It's MY Day!

As 16th of September of 2010 was a public holiday, I decided to ask my friends out for a drink on my birthday! It was such a great feeling going out on a weekday night knowing that I won't need to wake up early in the morning to prepare myself for work.

Since Mr. Moon had been mentioning about Maya Hotel lately, we decided to go there again but with the company of my high school mates. We headed to their Lobby Lounge which is of a classic contemporary spacious design with purple and orange theme. I did not manage to tale a nice photo of the lounge due to the dim lightings.

The menu laid on a cut bark of a tree, which serves as a table



Mr. Moon and I

Mrs. Lau

Trying to snap photos ala 'professional' with space deliberately left on the right.

Rojakgal and Mrs. Lau, I have known them since I was 13 and now, I have reached the big 30! ..oh well, it's just a number right?

Alex and Mr. Rojak. Alex was busy the whole night playing with his iphone. Must be fb-ing with his Teeluk!:)

We had white wine and some other drinks.....

while listening to the duo (a male pianist and female lead) crooning love songs.

It was a quiet and relaxing night as the place was only occupied by us and two couples.

Rojak giving me an America's Next Top Model pose with the theme, 'seduction'.

That was how I celebrated my 30th Birthday!:) I wonder how will it be like 10 years from now? Will I be celebrating with mini me(s) and mini Mr.Moon(s) and old Pepper? Can't imagine!:)

By the way if you have not helped with the survey, please please please do!

Here is the link to the Skincare survey. Thank you!

Skincare survey

Hi Friends!
Hope you can help me to complete the survey by clicking on Skincare Survey. Just wanna know a little bit about your daily skincare regime and preferences as I am currently working on a little project at work.
Thank you.....will blog about my project soon...:)

Tamago Class

Attended the long awaited Tamago class with my Mom @ Mrs. T at Sushi King, Leisure mall last weekend. It was a great mom-daughter bonding session and we got to learn and take home the Tamago(s) that we managed to cook up during that 2 hours class!

All these ingredients and cooking utensils prepared for you and you only need to pay RM 10 !So so so worth it. Agree?

To make tamago, we'll need to use the above soya sauce to get the right taste.. not your normal chinese soya sauce or kicap maggi please..

The first step: Mix the sugar, soy sauce and hot water with a whisk until you see no sign of sugar. The mixture can then be left to cool on ice cubes.

12 fresh looking eggs. The chef who demo-ed shared that the lighter the colour of the yolk, the fresher the egg is and vice versa..

The eggs have to be whisked until well mixed before adding in the now already cooled down soy sauce mixture.Then, the egg +soysauce mixture can then be strained with a strainer into a container to get a smooth egg mixture.

Now, heat the rectangular pan. By using the chopstick and paper towel, coat the pan with cooking oil

One ladle/scoop of the egg mixture can then be poured into the pan and spreaded over the surface.

Once cooked, fold the cooked egg twice, once toward the centre and then towards the end. And you'll get the first layer done.

Push it upwards to the top of the pan.

Repeat the above steps thrice (from heating the pan to folding).

Remember to to spread the egg mixture under the rolled omelette by slightly tilting the pan.

For the fourth and fifth layer, just fold the egg once towards the end.

Once done, place the tamago on some kitchen towels to absorb excess oil.

The white stuff on the plate is actually grated radish which is a great to eat with tamago. Rojakgal,you should try this!

You can also place cheese,unagi or cheese&unagi after the first layer . But now, you will have to becareful with the folding.

Place the unagi one inch away from the top. Fold the omelette  towards the centre and then flip and fold towards the end.

Only cook 4 layers and fold only once starting from the third layer.

Ta daaa! Tamago with cheese& unagi.

You can also use crab stick, by unfolding it, and placing it on alternate layers before folding the omelette. You can also place minced spinach , carrots or any other vegetables too!

Yummy Yummy!

Mrs. T was very satisfied and happy with the four Tamago that she made! With so many Tamago blocks(including mine, we had 7), we decided to make sushi and handrolls at night for dinner...

