Weekend Menu #26: Taste of Bako

Yesterday afternoon together with my mum and sis, we went for a ride to Bako.  It has been ages since I been to Bako and Muara Tebas.  When I was small, dad used to bring us to Muara Tebas to visit the famous Muara Tebas temple on the hill (and on the way we will dropped by Bako).  

That time the roads were bad and it takes more than an hours ride.  But yesterday it was less than 30 minutes drive to Bako.  Hubby wanted bring us for a lunch at this Bako restaurant which overlooking the river.  It was a old wooden shop but suprising a lot of people came to eat at this old restaurant.  And we can see many activities surrounding the river too.   

We have a wonderful lunch.  Plus drinks, the meal costs RM100.00.  Not bad.  I would definitely ask hubby to bring us over there again.  If not, my girl will nag his dad to bring us because she enjoyed the scenery and some crabs on the mud.

We ordered its bamboo clam cooked in white wine.  Very nice.  Something different than having its cooked in curry powder. The bamboo clams were so fresh and no sandy taste! 

Its famous deep fried squid.  Very fresh and tasty. I ate a lot of these sinful food!

Fresh steamed fish covered in their special sauces.  Tasted like black bean sauce.

Their signature fried taufu.

Stir fried kai lan

The old wooden shop.  The restaurant is the one next to this grocery shop.

Beautiful Bako river.  The sampan and speed boats are means of transport over here

A special treat for the birthday girl!

In My Daughter's Eyes

Today is my eldest child's 6th birthday! She is our lovely honey pie of the house. She is always our princess of the house. And hope like this beautiful song, she will always think of me in high respect. *wink*

Happy birthday, my girl!

Back here

It has been a busy yet awesome week for us. 

So how the kids, you may ask?  They are back to the baby sitter today.  We had some great times together.  I brought them to China-Malaysia Friendship Park (Taman Sahabat) on Thursday evening after the rain.  They had great times walking and feeding those fishes in the pond.

We did not go any where much because of the weather.  It was rather unpredictable weather over here.  Most afternoons and evenings we will have heavy showers so I prefer to keep my 2 kids dry indoors.  But they did not complain much because they can watch Barney series the whole afternoon.  *wink*

Baby Jay has few bumps under my care.  Luckily his bump on forehead subdued and it looks okay after few cold-pressed method done on him!  I learnt a new aids from few people.  If your kids have a bruise, the first time you do is to apply a pack of ice on the area.  Massage and the bruise will gone in few days.  and you wouldnt have that ugly brown (or purplish) marks on your skin. 

Other than the bumping and falling down accidents, we were doing fine.  I am not so sure, Baby Jay is pretty clumsy and accident-prone.  But at home, he will be alright. 

As for hubby, he has a busy schedule in the office.  He was so busy last week that we hardly see him, except at nights.  His CEO was in town so he offered to be the driver.  And the next few days everyone from other branches knew him.  Now I know the reason why he volunteered to be the driver!  *wink*

Seeds anyone?

Not any seeds, but Chia Seeds. Been curious about its taste and benefits, I bought a pack of Chia seed from Cosway few weeks ago and tried them out. It is full of fibre and antioxidants. At first I took a spoonful of seed, then slowly I increased to two spoonful. It can be added to any food, juices and salads, but I just mix with water and make it into a sticky batter.

Er, it doesn't taste at all. Just feel like biting some seeds in your mouth and some will stuck on your teeth. But after taking it, I have my daily bowel movement. Normally once every 2 days, but now every day I must go to the toilet!

Home outdoor design

We searched and did some browsing around for ideas for our house interior and decoration design.  We want something simple yet practical for our new house.  Nothing extravagant as we have young children around.  So everything would be children friendly.

Our bedrooms are almost done and only left the kitchen , backyard and car porch.  The contractor has submitted their quotation and that include a driveway pavers which I like the most.  It makes the car porch and backyard a distinctive look.  Some more the contractor gives us a lifetime guarantee on the pavers, so do not need to worry too much about the maintenance.

