Green is Good

(Taken from http://www.cbc.ca/inthekitchen/2011/11/tossed-green-salad-with-a-classic-olive-oil-vinaigrette.html)

         What is the first course of the meal before you have the second one? I’ll give you a hint… It is a savory leafy vegetable dish, light in taste and often served with dressings. Yes, it’s salad. It is a simple dish with remarkable tastes! Well, you must be thinking why I have chosen this food as one of the dishes that is new to me. Curious? Get your reading glasses ready and start reading.

Funny story, I wasn’t a salad lover before the days in 2011. I wasn’t at all. I hated eating vegetables when I was a kid, thinking that the taste of vegetables are just plain bitter! Oh… especially those that are cooked in the Chinese restaurant, adding garlic to make it even worst. No offence to the Chinese cuisine lovers okay. Why isn't bitter? It’s like a non-acidic toxic that burns my tongue when I ate it. My father will force me to eat it because it’s healthy for my body. I had no choice but to swallow the veggies with water, just like eating medicines.

I wasn’t a salad lover myself before, but not until after being selected for National Service. Yes. National Service, the correct term would be “Program Latihan Khidmat Negara” (PLKN). I don’t understand why people would argue that PLKN is the worst place to be and that it is a waste of time. I’m not going to talk about it, because I’ll start to yap about the program which I think it was the best thing that has ever happened to me. So that’s the stepping stone of how I developed my new found interest in eating more veggies by myself and not forced by parents. I had to, because I was staying there for 3 months. I had to take care of myself. As much as I hated saying this before but veggies are good for you because of the health benefits it brings to the table.

My thoughts about veggies have truly changed and the amount of love I have for veggies grew stronger after graduating from PLKN. On that day itself after graduation, my parents brought me to this American restaurant, Betty’s Midwest Kitchen to celebrate my completion of the program. My dad ordered dishes as if it’s ready to serve for 10 people but there were only 3 of us. Every dish served was mouthwatering! Tasted so good! My dad asked me to try the salad which is the normal salad served in lettuce varieties, slices of apples with Thousand Island dressing. It is simply delightful! It was a remarkable day for me knowing that from a person that used to hate eating veggies is now crazy over salads. I eat all kinds of salads now like potato salad, bound salad, green salad and fruit salad. If you are a person that cannot eat anything without meat on the plate, chicken salad is a good choice.

Not only salad can be tasteful, but I have learnt so many new things through this simple, plain dish. I have learnt the reason serving salad as the first course meal before the mains. Like I said, it is light in tastes, so it is a good way to be served as an appetizer to stimulate the appetite before the entrées. Besides that, health benefits from veggies and fruits in the bowl can lower the cholesterol levels and prevent diseases, particularly cancer, and a good way to lose weight too. Salad is also fun to make because you can put almost anything and everything you think is delicious enough for the salad to be tasteful. My regular would be tomatoes mixed lettuce varieties with peeled and sliced oranges with drizzled of desired amount of Thousand Island dressing… similar with the one at Betty’s with a slight change.

For me, new things didn’t mean that it was non-existent before. It just means that I'm only seeing for the first time now. In conclusion, salad is something new to me and it still is, even it was developed back in 2011. So instead of watching your movie marathon at home with popcorns, try changing it to a healthy bowl of salad. That way you can enjoy both movie and a healthy snack. It is simply the best of both world.

DFTBA,

Dann.

Let It Go

(Taken from: http://www.rotoscopers.com/2013/11/02/the-most-amazing-best-frozen-wallpapers-on-the-web/)

Let’s make room for two more Disney princesses! Because here comes Frozen! The movie Frozen is superb! Okay, I am a 20 years old man and going to shamelessly admit that I still like Disney princesses and movies, but that doesn’t change me. I am an open-minded person, so what if I like Disney princesses? I apologize in advance if I ever offended any of my fellow species. I am not a fan of them but I just like to watch them in movies. So don’t get me wrong. To me, they are heroine/damsel-in-distress characters in a Disney film who has overcome some kind of hardship in their respective movie. I developed my interests in those types of movies simply because of my sisters and little cousins who are females that always bug me to download such movies for them to watch. Probably the culture I came from made me feel comfortable about the whole Disney movie-thing.

Words cannot describe the amount of interests I have for Frozen. It applies values to everyone including me. You see, I have admitted to the world saying that I, a man still watch Disney movies at my age. Embracing yourself is one of the biggest hesitations that everyone has. Sometimes not just to oneself, to others as well. They say, one of the biggest mistakes of humans is their hesitancy to tell how much they love each other. Don’t you think so? They are probably egoistic or shy to tell each other. When the end comes to a person’s life, they would eventually feel guilty or regret. This feeling could probably be the worst feeling ever… Not telling the person that you love him/her while they are still living. The people we love are always there for us but we don’t say it or do anything to make them feel loved. It makes me think that the Asian cultures will most probably be the one rather than the Westerns. We are so scared to do such things in life that sometimes you would just say: “Whatever la… as long as they know I love them is more than enough.” What did you do to make them feel loved? What is your love?

