My Chap Goh Mei 2018

It is the end of the 2018 Chinese New Year celebration on Chap Goh Mei today.  Lots of fire crackers and fire works in our neighbourhood tonite from dinner time till almost midnight now.

I started my day by lighting a candle at the alter and say a little prayer asking the Lord to grant us with lots of love, safety & health for our family.

I had a lunch feast with my colleagues at a seafood restaurant just a walking distance away from my office today.  I pre-ordered the dishes yesterday to avoid the long wait because our lunch time is only 1 hour. I am the eldest among them in this photo. 

  A group photo after our lunch.  

We had a very simple dinner prepared by my better half at home tonite, 3 dishes : Chinese sausage, baked lamb, green amaranth with rice. 

It is a stay at home night for us, tomorrow is a schooling day for our girls, exams is just 2 days away.  We do not practice throwing mandarin oranges into the river or sea but it would be fun seeing people doing that.  We did not buy or eat any mandarin oranges this year because all of us in the house are prone to cough after eating it.  

Wishing those who read this post a Prosperous & Fulfilling year of the Dog 2018!!

Beaufort Mee 保佛面

There are several districts in Sabah have got their signature mee.  For example Tuaran mee, Tamparuli mee, Tenom Mee and Beaufort Mee.  To me there are similarities among them which at times make me confused which type of mee we are eating.

Today, I would like to introduce our girls' favourite mee, the Beaufort Mee...

Lots of sawi with slices of char sau and pork in starchy gravy

I was told that these yellow spring noodle is handmade locally

I am not a mee person so I opted for meehoon instead

with the same gravy and cooking style, I could enjoy the Beaufort style fried meehoon.

There was one time we drove to Beaufort to look for the authentic Beaufort mee, unfortunately it was a public holiday, the coffee shop was closed..now without much hassle, we could easily find Beaufort mee around KK.

Beaufort is a quiet town some 95KM away from KK.  It is about 1.5 hours drive on the highway or 2 hours by train from KK city. Here is where Beaufort is located in North Borneo, you can read more about it via Sabah Tourism's website here.

Weekend Breakfast 猪杂粉面

 We supposed to have a morning walk at the park this morning but ended up having hearty breakfast at this coffee shop situated at Lintas Square. 

My better half ordered this mixed pork stuffs konlou mee 猪杂面.  He always shares with me everything he eats, I got to taste a bit of the pork and the mee, very tasty.

 

I always go for meehoon soup.  I am a bit disappointed with this serving, it looks so plain, don't you think so?  At least add some green vegetable or shallots/spring onions to it.  The soup is tasty and the meatball with squid is my favourite but I still need those greens.    

Speedy 4 Dishes Dinner

Yes, we had 4 dishes for dinner without cooking merely have to heat them up and cooked rice.  It was in one of the busy night last week,  we tapau food from the school canteen.  The spread of dishes serve at the school canteen just like those in the restaurant, with much cheaper price.   We did that once in a while to save the time to prepare dinner especially when we come back late in the evening.

The eve of Chinese New Year 2015

I like the fragrance of pamelo leaves, it is so refreshing and full of Chinese New Year festive smell. 

It is a tradition in our home to shower with boiled pamelo leaves water on the eve of Chinese New Year to wash off the bad chi before our family reunion dinner.  I guess most of the local families do the same.  I brought together this tradition into my own small family after  marriage.  Clet will also splash our cars with boiled pamelo leaves water after washing them.

This year, we celebrated our family dinner at youngest brother's home..we were very disappointed that our papa admitted to the hospital the day before due to lungs infection.  Instead of having dinner at home, he had it in the hospital  with  the  packed dishes from home.  He generously gave away his hospital food to someone in the hospital as a gesture of good deed.

Thanks to the  effort of Albert and SIL Shirly for preparing nice and special dishes for us on this  eve of Chinese New Year.

Dragon Mooncake

It seems we just celebrated Moon Cake Festival not long ago, here comes Moon Cake Festival again. Time really flies for busy people like me. Sometimes I feel a little scary thinking of so much yet to be done with no time to really enjoy life.

Let's come back to the Moon Cake. This is the dragon image double yolks moon cake that my girls asked their Daddy to buy that day. I like the dragon image, while the moon cake is always too sweet for my liking.  We buy, eat moon cakes and celebrate Moon Cake Festival every year to ensure that our girls do not forget they have partial Chinese "root" from me. ^.^

Talk about food

Time flies. The packets of instant noodles I bought from our trip to Philippines last December have nearly gone expired.  Why waste food and my effort for bringing  them back and throw them into the bin?

Before they gone expired, I brought them to the office as my lunch.  There are cooking facilities in our office to prepare light meal. So I had instant Spaghetti for lunch yesterday.

When we got back from work in the evening, Clet was in the kitchen preparing dinner. The lamb and curry chicken were dishes that we tapau from the parties we attended. 5 dishes in all for dinner.

