Knit FO: The Mistaken Pumpkin

Really sorry I've been away for so long. Lot's of things have happened, but to keep things short: I resigned from my old job 2 months ago, went away to Europe for 3 weeks and start my new job on Monday!

And so, I return to this forgotten blog with a completed FO! I present The Mistaken Pumpkin.

Inspired by our first trip to Scotland (and by the fact that we were going to be there in autumn), I decided to make use of the Pumpkin Latte yarn I purchased from the Plucky Knitter in 2008 and found an extremely easy to understand and really pretty pattern: The Mistaken Shawl.

Completed in early August, I washed and blocked it immediately and eagerly waited to take pictures of it "on location". The perfect opportunity presented itself when we visited Roslyn Chapel, just half an hour away from Edinburgh city centre. The weather was sunny for long enough for us to take these pictures, before it started raining again.

I used 2 skeins of Pumpkin Latte and 4.5mm needles.

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!

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.

Piggin' Out: Monte's @ BSC - revisited

Another lovely meal at Monte's, located in Bangsar Shopping Centre...

* read about my previous post on Monte's here*

Pumpkin soup: creamy and always consistent in taste

Warm buns with butter


Garlic toast: a classic...



Another classic: the escargot...

Deep fried oysters were good too...

I had the grilled snapper fillet with garlic butter sauce, something that as a kid, I used to order every time I came to Monte's. Still good!

Rommel stuck to his usual ribeye steak, good as always.

And my sister ordered another familiar dish - peppermint lamb.

We polished the night off sharing dessert:

Definitely one of our favourite restaurants in KL - for its good food, convenient location and value-for-money portions.

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.