Only For Fans Of Thomas The Train

I was passing by Sungai Wang Plaza (the grand old dame of Bukit Bintang - it's a very popular mall since the 70s) yesterday evening and I couldn't resist stopping by the concourse. All because of this...



I was so excited after sighting the towering layers and layers of blue train tracks!!! Hahaha this is no ordinary train tracks but those made by Tomy, the famous Japanese toy maker! This is the roal and rail edition. Just like the crowd you see in the picture above, I was like them too... stood mesmerised!!! Well, it's not that I used to play with such luxurious stuff when I was a kid... more like hubby started off the thang by carted boiboi, a box of Thomas the Train set from Hong Kong. My brother-in-law then gave boiboi another set on his birthday, followed by my aunt from Singapore, all not knowing we have one set at home. Luckily they've gotten different set for boiboi which means we have been creative, mixing and matching plus extending the tracks to unimaginable lengths and circles.

If your child loved train, do get him/her a set. You can start with 20 piece starter set which is priced around RM69.90 or there about. Yup, pricey but it's really worth it when you start to get the extended accessories. Your child can get creative in setting up the tracks in whatever way they fancy and yes these tracks are extremely children and parents friendly. Very easy to assemble - this I can guarantee cos my boiboi knew how to do this plus we have gone thru some frustration installing some alcheapo car racing tracks that took all our might and strength. In fact boiboi once asked us "Let's play Thomas the Train, let's build together" <- PRICELESS!!! Don't wait ok, bring your children over to Sungai Wang Plaza today and let them go wild! The Tomy Toys Fair is held at the concourse level, just in front of Coffee Bean from 19 - 26 December 2005. Check out up close... on different angles.







I chatted with one of the 5 guys who assembled the whole thing there. He said took them one night to design and set up. He recommended me to get a special edition set for my boiboi. Whoa I was blown by this set! The train actually let out steam on its err chimney or was it funnel? All you need to do is add some water on certain hole and voila... steam gushing out... hohoho I got it down on video but I need to make it smaller in size before I can upload here. And by the way, these tracks can be used for the Japanese bullet train sets!

UPDATED 22 December 2005: Here are the videos...





Disclaimer: I do not work for Tomy nor the distributor of Tomy toys Malaysia hehehe! This review cum plug is entirely based on my own experience and opinion. Good things are meant to be shared. *wink*

Lunch Partner's Wedding

This post is going to be unique. It's my first post on wedding (not mine) and the food served hahaha... ermmm sort of like a nice gift for one of my lunch partners - Mr Chairman and his wife since Mr Chairman is a foodie like me. Before I begin, I would like to congratulate Mr & Mrs Chairman on their marriage. Wishing both of them every happiness they build their dreams... their future... their new life together. Congratulations!!!

After the beautiful bride and handsome groom marched to their seat accompanied by Perhaps Love, a duet of John Denver and Placido Domingo (one of my fave of the late John Denver's song). Loved every minute of it. A well received (rather than those big bang show, yes, we have enough of Kitaro and Wong Fei Hung) small and low key food presentation by Renaissance Hotel, Kuala Lumpur where the wait staff marched in carrying our first course.

Hubby gave me the EYE, you know that kind of "look" when I started clicking away at the food on my own plate. I was short of sticking out my tongue at him if not for all the niceties of a wedding. See, the kind of danger stuff I had to go thru to blog about this. Those who have missed the wedding for whatever reasons, you guys owe me lots of TTs!!!

The first course, Renaissance 5 Happiness Combination Platter which have 5 different variety of small bites. I can't remember what I ate as I was enjoying the company of my lunch partners at the table. I think they have got some deep fried stuff, fish cakes thingy, prawn and melon salad and fried clams with snow peas. The pictures don't look appetising due to the low low lightings but the food did tasted good, surprisingly for a banquet.

Second course was the standard shark's fin soup which was way too salty. The third course was a tangy and delicious Deep Fried Boneless Chicken With Supreme Thai Sauce. Very nice that I ate the two pieces the server served.

