Happy Birthday Teej!

We had a surprise birthday get together for Teej this year. Thanks to WL who got us a really 'unique' cake. Trust her to know where to get these stuff. :P Sorry but I'm not gonna post a more 'detailed' pix of the cake here as my parents and some 'underaged' kids read my blog. Hahah suffice to say, it isnt your regular birthday cake. Cake's such as these are known as 'Designer Cakes' but they are not all naughty lah. Doesnt come cheap too (read that Teej? heh)

Anyhoo, I am sure he's a happy man. Ya? Are you still keeping the figurines to display to everyone?

Sabah Maiden Trip (Part 3)

3rd day. We headed to Poring Hot Spring, about 45 mins drive from KK park. Here's wat greeted us at the entrance.

ok.. Mamut sounds like Maut - a malay word which means 'D_E_A_T_H' - great. Well, no fear for the tough guys.

Hmm if it were up to me, I would have made the whole place more 'natural' looking with wooden tubs to soak in - not the tiled ones they used... urgh, looked like stained bath tubs which were not cleaned it ages. I actually came here to walk on the canopy walk. We had to pay RM5 if we wanted to take photos from the canopy walk. Hmph! So we didn't lah. Anyway I was scared stiff all the time up there, my arm muscles were aching coz I was so tensed up. Not a pleasant walk for the faint hearted.

BUT we did stumble upon a gem of a restaurant. Located just opposite Poring:

.
You must try their Special Mee Goreng! Only RM6.00 for that yummilicious meal. The noodles were springy and nice - very flavourful! The pix does it justice! Heh.

Next, we took a drive to Kundasang War Memorial. A fort with 4 beautiful gardens built to commemorate the soldiers that died in Sabah during the Japanese occupation. It also remembers our people who died trying to help the POWs. Read more here

Its raining MAGGOTS

I'm suppose to record te 3rd part of my Sabah trip but just had to put this up now.

Yes, its literally true. It rained maggots in my office last Friday. Let me go thru the sequence of events
Mon: There was a stench in our office in the evening. I was quite sure it was a dead rat.
Tues: No more smell! Gosh, so we all thought that was that.
Wed: Flies spotted zooming around in our rooms. I KILLED one haha! In the evening, my colleague swatted another.
Thurs: PEACE
Fri: 10am Department meeting in the meeting room. I sat at this one particular spot near the
aircond.
: 11am. My colleague had a meeting with her supplier in the same room. Something dropped
from the ceiling. They thought it was dust.
: 12.45pm. The usual tah-pau bunch was about to settle in the meeting room when there were shrieks
: 13 creepy, gross disgusting large maggots crawling on the carpets!!!

Arrrggghhhhh!!!! There were queer brownish spots on the meeting table. We then realised it was the juice from the maggots coz upon closer inspection, you could actually see their squirming trails. Dropped onto the table, crawled and plopped onto the floor. G_R_O_S_S! And the spot where i sat was one of the ones where they landed!!! Arrggghhhh i was just hours away from a traumatic experience of having maggots landing on me!

2 of my braver colleagues went into the room and sprayed Baygon and all other sorts of bug spray but they didnt even stun the maggots! They just kept on crawling towards the door. In the end, we (or rather they. I just stood, stared and provided the sound effects) resorted to more barbaric means, scooped them into newspapers and crushed the living daylights out of them. One of my colleague said it was quite satisfying to squish it. I don't know what's more gross.

We discovered that there was a dead rat after all.. They must have burst from the rat's dead body that morning.


I'm going to try to have my dinner now.

Sabah: Maiden Trip (Part 2)

On the 2nd day, we headed to Kota Belud - a small town located north of Kinabalu park. The journey took us roughly 1 1/2 hours. Hubby wanted to go to this town as it was a Sunday and the locals gather together only on Sundays to sell their wares. Market Day is known as "Tamu" (meeting place).






There werent many interesting stuff there actually and it was a disappointing trip. Apart from the few stalls selling local fruits, kueh and handy crafts, the rest were selling typical pasar malam items like T-shirts, jeans, slippers, shoes, hair accessories! Goodness, i thought Tamu was suppose to be a showcase of the unique heritage from the local tribes but the whole thing just ended up being swallowed by commercialism.


Hubby was intrigued by this exclusive area at a far, away corner.






Its old womenfolk selling homegrown TOBACCO. Dunno why he found it so fascinating. They were all giving him the eye while he was busy snapping photos. Is it legal to sell homegrown tobacco? hmmm


Anyway, one thing I don't regret though is this:





Tarap! A local fruit that's unique to Borneo. Looks like a cousin of Cempedak. Its flesh is milky, sweet and soft. YUM! Cheap too! An average sized fruit would cost between RM1-RM2! How's that for a nutritious meal?


On the way back, we dropped by a row of stalls along the road. My mum and I ended up buying rattan baskets - guess no matter where I go, I must end up buying a 'handbag' haha.







We didnt do much the rest of the day. Basically just walked around in Kinabalu park and rested.


Here's a pix of the Hill lodges in Kinabalu park. Beautiful little houses - small I think, but with a magnificent view of the Kinabalu mountain! One of the park rangers mentioned that Europeans would come and stay in these lodges for several months to do bird watching.

