loh mai kai

This appeared in my mind for few days before I start hunting for the recipe. Loh mai kai is steamed glutinous rice that we can always order in dim sum restaurant. I have not have one for quite sometime since I stop going to Kg Jawa for breakfast. So this morning afer I woke up from sleep and all that cravings for loh mai kai, I hurried to the kitchen and soaked the glutionus rice and mushroom as it was already 10am. I need to at least marinate the chicken and pork for 1-2 hours or so.



Soak glutinous rice for about 2-3 hours to soften the texture. In this case, the steaming process will be shorter. Normally in Malaysia we will never get pure glutionus rice because they always mix it with the normal rice as it is cheaper. That's why you see there is two shades of white here.





Mix lean pork and chicken slices with ingredients like ginger sauce, thick soy sauce, light soy sauce, corn flour, salt, pepper, sugar, sesame oil, peanut oil and ginger juice. I got the ginger juice from grating a small piece of ginger and squeeze its' juice out of the grates. Marinate the chicken and pork for about 1-2 hours.

Soak the mushroom and cut them into slice. Slice the shallots too...

After some hard time steaming as I don't have proper wok to do the work, and the missing right size of bowl finally we start munching away at 1pm! It was a wonderful meal to start the weekend, and I absolutely will make it again.

My rice bowls are a little larger for loh mai kai as you see from the picture below, it's the taste that matter this time round. I am satisfied as much.

Ingredients
250g glutinous rice
2 cups water
100g chicken meat
50g lean pork meat
1 Chinese sausage (lap cheong), thinly sliced
10g black Chinese mushrooms, soaked and cut into thin slices
5 shallots, sliced

Seasoning (A):
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp ginger juice
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Shao Hsing Hua Tiau wine
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp oil
1 tsp cornflour

Seasoning (B):
1 1/2 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp oil
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder

Method

Wash glutinous rice, then soak it for two to three hours. Steam it for 30 minutes.Cut chicken and pork meat into slices. Marinate with seasoning (A) for about one to two hours.Heat oil in a wok and saute shallots till fragrant. Add mushroom slices and stir fry quickly then dish up. Add cooked glutinous rice and seasoning (B) and water. Stir fry well for five minutes.Grease four medium-size rice bowls. Add some fried shallots and mushroom slices, a few slices of Chinese sausages and seasoned chicken and pork slices. Fill up with glutinous rice and press down with a ladle.Steam for 30-40 minutes. Turn over the rice bowl onto a plate and serve Loh Mai Kai with chilli sauce.

We ought to live better, remember this!

Life in point form

1. Weeliem and I both down sick on two different weekends. So we spent two weekends ineffectively at home recovering. It has been a terrifying experience as his mom thought he had h1n1 and I think it might be true. We had all the symptoms but recovered after a week. The fever was the most painful part in the sick process as I had to spent money to buy a digital termometer to monitor his temperature. Ended up we went to two hospitals and one clinic but none wanted to check him for the influenza h1n1 virus because he never faint, have difficulty in breathing or vomit blood. He has to have any of these to force them to check for a patient at his age for h1n1. Luckily we both are ok now and we have the immunity!

2. Someone in office passed away on Monday all of sudden. From what I heard, he had hypertension due to his heavy workload. Yes, working in Intel is a hell. I admit but I never thought it can be so serious. He is even younger than me!

3. Highlight: A few of us went over to my sister house to celebrate her daughter one year old birthday. My sister cooked a feast for us. The most impresive is the birthday chocolate mud cake. We could not eat the uber tempting cake on the night because we had to finish the pizzas, chicken wings and nuggets.. The cake and left over yam cake became our breakfast the next morning.

4. I have been busy with work and other stuff which keep me company until end of the year. I have a lot of unfinished work laying around for months already now. My life is so full of surprises... The biggest surprise was my trip to Oregon this year, which was unacceptably short 2 weeks but I find rewarding because I can snap some photos in the lavender farm. I love the colour!

