Ethon's birthday

Happy birthday to Ethon. Ethon is one year old today, his parents, K.K and Evon both working in Genting Highlands, thus he has been taken care by his grandma, Evon's mom Cicelia in Ipoh

Ethon and his parents, K.K and Evon

Ethon and grandma Cicelia (Evon's mom)

Ethon and grandma Ah Hoon(K.K's mom)

Ethon and great great grandma,my cousin sister; Ah Hoon's mom

Ethon and great, great, great aunty, my mom, 85 years old now

Ethon is so fortunate, five generations of relatives celebrated his birthday with him.

We had seven course dishes dinner at Pusing Public Seafood Restaurant Sdn Bdh. The first dish, of course was the Low San.

All believed that the higher you toss the better you are, Low Hee

Smashed ginger steamed  kampong chicken

Soy source fried prawns

Sweet sour siakap fish

Braised pork

Steamed tau fo stuffed with fish paste.

All the dishes were too much for a table of ten of us, we have to ask to take away. My dog was lucky to have the big pork bone for supper.

Tanjong Tualang

On the sixth day of Chinese New Year, both of my sisters from Kuala Lumpur and Singapore wanted to visit their daughters in Teluk Intan, Alfred and me decided to send them because it was too messy for them to go by bus with luggage and begs of goodies. Dued to the heavy traffics from Ipoh to Kampar we diverted our drive through Batu Gajah and at the same time we can stop by Tanjong Tualang for fresh water prawns, moreover my younger sister never tasted the prawns in that little town.

We reached our destination at about one p.m, Restoran Makanan Laut Thong Lok, it was just a small restaurant who can lay only seven tables. We were lucky to be seated before another big crowd came in. We like to come to this restaurant because the boss , Francis and wife were very friendly and the prices of the foods were very reasonable compared to other neighbouring restaurants.

We ordered one kati of middle-sized fresh water prawns for steaming, and  another kati for soy source frying. Half of the Marble Goby and fried La-La.

Steamed fresh water prawns

Soy Source Fried Fresh Water Prawns

Steamed Marble Goby

Kam Heong Fried La-La

Steamed prawns has the fragrant and freshness of the prawn, sweet and crunchy, while the soy source fried prawns has different taste, crunchy too .

The steamed Marble goby was really good, the size was just suitable for serving thus the flesh was very sweet and tasty.

The Kam Heong fried la-la was very good as well.

Francis was really a good cook.

Restoran Makanan Laut Thong Lok is located at

9, Jalan Pasar,

31800, Tanjong Tualang,Perak.

Tel: 05 3607921

Reunion with primary teachers and classmates

This Chinese New Year we managed to gather only nine of our primary school classmates to visit our primary school teacher who thought us from primary one to six.  All of us really respect and love him very much, we made our promise to visit him every year during Chinese New Year in Teluk Intan.

This picture was taken in our teacher house on the third day of Chinese New Year.

All were middle aged classmates, some were grandmas already.  Standing forth from left on the back row is our teacher, he is now seventy-two years old.
After a short chat, we adjoined for lunch at Shee Chuan Restaurant, in Teluk Intan.

While waiting for foods to be served, take a snap for the album.
The first dish was The Five Taste Dish.

Next we had Asam  Steamed Golden promplet.

Vegetarian mixed vegetables.

Tong Poh Pork with Man Tau

All of us were too full to put in anymore food, we had to stop the rest of the orders, like fried prawns and glutinous rice for take away.

Though it was festive season and with a big crowds, the foods were well prepared and taste good, big portions too!.

We all had a very memorable and happy reunion and eagerly waiting for the next one to come.

Our sir gave me another old teacher contact number who retired in 1986. I managed to get hold of her in Ipoh.  She was so excited to meet me and my sister.  She was so strong, when she shake hand with us, I could feel that tight and strong hold on my hand. She is now ninety-five years old, her memories were still good. She could recall our good old times in school. Really good to chat with her.

Though she is ninety-five years old, she still looks so alert and healthy.

Reunion Dinner

I decided to have home cook reunion dinner for this Chinese New Year because all my brother  and sister in laws were not joining us for this occasion. Only six of us, my father-in-law, my two sons, the maid and both of us. I have bought all the necessary ingredients for the five dishes that I needed a few days before the occasion.  I needed sea-cucumbers for one of my dish, so I bought three dried sea-cucumbers. My mom taught me how to prepare the dried sea-cucumbers.
The method.   Put the sea-cucumbers into a soup pot half-filled with water.  Take it to a boil.  Turn to low fire and continue boiling for half an hour.  Remove from stove and add more water to almost fill up the pot.,let stand till next day. Pour out the water, clean the intestines of the sea-cucumbers, soak them in the pot again with lots of water. On the third day, change the water, boil the sea-cucumbers for about fifteen minutes, repeat as the first day, add more water to the pot, let stand till next day. Change the water everyday until the sea-cucumbers expand till the size that you are  satisfied.
The first dish I prepared was the braised vinegar pork leg. It will taste better if its cooked  a day earlier.
Braised vinegar pork leg.

