food for thought: good-day in..bad-day out

On a seemingly fine weather & bright sunny Saturday afternoon, “happie 3 frenz” who are actually ‘enjoying summer holidays’ decided last minute to take the day off & go visit Monash uni campus for some kind of open day.

mind you, we are not these 'happy tree friends' ok..& we're not having this sort of 'break'..
this cartoon was 1st introduced to me by my bro,
seems very cute, but it tricked me & my feelings by the initial impression..
really, it's better off be censored from kids coz it's promoting violence..*sigh

Open day..hmm, it signifies to me as if this is at least for 1 day of the year, the entrance at uni is finally freely wide open & welcomed to anybody who wants to find out more about the sch, simply for the fact, with strict security guarding on semester days, except for authorized personnel, staff & students, the rest of the public are not allowed to enter unless with student card ID or specified permission.

To be more accurate, I guess open day is meant to cater for visitors & guests in providing information, explaining details & give a brief idea on what the courses offered which are available, what they are all about to those who desires to continue their studies in the uni.

Of course, these 3 nothing-better-to-do people had previously enrolled in already, thinking of changing course then?

Quite likely, even though I think they prefer sticking to their own course & wouldn’t feel like switching to another one since they had first selected upon admission to uni. Well, on 2nd thought, don’t think it’s necessary to consider coz it seems as though the course is automatically changing itself anyway. Well, just kidding, what are they doing there then? Hmm, out of curiosity I guess. Who are the 3, u wonder?

These 3 consist of a black-&-white pet panda, a highly-respected elder (a grandfather this year), & someone who’s writing this out. It was actually the pet’s suggestion to make this trip back to uni. “Its” intention was to ‘kacau open day’..lol, actually is try to sneak in & pretend as someone new to try gain latest news regarding some complicated stuff going on with some sort of course. However, guessed his plan failed a little as he accidentally bumped into the course coordinator or rather the lecturer-in-charge who’s been teaching him the whole semester not long ago & has a great ability especially in recognizing faces, who happens to live nearby the pet’s house as well.

The pet reached first & attended a talk on ‘a career in food industry’ by Nestle. The grandfather arrived mid-way through the talk presentation while the last person was happily in dreamland at home, comfortably tugged in bed to pay sleep debt for deprivation of rest from the past few days, despite being interested to listen to what Nestle has to say about that related topic.

Well, anyway, so right, in the afternoon, the 3 met up in the cafeteria & saw the lecturer who was mentioned having a short chit-chat with the Nestle guy. Not sure why, but guess the 3 of us tend to avoid contact with them, trying to make our day peaceful. After the grandfather finished lunch (free food was provided for open day), we proceeded to Building 3 Level 5 or where the Food Science Sensory & Testing Lab is, also known as ‘our kitchen’.

Something happening there? Yea, but the event was not so happening I heard. Well, we were there for 1 purpose. We found out there’s this ‘discover the science behind jam & candy making’ thing going on. As students of the particular course, we were intrigued to check out what’s in store there. Actually, I’ve heard of this plan some time before open day started & asked if I could help but didn’t promise anything. It was about making lollipops for openday..lol..lol..lollipops!

Well, we walked up the flight of stairs till we reached that familiar location (this time, lab coat’s not required), to find out the sessions were over. However, the lab technician who used to prepare stuff for our lab experiments for us was still there & we searched around for him. Quickly enough, he was found..hehe, at the lab where he usually plays his music & illegally use the computer to have msn conversations while at work. After the exercise, we went in for the treat to “tea-time”..lol.

Hmm, they had crackers there & baguette bread too actually, but we just took the crackers, spread the jam & eat them. 2 kinds were made – orange marmalade & pineapple jam, after they were put in those glass jars, honestly they looked authentic as if they were those being sold at the supermarkets. Actually, they were prepared by another lecturer who had previously taught us as well, but he had this serious look & we wouldn’t connect or communicate with him too much (especially after some unpleasant experience of interviewing him).

