慈济社会教育推广中心 ~ 儿童及青少年假期工坊

学校假期来咯～

今天收到慈济社会教育推广中心寄来的 email， 为了提升孩子假期学习的动力，社教中心举办假期工坊，让放假的孩子学习对身心灵有益的课程，可以学会自己动手做菜、制作手工、动动筋骨、动动脑袋等。。

看来中心又推出了一系列的活动，让大家放假在家也不会闷了。。

这次的儿童假日才艺班，提供于7至12岁的小学生。



这三天的活动包括：                         报名费 = RM 270

DIY 蔬食料理                                     材料费 = RM 90

花道                                                     总共 = RM 360

剪纸
黏土
蝶古巴特
瑜伽
益智游戏等等

青少年假日才艺班则提供于13至18岁的中学生，活动类似儿童假日才艺班，不过难度肯定比小学生难。

除了儿童及青少年，住在八打灵一带的大人们也可以参与一些短期课程。课程及学费如下：

如果大家放假有空，请大家多多支持慈济社会教育推广中心，自己也充实一下！

人数有限，只限30个学员，有兴趣就要快抢咯~

大家可以依据以上的上课地点，电联有关中心，以便询问详情。

希望大家假期愉快！

Toluna redemption

I signed up in Toluna for about one year already. For those who never know what's Toluna, it's a website for you to answer survey questions and allow you to earn from points from there. After that, you can redeem the points for something you want. I like Toluna as it provides more variety of gifts and rewards as compare to other survey website.

Well, even though I joined for quite some time, and able to accumulate many points but I never think of redeem items from the points I gained until recently. Guess what happen that make me made that decision?

I just found out that the points that we earned from answering the survey question will go expired after some time. I never notice it. So sad to share with you all that I actually lost quite a number of points before this as I never notice there is deduction in the points if redemption is not made in certain time frame.

The time frame will be stated inside the account. Please be aware for those who never notice about that. Otherwise, all your effort will be down to the drains.

Check out the redemption I made. I chose to get the AEON vouchers (worth RM20) with the redemption of 16000 points. There is no expiry date on the vouchers, is that mean there will be no dateline for the redemption? cool then... I can use it any time I want,

Apart from that, you can redeem vouchers from Isetan, Zalora, Lazada, Giant and many many others. If you prefer to get the cash, you can cash it out from Paypal. It's quite convenient and easy to do. 

This is the website of the Toluna. Welcome you all to join me (overall, you still able to earn some out of it!)... 

Website = https://my.toluna.com/

Korean Fried Chicken ~ Kyo Chon 1991

Many thanks to my sister who won the RM20 voucher of Kyo Chon....

Because her active participation in Facebook recently, she managed to win the voucher. Well, this is better than none.. For those who went Kyo Chon before, you should know their fried chicken is quite pricey. This RM20 meant a lot... LOL... 

At this moment, only one Kyo Chon is available in Malaysia, which is currently located in One Utama Shopping Mall. I heard there will be more Kyo Chon opening soon, but unsure of the location. 

Korean artist, Lee Min Ho is the ambassador of Kyo Chon. You can see a lot of his photo in the shop. 

Well, that's including the take away packaging.., LOL... for Lee Min Ho's fans, you are welcome to take away the food in order to bring back Lee Min Ho. 

These are the food that we ordered. There are new menu and promotions available, compare to my first visit in Kyo Chon, which only served ala carte signature chicken. They are more like a set meal now. 

I find these menu are much worthy, as they already include the signature chicken, rice, salad, soup and drinks , all in one. You can check them out in their menu online as well. 

I ordered their Original chicken, Red Series Chicken and Honey Series chicken. You can mix them with different flavors. 

The original chicken has nice aroma. While the one that I like most is the honey series, sweet and crispy. Love that!!! 

One reminder for those who cannot take spicy food, please do not order their red series. The spiciness is beyond what you can imagine. It was too spicy and hot, which will cause burning sensation at your lips and tongue. 

My advice, try it if you dare~ LOL... 

