Sunday Meals - 31 July 2016

Lunch today was Japanese...






We were still pretty stuffed from a heavy lunch, thus dropped our plan of having dinner at our favorite Chinese 'tai chow' restaurant and opted to have sandwiches at home instead.  Drama Queen volunteered to prepare dinner... how lucky can I be!!  She helped to make scrambled eggs and sliced cucumbers, capsicum and tomatoes. She even washed the dishes after dinner!!  Though our wires often get crossed, inside the kitchen, I think she hangs the moon and the stars for me!

After Drama Queen was done preparing dinner and laying all the items needed for sandwich on the dining table, she announced maternally: "I'm done. Help yourself to these everyone!"   then proceeded to the wet kitchen to wash the wok and all.




I was still feeling cloy after stuffing myself with Musang King durian and only had salad and oats.

Dishes Cooked With Khind Stir-Fryer

Exactly a week ago, I got a new Khind stir-fryer.  My  new kitchen toy came just about the right time as the mil has just left for Hong Kong for a few months and this kitchen toy is a pretty efficient helper.   Khind stir-fryer is an automated electric cooker that can really help you to save time in the kitchen while keeping the kitchen free from grease and oily fumes.  It has stir-fry, pan-fry, braise and toast functions.

These are some of the dishes that I whipped up over the past one week using the Khind stir-fryer:

1) Mushroom sauce for my honey grilled chicken.  Chicken was grilled using the oven.





2) Braised brinjal with minced garlic, tomatoes and tau cheong.

3) Sauteed homegrown (organic) sweet potato leaves with garlic.





3) Pan-fried fish. For this type of small fish that I used (it looks similar to mullet fish), the outcome of the fish was ultra crispy.  Even the small bones were crispy and can even be swallowed (good source of calcium eh?)







Very little oil is needed to pan-fry the fish.





4) Blanched veggie
5) Fried rice




Fried rice just completed in the stir-fryer.





You can read more on the Khind stir-fryer and how you can get discount from my earlier post in my other blog.

My Weekend (23 - 24 July 2016)

My typical Saturday morning would be to have breakfast with Cass after dropping  Drama Queen at the tuition center at 9am. Alycia has to attend school on Saturdays.  If the hubs does not have to be at his office, the kitchen or the client's place, he will join us at the coffee shop.

Our favorite food on a Saturday morning is bitter gourd vermicelli with minced pork and poached egg at our favorite coffee shop.  Cass only eats bitter gourd when cooked this way and from only this stall.  I have tried cooking the exact bitter gourd + minced pork noodles for her but she  didn't even want to try the bitter gourd and commented that it would be too bitter.  Huh, preconceived notion!





After breakfast, we would normally walk to the supermarket to shop for fruits, milk and other stuff.  Cass has now mastered the art of selecting fruits and loves to help me with this whenever we are at the supermarket.





On Sunday, Alycia's friends came in the afternoon to work on a Biology project together. When the bunch of thirteen year olds went to the gym, I quickly went into her room and took this picture, he he he!  Both Drama Queen and Alycia hate having their photos taken and posted on mummy's Facebook and blogs. To think that they were once so cooperative and eager camera posers for me when they were cute little girls breaks my heart that they no longer wish to do it anymore.  My girls have grown. Hopefully they will pass this phase too and will soon be eager camera posers for me again.






After her friends left, Alycia had to have a thorough clean up of her room as she allowed her friends to eat chips, chocolate and other junk in her bedroom!!  Bits of chips were scattered everywhere on the room floor. I went berserk and told her that this would be the first and last time that she and her friends ever get to eat in the room as I am terrified of a roach-infested room!

