Makan-makan in Ipoh & Taiping

After becoming parents, EG and I hardly have time to spend with each other. After 2.5 yrs of training (since Eunice is born), now we're used to parent-lifestyle and can do things more effectively in a shorter time. Both of us can't really shop when we go out with Eunice. We actually have been taking leaves on Friday to have some time for ourselves, like watch movies, shopping or etc. If Eunice is out with us, we'll be bringing her to places where she can enjoy, instead of for us to enjoy. :)

This time, I sent my baby Natalie to babysitter 2 weeks before I came back to work from my maternity leaves. And EG and I planned for a Ipoh makan trip, just the two of us. We didn't manage to spend long time in Ipoh anyway because we needed to do something else in Taiping. So, we stopped by Taiping for breakfast in our favorite coffee shop, then drove to Ipoh and went Ipoh Parade to have some pak-toh time where EG bought some shirts. And looked for toys for Eunice (yea, we both missed her), and went for late lunch before we came back Taiping and Penang again to pick up our girls, and resume our busy life.

Ya, so the pics of the food. :)

My favorite coffee shop in Taiping

Curry mee

Fried noodle + bee hoon

The half boiled egg - after finished.
They ran out of toasted bread as we went late. :)

The recommended coffee shop by friend in Ipoh

Dunno what is this called, EG ordered this.
Looks like curry mee but without the noodle and only with the pork balls, fish balls, and etc that we chose.

Very nice popiah

The famous tau-geh

The famous Ipoh Kuey Teow, slurp!

Yea, best in the country in newspaper!

A Loving Saturday Morning

Sometimes, I think I have the best hubby in the world. :)...

I woke up on a Saturday morning, getting a bit stress up with all the things that both EG and I need to do over the weekend - marketing, cooking, cleaning, washing, house chores, laundry, and not to mention feeding and coaxing a fussy baby.

When I came to the kitchen, I saw some cute arrangements on my kitchen counter.

Guess what's inside?

Tada! Our breakfast!

I know it's just a simple breakfast but I appreciated EG's thought to get up earlier in the morning (while I'm still trying to get my engine started while playing with my girls). Not to even mention, he went to market to do marketing for me so we'll have food to cook for the next week. Oh, he even did all the cleaning before leaving to market for me.

So, this is called ~L~O~V~E~ I guess. :)

That's why I say, I think I have the best husband in the world. :)

Bear & Cat Talk

Cat: Is your new breast pump heavy?
Bear: It's ok la.. It's only heavier when I put the cooler bag with the frozen ice pack and the storage bottles with milk inside..
Cat: Oh? Why?
Bear: Eh.. 4 bottles of milk plus a n ice pack wor...
Cat: Hmm.. Isn't it the same? After you pump out your milk then you'll feel lighter and the weight goes into your bottles..
Bear: Huh?? Then do you feel lighter after you pee???
Cat: (Signature cheeky smile) Maybe?!?!

Ya, we still do stupid talks..

Bear & Cat Talk

I woke up at 6am in the morning to prepare dinner for the night before leaving to office.

Me: U are lucky to have a wife like me who is willing to cook for you!
EG: U are lucky to have a husband like me who is willing to eat whatever that you cook!

:P

OK la it takes two hands to clap. :)

Toy Story

My childhood didn't have much cartoons, because my mum was quite strict on us. I remember watching some same Mickey Mouse cartoons, Tom & Jerry, and can't remember more than that. :). I wonder if that's why I love to watch cartoons now.

As Eunice is growing, EG has been buying some nice cartoons for her to watch. Toy Story is one of them. I never watch Toy Story before until now, yea, until now 30+ yrs old. :D... When EG showed me and Eunice the first one, I am quite impressed. I thought the story line was not bad. Eunice loves it too. And just like what a normal kid will do, she has been watching Toy Story I for easily 20+ times, until I can remember the whole story line already.Then, EG got her Toy Story II last month and Toy Story III last weekend. I was quite excited actually... Hehehe...

