Monday, October 27, 2014

Cook: Prawn Noodle Soup

Homemade Prawn Noodle Soup

Look at the thick soup broth, yum!
This is a long overdue recipe... sorry for the wait. Had been busy entertaining my university friend from KL and with kids falling sick, so haven't been blogging for the past 2 weeks...

Made this prawn soup noodle from scratch using prawn shells that I have been saving up... and hubby and me love the soup, its flavourful and yummy!

INGREDIENTS:
(Serves 2)

1. 300g prawn shells
2. 2-3 pieces of pork bones
3. 5 cloves of garlic, minced
4. 4cm of ginger, minced
5. 1.2L of water
6. 3/4 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
7. 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
8. 2 pieces of rock sugar
9. 1 tablespoon of seafood soy sauce (Optional-can replace with light soy sauce)
10. A dash of white pepper (to taste)
11. Oil

METHODS:

1. Heat up a little oil in the frying pan.
2. Stir fry the garlic and ginger until fragrant.
3. Add the prawn shells and fry until its cooked (shell turn red colour)
4. Press the prawn heads to squeeze the juices out.
5. Add water and close the lid, bring to boil.
6. Once boil add pork bones and all the seasonings, simmer for 2 hours.
7. Taste the soup and add more seasonings as required.
8. Blanch noodle, prawn, fishcake and water spinach (kang kung) till cooked and arrange them into a bowl. Pour the soup over and serve.
9. You can add any other ingredients as needed, i added a hard boiled egg too :)

Serve hot!




Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Eat: Maco Cafe and Bakery, Johor

Found a mille crepe and coffee cafe gem lately and has been visiting them almost every week for the past few weeks... 

Love the coffee there, it is sooo good, but the downside is i am losing my sleep over the caffeine.. will be great if they have caffeine-free coffee.

And the mille crepe cake doesn't disappoint... it is nice and not too rich so one can eat 1-2 pieces each time without feeling too much...

And hubby fall in love with their Baked Cheese cake..it is not too rich with a tinge of lemon taste... perfect! He even requested the cheesecake for his birthday this year!

Dine in and have a yummy slice of cake and coffee in their cafe... ambience is good and there are a few electric socket available.... free wifi is also available... with complimentary plain water.

Maco Cafe
For weekday tea time.. there is a special RM15 per set that comes with coffee and cake.. 

Tea time special
They have quite a variety of cakes... 2 display area.. this is just one of them..All cakes are priced at RM 8.50 per piece... additional service charge in dine in...

If you takeaway, it will be RM 8.50 nett for the cake!

Selection of cakes
Some of the cake i have tried...

Varlhona Chocolate Crunch....
Durian mille crepe
Also tried Green Tea with Red Bean Mille Crepe, Bailey Mille Crepe and Hokkaido Mille Crepe and so far, i wasnt disappointed.. it is all very yummy!

And my lovely cup of cappuccino :)

Cappucinno
Lovely cafe with great cakes and wonderful coffee...definitely will be back for more!

ADDRESS:
Maco Cafe and Bakery
65, Jalan Sutera Tanjung 8/2
Taman Sutera Utama,
81300 Skudai, 
Johor, Malaysia.
Tel: +607 556 8490

GPS Coordinate: 1.515194,103.667663

OPENING HOURS:
Mon to Thurs: 12pm-10.30pm
Friday: 12pm-12.30am
Saturday: 11am-12.30am
Sunday: 11am-10.30pm




Eat and Play: KL Genting Getaway April 2014 (Part 2)

Day 4

We will be checking out from Sunway Hotel today and then head to Genting for second part of our hols.

It was raining after breakfast so no pool time today for the kids. ended up playing in the bathtub while daddy mummy packing up our stuff before checking out today.

yakult  breakfast time
one more yakult for today
Mummy is excited to see drive through starbucks... :) 

first ever starbucks drive through experience
ordering....
Meet up with hubby's colleague for lunch at the "wen dong jiang" restaurant. 

listening to daddy's lecture
yummy fish and ginger chicken mee noon
Reached Genting, checked in and we got a room with a view... :)

what is left from outdoor park
watching fantastica promo roadshow on stage
The complimentary outdoor theme park whole day pass is only applicable on the day we reached... so  we quickly start playing....
deer ride
brave qin sits alone in train ride

Kids sleep quite early today cause had a tiring day travelling and playing.

Day 5

Waking up in cooling Genting and leisurely stroll to have complimentary buffet breakfast at first world cafe (Level 3)

Eating bread

Showering after buffet and enjoying his yakult (bring from kl.. haha)

yummy
good morning...
Leisurely enjoying the morning in the room while the kids play themselves.

