Breakfast with my Best Friend :P

EG was very excited when he discovered a new place for breakfast last weekend while waiting for me doing my facial. So this weekend, he brought me there. It's actually a Malay stall by a small street near Lebuh Pantai, right opposite HSBC, beside Standard Chartered Bank. There aren't many cars passing by the street so it's not as dirty.

This place not as crowded as other places. It's cool as Standard Chartered is TALL, it blocks all the sun rays. There were quite a bit of people having their breakfast there (last week and this week), and you can listen to other people's conversation, if you want to :P. Somehow we felt it's peaceful, and quiet, and nice. But this is also another sign of getting older.....

Anyway, we had 2 teh ais with less sugar, one nasi lemak (my favorite!!), EG's favorite toast bread with half boiled eggs (best breakfast in the world konon :P), and a big plate of Pasembor. The pasembor is served hot as the gravy was cooked on the spot - and it is full of ingredients.

Drinks with nasi lemak, My yummy nasi lemak,
Toast bread & eggs, Pasembor

The street, the stall (see HSBC?),
Ah Pek aka my best friend with the newspaper while breakfast-ing,
Standard Chartered right opposite me.

It can be rather awkward if I keep snapping pictures while others are having their breakfast. They probably take breakfast at the same place every day, or week. Would you laugh at someone who take pics @ Mc Donald in Queensbay or One-U? Hmm... So I have to be quick in taking all these pics in the least obvious way by using my faithful handphone with 2MP camera. While EG was paying, I quickly snapped around the stalls.

The food varities - some kuih, nasi lemak, bihun, hard boiled eggs

This is where they "grill" the toast bread - how often do you see this? It's my first time though ;P

The stall

If you still wonder this place is, I took a picture of the street too. You might need to click on the pic for bigger view. It's at Union Street. And the Pasembor stall is right there.

The pasembor stall @ Lebuh Union

We had a good car park - this is the view of the famous Beach Street in Penang (Lebuh Pantai) for you to find the place

Everytime when we pass through this area, EG and I will be rather excited as this is where we took our outdoor wedding pictures (Yayaya, we still talk about it :P). On the way back home, we drove through the spot where we had one of our poses. We were rather surprised that they have renovated the place and it looked totally different now! So... no couple could take pics at that spot anymore... And now, pictures are the only memories that we have.

The new look

One of our wedding pictures - See the changes.
It's quite amusing that the poster is still there :P

EG said maybe one day we should go back to the same place and pose the same, and post it up for "spot-the-difference" game. Duh.... Anyway, I enjoyed my breakfast (Well, it should be brunch) with my only best friend in Penang - my hubby la... :P

Home Cooked Food

For health reason, I have been cooking dinner almost everyday, yes, including weekdays, unless we have some appointment then we'll eat out. Everytime when I shared with my friends that I cook dinner every night after work, 99% of them will give me a very shocking face asking questions like "do you have time?", "what do you cook?", "cook for only 2 persons?", "YOU CAN COOK?!". -_-. The only one that doesn't get surprised will be my mum - who has been wanting me to do this since years ago.

I reach home daily latest by 7pm, sometimes 6.30pm. Then I'll start to take out all food from the fridge, which has been brought down from the freezer to defrost since morning. All I do is just cut all ingredients, and then cook them. There will always be a dish of vegetables, plus another main dish. Normally dinner will be ready around 7.30pm to 8pm, with all frying pans & cooking utensils washed up and kept nicely. After dinner, EG will help to clean the dishes as I wipe up the stove. By 9pm, we're done and we'll be watching tv or surfing internet.

So, I am going to share some of the dishes that I cooked for the past few days. Then maybe you'll know - why I can do it every day.

Different types of vegetables

Some dishes besides the greens
Curry fish (I know the pics looks bad :P), Plum Sauce pork ribs,
Steamed Jap Toufu, Sardine with extra ingredients

Some other varieties
Mashed potatoes, Spaghetti (EG's favorite), ABC soup & Tom Yam beehoon

We just had our mashed potatoes and spaghetti during the weekend. The mashed potatoes is so good that EG stocked up another 10 potatoes today. And it's so easy to prepare - just boil it, mashed them, mix with margerine, salt, parsley and pepper. So goooooood!

