The Iron Fever

The Ironman 3 fever has been on full blow. Since like months that we started seeing trailers at cineplexes. Thanks to our recent cineplex trips with the kids, every time the trailer started with the Paramount Pictures credits they will start exclaiming 'Air-man, Air-man!' - which translates to 'Ironman'.

The excitement for this new installation for the Ironman series has been mostly on our side, the hubby and I. The thing we were most eager to see was not the new Mark 42 suit, but the reaction of the kids to their favourite superhero's appearance on the big, big screen. All this while the kids spent their spare time watching the first two movies of the series, and it goes without saying how much they love the movie, especially the suit up sequences.

Pre-movie build-up was pretty good. The kids had their Ironman 3 mask and hand-gadget thingy ready. Which by the way we did not bring along for the movie, in effort not to freak any other patrons out.

The Ironman 3 fever was so intense that even my little sister gave it a go by suiting up!

 

For a change I am not gonna write a review for this movie, because, for a change, I hardly watched it. We were busy making sure kids were comfortable, eating their snacks, and not getting restless. Which by the way is inevitable. For the record, I never really watched the other Ironman movies either because while the kids enjoy, it is always my time to catch up with chores.

Ironman 3 has a more intense storyline that is not that appealing to kids of most ages. I say this because I saw several other kids walking up and down the steps or hanging around the top most floor playing, instead of watching the movie. Hubby and I too were having our own mini entertain-the-kids-other-way session halfway through the climax till the ending. We ended up sitting on the carpet floor, watching the kids instead of the movie.

In this movie you will see more of Robert Downey Jr instead of the CGI Ironman, which is probably a good thing for the actor. Also you see all other the other suits (or rather Marks?) coming out to fight, through a remote access by Tony. Cool stuff, definitely, and I am sure everyone will love the new suit-up sequence!

After being not so entertained with 'Air-man 3' the kids got entertained with some arcade games. Works all the time! And hey, we were not the only ones bringing kids in superhero themed tshirts, most kids in the cineplex were either in Superman or Batman tshirts!

In an another adventure, the kids were being entertained at a kids' play center, and guess what Sanju got? Every child's dream, the never ending slide! All he had to do was push the smaller slide towards the larger one, and he could slide up side down, climb up or do other unimaginable stuff. You know the saying, 'you can take the baby out of the boy, but not take the boy out of the baby'!

And the unexpected good boy was playing something quiet, for a change.

After he posed at the electrical shop.

All in a day's work, the kids get to unwind by savouring their juicy milky milk in their bottle.

Healthy Wealthy One Pot Dish - Chicken Briyani Recipe

I have recently started buying basmati rice for our daily cooking as it contains less starch than the usual one. All the more excuse to eat more rice, but funnily enough, for an Indian family, we have rice maybe only 3 days a week. Other days are pasta, noodles or capati.

I have attempted to cook one pot chicken briyani once but it did not turn out well because I missed several things. For one, I dumped sauteed chicken right into the rice cooker with the uncooked rice and expected the cooker to be ok with it. The repeated turning off of the switch got me slowly realise that maybe it does not work that way. It was a havoc then. 

The uncooked rice was soaked with chicken and its seasonings, and was not cooking. I do not know how to cook rice without the cooker, sad but true. Well yeah so its easy for my mom to say 'it is easier to cook rice on a normal pot' but I had never done it, and I can't be there to monitor it all the time. No prize for guessing why. 

Then I saw my life saviour, the pressure cooker! So I quickly dumped everything inside and hoped it will cook fine without spoiling the dish or the cooker. It did not turn out perfect (try cooking soaked rice) but hubby was such a darling to down everything like its the best food in the world. Can't say the same about the kids though.

After several one pot dishes later, now I know. Cook the rice halfway and then pour in your ingredients, cooked or not. Else the rice cooker with turn off on you.

So here I am again attempting my chicken briyani again, in the rice cooker.

