Dining With Jewelle

Today we visited a friend who gave birth recently and we couldn’t stay long because it was nearly lunchtime and I didn’t pack Qi’s porridge.

Yes Qi, my 22 months old baby girl, still eats porridge - do I see some raised eyebrows?

Although she eats fast, unlike Eu, she is particular about her food and prefers only the porridge that I cooked.

So eating out is a problem with her most of the time because even before we put the food in her mouth, she’d make a face and even if she did take it, more often than not, she’ll spit it back out. Because her porridge is naturally flavoured by the vegetables, she dislike strong salt or MSG taste a.k.a. what makes restaurant food so delicious.

In case you’re wondering what is my fabulous home recipe porridge that Qi just could not get enough of - here is one of the variations.

I usually put some minced meat, some vegetables and some chopped carrots or tomatoes for taste.

I’d blend the big parts when its all cooked and that’s all!

When I first weaned Eu, being unexperienced, I used to give her some of those pureed baby food sold in jars. But when I realized that I could make the same thing - just boil / steam and blend, how hard is that?

I never went back to those food jars.

Not only are you very sure of the cleanliness and quality - since you prepare it, it’s also so easy to make (30 mins including cleaning up and blending) that I really don’t see any reason why anyone would want to buy those baby food from the shop anymore.

Tips : When you have weaning baby, get a small rice cooker!

Looking at a picture like this always make me feel a little self-conscious of my own nose.

Because no matter how confident you are with your looks, it would be hard to stay confident if others keep advising on how much better your nose would be with a little nose job or rhinoplasty.

You : My nose is fine.

They : Hmm, actually if you make it slightly trimmer, you would look so much better.

You : My nose is fine!

They : You know there is an excellent surgeon here who can do miracle with your nose? It just need some little work you know…bla-bla-bla!

After a few times of these kind of advice, I bet you’d give it a go even if only to get these caring people off your back!

That’s why I am thankful that over here we don’t have this is kind caring attitude. Although I guess it is a disadvantage too as we’ll never the motivation to make our noses better!

So in a way, folks in the States are lucky as there are experts all over the country from California to Florida and even North Carolina where there is a Raleigh rhinoplasty expert named Dr. Stein that you might want to check out.

I come across sites and articles about weight loss and cosmetic surgery on a daily basis that it made me realized what a big industry this must be in countries like the United States, where many of these establishments are based.

From Beverly Hills to Houston to Miami, specialist centres that offer services such as cosmetic surgery to botox to liposuction are everywhere! How conscious the folks there must be with their physical looks to make these extreme but quick fix-it clinics so popular.

I can imagine why celebrities or folks who live in Los Angeles would find it hard not to be tempted to nip, tuck and lose-a-few-years when there are specialist surgeon like Dr. Amron who is a Los Angeles liposuction expert, practising his skills in their neighbourhood.

But these specialist clinics can’t be servicing just the celebrities. So who are all these other customers? Why can’t they just change their eating habit or do more exercise?

I’m thankful that I don’t live in such critical environment for I’m sure it would be hard not to try and look “perfect” when everybody else are.

Last Tuesday was the Moon Cake festival of course.

As usual, we had a simple family dinner with everyone. Because each family have their own schedule, we seldom dine together despite having everyone living in the same house.

Of course, this meant a noisier than usual affair with Eu insisted on chatting with his cousin and Qi kept attracting her uncles’ attention. All these on top of our equally jovial matriarch, pleased at having all her sons sitting down together. Our’s a household where the female voices dominated the male voices easily.

Food wise, they’re the usual roast chicken, pork and mixed vegetables. Predictable but delicious nonetheless, and that’s what matters.

We did have some exciting experiment with these sliced abalone. As per the instruction, we served them fresh from the packet. Abalone was never my favorite type of Chinese food and this was no different as I thought it was too salty and too flavor-enhanced.

We forgot to get any lanterns for the kids this year though and must remember to get some next year.

Since there are quite a number of western expats in hubby’s company, sometimes they’d cater Italian food for a restaurant in Kuala Belait for their gatherings.

But being a typical Asian when it comes to food, he doesn’t consider dishes like pizza or spaghetti as main meal so he’d usually eat his dinner at home first.

Perhaps if he goes to award winning Italian restaurant with a wider range of authentic Italian dishes, he’d change his mind.

There is a restaurant in La Jolla of San Diego called the Trattoria Acqua which is rated as one of the top ten Italian restaurant in the United States. I think this is one of the few restaurants which publishes their full menu online and it was salivating just to read dishes such as these :

Pollo Picatta - Free-range lightly pounded chicken breast sautéed with lemon, butter, garlic, white wine and capers served with spinach and fonduta whipped potatoes

Cappa Santa alla Damaso - Jumbo Sea scallops and shrimp with our house-made tomato fettuccine pasta, fresh organic corn and a spicy lobster sauce

I think I’m changing my mind about Italian restaurants too. I definitely want to try one of the places when I do go over to California!

One of my daily must have is soup.

Qi expects it to go with her meal and she nearly always have a bowl of soup every day. In fact, “soup” is one of the first few word in her vocabulary!

