More Of Hard Rock Hotel - Dining Al Fresco, By The Beach

On our second night in Penang, we had dinner at Pizzeria @ Hard Rock Hotel. The ambience and scenery at the semi-open air restaurant were magnificent. We were seated facing the sea and I felt really groovy sitting there, admiring the sea front with my loved ones surrounding me, with the crisp, after-rain sea breeze slapping my face. How often can we do that right? Having dinner at a classy restaurant by the sea and watching sunset. Really awesome feeling!







Picture perfect - a postcard scenery of sunset at the sea...




Here's what we had:

Seafood spaghetti and french fries.


Spaghetti Carbonara.


2 pizzas and a bowl of salad.

The food was mediocre and the only thing to shout about on the food is the price. The bill came up to RM180 for the above items!

Hop over to my other blog for more pix of Hard Rock Hotel.

Vacation In Penang For The Next 11 Years

After our recent family vacation in Penang, I think our next vacation will only be in June, during the school term break. We also have our next appointment with Baby’s surgeon in June. I’d love to go to some florida vacations with my hubs and kids but I guess that will have to wait. For the next 2-3 years, it looks like our only vacation will be in Penang as Baby has to have an ultrasound scan of her kidneys (to monitor the growth) twice a year for 2 years and thereafter once a year until she turns 12 years old. The hubs said he does not mind as he loves Penang food too much. So it looks like we will be visiting Penang for the next 11 years until Baby turns 12 years old.

Oriental Food Stall

On day 1 upon arrival at Penang, we went to our favorite 'chap fan' (economy rice) stall - Oriental Food Stall, located at Macalister Street. The hubs discovered this unassuming stall during our 3-week stay in Penang in May this year. He used to pack lunch and dinner from this stall for me and brought them to the hospital. Food was one of the things that cheered me up and released my stress during my nightmarish stay in the hospital with Baby. Though this stall looks really uninviting and the place looks pretty run down, when you step in, the place is pretty clean. All the dishes taste really good, some even taste better than restaurant food. Many locals flock to this stall and it is a common sight to see a long beeline during lunch and dinner hours.

Oriental Food Stall is situated next to this hawker center - Pinang Delicious Food Court.


There are almost 50 mouth-watering dishes to choose from...


All types of dishes are availabe. My favorite dish is their signature fried turmeric fish with asam, a dish not many people know how to cook.









These are some of the dishes that we ordered:

Otak-Otak, deep fried meat balls and omelette...


Curry stingray fish...


Fried fish and loh kai (braised chicken)...


Another curry stingray fish...

The bill only came up to a little less than RM50 with almost 10 dishes plus drinks. Very economical indeed to feed a big family! Eating at this chap fan stall is like eating restaurat food at hawker's food price!

Apam Craze

I am absolutely crazy over this Apom Guan at Burmah Road, Penang. His apoms are really soft, fluffy, has generous amount of eggs, not sickening sweet and absolutely tasty. The best part is he is selling it at 30sen each. I wonder how he can make a profit by selling it so cheap.

I have been badgering hubs to get the apom even before we arrived in Penang yesterday. After we left the hospital yesterday, we passed by the stall on our way back to the hotel and since there was a place to park his car, hubs decided to get some apoms. And I regretted asking him to get them for me at that hour (around 4pm) coz he waited almost an hour to get his apoms. There were 2 customers ahead of him, one of which was a tour guide who had ordered 100 pieces!

But when I saw how Baby loved the apom, it was all worth the wait. In the car, Baby chomped down one whole apom and once back at our hotel room, she chomped down another half.

The 30 pieces of banana and sweet corn apom....


And I chomped down 5, wanted to chomp down 1 more but tried hard to resist. I skipped running yesterday morning and I had to make sure I eat 250-300 calories less (that's how much I burn each time I run). Input must be less than output! What a health and diet freak I am eh?



Baby enjoying her apom.

Hop over to my other blog to read updates on Baby's 1st post-surgery ultrasound scan of her kidneys.

Also do hop over to my online store. I've just uploaded pix of some new dresses.

Create Your Own e-Greeting Cards FOC!

Remember my earlier post on this cool website for parents? Well I logged in today and found out that I can send e-greeting cards to my friends and family at their website. There is a cool function at the Excellence Begin Young website, the baby milk website on child development, that enables just about anyone to upload their favorite pictures into their system and then choose a matching theme and send the pretty e-card to anyone that they want to. You can create endless number of e-cards and send them to everyone that you know. You can choose from such themes as Christmas, Chinese New Year, Happy Birthday, funny themes and to your mum or dad too.






The e-card feature is very simple to use and anyone can do it, even your 5-year old who can read can create the card. Here are some of the cards that I had fun creating:

A X’mas e-card for my big brother Ray and SIL Marene in Singapore.





And an e-card for my mum.





