may put a pressure on my heart, such as diving and heavy weight lifting.  It dawned on me that maybe, just maybe, this could be a possible cause of my lazy heartbeat.

I took off to China leaving behind my worries.  The cold days in Hong Kong and Macau were filled with endless feasting that rejuvenated my spirit.  Endless smiles and laughter with the company of friends, old and new, eased my transition to adjust to the weather change and pace of lifestyle.  The company of a special someone had me longed to stay and be held captive by time capsule, with no urge to return home.  But to return home, I must.  There were no thoughts on my heart condition until days after my return to Jakarta, whereby a phone call from the clinic reminded me of my overdue appointment.  And so I went.

To make the story short, I had to go through an ‘intravenous infusion’ for 7 days to get my heart to beat at an acceptable normal rate.  The doctor is my family’s doctor as well, and so I put my trust in him to make me all ok.  For seven days I would lay down for about an hour, looking up to the florescence lighting on the ceiling, the long intravenous tube dangling above me, and let the liquid worked its magic.  The most uncomfortable thing was looking at the needle tip dangling right above my face, a moment before it was inserted into the vein in my arm.  But I toughened it out, like I always do.

After a weeklong of having my left and right arms pricked with needles and left with subtle bruises, I’m glad to say that the magic did work.  Each day they would measure my blood pressure and my heartbeat and record the numbers on my history chart.  The last time they checked, my blood pressure measured just a touch higher, and with the heart measured at 70s beats per minute.  If you ask me, yes, I do feel better.  And let’s hope it stays that way.  Because the last thing I want is to have another weeklong dates with needles.  Knock on wood. 

The greatest part of waking up in the morning of Chinese New Year (CNY) is that the first meal of the day will include my one and only all-time favorite wheat noodle.  That long silky smooth boiled thin strings of wheat dough called MISUA (pronounced mee-swah), equivalent to Somen for the Japanese.

Noodle is a must-have for Chinese on a celebration.  Any celebration.  But misua takes the top pick as THE noodle to have in my family, especially on CNY.  Thanks to my Hokkian heritage that goes back all the way to the province of Fujian, in the southern region of China, where my fraternal grandfather originated from.  It never mattered that my fraternal grandmother came from the province of Guangzhou, bringing with her a Cantonese influence in cooking (and what a great cook she was), misua still rules over other noodles after all these years.  It has always been a staple noodle on my family’s dining table ever since I could remember.  One that I gladly accept whole heartedly.

Misua noodle comes in various sizes, ranging from thin to slightly thick.  My opinion is the thinner, the better.  My mum’s favorite way to enjoy misua is to serve the cooked noodles at room temperature and coated in garlic oil. To go with the noodle are mouthwatering accompaniments that only enhance the flavor and texture of misua, which include garlic chicken, minced soy pork, pork stomach with shitake mushroom, mixed veggies with black fungus, fried black seaweed, fried shallots, fresh chopped green onions, and homemade red chili sauce.

Our love for misua noodles extends to the consumption of it outside the celebration of CNY.  Sometimes we would have misua noodles in a hot broth for breakfast, much like you would with ramen noodle soup.  But my favorite way to enjoy misua is still the dry version that comes with accompaniments.  This way I get to really taste the true flavor of the noodle itself.  Something that I will never get tired of until the day I die.