Poh Piah

Mom made Poh Piah for one of our many great lunches last week.

Traditionally, Poh Piah is a Nyonya dish and in Hokkien, Poh Piah literally translate into "Thin Biscuit". The skin of this wonderfully fresh spring roll is soft and delicate paper-like crepe made from wheat flour. Usually, mom makes the skin for her Poh Piah too. She stands for hours by the stove, slapping a minuscule amount of flour mixture onto the hot griddle and making a stack of paper thin pancakes, the texture of which is light and springy. But this time, as we were pressed for time, the skin was store bought. (Which was also nice, but very fragile and a little floury).

The filling was a mixture of braised julienned yam-bean or jicama (known locally as bangkuang) which is soft, sweet and savoury, shredded egg omelette, sliced french beans stir-fried with some garlic, fresh coral lettuce which is nice and crunchy, deep fried firm tofu, crispy and really nutty and finally some fried shallots. These were expertly rolled, fully packed into the Poh Piah skin and eaten in accompaniment with hoisin sauce and freshly made hot chilli sauce. And if you're greedy like me, your Poh Piah would be bursting in 3 places and you'd be gobbling it down doubly quick and licking off the bits that's fallen out from your plate. Yummmm....



Each person has their own plate. First you pick up the skin from the stack, carefully not to tear it and lay it down on your plate. Then you smear a little hoisin sauce and a dollop of chilli sauce on the skin. I like to lay down the lettuce leaf, and stack the rest of the cooked vegetables on top, and finally top it off with the crunchy bits. The best thing about it is that it's fully customizable, you roll your own Poh Piah. I always put too much in my Poh Piah, ending up with a fat, turgid roll.



The taste was most exquisite, a matrix of flavours and textures. Sweet and spicy, chewy yet delicate, juicy, crunchy plus an interesting contrast between the warm filling and the cool vegetables. It is such a healthy lunch too, if you minus the fact that I ate 3 big fat rolls in one sitting, full of veggies!

Haphazard

Driving in Malaysia takes 10 years off your life!

There is no order, no rules, no etiquette. You don't need your indicators and you drive with your eyes closed, sometimes. What I meant was, sometimes you just need to cross a busy intersection, or go into a roundabout, with LOTS of courage, a little stupidity (and with your eyes closed) and just PRAY that the huge overloaded semi-trailer don't come crashing into you.

3 lanes become 5 as motorists squeeze and jump queues. Cars, vans, trucks and motorcycles weave in and out with only inches between them. Motorcyclists cheat death as they swamp the roads, just as annoying as mosquitoes, awaiting to be crushed or swiped.

There is no road map as the road changes every hour. Construction never ends. They built new roads to divert bottle-necks. Potholes.

I took my in laws for a drive yesterday, from Kota Kemuning Hills down Kesas Highway to Subang Jaya and down Jalan Kewajipan, across the big crazy roundabout to Sunway Pyramid! It was quiet in the car, I could hear a pin drop! It was as if I could even hear them hold their breath! There was applause when we got there, and a pat on my back. Now for the trip back...

Today, I feel like going for a ride again.

Wedding Diary Asia 2009

Great news! Photobook Asia will be showcasing their products at the Wedding Diary, Asia 2009. There will be great discounts and bonuses! If you're planning on going, do say hello to my husband Gary, who will be there.

Unfortunately, I won't be there this time due to family commitments, so sadly I won't be meeting up with any of my bloggy friends as planned earlier. Would definitely love to meet up some day!

The Wedding Diary Asia 2009
Suntec Singapore International
Convention & Exhibition Center - Hall 404
27-29 March 2009 (10:30am-9:00pm)
BOOTH 731

www.photobookworldwide.com

We Love You, Grandpa!

Over the past week, the boys have developed a special relationship with Kong Kong. He played with them, He brought them places, He explored with them and He lets them explore! He is one with a gentle soul and a big big heart.

Their Kong Kong is more than just their grandpa. Kong Kong is their friend who knows how to have fun, their best mate. Kong Kong lets Lachy drive a REAL car. Kong Kong is a helicopter ride. Most of all, Kong Kong knows a special way to their hearts.

Kong Kong, you will always be a special person to us!

