A good bowl

I have been thinking about a nice warm bowl of Sarawak laksa for few days till I couldn't stand it anymore. 

Last Tuesday the haze was back and how frustrating we were to be confined mostly at home except going for a short breakfast outside and sending kids to tuition.

It did not get any better the next day but since I have been craving for a good laksa, I just got to get my dose that morning.

And I got my favourite Sarawak laksa from Blossom Cafe in 3rd Mile. What I love was this thick, flavourful laksa broth and generous ingredients in one bowl. How I love they added fried chicken pieces in the laksa to give a more tastier bite. And not shredded omelette but half of a hard-boiled egg.

They used to add braised chicken feet into laksa too but no more when I were there.

Now, that is what I called a good bowl of Sarawak laksa. RM6.00 per bowl; what else to complain?? 

Megabite

Other than this food court, there is another food court in the vicinity of Batu Kawa that we have never been to till a week ago.

It just happened that the kolo mee stall from this MJC food court is operating at this food court every Sunday. The stall operator told us on this new food court.

So that was how we ended up in this food court that is called Megabite Cafe.

The daddy and kids are never bored with kolo mee, so they had kolo mee from that MJC stall that morning.

A friend of hubby operating a Taiwan street food stall there so we ordered this steamed dumpling from him. Not bad. The meat filling was very fresh and moist. The dumpling skin was quite thick but the filling was nice.

I had a bowl of kueh chap as I were bored of having kolo mee for my Sunday breakfast.

RM5.00 a bowl. I would prefer saltier version as this bowl from Megabite was sweeter to my liking. 

The food court was packed with morning crowd and it has many stalls open for business. I believe this food court has more choices than the other one opposite the hypermart. Will come back to try other food stalls. ^^

Vibrant with food

Before it ended on 26th, we managed to visit Mooncake Carnival that was held in the bazaar of old Batu Kawa town on one evening last week. 

This 1-week old Batu Kawa bazaar mooncake carnival has turned the quiet town into a vibrant and lively one. Decorated with lanterns, there were many food, delicacies and mooncakes on sales here. Stage shows and singing were also a part of the carnival.

It is just around 10 minutes drive from our house, so we would not want to miss out on the excitement, right??

Mooncake (or suncake??) in the sky!!

We were there early to avoid the crowd and jam. It was 530pm so we did not see the stage show and stay for the night to fall to see the colours on the street.

The welcoming entrance

Stage

The bazaar was a very short stretch so it did not take us that long to finish browsing around. 

By the time we finished buying our dinner, the crowd starting to come in. Oh boy, thankfully we were able to avoid this sea of crowds and parking could be a problem then.

The kids were hungry and could not help but to bite into those freshly made yue tiaw!

We bought our dinner mostly from the stall above to eat at home. Our dinner consisted of chicken curry, yue tiaw, chicken pansuh, ngoh hiang, stuffed toufu, fried bee hoon with cangkuk manis and bak chang.

Bak chang with lots of groundnuts

Very Hakka cuisine with those fried bee hoon, Hakka chang, stuffed toufu and ngoh hiang. As for the ayam pansuh, hubby has wanted to try it out. He missed his hometown looking at this dish but he said this dish cannot compared to his mum's. Mum's tasted better and flavourful. Lol.

Sweet goodness

It is a blessing to have a wonderful school holiday with beautiful, haze-free weather on some days. Haze or no haze, I am sure the kids have a good rest and fun for over a week! Tomorrow would be back to school for them, but before that, let us enjoy today, a beautiful Sunday.

Not only it is a Sunday today but it is that time of the year again!! Time to indulge in those sweet mooncakes and burn some paper lanterns during the Mid-Autumn festival, which falls today.

Traditionally, I would go for those lotus seed mooncakes without yolk. So without fail, this year I ordered no yolks mooncakes to indulge in.

Peppermint (L) and white lotus

Thankfully the home baker that I ordered with was doing hers finely; her mooncakes are less sweet. She has petite package that comes with 8 mooncakes so I ordered a pack to try and another pack to give to my parents. 4 flavours are white lotus, pandan, green tea and peppermint.

Hmm. Could not wait till tonight where the kids could play with some lanterns while enjoying the mooncakes. I would go for the white lotus and peppermint. Which flavour do you like??

Happy Mid-Autumn!!

In Tracy's kitchen

This eatery has been in existence for many years now. Hubby and I love its lo ark (Hakka braised duck) and braised pork belly very much. I remember they did not have much to offer back then but now the menu extended to assam fish, duck kacangma and curry chicken.

