Of New Teeth And Shark Teeth

Cass' first baby tooth dropped right smack in the month she turned 6, exactly like what has been written in those baby care books.

For weeks the lower front tooth had been shaking. She wanted badly for the tooth to drop so that she could get $$ from the Tooth Fairy. Silly girl. She has been really influenced by what she watched from the slapstick comedy The Tooth Fairy a few months back. She even told me that she wished that her teeth will fall off so that she gets lots of money from the Tooth Fairy *face palm*!

And the day Cass' tooth dropped was pretty memorable and eventful, just like Sherilyn's teeth shedding moments. I was feeding her mango from the seed. She sucked on the seed and when I pulled the seed away from her mouth, she told me that her tooth was almost yanked off! And then she pulled it out herself! Ya, just like that. My brave girl, as brave and tough as ever. Not a tear was shed albeit there was some blood which she really hated the 'bitter taste'. That was how she described her blood.




Now my wish for Cass is for the other lower front tooth  to drop off AS SOON AS POSSIBLE coz you know why?  She has a SHARK TEETH just behind the baby tooth.  This means that an adult tooth is sprouting out even though the baby tooth has not fallen off yet. Now if the adult tooth comes out and the baby tooth is still firmly rooted in the gums, then she may have to extract that baby tooth to make way for the adult tooth, OUCH!!  :( 

D'Cuisine @ PJ Plaza 33

On Easter Sunday, the foodie hubs brought us to a  eatery at The Plaza, Jaya 33 after church.  It was our first time lunching at d'Cuisine and I must say that the food was yummeh and well deserves another visit.

Whenever the foodie hubs brings us to a eatery that we have never been to, we will surely be treated to a huge array of items on the menu.  That is why, I never have to bother flipping through the menu each time I dine with him for I know I will never leave the eatery feeling half full *BURPS*


Deep fried water chestnut prawns.  I have weaned myself off deep fried food for about half a year already but this plate of grub deserves a little diversion from my course and I had half a prawn just to try it.  Yup it was delish! 

 




This plate of lemongrass pesto and shrimp fried rice is by far the tastiest fried rice I have ever tasted.  For someone who hardly eats rice, I walloped quite a bit of it.  The  basil leaves and kaffir lime leaves along with onions (which are all my favorite natural seasonings) imparted such refreshing and aromatic flavors to the rice.  This is going to be a dish that we will definitely order again should we dine at d'Cuisine again.

 





This set of coconut milk rice with fried chicken and sambal prawns is another signature dish of d'Cuisine.  The prawns were very flavorful and the coconut rice was superb -- full of santan flavor and texture of rice was impeccable!  For someone who hates to eat rice to say that this coconut milk rice is nice, you really have to order it to sample it yourself! ;)

 






Garlic Ribeye steak for the hubs, which I find just mediocre and nothing to shout about.  We were quite disappointed with this piece of bovine which cost the most among all the dishes, priced at RM63!

 


Fish head noodles for Cass my noodles-loving girl...

 






Can't recall what this is called.  I think it is some boneless chicken chop cooked with some herbs and spices, which was very flavorful too.

 



Now for the desserts...

Sticky rice with coconut ice cream.  I did not quite like the taste of the sticky rice and I actually found the taste a tad rancid.

 



Latte that hubs and I shared. Coffeelicious!





This plate of uninteresting combo of black and white was surprisingly the yummiest of all the desserts!  I loved it very much!  The black scoop on the left is not ice-cream but a uniquely prepared black sesame pudding bursting with sesame lava inside.  I polished off almost the entire plate all by myself as my kids are not fans of black sesame.





This Avocado Espresso Caldo is a sure thumbs-up for coffee lover.  It is home-made avocado ice  cream on a glass bowl placed atop  a glass jar of ice cubes with rich Espresso poured onto the ice cream.  My coffee loving girls loved this and so did I!




And finally the bill.  If not for the overpriced and below average Ribeye steak, I think the cost is pretty reasonable.




Our overall experience at d'Cuisine was good and there will definitely be another visit there.

