Throwback Snaps

A good friend became a grandmother for the first time and sent us a lovely baby full-moon package on her grand daughter’s full-moon. The full-moon package came with a whole fried chicken, Nasi Kunyit (turmeric rice), red eggs and angku kuih. Everyone ate all the nice parts of the fried chicken and left the breast, which was dry and hard, untouched. Chef S repurposed the dry breast meat and bones into another sumptuous dish the next day.

Instead of using turkey to cook Turkey And Vegetables Barley Soup, a dish that the girls’ grand aunt will cook every year after Christmas using leftover roast turkey, Chef S cooked Chicken And Vegetables Barley Soup.

Chef S dumped in the leftover fried chicken breast and added lots of vegetables, pumpkin, onions, sweet corns and barley into the pot of soup. She also fried some chicken drummets and added them into the soup.
My hearty bowl of Chicken & Vegetables Barley Soup. It’s so delish and nourishing that I can eat this everyday. I ate this two days in a row.

2022 Winter Solstice Festival Dinner at Seng Kee Kitchen:

For once in a very, very long time, there was a complete headcount at the dining table on Winter Solstice Day (22 Dec 2022). With Alycia in university now, Sherilyn prepping for SPM and hubs who’s tied down with work, it’s extremely difficult for everyone to be present together for a meal or for outings.
Everyone’s favorite – steamed free-range chicken from our favorite neighborhood restaurant. The chicken meat is smooth, juicy and has a distinct aromatic chicken flavor, something that’s missing in regular hormones-and-antibiotics-fed chickens.

On the house – handmade and homemade Tong Yuen from the affable lady boss.

My daily gut-loving dessert ~ sugar-free yoghurt from Farm Fresh (made from only milk and probiotics with nothing else added), macadamia, melon seeds, organic black sesame paste and a drizzle of Gula Melaka syrup. This aids in promoting bowel regularity.

No. of times viewed = 28

Ayam Brand, The Trusted Brand

I grew up eating canned baked beans and sardines by Ayam Brand. It’s the trusted brand of choice by my parents. Naturally for me now, Ayam Brand is my brand of choice when it comes to buying canned food for my own family. Our family’s favorite Ayam Brand products have always been canned tuna, saba, mackererl, sardines and baked beans.

Over the decades, Ayam Brand has evolved and expanded their range of pantry staples. From canned baked beans, tuna and sardines, Ayam Brand has over the years introduced new products such as pasta sauce, canned corn kernels, curry paste and coconut milk.

Ayam Brand products are perfect for days when you’re feeling lazy to cook up a fancy meal from scratch and great for camping trips.

Canned food can be transformed into tasty dishes too. For example, canned sardines. All you have to do is to slice some raw onions, julienne some cucumbers and add a squeeze of zesty lemon or lime juice to the plate of sardines and you’ll have an appetizing dish that everyone loves. And baked beans can be cooked with eggs in several styles. These two canned dishes are my absolute favorites.

The other day I received a goodie bag filled with Ayam Brand products, which includes chili saba, tuna mayo, baked beans, chopped tomatoes, packet coconut milk and green curry paste. I was over the moon as I’ve always wanted to try their green curry paste.

Love this cute cushion in the shape of canned plant-based luncheon meat. This is something that I’d like to try some day – a meatless luncheon meat.
I’m going to pair the coconut milk with red bean ‘tong sui’ (sweet soup). I love my ‘tong sui’ drizzled generously with thick coconut milk. So yummeh!

Which Ayam Brand product is your favorite? How do you like to cook your favorite Ayam Brand canned food?

No. of times viewed = 52

Saturday, 24 September 2022

Now that things are almost back to normal after a hiatus of 2.5 years, hubs and I have started to have our quick morning breakfast or brunch together again. We usually have our meals at eateries in our hood as it has to be quick – the both of us have work to do and don’t have the luxury of time to sit for hours to enjoy our food.

Our brunch yesterday was at The Lion of Punjab, a newly opened North Indian restaurant in our hood.

Food was quite good but we prefer Tasty Chapathi @ Bukit Damansara and Khan’s Indian Cuisine @ The Sphere, Bangsar South. This meal cost RM150! But there was a lot of leftover food to doggy bag home for the girls.
The Masala Chai @ RM6/glass was pretty good with strong aroma of herbs, spices and ginger.
Nasi Biryani was delish.

