Friday 28 November 2014

The Blessings. The Food. The People. The Total Blackout.

A month back, we simply came out with a date. We were thinking of either the 28th of November or the 27th November. It's either a Thursday or a Friday as Monday to Wednesday are my working days for this school holiday and I'm not willing to cancel any of my three days of work. The kitchen crew finally settled for 27th November. Two days before that only mi mama realized that the day we picked coincide with Thanksgiving Day. So, just make this a Thanksgiving Day celebration minus the turkey and birthday celebrations. A celebration requires good food and lots of guests to help out with the food. It will be very sad if we have tonnes of food with no one to eat.

Let me write down what I have in mind initially. On Wednesday itself, I did not feel the 'heat' and pressure of hosting a party with plus minus 50 people in the guest list. I don't know how we managed to invite 50 people when our house couldn't contain so many people. Last year's party we had 43 people and the house almost break apart with not enough seats. Amount of food wasn't something to be worried about. So, this year we made some preparations for number of chairs. We ferry those chairs from two other houses. Then, that's it. I can't get myself to start with any preparation. Only one of my students would understand how my mind actually works. This is called the last minute syndrome where only procrastinators who are also perfectionists could understand. It's not for the faint-hearted. Trust me, the heart would stop if you're not a last minute person who could dance with the intense pressure as the clock ticks.
There were to be one cake and two pies chosen by the birthday girls. I was so lazy I refused to read the instructions on how to make the best chocolate fudge cake that was chosen by my pineapple. "Pineapple" is her pet name. It's too long to explain. So, since my precious is done with her SPM examination, I handed the baton to her. She managed our lunch on Wednesday and she baked the cake. The decoration was made on Thursday itself, a couple of hours before the party started. While I haven't even come out with the food menu I have so many other things to consider. I ended up sitting in front of my computer and checking out maps of Penang Island. Finally, I pushed myself to the market and asked the market people to settle for me everything. Most of them know me by now. I can go to the market with not a single cent with me, yet they will let me cart the goods home. Thank you for the trust.
One of the girls, part of the kitchen crew and also my translator for anything written in Chinese language, requested for a lemon meringue pie. I have no talent in making a pie let alone a lemon meringue pie. But it's her request so I will make her one. I started feeling a little bit of the pressure on Thursday morning itself. According to the recipe from the book, I can see that the amount needed to make the pastry wouldn't be enough. What I didn't know was I ended up multiplying the amount of pastry to 5 times more. I totally lose my cool as I just sat there making more and more pastry shell. Finally, when it's done, I had to make the filling and I still have another pie to make. The lemon meringue turned out perfectly. She has tasted one before and she said the taste was horrible that's why I need to make her one to prove that lemon meringue pie tasted good. Actually, I should take the perfect photo when it just came out from the oven but I did not do so because I was too busy. When it was still hot, I tried removing the pie from the pan and the result was it broke into two but we managed to plaster it back temporarily and shove the whole thing into the refrigerator. When the pie tore into two in the middle, my heart and hers just got torn into two as well. This was a last minute photo before I hack the whole thing and send them out. Finally, we said this was the best. Our conclusion was anything that was ugly and spoiled in the appearance tasted the best~! Just like the banana custard cake which I smashed accidentally but we ended up eating it ourselves. That's the best banana cake I ever bake but I was too ashamed to send it out during the long table dinner event.
The lemon meringue pie was forced out of the tin to give way to the fruit flan pie. I couldn't find in my memory box what kind of pie shell that she wanted. I searched through my thousand of recipes but I couldn't find them. I settled for the chocolate pie shell. The shell didn't look that thick at first but after baking them, *sigh* the shell became fat. God knows better than us. Because the chocolate shell became fat, there were less room for the cream cheese filling. Thank God for that because I ran out of cream cheese. I wanted to use only 300g at first but my instinct asked me to use up all 500g. It was just enough to fill up the empty shell. Thank God that the shell expanded to reduce the empty space. So, from the beginning till the end, God and His angels and the Holy Spirit is/are with us. That we simply cannot deny.
Mini McJu was assembled an hour before the party started. My energy level was all time low. Couldn't find the time to recharge my battery. My plan was to get everything done by 3pm then I could roll on the bed. Then, go downstairs at 6pm for the final shot of barking out orders. I'm gonna wear something nice and just sit there and entertain guests. I only managed to do only two things. That's to take a shower and wear something nice. I ended up having to put on the apron to cover my nice-self. My kitchen crew had time to play water balloons last year but this year, only the arrangement of tables and chairs used up all their energy. They went up for shower and a 5-minute nap to keep themselves awake. Looks like age is catching up on everyone.

