something TAIWANese

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(credit & details here)

During Gerald's March trip, we went to The Gardens right after we're back from our KK trip (well, not right after but the next day). The outing was quite a late one coz we seldom goes out to the mall in the afternoon (jam & hard to find a parking space would be the reasons). We walked about the whole MidValley and The Gardens & Gerald is quite amazed with the posh'ness' of the new building (his 1st visit) which I must agreed.

The Gardens not only offer expensive goods but a wide choice of food ranging from Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Fusion, Nyonya, Western, Healthy & Taiwanese from lower ground floor to the top most floor. And we were quite lucky coz that time, they were having this Food Fair that provide you a booklet with discounts. So, we had our lunch and dinner there (after long hour of window shopping) and we tried 2 restaurants - brunch & dinner (will blog the lunch later).

Here's our dinner place, where we choosed by following the crowd -> Foong Lye, a taiwanese restaurant. The place was quite full until we have to delayed our dinner (coz no big table available & u will know why we need a big table when I show the photo below)

Our drinks where Gerald stick to his pepsi while I tried the Oolong milk tea. I must say, I dun really acquire the taste for it coz it tasted like coffee.

Gerald's dinner which consist of the glass noodle (his favourite) and smoked duck meat (shown in the above scrap)

My set dinner, Spicy Pork Intestines which is quite nice but I dun really fancy the blood jelly (lucky Gerald loves it *he he*, else it is wasted). This set comes with appetiser, soup and a bowl of nice fluffy white rice topped with yummy minced meat.

The appetiser : cold french beans, fried ball & fried seafood tofu

Old cucumber soup that comes with the set.

And here's my expression after such a wonderful and heavy dinner ....

(credits & details here)

The verdict?

I highly recommend this place for good food though the price for the set meal varies from RM 16 ++ to RM 20 ++. My favourite would be the sweet potato balls and Gerald's meal.

sweet TEMPTATION...

Lately, I have been obsessed in getting my hands on the digital scrapkits and challenges. Maybe it's NSD or maybe all the kits are too nice to resists *LOL*. Hence, I have abandoned my photo resizing of my KK trip & did the below scraps while downloading the kits I bought earlier (which I added 1 more kit to my purchase at Oscrap & stumble upon this challenge by Paislee -> create a LO using cropped photos and her freebie).

I have chosen this photo, taken way back in Sept during my KK hometrip with Gerald. I love going for a date to the Coffee Beans at Damai during the nights coz we really have nothing to do beside sleep :p

My favourite drink is the Morrocan Mint Latte whereby for Gerald, he prefers Sunrise. And the little Mango Cheese cake caught my eyes coz the colors are so bright !!! It's like calling me "eat ME, eat ME" and I couldn't resists the temptation (which ended up Gerald finishing the cake for me *he he he*)

(credits & details here)

Pstt: I have another temptation that I can't resists (which I am sure lots of people also the same as me)-> bedding sets. I'm a big fans of luxurious beddings especially those from Aussino in particular. Their sateen cotton is really so smooth and soft to the touch and the designs is vy pretty as well.... There's another brand that is of vy high quality but the price range is really out of my budget (*_*).

a GIRLY brunch

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More backdated post thanks to my laziness but hopefully, I can really back on track soon. I had a yearly reunion kind of thing with one of my BBGS gang plus a college fren juz before CNY. Since it's so hard to gather everyone, really a big thanks to Chew Ping to take the initiaves to get us together this time for dim sum brunch at Imbi Palace. As usual, when a bunch of girls meet up, there's alot of talk...... & we really can talk and eat at the same time *GIRLS mah :p *

Here's some of the food we ordered :

After the brunch, Ee Laine wanted to have a boost of coffee & so we cramped into Laine's car & head to Pavilion (cost savvy here coz parking is soooo expensive there).

Everyone's Birthday

*chor 7, Yan Yat*

Oops, I missed Chor 7's post & uploaded the chor 8. Here's what happened on Chor 7 (^-^)

(credits & details here)

Well, on this day, it's everybody's birthday acording to the Chinese custom but I still go to work though my dad n bro took leave.

