i was inspired by discovery travel channel’s man vs food, dagwood sandwich that i really had to recreate the sandwich.
for those uninitiated, a dagwood sandwich is named after dagwood bumstead of the comic strip, blondie who loves to make huge sandwiches.

so on a rainy afternoon, i traveled all the way to tampines mart to get stuff for my sandwich. i got 5 different types of meat cut for my sandwich, foccacia bread (my favourite!) and the usual greens. took a while to get my foccacia bread, had to travel to another part of tampines for the bread, apparently its sold out at certain places! ok, on with the program.

first we cut the bread and spread the greans plus sauces

put all your meats in between, yummy!

all set!

just lovely!

wanted to go all out and stack the meats as high as possible but i couldn’t possibly finish the whole sandwich! anyway, 5 meats plus cheese is a good start. btw, the meats that i used were roast beef, pastrami, chicken ham, turkey ham, and meatloaf.

for clearer and juicier pictures of my attempt, check out my flickr.

and i thought i was never gonna taste the slurpy eggs anymore in my lifetime, when a trip to batam reunited me with one of my childhood comfort food.

like a lost lover found, the taste was all too familiar, memories of my childhood kept flooding back as I took large slurps of the runny egg. some may enjoy it while others just detest the slimy texture and taste but i belong to the former.

we used to buy them every time my family goes for our weekly marketing at geylang serai which is now just a distant memory. i guess, i was like aniq’s age when my dad gave me a taste of the telur penyu. maybe we were trying to save the turtles from extinction when the government totally ban the selling and buying of this delicacy. But for whatever reasons, if you feel like tasting the good ‘ol telur penyu and reliving your childhood, it’s just a ferry ride away.

we traveled up johor bahru to check out the night scene on a sunday evening with my dad and brothers. since we half expected the woodland causeway to be jam pack, we decided to go by tuas instead. luckily, traffic was a breeze there. wanted to go jusco but tesco attracted us with kenny rogers. the place was so-so, perhaps more suitable to the local clientele. got my ayamas and ramly fix in tesco before heading to the main destination.

pandan city is located just south of jusco, the place is a hive of activity, kindda like the geylang bazaar but at least 4 times bigger. tried out the famed “gearbox tulang soup” which aniq loved and got a nice ramly burger special with cheese for myself. the rest bought sate, ikan pari bbq and roti john. didn’t really explore much as monday is a working day. it was rather chop chop but aniq and auni seems to enjoy the journey especially little auni who finally bonded well with her grandpa

click on pictures for an expanded view. more pictures at our flickr site!

i’d meant to bring the family somewhere for an overnight stay where it’s near and cheap and that wouldn’t require a tedious drive across the causeway, but bogged down by sheer inertia and procrastination, it didn’t happen. so on the last day of our week-long holiday last week, we decided last minute to just hop onto the ferry to batam for a day trip, just for the heck of it.

we left aniq to spend time with his grandpa and uncles, and brought mum along, who was equally curious of the place.

it reminded me of old shopping centres in malaysia. (not the KLCC types, of course.) nothing much to shop for, so we concentrated on, erm, eating. which izad was more than happy to do.

i liked the Breadtalk spree the best. and so did auni, as you can see. she devoured a whole cheesy bread thingy by herself.

the thing about not driving up was, we couldn’t bring back a load of stuff, so we had to give a miss to a lot of cheap groceries and toiletries at the hypermart. and concentrated on bringing back these instead, which went like half the price of that in SG.

for $40 a ferry ticket, i think the next time we head there, it’d better be for a spa resort holiday.

we were at is’s place a couple of weeks back for a family gathering when she served us homemade burgers. and boy, do they taste really good! so good that i asked for the recipe and tried it out last weekend. basically its from jamie oliver’s burger recipe but he uses steak meat which is definitely fresher than your minced beef meat that you get from the supermarket. and where in singapore can you get free range chicken eggs?

anyway, if you must follow his recipe religiously, you can check out the recipe here

so i did try to follow the recipe as instructed.

i fried some chopped onions

pounded the cumin and coriander seeds together. add the black pepper and salt for taste.

added the ingredients together which included the breadcrumbs, grated parmesan cheese, egg and english mustard.

mix well, if its too sticky, add more breadcrumbs.

shaped ‘em into err, burgers and sprinkle more breadcrumbs. leave in fridge for around an hour.

fry them in olive oil.

all done, enjoy!!

just a few notes about round two of the Jalan-jalan Cari Makan roadtrip to KL we went on two weeks ago.

