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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Entertainment Quarter Famer’s Market

Second time there. the first was a while back if you check the post.

So we’re here to top up some supplies.

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Portuguese chilli. Very delicious. They have varying heat. We chose the Hot one. This goes really nicely on burgers or just grilled chicken. We bought the larger bottle previously but it took us quite some time to finish it, so we decided that just a small bottle this time.

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Parmesan cheese. we all love it freshly grated. yes. but i’m lazy sometimes. and the grated parmesan that the supermarket sells is hmm.

so when i saw this at a cheese stand, i grabbed it. $4 is a little pricey, but it’s grated and it’s good quality. So it’s worth it i guess. :)

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I also bought a small wedge of Fontina, a nice melting cheese. This one i got is sharper in taste and very creamy. We had it over mashed potatoes.

It is also great just shaved over crackers, with black pepper. Great like that, or just pop it into the oven for a minute and the cheese melts nicely.

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I LOVE butter. in case you didn’t already know. so i’ve been reading up a little on butter. and found that cultured butter, like the one above are made from sour cream instead of cream. therefore, the butter has a slightly sour taste. This is expensive butter. I found it at a cheese store. i think it would go great with sourdough bread. which unfortunately i don’t really like. not really keen on sour. but i will try again.

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Shi Hui bought a small tin of chai tea. Instead of the usual powder ones, this one has real tea leaves and real spices in there. cardamom seeds and all. i don’t like chai, i can’t stand the smell of the spices. but i love curry. so i guess it’s just chai.

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2 chocolate croissants.

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2 brioche.

I’m ashamed to say that we forgot to eat them. so they’re hard and dry now, from being in the fridge. but i’m going to save them but making bread and butter pudding with all these pastries. :)

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and of course. we are hungry. so we bought 2 gozleme. One vegetarian, one with minced meat.

Delicious with lemon squeezed over it. Fresh and piping hot. Only me and hui went so we nearly couldn’t finish it all. Hui left one slice of her minced meat and i managed to finish all of my vegetarian. :) yum yum. feel like eating that now.

Well.. that’s about all our adventures from the EQ farmer’s market.

Till next time!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Kobo e-reader

First the tablet pc next the e-reader.

I got my tablet pc a few years back and i love it. simply because after 3 years of undergrad studies, i don’t end up with a huge pile of paper notes which i really don’t need anymore but can’t bear to throw them away because of the time and effort put into them. I got all these safely stored in my external hard disk – which is perfect.

I’ve been buying a good amount of books to read since being here and although i could have read the books on my tablet, it just isn’t as convenient and as easy. So i’ve stuck to paperbacks.

So when fish got me an ipad for christmas, it was perfect, i downloaded an app and started purchasing ebooks instead. and the ipad is great. there’s color, i can connect my books to facebook and the page turning is interactive. the only problem with the ipad is that although it is light, it is still of a certain weight and reading it on the bed makes my hand a little sore. though i still really like it.

The app i downloaded was called Kobo. and they have their own e-reader, much like a kindle but it can also read any generic epub and pdf files. which is why i chose it over the kindle. Borders.com had a reduction in the Kobo e-reader’s price and since US dollar and Aus dollar was almost at parity, i decided why not? It was cheaper than buying a second hand Kobo through ebay and borders au was selling the Kobo at AUD$179. I bought mine for USD$100 + $9 shipping. A second hand e-reader on ebay was selling for even more expensive than this.

Enough talk.

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They have 2 colour schemes in the borders US shop, either black or white. I chose the black version – i dunno why. maybe it’s easier to clean. or maybe i had thought to test drive it for my dad and if it is not too bad, i can give it to him. but. i’m liking it too much now. so we might just get another one. hehe

So the screen is e-ink. and the screen you see above is when the reader if switched off. yes. it does not go blank.

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One of the books i’ve just finished reading.

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The screen flickers every time you turn the page or try to access the side bar. It isn’t too big of a problem, but there is a slight lag, so don’t expect instantaneous action.

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The best thing about this is that since it isn’t a kindle so i can purchase ebooks from any site – i usually just use www.kobobooks.com since it’s most convenient, but i can also read loads of free ebooks. Without getting into whether it’s legal nor not – that is an option that is available with using this instead of a Kindle.

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I also tested it with chinese pdf files and a picture brochure. Both were obviously in black and white since the e-reader does not support color, but they worked. You could zoom in at the pdf file and change it from landscape to portrait. and the e-reader remembers your choice if you’ve changed it, the next time you read it, it will be exactly as how you left it.

So overall, i’m loving it. Only downside (well, not actually a downside), is that i can’t read at night. This is e-ink which means there’s no backlight. You have to have external light to read it. I like to read in the dark using the ipad. but i can’t with this, so i suppose it is good for my eyesight – so not really a downside.

Oh. and it can sync with my ipad, so if i’m reading a book on both devices, and i sync them through the computer they would ‘inform’ each other on which page i’m at.

Happy reading! :)