What we did in Bentong last holiday

Last school holiday, we went back to my parent's house and stayed there until school reopen. I forgot to let the teachers know that Caleb won't be going for daycare because apparently they still have daycare during the whole stretch of school holiday. Received an SMS from the school principal saying all of them missed Caleb so much. Haha...of cox, the 'haywire guy' aka 'holland guy' wasn't there creating a mess!

Anyway.........

This is what we did.

My cousin's family came and stayed for a few days.  Brought my cousin sister around for Bentong food and she likes it very much and every year like a routine, these are on her to-eat-list.

Bentong Wan Tan Meen. This wan tan meen should bring shame to all wan tan meen in Klang Valley. The noodles are springy with no alkaline whatsoever. Dark soya sauce is super fragrant and super nice and the char siew.....mmm....I love the char siew nonetheless. But for some people who like caramelize char siew would find this like a tree bark but still, I like it. Hee hee....talking about weirdo. And oh ya, if you want to find the best wan tan meen in Bentong, forget about Hoi Kee. They are over-rated, crowded to the max and be prepared to wait for 30 minutes before you could got on hold of a table and seats and another 1h for a bowl/plate of wan tan meen. Spare me, pluhlizzzz.... 

Wan tan meen @ RM3.80

Another must have. Pan meen or 'mein fun cha kuo' as what the local called it. The anchovies soup was delicious with firm texture noodles. Definitely is a must-have....oh, did I just repeat that? Heh heh....

I tried to order this every time I came back to hometown and I always too full to eat it. This is roti bakar but the local called it 'siew suet yau'. Siew of course means 'bakar' or toasted and suet yau means butter. So, it's basically is kaya and butter toasted bread.

What's so special about it anyway? Mmmm.......nothing special. But I like it very much :) The kaya is fragrant and the butter is melting on the way to your mouth. Blocks and blocks of butter melting simultaneously.

In the afternoon, we went to OldTown White Coffee. Nothing particular. Just chit-chatting with my cousin sister while Caleb was on the Iphone and Caven 'koala bear'-ing on me in baby carrier. Oh, I super love my Boba 3G carrier now. I don't think I can live without it. My life saver..... Works very well if you have a leechy baby like me.

Every trip to Bentong will only be completed when my cousin sister get to taste the old favourite nasi lemak and spicy chicken chop. One thing about the nasi lemak is it comes with a very very spicy sambal and alot of onions. I always love onions in my sambal. Soft, tender and fragrant chicken curry and sambal sotong. Topped up with a nice hat, in this case is half cooked egg. Believe me if I said I can't find something like this in Klang Valley nor in Penang. SJ, agree? >.<

Somehow, I need my nasi lemak fix....NOW!

Next up, my childhood favourite. A very simple, nothing fancy, old school chicken chop with french fries, fried egg with chilli sauce. I'd trade this for myBurgerlab anytime. I love this for as long as I can remember, over 20 years ago, perhaps? My cousin sister love it too, being hooked on it ever since I introduced to her.

If you happen to visit Bentong and wonder what in this small town could offer? Drop me a mail and I try to 'korek-korek' the address or maybe direct you to there, ok?

After my aunt and family went back, I got another 1 week to stay at my parent's house. Reason being: still holiday ma..... So, I brought Caleb for his hair cut. Oh yes, no more messy fringe and curly maggi mee. So leng chai.

On one of the day, I just left the little leech at home, asked my mom to look after him and I took Caleb for some cakes at Secret Recipe. We get to talk a little, eat cakes and of course play games together with my phone. Just a simple activities makes him a very happy man.

Since we got a lot of free time at home and gadzillion darn flying mozzie around in the living room, most of the time we spend a lot of playing, jumping, shrieking, hugging and making funny faces in room. Aaaahhh.....a bliss.

And that what we did last holiday in Bentong. The next school holiday should be in December, I pressume? :)

I'm the mosquito-slayer

My parent's house is badly infested with mosquitoes. Real bad. These blood-suckers are everywhere especially in bathroom. I guess because it cooling, damp and dark in there. Just imagine when you go inside the bathroom, there are 20 over mosquitoes flying all over you. Arghhh....... I just have the urge to squash everyone of them into paste.

I remembered when i was young, my brother and I used to compete on who got the most numbers of mosquito and both of us would parade our 'result' on tiles in the bathroom. Of course my brother win every time. What's not? He is taller and has bigger hands than me. Of course la right? 

That picture is my self-proclaimed-victory. With my bare hands filled with foam, I caught 18 blood-suckers in less than 10 minutes. I feel good!

See if I could catch another batch tomorrow.

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Little angku @ hometown

As usual, when there's school holiday,  we are back to my parent's house. And as usual, my mom would cook a lot of stuffs at home enough to feed a whole loot of army.

My mom made this the other day and I ate 3 at one go. Burrppp......full. This is called angku, in this case is 'chehku' because it's in green color. My mom blended few strands of screwpine leaves and juice out the essence. The aroma was intense. I likey.....

Notice the mold?  Well, that is family heritage mold which will not be traded for anything in this world. It's so unique and classic and I believe I can't get it anywhere now. This is so rare and beautiful. Just told my mom to keep it for me although mmmm......I haven't mastered the skills of making angku yet. Don't care, I shall keep it under my bed first. Hahaha....

Food in Bentong (Homecook) - part 2

Part one is here

Holiday in bentong just mean one thing and that is FOOD! I or rather we (me and Caleb) were stuffed with good foods everyday and I think both of us putting on some weight. My mom's favourite question of the day: "What you want to eat today?" lol. Ain't I lucky?

