Malacca - 1 Oct 2011

My colleague, the moderator for  Persatuan Peranakan Cina Malaysia's facebook page, invited us to the associations anniversary celebration, held at the association's premise at Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock.

We took the opportunity to go for a short break at Malacca as it's been some times since we last went for a short getaway.

Getting ready, all set for fun and sun (and makan) at Malacca

 We stayed at Renaissance Malacca, a break from the bustling Jonker Street. The hotel's clean and fuss free and allowed us early check in. Very nice frontliners, unlike some hotel who'll turn you down flat.. no rooms till 2pm ! We had the pool to ourselves (LOVELY!!), dipped and dunked with Amber whilst the hubs was busy playing PvZ  (aitelyu, he's addicted, !!)

I anticipated a lot of walking and sightseeing at Malacca and obviously Amber will complain with too much walking. I made out short getaway sound interesting by promising her a swim in the pool. Throughout the car ride to Malacca, she kept asking .. when can I go swimming ? can I go swimming now ? please ? can I go swimming now ?...  aiyer.. I wished I had earplugs :(

My ex colleague and her family drove up from Singapore to join us and Amber was looking forward to meet her friends too.

No trip to Malacca is complete without stepping foot at Jonker Street. Did our mandatory shopping of iced coffee from San Shu Gong for our friends, some timber stools for home. Very good deal and I shall blog about it later and some souvenirs and snacks.

The hubs gotta be kerbau for the day. Amber the lazy fart is a lazy walker and will complain till no end of leg pain, body pain and tired, hoping the big kerbau will piggy back her and doting big kerbau will never refuse.

The little fart is almost 19kg now and I'll never risk breaking my bones or back to carry her and not to mention piggy back. Well, a kerbau dad's gotta do what a kerbau dad's gotta do

We walked to the night market (with fart on the kerbau) at Pasar Kota Laksama to get a taste of local Malaccan pasar malam. Apart from the usual Angry Bird stuff which is all over Malaysia pasar malams, we found Baba Charlie and feasted on their angku kueh and packed some kaya home. Unlike our KL pasar malams, this pasar malam wraps up by 7pm and timing was just nice for us to walk over the the association. I know my way better around Malacca after this trip and there's actually a lot of parking space around Kota Laksamana, a walking distance to Jonker's Walk ;)

We're (me and my friends) were the only non-Pernanakans at the association. I felt a bit out of place until some of friendly association members started talking to us. I have always been intrigued by Peranakan culture apart from their food and witnessing the anniversary celebration is certainly eye opening. The members prepared a feast and we're truly blessed to be able to taste Peranakan food prepared by Peranakans.

 

Chap chye

 Rojak and acar timun

 Ayam pongteh

 Ikan Asam

 Sambal udang petai (moi's favourite)

 Sambal bendi (another all time favourite .. I love ladies finger)

 Lorbak

 Babi pongteh

The Association members working hard to ensure we had a welcoming feast.

Amber and her friend Renee, my colleagues 6 yr old daughter)

We had to make a quick dash after dinner, the kids were tired and restless and missed the later celebrations of singing and dancing. 

On the way back to the hotel, I saw a familiar place, I've seen in many blogs, the famous or-chien (oyster omelet) of Jalan Bunga Raya
We dropped our friends off and went back to pack some or-chien. The queue was long and we had to wait for 30 minutes

Mr Omelet doing his works and I enjoyed watching him kung-fu up a big wok of or-chien that serves up to 7 plates. RM6 per plate. One portion only and you can choose plain or spicy (chilly).

He'll fry a wok full with chilly and then another without. If you order both chilly and non-chilly packs, then  you have to wait for him to kung-fu up 2 woks to delivery your order. I also noticed he used lotsa fish sauce (secret ingredient??).

