Saturday, 31 August 2019

Today has been a very relaxing Merdeka Saturday for me! No school runs, no tuition, no rushing out for lunch or dinner, no one to rush me for anything and best of all, I slept until 7:45 a.m., something which is SO rare. Absolute bliss! 😍

Brunch was at PappaRich again.  I love the food there.




After brunch, we walked to the newly opened Family Mart at our neighborhood to try their new Belgian dark chocolate sufoto and we all loved it! It's very chocolaty, not too thick and cloy but with the right consistency for the perfect soft-serve ice-cream and most importantly, it's not sweet but slightly bitter.  It tastes even better than Häagen-Dazs' dark chocolate ice-cream, which I find a tad too sweet and rich.

After dinner, we went to Family Mart again!  This time to get the Belgian dark chocolate sufoto for Alycia who missed it during the day as she was in school with her team mates to practise perfecting their volleyball skills for their upcoming physical education assessment.



Someone has been yearning for days to get her hands on the Belgian sufoto since its launch several days ago! She walked to Family Mart with her friends after school yesterday but the ice-cream machine had conked out. Thank goodness the ice-cream machine is fixed today. There's been a long queue at the sufoto counter since morning through night. The opening of Family Mart at our neighborhood has been the main talk of our neighborhood Facebook group members since its opening early this month. I wonder what's all the rage and craze about Family Mart besides the sufoto? I guess it must be the curried oden and ramen as well but we don't eat them and have never bought them for our girls. Seriously, are the ramen and oden really that good? I think they're just junk food. Oops, sorry for raining on your parade if you're a fan 🤐

Addicted To Online Shopping

Who's with me? I know my 73-year old mum is a huge fan of online shopping 😁.  These days online shopping is made so easy and affordable that shopping for just about anything is such a breeze.  My mum is a champ when it comes to online shopping. She's bought everything from kitchen gadgets to luggage bags to a fitness tracker smart band that looks something like a Xiaomi Mi Band 4 online to help track her heart beat, as advised by her cardiologist. My mum wears her smart band fitness tracker all the time, even when she sleeps as the tracker will let her know if her heart beats are normal and whether she's clocked in enough shut eye.




The other day, I watched a short talk show hosted by Chui Ling about a man who transformed his second-hand almost dilapidated house with only RM50k!! Not RM500k but only RM50k alright.  And he did everything on his own, without engaging a contractor.  His secret? He shopped for all the building materials, interior decor and furniture online from China. Then, he hired several wage workers to help him with the installation job. And his transformed house looks just awesome, inside out, like it was designed by a high-end interior designer.

Recently, the table lamp in my bedroom conked out.  I couldn't wait for the hubby to get it fixed, so I bought a new wireless smart LED touch control table lamp online, which didn't cost an arm and a leg like the old one we had. The table lamp is so cool that my girls oohed and aahed over it.  Speaking of table lamps, the smart bluetooth WiFi touch app control Xiaomi lamp is something so cool that it's now in my wish list!  The lamp is controlled either by your Apple gadgets, iPad, Apple smart watch and Siri via tap or voice.



Since I'm on Xiaomi, did you know that Xiaomi is not only about smartphones (they are currently the world's fourth largest smartphone brand) and smart watches, they have manufactured millions of smart devices and household appliances connected to their platform? One can even find Xiaomi sports shoes and Xiaomi luggage at the NewChic International site.  Another two items on my wish list are the Xiaomi robot vacuum cleaner and Xiaomi smart WiFi refrigerator! 😁  Both items cost no more than RM2k each, which I think is reasonable.

Never heard of a smart fridge? Smart refrigerators feature a touchscreen interface and ability to connect to the internet through Wi-Fi to provide a number of additional features.  Smart refrigerators include internal cameras, more flexible user-controlled cooling options, and the ability for you to interact with its features using your smartphone or tablet when away from home. Some smart refrigerators can even connect with other smart devices in your home; such as speakers, smart TVs, and even your smart dishwasher or smart microwave! Some models have sensors at the bottom of the unit that respond to foot gestures to open the fridge door for you. And if the door isn’t closed securely, the sensors respond and automatically pull the door shut to keep your food fresh and prevent cool air from getting out and running up your energy bills.


