After a Christmas Party.....

My sis took this shot of my little boy sleeping soundly.... must be really tired cos he did not even notice someone is so near to him...

Merry Christmas Everyone!

May it be blessed with lots of happiness and joy this season! ho ho ho…. Merry Christmas!

Cheese Baked Garden Pasta

So, I had potluck in the office the other day and with too much food, we have leftovers of pretty much, everything…. well, that includes my garden pasta salad…

Which initially looked like this…. So, not wanting to waste, I brought it home, and stir fry it with pasta sauce cos I would not want to eat it as salad anymore… since it has been out of fridge for pretty much the whole day…

Topped with generous amount of shredded mozzarellas, and popped it into the oven to bake for 15 minutes…

And viola! Beautiful baked pasta and no food wasted…  :D

Five Stars Restaurant, Batu Lanchang, Penang

After so many years, finally I made my way to this restaurant. I got to know about this restaurant because my college mate’s then boyfriend, now husband, operates this place with his father, a family business.

I remember that there was one time Siew Ai (my college mate/friend) brought 2 small containers of mango chicken, and another one dish I could not really remember, something like salad “you tiao” or something… And she passed it over to me quietly after driving me home from college.. so sweet of her :) Gosh.. time flies.. that was like 8 years ago!!

Anyways, this round I actually only tried 2 dishes cos there were only 2 of us and we could not order too many dishes, fear that we could not manage to finish them…  but I’ll certainly go back again to try more of the dishes offered… the menu is pretty extensive…  from seafood (fish, prawns, squids, sea cucumber, and even shark’s fin), various types of meat (deer, beef, pork, chicken), a variety of vegetables, bean curds, soups, curries, to individual dishes like fried rice, noodles, hor fun and many more.

Drinks… Orange juice at MYR 2.00, soya bean at MYR 1.50, I think… can’t remember…

Business is good, even during lunch hours… the place is not big, limited seats with air condition.

Chinese kinda brussel sprouts… “chai thna” they call it, stir fried with oyster sauce… I think it’s MYR 6.00 for a small portion. You get to order in, small, medium and large portion. Small portions ranging from MYR 6.00 to 9.00 depending on the vegetable of choice.

Rice portion pretty generous… many places now provide smaller portions of rice, taking advantage of big eaters, cos they will order additional rice at a charge.

Stir fried chicken with ginger and spring onion, MYR 8.00 for a small portion. Small portion chicken dish price ranging from MYR 8.oo (majority chicken dish) to MYr 10.00 (only for the cashew nut with chicken) Nicely done, chicken pieces was succulent, gravy was nice, but it could be better with stronger ginger taste.. guess that is our personal taste… Overall, food was okay, portion was also generous and price is reasonable.

It’s not hard to find. It’s actually same row with the Batu Lanchang’s KFC and next to Ong Too Pain Clinic (what a name for a clinic, huh…)

Five Stars Chicken Rice Restaurant (it’s a chu char place, not exactly a chicken rice restaurant though)
19-C, Ground Floor, Taman Sri Damai,
Lebuh Raya Batu Lanchang,
11600 Penang.
Contact : 04-6568605
Business Hours: 11:30am to 2:30 pm (lunch) 6:00pm to 10:00pm (dinner)

Eyesight is not getting any better….

Picked up my new air few days back… Trying plastic frames for a change…. let’s just hope the next change is not so soon…..

Happy Dong Zhi! It’s Winter Solstice again…

This year, i made my own tang yuan (glutinous rice balls) in sweet ginger syrup!
 
I bought the ready made dough from the market and roll them up into little balls. I got 3 basic colour dough, pink, green and white… and since I have my own orange colouring, I decided to put some on my white dough so I can have more colourful balls!

Turned up pretty well, soft and chewy… just nice, like how I always love it…

I actually usually have tang yuan with normal sugar syrup when I was younger, until I came to know about glutinous rice balls in ginger syrup few years back… So I boiled up the fragrant pandan leaves, bruised ginger and sugar to my liking :) My cuti project was a success!

Toasted Garlic Mushrooms on Organic Carrot Bread with Mozzarellas

Have not been able to resist fresh mushrooms sold on the supermarket rack lately… I just have to buy them… I eat them with everything… on toasts, with pasta, in salads, or just on their own…

I bought a pack of mini loaf of organic carrot bread…

So I thought I’ll have it topped with my mushrooms (I used mini Portobello-s), stir fried with lots garlic and a little onion…

Top them with shaved mozzarellas….

And toast them to perfection :D

The bread were very crispy, and it smells.. so good… :D

DHLE MY Annual Dinner (North)

I did not manage to get any photos myself.. these are from our volunteer photographers… :D Well, that’s what happen when you are in the organizing committee, you are too busy to enjoy the event.. you don’t get to take much photos… you just need to be on standby at all time to make sure things going okay…. We actually have plenty photos… plenty.. but I’m just gonna post few…

The registration counter… with Nasha and Anna..

My office partners in crime…

Photos by.. Lini’s husband… she’s an ex-colleague, his husband do freelance photography and i didn’t her his name…

Kungfu Panda… :P 

Captain Hook wannabe…

With ECOM manager, Sean :P

Photos by Eric Ng from Upstage Photography.. He’s actually a colleague of mine doing freelance photography with few DHL folks…

 

  Registration counter…

The committee members….

Jyn, our event exec…

Photos by Khoo Lay Tiong… so nice of him to do this on voluntary.. :D

Nothing beats food from home….

Few weeks back when my dad was actually doing prayers at home with food offerings for my grandpa’s death anniversary, he cooked up a storm and mom made my sis bring back the food the next day for me and my bro’s dinner.

So I arrived home, and saw tiffin carrier on the table (dad cooked), few containers of home made raisin buns (sis made), brownies-like walnut cakes (dad made), and home made bengkang kuih (mom made). It’s like home cook feast! I went to bathe immediately cos I was already salivating when I opened the tiffin carrier to check out what is inside!

Then I laid everything out on the table… Scoop out the rice which is still hot from the vacuum container and start feasting!

There’s dry pork ribs curry….

Somewhat like inchee kebin fried chicken…

Stir fried assorted mushrooms….

Deep fried marinated pork slices with caramelized onions …

Stir fried potatoes, peas, carrots, prawns, chilies and pork…

Dad cooked all this…

It’s so yummy even Codie boy wants it… and I actually noticed that the tiffin carrier is a little bit cold, but I thought it’s because my sis drove all the way from SP and the food was in the car, so I thought it’s because of the aircond.. and because the rice was hot, and I was so hungry, I did not bother to heat up the dishes… only the rice and the potatoes are still hot cos mom put in in the vacuum container. Sis was not home, cos she came back to drop off the food and went out dinner with her colleagues…

But just right after finishing my meal, she came back and noticed I ate directly from the tiffin carrier… So she asked if I heated the dishes up… I said no, and then only she told me, all dishes from the tiffin carrier are actually out directly from the fridge! Mom packed everything the night before… but oh well, they were all heated up in my tummy by the time she told me… Then bro came back and i told him, the dishes are not heated up and it’s out from the fridge.. he was too hungry he did not bother either… and walloped everything up there and then.. did not even change or bathe first…  haha.. that’s the power of home cook meals… you just want to eat it now!!

Sis’s raisin buns…

Mom’s kuih bengkang and dad’s walnut cake… both also very sedap!