Indonesian Yellow Fish Soup

We were guinea pigs to our chef Sherilyn's new dish again - Indonesian Yellow Fish Soup.  It's so yummy!

The girls who don't really fancy fish scarfed down this very flavorful dish in a jiffy.  This dish is cooked with a bunch of aromatic herb and spices - galangal, turmeric, shallots, lemon grass, ginger, kafir lime leaves, chillis and fresh lime juice. The soup is boiled using fish bones and anchovies. We used golden pomfret and fish paste.

Since there're still some raw ingredients left, I'm going to get more fish from the supermarket to make this dish again! 😋

Benefits of Wearing Body Shaper

A body shaper is a tight garment that you wear to give an illusion of a flatter mid-section and slimmer body. It is also called shapewear.  It comes in different shapes, shades and sizes. Shapewear is everything you need to sculpt and support your body to achieve a more attractive silhouette. Body shapewear for women like waist shaper and tummy control body shaper are designed to impermanently alter the wearer’s body shape and they also work to provide support to the bust and back area. Shapewear can do wonders to your body shape in the blink of an eye. Your giggly tummy, big butt or thunder thighs can magically disappear once you've slipped into the best shapewear for women. 

Shapewear can be bought online from online stores like Lover Beauty but if you wish to try on several brands and styles, you can go to a physical store.  If you're planning to buy the shapewear for a specific outfit, it is recommended to bring it with you for fitting. A quick hip and waist measurement can help you make sure you're looking at the right size.

The Slimming High Waist Cincher Panty below comes with an abdominal shaping belt and is great for slim fit clothing.

The Body Shaper Buttock Lifter below instantly builds a sexy hourglass figure as it compresses your torso, waist, and abdomen with a comfortable feel. It's a great shapewear to be worn after pregnancy as it offers all the support and compression your ab needs to get back in its original shape.  It has wide adjustable shoulder straps to reduce stress and comes with a crotchless design which makes going to the toilet convenient.

Some of the top benefits of wearing a body shaper are summarized below:

1. Helps you achieve an instant slimmer figure.
2. Easy to achieve a better appearance
3. Improvement in posture
4. You tend to consume lesser food when your midsection is under compression.  
5. Affordable compared to other weight loss or body toning solutions.
6. Invisible beneath clothes
7. Compliments a weight loss diet and fitness program
8. Postpartum support
9. Bustline support
10. More calories burnt when you wear a body shaper during exercise from sweating more.

The flexible crotchless shapewear below offers good support and compresses the abdomen to help you get back in shape. The straps are adjustable and detachable while the crotchless design makes going to the toilet convenient.

Always remember to choose body shapers that fit you well, as being comfortable and relaxed is equally important as achieving that gorgeous look. 

Stories From The Ward @ Institute of Urology and Nephrology, HKL

Cass and I were put into a first class room with 4 beds at the Institute of Urology and Nephrology last week when she did a Cystoscopy procedure under GA.  The room was very clean and has en suite facilities. It's a far cry from the ward that we were put into at the pediatric ward at the old HKL building 6 years ago when Cass did her first MRI.  That ward was creepy and old and the toilets outside still give me bad dreams. It certainly didn't give me a good impression of government hospitals.

Directly opposite our bed was a jovial and chatty Indian lady in her mid 60s. She had been staying at the ward for 10 days and the day we checked in was her discharge day. She was in the hospital for an eye surgery followed by a bladder surgery to have some stents removed. She told me that she's been a cancer survivor for 10 years but sadly the cancer relapsed recently. She told her oncologist that she didn't want to get treatment and would just prefer to die slowly. What made me truly sad for her is on the day of her discharge, she had to take a taxi home by herself and lugged her big suitcase down to the lobby all by herself. She told me that her son is a lawyer and has been extremely busy, thus couldn't fetch her back from the hospital.  What if this happened to me 20 years down the road when my 3 daughters are too busy to help me discharge from the hospital? 😌

