Their favourite

Sorry, I somehow missed to post this but it is better to be late than never, right? 

Back to the time we spent in Kapit last month. On the day before we departed back to Kuching. Hubby brought us to this coffee shop, called Kampua Kiat Cafe. It belongs to one of hubby's classmates and since he had been telling us to visit him in his coffee shop, so we decided to do it before we left.

This Kampua Kiat coffee shop was the kids' favourite (as for Jan and Jay) as their grandpa used to bring them to have kampua for breakfast every time they were back to Kapit for year end holiday. So, you could said, the coffee shop guys knew my kids very well.

Empurau!! One of the murals spotted in Kapit (a shop next to Gelanggang Kenyalang) 

We parked our car at the Gelanggang Kenyalang where we had our roti canai goreng breakfast on the 2nd day. So it was not a very short walk and furthermore it was at one of the busiest street in the town, Jalan Tiong Ung Hong. But parking is a big problem in Kapit so if we found a parking, it was a blessing to take a walk to your desired destination.  Lol!

So, once we seated on 2 tables (due to SOP), hubby ordered the food from his friend. The coffee shop was packed with people, mind you, but we felt safe that time as Kapit was zero cases back then, before first case of Covid-19 came out sometime this month.

Our breakfast of kampua and pian sip.

What do you think of the kampua? Authentic Foochow kampua? 

I did not tasted the kampua, but I took the dry pian sip. The dumplings in soy sauce were alright; meaty filling and skin wasn't thick, which I liked.  I did finished the whole thing myself.

I did not know how much was the breakfast as hubby's friend insisted not to charge us for it. Thank you so much for the treat.

Not much

Since the current CMCO started, we did not go out much othet than breakfast, grocery shopping and visiting my parents.

So there wasn't much to blog lately since we patronised the same coffee shops over and over again. 

Like this coffee shop where we went to pretty frequently. We liked the kolo mee from the stall and the new fried fritters which opened for business not so long ago. 

Other than the kolo mee, hubby and I enjoyed the dishes from the stall at the back.

For instance, the fried meehoon was my favourite.  Big portion as well. Quite filling to take early in the morning. I thought sometime. 

As for hubby, he liked the fried noodle with egg gravy.  

We normally went to the coffee shop before 7am to avoid the crowd and long wait. That is what we prefer during this dire situation. 

Snacks

Since there was a new stall operating in Y. Y. Cafe that served fried snacks, hubby and I have been patronizing the coffee shop and tasted its snacks.

It served few fritters such as banana fritters, spring onion fritters, sweet potato fritters, nian gao fritters, and sesame balls. We have tasted and enjoyed its banana fritters and spring onion fritters.

Hubby loves its spring onion fritters so much that he bought some to office as well. I stay loyal to banana fritters but I do not mind the former once in a while. 

Fried fritters go so well with a warm glass of tea, don't you think?? 

Holding on

 Life goes on.

The MCO, CMCO, RMCO that implemented on us since the beginning of the month. Every day we are bombarded with stats and news of the pandemic, locally and internationally. Indeed life has changed since 2020, and the pandemic does not seemed to slow down. Our fight isn't over yet.

Putting this aside, we also have to brave ourselves with our own problems and dilemma. 

Work-wise, hubby has a new boss to report to this year. More demand, more pressure from this new boss. It isn't easy to work at such dire time.

At home, the kids are holding on well by staying indoor most of 2020. And for the first time in history, 2021 schools are conducted via online classes. So more staying at home for students this year. I don't have much worry for the 2 older kids as they are independent and able to manage their own time and schoolworks.

Jamie on the other hand has been a handful, both in academic and health. He is not so into books and study but I do not pressure him much since he was in Primary 1 last year. Of course there is always concern at the back of my mind on whether he can catch up this year since a lot of hiccups in 2020.

We brought him see Chinese physician last month for his eczema and skin problem. We are at lost of how to treat him as his condition does not seemed to improve lately. 

However thank God that his skin improved few days before schools supposed to reopen. l brought him to skin clinic in nearby government health clinic on 15th. After taking the necessary medicines and applying creams, his skin is getting much better. Follow up early February at the skin clinic. 

This 2 months we have been busy cleaning and clearing up the downstair room for my mother-in-law. We are preparing a room for her when she is coming to stay with us.

The room used to be hubby's study room so many stuff and collection in it. Some we moved to our upstair hall, just outside our bedroom. Others we threw away or gave away.

