Eat in

It was one of the days where I cooked after few days of eating out over the CNY holiday.

Nothing extravagant as we had enough feast over the holiday. Home-cooked where everyone has their favourite. 

Pork ribs with white radish soup

Stir-fried Midin with red wine

Celery with sea cucumbers and mushrooms

Fried nuggets

How about you? Did you cook or mostly eat out over the holiday?

CNY day by day

We had a relaxing CNY this year. I were recovering from sore throat and fever so I slept in whenever I could over the holiday.

First day we were at my in-laws' and my parent's house. We visited a relative as well but that was our limit.

Kek lapis (prune)

Second day, we went to an uncle's house for lunch and then went home to prepare steamboat for dinner.

In the pool

The children and cousins had a blast at the pool beforehand. We finished off early that evening, just before 9p.m. as my in-laws had early flight the next day.

In the mall

On the third, we went to Vivacity Mall for lunch and movie. In the evening we spent some time celebrating my parent's birthday.

On the fourth day, we stayed mostly at home and recuperating. The next day hubby started work and had a lion dance in the office. Children and I went to catch the lion dance before we went to a couple of house visits.

Lion dance

Everything was back to normal on the 6th day. Schools and I got back to work. And soon, we would be celebrating Chap Goh Mei. Time really flies and soon it is over.

Celebrating their birthdays

My parents' birthdays are just a day apart being my mum is a day older than my dad.

We usually celebrate their English birthdays since their Chinese birthdays fall on the 7th and 8th of the lunar new year.

Every year I would make a call to them, together with the kids and hubby, we wish them a big Happy Birthday. So no exception this year. But this year, my siblings and I decided to treat them to a birthday dinner.

We agreed on having the dinner in The Airbox Cafe, Aeroville Commercial Centre Park. Mum's birthday was last Sunday so we had the dinner that night.

Aglio olio (RM20)

We did not know how big the portion was so we agreed to order 3 platters to share first. However hubby had this aglio olio spaghetti with bacons for the kids. Too peppery for the kid's taste but it was nice.

Our first platter to be on our table was this chicken platter. From spicy to cheesy and deep fried, everyone enjoyed every pieces of the chicken to the last bite.

Chicken platter (RM68)

However the pork platter was not so nice being the prata too dry. The sweet sauce pork ribs were alright but everyone did agreed that it was not all nice. For such price we would rather had 2 platters of the chicken.

Pork platter (RM118)

On the other hand, I being a seafood lover, loved this seafood platter. No complaint about this platter other that the deep fried calamari was slightly salty to my liking.

Seafood platter (RM68)

Overall the three platters were adequate for 12 of us. It was a nice dinner in The Airbox. The ambience was just nice with no loud music blasting at the back and we were able to talk without shouting. And importantly, mum and dad enjoyed the company and food. Happy birthday, mum and dad! Wish you many years of good health, happiness and longevity.

CNY story

Gone are those days where I could stay up all night counting down to the first day of Chinese New Year and still get through the day looking fresh and energetic. After 40 years I am no longer a spring chicken.

I were recovering from fever just few days before CNY. CN eve was rushing like crazy but luckily I did not need to cook for the reunion dinner.

Over the holiday, I watched my parents and my in-laws watching the kids. The kids especially the boys were at their highest adrenaline rushes when they met their other boy cousins. They would never grow bored or quiet for a minute. Meanwhile, my parents and in-laws are getting older, I realised. My in-laws looked tired and understandably as we had guests from outstation this round.

We have many gathering and feasting this year with both sides of the family. My father-in-laws, my dad and mum celebrating their birthdays this month.

It feels good to catch up as we don't do that much. We have our own life, family and matters to attend to so it is always heart-warming when everyone makes time and what is better than a wonderful and joyful reunion and visiting during the auspicious holiday.

Whole day

We were mostly out the whole day on one Saturday. About 2 weeks ago. The traffic was pretty heavy. People started to shop and getting ready for CNY.

And we had an early start that Saturday. The kids had their hair cut at the salon around 9am. I like to bring them early to their usual salon. No queue. True enough we were the first customers and soon after many customers came in for hair cut or treatment.

It did not take long for my 3 kids to have their hair done.

Then we went for our late breakfast. Roti canai in Curry House.

Flavourful Dippings

And we bumped into our neighbours there. They told us they would celebrate CNY in Kuching this year and invited us to their house. They would not go back to Sibu this year.

