Saturday 31 December 2016

December is my favourite month of the year

December is my favourite month, because there are celebrations throughout the whole of December, starting from my birthday, children's school holiday, my mum's birthday, winter solstice, Christmas and closely follow by New Year's Eve and a brand new year.
Desserts & cakes at Promenade Hotel 

When we talk about celebrations and gathering, there must have food, adding a few pounds or kg on our belly is unavoidable in December month alone.  It's the last day of the year, we have worked hard and stressed out for the whole year, let's relax and enjoy more good food with our families and friends on the new year 's eve and welcome a superb year of 2017 for all of us.


Thursday 8 December 2016

Upperstar Restaurant

Upperstar is a very successful chain restaurant in Sabah. Credits are given to its reasonable price, good food and cosy dinner environment. Just a few weeks ago, we went to its Damai branch restaurant just after it is opened for business at 10.30am. We had our family Christmas party meeting there. Gathering is not complete without food, we went there empty stomach after Sunday morning mass from church. 

I ordered a cup of coffee, they serve our local Fatt Choi Tenom coffee (I like the idea of them supporting local produce).
Fatt Choi coffee sachet is very thick and kaw, I can make a pot of coffee instead of a mug using one sachet at home.
My cheesy girls ordered lasagne and
spaghetti carbonara for breakfast in the morning
on the side we ordered the mixed sandwiches - Tuna and Egg sandwiches
and curry buffs
On the meeting table

We were sitting at the open air, this little fella came around, not asking for food, simply hanging around.  My girls always wanted to have cat at home, they are still waiting for my green light to have a cat.
I might adopt a cat to scare away the rats around the house since our dogs could not do their job.  Still considering.



Wednesday 7 December 2016

Home Remedy for Sore throat, Cough and Cold with Asam Boi Tenom

I find this is a very effective home remedy for sore throat, cough and cold. I have tried a few times and it's proven effective.

A 900gm bottle of I think more than 50 pieces of preserved calamansi (kit cai) stuffed with preserved plum cost only RM28.00, it is a product of Tenom, a town in Sabah, popular with its tangerine and coffee, yes, Yit Foh and Fatt Choi brands coffee are both from Tenom.  

Back to the Asam Boi, I usually served it warm to treat the sore throats problem for my daughters, take the drinks 2-3 times a day.  The preserved calamansi is very tasty too.  It is also very refreshing serving it cold on a hot day.  


Tuesday 6 December 2016

Dumplings Soup 皮蛋饺子青菜汤


My generous neighbour gave us a pack of 10 pieces frozen dumplings that she bought from her visit to Sandakan.  It is the best dumplings that we have had so far.  The fillings is compact with pork, prawn, century egg 皮蛋. It is super delicious. We only had this soup for dinner last night.

 

Saturday 3 December 2016

Food Talk

Let's start with something we had for breakfast.  It's been a while I did not have meals at Kuo Man Kopitiam at Sunny Garden, they are famous for their fish soup.  I am not willing to pay extra GST charges for fish soup that I could find better elsewhere.  Just 2 weeks ago, we happened to be around the area, we went to have breakfast there. To our dismay, when we asked for tissue, the waitress took a small packet of tissue to sell to us...they can't even provide tissue to their customers ??? Even a small food stall give us a piece of tissue together with the fork and spoon or chopsticks lah.  It's going to be another long while I will eat there again. 

Kuo Man Konlou mee with fish paste soup
Kuo Man Kopitiam Mee basah 
Meehoon soup fish cake from Kuo Man Kopitiam
Vegetable rice for lunch at Indian kopitiam, my daughter commented "Mummy, you come to Indian shop to eat these vegetable dishes only ? Shouldn't you have some curry dishes??"  She's right but I was not into curry that day.  
We had pisang goreng cheese, lots and lots of cheese after my vegetable meal.

