Nasi Kukus Tonggek @ Food Juction, Mid Valley Megamall

Sherilyn and I were at Mid Valley Megamall two weeks ago as she needed new school  shoes.  This fella changes school shoes at least twice a year.   Really can't fathom as to how her shoes can get damaged so easily. During my time as a secondary school girl over 30 years ago, I wore my Bata canvas school shoes for at least two years!  But I have to admit that I hardly washed my shoes then as I was just too busy lazy.  But my girls are now fortunate to have a part-time helper to help them scrub their school shoes every week.  Maybe this is why their shoes tear so easily? Or the quality back then was better than now?  Do you realize that everything back in the 70s and 80s lasted so much longer than things these days?

Ok back to foodie talk!  After shopping for shoes, we had Nasi Kukus Tonggek, an East Coast Malay delicacy at the Food Junction food court, as suggested by my foodie daughter.




Nasi Kukus Tonggek is served in an interesting way where all the ingredients, gravy and rice are stuffed into a metal can. You then lift the can up, and everything flows out like a mouth-watering lava cake.










I ordered a Nasi Kukus Ayam Tonggek (RM8.90) and added a side of fried sotong king (RM12.90) and shared this with Sherilyn.

One spoonful of the fluffy white rice mixed with its delightful gravy and I was hooked for life 😋  Best of all, the dishes are priced very affordably.

The ayam kampung chicken thigh is char-grilled to perfection, locking the juices in the meat and the meat, marinated with special spices is oh-so flavorful! The flavors exploded in my mouth like magic!

The sotong is such a joy too, for sotong lovers like myself and Sherilyn. Evenly battered and deep fried, the texture of the sotong is super crunchy and surprisingly not dry. When the dishes are tossed together with the gravy and rice, this seemingly simple dish takes on an altogether elevated form to create the perfect canvas to a sumptuous hedonistic meal!  We will definitely be going there again, I can't wait!








Nasi Kukus Tonggek Mid Valley
Address: Food Junction, Level 3, Mid Valley, 59200 Kuala Lumpur.
Operating Hours: 10 a.m.-10 p.m. (Daily)

Sunday, 21 July 2019

After Sunday School, we spent our entire afternoon at Low Yat Plaza. The hubs' desktop PC konked out whilst he was working on it and he had to get it fixed at the computer shop right away.  He's got another busy week ahead and can't work without a computer.

From getting his PC fixed, hubs ended up purchasing a brand new desktop PC, got me a new swivel chair and mouse for my home office,  got me a new phone cover in glittering PINK (and the girls went eeeewwww pink!🙄) and got Alycia a new phone charger 😁

After hanging around at the Plaza Low Yat for over 3 hours, walking non-stop hunting for tech stuff and waiting for hub's new PC, it was the girls' turn to konk out.





My super comfy swivel chair:




Lunch was at Marcoma Kitchen, a Hong Kong style 'char chan teng' opened by a handsome bloke from Hong Kong. He was seated behind us while we were having lunch.  Marcoma Kitchen has been around for over a decade but it's my first time there.   Food was superb and priced reasonably.

Although the roast duck looks unassuming, it packs a punch in the flavor and texture department~ crispy on the skin and juicy on the inside. So yums!



Hubs was so addicted to the fish balls and cuttlefish balls (he ordered 2 bowls of each) that he ordered another portion of both the balls for takeaway and again ate them for dinner that evening.




Hong Kong style sandwich with fried eggs, spam meat and ham.


There were many more dishes on the table but I was too busy scarfing down my food that I couldn't be bothered to snap more photos 😆  Check out how long our bill was:


If you happen to be at Low Yat Plaza to shop for tech items, don't forget to check out Marcoma Kitchen. Sorry folks, it's not halal.

Marcoma Kitchen Sdn Bhd (Hong Kong’s Food Culture)
LG-18, Plaza Low Yat,
off Jalan Bukit Bintang,
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Telephone: 03-2141 6998

Updates On The Girls In High School

Alycia, our eldest girl with royal hands hates kitchen work. Cooking, baking and washing dishes are just not her forte. What a polar opposite from Sherilyn who would find every opportunity to cook and bake. I think one takes after me and the other takes after my mom 😁

Alycia was forced to cook something for an Accounting project in school. Her class was assigned by the Accounting teacher to embark on a food sale project. Each team is only allocated RM100 and they have to cook something for sale to about 100 students. Yeah, what the heck can you sell with just RM100 for 100 students?? That's RM1 for 1 student! Ridiculous budget!

After a long deliberation with me and her team members, they have decided to make sweet corn fritters, using the mil's recipe.

Her first attempt was quite a flop, as grandma was not around to guide her.  Her friends and teacher commented that the sweet corn fritters lacked umami.  We followed the mil's instructions and yet the fritters didn't quite appear as how it should have been. We later found out that the mil deep fries the fritters and not pan fry them.  And she forgot to tell us to deep fry the fritters.  No wonder they tasted like pancakes and not crispy as how fritters should be! 😂




The second batch supervised by grandma was a success - crispy and flavorful.




