Christmas 2021

After partially hibernating at home for almost two years, the girls and I finally went back to church on Christmas day.  The roads leading to our church were unexpectedly smooth.  In pre-Covid times, the roads on Jalan Gasing would be at a bumper-to-bumper crawl with church-goers parking their vehicles on both sides of the roads on Christmas day as well as on Sundays.  My drive to church today was such a breeze and I could even get a parking spot in the church basement.

Seat capacity was capped at only 200 and attendance must be booked in advance online, in accordance with the Covid Prevention SOPs. Doors were also deliberately left open to allow better ventilation. 

After service, I bumped into the girls' Sunday School teacher. She used to teach the girls when they were toddlers at the Trinity Methodist Church PJ. We've not met each other for aeons ever since she and her family moved to Singapore and then returned to KL.  

The chance meeting was such a pleasant surprise, Shirlin! I know you will most likely be reading this post 😁

After church service, we had lunch at PapaSan Kitchen @ Kuchai Lama.  Hubs and I went to this Japanese eatery twice during the MCO but on both occasions, it was closed.  We were so happy that we finally had the chance to try their Japanese fusion food.  The queue was long but we got a table within 15 minutes of waiting.

Omu Curry Rice with five large pieces of chicken 'karaage.'  This generous bowl is the signature dish at PapaSan Canteen, a no-frills, honest-to-goodness eatery.

 

The food portion at Papasan is pretty generous, priced reasonably and satisfying. We will definitely be back again.

PapaSan Canteen
PapaSan Kuchai: 18-G, Jalan 2/114, Off Jalan Kuchai Lama, Kuchai Business Centre, KL (Tel: 012-580 0883).
PapaSan Cheras: 181-G, Jalan Lancang, Taman Sri Bahtera, Cheras, KL (Tel: 012-580 2587).
Open daily (except Wed closed) 11:30am-3pm; 5pm-8pm).
FB: facebook.com/PapaSan883Canteen/
IG: instagram.com/papasan.canteen/

Christmas dinner was held at hubby's aunt's condo @ Mont Kiara.  This year we have the least attendees because of travel restrictions and some of hubby's relatives have gone to England to celebrate Christmas. Nonetheless, we had a great time enjoying each other's company and bonding over great homecooked food.

Roast turkey with sides, prepped by aunt Karen. 

Roast New Zealand lamb leg, from hubby's central kitchen.

German Christmas Stollen, baked by aunt Connie.

Christmas mince pies, also baked by aunt Connie.

Sauteed brussels sprouts, also by aunt Karen.

Pesto pasta and turkey stuffing, also by aunt Karen.

Honey glazed ham, another must-have on the dining table on Christmas.  What's missing this year is Pigs In Blanket, another of our favourite.

Tiramisu with brandy, also prepped by aunt Karen.  This tiramisu is the bomb, and really addictive!

Aunt Karen's lovely abode.

The girls enjoyed their dinner, but without the company of their cousins this year.

As you can see, the entire Yap family is made up of great chefs and it's not a surprise that Sherilyn is naturally a great teenage chef and baker too.

With the leftover turkey, Sherilyn cooked turkey and vegetable barley soup the next day. It was a wonderful pot of soup and my kind of soup and meal. I'll write about the soup in my next post. Stay tuned!

Random Updates

21 December 2021 - The continuous rain in KL finally stopped yesterday.  The skies were so clear last night that we could see the unusually huge super moon clearly in the sky.  

Looking at the photos of the great flood that inundated many parts of Klang Valley for the past few days, especially at the residential areas in Shah Alam, reminds me of our Taman TTDI house in Batu 3, Shah Alam that was inundated in floor waters 15 years ago in early 2006.  Alycia was only 2 years old and Sherilyn barely 1 year old.  As there was no social media back in the day, no help was sent to our area.  

The rain started at 3am and by 5am, the rain water started to come into our house.  By mid morning, the ground floor of our double storey house was submerged in almost a meter deep of flood water.  

We salvaged all the frozen foods in our chiller and freezer and ate them for lunch.  The girls were elated to have ice-cream and biscuits for lunch. Thank God for hubby's close friend, who is the girls' god father, who came to rescue us.  Our fridge floated from the kitchen to the living room.  Our cars were submerged in water up to half the height of the car seat.   Damages to our house and cars were estimated to be almost a hundred thousand Ringgit.  