You Need:

Chicken marinade:

ginger + garlic paste
chicken, chopped small
some turmeric powder
very little chilli powder
1tsp corn flour
salt and pepper for seasoning

Sautee:
1 onion, diced
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
a few cloves and cardamom
1 tbsp cumin powder
2 tbsp coriander powder
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup water
ginger + garlic paste
salt to taste
some oil

basmati rice, quantity as desired
some chopped coriander leaves

Method:

1) Marinate the chicken as per the ingredients for an hour or two.
2) Heat up some oil in the wok, once hot enough, sautee the star anise, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves till fragrant. Add in the onion and fry till golden.
3) Add in the cumin and coriander powder. After a quick stir add in the chicken and let it cook for 5 minutes. Season with salt and the garlic ginger paste.
4) Start to cook the rice in rice cooker as per normal way.
5) Add in water and milk, cook for ten minutes.
6) Carefully pour in the cooked ingredients into your rice cooker and stir. If you want to add more vegetables you can also do it now.
7) Now let the rice cooker do its stuff. Once the rice cooker turns off, leave it for good ten minutes in the keep warm mode.
8) Serve with chopped coriander leaves.

I had some spring onion instead, so I sprinkled that. Otherwise coriander leaves are always ideal for any spice related dishes. Also the briyani is quite dry so best taken with some gravy. Since this is the healthy version I restrained from adding any kind of oil or ghee. Else they should be added when cooking the rice. And perhaps more milk and some tomato puree would help to moisten the rice better.

This is what we do in our free time these days. Get the toys together and arrange them on a Avengers Assemble! Note that some poor fellas missed the photo shoot because of broken legs or missing arm. Ah, Boys!

Easy Shortcut Pizzas

It felt like a mini pizzeria today baking one pizza after another, four in total, to be precise. I am in the midst of clearing the vegetables in my fridge and it has been a while since I made pizza.

The menu for tonight's pizzeria meal has four different varieties of pizza to suit the whole family, and we also had brother in law over. Hence I went for 4 pizzas at one time. Plus any leftover can be kept for tomorrow's breakfast or maybe even my lunch.

This pizza method (I don't say recipe, because it is mostly putting things together) is really simple. Plenty of shortcuts taken, and with the amount of vegetables loaded onto it, your non vegetable eating audience will not even realise what hit them.

So now for the 'method'. Firstly, I bought the crust from the baking supply shop. It is pretty big (think Pizza Hut's regular sized pizza) and came in packs of 5 pieces in each.

I had following ingredients ready:

1 large tomato, chopped
red and green peppers, diced
chicken and Taiwan sausages, sliced thinly
2 small eggplants, sliced into quarters
mushrooms, chopped
1 onion and 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 egg, beaten
half carrot, grated
some cream cheese, at room temperature
mixed herbs
Japanese mayonnaise (optional)
tomato pasta sauce
Heinz BBQ sauce
Mozzarella, shredded
black pepper and salt

Additional steps:
a) Sautee onion and garlic, add mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes. Add in the eggplant and cook for 10-15 minutes, till the eggplant softens. Season with salt and black pepper
b) Mix the egg and grated carrot together. Add in the cream cheese, and season with salt, and mix well.

The mix and match of these ingredients whipped up four pizzas:

1) BBQ pizza with chicken sausage. Spread BBQ sauce over the crust. Put the (a) mix all over. Arrange the chicken sausage over. Sprinkle with mixed herbs and spread the cheese over.

2) BBQ pizza with Taiwan sausage. Same as (1) above, instead of chicken sausage, arrange tomato and Taiwan sausage, and spread cheese over. 

3) Tomato based pizza with chicken sausage. Spread tomato pasta sauce over the crust. Arrange the tomato, red and green peppers. Next arrange the chicken sausage, sprinkle mixed herbs and spread the cheese over.

4) And for the kids, it is egg and cream cheese pizza. Mix the egg with grated carrot and cream cheese and mix it well. Spread mixture (b) over the crust, and arrange tomato, sprinkle mixed herbs and spread the cheese over.

You can also squeeze out the Japanese mayonnaise over the pizzas as you like. Bake at 180C for 15-20 minutes.

So there you have 4 varieties of pizza with little ingredients. And it is quite international if you ask me, with Taiwanese, Japanese and local ingredients. The possibilities are endless, only limited by your imagination, and contents of your fridge. Happy trying!

Bacon And Onion Bun With The Perfect Dough

I am on cloud nine today afternoon because I have just discovered my perfect bun dough recipe! As you may know I am crazy about Dailydelicious blog, and I have been trying most of the bread recipes there, but never ever I had this experience before.

I had baked the bacon and onion bun previously and it turned out pretty decent for a noob like me. Needless to say they were a hit in the house and did not see more than one break of dawn.

And today I set out to bake the same thing again, using the same recipe from dailydelicious, but this time i intended to make more, as they are a huge hit, and Sanju has been pointing to the Domino's catalogue asking for pizza. So I added the portions slightly a little bit more, and lessened the milk a little bit, because I do usually end up adding more and more flour to get better dough texture while kneading.