It's a Walt Disney animated cartoon about a boy called Andy, who owns some of these toys, which actually "came to life" when nobody is around. :).. Quite a creative idea I thought. Anyway, in Toy Story I, the story is about a new toy joining Andy's old toys and some jealousy and rivalry and which later resolved. In Toy Story II, more toys added in. And in Toy Story III, Andy has finally grown up and going to college, so the story is about what he's doing with these toys before leaving to college.

Among all, I love Toy Story III the most. Some parts are really funny, and well, believe it or not, it moved me to tears during the ending. Ya, EG laughed at me, as usual. But yea, I am those type who can cry even over a cartoon, a very small heart I have.

Anyway, it's a nice cartoon series with very good story lines even until the finale. :). And Eunice even learns how to sing the theme song "You've got a friend in me" from the cartoon. Hahaha.. how cute! :)

Toy Story I

Toy Story II

Toy Story III - I love the lotso bear, but he's the evil one! :P

Rice Cooker Recipes

Yea I've been cooking quite a bit for many months. So I really appreciate some quick and easy recipes especially when it's a busy weekend.

My friend shared this extremely simple chicken rice recipe with me and I found the original recipes here. I tried cooking it the first time and EG loves it so much! It's very nice, and it is also very very simple. It doesn't dirty the kitchen and the only oily thing is probably just the rice cooker! :) He loves it so much as it's so nice to eat, and yet it doesn't take up a lot of his time to do the clean up. :). So far, I've been making it for 3-4 times in the past 1.5 months and EG still loves it a lot. :)

Chicken Rice

Simplified Hainan Chicken Rice


Ingredients:
Boneless drumstick (approx 350g), garlic 2 cloves, ginger 3-4 pcs
White rice 2.5 cups, water 2.8 cups (Note: I just cook the normal amount that we take)

Chicken Marinade:
Salt 1/3 teaspoon, Rice wine 1 teaspoon


Seasoning:
Rice wine 1 big tablespoon, Salt 1/2 teaspoon

Steps:
1. Marinade the boneless chicken drumstick with salt and rice wine for 30 minutes.
2. Mince garlic & ginger.
3. Put rice & water into rice cooker.
4. Add minced garlic, ginger and other seasonings. Mix well.
5. Put the marinaded chicken on the rice, skin side faces down.
6. Cook as usual
7. Once cooked, do not open the cover and leave the rice & chicken inside the rice cooker for another 30 minutes.
8. Take out the drumsticks, mix well the rice.
9. Cut the drumstick into desired size.
10. Put some soy sauce on the chicken & rice before serve.

Later I found another recipe online for claypot chicken rice by using rice cooker here. Since I have all the ingredients at home so I decided to give it a try. It involves more steps than the chicken rice but still it's simple. Btw, I added the fried egg myself. :)

Claypot Chicken Rice

EG said it's also nice. But for this recipe, I need to clean up the wok since I need to stir fry the ingredients first but it's still consider a very simple and easy dish to do esp. when we need a quick meal. :)... So there two are for sure the must-keep recipes.

I love these recipes because I can pre-prepare them before I go out, and knowing that I have delicious meals awaiting for me when I come back. :)

2012 Update

After being parents for 2 years+, both EG and I got more and more effective in getting our household done. Sometimes, friends are amazed of things that we could do, but they often forgot, that also means that we don't get to go out so often, because there are just too much housework to do. That also explains why my blog idles for so long. :P

And yea, for Eunice's sake, I have been cooking dinner, for at least 3-4 nights on weekday, Saturday is a sure-cook day and Sunday is my free day. It's a break for both EG and I. With now that Eunice is 2 yrs old toddler, it makes things easier to go out or to eat out. :)

