Sick

Haven't been writing for a long time now. Fell really sick four days ago and many things just came up. Feeling ill is one thing which i have not endured for a long time and i almost forgot how it's like to be really sick that i took many things for granted upon my life. That was four days ago, until i woke up one morning feeling the world is turning around and i couldn't get up at all! No appetite; no strength; no joy; no peace, just pain. All over.

Boy, i really hate being sick. Not only the doctor demanded that i undergo transfusion which i felt

even weaker upon hearing, i felt so weak to the extent that i couldn't get up on my own and do simple stuff like taking water and stuff. I'm scared that i will not be able to get up, and see this beautiful world again. I'm scared that i couldn't see Hubby, parents, sisters and friends again. I'm scared the beginning of my 24 years is actually the end. There are so much things which i still want to do and achieve. My life has so much more.

Back to the story, just after my parents left back to KK, the following night, i had a very bad pain on my lower abdomen just below the tummy. Along with the pain, i had a frequent urge to urinate but despite the urge, only a small amount is passed. Worst came when i felt a painful, burning feeling when passing out, and i saw some blood in my urine. Next morning, Hubby awake me shouting that my head was burning. He has taken my temperature the night before and retook it again that morning, and my temperature has gone up to 39.5oC! I couldn't wake up at all and don't recall what actually happened after that now, but after some ding dong, i was given some medicines (big ones!) which mom-in-law has kindly helped me buy.

By that evening, i was taken to the hospital and that was where the doctor decided i should be put under antibiotic transfusion for 3 days after some blood and urine tests. The second day i still had fever and the doctor changed to 5 days. The third day, my body began to show some allergic symptoms: burning rashes all over, so the doctor prescribed another antibiotic and decided i should undergo the transfusion for further 4 days. The fourth day, same medication but the nurses couldn't locate a good spot to poke into my blood vessels on both hands that i was 'graciously' poked five times (which i shedded few tears on) until the right spot was found. Today will be the fifth day, and don't know what will be happening later. Just pray they can find a good spot.

Nevertheless, i praise God for seeing me through and healing me that i can write this blog today.

Hai Dan

Remember that day i was mentioning about hai dan, Hubby just checked out the translation in English for me. They call it echinus or urchin or sea porcupine. And yes, they do have spikes, just like the below picture which i captured at a restaurant on my birthday night.

Hmm...do we have this in Sabah? Seriously i'm not sure, but the ones in the fried rice sure look very different after the blacky spikes have been removed.

Lunch on the 11th: The First Day

Early next morning after we arrived, Hubby's da gu gu called to invite us for lunch. Since i like sweet and sour so much, they decided to treat us including mom and dad-in-law to a popular restaurant at about 30km away, which is well known for their song shu gui yu and gong bao ji.

There were eight of us: Da gu gu, da gu fu, Lulu jie jie and her hubby, mom and dad-in-law, Hubby and myself. I wasn't really prepared for another feast after yesterday's lunch at Shenzhen but was really glad to meet another part of Hubby's family particularly this one who had warmly came to invite us, and specially picked a restaurant which serves my fave food. I'm too blessed :-).

We departed at 11am to arrive just before 12pm. As usual, the restaurant is packed with customers, but da gu gu had called earlier on to book a room, so we were able to chit chat while dining privately in the room.

The first four appetizers came just after gu fu placed the order; black dou fu, duck feet, peanuts, and beef muscles/joints. Honestly this is another eye opener for me. Apart from peanuts, i have not tried any of these in my entire 24 years, not mentioning the duck feet and beef thingy looked a bit 'yucky'. Among all, i love the dou fu the most, and would not hessitate to have another serving. This dou fu is black because it is made out of black soy beans.

Hei Dou Fu

Mustard Duck Feet

Diving Peanuts (Tiao Shui Hua Sheng)

Niu Jian Zi

Next was this hai sheng (sea cucumber), one of the expensive dishes on our lunch menu that afternoon. I have to say this is good, although initially i had this blacky impression of it (had always disliked dark soy saucey gravy).