Next we have a lovely basket made of I dunno what (too shy to look close up what it was hahaha and I was busy yakking away too) filled with Wok Fried Prawns Hunan Style. Shelled prawns, diced ginger slices and bell peppers make up this dish. The Hunan sauce kicked a punch for being slightly spicy. The fifth course was the Steamed Sultan Fish with Ginger Sauce. I took quite long to finish up my fish since this type of fish have very fine bones that I have to diligently picked every single one of them. Loved the ginger sauce though. Next up, a huge platter of Braised Mushroom Fungi Abalone with Dried Scallops and Vegetable was served which I think is nicely done up since most of us finished the fungi, brocolli and asparagus.

The standard fried rice dish of Wok Fried Rice with Chicken Anchovies and Salted Fish was served up quickly together with the fungi and vegetables. I usually skip the rice at most banquet saved for a couple of bites but this one I whacked all in my bowl. The salted fish lent a fantabulous flavour to the rice which hubby agreed. He's a fan of salted fish.

Honey Melon with Sago was served with a duet of dessert. Loved the chilled sago dessert and the spiral errr I'm not sure of the English equivalent, something made of glutinous rice like mocchi with red bean paste (the dark part of the spiral). The round deep fried balls have a filling of err was it red bean or lotus?? Miss Sweet 16, can remember or not? hehehe pardon me.

Aha... saw the longevity peach buns??? You must be asking why a wedding served such a dessert just like we did. Apparently it was Mr Chairman's uncle's (60th I think) birthday that day. So we sang him 2 rounds of birthday songs BUT he belted out 5 or was it 6 of his favourite songs for us. The most tear inducing one was the song he sang on his wedding day to his wife and every anniversary. Sooooo schweeettt of him!!! I wished I had married him a husband just like him.

Psssttt by the way, I think I did INDEED married someone like him hehehe...

Our table of lunch partners enjoyed the dinner, wine and of course the company plus the wonderful atmosphere at the banquet hall. Thank you, Mr & Mrs Chairman!!! Remember hor the message at the THIRD yum seng (toast) hahahah *wink*

Review: Kluang Station Kopitiam

Shhhhhhh... my boiboi is napping so I'm sneaking in an entry here.

I hope I got the name correctly but I know it's definitely Kluang Station. It's located on the Lower Ground Floor at the Oval court, 1 Utama new wing (opposite Bread Story). Seems like a rage now of high end kopitiams (coffee shop) mushrooming over in the Klang Valley right after the heels of Hong Kong style cafes.

We saw this place right after we got off the escalator, so we decided to give it a try after seeing the place is quite packed with patrons. We ordered butter and kaya toast for boiboi. Nothing to shout about the toast, pretty ordinary.

Our tea and yin yong (tea + coffee + condensed milk) is also so-so only. Hubby's nasi lemak came pretty quick. The rice is not lemak (rich) at all and lack in coconut milk taste. Sambal slightly on the sweet side, a wee bit too sweet I think. The only saving grace is the piece of fried chicken. Very crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside and tasty with the marinade. I can't remember how much it costed as hubby threw the receipt away right after.



My Hainanese Chicken Chop which the menu claimed to be authentic Hainanese fare is errrr not very Hainanese after all in my humble opinion. I've eaten a fair share of Hainanese Chicken Chops all over town and those prepared by my Hainanese aunties but they are nothing like the one I tasted in Kluang Station.

Check out the picture here... Do you see anything amissed??



Hohoho... did you spot anything that is not right of an authentic Hainanese Chicken Chop?? Yes? No??? Hahahaha... first it's served with fries!!!! Usually the potatoes are quartered, deep fried and cook together in the sauce with the onions and green peas! AND this sauce have canned baked beans in it, ahahaha.... oops I shouldn't have laughed... bad manners of mine :p Well maybe this is the Kluang Station's owner's family recipe... or maybe I'm kinda biased here since they proclaimed to be authentic Hainanese Chicken Chop, taste wise it's ok lah but really nothing outstanding.

Ohhh they employed those cute *wink wink* looking college students as waiters and you know what... the one whom served us can't even speak any Chinese be it Cantonese or Mandarin hahahaha talk about being in a kopitiam hehehe. Eh funny nowadays kopitiam is swamped with Myanmarese staff teehehehehe... Well at least this waiter is still a Chinese. Oh my... looks like it will take us a long time before visiting Kluang Station again judging from the amount of new makan (eating in Malay) places have opened in 1 Utama.

