Steamboat @ Home

I did a steamboat session @ home last weekend.

We were home, not going anywhere for holidays, unlikely of us but hubs had a few client appointments up so we didn't want to plan anywhere. Joanne and Sharon came over as Joanne's hubs was also away for training over the long weekend. Then Annie called and asked me to teach her to make lor mai. She also suggested doing steamboat for lunch and I was a bit jittery about it. Never did a steamboat at home before. I know the basics - soup, dip everything in, that's about all. I quickly went to the market to see what I could get but it was a disappointment, many stalls were not open due the long Haji holidays. Luckily I could get all the 'balls' - fish ball, meat ball, cuttlefish ball etc and some vege. I boiled a soup base of chicken bones and some Chinese herbs I rummaged from my fridge. Thanks to Annie's pork shabu shabu , the steamboat was actually quite nice. I also baked some cupcakes for the kids.

Annie also picked up Barb and Ashley along to join us. With so many kids, Amber was overwhelmed and shy, she kept to herself while the Sharon, Fearles, Cruz and Ashley played with her toys. I guess she also needs warming up ;)




She sat alone on her 'baby stroller'

hmmm.. I like this pic. Will enlarge it frame it up.

Everyone played with toys while she stayed on her baby stroller ...

It's only later that she warms up with the rest and they all played on the swing together. This pic is so cute right ?

Since I could not get any seafood, I made some wantan and sui kow (Annie calls them water dogs ! LOL !!!). Barb got us some cute little fish balls in shape of pig ? dog ? It's the one with black eyes and pinky ears. The best stuff was pork shabu shabu Annie 'supplied'

While we cooked and took pics, hubs took a pic of us ladies, getting lunch up for the kids..

I used my multi-purpose pot, claimed from my Cosway coupons. Very efficient heating and boils up very fast.

After a while, Amber finally warms up to her friends and I like this pose, all so relaxed or probably tired from playing, needing a rest.

The girls playing masak masak. The boys were busy enjoying cupcakes.

Well, the lormaikai was not-so-succesful this time, hubs says it lacks ooomph... probably Annie can make better ones ;p)

Wine Roundtable 3 with Wine Kakis

I missed out posting on Wine Gathering 2, was too busy fussing over the roast pork and fried chicken wings till I forgot about snapping pics.

We did another wine roundtable over the Hari Raya Haji Weekend with the kakis, our group of friends. Coincidentally, all 4 couples (including us) has only 1 daughter and one of the kakis is expecting their second child next year, and this calls for a big celebration.

This session, although we were host,we called for a 'pot luck'. Each 'kaki' would have to bring a bottle of wine of equivalent value and we'll do a horizontal tasting. Trust hubs and his kakis to choose a wine to complement each others. We volunteered while we still have a maid to help me clean up. LOL !!!!

Ok, we had this to fill our tummies :


Char siu, baked duck (very English taste) - from ES, Kajang chicken and lamb satay - from Steve, cupcakes for kids, olives and cheese. Leonard left his whole pot of fried bihun at home, we had a good laugh coz he only realised the fried bihun was left sitting at his car porch in Kota Damansara when he arrived at our place. Anyway, foods aplenty at our place ;)

And the kids... boisterous, cheeky, noisy and ...... CUTE :


Little Tong Tong is the baby of the lot and we love her pretty smile :

Cheers :

We started with this :

As with all our wine roundtables, there'll be some who aged and kept well and some who didn't make it :

Chateau Blanquet Saint Estephe 1997. 2 bottles stored at different chiller, didn't make it (MaxD's and SY's). It has to be supplier or transportation issue, not our storage fault.

The corks turned out like this :

Can you see the seepage ? One even went mouldy. Since we have 2 bottles at fault, I suggest we return to the wine importer.

Then we went on 'reverse gear' and started all over again with a lower range :

Chateau de La Riviere, 2001 Fronsac (SY's). One of my favourites, a very deep bodied French. Goes well with vintage cheddar.

Then slowly, we upped our tastebuds for higher range :

Chatuea Taillefer Pomerol 1999 (Hubs)

Chateau La Pointe Pomerol 2000 (ES)

Deep in wine thoughts and everyone talks wine language :D)

Food does play a part too.

Mr Handsome deciphering his notes ? (wine notes lar.. lol !)

For the records, this one didn't make it either (LL's).. Chateau Belair, Dubois Challon Premier Grand Cru Clasee, Saint Emillion. Purchased from PL Soon Huat at Langkawi. We swear NEVER to buy any wine from Langkawi for storage ever again. This is second time our Langkawi wine let us down. No more, please. It's like pouring money down the sink. I'd rather get some brandy or whisky !

And to wrap up the session, we had Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 2005, Chateau Chante Alouette.

