Good Steamed Fish

We celebrated my little daughter-in-law's birthday over last week end. We went to a restaurant in Seri Kembangan that was very good. The speciality served there were the Steamed Fish (Ikan Haruan - 'Sang Yue') and Braised Pork Leg. Both dishes were just fantastic.

The Steamed Fish was well presented and tasted perfect! We also had broccoli fried with prawns. This was good too. The dish of crabs fried with Salted Egg was fantastic. The big crabs served there are very fresh and meaty.

The whole dinner for 9 pax with 8 dishes and fresh coconut drinks only cost RM200. Very reasonably cheap. Taking into consideration that we had big crabs, fresh fish, prawns, braised pork leg, tofu with seafood, 2 types of vegetables + sweet sour pork. Watermelon and Jelly were on the house.

Will definitely go there again.

Salt Baked Chicken

Aiyaah!!! so very frustrated! after 4 trials of cooking Salt Baked Chicken, i have yet to get it right. even my old wok had melted down! somehow the result was a soggy but tasty chicken. I am adamant to perfecting this dish as my family loves it. I, for sure will have to stop eating it. With the salt content so high, my blood pressure had already gone wild! so no cooking of anything for a few days. gotta rest and recuperate. Gotta buy new wok especially for Salt Baked Chicken too.

5 kilos lighter !!!

Finally.... after 3 long months I finally lost 5 kilos !!
Less binging does help. Also when need to binge, eat cucumbers, carrots and green apples. Soon, the sight of them makes my urge to binge die down. There... take a glass of chinese tea instead !!

Gotta go on a steamed vege and low protein diet (due to bad diabetic condition). will start eating my "amazing mix meal" again - steamed combination of brown rice (very little), pumpkin, shiitake mushroom, barley, corn kernels, konbu, carrots and leafy greens.

yummy dessert

I finally put a tryout in cooking up a dessert with pumpkin and egg custard. you know, the ones you get to eat at Thai restaurants? sliced pumpkin with coconut egg custard in the centre.

well.. it tasted not sweet enough otherwise it turned out OK. but i cannot take too sweet a dessert, remember?. forgot to take a photo. too eager to eat it ! next time when i cook up another i shall post a photo of it.

Totally Attached !

Say hello to Domino, our little precious pet. This is the little minpin that I have grown so attached. Even felt rather sad and hurt when my son scolds him for being disobedient. well..., what do one expect? he is only 11 weeks old !!! but isn't he cute? he even look better with his ears all perked up. shopping for him is rather like shopping for a baby... special body shampoo, special vitamins and treats too! Have to buy him more toys now.

Today, we taught him to play 'fetch' with his orange colored rubber squeaky toy. he simply loves to play.

more on "Banh Xeu"

Oops..! i forgot - "Banh Xeu" is a Vietnamese dish. it is like a crispy savory crepe with meat, shrimps and a variety of vegetables for filling. the accompanying dipping sauce makes it all the more interesting. have to eat while it is hot though.

"Banh Xeu".. mmmm.... yummy good !

Yesterday my daughter-in-law made "Banh Xeu" for lunch. They tasted so good.
Crispy on the outside, crunchy inside. the filling of meat, shrimps and a variety of vegetables just taste so good.

This easy to make "Banh Xeu" would surely be a future snack for friends when they come visiting.

Our New Pet

We have a new pet. His name is Domino. Cute little minpin.
Been with us for more then 3 weeks. I am getting rather attached to him.
He is only less than 12 inches tall !! Now shopping will also include toys and treats for him... hee.. hee...

Flu Woes

Sniff... sniff.. Arrchoo!!! huh.... been with the flu bug for the last 5 days. I feel terrible. seen the doctor and completed the course of medication. but the bug's still with me. coughing too.. the cough mixture's making me sleepy and lazy. yet have to make a rush with the packing up for the move. already lost 3 days work, thanks to the flu bug.

one thing though... i did not binge at all this week.. well.. even normal meals tasted terrible. no mood to eat. hope to feel better next few days so that i can be my usual self. snff.. sniff..