God is good~! Auntie Suzie came the earliest and after picking the blue pea flowers in the garden for herself, she came in to help me with getting the mini McJu patties done. Then, my kitchen crew aka my translator and also the birthday girl plus mi mama started with the assembling of mini McJu. Without them, I don't think no one will ever see the mini McJu's being served. Everything is only in my head. They always helped to make my ideas came into reality. 

In the photo, there's an aunt carrying a bag of coconuts. Actually we had steamboat. I prepared the soup base earlier but another soup base was only pandan coconut water. In the morning, I bought 10 coconuts and the uncle gave me 3 for free. We invited the uncle and his wife over to the house for dinner. Uncle Wayne, the coconut seller, is rather a sporting one to come to a stranger's house for dinner. I was more surprised and touched by his generosity. That's how God blessed us when we blessed others. The moment Uncle Wayne and his wife walked into the house with more pandan coconuts, trust me, if I'm not that busy, I would crumple to the ground and cry my heart out. I am really touched by their gesture. If there's someone walking into the house at the same moment with a bag of gold, I will ask the person with the bag of gold to get out of my house. Those coconuts are like gold to me because I don't have enough coconut water to be the base for refill later. The extras are what I really needed. And I had to disturb the uncle while he's enjoying the food to slaughter the coconuts outside my house for me. I don't know how to even slaughter a chicken so don't expect me to open a coconut. I know how to open a durian with a knife and my bare hands but that's a different story altogether. Uncle Wayne, thank you... I'm sorry I didn't snap a photo of you.
The first thing I did when I wake up was making the dough for the mini buns. Smart me totally forget to crack an egg and when we opened the bread maker to remove the dough, the surprise we got was priceless. The dough was as dry as the desert dunes. We were contemplating on salvaging the dried dough but in the end, I made a new one while mi mama went to take a nap. The small lettuce and cheese were cut by L.S.Y. I did half of the deep-frying only then Auntie Suzie took over while I disappeared myself to God knows where. I have no recollection of such memory. I think I was trying to play hostess by welcoming the guests. I was telling them where to grab the food from when they cut me off by telling me that my girls have told them everything in detail. Ah, that's why I went back to the kitchen because I was not needed outside.
These are the people who made every big party a great success. From being my kitchen crew last year, where all of us didn't have a proper celebration as we were stuck in the kitchen all the time until people left. This year, they were really good sports. Those two in the middle shouldn't be working because this party was to celebrate their birthdays. And my pineapple shouldn't be working as well, because it's also her birthday. In the end, they stood there from beginning till the end without having a seat at all just to make sure that the party went smoothly. They manned the grill and became the dumpling makers. I guessed none of them had a proper dinner. They stood there eating and munching whatever that they managed to make extra for themselves. Without any of them, I will not have the energy and manpower to throw a party. They did more things than I do. I just make sure that there's food. So, without any of us nothing can be done. I love you all to the max. Once you all are no longer around, you can be very sure that's the time I stop throwing parties. Unless we can find the next generation to take over while we sit and enjoy ourselves. We should have proper celebration next time. Let's go out and eat one day~! Then, none of us need to work ourselves like donkeys.
You see, pity my kitchen crew, that's how they eat. No proper place for them. I think that's why most people would prefer catering so that they don't have to do anything but just eat and be served by others. We are all picky eaters. Yes, I raised up picky eaters who wouldn't simply settle for any simple food. 
This is my precious and my pineapple's classmate. They just graduated from high school so they are now ex-classmates. This girl walked into the house and gave us THE BIGGEST SURPRISE~!
A total blackout. I was in the kitchen with mi mama and everyone groaned,"OOOOOOOOOOOOOooOOOOOOO." My heart sank right to the bottom. Blackout. Just our house or the whole area? My neighbour is at our house. There's electricity everywhere but only our house. So, that girl walked in and the fuse was completely burnt. I thought people would start taking their bags and leave the house as it's really hot and we were in complete darkness. I was thinking how could this happen? It's only natural that we picked someone to blame. And that girl walked in and the house went completely pitch black. The grill and the oven and the steamboats were electricity dependent. 
They were such sporting people. Everyone whipped out their smartphones and started switching on the torch lights. No one walked out of the house and said goodbye. We managed to get one of our students' father to come over to save us from the darkness. The first one we called didn't pick up the phone. Whenever you needed these repairmen badly, they would not answer your calls. Thank God, another one answered and left the house immediately to rescue us. He didn't charge us exorbitantly. He's from the same church but in a different service. While waiting for him, I tried to lighten things up but I'm not a stand-up comedian, so nothing much could be done. I ended up pushing all three cakes out with all sporting people singing the birthday song three times for three different people. When all was done, the electricity has been restored by making a by-pass with wires.
Thank you, Alex's dad. If he refused to come and rescue us, I will have to force the neighbour to open up her house and we shift over to her house. We should just hack the wall in between then it will be very spacious and I might invite 100 people for future parties. Hahahhahaha.... actually while preparing everything and feeling all the pressure, I was very sure this would be the last party. But I don't think my kitchen crew liked the idea of this being the last party. We were hoping for a new generation of youngsters to help out.