On the left opposite side of us was an Indian lady with her 6-year old daughter. They had taken a train from Ipoh in the morning and came straight to the hospital from the train station. She had bought 2 boxes of KFC which were to be her lunch and dinner that day. Her daughter has recurring renal stones and this was her second (or perhaps third) admission for laser removal of the stones.  This mother looked very aloof and was very terse with her answers and just didn't want to have any eye contact with me. She looked very distressed and I truly understood what's going on in her mind. The pissed off look on her face could be because she's extremely worried. Moreover she's alone with her daughter and hundreds of miles away from her other children and husband.  When her daughter came out of the surgery the next day and refused to pee or eat her medicine, this mummy, out of frustration, threatened the daughter that she would not look after her anymore and would send her to her grandma's house. Her daughter bawled and then mummy hugged her and cried along. This made me tear up too.  Mummy continued coaxing her girl to pee and eat her medicine for more than hour. When we left in the late evening, she was still coaxing her daughter.  We bade our farewells and I tried to coax the little girl to eat her medicine. I hope she didn't give her mummy many days of heart-breaking time in the hospital.

On our left bed was a Malay lady in her early 50s who's been in the ward for more than a week. I didn't really get to chat with her except for the daily "hi and bye" but I think she's got some urinary tract issues as well. She had a bunch of disposable urinary catheter to help her drain her urine out and she needed diapers. 

After the senior Indian woman was discharged, a Malay lady with her 9-year old girl got themselves checked in. The little girl  has recurring renal stones too and needed to undergo a laser procedure for removal of renal stones.  The girl is such a bubbly and smiley girl who would smile and wave to me each time she saw me.

Cass was the last of 5 patients to be wheeled into the OT as she was the oldest kid.  And we were the last to be ambulanced back to the ward. Again! And all 4 kids before her had renal stones removal. I was shocked to know that even young kids are prone to recurring renal stones.

When we left in the evening, Cass commented that it felt strange to be in a room with people who have quite similar problems with her.  I think it won't be too long before we are back for another stay when Cass undergoes another surgery. This time, it would be a major surgery. I've been having sleepless nights thinking about Cass' next surgery. I've never really had a good relationship with hope but I am trying my best to stay positive and not let my anxiety affect me. I truly need lots of miracles and divine intervention for Cass now. 🙏

This is another photo that I stealthily took outside the OT when Cass was waiting for her turn to be wheeled into the OT.

Me in OT scrubs and OT Crocs with Cass next to me playing with her phone. All the kids waiting for their turns for surgery sought comfort from their phones. And they all looked just as tough and calm as Cass. I'm sure they'd gone through a lot, just like Cass.

Tonkatsu and Japanese Curry For Lunch ~ 6 November 2020

Now that the CMCO has been extended to 6 December 2020,  our daily groceries bill will be expanded in tandem, as with our waist lines!  Our chef Sherilyn spends her days in the kitchen trying out new recipes and feeding us with good food. Last Friday she cooked Tonkatsu, Japanese curry and miso soup for lunch. It was so good!  When Cass and I were in the hospital last week, she made some super cute peach and mango jello using bear and ginger breadboy molds.

Cass who was famished the whole day while in the hospital for a procedure polished off almost all her 2 che's yummy dishes and cute jellos 🤭

Yachae Jook (Korean Vegetables Porridge)

Sherilyn had her 3rd tooth extracted for braces on Monday. The next day, she cooked a very flavorful pot of Korean vegetables porridge (yachae jook). It's got such vibrant colors and flavors and very very delish, not to mention easy on her gums.

The porridge is cooked using a flavor intense stock consisting of dashi + dried mushrooms + bonito flakes. And so many colorful ingredients go into the porridge:

1. Whole head of organic broccoli

2. Half a Japanese pumpkin

3. One carrot

4. Minced Berkcious free-range pork

5. Seaweed

6. Japanese rice

Yachae Jook is different from Chinese style porridge in that all the ingredients are sauteed with sesame seed oil and garlic until aromatic before the dashi stock is added and simmered. Even I can't resist having this incredibly flavorsome porridge for lunch.  She cooked such a big pot that the both of us ate it for 3 days straight! And yet, as of typing this post, I'm missing this yummy porridge already 😋

 

The wholesome rainbow colored ingredients that went into the porridge:

Looks like toddlers' porridge but it's so yummy that even an old lady like me loves it!  Porridge with a slew of  colorful vegetables and stock has always been my comfort food 😊

CMCO Day 148 ~ Wednesday, 4 November 2020

Today Cass and I were at the hospital for a 'pre-surgery' briefing by the anesthetist, surgeon and other doctors from the Institute of Urology & Nephrology of HKL.  Though it is not a surgery but a Cystoscopy procedure, it is called 'surgery' by the staff as Cass will be sedated under GA.  And as per the hospital's SOP, the patient and parent must be briefed by the team who will be in the OT on the day of the procedure.  We were brought to the ward at the Institute of Urology & Nephrology and had Cass admitted.  

