The Fastest Blog Post to Date!

Approximately six hours after it happened. 

Four hours if it wasn't for the dinner interruption. Talk about being extreme. 

From total silence to 'almost' instantaneous blogging.

Well, the biggest reason for not blogging is always procrastination. So since I somehow found myself filled with determination and oddly happy this afternoon, I told myself "Just do it!"

In which I did.

So what exactly happened six hours ago?

I had a crabby lunch.

Crabby. Not crappy.

Bought a Groupon deal for a 'crabilicous' meal at Maple Palace and decided to go for it this afternoon with the parents. Made reservations and turned up. Easy peasy.

Waa-laaa! Lo and behold, this pair of tools were already waiting for us at our table. 

Talk about good service! If you must know, our little tea cups were never empty throughout our meal, no thanks to the very 'attentive' service from the waiters and waitresses there 

(to the point where mom was slightly annoyed). 

Cue papa's voice: Too much of a good thing is bad. Hehe. 

But it's nice to know that you don't get second-tiered treatment merely because you arrived with a coupon deal. Overall, I'll give Maple Palace an A for service. The price on the other hand, well, it's not outrageously expensive but let's just say it's not a place for your everyday casual lunch. Oh wait, not my everyday casual lunch. Judging by the customers around us, this is the place for their everyday casual lunch. Each to their own affordability I guess. 

And our great Salted Egg Crab with Glutinous Rice arrived, 

looking all mouth-watering yummy delicious.

And that's poor mama allowing the camera to eat first before she does. Hahaha.

We ordered another extra plate for Stir Fried Lotus with Lily Buds and Green Vegetables which now I looked at it was in fact missing Lily Buds and Green Vegetables. Hahaha. Though I don't mind the mushrooms, wood ears, cauliflower, baby corns and everything else that came with it either. 

The price of RM15 is actually pretty reasonable judging from the ingredients and the place. Though just like any other restaurants, you'll end up forking a lot of a little extras for tea, peanuts, napkins, etc, etc, etc. And RM2.00 for parking. Hmmph.

But it was an enjoyable meal and I guess once in awhile you just gotta pay that little bit of extra to feast a class above your daily meals. I bet that's how I ended up coming home feeling 'oddly happy' enough to actually blog about it.

Till god knows when... :)

Slam Dunk 2012: A Birthday Special

It's definitely been awhile. So what am I up to? What's with the silent treatment? Nothing much actually except I bought myself some Photobooks. Again. And am busy at work. Again. 

The funny thing is sometimes I get all worked up and motivated over the entire process. Picking photos, arranging them, putting words into them, etc. And then suddenly in the middle of it all, I just feel what a self-indulgence this is. I mean it's actually nothing more than syok sendiri. Yes, they're going to be awesome memory books and all, so what? 

It's funny how you can get from one emotion to another so quick.

Like how this suppose-post about my birthday spontaneously ended up 

being a post about my conflicting self. O_O

Alright. Back to the topic, shall we?

This year I decided to tune it up. Literally. Like let's just not eat to celebrate. Let's eat... and sing to celebrate! Oh dear, me singing? When Cik Datang found out about it she cynically asked if it rained. Cis! But yeah, it was different and because of that, we have a different set of photo memories to cherish this year.

But the best shot of the night has to be this!

Papa singing/trying to be Aerosmith. 

Yup, my papa is awesome. *hearts*

Well, karaoke happened few days before my actual birthday 

just so we can celebrate with little sis while she's home. 

On the actual birthday itself, well, I have to go to work. Boo.

But I received this at work. Yay!

A gift from Cik Datang. Eco(nomical)-friendly wrapped in a printed recycled paper 

with ribbon drawn on top. As expected from an Art Director.

Well, inside this gift bag was...

... a little bag! 

And inside this little bag...

... was a big bag!

Talk about a bag of surprises. :)

As a "Ohayo-Arigatou-Hai" Japanese-influenced lady that I am 

(though recently I've been splashed by the Korean wave), 

my other fellow colleagues generously treated me out to...

Duh. A Japanese lunch.

Where strangely has *ahem* an interesting selection of magazines.

Anyhow, I enjoyed my big bowl of Muscle Noodle, I mean Mussel Ramen.

And managed to shoot a Samsung Galaxy S2 ad at the same time.  

Group shot! Thank you guys!

