Bits and Pieces

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Pizza Italia

The day before, Rachel expressed that she wanted me to try this new pizza outlet called Pizza Italia in Seremban 2 (behind Columbia Hospital). She has been there once but it seems that they ran out of dough for the pizza.

Since there were only the 2 of us and we wanted to try a variety of pizzas and other food, we called Tusi along, knowing that she would love eating something different. None of my other family members, except my brother and twin, enjoys eating pizza, mainly because of the cheese. The older sister can only take certain kinds of cheese, ones that do not have a strong smell.

Rachel placed an order for 2 pizzas - one chicken and one beef. Fortunately she had gone there once and got hold of their name card. She called them just before we left my parents' house.

The pizzas came not too long after we were seated. They tasted good... nothing like Pizza Hut. :). Last time, when I was working in KL, I had to work late almost every day. Usually we would order from Pizza Hut and over time I got very scared of eating pizzas.

This Pizza Italia... I won't say it's the best, but it's definitely better than Pizza Hut or Shakey's. The cheese they use makes a difference. I do not have much experience when it comes to pizzas, but so far the best pizza I've ever eaten came from Villa Romana in Melbourne, Australia. I have also tried the pizza they sold in Disneyland, California ... very cheesy and salty but it's nice too.

We tried the chicken lasagna. Not so nice. :(.

Dessert was tiramisu. Tasted good. I want to try making this someday... probably call some guinea pigs for tea too.. hehe.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Manholes in Kuching

Bet you never see a more interesting manhole cover right? This is (I think) only found in Kuching, Sarawak.

A closer look at the manhole cover. Some may ask.. why is there a picture of a cat on the cover? Well, the old spelling for cat in the Malay language is Kuching.

This is the normal manhole cover in Kuching.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

What's For Lunch?

Usually, when I am at home I cook a simple meal for lunch. Very often it's noodles and some vegetables.

Two days ago, I helped Rachel prepare dinner. It was a very simple meal. The ingredients were button mushrooms, lots of garlic, some Italian spices and spaghetti. Simple right? It was delicious.

Today, I tried making something like that, but with different ingredients.

First I boiled the spaghetti, the broccoli and some sausages.

Then I chopped the garlic (the garlic chopper makes it so easy) and yellow onions and fried them separately. Once the spaghetti, broccoli and sausages were cooked, I fried them together with the onions and garlic. I added some Italian spices. Rachel told me no to put thyme in, but mine came in a premixed bottle and I thought it should be alright.

My pasta dish looked good. The smell was right. I would love to boast of my fine cooking but I have to admit, the taste was horrible. It was bitter and had one kind of funny taste.

What went wrong?

Was it the oil? I used extra virgin olive oil.

Was it the broccoli? I should have stuck to the button mushrooms.

Was it the onions? I shouldn't have added the onions.

Was it the thyme spice? I'm not sure. Probably.

It was an awful lunch and I ate some Chipsmore biscuits after that to take away the weird taste. :(

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Goodmaid Warehouse Sales

Where in the world can you buy detergent for so cheap?

Last Friday Matt announced in Facebook that Goodmaid was having a warehouse sales in Senawang. I asked him for the goods and price list and found the products to be very cheap. (50-70% cheaper than what we usually pay). They had the sale on for 2 days only - Friday and Saturday.

I went to the factory in the evening with Mctc and bought a bunch of cleaning products. Fortunately, I brought my little for-luggage-use trolley which I bought in America some time back. I bought some detergent for my mother too who once told me that she uses the dishwashing liquid like it water. She had to buy the 5 liters bottle so that she needn't think of buying them so frequently. I had no such problem. I usually purchase the 1 liter bottle and it could last me the whole year. I don't cook very often. :)

The next day, Minch called up early in the morning and asked if I wanted to follow her to the warehouse sales. She wanted to buy some detergent for her friend. Feeling excited, yet lazy, I told her that I would go with her. So I went.. with my trolley.

We bought so much stuff. My trolley wasn't big enough for all our purchase. I bought more dishwashing liquid for my mom and a few other items I didn't see the day before.