Brunch two days ago was at a kopitiam:

I ordered my usual Pan Mee without noodles but with lots of veggies, black fungus, minced pork and an egg.
Hubs had Nasi Lemak. I am always in awe with how much this man loves Nasi Lemak. He cooks Nasi Lemak every single day but still orders this dish all the time! He loves comparing his Nasi Lemak with other seller’s and he still thinks that the Nasi Lemak from his central kitchen is the best. I have to second to that ๐Ÿ–
My Mee Rebus (without the yellow mee) today at the same kopitiam while hubs had Pan Mee. We shared a plate of Char Koay Teow with extra cockles, pork lard and Chinese sausage. I regret ordering the Mee Rebus though it was delish as I was only eating an assortment of deep fried crackers in spicy thick sauce. Such a high caloric, high carb and high cholesterol dish!
Classic Western breakfast set at Les Deux Garcons (LDG) viennoiseries. The cafe is just behind his office and central kitchen.
Buttery croissant and superb Canelรฉs. At just two mouthfuls small, the Canelรฉs is exceptionally good but expensive at RM8 each.
Congratulations, it’s a baby girl! ๐Ÿ˜น
Haru loves being swaddled in a blanket or cloth and can spend hours like this or hiding under one. Cass and I guffawed at Haru who just laid still on the mattress while enjoying being swaddled. Doesn’t she look like a newborn baby here? ๐Ÿคฃ
If grandma saw Haru sleeping on the TV console, she’ll scream! ๐Ÿ˜ฌ
I wipe the TV console every day, though, so she can’t find fault with Haru’s fur on it ๐Ÿ˜ฌ
We can never ever leave chicken or roast pork on the dining table unattended to. Haru’s always stalking us. The second we leave the table, she’ll pounce on the meat! Check out the wai sake mow on the chair, ready to swoop the meat the split second I turn my back.

No. of times viewed = 36

Our Meals

We hardly cook elaborate meals these days. Ever since Maria stopped coming three weeks ago because of bad morning sickness (she’s expecting her 2nd baby), we have not had any other helper coming in. It’s manageable without a helper if we don’t cook.

We get takeout or order from Shopee Food on most days and will blanch a green leafy veggie every day. Sometimes the mil will boil soup, steam fish, steam minced pork or cook porridge. At times I will cook some simple fish or chicken dishes using the air fryer and pressure cooker. Sometimes we’ll boil some dumplings (‘kau ji’), konjac noodles or instant noodles.

I found a seller whose Taiwanese wife makes top-notch Taiwan-style dumplings and have been buying by the bulk from this seller for the past one year. Everyone in the house loves his wife’s dumplings. And on most days, we will have food from hubby’s central kitchen.

Sherilyn and Cass love prepping their own meals. As Sherilyn has been super busy with school activities lately, she’s not cooked for us. However she’ll prep simple food for herself. Cass loves using the Air Fryer to air fry sandwiches, French Toast, broccoli, meat patties and even fried egg.

Here’s a throwback of the meals that we had recently.

From hubby’s kitchen – seafood spaghetti, Brazilian spinach salad with broccoli and cauli and fried onion rings.
Big shrimps, mussels and lots of garlic in the seafood pasta. Very yums.
MIL treated us to unagi don and sushi on one of the week days last week to celebrate her all-good blood test result.
Dinner ordered from Tsuen Wan Restaurant via Shopee Food. I prefer ordering via Shopee Food vs Grab Food and Food Panda as SF has better deals and savings.
Our lunch and dinner today from hubby’s kitchen – stir-fried assorted veggies and sambal big prawns.
From hubby’s kitchen today – nasi lemak, chicken rendang and fried tofu.
From hubby’s kitchen today – fried mackeral fish with chilies and spices.
From hubby’s kitchen today – braised chicken with chestnuts.
From hubby’s kitchen last Saturday – mini burger and mashed potato.
Early dinner at a Filipino cafe two Saturdays ago, with just Sherilyn. While we had dinner, Cass spent two hours walking almost the entire neighborhood alone – something that she’s always wanted to do.

Halo-Halo, a popular cold dessert in the Philippines, similar to our Ais Kacang.

After Sherilyn and I were done eating at the Filipino cafe, hubs joined us and we segued into another restaurant for our second dinner, all because hubs was craving for Japanese food.
Unagi don for hubs
Sherilyn and I shared a cup of chawan mushi as we were already full from our earlier dinner.

No. of times viewed = 45

Yi Sheng Huat Seafood Restaurant, Pudu, KL

This is a throwback post.

Sunday, 5 June 2022 ~ Hubs brought us to try a ‘new’ Chinese ‘tai chow’ restaurant – it’s a first try for us but not for him.

As catering functions have picked up ever since Malaysia reopened its borders and economic sectors, hubby’s catering business has been making a rebound. He’s been busy almost everyday, including Saturdays and Sundays. His business was at an all-time low for almost 2 years during the pandemic with on-off lockdowns. Only God knows what we’d gone through during the difficult 2 years.

Anyway, onwards and upwards!

If there’s a Sunday that hubs doesn’t have to work, he will drag all of us to ‘jalan-jalan cari makan’ (loosely translated in English to – walk around and find food) with him.

Pudu is a place where one can find many good eateries, from street food to cafes, ‘tai chow’ stalls and decades-old -restaurants that withstood the test of time with their good food.

