Rediscovered

We went for our 2nd CNY shopping last week in Emart Batu Kawa. 

We rediscovered that the place was decorated with more CNY themed decoration than the week before. More lanterns, cherry blossoms and pink umbrellas around the mall.

The hypermarket was packed with people (as expected) since it was month end and everyone has received their salary. And CNY was less than 3 weeks away!! I wouldn't want to squeeze with last minutes shopping and shoppers!! 

After we were done with the shopping, we decided to buy dinner from the food court. Don't remember when were the last time we stepped into the food court but definitely some of the old stalls have ceased in operation. We rediscovered the food court with new menu. There were new and totally different cuisines available now compared to what they had few years ago.

There were Indonesian, Pakistanis, Western as well as Malay and local Sarawak specialties.

Since it was just slightly 4pm and no one was hungry, we bought our dinner home.

No consolation prize for guessing who had noodle that evening. Yup. My noodle boy, Jay. I bought him a pack of Malay fried noodle.

Mee goreng (RM5.00)

Hubby had the Nasi Goreng Pattaya which was spicy to his liking. It was the chilli sauce that they add onto the omelette.

Nasi Goreng Pattaya (RM6.00)

Jan and I went for the same stall; the Indonesian stall. I had its Nasi penyet Lele which was just nicely done. The fish was fresh and sweet.

Nasi Penyet Lele (RM7.00)

Jan initially ordered the Nasi Ayam Bakar but she did not like the sweet grill sauce. So she shared my fish while I took her chicken.

Nasi ayam bakar (RM7.00)

The dipping for the veggies was nice. Spicy for me.

Last Saturday

Most schools are having replacement class last Saturday.

Not my favourite thing to do on Saturday. Woke up early in the morning, prepared breakfast and snack for Jan and Jay before drop them in school.

The weather wasn't favourable lately so I decided to send my laundry for a quick drying in the self-service laundry centre. 

Usually Jamie would be sleeping late on weekend but he didn't last Saturday. So together with him, we waited for the laundry while the daddy went for his usual morning walk.

After everyome was done and ready, we went to Choo Choo Cafe for breakfast. It has been a while since we came here.

I had kolo mee, shared with Jamie.

Hubby had his usual. Mixed pork soup with noodle set. Pig blood, liver, lean meats, minced meat balls and others in the warm soup.

And if that not enough, I also ordered a Hakka stuffed beancurd to share with him. Yummy but slightly salty that morning.

We had a good breakfast and then headed home waiting for time to pick the kids and lunch.

Only one (stall)

Our first visit to Borneo Kitchen at Jln Laksamana Cheng Ho last Sunday. In the same plot with Sin Kee Siang Klang bak kut teh.

Not full at all, just few tables occupied maybe by the patrons waiting for their cars to be washed next to it. No, we didn't get our car washed as it was a long queue.

Only one food stall opened that afternoon. Amazingly, it serves quite a choice of food such as claypot dishes, Hainanese chicken rice, Hakka noodle as well as Thailand pork knuckle rice. The later one had me all curious and drooling. Lol.

So we decided to have our lunch there and ordered whatever they had from the only stall that opened that afternoon.

The boys had the Hakka noodle. Looked and tasted delicious, according to Jay. He and Jamie shared 2 bowls as Jay complained the portion was too little for him.

The noodle also came with a bowl of wanton soup. 

Next came this piping hot bitter gourd pork ribs soup. Something to cool ourselves down. I were down with sore throat so I liked the bitterness of the soup. To soothe the throat.

Our so-called Thailand pork knuckle rice. All the goodness in a plate!! For RM6, I thought it was worthy. 

What I liked the most was the dipping. Spicy and flavourful.

Maybe we can drop by again in the evening to try other stalls.

Simple steamed chicken

Another simple recipe of mine. Great to take when one loses appetite, under the weather, don't know what to cook and go well with porridge and rice. It is so easy to cook and won't take long time in the kitchen.

Steamed chicken.

I had a quarter of frozen chicken so I used that to cook for my family one evening. Steaming (to me) is the best. It is easy, use no or very little oil and the chicken is always tender.

Ingredients:

A quarter of chicken

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tsp chopped ginger

1 tsp chopped garlic

Salt for rubbing

Cooking oil

Parsley for garnishing (or spring onion)

Methods:

1. Rub some salt onto the chicken and leave it for at least 30 minutes.

2. Prepare the steamer. Let the chicken steam under high heat for 20 minutes or till chicken is cooked.

3. While steaming, prepare the sauce. In a pan, add in about 2 tbsp of cooking oil. 

4. Once heated, toss in garlic. Saute till fragrant and turned brown before add in ginger.

5. Saute till fragrant and transfer to a bowl.

6. Add in light soy sauce and sesame oil to the chopped garlic and ginget.

7. Chop the chicken into biteable pieces when it has cooled down. Toss the dipping on top of the meat. Garnish with parsley.

Into the month

Photo credit here

3 weeks of 2018 has ran away from us. Just a snap of fingers, we are into the month of February soon.

Not making any new year resolution. If not planning to keep or doing it, might as well not making any resolution at all. Lol.

However I would like to have one family vacation this year. Something hubby and I agree to do. Consider that our family resolution. And promise myself to do a bit of reading this year. Had not been doing that much in 2017.

Currently, I am recovering from a cold. Blame the cold weather we had last week. Sneezing and sore throat. Must take good care of my body and health.

So far the kids are busy with schools. Jan adjusting to her new class, Jay is busy with loads of homeworks and tuitions as usual. 

Jamie has gone to full day session in kindergarden. One day he would be teary as does not want to stay longer in kindergarden but other day he would be happy and look forward to the day.

As this morning he was still moody. The after-weekend result. Hope this phase go away fast.