Sekinchan Famous Yu Tao Mui Restaurant & Mooi Mooi Siew Yoke, Happy Garden, Old Klang Road, KL

When my parents were in KL last Sunday, we had lunch at Sekinchan Famous Yu Tao Mui Restaurant at Happy Garden. We were first timers at this restaurant. We were a tad apprehensive when we arrived at the restaurant as we were the only patrons there.  We were skeptical about the quality and price of the food as the restaurant was empty, except for their staff.  Since it was already late in the afternoon and my parents were rushing to return to Ipoh, we sat down and ordered food anyway.

We downed our skepticism and prejudice along with the food the moment we tasted the delish dishes! All the dishes that we ordered were very tasty.

The first dish that arrived was curry fish head.





The deep fried octopus (on the foreground) and fried homemade fish paste were superb.   The deep fried octopus was achingly crispy, full of texture and flavors.  The fried fish paste was genuinely homemade as you can feel and taste the flesh of the fish in every wholesome bite.





Braised tofu with mushrooms and assortment of seafood.





The fried vermicelli has generous amounts of prawns, squids, bean sprouts, pork slices and onions.  The fried rice was equally good flavored generously with baby shrimps.




Steamed egg with minced pork - the girls' favorite.




While waiting for the dishes to arrive, the foodie hubs walked a few shops away to Restaurant Mooi Mooi to take away the best siew yoke (roast pork) in the whole wide world!  The siew yoke with crackling skin literally melts in your mouth.  Restaurant Mooi Mooi, a corner coffee shop which is semi worn down carries a certain rustic charm, if you don't mind the less-than-perfect tables, chairs, cutlery and interior.  The operator also sells char siu and roast chicken but the claim to fame, crowd-puller is the top notch melt-in-the-mouth crackling skin siew yoke.

Treating Vertigo Naturally

A few weeks ago, my 70-year old mum suddenly had a bout of dizzy spell while doing marketing at the wet market in Ipoh. She was with my dad. She informed my dad to cut short the marketing and to head home straight as she could not even walk unassisted by my dad.  Once home, she immediately popped 2 capsules of Super Lutein with a packet of Izumio hydrogen water.  To her amazement, the dizziness disappeared within less than an hour!   She was then fit enough to bake bread and even cooked lunch.

Mum was so excited that she immediately messaged me to share the good news with me on how Izumio and Super Lutein had saved her again from a trip to the doctor's office. She hates the side effects of drowsiness and nauseousness caused by the anti-giddiness drugs. Plus a visit to a private doctor on a Sunday would have cost her a bomb too.

Vertigo is a specific type of dizziness that is characterized by the sudden sensation that you are spinning or that the world around you is spinning. The feeling can come and go or it can last for hours or days. Along with the dizziness, people may also experience nausea or vomiting, headaches, double vision or a racing heartbeat.

A few days ago, the mil suddenly felt dizzy in the morning. She skipped swimming and just lay listless on the bed. I was hesitant to offer her Izumio and Super Lutein as she's not one who trusts MLM products. In the evening, she told me that she would like to try the products as she, like my mum hates the side-effects of the drugs. After 2 days on the products, she was well enough to cook and bake again.  Today is the forth day and she's feeling better than ever. She just whipped up a sumptuous dinner and baked 2 batches of Madeleines for the girls' lunch boxes tomorrow. Yesterday she baked scones for us.  Awesome grandma she is!





Each carton has 30 packets of 200ml izumio hydrogenated water







Each bottle has 100 capsules



To throw my modesty into the wind, Izumio and Super Lutein are life-saving products!   If you or anyone that you know of are suffering from vertigo, do give these products a try. There is no harm in consuming something natural with no fillers, binders and additives. These products do not add load to your kidneys and liver. In fact, we have kidney patients who have been doing very well after consuming the products.

To find out more about the products, you can visit this Facebook page.  A lot of information can be found there. If you are interested to buy the products or interested to do this business, you can email me at shireenyong@gmail.com

You can also read more about the products by clicking on the label 'Izumio Hydrogen Water and Super Lutein' at the end of this post or on the right hand side of the side bar.


