Lunch at Fong Lye Taiwanese Restaurant @ Hartamas

Each time we are at Gardens @ Mid Valley and want to eat at Fong Lye Taiwanese Restaurant, the restaurant would be packed and patrons would be seen making a beeline outside the restaurant. I finally got to lunch at Fong Lye last week - at their Hartamas outlet. They have a newly renovated outlet at Jalan Imbi too. I love their dishes, which are all very tasty and full of flavors.

Here's what we had:

Appetizer - deep fried tofu with big onions, red chillies, sugar and vinegar. Nice!


Steamed Kampung Chicken with shredded ginger and sauce.


Braised mushrooms, Japanese tofu, fish maw and sweet peas in a claypot on flame. Love the fish maw.


Stir-fried chopped up chives (kau choy far in Cantonese) with minced pork, taucheong and some red chillies. Nice but a little salty if eaten without rice.


Stir-fried noodles with chicken.


Stir-fried lala in Chinese wine and Chinese basil leaves. Nice!



Deep fried prawns with mayo sauce and sesame seeds. I like this best!


Sam Pei Jee or chicken with ginger and Chinese wine with Chinese basil leaves. A very aromatic and flavorful chicken dish. Nice! My mil can cook a very tasty Sam Pei Jee dish too.


Phai Kuat Wong (deep fried pork ribs) with tomato sauce, red and green bell peppers and big onions. Tasty!


French beans with minced pork. Too salty for my liking coz I eat no rice.




Stir-fried pig's big intestines with ham choy (preserved salty veggie) and chillies. Though I don't like to eat animals' internal organs, I have to say that this dish is tasty.



At the end of our meal, we were served chilled lime juice on the house, which was really refreshing. Baby loves the sweet and sour juice, kept giving a forefinger's up (thumbs up) sign and kept asking for more!

Lunch At Canton-I @ Gardens, Mid Valley

We had lunch at Canton-I Restaurant @ Gardens again last week when we went there for shopping. Here's what we had:


Roast duck and char siew combo, seafood fried rice (with fresh scallops and big prawns), custard bun and har kau (prawn dumpling)...



Buns with custard and duck's egg yolk filling - sinfully delicious and lip-smacking. I love licking the thick rich yellow filling that will ooze out when the bun is torn into half.

The mar cee with black sesame seed filling coated with ground peanuts was also very addictive!




Refreshing dragon fruit juice but too sweet for my liking.


Fish paste porridge - very soothing on the throat and tummy. Tastes good too. I love the texture of the smooth blended porridge and the bouncy fish balls made of fish paste.


Siew Mai with big crunchy prawns - very tasty.

When you are at Mid Valley, there are several Chinese restaurants serving almost similar food - namely Canton-I, Dragon I and Din Tai Fung. They are all our favorite eating places at Mid Valley.

2 Terrors At Home

Looks like Terror #3 is one-upping Terror #2. 2 days ago, Baby Terror inadvertently slammed the drawer on Terror #2's finger and it was yet another excruciating moment for this accident-prone rascal. The accident happened right in front of my eyes, inches away from me and it happened so fast I could not stop Baby from slamming the drawer. Exactly 3 years ago, Sherilyn broke her left thumb when it got squashed by a steel door. But all these accidents do not seem to deter her a wee bit and she's ever bold and samseng, choke full of energy and ideas.

Sher putting an ice cube on her dented and bruised finger....




Baby Terror, with the hand cane, which is one of her favorite items. She even helps me beat Terror #2 with the cane when her jie jie is naughty!

See the 1-seater c0uch - I had to turn it backwards so that Baby Terror cannot climb up but I underestimated her intelligence and prowess. She found it even more exciting as she could dive onto the 1-seater couch from the 3-seater couch *wipes sweat from forehead*

Baby Terror in action....

Another nose-diving moment. I now have to line the floor with cushions to cushion off the fall, just in case Baby falls.

Playing Happy Family And Donkey Cards With Granny

During my mum's 1-week stay with us last week, she bought 2 pack of kids' cards and taught Alycia and Sherilyn how to play.

Does this Happy Family card game look familiar to you, albeit the packaging is now different?




Granny teaching Alycia and Sherilyn Donkey card game....


Baby did not want to be left out too and kept tugging at granny's lap and wanted to be seated on the lap and watch them play the card game.

