White Canary Wharf

Looked outside my window this evening and was quite surprised to see a "white Canary Wharf" and yes, looks like the Big Freeze is back in England! More snow and icy condition predicted for tomorrow and Friday and I hope my travel plans wouldn't be affected; I am all excited to go home! 

I am still looking for a job, a task that seemed almost impossible after my numerous attempts therefore I am still a full-time housewife. I started to realise why Mum used to complain about how difficult it is to cook everyday, thinking of what to cook and  trying to have a balanced variety and making sure we were happy and contented. There are some days where I struggle about simple questions like what do I pack for him to work? His lunch box. So, I looked up some recipes and tried a few dishes that I enjoy back at home and try to re-create some as I refuse to pay something ridiculous like 7 or 8 pounds minimum each for a simple dish like I tried cooking below. I must say they turned out quite good, quite pleased with my attempts and most importantly, the Boss (Laughton) was very pleased and kept telling me how good it tasted! 

 Fried egg tofu with minced meat

Stir fried brinjal with minced meat. We love brinjals so I am really pleased that I can do it at home and most importantly the cost factor! My favourite brinjal dish will still be the one from a restaurant in Serdang. Totally awesome!

My new found breakfast place, Section 17 PJ

Hello everyone, just to share a new discovery of a breakfast place nearby my place in Section 17, PJ. They serve the best Chang Jiang coffee in PJ I would say and we've been here many times and the food is great too!

This is one of the noodles variant that I had the other day, kuehtiow soup with fish paste and I ordered some extra pig's intestines to go with it. Oh it was a delicious combo! The fish paste was really good and those intestines were really good, was really fresh. The soup base was delicious too topped up with some fresh scallions and fried garlic.

Look at those intestines and fish paste combo. Awesome!
The tasty Chang Jian coffee! Oh it's a great alternative and much economical alternative to Starbucks.
They also serve the steamed kampung chicken. It was very smooth but for me, I prefer normal chicken to kampung chicken as the meat is more tender.

Lunch at Damansara Utama

My aunty took me to this restaurant nearby her office in Damansara Utama to try out the wan tan mee and this is just opposite Damansara Uptown and we had the yam cake for our starter and the homemade yam cake dipped with some chili sauce was really good!! Prices here are really reasonable too.

The Menglembu wan tan mee. I think it should be from a place or an area but whatever it is, it was good! Char siu was tasty and the noodles was abit springy or crunchy, accompanied by some nice wan tans. Overall, I will be back here again for sure!

Close up view. Yummy

Dinner at Ming Chun Kee, Section 17 PJ

I headed out to dinner with my aunty and May to a nearby restaurant just at Section 17 and the food is pretty good here and best part, the decent pricing. All three dishes for just about RM40! We ordered Japanese hot plate tofu, claypot curry fish head and spinach with dried scallops and anchovies.

Klang Bah Kut Teh

It was Labour's Day and it was also a public holiday over here in Malaysia so Chua, Angela, Amy and me decided to head to Klang for my "big tree" bah kut teh shop. I could vaguely remember how to get there and this is one of the place we used to frequent like 3 times a week during some audit period for one of my audit clients. We called it the big tree shop because this place had a big tree within the compound, and seriously it was BIG. I only take the dry version of the bah kut teh here in this shop. When I come to this shop, the below dishes are almost standard dishes for me, I must order them! Probably because I think they are just fantastic. We had a pork siesta that day, judging by the photos haha.

Below, entry #1- Original bah kut teh.

Check out those meat!
Entry #2- Dry version bah kut teh. Awesome!

Entry #3. Fresh romaines. We needed some greens to make us feel less guilty.
Entry #4- Steamed tofus with fishballs.

This was how my plate looked like. No, actually more food was piled up. :) We had a great time, great companion and of course, great food. Bill came up to around RM50 and thanks to Chua for lunch!

Family Dinner on April 21, 2009

Dad was in a jolly good mood and said he will take us all out to dinner and I suggested this home-styled cooking restaurant after seeing some photos of my friend taken having dinner here and coincidentaly, this was a long lost restaurant that my dad took us too before. Overall the food was good and the price was excellent! Very affordable and we are heading back here again soon!

The couple that cannot be separated and yes, you can hear their phone bleeping non-stop (or at each 2 minute intervals) if they are not together. I told this couple that they should just pick up the phone and finish off the conversation instead of texting back and forth! haha. Anyway this is Dylan and Laura (my 2nd sister)

Belle (youngest sister) and my Grandma.

My Mum, myself and Belle

Me and my Grandma
One with Laura

And of course, one with the Boss (Dad)

Mum and Belle.
See how Belle is photographed ALWAYS holding on to her brand new handphone?

This is my 3rd sister; Caroline. She was kind enough to take all the photographs during the dinner and of course I was even kinder to use our new Nikon D60.

First dish. House specialty tofu. Very tasty and I could taste some bean curd sauce.
Another house specialty- dong po yuk. Something like braised pork. Very good also.
Stir fried brinjals with long beans and minced meat. Tasty!
Stir fried ginger chicken with kei chi. Very good! It was so tender that Mum mistook it for frog! Ha ha
Stir fried bitter hourd with cucumber. This was for Dad. I think it was just OK. But I don't take bittergourd. So, no comment.
House specialty- steamed fish. Quite tasty and the fish was very fresh! Nice one.

Making curry puffs at home, March 20, 2009

After being pestered by my aunty and family at home, I decided to make some curry puffs to let them try and who knows, if the taste is good, maybe I could start selling some curry puffs to get some pocket money.

Below is how the curry puffs looked like. Its basically some pastry puff with curried potatoes with some bits of chicken in it.
I had a visitor earlier, Mummy took this cute siberian husky pup over to our place and he was so cute with blue eyes! The only downside was, Nugget (my dog) was quite angry when we saw us fussing with the new puppy. He ignored me for the rest of the afternoon until I carried him and took him for a walk. I think he could smell the different puppy smell on me and hence refused to come to me when I called for his name. Ha ha. Jealousy.

Measuring the flour.

Kneading the dough. Painful process for someone lazy like me.

My head chef checking on me. She was impressed at the end of the day. Good work for a beginner.

Rewarded myself with a plate of char kueh tiow after the hard work :) (shared it with Mum & Dad)

It tasted great. Just stir fried rice noodles with bean sprouts, chilli, egg and topped up with some sweet sauce. They should make this simple dish as a standard dish on the menu in all the restaurants around the world. That would be awesome!

Afternoon Tea in Melaka, March 18, 2009

On our way back from KL, I decided to have some popiah (Malaysian type of spring roll) for afternoon tea. Mummy suggested popiah from Bunga Raya. Look at the crowds and they are actually queuing up under the hot sun. You can all guess, we sent Mummy to buy some popiah for us. :) I was actually surprised at the local prices, selling for MYR 2.50 for a small popiah. Gone were the days where we used to just pay MYR1.00 or 1.50. Inflation?? It tasted good though, with the fried pork lard in the popiah.

A scene from the popiah stall and Mummy there.
A close up view.

While Mummy was lining up for popiah, lil sis- Belle decided to take a few pictures to kill her boredom. I really miss driving and the convenience of driving all the way right up to the stall in Malaysia; something I didn't get to do in Bermuda as we went around in the bus, Vespa or by foot. I didn't mind walking back at home but I hesitated after looking at the scorching sun and the high number of crime rates. Better to be safe than sorry!

Belle in all smiles thinking of the popiah!

Mmmm... heavenly. A close up view of the popiah.

If you look closer, try spotting the bits of fried egg and pork lard and also fried jicamas.

Proud and happy customer of the popiah! Best-lah!