童年回忆 - 巧克力棒

年终都有作不完的东西，好累！所以更新也慢了许多。

前天逛街时看见日本款的巧克力棒，就突然觉得嘴馋，再加上商店还在做特价，当然要买来一饱口福！不过这当然比我们小时候吃的还贵，没办法，看见包装上那些你我都看不懂的字，就知道它不是本地产。

进去商店就只买了这个，真不好意思！不过这也花了我四令吉，不便宜啊！

里面的分类和我小时候吃的多了一样，像是小颗粒状的糖（我也不清楚那是什么，总之就是甜甜的，像糖的小东西）。

这款巧克力棒的巧克力还真不是普通的好吃，巧克力还是半液体状的，一下就粘上了饼棒。回想小时候的记忆，以前的巧克力都硬邦邦的，还要用力戳才吃的到。

好了，这是最近的小小缅怀。。

A simple story of my patient in clinic

I saw a patient earlier. At first, I feel weird as he came to the group education before, but he never control his food intake. He seems to have very poor understanding of the diet control on the hypercholesterolemia,

He was telling me that he takes nasi lemak and roti canai quite frequently. I was quite pissed off and disappointed at the beginning, as I felt like my advices are all down to the drain. But in the end, I'm kind of relieved and happy. Well, we cannot easily judge a book by its cover.

I ask this patient why he never follow, he said he had problem to follow, lack of discipline, perhaps. but then I found out that he had limited understanding on the diet control, which mean, he literally did not understand or perhaps remember the diet advises given to him during the group education.

Well, I need to admit that when group education is carried out, it's hard for me to target everyone's need and make sure everyone can follow the flow of it. This patient seems to come from low educational status. That's why he cannot remember or understand whether what he took currently is under controlled or not.

I'm actually happy to find out the reason as he is still coming back to me to ask further about the diet control, even though I need to repeat the whole same thing on low cholesterol diet to him. He was motivated to come back and see me, as he knew he was not doing correctly. He working as a guard in swimming pool and he seems unable to understand thing fast. He cannot recognise many high cholesterol food, not even the common one, like fried food and skin.

However, I'm proud of this patient as he is willing to come back and asked for an individualised diet advises, as he really worried about his own health. He also informed me that he did boxing as his exercise, which is his favourite thing to do whenever he's free during his working hours. Guess he had nothing to much to do while guarding the swimming pool.

Counsel patient is never an easy job, A lot of time and effort needed in order to find out patient's need. As for this patient, I need to explain in the most simplest way so that I can ensure he understands what I am talking about. But I'm proud of him, many patients out there are well educated, but when talking about diet control, they just simply ignore that. This patient can work as a role model for many people out there.

Bird Nest~ A gift from my patient

Good day to everyone~

Share something funny that happened yesterday to all of you. ( yesterday was busy to upload this, having busy schedule)

Can you see what's in the photo? For those who are not familiar with these, these are all bird nests.. The 'original' one... which you can still look at the fur in the bird nest itself. Check out the photo down here.

Below was the conversation between my patient and I :

Patient : Dietitian, do you take bird nest?

Me : No, I'm allergic to it. (thinking the next question is to ask whether he can take bird nest or not)

Patient : Really? Why you allergic to them? I have brought some bird nest, thinking of giving them to you. Bird nests are really good for health. You should take them. 

(talking while taking the bird nests out from his bag)

Me : Ha?? It's ok. I'm allergic to them, you can keep them for yourself. Or perhaps sell them, they are expensive. 

Patient : It's okay. I have plenty of them. I used to eat them, thinking of sharing them with you. Don't be shy, just take them. 

(he passed me the plastic bag with bird nests inside, while explaining how to take out the fur and impurities from the bird nests)

Well, I need to emphasize that I did reject his offer, overall, I'm not fancy of bird nests, but he kept on asking me to keep them. Therefore, here they are, with me right now. LOL.... 