Anyway, here are some food pictures that I managed to capture. Most of the time I need to glup down as fast as I can because my mom is helping me look after Caven while me and Caleb eat. So, after we're done, only then my mom could eat. She always the one who eat last, all the time. <3>

Fried banana fritter with ice cream. My tea time.....love it! My all time favourite. Anything with banana won me over upside down.

This is Cheah's family (aka my mom's side) recipe for dry-curry prawn. It's a hand-me-down recipe from my maternal grandmother and every siblings in the family know how to cook this dish. Spicy, fragrant and so delicious especially with hot white rice.

Spring rolls with minced pork, chopped prawn black fungus, carrots, mushroom and corrinder leaves. Mixed all together, seasoned with salt, pepper, soy sauce and sesame oil. Rolled up in beancurd sheet, deep fried it and voila....these yummy cute little rascal.

Minced pork, prawn, carrot, black fungus, mushrooms and corinder leaves. 

Next up. Bubur cha-cha.

Bubur cha-cha is a sweet dessert made of coconut milk and gula melaka with diamond-shaped yam, sweet potatoes, tapioca flour jelly-like and bananas! Mom said that this bubur cha-cha origin from Penang Nyoya food because there's banana in there. With the banana, I've got to say that it's an excellent combination and leave a kick in my tastebud. You'd find me looking for banana chunks in that pot of bubur cha cha, all the time :)

This purplish color of bubur cha cha is due to dark purple sweet potatoes. It does look a little scary right?

Mom's dumpling. Every year my mom made her own dumplings (bak chang) and trust me if I say my mom make the most delicious kick-ass bak chang. I grew up eating her bak chang and only her bak chang thou I'm not a fan of glutinious rice. It makes me heartburn all the time, wtf. She uses the simplest ingredients which are mushrooms, half-fat pork belly, dried shrimps and yellow bean (not sure what's the name) but she seasoned and stir-fried everyone of them separately. Nice, very nice.....

Cha siew pau - left (BBQ pork steam bun) and tau sah pau - right (red bean bun). My mom can whip this out in 30 minutes as she always have spare red bean paste and cha siew filling in the fridge.

Caleb loves to eat buns so much and he just need to ask "Ah ma, char siew pau?" and it drove my mom straight to the kitchen. Spoilt, spoilt brat, ish ish ish......

Filling oozing out.....mouth-watering ...uh la la......

My mom's signature dish called chye kueh (vegetable dumpling). Ocassionally my mom would make this and give it to her friends and neighbours. Sometimes she would sell them too but depend on who's ordering. She don't do stranger's business, only a few of her close friends.

Kiam chye boi. The leftovers, hokkien style. But actually there's nothing leftover here. My mom basically cooked it and purposely keep it in fridge for a few days. Just because her dear daughter (that's me!) wanted to eat this dish. Sweet, sour, spicy and aromatic because of the big roasted pig trotters in there. Yummmm, thick collagen...oh yeah!

If the above collagen is not enough, fret not because mom cook another round of pig trotter in vinegar and ginger. Oh, so delivishing good!

Say, when is the next school holiday term? :)

It's school holiday time

Yupe, 2 weeks school holiday and 3 of us are having party time at my parent's house. Caleb can watch tv and snack as much as he want because my dad spoilt him like mad. Everything also okla okla. So for me I just have to close one eye lor. What to do...... grandparent need to spoilt and parent need to displine them back. That's the universal law :)

Anyway, since Caven is such a professional at tossing and turning, we re-arrange the beds in my room. Previously queen bed was separated in the middle with single one. Caven sleep alone in the single bed while me and Caleb sleep on the double bed.

Now, we have to put both bed together and got plentiful of pillows and bolsters to barricade the end of the beds. Sigh......I cannot imagine when he started to crawl.  Probably I need a metal cage by then....

Caleb is watching Mickey mouse Clubhouse and didi just hovering around.

Kong Hei Fatt Choy 2013

Happy Chinese New Year 2013.

We went back to Bentong for about 1 week. Caleb had a great time saying Kong Hei Fatt Choy to everyone he met and in return he got 2 ang pows. One for him and one for didi.

He wore this at the 1st day of Chinese New Year. My mil bought this for him as his birthday gift last year. Yea right, a birthday gift double as Chinese new year costume. :)

My mom was laughing crazily when she saw Caleb wear this China Ah Pek costume. She said how come looks like gwai lo in ah pek suit. Hahaha.....I said wait till he greet you Kong Hei Fatt Choy in gwai lo's slang.

On 2nd day, he wore a very nice shirt with his name printed on it. It say 'le or 樂' as his chinese name is 凱樂 for Caleb. Nice name right? I know.

Non stop camwhoring for the camera. Hah! All the poses he posed by himself. Not a single one by me :)

On the 3rd day of CNY, he become really obsessed with camwhoring. Keep on pestering me in taking his pictures. My...my...

and then pester his dadi in taking pictures with him, making even funnier poses.

And where is Caven through out this CNY? He's doing alrite.

He sleep. He fuss. He cry.

And make funny faces.

Yes, on rare occasion, he smile too.

My mom introduced sarung to Caven and for the first few days, he was sleeping peacefully in it. But towards the end, he fussed and cried and scream. I don't know why la, maybe he short-circuit abit la. Then my mom rocked him in her arm instead - human sarung ;)

This is their lot angpows for this CNY. Yes, they are rich than us now.

Please ignore the sexy legs :)

Still couldn't believe I am a mother of 2 now. 2 boys. 2 naughty boys. Can't wait for Caven to grow up so that both of them could play together and quit bugging me. I know i know, i might regret what I've said the moment they really grow up and ditch me.

Happy snake year 2013. May all of my friends be blessed with good health and good fortune.