Unlucky Ending, Lucky Beginning

*Super long post ahead for my own rememberance but go ahead and read if you like some drama :p

For the entire day on eve of CNY, I was literally moving around rather mechanically, not knowing what's happening, going to happen but I certain remember what happened! The year of Rat really ended in a bad way starting from 5ish am when my boiboi came to our bedroom. With strong maternal instinct, I opened my eyes the moment he flickered on the light switch of the bathroom. I got up and saw him jumping onto the WC. Boiboi said he wanted to poo and pooed he did.

When he's done, I asked if he would like to sleep with us but he turned me down. He said he's going back to sleep on his bed. Come 6ish am, I have yet to be able to sleep back, boiboi rushed in again and told me he need to poo again. This time he told me it's soft stools.. uh oh, doesn't sound good. Once done, he went back to his room again leaving me tossing and turning. I think I just managed to closed my eyes, at 7ish am, boiboi ran in excitedly calling for me. I opened my bleary eyes and boiboi shoved his palm on my face. Oh dear his dangling bottom incisor finally came off and he's very excited. I asked him to get back to his room for some sleep and sleep he did. And all these... the daddy just sleep thru snoring away, his excuse was he took cough med the night before.

As for myself, enough is enough, I got up and start working on my chores and remove my char siu and pai kuat (pork ribs) marinading in the fridge. I started to wash and cut the ingredients for my tzai choy (vegetarian dish) to be cooked on the first day.

Come 9.45am I chucked in my meat into the oven for roasting which by then boiboi has gotten up. Made him his milk and breakie, continued with my chores and checking on the roasts. Had a late breakie after Capt'n Hook had his. Remove the roasts and let them cool down yada yada...

I have to say my char siu (bbq pork) was pretty good. I tested roasting pork ribs this time using the same marinade which turned out surprisingly good and tender. Recipe here.



As we were to leave home around 12.45pm to my parents for reunion lunch, the fart said he need to poo again. We waited and didn't leave till past 1pm. Reached parents and had a late lunch after the rest of the clan went ahead after I asked them to go ahead without us. Boiboi rushed to the toilet at 2.30pm again just after a couple spoonfuls of his lunch. OK that's it, we'll have to take him to the clinic but on CNY eve, his peads are closed so the next best bet would be hospital emergency.

We got to the hospital around 4.15pm. There were a lot of people at the tiny waiting lounge but only a fraction of them were patients. There was one family, the granny was the patient but the entire clan of son, DIL and 3 grandchildren came along occupied half the seats in the lounge! Come 6pm, we were still waiting! Actually there isn't that many patients nor extreme emergency cases but they have only 3 consultation beds and some of these patients were in there for a long while, perhaps on drips or something.

What was worst, my cat loving boiboi saw a cat outside and he wanted to go over to pat it but I disallowed after seeing that ferocious cat meowing and trying to chase a mummy and her little girl. He stood at the glass sliding door and put his palm out trying to wave at the cat, just when I asked him to stop doing that, I heard his cries for help. Someone came in and activated the sliding door and boiboi's arm got stuck in between the gap!!! I rushed over to help him followed by the daddy and managed to get his arm out. Guess what??? The entire visitors at the lounge just watched except for one Caucasian man came over to offer his help *roll eyes*.

6.05pm we heard the nurse calling for boiboi and went in to let the MO checked him, was done in just 5 mins!!! Duhhh, 2 hours wait for 5 mins consulation. There's nothing major with him, just need to keep him off milk for the next day. After collecting the meds, we rushed off to pick MIL for reunion dinner.

Thank goodness no more diarrhea and got him to sip on his oral dehyration salt. Came home, tucked my boiboi to bed and I continue to cut my soaked dried mushrooms and some other ingredients.

I was very very tired, felt like a zombie. Showered and washed my hair just before midnight but I was too tired to sleep. Watched some telly and ushered in the new year which is surprisingly pretty quiet in my area when last year, it was totally like a war zone.

Come new year, I woke up around 8am and started cooking my version 5.0 of vegetarian dish. Easy peasy.



We went off to MIL place for lunch before heading to my parents then back to my MIL to take her out for dinner and guess whom we met at the mall near home???



It's Uncle Choy hahaha Choy Sun Yeh (God of Prosperity)... I feel LUCKY already!

Review: Reunion Dinner at Hakka Restaurant

**Non-Halal**

Today's the fourth day of the lunar new year. I hope all is well with everyone... had a safe drive home, merry makings, happily feasting away etc...