Many friends asked me, how do I manage to cook on weekday after a hectic day in office? Well, my meals are very simple. I normally will do a meat with a vegetables. If we're very hungry, I'll have a 3rd dish - which is either fried eggs, steam potatoes, or etc. I bought a magic cooker (which is actually a thermal cooker) from Cosway. I used it to cook soup either on the night before, or early in the morning. After I come back from office, I just need to cook rice, and wash all vegetables and fry them. It can be done quite quickly. Sometimes, I'd do steam chicken or steam fish or some simple boiled soup with fish. All can be done within 30 minutes. And after eating, EG will take over the washing part. And most of the time we're all done by 8pm. We make an effort to have fruits everyday so I'll cut some fruits for everyone to eat after that. And by 10pm+, Eunice and I will be snoring already. EG will normally stay up to tidy up the house or do some work. :)...

Having said that, in order to prepare meals on weekdays, that means we need to do marketing on weekends. Yeap. We've been going market on weekend to stock up the poultry, vegetables and etc so we have food to eat for the rest of the week. We found that the vegetables in the market, though slightly more expensive than the hypermarket, surely taste nicer and sweeter. :)... So, we go to the market without fail on every Saturday morning, no, not with Eunice. So it's either I go, or EG goes. Depending on situation. So, Saturday is a super busy day for me because if EG goes market for me, I'll prepare the list of food to get, and I need to prepare breakfast, clean up all the poultry, keep them in portions, and keep all the vegetables, and STILL cook for lunch & plan for dinners. He's not so free either. He has to help on all the laundry, hang, bathe Eunice, wash car porch, and do other housework. Very busy, but definitely satisfying.

Thank God EG is happy with my food though it's just some simple food. When I crack my head on what to cook, he'll tell me it's ok, he won't mind if I repeat the food every week. Ah, that's very sweet and make my life much easier. But I do make an effort to do something different during weekend especially. And sometimes I bake too - but EG is not a cake person so mostly it's for me and Eunice. :)

And yes, all these are done with a 5 mths belly. And yes, I'm going to be mummy again, and yes, my EDD is early August. And you wonder how I can do so much with a belly? Erm, yes, I can. :)

I just hope when my 2nd baby arrives, I'll still be able to do whatever that I am doing now for my family. :)

My home :)

Ever since I moved to Penang in 2006, I only went home during CNY. The last time I went home was in 2009 CNY, and after that I never go home ever since I'm pregnant with Eunice, until recently. My brother got married in Aug and of course I have to go home. :)... and we took Eunice for her first flight at her 18th month.

There are some special things in my home. :)... Besides my family, the home cooked food, the famous Sarawak kampua mee and their laksa, there are some other special things in my home that I cannot find else where.

My dad plants vegetables. And no, he doesn't do that for a living. He worked in a bank before he retires, and now he's helping a relative doing some office work. My grandfather was a farmer. Hence that's where my dad and two of my aunties got the skill from. He uses natural fertilizer (he used to ask my brothers to pee in the potty :P) and no pestiside for his vegetables. The reason he does that is very straight forward - to save money. Now that I'm paying to do the marketing every weekend, I do know that it doesn't only save money, but it also saves the time spent to go and buy in the market - not forgetting that you can always get the freshest vegetable just at your home. :)

That's me in my dad's straw hat cutting some vege for Eunice's porridge

My dad's little farm

Kangkung, spring onions, and some other vege that I don't know what their names are :P

Close shot of some new baby vegetables

We even have dragon fruit trees in my house! :D... And it's the one with the red flesh. During our home trip there weren't any fruit but when my mum visited me few times in Penang, she used to bring some over for me and wow, they are sooooooo sweet! In Penang, sometimes I pay nearly RM3.50 for 1 red flesh dragon fruit, no guarantee that it's sweet. :). And we also have papaya trees. We had papaya trees since I was young. My dad always says papaya are the cheapest fruits to feed a family of 6! :)

The dragon fruit trees


Papaya trees

When we had our wedding in Miri, EG was having some kind of "cultural shock" to see how we, foochow (or hock chew), celebrate a festive day.

