Happy Birthday Love!

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear hubby, happy birthday to you.......

Here's a choc mud cake, your favourite from Secret Recipe. And here's a cute birthday card just for you.

This is the first birthday celebrated in the house.

Hubby received two very big cakes from townies in England and Gombak. Oh, I must mention here that at last I did meet Resetti at his workplace in Animal Crossing Lets Go to the City! The street wasn't blocked by cones and I managed to get through. Resetti was very upset because no one is allow to sneak on him at his secret place.

Raya Open Houses

Awesome! We had 3 days of holidays when Malaysia was celebrating Hari Malaysia on Friday the 16th of September. The extended weekends were filled with hubby's friends' open houses (lost contact with my friends) at the other side of KL.

After the Friday prayer, we went to Nusaputra in Puchong and had nasi ayam and sate. It was hubby's schoolmate's house which wasn't that difficult to find should we had exited Putrajaya toll instead. Then we headed to Saujana Utama in Sungai Buloh via the kampung road to hubby's ex colleague's. We had nasi lemak and bihun goreng plus agar-agar and banana cake. The final journey of the day was to Bukit Jelutong near Shah Alam at late evening and we had mee bandung Muar, slices of mangoes finished with raya cookies and tea.

On Saturday we headed to Seri Pristana in Sungai Buloh (again) but the journey wasn't smooth because the map wasn't in GPS! We should have drove towards Saujana Utama in the first place because from there we can see the signboard to Seri Pristana! The place was crap but we managed to find the house and had nasi minyak with mutton curry, cheese tart and carrot cake. To make up for yesterday's 'fail to show up' at another ex colleague's, we continued to Bukit Jelutong (again) just to say hi. On the way back home we tried the new Latar, exited at Selayang but the traffic was horrible! Lucky the GPS helped us to get back on track via the kampung road (again!). The night was supposed to end with PV raya feast but the organiser failed to be on time (as usual!) so we had our dinner at a restaurant instead.

We didn't travel far on Sunday because the open house was in Keramat. Although it rained cats and dogs we got there in time for bihun sup, bihun goreng and most of all I got to eat lemang! The popia basah and biskut batik were really awesome! There was another open house in Nilai but enough is enough. Nilai was too far and no doubt the traffic was horrible at that point of time. If we had decided to go we might not arrive home before 8 pm and hubby got to go to work tomorrow.

Puding Jagung

After a week of puasa I tried (again) one of the recipes I did before in Hull.

Ingredients:
a) 1/2 can of sweetcorn
b) 4 cups of coconut milk
c) 3/4 cups of sugar
d) 1/2 cup of custard powder

Methods:
Mix everything in a pot. Put on the stove and stir until it thickens.
Pour into a baking try or container. Smooth it up and put it in the fridge.







into the fridge it goes










Serve:
Cut into any shape you like and ready to serve. Enjoy!






oh no! it was a bit lumpy!

Know Your Product

Last Sunday we went to Mulberry to check on one of the classic Mulberry messenger bags. Since it is the Mega Sale event we hope to get the bag at a discounted price.


probably this one ;)

Husband was asking whether the messenger bag was made in China. The sales assistant confidently said "no, all our classic collections were not made in China". Husband was not satisfied and check on the inside of the bag and said to the sales assistant "see this label.....MADE IN CHINA !"



The sales assistant was in shocked and immediately told his supervisor "Ms X, this was made in China lah....". The supervisor said sorry and told us that they had been attending trainings from the company and none has told them that their products were made in China.

My husband then said "huh....next time KNOW YOUR PRODUCT !"

HAHAHAHA.....STUPID SALES ASSISTANT !!

Before that we had breakfast at Cafe Vienna which was very delicious! I had smoked salmon sandwich (croissant) with many ingredients inside....avocados, lettuces....to name a few and a small cup of fresh dice tomatoes, olives, dice cucumbers.....and double mocha with cream. Husband had turkey sandwich (croissant) with cheese, lettuces.....plus the fresh cup of salad but with different ingredients.....carrots and and and more! He had cafe latte instead.

Of Bagels and Pancakes

After watching Food Paradise on tv I absolutely crave for bagel and pancake. I remember having them especially for breakfast in Europe.