I can't write much about wine notes, wasn't drinking much but at least we'll remember what we had, what was good, was not and what didn't make it.

Next wine roundtable we'll welcome the New Year at KD !!!

Christmas @ Pavilion

It was just like not too long ago when I just started blogging and posted about Christmas at Pavilion here. Time flies and we are back to Pavilion again and the Christmas decorations are up, this time it's reindeers, reindeers and more reindeers, in and out of the complex and it's amazing, really huge, nice, pretty and all.

p/s on a side note, I can't find anything new at KLCC, I hope they don't recycle the tallest Xmas tree this year, we're done with purple, gold, red tallest trees. . . haih.. I wonder when they'll come up with something new.

We went to Pavilion to meet up with big brother and his family who were shopping at Low Yat for Nintendo DS. I'm not a keen on gadget shopping and I asked them to meet us at Pavilion instead and had a good time snapping pics with Amber and hubs.

This huge reindeer is inside the mall, a few of them with sleighs and all.

At the entrance of the mall, more reindeers with snow theme. Very pretty and christmassy sight.

Then the cousins came back from their Nintendo DS shopping.. we took a few group shots together.

Only one word describes her... 'HAPPY' with the presence of so many cousins. She wants to follow them home to kong-kong's house and sleepover.

Do-Re-Mi-Fa......

Then she remembered the cotton candy Aunty Pearl got for her at Genting, and insist I buy one for her.

One cotton candy, that's all it takes to make the little kid happy.

Christmas is coming soon and I wish everyone a happy time shopping and whipping up Christmas dishes.

A Trip Up Genting

We went up to Genting with brother and his family last week. It was raining most of the days and hubs didn't want me to drive all the to the top, which I wanted to and luckily I did not as it was raining quite heavily on that day.

We drove to Awana cable car station and took the cable car up for RM10 per person, kids ride for free. In fact it's faster getting the cable car up, parking is easy at the cable car station and the kids enjoyed the 10-15 mins ride up.

Each cable car carriage can take up to 8 ppl (max) and 7 of us fitted nicely and cosily in a carriage. Quite scary I wouldn't want to look back .. the kids had fun and we told Amber a little lie.. that is to keep quiet otherwise the tigers below can hear her and jump up to our carriage. LOL! We are 'bad' but it's a good way to keep the little chatty chatterbox quiet.


Once we arrived the top, we quickly got our All Park Daily Pass, family package.



Amber was very impatient..she got sick of waiting for her turn and cried instead... haih..

Luck was not on our side.. it poured, heavy too.

Umbrellas..and we left ours in the car.. haih.. Can you see my niece, Rosalyn pondering over the brochure ? Poor girl, too big for kiddies ride and a tad too small for adults ride. She was in between most of the rides.

Amber and Sharlene could go for most rides together. Lucky for them as there was a few shaded rides they could hop on too. In fact they had the most rides for that day.

Amber and Sharlene on junior bumper cars. Amber was the driver and the car was going nowhere, bumped from the left and right. She just could not control the car and I was like a mad woman shouting "Press the pedal ! Turn the steering ! Press the pedal ! MOVE !!!!" LOL !!

Then Sharlene took over the wheels and they get to go and bump some other cars.

Luckily my SIL brought a few raincoats for the kids and then there's really nothing much to do than wait, esp for Rosalyn.

The minimum weight and height for the rides. We had 4 kids with us and SIL and I kept tab on who can go on which rides.

And this has to be Amber's favourite :

Ride De Paris. I'm sure most parents are familiar with this ride.

At Ride De Paris, Amber can go on and on , endless rides and I need not keep a close eye on her, this ride is kinda safe and she knows her way to queue up, get up and out and queue again. The last time we were at Genting, very late at night, they allowed her to stay on the ride over and over again without queuing up and my little girl loved it.

Natalie had the least rides, most adult rides like Motion Master had a 1 hour queue. Poor girl. I hope the next time we go up Genting together, we be blessed with bright sunny weather and less crowds.

The other ride we managed to hop on was the Antique Car. Quite fun coz it was cold and foggy outdoors.

Having cotton candy while queuing up was something fun for the kids.

And the last ride was Carousel. Parents can hop on with the kids for this ride, so I happily went along.

Amber was fussing and I really don't know about what. She was out the whole day and missed her afternoon nap, perhaps she was just tired.

When we left for home, the sky was already dark, raining and foggy. Again, luckily we took the cable car instead of driving all the way uphill.

I hope next time when I bring my nieces go up Genting, they can have more rides and NO RAIN ! I really feel bad for them to come all the way to Malaysia, go up Genting to be greeted by non stop rain and the outdoor theme park tickets are non-refundable too... haih..