Pork Sunday

I had loads of pork to eat yesterday. My hunny initially wanted to bring me to eat Ampang Yong Tau Fu (Ampang is a place in KL whereby it's famous for its Fish Paste Stuffed Vegetables and Bean Curds) but he got lost halfway and we ended up eating at Taman Connaught (one of the suburbs in Cheras, KL).



Yong Tau Fu. The Vege stuffed with Fish Base was served in a light clear soup






Deep Fried Fish Paste Stuffed Beancurd and Wantans were served plain.








Roast Pork - Half Lean Half Fat












Pork Noodles Soup - ok only...I prefer the one near Taman Bahagia LRT Station.








For dinner, I had vinegared pork trotters and Char Kuey Teow...

Yummy Tender Lean Meats in a sweetish, sourish vinegar base. I found it not sour or gingery to my liking but it's a good attempt though.

Char Kuey Teow (Fried Flat Noodles). The see-hum (cockles) were huge, juicy and just nicely cooked. I felt the noodles didn't contain as much wok hei (high heat wok fragrance) as it should. I will order the salted fish fried rice next time.

Fong Lye, Gardens, Mid Valley

Hunny brought Bunny to eat at Fong Lye last Tuesday as we couldn't eat there on Friday as they were really packed...

The restaurant serves Taiwanese sort of food. This is what we ordered...TW Fried Chicken, Fried Tempura, Pork Intestine Set, Tea Smoked Duck with Glass Noodles and 1 Mineral Water. The order style was like Kim Gary whereby we had to write down our own orders with the order form and pencil provided by them.




The cup that came from the mineral bottle is so cute. Hunny drank from the cup as it contained ice whereas I drank straight from the bottle as I didn't fancy cold water that night.




Hunny did the ordering and I enjoyed this. It's Fried Tempura and it tastes like Keropok Lekor (a type of fish paste deep fried cake, native to East Coast States in Msia) with 5 Spice Powder (A popular combination of spices used in traditional chinese cooking). According to my Hunny, he said that it's tender chicken coated in batter and deep fried...but to me, it tasted like flour paste coated with 5 spice powder and then deep fried. Anyone here can help me verify which is true?






Hunny's Tea Smoked Duck with Glass Noodles came next. It tasted average according to him but he liked the fact that the duck was lean yet tender but he could barely taste the tea in the smoked duck. I had to avoid duck because the sinseh told me so as I was still nursing my sore ankle that night.










Our next appetizer of Taiwan Fried Chicken came next. They were piping hot and not oily at all. They tasted like KFC mini poppers but better. They were crispy on the outside and really juicy and tender on the inside. I must say that they have good oil temperature control.




Then my Pork Intestine Set (RM18) came. A mini pot of hot and sour pork intestine stew, a big bowl of rice with minced pork topping, a ginseng soup and a plate of 3 appetizers




The set also came with Prawn Dumpling, Blanched French Beans, Shredded Egg Omelette with dried mushrooms, carrot shreds and prawns. I only ate the french beans and let my hunny eat the other 2 because I couldn't eat prawn either due to the sinseh's advice.




Due to the vinegar used to make this spicy and sour base, I didn't quite enjoy this stew. I felt that the pig intestines weren't cleaned enough as it still had "that" taste. I also don't like to eat congealed pork blood unless it's been grilled...yet I finished all the intestines (about 4-5 pieces only) and left the rest in the pot.




The rice was nice and chewy and went well with the minced pork topping.




Hunny said that the soup was nice. He had to finish it and the fried chicken as I was too full and I did help him by finishing the Fried Tempura.

Overall, I would like to try this restaurant again to taste their other dishes and maybe next time just order 1 appetizer only as 2 was too much for us. I think the meal for us totalled up to around RM50.

Bunny Feet Care Part 1

When my foot starts looking like this...I'll know it's time to exfoliate and moisturize it well. This happens as a result of not wearing stockings when wearing shoes or wearing slippers...yes...slippers or no heel backing sandals can cause this to happen to my feet as the friction created from the non support with a combination of not caring towards my feet will look like this. I think my Hunny wouldn't want me to play footsie with him using this foot...

Yesterday whilst browsing in Watson's Store at Sg. Wang Plaza, I saw this...





Waaaaahh....Lil Foot Covers just like in the manicure/pedicure shops. I bought a pair at RM8.90. Hopefully I will remember to rub in the foot cream daily and maybe if I am more hardworking...to cling wrap my feet and then put the foot covers on for a better effect.






I plan to go for a pedicure tonight so that I can have smoother soles and continue the maintenance more easier....


Do you have the same problem as I do? Any tips on feet caring for me?

Macro Photography

When I bought my camera, I wasn't too sure in what sort of photography genre that I would like to concentrate on. I just didn't want to take any sort of pictures as that would seem so aimless. I tried event photography but the other photographers were too aggressive and fierce. So I followed another photographer by the nick of "klguy" out and he was willing to teach me the wonders of macro photography.

What is Macro Photography? According to my favorite source of information - the Wiki,

"Macro photography is close-up photography; the classical definition is that the image projected on the "film plane" (i.e., film or a digital sensor) is close to the same size as the subject. On 35 mm film (for example), the lens is typically optimized to focus sharply on a small area approaching the size of the film frame. Most 35mm format macro lenses achieve at least 1:2, that is to say, the image on the film is 1/2 the size of the object being photographed. Many 35mm macro lenses are 1:1, meaning the image on the film is the same size as the object being photographed. Another important distinction is that lenses designed for macro are usually at their sharpest at macro focus distances and are not quite as sharp at other focus distances."

