Korean BBQ and Alexis

Was suppose to blog about my KOREAN experience, but am getting lazy and partially dont have the time to sit and type without the kids climbing up to see what im doing.
So the other day i had my girls night out, this time SZ brought along one of her friend. Initially we were suppose to head to shogun for our dinner, but decided to change our mind and head to Korean bbq. I had always wanted to experience the Korean BBQ in Malaysia, but never had the chance.. so lucky me...
So the Korean BBQ restaurant that we went to was in Taipan.. " Daorae"

Here are the photos...

Doesnt it look yummy??

Waiting impatiently.. apparently its really packed

Space ship legs..

Menu

seasme oil, soya sauce and
the other one hmm forgotten

10 different korean side dishes

wrap the meat into the lettuce and munch it...

on the house pancake

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cheesecake, chocolate cake and carrot cake

do we need to explain?

Roasted Pork Dinner

Ok, i better start recording my achievement before i decided to ZZzzzZZ. I know i havent been updating my blog, but since this blog is still fresh in my mind, i shall brag about it hahaha

I've decided to create something different for dinner... since Christmas is coming up, thought of trying my luck with "ROAST PORK".... it looks easy, but was it??

So my adventure started when i was researching my recipe, and tips to create the most delicious Roast Pork. Scratching my head, i didnt know what kind of Roast pork i wanted.. Should i go for herb version?Honey?Maple?Chinese version?Black pepper? There was just too many choices. After yahoo search, and recipe book searching, i've decided to go for MAPLE roast pork. So I gathered all my ingredients, research my pork body parts, so piggy can get the meat from the market.. almost all done.... except the maple syrup. I spoke to a friend about my adventure and she told me maple syrup was too expensive, and suggested i go for honey instead. I didnt expect Maple syrup to be so costly... almost 30rm for a small little bottle.. so yet again i changed my recipe to HONEY BAKED PORK.

The problem with me when it comes to creating new recipe, im afraid of failure.... so when my adventure begins, i started to panic and stress out.. Silly huh..I guess i didnt want to waste my food hahhaha....

so here are my photos .....



sauce

Sauce Pork layered with bacon strips, secured with
toothpicks

Looks interesting?? Here is the recipe... I added more gravy....

Honey Roasted Pork with Bacon

*1.5 kg pork loin

*Bacon Strips
* 1/2 cup of honey

*4 tablespoon of orange juice

*4 tablespoon of olive oil

*1 teaspoon of thyme

*1 cup of chicken broth

1)Preheat the oven to 220 degree

2)In separate bowl, add honey, oil, orange juice and thyme

3)Put pork in oven pan

4)Spread a thin layer of mixture on top of the pork

5) layer bacon strip, secure with toothpick

6) Pour the rest of mixture to the pork

7))Add chicken broth to the pan

8)Bake the pork for 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hrs ( reduce to heat so the bacon will not burn.. around 180)

9)Baste often with the juices inside the oven pan.

10) when meat it done, transfer all the juices to saucepan to make the gravy

11) Add little corn starch to make gravy thicker

12)Slice and serve with vegetables..

Suggestion for dessert

Brownies with ice cream, finish off with Chinese flower tea...

brownies with vanilla ice cream..Divine

Salam

I was out shopping with my family at the Curve, and we bumped into piggy's colleague. Their two girls, aged 2 years and the youngest 6 months were so adorable and beautiful. Their facial features were different to any other Malay girls.Their hair were really black, skin so fair and have a distinct look. Beautiful...

Anyway, the eldest girl was showing me her barbie doll, and I took my hand to reach for the barbie doll. What surprised me was she took my hand and kissed it. I was stunned. I didnt know what to do for that moment. Piggy told me that it was a way for them to respect the elder ( now i feel old).. I was impressed, at such a young age, they were taught the art of respecting.... that i respect...

Time to chill .....

A few days ago, Piggy decided to take us out for some cakes and drinks. Both of us needed to indulgence ourselves after a hard day at work(Yes, i had a hard day at work too you know). We decided to venture the whole family to Coffee Bean. Luckily we managed to find a comforty couch instead of the hard chairs. Looking at the selections of cakes, pastries, pies and biscuit made my tummy grumble. So i ordered my favourite cheese cake, and piggy ordered a different type of cheesecake.Next, what to drink... i told piggy to grab me a small hot chocolate ( needed to control my diet, after all, cheesecake and hot chocolate at 9pm!)