I got bread from an uncle very long time ago, I got mandarin orange from patient before Chinese New Year, I got muruku from an Indian boy last time, and I got Subway vouchers from a patient just one day before this, but this is my first time getting such a valuable gift >> Bird nests!!!

Meaningful experience when seeing patient in outpatient clinic~ Haha...

Batu Caves Visit

This is my first time here... Batu Caves~

I went there after attended my Malay friend's wedding at Selayang. Since the Batu Caves is very near to the wedding I attended. I decided to visit there.

Well, actually I confirmed my trip there just because I wanted to avoid the traffic jam. The direction from Selayang back to PJ was so jammed at that moment. I preferred to make full use of my valuable time, rather than trapped in the jam, doing nothing, but wasting the petrol and causing pollution. 

I have been staying in KL for quite some time, pass by this place for multiple times, but never visit there.

Once you enter the place, there will be a place to collect your parking fee, which is RM2 per car... If you come with a bigger vehicle, the price will be different, the bigger your vehicle, the more they charged. Well, they did charge more for vans and buses, but I could not remember the parking fees.

Well, there are shops around the area, and nothing much left. My sister and I decided to climb up the staircase and see what's inside. There are a few hundreds steps of the staircase and we were so excited as we were able to make our way up till the top.

You will see a very big statue when you enter the area or when you are on your way to get into the cave. 

This is the view from the peak of the staircase. Nothing much to see, only the terrible traffic jam at the highways. 

What a hazy day!

Oh ya, a reminder here, female visitors with short pants and shirts are not allowed to climb up the stair. Perhaps it is a place for worship and females should wear in proper attires when visiting such place.

But another reason will be -- steep staircase! Yes, the staircase is very steep and if you are looking up while climbing up, you can easily see something that you are not suppose to see. LOL...

Therefore, a warm reminder for all female visitors, please wear longer pants and shirts when visiting Batu Caves, if not, you can prepare a scarf and cover up yourselves, just for protection. 

There is also a Dark Cave somewhere near the peak of the Batu Caves. There is extra charges to go inside the cave. If I'm not mistaken, it's about RM35 per pax. 

I peeped a bit and it was so dark that you won't be able to see a thing. That place had unpleasant smell, which smelt some sort like bats' shit. So my sis and I decided not to go inside. Felt creepy when you can't see a thing. 

Home Made Aglio Olio ~

New recipe this time~ 

I'm a big fan of Aglio Olio all this while. This has been my favorite or may be my first choice if I would like to go for pasta or spaghetti. The second one will be pasta with marinara sauce, then the least that I like will be carbonara sauce. 

Aglio Olio

This time, my big project is to prepare my very own Aglio Olio! 

I got some very nice, big fresh prawns for my Aglio Olio, thanks to my mum~ Love you mum... The prawns are very sweet and fresh. Fresh ingredients are needed for good food~ hehe... 

These are the ingredients of my aglio olio, simple yet delicious:

1. Spaghetti 

2. SmartBalance oil (well, the original recipe should be using the olive oil, but due to my laziness to purposely go out and buy, I prefer to modify the recipe)

3. Chili flakes 

4. Garlic 

5. Onion

6. Salt

That's all.... simple huh?

A lot of oil is needed to prepare this dish. I never know it until I prepared my very own one. I pour lots of oil, thinking that it should be enough at the first time, but I ended up adding the oil again in the middle of the cooking, as the oil is not visible after I added in the spaghetti. 

After heating up the oil, I put in garlic and onion, you can put more if you like to take those. I put quite a lot of them, well, I like the aroma of them... 

After that, I put in the chili  flakes. Some info for the chili flakes, I tried to search in hypermarket, in AEON and Cold Storage, and guess what? I couldn't find them in the shelves. Surprise huh? Not sure whether it is sold out or it is really hard to get one. I ended up asking opinion from my colleagues and one of them proposed using the chili flakes provided by Domino Pizza. She offered my some so that I can use them in the cooking. Well, the taste is amazing! May be I will use Domino Pizza's chili flakes after this. My advice, keep the chili flakes next time when you order your Domino Pizza. hehe....

