What Makes Her Happy

Some of life's simplest and greatest pleasures for a 3.5YO girl - munching on a plate of honey stars while watching the TV. And I caught this rascal chuckling to herself as she stuffed the honey stars into her mouth, one by one whilst watching a comedy on TV... over breakfast. I wish I had the luxury of time to do this too - no need to work but just eat, watch TV, sleep and have everything taken care of!!

Lazy Sunday

I'm feeling really lazy today. Though I have some work to complete but nah, I am just too lazy and in a holiday mood haha! 10 more days and we are off to the North for our yearly 'pilgrimage', the trip that we must commit to for the next 9 years. Can't wait to stuff myself fat with Penang and Ipoh food. We are dropping our plan for a holiday in Singapore as we are unable to grab the SGD888 package at Universal Studio / Sentosa Island. All the decent hotels in Singapore are also fully booked or priced sky high around X'mas, which is the time that we intend to go. Anyway, we are looking at another holiday spot now, somewhere that's not too far.

Happy long weekend peeps!




This is often the first thing that they will do whenever they are back from a long and hot morning walk at the park - by sprawling themselves on the cool floor and then let out a satisfied giggle.

Loh Mai Kai Within A Pau

This must be the perfect marriage of dim sum for lovers of Char Siew Pau and Loh Mai Kai. The creators of this dim sum deserves a pat on the back for marrying the Char Siew Pau with the Loh Mai Kai to deliver something that's so unique. My good friend gave me a few boxes of this unique looking pau when she went to this dim sum place in Sri Petaling. A box of this pau is enough to fill you up for lunch or dinner, if you are a small eater.




A whole Loh Mai Kai with something that tastes like abalone is held inside the pau!

Sorry, I cannot tell you the name of the dim sum place as the name is printed in Chinese and I can't read Chinese. Anyone please? Anyway, you may call this number to make inquiries :

140 Jalan Radin Anum
Sri Petaling
57000 KL
Tel : 019-382 5455

A Bag Of SURPRISE from Alycia's School

A week before the school holidays started, Alycia gave me a shock when she brought home a heavy bag of curtains from school! Her teacher had asked her to bring the dirty curtains home for a spin in the washing machine! Oh my, what a big pack of end-of-school term surprise her teacher had given me! Her school involves all the students in the cleaning up of the school. Each student has to bring his/her own cloth to wipe the windows every week. Students are also compelled to bring old newspapers to the school for their recycling project. Now, they even rope in the kids to bring home the curtains for a wash LOL! This is the first time in my life that I have seen a school getting the pupils to bring home curtains for cleaning. Well, I think this is better than hanging a dust-covered dirty curtain in the classroom eh?

Baby's Singing Prowess

Baby's next favorite pass time is creating her own songs and belting them out, complete with some twists to her waist and butt. This girl is really good with her words and lyrics, though at times the tune would go a bit out. She can create songs related to just about anything from her family to a song about snakes (that's because we recently witnessed the guards at our condo catching and killing a long snake at our condo!)

Yesterday, she created a song called "My Family", which goes like this, to the tune of Auld Lang Sye:

I love my family
Because they bring me everywhere
I love my mummy
I love my daddy
I love everyone
Because they are my family.

Baby - mummy, how do you like my song? It's "My Family" song. Cool eh? Did I sing well?

Me - yes, very nice and very cool!

LOL! Not bad for a 3.5YO girl who has not even started pre school yet eh?

Healthy Roasted Vegetables

The girls have a grand aunt whom they adore, who lives a few floors beneath ours. We often cook and share our food together for dinner. The other day, she made something that's healthy and packed with anti-oxidants. She roasted beet roots, pumpkin, baby sweet corns, carrots and zucchini.

Jamie Oliver's recipe - roast beet roots with a drizzle of Balsimic vinegar, olive oil and salt.



Roast pumpkin, carrots, baby sweet corn and zucchini, with a drizzle of olive oil and salt.


Since the portion was so huge, we kept the roasted vegetables in the fridge and ate them chilled the next day, yums! Here's another way of getting your kids to eat colorful vegetables, to pump in anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals into their little bodies. My kids love them and so do I!

Cute Stuff She Does

My 3.5YO baby girl's latest frenzy is cutting papers with a pair of scissors from Mothercare, meant for cutting finger nails. She can spent close to an hour cutting papers and that's bliss to me, for I can have 1 hour of peace and silence to do my work. But I make sure that she is seated next to me, under my watchful eyes.

The other day, she hijacked some of my expensive colored papers and cut them into strips. Then she ran to me and said in her sweetest voice "mummy, look at my bunches of flowers! Later, can you please give me a plastic bag to put them, please mummy?"


