Pomegranate Juice and Coffee

I have not heard of Pomegranate (buah Delima) when I was young.  Only in the recent years that people started to promote the health benefits of many super fruits/food, one of them is Pomegranate, mostly sold through direct selling /Multi Level Marketing.  The prices are relatively higher.

I happened to see this product displayed at the counter where I have my roti jala.  Upon asking, the price is reasonable and affordable to me, I bought a bottle to try.  If I am not mistaken, it was only around RM20.00 (USD5.00).  As I did not take it consistently everyday, this small bottle lasted for a few months in my refrigerator.  I can not comment of the effectiveness of this product because I hadn't consumed it as prescribed to see the result.  The taste is on the sourly sweet side.  

Another Pomegranate product that I have tried was this coffee mix from a small retail shop selling all kinds of health products, skin care and cosmetics in Complex Karamunsing.  It says to have Pomegranate extract, I only bought 1 packet to try because I was not sure whether the mix of coffee and Pomegranate will blend well or not for my liking. 

After drinking it, I find the taste is alright for me but I have not gone back to that shop lately.  We bought some tea bags for diabetes from the same shop too.  Will share in another post to come. 

The Prettiest Pancake - Roti Jala

To my eyes, Roti Jala (or Lace/Net Pancake) is the prettiest pancake among the pancakes I have ever seen.  I ever wondered how Roti Jala is made, only much later then I found out that it is made by using a utensil with holes at the bottom to drizzle the runny batter in a circular motion onto a hot pan and roll it up.

The rolled up Roti Jala, a traditional Malay dish / snack.

I can eat at least 4 plain Roti Jala in one setting without any curry to go with it (I do not like curry) and take away a few for lunch.   So far the best Roti Jala that I could find is at Grace Square, Sembulan.  

My Roti Jala lunch with coffee.

Since I love it so much, I should try my hands on making some myself. 

Pan Mien Breakfast

It was still early after sending our girls to school yesterday morning.  Got time to hunt for a place to have our breakfast, we are not always got the chance to have breakfast outside during working days as I drive my own to work after having breakfast at home prepared or bought by my better half.  We planned to sent one of our cars for repair yesterday, my better half got to send me to work.

We settled for Pan Mien at Damai Plaza, If I can remember, this is the first time having breakfast  at this shop.  

 My better half has actually told me to order for him konlou meehoon with Pan Mien soup, but someway somehow I ordered both of us the same Pan Mien meehoon soup.  Luckily he was in an okay okay mood.

The portion given is alright, good amount of sayur manis (sweet leaves) but the soup base is not thick enough to be categorised as nice Pan Mien.  For any request of additional anchovies, RM1.50 will be charged.  It's alright because anchovies are not cheap.  

Adoption of Home Pet

Whenever there are dogs and cats come by, my better half will give them food.  Since these cats and dogs knows there are food, they will come regularly and sooner or later they will call it home.

Since we have our own pet dogs inside our home compound, other dogs will not come around to wait for food.  Some 2 months ago, a pregnant mother cat came to our backyard and my better half started to feed her, when she nearly due to gave birth she migrated to our front yard and gave birth to 3 little kittens.

Mother cat and her baby kittens, photo taken on 1/12/17.  One of the kitten which was the most active one has gone and never come back.  My neighbour has told us that he found a cat died at the back of his house after he came back from his vacation in the early of this year, could have been this little kitten.  Now only left 2 hanging around, they have become so homely that they started to come inside the house and sleep comfortably on my better half working chair. 

photo taken yesterday, they have grown up quite a bit.  I like cats but I hate so much if they do their business inside the house.  So far they are pretty discipline.  The rats will stay away with cats meow around.  Cats are cute regardless of the breed.

Sunday Rest Day, Family Day

As a full time working mum, Saturdays & Sundays are very precious days for me.  I still wake up early on Saturdays as it is a school days for my girls (except it's public holiday or school holidays).  We wake up slightly later on Sundays to church.  

It is family bonding time for me on these 2 days.  We can have breakfast together without having to rush to school or work, we can take our time to explore new places to have our meals, shopping and relax at home (I can take a nap whenever I want).

We tried out the Sandakan famous bouncy noodles after church this morning at Damai.

My daughters ordered the Sandakan bouncy noodles.  I still stick to my all time favourite meehoon soup.

 I did try a spoonful of the bouncy noodles but I did not like it.  It is too tough for me to chew, I am happy with the bowl of meehoon soup.  We also ordered a bowl of dumplings soup with pork and century egg fillings.  My better half gave the dumplings a thumbs up.

 The total bill is RM40.10 for 2 bowls of Sandakan bouncing noodles with soup, 1 bowl of mixed meehoon soup, I bowl of dumplings soup, 2 iced Milo, 1 coffee kahwin & 1 glass of Chinese Tea ping. These breakfast has kept us full till afternoon tea at 4pm.

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!!