D'Cuisine @ PJ Plaza 33
Ground Floor
The Plaza @ Jaya 33
Jalan Semangat
Section 13, Petaling Jaya
Business hours:
Mon-Thurs : 11am- 3pm ; 6pm-11pm
Fri – Sun : 11am-11pm

Grandma To The Rescue

Alycia is super reliant on her Mandarin tutor. With hubs and I being yellow bananas and the MIL who is only around several months in a year, Alycia runs to Ms M for help in Chinese almost every day by sending the questions to her via Whatsapp on days when Ms M does not come over.

Ms M is now vacationing in Japan and will only be back next week, just in time to provide Alycia with some last minute revision before she sits for her mid-term exam in the first week of May.

Thankfully grandma is back from Hawaii just in time to provide interim Chinese help to Alycia :D

Alycia's class teacher is one of the most fastidious and hardworking teachers whom I have come across thus far. She loads the students with tons of homework daily, to gear them for the UPSR exam next year.  On some days, Alycia has to hurriedly eat her dinner to get back to her study table to complete her homework.  And on some days like yesterday, she had to bug grandma for help when she was still having dinner.



If only the hubs and I could afford it, we would send our girls to a private or international school, where homework load is light and kids spend more time in extra curricular activities.  I prefer my girls to have a a more well-rounded school life vs. just burying their faces in school homework day in and day out.

What are your views on heavy homework load given to your kids by the teachers?  Would you have preferred to send your kids to a private or international school if you could afford it or you still think government schools is a preferred choice? 

A Wet Thursday and Cass Does A Split In The Water

Today for the first time in months, it rained for SO long *YIPEEEEE*!!  May it rain and rain and rain for days and weeks to fill up all the darn drying dams.  And may the darn water rationing be lifted soonest possible!

The rain started at about 5ish am and lasted through to about 4:30pm. It was very breezy and cooling today, which all of us really missed but the wet weather took a toll on our wet laundry. I had to hang the clothes in our living room and bedrooms and turned on three ceiling fans the whole day to fan dry all the clothes.

Thankfully the rain stopped  just in time for Cass to attend her swimming lesson. She has shown an improvement in her free style strokes. Her breathing technique has improved as well but I still think she needs loads more practices to perfect her breathing technique, so that she can swim a longer distance.

And today she showed me how she did a split inside the water, see....

Joys of Motherhood

After a sumptuous lunch complete with mouth watering desserts at D'Cuisine at The Plaza, Jaya 33 PJ on Easter Sunday, I was treated to a nice massage by my 2 angels. 

And I almost dozed off after the hearty meal and  comfy massage * buuuuuurps and yaaaaaawns*

Crazy Bloke

There is this bloke at our condo who has been sun-bathing almost daily for the past one year. On most days, he sun-basks twice a day, at the time of the day when it is hottest. He even lies on his tummy and raises both his legs and hands up to the sky so that the sole of his feet and palms get a tan too!! Really crazy overload!!

Each time Cass sees this crazy guy wearing only an underwear on the deck chair exposed like a salted fish in the hot sun, she will ask me curiously why this guy is doing this everyday.

Just now at about 3pm, Cass saw the crazy bloke again from our window.

 




Cass - mummy, look!  It's that guy again on the deck chair.  Why does he want to do this everyday?

Me - yeah, he's crazy!

Cass - I wonder why he wants to be so brown!  He is already so brown now.  Maybe he wants to be browner? (I started to laugh out loud in my heart with Cass' word of 'browner')

Me - Maybe...

Cass - I know, he wants to be black!  Just like my friend N who has black skin.

Me - You can't say that to your friend.  Don't ever ask your friend why he has brown or black skin ok?  That is very rude.

Cass - OK.  I wonder why that guy is so crazy.  Why did God make him so crazy??

This girl of mine is really funny!!

LOL!!  Yeah, I want to know from that crazy guy why he wants his skin to be 'browner'.  He has been sun-bathing for over a year and he is already as brown as a brown cow.  Cass may be right.  Maybe he just wants to have skin like a black cow muahahaha!!

Five More Days....

