Chinese New Year 2023

On the 3rd day of CNY, the mil made a trip to Ipoh with her besties. Her bff who's aged 78 drove an MPV and she's the same age as the mil. I'm always amazed by this aunty. At 78, she's still running a car workshop in PJ, and drives to Ipoh frequently with the mil.  

With the mil in Ipoh for 2 nights, we had really simple dinners at home.  On the 4th day of CNY, Sherilyn made a quick and easy Yosenabe, a basic Japanese hot pot where you can cook whatever ingredients—any kind of meat, seafood, tofu, and all kinds of vegetables—in a delicious dashi-based broth. 

Sherilyn used two types of instant dashi for the soup - one is a seafood dashi from Melaleuca and another one is a chicken dashi bought from Japan recently.  In the hot pot were a variety of items that we could gather from the fridge - tofu fishball, stuffed beancurd (foo pei), prawns, pork, egg tofu, cauliflower, and some green veggies.

Yosenabe is a very easy one-pot dish that anyone can prep at home. We all love having this dish for dinner as we can throw in all our favorite veggies and meat into the pot.  If you're lazy to wash your veggies, you can get ready-to-eat triple-washed veggies, ready-to-cook shabu-shabu sliced pork, chicken, beef, meatballs, and fish balls and throw them all into the pot for a quick and satisfying meal.  

I always have a stash of good quality instant dashi at home for making quick soups. We use it to prep hot pot soup, to cook dumplings, noodles, and other dishes.

As there was still some soup left, we had Yosenabe for dinner again the next day.  Sherilyn added another sachet of dashi and more water to briefly simmer the dashi, before adding in a whole head of Chinese cabbage, carrots, sweet potatoes, pork belly, a whole head of radish (my favorite), foo pei, egg tofu, and big onions. 

Dinner on Chor 5 - Yosenabe and ginger + egg + siew yoke + sesame seed oil fried rice cooked by the girls' grand aunt who lives 2 floors below us.

On the 7th day of CNY, we had our yearly CNY gathering with our close buddies at Restaurant Pin Xiang @ Aman Suria.  

The mil didn't attend this time as she was down with a bad bout of gastric after she returned from Ipoh. I sent her to the clinic to get some meds from the doctor in the morning.

Our sumptuous lunch with a bill totaling over RM2k+.  There were 9 adults and 8 kids. Actually, our kids are no longer kids but adults now and eat like adults too!  

After lunch, we got ourselves coffee and milk tea from a Pakopi truck parked outside the restaurant.  In my opinion, I think their Hong Kong milk tea with jelly is way better than many other popular boutique bubble tea brands.  And it's way cheaper too.

But I regretted downing the cup of kaw kaw milk tea that afternoon coz that night I suffered from insomnia. Damn the caffeine overload!!  And the following night, which was the eve of Pai Ti Kong (9th day of CNY)), I didn't get an hour of shut-eye as well as there were thunderous sounds of fireworks throughout the night. Dang it! 

Photo of KL city night sky taken from the 5th floor of our condo - KL Towers has been illuminated in red since the Eve of CNY.

Random Events Before CNY 2023

The few days leading up to Chinese New Year were busy days for me.  No, I wasn't busy spring cleaning (I clean the house every day) or shopping for CNY stuff but busy with the girls.

On Thursday (three days before CNY), I attended Sherilyn's graduation ceremony at the Pearl International Hotel. Parents and students must reach the hotel ballroom at 7.30 a.m. sharp and I got up at 4.15 a.m. to do some chores before we left the house before 7 a.m.   I spent half the day at the hotel and reached home at around 2 p.m.

Sherilyn's high school graduation ceremony in January 2023 vs.

Primary school (SJKC Kuen Cheng 2) graduation ceremony in November 2017. 
How did 6 years just fly past us without us realizing it?

I can't wait to attend Sherilyn's university graduation in 4 years 🙏😊

On the day of Sherilyn's graduation ceremony, Alycia had to miss her trip back to Ipoh for CNY with her grandparents as she was down with food poisoning.  Instead of feasting on yummy food in Ipoh with my parents and her cousins, she ate bread and was feeling nauseous with persistent purging.  