Mom's Hokkien Mee

The very first thing I requested Mom to cook for us this trip was the Penang Hokkien Mee or Prawn Noodles. I have been yearning for Mom's Hokkien Mee for way too long. This is one of my all time favourite hawker food, but Mom's prawn mee is by far the best! It beats any sweaty roadside stall, every single cultishly Penang lane famous for its Hokkien Mee hands down. It's one of Mom's signature dish.



So yesterday, we invited some guests over for dinner and this is what we Mom cooked. She laboured in the kitchen for some hours, making the broth from scratch and blending together fresh ingredients. The end result, well-balanced and superbly satisfying! The noodles were nice and firm, and the prawn soup was immensely rich and had a spicy punch. Each bite was slurpingly fantastic.

On the menu also: Roast pork with crackly skin, Chicken Curry, Fried sliced Yam Bean, Tapioca Kuih and Butter Cake.

My mother's garden

I am so in love with my mother's garden.



It is lush and evergreen, and has a well manicured lawn that is never-ending, my boys love to run and tumble and play on.



It has ponds with tiny fish and tadpoles. Lachy could just sit and watch these tiny creatures for hours, while Lucas love to plunge his little hands in to catch them! There were squirrels, which according to my dad were pests for they munch on the fruits that he grows.



There are lotuses, ferns, tall tropical trees. There are beautiful bright flowers, bushy plants with glossy leaves and edible fruits: Papayas, Longans, Lime and a few others. Ahhh... I wish I had a garden like this!

The Wedding

Gary's younger brother got married on Sunday, the 15th of March 2009.

We got up quite early, got the boys ready and dressed and out of the house. Lachy and his daddy at 8am and Lucas and I at 9am. We went separate ways. Gary and Lachy went with his brother to pick up his lovely, beautiful bride while Lucas and I spent the morning helping out my in laws with lunch preparations in the house. It was a traditional Chinese wedding affair, and we had a traditional Chinese feast of mouth-watering whole suckling pig, roast duck, steamed prawns, Chinese vegetables, lotus root, mushroom and oysters and steamed rice.

A Chinese wedding meant the groom had to go to the bride's house to pick up the bride, but not before he was met with a few challenging tasks like doing push-ups, disgustingly passing seaweed from one man's mouth to another and so on. Apparently he got off pretty easy!



The tea ceremony was held at both houses. This was the very first time for Gary and I to be at the receiving end. The tea ceremony is a way of introducing the bride into the family or vice versa, and a symbol of respect for the elderly. It was in the order of seniority. Gary and I was last in line. You could see in the photo I was very excited!

The Wedding Ceremony was held at the Contessa Receptions. My darling Lachy was the ring boy and I was so proud of him walking down the aisle holding on to two precious rings, looking so smart and handsome in his black tuxedo and a red tie. The little knot in my tummy melted into tiny tears that I quickly hid as I didn't want to be seen crying even before the ceremony begins!

It was sweet and simple. G and C was married, in the presence of family and friends from near and afar.

Then it was time for mingling, photos and hors d'ourves before dinner starts. We quickly duck back home for a quick rest and change of clothes. The rest was actually the car ride home and back! I wore a dress by Charlotte Moore.

It's funny I couldn't find a single photo of me in my dress from my camera although I did take heaps. Will have to hunt one down. This photo was taken at the end of the reception when I had my black MNG jacket on.

Dinner was a 10 course Chinese banquet. We had more suckling pig, crab claw, shark fin's soup, half lobster on a bed of egg noodles, roasted quail, vegetables and scallops, steamed barramundi, steamed lotus leaf rice, ice-cream cake and fruits. The food was so-so, although we were pretty busy doing other stuff and not really eating until they were all cold.

The boys had a blast despite actually being struck by gastroenteritis a few days before. They were pretty sick and even on that day, Lachy was still pretty weak. He was off his food, had a few bouts of diarrhoea and vomiting. He still manage to dance the night away with only a lollipop as his sustenance!

We came home before midnight and all four of us collapsed in bed.



This photo was taken in the morning bright and early, although for Lucas..."not-so-bright, but too early!"

We're in Malaysia!

Our little family is currently on a very well deserved break. We've flown back to Malaysia for a 3 week holiday.



