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!
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 :)
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!” :)
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…
i may have mentioned this 497 times (more or less), but my appetite’s still shite, and it should not be because i’m in my 8th month, where the food monster should rightfully have reared its ugly head and make up for the lost months of eating atrociously.
i CAN drink though, and my current thing is sunkist orange juice. by the litre. mmmmm.
some days, though, i’d get nostalgic and go for nasi padang, which is kinda like comfort food for me, for some reason (you know, like scrambled eggs with kicap, or home-peeled-and-cut fried potatoes).
nasi padang reminds me of those occasional saturday mornings at arab st with the family when i was younger. the ikan bakar with kicap and lime, the lauk lemak ayam, the rendang, the achar… and this coming from someone who’s not much of a rice eater in the first place!
the husband is a huge rice fan (then again, he’s a huge fan of food, period), and well, whichever place i’ve been to eat, he’d tell me of another place where it’s EVEN better. so i haven’t eaten at s/ab/ar m/en/an/ti for a loooong time, coz he insists nasi padang’s nicer (and cheaper) at hjh r/at/na, tucked away in a coffeeshop at beach road.
actually, we wouldn’t say nasi padang’s cheap, coz it’s not! all those small dishes *do* add up, but we credit it to the difficulty in preparing each dish, and such a variety at that. plus, rice is VERY EXPENSIVE now, hor??
aaaaaanyway, yeah, it’s pretty good, at least good enough for me to clean off a whole plate each time. again, very unlike me. (but just don’t give me the same thing everyday lah.)
so, other foods that i *can* stomach?
why, ice-cream, of course.
yes, even (or especially) the cheapo 50 cents mcdonald’s cone – aiyah, the cheaper the better lor! right? ;p
this was, believe it or not, our first visit to manhattan fish market. we saw it at jusco, jb but wasn’t really craving for fish at that time. but when we realised that they have a branch in singapore, we decided to give them a try to see if they can rival our number one fish joint, fish & co. ;)
so to celebrate the wifey’s birthday, i decided to bring her to the restaurant. typical saturday night crowd at plaza singapura, just getting into the carpark took 30minutes, but luckily, we managed to park the car almost immediately. must be birthday girl’s luck. :)
there was a queue at the restaurant but at least, it was moving. we got seated by 15 minutes and the staff there were fast and attentive to our needs. we ordered the salad and mushroom soup for starters and the kids’ size fish and chips for aniq. i must say, for a full house, the orders came pretty fast!
the salad which was coleslaw with raisins tastes just like the one from kenny rogers, crunchy! the mushroom soup was thick but i felt that it was a bit bland, though the wifey thought otherwise. she kindda liked it.
the main course was the seafood platter for two. this was exactly like the fish and co seafood platter but with a twist! it came with the usual calamari, prawns, fries and garlic rice. the difference was that they had this tasty fried mushrooms oysters that i love! crispy on the outside and all chewy on the inside. the fish was also generously large.
what literally blew me off was the torch-carrying waiter. when i thought that he wanted to place the pan on the table, he stopped two steps behind and began to blow-torch the prawns! the flame blower reminded me of my secondary school days doing experiments with the bunsen burner. kindda had the same effect. anyway, after he practically almost burnt the prawns, he finally placed the pan on the table. although the prawns looked cooked, they tasted of LPG. but at least the sauce tasted great.
the calamaris were just ok, i still prefer the ones at fish and co, but perhaps the best was the fish. crispy and light, just nice. the rest of the seafood were just ok. although MFM was generous with their fish, they skimped on their prawns and calamari. the garlic rice was tasty but still cannot compare to the basmati-like rice of fish and co’s rice.
the verdict? the servings and service are excellent. but the food just fell short of the standards set by fish and co’s. but at least they are way ahead of the naked fish shoppe. :)
it was mum’s birthday last weekend and we decided to bring her somewhere she hadn’t been to. we headed to the grassroots club, where we’d heard of the n/a/k/e/d fish shoppe.
i’ll try not to sound too, erm, critical and harsh about the place, the food and the service, so i’ll just go over our chosen menu.
right, adam had the kids’ fish & chips, aniq had the fish cutlet sandwich, which was shared with his paklong and his fries pilfered from everywhere else. needless to say, he concentrated on the fries more than the sandwich. he’s turning out to be pretty much like mummy, the fries monster. oops. (but did you know, mcdonalds touts their fries as being high in fibre? haha.)
i had this, or rather, WAITED for this, while everyone else had almost finished their meals. some bits of prawns, fish, scallop, squid and obviously i asked for fries, but it came with rice, so it got sent back, only to be returned the same thing with extra fries in a basket. (apparently, the exact same thing happened to my bro & SIL too when they came here previously.)