remember, it was all about the food, the whole food and nothing but the food.

so ok, let’s go. first stop, breakfast on a saturday morning across the border. some had roti canai, some had nasi lemak. some had kaya toast. and a side of sausage. (which is what i call that juicy meat with the bald head. ie. “hey Sausage. Sauu-sageee.” coz she really feels like one. cheese-filled.)

we reached our destination in good time, but our hotel rooms weren’t ready. in fact, they weren’t ready for a few hours more. this resulted in a Singaporean female lioness unleashing her wrath of fury to the hapless hotel staff. wah seh. you don’t play play with Singapura lionesses, ok. they are not all docile, purring Kucintas, hor?

we bunked in with lyd & mr boy, the latter whom Sausage is smitten with, for some reason. she calls out to him every time she sees him from afar, and has absolutely no objection to him carrying her. why ah, Sausage, why? why do you like mr boy so much? is it his magic mole that holds the charm? coz mummy also has a mole and you like her very much too.

[insert obligatory family picture. see hot Sausage in stroller.]

anyway, the hotel we stayed in was the heart of damansara, perfectly located with malls and shops all around, and too many restaurants we didn’t know where to begin with.

ok ok, i know where we tried to begin with. it was the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

i said tried, coz we somehow didn’t end up eating there although i think most of us wanted to. see, we happened to be there on a valentines weekend, and well, malaysians are not immune to the pull of the valentines dollar, or rather, ringgit. a few places had projected that valentine couples would readily open up their petaling street wallets on this special weekend, and priced their set meals and buffets at exploitative costs. unfortunately for us non-valentine tourists, bubba gump was one of them. so we gave it a miss, and headed to marche instead.

what did we eat? i don’t know! i think aniq had spaghetti, i had rosti, auni had mushroom soup (and bits of bread, baby bites and anything else she could grab within her reach), izad had turkey ham something (that looked like Spam to me), and grilled chicken. should have ordered the crepe, which thankfully rin & naz did. the calamaris farah & naz had were not as good as the calamari you find in SG. and i wanted my bundaberg root beer but got ginger ale instead, grr.

we settled in our rooms for a bit, naps for the drivers and some of the kids, and then we got ready for our reservation at Rebung restaurant. which we were an hour late for coz we got decidedly lost. lol.

(well, at least i almost wished we had, so we could go to T.G.I. Fridays instead. shhh.)

but found it we did. we had to lah, the last time we came to KL, we cancelled our reservation coz we decided to do tony roma’s or something. :p

this famous restaurant is owned by chef ismail and dr sheikh muszaphar. yes, THAT one. the pride and joy of the nation. the handsome-tak-boleh-carry astronaut. the manager of the restaurant told us that we should have informed him of our, ahem, ‘interest’ to have him present that evening coz apparently, he makes guest appearances lah, ok! but nevermind, he said, next time sure boleh. because, malaysia boleh.

so what did we eat at rebung? err…

i don’t know either! lol.

the dishes are mainly traditional. think hajah maimunah to the power of three. with all the ulams and asam pedas and sambals and siput seduts galore, i’m very sure our parents would lurrrve this place. the rest of the gang did too, actually, since they all wanted to try out this place. izad, don’t say lah, he’s one of those appreciative of malay foods. (unfortunately, the fella had a seriously bad case of ulcers this time round, so his palate was a little wonky. nonetheless, he valiantly attempted all the dishes that came his way despite their threats to assault his wounds.)

i think i had my rice with whatever i was familiar with, ie. asam pedas, kicap ikan… ok, i’m sorry, all i can remember was feeding auni with rice and sup daging. lol. and pisang goreng. i know, i’m like the absolutely worst person to bring to a buffet, i swear. hopeless like anything.

anyway, the manager took us around the place, took some pictures, and we left, with our butt marks imprinted on the red sofa as a memo for mr astronaut that the Kucintas had come, preened and poised, ready to pounce on him. meoowr. next time lah.

the next morning was hotel breakfast, the usual fare. i was delighted to find porridge amidst this, and proceeded to stuff auni with as much of it as i could. can you tell i’m obsessed with stuffing her, like a turkey?

with all the restaurants around our hotel, it was a bit of a puzzle how we somehow ended up going all the way to KL central for lunch. some had chicken rice, some had bubur ayam (which again, i managed to stuff the little Sausage with). the fella, despite his frazzled ulcered tongue, could still taste how bad his mee bakso was. which was why i held out on local fare – i wanted my westerns and i wanted my meats, dammit!