Few nights ago, we were wandering around the town aimlessly and could not decided on where and what to eat.

And then we drove to Jalan Padungan and turning to Jalan Abell and saw this shop was still open. So, we decided to have our dinner here.

Hubby had its braised duck and egg with rice while the 2 older kids each had braised duck noodle.

For me, I just got to go for something different and mouth-watering. An assam spicy fish!! Very appetizing, I tell you!!

And each customer will get a small bowl of flavourful peanut soup.

Baking in me

This was my very 1st attempt in baking muffins!

As I am a novice in baking, I got to give myself a simple recipe to try in my 1st baking experiment. Something to give my baking juice in my body a good start. 

My kids were excited. Why not? The mummy made them muffins for the very first time! My girl helped me mixing and sprinkling chips on the muffin. And she even helped to check the muffins in the oven from time to time. So it was right for her to be the first one to taste them, freshly out from the oven!

I think my chocolate chip muffin was considered a good attempt as my guinea pigs (my kids) did not complained much and ate their muffins. *wink wink*

Made 6 muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup fresh milk
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
Chocolate chips for sprinkling

Methods:
1. Mix flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl.
2. Slowly add milk, melted butter and egg into the bowl. Mix all the ingredients well.
3. In muffin tray, pour about 2/3 of the mixture into individual tin. Sprinkle some chocolate chips on top of each muffin.
4. Pre-heat the oven for about 10 mins. Bake for about 15 minutes. Poke a stick on muffin to check if it is done.

5. Let it cool down before take them out from the tray.

Not perfect-looking batch but I were happy with the outcome. The muffins were soft, moist and buttery.

The muffins finished up in no time! Surprise, surprise!

At least I got to taste one. Lol.

A good start to my baking experiment.

Miss it

One of my favourite places for lunches when I worked in the city centre was Hong Kong Noodle House. Not too far from my office, my colleagues and I would walked along the old shops of Jalan Padungan to this restaurant.

I loved to eat its roasted duck rice as well as its Teochew porridge back then.

One night, I kind of miss the food there. So, that was how we ended up having our dinner there.

I never failed to order its roasted duck rice there. They have many food selection but only its roasted duck rice fancied me.

And here was my plate of roasted duck rice. It came with prickled mustard and a saucer of sweet sauce.

But I fancied its spicy chilli oil dipping more. The duck meat tasted better with the spicy dipping.

I would not be coming back any time soon. Quite far from where I stay. About 20 to 30 minutes drive (depends on traffic), so I guess I would only drop by here for roasted duck rice the next round I miss it again.

Purple pops

Fortnight ago, we bought new popsicle mold from Mr D.I.Y. 

To cool ourselves down under this hazy condition, I made us some Ribena popsicle. I had some mint leaves in the fridge, so I added 2 leaves on each popsicle mold.  Don't you like the beautiful purple pop!? Who could resist a cooling sweet icy treat?

My minty purple pops!

Different kinds

Another smoky day last Wednesday. It was Malaysia's Day so a public holiday for everyone. We came here for breakfast as it is nearer to our place.

Saw this noodle stall and we thought of trying it out for the first time. 

They have 2 different kinds of noodle; wantan noodle and handmade noodle with either pork balls and pork meats, or seafood. I weren't that adventurous that morning so I kept to ordering seafood noodle just to be on a safe side.

Here was my bowl of seafood noodle. Quite a portion with very big slices of pork, 3 fresh prawns and a couple of fish balls. The noodle was rather dry though because not much oil and seasoning to it. Noodle texture was fine but dry. Some people may enjoy that type of tougher texture but I prefer oilier, smoother texture.

And kampua was the same too. They used handmade noodle for the kampua. Not that delicious and oily enough like what those Sibu kampua has in them. Kids did not enjoyed it much.

Hubby had this pork liver soup to go with his noodle. Again, this operator was quite generous in his portion. Quite a big slices of liver in the soup. 

Someone was obviously enjoying the warm gingery soup that morning. I were surprised that he liked it!

Weekend Menu #71: 2-cheeses chicken

In case you are running out of ideas on what to make for children's meal, potluck or party, why don't give this cheesy chicken a try. 

Recipe is adapted from this site but I modified to fit my taste. The original recipe calling for 3 kinds of cheese but I used 2 as I personally think it would be too overwhelming and cheesy to my liking. So that was why the name - 2-cheeses chicken.

