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!

My first sets of pearls

Yes, I said sets as in more than one!

My sister and her colleagues invited me to join them for a girly lunch at the Carat Club in Bangsar today to have a look at pearls. They had a trunk show collection of Japanese Akoya Pearls. Sit Yin had already purchased a very lovely pair yesterday (she collected them today and we all said they suited her very well) and got us all interested in a girly pearly lunch!

Our free lunch turned out to be an expensive affair. In fact, as I was typing the paragraph above, my bank has just called to ask if I had signed for something at the Carat Club. I sheepishly had to admit that I did.

Okay it's actually not too expensive for pearls, I tell myself. I reason with my conscience that these are my first sets of pearls. I cannot guarantee that it will be my last, though, since they are so lovely.

Description of my two sets:
Set 1. A string of light peach pearls that are "deformed" (I cant think of a nicer way to say this). But they are really unique given how the pearls were formed which, when put together, looks really cool and modern. It retails for RM439. I had 2 pearls removed to be made into earrings.

Set 2. A string of greyish pearls, rounder and less deformed compared to Set 1. It's really difficult to describe the colours as it looks very different in different lighting and skintones. It retails for RM649 and I had 3 pearls removed - 1 for a pendant and 2 for earrings.

My sister the brat bought 2 strings of pearls that cost RM1890 each. Admittedly, the difference in quality resulted in the difference in price. Her pearls were mostly similar in size, shape and colour compared to mine. She plans to wear both necklaces together but has the option of just wearing one if she wants.

So that was a productive lunchtime indeed! Although, I still think I prefer diamonds to pearls. Diamonds, after all, really are a girl's best friend!

P/S: Pictures only after we get the necklaces, which should hopefully be next week!

Andrea Bocelli in Singapore this weekend!

I can't wait!

Rommel and I scrambled to register online for the Andrea Bocelli tickets that YTL was giving out. We didnt get it though...

Then I found out my mom had tickets but gave them to a client without knowing that we wanted to go. I was upset of course but couldn't blame her really since the client wanted it.

Our luck changed last week when I got a call from Tan Sri's office asking if I wanted tickets! I nearly screamed into the phone. I was jumping all over the office that day though, so happy I was.

So it's set. We booked the flights and hotel last week, collected the concert tickets yesterday and I have my yarn crawl through Singapore planned (not that many places lah - just Spotlight and Golden Dragon really because of lack of time).

We're going to be ambitious and also visit the casinos. And I want to go to Universal Studios as well. I love amusement parks and am a huge fan of Disneyland (where one can never really grow up) so since this is the nearest "quality" amusement park to us here in Malaysia, I have to visit. (which reminds me, I need to plan a visit to HK Disneyland soon, it's the only Disneyland that I haven't been to.)

Do you think that's too much to do in 2 days? I dont know. I know I'll be exhausted!

Piggin' Out: Imbi Market

One fine Sunday morning, we were invited to breakfast at the busy Imbi Market by Uncle Lee. This is one of his breakfast haunts (although he has many food haunts) and he regularly packs the famous beef noodles for us.

Since my mom no longer eats beef (just because she doesn't want to), he ordered some other dishes.

Prawn mee

Mee jawa

Assam laksa

We found it really amusing that he ordered so much for her, considering the fact that my mom usually barely eats more than a quarter of a regular bowl of noodles. But anyway, we all got to try them!

Verdict: All three were good but somehow, cannot compare to what you'd get in Penang!

And now, the highlight of our trip: BEEF NOODLES!

The Imbi Market beef ball noodles were my mom's favourite when she was growing up in KL... so much so that she threw away her no-red-meat philosophy for a few seconds and ate some! (That's a very big deal because my mom has very strong willpower when it comes to food, unlike the rest of us!)

I like how this picture below came out. It looks like I stuck two pictures together! Anyway, beef balls on the left, brisket on the right.

The noodles were served separately, with the option of horfun, meehoon or mee.

I chose horfun, my favourite.

Shen took the mee, since she apparently abhors rice noodles for some reason.

The shopowner gladly posed for me.

After the feasting, I had great fun taking pictures of some of the other stalls. We also bought our weekly chicken, fish and vegetables at the market. A bit pricier than the Old Klang Road market but much cheaper than The Village Grocer, of course!

I was so excited about seeing this apam stall and planned to come back after taking all the pictures to buy some for myself. When I got back to the stall, they had just sold the last piece! I guess that means I have to go back again for more nom!

I'm not that big a fan of apam balik, on the other hand. But hey it looked really good!

Knit FO: Travelling Woman No.2 for Su Ling

For my cousin Su Ling's birthday, I gave her my second Travelling Woman shawl. My first was given to Rommel's mother for Christmas last year - details here.

I love this pattern - so easy to follow and a pleasure to knit. Small enough to take along for holidays too!

Details:-

Ravelry link: here

Pattern: Travelling Woman by Liz Abinante

Yarn: Ancient Threads Sockittome - handdyed yarn I bought at iKnit last December.

Needles: 5mm circulars.

March 2010 birthdays

The night after our Restoran Homey feast, we had a triple birthday celebration party at our home with the god-siblings.