If you are one who still prefers shopping at brick and mortar shops, it's time you try switching to online shopping to keep up with the times and to experience the thrill and joy of shopping in the 21st century when everyone is talking about eCommerce.  Most online shopping platforms, like NewChic International site, offer everything under the sky from clothes to household appliances,  digital gadgets and much more.   Once you get the hang of online shopping,  I'll wager that you'll get hooked to it for life, like most of us. 😙

Thursday, 28 August 2019

Our part-time helper called to inform that she's not coming today. Since today will be very hectic for me with many rounds of chauffeuring the girls until late into the night, dinner has to be something that's super easy, quick, mess-free to prep and with minimal washing and cleaning up.

So we had sandwiches ~ pan-fried homemade chicken sausages and pan-fried eggs using my Philips Pressure Cooker. I like pan-frying with the PPC as it does not splatter oil onto the stove. Plus, when the sausages are slowly sizzling in the pot, I can do other stuff like washing, cleaning and slicing the cucumbers and tomatoes.









After dinner was prepped, I had a quick bite with Cass before rushing off to fetch Alycia from school. Traffic was horrendous. At one stretch, traffic was reduced to a bumper-to-bumper crawl.




In the mad snarled-up traffic, all of a sudden I heard sirens wailing away and thunderous honking from behind me. I had to inch my car to the extreme right of the road, with my car tires almost grazing the curb, to give way to the ambulance and fire engine.




That's how bad the traffic standstill was - that I even had the time to snap photos! 

After fetching Alycia from school, I rushed back to pick up Sherilyn from school and was terribly late. Everyone had almost gone home and the poor teacher in charge of watching the students had to stay behind to wait with her and the remaining few students.  Back home, after gobbling down her sandwich, Alycia had to attend another tuition, which only ends at 9:30 p.m.   After dropping Alycia at the tuition centre, I went to get some stuff from the mart for Cass and Sherilyn's experiments in school.   And this is going to be my once weekly hectic routine until Alycia completes her SPM in 15 months' time 🤪

Simple, Nutritious And Quick Homecooked Meals

These days, I start cooking dinner as early as 2:45 p.m..  On Mondays and Tuesdays, Cass and Alycia are home at 4 p.m.  So I cook dinner from as early as 2:45 p.m.   On other days, I start cooking at 4 p.m.  When the girls are back from school, I see a pack of hungry feral dogs who have not eaten for days, ransacking the kitchen to find food. If there's no proper food on the dining table, they satiate their hunger with snacks -- ice-cream, biscuits, chocolates and other junk.  So I make sure that when they are back from school in the afternoon, their dinner is ready.  And so the three of us have our dinner at 4 p.m!  Sherilyn and hubs have dinner later in the evening.

Dinners churned out are always simple - one meat and one veggie.  Most times, I add eggs and fish cakes / fish balls / fish paste / fresh mushrooms into the vegetable dish.   No fancy schmancy dishes. I allocate 1 hour daily for whipping up dinner, sometimes 1.5 hours, before my Ahmad duty resumes in the evening till late evening on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

These are some of the dishes that I dished out since last week:

Asian beef bowl and blanched broccoli.





Sauteed vegetables with fish balls; reheated frozen braised pork belly with shallots.  The mil cooked the pork belly just before she left for New Zealand 3 weeks ago.  I saved her frozen dishes for reheat on evenings when I do not have the time to cook a meat dish, like when Alycia has a dental appointment or Cass has replacement piano class.




Steamed organic pearl sweet corns for dessert.



With the leftover braised pork belly with shallots, I blanched some organic spinach noodles for lunch for Cass the next day.




Organic dinner ~ sauteed mini king oyster mushrooms with organic Pineapple chicken breast and organic miso, steamed organic sweet corns and sauteed organic spinach with minced garlic.




Organic Pineapple chickens are fed with pineapple enzyme chicken feed and this brand of organic chicken is new in store at our neighborhood supermarket.

Thai Basil minced pork sans the red chillies.







