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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

Weekends Eats

Time just fly by during weekends.  We choose to stay home for breakfast when our girls do not have their Sunday school classes, our breakfast will become a brunch because we usually wake up late :D

last weekend, I cooked most of the meals at home which kept me all busy in the kitchen.  There seem are actually so many things to do around the house on weekends which I do not have the chance to do on working days,  Not long after our late breakfast, the clock telling me that it's time for lunch and dinner.   

So far this macaroni mushroom is a big favourite for my girls.  The above serving with coffee is my brunch

I am not a good cook, thus here come our simple lunch

Crunchy french beans with minced pork is the only main dish

Don't worry, we had Polo Char Sau Pau and plain Char Sau pau for afternoon tea bought from the famous local kopitiam 333 at Lintan.  The Polo Char Sau Pau is RM3.00 per piece, the shop owner is a good sales lady she convinced me to buy 2 to try it out, combination of sweet and savory,   

I still prefer the normal plain char sau pau.

Here come our dinner, when my turn to cook, I will serve more vegetable and keep reminding my girls to eat them.  "Eat more vegetable, blah blah blah...""

Just when we had finished our dinner, BIL and friend brought 3 big packets of mamak mee. Look delicious right?  Yes, I had mamak mee for supper, spicy but tasty with added calamansi juice.

中發白茶樓 Jong fa Pai Seafood fish soup noodles

Fish meehoon soup is my all time favourite.  There are many kopitiams serving good seafood and fish soup in Kota Kinabalu.  I am very particular in the seafood soup base, I would judge base on the first sip of the soup.

 I had a long weekend last week.  I took leave off on last Friday to help my better half on his property auction sale, before the auction session, we decided to revisit Tawau Jong Fa Pai kopitiam at their pavilion Bundusan branch.  We noticed that the prices have increased as compared to our last visit.  We know who to blame.

One would guess the owner(s) of this kopitiam must be mahjong kaki for them to name their shop as 中發白.  I will definitely bring my mum here next time for she is a veteran mahjong player not to play mahjong but enjoy the tasty fish soup.

This is my order, Fresh Fish Meehoon soup (without milk), my better half ordered the konlou mee.  They specialise in Fish Head Noodles both with and without milk as well as milk prawn ball. 

They have got 3 branches : Market Place 88, Pavilion Bundusan & Taipan Inanam.   It is one of the famous tourists eating kopitiams in KK. (www.jongfapai.com.my)

Taiwan Golden Fig

A long awaited news came to me this morning.  My better half told me that our TGF (Taiwan Golden Fig) is fruiting.  TGF is the first fig tree that we bought into our collections from a local fig trees grower in May this year.

Can you see the little fruit ?

Came closer to take a photo, I saw a smaller one just by the side (yehhh..double happiness)

 Now a photo from the top.  The fig fruits take up months to ripe.  Hopefully by Chinese New Year 2017, we will be able to taste the fruits of our labour.

 These are some of our younger fig trees, they need more attention and care than our other plants.

End of school term 2016

Time flies, we are in the last quarter of 2016 already.  Exams are over for the kids, it's end of school term for this year.  One of the main activities for every school would be the Sports Day, most of the schools having their Sports Day at the beginning of the year, some towards the end of the year when all their exams are done with so the students can concentrate on training and perform well.  

I attended my kid's sports day last week, the marching band is not perfect but good enough for primary school students with about 2 weeks training.    

After the sport day, I could noticed my girl had sun burnt, good training for her to be in the matching band. 

The Wor(l)d Helo Smartband

Helo stands for Health and Lifestyle Oracle, it is a very advance and new wearable wristband by Wor(l)d which can be worn 24 hours a day to monitor our and our loved ones health well being and physical condition on the go and when we sleep.  It can measure : Blood Pressure, ECG, Heart Rate, Breath Rate, Mood/Energy, Steps and calories burned on a 30 to 120 mins basis.  I set mine on 60 minutes basis, a report will be produced every hourly.

 

 
This is the smart and sexy looking wristband of Helo.  The wristband is designed to fit small to big (musculine) wrist. This is my Helo, fitted nicely on my slim wrist without having to trim the band.

Both Android (has to be Android 4.3 and above) and iOS can download the Helo Apps, the Helo device will link to your handphone via bluetooth.  Amazingly the Helo wristband has the capacity to store all the data, the data can be viewed in your phone as soon as a link is established.

unlike the rest of the wristband in the market, Wor(l)d added extra features to include semi germ stones of Germanium and Himalayan Salt and Hematite for extra health benefits.  These stones are mounted on platinum plate, and can be fitted on the wristband which are in direct contact with our skin when we put on the wristband.

The health benefits of the Germanium, Himalayan Salt and Hematite can be found in many articles in the internet.   

It uses an innovative and advance sensor to obtain data from our body to give an ambulatory measurements as accurate as possible for our self evaluation. 

Another important function of Helo is the Panic Button.  Yes, there is a panic button for emergency purpose, just by pressing the side button 2 times,  the person(s) that you registered in the Guardian-SOS will be alerted via sms with the time, location and google map on the last location where the button was pressed.  

this feature is specially beneficial for the elderly who suddenly feel unwell and children whom find themselves in unsafe situation.

I personally am amazed with Helo.  It can only be bought online at one single price from Wor(l)d website and deliver direct to your doorstep.  You could use my username : agnescfl (l as in small letter L) or www.agnescfl.worldgn.com to make the purchase, you are automatically become a member upon purchase and get hold of the opportunity if you wish to.

Our Guard Dog - Lucky (2012-11.10.2016)

Our backyard resident and guard dog named Lucky, has passed away peacefully last night.  We only found out when my better half went to feed him last night.  He was a very active dog, he would scratch the back door whenever he heard our voice to get our attention, and a very good guard dog.  He was still very active and ate a big portion of his meal the night before with no sign of him being sick.  It is sad to find him fallen into deep sleep forever.

 

Rest in peace, Lucky Boy, hope you find a better place in heaven. 

A new star is born - 李佩玲

Very proud of her.  Hope she will win the competition.  Just Love to listen to all the songs that she sings, full of feelings, some even bring tears to my eyes.

Avocado seedlings

Have been busy with many little stuff lately and now have to spare sometimes caring checking on my plants and fruits seedlings, among them are the tomatoes, avocado and fig cuttings.  Here is the following up post on my avocado seedlings which were germinated from seeds.  2 out of four rooted.  

 tiny root showing up

 more roots

 Less than 2 months old avocado stalk with young leaves