Serein Choo's Blog, page 20
September 26, 2023
Strong Language
Enhancing your writing’s allure is surprisingly simple – replace weak language with vivid, descriptive prose.
While it may take time to acclimate to this technique, practice makes it more effortless.
But how do you identify weak language? Here are common pitfalls to watch out for while applying this writing tip:
Passive voice – Passive voice arises from using forms of ‘to be’ with past participles. It highlights the object instead of the subject. In simpler terms, if something was done by someone or something, it’s in passive voice. For example, ‘The biscuits (object) was ate by the dog (subject).’ is passive voice, whereas, ‘The dog (subject) ate the biscuits (object).’ is a active voice.
Active Voice:
The subject performs the action.The structure is usually Subject + Verb + Object.It’s often more concise and direct.It typically provides clearer attribution of actions to specific individuals or entities.Example: The baker (subject) is making (verb) a cake (object)
Passive Voice:
The subject receives the action.The structure is typically Object + Verb (to be) + Past Participle + (by + Agent).It can be less direct and less clear about who is performing the action.It’s often used when the doer of the action is either unknown, less important, or when the focus is on the action itself.Example: The cake (object) is made (verb) by the baker (subject).
Weak verbs – These are basic, non-specific versions of stronger verbs. For example,
Weak Verb: She walked to the party. Stronger Verb: She strolled to the party.Weak Verb: He said something important. Stronger Verb: He uttered something important.Weak Verb: They ate dinner quickly. Stronger Verb: They devoured dinner quickly.Weak Verb: She ran across the field. Stronger Verb: She sprinted across the fieldSome more examples:
Weak Verb: WalkStronger Verbs: Stroll, March, Stride, SaunterWeak Verb: SayStronger Verbs: Utter, Speak, Mutter, ExpressWeak Verb: EatStronger Verbs: Devour, Consume, Feast, IngestWeak Verb: RunStronger Verbs: Sprint, Dash, Race, BoltWeak Verb: DoStronger Verbs: Accomplish, Execute, Perform, AchieveWeak Verb: MakeStronger Verbs: Create, Construct, Craft, FormulateWeak Verb: HaveStronger Verbs: Possess, Acquire, Own, HoldWeak Verb: GetStronger Verbs: Obtain, Secure, Gain, RetrieveWeak Verb: GiveStronger Verbs: Offer, Provide, Bestow, DonateWeak Verb: TakeStronger Verbs: Seize, Grab, Acquire, CaptureEmotion explaining – If you’re using emotion words in your writing, it’s a sign that you need to ‘show’ rather than ‘tell.’ Stating, ‘She was scared,’ is telling. You can immerse your readers more effectively by conveying her fear through body language, dialogue, and descriptive details. Example, her heart raced as a peculiar, eerie sound scratched against her windowpane. She clutched the sheets, eyes wide, breath trembling, every nerve on edge.
Happy Writing!
September 24, 2023
Quote of the Day
“Whatever you’re thinking, think bigger.”
Tony Hsieh (Entrepreneur)
This is quite true especially in writing. It’s a place where you can unleash your imagination (fiction), so go big instead of go home. The page is endless, for you to fill in the greatest idea, brilliant thoughts. Sky is the limit, maybe space!
#MondayMotivation
Disclaimer: Quote doesn’t belong to me.
September 23, 2023
Mrs. Yau Canteen
Mrs. Yau Canteen @ Setapak as at 17/09/23
Setapak is a place with plenty of good food options that cater to students, so most of it is both affordable and delicious. Today, my sister took us to a quaint spot called Mrs. Yau Canteen. They specialize in Hong Kong-style cafe food, including luncheon meat (please note that it’s not halal), cheesy baked rice, noodles, and their famous pineapple bolo bun.
However, as is often the case in the Setapak area, parking can be challenging to find due to limited space. It’s advisable to carpool, if possible, to make parking more convenient. The interior renovations here are decent, not overly extravagant. Most of the decor features a wood-themed design, with wooden planks covering the walls on both sides.
Here’s the menu.