When I realized that the organic Thai basil that I bought from the night market 2 days ago had all shriveled, I had to pluck sweet basil from the pot in my balcony garden!  A week later, I learned from the organic vegetables seller that basil cannot be stored in the fridge. The stalks of basil have to be placed in a cup of water, else they will shrivel and turn brown in the chiller!  Luckily I have backup in my balcony, albeit it's not Thai basil.  😁



Portion kept for Sherilyn who only ate her dinner at 8:30 p.m. after Muay Thai class.

Neighbour's Coffee Bar @ Happy Garden KL

The hubs hasn't fully recovered from an inflamed Tonsillitis (Musang King is one of the culprits!) and wanted to have something that will not flare up the tonsils. After sending my car for service, we went to Neighbour's Coffee Bar @ Happy Garden for brunch.   The cafe, with whitewash walls and minimalism interior design is usually full-house during noon and weekends. When we arrived at this cafe tucked inside the Happy Garden neighborhood, it was 10-ish a.m. and we were one of the first few customers.

What enticed the hubs to this cafe were the super fluffy-jiggly-yummy-looking Fuwa Fuwa pancakes photos that he saw from friends' social media pages.  These super airy and melt-in-the-mouth Japanese Soufflé Pancakes are served with caramelized bananas and a scoop of chocolate ice-cream.  There is a variety of accompaniments for the pancakes --fresh strawberries, soft-serve ice-cream, red bean and matcha and much more. Without our three bottomless pit piranhas, we couldn't finish the pancakes. I personally prefer the pancakes to be a tad more firmer with more texture and less sweet.





Smoked salmon with egg benedict and hollandaise sauce on a bed of fluffy English muffin:




Apple Wardolf salad and chamomile tea:









Outside the cafe, you'll get to enjoy the scenic view of KL city and there's ample parking space all around.



Overall a decent cafe with a relaxed environment. Hubs and I may visit again (sans our 3 piranhas) in one of our usual breakfast dates to try their burnt cheesecake, butter cake and other breakfast menu.


Neighbour’s Coffee Bar
Address:
A-G-1, Seri Gembira Avenue,
No 6, Jalan Senang Ria,
Happy Garden,
58200 Kuala Lumpur.
Business Hours:
Mon – Thu (9am – 6pm)
Fri – Sun (9am – 11pm)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/neighbourscoffeebar/

TenMaya Japanese Restaurant

After dropping Sherilyn and Cass at their tuition centers, hubs and I went on a date to grab some quick grub. We had less than two hours to get our lunch before picking them up from the tuition centers.  Alycia had gone to watch a basketball match with her friends again. This sweet 16 girl of mine has been hanging out a lot with her friends lately.  She's been going out with her friends almost everyday the past one week of the school holidays.  Guess this will be her last year in high school for doing this before her SPM next year... speaking of which I can foresee that next year is going to be an extremely busy year for the girls and me as all three of them will be sitting for major exams *STRESS*

Coming back to foodie talk!  Hubs asked me what I wanted to eat but I wasn't hungry at all as I'd just had breakfast at home with the girls.  As he's now on a diet free of red meat (elevated uric acid!) and nursing an inflamed throat (too much of Musang King!), we went to Bangsar South to have Japanese.  The three dishes that he ordered were almost oil-free but still high in protein and purine!  He just can't give up on his proteins, which ain't very good for his elevated uric acid levels.






The raw quail's egg gives the matcha noodles a silky texture and accentuates the natural attributes of it but hubs omitted it. We don't eat raw eggs.


The gourmand hubs scarfed down everything you see here and later chomped down a matcha soft serve ice-cream from Family Mart without sharing with me.  I didn't eat much, save for a couple of slices of sashimi.  I'm not one who would force feed myself just because glorious food is placed in front of me. If I'm not hungry, I won't stuff anything down my throat, thus my size 😇

Today's lunch, though quick, turned out to be my sushi-maniac bon viveur's version of nirvana - super fresh raw fish served to him in delight with no hungry piranhas pecking on his platter 😁

TenMaya
Unit 1-6 Level 1,
Nexus Bangsar South City
No 7 Jalan Kerinchi
59200 Kuala Lumpur
+60 3-2242 3268

Restaurant TeoChew Lao Er

Two weeks ago, the foodie hubs who's a porridge lover decided to bring the whole jingbang of us to a porridge place as he wanted to eat something light and easy to soothe his strep throat after feasting on Musang King durian. I told him not to overdo on Musang King but this fler couldn't control his temptation, had a big durian feast with his durian kakis and even brought home a tub to poison me!!  Thank God I didn't succumb to sore throat and diarrhea this time.  The seller claimed that his durians are free from pesticide, it seems.

