My Sundays for the past one month has been like this – lunch with hubs and Alycia, just the three of us while Cass attended her figure skating lessons at the skating rink, the mil has her own activities on Sundays and the SPM girl stayed home to study. Our life was pretty much like this about 20 years ago when Alycia was just a baby and there was only the three of us, with a live-in maid. Everywhere that we went, it was just the three of us and the live-in maid.
Now our big baby girl is an adult and will turn 20 in December. But she’s still very much like a little girl in our eyes and still behaves like one 😁.
We first had a light lunch at Dai Cha Dim, a Chinese restaurant that serves a variety of delicious cha-chaan-teng (or Hong Kong style café) delights. Hubs wanted to eat sushi and sashimi but I want Dai Cha Dim (again). So we had lunch at both a Chinese restaurant, and then later at Koi Sushi.Alycia sipping on watermelon juice.
After lunch at Dai Cha Dim, we went shopping at Uniqlo. Both mom and daughter bought cropped bra tops coz cropped tops are in vogue now.
After shopping at Uniqlo, we had our second round of lunch at Sushi Koi.
Very fresh sashimi – hubs was very pleased and satisfied. He commented that this is even better than the sashimi at Rakuzen.Chawan Mushi and tamago sushiTempuraDelish spider roll sushi (soft shell crabs).Grilled teriyaki squid.Someone caught her paparazzi mom stealing a snapshot of her at the skating rink and wasn’t too pleased.Cass’ coach.
This week will be Cass’ last lesson on a Sunday. Effective next week, her figure skating class will be on a Friday night. It’s going to be a new routine for us, more hectic for Cass when she returns to school with CoCo activities back in full swing this year and a UEC exam to sit for this year. She still wants to compete in figure skating competitions this year but I told her that she’ll have to wait until next year.
Sherilyn’s SPM written tests started on Monday this week with BM paper. With four papers done and dusted this week, she has five more papers to conquer. In 2.5 weeks’ time, she’ll be free! And I’ll be free from my Grab driver duties for her. And free from having to pay her expensive tuition fees (four digits every month)! I’m going to get a breather from paying her tuition fees for nine months before the next big battle starts in 2024! 🤪
This month has been a busy month for me with a lot of chauffeuring the SPM girl for tuition classes and making trips to hospitals for various reasons.
Good food almost always make a bad day seem better. When I have a hectic day coming up or have to face something unpleasant, I like to get myself something nice to eat, to negate some of the stressors, like a loaf of cake, a coconut tart or order my favorite food from Shopee Food.
This was our dinner last Saturday, from Seng Kee Kitchen, our favorite neighborhood tai chow restaurant:
Satay and prawn sambal from hubby’s kitchen for dinner on a week day last week.
On Thursday this week, hubby and I had lunch at Nasi Kandar Pelita @ Jalan Ampang after I collected Cass’ scan images (Urodynamics and MRU) from HKL.
It’s going to take a long explanation on why I need those scan images. According to a top urologist from the UK (who is a friend of hubby’s heart surgeon uncle), Cass has a very rare congenital abnormality. I shall write another post on this when things are firmed up. However, finding the cause / confirming the diagnosis / deciding on treatment is akin to finding a needle in the haystack 😓
Lamb shank Nasi Biryani and Nasi Kandar with fried chicken and curry sotong from Pelita.Food is mediocre. The squids were hard like rubber and lamb shank a tad dry. The fried bitter gourd was too salty and Teh Tarik Ice was bland and extremely diluted. I think the lamb shank Nasi Biryani from hubby’s kitchen fares better in every aspect. When you have a spouse who can cook or runs a shop/kitchen that churns out similar food, you just can’t help comparing the food with other restaurants 😉Pelita has an extremely wide selection of dishes. We went there at around 12-ish noon and the crowd just got bigger and bigger by the minute with office staffers. The restaurant is very huge and on a stand-alone building.Food is not cheap. The rubbery sotong cost a frigging RM10! And the lamb shank cost RM35.40!This box of very yummilicious goodies were leftover from an event at the cafe that Alycia works part-time at. The generous boss gave all the leftover pastries and tapas to his part-time staff after the event ended at midnight. This is the second time that Alycia brought home such goodies. The previous time she even brought home Sangria.
A couple of Sundays ago, hubs and I had brunch at La Juiceria Superfoods, just the both of us as everyone else at home had something to do. I’ve always wanted to try the healthy meals at La Juiceria. Their meals are my kind of food – mostly meat-free, low in carbs, and high in fiber with the focus on a myriad of colorful veggies and whole grains. They started with selling cold-pressed juices and smoothies at juice bars and have expanded their menu to healthy meals that are free from preservatives, chemicals and additives with the opening of cafes in the Klang Valley. If you’re a health and fitness freak like yours truly, you’ll surely love what La Juiceria has to offer.
