Coconut oil, Lavender and Shea Butter

Today i will share with you my 3 magic natural "cosmetic" that i'm using for my skin and hair: Coconut Oil, Lavender and Shea Butter.

Firstly is COCONUT OIL. :). I bought it from my friend with at very cheap price - around 8USD for 250ml. I made a quick search on Internet to see how to get the best benefits of Coconut oil and this is how i apply it into my hair and skin:

- For Hair: My hair was extremely damaged because i continuously had my hair cut and straightened then colored (recently). It become frizzy, unlively and fall a lot. So, i applied the coconut oil directly to head scalp with gentle message in 10 minutes. Each time i just use around 3 spoon of oil. That is enough for a perfect massage. After that, i used another 3 spoons of Coconut oil apply on hair and leave it on over the night. I wash my hair with shampoo in the next morning. Frequency of my routine is 2 or 3 times per week. And, guess what i had after 3 weeks. My hair was improved incredibly and reduce hair falling a lot. Of course, it is not as perfect as you see in Shampoo advertisements but i really see the difference. And currently, i'm still patient with this methodology to repair my hair. I love long hair. :)

- For Skin: I apply Coconut oil on my eye skin area to improve bouncing capability of skin and to reduce black eye after my many lack-of-sleep nights recently. :). At first, you will feel very irritating because the greasy feeling on skin but don't worry, this Coconut oil is quickly absorbed into skin after 10 minutes. With this method, you need to be very careful and patient as the effects will take long time to be visible. And, to improve the bouncing skin for body, gently massage your body 30 minutes before a bath will have 2 useful benefit: 1. The message action will help improve blood circulation and make you feel relaxing after a long day of working. 2. The moisture part of Coconut oil will be absorbed into skin and will supplement hydrate to your skin. It will be perfect if you apply  again just a very small amount of Coconut oil on skin after showering. You will see the improvement after 4 weeks.

Well, that's with the Coconut Oil. And, secondly is LAVENDER. :)
Make sure that you have the original Lavender from France whose fragrance is very relaxing and healing in any occasions. To have calming breath and to refresh my mind, i put some dried Lavender next to my bed so the Lavender aroma will be dispersed into the air and gradually blooming fragrance (sounds like Fabric Softerner ;)) during the night.
Also, i made  mini sauna for my eyes with Milk and Lavender. I warmed the milk then just add some Lavender then let my eyes slowly sauna with this mixture. Don't throw away this mixture when it cools down, wash your face with this mixture will improve your face appearance, especially with acnes and dried skin.

So, how about SHEA BUTTER? Well, im sure that most of you are very familiar with magic benefits of this nut. My friend bought it from Ghana so it is unrefined Shea Butter with creamy color, not like the Shea Butter of L'Occitane with pure white color (Lipcare). Recently i like swimming a lot so i spent time under water to practise my hobby. As the quality of public swimming pool is not good, adding with the high Chloride dosage, my skin was terrible dried and itchy after swimming. Even though i apply Lotion to repair my skin, it didn't work much. :(. My friend told me to use Shea Butter oil as a lotion at night to boost the moisture and it did work excellently. I've been using it for one month now and my skin looks better and no more itchy. I decided to use it once a week to maintain moisture of my skin and to anti-aging as well. ;). Shea butter is also a great healer for sun-burnt skin. You will feel the healing effect immediately after 10 mins. I also high recommend you to apply shea butter on skin before going swimming to resistant your skin with bad effect of water. :)

And, last but not least, I will share with you a French song that i like in both Rhythm and Lyrics. - Changer by Celine Dion and Don Juan.
http://www.nhaccuatui.com/nghe?M=f1nZcM7TFW  (source from Nhaccuatui.com. It's safe, don't worry.:))

Have a nice weekend, guys! ^^

Cháo cá (Bánh canh cá lóc) - Fish soup from my hometown - Quang Tri province

Any one from centre of Vietnam will surely fall in love and miss this cuisine when they are far away from their hometown.
Chao ca or Banh canh ca loc (fish soup), a very hot and spicy soup cooked from rice noodle and snakehead fish, adding a lot of ground peppercorn and sliced "Nem" herb when finish. "Nem" is quite hard to find, it is only from my province so we usually use scallion instead.  It is hot served to enjoy all the profile and taste of ingredients. You will find the sweetness of fish, tangy herb aroma of Nem herb (scallion), warm of pepper along with a bit chewy rice noodle.  In my hometown, everybody usually enjoys it at night when the weather is a bit cold. And, it is perfect to eat it in winter. :)
 This cuisine helps a lot when you have a cold or flue. As it contains a lot of Nem herb (scallion) and pepper and very hot when eating, it makes you sweat a lot like sauna and feel better. :) I remember when i was in 2nd year of university, i introduced this cuisine to my roommate when she was ill, she tried it and got addicted to it afterwards. She is the one who never eat hot and spicy cuisines, but with this one, she found it marvelous.
Now, living in Ho Chi Minh city, 1 day by car from my hometown, i still can try it at a small restaurant in Tan Binh district, near Nguyen Thai Binh school. Of course the taste is a bit modified to fit with Southern city but i still like it.

So, how to prepare a bowl of this Banh canh ca loc (Fish soup)?
All the things you need to prepare are:
- Fresh rice noodle (fresh tapioca noodle)
- Prepared snakehead fish
- Scallion
- Nem herb (the key herb to boost the sweet of fish)
- Pepper
- Fish sauce
-Cooking additives
- Chilli saté
Process:
1. Boiled the snakehead fish and keep the boiled water.
2. Remove the bones of the fish. Stir fried some Nem roots till you get the aroma then add fish meat,  MSG, fish sauce, pepper corn, salt and a bit of chilli powder. Cook in 1 minute.
3. Cook the boiled water and insert the fish meat, some boullion up to your taste, wait for the mixture to get boiled then add the rice noodle in and cook within 3 minutes. Add additives to get the balanced taste.
4. Pour the cooked soup into a bowl, adding a lot of Nem herb (scallion), pepper and chilli saté.
Adding fresh chilli or lemon juice as you like and Enjoy. :)