We had a simple dinner of roast pig's bone porridge *Yumm...* and a very basic Yee Sang. Didn't go to town to get the fancy type but since it's chor 7 whereby the actual day to 'Lou Sang', we (me & lil bro) can't resist getting 1 'mai' of it. This 'Rainbow' Yee Sang is just from the usual stall in Taman Megah which cost us only RM 23 or so....

A lunch date with Valentine

*chor 8, Valentine day*

(credits & details here)

Since it is Valentine day, me & my colik (Emily) decided to go on a lunch date and asked San to tag along. It's such a special coz we are celebrating 'alone' , we want to have a 'special' lunch. So, instead of hawker centre, we went to this japanese restaurant, Xenri (recommended by Emily) at Old Klang road. It's quite easy to find coz it's just next to the Elken building. I just love the atmosphere in there, vy cozy yet classy. What I loved most is their bento set which is quite cheap & hugh, not ot mentioned vy Yummylicious... really a must to go if you have not been to.

I ordered a Bento set that consist of salmon sashimi, chicken teriyaki, cold soba, salmon salad, chawan mushi, miso soup & fruits. All these for RM 25 (cheap, right...) Showing below is what my colik ordered, which are also RM 25 per set.

Sushi tempura bento set ordered by Emily

Salmon with soft shell crab bento set ordered by San


And here's my lunch date ~ Emily. She is going to be my taman-mate soon *wink*



My other lunch date, San with Emily.

You can see the restaurant is vy nice from the background of the above photos. Too bad my concentration is at the food & forgot to snap some of the resturant photo. They even have a special room that can fit quite a number of people for small function.

Later that evening, I had a date with Jazzmint at Sweet Deli to celebrate her b'day and also Valentine day.

Chinese New Year *Chor 3*

*chor 3 @ our place*

CNY to me always means visiting relatives & Chor 3 is no difference. We open our house (the new one @ Kajang) for our relatives to visit us and to make our house a bit merrier (^-^) during CNY. This also means that we need to prepare some food and my mum had not really prepared the menu *Aik!! Lucky my place is near Jusco Cheras Selatan & we went there on the nite before to stock up for the simple lunch.*

I woke up super early on Chor 3 to see & make sure my mum cook wat we bought last nite & also just to supervised a bit on the vege since it's a new dish to her but ended up preparing for the vege coz my mum dunno wat I want. I dun cook coz my taste bud is a bit blend, so, if I cook, it either end up bland or too salty *LOL*. My big contribution to the lunch was to use the broiler to oven cooked the Vegetarian Pandan Chicken. Here's what we managed to prepare :

(credits & details here)

We have pandan chicken, stir fry mix vege (lotus root, celery, carrot & sweet peas) & steam chicken which is my dad's best dish. Not to forget a big pot of Abalone Ginseng Chicken soup that will satisfy everyone stomach.

After the lunch, we have some light entertainment (you know wat I mean lar, those we usually play during CNY *wink*) for the relatives and the session lasted till almost 5pm. As for me, I got bored by 2pm and started to fall asleep *pai seh*... and I did slept for awhile .... yawn....

That ends the event for 3rd day of CNY...

PS: Just incase all of you were wondering why suddenly there's alot of Chinese Word in my scrap --> I found out that my windows can choose the language, so I use the Chinese PRC to type the Han Yu Pin Yin and click on the word that I want. No, I dunno Chinese but I can recognise some vy basic word & used it to the max :p

My fortune of the day

*Thought of posting this later but then, it's fortune of today, hence, it cut the ques of my CNY post*

I am sure alot of people knows about the fortune cookies. I am not sure who invented it but it does really gives you some fun to discover what the little piece of paper that predicts our fortune of the day (or maybe gives us some magic just like Disney movie, Freaky Friday).

I had 1 cookie today (thanks to my colleague) and what it tells me of my fortune?