Eve of eve of CNY ~ I brought Cass to Sunway Pyramid to have her ice skates molded to make them more fitting and comfy. Her new skates were a tad stiff and were causing her painful blisters.  We later found out that molding ice skates is actually baking her skates in the oven for a brief 3-5 minutes.

After getting her skates molded, I coaxed Cass into getting a new t-shirt for CNY.  This girl of mine is not bothered by what she wears and doesn't understand why I keep forcing her to get new clothes 😂.  She's the kind of girl who can wear the same set of clothing that she wore to sleep last night to the mall or restaurant the next day and couldn't be bothered with what people think of her 🤣 and this drives me potty.  

Thursday, 12 January 2023

I went to the dentist again today for a checkup as the filling that the dentist did last week didn't really stop the sensitive feeling in my tooth. It did help, but not 100%.  The affected tooth felt weak and doesn't have the full strength to bite on hard food.  Just a recap - a small part of my lower back tooth was chipped off after I bit into some sand in the marinated spinach appetizer at a Korean restaurant.   Since that fateful day, I have now developed a phobia of biting into green leafy veggies or anything hard.

The dentist did a checkup and sensitivity test on the tooth and told me that because the top part of the tooth (the crown) is chipped, this has exposed the nerves and blood vessels in the pulp (the inner soft tissue of your teeth) underneath, leading to increased tooth pain and sensitivity.  A filling cannot be done on the crown.  The best way to resolve the issue is by way of a tooth crowning.  And that is going to cost me between RM900 - RM1,200 per tooth, depending on which type of crowing I want.  I need crowning for several teeth as a few of my teeth have chips on the crown.  And that's going to cost me a few thousand bucks in order for me to eat better and look prettier!  

I'll put this dental need on the back burner and relook into it in another few years.  I hope I don't have to proceed with the crowning procedure earlier.

Today's damage is RM180 for two fillings.  The procedure today was to remove the old and black fillings from two front teeth and had them replaced with new fillings the color of my teeth.  

Dentists earn really good money. Seeking dental treatment for pain relief or orthodontic treatment is inevitable and not something that we can ask Google and self-treat at home. I'd spent almost RM20k on braces for Alycia and Sherilyn.  

And this is why there are about 10 dental clinics in my neighborhood.  Half a dozen of these clinics were opened during the MCO.  I hope my two younger daughters would consider a degree in dentistry as I see so much potential in this career 😬

The mil cooked this broccoli dish with garlic in the Thermomix, our German kitchen helper.  She had chosen the wrong speed (higher speed) and the broccoli became half-blended. She was so disappointed with her error but I actually love the texture.  For someone with weak teeth, I prefer soft veggies coz there's less work for my teeth to do 😁.
Yesterday she used the wrong speed again when cooking pork porridge with sweet potatoes and the outcome was a sticky and thick pudding-like porridge.  The girls didn't want to eat it and the mil and I finished it. I added some hot water to it, soy sauce, and pepper and it was palatable again.

Haru Turns Two!

We're not exactly sure when Haru was born but we guess that she was born circa the end of December 2020 or the first few days of 2021. When hubs first discovered Haru and her siblings outside his office doorstep, it was in mid-January 2021. Sherilyn and I first went to see the kittens on 15 January 2021. Haru and his siblings were about two weeks old.

15 January 2021 ~ Our first time meeting Haru. It was love at first sight for me. Out of the six kittens in the litter, Haru was the cutest and the most active, and the nosiest. She was also a spicy cat from day one, hissing at us each time we went to see the kittens.

So we decided to make the date 31 December Haru's birthday, a day after hubby's birthday.

Sherilyn made a birthday cake for Haru's 2nd birthday. It's composed of Haru's wet food, grain-free kibbles, and creamy treat.  

The kibbles were pounded using a dough roller, then mixed with wet food, and molded into a cake shape using a circular tart ring.  Haru's name and the number '2' are made up of creamy cat treat.