This is what I used, and voila! The perfect dough, the perfect sweet and savoury bun, and the perfect munching time ever! I got 8 bacon and onion buns and 4 pizza twist buns.

You need:

300g bread flour
30g sugar
200g milk, warm
a pinch of salt
5g instant yeast
a knob of butter

For filling:
some chopped bacon
some chopped onion and garlic
some mozarella cheese

Method:
1) Mix the milk and yeast, stir till yeast dissolves, and set aside for ten minutes.
2) Mix bread flour, sugar and salt. Slowly pour in the milk till the mixture comes together. Start kneading with your hand till its incorporated together in a dough. At this point it should not be sticky. Add a tablespoon (or two) of flour if it is sticky, and work the dough till you get smooth dough. Keep it aside to proof for one hour.

My dough, not an expert smooth but works for me ;)

3) Sautee bacon, and once slightly brown add in the chopped garlic and onion. Fry till lovely brown.
4) Roll the dough out to 30x20cm. Spread the sauteed filling.

Spread sauteed filling

5) Roll the dough towards yourself. Pinch the ends to seal.

The final roll, ok I should have rotated the picture, but whatever

6) Press both ends inwards to compact the roll. Cut into 10 or 12 portions, in case you want smaller rolls.
7) Set the rolls on a buttered baking dish to proof for another 30 minutes.

Second proofing

8) Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top of it. Bake at 180C for 15-20minutes.

Hubby is gonna love his breakfast box tomorrow!

For the pizza twist buns, I rolled small doughs long, and twist and turn them back into a circle, and press flat with my palm. After the 30 minute proofing, I spread tomato pasta on it, placed some sausage slices, and mozzarella before baking. 

This basic dough would work for many endless varieties and since it contains no egg, it does not leave any smell if you are hand kneading, except the nice aroma of the butter. This formula worked out so well for me. The dough is soft and sweet, and the bacon gives nice burst of flavour on each bite. Hope it works out just perfect for you as well!

Get Mexican At The Shepherdoo

In our recent foodie adventure we had Mexican food here in Klang. Mexican Food right in the heart of Klang? Yes, I even I had to rub my eyes a few times!

We had read and planned for The Shepherdoo a few times, but it just never happens because it is going through the town for us, and which spells traffic and all the hassle. But this time we were very determined. That is because this time hubby has read the reviews and could not wait to try.

The Shepherdoo Klang is located at the Centro Klang mall. They have like a small separate building of their own with a garden concept. There are 2 seating types. One is completely indoors, right beside the kitchen. And the other by the bar, which is open to fresh air by the federal highway. Ok I shouldn't say fresh, but you know its open and mostly for smokers.

There is a very nice ambience throughout the restaurant. We arrived before 7pm, so they were slightly shorthanded, but nevertheless they made sure all customers were taken care very well.

We ordered their Shepherdoo Tapas platter to sample some of their signature dishes, together with Gringos burger, a huge thick burger and chicken tenders with potato wedges for the kid's. Yes, they do have a menu for the kids, which is not free but comes with bottomless drinks (for parents to drink away).

On the whole the food was just fabulous, very good down to the taste, freshness and flavour. The platter had dressings and seasonings of Asian and Mexican fusion and was just too good!

Everything has its good and bad. When our food and service on the day was perfect, we had our own problems. Jeev was slightly cranky that day because the indoor seating was not well air conditioned and felt a little stuffy. Jeev had his Triple Antigen booster the day before, and was just recovering from fever, hence his body was more sweaty than normal. And due to this he was very bothered in being indoors and kept on pointing to go out to the mall instead.

Full attention was on him to ease his discomfort and give him something to be busy with.

 

According to a certain someone (well duh!) the happy hours deal was very good, and their draft stout was very smooth. What else can I say? A happy belly is a happy belly! We are definitely going back there again because the menu is so huge and we need more time to try every single Mexican delight!

And oh, I had a passion fruit frozen margarita.

 

We met Sanju's favourite character from Jurassic Park at the I-City recently, and no one was happier than him.

And the next day they kids had a great great fun in their new inflatable pool that we got for free for buying lots of disposable diapers.

I had to be very discreet in snapping this photo as I did not want my kids suing me in the future for indecent exposure!

