Attempted Mexican Food

I had found this relatively easy Mexican rice which I had planned to cook for a while. Since I'm WFH today, I decided to try cooking this, so you can bring it to work the next day. Initial plan was to make a burrito, but you said just the rice with chicken would work. 

Luckily I had made so research on the water level before cooking the rice. Or else we'd end up with porridge since the recipe called for rice to water ratio of 1:2. I even researched on what to do if the rice is too wet or undercooked. Haha.. thankfully, it turned out just right! And I also had the sudden "aha!" moment where I thought of cooking in the rice cooker instead of in a pot over the stove!

Et voila! My Mexican rice with grilled chicken and bruschetta tomatoes (yes, yes would have been more suitable with salsa to make it a Mexican do..)

I'm so happy that it turned out well and we can make this another time. 

Breakfast at the market

After dropping you off at 6am at the City Stadium, we headed to Perak Road market to have a look at what was sold there. Lucky for us, we snagged the last available parking lot. Wandered around and found a stall selling roast pork. Guess this was the stall that daddy's friend used to buy from to treat the golfers at breakfast. Bought some roast pork and wandered around some more.

Then we walked back to the coffeeshop/shack at the front of the road and found a table to share with another customer and had our coffee, roast pork and lam mee. Food and coffee were nice. 

Before we left, we stopped by this stall we had spotted on our way in to buy some Teowchew kuih and guang qiang. Not the nicest tasting.. but the guang qiang was good. 

Then we headed back to continue with our sleep, while our little busy bee is in the stadium with her marching and cheering. 

Drinking in Kopi Tiam

Today we had to rush to drop you off for music. Your Fairfield cheerleading practice ended at 5pm and we went home to pick up your music bag as replacement lessons were at 5.30pm.

We had groceries in the car (luckily non perishables) and planned to head home to drop them off. But traffic heading to the traffic lights were just NOT moving. In the end, we took another turn, stopped the car to move the groceries into the boot and headed back to the kopi tiams near piano school. 

It was just meant to be: we got one parking spot right next to the kopi tiam. Ordered a can of beer each to go with our satay and oyster omelet. Cannot believe we're drinking in a kopi tiam when we used to laugh at a friend who does this, saying he's like an Ah Pek doing this! 😂

Daddy who was complaining about the mad rush to drop you and the short stop at home before heading out to pick you again decided that it's now ok for you to have piano lessons while we relax here. Too bad, today is the last replacement lesson!

Paper Thosai

Yesterday we woke up a little earlier to go out to Little India for thosai breakfast. You willingly woke up to eat it as you missed it. 

So here you are with your paper thosai:

Then I recalled having a photo of you with it from when you were younger.. so today I scoured my Google photos and found this:

It was taken in 2019. Funnily, you're wearing the same shirt in both photos!!

I'm pretty sure there should be one from 2017 when you were having lessons in British Council.. but I'm unable to find it. 

Last day of exams

It's finally the last day of exams (3 long weeks!). I'm not sure if you are more exhausted or I am.. 

Anyhow, you asked to be allowed to hang out with your friends after the paper (it ended at 9am). So you all went to McDonald's and then we picked you up at nearly 11am. We then headed to this Malay rice stall in Balik Pulau. Daddy wanted to bring us there as he was there recently and enjoyed the view and food.

Delicious food

Peaceful river with very clear water at the back where we sat

Too bad you didn't really enjoy the food, as it was fish and eggplant. But we did pack some back for Ah Ma and Kakak. Ah Ma liked the curry so much that she kept the leftover curry and planned to add more fish for another meal. 

Eating Out

Ah Ma said that she wanted to treat us to lunch at Din Tai Fung. And as it was a replacement public holiday, Gurney Plaza was quite full. By the time we reached the restaurant, there was a queue outside. As usual, the inside was not full, but there was still a queue. Nevertheless, the waitress was polite, inquiring on how many people were dining, and even gave us the menu and order form up front so that we could decide on what we wanted while waiting to be seated. She had also explained that they were short of staff, hence they could not seat us.