Haru couldn't contain her excitement when she saw the cake and loved it!  We gave her half for supper and the other half for breakfast the next day.

Haru has been a huge joy in our lives ever since she came into our home two years ago. I should have known earlier that cats are just as awesome as dogs!

Throwback Food Snaps in Ipoh

Here's a recap of the simple yet delicious nosh that we had during our recent trip back to Ipoh from 24 ~ 27 December 2022. 

We didn't venture into town as both the road and human congestion were horrendous. It was Christmas and school term break, a period when all the touristy spots in Ipoh were jam-packed with long queues. 

We had all our meals at restaurants that were located within a 5-10 minute drive away from my parents' house.  Had the hubby followed us back, it would be another story.  He's a bit more adventurous when it comes to hunting down his favorite foods, and thus will brave the congestion and long queues to satiate his cravings.  

Dinner at Poh San @ Ipoh Garden East.

Dinner at Choy Kee Seafood Restaurant @ Ipoh Garden

We love the Kung Po style fried eel as well as stir-fried fish slices with scallions and ginger from Choy Kee.  Portions were really huge.

Dim Sum for brunch on Boxing Day @ Kok Thai.

There used to be a Kok Thai Restaurant in Ipoh Garden East where my parents' house is but sadly, it shuttered down in 2020 at the height of the pandemic.  The Kok Thai outlet that we went to for dim sum is located on Jalan Raja Dr. Nazrin Shah, just next to the old Casuarina Hotel. 

Kok Thai - a clean and spacious restaurant.

This is not food-related but a pet peeve of mine.  What I find totally gross and scuzzy is the headrest of public transport, especially trains and buses. So in order to have a restful 2 hours 40 minutes train ride, I wore a hoody jacket (with hoody over my head) and placed clean kitchen rolls over the headrest before resting my head on it 😜

I also wiped the seat with wet wipes before sitting on it. But the girls couldn't be bothered with the dirty seats though. They wore a hoodie or a cap to buffer their head/hair from touching the greasy headrest.

And mind you, it's not just plain kitchen rolls, but kitchen rolls with cute and colorful prints on them.  Can't blame an OCD  😬

31 December ~ Last Day of 2022

2020-2022 weren't easy years for us.  The days were filled with so many uncertainties, anxiety, and feelings of hopelessness.  The past two years have been turbulent for us but nonetheless, a pretty good chapter.  Though everyone in our family got infected by Covid this year, I thank God that we managed to fight this invisible enemy and won.  But we can't rest on our laurels for this enemy is still lurking around, waiting to pound on us again. Our lives will never be the same again as Covid will probably be around forever, but as human beings, our resilient nature has thrust us forward into a new normal.

Our dinner on the last day of 2022 was at Seng Kee Kitchen again, our favorite neighborhood restaurant.  

When hubs went to settle the bill, the generous and affable lady boss from the restaurant gifted this CNY set to us. Love this set of three ceramic bowls that come with lids.  The lady boss gave us bowls and chopsticks for CNY this year (2022 CNY).

Can you believe that CNY is in another three weeks? We've just celebrated Christmas and now we're ushering yet another major festival!

And this wraps up 2022. And now onto the new year ahead >> 2023 and all the adventures awaiting us.

Wishing all my readers a better year ahead, good health, good wealth, and an abundance of blessings.  

Best foot 🦶 forward, everyone!  Happy 2023 💪

How To Clean A Burnt Iron (Removing Burnt Cloth From Iron)

Last week Sherilyn burnt the new black pants that she bought from Shein whilst ironing it.  She was in a hurry to go out with her friends and had spent almost the entire day baking cakes.  

After spending the whole morning and afternoon baking two flour-free orange cakes (one for her grandparents in Ipoh and one for her grandaunt) and two chocolate cakes (one for her friend's birthday and another one for her grandaunt), she hurriedly ironed her pants for her girls' night with her former classmates.  Minutes later, she ran out of the room to show me her burnt pants with a big chunk of cloth that was stuck to the iron! She was totally devastated that her favorite pants couldn't be saved, not even after chopping off the long parts to make it into a pair of shorts. The hole is on the pocket part.