I really enjoyed the taste of the noodles, particularly their sour and spicy soup. My mom ordered the pork noodles with superior soup; she mentioned it was quite good with a subtle herbal hint. It wasn’t too heavy but had enough of an herbal flavor to notice.
As for my dad and me, we shared the baked pork chop cheese baked rice with Portuguese sauce. I had never tried Portuguese sauce before, but it turned out to be similar to curry sauce, more like Japanese curry. The cheese baked rice was tasty, although it didn’t have any distinctive features.
We also ordered their salted egg sauce polo bun with butter but for this item, I wish they could just ordered the bun only. As you can see from the menu above, for polo bun you either choose the one with salted egg or with luncheon & egg, there’s no ala carte (only bun) for selection.
Anyway, we took the salted egg one, it’s recommended but I don’t like the sauce much. The flavor wasn’t distinct enough, I can’t taste the salted egg at all.
The bun was okay. I tasted better ones, so I wouldn’t be ordering this again.
Their Hong Kong milk tea was really good, it has that Hong Kong taste?! Haha
Why did I say it like that, sometimes stores claimed they are making Hong Kong milk tea but the taste is the same as per the local Teh C; however this one really had that Hong Kong milk tea taste.
Overall I think their food is quite good – prices not as cheap as I initially thought (since it’s in Setapak) but overall the price is decent for the food served. Would I come again? Yes, I took a liking of their sour and spicy soup. The balance of it was really just ngam for my taste (but I wouldn’t order it for myself since it’s too spicy – I can’t eat spicy food haha). I would prefer the superior soup.
Address: 42A Plaza Usahawan Genting Kelang, Jalan Danau Niaga 1, Danau Kota, 53300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
September 22, 2023
Just Write and Write
This two words means so much too me. This is one of the motivational words that I told myself repetitively. “Just Write.”
Write, whether it’s garbage or not, you can always have time later to edit it to make it better. But just write it out first, if you don’t, the idea will forever be stuck in your mind and only be known by yourself. You have to write it down, so that this piece of yourself will be out there instead of hidden within you, in the darkness, forgotten when your life gets busy.
WHO isn’t busy?
When you are student you have to deal with school.
When you are in college, you have assignments.
When you are working, you will say that you have too much work.
When you are married, you say that you have to delay it for the future you are planning with a loved one.
When you have kids, you say that you have to take care of them.
When you are old, your eyes gets blurry, your hands shake, is that the time you want to start writing.
This is not just talking about writing but things in general, chase that ambition, do that thing that you want to do when you are healthy.
Do not wait, because at the end of waiting, it might be you, who is already too old to do anything.
September 21, 2023
Mooncake 2
That day I was walking around, shopping for some more mooncakes to fill my cravings and found some old styles mooncake that I mentioned in the previous post.
(Left to Right) The one that I mentioned that the baked mooncake rolled and wrap in a log.
The white cakes in white and round shape are special cakes, called Cloud Cakes, that is only available during mid autumn festival. It is made from glutinous rice flour, malt, sesame, sugar and lemon. It is mildly sweet and very faintly citrusy tart. The are often used as offerings during prayers.
I don’t know about this cake but my mom says it’s called Moon Cake. I have no idea what it taste like as I have never had one before. But I think it should be flavorful with all the sesame seeds at the corner.
Wishing you a Happy Mid-Autum Festival 2023 again! Haha
September 19, 2023
Mooncake
Mooncake Festival is here, or more accurately, Mid-Autumn Festival. The date itself usually falls on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar (each year it moves – not a fixed date). This year, it’s on September 29th. This is a day when we appreciate the moon with our family while eating mooncakes and drinking tea. It symbolizes family reunion (like the full moon) and is a day of thanksgiving for a good harvest or a harmonious union.
My focus in this post, however, is not the story behind Mid-Autumn Festival but the delightful and diverse dessert, mooncakes. These tiny desserts are packaged in metal tin boxes, typically containing four mooncakes packed tightly inside. You can buy them individually or in sets of four. When I was young, there were some traditional mooncakes, like red bean ones, smaller in size, sold in packs of six or eight, tightly wrapped like a roll.