This looks miserable right?  My better half had this for dinner, he had no complaint, I guess that taste must be good.
I had this Thai Style chicken rice, it's hot & spicy, cukup rasa (tasty).

That's all for this food talk post.

Friday 2 December 2016

Christmas decorations at Oriental Hotel KK

It is the nicest time of the year to be out and about to feel the Christmas mood in the shopping complexes and hotels.  I attended a wedding dinner at Oriental Hotel Kota Kinabalu last Saturday, the hotel has displayed a huge Christmas tree at the foyer, and Christmas cookies and cakes at the cafe.  Let's enjoy the video clip.

Thursday 1 December 2016

Birdie Flower

HAPPY DECEMBER EVERYONE !!

let's enjoy a video of my "birdie" flower.  I got this flower from my SIL many years ago.  This variety is very versatile, I put it in the open area without shade, it gets all the sunshine and water shower, I only water it once in a while, not much care needed.  The flowers resemble a bird, very cute.

Anyone knows the name of this flower?  Please let me know in the comment box.  Thanks!!

Tuesday 29 November 2016

The construction of Pan Borneo Highway

The Pan Borneo Highway or the Trans Borneo Highway which is expected to be 2083km long on Borneo land linking Sabah and Sarawak is still under construction after all these years.
image courtesy from google
The major construction started about 2 years ago along Dongonggon and Kinarut stretch (on Sabah side). We drove along this road to attend a cousin's wedding last weekend. I have recorded down the progress of the construction of the road for our future generations to see. We are all excited to go for a Trans Borneo convoy once it is completed, hopefully we will have a good car by then to explore the towns and cities of Sabah and Sarawak including Brunei. 

Tuesday 22 November 2016

Sleeping with Books

Couldn't decide what's the title for this post. Since I am talking about the books just by my bed side, they are as good as sleeping with me, so I just give this post title as Sleeping with Books. I like to read. One could judge by the thick glasses I am wearing.  Books are the knowledge power house for all of us. whether we finish reading the whole book, part of the book or just few pages of it, we will be able to learn something out of it.

These are the books the I am sleeping with.  About half are cook books.  I have confessed before that I love to eat but not a good cook, thus need more cook books to inspire me to be more creative in my cooking.  Other than cook books, I also like to read motivational and business related books.  Will show you my family's collection of books next time.
I realised that the Information technology (IT) advancement is too fast that my knowledge on this area is far lacking behind, I should start reading publications on IT, if not I will be just like those old gadgets becoming "obsolete" soon.   

Monday 21 November 2016

Christmas Decoration 2016 at Kinabalu Club

Christmas is fast approaching.  I find it scary as how time fly so fast.  When we are out and about lately, some of the shopping complexes have already put up Christmas decorations.  So far I like the most is the Christmas decoration at Kinabalu Club, the local club and cafe.

I like how it is decorated, very homely and full of Christmas mood, the things amiss is the Christmas songs and the snowy cold weather, haaaahaaa.  We could appreciate more if we could see in the video.



We ordered something to eat at the cafe.  Spaghetti Bolognese for my girl.  She complained that the portion is too small, which I agree.
We also ordered Club fried rice, simple presentation.

Our family has planned to hold a Christmas party at this club this December.  Which is going to be full of fun and perfect bonding time for family members from near and far.

Friday 18 November 2016

Simple, Affordable & Satisfying home cooked Meal

This is a very common meals in my house where everyone find comfort and at ease to eat at home.  After reaching home through a series of usual after working hours traffic jams, reaching home with such comfort meals, we are truly blessed.    

With all the ingredients ready, cooking this meal is very easy and simple. 

 3 dish meal is served. Meat & meat, vegetable with garlic, plain omelette

Wednesday 16 November 2016

Goodies from Overseas

 My neighbour who went for a month holiday had come back 2 days ago.  She is a retiree who can afford to travel without much worries.  Children has all  grown up and no financial constraint.  It would be a best idea to travel while still can walk about.  

