Neighbour's Coffee Bar @ Happy Garden KL

The hubs hasn't fully recovered from an inflamed Tonsillitis (Musang King is one of the culprits!) and wanted to have something that will not flare up the tonsils. After sending my car for service, we went to Neighbour's Coffee Bar @ Happy Garden for brunch.   The cafe, with whitewash walls and minimalism interior design is usually full-house during noon and weekends. When we arrived at this cafe tucked inside the Happy Garden neighborhood, it was 10-ish a.m. and we were one of the first few customers.

What enticed the hubs to this cafe were the super fluffy-jiggly-yummy-looking Fuwa Fuwa pancakes photos that he saw from friends' social media pages.  These super airy and melt-in-the-mouth Japanese Soufflé Pancakes are served with caramelized bananas and a scoop of chocolate ice-cream.  There is a variety of accompaniments for the pancakes --fresh strawberries, soft-serve ice-cream, red bean and matcha and much more. Without our three bottomless pit piranhas, we couldn't finish the pancakes. I personally prefer the pancakes to be a tad more firmer with more texture and less sweet.





Smoked salmon with egg benedict and hollandaise sauce on a bed of fluffy English muffin:




Apple Wardolf salad and chamomile tea:









Outside the cafe, you'll get to enjoy the scenic view of KL city and there's ample parking space all around.



Overall a decent cafe with a relaxed environment. Hubs and I may visit again (sans our 3 piranhas) in one of our usual breakfast dates to try their burnt cheesecake, butter cake and other breakfast menu.


Neighbour’s Coffee Bar
Address:
A-G-1, Seri Gembira Avenue,
No 6, Jalan Senang Ria,
Happy Garden,
58200 Kuala Lumpur.
Business Hours:
Mon – Thu (9am – 6pm)
Fri – Sun (9am – 11pm)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/neighbourscoffeebar/

TenMaya Japanese Restaurant

After dropping Sherilyn and Cass at their tuition centers, hubs and I went on a date to grab some quick grub. We had less than two hours to get our lunch before picking them up from the tuition centers.  Alycia had gone to watch a basketball match with her friends again. This sweet 16 girl of mine has been hanging out a lot with her friends lately.  She's been going out with her friends almost everyday the past one week of the school holidays.  Guess this will be her last year in high school for doing this before her SPM next year... speaking of which I can foresee that next year is going to be an extremely busy year for the girls and me as all three of them will be sitting for major exams *STRESS*

Coming back to foodie talk!  Hubs asked me what I wanted to eat but I wasn't hungry at all as I'd just had breakfast at home with the girls.  As he's now on a diet free of red meat (elevated uric acid!) and nursing an inflamed throat (too much of Musang King!), we went to Bangsar South to have Japanese.  The three dishes that he ordered were almost oil-free but still high in protein and purine!  He just can't give up on his proteins, which ain't very good for his elevated uric acid levels.






The raw quail's egg gives the matcha noodles a silky texture and accentuates the natural attributes of it but hubs omitted it. We don't eat raw eggs.


The gourmand hubs scarfed down everything you see here and later chomped down a matcha soft serve ice-cream from Family Mart without sharing with me.  I didn't eat much, save for a couple of slices of sashimi.  I'm not one who would force feed myself just because glorious food is placed in front of me. If I'm not hungry, I won't stuff anything down my throat, thus my size 😇

Today's lunch, though quick, turned out to be my sushi-maniac bon viveur's version of nirvana - super fresh raw fish served to him in delight with no hungry piranhas pecking on his platter 😁

TenMaya
Unit 1-6 Level 1,
Nexus Bangsar South City
No 7 Jalan Kerinchi
59200 Kuala Lumpur
+60 3-2242 3268

Restaurant TeoChew Lao Er

Two weeks ago, the foodie hubs who's a porridge lover decided to bring the whole jingbang of us to a porridge place as he wanted to eat something light and easy to soothe his strep throat after feasting on Musang King durian. I told him not to overdo on Musang King but this fler couldn't control his temptation, had a big durian feast with his durian kakis and even brought home a tub to poison me!!  Thank God I didn't succumb to sore throat and diarrhea this time.  The seller claimed that his durians are free from pesticide, it seems.