Somehow the or chien didn't taste as good as it looks when we had it in the hotel room. I think it taste better served on a plate, dining in house (there's a coffeeshop adjacent to the or chien stall where you can sit and eat). I forgot to take a photo, as always when I'm too engrossed with eating but I'll try again on my next trip to Malacca but it has to be dine in. I think takeaways tastes somewhat different. I still prefer my regular big fat juicy oysters from Thye-Hong's at Pavilion's Food Republic.

My friends left early for Singapore. Renee had to attend her concert rehearsal.We had little time left too but did squeeze some time to go Jonker's Walk for our cendol dose at Donald & Lily. I bumped into Linda, my dear Malaccan friend who helped me lots in dealing with Amber's allergy. That, was a sweet end to our trip :D

Gifts from Sibu

Annie Q came back from Sibu recently and came back with these goodies.

Dabai (sibu olives) pickled in soy sauce and sugar. I like the nutty and buttery taste of the dabai. Annie did give me some dabai from her previous trip. I pickled those myself but somehow it didn't taste as nice as these, pickled by Annie :

 

Tasty, buttery fresh olives. I chomped down the dabai on the same night, didn't save any for dinner the following day although Annie did say pickled dabai goes well with rice. 

Annie also passed me some goodies from Arthur (aka suituapui), the famous Sibu godfather. I've never met him but I like to read his food posts a lot.

 These mooncakes are Sibu populars and hubs like it. Simple and unassuming delicious mooncakes. Hubs couldn't wait to chomp these delicious golden pastries and we finished it way before the mooncake festival.

 

Non-halal biscuits from Sibu (read : **mengandungi lemak babi**)

These cookies contain pork lard, butter, flour and peanuts and the pork lard gives this crumbly cookie an aromatic flavour. I brought these cookies to a company gathering along with some local mooncakes and everyone snapped up the lemak babi cookies instead. :D 

Thanks Annie and Arthur. I must make it a point to visit Annie whenever she returns from Sibu.  Surely a lot of goodies to share.. :D :D :D :D

BFF Gathering

My best pals from school met up not-too-recently, 2.5 months back. I know.. late in delivery is better than never. I better note down, some readers already sneezing when they visit this blog now. *dusty*.. 

We met at SL's house at Mutiara Damansara. Took advantage of her new house as an excuse and she has 2 helpers.. so her house is the best place to meet. I practise BYO now, (bring your own food and bring your own maid), I simply cannot cope without a helper,  big gatherings esp with lots of kids at my humble home.

Hui Qian (SL's daughter) came up with menu and activity list for the guests. Too cute !

SL was an excellent host. She got in one of those helium balloon pumps and we had lotsa colorful floating ballons. The kids were ecstatic.

 

It's a rare occasion for us to meet up, with our husbands and kids too. EL is in London and she only comes back every 3 or 4 years. She had a baby girl recently, Adrianna and

Jo, EL, SL and Me... BFFs ! We may not meet very frequent but when we do, it's always just like the good old days..

Goodies Galore !

My childhood friend from school was back to Malaysia. Her family migrated to Perth when she was in Form Two and it's remarkable that we still do keep in touch today, especially so in the recent years with the help of internet and emails, keeping in touch is only a click away. 

Sometimes I catch her online at night.. and we had a good laugh when realise both of us were whiling away leisurely on the internet coz we're waiting for our laundry to be done. Hilarious !

She brought back many goodies for me. Stuff I can't get here :

Cookie cutters :

  Shape of elephant, hippo and rhino

 

Biscuit cookie cutter with center designs.. great for jam filled cookies

Angel 3D cookie cutter 

Snowflakes

 

 Christmas themed cookie cutter

premium tomato and passiofruit preserves

and an allergy free baking book for Amber :)

Thank you very much Ka Yean. Lovely having you and yours here and soon, hopefully, me and mine will go visit Perth !

Wine Gathering during the Raya Weekend.

We basically did nothing and went nowhere. *Bliss* I needed this long awaited break. No travelling, sleeping in, minimal cooking and going shopping when I felt like it.

We only had one event for the weekend, that is our wine roundtable at Leonard's.