Wow - when would the day come when i'd be able to go holidaying for months?

Sabah: Maiden Trip (Part 1)

This trip marks the very first time my parents would step on board an airplane. Hence the momentous occasion captured above. At an age when even kids travel (sometimes on their own) in airplanes, it has taken my parents little more over half a century to make this journey.

There were no panic attacks during take off. They certainly enjoyed the airplane food. I guess the first few times are always fun, being served while flying several thousand feet up in the air.

We rented a car and had a quick turn around Kota Kinabalu town. Small and easily covered if you don't take the city traffic into consideration. Weather was hot hot HOT!

First up: Little Italy! Apparently THE place where locals and foreigners head to for authentic italian fare. Its located just opposite Wisma Merdeka. Lots of blogs warned that it would be crowded. We arrived slightly past lunch time so it wasn't packed.

Hmmm scanned the menu. Its pretty complicated and offers lots of varieties that i've never heard of. Hmm.. and I thought i knew italian food pretty well. We weren't that hungry so we settled for just a few choices. The thing that caught my eye was this:


Its called Schiacciatina. Looks good eh? Goes great with the eggplant lasagne we ordered - just as the waiter recommended - yum!

Onwards. We moved out of KK town, using the coastal route towards Likas. Beautiful scenery.

We drove an auto Wira 1.5 so you can imagine what an a-r-d-u-o-u-s journey it was once the road got steeper. Overtaking was almost impossible, unless you want to risk a head on collision.

The journey from town to Kinabalu Park took approx. 1 1/2 hours with breathtaking views of the valley.

I booked us at Sutera Sanctuary Lodge, Kinabalu Park as I think my parents would prefer staying in highlands rather than at sweaty beach resorts. Though it was hot throughout the journey, it was immediately cool when we entered Kinabalu Park.

We stayed at Nepenthes Lodge - 2 bedrooms, pantry and living area complete with a fireplace and ASTRO. (important to my hubby).

Great view from the balcony. You can almost see peak of Kinabalu mountain on clear mornings.

We had dinner at Liwagu restaurant, within the park itself and just a minutes' walk from Nepenthes.


Food was surprisingly good and affordable with ala carte Asian delicacies ranging from RM12-RM14 (served with steamed rice). Portions are pretty large too. My dad ordered Chicken Curry even though he was having a persistent cough. According to him, spicy food is good for coughs and colds. A-Hem.
Beef & Veg Hotpot and Ginger Chicken was tasty. Tom Yam soup was only so so - i prefer the clear version, not reddish and made the mistake of having it with mihun which got soggy while I was taking pics :(

Otherwise, service was good with friendly staff.

We finished the first night off at our lodge with a warm cosy fire and hot coffee :)

POTTERing around

I guess I don't need to say much as enough has been said in the world wide web, newspapers etc. Potter here, Potter there, Potter everywhere.

Just like the average kiasu (translated to: scared to lose) Malaysian, I got caught up in the hype. Honestly, I knew the book was coming out in July a long time ago (who can ignore the buntings and posters in major bookstores enticing you to actually PRE-ORDER), but I wasn't really that bothered... until the last few days to the world wide release.

Good grief.

It's POTTER MANIA!!!

I don't know what came over me but i just couldn't wait. EVERYone was talking about it - the internet was full of stories covering this last book - Rowling's comments, reader's comments, online bookstores 'accidentally' releasing the books, spoilers, etc.. I actually searched and scanned through papers and the internet to read more! Advertising even in the last few days sure builds up the hype that's one thing i gotta say. The big, mean hypermarts even jumped in, taking advantage of the situation and knocking down the price to RM69.90 vs the recommended retail price of RM109.90. Hey! Even the first few Harry Potter books were going for as low as RM19.90! I bought them at double the price!! Grrrrr. So the 4 major bookstore chains is Malaysia made a stand.

Price drama aside, its pretty obvious I spent the whole Sunday at home trying to finish the book. Its a massive 607 pages.... I managed to finish 500+ by end of the day, packed it to work the next day and read before 9am (ahem) and continued during lunch (ahem - i work seriously during my working hours) then rushed home and finished the rest. Some ppl I know finished the whole book in 5 hours straight. Jeepers. Can a person actually do that? Maybe they did speed reading.. or just jumped to the last 100 pages.

After finishing the book, I must say that I actually experienced a feeling of err... emptiness? sadness? I don't know what you call it. No don't worry, the ending isnt sad. It's just that I've been reading Potter all thru the 7 books and i think the story is pretty amazing. Now, just like that, snap! it's ended. Booo hoooo :(

I've really enjoyed reading all the 7 books. What a journey. There's nothing quite like having a good read and getting lost in the story for a bit (not escapism here). It's just like a good movie, where in those few precious hours, I actually felt like I was standing right there, being part of a great story unfolding.

Man.