Ingredients:

1 boneless and skinless breast meat
1/2 cup bread crumbs
Egg white from 1 egg, beaten
Plain flour to coat the meat
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup grated Mozzarella cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Chopped fresh Italian parsley (or Mixed Herbs)

Italian Parsley

Methods:
1. Flavour the breast meat with salt and pepper.
2. Mix half of the parmesan cheese with breadcrumbs.

Plain flour, mozzarella and parmesan

3. Coat the meat with plain flour, then dip into egg white. Coat the meat in the breadcrumbs and parmesan mixture.

4. Place on a plate and let it rest for 15 minutes before frying.
5. Heat up the pan in medium heat and add oil. Once it is hot enough, place the coated meat.
6. Fry each side for 2 minutes to achieve that golden look. Dish out and place on baking tray.
7.Add the 2 cheeses all over the meat. Then sprinkle chopped parsley (or mixed herbs) on top.

8. Bake in oven for about  7 minutes or till cheeses are bubbling and melting.

Better Kuching for me

Isn't it a relief to have a little break just when we need it??  

Yesterday the schools were instructed to close due to API reading over 200, so I picked both kids around 10am yesterday morning. The kids are having their early holiday now since schools also close today. 

It may be hazy outside, but the kids have a blastastic time at home. This mummy has a big time controlling them but kids will always be kids. We could not stop them from having fun.

With the hectic month (party, furniture reshuffling, kids' schools and tuition) plus the unnecessary haze have put a toll on me. But no worries, nothing major. This mummy just need more rest. The choking haze and heat got me; making me super lazy and having occasional headaches, skin irritation and discomforts.

And another thing has bothering me lately. For the past one month, my Jay had a minor nose bleeding. Just bled a bit on one nostril and stop after few minutes. He had it thrice within one month span. Should I be really worry or maybe he was "heaty" as he did not drink enough in school??

So it is so much better and couldn't come any faster to have a week long school holiday because not only this mummy needs a break. My school-going kids would be able to relax a bit and stop thinking about school and homework for a while. And hide away from this soaring heat and choking haze.

Jan felt the raindrops

Isn't it in everyone's mind and prayer for rain lately? Thankfully we had a big rain at the wee hour this morning and it washed away most of the haze. API reading is back to unhealthy level (124) this morning. Just wish this hazy situation would go away and don't come back. Missed the better sunny day with clear skyline now.

And if you are wondering what would be my holiday plan, nothing much. Not going anywhere since kids still need to attend tuition and other extra activities. For me, I will get myself busy with a short essay project. Wanna know what I would be writing about?? My homeland. Kuching, in particular.

Love to write and win some cash?? Then join Kuching For Me contest, express your love for Kuching and you may walk home with a grand prize of RM5000!  Good luck to all Kuchingites!

Milo godzilla

A chocolatey treat for the kids!!

Big glasses of Milo godzilla! 

Maybe you have heard of Milo dinasaur where you added heap of Milo goodness and chocolate chips and Milo poweder on top of your Milo drink. But with Milo Godzilla, you add a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream on top. Sounds tempting??

Bought this delicious chocolatey drink imported from Australia few weeks ago. They tasted better and creamier than our local Milo.

Look how creamy is the Milo?? Just 2 heaps of teaspoons of Milo and a teaspoon of sugar, I could enjoy my warm Milo with my breakfast any day.

Mixed

It was concernly hazy last Sunday, so not a very good family day to start with. Did not go to the church service as hubby was involved in a "gotong-royong" project for Kai Joo/Indian Street that morning.

So, I stayed at home with the kids in the morning and I made us a simple lunch. Hubby was on diet, so he ate his tapau-ed roti canai and complement with my home-made salad.

I just mixed whatever I could find in my fridge. Bacon, egg, onion, lettuce and add some vinaigrette dressing and garnished with mint leaves. Nice appetiser, if you ask me.

When we went out in the evening, I got the kids to wear face masks. Looking at the haze that no where getting better, it would be a good idea to wear masks.

And how they wished they could buy this tent. So cheap as it was on offer. But nay! No outdoor camping anytime soon.

We went to TJ Delight Food Court for dinner. It was packed that evening and we waited quite a while for our food. Thank god it rained so it was breezy to sit in the open space and we were entertained to some karaoke.

Wanted something plain for dinner, so we havd white porridge with those delicious goodness (according to hubby). This ugly-looking plate of braised intestines and innards mixed with salted mustard could be so good with white porridge on a hazy day.

Pardon the blurry picture as it was rather dark to take a good shot.

Of course I had other condiments such as braised duck, fried fish, belacan kangkong and salted egg too but lazy to take pictures as not bright enough for good shots.