Next, just put in the spaghetti and salt for the seasoning. As for the prawns, I just boiled them and inserted them last in the cooking, to preserve the freshness and elasticity of the prawns..

The photos above shows the aglio olio that I prepared for my sister and I.  I cooked extra serving for my lunch box the next day, but my advice is not to do so, as the taste is never as good as it is just freshly cooked. But overall, it is still much better than what I have in the cafe. I'm satisfied though... hehe... 

SLE Healthy Eating Talk

Throwback~

Sharing for all~

I was invited to give a healthy eating talk for SLE patients last month on 13th July 2014 at Malaysia SLE Association, Petaling Jaya. Well, this is what a dietitian does, provides nutrition and dietetics advices not only to individual, but for the community and public as well.

For those who do not know what is SLE, SLE is Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). It is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue. It can affect the skin, joints, kidneys, brain, and other organs. Female will have a higher risk to suffer from SLE.

SLE patients suffer from different sign and symptoms. Therefore the dietary advices will be given according to individual problems. In this event, I was invited to share some healthy eating tips for the members, so that the patients can enjoy their meals more healthily. I will also share some photo during the event, so that you will be able to understand a dietitian's job easily.

共勉之~

我上个月13号被 Malaysia SLE Association 邀请给一个关于红斑狼疮健康饮食的讲座。这也就是饮食治疗师的工作。饮食治疗师除了针对个人的饮食习惯加以改善，也可以分享饮食讲座，让更多人受惠！


有人知道什么是红斑狼疮吗？红斑狼疮是一种自身免疫疾病，简单说就是自己的免疫系统对抗回自己的免疫系统，而且还会影响身体多个器官，包括：皮肤，关节，肾，等等。红斑狼疮通常发生于年轻女性。


红斑狼疮患者会有不同的症状，饮食治疗则必须根据患者的症状而加以调整。而我这次活动中则讲些健康饮食知识，让患者吃得健康均衡！在此也分享些活动照片，让大家多多认识饮食治疗师。

Meeting Running Man ~ HaHa @ Ha Dong-hoon in K-Festival

Well, just a throw back...A sharing for all...  I saw HaHa in Pavilion 2 weeks ago!!!!! It was K Festival event organised by Korea Tourism Organization on 8th of August. For those who likes K-pop, and of course for those who like Running Man, I believe you will know HaHa, one of the member in Running Man, one of my favourite artist.

Opening Ceremony

HaHa was invited in the event and both of my sisters were lucky enough to win the special zone ticket for HaHa fan meeting. Those winners were eligible to get autograph from HaHa. Well, I just able to watch from far since I didn't get the ticket. So pitiful.

HaHa Fans Meeting

One of my sister took the photo with my camera and due to her 'good' photography skill, these are the photo that I can share with you all. Hehe... hope she won't see this post... :p

Look at the crowd!!!! So many youngsters!!! I felt like I'm the minority there, well, I know I'm much older than all of them there. LOL.... 

Apart from that, a group of painters named HERO is also invited to perform on stage that night. They danced while painting, cool! Never think that can happen as most of the paint artist will take good care of their hands, and majority won't involved in something so dangerous for them, who knows what will happen if they fall and broke their hands when dancing. That's very brave of them. Really like this performance!

HERO

What a wonderful event to attend!!! 

Potato Vs Vinegar

My dinners again... Today I would like to share a little bit useful information to everyone. I prepared potato for the dinner as you can see from the photo. This is a new cooking my China friend shared with me. I like this very much.

Potatoes is one of my favourite food. This is more interesting when she taught me to add in vinegar into the potatoes during the cooking so that the potato will become crispy. Any type of vinegar will do, I tried the black vinegar and white vinegar, the effect is about the same, only the outcome -- colour is different. The pototes in the photo was added with black vinegar. Therefore the colour is darker. This is something new for me, not sure whether it's new for everyone.