The cakes that Sherilyn baked. 

I think I know what she did that caused the big boo-boo. She of course said she did everything right and yet the pants got burnt. Oh well.  We've all been there and done that too.

Anyway...

The mil was fuming as the iron is an expensive one gifted to her by her eldest daughter who bought it from Hong Kong.  MIL told Sherilyn to clean up the iron or buy her another similar iron 😂

The damage done to the iron looked really bad. The fabric from the black pants melted and was glued to the hot iron.  The black pants was a total loss and no way could it be saved as the big hole was right smack in front.

As Sherilyn was already running late, she didn't have time to Google ways to clean a burnt iron.  She was busy dolling up herself for her dinner with her friends.  Alycia, begrudgingly volunteered to help as she wanted to use the iron.   She spent almost an hour googling ways (while cussing) and tried half a dozen of methods but none worked until she tried VINEGAR + BAKING SODA!  And voila, it worked like a charm.

The piece of burnt fabric came off from the iron's soleplate in one single piece, like a piece of thin crispy seaweed.  Cass, Alycia, and I were awed to see the burnt fabric peel off like magic!

Method

Make a paste with equal parts vinegar and baking soda, dip a clean microfiber cloth into the paste, then rub it in small circles over the soleplate.

She used rice vinegar as we'd run out of synthetic vinegar.  Be sure to use a microfiber cloth.

On another note, Sherilyn also used rice vinegar to remove a big patch of matcha (green) stains off her white pants just a few days ago when she spilled hot matcha on it.  This careless girl damaged two of her favorite pants in less than two weeks.   The green stains came off almost completely from her white denim pants after the pants was soaked in rice vinegar and baking soda for three days.

The burnt piece of fabric peeled off from the iron's soleplate after rubbing the iron with vinegar and baking soda with a microfiber cloth.

After the burnt fabric is peeled off, continue using a microfiber cloth and filtered water to scrub off the stains off the soleplate.  

The iron is now 99.9% clean like before!

Wednesday, 21 December 2022

Today I brought Haru to the vet as she's having slight diarrhea.  It's not the runny stool kind of diarrhea, but a tad more frequent kind of diarrhea. Haru has a very sensitive digestive tract since her kitten days and from my two years of observation, feeding her chicken kept in the fridge for 2 days may be the cause of upsetting her tummy.  Her tummy doesn't tolerate overnight meat well.  I thought cats are very resilient animals that can feed on any meat, even raw meat and road kill, and scavenged food scraps by the roadside, but Haru seems to have a human tummy!  She is gluten-intolerant and cannot be fed too much, albeit she seems to have a bottomless pit with a ravenous appetite.  Haru will never be a fat cat as her tummy is such that she has to be on a keto diet with no grains and cannot be overfed 😹

I brought Haru to the vet pronto as we won't be in town from 24 - 27 December.  I'll be taking the ETS  train back to Ipoh with the mil, Cass, and Sherilyn to celebrate Christmas.  Hubs has to work during this time.  I actually wanted to send Haru to a cat boarder but the boarder is fully booked.  I looked around for other cat boarders and they were all fully booked for Christmas too.  Alycia volunteered to stay behind to cat-sit Haru and I gladly accepted her offer, with pay to thank her for her help.

Haru now treats my chair as her night bed. At around the same time almost every night, she would swipe on my leg or scratch my chair to signify to me that it's HER time now to use the chair.  This bossy cat wants me to buzz off so that she could sleep on my chair. The moment I leave my chair, up she jumps onto my chair and snuggles up comfortably until the next morning.  She would not budge even with me sitting on her legs and tail, which is otherwise her pet peeve at other times of the day 😄

Our Precious Haru

Haru saved me from a cockroach! Of all the insects in the world, I fear the darn roach the most.  It's the most disgusting, stinkiest, and most annoying pest ever.  I know it's an irrational fear but roaches are simply gross and they flap their stinky wings and fly toward you to scare the shit out of you.  Growing up, I had very bad experiences with roaches and developed a chronic phobia of roaches.

