Off & Away!

I am very excited!  School holiday has started middle this week and we are going for our family holiday tomorrow!  Have been talking about our family holiday for a year plus and finally we are going to have one. Put on hold because of my pregnancy and relocation plan. The kids also have been complaining on not bringing them to some places for a family vacation. I know they have been looking forward to this holiday. Sigh!  Kids nowadays!  Pretty demanding and really know how to enjoy life, right?  Must some new places for new adventure etc. *wink*

Hubby and I have been going through list of places in Malaysia to bring our 2 older children since it is Visit Malaysia Year 2014 and after much consideration, we have decided on this place!!  Booked tickets and hotels few months in advance.

Look forward to a great holiday and interesting adventure. Again, Jamie will be left behind with baby sitter.  But next year, we will bring him along for a family holiday. 

I will be taking a week break from blog space. Promised hubby that we will dedicate our times and spend them well with the kids. A little reconnecting and bonding moment, I call it.   But I will still update my status and pictures in FB. *wink*

Once we are back from our holiday next Thursday, I shall blog more. Till then, have a great weekend!  To all my Dayak friends, Selamat Hari Gawai!  To all kids out there, Happy School Holidays!!

Wonderful

I have been craving for some Malay food lately. Looking for nice ayam penyet, mutton lamb and nasi lemak around the town so that is why we ended up at this side of the town. A friend told me that they have good Malay dishes here. A bit far and we do not come to this area that frequent unless we want to go grocery shopping in Giant. You can actually see this place across the river from Giant Hypermarket.

We went to the Malay food stall market, Sumber Rezeki in Wonderful on Tuesday evening.  It rained almost the whole day on Tuesday so the atmosphere in the open-aired food market was comfy and cooling. Luckily the rain stopped by then. I do not mind sitting there enjoying the clear, starry night but of course, need to be beware of mosquitoes as the food market is next to the river.

SIL and I ordered from 2 stalls; one is ayam penyet stall and another a Malay stall. My kids shared this plate of Ayam Penyet Berempah (RM8.00). Like the spiced chicken thigh. Better than the one in Aloha. The sambal was rather spicy but more fragrant here. 

My SIL had nasi daging masak hitam (RM6) while I had nasi kerabu ayam (RM7). I like the nasi kunyit that served with masak hitam; very soft and fragrant. The chuncky beef was also marinated well. 

As for nasi kerabu; this was my first time tried it. Never tasted it before; rather scary looking at the light blue colouring. But my curiosity was killing me the other night. Now I know how kerabu tasted like by mixing the cabbage shreds and desiccated coconut. They have nasi kerabu ikan but I ended up ordered the one with the chicken.  The dish was alright to me; the char siew chicken thigh with its chilli paste on top. And it came with cincaluk dipping and half salted egg! 

Plan to come back here but then we will try out the Indian food market that is just next to the Malay food market. SIL said there is a Chinese food market but we did not see any. Move out maybe?

Now it's theirs

This place has always been one of my childhood's favourite fast food chains. When think of broasted chicken, one would think of Sugarbun. A Sarawak's very own fast food brand!

Now it has been my kids' favourite too. They love the savoury rice and broasted chicken.

My boy was attacking the prickled cucumber here

They still use this microwaveable food container to store the take-away order. This one piece broasted chicken rice is RM7.25.

Long time I did not have its Sambal Eco Fish rice so I had this dish yesterday afternoon. Love the fresh tilapia. Heard the fishes are from Batang Ai but not sure they still take the supply there or not. RM12.80 for this plate of fresh eco fish rice. It has 2 dippings; one is spicy and sweet soy sauce and another is the sambal. Like its super yummy sambal.

The dippings went well with the fresh sweet flesh. Yum yum.

My regular

Most of the day I would hang out at my SIL's shop in Rejang Park. I love this particular shop (next to Million Cafe) as it serves nice sambal fried seafood mee hoon. Just RM3 per plate and RM2 for normal fried mee hoon. 

Today is no exception, as I have my regular breakfast. Those veggie fritters in the red plastic is also nice to go with their own made sambal dipping.

Another raining morning today, so I had my big glass of teh-O to go with my breakfast.

In the afternoon, there is one Malay stall right in front of the bus stop that had nice yummy fried snacks. Love its fried popiah and banana fritters. 

My girl loves this potato wedges stick. Once a while, I would buy the snacks here. Cannot eat too often but they are sure a great indulgence to go with tea break in the afternoon. ;)

Baby Food

My Jamie has grown to become an active and strong baby.  Going to be 9 months old in about 2 weeks time. He just cannot sit still, and keep crawling here and there.

He will zoom around the house in his baby walker, and also try to stand by himself all the times.  So feeding him well is a top priority!

