Back from JB

Alya is happy that we're going for a road trip...
Thats me in the hotel's room window...

this is actually several seconds before a group of japanese tourist gathered around my daughter and take her picture while cheering "kawaii, kawaii" translation "cute, cute" or "comelnya, comelnya" well she is cute but not so very lady like...

Its a tiring and hectic trip but i'm happy coz i got to shop and travel at the same time (altho' i've been to JB more than i do than my own hometown) * :/ *anyway we checked in at The Zone Regency Hotel near the Duty Free Shopping complex. The hotel is abit old but the food was great (i mean the breakfast buffet) sooooo many choices from continental to all malaysian food choice! we usually go to Mutiara Hotel but this time around i feel that i needed the change....but u must say that Mutiara Hotel romm wise is much more better, bigger, and more comfortable/cozy but the breakfast buffet was not as great as the Zone hotel.

then when we're on our way to our room, we noticed that they've installed a new security system in their elevator. The guests have to swipe the room key card in order to go up and down the elevator. its great security and all but i think its too trouble some! you know what happened, after breakfast i wanted to go back to our room and change my daughter's diaper and i tried to swipe the thing and it didn't work! i was alone with mu daughter struggling to get the elevator to move. the door was closed but we're not moving, i've swiped in every angle...it didn't work. and suddenly the lights are off. and i was like damn! i paniced and became clostorphobic, it was dark and the room suddenly became smaller. then i pressed all the buttons and suddenly the door opened. I was glad, then i ran out and look for my husband. apparently the card has become faulty. eventhough i was only stuck in the elevator for a minute or less, but it was terrifying enough for me to be stuck in a dark and small space. the security card system suck...what if i fainted?teruk lah...

anyway...hubby brought me to a assam pedas shop. its called Restaurant Jadi Baru (Botak) but hubby just call it restaurant botak. assam pedas is their specialty. the place is pretty old school like kopitiam or sumthing and its actually situated in between rather old buildings. the assam pedas is REALLY GREAT (i was told its the best assam pedas) i can see why people like it. hubby said that the restaurant food quality is always good and consistant. people go ther for the assam pedas and their teh bunga and lime juice. but to me the food is all great, even the simple fried dishes also delicious...sedappp~ in short if you know where or if you in Johor you should go and try, don't miss it. oh i have to tell you that this establishment is owned by a chinese, i didn't actually see any HALAL sign but i see many malays/muslims eating there and they also don't serve pork sooo i guess its good enuf for me but if you was was sendiri mau ingat larr..

but while i was there, can you guess who was there too??? it was our very own tv personality Zakiah Anas, even she dines there...

This is me @ Botak restaurant.
Alya is sound asleep, poor girl still tired from last night travelling..
This is the famous teh bunga / Chrysantimum tea (is that how you spell it? i'm so lazy to check)
And here is the famous Assam Pedas...
Gone in a blink...
This is how the restaurant look like. and the lady in red...can you see her? she's actually Zakiah Anas. I didn't bother to take her picture personally coz she is already perasan perasan when i try to take the restaurant picture.
Now this is the real celebrity...*lol* "no papparazi please.."

Mee Soup

This is my lunch for today...(and this probably be the most un appertizing picture i've ever taken)

This dish is probably the easiest dish mankind ever created...the ingredients are also ever so simple and the best part is that you can make it so long you have the main ingredients. so today i was trying to use up all my veges and what ever meat i have in the fridge coz tomorrow i'll be in Johor tagging hubby along in his biz trip *grins* to me this can only mean shopping...i love the ZONE duty free shopping complex...but then i also like pelangi mall...enuf bout that
anyway for this dish you'll need...

the Necessaries:
1clove garlic - chopped
salt to taste
sugar to taste
a dash of freshly cracked black pepper
1tbsp vege oil
500ml water (more if needed)
1" ginger - thinly sliced
mee of your likings... =) i like mee hoon or kue tiaw but today i only have mee hoon

Optional/ ingredients that you can have substitute:
some chicken meat or beef slices or fish meat if you like
fish balls - if you don't have you can do without
some carrots slices
1pc tomatoes - cut into 6pcs
some green veges like spinach or kailan
some bean sprouts if you like but i didn't put this coz i hated it!
some siew mai - this you can do with out but if you do decide to add this it'll add flavor to this dish as this sorts of dumplings ususally is very flavorful

this si how you make it:

1. saute the garlic until fragrant then add the ginger. cook further
2. then add in the chicken meat or what ever meat you have then the fish balls. let it cook just awhile.
   
