Merdeka Open House 2006 – Calling all Food Bloggers; Check out Babe in the City for other details as she is the organizer for this yearMerdeka Open House virtual makan-makan. This is me again with my cooking. Most important, it is halal!

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Ingredients:

and not forgetting the gelatine and pandan leaves which is not in the picture

Method:

Boiled 2 liters of water in a pot. Put in Gelatine dan sugar and in boiling water. Divide mixture into i.e. 1/3 and 2/3 in different pot. Put in palm sugar into the 1/3 mixture. Simmer in slow fire till the sugar melt. For the 2/3 mixture, add in cendol and coconut milk. Removed them once the mixture started to boiled.

Chilled the 2/3 mixture till they are set. Use a fork to prick on the surface . Pour in the 1/3 mixture (i.e. palm sugar) on it. Chilled them again in the chiller.

Cut into square or retangular. Serve cold.

Please e-mail me at siewjang(at)yahoo(dot)com if you need a translation in English Version. Happy National Day to all. 🙂

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Sepuluh tahun yang lalu di Kuala Lumpur, jikalau anda hendak melancong ke mana-mana di dalam Malaysia, anda hanya perlu memandu ke Lapangan Terbang Subang yang terletak 30 mint dari Kuala Lumpur. Teminal yang semenjak 1954an, anda terpaksa memasuki tarmac tidak hirau hujan atau silau (???)and memanjat tangga untuk menaiki pesawat.

Kemudian, Kerajaan membina terminal yang berbilion juta ringgit dengan kemudahan yang tercanggih di dunia yang terletak 75 minit dari Kuala Lumpur.

Justeru itu, mereka juga membina landasan kelajuan tinggi yang hanya memerlukan 30 minit untuk sampai ke sana. Sesugguhnya, lapangan terbang itu masih seperti kampung berhantu dengan pintu pagar yang lebih dari pesawat.

Wujudnya AirAsia selepas itu. Sekarang, semua orang boleh terbang (menaiki pesawat) dengan satu tanda yang baru di dalam kehidupan. Kerajaan pula memutuskan untuk membina satu lagi lapangan terbang untuk AirAsia yang terletak jauh lagi dari Lapangan Antarabangsa yang meniru konsep dan sistem 1954an teminal. Kecewanya, ia tidak ada kemudahan keretapi kelajuan tinggi.

Kemudian, semua penerbangan domestik dipindah ke Teminal AirAsia. Sekarang, anda terpaksa menaiki bas selama 75 minit ke teminal yang jauh itu dan jalan di dalam hujan dan juga memanjat tangga sama seperti tahun 1954. Apatah lagi, Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa sekali lagi seiris kawasan gurun.

Oh, jikalau anda hendak transit dari penerbangan antarabangsa ke penerbangan domestik, anda perlu menaiki bas yang perjalanannya setengah jam sehala dari teminal lapangan terbang canggih.

Adakah ini kita panggil back to the past? (sakit kepala la! Tak boleh fikir lagi dalam BM! Aduh)

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Ini adalah cerita saya dalam Bahasa Malaysia. Mari lah kita menyambut Hari Merdeka ini berblog dalam BM. Dahlah Inggeris saya tak boleh pakai, BM pun miskin. *ish*

You like this collage? See the “Google’s Photo Organizer” button on my right sidebar? Download the software and start your own collage!

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What can we ask for more amid the humid weather lately? We are dying for cool breeze! and I think it’s a good excuse to gather family members for a picnic at the beach ;). There are 16 adults and 9 kiddos – no joke. Morib beach is the nearest beach in Klang and I think it’s the only beach that can be found in Klang Valley.

You like fun? We bring lots of toys for the kiddos. There is even a toy truck so the boys are busy transporting sands and the girls basically busy picking shells and building sand castle. We had adult toys too. Not a Vibrator ok! …. a kite!

I’m just to obsessed in photography and this is the best time to take silhouette shots. I took many many of them and really love it so much.

Not forgetting the act of jumping. We jump and jump and keep on jumping just to get a perfect shots where all of us are leap in the air. aitelyu, it’s not easy!

I love this shots the most.

Contrast perfectly balance for my liking. Not too dark. But a perfect silhouette shot should have a brighter background and darker image. I know nuts about photography actually. So if you are a pro, give face a bit ok? We took lots of different post – buddha and duck post. lol. It was so much fun.

They have some kind of wrestling going on too.

2 person will get on the balance bar and start hitting. Whoever falls in the sea lost the game. Who wants to be my opponent???

Picnic can’t go without food. Since there are so many of us, we decided to have BBQ picnic.

Another collage by Picasa aka “Google Photo Organizer”. Download the software now from my right bar.

