Japanese Chocolate Persimmon

My SIL from the UK is in town.  Yesterday she went grocery shopping and got us some Japanese chocolate persimmons, one of the finest persimmons around.  At RM28 each, it's our first time trying these elusive persimmons.

Chocolate persimmons have a very sweet and sugary flavor with subtle spice-filled undertones. The fruits are named “chocolate” for their brown, variegated flesh, not for their taste. 

Aside from the color of the flesh, chocolate persimmons taste very much similar to regular persimmons with orange and yellow flesh.

13 November 2022 ~ Traipsing Around @ Pavillion Bukit Jalil

It's been almost two months since Cass started figure skating lessons at the Blue Ice Snow Park @ Pavillion Bukit Jalil.  Spending my Sundays at Pavillion is not something that I look forward to. I'd rather be loafing at home than jazz around aimlessly at the mall with nothing in mind to buy.  Most of my purchases are now done online since the pandemic started 3 years ago.

While traipsing around at Pavillion Bukit Jalil on Sunday, I chanced upon Tokyo Town.  Located at the mall's second level, Tokyo Town celebrates all things Japanese including food, retail, and culture.

Once at the entrance of Tokyo Town, I felt instantly transported to the land of the rising sun with two larger-than-life artistic sumo sculptures greeting shoppers.

Shoppers will be further greeted into a shopping street in Tokyo Town precinct, also known as “Nakamise” in Japanese with a symbolic and grand Torii Gate – featuring unique and cultural decorations such as cochin or Japanese traditional lanterns, beautiful Sakura trees adorned with tanabata wishes and carp streamers as well as a grand and gorgeous Kimono Art Tapestry on exhibit.

From Nakamise lots to specialty stores, shoppers can find a rich selection of Japanese food, retail, arts and culture.

Visitors can satisfy their Japanese cuisine cravings with a wide variety of F&B from popular sushi dishes at Fuji Sushi, delicious deep-fried succulent meats at Tonkatsu by Wa Kitchen, mouth-watering teppanyaki at Tokyo Teppan, best of bite-sized Maki sushi to Japanese street food at Yatai Mura.

I told hubs that the next time we're here, we have to try Tonkatsu by Wa Kitchen.

Spend a minimum of RM80 at any store in Tokyo Town, and buy any instant noodles at RM1 each.

A long row of claw machines outside Tokyo Town.

For lunner, I had Indian Rojak & teh tarik at Sedap by Grandmama's located at Level 5 (same level as the skating rink).

Toilet shot, all because I had too much time and didn't know what to do 😁

This Sunday I'll be going to Pavillion again with Cass, just the two of us as hubs has to go to Ipoh for a dinner. Whenever I'm not with my eating partner, I find it really hard to kill the hours at the mall.

Sherilyn's Meals

Sherilyn who's recovering from Covid at home air-fried this cheese and egg sandwich for breakfast today.  She didn't have much appetite yesterday as she vomited once and felt nauseous the whole day.  Today the nauseous feeling is gone and her appetite came back. 

Thankfully she can still taste her food, unlike me who lost my olfaction partially.  Since yesterday everything that I eat has been tasteless and I can't smell anything too, except for essential oils.

Sherilyn made KongGukSu (콩국수) - Korean Cold Noodles with Tofu after the rubber on her braces were changed recently.  Whenever she has an appointment with the dentist for her braces maintenance, she'd ask me to get her tofu from the supermarket as she prefers to eat soft food after new and tight elastics are replaced, which would cause her discomfort for several days.

Refreshing but not my kind of meal.  Tofu and soybean milk are blended together to prep the broth and served cold.

First Half November 2022 ~ Short Random Updates

I am so enervated today. I spent yet another Sunday at Pavillion Bukit Jalil walking for 3 hours while Cass attended figure skating lesson.

I've not been totally resting myself the past few weeks ever since Cass started figure skating lessons at Pavillion Bukit Jalil. I even have to 'work' on weekends. 

Last weekend was spent bringing Cass to Sunway Pyramid and Pavillion Bukit Jalil to get new figure skates and for her lessons.  When we're at the mall, I walk at least 3-5 hours with weights on my shoulders (my handbag and light shopping loot). I've been having achy shoulders ever since the lockdown was lifted when we started to go mall shopping again.  To begin with, I have a long history of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome which has affected both my shoulders and neck. Carrying even the slightest weight on my shoulders tend to aggravate the underlying problem.

I may bring a small trolley luggage bag with me the next time we're at the mall to keep my shoulders free of any burden.

After we were back home, Alycia called me to fetch her back from her workplace. At her workplace, Alycia takes over behind the wheel. As she's still a new driver, I feel tense sitting next to her when she drives.  Though she's shown some improvements in her driving and I don't step on my imaginary brake as much as I did before, I still have that jittery feeling when there are many cars on the road, when she drives up a narrow ramp and when she parks the car 😅

Ju, my childhood friend (almost 4 decades of friendship) came from Singapore to KL yesterday. Hubs and I met her and her hubby and another childhood friend at a restaurant in Paramount for a late lunch yesterday. 

Ever so generous with me, Ju gifted me this box of Royce chocolates.   Thank you so much for your love, Ju 💓

Some forgetful people finally killed the microwave oven. This is the second time that they killed my microwave ovens despite me reminding them umpteen times what not to use in the oven. 
They're not supposed to use stainless steel or any breakable plates and bowls with metal trimmings and paintings with metal elements in the microwave oven.  And their forgetfulness or rather a lackadaisical attitude caused a big dent in our wallets.
There were sparks of fire and an obnoxious sound of metal about to explode when Miss Forgetful put a small bowl with metal trimmings into the microwave oven to heat up food. 
Hubs finally got a new microwave oven two days ago after being microwave-less for a month. Life was so hard for them girls who are ever so reliant on the microwave oven for just about anything. Serves them right!

