Farewell Lunch @ Simpang Tiga Restoran

One of my colleague Haji Wahab is going to retire in a week's time and my big boss asked that we organised a farewell lunch for him at Simpang Tiga Restoran which serves Indonesian Cuisine. This restaurant was newly opened sometime last September if I am not mistaken. Nice ambience but the service is lacking . Food is just above average ....this is my own opinion  :p  This is what we had for the farewell lunch last Wednesday...

Peppery Meat Tenders

When you have meat eaters in the house, you really have to crack your head how to prepare that meat dish for them :p  Especially breast eater  chicken breast eater I mean :)  Piggy boy will only eat the breast part, so I have to think how to prepare them and since he likes black pepper I made him meat tenders using black pepper , cajun and potato flour and garlic salt  to coat the meat and pan fried them till crispy on the outside and tender juicy on the inside.  A simple and yet finger licking good meat tenders for those who love meat.

Vegetarian Dish For The First Day of CNY

This is a vegetarian dish that I cooked for the first day of CNY . Piggy gal requested for it so I cooked just for her.  Her favourite veggie is the chinese cabbage cooked with red fermented beancurd with lots of chinese mushrooms, button mushrooms, ' fatt choy' ( black seaweed ) transparent vermicelli and the dried beancurd ( foo chok) I love this dish too but the guys are not too keen :p  This is a very tasty and flavorful vegetarian dish. 

Duck Meat Kebabs / Satay

I have never eaten duck meat kebabs before and over here we called them  ' satay ' .  On the eve of CNY, Claire my good friend gave me a big packet of about 50 sticks of them. Wow, I was thinking  " how am I going to barbeque them " and now is the busiest time of the year...all the reunion dishes to be prepared ... of course use the oven !! silly me :)) And I chucked them into the freezer and have forgotten about them until last weekend.....

' Loe Hei ' or Tossing Up Good Fortune

'Loe Hei ' in cantonese means tossing up good fortune . This chinese new year delicacy is called ' Yusheng' - ' yu ' means fish ' sheng' literally  means raw but enuciated appropriately, it means life thus ' yusheng' means abundance of wealth and long life . This salad delicacy is served traditionally on the seventh day of the chinese new year which is everyone's birthday according to the chinese calendar......

Fried Sticky Glutinous Rice Cake/ ' Nian Guo '

'Loe Hei ' in cantonese means tossing up good fortune . This chinese new year delicacy is called ' Yusheng' - ' yu ' means fish ' sheng' literally  means raw but enuciated appropriately, it means life thus ' yusheng' means abundance of wealth and long life . This salad delicacy is served traditionally on the seventh day of the chinese new year which is everyone's birthday according to the chinese calendar......

Stir Fry Julienned Turnips With Dried Cuttlefish - Reunion Dish 2

This is another must have dish for reunion - 'Ju Hu Char 'or Stir Fried Julienned Turnips With Dried Cuttlefish to be eaten wrapped in lettuce . Awww this is one delicious, flavorful turnip dish that I don't mind cooking for the festive season. Lots of cutting to do though but worth it at the end of the day. I know you can use a shredder to do the job on the turnips but julienned it with a knife is better...taste better...don't ask me why but it does taste better and original LOL!  My better half loves this and this will seal his lips for the nite :p He is hokkien so this is a must have dish for the reunion.  He will say this is my mom's signature dish  and I have been hearing it for the past 27 years since I married him......so to seal his lips I have to cook just as good as his mom and hoping one day he will say......

Buttered Prawns - Reunion Dish 1

As promised I am now showing you what I cooked for our reunion dinner :) Nothing elaborate .Buttered prawns was one of the dishes I cooked up for the Piggies. Prawn is a must have item for the reunion dinner ...ask any chinese they will tell you it means laughter literally translated from the cantonese word ' har '  so hee hee har har -  laughter in the house all the year thru...I have you laughing now ? ...heehee haha. Laughter can be infectious :)) Daddy can be very westernized but when it comes to chinese tradition and culture.....he does want to follow some to the T :p

Cod Fillet Steak In Simple Dressing

Hi everyone....thank you for dropping by and all the wonderful new year wishes from you guys :)) I had a wonderful eating spree...from one home to another and needless to say distributing ang pows / red packets to all the younger relatives . It is always a blessing to give then to receive...but I know my Piggies are enjoying filling up their pockets with ang pows they recieved :p  To them receiving is a great joy at this time of the year LOL!

' Gong Xi Fa Cai ' & Happy Valentine's Day Greetings From the Piggy Clan

Elin and her Piggy clan wishes all her readers and friends

' Gong Xi Fa Cai '

&

 Happy Valentine's Day 

May the New Year brings roaring success & health 

as the tiger roars in the year !!!

^________ ^

a basket of chinese oranges / ' kam '

to welcome the new year :)) and that piece of 

'nian koa'/ glutinous rice cake for promotion....

you want promotion in your career...eat more ya * wink 

Smile Inducer for the day :

" A balance diet is a cookie in each hand "

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Lunch Celebration @ Delight Seafood Restaurant :)

tossing the ingredients up high signify the blending of 

the elements of auspicious blessings as stated in the chinese folklore. 

