Those little cuppies!

To bake or not to bake!  I could easily cook an impromptu dinners for 30-50 people but the thought of baking truly terrifies me!  I have never baked a cake, once when I was in my teens, I 'helped' out my sis baked a chocolate cake and I remember it turned out to be quite a disaster in the kitchen.. but I always remember my mom used to bake at every opportunity she could find.. her Strawberry SwissRoll.. her cakes.. her cookies.. her Pau.. her Sardine Rolls.. her breads.. she used to be a Home Science teacher you see, and she was a woman with many kitchen talents :)  But me?? I'm only good with the tumis2 and rencah2!  But I knew I gotta faced up to my kitchen phobia, I gotta achieve at least one baking success, and hopefully one day my sons will remember me adoringly as the loving baking mom.. 

I bought the mixer thingy (damn! I cannot remember what its called!), didn't think I should invest in an expensive ones, just picked up the medium range at Giant Hypermarket.  And I let it sits under the sink for almost 4 months till I have the nerve to use it.  There were a few times in the past, I bought ingredients to bake a simple cake, but couldn't find enough confidence and the ingredients ended up passed its expiry dates.. so no more struggling with ingredients and mixes, I went to Bagus at section 13 and bought the premixed dry batter and simply added the eggs, butter, vanilla extract and some milk.  And voila! I could not believe my eyes! The batter really did pop up to be cup cakes in my oven!  I so wished my mom could see what I did, I was extremely pleased with my small success in the kitchen and guess what?  I did not burn anything too!

Icing - errmmm... the simplest one ay? Of course, I could only thought of Buttercreams. I think glazing was too complicated and could do 2-3 things at one time, especially on my first time. I've got the pipes and cones and whatever it was called, with help from Al and Zafran, we managed to put the icings in without spilling the stuffs all over the table.. I've put too much batter in the paper cups, it blowed into mini domes and i guess the only logic thing to do was to cut off the tops... mixed 3 colors and let Zafran and Zafree helped out with decorating...

my first batch; blues and pinks.. Al said the cupcakes tasted too eggy and he didn't really like it.. gotta improvise next time :)

Lego.. nyebok jer.. he became crazy with the sudden explosion of buttery aroma in the house and kept on meowing for some yummies.. 

bagi dia sket, tapi jadi naughty and messed up 2 decorated cuppies! bad cat!

My second batch a few days later.. didn't want to waste the half of cake mix and leftover icing in the fridge.  This time I separated that yucky bit in the eggs.. my sister in-law kata tu punat telor, buang supaya cake tak hanyir.. it worked!  I put some lemon and vanilla extracts and reduced the amount of batters in the cuppies.

We played a bit more with the decorating and really whipped the butter and icing sugars into smoother consistency. But i burnt the cuppies a bit cos I got too impatient and wanted to finish my work early (i've got a meeting with the Waterfall Survivors members at Damansara!) by not paying attention to the oven's temperatures.. ooppss.. but most were edible and i only had to trim the brown bits off..

so there! I baked them with love and my family loved them! now I can't wait to bake some more :P 

Al-Rawsha to Andalus

I have been so lucky lately, bumping into long lost friends since the year started.. in fact, I had a small reunion with Luffy and Rozie on 1st Jan. 

So the four of us, including Al thought we should take it to the next level and invite the rest of the gang, and whomever we could get our handphones on for a bigger reunion.  At first we thought of the Ampang Lookout Point, but since most of us were never been there and the place being far off KL, Rozie suggested Al-Rawsha. I've never eaten there, but I heard the lamb was ferosh! But I'm sure, most of us would be too busy talking and making fun of each other to bother with the food!

Gathering started at around 5pm and Zasmani, Mastura, Faiz, his wife Mumtaz and daughter Batrisya were already there.  The place was not packed, but we expect so later in the evening since it was Saturday night..

Rozie, me and Saodah

Later, the rest turned up.  Almost everybody we called made it to the reunion - Md Noor, his wife Saodah and his 4 boys, Rozie, Luffy and hubby (sayang!), Koma, Fazli and girlfriend Nat, Zulfiquer with his wife Jannah and 2 kids.  Some of us have not seen each other for almost 16 years!!  We really had a good time reminiscing and keeping up with each others' news..

The food- too bad I was too excited berborak with them that I had no opportunity to sample the food, only managed to snap a few photos.. but later Zachwan said he saw that nasi baryani served on a dulang topped off with sekor unta!! maybe cos his small size, what he saw was actually a half portion of a lamb.. hee hee..  The baryani however did taste good, abit dry and lack of aroma.. maybe i'm being too cerewet cos I had a nicer one at Tarbush..  but I do WANT TO EAT a proper baryani meal at Rawsha pretty soon..

Mints - The mint tea was served non-stop, warm and exotic but I couldn't help feeling like somebody must've put a pinch of toothpaste in my tea.. errmmm... mints and i really dont get along well, cept for mouthfreshners and oh yes!! I do in fact, can make an exception.. thick mint sauce to compliment Tandoori Chicken at d'Tandoor! cicah dengan pappadom pon best!

