While picking up Irfan from school in the very late afternoon, we were hit by a great, big thunderstorm the size of a big thunderstorm. There was a point where there was no delay between lightning and thunder. Driving to school, the windshield, which thankfully did its job keeping the wind out failed to ensure the rain slid off fast enough so we can see through it. Even the wipers were useless. On the way back, we had to cross Pandan Indah central to get from the school on the south side to our house on the north side. We discovered that we couldn’t because of flash floods. All the primary, secondary and the secret routes had a foot or so of water.So, we drove went to a mamak restaurant for some roti canai and warm drinks. Below, we can see some water on this side of the main road […]
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The spread
A collection of blog posts in which photos of food make appearances for one reason or another…
Year Nine Celebratory Dinner
Here we are at Year Nine. That means it’s been a year since this blog entry, which is Year Eight. Instead of relaxing at home, or both of us forgetting about it (which has happened before believe you me) Irfan and I went to pick up Ain after work and headed to Midvalley Megamall for an anniversary dinner. We decided on eating at Secret Recipe. I had no complaints because MPH was right beside us. The smell of books always gives me a good appetite. One more year before we reach the decade-mark!
Continue readingThe one with the birthday cake
Since there has been a demand for cake, here it is!! [[image:allie330a.jpg:Let them eat cake!:center:0]] * Please mouse over the pictures for captions On Sunday, July 26th, we held a small gathering, a cookout and potluck to celebrate Allie’s first birthday. Guests include a few members of Vin’s baseball team (the team conveniently played their Sunday morning game at the local high school a block away), some of our neighbors, and a few friends. Even though it rained the day before, Sunday was a gorgeous sunny day. [[image:allie328a.jpg:Guests at the cookout with Allie in her high chair:center:0]] Vin played baseball then came home and straight away lit the grill and commenced barbecueing. Burgers, hot dogs and chicken were the meats, while I’d prepared a couple of side dishes.The neighbors brought food and drink as well as presents for the birthday girl! Allie also ate her lunch while everyone mingled: [[image:allie329a.jpg:Picnic […]
Continue readingThe one with the birthday crepes
Two days after Allie’s first birthday was Vin’s birthday! And since it was his day, he got to pick what he wanted as his birthday treat and he chose crepes. This is my first attempt at making crepes, but I gave it a shot! But first, Allie takes a shot at Lily. [[image:crepe01.jpg:Allie goes after Lily!:center:0]] The recipe was obtained from here, (thanks Alton Brown), where I used his Sweet Crepes recipe. I substituted lime juice for the liqueur. After the dough rested for an hour, I commenced frying up the crepe. The first one was a bit sad – full of holes. More like Roti Jala than crepes… [[image:crepe02.jpg:Holy crepe, Batman!:center:0]] [[image:crepe04.jpg:First crepe ended up a little over crispy too:center:0]] For filling, I made a dark chocolate sauce: [[image:crepe03.jpg:Dark chocolate sauce:center:0]] Allie kept watch to make sure Mama didn’t make (m)any mistakes: [[image:crepe06.jpg:You can do it, Mama!:center:0]] I thought […]
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That Is One Big John Fruit
The last leg of the vacation was a couple of days back at Ain’s kampung at Pasir Mas, Kelantan. When we arrived, Irfan’s cousin Aiman and family were on their second-to-last day there before returning to Kuala Lumpur. They had a few hours together to play, with the Atok’s ball from Sitiawan, and the bubbles. That night Aiman slept over at his paternal grandmother’s house. They came to visit the next morning before leaving. Fruits were abundant. There were roadside stalls which sold tons of them. Ain bought a pineapple to be turned into pajeri nenas. Tok Bah and Tok Ma also bought mangosteens, as seen in the above photo. It had been a while since I had some. Irfan poses beside a jackfruit tree, where a large jackfruit waited to be cut down by Tok Bah. We brought the fruit with us back home. We are slowly eating the […]