We all should be like Anna and Elsa in Frozen. Being true to oneself and learn about their sisterly unconditional care and love… Not just sisters but it applies to all kinds of relationships in the world. It hurts knowing the fact that many people in the world doesn’t know the meaning of love. Love, a very simple word yet it carries infinite amount of meanings to it. Love is truly the greatest gift we can ever hope to give and receive. Love is the one thing that can overcome plenty of struggles that we are to face in life. Love is so powerful that it turns frowns into smiles. It helps to mend the broken hearts too. It can even turn all the ugliness in the world into the most beautiful thing we could ever have the pleasure to behold. It could be such a monumental task. But only if we try to do it alone. Instead, if each of us contributed in our own small ways to love, together the task will become the reality we are reaching for. As powerful as love can be, it can only work its magic if we choose to allow it to. For that to pass we must let go of other emotions that can get in love’s way. That’s why the title for this blog post is called “Let It Go”.

Firstly, consider the thought that Anger is normal, but holding on to it indefinitely is isn’t really necessary. Let it go... Forgiveness is so much better for the soul rather than holding your grudge. Harshness. Choose your choice of words carefully because once it is out, it never goes back in. Instead choose gentler words to get your point across. Impatience. Patience is virtue, my dear ones. Perfection. No one is perfect… No one is born perfect. We learn as time takes us to experience and learn about love. These are few of the obstacles that people came across to and definitely there is more of it. In conclusion, Frozen is a movie that everyone can relate their life metaphorically to and maybe learn something out from it. The songs are catchy especially “Let It Go”, the song is still stuck in my head and people are still sharing and spreading in the world of social networking even though the premiere was last year. The storyline is less predictable and unexpected if you are watching Frozen for the first time. This is what I like if I ever want to rate a good movie. The ending is simply magical. If you haven’t seen or watch Frozen, I apologize for the spoiler. Forget what I just said and go grab your tickets now, because it is still showing in the cinema. Above all, Love causes less stress, less headache, less of just about everything that is negative. Love does reap rewards… happiness, joy, peace, and more. Isn’t this we want most for this world of ours? This is definitely a prettier picture. 

DFTBA,
Dann.

Pretty Hurts

(Taken from: http://thesoftersideav.deviantart.com/art/Beastly-Poster-160607458)

One of the many books I've read that I'm fascinated about is "Beastly". Simply because this romance fiction book is irresistibly readable and interesting. Why? This book made me or maybe the readers, wanting to know the actions that the protagonist is going to take in order for him to be truly loved by someone before his due date of not transforming back to the normal/handsome form he once was. He is transformed into a “beast” simply to reflect the ugly personality that he has for himself and his act on other people. This book made me glued to the last page to know the outcome. 

Besides the brilliant story plotting and writing, this book can relate to the diseases that are spreading among the nation now. One of the examples is people will make a big deal of how to look pretty. What you wear on the outside is all that matters. Unfortunately, it is not true. In my opinion, people around the world are mostly thinking of getting attention and of being perfect to gain dominance, respect, love and to even fulfil the cultural expectation. And so in order to gain all these from people is to look pretty like the models in the magazines, they'll do whatever it takes to look as pretty/beautiful despite the struggles they have to go through. Mass Media has its good and bad effects sometimes. Bad effects like giving out the wrong message to the people of how they should behave or look like. Vogue says: Thinner is better. I mean really, people need to wake up! Just because something is beautiful doesn’t mean it’s good. 

What I am trying to say is that being beautiful is very subjective. People who are self-centered tend to focus only on their perspective of things like being pretty and do not try to see the world in other points of views. Being beautiful, it can be on the outside, doesn’t matter, the way you behave as a human being matters the most. In life there are many things to see and learn from, other than being pretty. Anyway, here’s a quote that took me awhile to write it down: “When one ceases to recognise their insignificance in this planet, they will never learn to see the true meaning of life beyond their stunted sight.” Agree? Also in the book, I learnt that you can have a beautiful face, but an ugly personality will ruin it. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not being a gender bias here, it may sound like I am writing this to reflect on the woman only, but sadly man feels the same way too. 

In conclusion, I thought it was a well-written book. It is like a modernised version of the Disney’s classic, “Beauty and the Beast”. I can learn so much from this book because I was once corrupted by this disease too, but not anymore. The words in the book have its hidden inspiration and motivation. It is nice to think that not all people judge someone by the outlook and true love isn’t about the way someone looks. True beauty and love is what matters on the inside and out.

DFTBA,
Dann.