Hazy Days in Malaysia...

Malaysia has been under haze attack recently... The condition in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor is getting worse day by day...

At the same time, patients admitted to hospital due to respiratory problems have been increased remarkably. People coughing everywhere, complaining shortness of breath.

Due to hot weather and polluted air, the health condition is also worsen. Viral infection is everywhere now. Therefore, I strongly advice people out there to wear mask when you are going out.

First, to get rid of the pollutant as much as possible, secondly is to avoid yourself getting viral infection during this high risk periods.

Please drink more water, get yourself well hydrated and build up your immune system to fight back disease that might be arise during critical period like this.

One important thing, make sure you wear your mask properly, the colour side should be faced outward, while the white side should cover your own mouth and nose. Make sure both of your mouth and nose are covered.

If you can get N95, please use that. I found N95 works better compare to other face mask or surgical mask.  N95 can filter out more particle in the air, I notice the smoky smell of the air can be reduced by wearing that mask. Try to get that, they are more expensive, but this is definitely nothing big deal if you wanna compare with your own health, isn't it?

All the best for Malaysians... * finger crossed *...

My favourite shoe ~ Scholl

Dietitian needs to stand and walk a lot, especially when you are working in big hospital. I have been suffering from leg pain recently. Guess it's time to change my shoe. 

I started to use Scholl shoe since I worked. A pair of nice shoe to give you comfort and protection. However, I still having leg pain, may be the shoe had served me for too long ( I guess about 1 1/2 year ), it's time to give it a rest already.

Initially I was planning to shop for the shoe, but the shop didn't have the size I want. Then I started to check on the biomechanics thing at shelf. 

The full name is biomechanics heels and knee pain reliever. They have different type of the orthotic insole for better cushioning and foot support. Different biomechanics range serve different purpose and different protection, but mainly to reduce the pain and stress on foot region. 

The one I bought is 3/4 length orthotic insole. It's easy to be used, just put it inside your shoe and you are ready for your walk. It's available in 3 sizes, which is small, medium and large, make sure you get your exact size so that it can fit your foot well.

This is how it looks like, cute isn't it? Just put inside your shoe. Well, the cushion in my own Scholl shoe is actually flatten out already since I wear it most of the time. Before I'm able to get my new shoe, I guess it's better to get something as a replacement at this moment, I don't really able to stand the pain whenever I walk too much. 

This is what it does to help reduce pain and soreness of foot. Not bad huh???

Well, this biomechanics is just something to be use temporarily until I'm able to get the shoe I wanted. At least, it fits into all type of flat shoe... 

Again, it's time to shop for shoe.... huh... 

Cola Chicken

Hi, I'm back with another cooking, Cola Chicken. This is one of my favourite cooking since it's easy to prepare and not time consuming. Of course, the most important is that I like this dish very much, my family also like it when I prepare this. Love it so mucchhh....

It's so easy to prepare this, unless you are too lazy to do it, if not, you'll sure find it very very easy. I learnt to cook this from a recipe I found in the newspaper, it's more complicated before this, but I modify myself to make it simpler... hehe... Forgot to tell, I like to modify thing, especially in cooking.. 

The ingredient is just soy sauce, thick soy sauce, coca cola and chicken. Easy, right? hehe...

1st, prepare all the ingredients needed....The chicken... preferably chicken wings... but if you have other parts of the chicken, you can still using them, don't be too rigid, okay? :P 

After that, marinate the chicken with soy sauce and thick soy sauce. The amount of them are according to your own feeling, as long as you don't put too much or too little. Well, cooking is all about feeling, just follow your heart.

They look so beautiful, right? An advice for all, don't put too much of the thick soy sauce, if not later the chicken will become too dark. Marinate them for 1/2 hour.

After that, just put a bit of oil and fry the chicken for a while, remember not to fry until the chicken are cooked. Just make sure fry a bit to give some nice colour to the chicken.

Here's the chicken after a light frying moment... nice colour!