Yi Sheng Huat at Pudu is famous for their ‘tai chow’ dishes, especially steamed fish. We were there a little before 12 noon, which is the start of their operating hour and waited for almost half an hour, with growling tummies before the dishes arrived.

Steamed fish with loads of garlic.
Stir-fried ‘sang cheong’ (pig’s intestines). Not my kind of dish but hubby’s favorite.
Steamed lala clams with Chinese cooking wine and ginger.
Stir-fried spinach with garlic.
‘Phai kuat wong’ (pork ribs king)
Deep fried squids, which is our favorite dish.

Food was great and we enjoyed our meal thoroughly. We’ll definitely be back again to try other dishes when hubs is free again on a Sunday. This time, I want the entire steamed fish all to myself! I’m a sucker for restaurant-style steamed fish.

Yi Sheng Huat Seafood Restaurant
357 & 345, Jalan Gajah,
Pudu, 55100 Kuala Lumpur
Opening Hours: 11.30AM โ€“ 2PM; 5.30PM โ€“ 11PM
Contact: 012 โ€“ 2685 638

No. of times viewed = 1045

Chinese New Year 2022 – Day 2

After two full days of cooking on CNY Eve and CNY day 1, hubby gave us a break from cooking for Hoi Leen Farn today! Eating out is always music to our ears. The girls were happy becoz they don’t have to wash the dishes and I don’t have to do the dreaded massive clean up after cooking.

Who likes post-cooking clean up? Never me. Washing dishes is something that I would avoid at all cost!

Maria our part-time helper of 10 years has not been coming in for work for almost two weeks. Lately she’s always giving excuses for not coming to work. Two days ago I asked her if she intended to stop working for us but she denied. This morning she told me that she’d be coming for work but at the eleventh hour, she messaged me to say that she’s still at Mid Valley and couldn’t come for work. Again! This has been happening almost every time she’s due to come in for work. I’m really pissed with her attitude lately and really disappointed. She was never like this before.

I told the girls that we have to learn not to be too reliant on Maria. We have to learn to live without her becoz the day will come when she decides to go back to Indonesia for good or has found other employers who are willing to pay her better than us.

Back to our CNY Chor 2!

It’s been such a long time since our family went cafe-hopping. The pandemic has been too unkind to us for the past two years. And it has also made us appreciate the little luxuries in our lives more than we did pre-Covid days.

We first had lunch at Kappa Takebayashi Japanese restaurant at Jalan Doraisamy, Chow Kit.

The photos look yellowish caused by the dim yellow lightings in the restaurant. Food was superb, albeit came slow.

After lunch we segued into Licky Chan & The Poke Guy to try their avant-garde boozy cone-tail ice-creams. Licky Chan is the ice cream parlour of freshly churned fantasies, with a cow-to-cone philosophy that embraces the coolest kind of creativity. Each flavour is unique, banishing cookie-cutter double chocolate cliches, refusing to take the easier, more familiar paths of cempedak, pandan gula Melaka or rum and raisins. Instead, you’ll find unconventional playful flavors that you’ll never find elsewhere, such as Nirvana (composed of almond milk, masala chai, cashews and turmeric). Each flavor is a triumph of taste and texture, with beautifully harmonised proportions of everything from pistachios to peppercorns, gin, sweet soy sauce, burnt butter to pickled beetroot.

After paying for the ice-creams, the cashier gave us a huge fancy-schmancy ang pow. I thought they were some badges but they were two condoms in fancy wrappers! ๐Ÿคฃ

Even the ang pows are unconventional ๐Ÿ˜†

After ice-creams, we segued into Tapestry for cakes and drinks.

Matcha latte, mocha, latte, smoothie, chocolate orange cake and burnt cheese cake.
Banana bread with almond butter and pumpkin kaya.
The resident cat at Tapestry has a striking resemblance of Haru!

We’ll be back at Tapestry to try the main course menu.

I’d like to wish all my Chinese readers a very prosperous Chinese New Year. I hope that the year of the Tiger will bring everyone roaring success, wealth, good health, and happiness.

No. of times viewed = 47

Domino’s Pizza For Dinner

Today is a day where everyone was busy with their respective things. Alycia had a driving trial exam to sit for at the driving academy, Sherilyn had a dental appointment to change the orthodontics rubber band for her braces, Cass had online classes almost the entire day, the MIL has been busy the past two weeks with SIL’s apartment unit that’s just been rented out and I was slammed, both with work and chauffeuring duties.

On days like this, we get takeout food for lunch and dinner. We had chicken rice for lunch and had Domino’s pizza for dinner. The girls always welcome fast food as they don’t always get to eat them. Their eyes lit up when I told them that we would be having Domino’s pizza for dinner ๐Ÿ˜ฌ

Chatting and laughing all the way while chomping down the pizzas and chicken wings ๐Ÿ˜†

The food was delivered in under 30 minutes and still hot when we ate them. Best of all, delivery is free!