My only plan that worked out perfectly. I planned to dress up nicely because all the time when I hosted parties and long table dinners, I had no time to change up. But I ended up in the kitchen most of the time. I wanted to be the photographer for my own event but having the camera around the neck was such a major nuisance. I couldn't even work properly and I was afraid that my camera would ended up swimming in a pot of soup or my camera would have a swell-time licking the cakes or ended up being barbecued. So, I'm pretty upset now that I don't have most of the photos that I wanted. I missed out taking photos of everyone who came. Is that another reason why people would rather hire photographers for home events as well?

That handsome guy walked into the kitchen to help out when the current went off. And he's been a really great helper. That's my ex-student and we were just 7 years apart. You can imagine when I started working. He's not the first batch of students. He's from the 5th batch. He saw the stark contrast between his generation and the generation now. I used to have only boys in the class. Now, I have mostly girls. I never half a balanced gender class. He worked as a restaurant manager until recently as he felt that the hours spent in the restaurant is snuffing him of his freedom. Good to leave, eh... if he's still in the restaurant, he wouldn't be here in my house.
I did one McJu for this guy, a future dentist, who has been craving for it. One only. McJu wants to retire already. I'm very tired.
The high school graduates. My girls are picky eaters and they chose only their good friends to be with them in the house. Choose your friends well, girls. You don't need a hundred or a thousand. Sometimes, you only need one true friend. May the Lord be with you all. Walk in His path and I can assure you all that, none of you would be lost in the rat race.

Through this party, I learned that working solo in the kitchen can kill a person. Thank you for being such wonderful people. Mi mama is the best helper. The hubby has been wonderful in running around to get things done. The rest of my kitchen crew will always be my kitchen crew. I will not let anyone to be around me in my kitchen. Don't worry, nobody will take over your place in my heart and my kitchen. 