A toast to a better year of

good health, wealth and happiness....

We love this time of the year which is a week before the end of the chinese calendar , whereby we organized and arranged for all the chinese staffs to have a celebration lunch together to mark the completion of yet another productive year. Even the retired one was invited to join this celebration lunch :)) We have simple dishes and May Tan contributed a bottle of red wine as table gift . 

Fettucine Aglio Olio With Salmon And Chicken

Pasta has always been the Piggies' favourite one dish meal and of course the Momsie is happiest to cook them this...delicious, tasty and healthy meal for them. And Daddy has to go along for 3 votes against one LOL! But once in a while he enjoys the meal too if I add in extra meat stuff for him,  for both men loves meat.  For both the ladies, I added a piece of salmon each to go with this fettucine delights :)) A hearty meal indeed for us all. No complaints from all sector all the Piggy clan * wink *  I can hear only the oinking crescendo as we were partaking this deliciousness together :))

Piggin' With Piggy Cuz :0

It has been a long time since we had dinner together with Piggy Cuz. And last week, we managed to find a time and pig out at Marpoh Restaurant. The dinner was a simple affair..just the five of us and we had a wonderful time together. Piggy Cuz is a very dear cousin of mine and she taught my Piggies piano lessons and my Piggies simply adore and admire her.  She taught them till Grade 8 and with them scoring distinctions all way. She is wonderful pianist and all her students love her.  They idolize her ...mmmmm even though she is strict with them. I enjoyed every performances I was invited to each year when her students performed. She taught them to performed in a small crowd which I think is good for the confidence and esteem of the students and since then my Piggies are not shy to perform to a crowd.  

Fusilli With Homemade Bolognese Sauce

When your kids love pasta, you thank God for it coz it is the most easy to prepare one dish meal...agree with me ? :)  For me, it is easy and taste good and healthy for them too.  I prepared the bolognese sauce in advance for them  so that it is easier for them...all they have to do is just cook the pasta - fusilli for their lunch.   Many of you will think that I pampered them too much....why have kids when you don't pamper them :p  But the truth is I love cooking so that is just an excuse ....otherwise who is going to eat the stuff I cook...so at times like this one have to use pyschology a bit ....tell them u pamper them..and they will wallop everything up and even lick the dish clean LOL!

Chicken In Chinese Red Wine

My friend Nancy bought a bottle of chinese red wine for me from Sitiawan, a small town in Perak which is famous for their red wine and vermicelli /mee suah .  I was delighted when she told me that she had bought a bottle back for me when she went there for a seafood meal. I couldn't wait to cook it with chicken. This red wine is made from the  red yeast rice and is good for health. I first ate this when I was in confinement 21 years ago...my mom cooked this dish for me every day during my confinement and since then I will cook this dish whenever there is a bottle of it in the house....sure brings back memories of those confinement period. It is slightly sweetish in taste with its aroma is heavenly...I can have the whole pot to myself  and get drunk after that . LOL!  To cook this dish you need lots of grated ginger and now is the time to use my porcelain grater...which has not been in use and has been sitting in a corner in the kitchen drawer :))

Shrimps Omelette

This is something so simply delicious and yet takes just 20 minutes to prepare when you want a quick fix., especially when you have an unexpected guest for dinner. Shrimps Omelette with chopped onion rings and hot chillies will be a welcome item when you want to add an extra dish at the  last minute :)) I heart this no fuss egg omelette. You either have this with rice or bread. Add in some garden grown italian parsley and wow.......you can image how good this simple egg dish will taste :)  This dish is good for kids minus the hot chillies of course, for this is the only way to teach them how to appreciate eating onions which is rich in vitamin A and eggs rich in protein and shrimps rich in iodine.........you can have this shrimps omelette in your sandwiches too ! 

Arrowroot Chips - CNY

The weekend was spent making these chips - arrowroot chips , a delicacy everyone loves. Arrowroots are in season  now. Supermarts are selling them at RM3.20 per kilo and I bought some to make chips...they are crunchy and a natural sweetness that is so addictive. It took me an hour to prepare these and we finished it in just half an hour in one sitting. We snacked on this while watching ' Gossip Girl ' ....mmmmm great snack and great drama and great time together LOL!  Will be making this chips again next week for the coming festive season. I never fail to make this every year since the day I knew how to make this chips. Quite tiring making this but it was worth it. 

choosing the arrowroot with a nice bottom is important

when making this chips..... no cracks  or the chips will not turn out

round and nice

this is a perfect bottom for making chips

soak them in salt water, dry them before slicing them into thin slices

straight in hot oil

.the arrowroots turned out great...crunchy and sweet

this chips are addictive and irrestible.......

 Head your cursor here  for the recipe and more info on this arrowroot./ nga ku  chips

Smile- inducer for the day...

"I drive way too fast to worry about cholesterol."

~Steven Wright ~

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