It is a Food Day !

Today weather was extremely gorgeous and we all woke up after 10am!!! After cleaning the war zone at home, we had our brunch at Kopi Alley. Having nasi lemak and mee siam here gave me the feeling of ...Kluang Rail Coffee but of course, the latter is definately BETTER and cheaper.
Forget about showing the Japanese Food we had at Ichiban Sushi. IT WAS TERRIBLE!! Ever since Jack left to other branch, YY has promoted to become the branch manager. She is nice and friendly too but the services, food quality and most importantly the HYGIENE level have dropped tremendously over the past 2 years, again..and it really stopping us to visit the restaurant anymore, not until the next revamp. Sigh.. Then I told Ben I need to go to the Cold Storage to boost up my mood and here we bought the mini soon kueh from my genie gourmet.We bought gu-cai kueh and soon kueh. Skin is soft, chewy and thin while the filling is generous and tasty! Nice !

How can we leave out Smoochie and Twistie after filling up our stomach with lots of junk? I bought their favourite Doggyman treats at Petstation.

And somebody please tell me WHERE CAN I GET 白家粉丝?!? I am craving for something hot and very "china" after seeing this 3-second advestisement on TV and I've been searching this cup noodles everywhere for the past 1 week!~ Please Help!!

てるてる坊主 (Teru teru bōzu)

最近天气总是忽冷忽热，难以预测。 就想找个时候，给自己做个晴天娃娃。

Our very own way of eating sauerkraut

Yeah, these are the ways the germans eat sauerkraut; with pork knuckles, sausages, bread..

But we have it the asian way -> with rice! Parents went back to M'sia to collect debt and we have to brainstorm what to fill up our stomach every evening. Today, I decided to reheat the sauerkraut mum cooked(with ham)before she left. *satisfied* Wonder why didn't we have sausages? I did buy and it was kept in the fridge but it smells funny so we discarded it. I'll try to get some buns and sausages and make sauerkraut sausages bun. Oh, I miss Marché Restaurant..

Only Mummy Nat, Baby Cheryl and Auntie Diana!

I went to work and decided to leave at 1pm. Nat went to work too but she left earlier than me, so she went back home and brought Cheryl out to meet me!

We met at Novena Sq and I was craving for Longhouse Prawn Noodles but the location was too far. We were already seated but when we saw pasta on the menu at Han's, we decided to go for some healthy pasta at WARAKU!! Women, women.. we are always changing our minds..Haha

We ordered 2 set lunch and the set serves complete with mini salad, corn soup and bread. We simply love their pasta!! I can't wait to come back again with Margaret and Ben.

My scallop & asparagus --> Yummy !

Nat's bacon & potato
Desserts! How can one not have desserts on a hot day? We had Mango Lingo (LARGE) and Cheryl had her favourite strawberry yogurt drink.

And we are not done yet. After shopping for some Hello Kitty stuff (not me) at Novena Sq and United Sq, yeah, we went to 2 HK shops! We headed to TPY. I thought of getting some doggy treats from APC, silly me forgotten that Monday is a resting day for Annie and Caven. *knock head* But it wasn't a wasted trip, Nat introduced an authentic milktea to me from ---> KOI CAFE. The pearls are so much smaller than the normal and it is very chewy and soft. Everyone knows each cup of milktea contains approximately 7 teaspoon of sugar, the good part about getting your milktea at Koi, you can choose how much sugar you want in your cup. * thumbs up *

Hong Kong Styled Chee Cheong fun 猪肠粉 - Failed miserably

After the lousy prawn dumpling, here I have terrible CCF. Maybe these days I shouldn't try cooking, I mean shouldn't have cooked when I am not really in the mood. Bad rolls...

Again, nothing is wrong with the recipe, must be the measurement! I think I need a pair of specs..Margaret suggested me to pour everything in and steam it, yeah, like carrot cake.

