Monday, August 29, 2011

Something worth reading...

Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old.
This is something we should all read at least once a week!!!!!

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I've ever written.


1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Change the way you think.

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will. Stay in touch.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month..

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. Release your children when they become adults, it's their life now

9. Save for retirement starting with your first pay cheque.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye.

16. Take a deep breath It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Just because you believe you are right, doesn't mean you are. Keep an open mind.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26.. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. Your job is to love your children, not choose who they should love.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

42. The best is yet to come...

43.. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield..

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Lion


An example of some of the exotic meats available in our Perth Chinese butcher...



:D

Friday, August 26, 2011

Dinner @ Mangiare, Nedlands


Joe and I was looking for a place for dinner while we were in Nedlands and we found this cosy family oriented Italian place on Hampden Road in Nedlands.
It is call Mangiare.

Service is not top notch but definitely friendly. Comfortable seating.



Joe had the Scallopine Di Vitello
Pan fried veal scallopine served in your choice of marsala or creamy mushroom sauce
Joe liked his Scallopine dish. He said everything was perfectly cooked. Well seasoned and well balanced. Salad were fresh too.



I had the Agnolotti Alla Panna
Handmade parcels of pasta filled with spinach and ricotta served in a light cream sauce with asparagus, sundried tomatoes and spring onion
I love this dish because the sauce is just nice. Sometimes you will get some cream sauce so thick it is kinda makes u feel sick. But this one is perfect. The filling in the Agnolotti is generous and flavorsome.



Cesare
Fresh baby cos, crispy bacon, croutons, egg, shaved parmesan and anchovy tossed in creamy homemade dressing
Fresh baby lettuce! Love the crunch of freshness! Well balanced in taste and ingredients.



Overall, I would recommend this place as they served honest food and I love the fact that you can just feel everything is freshly picked daily!

(Yeap, I had some bad experience with ugly serve of lettuce and dead looking garnish.haha)

Mangiare
35 Hampden Road, Nedlands
Ph: 9389 8141
Mon- Fri Lunch
Mon - Saturday Dinner

Mangiare on Urbanspoon

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Dinner @ Ipoh Garden Restaurant, Myaree

Tried Ipoh Garden Restaurant after hearing people raving about it for quite some time.
It's a bit out of the way from my place but I think it's worth the drive :)



Although service is not top notch but I'm kinda used to the Asian style service haha immuned to it :P What I'm looking for is FOOD! I only went there for 2 things. My Ipoh Hor Fun Soup and the popular Inchikiban Fried Chicken.



Joe and I had a bottle of the Grandma's Herbal Tea. Taste a bit diluted but yea okay, it's acceptable :)



Joe had the Dry fry Meehoon. I had a spoonful of it, it taste like Hokkien Mee but with Meehoon. Joe said it's quite tasteless after a few spoons.

and here comes my Ipoh Hor Fun!



Smells like a good bowl of tasty Ipoh chicken hor fun. OMG I havent smell that for ages!!! I used to have it 3-4 days a week while I was studying in Sunway, at Ten Ten Restaurant (Malaysia)! The soup is not as clear as the one that I used to have but the smell of it is exactly the same! Look at the Kuey Teow too! It is thinner! Gosh my kind of Kuey Teow! It's hard to find it here in Perth and most of the restaurant will replace the Kuey Teow to Phat Thai noodles for Char Kuey Teow most of the time.

Soups good! Kuey Teow good! Big Bowl too!

If you havent know, I'm a Kuey Teow (Flat white noodle) Fan. Hardcore type. I love my Kuey Teow soft, thin and narrow and well of course must taste fresh! It's really hard to find a restaurant in Perth that serves good Kuey Teow. When the chef cook with thick Kuey Teow, it kinda loses the flavor of the dish because of the flour. Hey I'm not a Kuey Teow Guru but I know my Kuey Teow well. :P



Last but not least, the famous Inchikiban Fried Chicken!
Very juicy, very crispy, very tasty!
It kinda reminds me of the fried chicken in Mamak (Indian Food place in Malaysia)
We can't finish the chicken, so a ta-paoed (takeaway) for my lunch the next day.

Ipoh Garden Restaurant
Lot 16, 44/50 Hulme Court
Myaree 6154
Ph 9330 6290

Open for Lunch and Dinner
Tuesday-Sunday

Ipoh Garden Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Lunch @ Venn, Queen Street Perth

Today I met up with my long-time-no-see friend Mila! I knew her when I was studying at Uni and she left after the graduation. It's been 5 years since I last saw her! We were happy and excited to see each other again and we talked for hours!