Hai Sheng

Together with hai sheng was this Fu Qi Fei, which according to Hubby are slices of beef and cow tummy. I didn't know what it was at first, but mom-in-law kept insisting i should eat it, so i took a bite and thought it was jelly fish, until i asked Hubby again before writing this blog. Seriously, if i didn't have this blog, i don't think i would know what i have just eaten for the rest of my life!

Fu Qi Fei Pian

Eels were next. Two types: man yu which lives in the sea and shan yu from the freshwater. One word to describe both: Delicious-superfilicious. I had always loved eels, particularly those served in japanese restaurants back home. This time i got to eat Chinese eels, which was terrific!

Man Yu

Shan Yu

To go along with the song shu gui yu, gu fu ordered sweet and sour prawns with pineapples. Well, so happened that Lulu Jie Jie is also a fan of sweet and sour just like me, so ordering another kind of this is almost necessary.

Sweet and Sour Prawns with Pineapple

This restaurant is most well known for its Gong Bao Ji, so having this dish is a must. Yeah, to most people incl Hubby this dish is as good as how they brag it is, but to me, this dish is way too oily, and i don't really fancy it at all.

 Gong Bao Ji

In a typical Chinese meal, vege is a must must, and this time it was dou miao (pea sprouts?)

Wan Dou Jian

Don't think i need to re-introduce this dish any further. One word: Exquisite and I love it! Me and Hubby actually picked the fish ourselves, think it weighed about 600g. This time the fish was not as fresh as previously, but the taste was still good to me. :-)

Song Su Gui Yu

Upfront

Carbo in terms of starch is very important to most people, especially the Chinese. Since we are not having rice, the guests decided to order some cold noodles which look a lot like kon lao mian to me (you are supposed to 'lao' the mian before you eat it). On top of the noodles are shredded chicken, cucumbers, soy sauce, chilli sauce and some special gravy.

Liang Mian

Dian Xins were next. This time there were four which i didn't eat at all (too full after so many dishes). The first one, Ci Ba is fried glutinuous rice which should be eaten with the hua sheng mian (the middle). The second one is more familiar to me, coz it looks a lot like onde-onde, apart from the dou sha filling. Yan Su Bing and Lou Bo Gao are fried items, which i really don't fancy at all.

Ci Ba Nuo Mi Ci

Yan Su Bing

Lou Bo Gao

When this fruit platter was served, we actually thought it was free since we had ordered so many dishes but we were wrong. Only three types of fruit: baby tomatoes, watermelon and super sweet hami melon.

Finally the waitress came and brought in strawberry ice creams. This time they were free.

In total, we actually had 13 dishes, 4 dian xins, fruits and ice cream. And this was only lunch. Sigh..i'm wondering what dinner would be like.....I'm going to be fat!

Goodies In Early Oct

Here are the goodies i baked last week:

1. Chocolate Smarties/Cadbury Marble/Chocolate Chips Cupcakes

Specially made for the kids, and cousins.

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream

Smarties with Pink Cream Cupcakes and Marble Chocolate Cream Cheese Topping Cupcakes

2) Cream Cheese Cupcakes with Fruits

3) More Cabbage Cakes

Mr M's Birthday Cake

Here's the small small birthday cake i baked for Mr M's birthday last 1st October. It was American Baked Cheesecake topped with fruits, which i had miscalculated coz instead of indicating twenty-six (2 kiwis/cherries and supposedly 6 sliced peaches/grapes), i unintentionally put only 5 peaches/grapes so he read it as 25. There were 6 hearts though...which he didn't notice but the mistake (sigh)

Happy Happy Blessed Abundant Birthday, dear!

Favourite Spot for Dim Sum?