We gave her our order form and were finally seated. Our food arrived shortly and it was nice. We had to add another portion of noodles as they were rather small. The waiter told me it would be a 15 minute wait, but in the end, I think we got our noodles in less than 10 minutes. 

Xiao Long Pau

Photo for daddy, who didn't join us today

Quick Bake (and Regretting it!!)

When daddy and I were in Village Grocer a while back, I saw a box of cupcake pre-mix marked down. So I grabbed it thinking we could have a quick baking session together. 

Today, daddy while still in quarantine encouraged me to bake with you. So I went down and we very quickly whipped up the few ingredients together (even adding extra choc chips) to the batter.

Here's my assistant doing her (messy job):

As you were making and mixing, you even asked me "why so lazy to use pre-mix?"

And you were right.. wrong decision to take a short cut. It wasn't anywhere as good as the ones we make from scratch. 

Ok, ok. Lesson learnt. Next time we make chocolate cupcake, we will make it from scratch. 

Daddy later asked why he didn't get one.. I told him it was yucky! Ahhaha.. not worth putting into his tummy!!

Second Dose

Daddy and I took the day off today since you were going to have your second dose, and it is Good Friday for the two of you (no school).

We headed to Sunshine Square earlier because we didn't want to get stuck for long hours like the first dose. Obviously we would be meeting the same crowd we met for the first dose.

As we were walking in, you told me that the family walking into the other lift were the kids we met the first time. And we all joined the queue at the same time and the child also told his mummy about us. You kids sure have good memories.

Once they opened the doors, we headed in to have the form checked out and then your IC scanned. Right after that was the queue to get your jab. 

I told daddy not to hang around and wait for us, so he headed to the office. But it turned out that we'd be done within 30 minutes. And daddy was caught up in a discussion. 

Since Sunshine Square was not yet open, we headed to McDonald's. You asked for a McFlurry, although it was the morning menu and you could have gotten your favourite hash brown instead.

As McDonald's started to get too packed for our comfort, we left and stood around wondering what to do next. Since the grocery section was open, we headed down just to while some time away. Grabbed some groceries and daddy arrived just as we finished paying for them.

We went home to rest a little and wait for Ko-ko to get ready. You asked me to take pictures of the plaster and little hole where you were poked (I don't see any little hole).

We had lunch plans and off we headed to Two Frenchies for lunch.

Lunch was complete with dessert even!

After that we hopped over to Jaya for some groceries before heading home. 

9th Day of Lunar New Year

 

Today is the 9th day of the Lunar New Year. It is a big day for the Hokkiens. Many people were up at midnight last night and lots of fireworks were let go. 

Today is also the Chinese New Year celebrations in school. You both got to wear home clothes for the celebration in school. 

Mei-mei all dressed up in her cheongsam

Blurry photo of Ko-ko all dressed in red

Tried another round in the car

This evening, Ah Ma cooked a feast to celebrate the 9th day, since the Ban's are Hokkien lang.

Japanese Lunch

We had initially planned to have dinner at this very old Japanese restaurant in Cititel Hotel on Saturday. But as daddy's flight was postponed to a later arrival, we had to scrap that plan and change it to Sunday lunch.

I've only been once to this restaurant like 20 years ago while daddy has never been. We were pleasantly surprised with the taste and freshness of the food. 

Wagyu

Saba

Evelyn's bento

Sashimi Moriwase

We had other things too, but I was too busy eating.

After lunch, while waiting for the boys to go to the washroom, we took a couple of pictures:

2021 Halloween

This year waaay before Halloween, you came up with the idea of making a "Spider" cake for Halloween. So I had enough time to buy all the ingredients we needed to make the spider.

