The missing beansprouts...

Living in London introduces you to a whole new world of gastronomy. Walking down a typical high street, it is unlikely you will find anything less than 5 - 8 different ethnic food shops.

I was just wondering how living in London have changed the way we eat.

In Malaysia with my family, it used to be Chinese day in, day out. A good day eating for me will probably be Wan Tan Mee in the morning, Chicken Rice in the afternoon (if I can manage the portion) and a home cooked Chinese meal for dinner. The most 'un-Chinese' thing we eat at home is probably peanut butter bread, we don't even do cereal.

The husband in Penang was a lot more diverse and he had a lot more choice and budget. His choice breakfast would probably be Roti Canai with curry for breakfast, Duck Rice in the afternoon (he could probably do 2 portions) and a large Thai or Japanese set meal for dinner.

When we started living together, he had problems seperating me from my Chinese food and I had problems making myself try weird odd foreign foodstuff.

These days it is a lot better and we both eat a wide variety of 'world food'.

I was looking through an old photo album and found some of our dinner photos.

This was obviously when I was missing my Ipoh Beansprout Chicken (which is missing the Beansprouts because the husband won't eat them) and decided to just replicate it at home rather than wait my heart out to get it in Ipoh.

See how messy everything is? Just like in the hawkers! Haha..


Here's when we decided to have a Japanese pig out session. We usually only eat sashimi when we go to Billingsgate Market to buy whole salmons. They do very well in the freezer. It is just a big job de-scaling, chopping and slicing.


This is the middle portion of the salmon that will become sashimi.


Another meal we were addicted to cooking for a while (because it is fast, easy and clean!) is toad in a hole. It is basically sausages in yorkshire pudding. It looks pretty when they are fresh from the oven. No these are not burnt, they are meant to be quite brown.


We had them for Christmas together with veges and onion gravy. The chinese roast pork was there because we were feeling naughty.

And here's what I miss MOST from Malaysia. It just does not taste the same over here. They make the noodles like RUBBER BAND! Bleah :P

Oh Danny boy..

I grew up living with a person who was perpetually about to go bankrupt.

I love him to bits but when it comes to managing his finances, I don't buy any of his ideas and to a certain extent, I know he is irresponsible but I will never tell that to his face because it will be a knife cutting through his heart.

It has not made me a spendthrift, it has not make me careless with my money, neither has it made me a kiam siap kui (stingy ghost).

I learnt how to manage my own finances when I was 12, building my own secret bank in a pretty Pocahontas notebook which was a present from a family friend.

Of course I had a proper bank account managed by my parents but I soon learnt never to trust or rely on money that I cannot see.

You might think that a 12 year old only saves to get fancy stuff their parents won't buy for them because it is a waste of money but I was saving to get myself proper things like my school uniform and books.

It wasn't that they were denying me basic rights to go to school, I did it because I wanted to feel independent, that I was capable enough to survive on my own without having to rely on my parents and without having to live to fulfil their expectations instead of my own.

Today, I know to keep a close eye on our finances and make sure it does not go running into trouble.

I do not dislike or look down on people who have gone bankrupt because I can understand why and how easy it would be for someone who blindly chases after money.

I DO keep away from the stock markets like I would do a bad egg because I have seen more than enough damage it has on reckless, often over-ambitious and frequently unlucky sods looking for fast and big money.

But what I am NOT, is paranoid about being bankrupt!

I don't go scanning around reading articles about how not to go bankrupt although sound financial advice is always welcomed.

I do not want to be a bankrupt BUT I also do not fear being bankrupt because I know I have lived through it and although it was not pleasant, it is certainly nothing you cannot recover from if you are determined to.

Also, if you take it positively, it is an experience to learn from and it should hopefully make you wiser ;)

The dream

This Sunday I turn 24.

It is a strange feeling because the last time I thought about being 24 I was 12. That's because it was a Tiger year and I was thinking.. hmm.. next Tiger year I would be 24!

I used to wonder what I would be doing when I was 24..

Married? Not married?