Deep fried spiced bittergourd

After our breakfast, we went for some shopping in Vivacity. Spent the morning there hunting for new shoes before we went to collect our new armchair from Harvey Norman and headed home.

Some cleaning was done at home afterward and in the evening, we went to another shopping mall, Boulevard.

It was packed with patrons.

Before we started our shopping we had to fill up our tummies first. In Sushi King. It has been a while we dined in one and now they have better menu. 

We also tried the Norwegian salmon. Super fresh and sweet. 

Thereafter we spent almost 2 hours in Boulevard departmental store and SSF for some clothings and kitchen rack. A fruitful shopping I said. ^^

That was 2 weeks ago. And today is Chinese New Year eve. Here I would like to wish all my blogger friends and readers, a Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year. Gong Xi Fa Chai in the Year of Dog! Woof woof!

Dinner with them

Last Sunday I had dinner with my parents, my sis and her husband in Petanak market. We went to the Lok Lok House for our dinner.

The place was packed and Lok Lok House's business was as good as before. They serves lok lok as well as chur cha (stir fry). We ordered few dishes from the stall and these were what we had.

The deep fried fish fillet in sweet sauce sauce was really good. The fillets were fresh and crispy. Not much batter used and you could totally taste the fish meat.

My dad's favourite. Braised chicken feet. They were tender and flavourful. I had a few of these feet.

We also had stir fried winged beans and ginger pork. The dishes were tasty but slightly salty for me. We also had stir fried bean sprouts with salted fish which I did not take shot of.

Overall it was a nice dinner with my family although it was a long wait. Most food stalls closed on Monday and continue to go for holiday till after Chinese New Year.

I see red

I were in Vivacity mall the other day with my man. We went for a little shopping in Harvey Norman but it was way early as it was around 930am when we reached the mall.

So to kill the time, we walked around the mall. The Chinese New Year decoration was there. Nothing extravanga this year. Some Chinese words and lanterns hanging from the ceiling. And they also had a mini bazaar in one centre but we did not check the stalls up.

Somehow the festive mood this year were not high. Everyone complained of slow economy. Sigh!

The kitchen before & after

Hello peeps! Finally, my new kitchen cabinet is fully completed and ready to be revealed!

But first, let me show you my old kitchen cabinet.

Cabinet before 

This white-coloured wooden cabinet has been there since 2012 and now we re-do it to concrete kitchen cabinet with black tiles top finishing.

Cabinet after

I still need time to get used to the colour. At least it brings out some colour to the kitchen space.

Next agenda for the kitchen - new window blind. But that would be after CNY  ^^

Ready

Are you ready for the Year of Dog??

It is going to be a simple celebration this year for us. We did not bought much goodies; just get the stuff that we like. Decoration at home would be minimal as well. I reused whatever we had from last year.

So far we've received 2 awesome CNY gifts. One was a tupperware containers and another is from Eu Yan Sang.

To keep up with the tradition, we will have 2 reunion dinners on the eve. One at my in-laws' house and another in my parents house. We didn't get to lit up any firecracker last year due to heavy rain so pray the weather would be better and everyone could stay awake till midnight to welcoming the new year.

Dog sticker

Basket of Mandarin oranges

Orange and kuih bulan

CNY gifts

A couple of Goodies

Few ang pow packets 

Cherry blossom

The other shop

We have been to the Lao Zhi Hau bak kut teh in Jalan Song last year. Once for its tasty but mild claypot bak kut teh. It was that one time we have been there because it was out of the way.

Kangaroos statues in front of New Roxy

However they just opened another shop not so long ago in New Roxy Hotel, 4th Miles. It was nearer to our place. So last Sunday after the church service, we went there for lunch before heading home.

New Roxy Hotel

New Roxy 

The weather was nice to have few pots of claypot to warm our bodies.

We ordered 2 pots of bak kut teh plus a pot of enokitake mushroom soup and a bowl of yue tiaw.

No innards since I don't take any and hubby tried to cut down on the consumption. We had spare ribs, lean meats and soft bones in our bak kut teh.

Overall it costs us over RM40 inclusive of drinks. I liked the soup here. Not too strong and the kids were able to enjoy it with their rice.

We would definitely come back when we feel like having bak kut teh. Not the other shop as it was far and harder to find parking.