AJA 29 facelift

181012 - AJA 29 rolled into the family, joining the fleet of  "29 Chronicles"

Check out the recent facelift. Just a small touch of customisation. 

Happy 40th, Maybel

Cousin beloved... here giving a kick-ass performance at our wedding...

Happy 40th hatchday.
We love you many many.

Great party 2 nights ago. I heard no pix of the next day should ever see daylight. hehehehehe...

Here's a birthday song for you, from another who means alot to us and would have been celebrating his 46th hatchday today.

Happy Hatchday, mother-in-law

my beautiful MIL, whom I've never met.
Happy 51st birthday.

Thank you for Aja.
The rest that came with her are not bad too =]

they remember you lovingly here and here.

Radiohead concert

Bucket list item - checked.

Mumford & Sons is, hopefully, next.

AJA 29

101012 - A turned 29

181012 - AJA 29 rolled into the family, joining the fleet of  "29 Chronicles"

No, we didn't change mum's car reg plate.... no you are not seeing double... and no MIL and DIL jokes please =]

Mum's Khooking

It was Hari Malaysia (916) long weekend.
We have a new maid from the Philippines after Eva retired - Villaflor or Villa for short.

Mum and uncle Sunny came to town.
She decided:
-  Villa needs some training in the kitchen
- She (and all of us) have been craving for some of the Khoo family classics.

Why not make it a real good weekend with some serious Khooking =]

Day#1 - the Khoo's Sambal + Dry Shrimp, Tau Yew Bak, Steamed Cabbage + Daun Kaduk, fresh cucumber + herbs


Day#2 - Zai Choy (A's favourite), Tau Jiao (black bean souce) fish, Lotus Root soup.... and more the Khoo's Sambal + Dry Shrimp (close up below)

Day#3 - Salted Veg + Duck soup,  Steamed and Smoked Kembung Fish with LamChut.

LAM CHUT!!! The killer sauce for any steamed seafood!!!

 

BURPPP!!!!

tales of 2 rastafarians

But how different are they?

Bob Marley - not many people can say they don't know the name and the music.

The recently released documentary by Kevin MacDonald revealed sides of Marley that surprised most of us.

The man, his life, the revolution he brought was so much larger than the name, the dreadlocks and the music.

The other dude.... one of 2 of my favourite rappers.

The smoothest mf to churn out them rhymes.

His recent "reincarnation" from Snoope Dogg to Snoop Lion though.... is one of either stoned out stupidity or brilliant PR to promote his own documentary.
Gotta give it to him though... he keeps rolling =]
I've  just given him 2 posts with 2 dead favs - one with a Machiavellian gangster, one with revolutionary legend.

Sorry, Bob... didn't mean any disrespect to put your life story against Snoop's ploy =]

RASTA!!!

2Pac

Don't like hip-hop in general.... most are absolute crap.
I dig 2 rappers though.

One of them was shot dead 16 years ago. he was 2 years short of joining the 27 Club.
RIP, 2Pac.
WEST SIDE!!

here's a vid with them both together... still good after all these years.
This song was 2Pac at the devastating best... probably the one that got him killed too.

Johnny Cash

Rockabilly god, working class hero, dark and romantic too.
RIP, Johnny Cash.

Maybe one day the wife and I will sing this song together =]

marco

Marco Ren-Ji Chan.

Younger sibling of Enzo Ken-Ji Chan

Offspring of Ivan aka Rabbit & Ramjeet, better known as The Rambbits.

Godson of AD.

Turned 3 recently.

Future hotroding, choppe- riding, rugby-playing gangster who will break hearts as much as bones and records =]

Bukit Tabur / Klang gate

AD's first try to Bukit Tabur / Klang Gate.
Part exercise, part testing our new hiking shoes bought for the upcoming South Africa honeymoon trip!!!

Love the MoHawk Hill =]

Ma first self-made Reuben.... MINE!

email instructions from the wife.

Prep

something is not right

customised - dC style

done

must have gherkins

a different angle before the attack

burp!

Kat Deli would be proud, i might say =]

Elvis

One of the first big AD trips was last May when we went to the US.

A must stop for mum was Memphis - for Elvis.
Memphis meant much much more than Elvis to me - rockabilly, delta blues, Sun Records, Johnny Cash, Aretha Franklin, Martin Luther King, civil rights movement etc etc... but Elvis is still Elvis. Must go and must see Graceland.

Not wanting to do just another Memphis tourist visit, we found Tad, who owns a Pink Cadillac and runs American Dream Safari. (read all about his special tours)

So we wrote to Tad, made a booking, hooked up after we finished Graceland... and had an amazing Memphis alternative tour (we talking Elvis' first apartment, Cash's first home, Aretha's birth place, Sun Studios) in a Pink Cadillac.

