Silly Sherilyn

Every night when I place my nightie on the bed, Sherilyn is sure to put on the nightie and act silly to make me laugh. She will dance in my nightie, run around with it and say "i am mummy!". She sure knows how to make me laugh.

Din Tai Fung Chinese Restaurant

The night before our maid left, hubby brought us all to Din Tai Fung Chinese Restaurant @ Gardens for dinner. This restaurant serves really good Shainghainese food.

This 'siu loong pau' is really tasty. I love the hot soup wrapped inside the skin. You have got to be careful not to burn your lips and tongue when you bite into this pau as the soup inside is really piping hot. There are 2 varieties of 'siu loong pau' - one is meat filled and the other one is meat and crab meat filled. Both are equally tasty.


Another of my favorite at this restaurant - the beef 'la mien'. Very tasty.


This is also one of my favorites - pau filled with steamed minced pork meat - also very tasty.

Our all-time favorite - 'sei kwai tau' or Four Seasons beans, which is actually fried long beans with minced pork and preserved vegetables.


Fried rice with big shrimps and eggs for our maid.

We also ordered a steamed tofu dish. What's special about this simple dish is that the tofu comes with chicken meat floss sprinkled on top of the tofu.

I would rate the food from this restaurant 9 over 10.

Finally Maid-Less

My maid has left us since yesterday. Luckily my mum is here to help me entertain the kids and with some simple household chores, else I will really be helpless and I can't imagine how I will be able to cope all alone with 2 brats at home. However, she can only be here until this Friday.

Today is Alycia's first day of school this year. I woke up early to do some simple house work and to prepare her lunch box. After having a maid to help me for more than 5 years, I find it really tiring to have to do everything myself now. Being pregnant makes it even more tiring. I now find it difficult and tiring to squat down, bend down, climb up and down the stairs more than 20 times a day, wash the dishes, hang the clothes out to dry, keep the clothes, bathe the kids myself, etc. etc. My maid agent has promised me that he will send me a temp live-in maid this Sunday and I hope this time he will keep his promise. The temp maid will be a Cambodian, who has been rejected by another employer. I just hope she will be tolerable. I won't place too much hope on her as she's only a temp maid. Just can't wait for my new permanent maid to arrive.

Sherilyn - 8 Months vs 3 Years Old

Read more about it here.

Green Tea Chiffon Cake

This green tea chiffon cake is one of the best I have tasted. It's from this bakery that we regularly patronize near our house. If I want to get this cake, I have to be at the bakery early, else they will all be snapped up in a jiff. It's ultra soft, not too sweet and has red beans sprinkled on top. I can even chomp down the entire cake myself in a day, but of course I won't do that.... gotta watch the calories and my waist line!

Finally I Got A Taste Of Her Curry

After months of just smelling the aroma of my Sikh neighbor's curry whenever she cooks them and salivating whilst I whiffed the aroma, yesterday she finally gave me a small bowl of her chicken curry to try. And boy, it tasted so good. Authentic, homemade Sikh curry. If only I had some tosei or roti canai to go with the curry, it would even be more satisfying! Finally my crave was satisfied!

She also gave me a huge packet of fish keropok from Terengganu. My maid deep fried some and they tasted really good too!

Mum To The Rescue

My mum is coming tomorrow to help me out. Yippee!! Though I can't expect her to help me in the household chores as she's quite plagued by ailments, at least she's here to entertain the kids whilst I get to do some house work or work on my computer. However, she can only stay for one week. Hopefully she will agree to stay longer.

Quick Fix Mac n Cheese

If you want to fix a quick meal of mac n cheese for yourself or your little one, try San Remo. It's MSG free, preservative free and very tasty. Alycia and Sherilyn love it. Just add some butter, milk, some chopped french beans or some minced meat and cook for 10 minutes and voila, you have a delicious piping hot meal on your table. You can also sprinkle some cheese or pine nuts on the macaroni for some added calcium and protein for your toddlers.

Cheese On French Toast

Alycia and Sherilyn love cheese on French toast. Whenever I need to fix them a quick meal, cheese on French toast will be it. It's simple to fix, nutritious and tasty too. All I need are 4 slices of bread (I normally use black sesame wholemeal bread or wholemeal walnut bread), 3 eggs, some butter, a dash of salt and 2 slices of cheese. The toasts taste so good that the gals don't even need honey or maple syrup on them.

We Can Never Get Tired Of Japanese Food

After the dissatisfying dim sum brunch at Ah Yat Abalone Restaurant in PJ, we hopped to the Japanese restaurant next door (can't remember the name of the restaurant) and ordered some California rolls, a bowl of Edamame beans and green tea ice-cream with red beans. Alycia and Sherilyn seem to have inherited daddy's taste buds and love California rolls, especially Alycia.





The gals never seem to get fed-up of Edamame beans.... which is good as they are packed with calcium and protein.

Maid Bummer

Remember I had posted earlier that I have found a maid agency that provides temporary live-in maids? Somehow, I just have a guts feeling that this agency is not reliable. I've been trying to call the owner of the agency the whole of yesterday and I only got a message on his mobile phone saying that "the number that you have dialled is not available".

This morning when I called up his office, his staff was not even aware that he has promised to send me a temp live-in maid on Sunday. She also said that Mr L** is overseas and will only be back next week. I was dumbfounded and just couldn't believe that this Mr L** had left the country without informing his staff about my order. Mr L** had promised me that he will send the maid to my house on Sunday himself! The staff also told me that there isn't any available temp live-in maid at the moment. I was even more shocked to hear that coz this Mr L** had told me earlier that he has a pool of temp live-in maids available at his agency and I can get the maid from him at any time. All I could say to Mr L**'s staff was I could not believe this is happening. What kind of company is this. Does this company even exist? Luckily I have not paid anything.