Disclaimer:

The information on this site is provided as an information resource only and is not to be used or relied on for any diagnostic or treatment purposes. Not every remedy will work on everyone. So is conventional medical treatment. It very much depends on the constituents of the person and the conditions peculiar to that person. Whatever the reasons, this article does not claim the information provided is totally accurate and reliable and will cure everyone. The purpose of this article is merely to inform visitors that there are alternative cures for all ailments. You are therefore advised to consult your registered medical physicians as a matter of due diligence.

Mr Poker Coffee @ Sri Petaling

During a one-day public holiday some time last month, the foodie hubster brought us to a new cafe for his weekly indulgence in gourmet coffee and cakes.

This hip cafe is a poker fan's dream place to be in. Mr Poker Coffee is bedecked with everything from playing cards to rocking horses, circa-1970s TV sets to Bruce Lee  memorabilia, Hello Kitty playing cards to a portrait of the Mona Lisa sipping coffee.

Cakes are served on plates resembling a playing card and the card symbols on each plate are powdered chocolate.




Coffee and tea are served with home-made dried pineapple slices.








A collection of playing cards dating back to the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s are framed up and decked up to the top of the wall.














Mr Poker Coffee 3-1,
First Floor, Jalan Radin Bagus 6,
Sri Petaling, Kuala Lumpur.
 Mon-Thurs, 11am-10pm;
Fri-Sun, 11am-12am.
Tel: 03-7497-1777

Self-Pampering Session On A Thursday - 14 July 2016

About 3 weeks ago, I went for my first ever foot spa. However, I had to cut short the session and omit the nail filing and painting to rush home to wait for Drama Queen and Cass after the transporter dropped them off.  The pedicurist spent a frigging 2 hours just to clean my feet that were severely beaten-up, dry with cracks and consequently had paint and calligraphy ink imbedded in between the cracks, no thanks to the three monkeys at home. She wanted to proceed with the nails but I told her that I'd go back to continue with the pedicure.

After just a week, my feet (that go through lots of 'rough conditions' everyday) turned unsightly again. No wonder the pedicurist advised me to have a foot spa once a week.  I will most likely settle for a bi-monthly treatment to keep my feet well maintained. It's an instant self gratification that gives me so much satisfaction just looking at how good my feet look now 😁😍

Today I had another foot spa and pedicure session. I slept through almost the entire 2 hours session. HAHA! See how chronically sleep deprived I am!  Sofia had to wake me up several times to ask me questions.




For the nail art, I chose Hello Kitty, my favorite childhood Sanrio character and pink - my favorite color :)




Foot make-over  and I am loving my feet now 😍





Next up, I will be doing a make-over of my waist-length hair. I have made inquires on the prices just now and will try to squeeze out a couple of hours after the girls' exam to have a hair make-over :D

Our Sunday - 10 July 2016

Today is the last day of Raya holiday.  In exactly a week's time, Drama Queen and Cass will be sitting for yet another school exam.

While the girls slept in, I, as usual got up early to begin my slavery duties.

In between moping floor and doing laundry, I had sips of organic lemon tea steeped with wild blue pea flowers.





Lunch was Korean food with friends.

Back home, I spent a couple of tormenting hours revising BM language with Drama Queen and Cass while losing my voice screaming. I think my blood pressure went up a few notches.  I could feel my heart flutter a little bit more too after an evening of talking and screaming.  While seated at the table going through the same old Tatabahasa (Malay grammar) with them, I was wishing that my day will very soon come where Drama Queen and Cass can independently revise on their own. I just want to put my legs up and have a relaxing massage on my massage chair on a Sunday with zero stress.

Dinner was all the heated up left-over food, doggy-bagged from restaurants over the past few days while the mil had a night out with her SILs.

Dessert  for the girls was grandma's homemade bread with granny's homemade kaya.   Drama Queen and Cass pleaded to help to slice the bread with me standing next to them and watching over them like a hawk and telling them to keep their fingers away from the knife, lest they slice off their fingers in excitement with the samurai long bread knife. It was their first time slicing a loaf of bread.

