: : Mum-Mum : : Eat-Eat : :

: : Encik Johan : :

It’s a sad day when one hears of a fellow blogger has recently passed away. I read the news online today at around lunchtime via Alex’s blog through PPS.

Johan Ismail of Joe-Blogs fame has recently passed away last night. For those who did not have a chance to read his blog, he writes on many issues, be it politics, society or just plain fun. Although I did not have the privilege of meething this man, one can get a glimpse of his character via his writing. He is witty, outspoken and at the same time humourous, kind and generous. And yes, I heard from one of his collegues that he does read this blog.

All around the Malaysian blogosphere, everyone is feeling the loss and I’m sure his readers do feel it as well. This blog follower certainly feels it. His blog has been taken down but it might be up again later in his memory although yet to be confirmed.

My sympathy goes out to his family and close friends. It is a hard time to go through for any death of a family member or close companion is really hard and tough. His body is gone but his memory and legacy lives on.

Out of respect for this amazing man, I will not be updating mum-mum today. A bit late I know but then again, better late than never.

He was a golden font

that freely poured

What goldenly endures,

And though that font be gone,

its bounty stored

and treasured,

Still is yours.

Arthur Guiterman

Journey of Hearts A Healing Place in CyberSpace

Joe, it was a pleasure to have known you via your blog. You will be missed by many people, including myself.

May you rest in peace.

: : Chopstix : :

He’s really into Chinese cooking.

More than me, methinks.

Then again, after more than 25+ years of eating chinese food, I need varieties.

Still, a most informative blog.

: : Dimsum at Han Palace : :

I know, I’m late. Konk out at 9:30 pm yesterday. Came back from office today at the same time. The life of a career-minded woman is not easy. Oh well

Oh yes, dimsum at Han Palace. Not a lot of pictures I know. Was too busy with Jason (who was clicking away on my camera) and Ryan (who wanted to play games on my HP). Nephews of my cousin Sheh Hwa so gave Mummy a break by temporarily babysitting her boys. Sort of, for 1/2 hour while she had some peace to eat and chat with her Mum and my parents. So, the only photos taken were before their arrival.

Again, hakkau @ prawn wrapped in some semi-transparent skin. This one tasted a lot better than the ones at Wawasan 2020 and the prawns used were a lot bigger. My obsession with hakkau will lead me down the chlolesterol road one day. Hmmm…

Another version of siew mai with minced pork and corn. Was okay. Very big compared to the ones at Wawasan 2020.

Chai kueh @ yam cake but cooked with egg and taugeh @ bean sprouts. Nice nice nice nice.

Well, that’s all. If you expected a long posting, sorry. Like I said, busy babysitting. The rule of the table was ‘Eat first before playing with camera and phone!’ Including yours truly. But, managed to take a snap of the menu.

Han Palace is located in the Grand Palace hotel in Miri.

: : Family Dinner : :

This was the pictures taking during the Saturday family dinner. Was so sweet of Sina’ and Dad to arranged a get-together for my homecoming. 🙂 Everyone pitched in a dish, including 2 desserts! Yum!

According to Dad, it was a toss-up between a barbeque-cum-pot-luck or laksa nite. Easier to clean up after a barbeque compared to a laksa nite and less preparation as well.

Look through the pictures and realised I did not take a picture of Dad’s awesome chicken wings! Oh well. He made it using a marinade made from a barbeque sauce which he got from the supermarket. Can’t remember the name but it was definitely very nice. Still, I do miss his homemade marinade made from light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar and chopped garlic.

Dad barbequed a pomfret and belly pork. The belly pork was marinated the same way as the chicken wings. As for the fish, he just rubbed some salt and pepper on fish.

Sina’ stir fried some spinach and baby corn just to little Tidan. That little boy really loves green vegetables and he’s only 3 years old! His guy cousins thinks ‘He’s weird’.

Auntie Maria made this dish called kacang ma. It’s made from grounded kacangma herbs with pounded ginger and the FooChow red wine. A common dish that is eaten by women after giving birth. They eat it by the gallons. Alcohol does help to ease the aftermath of labour.

Sina’ also roasted some pumpkin strips in the oven on a slow fire. Unfortunately, I distracted her so much with my chatter that we forgot to check on the pumpkin!! Oh oh! Well, luckily only one side was burnt. The pumpkin was roasted on aluminium foil in the oven. The bottom half of the dish shows the cut bellypork.