Heart Stopping Moments And Baby's Wholesome Meal

Baby is getting more and more active and mischievous by the day. I spent almost the entire afternoon standing guard behind her watching over her as she climbed and dived from one couch to the other like a stunt-woman. Lately, the second I place her into the playpen, she will scream murder. This rascal now knows how to threaten me to get her out of the playpen by attempting to climb out of the playpen like a little tiger cub with her feet clawed to the net of the playpen - with half her body hanging precariously outside and the other half hanging inside the playpen. I can't imagine what would happen if she falls head down onto the hard floor *shudders with cold sweat* She is just as manipulative as Sherilyn. When Sherilyn was Baby's age, she used to gag her throat and mouth with her fingers until she puked each time we placed her into her playpen! She always won the battle.

I had another heart stopping moment today when Baby accidentally closed the drawer and squashed Sherilyn's finger. I was watching them and I just knew an accident would happen as Sherilyn was standing on top of a table and opening a drawer and Baby was on the floor opening another drawer. I was yelling away and then just as Sherilyn was about to climb down, BANG..... followed by BOO HOO HOO and AAAAAAAAAA, WAAAAAAA, WAAAAAAAA! Sher's finger was 'dented' and bruised. I shall blog about this and post pic in my next post.

On a side note, here's Baby's wholesome lunch consisting of Japanese buckwheat noodles with soup of the day. My 3 gals love buckwheat noodles. They taste almost the same as green tea noodles.

....and steamed fish with tomatoes, red dates, brocolli and a drizzle of sesame oil. It tastes good - naturally sweet and no fishy smell, thanks to the aromatic sesame seed oil. Tastes good even without soy sauce or salt.
and also a bowl of soup of the day.

These days, Baby's meals are pretty exciting. No more boring porridge everyday. She has something different everyday ranging from pasta to spaghetti, macaroni, green tea noodles, buckwheat noodles, vermicelli, oats and porridge.

Kids Nap The Darnest Ways

Kids are really versatile - they can sleep anywhere in any position and they have auto-balancing skill too, so that when they sleep in the wierdest position, they would not fall off the chair or the couch.

Yuzu Japanese Restaurant @ The Gardens, Mid Valley

On the second day of Hari Raya, we spent our day shopping and eating at Mid Valley Megamall and Gardens. We had dinner at Yuzu Japanese Restaurant @ The Gardens. It was our second time at this restaurant. Yuzu is a very cozy and classy Japanese restaurant that serves fine, delectable Japanese food. Very nice interior and ambience too. Here's what we had (food for 6 adults and 3 kids):





This Japanese steamboat is very unique. The soup and ingredients are placed on a piece of special non-porous paper on a rattan basket on top of the electric stove. The soup is very clear and not salty at all. Even Baby C had her share of the cod fish and tofu, which she simply loved.










We had a very satisfying and enjoyable sumptuous dinner at Yuzu.

Binge Eating

During the long Hari Raya break, we pigged out quite a bit. We had 3 days of binge eating – 2 buffet lunches at hotels and a day of eating out at Mid Valley Megamall. On the fourth day when the hubs suggested that we went to another hotel for a buffet lunch to utilize the complimentary hotel vouchers, I told him that I felt really stuffed and felt queasy at the sight of hotel food. My jelly belly had ballooned further and I had gained one pound! If I continue binging like this, I think I need to consider getting some effective weight loss pills to help me battle the bulge.

Bestest Jie Jie In The World

I still wonder why rascal #2 would only eat her food if there is someone feeding her. This happens most of the time if she eats rice with dishes. However if it's noodles that's in her bowl, she will have no problem chomping down the noodles.

When no one was free to feed her the other day, Alycia came to her rescue and fed her. Within 15 minutes, she polished off all the rice and dishes on her plate!


Alycia coaxing Sherilyn to eat.....





When her bowl of soup was finished, jie jie even knew how to ask kakak to top up the bowl with soup.... and then continued feeding Sherilyn. She's really the bestest jie jie in the world!

Random Pix

Alycia reading to Baby who is seated on her potty in the kitchen doing her routine morning poopie business. Baby can now poo poo in her potty and I have now trained her to empty her bowels every morning. I can now say bye bye to messy poopie diapers!