Secondly, thank you for being such good friends to me and my hubby for not running home when the electricity cut off for almost 30 minutes. Thank you for staying around in the hot and dark house and not complaining at all. 

Lastly, thank you for coming. The party will not be a party without any of you. I will try to be my own photographer next round to make sure I didn't miss out any photos. Next time, we will all plan something better. 

PS. I don't have most of the food photos. I did not even know what the grill station prepared for the guests. I only heard that they can order the set. What's in the set, huh? How come I don't know anything huh? They have this number system where they need to get a number and wait till their number is called. Only selected people are being served on the table. That, don't ask me how also. You need to have personal relationship with them manning the stations. This is the best party we've every had even with all the hiccups. I still want to sit with everyone and enjoy the meal. I have yet to do that~!!! 

Monday 24 November 2014

When The Hubby Cooks....

Most of my Facebook friends would agree that my hubby is a better cook than I am. So, I gladly hand over the kitchen to him on Saturday while I laze around doing nothing. We got to enjoy the leftover steamed pumpkin cake. How to eat leftover steamed pumpkin cake? You don't re-steam them. You cut them into slices and then you pan fry them. The taste: Better than the steamed one. Trust me when I say it's better.
I had braised duck noodles from the leftover duck meat. I like the taste. Very good... now that I'm looking at it, I'm hungry again. One must never look at food photos in the middle of the night.
When the hubby cooks, there will definitely be deep-fried food. I asked hubby to make potato chips for me the other day like those Mr. Potatoes or Wise chips. And hubby gave me something better. That's really easy to come out with after looking at how hubby did it. I don't intend to learn though. Some things are meant for him to do. I just want to enjoy myself being served. Those potato chips are really crunchy and for the seasoning, I have no idea how he did it. Don't want to know. Ignorant is bliss.
*Om nom nom nom nom* I'm the blessed wife.... enough said.

Saturday 22 November 2014

Let Me Share with You a True Story Regarding Food....

Simple fried vermicelli....
I'm without work for a month. I have no income. Our expenditure is high. I have no money. Nah... no one would ever believe that I don't have money when I just brought in another piano and there's so much food in the house. God has blessed this kitchen tremendously. We may have no cash in hand, but we always have more than enough food to feed a multitude. Don't ask me to explain how such thing can happen. If I can explain then I must have gone up to heaven and have a long chat with Jesus. Maths come with formulas to solve equations but with God, the numbers don't even add up. All praise and glory go to our Lord Jesus Christ for such overflowing blessings. And so I thought, poor us for this month should just have fried vermicelli, used up the last four eggs to make simple empty omelette. The refrigerator has half used up Chinese cabbage and another half onion which I have forgotten to chop up the other day. I found a new packet of dried mushrooms when I thought I've used up all of them.
Braised duck meat with fermented bean curd...
Shredded duck meat. A roasted duck costs RM30 and no, I didn't buy the roasted duck. I can't afford a roast duck now. We were blessed with them which can feed another 10 people. And I didn't have to cut them into tiny pieces. They were given to us this way. I just made a dish with salted beans, fermented bean curds and star anise. I kept back some of the duck meat as it was too much for us to finish all. If I were to cook them all, I need to start sending messages to friends to come over and have dinner with me.
Bean curd meatballs...
I do not have any bean curds with me. But I was left with a tube of Japanese tofu and I still have remnants of minced meat left in the freezer. There were two heads of pak choy from last week but they looked as fresh as it has been plucked off the ground. So, I smashed the Japanese tofu and mixed them with the minced meat. The ingredient required some egg white so I scooped up some egg white from the eggs that I was gonna make omelette. 
Sambal udang buns...
Then, mi mama made sambal dried shrimp baby buns. No, I did not make that sambal. Mi mama bought them from the economy rice stall for RM2 only. And with that RM2, fifty buns were made.
Meat floss biscuits...
Oooohhhh.... another one of my favourite. It's with meat floss inside out. 