In the afternoon, we made the brownie. While the brownie was baking, you made the eyes (only 6 as we ran out of melted white chocolate) and you joined the 2 Pocky sticks to make the legs. Put them on a baking sheet and on a tray then into the fridge to chill before the spider was to be served.

Putting on the legs

And now the eyes

Ta-da.. here is your Halloween Spider:

Cut up Spidey is served!

Stinky Soup

The old batch of alphabet pasta had grown bugs. So I bought a new pack, which were larger sized alphabets.

So this was what you had today for lunch:

Your reaction was hilarious:

Winter Solstice

 I received this story via WhatsApp and retold this story to Mei-mei as we were making our "chewy-chewy" tang yuen:

Today is Tang Yuen Festival or Winter Solistice. This marks the start of winter.

In olden agrarian society of China, this festival is an even more important festival than CNY, especially in families with aged parents or grandparents.

Winter is the most trying and health sapping of time. Many weak old people will not survive through. So there is a gathering of whole families on that night as it may be the final time for a few old timers.

As winter has onset, all harvesting has been done. Using the newly cropped rice, tang yuen is made and the round shape signifies the complete circle of family members on that day as it was partaken.

That's why there is also a saying that you are one year older after eating tang yuen. This is to promote the elders one more years in age to bring good karma to survive through the winter. 

This festival is not religious, but cultural. Please remember each of your origin. Every civilised race with a history has many such significances. Your location or citizenship can never erase your DNA.

It's good to know a little more about our culture. 

Today Ah Ma's legs were still not well, so we had a simple dinner of fried fish, steamed chicken and some vegetables. Of course, along with the tang yuen you made and with the fresh pandan leaves from our garden.

HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE

Lunch: Butter Chicken and Flat Bread

As there was leftover chicken from the Chicken Parmigiana, I decided to cook Butter Chicken. after my marathon training session in the morning, I cooked the chicken. Mei-mei wanted to help so I waited for her to finish her online art lessons before we cooked/fried the flatbread.
I had mixed the 3 ingredients ready just on time for her to roll them out to be cooked on the pan.
Here is my assistant hard at work to prepare lunch:

Rolling out the dough 

Look at them odd shapes!! 

Frying on the pan 

Our lunch: Flatbread and Butter Chicken 

Enjoying lunch

School Food

You came back yesterday to say that the school food was not too bad. The only bad thing is that they served fried rice for breakfast (carbs! OMG) and noodles for lunch. Your friends who were catering before MCO also commented that the canteen food this time around seems to be better.
But.... you asked to have your steak wrap to be packed school today as the food did not seem to be enough for you.
I hope you enjoyed the wrap. It was full of the meat leftover from our Saturday BBQ. 

Baking Day

Today is baking day. We made pineapple jam tarts again, this time using the pineapple jam which I had made instead of using the ready made jams.

Here is the tarts Mei-mei made using the cookie cutters and decorating them with chocolate rice, jam and also chocolate chips:

 And these are the more "normal" tarts. So much work for just so little tarts.

Pau Making

I had planned to make pau and since I am off this week, I decided to try my hands at it today. The instructions from the video was very clear. So I tried my hand to get the pau with chewy texture. Evelyn also had a try to knead out the bubbles in the dough. Not bad for a first time: 

Mei-mei had to stand on a stool to work on the kitchen island 

Eyaaagh.... a lot of strength to work the dough

Ta-da.. one of the (nicer) outcome of the pau

The texture of the pau was the way we liked it. Just that it expands quite a bit, so I should roll out the dough more (larger) and that way I can add more fillings to the pau. 

Mei-mei and Kakak had a "mantou" each as they did not take the fillings. 

Maybe next time we can make momofuku buns to be eaten with duck. Yummy...

Lunch at Home

Today we both decided to be lazy and stay at home to rest. So we had instant noodles for lunch with Pepsi. Here are our smiling faces as we enjoy lunch.

Dinner in BM

Here's what we had in BM yesterday along with pictures of everyone goofing for the camera: