Blondies & Plates

Blondies. Aren't they cool? I think not many Malaysians have heard of blondies as opposed to the darker half aka brownies. Blondies are basically brownies without chocolate. And they taste great.

To me and Hubs that is.

Coz we are both enlightened people and have no fear of a little extra sugar and all things sweet.

In essence, they taste like caramel in the form of a chewy cake. And the taste of dark brown sugar paired with butter is a winning combo - sooo deliciously rich.

I used the recipe from Elise here. Cut down the butter as several commenters said the base came out slightly oily.

I also fancy plates. Colourful, cheery, chic plates. They made my Blondies look better.

Arent they lovely? Got them from a charity bazaar last weekend at Great Eastern mall.

Doing my bit for charity at RM16/ plate.

Dallas & San Antonio, Texas

I blogged so much about San Francisco last year that I totally forgot to blog about Dallas & San Antonio!

In Dallas, Hubs was hard at work attending meetings and workshops and those things that make you sleep while I was hard at work shopping. I realised I didnt take many photos in Dallas - there really wasn't time. Every day was spent navigating my way through new roads, drilling myself to drive on the right side of the road, going to as many shopping malls as possible and covering every bit of it as much as I could.

It was a serious business of selecting and trying on tons of tops, jeans, jackets, shoes, accessories. I get giddy even just listing them down.

We visited their main hypermarts - Walmart, Krogers and World Market. I loved Krogers! There were so many varieties of everything! Dallas folks must love their frozen instant food, cakes and pastries. Rows and rows of em. Wow.



I ate Krispy Cremes with a burp (ala Homer Simpson style). Thought it was pretty good, soft and tasty with sweet glazing that will bring you one step closer to being a diabetic.



Its true. Everything's bigger in Texas. Food portions are just enormous, and they're half the price and double the portion compared to San Fran. Hubs and I should have done the decent thing and shared a meal but there was only so many days and we had to make the most of every experience. It was the only logical thing to do.

There's so much land that almost all the shopping malls are built with just 1 or 2 levels and sprawl across large areas. There's no such thing as insufficient parking. Houses are big too.

Hubs took a day off and we had a long weekend and made a trip south to San Antonio. All his colleagues said it was THE place to go (to do touristy stuff). We left early in the morning to start the 5 hour road trip. The thing I look forward to during road trips are the stops. Heh. Of course not toilet stopslah, the eating stops :)

i-Hop! HOoray! Spread all across the highways - you can't miss em. Young and old, fat and thin, tall n short, Hubs and me, every creature flocks here for a hearty breakfast.

yum yum..... Award winning, milky, fluffy pancakes with buttah and maple syrup... And coffee with free refills.

I want pancakes now!! Stomp Stomp.

We arrived at San Antonio and checked into our hotel - Hampton Inn. Hubs didn't know quite how to pronounce and called it Ham - Tan Inn (meaning salted egg in Chinese) and keep saying here we are Ham Tan Inn. We've arrived at Ham Tan Inn. Grrrr.

Anyway, let's give some credit to the man who took the shot above. He was really trying to compose some sort of 'artistic' shot and I thought watever it was he was trying to do, it came out pretty good.

First stop - Paseo Del Rio - The famous Riverwalk at San Antonio! (sometimes described as the American Venice)Located below street level, its a beautiful place with shops and restaurants lining the walkways. Just stroll along and enjoy the relaxing atmosphere or hop onto the boat rides for a cruise down the river.

Colourful duckies observing tourists

The next day at downtown San Antonio, we happened to be there when a street bazaar was going on. There were plenty of stalls selling gifts, souvernirs, authentic Mexican food and a live band. (If you can spot on the right of the pix below, this man brought his own portable chair, propped himself under a shady tree and just sat there throughout to enjoy the music.)

Here's my plate of tacos with lots of juicy pieces of beef, spicy chillies and creamy guacamole.

A cowgirl wannabe

One other IMPORTANT thing. If you ever go to US, you gotta try out Marble Slab Ice cream for "The freshest ice-cream on earth" home-made, delicious and oh so creamy! Choose your flavour and the counter girl will scoop it out, slap it down onto a cooled marble slab.She then scrapes and scoops it up, and slaps in onto the slab again several times. i think this technique is to make the ice cream softer and smoother before we eat it. Well, it works and we loved it, loved it, loved it!

We also went to the Alamo - another famous spot at San Antonio but I can't the find the pictures and am in need of sleep now.

Have you ever tasted

anything so good?

Behold the Siew Yoke (roasted pork).




Will you just look at that? Can you feel your mouth watering up right now?

Who can resist this?

Each piece of succulent pork is cut to just the right size for you to savour every single layer in a bite

the crisp, well roasted skin,

then the glorious melt-in-your mouth fat,

then the juicy, tender layers of meat...

Every mouthful is HEAVENLY. and too much.

You can't eat more than a half dozen pieces. Or you'd be overwhelmed.

Eat this on as rare an occasion as you can possibly. The heart would not take this lightly.

Each portion - one length cut into roughly 8 pieces is RM16 - steep but worth every cent.

Restaurant Wong Kee, Jalan Nyonya, Off Jalan Pudu, KL. Starts serving at 12.30 but park yourself there earlier.

For more details and pictures which will make you get off your butt and get over here this minute:

Whiff of Lemongrass

Boolicious

KY Speaks