I ordered this vegan bowl that’s composed of some very flavorful grilled mushrooms, tempeh, sweet potatoes, charred cauliflowers, purple cabbage, some greens and cucumber slices. Hubby’s quinoa bowl with teriyaki chicken, hard-boiled eggs, sweet potatoes, cauliflowers and pumpkin. This finicky gourmand gobbled up everything.Grilled chicken breast wraps – we got this for Cass’ lunch . She was having figure skating class at Pavillion Bukit Jalil.
I was super satisfied with my meal and will be back again to try other healthy meals on their menu.
This is one of our week day lunches from hubby’s kitchen. It’s always a delight for me to collect food from his kitchen as this means that we don’t have too cook at home 😬 as no one likes to wash the dishes. From top right, clockwise: Mee Siam, Nasi Lemak, Nasi Lemak condiments, stir-fried turmeric chicken with long beans, carrots and big onions.On the foreground – assorted delicious kuih, one of my kryptonites and something that I always look forward to collecting from hubby’s shop.Dim Sum for brunch at Oriental Treasure @ The Sphere, Bangsar South a few Sundays ago with hubs, Alycia and Sherilyn. Cass didn’t join us as she was having figure skating lessons at Pavillion Bukit Jalil.After Dim Sum, we segued into Rasa Viet for dessert. Our absolute favorite is the Viet egg custard, best in the world. One cup per person is not enough. I can chomp down two or even three cups myself! We also got takeaway Bánh Mì and beef pho for Cass and the mil.Green curry chicken cooked using Ayam brand’s green curry paste and Ayam’s coconut milk. It’s surprisingly pretty good and very easy to prep. Just simmer the chicken thigh pieces and brinjals in the green curry paste for 15-20 minutes and serve. It would taste better with added lemongrass, Thai basil leaves and kafir lime leaves but we had none of these at home. Besides brinjals, carrots, long beans, snow peas and other veggies can be added, making this a wholesome, delish one-pot dish.If you have a hankering for green curry but are too busy or lazy to prep it from scratch, reach out for a packet of Ayam’s green curry paste and coconut milk and pimp it up with kafir lime leaves, basil leaves and coriander leaves. It tastes pretty close to the real deal.
Yesterday was the 5th day of Chinese New Year and since hubs had some time in the morning, he drove us to Yulek, Cheras to sample the freshest seafood noodles at Hai Kah Lang, a Michelin-approved seafood noodles restaurant.
Hai Kah Lang was awarded the Michelin Bib Gourmand 2022 recently. The judge commented, “Rest assured, only the freshest catch (mostly from northern Borneo) can make it to the table,” as the owner is also running a seafood stall opposite the street.
When we arrived at around 10-ish a.m., there was already a long queue outside the restaurant. There were chairs lined outside the corridor for waiting patrons and some patrons, like us, were standing on the road under the hot sun.
We waited for almost 30 minutes before our number (183) was called. The number that was called when we arrived was 170. Nonetheless, the restaurant’s operating system is systematic and efficient. After I had gotten a printed number on a paper, a staff came to take our order by entering the items into an iPad. The staff members were very patient and friendly, unlike some popular restaurants with rude staffers.
To sample what it has to offer, first-timers may order mixed seafood noodles or rice porridge with crab, clams, fish, squid, shrimp, and laver seaweed in a briny-sweet fish bone broth that exudes rich aromas of Chinese cooking wine. This costs RM25 a bowl.
The fresh seafood can be paired with rice porridge and a variety of noodles such as meehoon, thick meehoon, kuey teow, lou xu fun, wanton mee served in clear soup or milky soup. If you’re on a keto diet, you can omit the carbs and savor just the seafood.
Hubs, Alycia and Cass went for clear soup noodles and I opted for rice porridge. The soup looks clear with a tinge of yellow hue coming from the Chinese cooking wine and it’s naturally sweet, thanks to the essence from a variety of seafood.
Every bowl of noodles and porridge came with a generous portion of fish and shell fish, which is well worth the price of RM25 a bowl, and cheaper than other popular stalls selling seafood noodles.
The side dishes menu is very attractive and extensive ranging from fried fishcake to fish balls, braised shark lips, blanched octopus, fresh raw oysters, California oysters, tiger prawns, fresh scallops, giant clams (lala) etc. Hubs ordered fish balls, fresh oysters (blanched in clear soup) and giant clams.