I am sure everyone will agrees that our home is where we draw happiness from. Oh well, it's not really a predict the future type but it tasted very nice... had fun biting into it (^-^)

Chinese New Year *Chor 1 morning*

*Chor 1 morning*

My 1st day of CNy this year is very different from the year before coz Gerald is not around, I am celebrating it in KL with my family. So, early that morning, I went for Chinese New Year Service at my church. I am all set with my cheungsam (glad that I can fit into it this year but still it's a bit loose at top *sob sob* ) to go 'bai lin' with Jesus this year *LOL*.... Just incase you're wondering why got church on CNY -> It's a custom for my church to have a CNY service coz it's in a kampung whereby lots of people will come back for CNY.... The service is really amazing coz Rev. Lee really relate the talk with RAT year (will share the story later)

Me with Eva in cheongsam. I just love the photo... Dun you think we both look so lovely in cheungsam *perasan liao*

After the service, I went home to chill (before going out in the evening to the FGS Dong Zhen festival with my family & Jazzmint) & open up all my CNY tit-bits.. I really bought alot of food, especially the 'Yuk Gon' coz I bought from Weng Heong & Bee Cheng Hiang... As for the other tit-bits, you can see from the below scrap :

(credits & details here)

That's not all the tit-bits coz there's still some I haven't open yet. I really hope I won't put on weight by month end (^-^).

Chocolate Tong-Yuen for Mid-Winter Festival

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OoooOOooooo, I am so excited on the 22nd Dec 07. It is the day Gerald arriving KL for his home trip & also the Goh Dong festival. I have already planned to make the Chocolate Tong Yuen this year *been pestering my dad to prepare the dough instead of buying it from the market*. I did managed to wake up at 6.30am and thought of making it before picking Gerald so that when he reached home, he can have it. But the sleepy me instead telling my dad just to make the dough, kept it aside & I will make it during noon time *_* coz plenty of time after picking Gerald up (yeah, when I want to sleep, I can make all sort of excuses)

Nevertheless, when Gerald is napping during the noon, I started with making the Tong Yuen & busy snapping photos so that I can scrap it later (vy late coz I only managed to do it last nite *LOL*). I did took alot but I totally forgot to take the look of my hubby when he eat the Tong Yuen.

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Why chocolate instead of the usual black sesame, red bean or the 'Pin Tong' aka Raw Candy? This is because my dad did this for me during my wedding & I just loves it. Another reason is because my house is full of chocolates. Gerald been buying me chocolates every trip he come back & I stocked up alot during my trip to Langkawi *hehehe*. It's easier to get coz the 'Pin Tong' have to search in wet market & it's so hard to cut it into small pieces.

With the festive seasons coming, I must make sure I dun over eat. Else, I will really need to use the treadmills at office to burn some of the excess calories *LOL*

Hidden Treasure at Old Klang Road

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Back in October, I had my first dinner date with colleagues in this very hidden Japanese Restaurant in Old Klang Road. It's really like a hidden treasure of Old Klang Road coz if you're not told about it, you wouldn't know about this great place. It is well hidden at the parallel road just before the 1st Shell station from Mid Valley Direction.

This place even have private room that is fully tatami furnished ( vy Jap feel) but you have to book in advance, a great place to enjoy good food and small event esp if you're armed with a pro camera, snapping all the time. As for the photo below, it's taken by my slim Sony T10 and my colleague's DSLR camera.

So, what food is good? He he, everything but most of us prefer the cold soba (green tea or tempura set) and also the Ocha ice cream served with red beans.

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Dreaming of Cupcakes

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I think I am addicted to cupcakes already. It has been in my mind since my first bite of it way back in August (my birthday cake). Then I ordered 1 box to take back to KK and another box for Gerald to bring back to Doha. My last order was back in Sept for my company Sept Birthday bash (yet to be posted). My fav is the belgian chocolate cupcakes.... Yum Yum...

But then again, I got addicted to it when Jazz show me this lovely cupcake photo in the internet and it really look so yummy. So, what I did to satisfy my hunger is to do a LO of it so that I can see it when I want *The lovely cupcakes above was by Cupcake Momma in SG*. And finally I got to taste her cupcake in Nov coz of Cairo's birthday * I wallop 4 regular cupcake, 4 mini cupcake *. If I don't mind to carry some small hand luggage, I would have tapau 1 box home from Cairo's party.

My very own Dim Sum Chef

It's Friday and it's weekend for Gerald. Let me help him to blog about his new found hobby here...