When the yummy cakes and drinks finally arrived, my small hot chocolate suddenly became a tall glass, looks like a mug of beer. How on earth am i suppose to finish it?Well piggy told me it was only extra 50 cents so he ordered me the large instead...

While taking the chance to enjoy myself (without much success), the two little masters were mucking around. They seem to be entertaining the other guests at Coffee bean.

Trying to relax and enjoy myself, i zone myself out and looked across. There was another family, similar to us. Two boys playing happily, jumping from one end of the couch to another. The youngest was happily playing with a piece of straw given by his father, and you could see the parents finding it interesting that they all took out their phone to snap photos. They were too trying to chill out, but with their kids around running, i dont think that was possible.

Later on, the mother seem to drift to her own world, sipping her drink and eating her cake.She didnt seem to be paying any attention to what is happening around her. The poor father had to do the job of keeping the kids in line, and at the same time eating his cake. It seem that every scoop of cake he takes, half falls on the floor. After observing the family for half an hour, piggy asked me whether i wanted to go as the kids were showing their sign of boredom. I said yes and stood up too.Coincidentally, the father said something to the wife, and they too both stood up to get ready to leave. After coming back to my sense, i realised that the family i was seeing was my own. The reflection says it all...........

Wording

Suddenly the flow of overdue blog begins haha.. oh and i upgrade the size of the wording, didnt realised that it was so small.Sorry.. Happy reading.. and its like 130am and im still not sleeping.. ahh my flow of creativity is back!! haha

Whats for dinner?

Ah another new recipe for those who are interested.

The other day i was at one of the restaurant, and i ate this really yummy eggplant with minced meat. So i decided to search online, and apparently its called Szechuan Spicy Eggplant. The outcome was alright, except that i should reduce the amount of corn starch. Otherwise, not a bad dish...

Here is the recipe from this website http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Szechuan-Spicy-Eggplant/Detail.aspx ( too lazy to type it all over again)

I modify some stuff...

INGREDIENTS

1 large eggplant, diced
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup chicken stock
1 teaspoon chili sauce
1 teaspoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon cornstarch
4 tablespoons water
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 shallots minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger root
1 pound lean ground beef /pork /chicken
1 tablespoon vegetable or sesame oil

DIRECTIONS

1) Cut eggplant into 1-inch cubes.



2)In a medium bowl, combine the soy sauce, chicken stock, chili sauce, sugar, ground black pepper and oyster sauce. Stir together well and set aside.


3)In a separate small bowl, combine the cornstarch and water, and set aside.

4) Oil the pan, saute the garlic, shallot, ginger and meat, stirring constantly, until they begin to brown.



5)Pour the eggplant into the pan and stir all together.



6) Pour the soy sauce mixture over all, cover the pan, reduce heat to medium low and let simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.



7)Stir in the cornstarch mixture and let heat until thickened.



8) Add the sesame oil.

Finish product



HaHa after reading the recipe again, i realised that i misread the cornstarch.. I complained that its too sticky cos i actually put 2 tablespoon of cornstarch instead of 1.. silly me...

Eccentric

I've finally decided to update my blog after being so lazy...What made me decide to write a blog before i sleep is to get everything out before i go to bed. The reason why i started a blog is for me to release my frustration, anger and whatever that pops into your mind, but sometimes im afraid to avoid offending those who read my blog. So this particular piece may offend some.. Sorry, but its my blog, and if it offend you, its my way of releasing my view..

I have came to know some friends, who are great people, but sometimes can be a little eccentric on their behaviour...Dont you feel stressed when you have to watch what you say, just because this particular person is super sensitive, worried that your comment may be twisted and analysed and then become offended?I know that human beings dont like to hear negative things, and i do agreed, so at certain extend you have to watch what you say, like what someone told me, "sometimes its ok to tell a little white lies, if that make them happy".I try not to make people upset, watching what and not to say, but what about some who hates telling white lies, and tell the truth??Ok those people are known to be straightforward, whatever they dont like and disagree, they tell you straight, no concern about your feelings, which i do find them truthful( at least its the truth not some white lies)... BUT what if its the other way??What if someone else tell them straightforward, i feel that they become sensitive... So that i dont really understand....I guess there are some people who dont care about other people's feeling, but when it comes to them, they feel hurt or frustrated. Shrug, i dont know.. sometimes i feel that its sad., but i guess in this world, you have to cater for every different people...

Well i feel so much better to be able to express my feelings, instead of bottling it all up inside me.. ahh i should do that more often hahahaha....

How do you categories your friends?