My sweetie pie with her home-made bunches of flowers :D

Sherilyn

Rascal #2 has finally graduated from pre-school. Can't believe she is going to Primary 1 next year. I earnestly hope that she will make some changes on her attitude towards her studies and discipline, will place importance towards punctuality and will have an intense liking of what she will learn in school. When Alycia was in pre school, I remember I had the same fears and worries on how she will cope in a Chinese school. Alycia fell sick and had to skip school regularly when she was in pre school. Consequently, she had some catching up to do in her studies. I remember she always made my blood boil too whenever I had to do revision with her before her exams. All that changed when she started going to Primary 1. All my fears and worries were unfounded. She did very well and I am surprised with the rate at which she picked up Mandarin and master Mandarin, in view of both her parents speak and read no Mandarin. I hope the same goes for Sherilyn too.

A pot shot of Sherilyn doing her revision. She ain't the type who will sit restricted at the table to pore over her books. She needs movements and lots of 'spices and flavor' to her study methodology.

Conversation With Cassandra

It was pouring outside during lunch time today.

Baby - mummy, the rain is good for the trees right?

Me - yup. We all need to drink water to live. The trees need to drink water too.

Baby - why mummy?

Me - so that the trees will grow taller and taller.

Baby - like Jack and the Beanstalk right mummy?

Me - yeah, clever girl!


After lunch in the bathroom...

Baby - mummy, what will happen if I eat soap?

Me - bubbles will form inside your body and the bubbles will come out through your nose, mouth, ears and eyes, scary right?

Baby - and what will happen if I eat this? (pointing to the water hose)

Me - you will die if you eat the water hose!! (LOL!! This rascal loves asking me cheeky questions when she already knows the answers.)

Cassandra at 3years 7 months



My most promising model at Old and New Stuff For Sale, donning on a cute cheongsam and Chinese embroidered shoes.

A Bento Set A Day

Here's yet another Bento set prepared for my kiddos...



Grilled salmon with butter and garlic, Terriyaki chicken and sushi, washed down with a mug of murberry-beet root-carrot-apple juice, with grapes as starter and Rocky sticks for dessert.
And no, I am not that ambitious and I don't have the luxury of time (though I would love to) to whip up such a luxurious lunch for my kiddos. It's my hubs and his chefs who cooked up the storm, for one of his customer's functions for that day. I heart days like this, when my hubs sends his staff to deliver hot food to our doorstep, for I don't have to get myself all sweaty and have my face, hands and clothes tainted with choking cooking oil :D

Weekend Midnight Supper

The weekends are here again, super hooray! Business will be slower over the weekends and that's the time I can breathe. I really do need the breather and catch up on my sleep as I feel sleepy all the time lately, a result of being severely sleep deprived.

Weekend also means midnight snacking with daddy for Alycia and Sherilyn. Last Saturday, daddy brought them out to buy supper of fried crabs and fried Hokkien noodles. The 3 of them had a whale of a time chomping down the noodles and sucking on the crab legs and claws till way past midnight. Me? I don't touch food after 9pm and have the will power to say NO, even to the most delicious of morsels put right in front of my eyes and mouth, with salivating aromatic smell permeating my nostrils. Can you resist? tee hee...

A Bento Set A Day

Here's one of the bento set lunches for the girls, prepared last week:



Jackfruit and grapes before the meal followed with mushroom pasta, fresh coconut water and a Loacker Mini wafer for dessert. The mushroom sauce was pre-prepared a week ago and stored in smaller portions in the freezer. Whenever I am busy, all I need to do is to reheat the sauce, broil some pastas and voila, my kiddos have hot piping food for lunch.

She Says...

One of Baby's latest favorite things to say to me is "when I grow up, I want to work hard, earn lots of money and buy everyone a big bungalow house to stay, ok mummy?"

This morning, she said this to me "mummy, when I grow up, I will work very hard, earn lots of money, so that you and daddy don't have to work anymore. I will give you and daddy lots of money and buy you all a big bungalow house ok?"

Awwww, that's really sweet of her to say that. And I hope that she will keep to her words. I can't wait to stop working and don't have to do anything but just be a lady of leisure tee hee...

Cassandra at 3.5 years old.



At Delicious Cafe @ Dua Residency, KL.

Delicious Cafe @ Dua Residency, KL

We had lunch with Alan Yun and Emily at Delicious Cafe @ Dua Residency, KL today. This is our first time at the Delicious' outlet @ Dua Residency. The ground floor houses Delicious Ingredients and the 1st floor houses Delicious Cafe.
Delicious Ingredients is a deli that carries a mix of gourmet ingredients, freshly baked breads and day-to-day food items, serving both the residents of Dua Residency and other walk-in patrons. Delicious has always been our family's favorite pasta place. I love their Pesto chicken and flourless orange cake.


Creamy pasta with ham - the girls' all-time favorite.


Today, I tried Delicious' Gado-Gado, a traditional Indonesian salad, that is pretty healthy. All the vegetables for dipping into the peanut sauce are broiled. The Gado-Gado was tastefully and beautifully served on a huge petal of a banana flower. I noticed that almost every table had a plate of this wonderful dish. It's rated 10/10 on HFM's food meter. We all loved the sweet peanut sauce that went really well with the bean sprouts, deep fried tofu, fried Indonesian crackers, turnip, boiled eggs and other vegetables.