Boxes please....

Omigosh..!! it has been 9 days ago since i last posted. been so busy sorting out our stuff and packing. you see.. my poor son is busy with his job and that leaves me and my daughter-in-law to carry out the packing. my worry about boxes is driving my son mad la....

I need boxes! went to the recyclers to buy some but they are not interested to sell small quantities. so i have to resort to asking relatives and friends for help. luckily my nephew started his new job managing a new foot reflexology & fish spa in Kajang. so there are some boxes around.

Back to my crave binge for food. seem to have slided down since the preparation to move house. maybe the apartment is in such chaos, there is no mood to even walk around the maze to look for food! good eh? from now till end July my daughter-in-law and i will be so very busy to even want to cook proper meals. sandwiches and one pot meals are the norm now. well, it is so easy to make pies and puffs on the side, to keep my son happy.

Lamb Pie Dinner

Wow! the lamb stew pie sure tasted as good as it looks! everyone was happy. needless to say, my son was again chomping away happily. even wiped off the last drop of gravy from his plate. since i have to watch my diet, i merely took a piece each of the lamb, carrot, celery and potato without the nice fluffy pastry pie top. well... it is the joy of watching my family eat so happily that makes my day!

Shall give the oven a rest today. OH YEAH!! electricity price increase effective today!!!! Haih, now my new found baking fun will have to slow down. wonder what happens if puff pastry is fried instead?

Pastry & Puffs Experiments

We are having fun experimenting with filo pastry and puff pastry. my son seem to enjoy our experiments. first we made corned beef hash puffs. it tasted great! a bit of problems though... some had burnt black tops!! haha hahaaa!! first tie mah!

Next day we made sardine puffs... waah! this time nice to look, good to eat man! my daughter-in-law & i are very happy with our try-outs.

Tonight, we are baking lamb stew pie for dinner... the pie look pretty in the oven.. wait for another 5 minutes and I shall be able to know how good the taste... or maybe yuks? tell you tomorrow.

Now I am searching for recipe for vegetarian pie.. maybe make up own on my own...hmmm..

Landed property for a change

Whooeee!! we will be moving out of the condo very soon. no more parking problems.
we want to go back to staying on a landed property where the kitchen would be bigger, living room bigger and best of all, a small patch of ground for my daughter-in-law's petite vegetable garden.

both of us are now busy sorting out our wants and needs of our old crockery, books, cloths, etc.. have to pack really fast.

all these years we have accumulated a lot of items that we want. well, the truth is, there was never really a need for most of them. so this time, we wanna start afresh. we shall just close one eye and throw away whatever not used for the past year or two. the philosophy of "one day will need this" have to stop. we shall sort out the plastics, metals and paper items and sell them to the recyclers....

whatever it is, this sorting out and packing had kept me so busy today that i had not binged at all!! Hah!

Gather that will power !!

Aiyooh ...!! it is really hard to resist this bad love to binge in between meals la..! i land up feeling lethargic and unhappy. tomorrow, i shall go for a short walk around our condo blocks when i crave for a binge... maybe this will help steer my mind away from the binge crave. must steer away from the mini market too! carrots and cucumber cubes now give me the shudder. too much liquid is not good for my poor kidneys. any suggestions for "safe" snacks anyone??!! please do share with me.

Made a nice breakfast drink this morning - 1 cucumber, 1 carrot, 2 leaves of beijing cabbage, 2 leaves of purple cabbage, 1/2 a grapefruit & 1 teaspoon oats. blend, add ice cubes and enjoy. taste really good.

Grapefruit Helps !

YES!! after a very trying 2 weeks i managed to get rid of 1kg from my obese body. hee hee... very trying coz, each time i wanna grab some snack to binge on, i would take a small cup of water or eat a slice of grapefruit. i take 1 whole grapefruit for breakfast now ... yup with the pulp too. taste terribly sour and a bitter after taste... some how i feel much better day long... bitter gourd juice is now on twice a week routine.

I went to see the doctor at HUKM yesterday morning. was advised that grapefruit is a natural laxative. benefits me though. will continue with it. hope to lose 1kg every week ... must garner that much needed willpower .