With this e-card feature that is FREE to use, you can save serious money on your greeting cards from now onwards. Not only that, you also stand a chance to win RM200 shopping vouchers if you send the most e-cards! 5 winners will be chosen each week from 1st December 2009 until 8th February 2010.

Go try and create a few e-cards too and send them to your loved ones and friends today. Or get your kids to create them. I’m sure they will have fun creating the e-cards. This is one great activity to fill up their time this school holidays!

Ipoh And Penang, Here We Come!

We will be driving back to Ipoh today and tomorrow, we'll head up north to Penang. We have an appointment with Baby's surgeon on Wednesday for a follow-up check up and also to do an ultrasond scan of her kidney.

This time, we will stay at the newly opened Hard Rock Hotel. It will be the gals' first experience staying at a beach resort. I can't wait to eat my favorite Pasembur Indian rojak, Burmah Road apam, Sisters char koay teow, prawn mee, Assam fish at Sin Keng Aun, baked crabs at Northam Cafe and the list goes on.

Stay tuned for my updates!

My Very Own Cawan Mushi

After countless times trying to make the perfect, smooth and creamy cawan mushi (Japanese steamed egg), I finally succeeded. I added 1 part water to 1 part egg. Eg. if the egg is 2 ounces, the water should be a little less than 2 ounces. For room temperature egg (i.e. not from fridge), I steamed the egg mixture for 3 minutes under medium flame, then turned off the flame and let the cup of egg sit in the pot for another 5-10 minutes. The girls' former nanny makes super smooth and creamy steamed eggs. She told me that she steams the egg mixture for 1 minute, turn off the fire and let the plate of egg sit in the wok for another few minutes.

Here's the cawan mushi that I made for Baby. I put about 1/4 teaspoon of Bragg's Amino Acid to the egg and she loves it. I prepapre cawan mushi for her several times in a week.


My mil bought this cawan mushi cup from Japan. Nice hor?

On A Typical Day...

... this is what my little cili padi, samseng does:

Ransacking drawers and throwing out clothes...


...most times she will try on her jie jies' old clothes or socks...


... then she performs dare devil stunts....
"I'm ready to jump mummy..."

...and flatlines my heartbeat...


... then she carries her jie jie's bag and walks round the house, pretending that she's going somewhere...


... then stops by and asks mah mah for food. When she says "peash, I wan, peaaaassshhh, I wan", no one can turn her away. She's too cute to be turned down. And she's darn polite too, always too generous with her "peash" (please), "tan" (thanks) and "coming" whenever you call her.

My Girls Never Fail To Flatline My Heartbeat

Yesterday, Baby flatlined my heartbeat for a few seconds when she jumped from the bed onto the mattress on the floor with rascal #2 lying on the mattress. What made my heartbeat flatline was Baby landed on rascal #2's tummy. The moment she landed on her jie jie's tummy, rascal #2 yelped out and screamed in pain. I sure hope nothing has broken or burst inside rascal #2's tummy. I kept asking her if her tummy hurts and she kept saying no. One good sign is there's no vomitting and no blood in her pee. I kept looking at her panty too, just in case there's blood. 'Thankfully' Baby is lightweight and only weighs a pathetic 9kg. But I can imagine how painful it is having a 9kg weight thrown on your stomach. Fortunately it's Baby who landed on her jie jie's tummy and not vice versa... or I dare not imagine the consequences!


This is how Rascal #2 likes to eat mangoes...
... and I hate the aftermath - juice dribbling everywhere from her mouth to her chin, her chest, her clothes, the table, the floor, her arms and just everywhere!

Lunch At Fong Lye Taiwanese Restaurant @ Gardens, Mid Valley

We had lunch at Fong Lye Taiwanese Restaurant @ Gardens 2 weeks ago, finally! We had wanted to dine at this restaurant but it's forever packed with people. Since we went there on a week day, we managed to get a seat immediately but an hour later, it was packed again. I really like the food at Fong Lye. There are branches at Imbi and Desa Sri Hartamas too.


Stir-fried asparagus with fresh lily bulbs and toasted almonds...


Fried egg with tomato and tomato sauce - this will surely be a hit with kids. Most of the dishes come with a set of appetizers as shown in the pic here.


Stir-fried Udon noodles with seafood and cute fish cakes...



Beef noodles...


Pig's trottles...


Taiwanese hamburger, comprising of pau and 'kau yoke' with mui choi....


Nope, this is not tomato soup. I'll bet you can't guess what this is eh...


It's meatballs wrapped with kau chee skin. Something unique but nothing to shout about.



On a side note, do check out my online store as I have loaded pix of some pretty second hand toddler clothes for sale. There are also pix of some new and trendy dresses.

Another Vain Pot In The Family

It looks like Baby is going to follow jie jie #2's foot steps. She loves to ask mah mah to coifeurre her hair and also allows Hair Stylist Wannabe jie jie #2 to experiment her hairstyling skill on her hair.... and make her look like a sor poh with jie jie's ridiculous hair styling, with clips dangling everywhere on her bangs!