However, these types aren’t as common nowadays and can mainly be found in traditional stores.
Mooncakes have evolved over the years. When I was a child, all we had were traditional mooncakes with baked brown skins and different fillings such as Red Bean, White Lotus/Lotus Paste, Wu Ren (Five Nuts), and Jin Hua Ham (Golden Ham with Assorted Nuts). But as time passed, so did the diversity of mooncakes. People started experimenting with mooncakes, creating snowskin mooncakes which need to be kept cold (and eaten cold as well, but not too cold, or else they will become hard and won’t taste as good).
In addition to snowskin, there’s also a pastry/layered type called Shanghai Mooncake, which features a distinct layer of yellowish, crisp, and crumbly outer layer.
However, it’s not just the skins that changed; the fillings did too. From the traditional flavors I mentioned earlier, we now have a variety of fillings (sometimes kneaded into the skin as well) made from fruits, nuts, and even western ingredients like dragon fruit, durian, mangoes, lychee, purple yam, pumpkin, sakura flower, black sesame, custard, chocolate, coffee, tiramisu, oreo, and even truffle-flavored pastes.
(The most expensive mooncake ever made in 2020 by Singapore (24K Truffle Mao Shan Wang Snowskin Mooncake) and 2017 by a Malaysian bakery with 17 types of premium ingredients – read more through the link here.)
Tea didn’t escape people’s creativity either; there were Dragon Well, Rose Tea, Puer Tea, Green Tea (very popular) mooncakes, but I disliked this type as the flavor was too subtle, and I felt like I couldn’t taste the tea in it.
That’s not all; some even layer mooncakes with mochi inside to enhance the texture when biting into the mooncake or made the filling like lava (you know like lava cakes but in a mooncake now).
In recent years, even regional tastes not traditionally associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival have been embraced. Now we also see new flavors like bubu chacha, cempedak (jackfruit), kaya (a local paste made of coconut, butter, and pandan leaves), Butterfly Pea flavor, cendol gula melaka, and many more.
The list seems endless, and there can be so many combinations of flavors as well. The ones I mentioned are all popular or more common in Malaysia; I haven’t even touched on the varieties of mooncakes available in different states in Malaysia, but I think I will save that for another post (this post is already very long, haha).
While I have a fondness for traditional mooncakes, I’m open to trying new flavors; it’s quite intriguing.
I hope that through this post, I can pique your curiosity and inspire you to give one a try.
This isn’t a paid promotion of this brand of mooncake (Joymom’s), but I really like them. These are the ones that I mean when I am talking about traditional mooncakes and the more common flavors that I enjoy. Below are some of them.
Baked Skin Traditional Mooncake (Pandan Mung Bean, Pandan Lotus, and White Lotus Paste) I already ate one so there’s missing one in the box.
Mooncake in packs of four (Clockwise: Lava Black Sesame, Lava Tiramisu, Black Sesame Yam, Dragon Fruit with Cranberry)
Mooncake in packs of two ( Top to bottom : Osmanthus Lotus and Pandan Black Sesame Mooncake)I took some close up so you can see how that they all have different patterns on top. They are usually in flowers patterns but the more traditional ones had words on them but the patterns differs from bakery to bakery so not all of them will have the same appearance even though they have the same flavour.
Wishing you a Happy Mid-Autum Festival 2023!
September 17, 2023
Quote of the Day
“We have all heard the forlorn refrain : “Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time!” This phrase has come to stand for the rueful reflection of an idiot, a sign of stupidity, but in fact we should appreciate it as a pillar of wisdom. Any being, any agent, who can truly say: “Well it seemed like a good idea at the time!” is standing on the threshold of brilliance.
Daniel Dennett (Philosopher)
That person who uttered the phrase, might have been a genius as he thought of an idea that no one else did (whether it was successful or a total failure is debatably but that idea itself is a stroke of brilliance as this person said).