The texture of the potatoes become totally different when added with vinegar. It becomes more crispy and will not become soft and mushy, regardless how long you cook it. Well, I like potatoes, doesn't matter how is the preparation. But this cooking is really interesting and I like the crispy texture very much.

I googled a bit on what actually happen when vinegar is added. As I qoute from this website,
Potatoes are made up of a series of cells that contain starch granules. These cells are glued together with pectin. As the potato cooks, the pectin slowly breaks down, and the starch granules start absorbing water. When you overcook them, the first thing that happens is the pectin breaks down too far. The potato cells start falling away, and the whole thing turns mushy.

Pectin breaks down much more slowly in acidic environments. A tablespoon of vinegar per quart of water was enough to boil the potatoes without having to worry about whether or not they'll overcook. 

I cooked again another potatoes dish with vinegar, this time I sliced the potatoes. The photo above is the outcome, this is more spicy dish, Look at the potatoes, you can see the edge of them are still edgy, and not mushy.

Interesting, right? Just a sharing with everyone!

BookFest @ Malaysia 2014

Hi, I had visited BookFest @ Malaysia 2014 yesterday. I have been travelling during the Raya holiday and can only visit the BookFest on its last day.

This time, I could not get anything much from the BookFest itself. Not sure whether because I visited on the last day (most of the books had been sold off) or the just because I didn't feel like buying anything.

Not many choices when I went to the English Pavilion. Only able to get 3 books from the Mandarin Pavilion. This is definitely much much much lesser from what I managed to get last year. Sob... Sob... 

I haven't start reading them. Just to share what I managed to get in the BookFest here. Three books in total... This amount is not satisfying enough... hey, am I a book shopaholic now??? 

Indian Henna Design

Hello, anyone went for holiday during Raya long weekend? I went Penang 2 days ago and would like to share with you, my very first Indian Henna design... 

Many Indians girls open small stalls along the road side and help the tourists to design and draw it. 

The photo below is mine! How was it? nice? It costed me only RM5 for this simple design. They have a lot of different designs, just pick the one you like and they can draw in no time. Of course, if you are picking complicated design, it will cost you more time and money as well. I picked a simple one, just to give it a try!

They used a colouring material called Henna to draw out all the design. They even have different colours to make the design more lively and interesting. I picked green colour for the flower petals. They have other colours like pink, red, purple and blue as well.

This Henna is not a tattoo, the colour will fade off after about 1 week, that's according to what the Indian girl told me. 

Henna is common among Indians, but not for Chinese. I went for work these 2 days and some of my patients look at me as if I'm ALIEN. LOL.... I think they must thought that their dietitian is having a huge colourful tattoo on the back of the hand. This is quite catchy as I always have some hand gesture while explaining/talking to my patients. Haha... 

My appetizing dinner = Taiwanese Sausages and Stir Fried Broccoli

HiHi.... I'm back!!!! Really sorry to play hide and seek again. As I mentioned before, this blog is my self-motivating and self monitoring item to see how far I can pursue my blogopshere longer.

I haven't been writing for so so so long... The last post was during February and now it's July approaching August!!! hehe... paiseh!

Today I would like to share a bit on my dinner that I prepared myself. Here it is... RICE + TAIWANESE SAUSAGE + STIR FRY BROCCOLI... 

Yes, I had sausages for my dinner. Some of you might be wondering, you are a dietitian, how come you are taking such unhealthy food??? LOL....Well, what I can say is, Dietitian is still a normal human being. I still take unhealthy food on and off. But like what I used to say, you must know your limit. Just try not to take these too frequent. 

I bought this sausage in NSK, Kuchai Lama. It's spicy Taiwanese sausage. I stir fried them with my non stick pan, so only little oil is required. Of course, I had my colourful vegetables which are broccoli and carrot, adding more different nutrients in one dish. Hehe... 

Look at the colour! Like it so much. Easy to prepare and yet I put in all vital nutrients inside, I got rice as carbohydrate source, I had sausages as my protein (even though the sodium content might be high, but bear in mind, this is taken once in a while) and of course I had vegetables for my fiber. Well, they are complete! Yes!!!!