Paired with good food. Some homecooked and some bought , we had aged cheddar, blue cheese, homecooked hakka char yoke, roast duck, hokkien mee.

In the spirit of Raya celebrations, we contributed the lemang daun lerek from Gombak.

It was the first day of Raya and business was brisk. We waited 2 hours for lemang. Our gathering was at Kota Damansara and hubs needed to go Popular at Ikano to change some cd and so. we took a long drive from Gombak to Ikano back to Gombak then to Kota Damansara. Although it was raining heavily, the roads were clear and I didn't mind driving.

The lemang and serunding. Yumzz and perfect for a Raya day gathering.

We started with a customary white. An appetizer to begin a trail of what's more to come but somehow, everyone was in a jolly mood of chit chatting and not drinking to much and we only had 3 reds of the above, notably the St Emillion's Chateau Canon Grand Cru Classe and a Penfold 2006 RWT.

 

The kids were busy on the own, forming their 6yr old club and Amber so wanted to stick to the cheh-cheh's. Sorry babe, you're still too young to join their Monopoly games but you can watch tho' or join the adults and chit chat along with us.

 

The honour of opening the bottle of wine.. the first to sniff the palate and check the goodness of the bottle, if it's been aged well and kept well.

 

  

 

A toast to friendship and good health and many many many more wine roundtables to come.

 

The driver.. can't have too much of the good thing.. I save it for the best.. the RWT 2006 !

Bits and Pieces of A Football Night

Last Saturday evening, we invited our friends, Thomas, Joanne and Sharon over for dinner followed by Germany vs Argentina. Since RTM1 and Wah Lai Toi was playing the match, we need not park ourselves at Mamaks :D

Timing had to be good. 8.30pm dinner, 9.00pm desert, wash up and get all comfy and ready for the match.. and with beer in hands, of course.

Bits and pieces of the evening. Hubs took some nice pics w his DSLR.


Sharon had a bad cut on her knees, she went running with her daddy and fell on the tar road. She quickly told her parents 'princess' 'princess plaster'..

Those princess plasters do make kids feel less pain.


Amber also flashed out her set of Disney plasters. Kids are always eager to stick a cartoon plaster, don't they ?

Then I fried some chicken wings when my guests arrived. I have a pot of 'lap mei fan' - waxed meat rice ready. It's football night and I don't want to be wasting too much time in the kitchen, planning is important on such an exciting quarterfinal night.



My 'lap mei fan'. After few rounds, I think I've perfected it. The rice grains, some dark, some light, makes the dish very appealing.



Cucumber on the sides.. healthy vege and fiber option. No need to fry any vege. Recently, my veges are all steamed, boiled or raw. I hardly fry any vege now as I don't think there's much nutriotion left in fried veges but we Chinese are so accustomed to 'chau choy' with full 'wok hei'.

And the unhealthy but most yummylicious part of dinner :

Har Cheong Kai Yik - Fried Shrimp Paste Chicken Wings


And the best side dish for lap mei fan - Fried Salted Fish. I got these pre-cut salted fish from Tanjung Sepat. Very convenient and clean.


And.. no dinner is complete without desert. My very first cheesecake recipe, walnut cheesecake !

This is my second attempt, first attempt failed badly. I realise never to trust recipe books 100%, use instincts and common sense. I mean.. how different is baking for 30 mins and 60 mins ? You tell me la.. I won't name the cookbook but it's by a famous local baker who runs a famous cafe/deli in PJ. You guess la..

The walnut cheesecake tastes as good as it looks :


Firm and cheesy, just the way I like it. I don't fancy those cotton soft cheesecakes. I prefer real cheesecakes, just as I don't like sponge cakes, gimme a real buttercake anytime.



The cheesecake was perfect with blueberries that Joanne brought.

Good food, good friends but alas.. bad game.. Argentina lost to German 0-4. I mean it was a good game but I think it was humiliating for Argentina to lose in such manner, not a single goal against the Germans.

Luckily, we also had good food to remember the night by. :D