Back in Kuching!

Hi everyone! We're back from the Jacky Cheung concert and just got back to the house around 10pm.

Nee is already in the kitchen whipping up a storm. She brought Jacky home and she's baking with him in the kitchen - I mean with his CDs.

She bought two of his latest album in KL. This is his newest.

See, I told you. Got wrinkles around the eyes etc.

This is the previous one which he considers as a milestone as he wrote all the songs himself. There's a lullaby for his daughter as well as another song for his wife.

Where got face so smooth? I rest my case!

We'll write more soon with pics and video clips of the concert! In the meantime, you can read about the concert in HK. There are also two short postings about the KL concert in Star and NST.

Food Reviews

Well we love food! We love eating! We like eating out and trying out new places and of course super good food plus the fact that there is no washing up after meals. But if food not nice why bother eat out, it is a torture. It spoils mood. It is really upsetting. Like balloon 'lau hong' (no wind).

With our fellow eat out kaki CK we work out a Food Review System(FRS)which we hope will do justice to the good places and good food we eat. We hope it will appropriately appreciate those hands preparing the food.

Food (60%)itself is definetely the most important item in the FRS. It should be well presented ~attractive and appetizing. You should smell it before it reach you ~ Fragrance. Both Presentation and Fragrance should make you want to dip into it ASAP. Cant wait. Then comes the actual eating ~ taste and texture. Taste is not about everything a lot is good. Like all baking and cooking it is balance. Right balance releases the perfect taste bursting in your mouth and make you want to meowwwww..purrrr..Texture defines the food. Deep fry must be crispy crunchy not hard or soggy. Hot and sour must be hot and sour la please. What is smooth must be smooth, firm is firm...get the picture. And finally, creativity of the cook and the originality of the food. Tradition Vs Creativity can bring a good cook to test.

Then there is the environment (15%)which is based on cleanliness and hygiene, ambience and setting and the uniqueness in environment. This part is not important because we all can bear with lousy environment if food is good right.

Service (15%)is next. When you are so hungry, you really dont want to wait 1 hour for a bowl of kolo mee (you know where 'wink' 'wink'). After waiting for 1 hour even the lousiest of them all taste good. Therefore we emphasize on waiting time. Then the attitude and the knowledge of people serving. Some places almost give you the impression that you owe them half a mil while some places they dont even know their own menu. People serving must have passion, they must know and love their food and their jobs. Who says waiters are not professionals.

Finally the most important PRICE (value for money)(10%). How many times have you see the bill and wish you had chewed the plates as well or put a few cutleries in your bag to take home. Food not matter how good must be priced reasonably. We dont mind paying slightly more for good food but heck we are no idiots.

Disclamer: No offence taken if the food we mentioned is under the so so or no good list,ya. We are not liable for any consequences due to our review. Just go improve la.

Kaliu-Kaliu

Many would wonder what's this kaliu-kaliu.

This is the foochow dialect version of play play. Kaliu is the first word most non foochow would learn and say when they learn to speak foochow. Foochow are defined by kaliu-kaliu. A uni mate upon hearing that i am a FOOCHOW, his first reaction was eiii...kaliu people (like i got leprosy or something as drastic as that).

Well I m one and Greg is half. So we are one and the half and proud to be that. Whenever we want blog about our travels and outings it would be under Kaliu-Kaliu. Look out for it!!

Mum's Birthday

For the two sons in Melbourne, your mum celebrate her XX birthday 10/9/2007 Monday. Hope you guys remember calling. Muaaahhhahahaha....if you forget. Go Suffer!!! Otherwise pretend and insist that tommorow is the actual day!!! Wonder why people wants boys!

Daugthers remember birthdays, anniversaries. They called after not hearing from Mum and Dad after 24 hours. In fact they often call for no reasons. They are the first to get worry even just hearing any one of them feeling unwell. If you have slightly more talented daughters khmm khmm like you know who, they cook and bake birthday cakes for them.

So go do the arithmetic! (Plus they tell their hubbies, i miss my mum and dad, i want to go home to see them, you must love my mum and dad like your own (maybe that is asking for too much, at least they try)).