The ingredients for Bountiful Harvest

Three pre-soaked sea-cucumbers, six dried Chineses mushrooms, soaked

five cloves of garlic, slices of ginger, six dried oysters, soaked, six dried scallops (medium)

three grams of black moss, soaked. Broccoli for decoration.

Cooked Bountiful Harvest

Ginger Steamed Golden Promplet

Jieu Hu Char (fried Chinese yam with dried chopped squid)

Deep Fried Prawns

Chinese New Year flowers

Chinese New Year is just around the corner.As usual, I would go to plant nurseries to hunt for flowers to decorate my house. Every year I go to Kuala Kangsar Road for flowers shopping, but this year I found a new and big plant nursery located in Ampang, Ipoh.
Wow!! See all the beautiful blooms, I just can't resist but to snap pictures of those flowers,

This is a very big Chinese Peach Blossom imported from China.

Colourful Chrysanthemums

Mosambi plants

The boss of the nursery called this Vietnamese Cherry blossom

Finally I decided to buy four pots of different colour Christmas Cherry.

My Small Chinese Peach Blossom

Dried Pussy Willow

Potted Pussy Willow.

Pineapple rolls

My whole family love pineapple rolls, in fact all of us just like to eat pineapples.  Pineapples are full of enzymes, minerals and vitamins. Its so expensive to buy pineapple rolls for festive season when all six of us like to eat , moreover they are not as good as home made.
To make pineapple rolls, I have to prepare pineapple jams in advance.  I bought three Josephine pineapples from Pasar Tani, cost me only RM4.50. Peel the pineapples skin, cut into small pieces and its ready to cook.
Simple ingredients for pineapple jam.
2 to 3 Josephine pineapples,
200 grams sugar,
dash of Cinnamon powder,
5 cloves,
1 tbs lemon juice,
2 tbs (mak ngah tong) to thicken the jam.
In a sauce pan ,pour in all the ingredients except the (mak ngah tong) to cook, keep stirring all the time. It took me almost three hour to have the pineapple jam cook.  Before it was done, add in the (mak ngah tong) to thicken up the jam. Remove the jam from the pan and lets cool,  pour into containers keep in freeze for later use.
Ingredients for pineapple rolls.
430 grams self raising flour,
20 grams icing sugar,
250 grams butter,
30 grams milk powder,
1 egg,
1 egg yolk for glazing(beaten with a bit of salt)
In a mixing bowl, mix well all the dry ingredients, using fingers rub in the butter till it forms a firm dough.  Rest the dough for about thirty minutes.

Use the pineapple rolls piping to pipe out into suitable lenght so that it can roll and cover the jam.

Place suitable amount of pineapple jam onto  the piped out pastry then roll up so to cover up the jam.

Put the rolls on baking tray then egg wash all of them. Bake in pre-heated oven of 170 degrees Celsius for 15 to 20 minutes.

Baked pineapple rolls.

I loved my  pineapple rolls, taste so good because the jam was pure pineapples and  for the pastry, I used good butter. This year at least I manage to bake three types of cookies and fried arrow heads.  I will continue to bake them as long as I can in the future. At the same time I can bake extra as gifts for friends and relatives, safe cost.

These are all the cookies that I baked. I am very satisfy with my result.

Almond Cookies

I like to eat almond nuts and almond cookies too.  Every Chinese New Year I would buy these cookies from friends, but this year I wanted to bake these cookies myself.  As usual I searched for the recipe from the webs and friends, finally I settled with recipe from my niece.
The ingredients are
100 grams ground almond
350 grams flour
30 grams corn flour
200 grams corn oil
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp sodium bicarbonate
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg yolk (beaten with a little salt)
You can buy ready ground almond from cake shop but I bought raw almonds, washed and toasted, pound into suitable coarseness.

Mix well all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, pour in the corn oil bit by bit, mix until it form a soft dough.  Place the dough into the refrigerator for about an hour.

Remove the dough from the freeze and use roller pin to roll the dough into about one cm thick, use cookies cutter to cut into shapes.

Place shaped cookies on baking tray, egg wash them and bake in pre-heated oven at 170 degrees Celsius for 15 to 20 minutes.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 




Baked almond cookies. 
My almond cookies taste so much better than those I bought  for so  many Chinese New Year.