Feeling Blue....

Got up this morning with a scare ! I spitted out fresh blood even before I started to brush my teeth !! this is real scary. i am taking a wait and see stand... if this happens again, i shall definitely go to the hospital. oh dear, what else is happening to me?! not now with the economy so bad and finances so stretched.

So, today i am really feeling blue... been surfing the net for information on many topics. even visited lelong.com.my to see what's there for sale online. very interesting. seems to have a lot of watches for sale. even saw LV perfume for sale at RM11.00 !!!! huh??!! saw some more new designs of Luscious Girls Fashion Watches for sale too. prices are cheap. i think these Luscious Girls watches make good presents for girlfriends and young girls for any occasion. i am tempted to get one of the not so trendy design for myself. this old lady need to spice up too eh?! anything to feel pink again.... Publish Post

Gotta tighten our belts !!!

Wah !!, like overnight prices of food and necessities went up so much!

Got a shock of my life this morning... normally i pay 50 sen for a piece of fishball at the chee cheong fun stall.. now i have to pay 90 sen for a piece of fishball and RM1.00 for a piece of chee cheong fun!!! so now breakfast would have to be a cup of nestum at home daily. no more hawker food, even for a light meal like breakfast.... sob sob - this is sad.

I would not dare to find out how much a plate of my favorite roast duck rice would cost now.... gotta say goodbye to this too !!

perhaps on a lighter note - may do me some help in my weight reduction project. Not diet plans, mind you.... i shall be starving towards it !!!

We are all suffering from AIDS !!!

Haih!!!!... Oh dear...... petrol price increase so drastically. say only.. no increase in cost of transportation and subsidy here and there... special discount on petrol for logistics and transportation companies and so so... but in reality ? price of food stuff had increased... go pasar malam also not cheap... price of rice had increased so much... i pity those people who have to stuff themselves with at least 2 bowls of rice each meal.... i suppose all of us will have to eat rice on alternate days now !!!! income never got increased, at least not in ratio with price increase of commodities though. since last week, my cute daughter-in-law had started planting chillies, tomatoes and bayam in pots. now the balcony of our apartment is our little vegetable garden. we will also try planting sawi in pots too. what do so, have to supplement food cost this way lor....

Now you know why I say we are suffering from AIDS? "Acute Income Deficiency Syndrome !!!"

Soon, we will have to learn to travel by bicycle, no visits to cinemas, no shopping at supermarkets and ahh! yes! not to forget we have to plant our own sweet potatoes to supplement rice, coz sweet potatoes sold in the market is expensive too !!!

OBESITY Nightmare !

YUCKS !! I am now referred to the HUKM Dietitian for Obesity Management !! Oh dear.... with my enormous weight gain the last year and half, my weight is now doing a lot of damage to my bones!! my feet especially.... so i have to go for counseling and supervision under a dietitian. hope this time i am able to lose 30kg !!! if only i could take those slimming shake drinks that seem to do something for my friends. but alas, being diabetic and with weak kidneys, these high protein meal plans are not suitable for me. don't wanna any more damage to my kidneys.

So after a most sumptuous Japanese Buffet at Saisaki Restaurant last evening, I have to say good bye to glorious delicious food and take on whatever meal plans the dietitian will dish out for me. cannot expect anything interesting.... i am sure.... i have to keep my bones in order though. so this time i really gonna work on losing that 30kg !!

binge crave again !

been very busy the last few days. sorry have neglected my blog. i have been on a good diet the past few days. living on fruits and raw vegetables with very little meat. really trying hard to put my blood sugar down. but alas, this afternoon i started to binge again!!! luckily i did not have much snacks available. must make sure never to store any more snacks at home.

my niece from ipoh brought me a pot of plant recently. apparently, many people in ipoh are consuming the leaves of this plant to reduce blood sugar and hypertension. crunchy and tasty. i have been taking 5 pieces of the leaves each morning with a glass of water for the past week. some people blend them with fruits juices. i do not know the proper name of the plant. they call it "jue mei fong" in cantonese. i do feel better. does wonders to my constipation problem though.

