Father's Day 2011

Prepared lunch and dinner for my parents yesterday as part of the once a year Father’s Day celebration. It seems to be a tradition for me to cook on Mother’s and Father’s Day these years. Smile.

My dad laughed happily when I told him I am going to bring him to different countries on his-day, tsk tsk.

We went Korea for lunch on Father's Day. We had Kim Chi as the side dish...

And our main was sweet and spicy Tteokbokki …

Dad and mum had tried the Chinese style of stir fried rice cake but not the Korean style. Nonetheless, I am glad that it was well accepted by my parents, especially my dad who likes to eat chewy foods such as gummies, mochi and etc.

Thank you Y for the SOS from Singapore. Without you, the stir fried Korean rice cake would definitely be a failed attempt *winks

As for dinner, we went Western. Hehe.

For appetizer, we had the Ultimate Mushroom Bruschetta (Jamie Oliver’s style)…

For main, we had Pan Fried Salmon with Mashed Cauliflower and Greens Salad…

And, how can we not have something sweet to make the celebration sweeter? ;P

Mum was the first to try on my first-ever-attempt Apple Crumble Pie; our dessert that night. Her feedback was, the tart was good and the crust was better than the bakeries we have at our small little town before she started to complain that the crust was not thick enough, haha. I am glad that the dessert turned out well. I was quite worried that the crust would be as hard as a rock *phew, relieved.

So, we had the Apple Crumble Pie with ice cream to make our meal complete. Dad likes it with ice-cream, and he asked for a bit more ice cream to go with the apple pie as the ice-cream served was too little as you can tell from the photo, haha. (p/s: Of coz, I didn’t make the ice-cream ;P).

Happy Father’s Day my dearest daddy. I am counting my blessings to have you as my super-daddy. Love you lots *Hugs and kisses* <3

Happy Mother's Day 2011

This is the 3rd Mother’s Day celebration since I am back from Australia for good. It has then become a tradition for me to cook on this special day for my dearest mum.

My mum was so excited when I told her I would turn her kitchen into my playground once again on her day. Her response was it had been so long since I last cooked them a meal. True enough, I can’t remember when was the last time I messed up her kitchen. Most probably it was Father’s Day last year? *grin*

Decided to cook some Thai foods for my beloved parents on Mother’s Day.

We had Seafood Tom Yum Goong...

Green Curry Veg-Chicken...

Lemon Sauce Steamed Fish...

And Stir-fried Four-angled Bean ;)

When I was cooking the green curry, mum kept peeping on me and commented that the green curry smells really nice. And during the dinner, mum was saying that I should cook this green curry again. *smile* I am really glad that mum enjoyed the meal.

Happy Mother's Day once again, my dearest mummy. Thank you for always being there. I am nothing without you <3

Hope you like the present. *BEAR HUGS*

Happy Father's Day

Unfortunately, I am not financially independent yet though I have started working now. My pay day is end of the month.

Then we had this wedding dinner to attend a night before Father's day and Sunday was a bit too rush cos I were to go back to Singapore in the evening. As a result, I were not able to prepare any decent home-cooked meal for my dearest on his day though this was the 1st time after 5yrs him having me around to celebrate the day with him.

All I could do was to bake my dearest his favourite cake - butter cake, flavoured by his favourite drink - coffee, i.e. a coffee marbled butter cake.


This cake was freshly made on Father's day morning with freshly bought eggs. My dearest loves it!

Happy Father's Day, dearest!

Happy Mother's Day

It was 5 years ago when me last celebrated mother's day with beloved. Five years later, me is still not entirely financial independent to get beloved anything precious. Hence, this year me decided to cook beloved a special meal on this special day.

Pumpkin Soup

We started off with pumpkin soup served with garlic bread.

Garlic bread

Followed by pan-fried salmon with lemon butter sauce and cod fish with apple sauce.

Pan-fried salmon with lemon butter sauce

Pan-fried cod fish with apple sauce

Lastly, we finished off with heart-shaped chocolate pudding, which marked a perfect ending for this special meal.

Chocolate pudding

Happy Mother's Day, my beloved mum! Love you always *hugs and kisses*

Tomb Sweeping Day

Tomb Sweeping Day, which is more commonly known as Qing Ming Festival was on the 4th April this year. It has been at least 5 years since I was last involved in Qing Ming; to do some grave visits and pay my respect to my ancestors.

The well-prepared dishes for the ancestors

Everyone prepared some dishes to be brought over to my uncle's place that day. It was a good chance for family members to gather around and have a little chat while waiting for the departed to “enjoy” the dishes. That morning, we talked about the difference of how we (2nd vs. 3rd generation) were brought up, the games we used to play and the food we used to eat. The ever sweet childhood memories from everyone of us.

Flowers for the ancestors

Apparently, I was still playing the same games my aunts and uncles used to play, such as "masuk", "five stones" a.k.a "batu seremban", "eagle-catch-little-chickens" and "marbles" a.k.a. "guli". Electronic games (PS, Nintendo etc) and computer were not that common at my young age. Typically, old-time games involve a lot of kids to get the fun whereas kids nowadays usually find it more enjoyable to have fun with non-living electronic appliances. That's the difference caused by the ever improving technology.

Grandpa from dearest's side

Grave visit was not easy as rain always come in the afternoon.After several attempts, we were finally able to show our loyalty and respect to my dearest's father at the gravesite this morning (picture above). Fire-crackers could be heard and the flow was still quite heavy at the cemetery this morning though it was not as great as last weekend.

Grandparents from beloved's side

We revisited my beloved's parents' gravesite (picture above) this morning though we were already there last Sunday morning. And, I saw this ice-cream man again (picture below), early in the morning, around 8am. Life is really not easy.

Ice-cream man doing business at the graveyard, early in the morning

Nonetheless, he gets the chance to enjoy the beauty of the sunrise every morning.

The beautiful sunrise view from the graveyard, Minyak Beku

There's always plus and minus in everything we do. How you look at it is how it affects you =).