Come February, I am sure the kids would be happy to have a short break from schools. A 5-days CNY holiday.

We would be staying and celebrating in Kuching, like past years. Been doing so for 4 years with my in-laws flying in for the festival. Looking forward to the reunion.

Simple as it is

During the kitchen cabinet reconstruction, we either had packet food or I cooked using the induction cooker and rice cooker.

Few nights we had simple dinner like porridge. Chicken porridge with few condiments.

We had black beans fish, salted egs, prickles and braised peanuts to go with the chicken porridge.

Growing up, I never like porridge. Especially plain porridge with condiments. I were never a porridge person as a girl. But as I grow older, I started to appreciate the simplicity it represents. As simple as it is, it is one of the most outstanding (the oldest as well) of Chinese cuisine.

This healthy and warm dish will definitely warm you up on any cold day.  And one can match his porridge with anything one desires.

My favourite match for my chicken porridge is this (above). So satisfying. So comforting. Really so good to be taken during this cold spell that we are currently experiencing over here. It has been nothing but cloudy and raining every single day since last week.

On a cold morning

It was last Sunday. A cold morning after heavy rain the day before. A very cloudy Sunday morning.

We went to this place that we had never been before. Pyramid Dreams Food Court in Jln Penrissen.

We heard that the grandchildren of the famous Bishopgate Min Joo kolo mee have been in operation for few years over here. Same line with the Descendant Noodle in Jln Padungan. However one would no need to wait for 2 hours or so over here.

Young man and young lady (the grandchildren) manage this stall with their specialty dishes such as mixed pork soup with vinegar noodle.

Was the young generation's skill the same?? I could said, it was almost 90%. Never the same as the old timer but almost there. Definitely better demeanour than the elders.

The clear mixed pork soup (cheng th`ng) was nice and comfortable (if not equally but good in its own way) to be taken on a cold morning.

For me, I prefer stronger flavour to challenge my tastebuds so I went for the laksa stall next to this Bishopgate mixed pork soup stall. Auntie Goh's laksa, as it was named.

I had a small bowl of Sarawak laksa for RM6. Now small portion of laksa costs more than RM5 in some places. Tastewise, it was tantilizing. Howevet I would wish they added some corianders as garnish.

Bet we would be coming back again to this food court in near future. Next time, maybe we can have our car wash next door while having our breakfast.

Works

It has been a busy week. So for the reason for the lack of posts and visiting your blogs lately.

I have been helping at my dad's shop since Monday. His clerk is retiring soon so I volunteered to help him temporarily till he could find a suitable clerk.

Dad's collection of name cards

The time is flexible; I could go out, run my errands and pick my children. That is one thing about working for family that I like.

Old cabinet

Then came Thursday, I had my kitchen cabinet torn down. The wooden feature underneath has rot due to water over the years so a part of the counter top collapsed. The part where the sink was.

We are going to do a concrete feature. For time being, I would not be able to cook and my kitchen is a mess and dusty. Could not wait for my new cabinet to be ready; should be by next week.

One minute it was like this...

The next hour it was gone

New bones

That's all. A short update from me for now. Catch up with you guys soon, I hope. 

In a week

Lately we had few shares of Indian cuisine indulgence. Both hubby and myself enjoy the food but the kids do not fancy them much other than roti canai.

There was a Bombay Cuisine outlet near the Hypermarket where we almost go to every weekends.

However there is this Indian Muslim food outlet that is very near to our place. Curry House. The last time we were here was in October. 

But that week where Christmas to New Year Eve, we went there thrice. 

First on Christmas day (Monday), we went there for lunch. Hubby was craving for nasi campur so he had his share of dishes that day. Meantime, I went for Nasi Ayam Penyet. 

Nasi Ayam Penyet

Yes, rather unusual to find Nasi Ayam Penyet in an Indian shop. So I opted that for my Christmas lunch.

Then few days later (Thursday), we came back for breakfast before we went for our beach getaway in Lundu.

Curry mutton

Hubby had his fix of mee maggi goreng and ordered a small plate of curry mutton to go with it.

The kids each had roti telur whereas I went for something different. Cheese naan. It has been ages since I had naan. 

Cheese naan

And the cheese naan in Curry House was nice. Not as cheesy as I tasted in the Northern Indian cuisine in Rubber road many years ago but the naan was good enough.

Something like a thin-crust pizza with cheese on top. I finished most of it while hubby and Jamie helped to some of it.

Lastly on New Year Eve (Sunday), we were back for lunch. That time I went for the nasi campur.

Nasi campur

I had some mutton curry, deep-fried spiced bittergourd and bamboo shoot. Of course, not forgetting the papadom and prickles too.

Papadom and prickles

I think our fix of Indian cuisine would be adequate for time being. Too much of it in one week. We just kept going to the same shop. We break our own record. Indian food 3 days in a week last year. See if break this record in 2018. ^^

Happy

First stop when we reached Lundu town was this Happy Seafood Centre for lunch.

We always came here in the past for lunch so no exception this time. The food was good and reasonably priced.

Happy Seafood Centre

We reached around 1pm and there was big crowd in the coffee shop. 

Snacks and alcohol

We ordered few dishes, medium size for 3 persons. However it took us a while for our food to come and the kids did not have the patience to wait.

Lunch time

Our first dish to arrive on our table was fried omelette with onion.

Omelette

Next was this delicious and appetizing stir fried pork belly with salted fish. So good and flavourful.

Pork belly with salted fish

We also ordered this plate of fried chicken for the children.

Fried chicken

Last but not least, fried cangkuk manis with egg to complete our lunch.

Cangkuk manis (mani chai)

Total bill of RM57 for the food. And we were on our way to Siar Beach Resort with our happy tummies!