Brand New Swatch Watch For Drama Queen

Drama Queen's Swatch watch has been acting up strangely lately.  I brought it to the Swatch watch shop at Mid Valley Megamall yesterday to have it fixed and what do we know?

We were in for a surprise!!

As her watch is still under the 2-year warranty, she got a brand new replacement watch that looks similar to the old one!!

Had we gone to the Swatch watch shop just a month later, we would have missed the warranty as the warranty is expiring next month.

Below - drama queen choosing her brand new replacement Swatch watch.




Caveat - a replacement watch would NOT be given IF the glass of the watch is shattered.  Drama Queen is REALLY lucky that despite dropping her watch several times, the glass of her watch wasn't shattered. Nothing else was broken, except that the watch acted strangely.

Drama Queen is one very lucky girl to have received a brand new Swatch watch to replace her faulty one.  Princess Alycia was green with envy and wished that her Swatch watch would die on her too so that she gets a new one!  She has one more month to wish for it stop short so that she gets a brand new Swatch watch as replacement. Grandma bought them each a Swatch watch 2 years ago.

Our Sunday - 3 July 2016

Today's sermon in church was on a very apt family-related topic which struck a chord with the girls and me. Hopefully after this deep and meaningful sermon, the girls will have a better sense of responsibility at home.





After church, we had Japanese food at Lao Jiulou: 老酒楼 Old Restaurant to tuck into our favorite comfort food.





Lao Juilou is run by a Japanese, Seiji Fujimoto - a ramen specialist.  This humble eatery is like a cool hybrid of an old-fashioned Japanese izakaya and a roadside Chinese hole-in-the-wall. But the interior is less than dingy. Lao Juilou serves up dishes that are very homely and one that you would expect to come from your grandma or mother.  So homely and reasonably priced are the food that you really wouldn't mind dining there every other day. And yep, the food is kids-friendly and we have never had that unquenchable thirst after eating the food. Though it is opened by a Japanese and serve mainly Japanese morsel, many of the dishes have Chinese components in them.


Below - Special Rice is a combo of minced pork, carrots, french beans, julienned wood fungus and waxed sausage, all steamed in a bowl together with the rice.  This tastes very homely (with no overpowering sauces and MSG) and not salty at all. Omit the sausage and this would be a perfect and well-balanced dish for kids.




Below - pork gyoza, available steamed or pan-fried. Both are super delicious. Pillowy-plump and juicy with soft skin, lip-smacking when savored with julienned ginger and vinegar.  This is Alycia's all-time favorite and we always order 3-4 plates at one sitting. She can eat nothing else but gobble down 10 of these!




Below- Tonkatsu ramen - cheap and yummy.  One can satiate his/her craving for many bowls of ramen at Lao Juilou without breaking one's wallet.




Photo credit - Eat Drink KL.

After lunch at Lao Juilou, we segued into Palmier Patisserie Cafe, located just a few shops away. Palmier is a French patisserie that's Australian inspired. Here you'll  find delectable and freshly baked pastries, paninis, pies, tarts and cakes and of course gourmet coffee.




After lunch, we dropped by at the newly opened Domino's Pizza at our neighborhood to grab their buy-1-free-1 pizza promotion.  Take-out pizza was for the girls' dinner.  As for me, I was SO stuffed from lunch that I only ate capsicum, tomatoes and cucumbers for dinner.

Check out the 2 camera shy big girls *rolls eyes*




Back home, Drama Queen and Cass continued with their books' 'house moving' from their bedroom onto our new teak wood book shelf shipped from Chiangmai, which arrived on Saturday. They have only moved a quarter of their 'treasure' onto the shelf and with three quarters remaining, we would need another shelf to house another one quarter of their books collection. Very soon, we can turn our house into a mini library!