BUT! to keropok lekor, i concede.

coz, malaysia has the best lekors lor! they have soft ones, thick ones, crispy ones, thin ones.

i like the piping hot chewy ones. mmm mm.

next up was PS Boutique. that’s Petaling Street Boutique, to you.

the lure of this place is, of course, the search for the Almost Genuine-looking Fake Goods. attempt only if you are already familiar with the real stuff, know your goochis and el-vees and praduhs well. also your tissohs and omegahs. :p now, we will not disclose what have been collectively acquired at PS Boutique by the gang, as we are sworn to secrecy of the highest order. (now, pls girls, tuck in those blue boxes away…)

but i will tell you this – izad’s favourite stall in all of PS. this is real stuff, cannot bluff. with the heat beating down on us, we had at least three cups between us.

my perseverance finally paid off when we reached pavillion – carl’s jr.! and this time, no wussy chicken burgers (coz the last time we came, the beef broiler machine thingy was out of action). good ol’ double hunka meats for me. and this time my turn to stuff my face, with the yummilicious chilli cheese fries. and free flow of drinks!

they (the burgers) were so huge, i shared one with izad on the spot, and took away another one, of which i devoured half of at the hotel later that night, and the other half… back home in singapore, shhh. lol.

speaking of that night, we decided not to follow the rest to farah’s friend’s house coz it was late and we wanted to get the kids bathed and in bed after a long day out. he was kind enough to pack some of the satay kajang he’d served, though.

and so much for getting into bed – us and aniq ended up sprawled on the hotel room sofa watching a ‘friendly’ Wall-E dvd we’d gotten from PS Boutique earlier.

on our last day, our Bubba Gump plan was once again thwarted (why ah??), coz we decided to push on to KL central again. eh, we didn’t even get to eat those swedish meatballs at ikea again. and TGIFridays was out of the window as well, lol. so much for damansara.

we got to KLCC and headed for Chilli’s instead. nachos, fajitas, all good. even auni had her free kid’s meal of mac & cheese. now i know what to buy for her next time. gooey, disgusting mac & cheese. lol.

and that, i THINK, concluded our Jalan-jalan Cari Makan trip. well, give or take a few snacks in between.

travelling with a bunch of friends is always good. give and take is a must, and miscommunication inevitably happens, but surviving it only makes the bonds stronger, no? well, i hope so.

travelling with kids – what can i say? the joy and the fatigue come with the package.

leave them behind? yeah, right!

as you can probably tell, the lack of updates by hana is a sign of profound malaise. clearly, the switch to non-sahm mode has not been the most joyful of event for her.

which made her question as to who in heck created the work week to stretch for five days and not contain it to just, say, four, or maybe three days?

to which she received a reply from her ever-sensible husband that it was all in the name of a healthy economy and The Big Picture. longer weekends mean longer downtimes, he says. less productivity and lower standards of living. worse still, he came up with the ‘less effective gahmen’ trump card. and in his usual gadget-centric logic, if his handphone is spoilt and requires servicing, a longer weekend would mean a longer time to get it repaired. hmph, the consumerist.

so apparently, long long ago, people, especially in the industrial era, used to work really long hours with really poor working conditions (boo hoo). then in the 1800s, some fella began demanding for shorter work hours, starting some kind of workers’ union, and went around with a catchy phrase, “Eight hours labour, Eight hours recreation, Eight hours rest”. that took quite a while to catch on, but it eventually did for most parts of the world, and May Day or Labour Day had something to do with that, you know, to commemorate the achievement of the labour movement, yadda yadda.

ok, so what’s the point of all this again?

ahh right, i’m *supposed* to be thankful that the work week has been greatly reduced from ancient times when workers were greatly exploited, especially women. but it’s hard to console myself when the fact is that most of the “eight hours of recreation” and “eight hours of rest” is sapped up by the demands of motherhood, leaving little for the self. (yes, i am after all part of Generation Me.)

labour is indeed a great pain for many women – the one experienced in the hospital to expel their offsprings from their wombs, and the one that takes them away from those offsprings eight hours a day, five times a week. the latter being more prolonged and painful for some, like me.

our respite – the forty-eight hours called The Weekend. where family, friends and food are the bonus and remuneration. <3

ok, digressing a little, i cheated (as usual) for the potluck picnic and bought a tray of shepherd’s pie from The Shepherd’s Pie, located at the second floor of Bedok Market Place, just next to our ever-favourite makan haunt, simpang bedok. we could have had it delivered for free, but since we were there for dinner the night before, we dropped by to pick up a frozen tray so we could bake it ourselves on the morning of the picnic.