=P

Komugi Cafe at Paradigm Mall

Anyone ever been to Komugi cafe? I went to Komugi Cafe in Paradigm Mall with one of my long lost friend. We haven't been seeing each other for about 8 years time, what a long time huh? There is only 1 photo available as we used up our precious time catch up with each others... hehe...

This is my first time to the cafe, last time I went to Komugi in Mid Valley, they are selling only breads and cakes in the Mid Valley outlet, unlike the one is Paradigm Mall, which is a cafe. Guess why I know Komugi? I saw people queueing up long in the Komugi in Mid Valley, so I went inside and have a look on it. Well, they are selling a lots of appetizing cakes and breads, all looks so delicious and mouth watering!!!!

I didn't buy anything when I visited for the first time, but I bought 2 of the cakes inside during my second visit. What I would say is, they are quite pricey, yet, delicious... So at least I'm paying for the good taste of it, and not to say the beautiful decoration for the cakes itself. They are more like a food handcraft. 

Well, go back to the story in Komugi Cafe, they offers a lot of different drinks and bakeries in the cafe. You can select your bakeries and they will serve to you at your table later, good service there as well. The photo below showed what had we ordered for ourselves. We tried out the bestseller -- cream puff and other cakes as well (in which I forgot the names already). 

The cream puff that they have there is different from what we perceived. Their puffs are hard and crispy, not the one with soft texture. My friend and I was a bit shocked at the first moment, she cannot accept the hard cream puff, having the perception that the cream puff must be soft in texture, therefore, she cannot finish the puff. Well, for me, I'm okay with that, overall the taste is very nice, the cream inside is creamy but not greasy, good taste!

Still, I would advice to take the bakeries with tea instead of other drinks. I ordered chocolate drink to be taken together with all the bakeries up there, and the result is too filling and greasy. In fact, at the end of it, we did not finish the cakes, what a waste, especially when they are so pricey!

Lesson to learn : Cakes should be taken with tea but not others... haha...

Beyond veggie at Tropicana City Mall

Throwback~~

I had my lunch last time in Beyond Veggie at Tropicana City Mall. They are selling vegetarian food inside compare to the normal Secret Recipe. I went to the restaurant with my friend to try out the food there.  

How's the appearance? Not bad, huh? It's quite appetizing... The taste is also nice. They put different colours of vegetables and beans inside. Of course, they also put mock meat inside. The food there is nutritious, but it will be better if they do not put mock meat inside.

When I went there last year, the portion size is big. But I just noted from my friend that their size shrunk recently. Well, no comment about it as I haven't been visiting the restaurant recently.

I tried out their cheese cake as well. Beyond Veggie serving different cakes compare to the Secret Recipe itself. However the choices available in Beyond Veggie is not as much as what they have in Secret Recipe. 

纳豆 ~ 日本食品，也是我最近的最爱！

嗨，大家好。新的一年，新的期望！我今年的期望就是能写好我的部落格，尽快更新。想想我当初写这部落格时，我本身是希望可以好好写下去，好让自己可以保持持之以恒的态度，不要半途而废。之前写了一篇英文版的，现在再来一篇华语版的，可以看得出我的努力吧！

今天和大家分享我最近喜欢上的一种食物，那就是纳豆！可能有些人没看过这个食品，但如果你们有经常到日本餐厅吃东西，那就肯定可以在餐单上找到这个纳豆。

纳豆是一种发酵的黄豆，味道可说是见仁见智，因为不是每个人都可以接受它的味道。基本上和韩国泡菜一样，如果你喜欢，那就会自然而然地喜欢上，如果不喜欢，那就不能勉强了。纳豆是用一些名叫 Bacillus subtilis 的益菌发酵而成的，对身体有益。

我花费了一些时间和精力才在 One Utama Shopping Mall 里的 AEON 才找到。大家可以在冷藏部那里找到纳豆，它和雪糕方在同一区。找到纳豆时真的很高兴，但是同一时间也很懊恼，因为它的种类也太多了吧！加上全都是日语，根本就是很大的难题！