One Sunday we went to Boulevard mall to hunt for her bed and wardrobe. The kids were at home. We spent some times at Boulevard supermarket and then SSF. After that, a quick lunch in Boulevard restaurant. It has been months since we came here for dim sum breakfast.

But no, both of us did not have dim sum that day. However we did ordered a few for takeaway. Both of us had roasted duck rice instead. Tastewise, it wasn't that good. The rice was tasteless, not fragrant and oily like other places. I prefer the roasted duck rice from Hong Kong Noodle House and Imperial Duck. 

On the first

 It was New Year day. The first day of 2021.

No countdown on the eve but the kids stayed pretty late to play online games and waited for the dad to come home. The dad forgot his house key so someone needed to open the door for him. Jamie and I slept early that night but woke up by the fireworks and firecrackers during the midnight. 

The next morning, we had our breakfast at our favourite coffee shop, Y. Y. Cafe. Then around 10 am, hubby and I went to Aeon Mall for a quick shopping and membership renewal. So we bought food from the supermarket for lunch. 

Our New Year lunch has been colourful and in variety as each has their preferred food. 

I bought this ayam golek for RM20.48. We tasted it before and we liked it better than its previous teriyaki and pepper roasted chicken. This chicken was more moist and fit our tastebuds. 

RM12 for both pizza since Jan and Jay love pizza. One is pepperoni while another is meatball flavour. 

Hubby always tried to go healthy version so he picked up this variety sushi for RM15.90. Mostly went into the kids' mouths as expected so his backup lunch was this saba and chicken karaage rice (RM8.90).

I picked up this okonomiyaki with takoyaki set (RM9.90).  I like takoyaki. 

Wgen at home, I just heated up the food in microwave, chopped the chicken and cooked some white rice; and lunch was ready!

And not forgetting the cucur sayur and cucur pisang that we bought at Y. Y. Cafe when we had our breakfast earlier. 

And that was our lunch on the first day of the year!

Lost my tastebud

I wasn't well for few days before the New Year.  Maybe got the bugs from hubby and Jay. Both were down with cough and flu but recovered in time for New Year.

My throat wasn't well and somehow I lost my tastebud. Didn't feel like having anything flavourful. So one morning, when I had breakfast with my man at this coffee shop, I ordered pork porridge for myself.

Wasn't one of the nicest pork porridge I have tasted, but for the sake of my throat, I had to take it. 

RM4 for this pork porridge. 

As for my man, he had the Mee Jawa daging RM7 that morning. He tasted it before and he enjoyed it a lot. 

The simple way

My mum gave me a pack of cleaned pork trotter last month when I visited her on a Sunday. She bought a whole leg from the butcher and immediately chopped, cleaned and blanched it at home.

She gave me some and I cooked it few days later. Thanks mum for cleaning it for me. Hehehe. 

Simple pork trotter recipe that I learnt from my mum. But the flavour is rich and tasty to take. 

Ingredients:

Pork trotter, chopped and blanched

Pot of boiling water

5 dried mushrooms, soaked and cut

Dark soy sauce, 4 to 5 tbsp

Light soy sauce, 3 tbsp

Salt to taste

Cooking wine, about 2 tbsp

Methods:

1. In a pot of boiling water (enough to cover the meat), add in pork trotter. Simmer till the water is boiled. 

2. Add in mushrooms, dark soy sauce and light soy sauce. Simmer for at least an hour to reduce the gravy. 

3. Add in salt and cooking wine to taste. Cook for few minutes before turn off the heat. Serve warm. 

Remark:

Can substitute wood ear mushrooms for dried shitake mushrooms

Last Christmas

I have a Bidayuh aunt. To be specific, this aunt is my dad's older sister. She was adopted by a Bidayuh couple when she was very small (pretty common practice back then). I have another aunt adopted by Malay as well.

Anyway, back to my Bidayuh aunt, I saw her many years ago when we visited her house in kampung with my parents, siblings and my family.

I was closer to her eldest daughter as she used to take care of me when I was a baby and visited us when we stayed in Kenyalang during my younger time. So, on Christmas day, we visited this cousin and family in Kampung Semeba, which was about 15 minutes drive from our place. 

Her Christmas lunch cum house warming party. My aunt was there as well. For her age (78yo), she was still healthy and in good shape. My cousin's husband happened to be in the same company as my hubby so they knew each other but has since retired.