Cinnamon Swirl Muffins - A Twist To The Usual Pancakes

I have this habit of modifying and recreating something to give it a little twist and come out with a slightly new packaging or outlook. Old wine in a new bottle, you say? Exactly!

Pancake is something that we all make for our families. Once in one of the 30 minutes cooking shows I saw Jamie Oliver making pancakes in the muffin tray for dinner, something called yorkshire pudding, and I saw the light bulb flicker on!

I am this cinnamon+brown sugar enthusiast, as I type this, I just finished licking the last of my cinnamon stix from Auntie Anne's. Yes I am that crazy. And looking at some cinnamon swirl recipes online, I got the idea for a quick pancake revamp!

So I just took the pancake premix flour, prepared it according to the instruction. Next I prepared the cinnamon swirl of 1tsp cinnamon powder, 4 tsp brown sugar and 3 tsp butter. Just mix all of these together, and you have your cinnamon swirl. Carefully pour the cinnamon swirl mixture into the batter, and fold it slowly, not to mix it thoroughly. Pour the batter into buttered muffin tray. Pour up to 2/3 cup only. And bake at 180C for 15-20 minutes. You know it is done once you see the lovely brown colour!

I eat these muffins with some honey. The kids can munch on them on its own. Else you can also make a honey lemon glaze and glaze them while still warm so that it gets infused in.

I have also tried this with a chocolate swirl preparation, of cooking chocolate and milk. In this case you leave the chocolate mixture separate. Pour in the batter and chocolate layer by layer to get the swirl. It works just as good. Happy trying!

Mini Quiche Recipe

Quiche is one of our favourite quick and rich bake for dinner. I had never eaten quiche before when I saw Anna Olsen making it on AFC. Needless to say the mere look of it shouts 'eat me'! And the rest is history.

After googling for the easiest possible recipe I managed to recreate my own here as on my old blog post. I have always used my own short cut, that is the ready made prata for the base. And recently as I discovered the magical world of frozen puff pastry, life is not the same anymore.

On the quest to provide bite sized snacks and also something to pack for hubby's breakfast for the next day, I got inspired to make mini quiche using the muffin tray. 

This is before I discovered the proper way of cutting the puff pastry to fit the muffin tray. Therefore I kind of did a shoddy job in cutting the pastry in (ugly) squares and fitting them into the tray.

This is really simple and fast to prepare. Firstly sautee bacon till golden, add chopped onion n mushroom n sautee till done. Set aside. For the custard batter, mix 1.5 cup of milk with two eggs. Add salt n black pepper n mix. Set the pastry squares (or circles if you can make them) on the muffin tin. Put the sauteed filling on the base of the pastry cups. Pour the milk mixture over till 80% of the cup. Sprinkle grated cheese oven n bake at 180C for 20-25mins.

This recipe yields 12 mini bites. However I gotta warn you. They finish fast!

Red Velvet Swirl Brownie from Sunny Anderson's Recipe

Of all the food network shows, Sunny Anderson's Cooking For Real has got to be my most favourite. Her cooking and baking style is so youthful yet sticks to classic aspects of her dishes. And it also helps that her shows come on at 3.30pm, right when the kids nap, and I can watch the show in peace with my cuppa hot ginger tea.

It is the time of the year again where hubby grows a year older, and to celebrate (older and wiser him) I was gonna bake him a surprise Red Velvet Swirl Brownie Sunny Anderson style! There is something so mystic about red velvet cakes. Despite having cocoa powder as ingredient, the taste somehow turns 180 degrees when you savour it in its bright red colour. Plus the cream cheese layer of it is so amazing!

Although it was meant to be a surprise, hubby somehow happened to be home when I was slogging hard baking it. Therefore this time I had a helper, not my usual house elves, but the master of the house itself. He helped me to beat the cream cheese layer so smooth. And later helped me to swirl the whole mixture so well and even got a nice heart shape design on it.

Somehow the top part browned a little too much. I followed the baking instructions but when checked with skewer it seemed like its not fully done, hence I baked it more and more till this happened. Note the number of holes my skewer test left.

How did my first ever red velvet cake turn out? Taste wise, easily the best red velvet ever! Hey, I may be biased, but why not, since I have my sweat and hardwork as the main ingredients. The colour is not as bright as I would want it to be, and it could have swirled more (hint hint!!). 

  

I am not so much of a cake baking person, especially when I have not baked much from scratch before. However, I dare say I am catching up now. Looking to try a different recipe next!