When I went for an interview in Zurich I had the New York Bagel from Starbucks which was a minute walk from my hotel. The bagel was stuffed with delicious smoked salmon with philly soft cheese. I also bought a vegetarian pizza which I failed to finish after having the yummy bagel.

Pancakes were my favourite when we were in CI. My husband likes them hot with maple syrup and butter during weekends. There were fluffy ones and crispy ones like the French crepe. The fluffy ones can be easily obtained from Co-op.





pancakes with maple syrup and butter








bagel with smoked salmon and soft cheese

Cupcakes ~ CupcakeChic

Another brand, another taste

Cupcakes ~ Bisou

I don't really know which is which...... Bisou or Bijoux

My Weekends

I had hubby all by myself for the weekends. We had Illy for morning coffee and lunch at the Loaf and 1/2 dozen cupcakes to bring home.
















We went out again at night, did the groceries and booked tickets for the next day.
We watched Kung Fu Panda 2 in 3D! It was AWESOME!

Soft Shell Crab

On 5 June 2011 my husband was really really sick after having lunch at Celadon. The delicious soft shell crabs turned out to be a life threatening dish. The symptoms showed up after a few minutes and he got rashes and red skin all over his face, arms and legs. The ultimatum was.....yes, he threw up right in the middle of our living room avoiding the dear L shaped sofa...





The soft shell crabs were deep fried and served with mango salad. I was lucky because I am not allergic to seafood especially shelled ones. We also had chicken wrapped in pandan leaves and prawn tomyam.

Makan Makan Ramadhan 1430 H

Ramadhan comes again! I was back on the 4th September flying for 24 hours and finally arrived safely at home. The best thing of celebrating Ramadhan at home is the opportunity to taste local, famous delicacies during iftaar. We had planned to go to several bazaar Ramadhan to search for food that we missed a lot. Let see if I can still remember what we had since we arrived home.

• murtabak (1* ~ bad!)
• nasi lemak (5* for sambal)
• roti john (1* ~ I don't like roti john)
• roti bom (5* ~ my favourite, must be without sauce)
• kuih bongkok (similar to my grandmother's kuih but without bebola tepung pulut berinti kelapa dengan gula melaka, therefore only 2*)
• tepung pelita (3* because I don't think it was the authentic tepung pelita, it was more like takothai)
• kuih gula melaka (I prefer green)
• taufufah (4* ~ I prefer the one in pasar malam)
• putu bambu (it was similar to putu piring but "bamboo" version unlike putu bambu I had with my grandmother, thus 2*)
• tauhu sumbat with peanut sauce (2* ~ I prefer something sweet)
• pulut panggang (5*)
• tepung talam (4*)
• tomyam (tengok je)
• telur bungkus (3*)

Today we had nasi beriyani gam, kuih lapis (merah hijau?) and puteri ayu. My grandmother used to make kuih lapis with many colours: red, green, yellow, brown, white. We freshen ourselves with soya cincau and soya kurma. Yesterday my sister made us ketam bercili and we had air laici and cendol from bazaar Ramadhan and soya ros from Mydin.

NOTE: I am not complaining. My grandmother makes better kuih than anyone else's.

My sisters have been busy making biskut raya especially tart nenas and sarang semut for her beloved ones a.k.a. her sons and my husband. The sisters went to fetch another niece from school and brought back chocolate cake from her house.

The 24-Hour Journey, To and Fro

My husband's plan to go back home later this year has been brought forward. We went back a week ago and for a week only when one of his brothers passed away. It was a very long journey home since the cheapest available tickets involved a 3-hour stop-over in Dubai.

The journey started on Friday at half past 7 in the morning to the airport. We flew with Aurigny for 40 minutes to Gatwick. Unfortunately it took about an hour to get our suitcases out on the conveyer belt. Afterwards we went to Cafe Nero, the best coffee we had when we were in London years back.

I managed to take some photos of the Emirates meals when we were flying from Gatwick to Dubai.



















We had snacks before we landed in Dubai after a 6-hour journey. Before boarding our next flight to KL we had McDonald's (what else you think?) at Dubai Airport.