Not every day he eats the same kind porridge. Some day add minced meat, sweet potatoes and other day some carrot slices and broccoli with lean meat. Sometimes I cook frog's leg porridge for him too.

The Chinese believes that eating frog legs will make babies develop strong legs.  Don't know it is a myth or what but since I have some frozen frog legs in the freezer, I will make some frog legs porridge for him at home.

Basically my porridge is simple.  Just take the meaty part of the frog's leg, add a clove of garlic and few slices of ginger (both are said to get rid of wind) with vegetables such as broccoli, baby kai lan or carrot and cook with rice in a pot of water for about 40 minutes or so.  I add a pinch of salt to the porridge. I seldom puree my porridge as Jamie does not like to eat soft food. So for this porridge, I will smash the frog's leg so he can take it together with the vegetable bits.

And he loves his food.

Love to eat, hard to lose

On a raining Saturday morning, I could dream of having something warm. Like a plate of super yummy fried rice with a cup of warm tea. Don't you agree? Or what do you like to have on a cold raining morning?

I love fried rice. Once a while I would cook fried rice when ever there is leftover white rice. You can say I fry rice almost once a week. It is so versatile and easy to cook. You can add anything into your fried rice.

The simplest ingredients for my fried rice are anchovies and eggs. They are relatively nice to eat and go well with fried rice. I love the small anchovies which more crunchy when you fry them for few seconds.

I do not add much oil in my fried rice so a lot of stirring needed to avoid burn in the wok. But still, after such heavy breakfast, I would drink my Chinese tea. People said you should not drink tea immediately after your food, so I take my tea about 1 hour after my meal.

Hubby went to Kun Ming China in March and bought few types of tea. And one of them is this tea brand, which come in few compact pieces. For slimming as it supposed to flush out the oil from our bodies. I have been drinking it almost every day. Effective or not, you may ask? I feel my jeans not so fitting. Haven't jump onto the weighing machine yet, so not sure how much I have lost. However, from my past experience, I did lost those fat and weight down more than 5kg after taking Chinese tea for few months. But that was when I were in my early 20s. *wink* 

iBake

Yes! Finally found the bakery with nice pastries and bakes. This bakery has the blueberry danish and chicken quinche that I love, and they taste great. Really happy that I also found the nicest croissants and egg tarts for my kids.

This bakery reminded me of Skycafe and Gingerbread House in Kuching with their pastries

It was actually coincident finding because we just passed by this shop (the last row of shop which is at the back of the under-constructed Medan Hotel) when thinking of what to eat before we decided on having our dinner at Anson. Read my previous post

I like the egg filling as well as the crispy crust

Buttery croissant

The price in this bakery is high because RM3.00 per piece for croissant and RM2.00 for egg tart! But they used good ingredients especially the butter as I could smell and taste the tasty butter. So it has quality so it comes with price.

Back here

We went back to this place on Tuesday evening. As I said I would the first time I went there last month as I wanted to try its pizza. So, I did!

Had this snow fungus soup (RM3.80). Slightly sweet but I guess that what tong sui supposed to taste like. Lol. 

For starter, we had Caeser Salad and unlike the previous visit, this time the salad looked better. Nicer presentation. And tasted good as Caesar salad should be.

Breaded fish with fries (RM6.20) never fail for kids. My kids love this maybe because the fillet was fresh and no fishy smell.

 The pizza! There was many selection but we decided to have this cheesy sausage pizza with Caeser (RM14.90). Something different. Not the normal pizza you would think of.

Look at the middle of the pizza! Egg yolk. A fusion of Caeser salad and chicken pizza. I think it is salted egg yolk because it tasted like it. Not bad but I would not order it again. Once try, that is. The crust was alright; not too hard. But I still like Bistecca's thin crust. Nicer, and have that tender texture. 

But for that price we paid here, it is good enough. Fit 3 persons if you do not order other side or main dish.

Not just chicken

Long time we did not come here for lunch or dinner. So last week, when I did not feel like cooking, I brought the kids to SCR for a quick dinner. Personally I would not want to patronise this SCR outlet at Jln Pedada if I have other option because I find their food quality not as good as my expectation. Maybe I have been to some good SCR outlets in Kuching. Not only food is of good quality but friendly staff and fast service. This outlet is way below the good service mark but I do not mind to come once in blue moon for my children sake.

The children wanted roasted chicken rice that evening but unfortunately their roasted chicken finished up. Left steamed chicken. So the children had no choice but to choose new food from the menu. When they go to SCR, they only eat the roasted chicken rice, no other food. So that evening we had something different.

My girl opted for its fried chicken fillet rice (RM7.70). The chicken is alright. Cannot expect much for fried chicken. Portion was just nice for my girl.

 For my boy, I ordered this BBQ chicken rice (RM12.50). Rather pitiful if you asked me. Didn't turn out like what shown in the menu.