To tell the truth, they tasted quite nice & delicious, real fruity taste & no preservatives as well. The lab technician told us he was famous for making his own home-made jam..lol. Too bad we didn’t take a few home, keep some for own consumption or even sell them. The lab technician la..greedy..cos we opened the fridge & say so many jars of them inside..& he said “eh, don’t kacau my jam ok, I want take them home, spent many hours cooking them & a lot of effort to make them”.. so ok loh. He added “the lecturer said: if sell, RM5 per jar, give to us, RM10 per can please… =.=”

pic 1. orange marmalade
*p/s: only for illustration purposes, actual product may vary
sorry, we just remembered to eat but forgot to take pictures of the ones we had in the lab..anyway, this is the most similar i can find..even the jars were alike..except the zest of orange was thicker..could have tasted even better if it was less bitter & a little sweeter..

i reackon if we take the marmalade & can package it nicely like this,
we can sell it after we learn how to make them too..

marmalade..reminds me of something..yes, this teddy..

if not mistaken, i think this fella..

paddington bear kinda loves marmalade for his bread or sandwich

maybe we can sell em' to this guy here..
seems like it's rich & got a lot of cash money to pay for it..hehe

until it becomes like this..not a penny left..lol..
as we rob him of all his money & empty his wallet, from..
persuading it into buying his favourite orange marmalade which i think he's addicted of..

the pineapple jam looks almost like the orange marmalade in pic 1, in terms of colour, only without the orange peel..

There was another item displayed. It was none other than ‘the candies’, got 1-piece-information prepared there some more, which looks exactly like our notes showing crystallization of hard candies from what we learnt. At 1st glance, they didn’t look like lollipops to me o.O” or whatever kind of candies i've seen before… Since they were not commercially made & neither were them experts or professional in making candies/lollipops, alright then, still acceptable la. Heard that they melt the candies & they get hardened almost immediately when cooled down, so fast that they ‘tak sempat’ to shape it to a proper looking lollipop. Fine then, since we never made them in our practicals & for things we didn’t experience, it’s hard to judge its difficulty unless u tried it before & then only u’ll know it.

this appeared in our lecture notes several times,
& also in the extra information piece provided for the open day..
but what we saw looked nothing like it..the candies were rather different..lol

The end result is they ended up in random shapes of candies, weird looking, an easier way to describe is like ‘paramecium or amoeba kind of shape’, some of them (the ‘considered better tasting & more flavourful ones’) with ‘satay sticks’ poked inside them. Funny, this is the first time I c such candies in my life. What’s more interesting is they even attempt to make us do the usual ‘sensory evaluation’..haha, how?

Well, they insert artificial colourings inside the candies, to make it colourful. The twist is, the colour does not correspond to the flavour it’s supposed to taste like..lol & I was told not to discriminate them, just because of the colour, & then try to guess the real flavour the candy has. Imagine this, blue colour candies have strawberry flavour or green coloured ones having coffee taste. This was what we experienced & they purposely did that.. =S

we were considered courageous & brave enough to give face & eat them. Based on what we heard from another lab personnel is that when visitors who came beforehand were offered for free tasting, they refused to try.

Well, we know it’s safe to eat them,

1st because we know clearly what those scientist do in the lab should be safe

somehow we can expect what is really going on inside;

we have always been guinea pigs for our own experiments, even more risky & hazardous ones,

we are young & adventurous..haha..

lastly & most importantly, I’m still very much alive HERE

eeks..

Hmm, at least the candies still had some flavour inside them (I was thinking if they put in natural flavourings coz they had this small demonstration of difference between natural & synthetic colourings on a piece of paper, but we noticed a lot of those little bottles [variety of colours & flavourings] in the fridge, so yea, it was just simple candies like u always find in the market place), just that it didn’t have a distinctive shape to them. Anyway, we should still appreciate & give credits to those who contributed time & effort to make them, in spite of us not able to eat them all in the end, cos it was sweet & we couldn’t bear to finish the whole thing.

Basically, the highlights of the day..were only the 2 parts I mentioned in our trip to the open day, & probably why we were there, regardless of all the range of programmes set out for open day, coz there were from other schools, not much related to us & we don’t need to consider other things since we’re already mid-way thru our course already.