Except for the soup which needs to be boiled for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour, other dishes can be easily done within 15 to 20 minutes - approx 15 minutes to cut-up all ingredients, and 5 minutes to cook. Steamed food is the easiest and has the least hassles. Besides, it's easy to find all the ready made curry paste / tomyam paste / soup ingredients in the supermarket. This makes cooking even easier. However, I normally will go for those with no preservative (Mak Nyoya brand from Sunshine Supermarket is good :P).

I thank God that EG doesn't ask for "complicated" food. All he wants are just simple home cooked food that can fill his stomach, and thank God that he can eat almost everything that I cook. Looking the food that I prepare, it shows how simple it is - provided that your partner doesn't complain much. :P.

Relaxing Saturday

We went back to Taiping last weekend. It was one of the best weekends I have had. Why? Because, EG's gaming kaki aka his brother has left to KL for college. So, I had >80% of his attention. :P

EG said he wanted to bring me to a new place in Taiping for lunch. There we went to Taiping market. It's not hot or stuffy like most of the places, but rather it has high ceiling, and it's airy. All the stalls have their own hoods to make sure the place is not smoky. Have you ever had the experience whereby others could tell where you went by smelling you? :P

The market

We order two drinks - home cooked healthy Longan & Winter melon.

Refreshing drinks @ RM1 each

I had the urge for improper food on that day, but EG was very hungry. So he ordered the famous Teochew fried kuey teow - according to him, that's the best in Taiping.

Teochew Fried Kuey Teow @ RM3

I saw a stall selling the Apam Balik that I have not been eating for almost 10 years! I remembered my parents used to buy two whole pieces whenever we went visiting my grandmother on every Saturday. That was when I was like... 12 yrs old or 15 years old?! Gosh, it's almost 15 years back!! EG said it's not called Apam Balik, not sure of the exact real name but I heard others calling it Bang Chang Kuih in Hokkien. It tasted good, but will be better if they have more peanuts. :D

Apam Balik or Bang Chang Kuih @ RM0.50 per piece.

Next, we order fried oyster and some fruits rojak. Again, EG said the fried oyster is one of the best in Taiping. For the rojak, it's good too except that it's a little weird as they put sotong in the rojak.

Fried Oyster for RM5

Fruits Rojak with Sotong @ RM3

So after all these, we are 80% full. While leaving the place, EG dropped by his grandma's neighbour's stall to buy some black soya drink - I don't normally see black soya drink around. Do you?

After that, we went to the next most happening place in Taiping - Tesco (:P) to have some "window shopping" to spend the afternoon. We were still having some craving and we bought back 12 pieces of nuggets. Yummy! And I bought one magazine from the book store.

Nuggets from KFC

We headed home after that. EG searched through Daddy's DVD and found National Treasure II by Nicholas Cage. So we watched the show, while enjoying the yummy nuggets and refreshing black soya juice. And I was also flipping through my magazines since I am blessed with multitasking skills (:P).

My new magazine

Ahh... What a beautiful, slow and relaxing Saturday afternoon... ;)

New Sleep Mate :D

Hello, don't you think I look innocent? :D

After I came back from PH, I saw my doggie was replaced with a fatter, shorter and newer one. :D. It's very sweet of EG to get me a new doggie and he said it's for our 6th month anniversary present. Time flies, we have been married for 6 months - even though I feel like it has been 6 years already. :P

I am a lazy dog....

And I have a ribbon around my neck too....

I know this looks obscene but my owner said it's very cute
Because she said I am very fat...

And I have a small, short, little tail too...

Since I have a new doggie now so what should I do with my old one? My old doggie has been with me for the past 5 years. He even went to Vietnam for 11 months to be with me. And he has been there all the while - when I am happy, sad, watching series, crying, sleeping, anything. :P. But he has grown very thin after a few rounds of bathing....

Anyway, I am not going to throw it away. He'll be my TV mate... :D

PS: I am only a soft toy doggie lover, not really a real doggie lover... :P

Bubba Gump

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurant & Market is a chain of seafood restaurants inspired by the movie Forrest Gump. Their menu features shrimp (of course!!), but they serve other seafood, steak and desserts. And they sell souvenirs - featuring the cute & funny shrimps, too.

In 2006, I was starving during dinner and CA brought me to this lovely restaurant. (Maybe that's the reason why I love this place since I was too hungry :P.) The restaurant provides a very relaxing and cozy environment. The friendly waiter talked to us, joked with us, and even gave us a free ice cream after my friend answered 3 questions about the Forrest Gump movie. It gave me a real good experience and impression. However, it only happened during my first visit in 2006. When I visited again in 2007 & this year, the waiters didn't behave as friendly - not sure if it's due to the big crowd as normally I'll be excited to bring all my counterparts there for dinner. Anyway, I still love the environment around the restaurant - it makes the food taste extra good. Everytime when I go Philippines for business trip, I'll make sure I'll have at least one meal @ Bubba Gump.

Food.... Yummy!!!

So far, I have seen Bubba Gump @ Kuta, Bali; Pier 39, San Francisco; Long Beach, Los Angeles. And I was overjoyed when I heard they are opening (or already opened?) @ The Curve, KL - then I can bring EG to try it there when we go KL next time! *wink*. (KL Folks, go and try it!! And then tell me if it's nice :D)

Me @ Bubba Gump Makati 2006

Me @ Bubba Gump San Francisco 2007
Excuse me for the guy next to me - he didn't bother to move!!

Me @ Bubba Gump Makati again 2008 (OK I know I grew fatter :~( )

And of course, since I am currently on business trip to PH, I went there again. And this time, I let CA's new camera captured all the corners & the deco in this lovely restaurant. I hope the Bubba Gump @ The Curve will have the same warm and cozy deco too!

Deco around the restaurant & the drink bar

Top: Some famous phrases from the movie.
Bottom: Instead of whistle loud to get the waiter, you just need to flip to Stop Forrest Stop, and they will come fast. Run Forrest Run means everything is OK.

Some stuff from the movie are all around the restaurant

Morning Light

I am off to Philippines for business trip *again*. This has been the 4th time I travel here since I join the current company, and it is also going to be my 6th and 7th week here.

Not many in my office likes to come to Philippines. Simply because of the waking up time. Most of us will choose to stay at Makati - the most modern city in the country, with 5-stars hotels and nice restaurants around. However, our factory plant located at Cavite - which is probably ~50km from Makati. The problem is, there isn't highways connecting these two cities. OK, there is high way, but most of the time we were traveling on small, one way, winding roads, with kinda scary traffic. As a result, we need at least 1.5 to 2 hours to reach office.

Thank God that this round my training starts at 8am. And thank God that there's a new highway between Makati and Cavite that ensure us to reach office by 8am if we leave by 6.30am. For my previous 3 trips, I have been waking up at 4.30am to catch the shuttle at 5.15am in order to reach office at 7am. (!!!!!) Having said that, now I have to wake up latest by 5.30am to take breakfast from 6am to 6.30am - at least I can enjoy the buffet breakfast in the hotel! I used to tapao.

This morning, I snapped some pictures from my hotel room at 5.30am. In Malaysia, during this time, it will still be very dark. But here, the day gets bright early, and of course it gets dark early too. Most of the peolpe here wake up by 5am+, and sleep at 10pm+. And most of their shopping malls close ~9pm.

The view right opposite my room

Left side

Right side

I still have 10 days here. Thank God again that when I reach back Penang, it'll be a long weekend as Monday is a Holiday. I will have all my time for my beauty sleeeeeeeeeeep.... :)

Cat-Mails?

I think most of us are working with free internet in office. It makes communication so much easier. EG and I basically send email mainly to disturb each other almost everyday.

Somehow, one day we got bored of just plain words, and we started to email each other with our own LOL-CAT. I am not going to tell who wrote what, so you can guess yourself. But i thought they were funny.... :D






And finally, this is the one that I like the most. I think this is really funny. We were supposed to leave office early and there's this "stupid" reminder came to my inbox.

It does help to release stress a bit... but I think we are crazy.... :P

Simba

I am not an animal lover, but EG is. He has been telling me how graceful, nice, funny, cute, mischevious, etc etc, about all the cats around him - be it the neighbour's cat, or the stray cats on the streets. Under such influence for the past 3 years+, I become more "senstive" for cats too.