Finally around noon time, daddy and mummy mustered strength to go out of the room, went and exchange ticket for fantastica show tonight at Genting International Showroom.

After that went for train ride for the kids, the two of them enjoyed it very much. Boy boy keeps saying 'vroom vroom' after the ride, complete with action of him riding the train.

happy time
enjoying themselves
Lunch at "hao you ji". We had fish, soup, dried bak kut teh.. everyone enjoyed the food. 

nice fish
After lunch, play at amusement park again...
so fun!
yay!!
duck "fishing"-- no luck though... didn't manage to win anything
kiddy rides
having fun

After lunch and play , went back hotel for nap. After the kids fall asleep, mummy went shopping and bought clothes... :))) on offer!!!

Pretty lilac dress @ RM 29 from Padini
Super handsome shirt @ RM 39 from padini
Dinner at kenny rogers. we had buy 2 sets free 1 set of quarter chicken meal courtesy of Berjaya Corporation....


kenny roger quarter meal - comes with 3 sides and a muffin
After dinner is fantastica show... Girl enjoyed but boy boy start to run around....Hubby had to bring him out to let him play outside so that won't disturb others.

halfway through started to walk around
After the show, we had a late supper before going back to sleep...
kiddy rides while waiting for jie jie to eat her supper at McD
yummy tiramisu @40% off for night supper after the kids sleep
Day 6

Final day of our trip...

having their last bottle of yakult for the trip
Had drive through starbucks again. this time, we redeemed a free coffee from Berjaya Corporation....

Drove all the way back to Yong Peng again for late lunch cum dinner.... and that marks the end of our trip!

Eat and Play: KL Genting Getaway April 2014 (Part 1)

A post-dated blog post sharing our getaway to KL and Genting in April 2014....

It is a 6 days 5 nights getaway ...and a pretty relaxing trip.. we spend most of our time in hotel chilling and enjoying the facilities and we really love staying at Sunway Resort... love their great room, good facilities and wonderful breakfast. It is also super near to Sunway Pyramid so we can go shopping and eating anytime we want :)

Genting is cooling, love the weather and we had a super good hotel deal that comes with indoor theme park admission and a show as well!!! 

Day 1

First stop: Chi Lin Restaurant for a good bowl of fuzhou fish ball , stir fry fuzhou noodle at yong peng. Depart spore at about 10 plus, reach chi lin close to 12 but still not opened yet, so we make a quick stop at Eng Hin to purchase some nice biscuit. Bought the yummy crackers, tau sa pia, egg biscuit, ear biscuit, xiang bing etc

Add: 14, Jalan Besar, Yong Peng, Johor.
GPS: 2.011157, 103.061274

Lunch at chi lin is good, we had fuzhou noodle, fried meat, fuhzou fish ball soup and taugeh for RM37, everyone was very full at the end of it.


Posing at Eng Hin
After lunch, we continued our journey and reach Sunway Resort Hotel and Spa at about 3 plus. Checked in, unpack and the kids busy exploring the room.

selfie with girl girl
kids playing in new baby cot 

We then went down to the Atrium Cafe for afternoon tea, the afternoon tea set is priced at RM 32++ which includes savoury sandwiches, cakes and scones plus free flow of tea. I had earl grey tea. The food is so so only, didn't really amaze me. Ambience at the restaurant is good but with the two kids running around.....

Afternoon tea set
enjoying the food
After indulging in the food, we went back to our room and the kids had fun in the bath tub..


enjoying bath tub, look how happy they are
After showering, i cooked some plain porridge for the kids for dinner, and then after playing for a bit, boy boy drank milk and sleep. Girl girl and me went down and explore the elephant, tiger and deer sculpture. 

In front of hotel
We also went for some food from Tony Roma as the porridge wasnt too filling for us, had a yummy burger and brownie.

Selfie while waiting for food
selfie take 2
selfie take 3
yummy juice at tony roma
yummy and warm complimentary bread
mushroom burger

Day 2

Everyone had a good sleep but boy boy woke up slightly earlier the next day, at 7 plus. After brush teeth, clean up, we went down for the complimentary buffet breakfast at the hotel. As always, the buffet at Fuzion did not disappoint. Great selection of bread, nasi lemak, fried noodle, scramble egg, sausages, cereal, yogurt, fruits, yakult, cheese selections etc..

walk around the pool after breakfast, pic with dolphin
Changed into swim suit and get ready to play with water

Boy: Jie, why are you wearing my swim cap
Surprisingly, girl girl is the one enjoying water this time round (she used to be very scared). Boy boy was scared and doesn't wan to get into the water, he just walk around the sides of the pool, and occasionally go in the water with me carrying him.

the sister and brother shot
love their expressions
After swimming, we went back to our room, showered and then get ready to go shopping at sunway pyramid and have lunch.

the kids... showered and ready for sunway pyramid
still have time to play :) look at her cheeky look
peek-a-boo
Looking at people playing water in sunway lagoon
finally, after messing around in the room, we are at sunway pyramid--- kids with their balloon
we went shopping for a bit, bought some T-shirt for the kids, i also manage to buy a blouse which is quite nice and cheap....