以上两种都是我在 AEON 里买回来的，由于不明白日语，买纳豆时感觉像买彩票，就只能靠猜的。哈哈！！好在买回来时问了问我在日本的朋友，他说这是他在日本常买的牌子，还好没买错，嘻嘻！左手边的纳豆颗粒比较小，而右手边的则比较大颗，这两的包装的纳豆味道也不同。左手边的是普遍的纳豆，里面有酱油和wasabi 酱，而另一个有昆布味的酱油和 wasabi 酱。我个人觉得昆布的比较好吃，因为味道比较浓郁。

打开看看，里面就有我刚才说的酱油和wasabi酱，调味包下面就是纳豆了。吃过纳豆的人都知道，纳豆有一股味道，不是每个人可以接受，打开包装就能嗅到，搅拌后更是浓郁。

打开后就把调味料加入，然后搅拌均匀，拌匀后就可以大快朵颐，很简单吧？搅拌时会产生很多丝，这时纳豆就会变成糊糊，粘粘地。。

以上就是我的分享，喜欢的能自己买回去尝尝，毕竟外面日本餐厅卖的还是贵了点。

P/S : 毕竟不是每个人喜欢纳豆，请慎选！本人就曾经因为介绍纳豆给几个朋友，下场是被骂，因为大家都不能接受纳豆的味道，觉得很臭。

Natto 纳豆 ~ Japanese Food!!!

Hello... First plan after the Chinese New Year is to update my blog as frequent as possible. Well, this is actually my plan at the first place when I start my blog last year, a self motivating thing for myself so that I'm able to pursue a longer journey in writing blogs. 

Today, I would like to share with you, my favourite food ~ Natto.... May be some of you do not know what is this all about, but if you like Japanese food like I do, you will see this in Japanese restaurant. You can normally found it in the menu, the part that you tends to miss it. hehe.... 

Natto is a kind of fermented beans which is widely taken by the Japanese. These are actually soybeans which are fermented using a type of bacteria called Bacillus subtilis.. I try to get some scientific journals to check on its health benefits, but it seems like time is needed to search on that, as most of the researches done is on the soy itself, not on natto. Natto is proved to improve gastrointestinal function due to the good bacteria which has been used for fermentation.

I bought my natto in AEON, One Utama shopping mall, have been searching for it for quite some time. They are located at the frozen food area, somewhere near to the ice cream and frozen curry puff. hehe... There are different brands and different types of natto sold there. I had spent quite some time standing there looking for the one that I needed. Well, it's a pain when you don't understand Japanese words. I can only read the kanji on the packaging, therefore the understanding of the packaging is limited. 

These are the two that I bought in the end. It has been quite risky to pick them. For me, it's more like experimenting as I cannot understand the packaging and what I did is just simply pick and buy. I asked my friend in Japan, he told me this is the brand that he always takes in Japan, well, guess I made a good choice. The two above having different sizes of the natto. The one on the left is smaller in size compare to the right hand side one. The flavours are also different. 

The white and red packaging is actually the standard natto, in which you can find soy sauce and wasabi sauce inside, while the red packing on the right hand side is actually consists of kombu sauce and wasabi sauce. Kombu is a kind of seaweed. It is more aromatic to take the kombu one. 

This is the content after you open it. You will see the soy sauce and wasabi sauce on the top, underneath is the natto. Well, bear with the pungent smell when you open it, the smell will reach to a peak after you mix everything. 

What you need to do after open it is to mix everything together according to your own preferences. Mix it well and they are ready to be served, easy, huh? When you are mixing them, sticky string will be produced and making the natto become sticky. 

Here's my sharing on my recent flavourite food ~ Natto.... 

P/S : Not everyone likes it, please be cautious when doing your decision. hehe... ( I had been scolded by all of my friends as I introduced natto to them. Most of them find it difficult to take it because of its unpleasant smell and sticky texture.)