5. I miss a trip like Australia. I want to have one again especially with little Cheryl. Something she said the other day keep on coming into my mind every now and then. She was so cute. She said "shhhhhh... baby oi oi" . It was the way she conveyed the message in her loud whisper with the shhhhhhhhh and her finger on her lips. I miss this little mischevious girl.

6. Our country politic is so messy that I think everything is crap

beef stew recipe

There is a request for the beef stew I made few weeks ago when I was still under home quarantine. So I am posting it here simple and easy.

Mix 200g beef cubes in salt and pepper, coating them with 2 tablespoon of flour. Brown them in a pan of hot oil, until you see the outer layer becoming brown. Don't cook the meat yet.

Place the beef with minced garlic (5-6 cloves) into slow cooker. Add in 2 tomatoes cut into small piece. I didn't deseed the tomatoes. Add in 3 sticks of carrots (not baby carrots.. they are tasteless) cut into 2.5cmx2.5cm size and 2 large onions, cut apart 4 for each. Also don't forget 4 stalks of celery cut into pieces and 2 potatoes medium size cubed. Cover up all the stuff with beef broth about 4-5 cups I guess. I am lazy, so I used 1.5 beef cube from maggi. I made a rough estimation of the broth, so I could not tell you exactly how much liquid I added. Let the stuff simmers in slow cooker at "high". Then you can change it to "high and low mix" when you see there is bubble on top. Add salt, your preference when everything is ready in like 7hours until meat is tender.

For replacement of slow cooker, you can cook on top of gas stove, but toss the vegetable in oil a little till you get them browned before you start cooking. Check the fire from time to time, so you don't overburn the base of your pot. Use low fire though, should be tender is 4 hours or so...

OK got it? easy peasy..

PHOTOLOG #28: 20090805

"another" day in the week

drunk

I have been spending in liquor lately. Not that I go to pub to drink, I stayed at home and had my sip everynight. I don't go pub or club or what soever, and I went none before. A few sips and go to sleep like a baby till the next morning. So now I had my left over Baileys, original vanilla flavour. I'd been hooked up to Baileys since I purchased one bottle at Macau. I love the feeling after having a sip. Everything outside my house window looks so beautiful. I can look at Bayan Lepas night view from my home and plane taking off and landing. Yes, I can see Penang bridge from here too. I feel grateful of what I have now and everything seems so great. I don't feel like working nowadays because I feel work had taken my time of my real life for the past and my best friend ai leng told me that she sees lines under my eyes when I laughed. That's bad. I am not even 27 yet. I don't know how long I can feel easy leaving my work undone because one day someone will complain for sure.

Everyone around me is busy getting engaged. I guess it is the age thing.I receive news about friend receiving proposal from their partner every week. Suddenly it is like engagement season.

Something to take care of recently, a lot people falling sick. I heard cough, flu and sorthroat everywhere. Everyone is like infected by someone everyday. I told my boss I don't want to go to office because there are so many people with cough and flu and he actually said YES. Anyway I am a good employee. I won't use this kind of excuse to keep myself off work. So I am still going to work tomorrow morning.

I wrote the title of this entry as "drunk" but in real life, I am not drunk. I don't even have a typo while writting the whole piece and I am as clear as the water. I have to keep my mind clear just because of one reason. I still have to analyze timing reports. What a life, I just mentioned that I don't want to be the work-addict and now I am planning to go back to work. Pathetic.

Another lowlight of my life: My friends are planning to go for vacation at the end of the year. But I can't join them. That's so sad..........

PHOTOLOG #27: 20090729

I am in Barn Buddy all the times. Planting, harvesting, stealing, weeding and debugging..

PHOTOLOG #26: 20090718

I went home and asked my mom on how to cook nasi lemak. Result: I made this today

PHOTOLOG #25: 20090709

PHOTOLOG #24: 20090708

My yummy sandwich for lunch..