Good old Minced Pork, Potatoes & Mushrooms

Whoopsie, haven't had much time to plan my cooking for the week... So ended up cooking regular dishes... nothing unique or new. But sometimes, we just wanna have good old tried and tested recipes yeah? :)

This is one of my favourite dishes. Easy to cook, using very common ingredients. I like pork, potatoes and oyster mushrooms so I just throw them all together in this dish *grin*. I'm pretty sure there are many better or correct ways to cook this style but this is my style!

Minced pork - not very healthy coz you don't really know what goes into the mince but oh well.. Add salt, pepper, sesame oil and some cornstarch. Leave for about 5-10 minutes. Slice up potatoes and lightly stir fry until edges are slightly browned. Set aside. Use the oil and stir fry some garlic, then add the pork. Break them up into pieces. Add oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, water and some cornstarch to thicken the sauce. Add oyster mushrooms and the potatoes. Simmer for a bit until potatoes are soft.

Yum when eaten with rice :)

Lemon-Butter Garlic Sauce

After the previous disastrous attempt with pork Chinese style, I needed to build my confidence back before I totally give up on cooking :P. I ear-marked or more accurately, web-marked this site last weekend to try with the salmon steak in my freezer. Looked pretty easy and I was keen to try different sauces for my favourite fish :)

Doesnt the sauce sound simply divine in its simplicity?

I got it from Elise Simply Recipes - one of the new sites I added to my favourites list. Its a great sauce to accompany your favourite seafood.

Recipe:
- 1/2 cup clam juice (goodness wat's this? I used Know chicken cubes hee hee)
- 1/2 cup dry sherry (er, i omitted this but i read that it should be ok to substitute with white wine)
- 1/2 cup whole milk (this i have!)
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic ( i used a lot more )
- 1 Tbsp minced shallots (this too)
- 1/2 bay leaf (Substituted with dried Parsley)

- 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 Tbsp flour

- 3/4 pounds unsalted butter

- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon white pepper
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice

Me being me after coming back from work and starving, didnt follow the measurements. Just went by ear. I guess when it comes to cooking, the exact measurements arent really that necessary to follow. I usually just taste and go along. Mentally converting cup measurements to gms and mls just puts me off - arrggghhh no figures without calculators or my excel please! haha ( I dont have a proper cup measurer yet..)

Reduce first 6 ingredients and cook on medium heat. In another pan, prepare the roux.
(I'm learning a new word everytime I blog. Before you pronounce it in your head as it spells, stop! Its pronounced as 'rue'. Roux is apparently the basis of 3 of the MOTHER sauces in French classical cooking. Wow, my hubby better appreciate this sauce. High class stuff going on here. hee hee)
Sorry back to where I was. How to prepare the basis of a Mother French sauce! Heat 1 Tbsp butter in a saucepan on medium heat until foamy. Sprinkle in the flour and stir with metal whisk until well combined. Be careful not to brown/burn the mixture.
Add reduced mixture to the roux, stir quickly to incorporate. This was fun. As Elise said, the roux bubbled up at this point. Continue adding and whisking to incorporate.
Lower heat. Whisk in the last batch of butter, add lemon juice, salt and pepper

For the salmon, I just rubbed it with a bit of pepper and salt, wrapped in aluminium foil and popped it into a preheated oven for 10 mins.

Rating: 7.5/10 from me! I'll be trying out with sherry if it isnt too expensive in the near future :)


Lots of leftover. Hubby doesnt quite appreciate salmon goodness knows why, so I'm having his share for lunch tomorrow.

A Whole Pot of Pork

down the drain...

boo hoo... i was so optimistic that my Char Yoke dish would come out okay. My mother-in-law bought the right cut of pork for me, dried black fungus plus the reddish bean sauce. Everyone has been telling me its easy to make, I dont even need to do slow braising.

Never has anything turned out so horrendously wrong wrong wrong. Then again, I fare pretty badly when it comes to Chinese dishes. Sigh... totally demotivated. I don't know what went wrong but the whole thing came out so salty! I only seasoned the meat with a bit of pepper and salt. And just a teaspoon or less into the entire pot but when i tasted it - it was horrible! I pushed the panic button and kept adding hot water. Wrong move! The whole thing still came out salty and tasteless. Gross.... URgh.

Thank god MIL had extra briyani and kurma or hubby and I would have starved to death tonight.

No photos this round. Just can't bring myself to deceive myself even though I'm pretty sure /i could hv taken some pretty good shots.

Ratha Chicken Curry

I'm sure many of you have heard of this place. Whenever hubby and I are free or if i havent exceeded my petrol allowance (heh) or if it gets really hot, we'll take a drive up to Gohtong Jaya for the cool air AND for Ratha's famous chicken curry.

Ratha curry style is thin and soupy but it packs a WALLOP! Every spoonful is flavourful and spicy (and slightly on the salty side), and it goes great with rice or roti canai. Hubby will keep scooping the curry and we end up fighting for the last few spoonfuls! If we could lick the bowl dry, i think we would! haha! The chicken meat is pretty tender but this varies, we've found it to be dry sometimes.

The chicken curry costs ~ RM3.80 per piece and it comes with lots and lots of gravy as they know ppl love to flood their food with it :) They are also famous for Fish Head curry but hubby and I find it just so-so.

Ratha's original branch is in Raub old town.