Medicine woes

yesterday i went to the hospital to get my month's supply of medicines. to my dismay, i was not supplied anymore with 2 of the medicines for hypertension. so i had to use extra cash to buy from the hospital's pharmaceutical outlet. with already limited cashflow, i now have to spend another RM66 a month on top of the RM20 i need to pay for the rest of the medicines supplied by the hospital. This does not include the cost of another 2 types of medicine that were prescribed by the doctors and not available from the hospital. in total i need RM256 a month for medicines prescribed and not available from the hospital. i wonder what the government is doing in respect of health care for the aged. instead of providing they are now taking away benefits !!! i can only pray for their mercy not to take away any more medicines from us - the aged with chronic diseases.

More on Langkawi Holiday

As i mentioned earlier, swimming in the pool at Federal Villa was great. no too many swimmers around... so not so many eyes watching this 'hippo' bopping around !!! hee hee hee.... the beach was clean and the view fantastic... so peaceful and refreshing... the early morning walk on the beach was relaxing. we went on for buffet breakfast at Holiday Villa. priced at RM38++ per pax, it was value for money spent. good selection of food and fragrant coffee.

we had a rather terrible experience at a restaurant called "Fat Mum Chinese Restaurant". the servings were very small and the wait was 45 minutes for just 2 plates of food. the bill came up to RM80 for 2 plates of fried noodles, 1 bottle of mineral water and 2 pineapple juice. have been and never ever visit again!! Dinner at "Orkid Ria" was good. Food was fresh and tasty. Seafood dinner with a plate of Duck Curry cost only RM200 (7 pax). Large tiger prawns too!!! happy to recommend this outlet.

Back from Holiday !

Time flew by so fast and before I had more fun, it was time to come home. our first stop was ipoh, perak. as always, we went for the great yummy yummy tasting hawker food. the ipoh sar hor fun was tops as usual. my favorite being the curry noodles with the crunchy fishball, stuffed vegetables and of course, my favorite stuffed beancurd sheets with fish paste and sengkuang 'sar gort fu pei' . the ipoh kopi 'O' - the perfect pick-me-up.

Next we travelled to Langkawi Island. stayed at the Federal Villa. Rooms were clean and good. Good for the price of RM188 a night. enjoyable time by the pool and beach. i made sure i make use of my new swimwear !! hahaaa... good news was - i was not the only 'michellin tyre mascot' around. in fact i was the smallest of the mascots !!!!! should have bought the sexier looking one... well, next time..

Stubborn Blood Sugar Problem!

Oh dear...! my stubborn high blood sugar problem has been lingering on for the past few days and i am getting jittery. do not wish to increase my dosage of insulin jab. hope it goes down tomorrow. if not, i gonna have a lousy holiday ahead. i will try eating no carbo today and live on veggies and clear mineral water for a day or two. will go out and walk around the pool-side too. cannot put too much strain on my legs though. my right foot is fitted with a screw! so jogging is out.

coming back to our planned family holiday at Langkawi Island. Hah! i found a swim wear that fitted me !!!! yeah yeah! at Jusco , Mid-Valley. the kind sales assistant rampaged her stock and found 3 designs with size XXL. i tried all of them and had a good laugh! one was a nice black n white halter neck with a skirt front. the piece was lovely but on me? uh uh.... actually i chickened out. always have the notion that you gotta look shapely in swimwear... next i tried a one piece suit that looked like what divers use, only to see a replica of the mascot of Michelin tyres in the mirror!!! horrors no! it didn't come off fast enough!! luckily there was this 2 piece suit that looked reasonably ok on me. fat no doubt, cannot help it. but at least not that cute mascot! so i bought it. now i tell myself - i have to go swimming at least twice a week now that i am fitted with swimwear.... i suppose the exercise would do some good to my diabetic condition. heee...heeee. my little daughter-in-law will have to accompany me go swimming in the pool. she is really beautiful in swimwear... ah... how great to be young, slim and shapely.