3. then add in the water. let it simmer
4. then add in the carrots and tomatoes. add in the salt and sugar to taste.
5. once the meat is throughly cooked add in the dumplings if fyou have it let it cook just a minute or so.
6. then lastly add in the veges (you should not cook the veges for so long) then remove from heat, add in the cracked black pepper.
7. then take the mee and soak in a boiling water for 1 minute or until soft, remove and drained.
   
8. ready to serve

i eat this with my homemade sliced preserved chillies.

how to make it? very easy lar...just slice the green chillies thinly, then add in white vinegar and a little water just until it soak the chillies. then add in some sugar and salt to taste. keep in a glass jar. easy!

why we love kopitiam...

that's my son pretending to be bored coz he wanted to go to the night market

last night i had no mood for cooking dinner so i thought of eating out at kopitiam. Its the first kopitiam ever opened in Bangi and i was told that it is co owned by Kid a guitarist from a famous local band 'Search'. But now i think its due to the success the kopitiam had now theres several more kopitiams opening in Bangi and one of it is Old Town Kopitiam.

why we love this particular kopitiam? its simply because of its ambiance. Cozy and very lepak-able...got FREE wifi summore! so the food is Okla in my opinion its nothing to shout about. We usually went there for the snacks; the classic Roti bakar with Kaya jem or the Roti Bayee with chicken curry. And for some reason i love the curry i would usually go there for the Roti bayee set, it reminds me of my childhood. my late grandma used to make me those for tea time.

Anyway last night we went there...actually i went there to eat but hubby already eated the speggethi with meatballs packed by my mom earlier (i didn't eat this coz i don't like it) i was there with my kid while hubby went to see the doctor as his sinus is acting up again. I had Curry Mee special which is OK and its 'special' coz the gravy was mixed with the assam laksa's gravy...kindda like it co i love the curry anyway and my son had Kue Tiaw soup and Alya had roti bakar (jangan marah the 9 month baby can eat tau). then i had this one dessert drink Lychee with jelly beads. the jelly beads here looks like fish eggs its funny...i didn't have much picture coz i forgot to take it but i do have the jelly beads and the kopitiam picture (no food pictures-sorry)

Don't you think that the jelly beads here looks like fish eggs???

My brother is officially engaged!

after all the hard work (for the hantaran/engagement offerings) I'm almost done...i can't say that i'm done coz still have the wedding offering/hantaran to do...I'm also officially out of ideas...my friends told me to just buy the karangkraf's book but i think its not really worth it coz its just a one time use its waste of money so then they suggested to me since i'm too 'tangkai jering' to to buy a book to surf the net to search for ideas...and i did that but i didn't find any good ones that i can replicate or sumthing...our wedding reception theme is in alge green, i personally could not and not in a million years could pull that color off due to my olive skin tone. But my sister in law to be is very fair she looks like a pan asian i dunno if her mom is an 'ang mo' i never met her as she passed away for quite sometime now (it was said that she have a remarkable resemblance of her mother) then again come to think of it her dad also looked mixed i dunno...*pondering*

Anyway we made our way to her house at aroung 2:45pm with a convoy of 5 cars but with our POOR organization skills we accidently left our photographer behind...my dad forgot to inform him the plan (actually he forgot about me too until i called him in the middle of the way) so in the middle of the road, actually half way through he then remembered the photographer and by the time the photographer had called me that he failed to follow our cars as we were VERY VERY fast (couln't blame him coz our families were driving a BMW and a Merc and a Perdana where as he was driving a satria) my ad as usually find fault and conviniently blame me for the unfortunate mistake (well i honestly think its everyone fault, me i sort of forgot about him as we were busy trying to sort who should be in what car etc). But all ends well as the bride to be house is not that hard to find, the photographer got there in time.