Side dish of giant lala in clear soup.Side dish of fresh oysters (fat and juicy) in clear soup.My seafood porridge, side dish of fishballs and giant lala.Everyone had to wait for me to do the compulsory food shots before they’re allowed to dig, though their tummies were rumbling away 😁My seafood rice porridge. The consistency of the porridge is not the usual creamy mushy type but soft rice in soup type. Being the super small eater that I am, I could only polish off half the bowl here and doggy-bagged the rest home.Yummy for the tummy. Generous amount of very fresh seafood, makes the long wait all worth it.The long queue outside the restaurant when we arrived. When we left 1.5 hours later, the queue doubled.Good choice of fresh seafood to you to pick.Pick the exotic seafood if your wallet allows it!Total bill was RM251.75 for 6 bowls of mixed seafood noodles, side dishes and drinks. This includes two portions of takeaway for MIL who was on her way back from Ipoh and Sherilyn who was in school. The milk tea was very thick and milky, which I liked a lot. The barley drink was thick and nice too.
This restaurant is worth a visit despite the difficulties in getting parking and traffic jam if you go during the weekends and public holidays. It’s very common to see cars double parking in the vicinity of the restaurant. We were very fortunate to have found a proper spot to park a few steps away from the restaurant. We can’t wait to come back to try more items on the menu, especially the fish head noodles, fried fish cake (the aroma of the fish cake frying in the wok was heavenly) and other fresh seafood items.
They are open daily from 8 am to 5 pm, so be sure to reach there as early as possible, to avoid standing in the long queue and under the hot sun.
Hai Kah Lang
44, Jalan Kaskas 2, Taman Cheras, 56100 Kuala Lumpur
I hope everyone is enjoying the Chinese New Year holidays with your family and loved ones. And for those of you who dread CNY and can’t wait for it to be over because it’s just so frigging exhausting with non-stop cooking, cleaning up, entertaining (hello nosy and insensitive relatives!), and traveling (darn the traffic congestion), hang in there. It will soon be over.
This CNY we’re staying put in KL as Sherilyn will be sitting for her SPM exam a few days after the CNY holidays and wishes to spend more time revising.
Alycia had planed to follow her grandaunt back to Ipoh by car on Thursday but on the morning of departure, she was down with food poisoning, fever and cough. She literally camped in the loo the entire night. The previous night Alycia had dinner of Moo Kata with her colleagues and must have eaten something that’s undercooked or contaminated that caused her food poisoning with persistent diarrhea. Thus, she had to cancel her trip back to Ipoh.
This CNY, there’s been quite a bit of ‘massive’ cooking by the mil for three days straight. While she enjoys all the cooking, I certainly don’t enjoy doing all the aftermath-cleaning up, especially the greasy stove, counters and floors 🤪
Our CNY Eve dinner at home. Hubby’s cousin joined us for dinner.Home-made Yee Sang, from a seller who operates from her home in OUG. She makes pretty good Yee Sang and we have been buying from her for years. Sherilyn learned how to prep Yee Sang two years ago during the lockdown, using a variety of healthy fruits and veggies. It’s really delish and fresh. We’re going to get her to prep it again next CNY. Sherilyn has not been cooking much lately as she’s preparing for her SPM exam.The sea cucumbers and abalones were prepped a couple of weeks earlier. It’s a tedious and time-consuming process to rehydrate and cook the dried sea cucumbers and dried abalones. It takes days of soaking and boiling before braising with other ingredients such as pork belly, fish maw and dried scallops.Our customary vegetarian dish on the first day of CNY.Our meatless lunner at Alexis @ The Gardens Mall on the first day of CNY – vegetarian spaghetti, vegetarian pizza, mushroom soup with garlic toast and mushroom risotto. Tiramisu, bitter chocolate mousse cake, pecan pie and flourless orange almond cake.
We invited some close friends over for lunch today (Chor 2) for ‘Hoi Nin Fan’ and it was another massive cooking and cleaning. I was so busy cleaning up the kitchen that I forgot to snap photos of the dishes. On the dining table were fried fish, fried prawns, steamed village chicken, lotus root soup, stir-fried snake beans, beef rendang and leftover vegetarian dish from yesterday.
I’d like to wish everyone a very prosperous year of the Rabbit. May you and your loved ones enjoy the heavenly favors of good health, wealth, and fortune all year through. Happy Chinese New Year!
This aunty here is walking with a spring in her step 😁
Just a moment ago I bumped into my car park neighbor at the basement. We have not crossed path with each other for almost a month due to the school holidays. We greeted each other and chatted. As usual, our conversation is always on our daughters. His younger daughter is in the same high school as Cass. They were classmates two years ago and had swimming lessons together when they were 7 years old (7 years ago). While chatting, he suddenly switched the subject and commented that I never age and wonder why I look even younger now. I told him that I will turn 50 in two months and I have wrinkles on my face – if he were to scrutinize it during the day, he would have spotted those fine lines. But he was in awe and could not believe my age. In my heart, I was really flattered and already walking on air 😆
Ok, coming back to my throwback food snaps!