Back to porridge!  But the girls and I, we aren't big fans of porridge, especially Teochew style.  Salted eggs, salted vegetables, pickled vegetables, salted fish, canned food -- big nay for health freak moi. Why spend so much on preserved salty food that could harm your kidneys, right?   But hubs assured me that I'll surely fall in love with the food there. Ok la, I'll see what Lao Er has to offer us. 😐

The photos you'll see here are photos that I took over two of our visits to Lao Er.  Some of the photos were taken two weeks ago and some were taken just two days ago when we went there with my parents and brother.   The photos can almost do all the talking.   Overall, food is great and if you're a porridge lover and a fan of Teochew food, this is the place to go to.  You can skip the preserved and salty stuff. Lao Er has freshly cooked dishes that are kinder to your kidneys 😁

Teochew style steamed white promfret fish and steamed herbal Kampung chicken:


Salted egg porridge and seaweed salted egg rolls. Love the salted egg porridge with pork:



Sweet potato porridge, white rice, five-grain porridge, white porridge - just take your pick to go with the appetizing dishes:



Healthy five grain porridge. You can purchase this uncooked five grains rice from the restaurant to cook rice or porridge at home.


Steamed Kembong fish (surprisingly not salty at all, iLike!), 'Patt Po' aka Braised Eight Treasure duck, stir-fried French beans and fried salted turnip with fried peanuts (this is very salty):


Stew platter, which is composed of tofu, eggs, pig ears and intestines (no no for me!) and pork belly:




Steamed Kembong fish, fried anchovies with peanuts and salted eggs:



Teochew kuay chap, which is kuay teow in a very flavorful broth. Very delish.



Radish omelette:


Sweet and sour Teochew braised Halibut fish:



An assortment of Teochew sweet and savoury desserts:









The black sesame paste filled Tang Yuan tong sui was excellent and hubs had to order another bowl when the girls walloped the single bowl that he ordered earlier.



We bought a pack of two frozen Teochew dumplings home and they were yummo ~ sweet and salty with the usual pork, salted egg, chestnut and sweetened red bean paste.


Some of the Teochew delicacies are available in frozen vacuum pack.  You'll get a RM5 cash rebate on the frozen stuff when you spend RM120 and above in a single receipt.







Lao Er is an excellent place to savor authentic Teochew food in a clean and air conditioned environment with fair price. The foreign waiting staff are fluent in Mandarin and service is very good.


Restaurant Teochew Lao Er
6 Jalan Brunei off Jalan Pudu
55100 Kuala Lumpur
T: +603 2141 5822

Resting Bitch Face

A few days ago at the car park of the supermarket that I go to almost daily, an Indian man scolded me indirectly for no blardy reason and I went WTF, why is he so hyper sensitive???!!!

We were at the open air car park that's perpetually out of place of park. When a car reversed out from a parking lot, this Indian man who is ahead of me quickly went to park his car. So I let him reverse his car so that he could park.  But he changed his mind last minute and decided not to park there and parked somewhere else instead. When he drove past me, I just looked at him.  Read - just looked at him. I wasn't even angry. Why should I? He didn't do anything wrong but I was just wondering why he changed his mind and didn't park there.

When we both got down the car, Mr Sensitive said this in Malay to the parking attendant who is an Indian man "orang ingat saya sangat bodoh tak tau parking.  Tapi orang yang ingat saya bodoh itu sangat bodoh. Dia Cina tau. CINA tau? CINA!  BODOH!!"

Translated into English - People think I am very stupid, don't know how to park. But the person who thinks I am stupid is stupid herself/himself. She/he is Chinese.. Chinese you know.  Chinese!  Stupid!

This hothead kept repeating the word BODOH and CINA.  I was puzzled and curious as to who he is haranguing about to the car park attendant. Was he referring to me the CINA lady or was he referring to the CINA driver who got out of the parking lot?  Why did he keep repeating the word CINA like he has a serious issue with CINA people? That's such a racist remark. Then he turned back and looked at me.  So I guess he was referring to me! WTF!!

Seriously? I did not say a word or lift my hand or cuss him with my looks or eyes. I just looked at him! Is that wrong? I think this guy has a mental issue brewing inside him!

This guy seriously needs anger management or psychiatric therapy!  If he can get so distressed over this when no one even attacked him verbally or physically, he's in trouble.

Today over lunch I told Sherilyn about this incident and guess what this girl said to me?

Sher - "Mum, do you know that you've got a resting bitch face?  My friend told me that you look fierce!"

Huh, do I? DO I?  I am born with this face, so how? Fake a smile all the time to look more amiable?? 😳😵😵

My lunch with Sherilyn on one of the afternoons last week:

Frozen Ready-To-Eat Meals

The mil left for New Zealand last night, for a 2-month stay with her third daughter and family；which means that I’ll be slogging in the hot kitchen for the next 2 months dishing out lunch and dinner. No fun for someone who finds cooking a chore!