Cass and I were pretty impressed with the ward. It is nothing like the old government hospital that I know where the building is old and eerie.  The building is not exactly new but the ward is very well kept and the toilets are satisfactorily clean and comparable with private hospitals. 

 

We were brought to a 4-bedded room, which I later found out from one of the patients, is a first class room. No wonder it is impeccably clean and has en suite facilities. My worries and fears immediately dissipated when I walked around the ward. Even the open ward area is clean and not creepy like I had seen in the past in the old building of HKL.  

 

During the briefing, the anesthetist told us that Cass' last solid meal before the procedure tomorrow is at 4 a.m..  After the doctor left, I sent a Whatsapp to Sherilyn to ask her for a favor to cook a meatless fried rice for her baby sister. We have to wake up at 3:15 am tomorrow for her to eat and drink. I needed something quick, yummy and easily heated up.

When we got home, my sweet girl was busy in the kitchen, just like a loving mom, cooking Gimbap, butter garlic mushrooms and Korean pickled vegetables. Sherilyn made a meatless Gimbap for Cass and a keto Gimbap for me ❤️

Meatless Gimbap for Cass, which she loved.  Cass loves everything that her 2che cooks and bakes. 

Knowing that I don't eat rice, Sherilyn made this super yummy keto Gimbap for me, which will be my lunch the next day 💓

Chef at work

Korean picked cucumbers and sauteed mushrooms with butter and garlic. Cass loved these too.

CMCO Day 147 ~ Tuesday, 3 November 2020

I've been busy the past few days helping hubs with his bento box orders.  Sometimes an order from a single customer can take a few days before it is confirmed and the order can only be a mere under RM50 meal. Some customers will ask for discounts, some will ask for free delivery and some will have special requests.  Sometimes they give wrong delivery dates and address and this will cause confusion to the operations department. Thus, I have to be seated at my desk to attend to orders, sending out invoices, making changes to the invoices, inform hubby of any changes pronto and attend to special requests.  I have never really helped hubs in his catering business for the past 17 years until recently when he needed help with promoting the business via social media. Thankfully I have 10 years of experience selling apparels via social media platforms and know the drill pretty well.

Online food delivery business can be challenging, time consuming and profits are no where near outdoor catering and corporate catering.  In the past, hubs used to get orders for over 1,000 pax in a single function.  Ever since the MCO was imposed in March this year, the number of pax for a single event has been reduced significantly.  It would take a long time before his catering business returns to its heydays and making several millions of ringgit in a year.  As long as no vaccine is available, his wings will continue to be clipped 😥.

Tomorrow and Thursday will be stressful days for me because I will be camping with Cass at HKL again. Cass is due for a Cystoscopy (under GA) on Thursday and tomorrow is our briefing by the anesthesiologist. I am so not looking forward to these two days. I have never liked going to HKL and I still get nightmares of the old creepy building. I will be filled with anxiety and worry on Thursday when Cass goes into the OT for the procedure. All the memories of May 2009 at GMC Penang will come flooding back again on Thursday when I wait for her alone outside the OT.  I can't wait for these two days to come and be gone in a blink of an eye with no drama.   I really need my retail therapy to destress! I've already told hubs that we're going to Mid Valley Megamall on Sunday, just the both of us since only two passengers are  allowed in a car during the CMCO.

Friends, I need prayers for Cass - for the Cystoscopy to go smoothly without any complication before, during and after the procedure. Please pray that Cass will not get an infection after the procedure. And please pray that this diagnostic test will successfully capture clear images of her urinary tract so that the surgeon knows how to rectify the problem. Thank you 💓

Our dinner today:  Japanese potato salad prepped by Sherilyn and Cass.

