A weekend full of smile

Last weekend, we had BBQ at East Coast Park and coincidentally it was also the mark of Earth Hour Day. I did my part by leaving my home :D by switching off the electrical appliances except for the fridge :p.

It was also Zach 3rd time to ECP and play with the sand. This time, he is able to enjoy and discover things around him compare when he was a year younger. As usual, he was pretty much excited to see the beach and he dash towards the sea. We were running after him and of course, he is too young to swim in the water. We allow him to touch the water and letting the waves washing his feet.

I tried making sand castle but to no avail. My little monster keep destroying my "fort" and "castle" so I decided to be "turtle" by burying half my body in the sand. He enjoy digging into my feet and we played about an hour or so. Hubby's colleague and their kids were playing on the sand too and they are trying to dig a few wells. This reminds me of my good ol' days when we used to spend time at Penang's Batu Feringghi beach.

We started BBQ around 5pm and it was a good day. We had lotsa food ranging from Korea's pork belly, kimchi, spicy chicken to Thai's green curry. It was like a mini Asian gathering from other countries and each bring their specialty.

Kids having bashful time in the room.

I stayed up till 9pm as Zach starts being "funny" (cranky la). This signal to me, "cinderella" needs to go home and put the prince to bed. So, Hubby drove us home and I tugged the "prince" to bed.

The following day, we decided to visit the public pool near to my FIL house. Looks like Zach didn't get to swim the previous day. We manage to spend about half an hour before the sky starts pouring. This place has a very decent pool for the kids with water slides and other mini adventure activities for them to play.

Zach was sleeping in the car and refuse to wake up. The moment we walk into the entrance, he open his eye and saw the kid's pool. He was extremely excited and was grinning from ear to ear. It's just like the energizer bunny is back to "power" again.

Zach with his funky hair style :)

He has this grin all over his face the whole time in the water. By the way, u remember the float he's using?? haha..those who has read my previous post in 2007, you can recall how this float "saves" my life :p.

Human, Human, Human!

I took this on our way home from Suzhou to Shanghai. We didn't manage to buy the "fast train" whereby we get our own waiting hall unlike the normal train's waiting room like this photo below. When we reach the public waiting room, we were greeted with this humongous sight. I was a little appalled and a concern on whether I'm able to get out of this place in one piece and my son not being squashed by them.
I have heard horror and horror of stories on how the locals will rush, squeeze and push their way through the gate. So, I was kind of mentally psycho myself that if I can't beat them, I'll JOIN THEM! Zach was sleeping in his stroller and suddenly after an announcement was made, a group of youngster ran towards us. We were all so cramped up in a 1x1 square meter per person and one of them just lept over our stroller! I was shocked and Hubby was fast enough to stop him mid-air and shouted at him from crossing over. He has his 1 leg over and the other was stuck on the other south end stroller (what a sight! :D). I was a little worry to see a fight ensue however the youngster face seems appologetic and he ran and push his way out on the other end. Phew, no fights broke here :p.

Anyway, this incident gave me a thought of a caring society of China towards baby and senior citizens. Not that this incident gave me a change of mindset, but during my 10 days stay in Shanghai and taking their public transport I must say that each and everytime whenever we enter their subway we were always given a seat no matter how packed the train is. I was very surprised that they will go to the extend of calling you from the other end and guard the seat for you so that others will not take over the empty seat. I'm sure we look like a tourist to them but for them showing the effort to make us feel home, I gave them a BIG pat on their shoulder for being caring and respectful in this area and I believe my home country are not able to achieve this level of mentality. Kudos to you China! You have change my perspective to your country and netizens after this trip. I will defintely be back again to visit your country again.

Look Ma!

What a ghastly sight :). Zach took my mobile phone and somehow he manage to click on the camera function and start snapping on his own.

This was his first own picture that he took all by himself! :) Not bad, just that can't see his smile only.

Dinner at Esplanade Park

I will not be blogging on this restaurant as I personally find the food here so-so only and price wise, it’s at a little high end for the quality of food. I had Korean once at PNB Darby Park, Kuala Lumpur (Koong Jung) and I found that was quite an experience for the price we paid and quality of food that comes with it. I was fortunate as the bill goes straight to my company’s account.

This was Zach’s 1st visit to Esplanade and his first taste of Korean food at Jang Shou Korean Charcoal BBQ. I gave him some Kimchi’s soup and greens which he took it off from the table and start munching the greens. I’m quite amazed at him as I personally find the greens a little tad too plain for my likings :p.

Zach took it well on the Kimchi’s soup which I find that it tasted more like a pure tomatoe soup boil for several hours with cabbages and pork.

A tired Zach sleeping in his stroller when we just arrived.
Here’s Zach enjoying his dinner with us.