Recipe extracted from Baking Mum
Ingredients :
150g Rice Flour
1 ½ Tbsp Wheat starch flour
2 Tbsp Corn flour
1 Tbsp Oil
450mls Water
½ tsp Salt

Method :
1. Sift dry ingredients together.
2. Slowly add the water, mixing as you add.
3. Lastly add the oil and salt and mix thoroughly. Set batter aside for at least an hour.
4. Prepare your steamer. Grease a swiss roll pan or any aluminium tray with oil and pour the batter directly on the pan and steam for 5 mins.
5. After steaming, using a plastic scrapper roll the ccf up. If you are using ingredients like char siew or prawns, you can sprinkle it over the steamed ccf and then proceed to roll it up.
6. Place in a plate brushed with a little oil. Continue with the rest of the batter.

Sauce
Ingredients :
1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp sugar
a few slices of ginger (optional)
½ cup water
4 tbsp mushroom flavoured soy sauce or normal light soy sauce
½ to 1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1. Place ginger with oil and sugar in a pot. Cook over small fire until sugar turns brown.
2. When sugar is brown, add in the rest of the ingredients. Cook over medium fire for about 5 mins. Taste the sauce and adjust taste accordingly. If you find the sauce too sweet, you can add in a bit of salt.

Sweet sauce (cwl's recipe)
1/2 cup water
7 tbsp Hoisin sauce
3 tbsp soya sauce
3 tsp dark soya sauce

Mix all ingredients together and cook over medium heat until it thicken slightly.

Let's Make Acar !!

Acar aka Pickles - my favourite appetizer ... *slurp*

We don't like Malay styled acar --> too blend

We don't like Peranakan acar --> too strong

We don't like M'sian acar --> turmeric powder?

We don't like Taiwanese acar --> just vinegar

Mum has improvised the recipe and here we have our very own Acar ..
Recipe :
(A)
1 Large spanish turnip (mangkuang)
2 Large cucumber
1/2 pineapple
1 large carrot
3 tbsp of salt
Instruction: cut them into slices. Add salt and mix well. Put a side for approximately 20 minutes. Salt will make them crunchy and you will see quite a lot of water after that, remember to pour them away after the vegetables become softer and make sure they are dry before adding (B).
(B)
6 scallots
6-8 fresh red chili
some sesame
Instruction: Slice the scallots and blend the chili. Heat up your wok and start frying the sesame, followed by scallots and lastly, the chili. DON'T COOK THEM ALL TOGETHER! One after another.
When (B) are ready, add them into (A) and mix well. Don't forget to add in approx. 200gm sugar together with half a bottle of white vinegar. Mum said is ok if add too much sugar, because we can always pour more vinegar. If you think is too sour to your liking, then you can add more sugar. Like I've said before, there is no exact amount of ingredients when come to cooking (for my mum only) so sometimes, you need to taste your cooking using your fingers. Haha..

We are Counting down..

Months ago, my msn personal message was

" we are begining to see light at the end of the tunnel "

And now, Ben and I are counting down ...

Flower Power

I came across a very good website - Healthy Mind and saw this flower power. I decided to plant a flower and drop a line to my dearest sister .. Be Happy Everyday Oh..

Ah Pa's Day

Any ideas how to celebrate? No more durian cake for sure as daddy doesn't eat durian. Since it falls in the month of June, maybe we should...

Peranakan Restaurant

On the actual day of my birthday, I got my lovely rose, peanut donuts as my brithday cake and we all had dinner at Cze Cha restaurant but I didn't get to order my "spicy food". Ben knew I was still craving for some sambal so he brought me to a Peranakan Restaurant at Vivocity. Yeah, another belated birthday celebration between the two of us.

We ordered Satay Ayam Cube, Babi Pong teh & Sambal Sotong

Reasonable priced and portions are just too big for 2 of us. We wanted so much to order cendol as I love gula melaka..too bad we were too full. I swear I will come back with the rest and order their Asam Fish Head Curry(whole fish at only $29)!! Is dirt cheap and really tempting..

Parcel is here!

Time to collect your sandals !