I am counting down to the day.  The most tensed day in 2014 for me since the start of the new year.  In 5 days, Cass and I would have to go to HKL again.

Cass is scheduled to go for a Urodynamics Test to see her bladder activity.  If this was just a simple procedure sans pain, I would not feel the tension.  I feel tensed as I am worried Cass will not be able to take the pain and discomfort when the doctor inserts 2 catheters into her urethra and rectum.  How will she be able to tolerate the pain for a whole one hour?  Only God can remove her fears and pain.

If you know what Cass has been going through since she was 6 weeks old (problem detected in-utero), I hope that you will kindly say a little prayer for my baby girl for her to have a smooth sailing Urodynamics Test next week. Please pray that she will feel no pain and no fear throughout the test.

Thank you...

Fresca Mexican Kitchen And Bar @ The Gardens, Mid Valley City

On Saturday, the foodie hubs brought us to have some classic Mexican food for dinner.  Sherilyn had gone to B (her bestie)'s house for a so-called revision and later dinner at B's house.  So it was just hubs, Alycia, Cass and me at Fresca Mexican Kitchen And Bar.

As it was a rainy day that night, we were freezing cold and shivering inside Fresca.  It did not help that their air-conditioning was super powerful. Cass and I had to cuddle each other with only one shawl over our shoulders.  So when the hot seafood soup arrived after a long wait, we attacked it, to get some instant warmth for our body.  And it was lip smacking good with 3 huge mussels, fish and prawns, though a tad fiery to the tongue. Sorry, I did not manage to snap a picture of the soup as I was too famished and I knew that if I whipped out the phone and waste 5 minutes snapping away, the soup would be gone by the time I am done photographing the soup!

Hubs also ordered a Tacos Alambre, Burritos, Fajitas and Pollo a la Parrilla.

The Mexican green rice (short grain rice with coriander) in hot plate with spicy chicken was sizzling flavorful, albeit too spicy for the girls and me.  Even the salsa dipping for the Fajitas was spicy.  But we were enjoying the food and the spiciness generated some much needed warmth for our freezing bodies.

 






The pictures turned out a tad dark as the lighting in the restaurant was dim, with the intention of creating a romantic ambience, I think. This is the only downside of the restaurant that I can think of and I would have enjoyed my dinner more if the lights were brighter and air conditioning not too freezing cold.

The pictures do not do justice to the food. They look and taste way better than presented her.

Below is what my hubs called Mexican popiah.  It is a dish composed of wraps to go with minced beef and salsa and an assortment of healthy and delish dips.

What is a Mexican meal without Margaritas right?  Hubs ordered a glass of Margaritas Classic Glass.


 


 

We enjoyed our Mexican dinner very much, albeit the girls complained a wee bit that the food was too spicy for their taste bud to handle. Nonetheless, they still whacked every bit of the fiery food on the table, followed by gulps and gulps of water.


 


Fresca Mexican Kitchen Bar
Address: The Gardens, Midvalley City, 59200 Kuala Lumpur
Phone:+603-2201 2893

Obsession with Seashells

And during our car ride back to KL, Cass was still admiring her new collection of seashells and corals...


 

So who says expensive toys are more superior?  Sometimes things from the nature which are free and plenty can hold a child or even an adult's attention far longer than expensive gadgets!  Those with more than 2 kids will know what  I mean ;)

Oh yes, at the graveyard during Qing Ming, we saw red saga seed scattered everywhere on the ground and they looked so magical!  Cass wanted to bring some back to KL but I said NO!!  I bring nothing back that belongs to the graveyard *shudders*

Old Treasure Found

During our recent trip back to Ipoh, my mum dug out some very, very old seashells and pebbles and showed them to the girls.

When I saw them, I felt really sentimental.  I felt as if I was brought back via a time machine to the early 1980s!  These seashells were collected by my older brother, Ray and me from the beaches that my dad brought us to for holidays.  I remember some were collected in 1979 when I was only 6 years old at Golden Sands in Lumut.  Some were collected from the beaches in Teluk Batik.  And some were collected by my mum when she was a child (the hugest one, held by Sherilyn in the below picture)...
 