Would I still be in Malaysia or would I have achieved my dream to be a doctor in some African country with deadly scorpions (no idea how I would ever cope with that considering I scream at the sight of the tiniest spiders!)

Now that I will be 24, it seems I have ditched a few of my 12 year old ideas, achieved some of what I wanted to do and adopted some new ideas along the way (some of which the 12 year old me would probably not be very happy about - like kissing a boy, yucks!).

What would I want for myself when I turn 36?

Well....

I want to be as madly in love as I am now with that fat boy who is super demanding about his lunch!

I want to be a mother and hopefully have children that DO NOT whine too much!!

I want to be self employed (yes I know it's everybody's dream) and have the husband at home running our own business.

I want to move to a place away from London where we can buy a bigger house with a much larger garden where we can then adopt a young collie who will run around like a mad dog.

The saddest thing about all these are that Bronx, Chicken Pie and Wibble will probably not be around when I turn 36.

At the moment I don't know if I can live with that. Talking and thinking about Jake still brings tears to my eyes and we still miss him very very much.

Of course that is life, if I don't ever lose them I will never get to know another dog or rabbit but it is always so hard when you miss something you know you won't see for a very long time.

Anyway..........

That's 12 years to wait and 12 years to enjoy everything we have at the moment and whatever comes in between.

Popiah

A few Saturdays ago we invited Uncle Mike and Justina for a popiah experiment.

Popiah being the delicious wet vege rolls you get in Malaysia, not the fried version.

We decided to try making popiah because we (well, mostly I) have been craving it for ages and also because we finally found turnip (the Chinese variety not the English one) in a chinese supermarket.

The turnip itself cost us about £3.50!!!!!!!!!!!!

But that is a small price to pay when you have been craving something you can't get easily..

Here's what was in our popiah.

Hoi Sin sauce, Popiah skin wrapper, cooked french beans,
pan fried tau kuah (hard beancurd?), fried onions
and stewed turnip. Oh and there was lettuce leaves and
chilli powder added later as well.

We made the popiah skin ourselves partly because I don't know anyone who sells them and partly because nothing but good old homemade popiah skin will do.

It was rather tricky to make the skin but nothing 2 smart ladies can't do. The finished product came out good but a bit too thick (next time I'll remember to leave the batter overnight) :P



Have you ever seen popiah skin being made? If you haven't I recommend looking it up on youtube, it is highly fascinating stuff.

Anyway, here's the finished product

Looks good, yes? Popiah + World Cup = extra yummy!

Look what Uncle Mike did to my poor soldier when I was in the bathroom getting ready to leave.

All that just because I tried to throw a grenade at one of his soldiers! Humph! No more popiah for you Uncle Mike!

Bonx

Bronx the big goofy dog is a big chicken.

Strangely he gets quite scared of other animals even those who are just the size of his head!

He lost to a pig who snorted real loud at him when he went to sniff it...

A duck who quacked furiously and chased him out when he stuck his nose into its nesting bush...

A plastic bag that flew in his direction out of no where...

Every single time he would jump back and hide behind me or the husband.

A few days ago.. Bronx was in the rabbit's room and Chicken Pie was out running about. As usual Bronx will follow CP until CP finds his spot, stops and Bronx will just stay there staring at CP's face, nose almost touching.

That day he must have got his nose a weeeeee bit too close to CP's comfort and CP decided he wasn't going to take any nonsense from that silly dog so he jumped up and gave Bronx a big smack on his face!

Bronx was startled and quickly ran away.. he didn't go near CP for the rest of the evening... poor dog.. they're back to being friends now though.

Haha...

The only 'thing' we know that Bronx is in command of is Uncle Mike who is terrified of dogs and will scream like a girl if Bronx sticks his nose to close..

Haha! So much for being a man Uncle Mike! And don't forget my Vuvu please!

A song like this..

Makes me wish I paid more attention during Mandarin lessons back in primary school. Sad I'll never appreciate fully the beauty of this song, even with english translation.

The Mandarin speakers a.k.a Wee Chin and my cousin sister keep telling me.. aiya.. you don't understand one la.. how to translate to english???? The language is so cold..

........................?