Search terms

Funny. These are the phrases that people get to my blog from search engine results, of course, sifted through to find the most amusing ones. (text in brackets is my own commentary) A bit silly, but I’m getting swamped with uni work and a bit of comical humour is always nice. And there’s a cool website that can convert any mundane text such as this into a graphic design masterpiece! http://www.wordle.net/

November 2008-July 2009
November: first touch with the alphabet,  australian alphabet soup,  hello alphabet soup

December: distribution taste buds tongue, “healthy” “mind” “diet”, curry soup, rolling stones early stuff, albert einstein tongue

January: art of kagaya, taste buds on my tongue is raw (oh really?)

February: 咕嚕肉 hand writing

March: slight tongue burns, pictures of healthy/unhealthy eating for (yeah, my blog does have a juxtaposition for a fair few of those), vegemite pancakes (yuck?!), moist kitty tongue, taste buds going crazy (haha), eat explode stomach, tasting dan dan noodles, anthropology family recipe, msg at palace chinese restaurant sydney, haw [sic] to make fried rice, scallop shield with fish, is roasting marshmallow on stove bad? (I hope not. XD) , art in marshmallow (that would be lovely… creating masterpieces from melting marshmallows), “carrot used to describe incentive,potato” (what’s this? like the thing they do with donkeys?), “she inflated, and her stomach exploded.”, yum cha kitchen to seating ratio

April: roasting marshmallows on gas, burning spear, anatomy chicken ear (hm.), japanese eating teriyaki faeces (?!!), true story about taste buds at the back (tell me! oh do tell me about the true story!), manatee, 10,000 things to do with cream of mushroom (wow.), how to cure burnt taste buds (I’d like to know too. ice cream apparently, deceivingly offers no alleviation), marshmallow monkey, marshmallow explosion

May: “see through ceiling” (awesome. can that be in my bedroom?), snoppy burning marshmallow (haha, I’d like to see him do that), avoid hardening of marshmallows when roasting, exploited ginger (oh the poor ginger is getting exploited!), exploded taste bud on tongue piercing (ow), sydney haymarket greasy spoon, how long do taste buds last- 10 minutes? (what? where do people get these notions from?), edible string made of marshmallows

June: fat ginger actor, silkie chicken (and not ‘silky’.. apparently silkie is a type of chicken), oxford dictionary spelling of dietitian (I think they spell it with a ‘t’ and not a ‘c’ as the main one), one ordinary marshmallow (poor ordinary marshmallow…), vegetables hands (now wouldn’t that be nice? we can just eat ourselves!), don’t eat the marshmallows korea (why? I can just imagine somebody in slow-mo soccer defending footage of a marshmallow hurled towards Korea, protecting the country from this most ghastly monstrosity), monk kok obscure food, who roasted the first marshmallow (I’d like to know too), crab eating marshmallow, taste buds only taste pork (now that would be terrible), leaching australian seeds, tender buds chemistry blogs (yeah, little kids sure like to make chemistry blogs), first australian to roast a marshmallow, barbecue marscmellos, taiwan pancake made of rabbit poo, recipe cloud in cream (doesn’t that sound lovely?)

July: custard prestige (I can just imagine a pan of custard crowned with gold amongst a backdrop of luxurious prestige of awards), burnt rice, can chickens eat jackfruit, pasta chemistry (My first result: “Occurrence of protein-bound lysylpyrroaldehyde in dried pasta…”), make marshmallow mushrooms (doesn’t that sound adorable? When I was a kid these were two words I got confused…among many other embarrassing ones…), seafood stylists (can you imagine a crab with sunglasses, or octopus with gold studs on tentacles? I can.), images of rice in fibrous root,  how to get jackfruit resin off your hand (I’d like to know too), thousand layer pancake (what’s this?), fried tofu with molten liquid inside

Also, funny link from a discussion forum to my blog:
http://coquinaria.it/forum/showthread.php?t=100561
“purtroppo blog che parlano dei marshmallow arrostiti ne trovo solo in inglese. Perdono!!!” (translated from Italian) “Unfortunately blogs talking about marshmallow roast will find only in English. Pardon!”

