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

Planting from cuttings and seeds - Fig & Avocado

We have been busy doing some fig planting project at our home for the past one month.  I ordered some hybrid fig tree cuttings from the local planter, put them in the soil and after 2 weeks or so of tender nurturing care, the cuttings have produced new shoots coming out like these..

 

fast forward yesterday, they have grown a bit more like the photo below.  Since their roots are still not stable yet, it is not advisable to place them outdoor.  Oh yes, the little one at the bottom right is a cutting from Spain, Don Juan, we are so glad to see its new shoots.

 

I ordered yet another batch of cuttings from the same planter last week.  They are now in the "incubator" waiting for the new roots and shoots to come out.  Hopefully all our cuttings will live.

 

 Being ambitious, I am also trying to grow avocado tree from seeds after we ate the fruits.  So far no sign of root or shoot after 1 week...

 

Fresh and dried fig fruits

We tasted a few more varieties of fresh fig fruits lately from a local farm.  I was trying to get the names of these figs but she has forgotten which trees she plucked them from.  Vividly she could remember one of them is TGF (Taiwan Golden Fig).  The smallest one is cute and sweet.

 

 anyone can identify what varieties these figs are ?

During puasa month and with Ramadan approaching, there are aplenty of dried figs for sale in the supermarket.  Being first time buying dried figs, I chose the brand that I heard regularly on the radio, Yusuf Taiyoob. 

 

We have counted, there are 38 pieces of dried figs compactly packed in this round plastic container.  I really love the texture of these dried figs, not overly sweet.  I can have 4-5 pieces in a day as snack.  Although my girls much prefer the fresh ones but they do not mind having one or two the dried ones while waiting for our home grown fig trees to bear fruits in 3-4 months time..hopefully earlier. 

Flowers, plants and vegetable at home

Awaken by a phone call from my brother.  Oppss...it's already 8.30am..no worries, it's a Saturday & still school holiday.

Had our relaxing breakfast at home, kids will be back to school next week.  My girl helped to spread avocado with milk on a slice of bread for me with her leftover avocado (her breakfast for today, obviously not used to taking fruits as breakfast :D).  It's just feel so nice to have my little girl preparing something for me.  She prepared sandwich lunch for me too on my request because I am down to cough & flu.

After breakfast, I went checking on my flowers, the progress of my tomatoes seedlings, french beans seedling, if any (still no way to be found) and my kale plant.

Finally, this single petals desert rose is blooming.

I took a picture of the three types of blooming desert roses at the front porch..I bought 3 more varieties of desert roses from the tamu last week, as you can see one of them is at the right side. 

Here is the tomatoes seedlings, growing very slowly but at least germinated about a week after planting the seeds.

one more, looking weak hopefully it will become stronger in the coming days.

my kale plant that I bought from the tamu for RM8.00.  It was in a poly bag, we re-potted it here.  I just learnt that Kale is very good for health.  I intend to add more herbs plants into my collections and start to learn how to "eat" them since they posses great nutritional values.

We are working on a planting project at our home, will update it here soon.

Meals at Sugar Bun

It's been ages since we last dined at Sugar Bun.  The whole fish set meal is the one attracted my better half to try its meals again.  I could hardly find serving of the whole fish like this in other restaurants. 

I opted for something spicy this time, I think is the asam fish set meal.  My kids chose the soupy rice and fried chicken set meals. The soupy rice came pretty late because the kitchen has forgotten our order, my kid went straight to her meal before I even have the chance to take a photo.

Overall we are happy with our meals there..the absence minded kitchen staff is a set back.