I remember we had chicken wrap and spinach and cheese wrap as supper because it was already early morning. And as breakfast, we had noodles and omelette with low fat yogurt, croissant, butter and jam and orange juice. We arrived in KL at half past 2 in the afternoon and took a taxi back home. If you do the math, it was half past 7 in the morning UK time on Saturday. Wasn't it a 24-hour journey?

After a week, it was time to head back to the UK. We had KLIA's KFC (light snack) before boarding the flight from KL to Dubai at 2 am on Saturday. I was very very sick (seriously!). I never thought this could ever happened to me because I usually am very strong and healthy to embark on a long hour journey. I was sick all the way from KL to Dubai and from Dubai to Gatwick. I can't enjoy every meal on board and didn't finish any of them let alone take photos! I even brought home the Emirates chicken sandwich which I didn't have the appetite to finish.

After a 12 hour journey we arrived in Gatwick North Terminal, took a train to South Terminal and checked in at Zone D for Aurigny flight home. We finally reached our destination at 5 in the evening. If you do the math again it was another plus minus 24 hour journey back home. What an experience! It was tiring and I still am sick until this day.

Items from Checkers Superstore

We went to Checkers for grocery shopping and finally we found the most craved pesto ever! The Sacla char-grilled aubergine pesto. Apart from that, we bought a pack of strawberries, Haagen-Dasz ice cream smoothie raspberry & summer berries and Innocent pure fruit smoothie blackberries, strawberries & boysenberries. Not forgetting the chocolate fingerella and mini croissant with chocolate filling. Well, here are the photos of items bought from Checkers. Enjoy!

Food in Guernsey

Today I had cupcakes bought from Marks & Spencer. It was yummy. Let me talk about what I had since I arrived here in Guernsey.

On the first day, I had tuna sandwiches with sweetcorn. Oh my! No good, no good.....Staying at Duke of Normandie Hotel for 3 weeks I had not-so-english breakfast (without bacon) which was baked beans, toast, jam and butter. My husband had scrambled eggs, which I hate! Once in a while kippers with a slice of lemon. Lunch was more or less the same everyday. I had bread and nutella, the hotel's complementary biscuits and sometimes sandwiches, 'sigh'. For dinner, I had Indian takeaways and the delicious Thai takeaways.

We had dinner with a friend and his family at La Perla in North Esplanade one night. I had crab cakes, sea bass and a yummy dessert, banana and chocolate crepe.

Once we got our flat ready, we had a proper meal for lunch and dinner. As I am not working, I have time to prepare lunch for hubby because his office is just 5 minutes walk from our flat. Usually whenever I do groceries, I like to try several pasty shops on the way. I've tried the cheese and onion pasty from the Cornish Pasty Shop near my flat. It was good. I also had a slice of banana cake and oh, it was so yummy. The next 2 days I tried the vege pasty and a slice of chocolate cake.

On one occasion, I went to a newly operated shop called Patisseries' Molloy and tried the shop's version of cheese and onion pasty. Unfortunately it tasted worse that the one I had from the Cornish Pasty Shop.

One Saturday morning me and hubby went to Victor Hugo Boulangerie in Lower Pollet. I had an almond croissant and a cup of white coffee. Before that while still staying at Duke of Normandie Hotel, I had a strawberry and custard tart and a slice of black forest.

In order to stock up on chocolates for hubby, I usually buy chocolates from Le Lievres in High Street. So far I had viennese truffle, alpini, chocolate riche, dark chocolate and orange chocies, chocolate chip chocies, dark chocolate and apricot chocies and turkish delight.

My favourite from The Co-op at Market Street are marble cakes and blueberry muffins. However, I love banoffee cheese cake and chocolate pudding with melted dark chocolate in the middle from Marks & Spencer.

During Liberation Day celebration, I bought a packet of home made chocolate chip cookies from a French stall at St Peter Port. Should have bought more than a packet though. It was really good. My friend bought several packets and honey nougats as well.

(this photo is from D - thx!)

Today, on Bank Holiday Monday 25 May we went to Victor Hugo Boulangerie and bought some delicious cakes and biscuits.........yummy...........

I am going to start taking photos of food now that I've started this blog.