Mom & Babe Talk - Big Bottle And Small Bottle

Gave Elgin some Malay Language(BM) exercise. He's expected to fill in the blanks with 4 phrases to test his comprehension. Surprisingly he managed to get all the correct answers and I wasn't quite believe it as I doubt he is able to get the answers correct. His BM vocabulary was rather poor anyway. Moreover, he's completed the exercise in a haste manner. So as usual, I planned to give him a piece of my mind.

Mom: Did you peep at the answer?

Babe: No..

Mom: Sure or not? I don't believe

Babe: It's true.....................(as normal..he deliberately raised the pitch of the word "true").

Mom: Are you sure you know all the meaning? Did you look up in the dictionary?(Never believe in luck).

Babe: No.

Mom: Huh, gotcha! Then how do you manage to guess the answers? Peep at the back of the book, right?

Babe: No....I never! Very easy, big line for big answer and small line for small answer lor...

Mom: (Confused....trying to understand).

Babe: Mom...you understand or not? Just like small baby use a small bottle, big baby have to use a big bottle lah!

Mom: What?(Trying to figure out how it relates...).

Babe: If the line is small then the answer must be a small one and if the line is big then the answer must be big one. How can small line for big answer?Just like if the baby is small you must use a small bottle to feed baby. If big baby then use big bottle la! Get it, Mom? (Mom remained silent..) You mean you want to feed a small baby with big bottle huh? How can?! Mom, you now understand?!!

Thai Style Salad

This recipe is an adoption from Christina's FAMOUS CHICKEN FEET SKIN salad. I have omitted the chicken feet but replaced with fried dried shrimpts. You can omit both to make this dish a vegetarian salad. Just add some sesame seeds and toasted groundnuts for extra bites.
Ingredients:
2 unripe big mangoes - shredded
4 shallots - cut into thin slices
1 onion (white colour ones will be more crunchy)-cut into rings
1 cucumber -shredded
1 carrot (optional) -shredded

2 limes (smooth skin ones)

4 kumquat (limau kasturi)

3 stalks of lemon grass (serai) - sliced -only take the part of the stem which is about 2 inches from the root

2 talks of bunga kantan (I think this is the flower of the turmeric ginger)

Few kaffir lime leaves, cut into thin strips

Some dried shrimps/dried cuttle fish

Sugar and salt according to taste

Sesame oil (optional)

1. Squeeze the juice from limes and kumquat - about half a bowl, reduce it if the mangoes are very sour.
2. Fry peanuts, dried shrimps/cuttle fish with some oil separately. To reduce the oily effect, it is better to mix the ingredients with some oil. Put in a bowl and microwave at high for about 1-2 min.
3. Pan fry sesame without oil till it gets brown.
4. Get ready all the wet ingredients and mix them up in a bowl. Pour in the lime juice and add with enough sugar and salt according to taste.
5. Mix well, refrigerate and let it season for 1 hour.
6. Before serving, sprinkle the sesame, peanuts and crunchy dried shrimps/cuttle fish on top.
   
   
   

Steamed Chocolate Cake

This moist chocolate recipe was extracted from one of the websites:

INGREDIENTS: 185g butter 250g fine sugar 200ml evaporated milk 2 eggs, lightly beaten 125g all-purpose flour 70g cocoa powder 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp vanilla essence Method: 1. Combine sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla essence and butter in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved and butter has melted. Remove from heat. 2. Add the beaten eggs into the slightly cooled mixture and stir till well mixed. 3. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda into a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs mixture over the flour and stir till well mixed. (Batter should be runny). 4. Heat up the steamer. 5. Lined and grease a 9-inch baking pan 6. Pour the batter into prepared pan and place into the steamer. Cover the top of the pan loosely with a piece of aluminum foil. 7. Steam over medium heat for 45 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a skewer into the cake. If it comes out clean, it’s done. If not, steam for a further 5 minutes. 8. Cool the cake in pan before turning out for further decoration. CHOCOLATE FUDGE Ingredients: 35g cocoa powder, sifted 1 cup evaporated milk 2 egg yolks (50g) 50g butter 175ml water 200g sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 50gm corn flour, sift together with the cocoa powder 1 tsp Nescafe (instant coffee powder) Method: 1. Mix all ingredients well (except the butter. stir over double boiler at low heat till thickened. 2. Add butter, turn off fire and stir till the butter melts. 3. Pour the warm fudge over the cake to coat evenly. 4. Chill the cake in the fridge before serving.

Durian Season

It's now the durian season again that we saw many roadside stalls erected out of no where in most of the towns and villages selling piles of this thorny stuff known as the king of all fruits. Durian, an exotic tropical fruit, it's either you hate it or love it. People who love it consider it tasty and will go all crazy about it. People who hates durian would think that it smells like shit. I would think that it smells like gasoline. It particularly pissed me off when someone burped after eating durian, of course including my own burp. I am not really a great fan of durian but I do crave for it once in a while, depending on mood.

I particularly enjoy eating durian with many people. Frankly, eating durian is a family occasion that I often reminisce. Durian is one of my dad's favorite fruits. Not from a well-to-do family, durian was considered a luxury fruits when I was younger. However, my dad loves it so much so that whenever it was a durian season, he would bought big gunny sacks of durian home. All the children would be extremely excited looking forward for the most anticipated event- durian opening ceremony which my dad strictly imposed, to be done only after we have completed our homework. So we would rushed to finish our homework quickly and waited anxiously for the moment to arrive. Till today I still remember the longing and delighted feelings I got while awaiting for my dad to open all those durians.

My dad, out of his love for durian, had gained the art of appreciating durian in an exquisite manner. He would not allow us to taste the durian until he has opened all the durians and "tested" each one of them. Then he will grade the durian according to his own taste bud. Having done the grading, he would tell us to eat the not-so-good ones first and only savoured the good ones at the end. By saving the best for the last, according to my dad, we will appreciate the taste of the good quality durian more. I wasn't quite patient with this kind of arrangement and many a times I tried to grab the good ones first. But my dad would quickly grab the durian fruit away and insisted that it is to be eaten at last. At times it made me so frustrated as by the time it comes to the last few good ones, I was too full to eat anymore. From that experience, I would regard my dad a true durian connoisseur.

I have to make special mention that my parents would always let the children savour the good durians. They would rather eat the ones infested with worms and save the wholesome ones for us. Now I realise that we hardly have durians infested with worms these days. That shows how much pesticides have been used in getting rid of the worms. So it is not really a good idea to indulge in durian feasting.

This is the new breed-101, very tasty and creamy. Not too bitter, my favorite.































When I was young, my dad usually bought at least 2 times the amount of this pile for a family of 5. Most of time we will invite our aunty, nieces and nephews to join us in the durian feast. I really missed those days...