Gwen, Tidan’s Mum, made brownies with a cheese layer on top. Got it from a recipe in Women’s Weekly. It was simply delicious and the cheese layer wasn’t too strong a flavour. The brownies weren’t too sweet either.

This is a very easy cheesecake to do without having to bake it. The cheese layer is made from low-fat cream cheese from Nestle, Philadephia cheese and unsalted butter. After each layer, Auntie Maria added Marie and digestive biscuits. Then she chilled it in the fridge until it hardens. Very easy to do, that’s for sure. She told me the recipe but I can’t quite remember how it goes. Must remember to write it down the next time.

Sina’ and Dad also made some punch for everyone. It’s just Sunquick’s orange cordial with Ice-Cream flavoured soda and Sprite with slices of lemon. Tidan likes this a lot but he was so excited that he threw up his dinner. Poor thing.

A picture of Tidan playing with the slinky that I got for him. Not the original Slinky but a plastic cheapo one from the toy store. Couldn’t stop playing with it. Hopefully it’ll last for a few more years after this.

Tomorrow : Dimsum (again!) at Grand Palace Hotel! Although, not so many pictures this time. Felt a bit too self-conscious taking pictures while eating with Auntie Mimi. Hmm…

: : Dimsum ~ Chinese Breakfast : :

After a harrowing plane landing and a beautiful dinner, had to wake up early to catch my breakfast meet with some old kiddy friends. Why the harrowing plane ride? It’s because the Miri airstrip is so short that pilots have to break VERY HARD just to prevent the entire plane from overshooting the runway. Very scary to see the overhead compartments shaking like mad. Also, the pilots must have this pantang (superstition) on braking so that there is no need to turn the plane around at the end of the runway to get to the airport. One of these days, the wings will break off.

Anyway, back to breakfast in the morning. Woke up very early at 7 am which was an amazing feat considering I’m a nite owl. Met up with Chipmunk and Mike who I haven’t seen since my last trip back to home. We have been meeting for dimsum breakfast for years now. Well, mostly when I’m back in Miri, that is.

As Mike was late, Chipmunk and I started off with breakfast i.e. dimsum. The meeting place was a coffee shop called Wawasan 2020. It’s always crowded and finding a place to sit down can be quite tough. There are 3 shoplots and more tables outside as well. Unfortunately, not halal.

Dimsum is actually the Chinese breakfast dish taken in the morning (obviously ;p). It comprises of many many MANY snacks in small dishes and can be quite expensive overall.

This is the chee chong fan which is actually just kwayteow noodles wrapped around some chopped char siew (sweetened roasted pork). This was the only version available at Wawasan 2020. Other versions include prawn and chicken fillings. How is it made? Well, the batter is poured over a thin cotten towel which is later spread over a steamer to be cooked. The chopped char siew was added to one side of the batter. Once the batter has been cooked, the towel is removed and the cooked kway teow is rolled until a long rectangular shape with the char siew filling in the middle. Sweetened soy sauce is then poured over the dish.

Next was the deep fried yam paste with charsiew. Didn’t taste that good that day because the yam paste was a tad bit too salty. Oh well. At least the one at the Han Palace tasted a lot better (that’s another posting for another day).

Siew mai (pork dumpling) is the most common of all the dimsum dishes available. Simple to do and always tasty. Yum.

Dish on the top was minced pork roll with fish skin on the outside. The red sauce is just plain tomatoe sauce : very sweet. Bottom part of the picture shows some pork ribs that were steamed.

Oh man! My favourite : hakkau @ steamed prawn. It’s very hard to find very good hakkau in Kuching. Usually the skin is too thick and the prawn too small. This one was just nite. Very tasty too. Worth every penny of it. Chipmunk thinks I’m a crazy dimsum addict. No denial from my side.

Wawasan 2020 is located at the Pelita Commerical Area where there are a lot of shophouses nearby. You can’t miss it. It’s the only coffeeshop with loads of tables outside. You can find other food and dimsum dishes there as well. There were a lot of other dimsum dishes like chicken feet and other varieties of siew mai as well as fishballs.

Well, that’s all for now. Tomorrow nite’s posting is the family dinner.

: : Suggestions for visit to New York : :

Am planning to go over to visit my sister in Denton, Texas in December. Have a stopover in New York.

Any suggestions on budget hotels and day tours in New York? Please provide links!!! Just drop them in the comments box.

Thanks.