On the day of the project next week, Alycia and her friends are going to fry the fritters at night at a friend's house and toast them back the next morning before bringing to school. Hopefully all goes well with their first food sale project!

On Drama Queen, she and her team mates clinched 3rd placing in a district level inter-school English drama competition held at St John's International School yesterday!  Kudos to the team! First and second placing went to Convent Bukit Nenas and St John's Institution.

Her next competition? An inter-school traditional dance competition, which she claimed her teacher forced her to take part in.  It's no doubt that my fearless girl loves competition since she was in pre-school and all the adrenaline rush that comes with it!   She definitely inherited the Yap genes.  Hubby's youngest sister was a former top Malaysian bowler (Sarah Yap - go Google her) before she migrated to Hawaii 😊

Sunday Lunch @ Little People, Avantas, 14 July 2019

Sherilyn had the liberty to pick today's choice of lunch venue and she chose Little People @ Avantas as this matcha lover (just like me) had the crave to dig into something matcha-ish.  Little People sources their matcha powder from Niko Neko Matcha, the specialists in artisanal matcha powder from Japan and Sherilyn is obsessed with matcha from Niko Neko.

Little People serves healthy eats at really affordable prices. I like it that their dishes are not overly salty or sweet.  Their healthy pastas are handmade with natural ingredients. Their pink pasta (made of beets) is pretty similar to the one that Sherilyn made the other day.

My vegetarian quiche and ice Matcha Latte. Portion is really small but perfect for weight watchers and just right for someone with a really tiny stomach like myself.



Health pastas for Sherilyn and Cass.  Beef Ragu pasta for Cass...




Crab meat pasta for Sherilyn...


Big breakfast set for Alycia. I absolutely love the homemade chicken sausages ~ they're not salty and according to the owner, contain no preservative and MSG.



A 100% perfect cup of hot Hojicha Latte for Sherilyn:


Chocolate pie...


Matcha cheesecake.  Very cheesy but does not come close to the ones from The Tokyo Restaurant @ Lot 10.  It lacks the matcha punch and is not as smooth as the ones from The Tokyo Restaurant.


Love the Bubble Milk Tea soft serve ice-cream (RM15)! It's not sweet, not cloy and has an aromatic oriental tea undertone. It's the bubble milk tea fanatic's version of nirvana!  One mouthful of it and you'll be hooked for a long time!




We liked the homemade chicken sausages (enveloped in lamb skin casing) so much that I bought 10 frozen pieces of it. These sausages would come in handy for super busy weekday lunches or dinners for the girls.  Just blanch the sausages in boiling water for 9 minutes (medium fire) and grill them for another 5-10 minutes in the toaster or oven to achieve golden brown cracking skin.



The owner's mother's adorable dog seated obediently outside the cafe.










As I didn't get enough of the homemade chicken sausages at the cafe during lunch, I blanched grilled (sans cooking oil) a batch for dinner that night!  The sausages pack a phenomenal flavor punch with copious amounts of herbs.




For dinner, Sherilyn whomped up a gloriously delish Poke Bowl for herself composed of homemade chicken sausages, grilled salmon, Ramen egg, cucumbers and scallions. This girl sure knows how to savor her meals luxuriously!  Even her breakfast is luxurious, most of the time.



Little People Cafe
G.01, Avantas Residences,
Jalan Klang Lama,
Taman Shanghai, Taman Desa,
58100 Kuala Lumpur
Phone: 03-7971 9209

Reasons To Gift Name Jewelry To A Woman

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Personalized jewelry like a my name jewelry are beautiful  pieces of jewelry incorporated with names and initials. They can be made from pure gold and gems which can be very costly or made using 18k plated gold, which are much more affordable. 

Getnamenecklace (GNN) is a jewelry manufacturer that offers fashionable and gorgeous personalized jewelry.  Wide categories such as name necklaces, rings, monogram chocker necklaces and family pendants come with good quality and competitive pricing via using of the latest jewelry making technology.









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GetNameNecklace jewelry can be personalized with His and Hers names and birthstones. Choose 2 names, up to 12 letters each, and corresponding birthstones. The custom GNN necklace arrives in its own gift box, ready to be presented as a delightful gift.





Every woman has her style and every couple has their own unique relationship and meaning to that relationship.  It doesn’t matter how much you spend or what you end up choosing because it is the thought that counts the most.  If you put true effort into finding the perfect gift and making it personal for her, then that is what will really melt her heart.  💗

Friday, 12 July 2019

I was a lone ranger during lunch today. I don't like eating alone at the kopitiam with no one to talk to. It feels awkward  😏 I usually have my breakfast at the kopitiam with the hubs or Sherilyn but both of them are not available today.

After dropping the mil at the hair salon, I had an hour to kill before I pick her up again. So I had a long leisurely lunch at the open-air kopitiam, sweating it out under the blazing afternoon sun having lunch alone😅
My lunch: Two pieces of stuffed bitter gourd with fish paste, 1 meat ball and 1 piece of fried lobak with curry broth.