When I discovered a cockroach the other day, I yelled out to Haru to come as Haru loves to catch insects.  I knew that Haru would surely be able to swipe the gross fella with her paws very swiftly. While she was at it, I quickly ran to the kitchen and grabbed my bottle of Sol-U-Guard.  

With just a couple of swipes with her paw, the roach struggled to fly. I quickly sprayed a copious amount of Sol-U-Guard on the roach and then it gradually stopped moving. Phew!

Good job, Haru!

Throwback - Alycia was comforting Haru here, who was terrified of the continuous fireworks on Deepavali night a couple of months ago.

Someone just loves to sleep on Haru's bed! 😹😸

Old Treasure

I found some of my old photos taken when I was working at Southern Bank (now CIMB Bank).  These photos are over two decades old.  They were taken circa 1994 ~ 1997 during my tenure at the Corporate Human Resources Division (CHRD) where I worked as a HR Officer.  I spent 8 years at CHRD and created lots of memories and friendships as well as gained tons of invaluable experience in this department.

Taken at our bank's annual dinner and dance.  If I remember correctly, that was in 1993/1994.

The Corporate Human Resources Division team.  I'm seated fourth from left. Irene, on my left was my supervisor and she's now living in Australia.  The lady wearing glasses in green baju kurung was the HR Manager.

I'm the one in a yellow blouse.  On my right is Shareefa and we still keep in touch.  On my left is Ayu, my assistant. We were in charge of staff loans that year before I got rotated to the Recruitment section where one of my duties was to interview candidates.  The girl on the extreme right is from the Kelantan royal family and she's in charge of the Training Dept.

Are Silicone Products Safe To Use?

Silicone was recognized by the FDA as a safe-to-be-used food-grade material (food-grade silicone) in 1979.  Silicone is a lab-made material that consists of several different chemicals such as silicon (a naturally occurring element), oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. Usually produced in liquid form or flexible plastic, silicone is used for cooking, baking, medical, electrical, and other purposes.

Like plastics, silicone can include a mix of chemical additives, fillers, and raw material impurities.  In general, silicone has fewer chemical additives than plastics.  Food-grade silicones that are FDA-regulated should not have any fillers.  If the white shows through in the silicone when twisted, pulled, or pinched, the silicone contains a filler.  And if it cracks or loses elasticity, this indicates the inclusion of fillers in the silicone.

Whether you are looking to purchase household silicone utensils or custom silicone molds, always opt for silicone products that are made from the best silicone materials, such as those manufactured by Newtop Rubber.

Silicone Baby Fruit Feeder Pacifier

Newtop Rubber uses food-grade and medical-grade liquid silicone materials to produce high-quality products. As a source manufacturer, they have better price advantages than intermediate traders and stricter quality control.

Silicone cookware has made cooking and baking super convenient.   Not only are the colours of these quirky utensils captivating, these silicone moulds, muffin cups, cake pans, ice moulds and what nots have paved their way into almost every household around the globe. 

BPA Free Food Grade kitchen Storage Bag

Most food-grade silicone utensils can endure very high heat. However, heat tolerance for silicone cookware varies.  It is still possible for silicone cooking utensils to melt if they are exposed to extremely high heat, causing silicone liquid to leach into your food.  If this happens, it is important to discard the melted utensils and food. Do not expose silicone cookware at temperatures above 428°F (220°C).

 

Silicone Mold For Cupcake Decoration

Not only is silicone cookware heat-resistant, they are freezer safe, and oven safe, but only up to 428 degrees Fahrenheit or 220 Celsius.  Due to its bonded composition, silicon is non-biodegradable, non-toxic, and non-recyclable.  Although silicone products are non-biodegradable, they can however be recycled and remoulded into other products.

As silicone is considered chemically stable, experts say it’s safe to use and likely not harmful.

If you’re looking for a silicone overmolding supplier for your business or for bulk purchases, check out Newtop Rubber for an extensive range of silicone products.

