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.

Homeschooling

In less than a month’s time, Alycia will be wearing the dark blue and white uniform for primary school students and pushing a trolley bag, ready to start Primary 1. She has just turned 6 years old and I think she will be one of the youngest in her class. I can’t believe how fast time has zoomed past us. Exactly 6 years ago, she was my long-awaited, first bundle of joy and now, she’s so grown up and ready to start primary school. I really don’t know how she will fare in a Chinese public school. Right now, she is already struggling with her written Mandarin. Each time she asks me for help in her written Mandarin, I have no choice but to turn her down and say “sorry, mummy can’t help you”. I feel really bad about this. When she officially starts school, I hope she will eventually catch up and cope well.

If my hubs and I have enough money, we will definitely send our 3 girls to a private school. I have even considered homeschooling my girls but in our country, homeschooling is still not widely practiced and accepted. In Western countries, homeschooling is a very common practise. It is way cheaper than sending your kids to a private school and you can select from a wide range of homeschooling curriculum from such websites as globalstudentnetwork.com. I have visited their website and am impressed with their range of curriculum online. I may want to use their curriculum for comparison with our country’s education curriculum. If you are interested in homeschooling, you may want to check out this website.

Birthday Lunch At Tony Roma's @ Gardens

On Thursday, daddy brought us all to Tony Roma's @ Garden, Mid Valley to celebrate Alycia's 6th birthday in advance. For days prior to her birthday, Alycia had been subtly dropping hints that she wanted to eat at Tony Roma. This girl, she seems to love Tony Roma. Last year, we celebrated her birthday at Tony Roma's @ Garden too. This year, we were seated at the table at the same spot of the restaurant that we sat at last year, what a co-incidence! And how FAST time has zoomed past us!

Here's what we had. If you haven't had your lunch or dinner, you'll surely be salivating, hehehe.....

Spaghetti with generous amount of prawns...


Salad with croutons and parmesan cheese...



The rack of lip-smacking, tender and full of flavor beef ribs....


My baked cod fish coated with black and white sesame, yums! I didn't touch the rice a wee bit and my maid ate it.

The birthday girl enjoying her bowl of mushroom soup...



Sinfully delish ice-creams, on the house from TR for the birthday girl....



I didn't cook any food for Baby, so I bought her some buns from Bread Story - opposite Tony Roma. She also ate some of the cod fish.


On Sunday, 5th December, which was Alycia's actual birthday, we had lunch at our favorite Seoul Korea Korean restaurant and for dinner, we had Japanese at the restaurant at our condo.

BTW, do check out my online fashion store. I've posted pix of tons of new clothes. This time I have XL size clothing, office wear, jackets, Korean fashion accessories and more dresses at low prices!

Goodies From Hong Kong

3 days ago, we received a huge box of goodies from my sil all the way from Hong Kong. She had sent over Alycia's birthday pressie, X'mas pressies and some snacks for us.

The box full of goodies....
Sherilyn is admiring the tin of cookies from HK Disneyland.

Alycia quickly tried on her Minnie Mouse dress which koo mar bought from HK Disneyland...


2 huge loafs of Italian Panettone Christmas bread. One is filled with raisins and dried fruits (which tastes very much like a cross between fruit cake and bread) and another loaf is filled with dried fruits and chocolate.



The chocolate Panettone Christmas bread. Yums, really delish, sinful and fattening! But what the heck, I only get to eat them once a year and it's not widely available here in Malaysia. My aunt told me that she had only seen it at Hock Chun's in Ampang and costs between RM40-RM50 a loaf.

My sil also got me some Crabtree & Evelyn hand lotion and shower gel. Thank you very much for all the goodies tai kar cheh. You're the best, as always!

The Best Way

... to get Baby to eat her fruits is to give the fruit to her jie jies. Baby does not fancy eating fruits much. The only fruit that she truly likes is durian! No coaxing and no forcing her to swallow the king of fruits. In order to get her to eat and swallow the fruit (she has a habit of spitting out the fruit after chewing it), I don't offer her the fruit BUT offer her 2 jie jies. Whenever she sees her jie jies eating anything that is NOT offered to her, she will surely scream "I wan, I wan, I wan.....!" See how effective reverse psychology is on kids!

Here Baby is munching on a small slice of apple. When she saw her 2 jie jies munching on an apple, she too wanted to eat.
See what my 2 older monkeys did to the gym mats? They are bored to the core during the school hols and have been up to silly tricks and ideas.

Here rascal #2 is munching on some cut guavas. Initially, she did not want to eat them. She's another one who doesn't really fancy eating fruits. But after tasting just 1 slice and seeing how sweet and crunchy it was, she polished off the entire container of guavas, in front of the tellie! Better than polishing off a box of popcorns or chips right?



When Baby saw her 2 jie jies munching on the guavas, she too went "I wan, I wan, I wan...."! But she didn't swallow it though. She spat the guava out after chewing it and swallowing the juice. This brat still prefers munching on celeries, capsicums and leek flowers! Wierdo toddler hor?

Alycia Is 6 Today

We celebrated Alycia's 6th birthday at our favorite Seoul Korea Korean restaurant this afternoon with my mil and parents. My parents had just arrived in KL from Ipoh today and will be flying off to Hainan Island tomorrow for a vacation. Tonight, we will be having dinner at the Japanese restaurant at our condo. Alycia shares the same birthday with the owner of the restaurant! Let's hope she will give us a small treat, hehe! Shall post pix soon.

I've been busy with my new online store for the past 1 week. It's really difficult to juggle my time having to manage 3 kids, my 4 blogs, my hubby's catering blog , my new online store and a few personal matters that need urgent attention. Plus, with a handful of orders from my first few clients and having to deal with my suppliers and courier company, my head is spinning lol! To all my clients, thanks so much for your support. Sorry if I've been a tad slow in responding to your emails and SMSes. I am very confident that in days to come, everything will run more smoothly and you can all get quicker replies and receive better customer service from me.