Before the mil left, I requested for her to cook my favorite dish ~ steamed pork with 'mui choy'. This is for deep freezing for consumption on busy week evenings.  She prepped two plates of this dish. In addition, she cooked braised pork belly with shallots and braised pork ribs with yam. All these are for deep freezing.


Steamed pork with 'mui choy', sealed with cling wrap and ready to be frozen.  We had this for dinner today.  There's still another plate in the freezer.



Braised pork ribs with yam. There are 2 tubs of this in the freezer now.



Braised pork with shallots.

These frozen ready-to-eat meals are enough to last us for two school weeks. We have a week of school holidays next week and won't be needing these frozen meals. With these frozen meals on standby, I would only need to cook for 5 weeks before the mil returns. So in reality, I don't really have to cook for that many days😁

Saturday, 3 August 2019

This week is yet another week that I am deprived of catching up on my beauty sleep!  I thought that I could at least catch an extra hour or two of sleep this weekend but the littlest brat came home from school yesterday and rambled to me that she just remembered that she has to attend a 2-day camp in school on Saturday and Sunday!  She has to be in school at 7 a.m. on both days.

Which means, I have to be up latest by 5 a.m.  WHAT?! Like seriously?  On my weekend?! 😭

And someone has to rub it in and said "yalah, this is a mother's responsibility ma"  Rubbing it on a sore wound. What. The.  😖😡

And I have another rant... on some selfish parents who I think left part of their brains on the bed this morning during school runs.

There is only one road leading up to the school. The road is dang narrow - one half is for vehicles going into the school and the other narrow half is for vehicles getting out of school.  When the left lane was jam packed with vehicles, one smart alec thought that she/he could drive on the contra flow lane just so she/he could beat the long queue. But in front of Smart Alec's car was a massive jam of 4 huge school buses and vehicles trying to drive out.

And the most surprising thing is other parents followed suit and drove on the contra flow lane too!!

Blind leading the blind!

I really don't get how this Smart Alec could try to drive on the contra flow lane knowing so well that there will be vehicles getting out.  Because of his/her impulsiveness and misjudgement, hundreds of students were late for the camp and school trip. There were 4 school buses waiting for students for a school trip.   Everyone got stuck in the bottleneck because of one Smart Alec and other drivers who followed suit.



Cars should not be driving into the school on the right lane. That lane is for outgoing vehicles.

Moments later, some teachers had to get to the road to direct traffic.  All the vehicles behind Smart Alec had to reverse out to follow the queue from behind. But that Smart Alec didn't toe the line and didn't reverse. She/he cut queue and drove past the car that was on the left lane!  I am left speechless over this parent's uncivilized and selfish behavior! Because of one Smart Alec and those behind her/him, hundreds of students were late for the camp and school trip.

Very nice. I hope you won't repeat your selfish behavior again anywhere else, Smart Alec!


Simple lunch of pork and carrot porridge (seasoned with pepper and spring onions from our balcony garden), 6-minute soft boiled egg, fruit of the day and matcha green tea for Cass yesterday.


Sprint onions planted from onions in our tiny balcony garden.

Nasi Kukus Tonggek @ Food Juction, Mid Valley Megamall

Sherilyn and I were at Mid Valley Megamall two weeks ago as she needed new school  shoes.  This fella changes school shoes at least twice a year.   Really can't fathom as to how her shoes can get damaged so easily. During my time as a secondary school girl over 30 years ago, I wore my Bata canvas school shoes for at least two years!  But I have to admit that I hardly washed my shoes then as I was just too busy lazy.  But my girls are now fortunate to have a part-time helper to help them scrub their school shoes every week.  Maybe this is why their shoes tear so easily? Or the quality back then was better than now?  Do you realize that everything back in the 70s and 80s lasted so much longer than things these days?

Ok back to foodie talk!  After shopping for shoes, we had Nasi Kukus Tonggek, an East Coast Malay delicacy at the Food Junction food court, as suggested by my foodie daughter.




Nasi Kukus Tonggek is served in an interesting way where all the ingredients, gravy and rice are stuffed into a metal can. You then lift the can up, and everything flows out like a mouth-watering lava cake.










I ordered a Nasi Kukus Ayam Tonggek (RM8.90) and added a side of fried sotong king (RM12.90) and shared this with Sherilyn.

One spoonful of the fluffy white rice mixed with its delightful gravy and I was hooked for life 😋  Best of all, the dishes are priced very affordably.