Portuguese Egg Tarts Recipe

I absolutely madly deeply love Portuguese egg tarts, and so far the best (and the only one) that I have tasted are from Baker's Cottage. I used to purposely make a trip to the one here just to buy the tarts. Really really good, I easily swallow a few like some supplementary pills.

During my recent baking rendezvous, I discovered the convenience of frozen puff pastries. That I when I knew I had to make the egg tarts at home on my own. With the help of frozen puff pastries. And the oven. And the online recipe.

Frozen puff pastries can be purchased at any hypermarkets or baking supply shops. You either get the thick block, which needs to be rolled out to desired thickness, or large rolled out slices, which can be used as they are.

One website that I really love referring to when making local dishes is Rasa Malaysia. And their Portuguese egg tarts recipe looked (and read) very yummy to the core. Notice the oxymoron, local dish on Rasa Malaysia which is the Portuguese egg tarts. Nevertheless, I gave it a go!

Their recipe is only for 10 tarts, and I was using the muffin tray with 12 molds on it. So I had to increase the portion a bit. Except the sugar, I went easy and reduced it.

You Need:

For the pastry
A large slice of frozen puff pastry

For the filling
5 egg yolks
1/3 cup of sugar (feel free to reduce it)
1/3 cup of whipping cream, plus a little extra
1/3 cup of milk, plus a little extra
3 drops of vanilla essence

Method:

1. Beat all the ingredients for the filling together for 5 minutes. To get a smooth custard, strain the mixture through a strainer, and set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 180C while preparing the pastries.
3. Cut the pastry in a round shape to fit the muffin tray. After much trial and errors, I finally got the perfect size. I used a stainless steel bowl that is 4 inches in diameter. 

4. On a buttered muffin tin, line the pastry carefully, and press the sides to get a perfect fit.
5. Carefully pour the custard mix till 80% of the pastry mould.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or till the tarts turn yummy brown.

Really I don't think you need to be told how yummy should the brown-ness be. In case you still need to know... this is how, under different flash and effects of the camera, to suit your climate and lighting:

Notice the varying levels of pastry? That is my trial and error cutting and shaping the circles manually. Only the 4 inch bowl worked in getting the perfect size and depth.

The taste, texture, and over results were almost perfect for a first time attempt. Do reduce the sugar because it still gets very much sweet. And here's some insider tip, they taste better the next day, no joke! 

I had actually baked them in early March, and now looking back at the pictures it is making me hungry and tempted to make more!

Shepherd's Pie Recipe

Shepherd's pie is one of those casserole dishes that you can make for dinner and it can be pretty balanced meal with those vegetables in it. It is also great for kids, some mashed potatoes, vegetables and some chicken, what else can they ask for?

In my case this also provides a good variety in our weekly menu as hubby is the type who wants to be surprised with different dishes each time. And being a potato and meat lover, this is just perfect for him.

The chicken filling is made with tomato pasta sauce base, and as I have discovered, this tomato base works damn well when cooked with a splash of red wine, or two! The alcohol just evaporates away leaving nice sweet taste to complement the savoury dish!

You need:

2 pieces of chicken breast, cubed, and marinated for tender soft pieces
1 cup of diced vegetables (celery, peas, corn, carrot, tomato)
1 onion, chopped
1/3 cup of tomato pasta sauce
1/4 cup of red wine
1/4 cup of water
some worcesterchire sauce
some spring onion, chopped long
some mixed herbs
4 large potatoes
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp milk
grated cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Boil the potatoes till soft. Mash with 1tbsp butter, milk and cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
2. Sautee the onion with the remaining butter. Add in the marinated chicken and cook for 5 minutes. Add in the diced vegetable and stir fry for a few minutes more.
3. Add in red wine, water and tomato sauce. Let it simmer at medium heat for 10-15 minutes. Season with mixed herb, salt and pepper.
4. Once done, set it into the baking dish. Spread spring onion over it.
5. Spread the mashed potatoes on top of the chicken layer, and you can use the fork to draw lines for some finishing touch. Bake in the oven at 180C for 20-30 minutes, till the potato layer starts to brown.

You can used minced chicken instead of cubed, but I was just too lazy to use the machine to mince it, hence cubed worked just fine as well! Other meats such as minced lamb or pork would work fine as well. You do not need spring onion if you don't have it. I always go through this phase of obedient ingredient (ala Roger Mooking) and I get into the groove and tend to use it in every dish possible. Spring onion it is right now, and I am loving it!