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LOL! PraWNED!!!111
Once upon a time, Atok and Opah told us of a little out of the way place named Bagan Nakhoda Omar, Harbour of Captain Omar in Anglic. Who was Nakhoda Omar and ship did he captain? I’d like to know that as well… On our way to Sitiawan for school holidays, we thought we’d stop there for lunch. It was a warm sunny day, but not sweltering at all. There was a cool breeze coming from the sea and we took a table under the undulating shadow of some coconut trees. We ordered the specialty that Atok and Opah told us about: fried meals with prawns. Ain & I ordered nasi goreng and Irfan the meehoon goreng. While waiting for lunch to be cooked, Irfan explored the area around the food stalls, chasing a small monitor lizard into a pool under the gazebo where most of the tables were situated. […]
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The Exercise of Vital Powers
Another month, another new year – making this the third new year in two months. What’s a new year – especially Chinese New Year – without a vital trip to the nearby FELCRA seafood restaurant, as previously seen in this entry from a couple of years back. As usual, the highlight of dinner is the fried calamari a.k.a. sotong celup tepung. The crew depicted above is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the squiddies. However, Irfan is easily distracted as shown in the following photo. When the stingrays were done, Irfan fed its gristle to the cats, who as far as we can tell appreciated the food. Above, Ain happily shows off the batter-fried calamari, which is the best we’ve had the pleasure of tasting. The dinner commemorated group of three birthdays and one anniversary, some of which had just passed and some has yet to come.
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Intersections in Real Time
The counter ticks up for Ain every year on January 22nd, which makes this the thirteenth year I’ve been around her to hear the counter tick. This year also marks first year Irfan contributed to his mother’s birthday card. We, including Cik Ma and Cik Su, travelled to The Mines to consume some chicken at Kenny Roger’s Roasters. However, there was a chicken shortage there. So instead we invaded Nando’s instead for some peri-peri chicken. In conclusion, I loved the peri-peri sauce and Ain did not. More for me! Happy birthday, Irfan’s mom.
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Six Years Old Today
It’s September 21st again and once more it’s time for Irfan’s birthday. Wearing his Iron Man t-shirt a gift from Ayah Cik, he greeted the arrival of his cousin Aiman (as well as Aiman’s parents) with whom he immediately shared his cache of toys. Aiman was overwhelmed by the amount of Hot Wheels collected by Irfan over the years, which Ain had recently kept in a single plastic container. While the kids were playing at (and making a mess of) the living room, Ain was busy in the kitchen producing food, food and more food. Above: Atok and Opah Irfan weren’t able to come (’cause I wrecked their car) but, they’ve prepared in advance with this awesome Spider-Man birthday card. Above: Aiman claps his hand – mostly because of other people prompting him by clapping their hands. Above: Nasi ayam Chinese-style a recipe taught to Ain by Opah Irfan is […]
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Packed Lunch is Packed
After only bring in sandwiches for snacks at kindergarten, Irfan brought an awesome looking packed lunch in his schoolbag which consisted of awesome meehoon goreng that Ain fried earlier in the morning He finished it off at lunch. I love the little fork and spoon set attached!
Continue readingPajeri Nenas!
Just a quick note to say, yay-yay Mak and Abah are here! Annnnnnd, Mak made her world famous pajeri nenas. Here we are enjoying our dinner: [[image:pajeri3.jpg:Vin, Mak & Abah:center:0]] Abah shows off the lovely pajeri nenas and the baked chicken: [[image:pajeri4.jpg:Showing off the food:center:0]] [[image:pajeri5.jpg:My plate in the foreground, Abah’s in the background:center:0]] And this post is to make Hisham salivate as pajeri nenas is one of his favorite dishes. 🙂 p.s. – still no baby yet… *sigh*
Continue readingDinner With Irfan’s Tok and Opah Unggai
Irfan’s grandparents are here from Sitiawan and have been spending several days with us. Tonight they will be heading for Middletown where they will spend the next two months with Vin, Sila and their upcoming child. On Saturday, Irfan’s great-uncle and great-aunt, designated Tok Unggai and Opah Unggai arrived all the way from Taiping to spend the night at the Tenth Floor. We were soon joined by their daughter and son-in-law, designated Cik Da and Pak Long Fadzil. Opah Unggai recently had a promotion and had decided to treat us for dinner. Ain and I thought the Thai restaurant in the Pandan Indah sprawl close by would be great for the dinner. Night fell and we headed for the restaurant where we had sweet and sour siakap, steamed siakap, kailan ikan masin, kerabu mangga, tom yam campur and telur bungkus. [[image:opah_unggai_belanja01.jpg:The ones belanja-ing in the foreground:center:0]] [[image:opah_unggai_belanja02.jpg:Ain uses a holographic […]
Continue readingThis One’s For the English-speaking Non-Malaysian Readers
… all 3 or so of them. [[image:fried-lolwut01.jpg:Uh…. right.:center:0]]
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Meanwhile At Irfan’s School (or The 500th Post)
After Aidilfitri, Irfan also had some events at school, before exam week begins. The first being his belated birthday celebration at school, which apparently everyone has. Great for him. We were lucky to have the teacher wish up a happy birthday back in our days. In any case, the vanilla cake with the chocolate topping (and strawberries, as astutely observed by Irfan’s classmate) was delicious. We believe the orange-coloured fruit is apricot. Irfan’s gang huddle around their prey, the poor defenceless cake. If you mouseover the image below you will find the words “The cutting of the cake” appear on it. The cake is distributed by the teachers to the little humans. Happy Belated 5th Birthday at school, Irfan! Also, there was a belated Aidilfitri celebration which happened a day after the day with the vanilla cake. Here is Irfan prepared for school in full Raya getup, with baju Melayu, […]
Continue readingPacific Northwest: Part XI (Vancouver – Night)
After walking around Vancouver, we were pretty tired, so we met up with Lilian for a spot of dinner. Come see what we had! [[image:pacnw149.jpg:Olive Tapenade appetizer:center:0]] [[image:pacnw150.jpg:Scallops appetizer:center:0]] [[image:pacnw151.jpg:Baby Octopus and Asparagus appetizer:center:0]] [[image:pacnw152.jpg:Seafood Risotto:center:0]] [[image:pacnw153.jpg:Lamb chops:center:0]] [[image:pacnw154.jpg:Fish (I forgot what kind now):center:0]] [[image:pacnw155.jpg:Chocolate cake and bread pudding in the background:center:0]] We had us a veritable feast! Yummy! I was so involved with the food that I didn’t even take any pictures of people. Seriously. *ishhhh* So we said our goodbyes to Lilian, as we were heading back to Seattle and home to Ohio the next day. It was a really fun trip, and I’m looking forward to getting together with Vincent and Lilian again next year! (Or whenever the next get together might be). Here are some pictures of the view from our room at night – a bit blurry. Sorry, my hand is not as steady as […]
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Irfan: Five Years After the Day
Tonight was Irfan’s 5th birthday, as can be noted via the photo of his cake below. See? It’s in the shape of the number five. Five. Five candles, ah ah ah. But yeah, Ain noted that it looks like the letter ‘S’. Here is the close up of the ancient inscription found on the cake during the archaeological dig: So, here we go by the numbers as per last year. Many thanks to Atok Irfan for his photography skills to get great photographic shots: Then I got behind the camera to take a picture of Atok & Opah Irfan: There were two cameras trying to take a photo of Irfan and Cik Emma. However, both were looking at the other camera when the button was pressed. Finally Irfan receives his birthday present from Atok Irfan! Check out the excitement in his eyes: It’s an Optimus Prime! But…. how to get […]
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