The ayam kampung chicken thigh is char-grilled to perfection, locking the juices in the meat and the meat, marinated with special spices is oh-so flavorful! The flavors exploded in my mouth like magic!

The sotong is such a joy too, for sotong lovers like myself and Sherilyn. Evenly battered and deep fried, the texture of the sotong is super crunchy and surprisingly not dry. When the dishes are tossed together with the gravy and rice, this seemingly simple dish takes on an altogether elevated form to create the perfect canvas to a sumptuous hedonistic meal!  We will definitely be going there again, I can't wait!








Nasi Kukus Tonggek Mid Valley
Address: Food Junction, Level 3, Mid Valley, 59200 Kuala Lumpur.
Operating Hours: 10 a.m.-10 p.m. (Daily)

Sunday, 21 July 2019

After Sunday School, we spent our entire afternoon at Low Yat Plaza. The hubs' desktop PC konked out whilst he was working on it and he had to get it fixed at the computer shop right away.  He's got another busy week ahead and can't work without a computer.

From getting his PC fixed, hubs ended up purchasing a brand new desktop PC, got me a new swivel chair and mouse for my home office,  got me a new phone cover in glittering PINK (and the girls went eeeewwww pink!🙄) and got Alycia a new phone charger 😁

After hanging around at the Plaza Low Yat for over 3 hours, walking non-stop hunting for tech stuff and waiting for hub's new PC, it was the girls' turn to konk out.





My super comfy swivel chair:




Lunch was at Marcoma Kitchen, a Hong Kong style 'char chan teng' opened by a handsome bloke from Hong Kong. He was seated behind us while we were having lunch.  Marcoma Kitchen has been around for over a decade but it's my first time there.   Food was superb and priced reasonably.

Although the roast duck looks unassuming, it packs a punch in the flavor and texture department~ crispy on the skin and juicy on the inside. So yums!



Hubs was so addicted to the fish balls and cuttlefish balls (he ordered 2 bowls of each) that he ordered another portion of both the balls for takeaway and again ate them for dinner that evening.




Hong Kong style sandwich with fried eggs, spam meat and ham.


There were many more dishes on the table but I was too busy scarfing down my food that I couldn't be bothered to snap more photos 😆  Check out how long our bill was:


If you happen to be at Low Yat Plaza to shop for tech items, don't forget to check out Marcoma Kitchen. Sorry folks, it's not halal.

Marcoma Kitchen Sdn Bhd (Hong Kong’s Food Culture)
LG-18, Plaza Low Yat,
off Jalan Bukit Bintang,
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Telephone: 03-2141 6998

Updates On The Girls In High School

Alycia, our eldest girl with royal hands hates kitchen work. Cooking, baking and washing dishes are just not her forte. What a polar opposite from Sherilyn who would find every opportunity to cook and bake. I think one takes after me and the other takes after my mom 😁

Alycia was forced to cook something for an Accounting project in school. Her class was assigned by the Accounting teacher to embark on a food sale project. Each team is only allocated RM100 and they have to cook something for sale to about 100 students. Yeah, what the heck can you sell with just RM100 for 100 students?? That's RM1 for 1 student! Ridiculous budget!

After a long deliberation with me and her team members, they have decided to make sweet corn fritters, using the mil's recipe.

Her first attempt was quite a flop, as grandma was not around to guide her.  Her friends and teacher commented that the sweet corn fritters lacked umami.  We followed the mil's instructions and yet the fritters didn't quite appear as how it should have been. We later found out that the mil deep fries the fritters and not pan fry them.  And she forgot to tell us to deep fry the fritters.  No wonder they tasted like pancakes and not crispy as how fritters should be! 😂




The second batch supervised by grandma was a success - crispy and flavorful.




On the day of the project next week, Alycia and her friends are going to fry the fritters at night at a friend's house and toast them back the next morning before bringing to school. Hopefully all goes well with their first food sale project!

On Drama Queen, she and her team mates clinched 3rd placing in a district level inter-school English drama competition held at St John's International School yesterday!  Kudos to the team! First and second placing went to Convent Bukit Nenas and St John's Institution.

Her next competition? An inter-school traditional dance competition, which she claimed her teacher forced her to take part in.  It's no doubt that my fearless girl loves competition since she was in pre-school and all the adrenaline rush that comes with it!   She definitely inherited the Yap genes.  Hubby's youngest sister was a former top Malaysian bowler (Sarah Yap - go Google her) before she migrated to Hawaii 😊