Excuse me on the burnt food. This is only few burnt, we have more burnt chicken actually! What to do, the wind is too strong plus we have few hiccups at the beginning.

When adult started to get mischievious and abandone their toys, what do they do? They decided to experiment with their food.

Coke + Mentos = ???

6ft Explosion!!!

Sorry about the pic. This is a failed project :(. FAILED!!! Failed to snap any picture actually. I so hate myself that day. How could I did such a mistake. You see, I was distracted by hubby (shouldn’t have ask him to be the cameraman!!! *grrrrr) and one, just ONE, mentos accidentally fell in the coke. It just exploded. Wakakaaa…. I was wet and it was definitely hillarious. Amazingly how only one mentos can create such an explosion. I’m go to do this again in 2 weeks time. Just watch out for this space. Ahem!

Have you seen a peppercorn tree before? Wanna see one?

This is a 6 year old tree.

Peppercorn closeup.

Unripe pepper

I used to think that black or white peppercorn is from different species of plants but I was wrong. They are from the same tree. It’s the process of making that produces black or white pepper. The riped corn looks like miniature tomatoes.

They have some kind of super smart machine or sorter that will sort out unripe and riped corn. The machines also sort out different sizes of corn, big or small which will determined the grade of the corn too. Of course the bigger the better. So you think the machine is smart huh.

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This is how they produces black peppercorn. Unripe corn will left to dry under the blazing sun for ….. dunno how many days till it shrunk in size and turned black. If you look closely at the above pic, you will be able to see some shrink green corn.

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The process of getting white peppercorn is by using riped corn. Firstly, they will have to removed the orange skin by squeezing the corn and wash them repeatedly in water till they turn white. And of course the final process is by drying them under the sun again.

Beware of cheap white pepper powder. During grinding process, they mixed with about 20% of rice powder in them. I’m not blowing cow (bullshit). I saw that with my own eye and ask why they are doing that. They claimed some traders or eateries want cheap pepper powder so that is the only way.

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This is another valuable education bought to you by jessieling.com. See, afterall it is still worth droping by my blog everyday for a little education, ramble and camwhoring. You get to read stuff you don’t get from other blog! *duck from rotten tomatoes*

Have a great weekend ahead as I am looking forward to my weekend getting bake under the sun. *woot!* …. and say hi to your mom for me. *muaks*

2 weekends ago, I was at a shopping mall. Out of the sudden, I heard girls shouting histerically. From far I saw crowds pushing each another. Good thing I have my camera with me so decided to go kay-poh (find out) a bit. Didn’t you know I work part-time with CNN 🙄 ? Sometimes SBC, sometimes TV3, sometimes Nanyang Siang Pau also *cough* . With my cup-chai (little) Olympus in full swing and camera set on multiple shots, I’m ready to barge in the chaotic madness!!!

I got this shot…

Who the heck is this guy? Turn left, turn right…..

Will Pan.

Will Pan?

WILL PAN!!!

Omg, it’s WILL PAN!!!

Now, who the heck is Will Pan?

Was it spring now? I saw this species of tree is blooming everywhere.

Isn’t those beau.ti.ful? Pic taken at the playground opposit my house.

More close-up?

They looks like Morning Glory and this is definitely NOT sakura aka cherry blossom. This is how sakura looks like. I wonder what does they called.

Since I can’t resist the beauties of the blooming, decided to camwhore a bit. (I.Don’t.Cam.Whore!)

…. ala Bollywood style!

While we are shooting a Bollywood movie *cough*, flowers and dead leaves keep raining on us. Suddenly I feel like AUTUMN! Suddenly I feel like a child. Suddenly I hold out my hand and try to catch the fallen flowers!!! Suddenly my kids did the same too. Suddenly, so many ppl looking at us 🙄 :oops:  I added some fog to the above pic and it seems that the flowers doesn’t stand out.

This one is original.  No photoshopping at all.

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And the next evening when we passed by the playground again, more flowers are blooming and more matured flowers drop to the ground.  Again, without hesitation, I grab my Olympus and snap.

I.Love.Spring.I.Love.Autumn.I.Love.Winter.I.Hate.Summer.

Black soy sauce wantan mee is quite common everywhere but if you are in Pontian Kechil (yes! with the ‘h’ please), do not get alarmed if your wantan mee turn out red instead of black.

Wonder where does the orgin came from – ketchup wantan mee. Funny thing is, the whole town is selling ketchup wantan mee and no one is selling dark soy sauce wantan mee. Right amount of seasoning (i.e. light soy sauce + sesame oil) and sauces (ketchup + oyster sauce) makes one float in heaven with just one bite.