First, we won't run away from our famous Sarawak mee suah. This mee suah is different from those that we buy in the market from Peninsula. EG said it's nice and he has never tasted them elsewhere. It's salty, and very thin and soft. I recently got some mee suah from Setiawan from a friend. I'll see if it's the same as ours in Sarawak.

The mee sua

I told EG, I had eggs for breakfast since I'm primary 1 to form 5, almost everyday, except weekends. We'll either have hard boiled eggs, soft boiled eggs, or fried eggs with baked beans. Funny thing is, we never complaint. Maybe because all of us love eggs. And probably that explains why all of us get good results in our exams - eggs are full of natural DHA mar... :P. Anyway, hard boiled eggs are also another must have to eat together with mee sua during a celebration in my hometown.

Hard boiled eggs

Tang Yuen, made of glutinous rice flour, will also be served - but this one is mainly during wedding. I remember my aunty made me and EG to feed each other the tang yuen to signify that we'll be in love forever. :). One thing special for this is that in Miri, or at least in my home, we only have the dry ones - which is coated with crushed peanuts or beans. This round, my auntie made it with pumpkin to add more flavor to it. Actually, I only eaten tang yuen in syrup when my best friend brought some for me during uni time. :P

The yummy tang yuen

The Foo chow red wine chicken soup is definitely a no miss when we go back to Miri. We'll eat this with mee sua together. We'll be served this the day we reach home, and the day we leave home before going to airport. We'll also eat this during birthday, baby fullmoon, or any celebration. It has been the tradition all the while since I was young. This is a very simple dish cooked with chicken, ginger mushroom, and the Foo Chow home made red wine, but for me, I taste really good. I tried to cook it here using the same recipe but it doesn't turn out as nice as my mum's. I checked it through this round and finally concluded that it's the type of chicken that we use. I have to find the special chicken "species" in a bigger market. :)

The boiling chicken soup

And this, is how the mee sua be served to all the guests. A piece of meat with a mushroom, and mee sua. :)

The famous Foo Chow Mee Sua

Sometimes I feel sad that I can't speak Foo Chow anymore since I have not been speaking it after I left home. Even at home, I was speaking the very basic ones with my grandma before she passed away. So, I don't think Eunice will ever learn Foo Chow. But I do hope that I'll continue to let her eat all these traditional Foo Chow food since she's half a Foo Chow now. And I hope she'll appreciate the culture like how I do. :)

Logo's Hope Floating Bookfair

EG's parents came Penang during 1 Malaysia holiday. So, we went to the floating bookfair - Logos Hope that docks in Penang since 25th Aug till 18th Sep.

The ship

Logos Hope

Logo's Hope is the biggest floating bookfair in the world that travels around the world. I have been wanting to visit so we took the opportunity to bring my in laws there together on the holiday.

It was a public holiday but I was hoping the crowd will not be too many. I heard my friend actually queued for 40 minutes to get up to the ship. Thank God when we went, the queue wasn't long - actually there were no queuel. :). The entrance fee is only RM1 per adult, and free for children less than 12 yrs old.

Going into Logos Hope


Though there's no queue, still there're quite a lot of people

Once we went into the ship, there'll be a 2 minutes video to give a short introduction of Logos Hope.

The little girl was also attracted to the video

The mission of Logos Hope

There are quite a lot of books in the bookfair priced from RM8 to RM80. They have a very unique pricing - the books are priced in Units. Every 100 units = RM8. Hence, you'll see books tagged at 100 units, or 300 units. The reason is very obvious - they are travelling around the world, so they just need to change the conversion to the local currency of the countries that they stop. Brilliant idea, I thought. :)

Though there were no queue at the ticket counter, but there are many people browsing the books. That explains why I don't have pictures in the ship. I had to carry Eunice with one hand(worrying that ppl will bang into her), and look for my books with the other hand, while EG looking around for his parents. There's no signal in the ship so we couldn't call. I let Eunice walk at the less crowded place sometimes but still I need to watch over her.