Multnomah fall & Lavender farm

First of all, credits to Chun and Aichee for all the wonderful pictures taken. They are all too beautiful not to be picked to post but I still need to select only a few.

We went for a short tour along the Columbia Gorge National Scenic route.
We didn't stop at all points except for one, Cape Horn. It has a spectacular view of the Columbia river. We were at the west side which belongs to Washington state. The right side of the river is actually belongs to Oregon.

Along the way, we saw many beautiful sceneries, trees and wild flowers. Chun chose a larger chunck of wild flowers and we stopped for some photos

There are many falls along the route. This is the horsetail falls which the water resembles the tail of a horse, very obvious from it's name.

This one is Wahkeena falls which Wahkeena means "most beautiful" in Yakama Indian.

Next is the super famous legendary multnomah fall which to say is the second highest year-round waterfall in US.

According to Chun, the soil in this place is very much special due to the volcanic explosion long time ago. That's the reason it has all the wild flowers species that are not found at any other places in the world.

I forgot what place is this, but the view simply breathtaking. Check out the wall on the opposite side of the river..

Then we drove up to a higher place of the hills.. It is called Vista house which is like a observatory place and comfort station for the travellers. There is a gift shop and espresso bar in the tower.

We managed to drop by the Oregon lavender farm for a quick photo shooting. Purple. I am in love.


Before grabbing our dinner we dropped by Portland waterfront and snapped some photos...

Dinner at Saburo, super big eel sushi. Waited an hour for the food. End.

Pictures from Seattle

Throughout the 14 days in Oregon, I managed to steal one day to visit Seattle. When I mentioned to my sister that I am going to Seattle, the first thing pop into her mind is Grey's Anatomy series. All photos are from Chun (Ai Chee's husband)'s camera because he took better photos than me :P



Ai Chee prepared all the itenery till the very most detail.



First we stopped at this engineering place called Hiram M. Chittenden Locks. The reason why they have this complex locks are to prevent the mixing of sea water from Puget Sound with fresh water from lakes, to move boats from different water level between the sea and lakes and also to mantain the water level from the lakes at 20-22 feet above sea level. I looked for all these from wikipedia...

Photo with Ai chee, boat and the blue sky.

Next our destination was to Pike Place Market and there was this pig sculpture everywhere in the city. Just follow the pigs, and you will arrive at the Pike Place market which is the only public market I ever been to in US.

There are many flowers stalls there and I tell you all the bouquets were really beautiful unlike the fancy wrapping we have here in Malaysia. Theirs are the simple brown paper wrapping up fresh and beautiful flowers.

There were peonies too :D I love.

The vegetable handycraft thingy

Fishmongers... This particular stall was a famous one because they throw big fish from outside the stall to the person in the stall. Everyone stood there, cheered and watched because it was an interesting sight.


The first Starbucks in the world, in Seattle

We bought these yummy pastries from a shop just opposite Pike Place market and a few shops next to the First Starbucks. Piroshky, Piroshky. There was this long line outside the shop just to buy their famous pastries. We had the smoked salmon, cheesie thingy and another one I can't remember.

Then we walked to Space Needle tower and took some pretty photos..

The Seattle Olympic Sculpture Park which has all these fancy and weird sculptures which I don't see the beauty in them.

Photos taken from the waterfront overlooking the city at the back. Great photos. Lucky that it didn't rain because in the forecast, it was said to be raining on this day.

PHOTOLOG #23: 20090704

I am officially home.

Australia Day 9

Our second visit to Melbourne city again on the second Sunday. We stopped at Southern Cross Station which had achived some kind of reward for it's building architecture. We went into the shopping outlets located at the corner of the station which is linked together. We didn't manage to get anything except a levis jean for my sister.



At Southern Cross train station.

Then we walked and took tram to the waterfront and had our fish and chips lunch there.

Walking in the city.

We took many photos along the way at some tourist attraction but I don't have them in my camera.

Next we went to Shrine of Rememberance , a memorial for those that fighted in World War II.