Back to porridge!  But the girls and I, we aren't big fans of porridge, especially Teochew style.  Salted eggs, salted vegetables, pickled vegetables, salted fish, canned food -- big nay for health freak moi. Why spend so much on preserved salty food that could harm your kidneys, right?   But hubs assured me that I'll surely fall in love with the food there. Ok la, I'll see what Lao Er has to offer us. 😐

The photos you'll see here are photos that I took over two of our visits to Lao Er.  Some of the photos were taken two weeks ago and some were taken just two days ago when we went there with my parents and brother.   The photos can almost do all the talking.   Overall, food is great and if you're a porridge lover and a fan of Teochew food, this is the place to go to.  You can skip the preserved and salty stuff. Lao Er has freshly cooked dishes that are kinder to your kidneys 😁

Teochew style steamed white promfret fish and steamed herbal Kampung chicken:


Salted egg porridge and seaweed salted egg rolls. Love the salted egg porridge with pork:



Sweet potato porridge, white rice, five-grain porridge, white porridge - just take your pick to go with the appetizing dishes:



Healthy five grain porridge. You can purchase this uncooked five grains rice from the restaurant to cook rice or porridge at home.


Steamed Kembong fish (surprisingly not salty at all, iLike!), 'Patt Po' aka Braised Eight Treasure duck, stir-fried French beans and fried salted turnip with fried peanuts (this is very salty):


Stew platter, which is composed of tofu, eggs, pig ears and intestines (no no for me!) and pork belly:




Steamed Kembong fish, fried anchovies with peanuts and salted eggs:



Teochew kuay chap, which is kuay teow in a very flavorful broth. Very delish.



Radish omelette:


Sweet and sour Teochew braised Halibut fish:



An assortment of Teochew sweet and savoury desserts:









The black sesame paste filled Tang Yuan tong sui was excellent and hubs had to order another bowl when the girls walloped the single bowl that he ordered earlier.



We bought a pack of two frozen Teochew dumplings home and they were yummo ~ sweet and salty with the usual pork, salted egg, chestnut and sweetened red bean paste.


Some of the Teochew delicacies are available in frozen vacuum pack.  You'll get a RM5 cash rebate on the frozen stuff when you spend RM120 and above in a single receipt.







Lao Er is an excellent place to savor authentic Teochew food in a clean and air conditioned environment with fair price. The foreign waiting staff are fluent in Mandarin and service is very good.


Restaurant Teochew Lao Er
6 Jalan Brunei off Jalan Pudu
55100 Kuala Lumpur
T: +603 2141 5822

Resting Bitch Face

A few days ago at the car park of the supermarket that I go to almost daily, an Indian man scolded me indirectly for no blardy reason and I went WTF, why is he so hyper sensitive???!!!

We were at the open air car park that's perpetually out of place of park. When a car reversed out from a parking lot, this Indian man who is ahead of me quickly went to park his car. So I let him reverse his car so that he could park.  But he changed his mind last minute and decided not to park there and parked somewhere else instead. When he drove past me, I just looked at him.  Read - just looked at him. I wasn't even angry. Why should I? He didn't do anything wrong but I was just wondering why he changed his mind and didn't park there.

When we both got down the car, Mr Sensitive said this in Malay to the parking attendant who is an Indian man "orang ingat saya sangat bodoh tak tau parking.  Tapi orang yang ingat saya bodoh itu sangat bodoh. Dia Cina tau. CINA tau? CINA!  BODOH!!"

Translated into English - People think I am very stupid, don't know how to park. But the person who thinks I am stupid is stupid herself/himself. She/he is Chinese.. Chinese you know.  Chinese!  Stupid!

This hothead kept repeating the word BODOH and CINA.  I was puzzled and curious as to who he is haranguing about to the car park attendant. Was he referring to me the CINA lady or was he referring to the CINA driver who got out of the parking lot?  Why did he keep repeating the word CINA like he has a serious issue with CINA people? That's such a racist remark. Then he turned back and looked at me.  So I guess he was referring to me! WTF!!