I also developed a love for taking these sort of photos as the camera lens managed to capture many other colors, features and details that our human naked eye cannot capture. If you have read up my blog, you will be able to see my macro photos under the tag "nature"

In www.shutterasia.com/forum , there is a special topic dedicated to wildlife and there are a group of macro professionals in there who contribute their pictures for us to enjoy. One of them is liewwk who loves to take photos of insects closed up. His photos are simply amazing! This is one of his threads of one of my interests...

Below photo is taken by liewwk and you may view more here ...

Besides liewwk, there are also other macro sifus available such as klguy (my 1st sifu), Orionmystery, LordMint, nfariz8, jkc, caveman, ckchowov and many more. They take all sorts of insects and not just the ones in XXX positions.

Here are some of the photos that they took...

This is by OrionMystery....He is a really patient guy with sharp eyes...that's y he can capture such moments...

OM always advises us to maintain eye contact of the insect when we shoot macro. Hence, most of his photos has insects eyes contact maintained with the camera's focal point.

This is a Macro shot taken by ckchowov....beautiful, isn't it?

This spider is taken by nfariz8....our naked eye will never be able to see these eyes on the spider...amazing, isn't it?

These ones are taken by my sifu, klguy...

Here is one taken by LordMint...

Here are some of my favorite shots...

Looks like fishnet stockings covering its eyes.....

Besides insects, you may also shoot macro on other objects such as flowers, toys, etc....amazing magnifying views, right?

Lavender's Bakery

Here are some light buns that I bought from Lavender's Bakery in Pavillion last Thursday. I realized one thing about this bakery is they like to use red beans. I love the red bean buns from this bakery as the paste is not too sweet and it's not too pureed and still retains a bit of bite of the red beans and its skin making this whole taste experience seem more natural and not too processed.

1. Mochi Red Bean Danish




Dorayaki is a japanese pancake sandwich with fillings of kaya (egg custard), red bean paste, sesame seed paste, peanut butter and others made famous from the Doraemon (a Japanese Cartoon Series) show.

In Wikipedia,

"Dorayaki (どら焼き, どらやき, 銅鑼焼き, ドラ焼き, Dorayaki?) is a type of Japanese confection which consists of two small pancake-like patties made from kasutera wrapped around a filling of sweet red bean paste.
It originally only had one layer, and the current shape was invented in 1914 by the Ueno Usagiya.
In Japanese, dora means "gong", and this is probably the origin of the name of the sweet.
The famous Japanese anime cat robot character Doraemon got his name from Dorayaki since he like to eat dorayaki very much. The dorayaki became serveral plot stimulant through out the series. In Japan, a company sells a limited version of dorayaki called Doraemon Dorayaki every year from march to September."





1. Mouse Stamp has Red Bean Filling




2. Bunny Stamp has Crushed Roasted Peanuts and a thick layer of peanut butter filling.





Overall, not too sweet. I love stuff from this bakery and never fail to buy from there each time I go to Pavilion Shopping Mall in KL.

3 Birthdays & 1 Farewell : El-Cerdo At Changkat Bukit Bintang

***This is a belated post. I wanted to blog about it but my photos didn't turn out nice and thank goodness Melvin bought a new panasonic lumix camera.***




"Whose Birthdays and whose farewell?" was running in my head as I only knew it was 1 other gal pal's Birthday in my clique. It turned out to be Rachel's, Francessca's and my birthdays and Melvin's farewell as Melvin had accepted a 2 year contract job to Maldives. In the end, only Melvin and I could make it to this party together with LY, AT, EC and JK.


El-Cerdo to me is an expensive german restaurant located in Changkat Bukit Bintang and they are famous for their pork specialties dishes. Their tagline is "Eating from nose to tail" meaning they serve dishes made from every part of the pig including the head, tongue, ears, intestines, ribs, ham, tail, snouts, etc.


Dinner was supposed to start at 7.30pm but almost everyone was late and I had to leave at 9.15pm as silly me thought that everyone would be on time. While waiting for the others to show up, LY, Melvin, EC and I decided to order some appetizers.


1. The Appetizers were served with bread. They comprised of cold cuts (1 was actually gelatinuous like agar-agar) and in the middle was pate.





2. EC ordered this one...Parma Ham with Rock Melon. The Ham was salty and tasted like a bit alcoholic to me and when paired with the crisp fresh sweet rockmelon, it was heavenly! Thanks to EC who ordered this dish.




3. Next, it was Grilled Prawns wrapped in ham...not bad...The prawns were fresh and juicy..





4. Next came the Roast Suckling Pig. We only ordered half. There is a special way to cut this roasted suckling pig which was by using a plate and chopping against it. One is supposed to wish for something special before chopping the pig with the plate. After that, the plate is broken in a basket to make sure the wish comes true.

5. Next came our Paella...I didn't eat much of this as my Hunny was already outside waiting for me.




After I left, they had desserts and camwhored a bit more. The total bill came out to be RM600.00 for the 6 of us!!! That's why I classified this restaurant as expensive and so far, I still prefer the chinese way of roasting a suckling pig. Thanks EC and AT for arranging this dinner!!!

My Hunny...*mwaks!* *mwaks!* *mwaks!*

This is my Hunny feeling relaxed and relieved after meeting my family for the first time....whilst waiting for me to finish up the Tazo Lemonade Iced Tea in Starbucks yesterday...