Mission Impossible

Eat With Your Family Day 2008

Did you eat with your family today? Well, I didn't. Parents and Margaret had taken their dinner together as it will be pretty late if they were to wait for me. Moreover, M needed to catch her bus to Ipoh. I do understand the purpose of having this special day. Though I couldn't make it today but we all have dinner together almost every evening. *blessed* As for Nat, Chris and Cheryl, they are staying in the East and only come back during the weekends. So you can imagine, our weekends are so 'happening' and really like 'pasar malam' when 9 of us seated at our rectangular dining table. Is good to know that many companies participated in this program and they encourage their staff to leave the companies by 5pm and have a family meal together. Sigh, see the common issue in the first world country?

extracted from Fathers.com
“Eat with Your Family Day” – a ritual of the heart
CFF has been running this initiative since 2003, to remind families that the ritual of having meals together goes a long way towards keeping the family together.
Make plans to reinforce this important practice in your family and pass on important values to our children, by doing the following:
1. Plan and coordinate family members’ schedules so that you can all eat as a family on Friday 23 May 2008
2. Encourage friends and relatives to do the same; encourage employers and schools to enable this to happen
3. Make it a habit to eat with your family

Let’s Keep Walking!

I believe those who are staying in the North West District have seen this poster, everywhere.. I suggested to join the walk, mummy was enthusiastic about taking part and even wanna call them up for registration, at 9pm. Haha.. As parents go to the nearby CC everyday, they took back some registration forms today and I patiently fill up for everyone. Extract from NWCDC
To encourage members to keep walking, souvenirs are awarded to the members when they complete a certain number of walks. The souvenirs range from towels, umbrellas to gift vouchers.

Benefits of Brisk Walking!
Keep healthy
Reduce stress
Reduce body fat
Reduce risks of heart attack
Increase bone density
Make more friends!


How To Join
To join, please download the application form(at website) and submit to the nearest Residents' Committee, Community Club/Centre in North West district or North West CDC Service Centre (900, South Woodlands Drive #01-04 Singapore 730900).
For more information, please call the CDC hotline at 6767 2288.

Membership is open to residents in the North West District only.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Ben said he wanted to send me a "hello kitty" instead of "badtz" but because I was showing him my black face in the morning so he decided to send me this! Thanks Wabee, you really make me laugh..

..Zion..

I was searching some photos of 'teluk intan' from google and I saw your photo..You look very familiar to me and I clicked it. After reading the first paragraph, I sensed that something went wrong.. It started with remembered, selfless act, tragedy, fateful event, rescue team still had not found his body!

I was shocked, my mind was blank, I wasn't thinking and I grabbed Ben's hand.

"Honey, I am not concentrating.. he.. passed away?"

I just couldn't believe what I was reading and I clicked on the cross button on the upper top right. It took me 2 days to come online again to search for your news. Yes, something happened to our dear friend in Moreton Island, Queensland last December.

Zion, I sent you a message long ago when I saw your photos at Friendster but did not receive any reply. I think you probably don't remember me, the one you sent a Chinese New Year Card to in year 2000, teluk intan. But I remember you, the one who suggested to exchanged emails and gave me your mailing address ( some address of a palm plantation) before I came to Singapore. I never expect to say Hi again this way...

In your devotional diary

“I believe I am born for greater thing” than merely getting a job and earning a living

and the next thing..

"THE family of a Malaysian-born man missing off Moreton Island yesterday spoke of their pride in their son's heroic final actions as hopes of finding him alive all but evaporated.

Zion Kerk, 25, was last seen assisting a young Korean woman in Honeymoon Bay on the northern tip of the island at 3.40pm on Wednesday."

Shame on me to learn about this after a good five months. Because I didn't log in to my friendster to read those bulletin or I am not socialise enough? Whatever it is, I've decided to delete my profile from Friendster as I really see no reasons of having one. Everyone knows it is meant to be a 'friends connection' thingy. I do have lots of 'friends' added into my list but so what? I can see my very best buddy( from convent) visiting singapore but never even bother to ring me for meet up, not only one but at least 3 of them! At the same time, seeing almost everyone met up for gathering on special occasions and I honestly felt left out. I am not whining or pointing fingers. I know that's because I'm no longer travelling back to ti or maybe I forgot to send birthday wishes. Whatever..

甘香葱油饼 Onion Pancake

Using the same recipe from my Taiwanese Pancake. I know, the style is incorrect, I'll try again next time, ok? I prepared extra dough for the taiwanese pancake too, I prefer this one!