Its kinda embarrassing but as you can see I have been using my cake baking dish for my pie. The good news is I have bought a new and proper casserole baking dish, so watch out you netizens, I am gonna attack with more casserole dishes soon!

Walnut Coffee Cake Recipe

Presenting the recipe for the Walnut Coffee cake I made for my sister in law's birthday a few weeks ago, in Baking Sweet Baking Savoury.

The recipe was from a book I recently bought, but since it called for items like cream sherry and walnut liquer, I had to tweak it to suit the ingredients available here, and here is what I came up with.

You Need:

1 tsp vanilla essense
1 cup butter, softened
4 eggs
2/3 cup honey
2 cups all purpose flour (APF)
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp instant coffee powder
100g finely ground walnuts
100ml whipping cream.

For the icing
200g sweetened chocolate
some milk
some cream cheese

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line cake pan with parchment paper or prep with butter
2. Beat the butter and gradually beat in the eggs, honey and vanilla essence. Sift in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and coffee, add the walnuts and stir into the mixture. Stir in the whipping cream. Turn the batter into the prepared cake pan.
3. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until skewer comes out clean. Once done leave it to cool completely.
4. To make the icing, double boil the chocolate, beating it with milk and cream cheese to your desired taste. Leave it to cool slightly.
5. Spread the icing on the cake. Decorate with walnuts or almond flakes as desired.

I should have beaten the cheese cream with the chocolate longer because in my mixture you can see it slightly lumpy all over. The best thing about this cake is that it has nice caramel colour and the aroma of honey and cinnamon (I like!) despite being a coffee cake. Great for gatherings or just for tea. Happy Baking!

Just The Three of Us

Last weekend we set out for a quick date night leaving kids behind, for a quick trip to window shop and eat in Setia City Mall. The mall is so huge and cool that we never get to really check it out whenever we go there.

While on the way being so excited, we got a shock to find out that the road has been totally closed to vehicles due to an overturned lorry, and we were forced to turn back for an alternative route. We started joking that even fate does not want us to be away from the kids. As we drove, we noticed the amount of cars on the trunk road, acknowledging the fact that its the last weekend of school holidays, many people would be out and about with their families.

Suddenly I had a spontaneous idea to just continue driving and have like a mini road trip for the four hours that we were granted away from the kids. Such spontaneous decisions are never possible with the kids around because we are always worried about the comfort and stuff.

Driving and driving along the trunk road to Kuala Selangor we saw some signboards for Cendol Bakar Kg Assam Jawa. We are this huge cendol lovers, and seeing the amount of cars flocking around the area made us wonder if its that good.

The best part, this local cendol joint even has a drive-thru! How cool is that?! Indeed very cool cendol drinks on a hot day, all in the comfort of our own car!

After rummaging for some loose change in the car to pay for the cendol (we urbanites were counting on the mall to withdraw money, so had minimal cash on us, seesh) we savoured our sweet drink. Very nice, and comparable to our local Klang cendol, yeah nothing beats Klang at that!

And in case you are not in the mood for just cendol drinks, you can even get Nasi Ayam Dara (Virgin Chicken Rice). I wonder if that makes any difference. For the record, we only bought a cup of cendol VVIP as we needed to keep space in our tummy for dinner.

I was so in the mood for tom yam so we drove and drove till Kuala Selangor, and after driving around we settled in for a steamboat restaurant, so that I can have my tom yam soup! Simple yet filling, and very spicy. My threshold for spicy tom yam exceeds my expectation. However hubby tries to keep up and I allow him to cheat by mixing tom yam soup with the regular soup. Things we do for love.

Just the three of us, hubby, I and food! The must have item on all our outings and memorable times. There is nothing better than sharing a great time chatting and laughing over great tasting food with the most special company.

Yea so this time I did not want to show the end product of our dinner (ie licked-clean plates after dinner). And afterwards, while I let out my burps of fire infused with a lot of raw garlic, we drove up to the Bukit Melawati lighthouse. Which by the way was pretty deserted and felt unsafe, so we left fast.

A simple night out, made memorable with a short road trip, away from any kinds of crowd and noise in the mall. Somehow it worked better for us, because making spontaneous decisions and trips is something that we really missed doing every since we started the little family of our own. Even the steamboat dinner is something that we cannot do with the kids, because of the nature of letting the soup boil right on our table is very risky with kids. Never thought such life's simple pleasures could feel so good!