We did not stay long in the ship as the crowd got more and more and we started to feel warm, plus Eunice is showing sleepy sign (yawning). So we decided to pay and get off.

Pose again while on the way back

While doing my payment, I asked the cashier if there are so many ppl everyday. She told me that they haven't had so many visitors for long until today - must be because of the public holiday.

I like the children books on the ship. There are many Christian books and I feel that they are very reasonably priced. I got 2 books for Eunice that is 100 units each (RM8), and EG got a story Bible for Eunice @ 200 units (RM16). I thought they were really not expensive.

For myself, I got a recipe book (to cook for Eunice) and a small baking book at 300 units each. My mum in law got some books too.

Our books from Logos Hope

For EG and my father in law who read a lot, they thinks the books in the bookfair are just so-so, they actually didn't get anything. But I thought it was a very good experience to visit a book fair in the ship, and I won't mind going again. :)

Wei's Wedding

We were away to my hometown for my brother's wedding. I remember during my wedding, we had some trouble looking for photographers in Miri. We got my brother's friend to help us but they came out so-so.

But recently, many photographers bloomed in Miri. I am very impressed by the SDE (Same Day Edit) done by my brother's photographers - who are also my sister's friends. The song is not exactly to my liking but my brother and sis-in-law like it.

But for the videographer, hmm, LOTS of room for improvement still. :)

Lung Wei + Siew Siew SDE from Ruidi Photography on Vimeo.

New Kitchen Gadget

I have been cooking dinner after work since few months back. And I need to work very fast in order to clean up everything by 8pm so that I won't be too tired. I have been telling EG about getting a steamer so that I can steam and cook at the same time.

Though we have a normal pot that can do steaming, but somehow, the water always get collected on the dish and it became not so nice. If I use my wok to do the steaming, it'll be nicer but that means I need to wait for the steaming to be done before I can cook other stuff.

I wanted to get an electric steamer, but my husband is really an old fashion guy though he might not look like one. He prefers the conventional steamer. So, on Friday, we went to this shop that sells kitchen stuff at Bayan Lepas, and got our steamer.

My new steamer - It can go up to 3 tiers. :)

I tried using it today to do the steam pumpkin muffins. The steamer works fine and I really like it (so as EG though he's not the one using it... :P). And look at my muffins. :). They don't look as nice as the recipe links and they tasted a bit hard. However, my cutie pie Eunice loves it very much. She ate 2 straight after the muffins are cooled down.

Steam pumpkin muffins

I purposely did these muffins for Eunice's snack over the weekend. So, it's done by using some organic unbleached flour, organic molasses & organic pumpkin. No I didn't do it purposely, just so happen that I bought them few months back so I need to use them before they are expired. Not sure if it's because of the flour that the muffins didn't crack as nice as it's shown in the recipe. :P

Anyway, I'm still not good in baking. My muffins always turn out hard, or the cake turn out a bit wet. Though it's still edible, and sometimes EG said it's nice and I can see Eunice enjoy eating it a lot, but I still think there's a lot of rooms for improvement - though I seriously think I have no talent in baking. :P

New T-Shirt

Aiyo, I just noticed I haven't been blogging for a month... Geezzz....!

Anyway, EG bought me a t-shirt today from Parkson, 1st Avenue. Nice? He wanted to buy this for me when he brought his parents there few months ago and when they were buying some dresses for Eunice.

He told me the Ben 10 t-shirt was very cute. And he insisted to buy for me.

OK loh. So, nice or not?



See the tag - it's for kids @ 10 yrs old.



OK he's happier than me, and he couldn't wait to wash it so that I can wear it soon. I thought it looks like a boy shirt, but he said it's unisex. OK loh....


