Of food and relatives that come once a year

It’s almost Raya now. Ramadhan is well on its 23rd day. I am looking forward to Raya. Not as much as I did when I was a kid, nonetheless, still looking forward to it.

This year we’ll be celebrating it here in KL, my beloved hometown. Yeah yeah, don’t make cracks about not having a kampong to balik to. I’m a city girl and my so-called ‘kampung’ is here. My grandma is here and my parents are here. And contrary to popular belief, it is meriah to celebrate Raya here. People who say otherwise are just people who don’t belong. They need to go balik elsewhere, so just go already, and leave us to our merry-making. I don’t mean to sound rude, but if they are patriotic over their respective kampungs, why shouldn’t I be? KL is all that I’ve ever known.

Oh well….

When I was younger, my mother used to make nasi tomato for every Raya. We’d have chicken curry and sambal tumis and acar and daging dendeng and cakes and cookies. My mum loves cooking and baking. Those were great fun times. Now however my mum doesn’t cook up a storm like that anymore. She buys all her cookies. Lucky for us she buys most of the cookies from my aunt. So it’s still homemade, though not made in our home. Haha!

Both my parents and in-laws will be here this year so we need to go visit both, and then we shall go visit my grandma and aunt. Can’t wait for the wonderful food that will be waiting for us. My grandma’s house will be the meeting point for all my aunts and uncles. I’m looking forward to meeting them all. Now that I’m a working adult, I don’t get to see them as much as I used to. I haven’t seen an uncle of mine like ages ago! (Ok I exaggerate, it was probably a year plus ago.)

So I’m definitely waiting for the food and the relatives. In that order. Yeah yeah, can’t you tell I’m a glutton already. *smile*

My love affair with Big Apple

Last Saturday I was at the Curve, to especially look for the new donut place. My brother had recommended them to me and when he said something was good, I’d normally take him seriously, more so when it comes to food.

So hubby and I went traipsing through the flea market after our usual rounds at Borders. Ok, directions said, the place would be behind TGIF’s. And lo and behold, so it was. Follow the smell and you’ll find it, said my brother.

Big Apple Donuts & Coffee, beautiful!

They were having a special promotion where you purchase a dozen donuts and get half a dozen free. 18 delish donuts! Now who’s going to be able to wolf down 18 donuts right? That’s what we thought too. Still since it was the last day of their promotion, we bought the donuts and took home all 18 in two boxes. There should be some people at my in-laws place who would be hungry for donuts for tea.

I didn’t do a good job of taking down their names and taking decent pictures, as I was salivating over them so much more so with that smell wafting in the air. The only thoughts in my head were “eat now eat now eat now”.

I’m not a great big fan of donuts, as the ones we find here like in Dunkin are not to my liking. But believe me when I tell you, these are damn good! They’re so soft and soft and soft and yummmmm and soft and soft and …. Ok, sorry that got me salivating and I can’t think straight….

We had these donuts (from top L - R): blueberry, mango, almond, nutty chocolate, two oreos, two vanilla, icing sugar (I called it snowy hehehe), belgian chocolate, strawberry, and peanut butter. Sorry I don’t remember their actual names....

And the free ones are the original glazed donuts, yummy……


I’m still waiting for Krispy Kreme. And since KK is not in Malaysia (yet), this is a good substitute I guess…. Just so you know I think I ate four or five of them donuts…. Hahaha!

I’ve made plans with hubby to go there again this Saturday. This time we’re gonna have coffee and have our donuts there. Hmmm, and if I can think straight while I’m eating all those donuts, I might take more pictures.

Much ado about 113.4 grams

Today I shall show you how I eat my Quarter Pounder with Cheese. Yes, it’s a slow dull day….

First, unwrap your burger and place it in the middle of the wrapper. Put the top bun half aside. See all the chopped onions and gooey cheese? Yumm….

Next, take your fries and arrange them in a vertical fashion. Horizontal won’t work, because if done horizontally, the fries will fall apart when you bite into your burger. No chilli sauce. Sacrilegious! Ok, if you must… fine… add chilli sauce. Just so you know, ketchup’s way better…. but I don’t add anything to this burger.

Now fold the top half of the wrapper over your burger like so, and fold the bottom half also to form a little pocket.

Ta-raa! Now you can eat without messing up…. Enjoy!

