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.

Tuesday 8 November 2016

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.


Monday 7 November 2016

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)

Thursday 3 November 2016

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.

Tuesday 1 November 2016

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.