After we came back from running errands this morning, Alycia asked me if she could practise driving in my car at our condo car park. I’m not going to get into the details but I almost had a heart attack and still have heart palpitations until now ๐Ÿ˜….

The yummy pizzas that we had for dinner and the fact that I don’t have to clean up the aftermath of cooking just made my day.

No. of times viewed = 71

Monday, 29 November 2021 ~ Random Updates

This week Sherilyn is staying home for remote learning. She went to school last week. Next week will be the last week that Sherilyn attends physical classes in school before the year end school holidays begin.

I’ve been clocking in only 5-6 hours of shut-eye for the last two weeks, including Saturdays and Sundays. I was up early on both weekends as Alycia had to leave the house by 7 a.m. for the van driver from the driving school to fetch her to the driving academy in Puchong. She’s been attending driving lessons on Saturdays and Sundays the past two weeks. After 16 hours of lessons on the road (4 hours for each session), she’s now scheduled to sit for a trial exam this Thursday. Honestly, I’m not sure if 16 hours is sufficient. I’ve not sat in with her in my car for practice lessons as it’s technically not legal for her to be driving around without a driver’s license. I can only ๐Ÿ™ that Alycia will pass the test in just one sitting. If she flunks, more money will fly out of my wallet for extra driving lessons. And losing more sleep as well ๐Ÿฅฑ

Just a little update on Alycia’s foundation program at Sunway College. Life in college is much more hectic than life in a Chinese independent high school. Chinese-style education is said to be one of the toughest institutions to be in and students from Chinese schools are always under pressure to be the best of the best. I’m somewhat thankful that she attended Chinese schools for 11 years and thus, has been conditioned for heavy load in homework and regular tests.

There are lots of projects, assignments, presentations and tests in college. Alycia sat for her first exam two months into the course. On some days when it’s her turn to be in college, she would only reach home after 7pm.

Alycia takes Grab to college on some days and on other days, her former classmate who stays in our hood who also goes to the same college, gives her a ride to and fro.

With the school holidays around the corner, Sherilyn is already planning to sell her best seller items to earn some money. Today she made strawberry milk for us and her friends to try. Next, she will work out the cost and price tag for the strawberry milk. She also intends to sell kimchi, tarts and other signature items. This girl has big plans for herself.

Refreshing strawberry milk made using frozen strawberries, Lakanto sugar and Australia fresh milk.

Chef Sherilyn’s new dish – sesame crusted pan fried salmon served with mayo wasabi dipping sauce.

No. of times viewed = 37

MCO Meals & Nasi Briyani From Catermate

Friday, 1 May 2020
Our Labor’s Day lunch, prepped by Sherilyn –ย  stir-fried assortment of homemade pastas that she hand-made a few days ago with olive oil, garlic, fresh button mushrooms, bacon, lemon zest, lemon juice and black pepper.

Dinner: oven-grilled salmon, sauteed organic long beans with minced meat and organic miso, steamed egg with minced pork and bitter melon soup.

Hubs bought this Oreo brownie from a friend’s teenage niece to support her fledgling home-based bakery. Our girls loved it. It’s the kind of dessert that teenagers will love – sweet, chocolaty, fudgy and with Oreos.

A little sweet note from the teenage baker:

Saturday, 2 May 2020
Hubs bought takeout dishes from our favorite ‘tai chow’ restaurant, Sing Kee Kitchen, to support the lady boss who is also very supportive of hubs’ newly rolled out bento boxes.ย  The lady boss and her hubby who’s a chef at the restaurant and us have become good friends over the years as we have been regulars at their restaurant for over a decade. When Cass was born 12 years ago, she gave me a bottle of Dom and an ang pow.ย  ย In such difficult times, everyone has to support each other so that we all stay afloat and weather the stormy weather together.

The rainbow colored vegetables are from our own kitchen.

Basque burnt cheesecake, also made by hubs’ friend’s teenage niece, which hubs supported with a purchase. It looks a tad over burnt on top but the interior of the cake is very yummy.

Nasi Briyani from hubby’s shop, Catermate.ย  On Friday, he rolled out his chef’s special Nasi Briyani bento box for delivery.

 

Most of hubby’s staff are now back at work and adjusting to their new normal – no more serviced catering but 100% preparation of food boxes now until a vaccine is found for Covid-19 and social gatherings are allowed again.

If you’d like to try Catermate’s food, here’s the menu for Monday, 4 May and Wednesday, 6 May. Food is HALAL.