Vanilla Napolean Cake

Mum wanted a Napolean Cake. It has layer of really crispy puff pastry sandwiched with fluffy sponge and yummy buttercream (Aunty Terry's Buttercream) and almond nuts. Decorated with icing sugar. The effect is crunchy soft crunchy soft...YUMMY! Sinful! You dont want to know the amount of butter while eating.

She loves it. Show off to all her frens " My daughter make this". We forgot the picture and have to run back to Dad's to grab this piece. Anyway, Greg just gooble it up today! He loves it and declare this the best Napolean Cake in town.

Butter Prawns

Mum recently got me some really nice big fresh sea prawns straight from the fishing boat. First thought Butter Prawn. Then my best colleague, without whom i will not have a super nice office checking in and out records, Rose asked me about Butter Chicken. That's it. Greg would be eating butter prawns.
After some research, Rose, this is for you. Maybe you can do a bit of modification into butter chicken. There is the dry version and the saucy version. I like the sauce version better (check out previous blog). But think you say want the dry version.

300 to 400 gm of butter prawns (about 12 big pcs)
3-4 pieces of salted egg yolks
1 1/2 tbsp of butter
2 stalk of curry leaves
5-6 pieces of chilli padi
Cornflour
Cooking oil
Salt, pepper and sugar to taste

1) Clean prawns by cutting off tip of head and clearing up the sand bags. Devein it and keep the shells on. Dry it a little and seasoned with salt and pepper and set aside.

2) Boil salted eggs til cook and retreive egg yolks. Mash it to really fine bits (prefer not to see bits at all). Set aside.

3) Heat up wok. With 2-3 cups of fresh cooking oil, deep fry the prawns. Really dip prawns in cornflour right before placing in the oil. Deep fry til light brown (looks hard not soggy). Control fire as you go along. Turn medium if too hot. Mixture should be bubbling all the time. Take out and set aside.

4) With a clean hot wok over medium fire, place butter in it. Add mashed salted eggs. Cont stirring til mixture turns really foaming. Add curry leaves and chilli padis. Cont stirring for another min or so. Finally add prawn and continue stirring til mixture is dry. Add salt pepper and sugar to taste.

The Ladies in My Life

I dont just like food. I LOVE food.

Eating (if without worrying about weight) is not only about filling up the tummy like what people says. It is about having the flavours and the textures bursting in your mouth going straight to the mind then down to the heart. It is about the smell and the colours. It is about acknowledging and appreciating what God had created. It is about respecting the hands doing the cooking.

It feels so good to be those hands preparing the food. It is wonderful to see eyes light up when they see what is on the table. It is wonderful to have people walking in the kitchen asking what's cooking. A home with huzzy buzzy kitchen and wafting with the smell of food is heavenly. Not to mention it is good to know what your love ones are popping into their mouths. I love cooking. It is a passion. It is in the blood.

Great grandma can cook for village weddings for tables of guests single-handedly. Grand aunt (Yi Po)'s house is always full of food. As children we love her cooking. Always ask mum why dont you cook like Yi Po. Still Mum is a fabulous cook during her younger days which is why i was a little fattie. Aunty Selina, Aunty Linda cooks so well and are always on to new recipes. Then there are Aunty Terry, Mrs Yeo all of them fabulous talented cooks....So how can i not cook. I m surrounded, over my head, all over with these 'pools of recipes'. How blessed can i be to have these ladies in my life.

A Man's Gotta Do What a Man's Gotta Do!

I saw this on the dining table when I got home from work this evening.
It looked like a ship full of boat people from Cambodia looking for a better future. Little did they know that their fate was sealed! And beside it was this:

Crispy Fried Deceased Butter Prawns with Curry leaves! You could actually munch on the whole prawn head!

Eventually the ship carrying the boat people got flooded. (Stop playing with your food! -NEE)

And after this more was to come!

Succulent Butter Prawns in Sexy Sauce! (Sie Ai, do you miss the food at home yet?)