Let me share with you a true story:
11 years ago, I started cooking. My first pot of soup was an African peanut chicken stew. It's also my first time asking friends to come over to try out my cooking. At that point of time, I have no idea how much is enough for everyone. Am I inviting too many people? Am I cooking too little for everyone? Why should I invite people over? Why should I spend on others when I can actually keep all the nice food just to ourselves? 

It wasn't such a big pot of soup. Jesus showed and taught me a lesson on sharing and giving. That pot of soup never runs dry. After scooping so many bowls for lunch and dinner, there was still soup and chicken and carrots in them. If you've come and dine at my place before, you will know that I'm a generous giver. I don't hold back on sharing food. Until the last person, only God knows that's the last person walking into the house, the pot emptied with the last bowl being the biggest bowl.

From then onwards, I know that no matter how poor we are, we will have more than enough to share with others. And there's so much joy in sharing and giving. Until today, I do not have to worry about whether we have food to eat or not as Jesus will take care of our meals. If there's no food in the house, someone, somehow or other, would drop by the house and give us food that can last us for another three days. This is a true experience. I can hold a party and the leftovers can last us for another week. Sometimes I wonder whether people who come to my house seriously eat or not. Now, I make sure that everyone's eating a hearty meal. I watch them eat to make sure they eat... muahahahha.... and yeah, they do eat.... but yet the amount of food left, I can hold another round of eating session. 

Snacking All Day Long...

Mi mama 'working out' in the kitchen...
After having a heavy dinner outside on Wednesday night, I was too lazy to do anything on Thursday. We had dinner all the way to supper on a Wednesday night. I won't be writing about it here but in another blog of mine as this is solely for what I cooked, what appears from my kitchen and that's it. Mi mama and I planned to have something light for Thursday lunch. So, since lazy me couldn't move an inch to do anything, mi mama helped to shred the pumpkin. But, in the end, I did the preparation for the steamed pumpkin as well.
Steamed pumpkin cake.... as good as those selling outside... according to my neighbour....
It wasn't easy. It was a lot of work with shredding of mushrooms, shredding dried shrimps and this and that. I couldn't remember much. Oh, weighing and sifting of rice flour and tapioca flour. When a person is lazy, taking out the dried mushrooms from the drawer is hard work, what more sifting flour. And then waiting for it to steam for 45 minutes. Then, waiting for it to cool down before you start cutting to get a nice piece of standing pumpkin cake. If you start cutting the whole tray of steamed pumpkin cake while it's still steaming hot, you will get a melting slice. It will never stand. Trust me. I'm telling you through experience.
The jail-like red bean paste bun....
The only reason why I helped mi mama to complete the pumpkin cake was because the breadmaker was beeping really loudly to let us know that it has done proofing the dough. So, mi mama has to busy herself with her own project. Mi mama has lots of projects. For that Thursday, it was to make that red bean paste buns. Hah~! If you expect me to do that, I'm going to wrap the dough around your head and ask you to do it yourself. I have no patience for such tedious thing. This one leave for mi mama to do or my kitchen will end up like a storm has passed through.
The dried shrimp biscuits...
This is mi mama's experiment. You can never guess the taste. Isn't it good if there's an apps which allow you to download the taste and smell of food? Even better if you can just download the food. Those are dried shrimp biscuits. If you can't stand the taste and smell of dried shrimps then forget about this, you will never know how to enjoy them. My piranhas do not hold the same opinion. One said they were really great, the other said they stink like something rotten. I said they were fantastic because I like the smell of dried shrimps.
The meat floss biscuits....
The meat floss biscuit~! I like meat floss~! I can finish the whole packet just like that, like eating popcorns~! You will like this, too. Hehe....
The bear jelly...
Oh, to cool down the mouth on a hot day, there's jelly in the fridge. Everything snack dish we had look like they had the same colour. But the taste of every snack plate that we have is different. Adios~! We're never lacking of food... 