Doesn't this BBQ chicken look tempting to you instead?? But since we were hungry we just finished it up. My kids are not the type with big appetite so three of us shared the 2 plates of chicken rice. 

I think we will stick with just the normal roasted chicken rice in future. Other than its steamed and roasted chicken rice, I love SCR fried rice, tomato kuaw tiaw and mamak fried mee. But I have not try those dishes over here, so no comparison of the food for time being.

Miscellaneous Picture #20 : A little green

It has been very warm recently, so I cooked some mung bean soup for dessert.

And even bought some kiwi fruits. RM10 for 5! I know, very expensive. Remember during my college days, it was only 90cents each!

The kids got drawing and colouring lesson from their dad. Beaches are too far to go here, but nothing stopped them from some imagination.

I never like this time of the year. Very warm! 

Btw, my yam plants are growing very big at the back. Have been trying to kill them but they survived. Pesticide, herbicide, weed killer or Coke, you named them, I have been using to poison the plants. How to kill them??

Not ordinary Sunday breakfast

When I said "not ordinary", it means that we eat something out of the usual. In Kuching we mostly have kolok mee for Sunday breakfast, while over here, it would kampua and pian sip. So for a change, we ate something different yesterday.

We woke up pretty early, which was before 7am. Sunday was just like other days except everyone was at home and lazy-ing around with no special agenda. But last yesterday I helped hubby packing for his KL trip. He is going to be in KL for 2 weeks!

His flight was 310pm on Sunday, we had time for breakfast and lunch before sending him off to the airport. 

For breakfast, we went to Rejang Park since it is nearer to our house. I fancied for something different so I ordered kuaw tiaw in tomato sauce. Hubby had chao-chu noodle.

Very red looking tomato kuaw tiaw. Not bad but if only they used fish meat, fish cake and prawns instead of sliced pork. Seafood tomato kuaw tiaw tasted better.

Chau-chu noodle is a good change than having kampua every day, I think. 

Of course we had some meat filled kompia too. Like this kompia as the meat is juicy and not too dry and kompia also not too hard to bite. *wink*

That was my Sunday breakfast. What's yours?

A little cheer

Hubby's office organised a trip to Old Folk Home (Rumah Seri Kenangan Sibu) yesterday morning so me and kids (except baby) followed along. Thought it is a good exposure for the kids to visit the home.

The first and last trip I have been to an Old Folks Home was during my secondary school. You can say, this type of visit was never a cheerful thing and you tend to go home with rather heavy and sorrowful heart.

Everything is basic and rather old in Old Folks Home. The occupants depend on volunteers to take care and feed them.

 This home in Sibu mostly accommodate Chinese. Hmm, what are you thinking?

 Our first stop was the canteen cum activity hall. When we reached there around 10am, they were having their tea time. So we took the opportunity to distribute towels and food.

 We were greeted by the person-in-charge. She briefed us a bit of the history and current updates. And yes, that was my busybody boy.

 I let my girl to help in giving out towels and food. She was happy to oblige in helping around.

 Then we toured around the hostel, beggar rehab centre and patient ward. No photography allowed so no pictures there.  After about an hour tour, we went back to the canteen to distribute lunch for the old folks. All caterings were sponsored by hubby's office.

While they enjoyed their lunch, one of hubby's staff entertained them with songs. And this couple was very sporting to go up to the stage and sang and danced as well.

The next trip hubby is going to bring some water heater and washing machine over. Very sad when hear that there is no hot water heater or washing machine in the home. Sigh! Hope our visit brought some cheers to the old folks. I guess they enjoyed the companionship and some goodies as at the end we were entertained to a karaoke session by an old lady there.

Weekend Menu #62 :Simple with peas, bacons and onion

I had a can of green peas that was few months to expiry, so I cracked my brain to use it up. Didn't feel like using it for salad. So, ended up looking through the kitchen for ingredients and here was what I made!

Simple ingredients of peas, bacons, onion and butter.

Just sliced 1 onion and 3 stripes of bacons! And drain and rinse the peas. Then heat up about 2 tbsp of butter in pan! And when it melt, added in onion. Cook for a while, then add bacon and peas. Stir in about half cup of chicken stock and a pinch of salt and dash of pepper. Cover the pan and let it simmers. Let the stock reduced.

And that was my dinner! I am sure it tasted even better with fresh peas. 

Her learning progress

A little update on my girl's learning skill. 

It is going to be 6 months by end of this month that she is in Kumon class. So far she has been enjoying her class. She the girl that loves challenges. Now she has done and passed her addition, substraction and multiplication test. Now she is into division. And my oh my, it does not look easy to me.

Her tuition teacher gave her a diary last week. And now she has been using it to write all the Chinese words that she is not familiar with. It acts as a dictionary to her. So her diary is not just a journal but also a Chinese dictionary.