Wednesday 23 June 2010

Adeline's 16th Birthday

We celebrated cousin Adeline's 16th birthday this weekend (see previous post about the cooking lesson that was part of the party). Cousin Melissa came up with the birthday cake design and got it made by a friend's mom.

Family pic!
(L-R) Uncle Thomas, Andrew, Kelvin, Adeline and Auntie Poh Har.

Nicholas was all hyper that night... I'm not sure what he was trying to do here but it was funny!

Oh, and one of the decorative sugar pieces almost got burnt. That was how we blew out the candles - frantic puffing to put out the fire! Luckily no major damages...

Happy Sweet 16, Adeline!

Cooking lesson with Master Chef Tan

As part of cousin Adeline's 16th birthday celebrations, a cooking lesson with our master chef in the family, Uncle Tan was arranged. I believe all should realise now that this family's lives all revolve around food!

Uncle Tan makes one of the best mein fun kuey or pan mee. Essentially homemade wheat flour noodles in a rich anchovy broth. Instead of using the pasta maker to make noodles as is more commonly done in the shops, one tears thin strips of the dough by hand and drops them into the broth. Essential condiments are the deep fried anchovies, potato leaves and crispy fried onions. Optional condiments are fishballs, meatballs, pre-cooked boneless chicken pieces, clams, prawns etc.

Instructions for making the dough:
Put 1 tsp of salt, 3 tbsp of olive oil, 2 cups of water, 2 tbsp of cornflour and a packet of wheatflour into a deep dish.



Handknead until smooth and all the floury paste no longer sticks to your palms, adding water gradually. This is the tricky part because there is no exact measurement - it's all by the feel of the dough.
The broth is made with dried anchovies and chicken bones. The optional condiments listed above may be added before the dough is added to make the broth sweeter. The dough is torn and stretched as thin as possible. Too thick and it's not nice. Next add the potato leaves.

Once the broth boils up again and cooked for a few minutes, it's done.

To serve, fill up a bowl with a mixture of everything in the pot and add the fried anchovies and the deep fried onions. Another important item is the sambal belachan, a spicy chilli and fermented prawn paste combo that completes this dish. I will need to learn that recipe from my Auntie Mag next time.
Of course, since we are greedy, we also had other dishes along with the pan mee. From the front, chicken curry (with no coconut milk because some in the family can no longer have such luxuries in their diet), yong tau fu and beef rendang.


YUM!

Knit FO: Pumpkin stole

Here's one project I forgot to post about... I completed the Pumpkin stole in early February and gave it to Auntie Sze Peng as a birthday gift soon after.

I somehow forgot to record what yarn I used and I cannot recall which one this is except it was bought on sale from Spotlight and is very soft! I improvised the pattern from a poncho pattern in one of my Japanese magazines and converted into a stole instead.

Apologies for the lack of details here!

Tuesday 8 June 2010

WWKIP 2010 - 12th-20th June


This year's World Wide Knit In Public Day (WWKIP Day) is held from 12th to 20th June. Knitters all over the world group together to knit in public! (It can't get any more straightforward than that!)
Here are the details for the KL WWKIP event:
Venue: Starbucks, Bangsar Village 2
Time: 2.30pm onwards
Activities:
-Bring your current knitting project to Knit in Public.
-Bring or wear one FO for show and tell.
-Brown Bag Exchange - Put two balls of yarn and some goodies in a paper bag (preferably something not plastic since Saturday is no plastic day) for an exchange. Min value RM 30.00.
For more details, pls refer to our Ravelry thread. See you there!
p/s: Yes, I used the Europe WWKIP logo because I prefer it to the Asia one which is black and white.