This stall owner has been in business for almost 20 years now. There are 2 shops that is quite famous of their wantan mee – Heng Heng Wantan Mee or this, 933 (yes, the Sillyporean radio station 93.3). I’m ok with either one. The noodle tasted the same anyway.

I’ve been eating this since 12 years ago when I first set foot in Pontian Kechil.  And whenever we go back to visit the old man, life is not complete without having a plate of wantan mee. Like the saying goes – Bread can’t live without butter, wantan mee can’t live without the pickle green chilies.

Not sure about you but I have a bad habit. Every mouthful of noodle must have a ring of the pickle green chili to goes down with it. And of course, there must be a bowl of wantan (pork dumpling) soup to go with the wantan mee.

errr…. do you want me to go on as how bouncy the fishball is? aitelyou, it can do 5 bounces on the table before rolling off the table!

Read on some goodies from Pontian Kechil here. 

Dear Thelma,

I have 2 children. One month before I deliver my 3rd child, I found out that my husband is seeing another women. He claimed that I am a good mother but not a good wife. I have dedicated all my time to the kids and doesn’t pleases him at time. Of course I was tramatised over the incident. After I finished my confinement, I went to a sliming centre in hope that I will win my husband heart again cos I still love him very much. We went for vacation and I tried to be romantic to ward him. 2 months after that, my husband left the other women and we are back as a happy couple again.

Not long after that, he have to leave for another state to work. That leave me and my 3 kids at home for several year. In 2005, he was jobless and I have to be the bread winner in the family. Thanks God I still had my career. The ugly thing is, I started seeing another man and when my husband found out about it, he spent a large sum of money to hire a investigator and finally file for a divorce.

He told me that he shall ‘revenge’ on me by fooling around with other women to hurt me. He used to come home on alternate days but nowadays, our home is like a hotel to him. He drop by once a forth night for few hours only. He claimed that since it is my fault to make him come out with large sum to hire a investigator and a lawyer, I shall bear the cost for his rendevous. Do you know how hurt am I?

Didn’t he realised many years ago when he cheated on me, I am willing to sacrificed lots of thing to win his heart back but why he have to treat me this way???!!!

Sad Wife

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If you did not read ‘Dear Thelma’ on The Star 20/August paper, this is one of the problem face by many women out there. Take note that I type all the above from my heart as to what I can remember but the original is longer with lots of other ugly acts from the husband.

That last line has been playing in my head over and over. I know man and women is not supposed to cheat on each other but why as a women, when we found out that our husband stray, we always put ourself at fault. Many times the women will ask, “What is wrong with me? Am I not attractive enough? or sexy enough?” Somehow, we will go thru all the trouble to win them back and so forth? But for the man, they will think that we are not a good wife/mother anymore. The only solution for them is file for a divorce and take over the custody of the children. All human make mistake but women never given the chance to turn over a new leaf.

Last weekend, I was back to hubby’s hometown in Pontian Kechil. It was a small town situated in Johore which is about 3.5 hours drive from the heart of Kuala Lumpur or 1 hour drive from Singapore.This quiet town has rows of wooden shoplots along the busy main road and I’ve never set foot in them before mainly cos they don’t look appealing from the outside and since I prefer to shop at Jaya Jusco, Tesco, Giant an air-conditioned place.

Since I’m on a mission this time to look for something… rather ancient, I think I’ve choose the right place to go.

“Do you sell rooster rice bowl here?”

“Ah, yes!”

Clad in only white netting singlet, sight of this fashion type of elderly man are seen at most chinese coffeeshop there. Take a look at his background. I wonder how he even managed to rumage thru his stuff or remember where he place those stuff. To me, they looks like a heap of rubbish with dust and spiderweb on them. He bent down under one of the shelf and pull this out.

雄鸡饭碗 – Rooster Rice Bowl

The original bowl is hand painted one by one. Hence, you may see that every rooster is different from each other.

Since the bowl was hand-moulded by man manually, the shape differ from each other and can’t be stacked neatly. I would called that an art!

I think I am better off be a food blogger surprisingly how well I blend with food. *sigh…

Ingredients:

Pork (preferably the fatty part)
Hard boiled eggs (removed shell)
Tofu (Tau kua)
Cinnamon stick
Star Anise
White peppercorn
Dark & Light soy sauce
Whole clove of garlic

Method:

Marinate all the above for at least 1 or 2 hours. Remove eggs and tofu before cooking under medium fire. Remember to constantly stiring them to avoid pork from sticking to the base. Cook until pork was done or before the gravy turn dry. Add in water, eggs and tofu. Simmer for at least one hour or till the pork is soft.

Base on my pic above, I’ve excluded the pork and add in chicken stomach and pig intestine (did I hear someone streak “Fear Factor?”). It is yummy but some do feel icky cos it is the ‘pipe’ but I still love them.