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!

One of my favourite childhood meals

Fresh sea bream; just simply seasoned with a bit of salt and wok-fried. It was very good, just like Mum used to fry fish for me and drizzle some soya sauce and I could eat it with a bowl of rice (or seconds haha). Never tried sea bream though but it was quite tasty. I ate whole of the fish to myself, would split it into two next time. 

My loyal companion: Macbook to watch my HK series while I enjoyed my lunch with a bowl of rice and watercress with dried scallops, red dates and pork soup. Beats any lunch deals in Waitrose or Boots!

Planning my food trip soon for next week!

Hello again! I was just browsing past some photos and these few ones caught my eyes and made me reminisce about my home town. I can feel myself starting the countdown again, only five days to go now! I do it quietly trying not to remind Laughton how bad he feels about not being able to join me to Malaysia again. We were so looking forward about this trip and celebrating Chinese New Year back at home but our hopes crushed after his silly employer just conveniently denied their promise to him. Totally upset, caused us plenty of inconveniences, time and of course money! This is another example of incidences that got me so angry and upset about how convenient some group of silly irresponsible people go about in doing their job, not bothered at all about other people's welfare. You wouldn't believe it, yes they just ignore his pleas and made it hell for him to re-schedule his holidays and he finally got it booked for August 2010 and woo-hoo I will be heading home again! No compensation or any apologetic gestures made at all to him, guess we've learnt our lesson this time. Something or some people just don't deserve a second chance do they?

A bowl of sui-kow, pork and shrimp dumplings to go with my wan tan noodles.  

Wan tan mee, with extra chilli.

A cup of milk tea to go with my breakfast. I cannot miss this!

Must have green chillies to go with my wan tan mee!

Risotto on a Saturday night

We were pleased when a good friend of ours, Andrew joined us for dinner last night in our flat. We had not had many guests over since we moved here honestly, Laughton is quite busy at work and I am usually trying to sort my stuff out and especially since I am going on a holiday next two weeks, we thought would be good to catch up since Andrew will be going home next month. 

I am hoping once things are better and more settled, we would be able to have more friends over to chill and hang out at our place soon. Anyway, we had a good night in and very pleased that he enjoyed dinner! I truly enjoyed Laughton's risotto from Jamie Oliver's recipe minus the radicchio, because we could not find any when we went out to do our grocery.

Risotto of smoky bacon, rosemary and red wine.

The chef of enjoying his risotto, a glass of rosé and us!

A king-tumeric affair..

Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

A king-tumeric (Raja Kunyit in Malay, Mou San Wong in Chinese) affair. Hang on, I was referring to the King of Fruits- Durian Raja Kunyit. I was told that this specific breed is very superior in taste and price too; one of the prized varieties undoubtedly the pride of Pahang State (Malaysia consists of 13 states).

A good friend of mine, Chua he kept telling me about this particular type of durian and told me it's nothing like D24 (another type of durian), he said trust me, you will never eat that once you move on to this new one. I just smiled sarcastically and was thinking to myself how can great can it be?? Almost sounded too good to be true! Well he turned up one night and brought some durian for me and it was my last week in Malaysia before moving to England last year. It was similar to a leaving/goodbye gift I thought! Very unique especially turning up with durian. And it turned out certainly to be one of the best gifts ever! I ran into a pretty good streak that week after another buddy, Mark found out I was searching for durian raja kunyit and told me he would bring me some. Well, he struggled and only managed one raja kunyit, few D24s and a bagful of mangosteen and rambutans. They were the best mangosteen and rambutan I've ever had seriously! Turned out those fruits were harvested from his girlfriend's family orchard. Sweet!!! He just spoke to me few days ago to confirm my date and will try to get some stock for me if there's any. Definitely something for me to look forward other than waiting for e-mail replies/ phone calls from headhunters and miserable London!

Check this out. The king of fruits and The king of durians! Best of the best! Durian Raja Kunyit.

When its opened, I only got a few in there but trust me, its worth the money and the time. Super delicious. Heavenly!

My verdict: The best of the best durian ever! Look at the photo below, I am not joking, am I? The thick flesh was golden yellowish in colour with an extremely creamy texture and bitter-sweet tasting. It also comes usually with tiny seed, proper durian should taste like this anyway. Well, durian is an acquired taste. I love it!!! It's number one on my list of things to makan (eat) when I head to Malaysia next week!! Yes, I have told my friends (suppliers) my arrival dates and will be checking on them for my durian supply. I can't wait..