When hubby and I were dating, I found that he also ate like this. Soulmates! Hahaha....

Birthday weekend

I celebrated my birthday last Saturday. So it was a day for me, me and more me. Hubby and I took almost the whole day for our outing.

First we had to have our breakfast so we went to our favourite hangout. Where else but at the golden arches. Yep we went to McD’s. We both had the hotcakes, and were so stuffed we couldn’t move after that. But it was just the beginning of our outing so we dragged out butts off and went to Kota Damansara to check on the progress of our future home. It was coming along nicely. Hubby and I stopped at the clubhouse and looked at the area around surrounding the pool. What fun, can’t wait to move there!

After that we went to the Curve, and first stop was Borders. I promised myself not to buy anything, even though it was my birthday and I deserved at least that much of a treat. But no, we just spent time walking between the aisles. Well, I spent my time browsing the aisles, while hubby was seated comfortably with his book. I was satisfied with my ‘rounds’, as I had spent more time there than usual. We stayed at the bookstore for somewhat close to two hours. It was such great fun! Ok, for those of you who don’t know me, you must be thinking, “What a loser. What great fun is there is spending hours in a bookstore?” If you must know my life is filled with books. And one of my favourite hangouts is the bookstore. And one of my favourite smells is the smell of new books as soon as we enter the bookstore. Aaaaahhhhh…… relaxing……

Rumbling tummies signal the time for lunch. Off we marched across the street to Ikano to Fasta Pasta. Hubby ordered the pappardelle while I had the linguine. And we shared a Caesar’s salad. I guess it must have been for sharing as the portion was huge. But I must say that it was one of the best Caesar’s I’ve tasted thus far. It even outshone my linguine! Yumm!

Once in Ikano, we decided to stop by the Crocs store to take a look at the crocs sandals. Such ugly little things mind you. Well, they looked ugly in the beginning. And to our surprise, the store was jam packed with families, all looking for crocs for their kids. Whoa! We had earlier promised to try them on the next time we saw them on sale, because we wanted to know if they were really comfortable as claimed. Since they looked freaking ugly and yet many people own them they must be comfortable right? Right. And they’re so light. I mean when I read lightweight, I could imagine it being somewhat light. But to my surprise it was sooo light. Really really light, if you can imagine that. And the jibbitz! Wow so many and so cute…. By the way, jibbitz are the décor thingies you dress up your crocs with…. Ok I’d better stop, lest I sound like an ad. Oh one last thing, the crocs that look like thongs and ballet slippers don’t look too bad. Ok I’m done with crocs.

After this we went to Ikea. We went round the whole store, so you can imagine how tired I was after that. We went to look for a wedding gift too for a friend. After this I was just too tired to walk some more. We wanted to stop by Starbucks for a drink but it was so full, so we ditched that idea. We stopped at a McD’s drive thru on the way back to get some iced tea to quench our thirst.

What a truly exciting day it was. And I almost forgot. Hubby presented me with my birthday present while we were at Fasta Pasta with such style and gusto. Haha, he simply set it on the table after we finished our meal. It was tickets to watch My Fair Lady tomorrow at the KL Convention Centre! Oooooh, the best gift I’ve ever received! So I’m off to see the musical tomorrow. What fun!

Someone's 'ead restin' on my knee,
Warm an' tender as 'e can be.
'ho takes good care of me,
Aow, wouldn't it be loverly?
Loverly, loverly, loverly, loverly….

Hotcakes? Yummmm....

Ok ok, I now I haven't been updating. Blame work, blame tv, blame social life, blame Second Life....

The good news is I have been reading my books. The bad news is I haven't found the time to write the reviews....

Anyway, I want to dedicate this post to McD's hotcakes, which I had about a fortnight ago. This reminded me of the time when I was at the airport in Sydney, when I first had them. That was like eons ago. Yummy....

I really enjoyed the three hotcakes, with the butter and syrup. McD's is kind enough to give two packs of butter for three hotcakes, but I forgot to take a picture and only took these after my first bite. Couldn't resist....

And thanks to McD's also for providing a generous amount of syrup to drown my hotcakes in. See the buttery syrupy goo that my hotcakes are in? I'd definitely go back for more. Yumm....

Till next post, mudslinger says have a great weekend!