The Art of Marshmallow Roasting

This is the one food activity that evokes heartfelt nostalgia within me. What Hong Kong child would not have most looked forward to the grand finale of a barbecue; vigiliantly guarding the precious bag of marshmallows to use on the lingering flames when the honey smearing, meat spearing, and carnivorous rituals are over? While we are at it, I might as well describe the way Hong Kong people barbecue. Unlike the famous backyard ‘barbies’ of Australians, this activity usually occurs in countryside parks with concrete or brick stoves already at your disposal. Instead of a portable grill with metal racks to lay the meat on, the stoves in HK become the enclosure of a mini campfire, and instead of one or several cooks assigned the cooking flipping with tongs to serve to the idle guests, each person gets to be their own chef with a two-pronged fork used as the tool to hover individual pieces of meat over the open flames. Honey is liberally slathered over the pieces of meat when they are nearly done. Surrounded by nature, returning to the most primitive form of cookery; it is truly bliss.

I have a comical narrative to tell. On one of these BBQ trips in Aberdeen Country Park (next to the reservoir), the family was happily engaging in the usual Hong Kong barbecueing, blisfully unaware that our most anticipated part of the feast was about to be stolen away, literally. The vigilant marshmallow-guarding must have been put on a temporary hold, because the next thing we knew, a monkey furtively grabs the bag of marshmallows, briskly fleets away, and climbs up a tree, all the while biting onto the plastic packaging with its mouth. I think that must be the most memorable and amusing story anybody could have with the usually predictable barbecue!

I digress. There are two ways of eating roasted marshmallows: by themselves, or in s’mores. If you’re looking at the title and sniggering at the thought of being taught how to stick a marshmallow onto fire, there is actually a technique. The type of roasted marshmallows I adore is the one with a skin charred to crunchy perfection, with the golden brown casing craftfully peeled layer by layer, thus maximising the crusty satisfaction able to be derived from your marshmallows. Apparently that is also the technique my mother did as a child. If you are one of those who prefer their marshmallows a-la-sucking-out-gooey-liquid style, I suggest you stick to your own devices (suspending the marshmallow a long long distance over the fire results in a minimally browned skin with totally liquefied centres, but you would need a lot of patience!).

The type of marshmallow does not matter too much, although the larger it is, the easier it is to char the skin without softening the entire marshmallow. Mini marshmallows would also serve this purpose well, although it would defeat the enjoyability of the process.

1. First, maintain a low, steady fire or mildly red-hot embers of coal. This will ensure the greatest chance of not burning the marshmallows yet enough heat to effectively singe the marshmallow exterior without rendering an overly soft core. If you don’t want to bother with a barbecue, you can roast marshmallows to the same effect on a gas stovetop: on the lowest setting, but place the marshmallow farther from the flame.
2. Spear one or two marshmallows onto the barbecue fork, piercing through the entire marshmallow (this is important, or else the marshmallow will just fall out).
3. Hold marshmallow over fire or coals, poised 0.5cm above the heat source, basically as close as possible without any risk of ashes tainting the soft little gem/catching fire.
4. Rotate marshmallow when the underside has been tinted golden brown. Continuously do this until the whole marshmallow is speckled with this crunchy crust (much like hardening molten lava!), charring as fast as possible whilst minimising the melting on the interior.
5. Remove the utensil from the fire. Very carefully, gently pinch the tip of the marshmallow with your fingers (beware, it is hot! If you dont have tough skin, be sure to cool the marshmallow first), and slowly pull this casing away from the still-solid core. Immediately devour.
6. Repeat steps 6 and 7, until a tiny little spheroid not capable of any more shedding remains. Of course, char this little morsel until golden brown as well! You could probably do two to four lots of skin peeling if skilled.

Another delicious way to enjoy molten marshmallows is the smore. While this has remained much of a hidden secret from Australians, it is hugely popular in the U.S. I was introduced to s’mores when I was at a Brownies camp, Year 5 in Hong Kong, where we encircled the campfire while eating gooey marshmallow sandwiched between melting chocolate digestive biscuits. Hmm… all my favourite flavours conglomerated into one dessert!

Roast marshmallows, not using the peel-layer-after-layer method, but the one that yields totally liquefied centres without burnt skin. Place a slab of milk chocolate on a digestive biscuit (peanut butter also adds variety). Alternatively, use chocolate digestives. Pull the marshmallow out of the stick and place onto the digestive biscuit, then squish the other biscuit on top, thereby spreading the goo’s surface area. The residual heat would melt some of the chocolate. Enjoy this crunchy, gooey, chocolatey treat hot.