Baby had woken up very early one morning, so I lugged her along when I went jogging. When she dozed off in the stroller after I had finished jogging, I didn't want to wake her up. So my maid and I carried the stroller into the living room, so that she could continue sleeping. But when my maid reclined the seat, Baby woke up and wailed.

Simple And Wholesome Meals For Toddlers And The Amazing Thermos Shuttle Chef

I made a pot of delicious fish soup (ma yau toong fish meat and fish head) with tomatoes and ginger the other day. Baby loves soup and she drinks 2 bowls of soup every day. Drinking soup is one good way of making her drink fluids coz she dislikes water. She even dislikes drinking formula milk more and up until today, it is still a battle each time I spoonfeed her with formula milk 2-3 times a day.

This is Baby's bowl of Japanese green tea noodles with fish, veggie and fish soup.



Alycia and Sherilyn had chilled green tea noodles with cold Japanese green tea noodles sauce, shredded seaweed, some veggie and toasted sesame seeds and a bowl of fish soup each.




Our soup is normally boiled using a special Thermos pot on the stove. Once the soup is ready, the pot is transferred back to the Thermos Shuttler Chef where the soup will continue to cook and will be kept hot for more than 10 hours.

Sometimes when I need to go out early in the morning and don't have enough time to prepare soup or Baby's meal, I would boil the soup at night, then transfer the pot of hot soup into the Thermos Shuttler Chef. The following morning, I'll boil some noodles or pasta with veggie and fish. Then add in the hot soup and put Baby's lunch into a small Thermos flask before we go out.



The Thermos Shuttle Chef consists of a steel cooking pot that fits inside an insulated outer pot. You partially cook the food in the inner pot on a stovetop or camp fire, then place the inner pot into the outer pot and put the lid on. The outer pot has vacuum-insulated double walls so the food keeps cooking slowly in its own retained heat.

Because food only needs to be partially cooked before being transferred into the insulated container, the Shuttle Chef uses less energy than it would take to cook the same dish completely on the stove or in an electric slow cooker. You can leave the food to cook while you do other things, or even take the Shuttle Chef with you on a picnic to enjoy hot food al fresco.

A Big And Pleasant Surprise For Me

I had one of the biggest surprises of my life yesterday when my mum planned a last minute surprise and turned up right in front of me when I was having lunch at Lemon Garden Coffee House @ Shangri La Hotel. It was also the first time my mum had sprang me a surprise visit. When the hubs kept asking me "Shireen, did you see your 'friend'?", I looked right, left, back and front but failed to see who was seated next to the hubs hahaha... see how blind we can get sometimes. It was a real pleasant surprise for me. And for my mum, brother and dad, they had fun keeping this from me, which was a decision made by my mum at the eleventh hour.

We had yet another pigging session yesterday. How can anyone resist not binging when they are at the Lemon Garden buffet? There's just too much good food. But I didn't really binge coz I felt fat after a buffet lunch on the first day of Hari Raya at PJ Hilton and another day of eating out on the second day of Hari Raya.

Anyway, this was my plate of comfort food....
Carrot cake, a very tasty walnut pie, boysenberry cheesecake, heavenly mango pudding and strawberries on skewer (supposed to be dipped into chocolate and white chocolate at the chocolate fountains but I skipped that sweet stuff).

Our Sunday

On Sunday, we brought our maid to Paya Serai Coffee House @ PJ Hilton for lunch. That's our treat for her on Hari Raya. Despite what she is, we still bought her a nice lunch. Hopefully she felt touched and will change over a new leaf.

Joining us for lunch were my brother and his wife who came up from Singapore and also Jeff and Shir Lin, Joshua's daddy and mummy. Jeff and Shir Lin were previously Alycia and Sherilyn's volunteer Sunday School teachers at our church. They are now staying in Singapore. I kept yakking and yakking with them so much that I had forgotten to snap some pix. Joshua is such a cutie. Though younger than Baby C by 5 months, he looks like the kor kor as he's tall and chubby, towering over Baby C!

Shir Lin also bought these gifts for my gals:


Animal biscuits from Organix and 2 hard cover books for Baby. The panda book is really cute. At the squeeze of the panda's nose, there will be a squeaky sound, which Baby really likes.




Some cool stickers for Alycia and Sherilyn's room....