It feels so good to be home. To be pampered. To know that I can lock myself in the bedroom and sleep and the boys are well looked after.



Over the next few days, I will be writing about the wedding, the BIG event we've all been waiting for that has come and gone. I will be posting up photos of my mother's beautiful garden. I will be writing about how pampered the boys are here in Malaysia. And I will be sharing with you, the wonderful food we're about to feast on over the next few weeks. So check back every now and then, for I will definitely be in touch.

Just a little bit crazy

There's a big weekend coming up. A big event for the family.

Here is a sneak peak.



The boys are sick. L1 has been vomiting profusely. He is weak and listless. The only thing that's getting him going is the wobbly red jelly in the fridge. He's been checking every 10 minutes to see if they're set.

L2, I don't know where he's getting his energy from. He vomited thrice yesterday, and has poo-ed non-stop today. Yucky, stinky, Rotavirus. He's still as wriggly as ever, as cheery as ever.

Let's hope we get over this soon. Real soon.

At the Park Today

Giant Squash

This is a squash from our garden.

I have been watching it GROW in the last few days. We have been recycling our grey water. Water from each load of laundry and water from the boys' bath. It has been happily growing at a speedy rate, I was a little reluctant to harvest.

A couple of days ago, I picked the squash. I chopped it into quarters. Lucas has had 4 meals of steamed squash, and there's another half a squash left. I swear there's a hint of QV Bath Wash in it!

Matchmaker

I have a few good friends who live near the city. Friends from the pre-historic uni era. One of which became Lachlan's godmother. She was the intermediary between Gary and I, our matchmaker. And I hold her responsible for our two boys, for my sleepless nights, my post-childbearing curves. I can think of so many more. It's ALL her fault! O.o

She was also maid-of-honour at our wedding.

Anyways, yesterday we went to visit god mom and our good friends. They live in a quaint little Victorian house just across the road from uni, and a stone's throw from the city. The house brought back so many memories, the good old days...some just too painful to remember.

God mom and friends spoilt us silly. The boys were passed from one uncle to another aunty, they were showered with so much attention! Lachy played water gun with his god uncle, he rode on his ultra-funky bike, jumped in puddles, he even played guitar hero! He was given a present, this really cool spiderman shorts, that when it gets wet, spiderwebs magically appears! Cool... great for toilet training huh? Also, god uncle let him take home one of his toy cars which has become his favourite. God uncle Jason, you are officially his bestest mate ya' know.

This morning when he woke up, he wanted to visit Kai Mah again.

...

Pssttt... Kai Mah is smart, sassy and oh so sexy. And she's also oh so SINGLE! Whoopeeee... Leave me your bio if you're interested, or if you know someone!

I am going to get into so much trouble for this. Oh, did I mention she was responsible for our sleepless nights??

Hen's Day Out: The Amazing Race Style

My sister-in-law-to-be, Chai had her hen's day out today. It started at 1:30 pm and we met at her place not far from mine. We were driven to Federation Square in 3 cars, all 11 of us. The day's agenda had been a secret all these while, we only knew to wear comfortable clothes and shoes as there will be a lot of walking.

I should've guessed it would be nearly marathon-like, Chai being a fitness fanatic. Maybe I shoud've left my gym shoes on... or maybe I shouldn't even attempted the gym in the morning and reserved all my energy for the day.

Anyways, it was The Amazing Race style and we were given tasks to perform, both individually and as a team. We were divided into two groups. This is what we had to do:

• Sing in a very busy supermarket
• Do a mummy wrap of one of our team mates with toilet paper
• Busk on Burke Street Mall for $1 (More like beg)
• Cramming strangers in photo booth for photos
• Stripping off our clothes out in the open (We are so CCTV-ed), so we could exchange 2 items of clothing each.
• etc. etc. All these required us to move from one end of town to another.

Basically we did crazy stunts to embarrass ourselves in front of total strangers. I am surprised I still had energy in me to run around with the YOUNG LADIES although I could definitely feel my knees creaking and my back a little achy breaky. Ahh, what 2 pregnancies do to your body! Joy. And oh, I had 2 blisters on my feet.