As if muscle-filled lunch was not yummy enough...

...in came a precious box of sweeeeet memories!

A gift from dearest Cubbie who is one of the few who know about my longstanding love for Slam Dunk. She was worried that it was a bit old school but to me, that just show we go way back. (Though still not long enough if you ask me) Let's go for another 10, 20, 30 years and beyond, eh Cubbie? *hearts*

To end this special day with a special cake.

It's really special in that papa even made an effort to order it the day before. Haha. Sure it's no secret recipe but I am still very much touched by the effort especially since we usually buy a cake off the shelve every year. I told papa that I don't need an expensive dinner treat or anything but just a good cake. I love cakes! Like LOVE. And this Blueberry Cake (though very unexpected in choice... haha) was very very deliciousssss! Thank you papa, and mummy, too of course. Which reminds me, where's my sister in all these? Cis cis!

My nine precious cupcakes was kept in the fridge until the weekend when I finally had the time to give them the attention they deserve. Took a good amount of photos of each of them to store in my great memory bank. :)

And for that, here's the last shot for this year's oh-my-gawd-i'm-getting-older occasion.

Happy Birthday to me!

Let's Play A Game!

It's the 'Name the Fruit' Game!

Fruit No. 1

.

.

.

Name this fruit.

.

.

.

Mango?

.

.

.

Or Papaya?

Answer: 

A papaya that looks almost like a mango. 

A papaya from papa's papa-ya tree!

And if you think that's amusing, wait till you see the rest.

Mini Fruits Galore!

Mini papaya that looks like a mango, next to a mini pomelo that is a tad too yellow 

and two mini mangoes that instead don't quite look like mangoes. Just so you know, 

mini pomelo hails from the pomelo tree in front of my house too. 

Yup. Our mini garden bears mini fruits.

Oh oh! I just remember I had one more photo in my camera to share.

*goes off to hunt down the photo* 

There you go! 

Our Si Pendek Papaya tree. Hahaha. Super short but super fruitful.Contrary to the mango-looking papaya that was shown above, its many other siblings look and taste like any normal papaya. By the way, this photo was taken back in October last year. Si Pendek has turned into a fine teen-papaya now and is awaiting its second bloom.

:)

Cheers to the Freakin' Weekend!

I'll drink to that! Yeah yeah!

Extra Serve Yo! Bought this last year for daddy dearest when I paid a visit 

to Hatyai with fellow colleagues. That was like four months ago! -.- 

But who cares! It's never too late for some Chang beer.

That's one can of beer for the whole family minus young sis. Hahaha.

Ain't no drinkers, just a subtle feel good amount to go around.

CHEERS YO! :)

The Surprisingly Sappy Sisters

Seriously. Me and sis. We don't do mushy mushy stuff. We're even awkward giving each other hugs. It's not like we don't love each other. We do. In a weird understated kind of way. We're just not very good at showing affection. Hah! So it was weird that after a 4-day trip sending younger sis back to KL plus a short family trip to Melaka thrown in together that I came home feeling what I'm feeling right now.

And it's not just me okay! :( 

We sad face together-gether.

Betul-betul sungguh tak sangka.

*sigh*

That little space she occupied on my table while she was home for the past 

three months is now empty. T__T I remembered how I complained she was invading 

my space back then. And I must say looking at the photo now, that's a tiny little space 

I managed to offer. =P 

The only thing she left me with?

One used game cash card. 

That tiny bottle of hand sanitiser was mine to begin with anyway. 

*sigh*

Oh adik.

Tom Yam Kung is Tom Yam + Kang Kung?

Eeek! Lame pun is lame.

Anyway, we're really doing things differently this Chinese New Year. First with our kimchi-fied reunion dinner and today I decided to spice up the festivity with some sizzles from our neighbouring country. So we headed over to Aroy Chang Moo Kata at Burma Lane for some yummy Thai food. Cik Datang had previously offered me a promo voucher that entitles me to a set dinner for four for only RM78 nett. A pretty good deal for a big meal where a total of six dishes were served. 

So here we go!

The lame joke of the day! Tom Yam + Kung.

*food blogger mode on*

The soup was filled with generous ingredients from prawns, slices of fish flesh, 

cuttlefishes and mushrooms. The kang kung was not the usual sambal kang kung that we 

eat in Chinese 'zhu char' but instead carries a little tinge of sourness in it. Guess that's 

how the Thais prepare it. A tad weird for mom and me but a total hit with young sis. 