Year-end holidays are all about food, celebrations and merriment. The photos below were taken from 27 December 2022 through 1 January 2023.
27 December 2022 ~ Dinner at Ramen Mob, a newly opened ramen restaurant in our hood. The restaurant is owned by an ex-pilot. We had dinner at this restaurant on the day that I came back from Ipoh.29 December 2022 ~ Brunch at Money’s Corner Food Court @ Brickfields. Our favorites from this food court are the Indian rice, pork noodles, Vietnamese food (stall owner is an ertswhile chef at a Pho Viet) and Sarawak Kolok noodles.Clockwise from top left: Vietnamese noodle salad, curry noodles (mediocre in taste), beef pho and pork noodles.30 December 2022 ~ Today is hubby’s 51st birthday! We had lunch at Golden Dragon City Seafood Restaurant @ Paramount Garden. Clockwise from top left: Deep fried super crispy fish (everyone’s favorite), sauteed kailan with garlic, steamed village chicken with Bok Choy and crabmeat soup.Clockwise from top left: Claypot braised pig’s trotters, pan-fried tiger prawns, longevity noodles and stir-fried assorted vegetables with fried cuttlefish.31 December 2022 ~ New Year’s Eve dinner at Seng Kee Kitchen, our favorite neighborhood ‘tai chow’ restaurant.1 January 2023 ~ Our first meal of the new year was at VCR Stacks @ 163 Retail Park, Mont Kiara. Our primary reason for going to this shopping mall is because of Cass. Her doting dad brought her to the the mall for her to practise ice-skating. After dropping her off at the Blue Ice skating rink at 163 Retail Park, we walked across to the Shoplex Plaza to have brunch.
We had three types of toasties – beef, cheese and mushroom.
Cass’ doting dad bought takeaway pizza for her to enjoy it at home. We also got some takeaway food from QingHeGu 청학골 Korean BBQ Restaurant, a Chinese Korean restaurant @ 163 Retail Park. Blue Ice skating rink @ 163 Retail Park – the smallest skating rink compared with the Blue Ice Snow Park @ Pavillion Bukit Jalil and Sunway Pyramid Ice @ Sunway Pyramid.
Whenever Cass is at the skating rink, she forgets about being hungry and everything else in the world. The ice is her world. Figure skating is her world… for now. And she says it will be her love forever 😁.
A good friend became a grandmother for the first time and sent us a lovely baby full-moon package on her grand daughter’s full-moon. The full-moon package came with a whole fried chicken, Nasi Kunyit (turmeric rice), red eggs and angku kuih. Everyone ate all the nice parts of the fried chicken and left the breast, which was dry and hard, untouched. Chef S repurposed the dry breast meat and bones into another sumptuous dish the next day.
Instead of using turkey to cook Turkey And Vegetables Barley Soup, a dish that the girls’ grand aunt will cook every year after Christmas using leftover roast turkey, Chef S cooked Chicken And Vegetables Barley Soup.
Chef S dumped in the leftover fried chicken breast and added lots of vegetables, pumpkin, onions, sweet corns and barley into the pot of soup. She also fried some chicken drummets and added them into the soup.My hearty bowl of Chicken & Vegetables Barley Soup. It’s so delish and nourishing that I can eat this everyday. I ate this two days in a row.
2022 Winter Solstice Festival Dinner at Seng Kee Kitchen:
For once in a very, very long time, there was a complete headcount at the dining table on Winter Solstice Day (22 Dec 2022). With Alycia in university now, Sherilyn prepping for SPM and hubs who’s tied down with work, it’s extremely difficult for everyone to be present together for a meal or for outings.Everyone’s favorite – steamed free-range chicken from our favorite neighborhood restaurant. The chicken meat is smooth, juicy and has a distinct aromatic chicken flavor, something that’s missing in regular hormones-and-antibiotics-fed chickens.On the house – handmade and homemade Tong Yuen from the affable lady boss.My daily gut-loving dessert ~ sugar-free yoghurt from Farm Fresh (made from only milk and probiotics with nothing else added), macadamia, melon seeds, organic black sesame paste and a drizzle of Gula Melaka syrup. This aids in promoting bowel regularity.
I grew up eating canned baked beans and sardines by Ayam Brand. It’s the trusted brand of choice by my parents. Naturally for me now, Ayam Brand is my brand of choice when it comes to buying canned food for my own family. Our family’s favorite Ayam Brand products have always been canned tuna, saba, mackererl, sardines and baked beans.