Please do not let this review from stopping you to try out Kluang Station. My taste might be different from yours ;-)

Kluang Station
LG337, Lower Ground of New Wing Oval
1 Utama Shopping Centre
Bandar UtamaPetaling Jaya
Tel: 03-77101039/012-3114881
Business Hours: Daily (10am-10pm)

UPDATED 12 Dec 2005:
Sorry, gotta applogise to some Hainan kias *tongue* err I was told they do serve baked beans in their chicken chops but usually they scoop straight out from the can to the plate.

When BRAT Turns ANGEL...

My brat boiboi is a super hyper-active 3 year old. I'm simply amazed the kind of energy he has in him everyday and I'm surprised too on his development from baby till now. He has memory of an elephant but only on stuffs that he loved or interest him. At 1 year 7 months old he could recognise some car logos. By 2 years old, he could even remember which model of a make both on the road and in magazines. He even beat me to loads of models which I have no idea what they were until I flipped to the page and read the content on car magazines. He doesn't always occupied himself on the hundreds of books I've gotten for him but give him a car magazine anytime, I can be sure of at least 20 - 30 minutes of bliss! He could just stare and stare and even make me listen to him going on and on what the cars were doing in there especially those 4WD magazines. He seems to love the mud and 4WD going thru the river and such. Maybe one day I should send him off with Splashie Boy (boo_licious' partner) in one of his camping trips hahahaha

Anyway, there were many times he really droves us up the wall. Maybe it's kids' curiosity nature... well they just love to explore especially on things they were told to stay away! There were many hair pulling moments but then again on the flip of a moment my boiboi could be such an angel. This explained why I have to write this post up, I've no idea what am I writing but I just wanna record this in case this fade off from my memory.

Actual conversion ok... and he said all those sentences...

Last Saturday, boiboi and I were waiting for Daddy to get out of the house. I was sitting on the floor by the door and I suddenly had an attack of tummy ache. I lie down and said out loud "Uh-oh Mummy is having a tummy ache".

Boiboi who was standing nearby, came to me and touched my arm, bend down and stare at my face... "Mummy, you want to eat medicine?"

I tell you, it's like an instant cure to me... what tummy ache? My boiboi was so sweet and caring that the ache was soon forgotten. He was lashed with loads of hugs and kisses and I know his Daddy had an ear-to-ear grin for he had drilled many times that boiboi should take care of Mummy when Daddy is away overseas. Looks like his drilling worked!

Come 2 days ago, Daddy was overseas and I was back at my parents' place just to be with boiboi. I came home from work and I was changing in my room. I heard soft knocks on the door and I knew it was boiboi. I told him to come in and he said "Thank you" whilst I replied "You're welcome". Well, it doesn't always happened like this ok but most of the time he's pretty ok with his manners.

The next thing he did was hold up his hand in grip and I was wondering what he's up to. "Flower for Mummy"... wahseh so it seems he had a stalk of imaginary flower in his hand. Heart already melted... Next thing he mentioned "It's flower biscuit". After I thanked him, he asked me to eat it hahahah yeah it's those cake decorative flowers made from biscuit. So I have to pretend eating up the imaginary flower. He's so adorable.

Well aren't these moments wonderful? That's the beauty of having kids, they could be brats but then they can turn angels anytime to surprise us. Whatever it is... I love my boiboi. He's simply too precious.

Enough on ranting... do come by once in a while even though updates on this blog will be sporadic. It's a crazy crazy December! Might gonna miss all the events happening in the food blogging world... how sad.

Ole Ole Ole

Updated 3 November 2011


This place has since closed.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hahaha that's Ole Cafe for you. Now this is gonna be a quickie post, basically a pictorial of what we have at Ole Cafe. This experience is rather accidental for we stumbled inside the cafe as we were standing outside the moment the sky decided to pour. I have to say it was a rather pleasant accident, just like what Julie had experienced here too. Head on to her blog to get the details.

The bar occupied the right side of the shop when you entered. Check out those lovely cups there!!!



I had a cup of South African tea, can't recall the name but it's fruit based. Very lovely aroma but we loved the cup the most hahaha... We also have something latte and cappucino but sadly cappucino only came in a plain cup!