Dad seemed indifferent about it. 

Next up was Green Curry Chicken and Cha Om Omelette. 

I didn't taste much of the green curry because of the many dishes that were served, 

we decided to 'ta pao' it home. Hahaha. As for the pizza-looking omellete, well, 

we're still figuring what's the vege in it. *goes off to google* Oh! The vegetable in it is... 

*drumroll* Cha Om! Hahaha. It's actually Acacia pennata. *as if I know what's that* 

It was served with that little bowl of sambal. Yummy. 

Next to be served was the highlight of the meal, Phad Phed Fish!

The fish was stir-fried and served in a thick aromatic curry, topped with 

lots and lots of basil leaves. I like this even though I'm not a big fan of fried fish. 

I prefer my fish steamed, plain and fresh. Oh oh, and I like my fish as a whole. 

A big NO NO to a slice of steamed fish flesh. 

Oops! Went out of topic there. Hehe. Anyway, there was one more dish after that. 

Thai style deep fried chicken wings served with Thai chili sauce. Unfortunately, it came after we were all busy digging into our food, so no heart to take picture anymore lah. 

Just eat lah! 

Now, here's something worthy to mention about Aroy Chang Moo Kata. You see, Cik Datang 

had previously patronized this place and commented that the bowl of rice served was 

outrageously tiny that everyone definitely needs a second helping. It was the size of a tiny 

soup bowl. She said she had made her comments to the owner but not sure if they will actually take note of her feedback. 

Well, they did!

We were served with four regular size bowls of rice and only need one extra serving among 

four of us. Extra points for listening to customers' feedback. I know that for a fact because Mr Boss (well, I assumed he was the boss or person-in-charge at least) was very much interested in our opinion on the food. When mom enquired about the surprisingly good lemongrass drink, he quickly asked us how was the food when we had not even started on our meal yet even though the dishes were already on the table. LOL. Talk about real enthusiasm. Hahaha. He notably enquired again when we asked for the bill. *claps claps*

So yup! 

Not exactly super-awesome meal but was definitely super-awesome service!

A Rather Different Reunion Dinner

Ever since our Christmas dinner last month, I was on a roll in churning out 

'special' meal ideas for the family to celebrate every possible occasion. 

From a roast-turkey-wannabe to a mouthwatering miso-marinated BBQ pork. 

Y.u.m.m.y! Just the mere thought of it is making me salivate. 

So how can we celebrate Chinese New Year 

with just another usual steamboat right?

No Siree! Now the picture above might look like any other 

steamboats in any other households...

...BUT...

Take a look at that my friends!

"Ceh... tomyam you say?"

NOoooooo! Impossibru!

That my dear friends is a kimchi-jigae steamboat yo!

Now look at that happy korean-loving sister smiling one for the camera.

You bet I'm smiling too behind the camera.

Now let us roll the date back to a few weeks prior to the highly-anticipated 

reunion dinner. It was already decided then that we were going to do a steamboat this year

but... a sudden light bulb appeared over my head and then I calculated the risk 

and voiced out the idea.

"I got an idea for our steamboat!"

"What? You want to do miso soup is it?" 

-___-

*so sarcastic and yet so close to the truth as well*

"Umm... no and I not sure if we should risk it since it's reunion dinner

but I was thinking of doing... kimchi stew?"

*few seconds of silence*

"The one like we had in that Korean restaurant the other day?"

"Umm... yup but I don't know lah since I've never tried to cook it before...

maybe we shouldn't...." 

"Ok."

Ehh?!?! Hahaha. And so Kimchi Jigae steamboat it is! 

If you must know, it was not bad at all. Hehe. The funny thing was mom kept insisting that we need more soup, so I ended up cooking two pots full and guess what, we had leftovers! Hmmph! But all's good because we threw in some noodles and had ourselves some Kimchi Ramen for lunch this afternoon instead.

Y.U.M.M.Y

So I guess it's time to look at the calendar and see what's the next occasion. 

Woohoo!

Oh oh... Happy Chinese New Year everyone! 

Even Better Than Christmas!!

Don't get me wrong. We loved our modest Christmas feast the week earlier but... 

we absolutely LOVED our work-hard-to-eat BBQ New Year's Day Dinner! 