I had this reunion dinner with Capt'n Hook's family at Hakka Restaurant. I didn't realised that they were established since 1956 as stated in the paper napkins even though I've been following them around in the city from the now Chuai Heng at Jalan Raja Chulan to the former bungalow that Yasmin Restoran (darn I so missed the Malay fare here) used to occupy at Jalan Kia Peng. Now their latest shift is back to Jalan Raja Chulan ermmm which is actually just a stone throw away from their Kia Peng place. You'll need to go in via Jalan Kia Peng and drive on pass Menara HLA, then when you see Borneo Baruk Club, you need to slow down and keep left. Hakka Restaurant entrance is right after the club. Parking is limited here so you either pay RM5 to the jockey or exit the restaurant and drive round to park at the carpark next to their old place.



Since the outstation brother-in-law and his family didn't manage to make it back this year, so it was only a small affair with 4 adults and my boiboi. It was full house that night and I see them turning away walk-in patrons. Luckily we made advanced reservation weeks back.

We started off with half a portion of Salmon Yue Sang (raw fish RM38).



Here's us tossing away for prosperity and good health...



I loved these Beancurd Skin Parcels with HK Choy Sum and Mushrooms (RM28). This is a vegetarian dish as the beancurd skin parcels contained mushrooms and gosh I can't really recall what's inside cos I was too tired to bother what I ate :p but the combination was great. The choy sum was young and crunchy.



Sweet and Sour Fish Fillet (RM21) was ordered for my boiboi. Lucky for this dish especially the sweetish and sourish ketchup sauce, my boiboi managed to have some food down his system. What I like is the thick slices of fish, at least can taste the freshness and flesh. The way it's done here is very old school as the dish is topped with cucumber and tomato strips that are pickled lightly in vinegar and some sugar, just like how my mom did with hers.



Next we have a very high rated Kampung Chicken in Rice Wine Soup (RM45). The soup is thick with loads of chopped ginger swimming inside devoid of black fungus, totally different from the version I usually cook. Capt'n Hook enjoyed the soup till the very last drop. Certainly warmed up our body as the temperature inside the air-con area is rather cold.

Right after this, our dish came to a halt, we waited for more than 20 minutes and still no sign of our Harm Darn Har (Prawns Coated with Salted Egg Yolks RM50). After countless reminder, the prawns finally arrived. This version is something new to us. The prawns were deep fried with some salted egg yolks encrusted on them but it's kinda dry and not creamy like those we normally have. Other than this, there were bits of yolks fried with red chili padi scattered all over. Thumbs down by everyone.



The last item we have was just a simple Lotus Paste Chinese Pancake (RM10) which also took ages to arrive. This is my fave dessert but Hakka's version is extremely oily and the pastry is soaked with oil. The combination of pastry and lotus paste is not even as well with too much paste. The pieces went limp when lifted up with our chopsticks. Should have sticked with their yummilicious Peanut Soup!



I know it's a Hakka restaurant but we did not order anything Hakka cos it's tough to finish their signature Fatt Choy Hoe Si (Pork Knuckles with Dried Oysters and Fatt Choy) or deep fried knuckle with so few of us. The other dishes that I liked are their Crispy Roast Chicken, Lap Mei Farn (Waxed Meat Rice) and their signature tofu dish.

Our bill came up to RM229.34 after adding in the rice, tea and towels plus 5% Government Tax and another 5% Service Charge.


Hakka Restaurant
No. 90 Jalan Raja Chulan
50200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 603-2143 1907


BTW, this is a short plug... those flying MAS to destinations like China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan will enjoy special Chinese menu during this Chinese New Year period. Passengers will get to enjoy cuisines like pan fried silver cod served with soya sauce glace, yong chow fried rice with crab meat and diced scallops, stir-fried noodles with chicken and julienne vegetables, steamed red garoupa ‘yuh siang’ style, BBQ chicken pau and Chinese congee with shredded dried scallops, depending on the actual meal cycles applicable on each flight.


Technorati Tags: chinese food + malaysian food

Happy Niu Year

May the Oxpicious year brings you
cartfuls of good luck, joy,
prosperity and best of health!
Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

Review: Kikkoman Teriyaki Marinade with Roasted Garlic

I was in Isetan recently and chanced upon Kikkoman Teriyaki sauces on offer. I took a look and there were a few variety available. Since I've never tried this brand's teriyaki sauce so I picked up a bottle of Kikkoman Teriyaki Marinade with Roasted Garlic.