Over the decades, Ayam Brand has evolved and expanded their range of pantry staples. From canned baked beans, tuna and sardines, Ayam Brand has over the years introduced new products such as pasta sauce, canned corn kernels, curry paste and coconut milk.
Ayam Brand products are perfect for days when you’re feeling lazy to cook up a fancy meal from scratch and great for camping trips.
Canned food can be transformed into tasty dishes too. For example, canned sardines. All you have to do is to slice some raw onions, julienne some cucumbers and add a squeeze of zesty lemon or lime juice to the plate of sardines and you’ll have an appetizing dish that everyone loves. And baked beans can be cooked with eggs in several styles. These two canned dishes are my absolute favorites.
The other day I received a goodie bag filled with Ayam Brand products, which includes chili saba, tuna mayo, baked beans, chopped tomatoes, packet coconut milk and green curry paste. I was over the moon as I’ve always wanted to try their green curry paste.
Love this cute cushion in the shape of canned plant-based luncheon meat. This is something that I’d like to try some day – a meatless luncheon meat.I’m going to pair the coconut milk with red bean ‘tong sui’ (sweet soup). I love my ‘tong sui’ drizzled generously with thick coconut milk. So yummeh!
Which Ayam Brand product is your favorite? How do you like to cook your favorite Ayam Brand canned food?
Now that things are almost back to normal after a hiatus of 2.5 years, hubs and I have started to have our quick morning breakfast or brunch together again. We usually have our meals at eateries in our hood as it has to be quick – the both of us have work to do and don’t have the luxury of time to sit for hours to enjoy our food.
Our brunch yesterday was at The Lion of Punjab, a newly opened North Indian restaurant in our hood.
Food was quite good but we prefer Tasty Chapathi @ Bukit Damansara and Khan’s Indian Cuisine @ The Sphere, Bangsar South. This meal cost RM150! But there was a lot of leftover food to doggy bag home for the girls.The Masala Chai @ RM6/glass was pretty good with strong aroma of herbs, spices and ginger.Nasi Biryani was delish.
Brunch two days ago was at a kopitiam:
I ordered my usual Pan Mee without noodles but with lots of veggies, black fungus, minced pork and an egg.Hubs had Nasi Lemak. I am always in awe with how much this man loves Nasi Lemak. He cooks Nasi Lemak every single day but still orders this dish all the time! He loves comparing his Nasi Lemak with other seller’s and he still thinks that the Nasi Lemak from his central kitchen is the best. I have to second to that 🖐My Mee Rebus (without the yellow mee) today at the same kopitiam while hubs had Pan Mee. We shared a plate of Char Koay Teow with extra cockles, pork lard and Chinese sausage. I regret ordering the Mee Rebus though it was delish as I was only eating an assortment of deep fried crackers in spicy thick sauce. Such a high caloric, high carb and high cholesterol dish!Classic Western breakfast set at Les Deux Garcons (LDG) viennoiseries. The cafe is just behind his office and central kitchen.Buttery croissant and superb Canelés. At just two mouthfuls small, the Canelés is exceptionally good but expensive at RM8 each. Congratulations, it’s a baby girl! 😹 Haru loves being swaddled in a blanket or cloth and can spend hours like this or hiding under one. Cass and I guffawed at Haru who just laid still on the mattress while enjoying being swaddled. Doesn’t she look like a newborn baby here? 🤣If grandma saw Haru sleeping on the TV console, she’ll scream! 😬 I wipe the TV console every day, though, so she can’t find fault with Haru’s fur on it 😬We can never ever leave chicken or roast pork on the dining table unattended to. Haru’s always stalking us. The second we leave the table, she’ll pounce on the meat! Check out the wai sake mow on the chair, ready to swoop the meat the split second I turn my back.
We hardly cook elaborate meals these days. Ever since Maria stopped coming three weeks ago because of bad morning sickness (she’s expecting her 2nd baby), we have not had any other helper coming in. It’s manageable without a helper if we don’t cook.
We get takeout or order from Shopee Food on most days and will blanch a green leafy veggie every day. Sometimes the mil will boil soup, steam fish, steam minced pork or cook porridge. At times I will cook some simple fish or chicken dishes using the air fryer and pressure cooker. Sometimes we’ll boil some dumplings (‘kau ji’), konjac noodles or instant noodles.
I found a seller whose Taiwanese wife makes top-notch Taiwan-style dumplings and have been buying by the bulk from this seller for the past one year. Everyone in the house loves his wife’s dumplings. And on most days, we will have food from hubby’s central kitchen.