Monday, 4 May 2020 :
Nasi Lemak @ RM15 per pack:
Steamed rice in coconut milk and herbs
Ikan bilis & kacang
Cucumber slices
Half hard boiled eggs
Chicken Rendang
Otak-Otak

Wednesday, 6 May 2020ย  :
Nasi Briyani @ RM19.50 per pack:
Basmati rice cooked in herbs
Ayam Masak Merah drumstick
Mutton Rendang
Dalcha Vegetables
Acar Jelatah

For orders, kindly Whatsapp Alan atย  019-2664297. Thanks for your supportย ๐Ÿ˜Š



No. of times viewed = 52

Kak Jat Ikan Bakar @ Jalan Bellamy and Vintage 1988

I was itching to taste some Malay food today and hubs brought us to one Kak Jat Ikan Bakar on Jalan Bellamy. There are a few stalls on this road selling the same dishes and specializing in grilled fish.ย ย As far as choice of fish goes, you get pari (stingray), kembung, terubok, tilapia, and more. There’re also fried cockles and stuffed squids.ย  The crowd is really huge during lunch time. We were there around 11-ish a.m. and the crowd had started to build up.

Hubs ordered grilled stingray, ikan kembung, another fish which I don’t know its name and stuffed squids.ย  I find the taste not really up to expectations and some of the squids were not fresh and tasted horrid.



I love Malay Kerabu and vegetables cooked with pumpkin in coconut milk curry.ย  What I had were a tad salty for my taste bud.

Eating the cockles is really time consuming as you’ll need to prise open the cockles with your fingers! We doggy bagged most of the cockles home.

Just the four of us at the stall. Sherilyn was ‘recuperating’ at home after a gruelling day the whole of yesterday (Sunday) at the Asia Junior Got Talent finals. She has floor burns and wounds all over her feet, which have now turned ‘watery’ and need antiseptic cream.ย  This is just one of the injuries that competitive dancers have to endure and she’s pretty nonchalant about it.

Food at this stall is just average and pretty pricey. The bill came up to over RM100.ย  Don’t think we’ll go there again. We can get better ones from our housing estate.

After lunch, we went to Vintage 1988, aย fairly new coffee place in KL that doubles as a vintage fashion accessories store, also one of the most Instagrammable cafes around Petaling Street / China Town, KL.

Carrying the characteristic of chic retro-style coffee shop blended with modern touch, Vintage 1988 Cafe is thoughtfully decorated with antique knick-knacks, wooden furnishing, army green arm chairs, exposed brick walls, vintage pendant light, arched steel windows, etc.; further adorned with lots of green potted plants and catchy neon light sign to lift up the mood.ย  It’s our second visit to this cafe, the first was exactly a year ago.

Address:
34, Jalan Sultan, Chinatown,
50000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Opening hours: 9AM-11PM daily
Website: https://www.vintage1988.com/



No. of times viewed = 90

Dealing With A Difficult Tween

I’ve been feeling a tad melancholic since the start of school on Monday. On the first day of school, my 11-year old found it extremely hard to wake up for school. And when she woke up after much resistance and kicking, she morphed into a totally different person… like someone has just cast a spell on her.ย  Errr, it’s still the 7th month in the Chinese calendarย  ๐Ÿ‘ป๐Ÿฅถ

The moment she got up, she was very moody and extremely stroppy. Suddenly, everything that I said to her wasn’t well received by her. Everything I did and said were wrong in her world.ย  Suddenly she became so volatile and disconnected from me that she’s a totally different person. It’s a shock to me as my previously sweet little baby girl starts tantrumming and hating me!ย  Hate is such a strong word but this best describes her behavior towards me.

Who is this girl?!

What did I do wrong?!

This went on for two days and today is the third day and she’s still behaving coldly towards me. It could be the lack of sleep that’s affecting her growing body and mind. She’s been waking up at 9 – 10am everyday for the past one week during the school holidays and forcing her to get out of her comfy bed at 5:30 a.m. can be ruffling this angry bird’s feathers. Ideally kids need to get 9 hours of sleep but I’ll be happy if she can chalk up at least 7.5 hours. Sleeping early is another issue that I am currently battling with my Gen Z girls. For those of you with Gen Z tween and teens, you’ll know what I mean.

Another factor is at her age, this girl is seeking to find more independence. She’s a tad more sheltered and controlled than her two sisters when they were her age because of her health issue. Until the repeat MRI is carried out (too long a wait at HKL), we are now waiting to know anxiously what’s going on in her urinary tract that’s causing the issue. Because she feels that her wings are clipped and she can’t fly like her peers who are all like birds who have just learnt to fly, she feels that life is unfair to her and she’s left behind in the baby nest alone.

I’ve read that the more I insist on controlling all her choices, I am inviting rebellion, or worse. If I can find appropriate ways to give her independence, she wonโ€™t have to rebel against me to start standing on her own two feet. Of course sheโ€™ll make mistakes. Thatโ€™s how humans learn. And of course she isnโ€™t ready to make all her decisions. I’m still the parent. Deciding how much to weigh in is the hardest part of this parenting dance, especially so when I am dealing with a tween who is facing not only wacky hormones flooding her body but also with an undiagnosed condition that may require another surgery that’s causing the both of us a lot of anxiousness. It’s been a long and frustruating 11 years for the both of us.