Korean-inspired, miso-marinated and somehow BBQ-perfected, tender juicy pork pieces. 

Wrapped with layers upon layers of lettuce. *sigh in contentment* 

Yuuuuummmmy!

Now remember my 2011 Special Pandan Chicken? Same turmeric powder, same chilly powder, minus the pandan. Sticked them up on a stick and waaalah! Real meaty satays! Boo to those tiny ones outside that are half the size of these but double in fat and oil. Ewww.

Cheesy cocktail sausages that oozed with cheese as we BBQed away. 

Do you know that gigantic mushrooms coat with butter are the best thing that can 

happen to a modest BBQ dinner? Even dad who does not fancy this mushroom in its many 

other ways of cooking actually voted it to be the best of the night. Wooot??!!?!

There were more of course! Sticks of baby corn. *highly recommended* Al dente squids. 

I know, I know. They're not spaghetti but they were cooked till juuuuust right. 

Springy to perfection. 

*sigh in contentment*

And then we have these! What the *toot*?!?

HAHAHAHA. Sweet potatoes left in the grill for waaaaay too long. We're blaming this on mom who insisted that they take a long time to cook. You know the saying that "when we spend too much time with someone or something, we eventually turned into each other." That's how husband and wife eventually look like each other after a whole lot of years together. =P

Well, our potatoes probably married the charcoals inside the grill 

because guess what we found under the aluminium foils?

We fondly named them the four "Or sai" 

which is the Hokkien equivalent to 'black shit'.

Hahahah. What a way to end the night. Boo hoo. 

But that's okay because we had this.

It's was so good it deserves to be mentioned twice in this post.

Now I just can't wait for Chinese New Year's Eve. 

*grins*

Out With The Old And In With The New!

That's exactly what one should do to greet the new year.

And that's exactly what we did at home.

.

.

.

Our old, worn and humble sofa that has served us not that well for many years.

If you think this is just a sad sight to behold, you will be glad to know that I have decided against posting the three-seater one. Hahaha. After editing the photo, I feel a tad bit embarrassed over it. So nope, not posting that up. 

So the story begun months ago when mom finally urged dad to 

"For god sake, buy a new sofa set!". 

It was decided then that a new sofa we shall get except all of us kind of procrastinated 

till the max. So there was no sight of a new sofa set for another few months until... 

OMG! It's December! Hahaha. And finally, dad gave himself a deadline to get a new sofa set before the new year. 

Three weeks ago, we finally stop sitting on the job and instead sat on what was going to be our new sofa set. It was told that a newly manufactured one will be delivered to us in two weeks time. So we waited. And waited. And then we called. "Where on earth is our sofa?" 

And then we complained. And then to cut the story short. 

It finally came yesterday night. 

Delivered at 8.30pm at night yo! 

Hooray! New sofa in sight.

New sofa trying to make its way through the doors.

New sofa landed safely into the living room.

New sofa gets an unofficial opening ceremony.

TADAAAA!!

Brand new pretty, comfy, 'luxurious' sofa. :)

Good bye poor old stuffy sofa. :(

And now I can finally show you our three-seater sofa. 

Pretty right? Hahaha. Maybe a tad too pretty for everything else in our living room.

*shrugs* 

Oh well. It's a beautiful start.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Who says you need a roast turkey to celebrate Christmas?

And I bet no one said anything about being a Christian to celebrate Christmas either.

After all, it's also a 3-day long weekend. That itself calls for a celebration, right?

So instead we chose to forget about what we don't have and make do with what we have.

No roast turkey? No problem.

.

.

.

We went ahead and got ourselves a yummy roast chicken instead. 

Baked up some cheesy cherry tomatoes and carrots to dress it up. Cooked up some mildly cheesy pasta. Faked up a minestrone. Mixed up some potato salad with fresh lettuce and eggs. Oh oh and somehow managed to also bake up a funny looking yet surprisingly delicious apple bread pudding. And top everything up with an affordable bottle of sparkling juice. *phew* And Waaa Laaaah! Enjoyed a grand feast for under uumm... RM40? 

Now who says it costs a lot to enjoy a delicious 5-course meal?