We had many options on how to feed a whole bunch of adults - cooking (but who was going to do it? I was lazy and Shen was busy that day), buying from food court (but we always buy from the food court and I'm really bored of it), ordering from roomservice.com (but we couldn't decide what to order)......

So, after our Homey feast, we decided that it was probably the yummiest option. Plus, we didn't mind eating it two days in a row.

The tables were set....
.... and the candles were lit....

....the birthday song was sung...

Happy Birthday, Sandra, Kok Beng and Stella!

And finally, a model in the making - Isabelle...

Piggin' Out: Restoran Homey - revisited

I've been happily playing with my new camera and new lens... Here's pictures from a recent meal at Restoran Homey, Kuchai. (for my previous posts and restaurant contact details, click here and here)

Indonesian mud crabs steamed with egg - perfect to start the meal with. My dad usually calls up before we leave the house to preorder this, and it arrives at our table just moments after we sit down. (We've timed it all to perfection by now, given the number of times we come here)

Next up is the mantis prawn stir-fried kung po style, served in a deep fried yam basket. Fantastic..

My mom always remembers to order the Hokkien-fried meehoon, amazingly stir-fried in loads of lard.

That day, we brought our own fish there... Deep fried to perfection, of course.

And to end the meal - the chilli crabs - same Indonesian mud crabs, cooked in a different style and served with deep fried mantou buns.

Definitely my family's favourite place to eat. My brother's booked it as his first meal when he comes home for Easter next week.

Knit FOs: Spring and Ellis Bags

Finally, some knit FOs!

I've been on a bag crocheting spree lately - am planning to hopefully make enough to sell at this year's church annual bazaar. Here are two recently completed bags: Spring (on the left) and Ellis.

Spring just reminds me of... spring! I used milk yarn from Spotlight Singapore, a 4mm hook and pretty wooden handles from The Quilt Gallery at Bangsar Village. I've also made a little matching pink purse but no pics of that yet since I've just completed it.

Ellis is a simple tweed bag with acrylic handles, named after Mr Ellis, my economics teacher back in boarding school in the UK because he always wore tweed.

Both are loosely based on patterns from my various Japanese crochet books but I've modified them quite a bit to fit the handles and the limited amount of yarn I had of each type.

And.... here is my new toy at home! Say hello to Mac! (And hi to my little project storage table which I bring around the house to keep all my knit-related notions like scissors, stitch markers, tapestry needles etc.. On the top is the WIP Spring bag).

And in the reflection below, I'm using my other new toy - I've finally purchased a Nikon D90 - my upgrade from the D50 which I have given to my sister.

March has been a gadgets galore month... and we need to save money from now on. (Shhh... we also bought a PS3).

Gong Hei Fatt Choy!

... albeit a rather belated Chinese New Year wish!

This is my sister's first CNY celebration at home in five years... so I think my most frequent question to her all of last week was... "So does this feel like Chinese New Year yet?"

CNY is a special celebration time for Chinese families worldwide.

There's the must-have reunion dinners... This is actually taken on the second day of CNY when we went back to my aunt's home in Rawang one more time for another round of "feasting'. In accordance with tradition, we went back to my dad's hometown on the eve of CNY for the actual reunion dinner.

My aunt's cooking is something I really look forward to every CNY. We had my favourite chun kuen (similar to spring rolls but its meat rolled up in thin pork fat sheets and deep fried), another favourite qu tou tong (pig's stomach soup with pepper), siew yoke (roast pork) and steamed chicken.


There's the rounds of full course Chinese dinners (and lunches).

Here are my cousins Samantha, Vanessa and Melissa tossing the "lou sang" at our family reunion lunch (for my mom's side of the family). We ate at Ming Room, Bangsar Shopping Centre.


We also had one round with my dad's side of the family on the third night of CNY. Here's my dad, his youngest sister (I call her Mui Gu), her son, her husband and my dad's second sister (Chui Gu). We had a great feast in Gu Yue Tien, Chulan Square.


This picture is for my friend Suen who sadly couldn't make it for my CNY party this year. She loves this jelly cake, ordered from this lady we've affectionately called "The Jelly Auntie" who lives nearby. Suen can eat a whole cake by herself!


The second night of CNY happened to be Rommel's birthday so we took a break from all the Chinese dinners and celebrated at Sage. They took the liberty to specially prepare the truffle pasta for us although it wasn't in the menu. This was so good, we wanted to go back for lunch the next day to have it again.

More pictures are here.

Knit FO: Travelling woman 1

This shawl really fits its name.

The yarn travelled from The Plucky Knitter in the US to my home in Malaysia. I then brought it to London where I cast on in London in December and completed it in Paris a week later. It has followed me home to Malaysia and has been given to Rommel's mom as a Christmas present.

The pattern was very simple to follow and I had fun knitting this! In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I made another one right after. That second one has been washed and blocked but not photographed yet!

Details:
Ravelry link: here
Pattern: Travelling Woman by Liz Abinante
Yarn: The Plucky Knitter Merino Seacell in Garland colourway
Needles: 5mm circulars