eHomemakers Malaysia

 

   

Photo by Rhonwyn Hagedorn I’ve been fascinated with the book trade since I was a child. Ah Bak, Elder Uncle, worked for a schoolbook distributor in Ipoh. Ah Ba, my father, visited him at least once a week and he often took me along. We would first be seated in Ah Bak’s manager office, a room full of boks. The Ah Bak would have his clerk bring us some soda drinks. While the two men talked, Ah Bak’s staff would come in to ask for his signatures on invoices, inventories and purchase lists. Everyone in the shop – from the labourer who carried the books in from the lorries to the accountant—were men.  Knowing that I loved books, Ah Bak asked me, “Do you want to work in a bookshop?” When I looked shyly at the floor, in deference to an elder, Ah Bak laughed, “You’re a girl – you should never work in a bookshop. Bookshops are for men. It’s hard work!” This was why I always associated the book trade with men. Then, one day, a woman named Yvonne Chau from MPH called, inquiring about m...

Photo by Rhonwyn Hagedorn I was at the World Book Day celebration organized by MPH Bookstores, the Spanish Embassy and a local college on April 23rd. The crowd gathered at the event comprised mostly of college students, the future pillars of our information economy.  The Spanish Ambassador, H.E. Alvaro Iranzo, gave the keynote speech and spoke about the Spaniards’ love for book reading. World Book Day is celebrated in a big way in Spain. There is an all day long celebration with jazz combos, street dancing, chorus groups singing love songs, authors autographing books at bookshops, and 24-hour reading of Don Quixote. Men give women roses while the women give men books! By midnight, the Rambla, once a watercourse, is afloat with roses and tiny red-and-yellow ribbons with tiny written words like ‘t’estimo’ (I love you). Spanish children grow up loving books as the culture of reading is embedded in the society. Parents read, and so children read too. Teenagers who love reading gr...

       This dish will melt your heart out as it simply oozes with chocolaty goodness. Preparing it seems pretty effortless since you need no mixer or fancy moulds. In fact, you can even bake it in aluminium cups if no small baking dish is available in the kitchen. Here goes the recipe.        Preheat the oven to 180C. Prepare a few souffle dish/bowl (picture below) or ring moulds. Brush the bowls with butter and sprinkle a little bit of flour if you want to invert the cake onto a plate. In a double boiler, melt 230g dark chocolate and 225g butter. Once it melts, add in 250g fine sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolve. The next step is important. Turn off the heat but do not remove the bowl from the pot with the boiling water. You are about to add in 210g egg whites.         Pour in the egg whites slowly while continuously stirring the mixture. Keep stirring until the mixture slightl...