Stitching...

Been wondering what else to do during my free time since there isn't any book i am interested with. A friend, Tracy's blog gave me an idea of stitching. She been updating her stitching progress in the blog. So, i thought i may try stitching bigger picture (only stitched small picture and a few key chains before) which will helps to fill up more of my free time.

Yesterday, i received the 2 sets of cross stitch bought online. And from today onward, i will be busy with stitching. Let's see how long i take to finish one of them.

Here i go....

Mongolian spare ribs

My mum cooked this dish during my trip back to Malaysia and hubby requested me to learn to cook. Mum gave me the recipe where she cut from a newspaper. For this dish, i purposely brought the dried curry leaves here and kept in the fridge.

Yesterday, i tried to cook for the first time and hubby only gave me an average comment. *_* He said lack of some fragrant. I think should be the curry leaves lost the smell... :D Hopefully, could be better next time.

Ingredients:-
300g spare ribs
1 egg white
1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon corn flour
salt
1 1/2 tablespoon fresh milk
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon chili sauce
curry leaves
red chilies

Steps:-
~Marinate the spare ribs with egg white, sesame oil, pepper, corn flour and salt for 1 hour.
~Coat the ribs with some corn flour and deep fry.
~Heat pan with butter. Fry curry leaves, red chilies and black pepper.
~Add in chili sauce and fresh milk.
~Add in the ribs and stir fry.

PS: I actually use more fresh milk than the recipe, because it dried out very fast. ;p

What's next !?!

It's been more than a month since the "San Lu" incident in China. People all over the world had learned about the chemical "Melamine".

Ever since the incident, many milk related products had been tested melamine positive, beverages, yogurt, ice-cream, sweets, biscuits and etc... Many of those products have been recalled to destroy.

Then, in China, some professionals stood out. They said by right, foods SHOULD NOT contained melamine. But food products may be tainted via packaging or during manufacturing which the level is very minor. Therefore, a "minimum contain" being set as guidelines. Food products are safe to be consumed if the melamine is within the level.

However, recently, CFS Hongkong reported that they found an egg sample from Mainland was unsatisfactory for melamine test. Now that even egg, a non-manufactured food, could be contaminated, what's the next!?! Chicken? Pork? Fish?

There are so many types of food, obviously the authority is unable to test each and every. So, do we people have to has the knowledge doing testing ourselves?

Well, to me, it seems the lesser we know, the better (if possible). Today is Melamine, tomorrow might be other unknown chemical. Sooner or later, we will found everything is contaminated by all kind of chemical. What should we eat then?? Be poisoned or be starved?

Sick!

Got diarrhea and gastric for the past 2 days. Not sure what i have eaten causing the sickness. But shouldn't be the foods because hubby is find, we both eat the same things.

Hate to get sick, especially here at China. Seeing doctor is a real hassle since we don't trust the doctor here. We have to go all the way to Hongkong to see a doctor. Really suffer when you feeling sick and still have to travel quite a distance.

Anyway, glad that i have recovered after self-medication and hopefully i stay healthy all the time. God blessed...

New hairstyle..

I had my hair perm....because the hairstylist said it will look nicer at the shoulder length since i want to grow my hair longer...Ya....i was being convinced by the hairstylist....

Will it? hopefully......At the moment, i felt myself like a guy, like those Japanese/Korean "male" artist who keep long hair....Luckily, hubby said he don't see any different....He only mumble about the price.... ;p

Was hoping is easy to manage, but i found myself spending more time to "comfort" them especially in the morning which hubby laugh at me because it's messy like a bird nest......Sigh....

Anyway, hope could be better when it get longer..... *_*

Taiwanese Mince Pork

Hubby is a big fan of Taiwanese Minced Pork Rice. He will ordered it without second thought whenever it is in the restaurant's menu. He been requesting me to learn how to cook the sauce.

After some research plus the taste in my mind, finally yesterday, i get all the ingredients prepared and cooked. I am so glad that hubby loves it. He ate more rice than usual with the sauce...Yay!!! a success of my trial... ;>

Today lunch, i had the sauce with noodle. It tastes as good as with rice. It's a good idea to prepared more and keep in fridge. It could make up a simple lunch.

Ingredients:-

250g minced pork

6pcs dried mushroom, soaked well and chopped

6pcs shallots, chopped

1 tablespoon of chopped garlic

1 tablespoon of chopped ginger

1 star anise

salt, sugar, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, five spice powder, curry powder, water

Steps:-

Heat frying pan with oil.

Fry chopped shallots, garlic and ginger with medium heat until fragrant.

Add in chopped mushroom and mix well.

Add in minced pork and mix well.

Season with salt, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, five spice powder (ard 1 teaspoon) and curry powder (ard 1/2 tablespoon).

Continue to fry.

Add in star anise and water (enough to cover the mix).

Let it simmer ard 1 hr with low heat (always check so it don't dry out).

PS:-

After simmering, if it's to watery, may add in corn flour with water for pasty look.