Feeling down, I had brunch alone today after dropping Sherilyn in school. Hubs was busy at work.ย  At the shop,ย  my eyes were bigger than my tummy ~ I over-ordered and had to doggy-bag some of the food homeย ๐Ÿ˜ฌ

Two portions of spinach, 3 types of balls, 1 lobak, 1 stuffed bitter gourd, 1 stuffed brinjal and a bowl of pumpkin barley sago tong sui. This shop uses premium Sanbanto pork in their fish paste. Even their pork balls are from Sanbanto.

It’s an achievement that I could eat so much food for brunch! I was so stuffed to the gills that I felt like my denim skirt was going to burst. I am a pathetically small eater, thus I always find someone to eat with me to share my food.ย  I had to tapau the stuffed brinjal and lobak home.ย  I couldn’t finish the pumpkin tong sui.

I love the yong tau fu from Taman Desa Yong Tau Fu & Dessert but the bill can be a tad stressful on your budget if you, like me, get too excited and ambitious and stack the tray mountain high with all the stuffed items, balls, vegetables, etc.ย  My brunch today was RM18 plus RM1.50 parking ~ budget exceeded for lunch but I felt some of the blues melt away as I tucked into the delish food and yummy tong sui.ย  Food indeed has some destressing effect!

Exactly my sentiments!! A slow death with doses of cortisol injected into the body everydayย ๐Ÿ˜ฉ

No. of times viewed = 39

HFM’s Breakfast

The clock is ticking away to the day that Maria, my beloved part-time helper of 7 years goes on a 3-month maternity leave ~ only two more days with usย ย ๐Ÿ˜ญ

Though Maria can’t do much strenuous work lately, we still love having her around in the evening to help us wash the dishes and do other light chores.ย  We treat her like she’s one of the family members and our 3 girls adore her… more than they adore me! But that’s OK and I don’t get jealous.ย  Maria gives me a sense of comfort whenever she’s around. I can just leave the house to her to clean up and go out and I will surely come home to a spic and span and clean house, every single time. I hope she’ll keep her promise and return to work for us in Octoberย ๐Ÿ™

My breakfast for the last few daysย โ˜บ๏ธ

Sherilyn’s homemade pie crust with papa’s homemade pandan kaya. So yummeh!!

Tucker’s gourmet caramelized onion crackers with papa’s homemade pandan kaya and a wedge of Mozarella cheese.ย  I always eat some protein with my carbs to slow down the release of insulin / spike in blood sugar.

Tucker’s gourmet crackers areย  made from non-GMO ingredients and yeast-free. They’re pretty low in carbs too.ย  Goes well with Western soups, curries, jams and even good on its own.

And my mid-morning breakkie with the hubs yesterday:

One of the best pork noodles in KL can be found at Sun Sea kopitiam at OUG, where the morning market is. The coffee shop is kind of unkempt and run down. It’s very stuffy and hot to sit inside, so we sat outside and still had to sweat it out to enjoy our bowl of piping hot pork noodles.

What’s so special about the pork noodles is the broth – it’s infused with the umami sweetness of seafood. We heard that the seller adds seafood into the broth, to add depth and flavors into it.ย ย Outside the coffee shop, you’ll see foreign workers peeling tons of prawns and squids.

Restoran Sun Sea OUG Pork Noodles
(Beside OUG morning wet market)
Jalan Hujan Rahmat,
Taman Overseas Union Garden (OUG),
58200 Kuala Lumpur.

No. of times viewed = 46

J’s Gate Dining and The Tokyo Restaurant @ Isetan, Lot 10

We spent half our day at Lot 10 on the first day of Hari Raya on 5 June 2019.ย  My bon viveur hubs has been wanting to bring us to J’s Gate Dining @ Isetan, Lot 10 to savor the best of authentic Japanese cuisine since their launch early last year but only has the time to do so today.ย  All his staff are on leave and his kitchen will be closed for a few days before they all work on full steam again next week.

Jโ€™s Gate Dining is the Japanese food loverโ€™s one-stop haven to enjoy 17 of Japanโ€™s best authentic cuisines featuring superior Japanese ingredients and hospitality. Depending on what your liking and cravings are, you can pick any of the outlets to appease your appetite.

With so many outlets to choose from, we were really spoilt for choices and it was pretty hard to settle on one or two. Finally my gourmand hubs settled for Umai Sushikan (for sushi and tempura) and Osaka Kitchen (for teppanyaki).

Umai Sushikan
Umai means โ€˜โ€™deliciousโ€™โ€™ in Japanese and sushikan is sushi.ย  Only fresh ingredients handpicked by the team from the fish market (air-flown from Japan) are used.ย  The sushi and fish that we had were indeed very fresh and these don’t come cheap either!ย  The bill came up to over RM300 for only 6 dishes that came in small portions!