This blog was suppose to be published a couple of weeks ago, but was too lazy to post it up, so here it is after 2 weeks sitting in my draft folder.....

excerpt from MSN



**** says:
i oso have to say thank you to you too... for being so helpful and accommodating
**** says:
oso sorry if i have hurt/offended u


me says:
what for?


**** says:
i've grateful that we r so close...


**** says:
for being around me loh



This is what a close friend said to me today. That was nice of her, what a nice things to say and it did brighten up my day. So the topic for the day is friendship. What is a friend?How do you categories them??



This particular close friend, who is more then that ,told me that she is no longer close to her best friend. They had slowly drifted apart and wanted to salvage their friendship before its too late. She said that she felt lost when her best friend got married, she was scared of loosing her. No, she is not a lesbian hahaha but she's scared that once married, the time they spend together likes sister will no longer be possible....this is what she told me.. "my fren.. she is one person who will help you no matter how small or big the favor is, unlike **** and so on, it depends the kind of favor u ask.. then she will consider and then she will decide...
i dun dare to ask favor from her d". ..

Obviously from my view, not everyone will help you, i told her that you may have lots of friends, but how do you categorise them and how do they categorise you?

In my circle of friends, there are 4 categories :

1)Acquaintance - recently met, say hi and bye, dont know much about their family history, will only meet up if required,not close enough to reveal personal details



2)Friend-Hang out once in a while , not close enough depend on, cant be too straightforward, must be careful with people's feelings



3)Close friend- someone who you can sometime depend on but not all the time, call last minute and tell them that you're dropping by their place vice verses, asking them out for dinner last minute, not afraid to be a little straightforward, keep in touch often, borrow stuff that you dont have



4)Best friends- someone who you can depend on most of the time, pour your feelings, straightforward , truthful, share your deepest darkest secret, and feel happy when they are around..



But some people take friends for granted, never appreciate the things that their friend do or some even expected that its their right, like as thought you owe them....



Its nice to have friends in our life, share your thought, share ideas, someone to lean on and lastly, having fun... so when is the next girls night out???

FRIM

Legs, hands and fingers were crossed. Two lovely families wanted to take their family photo at FRIM. According to the weather prediction, it was going to thunder .... not a good scene if we were to take a family photos, but then again it can be a wet photoshoot??

We left the house on 25th October, and took a peek at the weather, so far so good. Sf and I kept in touch via sms about the weather and arrival time. IT was indeed a great day,sunny and bright, so i wore my sunnies to block out the rays.But as times goes by, i noticed that the weather wasnt looking as bright as i thought. Then i realised that i was wearing my sunnies.. DUH..

Finally arrived at FRIM. I've never really gone in, except the first time when i decided to follow piggy for his mountain biking adventure.Gosh it hard work, 20km of riding in the forest, GREAT, and a interesting adventure. I was more afraid of getting bitten by mozzies then falling down. After ending our 1 way trip, we sat down and had a little break, ice milo and my first taste of malay fish crackers...hmm that was 4 years ago. Oh and as i was riding back to the car, i was amazed with myself for not falling down, but as i was thinking about that, i did fall down...see its all in the head..

Anyway back to the story,we drove through the entrance of FRIM. Oh my, what a photographer's heaven. It was really beautiful, tree so high that you cant see the sky, brown leaf scattered on the left, and on the right old malay wooden house. Now I wonder why all the wedding photographer come here to take their photos.I was mesmerised....

We have finally arrived in our destination, SF showed us the waterfall. We walked up the slope with difficulties ( imagine carrying a baby in one hand, and the kids' goodies bag in another) It was a tiring hike up ..Imagine 3 families, 7 kids all under the age of 5.

So we took out our gears and started shooting like we were the paparazzi. It was great fun, the kids were enjoying their picnic and straight after that they were off in the water. Splash !!!

Lots of photos were taken and lucky n's maid helped us to look after master 2, who was the only one missing out in the water fun!Finally after the water session, everyone changed into their dry clothes and ate once more before heading to the road.

N invited everyone to chill out in her place, shower the kids and relax with a glass of wine. Why not. It was a really tiring day and after walking out of the picnic area, we didnt realised that it was a really hot day, and i mean hot as in extremely hot!!

The excited mothers couldnt wait to see their photos, but i told them they had to wait, need to do some touch up..After 2 weeks of hard work I have finally completed the photos taken at FRIM. Took a little longer than usual because my laptop couldnt handle the pressure.. even computer has feelings too haha

Here are some of my favourite photos taken ...( I was granted permission to upload the photos by the models)