After a heavy brunch at Vishal Food & Catering Restaurant on papa’s actual birthday, the hubs drove us around KL for a short sight-seeing city tour. Then he brought us to Naj & Belle @ Bangsar for a surprise mini celebration for papa. It’s my first time at this cafe.
Above 3 photos credit: Google
When the waiting staff brought out the cakes and started to sing Happy Birthday to papa, he was totally taken by surprise and was overwhelmed. In fact, no one knew about the surprise! Not me either! My hubs loves giving surprises to us. When I was about 22 or 23, he organized a surprise birthday party for me at a karaoke and invited all my besties to the party. I was completely overtaken. He even bought a new MPV 7 years ago and did not inform me until the day he drove it back home! I was super mad at him for doing things behind my back and then bang, surprise me. And one of his biggest impulse purchases was Happy our Beagle, made 12 years ago. Sadly I didn’t have the time to love and care for a dog as Alycia was only about 2 years old and Sherilyn still an infant. We gave up Happy for adoption a year later. Had he surprised me with a puppy now, it will be an entirely different story altogether now. I will be super duper elated to have a puppy in the house!
OK, back to foodie talk!
Here’s my beaming papa with mum. He doesn’t look a wee bit like he’s 75 eh? Same for mum who will turn 72 next month.
Our favorites were the watermelon strawberry cake and salted caramel cake. There’s an entire chunk of squarish fresh watermelon wedged between the layers of sponge cake and cream! My favorite is always salted caramel. I love all things caramel.
This lychee cake was a replacement for us as the cempedak cake didn’t taste very fresh.
After a heavy brunch followed with another carb-piling dessert chow down, papa was getting ready to go for another surprise birthday mini party with his sisters and brother in law.
Papa’s sister, my very talented aunt Maggie made him a longan jelly cake and a big pot of red bean sweet soup.
The next day (Monday), before papa and mum returned to Ipoh (praise God papa can still drive long distance at 75!), we had Taiwanese cuisine for lunch at Fong Lye Restaurant at Desa Sri Hartamas.
Delectable appetizers of deep fried yam sticks and deep fried tofu with anchovies; tomato omelette.
Deep fried pig’s intestines (totally not my choice!) and ‘Sam Pei Jee’ (Three Cup Chicken) ~ my all-time favorite at Fong Lye.
Fried fish with soy sauce.
Pork ribs and sauteed vegetables with edamame beans.
Sauteed beef with bitter gourd; sauteed hard bean curd sticks.
After papa’s birthday celebration, our fridge was really well-stocked with cakes, jellies, kuih and doggy-bagged restaurant food that took us 5 days to deplete. Till today, I am still feeling cloy with all the pigging out for 4 days back to back. And it’s not helping that I am not exercising all through the week-long school holidays. I’m so going to have to workout extra hard when school reopens next week.
I’m really happy that this year my brothers and I managed to get together to celebrate papa’s birthday. It’s my hope that we can do this every single year for many more years to come.
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