O Hai! My name is Simba. :)

To cut the story short - EG's colleague is putting one of his cats, Simba, out for adoption. You may refer to EG's blog for more details. We couldn't take him due to space constraint of our current place. If you are interested, or any of your friends are interested, do drop your contact in the comment.

PS: Simba is currently @ Penang.

让自己。。。透透气

现代都市新新人类
为了生活 为了将来
为了享受将来富裕的生活
每天努力工作 努力赚钱
努力的和时间赛跑
努力的利用一天内24小时
为的 是希望将来能丰衣足食

周遭的人们
天天在很忙的工作
很忙的开会
很忙的做生意
很忙的赚钱
很忙的。。。。

然后 通货膨胀 百物涨价
所有人在讶异之余 不断的投诉后
又在更努力的工作
更努力的赚钱
更努力的利用24小时

当现实的压力越来越沉重
人们就更麻木不仁的生活
没有生动的表情
没有开心的笑容
生无可恋 死不足惜

也许 应该放慢脚步
让自己透透气
让日子元气恢复
然后
在珍惜生活中的每一天之余
再慢慢细嚼人生 真正的意义

加油！

很久了。。 很想写一些有关最近天灾的感想

无奈 心痛 沮丧 无言
每天看到
一张张震撼人心的相片
一则则令人感动万分的新闻

眼眶红了 沮丧了很久 久久不能自己

当 我们在安安稳稳的工作 平平安安的生活
快快乐乐的享受每一餐
反观 在离我们不远的另一端
千万人们在为生命奋斗 牺牲 彼此鼓励 安慰

当我们在为生活中的琐碎事不开心时
当我们为身边一切感到不满时
也许应该知道如何知足常乐
更应该好好珍惜身边人

愿 在无情天灾中生存下来的人 加油！

Cooking Weekend *again*

Since we ate out last weekend, trying to be a nice wife, I promised EG I'll cook for him this weekend, voluntarily. :P.

During our visit to Pastamania last weekend, we wanted to order Aglio Olio, but the waiter told us it'll just be pasta with parsley, garlic and olive oil. So, we chose another meal instead. Since we have left over Pasta at home, I surfed net and found that Aglio Olio is really quite easy to be done. To make it nicer, I also prepared the spicy prawns to go together with the pasta.

In the original recipe, I'm supposed to use the chili flakes. To be more cost effective (since I won't use it too often), I replaced with our local cili padi. :D. I combined the cleaned & deveined prawns with the ingredients shown below.

Prawns with the other ingredients, including olive oil (forgot to label ;P)

I cooked the pasta to al-dente. On the non-stick pan, put the prawns in for ~3 minutes. Then, fry the garlic and chilis (hoping to add some spice) with lots of olive oil. Toss the pasta with the garlic oil and parsley. Put them on plates, and serve with prawns on top. And done!

My Aglio Olio

Looks good? However, it didn't taste very good though. It tasted a little flat. I think it would taste nicer if we have some parmeson cheese. Or I should have poured the remaining lemon juiced used for the prawn into the pasta. Need to improve for next cook.

On Sunday, I followed the recipe from Hochiak! with the remaining pork rib that I purposely left over for this - that's why the carrots & onions look more than the pork rib. :P.

Pork Ribs in Plum Sauce

The pork ribs tasted very good - even though they are a bit small pieces cause it's supposed to be meant for soup. :P. However, the gravy is too sweet. Not sure if it's because of the plum sauce that I bought (it said it can be made for drinks too) or I put too much of them? Too much sugar? And not enough corn flour so it's a bit watery. :P.

Anyway, EG still loves it and suggested me to cook for his parents when we're back to Taiping this weekend. *Gulp*. I am still considering and I don't think so. I am not used to cook for others except for him.

I broke my record this weekend as I cooked for 4 meals for both Saturday & Sundays (we skipped breakfast since waking up late :P). I was hell tired and suffering from muscle pain from the hiking of my team building - I'll blog about this later - I could hardly walk. I insisted that a promise is a promise. Imagine me limping around in the house. Yet, after cooking, I have to do most of the washing as EG was busy with his guitar practice and work, and being lazy. -_-".