For a week

The kids' baby sitter is on leave for 6 days. Just passed Day 1 today and 5 more days to go. And I have already exhausted looking after them for a day! Lol!

So for the next few days my itinerary is the same as any normal day just that I need to tag my little boy along and picking up my little girl. So our days would more or less go as follow:

7.35am Sending little girl to her kindergarden

8.00am Bringing Baby Jay for breakfast

9.00am Opening shop

12.15pm Picking little girl from her school and have lunch

1.00pm Home, shower and nap time

6.00pm Dinner

7.00pm Mending the shop

9.30pm Closing the shop and heading home

So I don't think I would have time to go online, plus do much posting and blog hopping since I am much occupied with my 2 kids. And I do not have internet connection at home and hubby mostly bring his iPad to work.

Well, I have to admit that comparing with working at the shop, it is more tiring looking after 2 kids. Physically and mentally. But I am loving it. I hardly have time with my 2 kids so it is a good opportunity to spend some times with them. Have a taste of how it is to look after 2 naughty kids. After all I have always wish to be a homemaker in the future. So I cannot complain much. *wink*

In 1985......

No history lesson here, but there is something that I would like to share with you......

More than 27 years ago, we had our very first family trip to Singapore and KL. I was 8 years old that time, my sis was 4 and bro was 3 years old then. In Singapore, we stayed in my aunt's house (my dad's elder sister) for few days. Then we took the rail train to KL and stayed there for few days before headed home. Although I can't remember the whole trip but I remember some of the fond moments. There was a photo album we took throughout our vacation that my mum still keep well. Maybe one day I shall share one of the pictures with you. *wink*

Ok, back to my previous post when I mentioned that my mum gave me something yesterday morning. It was not a heirloom as a blogger friend guessed. It was nothing expensive. However it was a rattan basket my mum bought in KL back in 1985. So, this basket has been more than 27 years old and it was still in good condition. I was so surprised seeing this basket when my mum shown me because I never remember this basket at all. Why not? I was so young that time. And she has been keeping it in her wardrobe all this while!

Don't you like it? I fall in love with it at first sight!

Solid looking basket. I like the way the clips work.

Nice right?? And maybe I can keep some of Baby Jay's toys in there too. He loves to bring his toys around when ever we go out, so this basket will help in keeping them in one place.

Why I said it was a memorable present to me? Because it reminded me of my family vacation back then. And it was the first and only vacation we have together. After so many years, we never went any places for holiday together as a family. Maybe some day we can go somewhere for holiday together again! This round, with new addition, i.e. hubby and kids. *wink*

My breakfast with mum

I brought my mum to our favourite noodle shop in Kenyalang Park this morning. As usual, The Noodle Expert coffee shop is packed with customers on Monday morning. Luckily we did not wait so long.

My favourite seafood mihun. It consists of sliced bacon, sliced fish, fresh prawns, minced meat ball and vegetable.


This is hubby's favourite cheng soup. It has everything in it, from pork blood cube, livers, salted vegetables, to fresh fish slices. Usually we ordered RM8.00 for 2 persons. You can order your soups in 3 different portions namely RM6, RM8 and RM10.00.

And besides the breakfast my mum gave me a present this morning. Actually something from the past, which I find it memorable! Will share with you in the next post so watch out for it.

My gratitude

It has been a while but late is better than none.

I am grateful :

1. I survived this week without any problem. It has been a stressful week at work.

2. to my staff. They have been hardworking and diligent during the one day stock checking. What would I do without them?? Thank you again. Promise a great dinner from me soon.

3. I do not look my age. Alright, I have to clarify here. I am going to be in my 35 soon, so don't bluff me by saying I am in my 20s!

4. I went for my overdue Pap Smear and ultrasound. And the result? Satisfactory. Consulted doctor on my dizziness, it may be due to low blood count or inner ear fluid imbalance.

5. After hanging my sport shoes when I was pregnant with my 1st child in 2006, I finally used them again. Reunited with my jogging buddy this week and we had our first session in the park on Thursday evening. More jogging to come!