This fish Koma ordered was actually quite good, it was Sea Bass with light marinade, eaten with some youghurty sauce and squeezed lemon.  I would have never thought that seafood dish prepared middle eastern way would taste nice, but it actually was.. fresh, aromatic but not overwhelmingly aromatic.

I think the waiters pun dah tak sabar nak tengok kitaorang balik cos we were there from 5pm - almost 10pm!  So lepas sesi bergambor and cuit mencuit lagi.. ada yang nak balik, and ada pulak yang nak continue lagi! Si Luffy la and Fazli, nak sambung borak kat Andalus pulak. Kesian jugak tengok my boys da penat, earlier tengahari tadi da pi rumah Auntie Kina for Farish's birthday, now nak stretch ke Andalus pulak.. but them being sporting boys, bagi approval kat kami nak minum sikit kat few blocks away..

from left; Zulfiquer, Fazli, Mastura, Luffy, Nat, me, Zachwan, Zafran, Zafree and Rozie.

from left; Md Noor's sons, Zulfiquer, Md Noor, zafran, Koma, Al, Zachwan, Fazli and Faiz.

Luffy, me, Zachwan and Rozie :)) forever maintaining our cute figures :P

si Man Giant dengan seluar harimaunya.. camna la nak ada awek, tengok seluar pon da takut..! 

It's quieter and the decos were much better than Rawsha. But I don't think the food was the main reason why people would come here.. most of the guests I noticed, would watch the big screen, smoke shisha or just sits there trying to look cool.. We on the other hand, needn't bother cos we were cool and comfortable to be with each other's company..

PortVillage, Port Klang

Dah 2 hari ni dok makan2 sana sini, pi Pavilion lepas tu makan lagi kat Starhill... but still hati x puas. Come Monday, my 38th birthday (aduh!..tuanya!) nak celebrate jugak, tapi x mau masak kat rumah and potong kek.. or cupcakes like I did last year.. selepas sesi melompat2 kesukaan, called up my sis and Sha to join us makan ketam at Port Klang.. this time ingat nak pi Bagan, pusing2 tengok tempat tu..errr.. tak jadi lah! Dulu da pi makan kat Muara tu tapi x berapa suka sangat, kecuali kalau satu hari nanti da teringin sangat nak makan nasi lemak dia, boleh di consider kan semula :) tapi singgah jugak lah ingat nak beli nasi lemak bungkus.. x de pon! Tak apa lah, adik kata dia bole makan meehoon kicap..

So apalagi! PortVillage lar!!! Tapi kesian pulak tengok Sha, muka dia macam tension jer sebab tempat tu apparently mengembalikan banyak kenangan silam.. sorry Sha, next time kita pi tempat lain, ok!  But I like this place, especially when we had to walk on the wooden bridge to the restaurant across the mangrove.. reminded me of the time when mom and dad used to take us to Carey Island..

We didn't really have to take a lot of time decide what to order cos the menu was quite straightforward and some of them were fully recommended by the owner.  We were there for the mudcrabs!!! and of course, the Hokkien Mee Hoon too :P~

A spread fit for a lucky birthday girl! This place offers one of the best Buttered Prawns and Hokkien Mee Hoon! Others were not that great, the Sizzling Egg Tofu and  Dried Chili Squids.. so-so!  Eventhough it was Monday, there were quite a number of people having dinner, including malays.. locals kot, sebab I dont think malays from outside Klang would want to eat here.. they much prefer the masakan stail melayu/siam at Muara.  Anyway, the weather was gorgeous, breezy and cool.. plus the beautiful sunset.  But we were too engrossed with our food to pay much attention to the sunset..

The Steamed Sea Bass was very tasty, but we ordered too much food and unless there were 10 of us instead of 8, we might've finished everything on the table..

YUMM!!!  The Chili Mudcrabs :))))  Honestly, it tasted more like sweet n sourish.. but no matter, it still tasted yummy...  best the BEST of the BEST is still the ones we used to have, long time ago, at PortView Restaurant at PortKlang Jetty...

After dinner, or was in between..? Here comes the gifts opening session.. plenty of cute stuffs from my sis and her friends.. thanks!  We went home feeling happy, full, happy again, and couldn't get the image of the steamy sweet n sour mudcarbs from our minds... *happy sigh*

Rak Thai

This is one of our favorite restaurants during those boring weekends or everytime I had to give my stamp dealers a visit once or twice a month.. the Rak Thai at lower ground floor, Amcorp Mall Petaling Jaya.  Before we got hooked on this restaurant, we usually go to Uncle Chili's a few doors away, but that was before I found out about its mouthwatering Mango Salad..!

Orange Juice, Mango Juice and Umpera Juice! (Kedondong!)

Zafree and his Ginger Chicken with White Rice.

The very lah deliciously Mango Salad!  Ever since our trip to Temenggor-T'gganu-Kuantan last year, I got hooked on the sweet, sour, crispy and savory Mango Salad I had at Kuantan.  That was still THE best, but after sampling a few around here, the ones prepared at Rak Thai is the next best thing.. so fresh and topped with delicious fried squids :P~

Zachwan and his Thai Curry Chicken.. Al would eat the veges.. as always..

Tender Thai Curry Beef with 2 types of rice.. rasa macam masak lemak daging taruh daun kari..