Glorious pork belly. The restaurant waiter will cook and serve it once they are done

Here’s Zach with Dad at the Esplanade Park.

Char Siew

Last weekend, I hands on to roast char siew for lunch. The taste turns out well but the pork is not fatty enough! haHaa…char siew without the fats is not Char Siew to me! I shall try pork belly in future.

Anyway, here’s the recipe for making char siew……

1. Light soya sauce
2. Dark soya sauce
3. Oyster sauce
4. 5 spices
5. Chopped garlics
6. Rose wine
7. And sugar to suit your taste buds.

And of course, pork to your liking (pork belly or you may ask the pork seller for advice).

I seasoned the pork for 3 days in the fridge. I started on Wed night and brought it out to roast on Saturday morning. I kept the oven temperature around 200 degree and roast for 20mins. I brought out the pork after 10mins of roasting and basked with honey to substitute “bai leh koh-in Hokkien and went back to roast for another good 10 minutes.

If you like your char siew to be slightly burn, you may just need to roast a little longer to get the burn look.

Here’s my char siew and my Hubby heartily feed them all into his tummy :)

Sightings...

It has been quite sometime I see a rainbow. Yesterday evening around 6+pm, we were about to leave our house for dinner. I was carrying Zach and this beautiful sight caught my eyes.

I pointed out to Zach and told him, "Look, rainbow"!. As expected, he was looking else where and I have to keep telling him, "that's a rainbow"!. After awhile, he look at my pointed direction and he stare for a minute (I started to wonder, is he mesmerising the sight or stoned by my repeating words to him". :D

You started a joke...and the joke is on me!

Last weekend, Hubby casually talk to Zach as at this age he loves to imitate or just babble words which make no sense at all. So, Hubby told Zach, “If you see 1 car is CAR. 2 car means Car Car, many cars are car car car car car (kakakakaka)….

Don’t under estimate their memory ability on kids nowdays. I was waiting for hubby at the nearby carpark and Zach starts pointing here and there and shout Car, Car (even the car is parked at a lot) So, whenever a car pass us by, he will Car!

Then, later there are more cars and he goes..Car-Car! *(faint)*

Child Abuse....?

Shhhh........child abuse is at work.

No so shabby work and consider Good for this age


Mom, am I done?
Wonder how much he is pay? …..180ml of milk for every 3 hours…hahaha… :p

The Day I discover C-O-C-O-N-U-T

I find this real amusing. When we were back to KL for CNY, we had dinner with Zach’s Godmum. As recommended, Godmum suggest to have their coconut pudding dessert-one each. It was claimed that it’s good and you will lick to every drip of the coconut meat/pudding.

So, we were all game for this COCONUT Pudding and we had 1 each. Zach as usual was very curious and he would like to have a mouth too. I refuse to give in as, firstly, it’s made of coconut and I do not know how kind the coconut will do to a 14mth old boy’s tummy. He started to protest and scream as he sees our shiokalingam face eating the coconut.

Finally, after a tug and war between Zach and I, I gave up and spoon him a teeny weeny bit of pudding to shut him up.

He was so ADDICTED to the coconut that he wanted the whole coconut to himself! So, Godmum quickly finishes hers and she gave the empty coconut together with the spoon to him. I didn’t know a coconut can make him so High that he perpetually glue his mouth to the coconut. He keep spooning inside and licking his spoon like there is no tomorrow.

Anyway, we were very entertained by his sight and we decided to take photos to remind ourselves that ….Life is like a box of chocolate. You will never know what you will get inside”…..
Look at his satisying face

Little Nyonya Chang

I discover this little gem from my colleague. She bought a box of 20 mini dumplings to share among the 6 of us during tea time.

Love the small little flowers that printed on the box..lovely..

After having my first bite, I told myself I need to buy a box just for myself! haha...Yes, abit too much for a person to have it all and will cause terrible indigestion.

And so, on Saturday we decided to visit Joo Heng at Joo Chiat for dinner. It has been quite sometime since we visited this place and we would like to see if the standard still maintains for some of their signature dishes. It is! Still as good as you get.

Let's not digress here. So, after dinner I ask Hubby to drive to East Coast Road (just a few blocks away) in search for my mini nyonya dumpling! The shop name is Kim Choo and Hubby went in to buy 20 of them with 4 assorted flavours (XO sauce, original nyonya, dried shrimp, and pork fillings). Personally, I find XO sauce can't really taste the XO but still very yummy. If next time I buy, I will get the pork fillings and original nyonya.

Mini dumplings in a box of 20Besides selling mini dumplings, they do sell otah too. And this is the BEST otah I had tasted in Singapore. It had a very close distint taste from Penang otah with spices and bits of fish meat. Thou it is the BBQ version but you can taste the difference between the normal otah sells in Singapore and this Kim Choo's otah. Thumbs up for this!