Now, I am left in a lurch. I have been calling maid agencies almost the whole morning today to look for part-time maids. My Sikh neighbor has given me a contact of the maid agency that she had previously used and I have called and arranged for part-time maids to come every other day (2 hours per session with 2 maids) starting next Monday. I just hope that this maid agency is reliable, else I would have to look for another maid agency again.

Ah Yat Abalone Restaurant

We had dim sum at Ah Yat Abalone Restaurant in PJ 2 weeks ago on hubby's birthday. We wanted to go to Unique Seafood Restaurant which was just next door for dim sum but as we were climbing up the stairs from the car park, we saw banners advertising that the dim sum at Ah Yat were all sold at a 30% discount. So we headed to Ah Yat instead.

On top of the dim sum, we also ordered a black vinegar pigs' trotters, a congee and a bowl of sharks' fins soup. We didn't know that these items were NOT entitled to the 30% discount.


We were quite disappointed with the dim sum as they did not taste as good as we had expected.


The sharks' fins soup was disappointing - tasteless! Even my mil's homemade sharks' fins tasted better.


I only enjoyed the pigs' trotters and this banana fritters filled with red bean paste.

As daddy wasn't feeling full and satisfied with his birthday brunch, he hopped next door to the Japanese restaurant.

To be continued......

Kelly Wannabe

If you find Sherilyn hilarious wearing this ridiculous singlet, read more about it here.

Ichiban Boshi Japanese Restaurant

On New Year's Eve, we had dinner at Ichiban Boshi @ Pavillion. The food was good.

We ordered an Udon soup with vegetables and Shitake mushrooms,


a Terriyaki beef with beef balls cha soba which was very tasty. The beef was tender and the soup was very tasty. We will definitely order this dish again if we go to Ichiban Boshi the second time.


A deep fried cha soba which was a big hit with the gals,


And of course Chawan Mushi for the gals.

We also had ice-cream for dessert.

Ichiban Boshi is located at the ground floor where the Food Republic food court is. I love going to this food court as there is a good variety of stalls that sell good food (continental and local) but pricey though.

If you're looking for a place with plenty of hawker stalls and restaurants for you to choose from, Pavillion's Food Republic is the perfect place for you. J.Co Doughnut is also there but when you see the horrendous crazy queue, you better think twice! I prefer to hop opposite to buy Beard Papa's delicious cream puffs or get a New Zealand ice cream!

Sherilyn Loves Her Baby Sister

Read about it here.....

Alycia's Finally Getting Better

Yes she is... finally! When Alycia woke up this morning, she was still coughing and had lots of phlegm. I made her very little diluted milk and she finished the bottle of milk (6 ounces of milk, instead of the usual 8 ounces). She must be feeling really hungry as she had puked thrice yesterday and went to bed with an empty stomach. Thankfully, she did not puke after drinking milk today. She also managed to eat the whole egg white of a hard boiled egg and a slice of plain chiffon cake for breakfast before eating her medicine. Thankfully, she also did not puke. Today, I can finally see smiles on her face and hear her laugh and play with Sherilyn. She even ordered to have spaghetti for lunch, though I had earlier wanted to cook her some noodles with homemade fish balls. So spaghetti she had for lunch and even asked for more. She also managed to finish a small bowl of watercress chicken soup. She's coughing a lot lesser now and I hope she will be able to go back to pre-school on Monday. She certainly has a long way to catch up with her peers.

Last night, I applied baby Vicks on Alycia's chest, back, neck and soles of her feet before she went to bed. Dont' know if it's coincidental or what but she did cough at all and slept soundly throughout the night.

Eight-citing Wedding

My friend who is getting married to a Tan Sri’s son was telling me the other day that since she’s getting married on 8 August 2008, she would like to order 888 stalks of red tulip to make the event even more auspicious. Every guest will be given a stalk of the tulip on top of a unique wedding favor. She’s also going to have 88 stalks of pink Calla Lilly as her wedding flowers bouquet. There will also be 8 cute flower girls and boys. Everything is in eights, maybe she will even have 8 kids in future! I am really eight-cited about her wedding!

Gold, The Best Gift Of All

An aunt of mine asked me the other day if I’d like to receive a gold chain in the form of an anklet for my baby’s full moon. I went “huh, I’m only 6 months pregnant and you’re already thinking of getting my baby a full moon gift?” That was just so sweet and thoughtful of her to be thinking so far ahead for my little one. I told her that I would be really pleased if she would buy gold jewelry for my baby as the price of gold is high now and I foresee that it would even go up further. Gold jewelry makes a great gift and investment too and I don’t mind receiving them, lots of them!

Poor Alycia

That's how sickly and weak Alycia looks now. The medication is making her listless, drowsy and really whiny. There were only two other times when Alycia was this sick and listless. The first time was when she was 13 months old and was hospitalized for Rotavirus (and I was 37 weeks pregnant with Sherilyn). The second time was 1.5 years ago when we had just moved in to our house. She normally gets well within 3-4 days but this time, looks like it's going to last at least 7-10 days.



See how red her lips are.

Her face is also flushed and there's hardly any smile on her face.

Black Vinegar Pig's Trotters

This is definitely my all-time favorite and I can never get bored of it. The best part about having a confinement lady is that you can ask her to cook 'gee qeuok choa' or black vinegar pig's trotters every week. However, I don't eat any parts that have fat, I only eat the lean meat and the hard boiled egg. Oooh, I just can't wait to indulge in this dish again.

We had black vinegar pig's trotters with hard boiled egg and dim sum at Ah Yat Abalone Restaurant last week. The gee queok choa tasted really good. As for the dim sum, do wait for my next post on the review soon.....