Going back to the ‘kitchen’ again makes me reminisce of the fun times we had doing the experiments & cooking inside, oh yea, to update some of the FST people, they finally fixed 1 monitor & placed 1 keyboard on the sensory evaluation desk & just that 1, is it for open day purpose, maybe..or perhaps they’re gonna start putting them up anyway..i'm not sure..

Well, the future for ‘food science & tech’ is really uncertain at the moment, how it’s going to turn out, nobody can give a definite answer currently..simple question such as if we’re ever gonna need to step foot in the ‘kitchen’ again? seriously, I really don’t know.. but I do hope so..

& how come we never get to make candies ourselves in the lab? We can also learn to make jam as well, yet, we’re not getting opportunity to do it. With the lecturer’s expertise in the area of ‘freezing & crystallization’, I wish I can learn how to make ice-cream..

my ideal ice cream should be nice, smooth, creamy, accompanied with wafer pieces
& topped with a cherry..so heavenly..
ice creams..anyone?

I like ice-cream, it’s refreshing to eat, they’re nice & it makes up my day sometimes, when I feel a lil’ down..there was once when my church was giving out free wall’s mini ice-cream to first-time friends & newcomers, the pastor said: we’re giving out free ice-creams today & he simply asked, ice-cream makes people (fill in the blank)……. & the crowd responded “happy!!!”, all at once, anonymously..lol..haha..despite it was the 1st time pastor asked that question..maybe there’s some truth in it from this quote..

probably, it’s just like eating chocolates can make people release hormones which make them cheerful or “sweet sugary stuff” makes people go hyper.. just some food for thought..well, food affects your mood, isn’t that true? At least it’s been scientifically proven from what I understand of..

no doubt, to many..this is something lovely & which is devilishly tempting..

whatever it is..**salute to the person who discovered ice-cream..
ice-cream works..it did make a difference to the world..at least it put laughter on kids & even adults who normally frown more easily than just simply smile..adults are frequently stressing themselves out over the reality of life, just ain’t living life to the fullest & most often, when they smile, you c them just trying too hard in it, how long does it take that you actually see a sincere smile from the heart? So, remember to take a break & let life go easy once in a while, people.. =)

Food can be fun & satisfaction always comes with food in daily life..of course, we must still be cautious & more health conscious..as suzz mentioned: Good health & life are not to be taken granted for, 100% agree to that..you are what you eat..bet you would have heard that somewhere..

i think it’s important to eat nutritious food according to a balance diet & consume moderately..many guidelines are out there like the food pyramid which one can follow to keep to a right way of eating in life..so take care, beware & watch what you eat, afterall, health comes before wealth & more can only be achieved when you have good health..surely, everyone would want to live a long, good life & be able to spend precious quality time with loved ones..ryte?

Hmm, guess I’ll just leave that aside off my mind & relax myself a bit..but for now, surely I’ll still continue to enjoy food & cherish valuable fellowships over a meal..

thank God for artistic & skillful chefs who are creative in inventing brilliant recipes, continuous provision for good food, that i'm fortunate enough to not be part of the world which experience famine or long-term hunger & of course great companionship..

well, the day ended with rain which poured heavily like cats & dogs..
*sorry lorence for making u becoming a ‘chicken in the soup’, being soaked wet while getting the car to fetch us inside the campus..i need get a brand new umbrella, actually it’s been a bit faulty since I don’t-know-when & I got rid of it later on..but guess we can’t live without one in this country..

More like I hope everyday is a sunny day, makes our mood brighter..on more realistic side, I just don’t like it to rain during the day when we’re most likely out somewhere, prefer staying nice & dry throughout the day..somewhat, I don’t mind it when the sky is cloudy (the prior signal or phenomena just before it rains) throughout the day, when the scorching hot sun would be hiding & there’s cool breeze blowing and if it is raining only at nights when I slip in to bed or whenever I’m not going out..makes me feel more ‘homey’ to stay in the house..lol

out of sudden, i come to realize, winnie the pooh seems always to be hugging his "hunny pot" a lot & can't let go of it whereas paddington would not be willing to give up on marmalade..