I had wanted to do some body workout earlier before dinner. But all this changed my mind. I ended up doing another workout instead - a gastronomical one. After all, A Man's Gotta Do What a Man's Gotta Do!

Nee's Heavenly King descending upon KL

Jacky Cheung will be coming to sing in KL this Friday at the Bukit Jalil Stadium. This is the final leg of The Year of the Jacky Cheung world tour. He has done China, Singapore and Macau, as well as Canada and the United States. This is the in-your-face poster.

Wah so hensom! The bugger is already 48 years old, where got the face still so smooth meh? Looks like he's almost retired already. If he's a government servant, he's still got 8 more years to go.

Our good friend CK being an ardent fan has bought the ticket for the concert. Nee is behaving like a giggly 13-year-old. She has also bought the tickets. I reluctantly have to follow.

This is going to be my first live concert ever, and it had to be him! Look at his poster again. It's so sissy smooth.

Happy Nee!

This is how Nee looks like when she's happy. This is how she looks like when people think that she's young. In fact, it happened to her today. Some people at a college thought that she was a student and treated her like one. In fact, it happened twice. Just look at her, she is in heaven now.

A Movie Date!

A long time ago Nee told me that she also like watching movies. So I thought we had another thing in common. It turned out that she meant watching Hong Kong TVB series. It was too late when I found out later. I was trapped.

So I was caught unawares one day when she suggested going to watch a movie. Of course I agreed immediately feeling very much like a child again. Then my mind started clicking.

The movie was Ratatouille. It had cooking and kitchen scenes and food. It's about a rat who wants to be a cook. Can you see the pattern?

Anyway, we saw it. It was a date and we had a wonderful time. Paris looked wonderful. It made us want to go there. When the ratatouille dish came out, my saliva came out like waterfall.

I couldn't control myself. I turned over to Nee and said, 'I want I want. You make it hah?'

(Can you see the pattern? The spoilt brat! I've created a monster ~ NEE)

p/s Today I just overheard Nee telling someone on the phone that she wish she can cook like that rat!

This is the promotional poster for the movie in France.

It plays with the word D'egout and De Gout. The poster on the left means Sewer Rat. The right, A Rat with Taste. Guess which one resembles Nee, and which one of me?

What Certain Things Mean to Us

Certain things have different significance to different people.

Yesterday was the TYT's birthday. It was an important day.

That morning in the papers, a lot of people got their datukship and other misc titles.

But for the both of us, the significance of that day was that it was a public holiday.

Last Friday, Badawi announced the National Budget 2008.

It provided a little relief for the corporate and education sectors.

Nee was anxiously waiting for the bonus for Government Servants but it didn't happen.

So in the end, the only significant thing about the announcement was the ability to use EPF withdrawals for our monthly housing installments!

Wait a minute. Maybank sucks. Please allow me to rephrase:

Nee's Engrish name

Nee never had an English name. The name Sandy just came into my head and I think it suits her... Sandy Ting!

It's definitely better than Annie Ting
or Everly Ting
or Sexy Ting!

What do you ting?
Ring-a-Ding Ding?

Our Saturday Evening

Nee cooked Taiwanese Beef Noodles tonite. She made the noodles herself. They look like this.It was accompanied by a side dish of salted vege, bean sprouts and sour chilli sauce:

With the soup in, it looks complete!My father-in-law said this is better than what you can find outside. I agreed. The magic is in the texture of the noodles!

Nee had another one of her crazy full days again today. She made 3 cakes & 15 pieces of mooncakes. It's absurd! (It's actually 4 cakes lah! Had to cream and decorate a choc blackforest, made a last min apple crumble, a napolean cake (gosh tat is hard one) and marble cheese cake and tat 15 pieces don look down ~ took 3 hours - Nee)

This is a picture of Miss Los Angeles still at it at 12.15am on a sunday morning.

Look again fren if you think it's just only 5 pieces!

Got boxes some more.. like pro! Ka Ch'ng Chio (Greg's version of itchy backside ~ Nee)!