MY List

Found out about this really late (today's the deadline!) after reading 5eXMom's page (its seriously very addictive cos she's so witty!)
So what's MY list about? It's the brainchild of Daryl (who blogs about how to earn money blogging...first time visiting his site and haven't had much chance to read more about him just yet cos I'm a deadline here!!) This list is to bring together all Malaysian bloggers under one roof and with everyone linked to everyone, our rankings will go sky high! Since I'm relatively new at this whole blogging thing, but still would love seeing my rankings hit the roof...I'm adding myself to this list loh!
So....if you're new like me, and want to get more traffic....go to Daryl's page down load the list and follow the instructions!
PS: I dont even know if I'm doing this right!! LOL!

My List Participants

The Undeniable Beauty - Revamped
An Anonymous Journal
Cyberpartygal
Blank Canvas
She Rambles On
charcamayne
Money Online | Adsense Money | Tips For Adsense
Belajar Cara Membuat Blog Wordpress
Usahawan Internet
Peluang Perniagaaan Internet
iNicholas
Made In Penang
Syaf The Geek
snapshots of life with Cheng Leng
iCalvyn.com
Blogging Through Depression & Life
Trying to Save Money
novatech personal playground
Little World Of Thoughts
Sumber Dekorasi & Laman Anda
Menarik.com
INSIDE MY MIND
Sleepy As Usual
 blogs">thoughts ---> blogs
Share Everything In Life
Value Bookshop’s Reading Notes
Tips and Tricks to Happy Parenting
BERSAMA MEMBINA KEJAYAAN
THE BITCH CLUB
datotalrandommessy.grey
Artmaker
BlogWawasan.com
life is beautiful
Adino Online
Penang Homes
Physical-e
A Mom's Diary
Health Freak Mommy
mrdefinite.com - It’s hot
Tracking Movies
SquareCookies
MonkeyWong
Voice of a Glass Doll
Online Article Directory
Bambang
Wise Life Advice
Kaklong Online Portal
Down Memory Lanes
Sleeping Princess
Online Bisnes Forex Marketing Blog
project010
ProTechWang.Com
Bleargh
Pigeon Card
Pianologist
KCLau’s Money Tips
The Great Swifty Speaketh
Mr & Mrs. Imran
If fate allow our destinies to meet
From chopstix to steak knives
Where's My Noose?
Duke Amiene Rev
Mum & Kids In Wonderland
Yum-Yum Cuisine
Software, Web Development and Technology
just another ordinary story
Mummy In Vain's Little World
How To Solve Your Question
FáLLiÑg LéÃVéS
add this to my life
Free Encyclopedia
High Paying Keywords
try-test
arshad's photojourney
EvelynHolic
RajaBLog.info
Lovelymummy's Bay
My Yummy Cruise
Home Sweet Home
Lovely Mummy
OnlineBisnes Malay Blog
Purest of e2wen
MyAnimes MySpace
Blog Badruzamani.Org
Parenting Life
Forum Newbie Bisnes Internet & Blogger
Mohd Sufian
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
hcfoo's blog
Amazing Grace
The Sanctuary
Welcome To cHrIstInA_YY's Pink World
Defying Destiny
Dead Boredom Seeking Freedom
Travelogue
An amazing & adventurous journey
Erin
Nurjenna
[B][E][A][U][T][I][F][U][L]
Fluffy's Day Off
My Fairy-Tale
Once Upon A Time
Money Making Blog
Bubba Stuff
Little Raymond's
quaint melody
Seraph Chronicles
Route Brumeuse
Coder's Talk
Reggae And SKA
Art Of ApOgEE
THE VEGEMASTER LIFE
Boonage
Coretan Pengalaman Mat
Silverhorsegunnysack
BLUEAPPLE
scribbles
Diet & Detoxification
Karma Kameleon
Hsien's Dirty Little Secret
The Rojak Blog
keeyit
My Life Online
Fun Stuffs
Donny's Bits
Nicholas Chan's Blog
dream of's DESIGN
strike freedom 115
Truly Malaysia
It's another new day
Lisan's Scribbles
Ramblings of a 22 years old
The Towering Joe
Life's a Breeze
Life's Roller Coaster
AceOne118
In His Time
in His time
The New Sanctuary
a life full of surprises
Sketches of Life
Shannon's Old Space
Pikey Dude
SEO & Online Marketing Blog
ShowMeMoneyBiz.com
Snapshots
kahpengBlog
I am Who I am
yung . silent whisper
Simple Life
One blog.One girl.One story
The World Through My Eyes
Why Malaysia?
Etcetera~Etcetera
Giddy Tigers
Make Money Online: Exploring The Dark Side of Blogging
Xilly's Blog
Malaika Xiao Yu
My Home Recipe
SQKIKI’s Simple Tech
Nukilan Jejari Azhad
ITCHY HANDseng
Just My Lil' Organic Life
Oooh La La...
Weird World of MerapuMan
Fibre Art
The World at My Fingertips
Organic Income
Organic Parade
Shopping Flavor
Daily postings of a chung ling student
Something about LAI
KennyP’s Technology Blog
Women Mumbles
KuKuJian.com
Lyon & Wien
Under The SUN
Crumbs In Life
SotongZai's Flow In the Ocean
allthingspurple
Christene's Kitchen
toxicle.org
[ Wood ] [ Earth ] [ Cheap ] [ Flight ]
COMtech
Ah Ling's blog
Memoirs.:*CRoSs mY hE@Rt
~WoOLaLA~
vivivava Design
My Mothering Corner
Shoppingmum’s Home Office
My Filling Station
Shopping Mum
All about Beauty
Shoppingmum and Kids
datotalrandommessy.grey
Notes from my heart
Joy Montessori
wahlau's online hut
Cedric’s Asylum
mott’s mutterings
Just My Thoughts
 delephant
Incoherent Ramblings
HOT STUFF
Make Money Online with Malaysia Love AGLOCO
MONTESSORIMUM.COM
Funky Cookies
Earn Money Online
PabloPabla's Whatever
Make Money with Blogging
Paris Beaverbanks
Free Links Giveaway
Free Blogger Templates
Blogsreview.Net
Making a Living
5xmom
How to be a Better Blogger
My Women Stuff
Hochiak! Delicious Asian Food
Best Recipes
Champagne Tastes on a Beer Budget
Daryl's Discovery Journey
The fluff must go somewhere