Architectures.. The weather was nice although it drizzled a little when we arrived at St Kilda beach.

There was this Malaya word printed on one of the pole too.


The day almost dark but we managed to rush over to St Kilda Pier to watch the sunset. There was this Captain Cook statue which head was full of shit.. :P James Cook was the person who found Australia....

Then we walked to Crown hotel for fireball show. It was said that Crown hotel which owned the only casino in Melbourne created the show on purpose. One will lost his gambling luck after watching the fireball show which lasted for about 10 minutes. There was a lot walking on the Day 9. We took some photos by the river..

Waiting for train to go back home at the famous Flinder Street station.

This is how we ended our 10 day long visit to Melbourne. Tomorrow we will be leaving for Malaysia. We spent the last night and next morning playing board game called "i can't recall" and surprisingly my mom was really good in it.

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Note: By the way, I am in Hong Kong international airport now

Australia Day 8

Today we had a feast at lunch. Even yesterday night we had BBQ at 8pm outdoor. It was freezing cold, the shrimps were fresh and tasty, chicken was good, every other food were really yummy. We were going to fly back Melbourne on the 9th day we stayed in Australia. We spent time packing and getting ready for the airport while another half preparing the food.

Picture taken outside Kevin's house. Baby looked sooooooo cute and happy, youngest and eldest sisters. Our stay in Kevin's place has been more than perfect. We had everything we needed, and were fed like a king. Thanks to Kevin and his family!

My dad and I were in the airport and had nothing to do, so we decided to take a picture with Qantas. We flew with Jetstar by the way.

Hong and big baby niece. Note her pink chubby cheeks... cutie..

I bought Krispy Kreme at the airport and we had some before boarding the plane. They were sweet and mmmmmmm..

Off to Melbourne again!

Australia Day 7

Today was like a brand new day for my dad. Cheryl allowed him carry her and not struggling to get down anymore. We were still in Sydney on the 8th day we arrived in Australia. It was chilly but sunny.. lucky.

On left is the picture of my day carrying his mischievous grand daughter on the way from Kevin's house to the train station. We walked like 20 minutes to the train station everyday.

On the right is the picture of my gleeful mom. She was so happy when she saw orange tree. She quickly ran to the tree which was planted by someone in the neighbourhood and hold one of the orange. She stood there ever ready for a great picture.

This time, we took the train to Katoomba which the journey was like 1-2 hours. It is up at the mountain so the temperature was pretty low. We were advised by my sister to wear thicker clothes :D We were going to Blue Mountain one of New South Wales travel attraction.


This is the small pretty town of Katoomba. We had our lunch in a Chinese restaurant opposite the train station. Then we took a bus to the view point of Blue Mountain.

This is a photo I took which was the view we overlooked from Echo Point. If you can see, there is actually a ruin castle at the right side of the valley. That's Mt. Solitary on the left side of the valley which look like a flat table from here. It is the Kedumba View. Mun-mi-ee is the Gundungarra Aboriginal name for this feature. Blue Mountains are the habitat for many flora and fauna that can't be found at any other places in the world.

This is the famous three sister which we viewed closer from Prince Henry cliff walk.

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From Wikipedia:

The Three Sisters are a famous rock formation in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia. They are close to the town of Katoomba and are one of the Blue Mountains' most famous sights, towering above the Jamison Valley. Their names are Meehni (922 m), Wimlah (918 m), and Gunnedoo (906 m).
The Sisters were formed by erosion. The soft sandstone of the Blue Mountains is easily eroded over time by wind, rain and rivers, and the cliffs surrounding the Jamison Valley are being slowly broken up. Formations like the Three Sisters are created when water seeps into small cracks in the rock, gradually enlarging them over time to form large indentations. Eventually, the Sisters will be eroded away completely.

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We didn't walk down the the Giant Stairway because the day was getting darker and due to member's physical limitation (read too young!). Giant Stairway is a bushwalking trail that will lead us to Three Sisters. That's all for Sydney today!