Back home, I marinaded 2 skinless chicken thighs that have been chopped into smaller pieces with this Kikkoman Teriyaki Marinade with Roasted Garlic. Chucked them in the fridge for a few hours before cooking. I did not cook a traditional teriyaki but instead I lightly pan fry the chicken pieces in some oil. Next, I pour in some water together with a bit more of the marinade. Seasoned with some sugar and black pepper. I simmer them on low heat for about 20 mins until the sauce thickened.

I served the chicken with multi-grained rice and a stir-fried brocolli dish.



This Kikkoman Teriyaki Marinade with Roasted Garlic has a subtle garlic taste. Not strong at all. If you preferred stronger garlic taste, you can add a couple of chopped garlic cloves. Otherwise, it's quite all right on its own. When done braising this way, the sauce was great to drizzle over rice.

*Kikkoman Teriyaki Marinade with Roasted Garlic photo is taken from Kikkoman Asia


Tecnorati Tags: poultry

Malaysia Airlines Dinner for Bloggers

Ahem... as if a sponsored dessert workshop is not enough for the day, I was invited to a dinner by Malaysia Airlines last Saturday via their agency. Well I'm not sure if it's all right to name the agency here, anyway, I would like to thank Anna for extending the invite not only to myself but to Capt'n Hook and my boiboi as well.

The dinner was at Mum's Place, one of my fave but I'm wondering why I never featured them before! MAS had invited 25 bloggers which I think is the right number for an intimate affair. Even with that small number, it's hard to mingle around since it was a sit down dinner. I didn't take much pics as all of them arrive much later than us. Capt'n Hook went to catch up with his Brand's Blogger Challenge team mates which surprisingly all turned up at this dinner.

I tell you, I'm seriously "star strucked" as this was my first so called public appearance amongst the bloggers. Other times were with the floggers but this time there were mostly lifestyle bloggers. I can't imagine myself rubbing shoulders, well shaking hands to be exact with star bloggers like Huai Bin, Wingz, Suannie, KY, RedMummy, Sultan Muzaffar, Kenny Sia and so forth.

Seated at the same table with us were Cindy, John, Kampung Boy, City Gal (gosh at least got fellow floggers whom I've met before), and Simon (oh yeah he's darn popular haha he's here with me again). Kenny came in late with Nicole and Ringo, and I'm not sure who else. Sorry horrr since I'm not a lifestyle blogger and its hard to catch up on everyone. I know Joyce came in later too, that I can recognise her. Kenny was nice enough to came round to say hi. Funny moment was when he said "Hmm you looked very familiar. Like I have met you somewhere before." to Capt'n Hook, it's like stealing Capt'n Hook's infamous line as he can remember faces very well but not their names :p

I've learnt that MAS is reaching out to the masses now via the net so I supposed the best way to do so is via the bloggers, hence this dinner meeting. I'm glad Capt'n Hook was around since he's a frequent flyer and would most prolly be able to relate his flight experiences. Hopefully there will be more to come from MAS.

BTW, we were tossing yee sang (prosperity raw fish dish)... YAY my first for the year!!! Ermmm if Mum's Place is reading this... your yee sang had too much of those yellow and green crunchy bits which rendered the dish too dry and crunchy. Just go easy on those two yah ;-) Otherwise, it's perfectly all right. Sorry lah can't help cos I blog about food :p

I loved all the dishes served with hot white rice. Ranging from Otak-otak Cubes, Portugese Beef Slices, Asam Pedas Jehanak, Prawns with Butter and Garlic, Devil Curry and vegetables (based on my past memory I hope those were the correct names for the dishes we ate). I missed the super hot cencaru with petai served here, hmm might be great to bring my Dad over during Chinese New Year.



Thank you Wai Fong for being so accommodating and entertained my boiboi's request. He's utmost happy at the dinner but it's just too bad it was school day for him to replace the Chinese New Year holidays hence he dozed off on daddy's lap. We have no choice but to leave early. It ain't pretty to deal with a sleepy child!!!

Thank you to the media relations staff of Malaysia Airlines and also the agency for the wonderful evening, oh yeah plus the yummilicious souvenirs!




More here:
SM,
Redmummy,
Wingz,

NZ Natural Ice Cream Dessert Workshop

Last Saturday afternoon I had loads of fun with a few of my fellow floggers at The Cooking House courtesy of New Zealand Natural Ice Cream (NZ ice cream) and The Cooking House. My family is quite a big fan of NZ ice cream and I was literally jumping for joy when the invite came in. Can't say no for this hahaha.