Thursday, 1 December 2022 ~ Random Updates

Hello December! 

We're on the last leg of our journey in 2022, yo! We survived another year of the pandemic, even though every single member of our household got infected by Covid this year. Alycia got infected twice within a span of 4 months. Thank God she's spared from getting infected the third time when almost everyone at home was down with Covid recently.

Sherilyn is still having a dry cough and had to skip school this morning when she felt nauseous.  She's supposed to sit for her SPM Trial Biology paper today as she missed a week of school last week due to Covid and now has to sit for the paper tomorrow instead.

Alycia returned from yet another short vacay in Ipoh and Penang with her college mates on Monday.  This girl can really play hard and study hard as well. I hope she'll succeed in getting another year's scholarship from the university for her second year of studies next year.

Cass came home from school today and gleefully told me that she fared better in all her papers in her recent final exam. She dug out all her old papers from this year's Mid Term Exam as well as last year's Final Exam and compared the marks and proudly showed them to me 😁

After I'd cooked lunner for Cass today, I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to cook rice for her! So I  quickly blanched some soba noodles for her. It was already 3-ish p.m. and Cass would be back by 3.40 p.m. and cooking noodles is always the quickest.

Oven grilled wingettes and drumettes. 

Japanese Chocolate Persimmon

My SIL from the UK is in town.  Yesterday she went grocery shopping and got us some Japanese chocolate persimmons, one of the finest persimmons around.  At RM28 each, it's our first time trying these elusive persimmons.

Chocolate persimmons have a very sweet and sugary flavor with subtle spice-filled undertones. The fruits are named “chocolate” for their brown, variegated flesh, not for their taste. 

Aside from the color of the flesh, chocolate persimmons taste very much similar to regular persimmons with orange and yellow flesh.

13 November 2022 ~ Traipsing Around @ Pavillion Bukit Jalil

It's been almost two months since Cass started figure skating lessons at the Blue Ice Snow Park @ Pavillion Bukit Jalil.  Spending my Sundays at Pavillion is not something that I look forward to. I'd rather be loafing at home than jazz around aimlessly at the mall with nothing in mind to buy.  Most of my purchases are now done online since the pandemic started 3 years ago.

While traipsing around at Pavillion Bukit Jalil on Sunday, I chanced upon Tokyo Town.  Located at the mall's second level, Tokyo Town celebrates all things Japanese including food, retail, and culture.

Once at the entrance of Tokyo Town, I felt instantly transported to the land of the rising sun with two larger-than-life artistic sumo sculptures greeting shoppers.

Shoppers will be further greeted into a shopping street in Tokyo Town precinct, also known as “Nakamise” in Japanese with a symbolic and grand Torii Gate – featuring unique and cultural decorations such as cochin or Japanese traditional lanterns, beautiful Sakura trees adorned with tanabata wishes and carp streamers as well as a grand and gorgeous Kimono Art Tapestry on exhibit.

From Nakamise lots to specialty stores, shoppers can find a rich selection of Japanese food, retail, arts and culture.

Visitors can satisfy their Japanese cuisine cravings with a wide variety of F&B from popular sushi dishes at Fuji Sushi, delicious deep-fried succulent meats at Tonkatsu by Wa Kitchen, mouth-watering teppanyaki at Tokyo Teppan, best of bite-sized Maki sushi to Japanese street food at Yatai Mura.

I told hubs that the next time we're here, we have to try Tonkatsu by Wa Kitchen.

Spend a minimum of RM80 at any store in Tokyo Town, and buy any instant noodles at RM1 each.

A long row of claw machines outside Tokyo Town.

For lunner, I had Indian Rojak & teh tarik at Sedap by Grandmama's located at Level 5 (same level as the skating rink).

Toilet shot, all because I had too much time and didn't know what to do 😁

This Sunday I'll be going to Pavillion again with Cass, just the two of us as hubs has to go to Ipoh for a dinner. Whenever I'm not with my eating partner, I find it really hard to kill the hours at the mall.