Do you know where is the best place to eat dim sum in town? It’s none other than Foo Phing, in Hiltop. When I was a toddler, and Foo Phing wasn’t in existence yet, Nam Hing used to be KKers' old time favourite place for dim sum. And i remember clearly that Dad would bring me and mom there every Sunday after church (at that time, there was only me) for breakfast. He would make sure there were enough ‘shao mais’ for me (like normal kids, i used to love shao mais a lot!). At one time when mom was expecting June, she would crave for their ‘pai kut’ and would have lots of them. Wang Di Lou was also a famous spot for dim sum at that time (diminishing today). And that was where mom and dad used to ta pao for me as 'lunch box' on the way to school. Those were the old times, and i'm really a blessed girl. :-)

As I grew older, Nam Hing’s quality went down, and so was the business ( I think the owner died and his offsprings weren’t capable enough to keep the business alive). And then a restaurant at Wisma Sabah emerged in the mid to late 90s. Calling themselves 'Jaws', this place was always crowded during the weekends. I think somewhere in the late 90s they closed down and subsequently moved to Bukit Padang. Today they're referred as Kampung Nelayan but am not so sure if they still sell dim sum.

If you observe carefully, there are actually many places to dine for dim sum in KK. Apart from those i mentioned previously, the several others are:

1. Shangri-La Hotel in the City

2. SeaView Park in Luyang (sorry if i got the name wrong)

3. Warisan Square (the La Mian Shop)

4. Towering

Hmmm..well, to be honest, i don't really remember the names of the shops that sell dim sum (i have bad memory for names), unless it's a very famous one like Foo Phing. Seriously, i don't understand why it was so well liked that this place is crowded almost everyday!! Especially if you go during the weekends or public holidays, you will have a hard time looking for a decent table and seat. Mr Manager thinks that their dim sums are pretty normal...not too extravagant like those in Hong Kongs...but i guess this is probably the best of KK?

Like usual, when we frequent the shop, i would be the first to order Char Sao Bao. Lately they serve the Hong Kong type in addition to their normal Foo Phing Bao which has a long nose or sharp point in the middle. In fact the Chinese refer the below bao as smilling bao due to the crack and this type of bao is my most most favourite. Not very easy to find this type nowadays, because most places that produce their own specialised baos like Chakitiam, or Kepayan are non-cracked while shops that don't make their own baos normally sell Foo Phing's baos (FYI, Foo Phing baos are all over Sabah). To be honest, i still prefer Wang Di Lou's once upon a time's smiling Char Sao Bao. Today they don't taste as good as previously di, which i couldn't understand why. In addition, I think there's another producer for this type of bao, coz they're sold in some shops like May Sandwich house and they taste the same regardless of which shop i bought them from!

The Smiling Char Sao Bao

Some other types of dim sum in Foo Phing are:

I don't know the name for this, but it costs RM5.50

Cheong Fun, my sissies' favourite!

Har Gao, Mr M's favourite.

I would say Foo Phing's Har Gao (Xia Jiao) is good. Not only are they big (king-size), the whole filling is only prawn which means they didn't gam liao! (HEHE)

Foo Chuk Ken

More blueberry muffins

More blueberry muffins..When people asked me why I baked blueberry muffins, I would give numerous reasons; First: They are my favourites, Second: I want to finish the leftover blueberry fillings, Third: It is very easy and less time consuming to bake muffins than cakes or tarts (especially when you only have an hour or two) and Last but not least: A lot of people love them! (And this reason is strong enough to justify huh?)

Yup, this time, I made some extra efforts to decorate them nicely, to finish up my decoratives and dragees. One of my most favourite shapes is the heart, so they fit perfectly on my favourite blueberry muffins.

As usual, I would make other flavours to provide more choices to people but using the same batter. Like previously, I made smarties and apple filling muffins!

And a big heart shaped cake to MR Manager as an appreciation for the dinner!


In overall, I baked these goodies that particular night:

If you notice carefully, the ones on the left are cabbage cakes, ready to go out to my clients who ordered them, and the right corner are the the nutella choco cheese tarts, which Kimmie loves a lot!