Humorous incidents as a new nutrition student

So this week has been my first week in studying my degree. The subjects that I am studying now include Chemistry, Anatomy and Physiology, Contemporary Public Health and Australian Health Care Systems. It’s been interesting, to say the least, and I still enjoy learning about the Biology subject the most. That said, the Chemistry is a bit of a challenge to get my logical side out, while the Public Health subjects provide a bit of relief from Science and provides a more worldly, right-brained view. I’ll try hard to learn as much as I can, avoid excessive procrastination, and… well those are my two main problems, laziness and procrastination… So yeah, will work hard!!

Comic little things that happen to a nutrition student in her orientation week.

I’m sure stuff like this happens to a dietitian on a daily basis, I’m just new to this. The amusement will fade after a while :).

Free pizza slices: nutrition student goes and grabs 3 slices, plus fairy floss and pop corn. Some random Christian uni representative comes.”Hi! What’s your name? What are you studying?” “Oh hi, I’m Bonnie, I study nutrition.” She stares down at the slice of pizza.

Accompanying her friend doing Optometry to an information session, the spectacled nutrition student helps herself to some free KFC chicken. She chuckles to her friends “Hey, I bet the nutrition information seminar tomorrow won’t be giving out free KFC.” (her friends are not amused.)

Meeting new people, the nutrition student finds out the name of her fellow student: Candy the dietitian (to-be).

Chocolate was given out as prizes in the nutrition seminar, “It’s not carrot, but it’s high in antioxidants and also increases endorphins!”

In her first Chemistry lecture, the lecturer attempts to highlight the relevance of the subject in our fields. “So the course coordinator has decided that this unit is needed for people doing Nutrition and Dietetics… we call them ‘nuts and dieters’…” And then people start laughing in amusement.

While spending some time with her high school friends in the CBD, they all go and have cake for ‘lunch’, buy 5 different Korean snacks to nibble on while loitering in Borders bookshop, and drink a sugary energy drink that was a freebie. All the while, nutrition student exclaims, “Gee, we are such bad examples of dietitian and oral hygienist-to-bes!” Staring at the Pharmacy student, “Well, drugs can cure everything!” (cough).

Corny, I know. 😛

What’s in a name?

Why Ten Thousand Taste Buds you ask?

Well, why don’t I show you the other alternatives:

Broccoli & Chocolate : seems apt since it embodies two of my favourite foods, and catchy because they’re like binary opposites, with the healthy/unhealthy… but judging by the amount of ~~~ & ~~ (food & another food format) food blog names out there, it’s hardly original.

Lifethyme : Really, puns are quite corny…

Parsley sage rosemary and time : Simon and Garfunkel may be timeless singers, but my blog certainly isn’t a tribute to them! Maybe the notions of the herbs is very foodie, and time alludes to my stretched schedule as a university student… but I’ll be honest, I hardly use herbs.

Just another food blog : I’m sure there are plenty of food blogs out there with a similar name…

Blog of Mastication : I was just being a little cheeky and frivolous here, such an enigmatic word probably would have garnered much public interest… Nevertheless, it’s probably a little too brazen for me, and there’s more to food than chewing!

Pie in the sky : I recently found a food blog by this name. Luckily I didn’t get caught for plagiarism…

FoodBlog101 : Hands up if you think I really hit the jackpot for creativity this time?!

So you see, this really was probably the most original, catchy and befitting name, considering the premise behind this blog. Without tastebuds, the luscious sensual experience of food would be nonexistent, and the topic of health and nutrition is alluded to by this anatomical reference. There’s also this theory that while eyes may be the windows to the soul, the tongue is the window to your health (ever stuck your tongue out for a doc?). I actually didn’t know that humans had ten thousand taste buds until I conceived of this name idea and googled it up, or that some aren’t even located on the tongue! Thought that humans have the most sophisticated taste perceptions of all animals? Think again: cows have 25,000 taste buds, rabbits 17,000. Wonder how they can possibly gulp down all that disgusting grass or their own faeces (rabbits are coprophagic!) with such heightened sense of taste…