We met up for lunch and I brought her to this new place call Venn on Queen St.
It's a concept shop, which features bar & cafe, art gallery, design shop and art studios.
In short, Venn is a pretty cool shop! :D



They did a good job with their window display, haha the displays captured my eyes 2 weeks ago when I walked past at night. It's colourful, quirky and fun!





They've got all sorts of things. You just gotto go there and have a look! :P If you bought something from there, don't blame me ok!



Anyway, lunch!
We walked further into the shop, got a table and sat down with the lunch menu. It's pretty casual cafe. People who works there look really cool too.



There's 9 dishes to choose from and the menu somehow looks weird to me. I can't really feel the yumminess after looking through it. I don't know how to explain but just felt if I have chosen the right place for my friend for our lunch.



But anyway, after a few minutes of choosing, I walked to the counter to make the order.
While I was waiting for service, I saw these beautiful cakes in the display! Omg I just drooled on my camera.



Nah joking.

Now, food time!
I've got Billy Tea ( I chose this because I'm TEAM BILLY!! XD Masterchef craze is forever in me.) This tea is quite a strong tasting tea and has this smoky-ness to it. I liked it! You should give it a try too! I was so tempted to use the bottle of milk because it is sooooooo cute! I love the mini milk bottle I just wanna grab them home! Filled it with milk and photograph it ten thousand times.



I think I'm a bit out of topic here haha. Yea, what I meant by tempted pouring the milk into my tea, is that I drink tea without milk and sugar. I like it black.
Felt a bit regret for not using the milk because it is so cute. I should just drink it from the bottle -_- fml.

Me and my friend Mila shared 2 dishes.



Fremantle Sardines with creamy pumpkin, Zucchini & Tomato Ragout



Lightly Spiced Cassoulet with Braised Haricot Beans and Winter Meats, served with Crunchy Herbed Croutons.

Both of us took our first bite (She had the Sardine, I had the Herbed Croutons) and our eyes just wide open, looking at each other and say OMG IT'S SO GOOD!!!

O_O
We both quickly swaped our dishes and both go "MMmmmm.... "



The creamy sauce with the Sardine & Pumpkin & Spinach all go so well together~! You just wanna Nom nom nom. The only thing that I'm not good with is the tiny bones in the sardines. I know it is edible, but I'm not good with fish bones. So I kind picked it out. :P

Well balanced Spice Cassoulet. Love every bit of it especially the croutons. It's crunchy, it's fragrant and the flavour just melts in your mouth!

I was tempted to convince Mila to share a dessert with me but we both were quite full after the yummy meal. I will leave it for next time :)

and look! Even the toilet look so cool :D haha



Venn
16 Queen St
Perth
Ph 9321 2785

Opening Hours
Mon-Tues 7am-5pm
Wed- Fri 7am-12am
Sat 9am-12am

Venn on Urbanspoon

Sunday, August 21, 2011

What a fulfilling day! :D

What a nice day today! Joe and I went out to meet up with my cousins Eileen, Jilyne and Seon & his girlfriend Eva to celebrate Jil's and Eva's birthdays!
They are the August babies!



Eileen and I spent some time looking for cute pressies for the August babies! We wanted something fun and colourful! We got all kinds of yummy candies that we bought from Liquorice, and a very cute 2012 Diary and pen from Kikki K. Then we bought from mini jars from the Red Dot Store to stuff in the candies! Do try the Blue, Purple, Pink Cloud Candies.. So yum! :D
Then I wrapped it up with ribbons~ wooden lady bugs~ along with a fresh sprig of Rosemary from the garden!! It was Joe's idea! haha It makes the pressies smells good :P



We met at the Crumpet in Vic Park. Unfortunately it was packed so we went to Food For Me instead. Food was good! I haven't try every thing that we ordered but the Eggs Florentine looks good and the French Toast with Bacon was delicious :D



Then we went to Joe's place, showed them our vege patch, play with Karzan and we sang birthday songs for the girls too! Oh, and ate the fruit tart together :P

We finish our birthday celebration around 1pm, my cousin Seon, Jilyne & Eva head home because Seon had a soccer game or some sort to go to. So Eileen and I started our planned baking day. It was tiring but fun day for baking! We baked for 5 hours straight!



We started at around 2pm making 2 batches of bread dough.



and we end up with quite a lot of sausage rolls! haha I dun mind to have lots of sausage rolls because it is the yummiest! Everyone at home loves eating them too for tea, for breakfast and when you just wanna chew on something!