I could not believe that seashells and corals do not decompose and ours still look very solid!

You see those shiny brown and grey pebbles?  My maternal granny brought them back from China for my brothers and me circa 1988.  I remember we placed them inside a plastic aquarium that we kept our 2 pet tortoises.


"These are MINE!" "NO NO, they are MINE!" And the row went on and on over some old seashells! *roll eyes*!






Oh yes, the colorful marbles belonged to my older brother and they are over 30 years!

As with all bickering and tug of war, there must be a concession, so...

each one has some of everything :)




 

Lunch at Ippudo @ Gardens Mid Valley

These days, I hardly do food review posts though the foodie hubs is still bringing us everywhere to 'jalan-jalan cari makan' and to try out new eateries.

First, I find it very time-consuming to do a food review post as I need to Google for some information on the eatery.  Secondly, there are just too many impatient hands and growling tummies who just cannot wait for me to say "Wait ar, take photo first!" and then spend a few minutes moving the plate of grub so that it appears in the most appealing angle for me to photograph it. All these food porn  must be done really really quick, lest I get chided and squawked at.

Most of my food pictures will be photobombed by a hand or two, a tumbler, half a face or a hidden thumbs-up from someone cheeky somewhere near the food, like this one... with an impatient hand grabbing the prawn.






By the time I finish snapping my pix, what was once nicely presented in front of me will be gone!  That is why I can never be fat though my hubster is a food caterer and foodie!

Anyway, we had lunch at Ippudo Japanese restaurant @ Mid Valley on Sunday.  Hubster ordered an array of delish and unique Japanese delicacies but I only managed to capture 2 pictures, one of which inevitably showing the hand of my hungry darling Alycia.


This ain't picture perfect too but if I did not hurriedly swipe  the button on my phone, I will be squawked at again like a despised paparazzi!  #@*!






Finally HFM and gang's rating on Ippudo is 7/10.  We all love the food there, especially the ramen with delish broth and the pork bun.  For someone who hates rice but find the above rice sushi delish, it must be really good!  Do give Ippudo a try when Zanmai Sushi has a crazy long queue, though Ippudo is also packed during peak hours. Zanmai Sushi and Ippudo are located just next to each other.  Between Zanmai Sushi and Ippudo, I still prefer Zanmai but do not have the patience to queue up for half an hour.

 

 

Cass Eats Fish Head

Cass is the youngest kiddo I ever know who will nibble on a fish head. Yes, a fish head of all parts!

This picture was taken at a Chinese restaurant on my birthday 2 weeks.  My dad ordered a fish and after everyone had taken the fish meat, my baby girl attacked the fish head and patiently dug out the fish meat from the cheeks, eyes and neck, put it into her mouth and fed me with it too.  She even helped me peel prawns and put the de-veined them into my mouth, knowing that I don't like to dirty my hands peeling seafood.  When she's good, she's really a God-sent angel :)

 



Ans she tried to duck away from the paparazzi, who secretly tried to photograph her in action, HA HA HA!

Purple Porridge For Lunch Today

Wednesdays are simple lunch days for Cass and me. That is because I do not have a fusspot to please. Cass is pretty simple to please. A simple toast with eggs will make her happy.  Or porridge.  Cass loves porridge.  But if the fussbudget sees porridge, she turns sulky right away.  She wants rice. Rice with dishes but Cass and I hate rice. 

So today being a Wednesday, I happily made a big pot of porridge with purple sweet potatoes, orange sweet potatoes, pork slices, shredded cabbage and shell fish. Cass loves it and so do I.  I whacked a bowl without guilt as I used low GI Basmati rice to cook the porridge.

There is still a big pot of porridge sitting in the Thermos Shuttle Chef now, keeping it warm.  Tonight Cass and Sherilyn will have that for dinner.  As for the fussbudget, I will have to cook some rice for her.  And I am grilling Saba fish and Salmon fish head too, in the oven.  Dinners are strictly carb-free for me, so I'll be fine with just fish and some leftover tofu with minced meat that I cooked for dinner yesterday.