Only close family members of my aunt were there. 2 cousins of mine as well as many nephews and nieces. Most nephews and nieces can speak Chinese well as they studied in Chinese schools. Of course my aunt and cousins didn't know much Chinese so we conversed in English and Malay.

We spent more than 2 hours there. A nice villa, mostly designed and done by my cousin's hubby. 

The male cousin made mojito to go around the table. I had a glass, while hubby went for beers at the patio.

All dishes cooked by my cousin. Pansuh, lemang, stewed lamb, nasi lemak as well as innard porridge and turkey.

Babi Pansuh (bamboo pork) 

Liver and intestine porridge

My plate

Turkey, waited to be carved

It was great to catch up with my relatives after all this while. Hope we meet again soon. 

Getting in shape

 

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It is every woman's dream to have that ideal body shape. We know that everyone is unique so each of us have different body shape. Some may feel imperfect and have no confidence with their figure.  I am one of them, who seldom wear tight dresses due to my bulge and imperfect shape. With the coming Chinese New Year, I would really wish that I can fit into a nice figure hugging cheongsam.

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Waist trimmer belt

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Do you want to boost up how your body looks? Do you want to feel the confidence while wearing that tight dress? If yes, then what are you waiting for? Check out the site, grab some shapewear items while enjoying the attractive holiday sale! 

Miscellaneous Picture #102: on the road

Some photos I took while on the road last month.

On Pan Borneo Highway

Road on the highland to Kapit, overlooking the green lush

One of the wooden long houses that can be seen from the main road

A long house in Julau

Paddy field on the hill mostly seen along the stretch to Kapit

Rajang river from afar, where we used to ride in express boat to reach Kapit in the past

A promise

We made a stop at Jakar for lunch and toilet break when we drove back to Kapit last month. After spending 4 nights in Kapit, we headed back to Kuching on the 18th. We tried to avoid the weekend jam and have quicker ferry waiting time, so our decision to drive back on a Friday.

Jay did not followed us back then. He wanted to spent some more days there with his grandma. He followed hubby's brother and family back to Kuching a day before Christmas. 

We made a promise to stop by Jakar again on our drive back as we needed to get some frozen sio bee from this coffee shop.

Sarikei Jakar Shumai, aptly named. Other than sio bee, they served meals and sold few frozen varieties. 

We reached Jakar before 9am so we had our brunch there. Of course its famous sio bee was a must-have! 

RM1 each. Big and filling. My sis kept asking me to get some for her, so I bought a pack of 10 for her. 

Hubby ordered its fried noodle while the rest of us went for fried mee hoon. 

We enjoyed our brunch very much. The noodles were fried to perfection. I loved my fried meehoon.

As for our loots, we bought these frozen packs home. Sio bee, lap cheong, fishballs and ngoh hiang. And a pack of baked spring chicken which I cooked on the Boxing Day. Quite nice but the tang quai and Chinese herbs were too strong to my liking. 

We finished up the Chinese sausage and ngoh hiang for dinner on Winter Solstice and another evening. Both were pretty nice, wished we have bought more! 

Few packs of sio bee for my family and a pack for my neighbour who helped to look after our house. We will definitely back to this coffee shop if we were on the road again. However it would not be that soon. Maybe when the Pan Borneo is fully completed and the bridges in Batang Lupar and Pusa are done (if they are to proceed with the bridges). 

 

Their version

On 2nd morning in Kapit, we went to this coffee shop for breakfast.

I liked the look of it. A little, old corner shop with vibrant colour. Kong Hua Cafe was the name of this shop.

While waiting for our food, I took shots of the stuff in the shop. 

One part of the shop

One big boiling pot

Old switch board

Cupboard

On the table

Don't you feel like you are back to the past?? Feel like the time has stopped and everything remaining the same in the past. 

Hubby insisted me to try their toast so we ordered a set to try. 

A Kaya and Peanut butter toast!! Tasty. I took one while Jan had the other half. 

Their kampua was finally here. Black soy for hubby while the others had the plain kampua. 

As for me, I tried their version of Sarawak laksa. A very unusual for me as they added innard in it. The broth wasn't the typical Sarawak laksa; more of the laksa curry to me. 

Did I enjoy it?? Not really. Not the typical Sarawak laksa. Even the broth tasted different. Well, at least I got to taste Sarawak laksa in Kapit this round. Better have a round of Sarawak laksa in Kuching soon to satisfy my craving.