6. everything is in order at home. It is hard to live with other people, but hubby told me to be patient. After all I have been staying there for 6 years plus, so few more months to go would not hurt me much. So God, please give me the strength to go through the next few months.

Reducing the principal

This morning, we went to EPF office to apply for the withdrawal for housing loan reduction from Account 2. The house loan has been 5 years plus and we still owe around RM270k plus. All those years we keep paying the interests and the loan amount does not reduced much. After much weighing, we decided to reduce the principal via EPF withdrawal. I am not so sure whether it is a wise move but BLR has been higher so with the loan amount reduced we do not have to pay too much interests.

We did our first withdrawal back in 2007 when we were to pay our down payment for the house.

Anyone doing the same thing as I do??? Any differing opinion?

Board games

I am blessed that I have my family to look after the kids when we are handful at the shop once a while. Sometimes I get my dad to pick up the kids from baby sitter's house if I am not free in the evening to do so. How would I cope without my family?

Yesterday my sister bought some board games to entertain the kids at home. I was surprised that she went to get those aeroplane game and snake & ladder game boards. Well, we played those game boards when we were small, so it would be good to teach this new generation on what we played as a child, her reasoning. I like her idea!

I am sure most of you played more than one board games when you were kids. It was past time activity besides tv watching.

Now you see, kids nowadays seldom exposed to real board games and mostly play computer and online games. Correct me if I were wrong. My kids are more high-tech than me. My girl will able to browse through the Yahoo! games and find the games that she wants to play! At her age, I did not have computers and we mostly played pretending games (such as cooking, teacher and students etc) and board games. I remember as a kid, me and siblings had a set of few board games such as monopoly, chess, Chinese chess, aeroplane games, S&L and more. It was fun!

My girl was full of questions when I told her yesterday morning that her aunt bought some game boards for her to play in the evening. Why we go down when touch the snake head? How we move up the ladder etc? I think she was thinking that the pieces will move up and down by themselves! Lol!

So hopefully my children would not lose out on those excitement and fun. And thanks sis for introducing our childhood games to my children! My girl has been nagging me to bring her to grandparents' house today to continue the games! *wink*

Short note

A short update from me. It is a busy week for me.

I had an early start at the shop today, after picking up one of my staff and breakfast, we opened the shop before 10am.

Both kids are down with cough and flu. Too much night baths I told hubby! hahaha! And I also got the infection too. Have been sneezing for few days now, but the weather was extremely hot that I cannot resist taking cold drinks almost every day.

I cannot afford to be sick because I am doing stock check at the shop today. Now I am taking a short break. Dizzy looking at all those stocks.

Hubby is supposed to go to KL tomorrow but he declined the trip. One second, he said he is going and the next second, he told me he is not going! I also not so sure he is going or not! Averagely he is flying to KL for training once a month. Not all the staff but only performing staff is entitled to go.

I need a break! I mean a real break from work! Holiday! Probably not this year. Sigh!

Beautiful home

It has been my home for the past 34 years and counting. I used to dream of migrating to other country when I was young. Never like the humid weather, and prefer some Western countries where I could experience the beautiful 4 seasons.

Hubby also shared the same dream as me, thinking of sending kids to overseas and have their higher educations there. Our first choice is New Zealand. I always love New Zealand. I heard so much of it from friends and relatives.

But recent natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunami and political unrest rather turn me off. We are not changing our mind, but rather re-assess our plan. The kids are still young, so it would not happen in 10 years time. We may not migrating over, but instead staying for certain period for children' educational benefit sake. So we are not leaving our country behind.

I am not complaining about my home. We may not have a perfect environment here, but after thinking and weighing this and that, we still think that our country is not too bad. I guess so, because many expatriates and foreigners residing here. There must be some reasons they choose our country right?

(picture taken in front of the jetty near Astana)

I love Kuching because here I can find good food, great people and beautiful scenery. Probably the last one is hard to find now, with many developments mushrooming around the city in past years. Kuching is fast developing and sometimes I wonder are we really ready for all those development?