Sherilyn and Cass love prepping their own meals. As Sherilyn has been super busy with school activities lately, she’s not cooked for us. However she’ll prep simple food for herself. Cass loves using the Air Fryer to air fry sandwiches, French Toast, broccoli, meat patties and even fried egg.
Here’s a throwback of the meals that we had recently.
From hubby’s kitchen – seafood spaghetti, Brazilian spinach salad with broccoli and cauli and fried onion rings.Big shrimps, mussels and lots of garlic in the seafood pasta. Very yums.MIL treated us to unagi don and sushi on one of the week days last week to celebrate her all-good blood test result.Dinner ordered from Tsuen Wan Restaurant via Shopee Food. I prefer ordering via Shopee Food vs Grab Food and Food Panda as SF has better deals and savings.Our lunch and dinner today from hubby’s kitchen – stir-fried assorted veggies and sambal big prawns.From hubby’s kitchen today – nasi lemak, chicken rendang and fried tofu.From hubby’s kitchen today – fried mackeral fish with chilies and spices. From hubby’s kitchen today – braised chicken with chestnuts.From hubby’s kitchen last Saturday – mini burger and mashed potato.Early dinner at a Filipino cafe two Saturdays ago, with just Sherilyn. While we had dinner, Cass spent two hours walking almost the entire neighborhood alone – something that she’s always wanted to do.Halo-Halo, a popular cold dessert in the Philippines, similar to our Ais Kacang. After Sherilyn and I were done eating at the Filipino cafe, hubs joined us and we segued into another restaurant for our second dinner, all because hubs was craving for Japanese food.Unagi don for hubsSherilyn and I shared a cup of chawan mushi as we were already full from our earlier dinner.
Sunday, 5 June 2022 ~ Hubs brought us to try a ‘new’ Chinese ‘tai chow’ restaurant – it’s a first try for us but not for him.
As catering functions have picked up ever since Malaysia reopened its borders and economic sectors, hubby’s catering business has been making a rebound. He’s been busy almost everyday, including Saturdays and Sundays. His business was at an all-time low for almost 2 years during the pandemic with on-off lockdowns. Only God knows what we’d gone through during the difficult 2 years.
Anyway, onwards and upwards!
If there’s a Sunday that hubs doesn’t have to work, he will drag all of us to ‘jalan-jalan cari makan’ (loosely translated in English to – walk around and find food) with him.
Pudu is a place where one can find many good eateries, from street food to cafes, ‘tai chow’ stalls and decades-old -restaurants that withstood the test of time with their good food.
Yi Sheng Huat at Pudu is famous for their ‘tai chow’ dishes, especially steamed fish. We were there a little before 12 noon, which is the start of their operating hour and waited for almost half an hour, with growling tummies before the dishes arrived.
Steamed fish with loads of garlic. Stir-fried ‘sang cheong’ (pig’s intestines). Not my kind of dish but hubby’s favorite.Steamed lala clams with Chinese cooking wine and ginger.Stir-fried spinach with garlic.‘Phai kuat wong’ (pork ribs king)Deep fried squids, which is our favorite dish.
Food was great and we enjoyed our meal thoroughly. We’ll definitely be back again to try other dishes when hubs is free again on a Sunday. This time, I want the entire steamed fish all to myself! I’m a sucker for restaurant-style steamed fish.
Yi Sheng Huat Seafood Restaurant 357 & 345, Jalan Gajah, Pudu, 55100 Kuala Lumpur Opening Hours: 11.30AM – 2PM; 5.30PM – 11PM Contact: 012 – 2685 638
After two full days of cooking on CNY Eve and CNY day 1, hubby gave us a break from cooking for Hoi Leen Farn today! Eating out is always music to our ears. The girls were happy becoz they don’t have to wash the dishes and I don’t have to do the dreaded massive clean up after cooking.
Who likes post-cooking clean up? Never me. Washing dishes is something that I would avoid at all cost!
Maria our part-time helper of 10 years has not been coming in for work for almost two weeks. Lately she’s always giving excuses for not coming to work. Two days ago I asked her if she intended to stop working for us but she denied. This morning she told me that she’d be coming for work but at the eleventh hour, she messaged me to say that she’s still at Mid Valley and couldn’t come for work. Again! This has been happening almost every time she’s due to come in for work. I’m really pissed with her attitude lately and really disappointed. She was never like this before.
I told the girls that we have to learn not to be too reliant on Maria. We have to learn to live without her becoz the day will come when she decides to go back to Indonesia for good or has found other employers who are willing to pay her better than us.
Back to our CNY Chor 2!
It’s been such a long time since our family went cafe-hopping. The pandemic has been too unkind to us for the past two years. And it has also made us appreciate the little luxuries in our lives more than we did pre-Covid days.