Since I have my slow cooker a few years ago, it has been one of the most used piece of equipment in my kitchen. In my household, my sister in law brew soup daily for her family too and it was from her that I learn how easy it was to make delicious and nutritious soup. Since the first tong kwei soup that she taught me, I’ve moved on to brewing other kind of soups; herbal, tonic and ordinary soup with nutritious ingredients.

In fact, my soup making learning process could be clearly described by hubby’s verdict which started from “What’s this?” (first experiment) to “Weird taste” (wild experiment) to “Too much ingredient” (over-experiment) to his most welcomed verdict of “Very nice soup“.

One of my own favorite soup is the lotus roots soup.

I learn this soup from my mother in law and of course, whenever we go to places where tonic soup is served, this is one of the common ones too.

Lotus roots are available in most supermarket although at some places, they didn’t bother to scrape the excess mud off the roots that it can look very dirty. 

If you have never tried this soup you really should! It’s tasty, nutritious and if you’re Muslim, it goes well with chicken too.

Did you watch Anita Sarawak’s Chef Diva cooking show that was aired a few years ago?

I saw a bit of her show then but what fascinated me was not cooking but her. She is simply mesmerizing, don’t you think?

Especially her face.

It’s not that I do not believe her claims, but have you ever noticed how smooth and taut her face is? It’s fascinating how she steadfastly denied having done any work on her face and expects everyone to believe it.

But who could blame her?

When she lived and worked in the States, I’m sure it’s expected that she maintained a certain standard of her appearance and with cosmetic surgery so easily available and widely practised, it would be hard to resist.

I wonder if she did her face in Las Vegas where she was based then or perhaps at Dr. Vitenas from a cosmetic surgery in Houston as he was proclaimed one of Houston’s top doctor and top USA plastic surgeon by various publications.

After all, I’m sure someone like her would only go for the best.

During the recent Chung Ching school anniversary dinner held last Saturday, we had the typical Chinese dishes as you can see from the menu.

I only managed to take pictures of the first two servings as I didn’t dare stop the men in our table from attacking the food the moment it was set on the table - not that they were but as you know, taking food picture is not a “one shot and that’s it” kind of thing!

Besides I didn’t want to start explaining to my table mate why on earth I wanted to photograph every dish - with the place so deafening. I was thankful that the techno music or karaoke singing were not part of their entertainment with the level of sound volume we had to endure the whole evening!

As for the food, they were not memorable.

But I do remember the mango fish because it was too dry that there was practically no flesh! Hubby thought that their food was …. I better not say.

But then again, folks don’t go to these kind to functions expecting outstanding dishes, do they?

Someone I know said that sending her child to tuition classes is more than simply a way to help the child revise.

It’s also a way to keep the child in a controlled environment, making sure that the child is in a place where lessons are being done. I guessed this is important for parents who work as they won’t be at home to monitor their children’s movement.

My parents were believers of tuition classes too. I have been having tuitions since I was in my Form Three (not my choice) until I was doing my A-Levels (my choice).

While hubby, and the rest of his siblings, never had any tuitions when they were in school. His parents both worked then and I think it’s amazing that despite this, two of them in the family were Best All Around Student award recipients when they were in their fifth form.

So of course, hubby thinks that tuition is a waste of money. He never needed any.

While I, since I am a tuition classes pro, think that it can be useful but not crucial. At least, not that critical to the point of sending Eu for extra classes when she goes to Kindergarten next year which I know is becoming quite the thing to do among very responsible parents.

But when they reach secondary classes with more important exams and tougher subjects, I wouldn’t dismiss tuition classes altogether.

Instead of sending them to teachers who are supposed to impart all their knowledge during school hours, I wouldn’t mind online tutoring, if the girls can prove themselves trustworthy and responsible. I think I’d prefer having them at home as they revise and get get homework help on tough subjects like Math or Science subjects with an expert online tutor at any time of the day, under my supervision.

There is one online tutoring site, called the TutorVista which has been featured in NBC’s Today’s Show and BBC News which offers comprehensive online help for students in subjects like Chemistry, Economics, Algebra and exams like TOEFL, GMAT and IELTS.

FYI, TutorVista offer their service worldwide for 24/7 and their basic unlimited use monthly package for all subjects is $99.99.

Anyway, it’s still a long way for me to consider this service but it’s good to know such a service exists.

Later tonight, we’re going to a dinner function to celebrate the anniversary of a Chinese school in Seria.

I’m not expecting fantastic dishes and even now, I could already guessed the kind of dishes that we’ll be served. Have you noticed that despite having perhaps the widest range of dishes, there are only a few must-have dishes for any Chinese dinner functions, be it wedding or anniversary dinners such as the one we’re going to later.

For one thing, there will be the starters which would definitely have to be the hot and cold dishes - which I kind of like. There will be one soup and my bet is, it will be a sharkfin soup.

There will be pork and perhaps roast chicken or some fish dish.

Most definitely, it will end with fried rice - for some funny reason, they always serve this dish just before the dessert!

Oh well, I’m there to prepare myself for a new chapter in my life next year - attending school functions as a parent!