Low Carb Meals

When I was diagnosed with PCOS in 2000, I did tons of research on this disorder and from what I gleaned from the internet, it is a hormonal and insulin disorder that would affect fertility and other diseases.  

With daily exercise and following a strict low-carb diet, I managed to shed some weight and my hormones started to stabilize. It wasn't an overnight cure but required lots of hard work, discipline, and a life-long lifestyle change.

22 years on and I'm still on a low-carb diet, albeit not as strict as I used to be. And I'm still exercising almost daily.

Below is what I usually eat on a daily basis.

Hubs bought Hakka noodles and curry noodles for lunch from Restoran Ipoh Sedap @ SS2 PJ and I replaced the noodles with coleslaw. 
Oh yeah, if you're craving for some authentic Ipoh Hakka noodles, Chee Cheong Fun and curry noodles, Ipoh Sedap is the place to go to. Hubs loves the food from this restaurant.

For dinner, I ate the Hakka fish balls and meatballs with blanched greens.

My 'chap fan' dishes and replaced rice with coleslaw.

The only occasion when I'll eat rice is when there's fried rice (parboiled rice or Basmati rice). And the most that I'll take is just 3 tablespoons of fried rice.

Sri Lanka apam with egg, my favorite. This is not exactly low carb but it's much lower in carbs and calories than other Indian rotis.  Apam is prepped with ghee, which is a healthier alternative to packet oil.  I also love Rawa Tosai.

Keto-friendly brekkie - smoked salmon on Egg Benedict with Hollandaise sauce and a refreshing nutty salad.

Yesterday's lunch was coleslaw with chicken rendang, kailan and cili fish from hubby's central kitchen.  The mil cooked the spam and fried egg for breakfast.

Yummy for the tummy, from hubby's central kitchen ~ aromatic Nasi Jagung (sweet corn rice cooked with ghee and spices), cili Mackeral fish and stir-fried kailan.

Spicy and appetite-whetting cili fried mackerel fish.

Coleslaw omelette, cooked by chef S, for her school lunch box. She cooked extra for my brunch.

As you can probably gauge the size of my meals from the photos, the portions are befitting a 4 to 5-year-old child, thus my size.  I think I've inherited my mom's DNA as she also has a tummy as small as mine and is even skinnier than me 😁

Friday, 4 November 2022 ~ End of Final Exam

After a gruelling two weeks of exams, Cass' final exam for the academic year 2022 is finally over.  

I can finally turn on the radio again to listen to my kind of music.  And I don't have to hear her purge out memorized lines throughout the day.  Cass' method of studying involves lots of verbal purging, just like her mom 😬

The first thing that Cass did when she got home from school today is to assemble a burger for herself.  And she chomped it down within minutes.

Super decadent burger with homemade thick pork pattie, homemade caramelized onion burger sauce, homemade pickled cucumber slices, sliced tomatoes, and salad leaves.

And then she started to badger me again to bring her to the skating rink @ Sunway Pyramid tomorrow to get new figure skates, talk to her coach about competing and bring her to Pavillion Bukit Jalil for her figure-skating lessons on Sunday.  Cass stopped pestering me for two weeks as she was busy revising for her exam.  The moment she got back her mobile phone from the teacher after school dismissal, she started to Whatsapp me on the list of things that I HAVE to do for her and with her! 😳😳

Her list of To-Do things involves $$$$$$ as figure skating is a very expensive sport and even more expensive if competition is involved. 

I managed to talk Cass out of competing next year and to only compete in 2024.  She has two matters to settle next year, which are much more important than the competitions i.e. her UEC exam and probably surgery if her upcoming Cystoscopy is successful in capturing clear images of the possible ectopic ureter in her urinary tract.

Restoran Grandpa, Paramount PJ

Hubs had wanted to bring us to Gold Dragon City Restaurant @ Paramount, our favorite Chinese restaurant for lunch two Sundays ago.  As we left the house late and reached there around 12-ish noon, the restaurant was extremely packed. We were told by the captain that there was no table available for us and that waiting for one would take hours.  As we were famished, we walked to the next shop - Restoran Grandpa to check out the restaurant.

If you ever reach a famous restaurant in the Klang Valley after 12 noon on a Sunday, be prepared to queue up for at least half an hour for a table and wait at least another half an hour for the food to arrive. 

We were all so happy as Grandpa had vacant tables. We quickly ordered a few dishes and the food arrived promptly.

Grandpa is an old-school restaurant that serves comforting, traditional dishes. 

We ordered 3 types of rice - white rice, yam rice, and fried shallots on white rice.

The clay pot bak kut teh was delish, so much so that hubs ordered another pot. The clay pot fish head was very flavorful too.

Clay pot chicken cooked with wine and black fungus; homemade savory Teochew Cai Kuih.

Teochew Steamed Sweet Yam Paste (Orh Nee). A quintessential old-school Teochew dessert with decades of history and nostalgia, it is a smooth yam + pumpkin paste with gingko nuts, served warm.  I liked this so much that I bought 2 frozen bowls home to savor on days when I crave for dessert.

We will surely be back again soon to try other dishes, and for me, I will surely stock up on the frozen Orh Nee again.

The service was excellent. The old aunty who attended to us was extremely helpful, friendly, and accommodating. 

Restoran Grandpa

Address: 12, Jalan 20/16a, Taman Paramount, 46300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Phone: 016-392 9982

Operating hours:

Monday - Closed

Tuesday - Sunday : 8:30am–2:30pm, 5:30–8:30pm