We first had lunch at Kappa Takebayashi Japanese restaurant at Jalan Doraisamy, Chow Kit.
The photos look yellowish caused by the dim yellow lightings in the restaurant. Food was superb, albeit came slow.
After lunch we segued into Licky Chan & The Poke Guy to try their avant-garde boozy cone-tail ice-creams. Licky Chan is the ice cream parlour of freshly churned fantasies, with a cow-to-cone philosophy that embraces the coolest kind of creativity. Each flavour is unique, banishing cookie-cutter double chocolate cliches, refusing to take the easier, more familiar paths of cempedak, pandan gula Melaka or rum and raisins. Instead, you’ll find unconventional playful flavors that you’ll never find elsewhere, such as Nirvana (composed of almond milk, masala chai, cashews and turmeric). Each flavor is a triumph of taste and texture, with beautifully harmonised proportions of everything from pistachios to peppercorns, gin, sweet soy sauce, burnt butter to pickled beetroot.
After paying for the ice-creams, the cashier gave us a huge fancy-schmancy ang pow. I thought they were some badges but they were two condoms in fancy wrappers! 🤣
Even the ang pows are unconventional 😆
After ice-creams, we segued into Tapestry for cakes and drinks.
Matcha latte, mocha, latte, smoothie, chocolate orange cake and burnt cheese cake.Banana bread with almond butter and pumpkin kaya.The resident cat at Tapestry has a striking resemblance of Haru!
We’ll be back at Tapestry to try the main course menu.
I’d like to wish all my Chinese readers a very prosperous Chinese New Year. I hope that the year of the Tiger will bring everyone roaring success, wealth, good health, and happiness.
Today is a day where everyone was busy with their respective things. Alycia had a driving trial exam to sit for at the driving academy, Sherilyn had a dental appointment to change the orthodontics rubber band for her braces, Cass had online classes almost the entire day, the MIL has been busy the past two weeks with SIL’s apartment unit that’s just been rented out and I was slammed, both with work and chauffeuring duties.
On days like this, we get takeout food for lunch and dinner. We had chicken rice for lunch and had Domino’s pizza for dinner. The girls always welcome fast food as they don’t always get to eat them. Their eyes lit up when I told them that we would be having Domino’s pizza for dinner 😬
Chatting and laughing all the way while chomping down the pizzas and chicken wings 😆
The food was delivered in under 30 minutes and still hot when we ate them. Best of all, delivery is free!
After we came back from running errands this morning, Alycia asked me if she could practise driving in my car at our condo car park. I’m not going to get into the details but I almost had a heart attack and still have heart palpitations until now 😅.
The yummy pizzas that we had for dinner and the fact that I don’t have to clean up the aftermath of cooking just made my day.
This week Sherilyn is staying home for remote learning. She went to school last week. Next week will be the last week that Sherilyn attends physical classes in school before the year end school holidays begin.
I’ve been clocking in only 5-6 hours of shut-eye for the last two weeks, including Saturdays and Sundays. I was up early on both weekends as Alycia had to leave the house by 7 a.m. for the van driver from the driving school to fetch her to the driving academy in Puchong. She’s been attending driving lessons on Saturdays and Sundays the past two weeks. After 16 hours of lessons on the road (4 hours for each session), she’s now scheduled to sit for a trial exam this Thursday. Honestly, I’m not sure if 16 hours is sufficient. I’ve not sat in with her in my car for practice lessons as it’s technically not legal for her to be driving around without a driver’s license. I can only 🙏 that Alycia will pass the test in just one sitting. If she flunks, more money will fly out of my wallet for extra driving lessons. And losing more sleep as well 🥱
Just a little update on Alycia’s foundation program at Sunway College. Life in college is much more hectic than life in a Chinese independent high school. Chinese-style education is said to be one of the toughest institutions to be in and students from Chinese schools are always under pressure to be the best of the best. I’m somewhat thankful that she attended Chinese schools for 11 years and thus, has been conditioned for heavy load in homework and regular tests.
There are lots of projects, assignments, presentations and tests in college. Alycia sat for her first exam two months into the course. On some days when it’s her turn to be in college, she would only reach home after 7pm.
Alycia takes Grab to college on some days and on other days, her former classmate who stays in our hood who also goes to the same college, gives her a ride to and fro.
With the school holidays around the corner, Sherilyn is already planning to sell her best seller items to earn some money. Today she made strawberry milk for us and her friends to try. Next, she will work out the cost and price tag for the strawberry milk. She also intends to sell kimchi, tarts and other signature items. This girl has big plans for herself.
