♡38♡

I am turning 38 today! Birthday seems not so important to me anymore. Ever since I became a mum, my birthdays have been spent mostly with my family. We would go somewhere nice for dinner or hubby tried to burn down the kitchen impressed me with his cooking skill. Lol.

I have tried to stop counting my ages for few years now but I got to admit that I am growing some grey hair and wrinkles lately. Not forgetting weight issue too. We could not stop ageing, right? And I am having trouble to shed some kg off the scale. But there is something I could try to stop.

Stop worrying and thinking too much. Just follow the flow and things will turn out into something positive or along that line. 

Yes, I know. Hard not to worry and think about life. Who does not? Do I feel wiser? I hope so. ^^

But for now I am going to post a nice shot of myself at the age of 38 (gosh! I am going to be 40 soon!) here, so in few years time, I can look back at this post and laugh at my own photo and post.

Thanks my dearest sis for these lovely purses. I love their colours!

So a big happy birthday to me. I am happy to have my family with me. And happy and blessed when my kids woke up this morning and came into my room to hug, kiss and wish me "Happy birthday, mum." Sigh! What a day. That is the best present ever!!

Sweet bowl

I learnt about this dessert when a friend posted it in FB.  It was from this FB page and I love how it looked and could not wait to give it a try.

I have a can of XL sized longan from the CNY hamper. Oh boy, it took me quite some time to utilise it but were I glad that I used it for this dessert. Could not have it any other way.

This dessert was so simple and great on any day. Those with sweet tooth would enjoy it too.

I modified the recipe and measurement as I think the original recipe used too much sugar and sago.

Ingredients:
500ml water
100g sugar
1/2 tsp salt

150g sago, 1 knot of pandan, 200ml coconut milk

1 can of longan, drained, rinsed and drained

Method:

1.Soak sago for few minutes.

2. Boil the water in a pot. Once boiled, add in sago, pandan and sugar. Stir till thicken and boiled.

3. Lower the heat. Add in the coconut milk and salt. Continue to simmer for a minute or so and turn off the heat. 

4. Dish into serving bowl and you could add palm sugar if you like to.

Btw, this was how the dessert looked like in the FB page. So yummy-licious, right? They added palm sugar for that beautiful colour and more sweetness but I think I can tolerate this sweetness without palm sugar.

Do give it a try!! 

Surprisingly good

I bought this vegetarian meat by mistake. Actually, it was that day when we have a homey steamboat on Sunday that I bought this pack in the frozen section of a supermarket.

I thought it was a real thing. Did not think clearly it was in a halal section (some more a vegetarian section), so I bought a pack to try. Only when I reached home and kept my groceries, did I really read it was a vegetarian meat.

So on one fine morning where I have leftover white rice, I decided to give it a try. I tasted vegetarian fried rice before so did not think it is hard to cook. 

So here was my own version of vegetarian fried rice. Added some frozen vegetables, egg and vegetarian char siew and dashed some light soy sauce and salt, I found that my fried rice was surprisingly good. I were really surprised myself that time. *wink*

And I have few cans of this locally made teh tarik in the fridge. I know there is a Sundrop orange in the market for many years and surprisingly now the same company produces and markets teh tarik too!

I just got to give this drink a try. You know, how I love milk tea and some more, it is made in Kuching! *meow*

My verdict?? The tea was nice; you could taste the bitterness of tea. Not much milk in it but it was fine with me. Not too sweet for my tastebud. I actually enjoying it with my plate of vegetarian fried rice. What a weird and surprise combination!!

Bits of gardening

I have not been posting on my gardening so here it goes. A bit of update in my humble mini garden.

Been doing a bit of trimming and planting lately.

Mini pineapple

I finally trimmed off my mini pineapple. Ripen long time ago. Too ripe that I could smell it from a distance but I did not bother to taste it as I knew it would be too sour. The fruit had 2 "horns" on top so I cut off one "horn" and re-planted into small pot. Hope it grow. By the way, I still keep the old pineapple plant since it does not die off and maybe it will bear fruit again.

New baby "horn"

And my mini bed of spring onions is growing well. Too well that we could not stop snapping and using them in my cooking. Lol.

Spring onions

I have been wanting to add more colours to my garden so I have to "cross my fingers", hoping they would grow and bloom. 

Started planting the seeds early this month with the help of my princess as she has been nagging me on having her own "potted flower". So I planted the seeds on 2 separate pots.

Somehow only one pot bears "result". And we could not wait to see the Impatiens grow and bear beautiful flowers. And then I can transfer them to bigger pot too. Maybe I will get a pack of Petunia seeds and give it a 2nd try.

Wish me luck!!

Of 101, rain & grill on last night

Hubby's cousins stayed for 3 nights before they left on Sunday evening by bus to Sibu.

Throughout their stays, we brought them around for good and tasty food and places of interest. The weather was kind on us as it was warm but by evening, it was 180 degree change.  Heavy rain with thunders. Kind of put us off to go out and venture under the cold and windy condition.

It was the same situation on their last night in Kuching. After driving around Kuching thinking of what and where to eat, we came here for dinner. 101 Premier food court! It is one of the biggest street food centre in Kuching where you could choose from over hundred of stalls!  I understand it is 101 stalls, and that is why the name. 101 Premier.