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Dim Sum making, my hubby's new found hobby in Doha. He was left with no entertainment (tv spoilt & internet connection is on & off - thanks to the Bandwidth Hoggers), so he found a way to entertain himself and killing time during his weekend by cooking. Cooking has always been in his blood but I never thought of him making dim sum from scratch *coz you can't get the skin there, so, he uses flour to make the skin*

Let me treat you guys to some homemade siew mai here :p

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Snack Trekking Saturday

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I had a wonderful lunch date last Saturday with Jazzmint and another school friend at this deli shop at OUG area. I had wanted to go to this shop since Jazz showed me the yummy Mango fettucini months ago but no chance till last Saturday. It was well worth the effort to find it and it's so near to work (can go for lunch with my colleagues)

Here's what we ordered : Manggo 'Fettucinni', Taiwanese Minced Pork with Tofu & Salted Egg Rice, Crab Sticks Rolls, Chocolate Banana Roll, Steam Egg with Milk Custard, Curry Fishball (all shown in the photo above) and lastly, we top it up with a rice vermicilli coz we are too hungry *LOL*.

The verdit : Superbly fulfilled my taste bud and I even tapau the Mango Fettucinni home for my family to tried.

He he, not to forget to mentioned the place for you to try:

Shop name : Sweet Deli Station

Location : Behind Citrus Park, OUG

Operation hours : Closed on Tues

To know more, you can visit Jazz's site for the details coz this shop is opend by her friend, Peter.

Around the world with PANCAKES

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He he, after donuts, it's PANCAKES *LOL* .....

Well, this is actually the 1st outings from Gerald's 3rd Home Trip back in Sep 2007. Since the brats (Geralds's nieces) didn't get to hang out much with us when he's away, we decided to bring them out on Sat to The Curve area to window shop and also later on to get the stuff to bring back to KK.

I had tried this Paddington Pancake House alot but to them, it is totally new. They got quite excited when I told them that their entrees to desserts are all made from pancakes (got meat n stuff ler ). Since they are 4 of us, we ordered one each from different part of the world to try. I had Amsterdam ~ full of cheese and hams ; New York ~ pannekok with hams, cheese and sunny side up, another pancake dunno from where but got mushroom & sausage and lastly, the special linguini made out of pancakes *WHOA*

We enjoyed it very much and was very full by the time we finished travelling around the worl with the pancakes :p

Talk of the town - 'dOnuts'

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After cupcakes, here's my another hunted down dessert - DONUTS !!! Yup, it's donuts and not just any donuts but J.Co donuts that are only available in the newly opened Pavillion in Bukit Bintang. The donuts are so tasty and soft that after 1 bite, you will want more!

They have lots of flavor to choose and I only manage to try 6 - Heaven Berry, Glazzy , Alcapone, J.Crown Oreo, Choco Mocca & Tiramisu. The best deal is to buy 2 dozen donuts coz you can save about RM 21 ( I manage to share with Bee Li and Kek Yee, so it is only RM 8.70 for 1/2 dozens of donuts).

For those who want to try it, do be prepare for long que if you were not there when it opens and especially on weekends and public holidays. I que for 20 mins yesterday but lucky I got kaki to chat with and drool with so the time seems ok for me then.....

Cupcakes + aeroplane

I think I caught the cupcake bug coz I am so in love with cupcakes after trying the cupcakes from Cupcake Chic. It's juz not enuf and I kept wanting more especially the belgium chocolate cupcakes that I had for my b'day. Since Gerald also loves cupcakes, I made another order and this time, the cupcakes get to sit in the plane and fly to Kota Kinabalu *wink*

But an unfortunate event happened to my lovely & delicious cupcakes *sob sob*. It didn't survive the trip to KLIA (dun want to point finger here) *sob sob* and I was so mad and it ruined my flight. Anyway, though it doesn't look as lovely as it should be, it still taste as delicious as ever be.

I thought I will never have the chance of showing the photos of the Home Sweet Home cupcakes until I saw Joanned uploaded it to her site. Here's how my cupcakes looks like. The Home Sweet Home is glitter gel (100% edible).....

Mini Holiday to Genting : Part 2

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This is the last part of my mini trip to Genting 3 weeks ago with my dear cousins. After the b'day celebration (just a simple ice cream cake makan-makan session), we prepare ourselves for the main event of the night - Hacken Lee concert (sponsered by my cousin BIL). The night was so cold (very windy), and I just had on a very thin cotton jacket that provide me with little warm (lucky we detour back to take the car, else, I won't even have my jacket coz forgot to pack it). We walk to the Arena of Stars which located at the outdoor them park and all the way, I saw girls with mini skirt and boots (can u believe that? It's cold yet they can wear that, for me, I sure became an ice cream stick liao).