what can i say, everyone approved, even the husband, the foodie! needless to say, the whole tray was polished off within minutes (as you can see in the picture). definitely tasty, with just the right amount of meat and potatoes. yes, i’m a carb person, i am. i love my potatoes. next time we’ll try the spicier stuff, ok idayana!

the two G.I. janes, aka botak janes. “kakak mia, don’t pull my hair!”

happy 30th! omg we’re old. hurhur.

and that reminds me – aniq’s birthday is coming, AGAIN! ha ha. of course there’s the question of should there or should there not be yet another party this time round.

to which the reply is that it would greatly depend on the economy. namely, the mother and father’s. which means, mummy would have to keep working to sustain that economy, baby. just so you can keep enjoying your birthdays.

crap.

aunty farah, can you save those three candles for him?

maybe i’ll just order a shepherd’s pie and plonk them on it.

so i did finally find time to break out the new food processor, a hand-held one, which is so, erm, nice to hold, long and firm, with strong vibrations and all… err…

anyway, this baby food-making thing is kinda deja vu for me (the entry of oni’s demo still resides at aniq’s old blog), and like the last time, i’m holding out on the heinz/gerber-made purees because… well, i did it for the firstborn, so mommy has to be fair, right? and i still have a week left before relinquishing my sahm status, so i might as well do the homemade stuff like a good supermommy would (yeeaaah right, lol!). and, hmm, two babies on and i’m still a little suspicious of shelf-food (and beverage) for babies. (hey, you’ll never know what’s been melamine-infused! :p)

steamed japanese sweet potato

(i know others create lovely entries on cooking, especially exotic food, but this is as far as hana goes with so-called ‘culinary adventures’, bah.

oh, and let me tell you, i did this in mum’s kitchen, and she took one look at me and went, “you hold the baby, let me do that instead” which made me fume and start nagging at how she ALWAYS did that, from when i was young till now that i’m an adult, and this was why i never learnt anything in the kitchen, bla bla bla, afterwhich she smirked, and continued holding the baby while i daintily scooped out the contents of my lovingly-made mush.)

this time round, inspired by Fiona Miles’ ‘Fresh Milk: The Secret Life of Breasts’ (great read! it even has a breastmilk ice-cream recipe, if anyone’s interested… and stories on lactation p*rn*, ho ho), i did something which i unfortunately didn’t try the last time. and my favourite part of the whole process too, actually!

i bent over, and squirted milk into the bowl, straight from the source. mix, squirt, mix, squirt… until i got the consistency just right.

not gross, very nutritious, confirm no melamine. ha ha.

so far, so good. she’s learnt to open her mouth wider instead of ‘sipping’ from the spoon. but mess is mess, for sure!

the latest and last installment of our 2 days trip to KL which we all agreed was way too SHORT!

i’m really amazed that the videos really create a lot of buzz in the websphere with each episode hitting more than 500 views EACH! wow! (if one person just pay 10 cent to watch each video, gua kaya, haha!!)

so, its either there are really 500 viewers to the blog or the same people keep viewing the videos 500 times!

anyway, since this is the last of the KL videos, we really like to thank lennyrendra for organising the trip and nazrini for finding such great accomodation. and the rest of the roadtrippers, you guys rawk!! (we should organise more of these type of trips)

btw, the dvd is near completion, and since it seems that the videos are really popular, i’m taking orders of the dvd for the rest of the viewers who wants a copy for a low price of $29.99 with autographs from the roadtrippers and a personalise cd cover! (no lah, joking only)

ok, i don’t want to waste anymore time, since i got an assignment to complete also, enjoy the video and selamat berpuasa!

KL Trip 2008 (Part 4) from izadnhana on Vimeo.

the continuing episode of our trip to KL. did a few minor tweaks to the video with additional footage from boylydia’s dslr camera.

anyway for the roadtrippers, i will compile a director’s cut edition and burn it on a dvd. footage which did not make the cut will also be included. photos from boylydia’s and hana’s cameras will also be added in the dvd. not to worry, i will burn each family a copy. date of release would be in a week’s time.

for the rest, enjoy the video. same disclaimer:- food scenes may be harmful to those fasting, best view after buka

KL Trip 2008 (Part 3) from izadnhana on Vimeo.

ps: stay tuned for the last episode!!

wow, 340 views and counting just for the first part!! that is really something!

ok, as promised, the second part of our trip. warning, more food footage

KL Trip 2008 (Part 2) from izadnhana on Vimeo.

our little supper adventure…

Durian NiteOut from izadnhana on Vimeo

and still aniq hates durians, period!

nice or not, our latest diaper cake?