The workshop started off with Chef Lee demonstrating how to make a chocolate sponge cake. Gosh it was so easy and I had always wonder why my sponge cakes always failed. Glad to have learnt a technique or two here. Then Chef Lee moved on to the butterscotch cookies.



After the demo, we grouped up and made these two items. It's best to be able to be in the same gang as our celeb baker cos things moved fast and everything was done professionally hahaha errr except for a certain mishap :p I'm not sure with the rest (Simon, WMW, Precious Pea and Teckiee) but my hands were shaking with so many long and big fat lens aiming at our way hahahaha... there were a lot of paparazzis from the various media agencies.



Later on Chef Lee demonstrated on how to assemble the desserts by layering cakes/biscuits with the various flavours of NZ ice cream. The best part of the day of course was the tasting bit.



Thanks again to Edyth of The Cooking House for making me part of the workshop and New Zealand Natural Ice Cream for accommodating the floggers.




Technorati Tags: dessert + ice cream

Menu For Hope V: Raffle Results

The raffle results are out.

Please head on to Chez Pim to check the results. Thank you.




Bidding is closed and the amount raised this years is USD62,206.86.

Thank you for your generousity. Please check back on 12 January for the draw results.



DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 31 DECEMBER 2008 MIDNIGHT PDT

Last year's Menu for Hope raised over $90K. It bought 388,000 meals in Lesotho schools, which fed over 19,000 poor hungry children with school meals for a whole month. The children received food in primary schools across the remote mountainous areas of Lesotho, which are the poorest and hungriest parts of the country. Read more here.

So lend your hand and support Menu For Hope V (15 - 24 December 2008).

Photos from Pim's flickr album.

Review: MOF @ Japanese Sweets & Coffee

Updated 3 November 2011

Has since closed but there's an outlet in Sunway Pyramid.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Let's do a sugar high friday today...

MOF stands for Ministry of Food which originated in Singapore. Originally an izakaya but over in Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, MOF stood as a place for coffee and Japanese desserts. The desserts are focused on the various creations with soft serve ice-creams. MOF also serve a slightly more luxurious version, Hokkaido gelato ice-cream, using creamy and rich milk from Hokkaido. Light sandwiches are available too.

The modus operandi here is look at the menu then mark down your order at the order chit and most importantly, indicate your table number on it haha. Bring the chit to the cashier to place and pay your order. Then wait for your order to be serve at the table.

We have these in a couple of sittings... and we simply loved them all!

This is Macha Kurian (RM15.50) which Capt'n Hook had. It has a lot of ingredients in there. The soft serve ice-cream is surrounded with kanten jelly, fruits, Japanese dumplings (like our kuih ee or tong yuen) and Hokkaido red bean paste; topped with macha sauce. The not too sweet ice-cream went extremely well with all the ingredients.



I had a Macha Mixed Imo (RM11.00) which is essentially deep fried Japanese sweet potato and yam served with red bean paste and soft serve ice-cream topped with macha sauce. I loved the sweet potato as needless to say it's really fluffy and sweet. The yam was just all right. Being a nut who dips hot french fries into sundaes in McD, I simply like the pleasure of having the hot sweet potatoes/yam together with the cold cold ice-cream. Not only the taste exploded in the mouth but the hot and cold sensation is just great. Errrm it's something nut like me can't explain but those who shares the same pleasure will understand :p



My boiboi who is a much simpler person opted for a plain old soft serve cone (RM4.00). He asked for chocolate flavour but they only have soft serve in vanilla which is just as great cos vanilla is his fave. I asked him to try our share which he refused, most prolly he thought those green tea topping must be some kinda vegetable puree and I know he dislikes red bean paste in this kinda manner with the exception in a bao.



At another time boiboi tried Hokkaido Gelato Ice Cream With Chocolate Sauce (no price this round as I did not pay for them). This is just plain old soft serve ice-cream topped with a thin chocolate sauce. This time the difference was this ice-cream is made with Hokkaido milk which made it slightly creamy in texture and melts pretty quickly.



Capt'n Hook had this mango thingy - soft serve ice-cream with mango slices on a bed of shaved ice drizzled with mango puree. This creation is just fabulous but the mangoes could have been better if they use mangoes from Philippines.



This round I tried the Hokkaido ice-cream range of which I chose Shira Sesame Hokkaido Gelato Mini (RM9). There were 2 scoops of black sesame flavoured ice-cream topped with black sesame puree and dumplings. This is something black sesame fans would love. The flavour is simply fragrant and just look at the price!! It's a steal as compared there was once we have one tiny scoop of black sesame ice-cream for RM8 at a certain Japanese restaurant in town.