The concert was great. He really sang over 40 songs from 8.15pm till 10.45pm. He even came out to shake hands with the audience. Lee Ying was the first to spot him out and shake hand with him. Then, my this 'biu jeh' rush down to shake hand with him (she's a fan of him) and came back on cloud 9. As for me, I just stand where I was and look and snap photos. So, after that excited round, he have his encore session and that was the end of the concert. People started to leave but there're half of them in the stadium shouted for more encore.... and giess what? Hacken Lee came out after 10 mins coz he so excited that people want more of him. He came out, say that no more song coz he just prepared for so much. So, he grab some music sheet, chat with the band and sang 2 song (un practiced) and thanks all the people. Ok, by then, I am in front of the stage and manage to snap this close up photo of Hacken Lee for my cousins.

After that, we went to look for supper and call it a night. The next morning, I woke up very early for breakfast at Coffee Beans coz that's what I wanted to have beside the mee. The tree of us had the sausage and egg set with coffee or tea. I had my rounds of nice english tea while the 2 of them had coffee and hot fresh milk.

After the healthy breakfast, I had more shopping session with Lee Ying while my 'biu jeh' went to the casino to try her luck with the jackpot machine. I bought a cropped jeans, a mini skirt & a hotlink phone card on my 2nd day shopping spree in Genting. If my 'biu jeh' don't meet us soon, I will spend more money on stuff I dun really need.

So, the mini holiday ended at 2pm or so, and we head back to KL. A great trip for 3 girls (^-^)

'Almost Instant' Rice

Would like to share this genius ( or you can call it lazy) recipe from my hubby in Doha. With little ingredients & very little cooking involved (just steaming & boiling), I can say that this is very suitable for working people that would love some home cook food after a long & tired day at work. Or, for a quick fix-me dinner when you're lazy.

Ingredients

rice, chicken shred/prawns/chinese sausage/normal sausage/anything that is available, veggie, oyster sauce & sesame oil / olive oil

Note : My hubby used Basmati rice in this cooking. Half cup of rice with 3/4 cup water for 1 serving

Method:

1. When the rice is half cook (little bit water left), put in the meat stuff.

2. When the rice all cooked, put in veggie for 5 minutes steaming. Lettuce was used because my hubby love to eat the vege raw. If Mix Veggie is used, put in together with the rest of the ingredients.

3. mix 1.5 table spoon of oyster sauce and 1 table spoon of sesame oil in a plate

4. Finally, dump the rice in and mix well... and then eat while it's still hot....

Ain't that easy to prepare? words of caution if you're using a normal saucepan or pot. You need to make sure you don't burn you rice :p.

Strawberry Chicken Rice salad

What would you do if you have rice, chicken, cheese & dried strawberries and you're hungry (in the middle of the nite) but lazy to cook? He he... I managed to put all these ingredients together and make a cold dish out of it. It's very easy, just need some creativity & voila ... my own rice salad.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cooked chicken
• 1 slice of cheese
• 1 1/2 bowl of rice
• a few dried strawberries
• 4 tbs mayonaise
• a pinch of salt
• pepper to taste

Mix all the above ingredients in a big bowl and chilled it if it's not cold.

Note : You can substitute raisins for dried strawberries. I was going ot use raisins but ran out of stock, so, i just cut some strawberries that I got from Cameron trip.

A drink that give you pinkish complexion

I got this recipe from Mdm. Jong when I went for a traditional chinese massage & treatment this evening. It's very good for people with bad blood circulation & people with pale complexion. It's very simple to prepare but a few notes to bare in mind in order for this to help you.

Ingredients

• 7 red dates with seeds
• 1 clay/ porcelaine mug
• hot water

Use your finger or any non metal utensils to take out the seeds & put into the mug. Pour in hot water & simmer for awhile before drinking. Can be refill as many times until the red dates has no more taste.

Note : No metal utensils & cups to be used.
Must consume daily for 21 days non-stop. If you break the cycle, there will be no effect.

After 21 days, you can add some ginseng to the red dates to consume. The cycle can be repeat anytime when you feel like it but must remember to take it for 21 days.