Miscellaneous Picture #75: January favourites

It has been (mostly) wet in the month of January and expected more this month

Some days when it was sunny, we would drive around, enjoying the beauty of the city

Looking across from this side of the river

Have a small packet of black olives, courtesy of my sister

Jamie started to go to Sunday school on his own. So far, he has been doing it twice without me around. Brave boy! Big boy now!

Moon phenomenon on Wednesday night

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.