Gula Melaka Coffee Rum Cake Recipe

From time to time, I get very domestic and perhaps some sort of maternal instinct in me will kick in and make me feel like venturing into the kitchen to experiment and (hopefully) churn out mouth watering delicacies!

I prefer baking though, to cooking mains. (It is my hope that I will one day ‘graduate’ to cooking main dishes) And so, when a friend passed me a recipe for Gula Melaka Coffee Rum cake, I pounced on the chance to try it out, especially when I found out she got the recipe from a famous chef when she took baking lessons from him.

I find baking to be very therapeutic but this time I was on a very tight schedule and only managed to start baking at 9pm! I had promised I’d bring the cake along for our day trip to Ipoh the next day and I had to honor it. Being unfamiliar with the recipe didn’t help and I had a tough time grating the very hard block of gula melaka. (probably the next time I’m gonna try melting the whole block instead!! wonder if it'll change the texture of the cake??)

But finally, I had creamed, mixed and folded everything and it was ready to go into the oven.

Before going into the oven

My cake 40 minutes later

I took half with me on my trip which was polished off (even after the very filling Foh San dim sum!) and I found out that the other quarter I left for my mom disappeared in one day!

So, I can safely say that my cake was a hit!

Looks yummy, yes?

The RECIPE:

Ingredients
8 oz butter
6 oz gula melaka – grated
8 egg yolks (Use grade C eggs, I found out those are large eggs)

Coffee Mixture: 2 teasp instant coffee
1 Tblsp dark rum
1 teasp each coffee, rum and vanilla essence

Sieve: 8 oz plain flour
2 teasp baking powder
1 teasp salt

2 oz castor sugar
2 egg whites
2 oz mixed fruit tossed in a little flour

Method
1. Cream butter and gula melaka (4 minutes)
2. Add Coffee Mixture
3. Beat in egg yolks
4. Fold in Flour Mixture
5. In a separate bowl, whisk the 2 egg whites and 2 oz castor sugar (at max speed for 3 – 4 mins) and then manually fold the meringue into the cake mixture.
6. Finally fold in the mixed fruit

Bake
Using a 8” – 9” round or funnel tin (greased & floured)
350ºF for 20 mins, then 325ºF for another 20 mins

*Special Notes:
Bagan restaurant in Penang also serves Gula Melaka Cake, but I think this recipe differs from theirs mainly because this one has fruit mix.