After that, pour in the coke into the chicken. Do not pour too much of it, just to avoid the chicken become too sweet, don't forget that the coke contains sugar inside.

In order to make sure the chicken is well cooked, I put some plain water into it, this is also to avoid putting too much coke inside. Cover it and cook with low heat, simmer for 15 minutes so that the flavour of the coke can get into the chicken.  

Then, open the cover and cook until the sauce thicken. If you prefer to have more sauce, make sure do not cook until too dry. 

Well, finally, the cola chicken is well done. Again, it's easy, isn't it? hehe.....

Cola Chicken

Some people might be asking : Dear Dietitian, this is not suitable for those with diabetics, what if we want to cook for those with diabetics? 

Answer : Well, the usual coke can be change into light Coke or diet Coke in order to control the sugar intake while still providing the cola flavour. Nice, isn't it? Now the Cola Chicken is suitable for all. Everyone can enjoy it!

My cooking ~ Sambal Belacan Fish & Tomyam Vegetables

My cooking!!!

Yeah, after suffer from LOA (loss of appetite) for a few days, I plan to cook myself, so that my appetite can be improved. Well, recently have been forcing myself to eat anything, no appetite at all, most probably due to the same and repetitive menu offered in all the cafes in  my working place. 

After work, go back and spend some time to cook for myself. Tired??? YES!!! tired after working, but still need to eat, right? So here's my dinner. 

I got some nice sambal and I cooked the sambal with fish. Simple, yet delicious recipe. 

I fried the fish and stir fried some onions. Then put in the sambal and cook it, simple!

This is my dishes ~ Sambal belacan fish!

Next, time for my vegetables. The fish is a bit dry, without much sauce. So I cook tomyam vegetable, sour dishes can improve appetite!

How's the vege? Not so bad la, right? With so many different colours of vegetables inside, I put carrot and celery. 

One thing special here, 2 fishes at one time??? haha... yes, I need to cook for 2 servings at 1 time, so that it is easier for me to cook. It is really hard to cook 1 person's portion as the ingredients get to scorch/burn easily. Another benefit is you don't have to cook so many times, keep the remaining inside the fridge and reheat at other time. 

Well, you always think of creative way to prepare the food! At least, I had my appetite back, thanks to my own cooking. Not skilful, but at least objective achieved. 

Enquiries About Dietitian

I'm back after so many days!!!

I received an email from a reader few days ago and I would like to share the information for all those who needed it. Thanks for the email, Ester. 

Here's the email : 

I saw your blog while I'm searching information about dietetics course.I would like to ask you some question about dietician..I hope you don't mind to answer my question...

1.What is the salary range of dietician for fresh graduate and experienced dietician?

2.Does the job opportunity for dietician wide for nowadays in our country?

3.Is it hard to get the dietetics course for local university like USM,UKM?

Answer : 

I think those are the popular questions for many of you out there, right?

Salary might varies, depends which sector you are in, either government or private hospital. For the salary range, if you work in government sector, the starting salary is about 3k, depends whether you are working in town area or not. For private sector, the starting salary might be a bit lower, but I heard the increment can be fast, besides, private sectors might paying bonus as well, so that's actually increase the amount of salary in general. Salary for fresh graduates and experienced dietitian will definitely be different. For dietitian, experience is very important, more experience means more salary. I believe this happens in all different job as well. 

Job opportunity can be a lot depends what you want to be. Dietitian is expanding day by day now, as announced by our health minister last time, they plan to get dietitian for all hospitals in Malaysia. Dietitian is more and more recognised currently, almost all hospital needs dietitians. Government also allocates dietitians in clinic (klinik kesihatan) in many districts. If you are not so interested in clinical dietitian, you can pursue in many different job which need diet and nutrition advices. 

I'm not sure whether it is difficult to get dietetics course in local universities, but definitely better results have better chances. As I know, dietetics can be one of the popular course for biology students. So, my advice, try to achieve better results so that it eases you to get into any of your favourite courses. 

Thanks for writing to me, hope you enjoy reading my blog.