Anyway, I thought it is fitting to have an entry about that trip and Elvis on this day.

Elvis - not just The King, but one of the original rockabilly greaseheads..... Rockin' In Peace for 35 years.



One of our favs... featured on AD Wedding playlist. (like the very danceable JLX mix version too but the wife is old school on this one)


My absolute favourite 3 minutes of Elvis.

Rare Breakfast at Home

For me it felt like I hadn't had a Sunday home for months. 

All the more reason to bound out of bed early and cook. But just as I readied my body to bound, a hand snuck out from under the covers and caught me. 

"Where do you think you're going?" said sleepy-headed-husband-man.

"Make scones" saids I. "Chuwanna help?30 mins max and we can be back in bed".

"What time is it?" 

I steal a glance at the clock, its 7.55am.

"8 something" I say.

"5 minutes more and I come and help."

I let him sleep for the requisite 5 and then we make our way in to the kitchen.

Now the reason I wanted to bake was to use the hot new Kitchenaid Artisan in sexy cherry red,but alas! recipes requiring Kitchenaid take longer than 30mins from start to finish.

So, to the scones.

I set the husband-man to work hulling and cutting the strawberries, as is normal he would ignore instructions and cube them irregular sizes. 

There are two types of scone recipes, ones that make a truly crumbly biscuit-type-(like BIG's recipe), and ones that are more cakey and held together. I sought to be somewhere in between the two. 

Not so crumbly that it falls apart in your hand, not so cakey that is a cake. It needed a moist, delicate crumb. 

Making it crumbly rather than cakey is a real challenge. Cos you gotta cut the cold butter in, bla bla dont overmix, don't over knead. The trend is that scone connoisseurs and pernickety foodies the world over seek these crumbly, melt-in-the-mouth, jam and cream receptacles. 

But experience has shown me that most Asian people don't like the biscuit style, so I kneaded 14 times, needed to build some gluten. Anyway ta-dah!

Its easier (quicker) to pat your dough into one big round at cut it into wedges than it is to cut it into circles and do a second round with your scraps. Circles are so over.

So while the scones were becoming breakfast in the oven I said " You wanna make some ham and cheese muffins?" 

"Sure" said he, and I sent him into the garden for fresh rosemary and basil.

So we made Whole-wheat Muffins with Ham, Cheese, Cherry Toms, Broccoli.

I whipped cream in the Kitchenaid. MIL ambled downstairs. I set husband-man to the coffee.Scones out, muffins in. I put the accompaniments together. Cream, jam, butter knives.

And then we sat down to breakfast. 

Dickies custom

chopped, narrowed, rebadged =]

Coffee Trail, Singapore

Accepting an invitation by Eddie and Ros to attend their new offspring, Nicole's full moon party was a good enough excuse to take the drive down south.

Besides catching up with the usual suspects (Minh, Hsueh Wei, Will, May, Jack, Chris, Robert, Shan), besides the "odd" shopping, the trip turned out to be a Coffee Trail.

Day#1 - tea time at Forty Hands

Still bloody good.. though the music was crap. Some fusion rap funk, not a good companion for a drizzling lazy afternoon in a rustic cafe.

Walking around the area again before heading back to the hotel.... it's confirmed - Tiong Bahru is damn cool. 

Day#2 - breakfast at Tiong Bahru Bakery (Coffee by Forty Hands)

Sunday morning princess. Damn cute lah.

Very good coffee and pastry. 
Not cosy enough to hangout for long though and the music was crap too - some drum & bass mix.
The wife commented that the same people are behind both Forty Hands and Tiong Bahru Bakery and the marketing efforts have taken the edge off their street credits.
3 of 3 magazines we picked up at the hotel featured them one way or another.
I agree.
Consistency in coffee quality AND crap music =]

After the full moon lunch party, we needed to get our caffeine reload before the long drive back to K-helL.... Searched and thanks to Will, found Papa Palheta.
Nice area behind the famous Teck Kee Pau outlet near Newton Circle.

Very very cool - entrance round the back, rustic deco, payment for coffee not a menu-ed price but by tips. We tossed in 2 red ones into the tip jar and drank on a park bench nearby on Hooper Rd in front of some nice conservation houses.

Then we were on our way out of Sin-less city and north to K-helL.
A stop at the Johor Premium Outlets for 3 swipes of the plastic on a Shanghai Tang shirt (for D), a Tumi cabin bag and Nike tennis shoes (for A), and a "simple" dinner at a local shophouse chinese restaurant near the Ayer Keroh toll  broke our journey.

somewhere near the Ayer Keroh toll off North-South Highway

until the next roadtrip

Pix posted by A on Instagram.
Stolen by D (still holding out on getting my own Instagram-freindly device)

Night out

We are at an 80s club in Kelana Jaya. I ve had a few glasses of wine with colleagues after work to I fancy something sippable and head to the bar writing out the recipe for an americano for the barkeep to make.