Juicy delicious beef burger...


Grilled chicken with basil and pesto sauce, another favorite dish of mine from the Delicious kitchen. Love the flavorful Pesto sauce on the chicken.


Fish and chips...


Turkey ham and cheese sandwich...


Chicken chop - nothing to shout about.



Check out this little mouse who's eyeing on the Berrilicious Chocolate Pavlova. The crust is meringue with cream, topped with fresh strawberries. I find the crust too sweet for my palate. It would be a crime to wipe off this sweet delight, really.




Carrot cake and chocolate banana cake. These 2 sinful morsels ain't exactly my choice. I would have chosen my favorite flourless orange cake and chocolate brownie but they ain't exactly my other half's favorite. So this time, I had to give in to his choice, which in a way was a blessing as I did not indulge myself like I would if they were my favorites.




[Level 1 - DELIcious Cafe]
8 AM - 3 PM
6PM - 10PM

[Ground Floor - DELIcious Ingredients]
9 AM - 9 PM

Telephone Number : 03-2166 2066
Address : Dua Residency
Lot 1.1, Ground Floor Dua Annexe,
No. 211, Jalan Tun Razak,
50450 Kuala Lumpur.

Tranquerah @ Red Carpet Avenue, The Strand Encorp

We were invited by our good friend - actor, model, entrepreneur and restaurateur Alan Yun to his newly opened Nyonya restaurant - Tranquerah @ Red Carpet Avenue, The Strand Encorp recently. Alan Yun also co-owns another restaurant - Pin Xiang in Damansara.

Alan Yun was very generous and ordered over 10 mouth-watering and appetite-whetting Nyonya dishes for my family and I to feast on. We finished almost every dish and left the restaurant feeling really satisfied *BURP*! There will surely be another round of makan at Tranquerah very soon. This time it will be with a group of my blogger friends and Alan's celebrity friends. It will be a eat-and-blog session, something which iLike!! Did I tell you that one of my secret ambitions is to become a food critic cum food writer? Oh, who does not like to get free food all the time, a reward that comes with the writing eh?

So here goes the pix of the scrumptious dishes...

Refreshing drinks...
Pink kebaya (watermelon, lychee, strawbery with yoghurt),
Green kebaya (Lime and apple),
White kebaya (lemon juice)



Our very first dish was Top Hat - the hat was very crispy and fresh and the turnip very delish. Every single strand of turnip was wiped off from the plate!





Ikan Cencaru Sumbat, delish!



A must-have at Tranquerah - authentic Ayam Pongteh, a traditional Nyonya chicken dish cooked with lots of shallots, herbs, spices and potatoes. Very delish! We liked this dish so much that we even 'ta pau' the left over sauce home, tee hee hee!



Sambal stinky beans aka petai with prawns.



Gerang Asam Fish, another lip smacking dish


Kerabu cucumber and Cencaluk egg omelette



Deep fired crispy sotong rings, very delish too


Cendol with shaved ice and gula melaka and fresh santan. Top notch taste, love the fragrant gula melaka. Really sinful delight!!


Bubur chacha, very rich with lots of aromatic gula melaka and fresh santan, perfect for those with a sweet tooth..





Mee Siam - this dish is a signature dish of one of the local celebrity chefs...





Check out the assortment of decades-old Nyonya style window frames hanging high up on the ceiling


Traditional batik print moulds attached to the wall as decor.



The 3 angels sitting on an 'old bus stop at Jalan Tengkera, Melaka'



The 3 angels with Alan kor kor...





Tranquerah - Malacca Nyonya Cuisine
No. 62A - G, Jalan PJU 5/22
The Strand Encorp
Red Carpet Avenue
Kota Damansara
47810 PJ

You can also inquire about this restaurant by commenting in Alan Yun's Facebook page and Like his page too! This handsome guy is one hellavu guy.

A Bento Set A Day

Here's yet another bento set of the day:


Homecooked Jar Jiang Mien with organic spinach curly noodles, papaya soup with sweet corn and roasted pork ribs and Musang King durian as starter. Yummy?

Breakfast For A Health Freak Mom

The hubs got me my favorite brand of cheese from Bangsar Village on Sunday. The brand Food For Friends is synonymous with healthy food and organic food. I love their range of organic tortilla chips. And I found out on Sunday that Food For Friends even have a range of cheeses - low sodium ones that is, and I'm excited! My girls love cheeses but I am not too keen to feed them with too much cheeses as they are loaded with sodium and preservatives. But Food For Friends cheese is not salty and have very little ingredients, so I don't feel the guilt when giving them this brand of cheese. Yeap, the lesser the ingredients in any food label, the more natural the food is.

So this has been my breakfast for the past 2 days:

Food For Friend cheese on a slice of toasted Anzen organic bread, topped with sweet pineapples. Very quaint combination eh? But it's tasty!



Check out the label - only a short list of ingredients, which iLike!


Cheese on toast in the toaster...


A health freak mom's breakkie! Even my 3.5YO toddler likes it, healthy eh?