Hawker Food, Yummy !!

last evening we went out for hawker food. whilst in the subang area we travelled around the vicinity to view the new township of ara damansara. beautiful houses . large area. we came across a food fair at a commercial park ..... i understand the place is named "niu xer sui" or something similar to "bullock cart avenue"? hee hee.... there were many types of the usual hawkers fair. my daughter-in-law and i went for the thai seafood tomyam noodle which was so good. i mean really good. not the usual overly sour and chilly hot stuff. this was a tomyam that is perfectly done with no overtones. we shared the bowl but wanted more !! we also shared a plate of mango & sticky rice. this was good too. but i had to limit myself to one mouthful only. we got a plate of fried kway teow with duck eggs!! well worth the wait. the dish was so fragrant and the taugeh (bean sprouts) so crispy. my son ordered a plate of BBQ pork on skewers. Waaah !!!! never had such good tasty char siew... i would recommend this food fair. will definitely visit a few more times with my friends. heard it ends in early june 2008. mmm... still thinking about the BBQ pork on skewers ! now drinking yet another glass of bitter gourd juice ! Cheers!

Swimwear X-Large Size

Whoop-pa-dee-dah!!! my son is taking me on holiday come Thursday !! sumptuous food in Ipoh and Penang and then Langkawi Island!! been a good girl these few days. filling myself with bitter-gourd juice every morning. taking no rice, not even brown ones. just eating some meat and fish and vegetables. taking more fruits too... yeah yeah... of coz not the very sweet ones. no more durians and mangoes. only the sour plums, grapefruits n such... feeling better and happier.

now the problem is what am i gonna wear to go swimming during my holiday? what do very fat old ladies wear for beach and pool activities? there is of coz the idea of just sitting around watching the family having fun and i breathing in the fresh air! i wanna have fun too! must go search for some decent beach wear later today (if i can find one my size...)

Talking about bitter gourd juice for diabetics. some time ago a doctor i visited then, had introduced me this. just take the juice of 1 small bitter gourd every morning. it does keep check on blood sugar. only that the taste is terrible. well... have to ensure the taste if i wanna be better....

Victim of Temptations !

aiyah..!! could kill myself!! gave in to temptations yet once again. been telling myself to start eating healthy. wanna start that colorful bowl of veggies, nuts and brown rice dinner 2 nights ago. devil of temptations met up and i went out for curry mee instead!!! as if not bad enough, i even went on to eat 3 pcs of durian!!! (i'm very embarrassed... oh dear) the next day, we all know what happened. i was groggy and lethargic. this went on the whole of friday, walking around the apartment like a zombie, scolding myself for being greedy, having no will power at all.

Ah... today i shall start my day with just carrot and bitter gourd juice and some plain toast. will still cook the braised pork for the family dinner. i plan to take fruit and vegetables for lunch n dinner. hopefull no wise guys around me will tempt me with nght out dining. i wanna lose the huge extra kilos.

Blood Sugar Up !

Oh no!! my blood sugar has gone up again! must really find help to stop this day long binge on tidbits n such.... must learn to sleep early too.. which means i must not sleep in the daytime!!! My doctor's gonna be disappointed with me. i am worried about it too. been feeling groggy and weak since getting up this morning. gotta strictly ensure my intake of food and drinks next few days to bring the sugar level down... having so much free tome is really killing me slowly. just surfed the net to get some ideas on diabetic food. looks interesting but i can imagine the bland taste... i gonna try the very colorful bowl of veggies, nuts and brown rice for dinner today. can anyone please share some tested meal recipes for diabetics?

Just fascinated....

Well..., having left the job world since last Christmas, I had taken almost 4 months to bring myself to adjust and face life as a retiree. Been spending time endlessly lazing around the house, watching telly till nothing interests me anymore. I turned to spending time playing "bejeweled"! then, to viewing blogs. I am fascinated with what i read in the blogs... this is a chance to create new friends, new channel of communication and best of all, keep my old mind ticking.... hopefully, this can help stop my day long binge .... roasted peanuts anyone? Oops!