I forgot that I'd ordered a bowl of red bean + mung bean sweet soup and later ordered a glass of milk tea. Bummer! There's no way I could chug all these down into my extremely small tummy.  I could only down half the glass of milk tea and half the bowl of bean soup and couldn't finish the meat ball. What a waste of food. That's how little food I eat at each meal. And this is another reason why I don't like to eat alone as I always share my food with my lunch partner.

After lunch, I went shopping for kuih for the SIL from Hong Kong.  This unassuming kuih stall at our neighborhood sells the best assortment of 'Hee Pan' / 'Xi Ban' and 'angku kuih' with super soft and thin skin and generous fillings that's not overly sweet. Love these sinful babies to bits!!

 

If you were to ask me to name you one of my kryptonites, it would be KUIH and I indulge in them at least once or twice a week  🤪 

Random Updates

Hello folks!! Apologies for the lack of updates. I've been super busy the past two weeks and the busyness will only taper off this weekend. Do hop over to my other blog to read up on the random happenings for the past one week.

Besides being busy with everyday events, I've been maid-less for the past few days. Maria our loyal part-time helper has returned to Indonesia to deliver her first child. Annie our replacement helper scalded her hand and couldn't work. So yeah, besides being the round-the-clock driver, I'm also the 24-hour service maid at home. Only God will know how enervated I am 😵

I spent two hours on a Sunday night at the optical store waiting for our Dancing Queen to learn how to insert and remove disposable contact lenses. When she still couldn't do it (gosh, it is scary to insert a lense into your eye!), I went home with Cass and came back an hour later to pick her up. The contact lenses are for Sherilyn to wear during dance and taekwondo competitions.






At the fish shop at 9 p.m. on a Monday just because she said she needed the fishes urgently for her RBT project in school. I got her 5 fishes a few days ago but all died and she needed a new batch 😩




Lunch at Ruay Thai with Sherilyn yesterday before sending her to school:






 At only RM12 a set, the pineapple fried rice set comes with a chilled pandan drink and a piquant non-spicy Thai soup.  We shared the set.

Sunday Lunch At 163 Retail Park @ Mont Kiara (30 June 2019)

It was our first visit to 163 Retail Park, but not the  hubs. He's been there a couple of times. The hubs traverses everywhere in the course of his work and stops at every nook and corner to try out new eateries. His job and his life revolve around food and good food is what makes him truly happy 😁 When a particular establishment is worth visiting a second time, he'll bring us there whenever he has the time.  So that's how we are brought to try new eateries almost every week. Blessings 🙏💓

163 Retail Park is a refreshing premier F&B and retail mall in Mont Kiara.  Within the mall, there are beautiful nature elements of the great outdoors, to enhance patrons' indoor dining and shopping experience.

Waterways that flow through the mall. Soothing lush greenery.  There's also a cascading waterfall from a wall inside the mall.




Our sumptuous lunch was at Rakuzen, without Alycia as she had her own outing with her friends at Sunway Pyramid to shop for a dress for their school concert. Years ago, our Sunday lunches were always the whole family together. Now that the girls are teenagers, they have their own outings and activities but the hubs' house rule to the girls is to not arrange any lunch appointment with friends on Sundays. Sunday lunches are to be spent with him, unless the girls have something important to do.







Sea urchin (uni) sushi anyone? (bottom left).  Hubs loves it but not me.  In fact, I've stopped eating raw fish and have gotten over my obsession with raw salmon and butterfish/white tuna as I have some health concerns over raw fish after reading articles on them. Read here.











The food at Rakuzen never disappoints us. Only the price does but the foodie hubs is always willing to dig a little deeper into his pocket to experience a satisfying meal experience.




After lunch was dessert time, a sine qua non for the hubs after lunch on Sundays.  He works extremely hard for the dough 6 days a week and eats like a king on Sundays😬 On some days when he doesn't even have the time  to drive out to eat, his lunches will only be cheap food at the roadside mamak stall opposite his shop.

The hubs chose Belgische Chocolatier, a chocolate dessert cafe that he's been eyeing on for quite some time.  KL's first Belgische Chocolatier opened its door early this year and relies on Belgian chocolates to thrill cacao lovers.  At Belgische, chocolate lovers are certain to enjoy the best of unadulterated Belgian dark, milk and white chocolate. This café serves chocolate shots, guaranteed to satisfy the taste of the most demanding chocoholic. The shots are served neat and ready to be downed at one go. The café serves an array of offerings. The chef prepares a base comprising pancakes, crepes or crisp waffles to be dipped or drowned in chocolate, in accordance with customers' taste.

Street waffle coated in luscious thick dark milk chocolate.



 Lazy Biscuit with roasted walnuts.



Designer chocolate crepe ~ the design and shape of this piece remind me of the creepy looking gigantic moth that Cass and I are terrified of 😱  Just a few days earlier, Cass was 'chased' by a  gigantic moth with flappy wings when we were walking at the lobby of our condo, which sent her screaming and running like a headless chicken 😆





Prices are pretty reasonable and for chocolate lovers like our family, we will return to this chocolate cafe the next time we are at this mall.