Refreshing strawberry milk made using frozen strawberries, Lakanto sugar and Australia fresh milk.Chef Sherilyn’s new dish – sesame crusted pan fried salmon served with mayo wasabi dipping sauce.
Friday, 1 May 2020
Our Labor’s Day lunch, prepped by Sherilyn – stir-fried assortment of homemade pastas that she hand-made a few days ago with olive oil, garlic, fresh button mushrooms, bacon, lemon zest, lemon juice and black pepper.
Dinner: oven-grilled salmon, sauteed organic long beans with minced meat and organic miso, steamed egg with minced pork and bitter melon soup.
Hubs bought this Oreo brownie from a friend’s teenage niece to support her fledgling home-based bakery. Our girls loved it. It’s the kind of dessert that teenagers will love – sweet, chocolaty, fudgy and with Oreos.
A little sweet note from the teenage baker:
Saturday, 2 May 2020
Hubs bought takeout dishes from our favorite ‘tai chow’ restaurant, Sing Kee Kitchen, to support the lady boss who is also very supportive of hubs’ newly rolled out bento boxes. The lady boss and her hubby who’s a chef at the restaurant and us have become good friends over the years as we have been regulars at their restaurant for over a decade. When Cass was born 12 years ago, she gave me a bottle of Dom and an ang pow. In such difficult times, everyone has to support each other so that we all stay afloat and weather the stormy weather together.
The rainbow colored vegetables are from our own kitchen.
Basque burnt cheesecake, also made by hubs’ friend’s teenage niece, which hubs supported with a purchase. It looks a tad over burnt on top but the interior of the cake is very yummy.
Nasi Briyani from hubby’s shop, Catermate. On Friday, he rolled out his chef’s special Nasi Briyani bento box for delivery.
Most of hubby’s staff are now back at work and adjusting to their new normal – no more serviced catering but 100% preparation of food boxes now until a vaccine is found for Covid-19 and social gatherings are allowed again.
If you’d like to try Catermate’s food, here’s the menu for Monday, 4 May and Wednesday, 6 May. Food is HALAL.
Monday, 4 May 2020 : Nasi Lemak @ RM15 per pack:
Steamed rice in coconut milk and herbs
Ikan bilis & kacang
Cucumber slices
Half hard boiled eggs
Chicken Rendang
Otak-Otak
Wednesday, 6 May 2020 : Nasi Briyani @ RM19.50 per pack:
Basmati rice cooked in herbs
Ayam Masak Merah drumstick
Mutton Rendang
Dalcha Vegetables
Acar Jelatah
For orders, kindly Whatsapp Alan at 019-2664297. Thanks for your support 😊
I was itching to taste some Malay food today and hubs brought us to one Kak Jat Ikan Bakar on Jalan Bellamy. There are a few stalls on this road selling the same dishes and specializing in grilled fish. As far as choice of fish goes, you get pari (stingray), kembung, terubok, tilapia, and more. There’re also fried cockles and stuffed squids. The crowd is really huge during lunch time. We were there around 11-ish a.m. and the crowd had started to build up.
Hubs ordered grilled stingray, ikan kembung, another fish which I don’t know its name and stuffed squids. I find the taste not really up to expectations and some of the squids were not fresh and tasted horrid.
I love Malay Kerabu and vegetables cooked with pumpkin in coconut milk curry. What I had were a tad salty for my taste bud.
Eating the cockles is really time consuming as you’ll need to prise open the cockles with your fingers! We doggy bagged most of the cockles home.
Just the four of us at the stall. Sherilyn was ‘recuperating’ at home after a gruelling day the whole of yesterday (Sunday) at the Asia Junior Got Talent finals. She has floor burns and wounds all over her feet, which have now turned ‘watery’ and need antiseptic cream. This is just one of the injuries that competitive dancers have to endure and she’s pretty nonchalant about it.
Food at this stall is just average and pretty pricey. The bill came up to over RM100. Don’t think we’ll go there again. We can get better ones from our housing estate.
After lunch, we went to Vintage 1988, a fairly new coffee place in KL that doubles as a vintage fashion accessories store, also one of the most Instagrammable cafes around Petaling Street / China Town, KL.
Carrying the characteristic of chic retro-style coffee shop blended with modern touch, Vintage 1988 Cafe is thoughtfully decorated with antique knick-knacks, wooden furnishing, army green arm chairs, exposed brick walls, vintage pendant light, arched steel windows, etc.; further adorned with lots of green potted plants and catchy neon light sign to lift up the mood. It’s our second visit to this cafe, the first was exactly a year ago.
Address:
34, Jalan Sultan, Chinatown,
50000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Opening hours: 9AM-11PM daily
Website: https://www.vintage1988.com/
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