the rice was laden with cheese, which the kids kinda liked, coz they like all things gooey and gross, so i managed to get rid of quite a bit of it to them, heh. the scallops i didn’t touch either coz i didn’t like the smell and taste of the slimy stuff, however nicely it’s been cooked. the rest of the fish… let’s just say, nothing beats fish&co., ok? ’nuff said. :S
i also gave away these fish to izad, something like large… anchovies?? we have NO idea, but he liked the fish roe in them, and i didn’t. yeah i’m weird like that. i like my fish, err, egg-less and barren.
now, WHY did i even choose this, in the first place?? *scratch head*
mum had this, grilled barramundi or barracuda or something, topped with lemon butter cream thingy. ’twas alright.
ouuuh and see that thick mango juice at the back? it was sent back a couple of times due to the extra protein (ie. ants) discovered floating around in the jug. yes, a couple of times. but i guess it came together with the juice, you know, like selasih in rose syrup? AND it turned out to be twenty freakin’ bux when i looked at the bill!! my SIL said perhaps without the ants it would’ve cost fifteen bux. sigh.
well, at least the kids had fun running around shooting each other afterwards. they hadn’t seen each other for a week coz of the school hols and adam is looked after by my SIL at their own house.
he said the sweetest thing, that he’d dreamed of aniq.
and yesterday, aniq woke up from his nap at my mum’s and cried out “babang! babang!”. apparently he too missed his partner in crime and dreamed of him as well. awww.
oh, and to my supermum and their superoma, who’s exactly thirty years older than me this month, happy birthday. may you be blessed with more lovely grandkids. :)
it’s been a while since i did a food review. it’s not that there isn’t any good makan place, just that i’ve been busy, well… running.
anyway, this stall is a personal favourite of ours. i think we did a review of this stall on our previous site, izadnhana.com, which, by the way, had been taken over by a cybersquater, no thanks to the previous domain administrator.
we used to get our naan fix at the stall, but that was before aniq was born. as there isn’t any babychair for the little one to sit, we haven’t gone there as often as before. from the outside, it looks like your typical naan coffeeshop, but behold, they make one of the meanest naan this side of town, piping hot naan plus its cheap too!
tucked at the corner of desker road lies this humble restaurant. we usually just order the butter chicken and mutton keema. but occasionally i would buy the tandoori chicken and the curry chickpeas, which are simply delicious.
if you don’t believe, just take a look at aniq’s facial expression, i rest my case :)
yes, he really dips his naan in the spicy butter chicken gravy, it’s finger lickin’ gooood.
i was clearing up my locker at work when i came across an old fish and chips recipe that i scribbled on a piece of paper. the special thing about this recipe was that it was given to me by a former ‘client’ of mine who had since been released. the last time i heard, he had his own stall selling western food in the western part of singapore. ;)
anyway, i’ve tried using the recipe and boy, was it good! the crispyness of the batter really made it delicious. i wasn’t really surprised as this fish and chips recipe had won an award in the iron chef competition held earlier this year. and now i’m sharing the recipe with you and also as a reference for me if i ever want to make fish and chips. the ingredients are as follow:
1 packet of pacific dory fish fillet
1 packet breadcrumbs
300 grams plain flour
50 grams corn flour
3 tablespoons cajun spice
3 tablespoons mix herb
2 cans soda water
2 slices of lemon
ground pepper
salt
add the plain flour, corn flour, cajun spice and mix herb together in a bowl. mix them with 2 cans of soda water. stir well. add the ground pepper and salt to taste. lastly, squeeze the lemon juice into the batter.
prepare the breadcrumbs on another plate. try getting the japanese version, i think the packaging is in yellow. dip the fish into the batter and cover it with the breadcrumbs. fry till golden brown. enjoy!!
for your info, you can get the cajun spice and mix herbs at cold storage or mustapa centre. i think the brand is called masterfoods.
anyway, if you think that its rather troublesome to cook, you can get good fish and chips at surprise surprise, long john silver! no, i’m not talking about their normal fish meal. have you tried their traditional skin-on fish and chips? its quite a huge piece of fish fillet. although the price is dearer than their normal set, its rather worthy as the fish is juicy and the batter is so crispy.
so next time try getting the skin-on fish and chips for a change and you will know what i mean. but if you think its rather expensive, try the recipe, your whole family can enjoy, simply shiok!!
it’s always been a yearly routine, more like a ritual. i’ve been to the ramadan bazaar for as long as i can remember. my dad used to bring me to the bazaar when i was small. he seemed to know most of the sellers back then as they were mostly made up of the kampung glam residents, but now it’s different, new partners with new faces sell their wares here. but its inevitable, the times are ever changing but one thing stays the same – the food! :)
went on a mini shuttertrip with my photobuddy jeremy on sunday. it’s been a while since i took out the dslr camera for a spin. we revisited the kandahar street bazaar. the place was as usual, bustling with activity. long queues at yusof power briyani dam stall and the battle of the kebab stalls. i noticed that there are 3 kebab stalls this year. but surprising, only one ramly burger stall.
for the complete photoblog, check out my flickr here
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