KIDDING! (how in heck could we make something like that out of diapers??)

damn, i should’ve eaten more of it at the party. i think the pheromones released from that one slice of chocolate cake is still lingering in my system.

anyway, *this* is our real diaper cake, for a baby shower. the second in our series of ‘Got Milk?’ theme.

featuring Hotsling

did i tell you i think i’m a milkaholic? i crave for at least two full mugs of cold HL milk everyday even though the baby’s born and i shouldn’t have anymore cravings. so i suppose auni’s having HL-infused milk (and also honey red tea with pearl, my other pregnancy vice which looks like it’s here to stay). as it says on the HL carton, “Made with Fresh Milk”. which i can’t really figure out, coz if milk isn’t made with fresh milk, what IS it made of? stale milk?

which i stink of, most of the time. stale milk, that is. it smells like… cheese. which is what cheese is made of anyway, right?

and speaking of milk, i finally did it.

i aimed, i squeezed, i conquered. (and i laughed – at myself for looking so silly, and at the clueless baby who ended up with milk sprayed all over her face, trying to lick herself.) now let’s see if baby’s teary eye will be less watery.

ps: and it’s decided! land of many cows, here we come… altogether now, “mooo!”

ta-da!

big or not, my baby??

:p

haiyah, not mine lah. ceh.

that’s my six-week-old nephie-poo, Aidin Faiz. we met during my weekly check-up at the doctor’s clinic – he was about to be circumcized, while i was about to be, well, checked.

not that there was much to check, really. i’d lost a bit of weight, as is usually the case in the last trimester. the baby, however, has grown – 3.1kg or so for now. the head is *almost* engaged, it’s still hovering at the pelvic bone. see! notchet ready to come out, ok! :p

the doc asked what date we’d *like* her to come out, but i guess we’ll just let her come out at her OTOT (own time own target lah). someone pointed out that today would’ve been a nice date – 02/04/08.

and so, according to the doc, the machine says the new due date is [XX/04/08], but nahh. i doubt it too.

(what’s the date given? fergeddit! i’m not gonna say!)

******

so, since it was probably the last time the spouse and i had some alone time together, you know, holding each other’s hands instead of our little one/s’, we went ’rounding-rounding’ – well, as much as my legs (and bladder and pelvis and etc) could handle, anyway.

he (yes, you heard it right, HE, not me, the very-heavily-pregnant-one) had a craving for arnold’s fried chicken.

as we drove up to city plaza, we recalled, when we were young, how both our parents would park at the side of the very same road, at the very same spot, to go to the then-only standard chartered bank to retrieve money. not sure why but the oldies from the teaching profession seem to prefer banking their money there, for some reason. after that, the routine for our families then would be to head to the nearby haig road hawker centre for lunch (me in my primary school uniform). we wondered if perhaps then, our cars had crossed paths, if my dad had honked his horn at his dad, or if we’d sat near each other’s tables while eating mee rebus, or… you know. it could’ve happened. heh.

aaaanyway, we also both had memories of dining at arnold’s when we were young. it was one of the first halal fast food restaurant to rival KFC (which, we both agree, really sucks now!) and it was kind of a treat to go there.

right, this next part, is from the foodie himself, ok?

=> “this is how fried spring chicken should taste like! the batter is light and doesn’t overpower the meat, which is juicy and tasty.”

ok, as you can tell, he’s a big chicken fan, lol!

i must say, the coleslaw was also waaay better than kfc’s – fresh and sweet-tasting. my favourite part, though, was not the chicken but the potato platter. there were potato wedges, waffle fries, and some thin-sliced potato thingy which was nice and warm, and turned crispy when it’s cooled. haiyah, i love all things potatoes lah, can?

(by the way, this may not mean much, but KFC *was* the last thing i ate before i gave birth to aniq, hehe.)

oh, we later went to bugis to get aniq a present.

what present?

why, a present from his adik, of course. a ‘kelong’ present, that is, bought with daddy’s money.

we’d asked him what he wanted some days ago when we were at a toy shop, and he’d picked out – sigh – a transformers robot thingy. we’d told him the baby will buy it for him but he did this “tch tch tch, nooo” and shook his head, like he disapproved of the idea, which tickled us so, hehe.

and so the transformers robot thingy is bought, in discreet, wrapped and is sitting in the boot of the car, waiting…

for XX/04/08! :p