Ingredients used in Japanese potato salad: 6 potatoes, 1 carrot, 2 thinly sliced cucumbers, 2 hard-boiled eggs, salt and Japanese mayo.  This dish is made really soft as Sherilyn is nursing her gums after a tooth extraction for braces yesterday.

The littlest brat helped to mash the potatoes and eggs as this is her favorite dish! She hardly helps in the kitchen unless we're cooking her favorite food. 

We also had watercress soup and some leftover dishes from the previous night's dinner.

CMCO Day 144 ~ Saturday, 31 October 2020

Every Saturday throughout this CMCO our earnest teenage chef cooks us lunch and dinner. While mil and I went to the supermarket in the morning today, she wokked up fried rice using all the dishes and rice leftover from last night's dinner (which is Nasi Kerabu with chicken drumstick and chili fish from Catermate and leftover zucchini omelette) and added 6 eggs and spring onions from our balcony garden. For dinner, she dished out something new - Indian butter chicken as she wanted to finish up the remaining whipped cream in the fridge. I gave her 10/10 for both dishes. They were so yummy!! Good job Sherilyn!  I promised her that I will order Gong Cha for her tomorrow as reward, using discount vouchers from Food Panda 😁

Sunday, 1 November 2020

With quite a bit of Indian butter chicken left from last night, Sherilyn made garlic Naan from scratch for lunch today to go with it. It's so yummy and reminds me of the ones we had last year at Khan's Indian Cuisine @ Bangsar South and Tasty Chapathi🤤  I really miss those pre-Covid days where we could freely roam everywhere to try new eateries during the weekends.  And I really miss mall shopping!! I wonder when we can do this again 😓

Earl Grey with 3 types of jelly for Sherilyn and classic milk tea with grass jelly for the other 2 girls

😊

CMCO Day 140 ~ Tuesday, 29 October 2020

Sherilyn's CMCO Main Masak-Masak in the kitchen the past few days yielded these:

1. Orange tarts - she claimed that it's not 100% successful as the pastry cream failed. Thus, she can't sell the tarts. We all loved the tart and walloped the tarts anyways. She's just overly persnickety when it comes to all her bakes. 

2. Orange curd tarts

3. Orange frangipane tarts

4. Keto egg rolls - she made this just to finish up the egg whites used in her bakes

5. Gimbap - she made this for dinner because we ordered Yomei's purple rice yoghurt for dinner and she cringed at the thought of eating chewy rice mixed with cold yoghurt 😆

Since the CMCO is extended, we're going to be guinea pigs to more of her new recipes and creations 😁.  Oh my poor hands, having to clean up after her!! 😖

Orange tart that Sherilyn claimed failed as the pastry cream didn't turn out well.

Orange tart cake before the aesthetic works. I actually prefer this plain sans any cream or elaborate decor. 

Orange Frangipane tart, which is a smaller version of the above.

Orange curd and orange curd tart.  This is a mouthwatering bold and extremely flavorful tart, made from fresh oranges.  Free-range chicken eggs were used to prep the orange curd. 

She may deny it, but this girl secretly loves playing with pastry dough and decorating all her bakes! 

Orange tart with fresh orange slices, crushed pistachios and fresh orange fluid gel.

After days of slogging in the kitchen, our teenage chef plopped herself on the couch and KO-ed at 8pm.😆.  Her grandma, dad and I couldn't wake her up for her shower but she eventually woke up hours later and had a late shower.

 

Lunch of Mee Siam and Ayam Gulai from hubby's shop.

The Ayam Gulai is really delicious and spiciness level is just perfect for everyone at home. Alycia who can't stomach spicy food enjoyed this chicken thoroughly.   

If you have a hankering for chicken curry, this is the quintessential dish.  It's cooked with a generous amount of freshly blended healthy and aromatic herbs with the creaminess of fresh coconut milk.  This dish is luxuriant and mind-blowingly delish. Pairs well with rice or meehoon or dunk in your sourdough bread, white bread, pau, mantou, whatever to mop all the sauce up. Guaranteed not a drop of sauce will be left!