Below: Grilled premium cod fish flown in from Japan and this piece of cod the size of half my palm (or maybe smaller) costs almost a hundred Ringgit! So expensive that I ate the super sour pickled spring onionย ๐Ÿคฃ

This is one restaurant that we’ll probably only try once. It’ll cost the hubs an arm and a leg to feed our 3 hungry piranhas (with a bottomless pit) till they’re well fed and satiated at this restaurant.ย  Even with two teppanyaki sets ordered from Osaka Kitchen, the girls were still hungry!

Osaka Kitchen
Osaka Kitchen is known for their popular signature Osaka dishes, including okonomiyaki and yakisoba which features food cooked on an iron griddle in front of diners.ย  Theย ingredients are also sourced from Japan, including the finest quality wagyu beef.

Osaka Kitchen is situated just opposite Umai Sushikan. For orders above RM200, patrons at Umai Sushikan are allowed to order food from other outlets. Thus, we ordered a beef teppan set and a pork teppan set. Each set comes with a meat, stir-fried pea sprouts, salad, appetizers, grilled avocado with cheese and ice-cream (matcha and yuzu flavors).ย  The bill at Osaka Kitchen is over RM200.

After lunch we segued into The Tokyo Restaurant for their signature cheese cakes. Hubs has been wanting to try the much raved about “best burnt cheesecake in Malaysia” (it seems) available at Tokyo Restaurant and finally he has the time today.ย  And indeed, one spoonful of this super smooth and creamy, oh-so cheesy cake sent me to cake paradise!ย  If not for the price, I would have sent in another order for the Classic Burnt Cheesecake and Matcha Cheesecake.

The original famous Classic Burnt Cheesecake @ RM 20 is Tokyo Kitchen’s signature 6th Avenue Cheesecake. The cake is served with a scoop of silky smoothย whipped cream.

The Yuri/Macha Cheesecake @ RM21 is the bomb for matcha lovers. It’s over-the-top delicious, like heaven in my mouth!!ย  Both Sherilyn and I are matcha lovers and couldn’t get enough of it.ย ย The cake is made with artisan 100% stone-ground aromatic macha powder sourced from Niko Neko, the matcha powder specialist.

Gateau Chocolate cake @ RM18 is rich, very chocolaty and surprisingly not cloy and sweet. Very nice!

Classic Tiramisu @ RM18 looks perfectly executed and tastes just as perfect as the other cakes.

The next time the hubs brings us to Lot 10 again, I think I’ll skip the main course and jump right into cakes at Tokyo Restaurant.ย  I’m willing to sacrifice gaining a pound or two for these killer cakes and then go on a diet and workout extra hard for the next one week just to get my cake fix!

The Macha Latte is one of the best I’ve tasted besides the one we tried at Sunbather Coffee recently ~ the milk to macha ratio is spot on, I don’t get the heart palpitation and tea drunkenness that I usually do after scarfing down half a cup of it and it’s not sweet. Love it to the max!

I now know what cake I want for my next birthdayย ย ๐Ÿ˜Š ๐Ÿ˜‹ย  Thank you darling. I know you secretly read my blog postsย ๐Ÿ˜‰

No. of times viewed = 458

Wesak Day Weekend

So Mid Year Exam’s finally OVER for the brat rat.ย  What a load offย my Cass’ shoulders.ย  Next will be getting the exam papers back, report card dayย ๐Ÿ˜–, Jogathon day (I’ll be running with the brat rat again!) and sports day but before all these stress, it’s celebratory time!!ย  Celebration of end of exam, two public holidays in a week (how awesome can that be!) and upcoming school holidaysย ๐Ÿคฉ

We had our first round of celebration yesterday at My Town as it’s a public holiday (Wesak Day). Hubs had lunch with us at the mall before rushing back to his kitchen and office, leaving us to shop till we drop for 5 hours before taking Grab home.ย  If not for our part-time helper who was coming at 5:30 p.m., we could have continued shopping for another 2-3 hours, have our dinner there and return home at 9 p.m.. Us girls just love shopping, don’t you too?๐Ÿ˜‰

We first had lunch at myBurgerLab but my bon viveur hubs wasn’t too contented with his Beautiful Mess burger. While the girls enjoyed digging into their sinful burgers with loads of curly fries (OMG!),ย  I was disappointed with my bun-free low carb burgerย  as well, as the there was too much sauce on the lettuce. I find the sauce too heavy and it really defeats the purpose of having a low-carb meal when the sauce is too sweet and salty.

After our ‘appetizer’ at myBurgerLab, we had our main meal at a Japanese restaurantย ๐Ÿ˜‹

Sorry I can’t remember the name of the Japanese restaurant as I didn’t manage to snap a picture of the restaurant coz my Huawei phone died on me AGAIN after a few photos!ย  Lately my Huawei has been showing signs of exhaustion and symptoms of a premature death.ย  I actually intend to get myself a new Huawei phone but with the currentย  US trade ban on Huawei, I may not be getting a Huawei phone.ย  What brand of mobile phone do you think I should get?ย  I still like Huawei though but can’t live without Google. What’s a phone to me if it means no access to Google?ย  Hopefully Washington keeps its promise to row back on its ban on Huawei.