Shir Lin also gave me a tub of Organix beef with parsnip mash for Baby to try as this is not available in KL. The next time my brother comes to KL, he'll get a few tubs for Baby. This is such a convenient and tasty fast food for toddlers and great when dining out or traveling.



Thanks Shir Lin for all the gifts. We hope to see you guys in December!

Lunch at Champs

After the bloggers' mini gathering at Paik Ling's house last Sunday, we had lunch at Champs @ Centre Point, Bandar Utama. Here's what we had:

Chicken chop for me...



Steak for hubby


Sang har meen (deep fried wheat flour noodles with big prawns). Tasty but the prawns were not really fresh. The prawn meat was a tad soft.


Fish and chips...


Fried rice


We find that the Western food is only mediocre, nothing to shout about. The local food is more popular amongst the patrons. If we ever go to Champs again, we will just stick to prawn noodles, laksa, fried noodles or fried rice and their roast pork ribs. I wanted to order their spring chicken, which looks really good but was told that I had to wait 25 minutes for the chicken to be roasted. I couldn't wait as I was famished. But as it turned out, I waited for more than half an hour for my chicken chop and was told that it would be served in less than 25 minutes. I was also really disappointed with the taste of the chicken chop.

Overall, I was not too satisfied with our lunch.

Lemon Grass Tea

Ever since we found out the many wonders of lemon grass, we have been making our very own lemon grass concoction or tea. It's pretty simple. Just slice up the stalk of a bunch of lemon grass, boil a pot of water and pour the boiling water into a pot or a jug with the thinly sliced lemon grass stalks. Let the lemon grass steep in the hot water for about half an hour to an hour before drinking. You can drink it hot but it tastes better and really refreshing when chilled.



This is our lemon grass tea. We get our lemon grass supply from a friend who stays nearby who has lemon grass in abundance planted in his huge garden.

Check out my health blog to read more about the wonders of lemon grass.

Never-ending Maid Stories

That foreigner in my house gave me more sky-high blood pressure shooting moments today. This morning, she snapped at me and answered me sarcastically when I asked her how many minutes she had set the kitchen timer for the soup. Just a moment ago, I was fuming mad again when I noticed that the steamed egg with pork had lots of tiny black twigs on the surface. I knew instantly what it was and was enraged coz I did not ask her to add that in. She has been helping me to prepare this dish for umpteen times and I have never ever instructed her to put mixed herbs inside. I think nobody would add mixed herbs into this dish coz it just doesn't blend in. It's like adding some curry powder into your steak or eating spaghetti with tau cheong. I think she added the mixed herbs coz she likes the taste of mixed herbs but not my kids. Why can't that lady just follow instructions? When I asked her what was inside the steamed eggs, she told me this : "saya letak sangat sikit mixed herbs saja" but that wasn't sangat sikit at all. She added the mixed herbs without first asking me and that's what irritated me. That lady has a habit of doing things the way she likes without first asking us. Doing things as she fancies and not as per instructions is not being initiative.

During my stay in the hospital with Baby C, she even gave wrong info to the nurses when they came to check on Baby and asked questions when I wasn't in the room. She didn't know and didn't bother to ask me what the implications were if she gave wrong info. She just loves yakking and yaks at the wrong time and wrong situation all the time. But when she's supposed to talk, she remains dumb, like when she's asked to do something, she hardly answers us. That's another thing that pisses me off. In another incident, when I brought Baby to see the surgeon, the moment we entered the surgeon's room, she excitedly reported to the doctor how Baby was doing, even before I opened my mouth!

Anyway, back to the steamed egg with pork and mixed herbs. It tasted wierd but I still ate it coz we only had 2 dishes today. But Alycia and Sherilyn, my 2 fussy eaters sensed the difference in that dish instantly and were hesitant to eat the eggs. I'm sure that lady must be grinning inside her heart that now, the entire egg dish is hers coz nobody likes it. And did I tell you before that I caught her many times using the same serving spoon that we put on the plate of egg dish to discreetly scoop up the egg into her mouth when she thought I wasn't looking? And that same serving spoon was later put back on the plate of steamed eggs for us with her saliva and all! I'm perplexed why she likes to eat food so discreetly like curi-curi when the fact is that she gets to eat everything that we eat.

Tell me, would you be angry too if you were me? I wonder why some people just can't follow instructions.