I start to understand why my mum would lose her mind when we complaint her cooking was not nice or complaint that she cooked the same food everyday. Cooking is not as easy as I thought when it becomes a chore!

So, EG used to ask me if I could cook everyday if we have to stop food catering one day. I tried to imagine if I have to think what to cook after a tiring day at work - Cooking is still ok, but the washing part. Hmm... I think I really need to think about this before I simply say yes... :P

Crossword

I couldn't believe it!!!!


I actually solved the Crossword puzzle published on our employee portal. This could probably be my only solved crossword puzzle in my whole life!

I am hopeless in all the techie-stuff going on in my company - well, call me ignorant. All I care are only the Oracle Databases and SQL. Not sure what kept me go-on to finish off this puzzle - might be the flu pills. :P. There's a check button that you could click to check for your answers - every right answer kept me awake!

EG helped me to solve 70% of the puzzle. I always know he is quite smart, just that tonight I found out he exceeds my expectation and he is really smart... :D

PS: This is not a competition la. Just for fun only. So I got nothing for completing this, except a little bit of self satisfaction and add on a bit more knowledge about my employer... Hmmm... :P

Relaxing Weekend

It's such a relaxing weekend....

Both EG and I have not been going out for a date much since our wedding as we're busy with so many things. When we have free time, we'll rather stay at home and get chilled. :P. This weekend, both of us have some movie and shopping urge. We decided to go out this weekend.

It has been a super long time since both me and EG went for a movie. I think the last movie that we watched was, probably, Transformer. Kinda pathetic right? Well there isn't much movies that really interest us. On Friday night, we went to watch Ironman. I am not a very good movie reviewer but this is a nice show. The movie is about 2 hours but I didn't feel it at all. Overall it's a fuuny, great & interesting movie.

On Saturday, after we attended Marriage Tune-up session in EPCC (Pastor called it an after-sales service :P), we headed to town straight. I have a long list of shopping stuffs to get.

Mother's day is around the corner. However, in my hometown, we don't celebrate Mother's Day but rather, we celebrate Parent's Day. This year, my siblings and I have decided to get a camera for my parents since they are now using our first digital camera bought in 2002 with 3.2 megapixel Canon Ixus V3 and probably 1.2" screen. My job is to get the Panasonic Lumix FX36. Sometimes I love Penang because if you find the right place, you'll get good discount!

After getting the camera, we headed to Gurney plaza.

We were taking our own sweet time walking floor by floor at Gurney. And somehow, we couldn't find much things to buy. We stumbled into S&J - one of the famous gift shops in Penang. As usual, they have some funny and cute stuff and EG was having fun talking to the little cute salesgirl asking about their products. :P. When we came out from the shop, we bought two cute wrist rests to put in our office. EG took some closed up pics and talked about it here.

One for me, one for him

After some window shopping, we wanted to go Chillis for a nice dinner but we saw new restaurant poster with nice Pastas so we decided to go for a try. At first I thought Pastamania is a local restaurant, but later I found out it's actually a franchise. We were very hungry so we ordered a pasta, pizza, garlic bread & minestrone soup - and we finished all of them. Yummy!! It was a right decision to change our mind to go for Pastamania. The food was very good and we both felt very satisfied - I am not sure if it's because we were too hungry though. :P.

Hot Minestrone Soup

Garlic Bread

The cheesy sausage tasted sooo good... I feel hungry looking at this picture...

This Super Supreme tasted real good as it's full of salami and chicken ham. Yummy!!

We walked a bit to help on digestion after dinner and headed home. Besides all the things that we bought, I got two blisters at my small little toes too. Not sure if it's because of the new shoes, or it's because I haven't been walking so much for quite a long time.

Today, we wrapped up the camera box for me to post it all the way back to Sarawak tomorrow.

Gift for my parents

After wrapping up - it's water proof & shock absorbing, I hope.
My drawing is not bad right? :P

Let's pray that it'll reach Miri safely. I am trying to imagine my dad's grinning face when he receives this. :P

I like my weekend so much, but reality is, I have to work tomorrow. -_-"

Ganbatte-neh.