Ipoh's Foh San Dim Sum (Highly Recommended!!)

Over the weekend, a few friends and I decided to go on a day trip to Ipoh. Bright and early on Sunday morning, we left for Ipoh and arrived in time for breakfast. We were headed to the famous Foh San for some really good dim sum (only the lure of good food could get me out of bed so early on a Sunday morning!!) I was excited because I’d never eaten at Foh San and was desperately deprived of good dim sum in Penang. We arrived around 9.30am and it was unusually packed (due to the school holidays)!! It was chaos everywhere. People were standing by the tables, waiting for the existing patrons to finish so they could grab a table. But all the waiting was definitely worth it when I was presented with…

The 'polo pau' has got char siew chicken filling inside

Dunno what this is called but its chewy with mushroom chic filling

Yam Paste with meat

Fish skin dumpling

'Siew Mai'

7 of us had to squeeze into a small little table and we were worried there wouldn’t be enough space to put the dishes. But we didn’t have to worry about that for long, because everything that arrived didn’t last long on the table before disappearing into our very satisfied tummies! There were so many things to eat, but so little stomach capacity!! Finally our long awaited ‘char siew pau’ arrived.

I am a big fan of paus especially char siew pau…and biting into the Foh San ‘char siew pau’ sent me into pau heaven!! The char siew was cooked with Chinese red wine giving it a very disctinctive flavor, unlike any other I’ve tasted in Penang.

I was also quite surprised to find that service was actually quite good, despite them being so overly busy. We still had out teas refilled with hot water and the waitress checking on us from time to time to see that everything was in order. Usually at chaotic dim sum places like this, everything is self service to the point of fighting with the next person to get food!

My other personal favourite at FohSan - Fried 'Pai Kuat'

Mushroom dumpling

Steamed Fish Ball and steamed 'pai kuat' in the foreground

Puff pastry with chic and mushroom filling

I had soooo much dim sum that I had to skip lunch while we continued our journey to buy pomelos and salted chicken.

Pomelos from 'Hentian Limau'

The salted chicken here is said to be more moist

On the way back, my other gastronomically inclined friend and I began to contemplate wild thoughts of driving all the way to Ipoh the following Sunday for dim sum and back!
Trust me, we just might do it!

Teik Seng Foodstall @ Carnarvon Street

I have to admit, that while I'm born and bred in Penang, I have the worst sense of direction ever when it comes to roads around Penang Road. All those small, narrow, some of them one way streets off Penang Road (eg Chulia Street, Carnarvon Street, Kimberly Street, Rope Walk...etc) are just a maze to me! And for the life of me, I can never get them quite right...!

So when I drove some of my friends to the famous Teik Seng foodstall along Carnarvon Street, I just drove like I knew where I was going (but was making wild guesses inside my head!) Worse come to worse, I'd have to call my grandpa and ask for directions loh!!

This place has been around for a long time (according to my grandpa) and its always packed. Penangites love their food and would brave the hot sun and the crowd, especially if its cheap and good!

This place is famous for its pork stir fry with soya sauce or "Char Siew Bak" and they can make it spicy (by adding chili padi) if you wished. This dish has been officially dubbed 'toxic' by my brother because of the amount of pork fat and oil it has....but I always say "eat first regret later" and trust me, this dish is worth throwing caution to the wind! *salivate*


Next up is the equally delicious curry fish. Since I'm not a fan of fish head, we decided to have it cooked with 'ikan bawal' (white pomphret) instead. Another favourite is to cook it with stingray. The curry is just nice, not too spicy with a tinge of sourness. Comes with generous helpings of ladies fingers. I like this curry poured over my white rice!


We also ordered butter prawns and stir fry veggie. The butter prawns were very tasty and the veggie was fresh and not too oily!



All in all it was definitely a tummy treat! Oh and just one other thing I noticed about this place... the owner of this coffee shop must like clocks. Because the whole shop is just full of clocks!! Different wall clocks of all shapes and sizes! Thank goodness, they don't chime...otherwise, can you imagine what it'd be like when the clock strikes 12?!

PS: Sorry, no photos of the wall clocks...got too distracted by all the good food!!