I am licenced now

Status upgraded. We have awarded our obedient dog with the licence he deserved in his year, the Dog year.  Skittles, a name given to him by our daughters, with no complaint of wearing additional weight and metal knocking sound on his neck, unlike some of the dogs, they will try every means and strength to remove the necklace.

He is happy and we are relieved that the authority will not capture him when he is out and about in our neighbourhood.  Skittles is a very homely dog, who does not like to hang out much, he will make noise to ask us to open the gate for him if we happen to lock him out.  

We just need to give him a mutual "come back" signal, he will run as fast as he could to be back into the house compound before the gate is closed.  

He has got a sister "Jumper" who likes to jump, there goes her name.  We keep her at the back to guard the backyard.  Both of them are short and intelligent though they do not belong to the premium breeds.  He is always the first one to greet me when I come home from work, he must have recognised my car engine sound already.  

Finally..on Cryptocurrency, the Bitcoin

Without realising I have been left behind from reaping the earning from the soaring prices of the cryptocurrency - Bitcoin. 

My eyes, mind and ears are closed for any online investments feared from gotten Scam on my hard earned money.   Those who took the risks and invested in bitcoins have became wealthier (if not millionaires).  

After watching several videos on youtube, I am convinced that the growth of Bitcoin is unstoppable, Cryptocurrency is the future currency.  The price of 1 Bitcoin is around USD10,794.63 according to Blockchain at the time of this post. 

With such a high price per BTC, it is not affordable to many.  But there are plateforms which allow investors to buy Bitcoin (and other Altcoins) at a fraction, one of those is Remitano, here we could buy and sell fractions of Bitcoins, Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash from peer to peer.  There are a lot of satisfied buyers left good comments on their website.  

All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) Excursion

Have not been to outdoor activities for pretty long while. Riding on ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) is very interesting to us.  Look simple to drive but I prefer to be a passenger and let my 14 years old daughter to take the wheel.  As a passenger at the back, it allows me to take photos and videos for this exciting trip.

台湾古早蛋糕 Taiwan Original Cake

I told my better half that there is a super soft Taiwanese cake selling like hot cake in Damai, really is hot cake this time. I told him that my colleague has to queue for about 30 minutes to buy the cakes, and the lady who queued after her lost her tamper because my colleague bought 10 pieces of the cake and left none for her, she has to wait for another 20 minutes to get this famous Taiwanese original cake, she burst and scolded the shop helpers. With curiosity, he went the next day afternoon and bought a piece for us to try.

Everyone who tasted it has to agree that this cake is super soft even after keeping in the fridge for 2 days.

Honestly, there is nothing extra ordinary about this cake, what makes this cake so special is the consistency of maintaining its super soft and moist texture.  I have been dreaming to be able to bake this kind of cake myself, looks like the easiest way is to buy from the shop. 

The original flavour is sold at RM14.00 per piece in a box, much more expensive than West Malaysia.

Beading Project - Wooden Beads Bangle

I like to do some beading work once in a while (when my mood is on beading). This is one of the wood beads bangle that I did. I simply used a larger size wire bangle, some colourful wooden beads and a jump ring.  The tools that I used are a pair of round nose pliers and bent nose pliers to connect the jump ring and bent to close up the bangle.   

Pizza Hut Locked Pocket Pizza meal set

We decided to dine out tonite but what to eat and where?  These are the usual questions that we have each time we decide to eat out.  Since many years ago, our girls' opinions of what they would like to eat have become our basis of considerations.

They finally decided to go to Pizza Hut for the pasta, we haven't been there for quiet a while.  

There is a new pizza and pie on the menu, thus we ordered 1 each to try.  

 The locked pocket pizza set

 with minced chicken fillings

 The side of the dough are sliced and folded to hold the minced chicken resembling a pocket, similar sort of toppings.

 the appetizer came with the pizza set is chicken vegetable roll (simply frozen food)

 A bowl of pie, very excited to dig in but very disappointed that what we found covered under the mashed potatoes and cheese slice are sausages and slices of button mushrooms and tomato puree.  Frozen food again.  

Pasta is what my girls are coming to Pizza Hut for.  They ordered a plate of each of this spaghetti, the serving portion is satisfying.

Varieties of Sabah Tea Flavours

Little did I know that our local produce Sabah Tea has added some many types of flavours to its original tea.  I came across this when my colleague ordered all the flavours to be sold at the resort's lobby shop.  I am fascinated to see the colourful metal containers to differentiate the 9 varieties of flavours including the original one. 

It is a good item for the tourists to bring back this tea when they visit Sabah as gift and the metal container can be kept as souvenir.  I have not come across this packaging in the supermarkets nor any of the hypermarkets so far.  I guess these are meant for the tourists markets.

These are the 8 added flavours and the 1 has to be the original Sabah Tea with no added flavour.

Misai Kucing

Ginger

Agarwood

Tongkat Ali

Pandan

Lemon Grass

This must be the original Sabah Tea with no added flavour

Geranium

Cinnamon

Besides the original tea, I have not tried any of the added flavours.  Hope to find them in the supermarkets so that we have got the chance to taste all of them.