Drooling already? Order some to sample from Catermate.😁

Super Soft Souffle Pancakes

MCO = 'main masak-masak' in the kitchen for our in-house teenage chef since she's house-bound and has no where to channel her overflowing energy and creativity.

Sherilyn has now perfected her skills in making sublime souffle pancakes that's uber soft, pillowy, airy and fluffy. They're the best I've tasted thus far. And dishing them out seems to be a no-brainer for her.  The pancakes are so good that I encouraged her to sell them so that people could taste how good her pancakes are but she said it's a tricky business as the pancakes will deflate if they're not eaten immediately.  True that.

Yesterday Sherilyn used up a lot of egg yolks to make orange Frangipane tart and orange custard. Today she utilized the whites to make souffle pancakes.  Several days ago she prepped fresh orange juice agar-agar so that she could make Fresh Orange Fluid Gel to go with the souffle pancakes.  I've never heard of what orange fluid gel is until educated by Sherilyn today  😆. Gosh, it's such a delicate and cumbersome process making it! 

The Frangipane tart is still resting in the fridge. Later she'll decorate it with fresh orange slices. Sherilyn wants to try selling the Frangipane tart in a Flash Sale.  I told her that Flash Sale is for selling something at a dirt cheap price and there's no way she could sell slices of Frangipane tarts at a dirt cheap price as she used up my expensive organic almond flour, organic unbleached flour,  kampung eggs and almost 10 oranges to produce the tart! 🤨  Throw in the electricity and water costs and the kitchen wet wipes I used to clean the greasy tops and floor!

Biting into the souffle pancake feels like biting into a pancake cloud as it's oh. so. soft.

CMCO Day 133 ~ Tuesday, 19 October 2020

What I learned from this shitty pandemic is that everyone must have a stash of substantial savings in their bank(s) for rainy days and unexpected misevents like Covid-19.  Most business owners (including hubs) whom I know who are impacted financially by this unexpected black swan event are now surviving on their savings. But how much can you have in your coffer to stay afloat for almost a year of severe interruption in your business?  And we're not even certain if the pandemic will get any better or worse next year.  We all know that money can be exhausted in a blink of an eye and recouping it may take ages.

The pandemic and partial lockdown started in March this year and we're now 8 months into this pandemic and economic fallout.  A couple of months ago, we saw some light and thought it was nearing the end of the tunnel but the light faded away leaving us groping in the dark again. We're back to square one again. Back to ground zero.  Many businesses built over the decades crumbled almost overnight under the weight of economic hardship brought on by the shitty pandemic. I've seen almost a dozen of businesses in our residential area fold  during the MCO, including my friend's eatery.  Today when I brought Sherilyn to a nearby gadget shop to get new earphones (for online classes), I saw a few more shops shuttered for good 😓

This pandemic is deja vu. I used to have recurring nightmares of running away in fear and trepidation in a war or some kind of unrest in my dreams. And now we're really in a war, which I call  World War III, fighting an invisible enemy.  

If you still have a full-time job with no pay cut, you are considered the lucky few and you really have to give thanks to God everyday for the blessings.  This shitty pandemic has really been horrible for a lot of businesses and employees.  It's been so bad that a lot of Malaysians out there are reportedly negatively affected.   A Jobstreet survey has shown that nine out of 10 Malaysians have been impacted by the pandemic, with 48 per cent of employees saying that they have experienced negative impact on remuneration and salary 😢

During this time of uncertainty, losing a job hits harder because the world doesn’t even know what the next step is going to be. You won't even know if you're going to be the next positive case.  The mental and emotional effects of losing a job or having your income slashed considerably can feel very similar to the grief process.  But like I've mentioned before, when one door is closed, try to seek another door and when you find it, open it and seek opportunities. Never give up and feel dejected. And I am reminding myself and hubs everyday, although we both feel crushed.   Look at each day as an opportunity and foster the mindset to continue moving toward your goal of finding a job or seeking new opportunities in tough times amidst the pandemic.