;-)

I Got it from My Mama

I've always thought I got my little 'loose-screw-in-the-brain' syndrome from my dad.
The quirky, funny, creative side of me definitely came from the man who plays waiter and surprises me with silly riddles. Because let's face it, mom is way too serious and...
*forgive me* but possibly slightly slow. :P

"But I still love you much much, mom!"
*over compensating* Hahaha...

Anyway,

BOY WAS I WRONG!

Tonight I came home to a bowl of fresh vegetables with Yakult as salad dressing!

I repeat "Yakult"!

And it was yum-meeee!

Who would have thought?

Hmmm.... so was it mom after all?

Grandpa's Song

That's not the title of song but that's what I called it.

I remember living with my grandparents when I was doing my internship in Penang and one day while waving my goodbyes as I head off for work, my grandpa stood at the front door and sang this to me.

"Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye
Cheerio, here I go, on my way
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye
Not a tear, but a cheer, make it gay"

I immediately fell in love with the song and went all out to search for it on the internet. I asked grandpa what's the title of the song but he couldn't named the exact title and therefore, I fondly called it "Grandpa's Song". It turned out to be a World War II song that was sang to the troops as they head off for war. Today I'll sing it back to my dearest grandpa as he ventures on his journey to the other side.

Full Lyrics of Wish Me Luck (As You Wave Me Goodbye)

a song by Harry Parr-Davies, made popular during WWII by Gracie Fields

Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye
Cheerio, here I go, on my way
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye
Not a tear, but a cheer, make it gay
Give me a smile I can keep all the while
In my heart while I'm away
Till we meet once again, you and I
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye

Though I've always listened to this version with a male lead
as it reminds me of the way grandpa sang it.
http://youtu.be/GQX-ZgUZGxI

:(

I don't know what to say. I don't know how to start.
For he has left us and I don't know how to react.
Because sometimes it's not about what you show on the outside,
but what you feel on the inside.
And nobody needs to know that except you.

Last Week in Pictures

Made a trip down to Kuala Lumpur last week to send young sis back to uni. There were certainly lots of 'picture-perfect' moments caught on camera and to save the hassle of breaking them into separate posts which, by the way, knowing myself will take waaay looooong time to update.

Family Night In with the 'Gods'

*grins*

Godparents, that is.

Dad truly enjoyed himself that night when we all gathered at the dining area to drink and be jolly. Godpa appointed dad as his assistant bartender and as you can see from above, dad took his role seriously. *points to top inserted pic on the right* That's mom giggling at dad's silly antics. *points to bottom inserted pic* There was even a 'prize-giving' ceremony.

Family Day Out at Fullhouse

We practically live, eat and breathe at Sunway whenever we're down KL. What's with sis studying at Sunway University, godparents living in Subang and with Sunway Pyramid the meeting point for all meet-ups.


Mom was quite happy with the place. Want to impress a mom? Give her value for money. We ordered two set lunch and two a la carte. Though the difference in price between the two was just RM2.00 for an additional drink, soup and dessert. However, RM4.00 saved is well still RM4.00 saved. :P It's a Penangite's trait to count every penny's worth. Besides, you see that two large 'jug' of ice lemon tea there? We couldn't even finished that, let alone 4 of those.

Dinner Out with Friends

At Garden, Sunway Pyramid.

*pauses for 5 seconds*

I did not spent 10 hours at Sunway Pyramid okay!
I did leave the building after lunch.
I just went back there for round 2 with friends.

And since I was early as usual. :P I had to make sure I didn't step into shops that I've visited during the day. Cubbie called me paranoid but come on, there was barely anyone in Marks & Spencers during a working day okay? I'm pretty sure they remembered the lady in pink who didn't buy anything or worst, the lady who was there the entire day! :O

Take a Swing for Your Blessing

Our final stop of the trip was the Kwan Yin Tong Temple somewhere near Ipoh. Mom read an article about the place and was eagered to visit the place. I met up with Ching Ching for lunch and she took us there and it is here that the prize-winning shot was taken!

TADAAA!

I say the best shots are always the non-posey ones. Mom was actually still fixing her hair for the shoot when I begun taking the pictures. They thought all I took was one 'proper smiling' picture and was surprised when I showed them the rest. See there dad helping mom out of the carriage, now that's love! ♥ *grins grins grins*

Oh oh! Lo and behold! The gal who send me amazing cookies, not once but twice! Ching Ching aka Chingy aka Cheah-san!

*sigh*

It was a wonderful trip.