We were excited to see we made so many of the sausage rolls! So we started eating them :D
We ate until we weren't hungry for our dinner. -_-"



Other than baking that, we baked a Strawberry Tart too!
Look!!! STRAWBERRIES~~~



Unfortunately, it's not for us! It's for her colleague at work! She sort of promised that she will make this for his birthday. :( Nooooo.... We sooo wanted to take a bite!



Not sure how the Strawberry Tart taste like but fingers crossed, hopefully it taste as good as it looks!!! :D~


Updated: My cousin and her workmates have tried the Strawberry Tart with the French guys that work with her said it taste like they are back in France and shop bought! WOOHOO!!! XD

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Brunch @ Tiger Tiger Coffee Bar, Perth City

I'm sure everybody walk passed this place many many times or even been there a thousand times! It was my first time dining at Tiger Tiger Coffee Bar after a thousand times of passing by! I was really happy that my cousin agrees to go with me because I wanted to try this place long time ago!



Anyway, this place is pretty cool! Lots of pigs around this place and I wonder why not tiger? haha Oh wells~ they are cute!



We sat inside because it was cold outside.
See Piggy!



Interior were really cozy and funky. Totally love it!



Me and my cousin is probably the greediest girls every! Our eyes is bigger than our stomach. For just the two of us, we had 3 dishes and 1 dessert! We were so so full but no regrets! :D because it was deeeliciousssssss!



Crab, Chorizo, Cherry Tomato Spinach with Lime Oil and Lavosh Chips.
I'm in love with this salad! No kidding, I actually miss this! Love the chunky pieces of crab meat and the salad has this little seafood-y taste, the flavour just so well combined. I can't stop eating this. Everything was fresh too!



CBLT - Free range chicken, bacon lettuce, tomato and mayo.
Yummy yummy Huge Sandwich. Lucky that we shared this haha. Nicely toasted bread and the mayo flavour did not over power that whole thing. Everything just right. Although it was a bit fiddly to eat, but it was good. :)



Asian Duck Salad with sweet soy dressing.
Generous serve of duck slices! A nice and refreshing dish, unfortunately, me no fancy onions. Too much onion for me :P I ended up asking my cousin to finish this. It's good though! Nicely cooked duck!

We were so full after eating those but we had to end it with something SWEET! That will only complete our taste buds.
Yes, we shared a Home made Brownie with mascarpone. Couldn't resist. :P



Good piece of Brownie and look at the mascarpone! Smooth and shine! :D
Probably because we were quite full, we were kinda hoping to have ice cream on top of the brownie instead of the mascarpone.

One more goodness! They are open til 10pm on Thursdays & Fridays! You can have a quite drink there! Bar open from noon!

Tiger Tiger Coffee Bar

Mon 7am-5pm
Tues-Wed 7am-8pm
Thurs-Fri 7am-10pm
Sat 7.30am-6pm
Champagne from 7am, bar open at noon.

329 Murray St, Perth
Ph: 9322 8055


Tiger, Tiger Coffee Bar on Urbanspoon

Monday, August 15, 2011

What have you learned from your dad

I've been with Joe for 7 years and I find that he knows a lot about computers, fishing, gardening, collecting stamps and even fixing things around the house! I used to wonder how he knew so much, and the answer is because of his dad.

Joe's father is a person that I have a lot of respect for. He reads a lot and as a great deal of general knowledge. He taught Joe how to tie the different fishing knots, brought him deep sea fishing, showed him how to grow plants, take care of the garden and even put up their own reticulation. He even made his own knives!



I am simply impressed and wish that I could do all this when I was young! Back in my home, I don't fish, it's too hot for gardening and I don't really do much DIY at home! Let's just say it's hot and I'm lazy :P

Do you have any fond memories with your dad? I'm sure you both did a lot together too!
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Sunday, August 14, 2011

Cute Mini Cupcakes

Holy Moly Guacamole!! It's been a week since I last post about something!
Yes.. I was feeling really slack and busy on having my ME time (which is slacking around haha).

Today, I've decided to do something to make me and my blog happy. :D and probably make u drool ~~~~
That is making pretty mini cupcakes!!!