For mains we shared a chicken pita which is served warm where the diced chicken is cooked with diced bell peppers and carrots. I loved this! The chicken is so tasty. We also had a fried oriental spaghetti which tasted kinda fusion to me... oriental sauce mixed with tomato perhaps?



Dessert of the day (which changes all the time) was bread and butter pudding. Yummy in a puddle of vanilla sauce. Whoa... we even get a complimentary waffle served with ice-cream!! The smell which wafted from the kitchen whilst they were cooking it was oh so Heavenly, you know like the freshly baked goodies in the oven. How sweet of the boss (I think)... thanks CL! Psssttt the award winning barrista is kinda cute too... watch his slang!



Sorry, I have no recollection of the name of the dishes we have and I did not walked around to check out the place. Maybe next time I'll detail out everything. Anyway at the moment they have a very minute menu but they do have some pretty interesting finger food. Great place to while away reading, playing board games or surf the net using the free wifi access.

Ole Cafe
48 Changkat Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 603-2148 9007

Round Up: IMBB#21/SHF#14: Cookie Swap

UPDATED 5th December 2005

Jennifer had posted the first half of the cookie swap round up. Head on to The Domestic Goddess for Part One. Meanwhile we'll have to wait for Alberto to post up Part Two by tomorrow.

Head on to Alberto's Part Two of the cookie swap round up for more cookies treats! Altogether there were hundreds fo cookie recipes to be recreated for this festive season. Remember to cast the vote for 3 of your fave cookies.



Click here for the recipe of my Crunchy Jumbo Snickers Cookies and please go check out all the yummilicious cookies and start casting your votes!

"One Pot" Rice

**Non-Halal Post**

I was rummaging thru my fridge thinking of what to cook for dinner one weekend whilst my boiboi was napping. After checking, I have chicken and french beans... hmmm and I have the usual dried mushrooms, black fungus (woods ear mushrooms) and Chinese sausages which are standard must have in my fridge.

I was feeling tired and lazy actually. At the back of my mind I was thinking I should rest whilst boiboi is asleep but that means we gonna eat out again!!! Quite sick of outside food, I decided to forgo my rest and think of something easy for lazybones like mine. So, based on my mom's Long Beans Rice, this is a variation of it.

I quickly soak the mushrooms and black fungus in hot water till mushrooms are soften. Meanwhile, marinaded the chicken pieces with some oyster sauce, dash of sesame seeds oil, Stone Ginger Wine and pepper. Tipped the french beans and cut them up. Removed the sausage casing and sliced them thinly. Sliced the mushrooms when they were soften and removed the hard bits of the black fungus.

Cleaned the rice and place inside rice cooker. Added in water (guesstimate ok but it's about the same amout as you would cook your rice) and some oyster sauce plus dark soya sauce. Stir then taste. Adjust the taste by adding more oyster sauce. If you fancy a salty dish, then by all means add in salt.

Next placed all the above ingredients on top of the rice and press Cook on the rice cooker. The rice and ingredients will be all cooked up by the end of the cycle. There... simple, easy and fuss free. Errrmmm that's how the name came up too... everything cooked in one pot, hence "One Pot" Rice.

When they're cooked, stir and mix the ingredients with the rice. As I was doing this I can smell the wonderful aroma of Chinese sausage and ginger wine. Lovely!

Actually hubby was quite sarcastic when he found out I was cooking this. He asked me whether I can cook this as nice as my mom's!!! Urrghhh... He add on further that the other times I cooked this rice, they were not salty enough. I can't blame a hamsap person who is so used to eating salty stuff as compared to myself. So geram leh!!!! Anyway, I made sure I added in more oyster sauce to make this dish up to his expectation. Somehow when he ate it, he said there was something missing. Later he managed to pin point that there weren't any dried scrimps in it!!! Hahaha oh yeah hor, I forgot but nevertheless the rice was tasty. My boiboi had some of it too and he showed me his thumb up.

Note to self: Remember to add dried shrimps!!!! Dried shrimps will impart a very fragrant aroma to the rice. Oh yes, if I'm not lazy I will fry some sliced shallots to add on to the cooked rice. Wooo shiok!