Friday 21 November 2014

Lunch Separately...

It was Wednesday. Today is already Friday. I'm afraid this blogsite will soon grow moss and cobwebs if I don't find time to update it. I woke up at 6:30a.m. just to cook lunch on Wednesday. Two days before, I read my girls' exam schedule wrongly thus, I had to make cooking preparation in my head while sleeping. I need to prepare mentally so that I wouldn't waste any time when cooking. In the end, I felt like I've not been sleeping for the whole night. I'm cooking in my head for the whole night. When the alarm rang, I was all ready to face the kitchen. Fancy hearing my slaughtering the chicken early in the morning.
While marinating the meat, I prepared the dish which needn't any marinating. Chopping up was done in a quick manner. There's a house behind mine which was already cooking up a storm and the drop of the metal plate jolted me awake. My backlane neighbour dropped a metal plate everyday without fail. I made chicken with tamarind juice. Excuse the a little bit blur photo, I was rushing off already and did not make a final check of the photo.
This piece of photo is equally as blur. This is the easiest dish. Fish maw with prawns but since I did not buy any prawns, but I remembered I buying them, but it's not around so I used scallops instead. The taste was really good with the scallops added.
If you think this is fully steamed minced meat then you are wrong. This is a platter with a mixture of minced meat and crushed bean curd. The main taste for the soup base is not soy sauce but fish sauce. I topped it with fresh crab meat. Yeah, I love seafood. And we are blessed to have so much seafood around.
This is homemade fish paste and the stuffing should be spring onion. I ran out of spring onion so I used siew pak choy. Don't ask me what's that in English. It's good enough that I know the name of the leafy vegetables. Just season the fish paste lightly. I actually spilled soy sauce onto it so it became really salty. Wrap it with dried bean curd sheet and sent them swimming a wok of hot oil.
I was done with my cooking by 9a.m. but I spent one hour on arranging, photographing and packing. And time for thawing the frozen meat was really testing my patience. That whole table was for mi mama. She has lunch all by herself.
Hubby had a long meeting to end the year's teaching session. So, I became a good housewife and pack everything into the tiffin carrier. Drove like a road bully to send mi hubby lunch at his workplace. Then, I had to head to another end of the island to pick my girls up.
Our lunch were packed. Such a nomad. I wonder how I did that many years ago. Carrying lots and lots of containers. This is the end to a nomadic life soon. I'm truly blessed to have two kitchens to cook in. 

Tuesday 18 November 2014

That Rich Egg-less Chocolate Cake...

That smooth-surfaced cake...
There's nobody's birthday. It was just for fun. The methods were easy as ABC. No eggs to be cracked. Don't need butter. Just need canola oil. Mix everything and then boil them. Add in the flour and that's it. The baking process took one hour but you don't have to sit in front of the oven and wait for it. I was relaxing in front of the TV watching my Singapore drama. After baking so many cakes, even if I couldn't hear the 'ting' of the oven, I could smell and know when the cake was done. It was really smooth and beautiful.
Hubby's piece of art....
I was lazy to decorate the cake. So, hubby helped to decorate. His handwriting looked like chicken scratch but that's okay. This morning I had an Additional Maths class before they dived into the paper tomorrow. 
My piece of work....
The cake shouldn't taste that bad. I don't know about that. Will try it out tomorrow, not today. Will feed most of the cake to the piranhas first. My piranhas have very good sense of taste. I like the texture and the colour of the cake. 

Finally, I'm a boring person. I almost fall asleep writing this post and I have to go to work. No wonder I never write any food blog or anything. Food, is just delicious, or not delicious. My vocabulary to describe food consists of two words only. So, I'm keeping this as my diary so that I can remember what I've cooked before. Adios~!

Annie in Da' House~!