Seafood Porridge @ Sg Tiram

There is little kopitiam at Sg Tiram (along Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah, on the way to the airport, after the factories Osram, Bosch and Amphenol) which is famous for its seafood porridge.

This kopitiam is popular with the factory crowd as it is nearby and opens for breakfast. For breakfast, they serve simple items like nasi lemak and fried bee hoon. For some reason, the best seller is their ‘roti bakar’, which is really actually very normal and something you can easily prepare at home. But like I said, for some reason, their toast bread with butter and sugar just sells like hot cakes. In fact, its so sellable that they even have it at night, for dinner! No complaints there, cos I’m a sucker for toast bread with butter!! Yummy!!

During dinner, patrons will go to the counter and pick the various types of seafood that they would like with their porridge, ‘bee hoon’, ‘mee suah’ (rice flour noodle) or yellow noodle soup. You can choose from a variety of fresh fish slices, fish balls, prawns, crabs, fish cakes, pork balls etc… When I was there recently, I picked fish slices with ‘mee suah’ soup. The soup was flavorful and the fish was fresh.

Other choices available include satay and salted chicken. Both items are not bad and tasty.

They enjoy very brisk business and you will need to go early during dinner in order to get a table without having to wait. Some people have commented that their food is not really that special, while some find the seafood porridge/noodles a bit expensive (depending on what you order, but average bowl is about RM6-8). But, business is booming for them!

After enjoying the food here several times, I recently noticed the name of the kopitiam! This signboard is not noticeable from the road, but you’ll be able to recognize the kopitiam from the big “salted chicken” banner outside the shop. Happy eating!

Jiu Jiu Szechuan Restaurant @ Autocity Juru

Was around the Autocity Juru area for work recently and decided to try one of the fancy looking restaurants at the new phase of the Autocity. Actually you can't really see Jiu Jiu Szechuan Restaurant because its located on the first floor, but its bright interesting looking logo beckoned...

The interior was cosy with red walls and dark wooden chairs. My brother originally thought it was some fast food szechuan place with cheap set lunches...but oh boy, were we wrong!!

Upon walking in, we knew this was no RM10 per set lunch place. I do not know much about Szechuan food but would equate it to hot and spicy tastes. People who can't really take spicy food will like the fact that the menu advices the customers of the spiciness of each dish, indicated by the number of 'chilies' next to each item. After browsing through the rather extensive menu, the 2 of us ordered a "Ant climbing up a tree", Jiu Jiu's signature pork ribs, "Xiu long bao" and a long beans stir fry rice set.

The "ant climbing up a tree" (translated literally from the mandarin name) is actually a spicy vermicelli dish that's stir fried with minced meat. It was really tasty and I loved it! Some might find it a tad bit too oily though.

The signature pork ribs came with chili powder on the side. The taste was rather bland to me (probably overshadowed by the vermicelli dish?) Still, the meat was very tender. And what impressed me was the fact that the waiter actually gave instructions to the kitchen to half the portion, since there were only 2 of us. Very sensible indeed!


Next came the "Xiu Long Bao" or mini steamed meat dumplings. Having tried this dish before in Dragon-i in KL, I must say that I prefer Dragon-i's version to Jiu Jiu's. The "Xiu Long Bao" at Jiu Jiu is a bit bigger than normal and the dumpling skin was a tad bit too thick. But biting into the dumpling, you can still taste the burst of flavorful meat inside.


My brother's favourite is the long beans stir fry with mince meat. This dish has always been a family favourite and I must say that Jiu Jiu does this popular dish justice. The long beans were crunchy enough, salty enough, with just the right amount of mince meat. Yummy!


Jiu Jiu also offers a range of teas either by the pot or by the cup. I love trying out different types of tea combinations and was spoilt for choice here. In the end, we ordered a Pu Er Rose tea and a Long Jing Chrysanthemum tea. Both were lovely.


In the end the bill came up to about RM60++ which was quite reasonable for the service and the food. Like I mentioned before, the waiter was sensible enough to instruct the kitchen to half the portion of the pork ribs (and of course the cost!) to ensure that we didn't end up with too much food!

I would definitely come back for a second visit!
Jiu Jiu has another branch on Penang Island, at i-Avenue (next to Bukit Jambul Complex).

So jealous!!

My first 'rant' post. Somehow, I knew when I started this blog that this day would come. That's why got the 'rant and raves' thingy in the intro mah...