Just when we reached there, the rain has stopped but we did caught ourselves in light shower halfway through the dinner so we shifted ourselves inside the shop.  I personally prefer to dine under the starry night and gentle breeze but luck was not really on our side that night.  So we decided not to fight the inevitable and settle ourselves in the shop.

We were there around 630pm so not so crowded and we could easily find a vacant table around.

This is where we have our dinner. The Best Corner.

Hubby said this is really the best corner to have tasty grills so we ordered few seafood for our dinner.

First to come was this grilled sardine. It was so good, sweet and fresh. Everyone loved it very much. The flesh was flaky and sweet and with few sprinkles of lime juice, it created a very balanced acidic and sweet grilled fish.

Then came this super sized clams. This is good for those who enjoy spicy seafood. Its special chilli sauce was very spicy. The mollusc was fresh and not a hint of sandy smell.

I did not really enjoyed this sambal squids. The sambal was nice but not too spicy. The squid was rather chewy. I personally prefer softer texture but no one complained of this, so I guess everyone liked it.

We also have a plate of stir fried sambal midin, which was good. The vegetable was crunchy and this plate finished up in no time.

Other than the food from the grilled stall, we also ordered some food from a zhao chu stall. We knew the stall operator, who used to operate in one coffee shop in BDC but now he moves here.

So we had his fried noodle, which has enough wok hei and flavourful. 

The salted fish pork belly was good too. Actually it was better than any other places we have eaten in Kuching.

Overall the grilled food costs us RM71 while the food from zhao chu stall (plus stir fried kangkong) was RM50. Quite reasonably price for a nice dinner treat.

By the time we finished our dinner, it was just slightly past 8pm and the rain has stopped completely.

As we walked back to the carpark, the place was starting to pick up. Crowds were coming in and flooding the walkway.

And we also saw this street artist performing too. A young girl who rendered few songs while the brother, I assumed was playing the guitar. We could not help but gave some monetary reward to them. The girl maybe same age with Jan or younger but have to perform as street artist at night.  

Even Jay was curious and asked hubby why the girl did that. So we have to explain to him how lucky he was while some not so lucky and have to earn living at such young age. Hmm. Somehow on that night, I were not only went home with full tummy but with a solemn heart.

The famous one

I asked what my cousins would like for breakfast the next day, and my lady cousin said she wanted to go to that famous coffee shop in town (but she forgot the name) that served good laksa and popiah. Immediately Chong Choon Cafe came to my mind!! Well, who could forget this famous old coffee shop??

Image taken from here

So I brought them here for breakfast. Very crowded and we only able to sit outside which was good enough. Weather was favourable so we did not mind to sit outside.

I like this place's tables and benches which looked like in a canteen. Those benches that stuck together with the tables. Hardly can see this type of tables around now.

I remember its teh c peng was nice so I ordered that and it still taste as good as before.

And I also have Sarawak Laksa for RM6.00. It was nice, flavourful and spicy.

If they give me more parsley but a good laksa is all about good laksa broth and fresh ingredients. It is undeniable that one of the best Sarawak laksa in Kuching is from Chong Choon Cafe!

A cousin tried the Mee Jawa from the Malay food stall. RM5.00 for this plate of Mee Jawa plus 3 sticks of chicken satay. My cousin said it was good.

After the breakfast, I drove them around the old town and a stop in Sarawak Museum and Planeterium in Civic Centre before dropped them off in The Spring Mall and I proceed with my normal routine for the rest of the day.

Came for this

I never intended to visit Kuching Fest this year. The thought of finding parking, walking along the long stretch to the venue and fighting and squeezing with sweaty people for food and seats! Nothing really fancy or attracting me to join the crowd initially till I got a call on Monday morning from hubby's cousin. 

What a surprise!! My handphone rang and I saw the name was hubby's gu gu (this aunt helped to look after Jamie when we were in Sibu). So we chatted for a while before gu zhang passed the phone to his daughter who stated her intention to visit Kuching Fest. So I invited her and her 2 younger brothers to stay with us for few days and they came by express from Sibu on Thursday.

Once they stepped onto the Kuching soil, we directly went to the city centre to visit the Kuching Fest.

We were there very early; slightly after 5pm where most stalls were just started or not even open yet.

We made a round and bought some food that we fancied and found a table to enjoy our food.

Found this interesting stall selling nitrogen ice cream so we bought 2 flavours to try. Strawberry and bubblegum for RM5.00 each.

My strawberry boy

At least the ice cream can keep the kids quiet down for a moment while we walked and browsed through the stalls.

Some of the food that we have....

White Rajah burger (chicken and chives) for RM10 from the above stall

Hubby bought these pork satays

Taiwan sandwich

Oh chien

After filling up our tummies, we had a walk in the landscape garden.

Entrance

Beautiful flower beds on both side of the path

Fishes in the pond

Man-made stream

The stage overlooking the lake

We were there for 2 hours. Did not go to the fun fair as it would be wasting our money there. We purposely tried to avoid that section. *wink wink* But the older 2 did get to row some boats before we called it a night!!

Row, row, row your boat

And Kuching Fest is here for another week before they closed on 23 August. So, hop over and join in the crowd. More food stalls this year round from what I observed but not every food is nice.