Annie is here~!
This is mi best friend from schooling days who left me all alone and went off to the Lion City until today. The nicest message to receive from her is that she's coming back to relax and eat. Yen's Kitchen la... can spend time together. We're not mall-walkers and home is the most comfortable place to be in. After hearing about her homecoming, I made a list of what to serve her. Mi hubby's extremely delicious crabs. She's allergic to prawns so no-no to any of my delicious prawn dishes. Then, she dropped a bomb saying no to crabs and staying away from squid. Gone is my plan....
Brinjal with minced meat and dried shrimps~!
This is aubergine with minced meat stir-fried with dried shrimps. The aroma filled up the whole house reminds me so much why I do not need a cooker hood. I want my whole house to be filled with the aroma of all the nice food. Don't want cooker hood to suck up the dried shrimp smell.... ohhh...heavenly aroma.
Mushrooms in mushroom sauce...
Need some colours on the table. Japanese tofu, my favourite with mushrooms, carrots and snow peas in mushroom sauce. Should add more water so that it won't be overly creamy. 
My first dried curry...
Annie loves hot and spicy food. My spicy kind of level is her totally no feel at all. Her level of spiciness, I will have my tongue lapping water like a dog. This is dry curry pork ribs with desiccated coconut. Can easily get it from the market, the desiccated coconut I mean. 
Ayam kurma~!
Then, I can't live without chicken. This is ayam kurma and I add some potatoes because potatoes in kurma taste good. I think I cook too much, still can feed another family. Of course, the neighbour is dragged invited over to the house for lunch. 
Mi hubby's punch~!
So much food and yet we could swallow mi mama's tiny cheesecake and had a mug of mi hubby's orange punch!! Everybody loves this~!
Us in my garden~!
Thank you for coming over. Me lurve ya~! See you in two more days~!!! No food repeat, everyone is a guinea pig food tester here, like it or not~!

Saturday 15 November 2014

The Laughing Doctor in Yen's Kitchen...

Doctor in the house....
This is another VVIP. She's family so anytime can walk in. She missed yesterday's McJu's night so replaced with today, McJu + dinner with other dishes. She has to minus the rice from her eating equation after looking at the size of the burger. She said it's a kilo. Mi mama said it's one kati (600g). Today, I made two steamed dishes, healthy eating but it went off-balanced with the fried chicken.
Tofu in the house...
 That's the stuffed bean curd. Dig a square pocket and then throw the dug out bean curd flesh keep the dug out flesh aside. Actually I don't know what to do with the bean curd flesh so I smashed them up and mixed with some soy sauce and left them to go into the steamer together with the two square bean curds with pockets. 
Fish in the house....
The other day we bought black pomfret. No more siakap in this kitchen. We ate siakap for a decade because I wasn't creative enough. Now, any fish will do just no more siakap. If you don't know what's siakap then I believe Google will tell you with image as well. The doctor insisted that this is Nyonya-styled steam fish same as the one she ate in restaurant. Okay, so now she asked me to change job. Be a chef. If I were to open a restaurant, I will change the menu everyday then that would be interesting. You won't know what's selling until you come on that day.
Minced meat in the tofu....
Hubby cut the tofu and out all the meat came tumbling down. I dig the hole deep enough. I don't really like tofu because it's tasteless. I prefer Japanese tofu.
Chicken in the house....
This is that best fried chicken that we've ever tasted. Hubby helped in the frying. I did the seasoning. Just used shrimp paste and lots of other seasonings to enhance the taste. It's really good. Hubby made the skin crunchy~!!! Yippee~!!!!
All food in the tummy.... *BURPPPPP*
My cousin-in-law is a bottomless pit eater. McJu finish. Fish also eat. Bean curd also eat. Chicken also eat. Then, of course we always have dessert. One small cup of mango pudding. Then, mini cheesecake and meat floss biscuit, downed with a cup of orange punch. Hahahahaha.... this is the type of eater I like in my kitchen. If this cannot eat, that cannot eat, too fat, too oily, high cholesterol, too sweet, too salty... haih... then don't come to Yen's Kitchen.