While heading towards the car with our stuff, I saw my church friends. I asked if they wanted to borrow my trolley. At first they said they didn't need one because their mom will only get a few things. Knowing that they would buy more than a few things, I told them to take the trolley and return it later.

Then later in the evening, I asked my aunt if she needed anything from the warehouse sales and she said she wanted the fabric softener. Minch was willing to go there again and she called another friend to come along too. We dropped by at church to pass Minch brother something. I saw my friends - the ones who borrowed by trolley earlier on. I asked them if they had it in their car. They said they saw another church friend in the warehouse and pass edthe trolley to her. Umm.... ok, I thought.

I didn't get many things this time. A lot of the stock was sold out. I could see many empty boxes. Minch's friend brought quite a lot of the same item.

When I reached home, I place them all in a plastic box.

So here they are... enough to last me at least 6 months (for some items) - 2 years. :)

Monday, July 6, 2009

Plucking Rambutans

When Mctc suggested we go to a friend's house to pluck rambutans, I wasn't really keen. First of all, I don't really know the owner of of the house and secondly, I wasn't dressed to climb up the trees. Later I found out that there was a third reason - there were lots of mosquitoes.

When we reach the place, I saw Christine happily cutting bunches of rambutans off the trees. She told me that she love doing this.

The guys were just standing around doing nothing. Haha.. no lah, I came quite late and I'm sure Eddie did his share of work too. Steven was at the back doing his fair share of making the trees lighter.

There were at least 6-7 boxes/bags of rambutans and so many still waiting to be plucked. Eddie told the owner that he and his team would come back one Sunday for a 2nd round of harvesting.

Never be deceived by the colour of the skin. The yellow rambutans were just as good as the red ones. The bag of rambutans that I brought back had more than 100 seeds. I gave them all to my parents.

Eddie calls my mom's house the town hall (or community hall) because there is always something going on there most the time. It's a good and fun place for gatherings, and meetings. :)

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Durian Party

Oh yummy, yummy durians.

Some 2 weeks ago, Eddie suggested having a durian party in my mom's house. Most of us were durian lovers and we only eat the best ones. A few days ago we set the date for our durian party. It was held yesterday at 8pm. We were warned not to have our dinner, otherwise we would be too full to enjoy the durians. Eddie said that he would supply the durians. He told me that there were 19 durians weighing more than 30 kilos.

He brought only 14 durians to my mom's house and we had expected about 15-20 people coming to this party. Even when Eddie told me that there were 19 durians, earlier on, I thought they weren't enough for everyone. When he brought only 14 durians, I thought I'd better have a light dinner first before the party started.

The durians looked and smelt wonderful. They taste yummy but they are probably the worst fruit to consume. They are super sweet and causes blood pressure to rise. People who are diabetics or have heart problems should minimise their intake of durians and if possible, avoid eating durians at all cost.

As usual, my dad had the honor of opening the durians. Actually none of us (my immediate family) knew how to open them. Aunt Chris helped to open some of them too. Although she loved durians very much, she didn't have any. She didn't want her blood pressure to rise. We all marveled at her will-power.

Gosh.... the durains looked so inviting.. I didn't have much will-power when it came to bitter-sweet durians. I had about 6 seeds.

There were about 20 of us who were at my parents' house, and we only opened 13 durians. Some didn't like durians and the rest of us ate about 5 or more seeds.

When we were younger, my parents would buy like 5 or 6 durians for us to eat. My dad wasn't a wealthy man but he always tried to buy some every durian season. During those days, there was no guarantee whether the durians were good or bad. Sometimes half of the durians had worms in it.

Now that the quality of durians are better and more people are willing to spend a fortune just to eat good durians, we are all so choosy. They have even given names for different types of durians like Red Prawns and D24. The cheap ones cost about RM2-3 per kilo and the expensive ones ranges from RM10 per kilo onwards.

I am now willing myself not to eat any more durians. I have reached my quota of durian intake this year. :(