My baby brother came on Friday last week to pass me Cass' eye drops. Cass has finished her bottle of atropine eye drops for her myopia for almost two months.  With shopping malls around the Klang Valley hit badly by Covid-19, I've been avoiding shopping malls. As my brother had to meet doctors at ISEC @ Mid Valley, he helped me get the eye drops and refused to accept payment from me.   That's what siblings are for.  Thanks baby 💓.  This is what we call him as he's the baby of the family and at 43, we still call him baby 😁

My brother was worried of passing any Virus to me as he'd been to several hospitals including ISEC, so he left the bag of eye drop on the granite slab and told me to keep a distance from him 💓

Home Quarantine Cooking

Even before the CMCO was announced on Monday afternoon, I had already kept Sherilyn at home for a week as she was feeling a tad under the weather. She had been having very late nights lately to complete projects and her health has taken a hit from the lack of sleep.  Over the past few weeks, there were a few Covid positive cases in three condos  in our residential area. One of Sherilyn's teachers and classmates stay in one of the condos, though not from the same block as the Case.  A couple of days before the CMCO was announced, almost everyone from her class skipped school.  I also didn't allow Cass to go to school a few days before the CMCO was announced. She wasn't very happy as she doesn't like to stay home all day without having anything to do. 

Since she's got so much free time at home, Sherilyn made Tempura prawns, pumpkin, mushrooms and lady's fingers. Tempura is something that she's always wanted to try making and what better time than now?  Home quarantine is the best time to try out new recipes!

Mixed Tempura of prawns, pumpkin, mushrooms and lady's fingers, using a packet of sample Thai Tempura flour she found in the kitchen cabinet.  Hubs got the sample Tempura flour from a supplier and the flour has been sitting inside the cabinet for a long time already.

On Monday, Sherilyn's second tooth was extracted for braces.  A few days before the scheduled tooth extraction, she had already planned what to cook for her post-extraction meals.  She prepped Dashi and some other stock for her Soba, Japanese simmered pumpkin and savory oats. 

A day after the tooth extraction, Sherilyn ran a temperature.  But she was still well enough to whip up a very yummy buttery and garlicky oats porridge.  Thank God the temp subsided after just a day. 

The savory oats porridge was so good that I preferred her oats more than the Dah Makan food delivered to us 😆 

Ingredients:

Instant organic steel-cut oat groats (pre-steamed, thus the oats soften easily)

Butter

Milk

Dashi stock

Minced garlic

Toppings:

Poached egg

Avocado

Simmered pumpkin (Kabocha No Nimono)

Scallions from our garden

Before her dental appointment, she quickly prepped a batch of chewy pumpkin cubes for future use in her dessert bowls. When she came back from the dental clinic, she continued rolling the cubes until almost midnight while watching a movie from her phone 😐

Such is the life of a middle high school student during lockdown!

Our 15-year old sure has a lot of potential and caliber in the culinary and creativity department but ironically, cooking and baking are only her hobby (as she's a foodie like her dad!) and she has told me many times that she will never pursue a course in F&B in future.  Her dream is to get a scholarship and study in her dream university in Canada! And my reply to her is "chase your dream and make it come true" 🙏

Easy Way Out

On days that Maria our part-time helper doesn't come, I now get takeaway food from my favorite family-approved eateries in the neighborhood.  One of the eateries is a Japanese restaurant and they have economy mixed dishes cooked the Japanese way available during lunch.  However, the price is not as cheap as 'chap fan'.  It cost RM50 for these three dishes for 5 pax, sans rice. Everyone loves the food and there's never once any food that's leftover.  The chef is a health freak and she's very fastidious about what goes into the dishes that she cooks.  Even my persnickety foodie hubs approves of the food from this Japanese restaurant.

Chicken Teriyaki:

 

Tofu + minced chicken patties:

Japanese seaweed and radish appetizer:

 

It's such a chore taken off our shoulders when we don't have to cook, scrub pots, wok and pans and wipe greasy stoves and floor. I know the mil feels tired as well having to cook 6 times a week.  And the house is so much more peaceful when the girls don't have to squabble over cleaning up and keeping unfinished food after dinner!   I think I'll stick to this arrangement of buying takeout on days that our helper doesn't come in.  My right hand has now completely healed and I am not taking any chances of overworking it again!