We heard our door bell rang while we were busy preparing our dinner the other night.  We peeped and saw our neighbour standing in front of our gate.  She brought us a bag of goodies from Hong Kong and Japan.  And a beautiful scarf for me from Japan too..will show the photo later.

 The biscuits and Moji

I like these moji - Seasame and Green Tea fillings
Japanese biscuits

Base on the name of the biscuit, it says crab biscuit from Shanghai..crab also can be made into biscuit:D

I opened them up last night for a round of tasting.  They are all sweet stuff.  Good for tea break. 



Tuesday 15 November 2016

My Turn to Cook - Spaghetti Bolognese local style

I always received thumbs up for my localised Spaghetti Bolognese from my people in the house. I must confess that I never follow any measurement of ingredients for my recipes, the main ingredients for my spaghetti sauce has to have minced meat (I prefer minced beef), carrots, onions, button mushrooms and tomoto puree.  I do not use any herbs except for those sauce that come with herbs.  So far I have not tried to do my own spaghetti sauce, all are bought from the supermarket. 

The presentation is very much lacking but home cooking is served and eat style, presentation comes last....:DDD
the comparison between mine 🔺and the hotel 🔻serving.  Garnishing will definitely give a dish an added flavour, next time I will prepare some garnishing like parsley to my home cooking to make them more visually appealing, it is an art in any culinary. 

Sunday 13 November 2016

Dining at Palace Hotel Kota Kinabalu

After fetching my girls from school, we chose to have lunch at Palace Hotel slightly an hour before the auction session started. As an assistant to the auctioneer, I can not be late, it would be convenientto dine at the same hotel where the function is.

 my girl's spaghetti bolognese came first.  The sauce looks very dry, I thought of sharing some with my girl but the portion is a bit small, she shared some with her little sister whose fish & chips came much later.  The taste must be alright since she did not complain about the sauce being too dry.
  
My set lunch came with hot coffee.  They serve me the coffee first, by the time I finished my meal, the coffee is no longer hot..I prefer them to serve the coffee last.  Since we were a bit rush, I just accepted it when it's served. 

 Followed by salad and a bowl of mushroom soup
I chose the Tauhu (beancurd) hot pot with rice as main meal.  Can be tastier I must say, and too plain for my liking, I can only taste the soy sauce.

The fish & chips came last. The serving was alright.  
My girls ordered a glass of Chinese Tea ice each, the one at the top right, it's the most expensive glass of Chinese Tea Ice I have ever seen, RM11 each.  The bill came with a total amount which was higher than expected, I looked at the breakdown of the bill and realised the charges of RM22++ for the Chinese Tea Ice, the cashier told me that they have to charge according to the price of other beverage because there is no item for Chinese Tea Ping stated in their menu.  I complained to the F&B senior that it is very unreasonable to charge a plain tea ice for that kind of price.  He then ordered the cashier to cancel the charges from my bill.  I appreciate it very much. 

Thursday 10 November 2016

Xuan Confinement Centre

I found this brochure on the dinner table last night, my better half must have collected it when someone passed to him in a Shopping complex.  Definitely not meant for me, I am over the age to go on confinement again..though my girls wanted to have a little brother..too risky to get pregnant again at my age.  

Back to the brochure, I have been hearing friends and also my own brother having the idea of operating a confinement centre offering specialised services to the modern age couples who would like to observe the "sub-traditional" way of caring for the confinement mothers and the babies during the vulnerable 1 month period without having to disturb the older folks to help them out or hire an experienced confinement lady to take care them.  

Finally, Xuan Confinement Centre is opened this month, I believe this is the first in Kota Kinabalu.  The founder of this centre is Dr. Foo Ming Hui. 

 

These are information in the brochure :

Looks good and services are complete with what we need during confinement.  Visit their facebook to enquire for further information and prices. 

Note: This is not a sponsored post.