My cupcakes for today it is kind of a " If it's.."
Joe always use this 2 words upon me because I'm that kind of person who follows recipes exactly in terms of ingredients. If I don't have it at home, I will buy it eventhough the recipe only requires a pinch of it. and as you know everything here sells in a bag, not a pinch! So, that thing will sits in the pantry for a long time until it expires. :P

But for Joe, he will use whatever that is in the fridge or the pantry. Somehow, he can cook something with those ingredients.
Yeap, I'm just not as good as him :P

But today, I'm following the "If it's.." philosophy!
I use the left over Passion fruit pulp, Lemon butter and the Mulberry Jam that my aunt (Julie) made, for my cupcake!



and I've used my precious Pariya's Persian Confetti & Rose Petals that I bought from The Herdsman in the city. The Persian Confetti is yum. It gives a lil kick to the cupcakes :D

Baking mini cupcakes in a small mini cupcake pan is a PAIN.
I baked it batch by batch! But I guess, like this it gives me time to explore all different kinds of flavour and making different kind of icing.

You won't believe this, I have actually made icing 3 times. I made Cream Cheese icing for the 1st batch, then I make meringue for the 2nd batch but after I've tried it on 1 cupcake, I decided to scrap it because it's not tasty. So then I made another batch of cream cheese icing.

After baking, trying, tasting the whole 4-5 hours, I am very happy with my experimental mini cupcakes!!!

Tadaa!!!



There's Passionfruit curd & Cream Cheese cupcakes, Mulberry Jam & Cream Cheese on Mulberry Cupcakes and Lemon Butter & Cream Cheese on Mulberry Cupcakes.

I'm very happy with the final outcome! I can't believe I actually done all this!! Using whatever I have for my Mini Cupcake Shoot! I just feel like printing this on a POSTER SIZE GLOSSY PAPER so that I can drool and admire at it whole day hahaha because I'm pretty sure I won't go through the long hour of baking again for a long time unless I've got 2 huge mini cupcake pans. :P

Happy Sunday everyone!!!! :D

Sunday, August 7, 2011

I had a Masterchef dinner!

Everybody knows that I'm a hardcore Masterchef fan! I cook what Masterchef cook, I shop where Masterchef shop! :P and guess what? Not me or Joe cooking this time! We were lucky to be the panel judges this time hahaha kidding!

Actually, Elisha and Daniel invited us to their house to have a birthday dinner for the July babies, Joe and William. Elisha really put a lot of effort on planning and cooking! She feed us so much yummy food and I just couldn't stop eating! I am still so full from the dinner at this time of the night!! ( it's nearly 1am by the way 0_0 )



First Nom! Pea and Ham Soup. The best warm soup for the cold weather!! hohoho delicious and smooth!



Our Main Nom Nom!
Jamie Oliver's Steak Sarnie! Omg look at it. Who wouldn't wanna eat this!!!



The flavour is just awesome! Juicy steak and I think the secret to this recipe is resting the piece of steak on the bed of salad. The juices from the meat will just slightly infused the salad to make it tastier! :P~



Beetroot and twice cooked chips as sides. Chips were bloody awesome too! Soft in the inside and crunchy on the outside. Drool~



and for our last nom nom, it was the Baked Chocolate Praline Tart with Raspberry Reduction and Chantilly Cream from Masterchef! It was absolutely delicious! Chocolate Praline is just nice and it goes so well with the spread of Raspberry Reduction! (Plated by me and Jersie! :P We are the assistants!) Yeap! We did the famous decorating skills! Sauce spreading thing and the coulis thing and a little micro herb deco! hahaha *Proud* ^-^

Now for those of you who wants to do this chocolate tart, just be aware that the recipe for the pastry is incorrect. I've tried it and Elisha tried it and find the recipe should just use only 1 egg. Or else the dough will turn really sticky and watery. :)

What a beautiful & happy Saturday!!! :D


I had a wonderful weekend Friday and Saturday because I had dinner with my cousins + Joe & Eva, and my cousin Eileen cooked us Roast Pork with Crackling specially for me! (after bugging her the whole day and night :P) it was perfectly cook! Then we hang around at her place and played Jenga til 12am! Then on Saturday morning, all of us went to Tomato Lake for a morning walk/jog. It was great fun! After that we went to Rasa Nyonya at Vic Park to have our brunch. Nasi lemak there is omgosh so yummy. Joe and I when for a lil grocery shop and Swansea Market then head home. We did nearly 4 hours of gardening and helped our neighbour to put up the fencing. Woah so happy! Then showered and went to Daniel and Elisha's house to have such wonderful dinner! Woah I'm just feeling soooo damn happy! Feeling content! and I'm still feeling really full!!!! omgosh! it's 1.15 in the morning!! :D I just had to write this down for myself because I wanna remind myself what a happy weekend I had! Thank you!!! Good night!!!