Macau Restaurant

After the exhibition, hubby and me headed to Jusco at Citic City Plaza via metro for shopping. During we wondering where to take our dinner, Bobo's Gourmet Center come into our vision. It is located at the Citic Metro Square, Exit D of Ke Xue Guan Station (an underground passage to Citic City Plaza). In the center, each restaurant offering cuisine from different countries such as Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean, Thai....

We choose to have our dinner at the Macau Restaurant.

Our orders :-

Potatoes in Macanese Curry

Sweet and sour pork (Gu Lu Yok)

Fried celery

Complimentary Lotus root soup

The dinner was nice with fair price. The quiet surrounding of the whole center making the environment comfortable. I jokingly told hubby that it is a perfect place to meet "secret lover", won't have the worry to bump into acquaintances because not much passersby beside people who want to dine. ;p

Lastly, who is this Bobo??? This is him.

Ya, "Cai Lan" the famous "eater" and "writer".

China Hi-Tech Fair 2008

Sunday, hubby and me went to the China Hi-Tech Fair 2008 at ShenZhen Convention & Exhibition Center. Of course it was hubby who wishes to go. It's basically exhibition regarding industrial machines and technology items which i don't really interested with. ;P The exhibition center is really huge, 9 halls altogether and we spent a few hours browsing all the exhibition halls. It was crowded, full of people everywhere.

Part of 1 exhibition hall.

Crowd at one of the dining halls.

We had our lunch in a dining hall of the exhibition center. It was kind of self-service dining area, of course we had to pay for the foods. It was a wrong decision to have the lunch there because we spent quite sometime to get a seat due to the crowd. Besides, there are lots of leftovers on the table. People don't practice to clear the table after they dine, they just left it there. The best part is i saw cleaners clearing the table and ask her to clear ours so that we could dine. She answered (standing freely) that she is responsible for the tables at the 1st and 2nd row, not our row (ours is 3rd row, just a few steps away) and someone else is responsible for it which i don't see. Then i keep hearing people from our row asking her for help and she gave the same answer. It was really funny. I could understand if there are alot to clear at where she responsible, but the fact is, she is standing there freely and the leftovers at other rows are piling up. This made me thought of a HongKong advertisement where Andy Lau said "Nowadys, this service attitude is unsatifactory" !!!

A good life....

Friends : how's your life at SZ?
Me : nothing much, free lor...
Friends : then what you do everyday?
Me : hmmmm...cook dinner, online, watch TV, sometimes go market and breakfast with friend....
Friends : a full time housewife, doing house work lar...
Me : almost....there is cleaner coming every weekday cleaning and doing laundry....
Friends : wow....a typical "shao nai nai" life...wish to like you....
Me : ya..it's nice...but you would get bored very fast...

I admit i am having a good life, a great one, indeed. I am really thankful to have my hubby providing such life. He is taking care of the budgets ensuring i have enough to spend. I have not much housework to do and nothing much to worry beside what to cook for dinner. Friends especially working mum envy me alot.

However, it's kind of bored. Of course i have overcome the boring part. Sometimes, i just felt myself useless, no contribution at all. My parents spend for my education and i am now sitting at home with the degree. Why not getting a job? Well, it's hard here and i get fed-up. Opp is little for person like me, neither a professional nor a management level.

Don't worry, i am not upset, just a little guilty. Hoping to share hubby's pressure, try my best to be positive, at least reduce his burden of worrying about me.

Marriage registration..

It's exact 2 years i am a "Mrs Lee" on 1/10/2008. Ya, it's the same day as China's National Day. So, billion of Chinese will be celebrating the day with us.... :) Hubby gets to have 3 days holiday every year from this date if he continues working in China.

Same as last year, we did not have any celebration. Although, hubby has holiday, but we are back at Malaysia and busy with various things. I can't remember what are we doing last year on the day and this year, we are busy with our new house. I wonder that hubby actually remember this date which he and me said "I do" 2 years ago. However, on the day, he actually promised to bring me for a tour at Penang Island the next day which we didn't make it, not even a movie which we planned to, due to busyness.

Anyway, doesn't matter whether we celebrate, as long as our hearts always together as the vow.

May our love last forever....

Snapshots!

Bulk of luggage we brought back to Malaysia.

Not including a big bag we ask our friend to carry for us.

Playing with camera while waiting at the boarding gate.

My cute little cousin and youngest brother at the McD Muar.

Celebrating friend's birthday on the gathering at KL.

The Birthday girl.

Our empty house with sofa, 2 armchairs and cushions bought from Ikea.

Malaysia's beautiful sky...taken on the plane from PG to KL.

In SZ

End of trip in Malaysia and i could relax now, but poor hubby still have to get back to work.

As expected, our trip back is extremely busy and tired. Before that i am still thinking i would at least have time to update my blog, in fact, i dont really have......Everyday we don't have enough time, wake up early and sleep late.....but i am glad that we manage to do all the things, meeting family and friends as planned.

Talking about the trip back to Malaysia, hubby got gastric on the very first nite with his recovering flu......after self medication, he get better and then is my turn to get flu due to not enough rest......and then he got gastric again......the doctor said he could be too stressful but still advice him to do a detailed checkup in specialist for reassurance. Fortunately, the report shows he is find, most probably his stressful lifestyle is the caused.