Here she is having a whale of her time playing with jie jies' bag of hair accessories....


... and then scatters all the hair accessories everywhere on the floor.



On a side note, do hop over to my online store to check out more new dresses, skirts and tops.

Heinz Pasta, Heinz Fruit Drink And Yau Char Kuai!

Last week, I went to Babyland to get some stock of Heinz bowled pasta as we will be going to Penang for a holiday soon. These will be really handy for outings and holidays.

Baby only loves bolognaise style or anything that has tomato and mixed herbs but dislikes white sauce pasta. She does not really like milk in her food. She hates cow's milk anyway except fresh human milk :S

I also got this Heinz apple and strawberry puree, which to my surprise Baby loved. I added some water to dilute it though as the puree is quite thick and sweet.



After shopping for baby's stuff, mil requested for Yau Char Kuai, so hubby went to Chow Yang (in SS2) to get the tastiest and 'cleanest' yau char kuai in town. The road side stall is located a few stalls away from Mee Yoke Lim. I could not snap a pic of the stall as there were many cars blocking the stall and the traffic there was quite horrendous.



The gloriously sinful yau char kuai, hum chim peng with red beans filling and khap choong. It's 'clean' coz the oil used to deep fry the flour sticks is fresh and not recycled and 'black'.

My Online Store

When I told my mum that I have created an online store that sells new clothes, second hand clothing and second hand baby stuff, she suggested that I sell second hand electrical appliances too lol! I told her that my store is not a ‘rojak’ blog that sells everything under the sky, including used rv for sale. Well, perhaps I should consider her suggestion and sell off some of the electrical appliances that I no longer use like my Mothercare sterilizer and soy bean maker. What say everyone eh?

We're Off For A Vacation Next Week

In a few days’ time, we will be traveling up north, first to Ipoh and then to Penang for a holiday. While I look forward to the holiday, I absolutely hate the packing part. There’s just too much to pack and I normally have a few huge suit cases. Hubby always complains that I have too many things and always shakes his head looking at our luggage. He said each time we travel, he would feel like hiring some cross country movers to ship our paraphernalia lol! I always tell him he has not just 1 kid but 3 kids and a health freak wife. I need 1 bag to put all our health supplements and Baby C’s food et al.

Backache And Stiff Shoulders

My days of sitting long hours in front of the computer are back now that my online fashion store is finally up. I used to sit more than 8 hours in front of the PC 2 years ago when times were good and offers from advertisers were plentiful. I tell you, this is hard work and stressful when you have to handle 3 young and hyper-active kids at home. I tend to lose my train of thoughts with distraction from my kids and get really edgy over the slightest boo boos my kids make. Health wise, I am starting to have stiff shoulders and backache again. I haven’t been diligent enough to work out on my fitball everyday. I guess I have to start arching my back on the fitball again everyday, lest I need spine surgery Mexico to reduce the nagging pain in the back.

Burnt Out

Ever since I started my online fashion store 6 days ago, business have been quite good. I have been losing sleep and losing weight too, working hard on my online store, on some online assignments and handling my 3 monkeys. Gosh, I tell you, I am burnt out. Zits are also starting to pop out on my chin and cheeks and if I continue to lose my beauty sleep, I will soon need some acne treatment products to treat my zits.

Insurance Claims Rejected Again

Our insurer has rejected our insurance claim and subsequent appeal for Baby C’s second surgery bill. Our surgeon has told us that he will help us fight all the way to court to get a reimbursement from our insurer. Somehow, I just have a feeling that the smart insurer will steadfastly reject our appeal. These insurers and their agents are darn shrewd. When they want you to sign up for a policy, they will promise you everything under the sky. When there is a claim from them, they will do everything under the sky to try to reject your claim. There goes our RM50k. And it’s time we look for another insurer and a more efficient insurance agent. Who wants life insurance leads? We may want to look for a new insurance agent to provide us with better service.

Alycia's Birthday Lunch at Seoul Korea Korean Restaurant

We had Korean food for lunch on Saturday, 5th December, on the actual day of Alycia's 6th birthday. My parents were in KL too and the following day, they flew to Hainan Island for a holiday. Alycia picked the Korean restaurant herself. What expensive taste she has eh? First she chose Tony Roma, then Korean and for dinner, she chose Japanese. Her future husband better be rich to satiate this foodie's expensive tastebuds! She has definitely inherited daddy's DNA!

Alycia and her best friend. She always says Baby is her best friend, haha...



Alycia giving Baby a peck on the cheek...


The hot stone bowl rice, an authentic Korean specialty. Make sure the raw egg is thoroughly cooked before serving it to young kids...


A table placed with appetizers, which are served FOC (and replenishable too!) if you order a set dish...


I would say this Seoul Korean Korean restaurant is 'peng, leng, cheng' - cheap, pretty and good! It's all our-time favorite Korean restaurant.