First Houseguests

Mum & Uncle came over during the long break we had for Deepavali and Raya for 5 days, by the end of which they wished they could have stayed longer but sadly, Mum had to work on Thurs & Fri. What a lot of eating we had!

They arrived on Sat morning and we tried Twin Joyous, the new kopitiam at the Metro Kajang row of shophouses. The CKT there is good! Chap fan also not bad. Can't say much for the rest of the stuff though. Headed to Red Box to join FIL, Keon & KV for some karaoke. Later went for tea at Kai Mah's. Had to leave them in her capable hands that evening as we had to attend the Ti-Ratana 8th Anniversary dinner at Desa Water Park.

Dinner was vegetarian and we didn't stay for the whole leg (believe me, with the amount of entertainment they had lined up, they could have gone on tour) but there were quite a few interesting presentations, the most notable of which was the ballroom dancing by William & Luisa's dance school. There was this particular boy (he couldn't have been older than 10) who was really graceful! Went for supper at 11 at this "Tai Chow" place off Old Klang Road that Tweedledum had totally forgotten about (can't believe he never took me there in the 7 years we have known each other!) and it was soooooo... sinful! Loads of lard and pork crackling!

Sunday was popiah lunch day at the Toh residence. Had a good laugh at mum's popiah wrapping "skills". Went to watch Jemina's concert at DUMC hall and afterwards had supper at Chef Loong.

Cooked English breakfast before going to work on Monday for the 4 of us. Took off at lunch to meet Aunt Lolly at The Curve. We tried La Gourmet House. Food was so-so but prices were reasonable. Dinner was at Greenview. Everyone adjourned to our house after that for a few rounds of gin (rummy, that is) and PS2. Watched Stealth. What a load of glorify-America crap!

Tues was Deepavali and it was also a day for secret family recipes. MIL cooked nasi lemak for lunch whilst Kai Mah finally got everyone together for her special Hainanese Beef Steamboat. A pity that most of the clanmembers, couldn't make it. Kai Mah very kindly prepared her very-much-missed Hainanese stewed pigs trotters for hubby and we practically cleaned off the whole pot. We also had a cake-blowing session since the chef's birthday was up in a week. Mum got her a Royal cake from Chef Jerome and it was the first time I saw a cake being finished in one sitting. That was when we also discovered that Val could touch her chest with her tongue.

The next morning, hubby arranged for BKT breakfast in Sungei Way but unbeknownst to us, our usual shop was closed on Wednesdays so we had to head to the alternative. Mum & Uncle went back in the afternoon but the eating did not stop there. Dinner was with FIL and MIL at Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao. We tried their Xiao Long Bao when we were in Singapore the last time. Food was quite good actually but a little pricey.

Went Raya visiting at Uncle Azaman's house on Friday. Tried Aunty Lyn's mouth-watering nasi dagang and we vowed to go back again next year on both the first and second days. Arrived at Ti-Nod's church wedding at Trinity Methodist Church in time for the lunch reception but was too full to have anything. After a few snaps with the bride and groom, it was off to visit Mun Hong & Chooi Gaik and their newborn, Kin Zhen. He was sleeping so we only caught a glimpse of him and he looked so serene... awww...... Dinner was at Saravana Bhavan.

Saturday hubby and I decided to cook dinner so we tried his
vegetarian pasta again and used our oven for the first time. Unfortunately, we had not read the manual and didn't know that we were supposed to preheat it for an hour to get rid of the greasey fumes so the kitchen ended up smelling funny. The grilled aubergines and mushrooms didn't turn out as intended but in the end, everything was finished except one serving of pasta and that was only because Keat & Yvette were too full from their Japanese buffet lunch and so shared a portion. Val brought over a Banoffee Pie for dessert. The cream had actually curdled but we disguised it with a sprinkling of Milo & cocoa powder and everyone loved it. FIL even said it was very good.

The next afternoon, Val & I cooked a simple lunch while hubby took a nap. We had japanese cucumbers pickled in lime juice, cili padi and onions, stir-fried cabbage & dried prawns and 3-style cooked egg. What started out as steamed egg was later boiled and ended up being stir-fried as well. Allow me to elaborate. Was keen to show hubby that I could make a good steamed egg, something I have not cooked since I was in Form 3. However, since we hadn't bought a steaming rack for the wok, I used an inverted bowl as a stand. The dishware was happily clacking away beneath the wok cover when suddenly, all I heard was silence. Opened the cover and lo & behold... the shallow bowl of egg had overturned, leaving all its contents boiling in the water. We decided it was a waste of 3 good eggs so scooped up the egg mixture (half cooked by now) and stir-fried it with some of Kak Ti's sambal tomat. Must admit, it went down quite well with the rice.

They say all good things must come to an end but after 1 week of break and good food, we were not quite ready for that. It all seemed so.... final! MIL however, came up with a good finale to the eating spree, fish head meehoon. I had 4 bowls of the tasty soup to drown my depression. And tommorow... I'm going vegetarian!