I remember wading in the flood water up to waist level from our house to a bridge about 15 minutes away from our house to meet our friend who drove us away from the disaster scene.  Alycia was placed in a makeshift  boat which was a huge Toyogo plastic box and Sherilyn was in my arms. We could only carry important stuff with us and had to leave Happy, our beagle behind. Poor Happy must have been terribly traumatized. It  still shatters my heart thinking of Happy, our pet dog.  Happy was left on our staircase for over 24 hours and given only toddler biscuits when we fled the flooded house.  

My Proton Wira and hubby's Toyota Innova in February 2006.

Our neighbor's car.

The fridge floated to our living room.

The great flood that wiped out almost everything on the ground floor of our house.  And this is what made us choose condo living.

The weather was so chilly the past few wet days that Haru's ears were cold.  Cass wrapped Haru up in a towel and Haru seemed to enjoy being bundled up comfortably in her box bed.

13 December 2021 Dinner ~ Homemade Burgers

We had burgers for dinner today!

Almost every component of the burger was homemade with love by chef S alongside Cass, the sous chef - from the burger buns to the burger patties, thick fries, delectable sauce, and pickled cucumber.  Cass has been attending on-the-job cooking lessons from her sister and enjoying them.

Aside from the burger buns, chef S also made a loaf of Japanese milk bread using the same dough, made using the Tangzhong method.

Tangzhong is a roux made with water (and sometimes milk) and flour.  Chef S used fresh full cream milk for the roux.  It’s cooked to make a thick pudding-like paste, and then cooled down to room temperature and added to the flour mix when kneading the dough.  The result is super soft, milky, and addictive bread.  I really love this bread and ate it for my breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I can't wait for chef S to bake this bread again!

Lip-smacking sauce for the burgers.

Ingredients: Japanese mayo, lots of chopped onions, pickled cucumber, and chili sauce

I'd name this LOL Burger because everyone broke into a guffaw when we were chomping it. This burger is stacked up so high with ingredients and sauce that when we put it into our mouth, the sauce oozed out and got smacked on our chin and face. We couldn't help laughing at each other coz we looked like messy and sloppy little kids devouring on a burger with sauce all over our faces 😆

6 December 2021 ~ Random Updates

Sorry for the lack of updates in this blog. As usual, I've been swamped with work from every aspect of my life.  At times I really wish that I still have a full-time job working from the office so that someone else will be in charge of house chores and everything else at home.   I feel so overwhelmed with work and so sleep-deprived!  

I want a vacation!! 

But I guess that a vacation is only possible in my dreams now. With the emergence of Omnicron and the Covid situation not getting any better, a vacation would have to wait. 😓

So, back to my updates on what's happening in our home!

Alycia didn't pass her trial driving test last week.  She had a sudden mental block during the trial parking test and forgot how to do the side parking! 😂  And this was what exactly happened to me 31 years ago when I was 17!  Talk about coincidence and history repeating!

With only 4 lessons (accumulated 16 hours of lessons), I honestly don't think that it's enough for someone to sit for a driving test.  Therefore, I am paying the driving school for another 2 hours of on the road and parking lessons before her next trial driving test on 30th December.  I'll also need to sacrifice an hour of my Sunday over several weekends to coach the girl in the car.  

Haru's appetite has been super ravenous after a full recovery from her spay surgery recently. She now demands food four times a day. So I give her half a packet of wet cat food four times a day and mix it with quite a bit of water to increase her water intake.  She doesn't drink water from a water bowl or pet water bottle.   

I've read that after spaying a female cat, we can expect to see a calmer, quieter as well as gentler overall disposition in our cat to an increased desire for food. While there's much truth in the last point, we don't see a calmer, quieter and calmer Haru 😁.  Instead, she's getting more daring and invasive and likes jumping onto Cass' bed (which she shares with her grandma!) and hides under her blanket, jumps on our dining table whenever she's hungry as well as likes to sneak out to the kitchen balcony to sit on the super narrow ledge to observe the view and gives us heart attacks!

Treats purchased from Shopee for Haru d tigress to satiate her ravenous appetite and bottomless pit.