We bought crabsticks, cucumber , tuna...etc

Mr. Moon helped to make these. Gotta give him some credits too. :)

Finally, a candid shot of me and Mrs. T. I was busy attending to some phone calls and she came over to help me with my Tamago.

Mom being Mom, she is always more skillful when it comes to cooking. A little childhood story to share. My mom used to bring me and  Mr. J to attend cooking/baking classes when we were little. She would then get us to try out the dishes cooked by the person who demonstrated in front. Back then, students only watched how the dishes were cooked and there were no hands-on.

I guess that is the reason why Mrs. T was super happy and excited that she could perform on the spot while learning! She was so enthusiastic that she even told me that she would be interested to join the next Chawan Mushi class in October!:)

Now for the recipe, courtesy of Sushi King:

Soy Sauce Mixture(A)

Hot water 270 ml

Sugar 28gram

Kikkoman sushi & sashimi soya sauce 15 ml

A big bowl of ice to cool down the mixture or just pop it into the fridge or just wait till it cools down to room temperature

Egg mixture

Egg 12 nos

Soy Sauce mixture(A)

Enough cooking oil

Happy trying!

Pepper is their best friend too!

I was alone upstairs waiting for Mr.Moon to be back from work when Ian and Vanessa came knocking on the door. I opened the door and was surprised when they presented me a 'Dog House'. They hand made a dog house out of old cardboard boxes just for Pepper!

Pepper was afraid of the house because it looked foreign to her.

Bernice and Ann came to join us after they finished their dinner.

Pepper's house was too small to fit her but it sure looked like a decent one with the well shaped 'roof'.

It was so sweet of them to spend time and effort in making this for her.

They even wrote a message for Pepper. Notice the spelling error on the left? So cute!

Pepper checking out the message." Ian, Ann, Vanessa, Bernice, I love you too"-Pepper.

On Cloud 'Nine'

No, I'm definitely not on cloud nine, being married for almost 3 years now. The 'Nine' here signifies our future home at The Nine's @ BK 9.

We were on our way to IOI mall when suddenly Mr. Moon decided to turn in to view our future home for  God knows how many nth time this year. We were lucky to bump into one of the staffs there who allowed us to go in as the houses were usually locked during our visits. He was kind enough to wait for us outside even though it was drizzling, just to lock the house after we were done.

The row of Phase 2 houses.

My almost completed future home. The entrance.

The living room with two entrances. Notice the glass door on the right(of this pic), and the wooden door on the left. We will need to choose which one to be used as our main door.

Mr. Moon's favourite area, the little courtyard ! The feature that made him chose this over the other type without the coutyard.

Kitchen area. This is my territory.

Kitchen area 2. Dry kitchen?

Master bedroom.

I have no single idea how to renovate decorate (because my Dad said that if I'm not doing anything major, I should use this word instead ) the place yet. I guess it's time to surf the Net and get some ID magazines now. I'm super excited! :)

Have a break with Green Tea Kit Kat!

My brother, Mr.J, had an amazing discovery in Japan! He bought some chocolates from the convenience store and this was one of the chocolates that he liked the most. Green tea Kit Kat! Do we have this in Malaysia?

He liked it so much that he even got my Mom's friend who recently went to Japan to get MORE for him! And being his sweet little sister, I was offered a courteous one pack to try..

This is how the pack looks like. I can't read Japanese but I reckon the 100 kcal  shown on the pack emphasizes that one serving contains 100kcal calorie?

More Jap....... and the word 'calorie' in the website..

This must be a product which sells on low calorie content and caters to people who are watching their diet.

The packing looks like one of those cereal/ granola bar.

Green tea Kit Kat is of course green in colour!

And now the most important thing, the taste of this green coloured chocolate. It doesn't taste like the normal Kit Kat chocolate of course, rather, it tastes like white chocolate minus the milky sweetness with a green tea after- taste. Those who loves green tea ice cream will love this too.