as for future sister in law, i must comment on her make up. i just can't leave that alone...before that my future sister in law's name is Wena. Wena, she's a natural beauty and i personally she did not need much make up on her face. her theme of the day was pink, her dress was pink and her make up was P.I.N.K. very pink and to me it made her look hard almost like a drag queen. I do not blame her for the make up but i hsssssss~ the make up artist who oddly is a women wannabe (usually this nyah have a good sense of make up) i pitty her laaa but luckly she didn't look alll that bad in the picture but i surely think that she could look better *argh~ if only her lipstick is a softer pink and the blusher is alot less pink*

oh yaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~ i have a nother story about the offering...remember that i was supposed to make a beautiful fondant cake topped with hand made sugar paste roses (which i'm already made earlier)? yeah i was trying to make the fondant and it turned out hard! then i started to panicked so i chucked it out and think what could have been wrong? i double checked the formula its all in order, ingredients, methods environment...(yeah environment does effect the out come of the fondant) everything seems to be in order. Hubby was also amazed that the fondant harden so quickly and cracked just before i try to assemble on the beautifully made cake (wah nih puji diri sendiri nih) then i remember this time around i bought the pre packed icing sugar in a bakery shop instead of the usual PRAI brand that i used. then it immideatly struck me , the only other reason is the icing sugar probably the icing sugar have a high content corn starch mixture (coz some brand does mix the two so i find PRAI is the best for fondant) i actually made twice and all turned out hard i then panically call my mom and told her that i can't make the cake. then my mom calmly told me "its OK" and i was like huh? " yeah since the other day you told me that you may not be able be making the cake coz of the children being sick, i've made a backup plan. I've ordered a stamed layered cake from my indonesian friend" waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~ my mom so efficient got plan B summore... well i told her that i can always use other icing;buttercream, chocolate ganache etc but she said no need coz handling will be very hard the layered cake will be simpler. true enuf. so thats the story of my cake but non the less i iced them with butter cream anyway coz i didn't want it to go to waste and serve it the next day for the convoy group.

the cake is not the only thing i baked, i also baked a strawberry pie fro the hantaran. and it turned out beautifully....i will not post the recipe for this coz its the same recipe as the fruit tart/pie in my previous post (you like, check it out) the only diff is the fruit topping...
Those are the hantaran that i made...i actually have the individual pictures but i think it'll be one too many hantaran pictures don't you think? (i got 7 dulang you know meaning 7 pictures)
that's me and my baby girl alya; getting ready to go to Pandan Indah...
Iklan jap...if you like my make up it was by Inovi...you can get it @ sasa or at their boutique in Sunway Piramid. =p
this is basically how the malay engagement look like (it took place at the bride to be house) the hantaran are placed in the middle where everyone can see, the front row of the hantaran is the Sirih & Pinang, this is important as it represent as a symbol of engagement (meminang)

That's my cute future sister in law in pink...sorry i dun have a clear picture for now as i took this picture via my phone so....go figure~


and here is the supposed to be a fondant cake but NOW a buttercreamed cake...(ahh~ saved by the bell)

Fondant vs Gum Paste

ever since i post the gum paste cuppies...i've been showered with some emails asking me about the difference between fondant and gum paste/sugar paste. Well i will answer your question once and for all...

Fondant is:

1. what you use to cover your cake with. a sort of icing, you may flavor it as you wish but be sure to use quality food flavorings or you'll end up ruin your fondant.
2. yes you may flavor your fondant
3. You can cover your cake with it maximum 2 days in advance until the day of the event (remember fondant is a heavy icing choose your type of cake wisely and any longer you'll risk of the cake collapsing btw cake usually last for 3 days anyway so...)
4. you may use fondant as decorations example like edible ribbons, skirting/garret (is that how you spell it?)
5. you may make flowers using fondant but add in some gum paste into the mixture so that it could dry and harden well.
6. but bare in mind that fondant will not go as hard unlike gumpaste.

Gum Paste/Sugar Paste:

1. is what you use to make all sorts of flowers and decoration pallet/disk (like one i did for the fish cuppies)
   
2. you DO NOT use this to cover your cake as this is not its intended use
3. dry better
4. can roll it thinner for the flower petals so it'll look more realistic.(but i like making ribbon roses instead its perfect for lazy people like me!)
5. will dry and go hard

so pendek kata (in short) you use fondant as icing and gum paste for the decorations...