Cass shopped for more books while her two sisters enjoyed a movie at the cinema.

We tried another new boba tea – Daboba.ย  A very popular bubble tea brand from Taiwan, Daboba claims to have the most fragrant brown sugar pearl milk tea, so rich in flavour that it leaves you wanting for more. But I think it’s no biggie, Daboba tastes almost the same as its competitors and my review is based on what I tried, which was grass jelly milk tea with 25% sugar. Alycia and Sherilyn both tried the milk tea with cheese and commented that it tastes “OK only”ย ๐Ÿ˜

 

Our trip to My Town will never be complete without covering at least 20 rounds at H&M with countless trips to the fitting roomย ๐Ÿ’ƒ ย If only time was on my side, I’ll be gamed for a shopping marathon and walk over 10 hours at the mall without an aching muscle!ย  I used to do that with my friends before the girls came along.ย ย Thanks to hubby for the shopping spree treat yesterdayย ๐Ÿ˜˜

No. of times viewed = 44

The Fastest and Least Expensive Way to Cater For Your Next Party

Who doesn’t love the freshest delivery pizza with the best pizza toppings delivered to your doorstep on a lazy day where you don’t feel like moving a muscle? Over at our household, we have delivery pizza on the eve of the girls’ exams, when the girls have their friends over to work on projects or when I feel as if my hands are on a strike and don’t feel like cranking the kitchen stove or oven. We also like to order pizzas and fried chicken when we have a party at home. Pizzas are almost every kid’s favorite party food. My 3 girls can live on pizzas!

Throwing a party at home or in the office does not necessarily have to be costly. If time is not on your side and you need to throw a party on a tight budget, there are ways to go about doing it. You can call a caterer and order the cheapest menu available.ย  However, some caterers have a minimum order requirement.ย  Another way of organizing an impromptu party with a small budget is to order the freshest delivery pizza from Papa John’s, along with the crowd’s favorite finger food – fries, chicken dippers, pasta, burgers, doughnuts, taco, just to name a few.

We usually take advantage of the best pizza rewards program around. Some pizza restaurants have a buy one free one promotion and some reward you with a free personal pizza or appetizer after you’ve spent a certain amount on their large pizzas.

You can earn pizza delivery discounts when you order from Papa John’s. It’s one of the best pizza rewards program where you earn points each time you order. The more you order, the more points you earn and you can redeem your points for yummy fresh pizzas.

 

When you throw a party at home or in the office, there will surely be one or two people who need gluten-free food.ย  Papa John’s has gluten-free pizza crust that you can order to cater to gluten intolerance guests.

Have you tried Papa John’s new buffalo chicken pizza with the best pizza toppings? I am craving to try this new flavor now! Don’t worry if you can’t take gluten. You can ask for gluten-free crust ingredients.

The next time you’re tasked with organizing an impromptu party, chillax and order online from Papa John’s.ย  You don’t have to leave your comfy chair to organize a party. Everything can be done online at your fingertips now!

 

No. of times viewed = 59

My Thursday ~ 11 Jan 2018

It’s been a cold and wet day the whole of today.ย  After 1.5 days of torturous chills, backache and fever, myย  high fever finally broke last night.

The downside of being a WFHM (or SAHM for that matter) is that work has to CONTINUE whether or not you are fit or ill.ย  Donning on a shawl wrapped round my neck and shoulders, I still had to cook and do school runs in a shivering body.ย  Not to mention waking up at 4:15 a.m. to get the girls ready for school.ย  And hubs is not feeling too well too.

After gulping down many packets of Izumio hydrogen water and chewing on my homegrown Indian borage yesterday, I was right as rain again at night!ย  What would make a WFHM and SAHM happiest?ย  When she’s fit as a fiddle andย  everyone in the household robust.

As I felt so much better this morning, I did some brisk walking at our condo grounds but had to cut short the exercise when it drizzled.ย  ย And it has not stopped drizzling since.

As I was in the mood to cook, I whipped up Taiwanese ‘Zha Jiang Mian‘ for lunch for Drama Queen and Cass. As this was totally unplanned, I had to make do with whatever ingredients that I had in the fridge. What’s missing was spring onion.

My Zha Jiang Mian is 80% organic cooked using organic pork, organic Mugi miso, organic seaweed noodles and organic cucumber. What’s not organic are the carrots, cooking oil and garlic.

This dish is very easy and fast to prep. If not for Drama Queen messing up the stove, this would only take 20~25 minutes of prep time.ย  ย That silly girl put the lid on the pot to boil the noodles and I only realized it much later when the fire was put off by the starchy lava that spewed out from the pot. Hubs had to dismantle the stove to unclog the gas holes and I had to do what I hate the most~ scrubbing the stove, the stove parts and the pot glued with starch!

No. of times viewed = 9

HEALTH FREAK MOMMY