We also shared a hot dessert of Abekawa (RM11). It's oven baked mochi sprinkled with kinako (soybean flour) and some red bean paste on the side. We liked the outer layer of the mochi which is super light and crispy where else the middle is gooey and springy. I feel its best to eat whilst they're hot as once cold the gooey centre became kinda chewy.



This outlet is located at a corner lot opposite Mercato supermarket and we noticed there is a new Chinese restaurant opposite, next to Pepper Lunch. As we looked closer it seems like another outlet owned by MOF, the name is Emperor Q if not mistaken. Anyone been there already???

MOF @ Japanese Sweets & Coffee
Lot 1.02.00, Level 1
Pavilion Kuala Lumpur
Jalan Bukit Bintang
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 603-2144 1489
Pork free. Opening hours: 11am - 10pm


Technorati Tags: Japanese Sweets + pavilion kl

Stir-Fried Snowpeas and Eryngii Mushrooms

Another simple stir-fry from the kitchen that comprised of 3 major ingredients ie. snow peas, Eryngii mushrooms and carrot slices. Heat some oil in the wok and put in chopped garlic. Once the garlic turn light brown, stir in the 3 ingredients. Quickly pour in oyster sauce to taste and sprinkle some water. Mix well before adding some rice wine or you can use ShaoXing wine. Give it another quick stir and dish up. Serve immediately.


Technorati Tags: vegetable + vegetarian

Review: Gardenia's Banana Walnut Loaf

I was in Singapore for a few days in December and I totally fell in love with their supermarts hahaha... IF I turned off my auto-currency conversion, I could shop for a lot of stuff not found in Kuala Lumpur and the prices seems reasonable.

One of the item I had loved so much that I brought back loaves... it's just plain old loaf of bread off the shelves of supermarts/7-11s - Gardenia's Banana Walnut loaf!!!



I must be so mad huh? I'm quiet sad how come Gardenia Malaysia do not produce so many choices plus the healthier range??? Just look at Gardenia Singapore's website, you can scroll down the long list of items on the left menu and start questioning! You can also compare both websites and ours looked pathetic :( plus load so much slower.

It's no joke ok cos in Singapore, they have focaccia, multi grains, low GI, country loaves etc etc... the list is endless. Are the Malaysian consumers less sophisticated and less health conscious?? Aww come on Gardenia Malaysia... do some market research and you'll be surprised. I also found Sunshine bread which long disappeared from our shelves. My dad used to buy them from the roti man especially the brown ones! I still remember the colourful waxed wrapper, darn I so missed them now.

Anyway, back to the banana walnut loaf, it's really superb with generous amount of banana and walnut pieces scattered all over. The banana fragrance that perfumed the loaf does not smell nor tasted artificial. The bread has mixture of plain flour, wholemeal flour and banana puree which render a soft textured bread. I simply loved it, best when eaten on its own! True to their tagline!!!

I've tried them toasted - plain and with peanut butter. I even made french toasts with them heh BUT it's still the best when eaten on its own.

Capt'n Hook is going Singapore tomorrow for a meeting and going to hand him my shopping list for breads :p yippeeeeeee!!!!

Thanks love hahahaha... for having to tolerate with a mad woman :D


Technorati Tags: bread

Ways to Steamed Pork Slices

**Non-Halal**

I had a bout of almost a week long diarrhea in December. The doctor said I have to eat soft food which literally means only porridge grrrrr... Don't be wrong, I do like porridge but *gulp* definitely not 2 meals everyday for almost a week! I'm a foodie... how can I eat the same stuff everyday heh???

Sighhh to jazz up the plain white rice porridge (congee), I made some dishes to go with them. Once, I had Steamed Salted Fish with Pork Slices. Sliced tender lean pork thinly then marinade with a dash of soy sauce, pepper, sesame oil and corn flour. Place them on a heat proof plate then topped with salted fish (mine was those bottled in oil found at major hyper/supermart) followed by ginger strips. Steam until cooked (time depending on your portion).



Another time I made Steamed Pork Slices with Pickled Lettuce. I would prefer the usage of tinned pickled lettuce as it's slightly saltier but since the melamine in milk scare I tried not to eat so much of made in China food. So instead, I've used the bottled pickled lettuce by Cheong Chan as the topping. Worked just as well. I liked this a lot!




Technorati Tags: malaysian food + pork