After I finish, husband gestures to the bottle of JD at the table..

Me: are you crazy!?!JD

Sheepish smile.

He must be.JD indeed.

AD Cook Dinner - big ass fish (recipe herewith)

It may be pure love or bribery but my mother-in-law brings me good fish from Tawau every few months.  The coral trout or seven star grouper in particular makes me consider providing grandchildren real quick.  We have quite a few lolling in the back of our freezers (yes, we have 3 freezers) and so I said to D one morning, bring the biggest mother out.  It fed about 6.


Being as massive as it was, it would fit into no wok of mine, so I decided to oven-bake it,
turning it around in my head all day at work until I settled on what would go into it. I wrote myself the recipe in email and emailed it to myself so I wouldn't forget.


Of course traffic would be shite and the house would be a mess and I would have to ask my guest to do the grocery shopping before she came over. And of course the fish would be UNSCALED. Its ok. Life could be a bigger obstacle course.

Dinner turned out fab, and the company always is fab. I gained a sunflower and we drank a very nice bottle of organic malbec left over from the AD wedding. Cant complain.


Recipes, as requested.
OVEN BAKED CORAL TROUT
1 large fish, scaled, gutted
3-4 tbsp good olive oil
1 and half large tomatoes, sliced- I only use momotaros here
1 and a half lemons, sliced
1 large dill sprig
3 cloves garlic sliced
sea salt, sugar, black pepper
juice of half a lemon
quarter cup of dry vermouth or white wine


1. Set your oven at 180 degrees C.
2. Get a large piece of foil that will tent up over your fish creating a pouch in which hot oil can circulate.
3. Place foil shiny side up on flat bench. Alternate slices of lemon and tomato in the center (do two rows of 4 slices of each)
4) insert half the garlic and top with dill. Drizzle with 1 TBSP of olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper.
5) Rub the fish inside and out with salt and pepper. Layer remaining tomatoes, lemon, dill and garlic in the belly.
6) Pour over remaining olive oil, add 1 teaspoon of sugar to the wine and pour over. 

7) Bring sides of foil over and on top of the fish to seal completely, ensure there is space for the air to circulate inside the parcel. Top with another piece of foil if you need.
8) Bake on a flat oven tray for 30mins.
9) Open the parcel at the table when guest are seated and ready to respect the fish. 


I served this fish with a home-made herb and caper mayonnaise on the side.


LAST MINUTE COUS COUS
I decided when the fish was in the oven that we might not have enough food so I made this cous cous with the help of D and Angeline.


1 large red onion, drizzled with olive oil, wrapped in foil and placed in the oven with the fish
Half a med cucumber, peeled, deseeded, diced
1 tomato, deseeded and diced
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 cup cous cous
1 tablespoon butter
6-8 black olives
2 tsp lemon zest
juice of half a lemon


1) In a saucepan, heat 1.5 cups of water till boiling and add the butter.
2) Add the cous cous, cover tightly and turn of heat. Leave for at least 2 minutes
3) Fluff the cous cous with a fork, let cool slightly and add to the vegetables and zest. Can reserve the olives and onion for garnish.
4) Season with salt, black pepper and lemon juice then sprinkle with parsley.


I served both dishes with stir-fried kailan with diced sweet sausage and oven-baked garlic frites.

Today's Redemption

3 nights ago I went out on the town with the girls. Getting home at past 3am I was greeted with this sight, which moved me to IG this image with the caption-there's nothing more beautiful than arriving home to my husband.Or something like that.

The Way It's Done

"Now that's a really good sandwich" I say to my husband, gesturing at his panini solito-mozzarella, plum tomatoes and San Daniele ham.

Minutes later he pops the last of it in his mouth.

"Didn't even as me if I wanted te last mouthful, AFTER I said the sandwich was SO good" I say, slowly.

He gives me the deer in the headlights look, the one I always get when HE finishes something and I comment on it. The 'maybe-you-just-don't-feed-me-enough' look.

I take another sip of my bean and sausage soup, then reach over and give him the last mouthful.

"THAT, is how it's done".

Yesterday's Dinner

These were posted by the wife on Instagram.

Too good not to be reproduced here as Instagram is like a short term memory.

Hand Cut Fries 

(drying by fan before frying)

Crazy Good!

Sauce for the Meat. 

YUMMY!!!

Well marbled, never-frozen piece of beef - still bloody.

Thanks, wife. 

It was another fantastic dinner.

I have no chance of ever being a skinny mammal. 

None.