I had a fun day yesterday with my junior and her coursemate.

I took them to eat at a place where only my mum's generation hang out and we ate the stall's signature dish, prawn mee, and Char Hor Fun (a kind of fried noodle ala Cantonese style) because I want them to try out Cantonese food since my junior is Hokkien and from Penang and her coursemate hasn't tasted it before even though she's Kuala Lumpur bred. So it was a brilliant idea. The prawn mee was good and the prawns are really gigantic. And unbelievable the waiter still could remember me since my last visit last Saturday. Haha. And you know what? I'm going back there again with another batch of friends. He must be wondering I must be stalking the stall. But why not? Since that stall is unknown among my generation? As me and my juniors eating, I noticed we were the youngest customers amongst the senior citizens. And I actually didn't know the prawn mee cost a bomb: RM 63. I didn't see that flying and I was guilty because my junior paid the meal!!

Next stop was Petaling Street or known as Chinatown. I took my junior to drink the famous Air Mata Kucing [direct translation would be Cat Tears. Haha. Of course not. You want to make the cat cries so you could get the tears?]. It's actually a kind of Chinese drink. It was good. I will definitely go back there again for the drink. And I will be going back there again next week.

Later we headed to KLCC. We went to Toys R Us but it was very disappointing because my junior could not find her Star Wars collectibles. So we headed to Aquaria. It was horrible. There were too many visitors especially kindergarten and primary kids. Imagine the whole place is infested by them. No offence but then I thought this kind of aquaria or zoo has quota of visitors so the animals in closures won't feel stress? I was surprised because there was an influx of visitors at the counters. We saw some sharks, alright but it's just OK to me. Then we headed to San Francisco because my left knee was giving me problem and I was having difficulty in walking. And my junior's psychic power broke my umbrella. Haha. So we chilled at the coffee chain for 2 hours actually.

We went to Kinokuniya for books. I found some books I want but still fickle minded if I want to buy them at Kino instead of MPH.

We actually wanted to drink but my juniors were still stuffed since lunch and I was hungry! So I had a Belgian Choc waffle with them. I really frightened my juniors with my appetite. I didn't stop eating since lunch until that moment.

And then guess what? I came back finding out I got a second round of dessert waiting for me at home. I ate it anyway and found my appearance skin is much smoother the next morning.

Envy me all you want! Coz I ate Chinese dessert that has aloe vera, snow frog glands and other ingredients that promote youthful skin. HAHA.

Renaye, long live!

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This is a long awaited entry about my trip to Penang on April 9, 2008.

Arrival Day
I arrived on Wednesday afternoon with a premium bus because I'm already afraid to reach Penang in several pieces since recently Malaysia is inundated with highway accidents. Causes?? Drivers being careless and sleeping on the wheel. What makes matter worse is these bus companies have been slapped a mountain of fines and the body that is in charge of this is not really taking concrete action against these culprits. But anyway I reached in the afternoon at 4-ish. Jolenesiah and I went to a supermarket to get some ingredients to make a Chinese dessert. Wanted to make that night but postponed it to another day.

Because I have not eaten at this restaurant since 2002, I brought Jolenesiah along to this family restaurant which I have frequented around 9-10 years old (and I'm already 22). I entered the restaurant and could not recognize the boss's youngest daughter. I could not imagine how time flies because I still remember playing with her when she was just less than 5 years old. Oh yea... the boss and my family were old neighbours...

First thing to do in Penang was accomplished.

Day 2
I followed Jolenesiah to do her delivery. And later we wanted to have breakfast somewhere Gurney area but it was 9 am... so I fished out for my Penang food guidebook and scanned through places. I found one and we headed there since it stated it's open at 9.30 a.m. To find the place ... was a real headache and spinning since the map I got was incomplete and the place we headed was a pre-historic place and there are so many small and narrow lanes!! We almost got into an accident. But oh well we managed to come across and guess what. The restaurant we wanted to go was closed for good. But because we were hungry... we had roti bakar (toasted bread) and milo.

And then guess what... we found Little India!! Can you imagine I finally found that place after procrastinating for the past 5 years when I was still in Penang. I have always wanted to go to this place to get Punjabi suit (a traditional Punjabi costume) and other Indian accessories. I actually just thought of buying a set of costume and so we begin our hunt. We entered every shop left and right... and tada .. we managed to find one shop that costumes are very much different than the rest. And we both found costumes that we like... and the prices were a bomb. The one I like was over RM 300 and after 40% was RM 160. It was way over my budget so I declined. And the guy kept on pestering me to buy and so I bargained with him until RM 145. HAHA. I got it. Jolenesiah got one too.



These are the pictures of the Punjabi costume shop. And HAHA ... the guy in the photo commented Jolenesiah's Punjabi suit she was trying on matched her black and white umbrella. BWAHAHA.

We also ate banana cake Indian style which is so different than the Malay style. It's just so soft and you won't even know it's made out of banana unless you ask. It tasted yum.

Later we went to Swatow Lane ala New World for lunch. Our ais kacang (shaved ice) looks yummy aye?