Dinner was classy and different. Mecca Bah is a Turkish restaurant at NewQuay, Docklands, which is situated picturesquely on the waterfront. We don't have Turkish food too often, so it was a nice change. We ordered a few dishes to share and I must say, the lamb tagine was one of the best I've had. The morsels of meat just melt in your mouth, had just the right amount of spice, and served on a bed of couscous, heartwarming!

After dinner, the hen's party begins. We got on a party bus that had disco lights and played rather dodgy techno music. It then took us all around Melbourne for a tour, while us unruly females had a night of outrageous debauchery, taking turns doing dirty dancing on a trippy bus and asking Chai lots of dirty sexy secrets while giggling away in girly chatter. The bus took us straight back to her place again, and we continued the night with drinks and nibbles and really really silly games involving a phallic shaped object.

It was a great night. I had a chance to unwind, get to know my soon to be sister-in-law and her friends and a chance to get away from the boys! I enjoyed it.

Girlfriend

There is a lovely little girl at playgroup that Lachie totally adores. Today, we went to her house for a very impromptu play date.

They made and played with play dough. He wanted blue. She wanted green. They look so cute in matching Tupperware aprons and hats.

Recipe for play dough

Ingredients:

1 cup of salt

2 cups of plain flour

4 tablespoons of cream of tartar

2 cups of water

few drops of food colouring

2 tablespoons of cooking oil

Method:

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan (or two). Now for BIG hands only: Heat and stir until it becomes thick. Remove from pot and while it is warm and gooey, rest play dough on your palm, squeeze play dough between fingers and knead until soft. Repeat. Now hand play dough over to little hands.

...

It will be interesting to see how this friendship will blossom in years to come. I just think it is wonderful for Lachie to develop a special friendship, regardless of gender.

Big Kid Big Trouble

I did mention a little earlier, that I haven't been blogging about the boys. Truth is, these last few weeks have been a real challenge for us as parents. I am talking about Lachlan, our terribly-tantrum-throwing-two-year-old, turning terrificly-three at the end of April. And I don't like to write about negativity. But I guess sometimes there is so much to learn from the hard times. It just makes us appreciate the good moments even more than before.

Life with children is full of ups and downs. Like a roller coaster ride. The good, the bad and the ugly.

Every single day I wake up to a battle ground. It's a battle of having to repeat myself nearly 10 times, to ask him to do a simple task. Like your breakfast is ready, sit down and drink your milk...etc. This will be met by a very defiant NO. He completely ignores my requests, deliberately do something to annoy me or sometimes even physically hurting me or someone else, usually someone smaller than himself and you-know-who!

I find myself in a really scary rage, turning into some kind of monster that little kids are afraid of, raising my voice so much so that my dog curls up in a whimpering heap!

Sometimes I feel like a twisted knot, I'm stressed and angry. And I keep reminding myself that this is part of him growing up. That he is a healthy and happy 3 year old with so much to explore and so much to learn. I count my blessings he is full of energy, he is smart and often testing the limits. It's just part of normal and healthy development.

But.

Rules are rules. Boundaries need to be set. So I may be that ugly monster of a mom for a little while, but I sure do hope that he grows out of this real soon.

The birds, the bees and a cotton bud

A few weeks ago, hubby found a cotton bud that I dropped in the garden and asked what it was used for.

My answer, a sex toy! Actually, it was more like an instrument for assisted reproduction. A pumpkin version of IUI (Artifical insemination). Except it doesn't have a uterus.

Anyways, yes, it worked! It also could've been the bees busily at work.

Photo: Queensland Blue Jap

Getting ready for dinner

I realise I have not been blogging about the boys lately, and I'm sure some of you have missed them. Goodness, how quickly they have grown!

Lachlan will be 3 years old at the end of April and will start pre-kindy once we get back from our holidays overseas. He talks like a 16 year old and I'm not too sure if that is a good thing or bad. He goes up to a girl and says things like "Do you want to see magic?"

Lucas is almost 10 months old. He is such an adorable, inquisitive and active little boy. He has been pulling up to stand, cruising along furnitures and climbing stairs. He prefers his brother's spaghetti bolognaise rather than his own baby porridge. He tugs my heart when he comes to me saying "mum mum mum...."

Photo caption: My boys posing for a photo as they got ready for a birthday dinner.