Girly me

Happy Good Friday, everyone! It is a public holiday in Sarawak today.

So how do you celebrate your Easter's Day this coming Sunday??? Sunday is the family day, so as usual going to church with my family, having breakfast and relaxing at home.

When ever I am free I would have my nails painted. FREE means when the kids are out of sight! Lol! Since I do not cook and do housework much, I can preserve the colours longer. Sometimes I will go a over adventurous with the nail colours and if I like it, I will keep it for few days. If no, then wash them away. So, what do you think of my adventurous nail colours???




Bloody red for that vamp look!


Tried something extraordinary and it turned out disastrous. A bit too much of the red colour. Maybe next round I will just do ala French nail art, lining the white parts.
This is the most DIY nail I had. Colour the white part of the nail with blue polish. Then coated with disco dust polish. The white dot, I used toothpick to dot on my nails.





I manually stick the flower print on the nails!



Ah, I like this one too. Blue has always been my favourite colour other than purple and fuchsia.


And some days I would go bolder with the blue crackle!

I love the silver base because it makes my nails brighter and skin fairer. So I don't look so dark. I have gotten darker in recent years. Seriously, I think I am in need of manicure. Look like my nails need some care and treatment. :p


Other day it will be the normal black & white term. "Like the black and white butterflies, flying endless on the cloudy sky."

And I am celebrating this year Easter's Day with my spotted nail colours. No coloured Easter eggs this year though. *wink* And pardon the "mess" as I took a picture of it prior to cleaning and touch-up. Lol!



Which one do you like most???

My Indian breakfast

Maybe I should re-title this post to "My Mamak breakfast". The owner of this food stall is operating in Batu Lintang for many years and he has many customers from different races eating his famous curry noodle and Indian rojak. Muhammad Kucei stall is one of the well known mamak food around Kuching. Now he is older, he is passing down the business to his sons.

One of his sons opened another branch in King's Centre. The business is good as ever and every day crowded with customers. Why not? Students from nearby institutions and office and government workers having their meals there.

We had our breakfast there this morning. I still prefer the Batu Lintang stall because the curry more flavourish and its rojak is not too sweet. But nevertheless it was a great meal for us because although we waited more than 30 minutes for our food, the waitress and waiter are very friendly. Our breakfast cum lunch! Very filling! You will not regret eating there.

Curry noodle


Sweet Kucei Rojak.

Dream towards your goals

Every now and then, we will make our girl to pray before she is off to bed. Try to instill the good habit of saying thanks to the Almighty Lord.

And before we doze off, hubby and I will have our nightly chat. And we talk mostly on daily events, and our future. We have dreamt of wonderful future for ourselves and children. Who doesn't?

I believe that when you have a goal for the future, you will do something to achieve it. So, we list down and divide our goals into short and long term goal. Short term would be those we need to achieve in one or two months time. Long term goal would be those in 5 or 10 years time.

When you have your goals, you need to list down the strategies. Dream without action is simply passing the times. And time is waiting for no one. Have a goal, go for it and you will succeed! *wink*

Light along the way

I need some inspiration or motivation. When things are not going your way, you always believe that there is a light at the end of the road. That what keeps me going. For better life and brighter future of my children.

What inspire or motivate me?? Everything you can say. From kids (their funny and naive words), hubby's predicament and people that I meet every day to your blog posts.

One of the blogs that I admired is Jemima's Journal. Her journal always full of meaningful quotes and sayings. I actually like the following quotes. And I was telling my hubby this morning when he told me about his office politics. Staff back-stabbing him and boss having double standard, everyone playing games in office etc. Rubbish politics I said. Never ending and everywhere is the same. So I told him to implement the 2 S (Silence and Smile). And if both does not work in solving problems, then let it be. Nothing last forever, as the above quote stated!

Both taken from Jemima's Journal

Alright, time for a cup of tea. My 2nd cup actually. It keeps me going for the rest of the day too.