The weather was just too hot for us to bear so we headed for movie. We watched Horsewater. Funny ... sad ... melancholy ... but the air conditioner was overall good since we were cooled by the end of the movie. Hungry again so we went to this new Korean chicken chain. I got myself Ginseng Fried Chicken. Tasty!

Still hungry we were. We headed to a crepes mini restaurant. You surely won't notice its existence because it's signboard was unnoticeable. And the restaurant looks very dim from the outside. Can you even spot the restaurant from the picture. But we really enjoyed our desserts. My expression said it all, right?

Before we called it a day, I had this crazy urge to do this pose. Tada...



Day 3
It was shopping day. We didn't get any clothes but we got ourselves new haircut. I really love mine because my hairdressers in Kuala Lumpur don't get what I want. And poor the hairdressers. I might have looked intimidating because the hairdresser who served me earlier gave up serving me and asked another colleague to take over! Simply because I don't speak Mandarin or Hokkien. Whatever...

We had dinner at Palace of India. The food was spicy because all dishes contained cili padi (small chillies that are much more spicy than the reds). I was not feeling well after that but that didn't hinder me from trying out Gulab Jamun, a favourite Indian dessert of mine. But it turned out to be quite disappointing. It was not warm and the taste was flat. The presentation was horrible too. But what's there to complain when the waiter forgotten to include the dessert into the bill!!



There are pictures of what we had for lunch too. And we managed to buy dvds too...

We came back from dinner to my dessert. Err.. it looked good but it was a failure. Because I used the wrong apple! That's one of the factors... I'm still in the experiment of investigating why the dessert was sour ... instead of sweet. I need to try making myself at home.



ROAR!!! What are you guys looking at?! It's the END. DUDE.

Not yet though.

Day 4
Jolenesiah dad took us all to a seafood restaurant on mainland. Yea ... Jolenesiah told me that she saw the waitress kicked the cats there. Cruelty is not a novelty. It's disgusting.

Bye-bye day
The last day... we all had dim sum. And then I was sent off to the bus station waving bye bye to Jolenesiah. *Sniff*

- Happy Ending -

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Preparation time: 1 hour 30 min
Serves 6-10

Ingredients
40g butter
160g castor (superfine) sugar
5 egg yolks
1 lemon, grated for zest
225ml milk
25ml lemon juice
5 egg whites
1/2 tsp snow powder

Sieved
20g plain (all-purpose) flour
3 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
1/4 tsp baking powder

1. Greased and sugar 6-10 espresso cups and set aside. Preheat oven to 150 C.

2. Cream butter and 150g of sugar in a mixing bowl and add egg yolks, one by one.Add lemon zest and mix evenly.

3. Fold in sieved ingredients, alternating with milk and lemon juice. Mix well.

4. Whish egg whites and remaining sugar in a separate bowl till stiff. Fold into flour mixture lightly.

5. Pour into prepared espresso cups and bake in a bain-marie for 30 minutes. Remove from oven.

6. Dust with snow powder and serve warm.

Extracted from the Star that reproduced with permission from Cake Temptations and Other Desserts.

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Preparation time: 1 hour
Serves 10

Ingredients
125g biscuits
1/2 tsp mixed spices
60g butter, melted

Filling
750g cream cheese
135g castor (superfine) sugar
3 eggs yolks
75ml lime juice
3 limes, sliced and grated for zest
4 ripe bananas, 3 mashed and 1 sliced

1. Grease a 22.5 cm (9 inch) springform pan and set aside. Preheat the oven at 150 C.

2. To make the base, mix biscuits and mixed spices in a mixing bowl and add melted butter. Press mixture into prepared pan.

3. To make filling, beat cream cheese and sugar in a mixing bowl and add egg yolks one by one.

4. Add lime juice, zest and mashed bananas.

5. Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake in a bain-marie for 35-45 minutes or till firm.

6. Remove from oven and cool overnight.

7. Remove cake from pan and garnish with sliced banana and extra lime slices. Serve chilled.

Taken from the Star newspaper that is reproducd with permission from Cake Temptations and Other Desserts.

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My colleagues and I had a fun loving time in the office today. We were asked to add some information into our current project and we really all squeezed our brain juice just for that mini part of the assignment. It sounded simple but complex!! When colleague N and I see what we see A didn't. After some heated drought debate, I made a joke. I brought up 3 suggestions with the opening line:

Boss, I have 3 suggestions here for this assignment part. 1) Can we commit suicide, 2) can we commit suicide, and 3) can we commit suicide. My colleague added the ways we could do so by adding rope and such.

But then later, we managed to solve the problem partially and I got a long way ahead.

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I'm not sure why am I so sleepy tonight. I'm going to sleep early tonight. And with the thundering .. I'm so not looking forward to sleep because I don't want to wake up in the middle of the night to close the window.

Rain rain .. go away .. we now don't want you to come. The more you come the less rice we have ... Who to blame then? Ourselves isn't it?

Happy belated Earth Day.

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