Anyways...I'm ranting, but not really in a bad way. Just in a very jealous way!! Cos my great group of gal pals in KL are having a drinking party tomorrow and of course I WON"T be there...cos i'm stuck here in penang. OK lest anyone misunderstands...my friends and I are definitely not drinking 'kaki's... heck for as long as I've known them (hmm..close to 8 years now?) I've never ever gone drinking with them. We're a more karaoke-redbox-newway going kinda gang. AND I've only gone clubbing with them ONCE (and that's just cos one of them was getting married).
So...imagine my surprise when I saw an email invitation for a drinking session this saturday!

They'll be crashing at a friend's house, probably drinking vodka, Kahlua and Chivas mixed with green tea and coke (not all together!!), eating greasy junk food and cake, talking nonsense, do a lil crazy dancing maybe? and generally have a REALLY great time. AND...i'm gonna miss it. Jealous-nya!! To the max man!

But I know they'll miss me, and being the sweet great friends that they are, they're gonna drink a shot of Chivas each on my behalf!! muahahaha!

PS: I am, by the way, not much of a drinker. Seriously.

My Holistic Journey...

Armed with new found zest for a healthier slimmer me... this is my Holistic Journey...so far...

Day 1
Upon waking: 1 cup of warm water with a slice of lemon (as recommended in the book)
Breakfast: Rice Flakes with Rice Milk (both items bought from Cold Storage)
Lunch: Yataimura’s Teppan Chicken with veggie, 1 raw salmon sushi, 1 inari sushi & green tea

Feelings: mid morning near lunch – dizzy (effects of removal of toxins??)
4pm – hungry, eyeing biscuit tin, but resist....

Dinner: 2 muesli bars (too sweet and filled with wheat!!) Was rushing to Kulim for work and just grabbed whatever I could find in the kitchen....

Day 2
Upon waking: glass of water. Was running late. No time for lemon slice or breakfast
Brunch: Half a smoke chicken ham sandwich and chips. With a low fat ice chocolate from starbucks…. Everything didn’t taste as good. Sandwich was too salty. My favourite Ice choc didn’t taste as nice. Being on this diet is supposed to change your palate, so that you don't crave the foods you used to like. Has my palate changed so suddenly or am I just feeling guilty that I'm eating 'forbidden' foods?
Dinner: Reclaim myself by having a banana & yoghurt with a drizzle of honey

Conclusion: This holistic detox diet thingy needs a lot more effort than I thought. My meals will need to be pre-planned and looks like I'll have to prepare my own meals to bring to work until I figure out places that serve 'healthy' foods that I can eat on this detox. Food has always been a big part of my life but its also one that's always easily overlooked. Most times we don't spend any time at all thinking about what we're feeding our bodies with. And we get so used to just eating whatever is convenient or available, which most often than not, are not too healthy for us. Looks like I need a do-over!!

Joshi's Holistic Detox

Veering slightly off topic here by discussing this holistic diet (still food related!!) I read about recently. Its a book called "Joshi's Holistic Detox - 21 days to a healthier, slimmer you for life"

Now that sounds like a real good promise aint it? So I read the book over the weekend and in conclusion Dr Nish Joshi's principles are to return our bodies to its natural alkaline state. He claims our bodies have become unbalanced and acidic due to high consumption of meat, white flour, caffeine, sugars and processed foods. He encourages us to eat foods that are as fresh as possible, thus giving our bodies the best nutrients we can derive from these fresh foods.

So I figured, hey, this sounds quite interesting and since I've always been telling myself that I would eat better and healthier, I thought, why not give this a shot?

Therefore, armed with his Top 10 Detox Rules in mind...I set out, very positively, to a healthier, slimmer me...in 21 days!

Dr Joshi's Top 10 Detox Rules:
1. No red meat
2. No dairy products (goat cheese and live bio yoghurt is allowed though)
3. No sugars and other sweeteners(except honey, preferably organic and raw with no added sugars)
4. No yeast and yeast products
5. No alcohol, fizzy drinks & caffeine (except green tea)
6. No nuts (except seeds and pine nuts)
7. No biscuits, cakes and doughnuts
8. No artificial flavourings and condiments such as ketchup, mayonnaise, vinegars, mustard etc
9. No breads and pastas (except brown rice)
10. No fruit (except bananas)