#MondayMotivation
Disclaimer: Quote doesn’t belong to me.
September 14, 2023
Write with Intention
Whether it’s writing or typing (on keyboard), I hope that you are approaching your writing with an intention in mind. All writing serves a purpose, and it’s crucial to have a clear purpose if you want your writing to improve and resonate as something truly enjoyable.
When you write with a genuine reason in mind, eg. to improve your writing in a way, how? What do you want to improve?
Dialogue? Then write down some dialogues, not funny? Try to make it funny. Want it give off more emotions? How? Research, try to go back to stories/books that captured the essence that you want. Read it and try to apply to your own characters. The more you write with intention, the process becomes more seamless, and it feels like you’re fulfilling a goal/learning something instead of just writing randomly.
This could also be applied into the motivation of your book/your writing – Why are you writing this book? Is it for enjoyment? To bring about an idea (Fiction/Non Fiction)? To help others (Self-help book)? Biography? Etc. Try to give a meaning behind your writings, if your answer is to get money through your writing, it will lack passion , readers will know. Your words will be bland, the amount of your research will feel lacking and the story might be uninteresting and when you are promoting your book, it will also feel ingenuine. So think before writing, for writing needs to be accompanied with an intention.
Even for me, I write Chinese Fantasy story, why? Because I can’t read Chinese so I would want others who are in a similar like myself to be able to enjoy Chinese Fantasy Book in English. (Why Fantasy, because I like Fiction books with slightly more imagination, depicting crazy battles, love relationship that would happen in that time period or era, myth and legends).
To sum up, here’s a writing tip/exercise to guide you in crafting intentional and purposeful writing which I hope to help another fellow writer.
Write them down on a sticky note, stick it where you often write or a reminder:-
If you goal is to learn – write down what you want to gain from the exercise.
If you aim is to complete your book – write down the elements of the book, so while writing, you won’t stray away from the subject (I find this useful as it keeps away from distracting/unnecessary plot points/scenes or dialogues).
When you find yourself lost, glance at the sticky note as a reminder of your goal.
September 11, 2023
Holiao Noodles
Holiao Noodles @ Pandan Indah, Kuala Lumpur as at 04/09/2023
Went to this little spot here in Pandan Indah, we noticed the new shop opening around the area but we never went to try it until recently, since my mom saw this on her Facebook page and dragged us all to go with her. At first I thought this was a Japanese Ramen shop with it’s renovations and shop outlook but when I entered the shop, it wasn’t a ramen shop at all. It sells Traditional Chinese Hakka Noodles. The shop was going for a rustic décor but it complements the whole vibe so I don’t mind.
Here’s are some things on the menu. There’s the traditional Hakka Noodles with different combinations that you can ordered with : fish balls, pork balls, fish skins/pork wantons, or pork tendons. The prices were consider cheap for me as well. Where would you mind shops that still have MYR 9 for one bowl of noodles (I am making comparison with other cafes or similar shops not the kopitiam shops).
I really like the taste of the noodles, it looked simply but the taste was incredible. Adding a little of the shao xing wine into it, give it a more elaborate taste (but to get that you have to pay extra ya). However I think it was worth the extra add-on since it tasted great!
Although the noodles were fantastic, the pork tendons and the fish skin wantons were a little let down though, it’s not what I had in mind (or it didn’t taste better than the ones I had before in Pudu so It was quite meh for me). However, their Fish Maw Soup was great, and complementing that with their chili oil pork wantons it was superb. By the way, their chili oil is their own homemade recipe (which I really like).
I really liking this place after just one visit. I think I will be coming back here to taste their tasty noodles (with an affordable price tag).
Address: 6, Jalan Pandan Indah 4/38, Pandan Indah, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
September 10, 2023
Quote of the Day
“Hard work pays off. I am so annoyed at my father for being right about that.”
Lena Dunham (Actress)
Anything you do requires hard work/effort. Some things wouldn’t get done if you just laze around, you have to get moving.
Do instead of complaining.
#MondayMotivation
Disclaimer: Quote doesn’t belong to me.