Lunch was eventful :( ... halfway through the lunch, when boy boy has just getting started to enjoy his food, girl girl said that she wanted to go toilet... OMG!!! So i had to grab the two of them and bring girl girl to toilet...boy boy was crying away, shouting and wanted to continue eating as he is quite hungry and was just getting started on his meal.... then i had to explain to the waitress to leave our food as we will be back.... we had a hard time finding the toilet, walking here and there and realise that the path to the toilet has staircase...!!!! luckily one cleaner auntie was there so i asked her if there is any toilet without staircase (as it is quite hard to carry the two of them plus stroller up a stairs to the toilet). Luckily there is one toilet nearby without the need to climb stairs..... so quickly get girl girl to toilet and then back to our lunch...

enjoying... yummy! this girl really likes fries
and the boy with the fries too
After lunch, went back for nap and while the kids are having afternoon nap, our special guest of the evening has arrived. LM is my college cum university school mate and whenever i am in KL, i will try to meet up and catch up with her...

And the kids took a real long nap today ( i guess too tired from swimming earlier), so LM and I had a good time catching up...

dinner with LM at this newly opened restaurant, Pu Tien... we had a good meal
adding their collection of balloon... each time en xin saw balloon, he would shout "booo" then i have to see if possible to grab some balloon for him. ... even when his hand is full of balloon, he will still goes "boooo"each time he saw balloon...
So, we end up going back hotel with a stroller full of balloon... at least 8 balloon i think...

Day 3

Third day of our trip and the kids has exhausted their energy... girl was tired and i had to wake her up so that we don't missed our breakfast. 

Boy playing his toys while waiting for jie jie to wake up
so fun playing... and no one fighting over the toys with me :)
Finally, jie jie is awake and we are on our way down for the yummy breakfast...

Girl still has the sleepy look... so cute
daily yakult drink is a must for girl
After breakfast, we went for a walk by the poolside , just like yesterday 
sun bathing
nice selfie with mummy
the three of us....
another selfie with 3 of us- happy qin and mummy, di di looks a bit impatient already...
After the walk, we went back to our room, change into swimsuit and its swimming time again. Girl girl is super excited but boy is a bit scared, only wants to sit at the side of the pool. luckily no wind and so not very cool to stay out of the water. Girl enjoyed the pool very much this time round, jumping and splashing water. too bad this is the last time she played at the pool during this trip,initially wanted to go again that evening after their afternoon nap but was raining. the next morning, wanted to go swim before checking out but also raining... 

the two of them sitting at the far end of pool, splashing water
cocoon-ing after swimming
After shower, boy drank milk and went into la-la-land. Girl did some drawing and colouring while i read the newspaper. We had dim sum at westlake restaurant in sunway resort, it is not as good as expected. only good thing is it is near the hotel and no need to walk to sunway pyramid to fill our stomach. the restaurant is pretty empty too at lunch time so we had all the attention from the waitress.

moody boy, just woke up from morning nap and eating dim sum 
enjoying her cha siew bao
cod fish porridge and soup
After lunch, walk around the hotel, kids played at the staircase and then went back to room, play a bit more before nap time

at staircase
playing near the pool
loves her balloon
also playing balloon
After exploring the hotel, its nap time.. and then shower time...
wrap up like a little baby after shower
After the kids had a quick shower, we went to ole ole bali in sunway pyramid for dinner. the dinner was really good!!! We had some grilled seafood and a platter. Kids had grilled salmon with fries.

grilled salmon, chips are rather spicy 
bali trio platter- can share for 3-4 person as starter
nasi campur- mixture of grilled seafood and chicken

After dinner, walk around sunway pyramid. Went to Popular and buy a few books, some short stories for girl bedtime story and a step by step drawing. We also takeaway starbucks cake and coffee then head back to hotel.

Kids play for a while more then sleeping time :)


more play time before bedtime
And some "us" time, chilling and enjoying cake from Starbucks!

Tomorrow will be going to Genting for more fun!

Part 2 of our trip: KL Genting Getaway Part 2