Eating out

Finding a place to have meals is equally tough as what to cook at home.  Probably because the preference of food for 4 of us in this family are different.  I always prefer to have soup and vegetable while my kids prefer noodles, clet can't eat without meaty dishes.  

Yesterday, we tried out a seafood restaurant not far from our home.  These are the dishes we ordered:

Sweet & sour pork.  This dish is not to our taste.  Sweet & sour taste is not there.

Real plain omelette, that's our girls' choice, any added ingredient will be rejected.

I have been refraining from eating fish ever since I heard of red tide in Sabah.  But Clet knows fish is my favourite dish, he told me that fish in the pond are safe to consume thus he ordered this to satisfy my craving for fish.

Noodles in a bowl

I was half way through preparing the ingredients for my cooking tonite and realised that we forgot to replenish the rice pot, there was only a handful of rice left which is not enough for the 4 of us, honestly, my forgetfulness does get on my own nerves sometimes.

Clet suggested to have noodles for dinner instead of driving out to buy rice from the shop. Hence, we ended up having Noodles in a Bowl for tonite's dinner.  I prepared the dish and Clet cooked up the noodles.  It was well received by Crystal and she asked for the same meal again for tomorrow.   Noodles is an all time favourite in our house.

Steamed eggs with minced Pork

I am not a fussy eater, so long as I am not asked to take those fatty animal fats.  I always buy lean pork and slice away any fats attached to it when I prepare my cooking.  Clet always finds lean meat tough to consume.  He got the idea from the school canteen and came out with his superlicious and solid steamed minced lean pork with eggs.  It is one of the favourite dishes which our girls love to have for lunch from the school canteen.

Our girls can never get bored with fried egg and they are very much of the meat eaters just like their daddy (no matter how I convinced them to eat more vegetable).  Once tried on eggs with minced pork, it has  since became their favourite dish.  We could see their smile on their face when they see this is served on the table. I believe this is also the all time favourite for many of us.  

Clet's version of Steamed eggs with minced pork look like this,

Into the Fifth day of Detox and Rejuvenation Program

Just an update on how I am doing with my annual Detoxification and Rejuvenation Program (DRP).

I am now into my fifth day of Detoxification & Rejuvenation Program (DRP) today, I decided to do just 5 days this time, that means today is the last day of my Detox. One would ask whether I feel any difference after the fifth day of strict fruits & vegetable diet supplemented with vitamins in the package. I would say YES. I feel much lighter, not only slimmer, I also feel much relieve on the neck strain and headache problem that I have been suffering all this while, and I wake up more refreshing even with lesser hours of sleep.

I am more at ease in following this program as compare to last year (which I completed the course of 7 days). Probably I know what to do and what to expect in this time round.

Do I crave for food?? YES, definitely, but my will power is strong enough to resist those food placed in front of me while having dinners together with my family for the last 4 days. Craving for food is always the biggest challenge in carrying out the DRP.

If you have gone through a strict diet like what I do, I am sure you will crave for your favourite food. I can tell you that there is one food that I crave the most in these 5 days. I have told my hubby and he will bring me there after I am done with my DRP, hopefully tomorrow.

I am really craving for this Fish Soup with Rice Vermicelli that I used to have for breakfast at one of the famous eatery in town.

Let me show you what I really craving to have….

Is this mixed fish meat and fish balls soup with rice vermicelli, dip with the mixture of light soy sauce, chillie padi and calamansi juice. Yummy…I am droolling now!!!!

This is the coffee shop in Bandaran Berjaya, Kota Kinabalu, famous for its Mixed Fish Soup

Similar article here : http://notecook.com/soup/fish-soup-with-rice-vermicelli-to-satisfy-my-crave/#ixzz1fC6jtEOm

Gong Xi Fa Cai 2011

It's really been a while since I last posted on my blog. I have been and still pretty busy on my daily chaos that I have to set aside my beloved blog. It's going to be days long Chinese New Year holiday, I have got to make a point to update this special occasion and to wish all a very happy and prosperous Chinese New Year 2011, let's all of us enjoy a healthy and fruitful Rabbit Year ahead.

After having a half day work in the office on the eve of Chinese New Year, I came back home to find a registered post waiting for me on the table, it's a little Angpow that I claimed from taking surveys from one of the survey companies. I received 2 KFC redemption vouchers worth RM10.00 each. Taking surveys are fun and rewarding.

We had our Family gathering dinner at brother, Alfred's house, where my mum and SIL, Catherine cooked a table full of dishes. I did not help cos I am not a good cook, scare to spoil the soup :D, my usual task is to help clean up after the dinner, so I took a nap at home to refresh myself before the dinner.

Mum busy arranging the dishes even after long hours of cooking

We had a good dinner and looking forward to more food and gathering with family members and friends in this Chinese New Year!! Gong Xi Fa Cai everyone!!