Now, Mr. J if you are reading this, can I have more? : )

Sushi Making at Sushi King

I attended the long awaited Sushi making class at Sushi King Leisure Mall with Rojakgal, RojakMom@ Mdm. Wong, Mr.Moon and Shannen@ SBK last Saturday. With a fee of RM 35 for members and RM 45 for non-members, participants were provided with all the ingredients needed and a lunch bento served at the end of the class.

Class was scheduled early at 9.30 am. 5 of us were seated at one table. In this photo, SBK was nowhere to be seen yet because she was still on the way.

Kanikama (Crabsticks)

Shredded kappa (cucumber)

4 pieces of sliced salmon

Tamago('Egg' in Japanese) slices

Tuna

Ebikko ( Prawn flavoured fish roe)

Nori (roasted seaweed) in different cuts

18 cm long cut kappa and tamago

Each participant was given a little red bag with a note pad and a pen in it

SBK finally arrived! All of us looked damn excited to start making sushi!

We had to wear caps and gloves to remain hygienic throughout the class.Mr. Moon here was very attentive during the class. He was seen jotting down notes too.

First, we learned some basic Japanese language

and the Japanese terms of each ingredient.

We were also briefed on the difference between KOME-chan and NAGA-chan. KOME is short and fat but NAGA is tall and thin. In order to make sushi, KOME-chan rice has to be used.

The demonstrator, Yvonne showing us how to mix sushi vinegar into the warm cooked sushi rice by slowly spreading out the vinegar with a paddle.

According to her, the amount of vinegar varies with the different types of vinegar bought from the supermarket. She recommended Mizkan Vinegar. We will have to read the instructions on the label to determine the right amount of vinegar to be added in the rice.

After mixing the vinegar into the rice, the rice was then allowed to cool down for 10-15 minutes to absorb the aroma and sweetness of the vinegar.

We were provided with well shaped sushi rice on the table. We'll definitely need to get sushi moulds from 100 Yen or Daiso to be used at home!

 Yvonne revealed that Sushi King's rice are all shaped with a special machine which costs like RM 20-30 K. Hand -shaped sushi is more expensive and hence the cheaper price at Sushi King?

This is called Gunkan or Warrior boat sushi. A 7-cut Nori is wrapped around the rice,

before ebikko and/ or tuna  are then filled in.

These are Nigiri sushi.Sushi without Nori, just simply rice and its topping. The Tamago here has a 10-cut sushi wrapped in the middle for deco and to hold it nicely on top.

Then we learned how to make Maki. There are two types of Maki, namely Osomaki and Uramaki. This is how we make Uramaki. First spread 6 balls of rice(120g) on a half cut Nori.

Then, overturn the rice. Place the 18cm Tamago, Kappa and Kanikama sticks in the order as shown above.

Roll it nicely with the aid of a mat pre-covered with cling wrap. This is to avoid the rice or seaweed sticking on the mat.

This is how we make Osomaki. Spread 4 balls of rice (80g) on the half cut Nori and place the 18cm Kappa in the middle. Leave an inch of Nori on the outer corners.

Roll it up and shape it nicely by pressing firmly on the mat.

Well shaped Makis should be squarish instead of appearing roundish.

The top of the Uramaki can then be laced with ebikko.

We then learned how to make California temaki. I was too engrossed making my temaki that I did not take photos of Yvonne's demo. As you can see here, Mr.Moon quickly and hungrily gobbled down his temakis.

This is the best shot I could get from my camera. This was Rojakgal's version of temaki with extra mayonaise on top.

We had such an interesting day making sushi. Mr. Moon was happy with his ebikko Gunkan.

Rojakgal was caught not paying attention in class but playing with her pink iPhone.

SBK happily rolling up her maki. She went home early, skipping the temaki class but later she shared that her hubby loved the sushis that she made.

Most of the participants were females with the exception of Mr. Moon and another guy. There were like 15-18 of us  including little kids.

Finally, a group photo!

Lunch was then served. Our kodomo bento.

Arigatou!

Rojakgal and I are planning to join Sushi King's Tamago-making class in August. I am sure it will be as delightful as this one! Can't wait!: )