Later he added:"But if you wear this to church and 'zhong sam' with Chris on Sunday then I dunno har... I saw him wearing Ben 10 t-shirt before...."

Note: Chris is our worship pastor's son, 7 yrs old or 8 yrs old maybe? @.@

Drawing

Being parents is always challenging. You'll need to know how to sing, how to play hide & seek, how to entertain a small kid, and now, we have to know how to draw too!

I never like drawing... I don't think EG is the artistic kind of person too (except he's more into music, not art :P). But for our little one, we HAVE TO draw.

My 2-legged elephant

EG's evil rabbit

Ahhh... Failure! :D

Easiyo Yogurt Maker

I'm not exactly a yogurt lover, but while reading up on what food to give to a baby / toddler, yogurt always is mentioned as one of the good snack for small children.

I tried buying the yogurt from the supermarket and gave to Eunice. She eats them. But I don't really fancy them - 1) it's sweet for me 2) they are all low fat! They said babies need all the fats to grow. I never notice that most yogurt from supermarket on the shelves are either low fat or zero fat, until now. :P

I saw this Easiyo yogurt maker in an organic shop. I read up about it, asked around friends who used it, and all of them are giving very positive feedback on the yogurt maker. So I finally decided to get it. :)

Easiyo also has their own yogurt powder, which came with different delicious flavor. I just need to mix the powder with room temperature water in the Easiyo container, pour the hot boiling water into the maker and put the Easiyo container in, close the lid of the maker and leave it for 8-12 hours (I normally do it before bed time, and leave it overnight.). The next morning, I'll take it out and put it into the fridge. When I'm back from work, I have 1KG of fresh yogurt waiting for me! So easy!! :)

So far I have tried Apricot and Forest Fruits flavor, and they are just very nice! Eunice loves it very much. I have been giving it to her as snack after she's back from babysitter, or during weekend for breakfast. It's very filling and she can finish a bowl of it all by herself.

Both EG and I bought this for our mothers as Mother's Day present. My mum has used it to make 3 times already since there're more people in my house in hometown and they can finish it faster. And they love it so much. :)

This is definitely a highly recommended products for a family. :)

The yogurt powder mix

The yogurt mixture

Closed up - Benefits of Easiyo yogurt

The maker sitting on my kitchen counter overnight

The end product out from fridge (pic taken late, already eaten few times by Eunice :D)

The fresh home made yogurt! Yums!!

Satisfaction

Satisfaction.....

Mopping the whole house in an hour+!

Result....

Clean & fresh house, and a happy hubby!

Reward......

Free Seafood dinner

Kukukuku! :P

Advert

Saw this advertisement board last week, it says "1 mangkuk Nestle Koko Krunch dengan Susu = Protein sebiji Telur."

I thought something is not right. And true enough, EG's first reaction was: "Like that I eat egg mar better, cheaper some more!"

:P

New Toy

Gee... work has been SO BUSY that I couldn't even find some time to blog in my personal blog, though I have so many things to blog about! Being a mummy now makes life even busier!

EG and I have been thinking about upgrading our old panasonic lumix camera since last year. But we couldn't find any camera that we like. Either we don't want to pay so much for a compact camera, or we just couldn't afford a good DSLR, or couldn't find a justification on why we should spend so much on a DSLR that we might not use in the end.

And here comes Canon 550D. My friend used it to shoot Eunice first birthday party video and we thought 1) it's not THAT heavy 2) it's not THAT expensive too. But we still waited for a while, till Canon lauched 600D, and 550D price dropped RM500! And we went and get it! :P

For me, I just snap with the default setting. But EG will play with the settings (so much so for an engineer :P). And he has been busy experimenting with different settings on the cameras which doesn't really interest me. :P... That just shows that I'm definitely not a camera person. But I love this new toy, I could take really nice pictures on my active girl now. :). And the best thing is, I can use it to take videos too! :D

Some of my first experience with my first DSLR with my pretty girl at home: