The yong tau foo, the minced meat and the very cheap spring onion that I bought this early morning. They all formed my own creation of ampang yong tau foo :P It was our dinner tonight. Oh my, I really was enjoying the freshness of the tau kua and the fish paste, good choice to get them from the wet market!
Left a card that I bought in London behind at Cassy's place. That was almost a year ago, she was real sweet enough to ask Derrick to pass it to me. Ha, I really have forgotten all about this card but was pretty happy to see it this morning in my pigeon hole at my workplace. Love the simplicity in the design but yet powerful message. Glad to get it back :)
This is your life, own it or someone else will...
Breakfast...6.55a.m.
I was woken up by XF's text early this morning, couldn't seem to get back to sleep. Decided to enjoy some breakfast from a hawker centre near my place and not to forget, a cuppa teh si :P Was wondering if the hawker centre would be opened so early in the morning. To my surprise, a couple of stalls were all ready to serve breakfast. It wasn't crowded, found a corner to savour my breakfast, simply love the morning air :) Could not decide between carrot cake or bee hoon but chose bee hoon eventually coz wanted to have vegetables. As I was having my breakfast, I was also looking at the auntie who's getting ready to open for business. She has been selling economical rice for a long time, I think she has been around since my school days :P ...But she has aged, I think with rheumatism, she was also walking with a limp. But every day without fail, she will still work from early morning till the night. It must have been tough on her. The lights at her stall was switched on, she was busy laying out the trays of dishes, all ready to serve her first customer. She served a couple of dishes that would go well with porridge early in the morning.
Decided to check out the wet market, have not gone there for quite some time. It was early and there were not many people but the stallholders were all eager to boost sales. Saw Mummy's favourite fishmonger, business was good, they were all conversing in Teochew very loudly. Ha, I didn't think I have much confidence to go forward to buy any fish from him. Went to my favourite yong tau foo and fishball stall to choose a few pieces of tau hu to cook tonight. Walked timidly to the vegetables stall to get spring onions and chilli padi (Don't think I should bargain right? :P). Goodness, could not believe my ears when the total cost came up to 50 cents! So cheap as compared to the supermarket! Silly me :P The auntie at the stall that sells pork must be pretty amused by me. I did not know how much minced meat I should get, just told her a little. She smiled and suggested that I should get two bucks worth of minced pork. Silly silly me :P Ha, but that was an interesting experience, enjoyed the morning! :)
Was at Muji yesterday, saw this package for cooking pad thai and decided that I should try to cook that :P Ya, right, pad thai from Muji? One must be wondering what's Bangkok doing in Japan? Well, did not really ponder much, just went ahead with my plan to cook pad thai for lunch today. You know, I have this real bad habit...need to get something from Muji every time I enter that store. The one at ION is currently my favourite, the one at Marina Square is great too in terms of its selection. Could never seem to stop drinking all sorts of bottled tea from Muji too :P Decided to keep lunch simple today, just wanna try out that pad thai package. Added bean sprouts, carrots, onions and eggs. Did not really like plucking the ends off the bean sprouts, could be laborious at times. But Mummy chided me for being lazy and insisted that every end should be plucked off. I was so happy plucking the last few bean sprouts, phew! Learning points...should cook the noodles in hot water a little longer as they were not really that perfectly soft. Would want to add tau kwa, prawns, chives and peanuts the next time I cook that. It should also be eaten with lotsa chilli padi (maybe that applies to me only). Maybe some lime or lemon slices to garnish and add that tangy and sourish taste too. Fish sauce seems to be the essence of this dish but I better not add too much lest it gets a little too salty and fishy. My father was commenting that it's a little salty, oops!
I thought I needed a cup of teh si desperately after work today. Maybe the addiction has worsened :P Seeing that cup of milk tea in front of me seemed to bring much satisfaction at the end of the day. As I was sipping the tea contentedly, thought of what an owner of an eatery shared with us while we were in Cambodia. Lunch on the fourth day in Cambodia was catered for us in a small eatery. Heh, we thought that it was the best meal in those five days. A few of my colleagues ordered milk tea (teh tarik) and coffee which were not part of the meal package at the eatery. We wanted to pay for those drinks but the owner told us they were on the house and he did not accept our payment. He spoke in Malay and he shared something with one of my colleagues. I was real curious and asked my colleague to share with me what he had said. Well, he shared about his philosophy...He will not be any richer earning that money from those drinks and he will also not be any poorer not earning that money from those drinks. In life, he's just being contented with earning just enough... Hmm, interesting to hear...We thanked him for the drinks but in my heart, I also thanked him for sharing his philosophy in life.
Dear XF and Didi, thinking of both of you, sending my love and best wishes, hoping that you are enjoying your special day. Happy Birthday! ...Hugz
I remember that when I was a little girl, I always wished teddy bears could talk and move. Well, I guess they never did but at least they were good listeners. Sunny baby has always been like a teddy bear to me, love to hug and cuddle him like a teddy, ha, at times, sniffing his nose too. Took him for a walk that evening, he still had the same level of excitement. It was also bath time that day :P I watched as Mark gave him a good shower. He's quite an obedient doggy in the bathtub, well, except for times when he tried to lick the soap on his body. He was really given a good lather. He looked so different when he's totally wet in the bathtub, towel dried and blow dried :P Hmm, didn't really like his wet look though :P ...Was just thinking, if I ever had a big dog, I think the time to shower and dry it could easily be as long as an hour :P
Cooking! It seems to be a weekly affair. Kinda miss the kailan fried rice that Mummy cooked quite some time back so decided to give it a go. Realised that I have cooked the kailan a little too long, did not seem to have that crunchiness. The sweetness of the kailan in the fried rice was not also not as tasty as Mummy's, there's room for improvement! :P In the mood for onions so had it in an omelette, I have always liked it with rice or porridge :P Miss the colourful capsicum I had in Basel so decided to purchase three colours...red, yellow and green. Well, I think when it comes to capsicum, either you love it or you hate it. I happen to love it. Ha, same for bittergourd, hate it or love it. I happen to love it too, freaky freak :P Not much time for sweet and sour pork early in the morning so decided to substitute it with prawns. Added chilli padi, like it a little spicy. There you go, my packed lunch for Thursday. But I did not have lunch till pretty late in the afternoon. Well, at least, I took my own sweet time to enjoy it :)
At times, I would wake up early in the morning to see pictures being sent by XF via Whats app. She has been 'modifying' the pictures that I had sent her, probably through some apps that she has (and she wouldn't tell me what, KNS) :P I kinda like this picture sent by XF this early morning, a pic of Slacker II...in the past? Doesn't this pic remind us of precious and sweet memories just by looking at it...a moment of reminiscence... I turned to look at Slacker II who's sitting next to my pillow, smiled and rubbed his round tummy :P
I was really surprised to see a tingkat on my desk in the morning, that's really kinda interesting. Heh, that 3-tier metal containers certainly looked kinda familiar, I knew I had seen it somewhere :P Opened it and thought the content looked kinda like baby food, haha! It was a real busy day at work but managed to eat a portion of it during a short lunch break. It's kinda like porridge...brown rice, seemed to have two to three types of beans (well-cooked and I thought it added sweetness to the porridge), bits of carrots and pork ribs. Well, I must say it's certainly quite a healthy meal, not salty, essence of the various ingredients blended very well with the brown rice. the porridge was cooked by Derrick's aunt and Mark has brought it to our work place to share with me. Ha, trust him to put it into a tingkat, pretty original idea :P Hmm, realised that the kinda lunch box you have has a way of adding flavour to the content within :)
Drove past the supermarket that Wednesday evening and decided that I should get some milk. Walked past the vegetables section and decided that maybe I should prepare packed lunch the next day, that cheered me up a little :P Very quickly, the menu was planned and all the stuff needed were bought. Marinated the chicken wings with dark soya sauce, sesame oil, pieces of ginger and garlic overnight, all ready for braised wings the next morning. Ha, I thought it would go well with my signature fried rice, well, have always liked it with french beans. I thought the gravy from the braised wings would go well with the rice. Had some tomatoes with eggs to brighten up the whole lunchbox :P Simple food but you know what, it was a good lunch! :)