Seriously? I did not say a word or lift my hand or cuss him with my looks or eyes. I just looked at him! Is that wrong? I think this guy has a mental issue brewing inside him!

This guy seriously needs anger management or psychiatric therapy!  If he can get so distressed over this when no one even attacked him verbally or physically, he's in trouble.

Today over lunch I told Sherilyn about this incident and guess what this girl said to me?

Sher - "Mum, do you know that you've got a resting bitch face?  My friend told me that you look fierce!"

Huh, do I? DO I?  I am born with this face, so how? Fake a smile all the time to look more amiable?? 😳😵😵

My lunch with Sherilyn on one of the afternoons last week:

Frozen Ready-To-Eat Meals

The mil left for New Zealand last night, for a 2-month stay with her third daughter and family；which means that I’ll be slogging in the hot kitchen for the next 2 months dishing out lunch and dinner. No fun for someone who finds cooking a chore!

Before the mil left, I requested for her to cook my favorite dish ~ steamed pork with 'mui choy'. This is for deep freezing for consumption on busy week evenings.  She prepped two plates of this dish. In addition, she cooked braised pork belly with shallots and braised pork ribs with yam. All these are for deep freezing.


Steamed pork with 'mui choy', sealed with cling wrap and ready to be frozen.  We had this for dinner today.  There's still another plate in the freezer.



Braised pork ribs with yam. There are 2 tubs of this in the freezer now.



Braised pork with shallots.

These frozen ready-to-eat meals are enough to last us for two school weeks. We have a week of school holidays next week and won't be needing these frozen meals. With these frozen meals on standby, I would only need to cook for 5 weeks before the mil returns. So in reality, I don't really have to cook for that many days😁

Saturday, 3 August 2019

This week is yet another week that I am deprived of catching up on my beauty sleep!  I thought that I could at least catch an extra hour or two of sleep this weekend but the littlest brat came home from school yesterday and rambled to me that she just remembered that she has to attend a 2-day camp in school on Saturday and Sunday!  She has to be in school at 7 a.m. on both days.

Which means, I have to be up latest by 5 a.m.  WHAT?! Like seriously?  On my weekend?! 😭

And someone has to rub it in and said "yalah, this is a mother's responsibility ma"  Rubbing it on a sore wound. What. The.  😖😡

And I have another rant... on some selfish parents who I think left part of their brains on the bed this morning during school runs.

There is only one road leading up to the school. The road is dang narrow - one half is for vehicles going into the school and the other narrow half is for vehicles getting out of school.  When the left lane was jam packed with vehicles, one smart alec thought that she/he could drive on the contra flow lane just so she/he could beat the long queue. But in front of Smart Alec's car was a massive jam of 4 huge school buses and vehicles trying to drive out.

And the most surprising thing is other parents followed suit and drove on the contra flow lane too!!

Blind leading the blind!

I really don't get how this Smart Alec could try to drive on the contra flow lane knowing so well that there will be vehicles getting out.  Because of his/her impulsiveness and misjudgement, hundreds of students were late for the camp and school trip. There were 4 school buses waiting for students for a school trip.   Everyone got stuck in the bottleneck because of one Smart Alec and other drivers who followed suit.



Cars should not be driving into the school on the right lane. That lane is for outgoing vehicles.

Moments later, some teachers had to get to the road to direct traffic.  All the vehicles behind Smart Alec had to reverse out to follow the queue from behind. But that Smart Alec didn't toe the line and didn't reverse. She/he cut queue and drove past the car that was on the left lane!  I am left speechless over this parent's uncivilized and selfish behavior! Because of one Smart Alec and those behind her/him, hundreds of students were late for the camp and school trip.

Very nice. I hope you won't repeat your selfish behavior again anywhere else, Smart Alec!


Simple lunch of pork and carrot porridge (seasoned with pepper and spring onions from our balcony garden), 6-minute soft boiled egg, fruit of the day and matcha green tea for Cass yesterday.


Sprint onions planted from onions in our tiny balcony garden.