R.I.P.... My 1st ever owned car

I was supposed to blog this last year, was hesitated while I couldn't find my old picture taken with this particular car of my parents. The picture was clearly captured in my memory as the chubby me was rather cutie that time, holding a smooth stick picked up from the beach of my beloved island - Victoria, Labuan. Believe that was the first photo shot for the car, when my parents first had it 30ish year ago.

Now, this nostalgia car of our family has officially R.I.P. after serving us close to 30 years. I submitted an application for official scrap at JPJ last December 29, 2011. This post will serve as a memorial for the ever strong and lasting Japanese car my family owned.

Last spotted @ Ipoh 

A little background of the car. I recalled from my childhood memory, it was a fully Japan imported car, oh well there was no locally or ASEAN assembled car at that time. The Toyota Corolla DX series, per Wikipedia it was the 4th generation of Toyota Corolla series. There was DX and GX series, I couldn't remember what was what, only thing I recalled was it did not came with air conditioner. Dad had to send for a fix for the air conditioner very soon after accepting the brand new car. Air conditioner was a luxury during that era.

This car was then migrated from Labuan to KL 10+ years ago. Been through the South China Sea all the way landed at Port Klang. It then followed me for a couple of years before it was physically handed back to the original owner, for all of its life, it was owned by one and only family! How glad can it be.

As a new owner at that time, I don't really know how to handle a huge "toy" like this. Made me went through lots of experiences, i.e. overheated, overhauled, JPJ re-registration for road tax transition from a 50% tax island to 100%, insurance renewal, roadtax renewal, regular workshop checkups, even a fix for both side mirrors! (the original body did not came with it, I find it difficult to drive on a complicated city driveway around Klang Valley without them. Those were the memories :)

As usual, I didn't take many photos with the car during my ownership. Only for occasion where it was slightly damaged, like pictures below. Oh well, I must clarify this... it wasn't me who drove the car that time. :)

Little damaged rear... 2001

Damaged side view

Oh dear... you are dearly missed~!

DIY - Steamed Pumpkin Cake

Just love the slice of steamed pumpkin cake from B'liv cafe, each time I visited this place. This stimulate my urge to try out the recipe, and believe this should be easy to make. I folded some recipe online, both English and Chinese but I would not sure which exactly I referred to (coz I have been using multiple devices to browse whenever I am free).

Believe some very close-to recipe are those below :-
http://www.yummylittlecooks.com/2011/08/steam-pumpkin-cake.html (English)
http://www.xinshipu.com/金瓜糕-92310 (Chinese)

My version was something like below :-
(A) 375g rice flour (粘米粉), 1 tbsp corn flour (粟粉), pinch of salt, 1 tsp sugar, 750ml water
(B) Pumpkin cut cube, dried shrimp, shiitake mushroom, shallot, pepper

1. Mix and get ready ingredient A in a bowl
2. Stir fry ingredient B (Chinese styled) till fragrant
3. Mix ingredient A into B
4. Transfer the mixed ingredient into 9" pan
5. Bring to steam for 45-50minutes
6. Best serve with fried shallots & spring onion; alternately cake will taste good the following day when you bring it to heat/fry on the wok

Here's my first trial of pumpkin steam cake :) Happy trying.

Pumpkin steamed cake, before reheat/fry

Foods @ Kota Kemuning - Mr. Yong Tau Foo [closed]

Wish to have something light or snacks for dinner or lunch, here is decent place to dine around the neighbourhood of Kota Kemuning.

Tried out this outlet couple months ago, decided to blog this out while I am utilising my precious time waiting for someone.

They serve simple yet tasty menu, it is definitely worth the price compare to a colleague's plate of 9 pieces yong tao foo that cost RM18 @ Pavilion KL.

Proof of pics below, I like the fried vegetable stuffs.

Part of the dishes

Fried Egg Plant

The shop

The location:

No. 7-G, Jalan Anggerik Vanilla X 31/X, 40460 Kota Kemuning, Shah Alam

Tel: 03-51316766

Open hour : 11:30am - 9:45pm

My baked fish for dinner

I am just getting lazy in transferring photos out from my phone camera. Hence, might as well blog it straight from here :)

This was my last minute dinner plan last Friday, specially designed to match them with an ever ready mashed potato prepared by some one.

The marinating affair came simple with pinch of seasalt on the piece of fish, dashes of pepper, thyme, oregano and curry. Oh, I missed out the button mushroom and onion to taste.

Wrap them in a cling foil and put to bake 180C for 20minutes. Added some olive oil before the next 20minutes bake.

In preparing

End result

The inner view

Blogger's Enhanced mobile view

Guess this wasn't my real intention to blog on something which had been common, perhaps most would have known about it, except me? Oh well, I am not a gadget freak, but will once a while play around with my electronic toys.

Here's what I spotted while browsing my own blog over my iPhone recently.

It's been all nicely arranged for better view on mobile browser. Ready with a tab for next blog, one could tab left or right for older or newer blog! Kudos for more improvement! However, a little give away for it can be a mistake of slide which might cause it browse over to the next post unintentionally.

And here I am, blogging from my phone. The enhanced Blogger apps tool seems nice & easy to use, for such non techie person like me 😜

While.. I am enjoying my quiet holiday afternoon. :)

DIY - Steam Hazelnut Prune Muffin

Alright, this should be the last blog of the day. Happy Labor day!!

I didn't step out from the house at all today, imagine that. It had been super hot and humid these days, that was the main reason for not getting out from home. I have been indulging myself in food preparation, baking as well as blogging (as you could notice now)!

Had this recipe from a local Chinese newspaper recently. I craved for pitted prune these days, there goes my idea of baking some kind of cake or bread. I then decided on a steamed muffin cake instead, to reduce or avoid heatiness.

Recipe from the newspaper

I made some adjustment to this recipe.

Ingredient A:- 3 eggs, 200g fine sugar (reduced to 60g), 1/2 tsp salt
Ingredient B:- 160g chopped pitted prune, 160ml water (replaced with diluted prune enzyme juice)
Ingredient C:- 180g melted butter
Ingredient D:- 250g self raising flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda
Ingredient E:- 150g grained/chopped peanut (replaced with hazelnut)

Steps:-

1. Mix Ingredient A in a bowl, add Ingredient B to mix
2. Add Ingredient C into the mixer, mix together Ingredient D, mix well with the mixer
3. Fold Ingredient E into the batter
4. Scoop batter into muffin cup
5. Steam for 25minutes
6. Serve

Here's what I experimented today. Smells well, taste alright, but I noticed it was significantly not sweet enough. I didn't quite like nuts, hence was not very keen with the hazelnuts smell. Hope it could turn up well to my friends. Sorry if it does not taste good, as you are my Guinea-pigs!! ^^

Hazelnut prune steamed muffin

The inner view

Happy trying!

C-Coconut Seafood Restaurant (椰苑海鮮飯店), Kuantan

What made me blog this particular restaurant? Well, it ain't an unique seafood restaurant, nor serve any special dishes. Except I came to know they serve shark dishes, not particularly full range of shark meat dishes, as they do serve other normal fishes too, including freshwater fish.

Had a family dinner here last weekend. Hence, I can't say no to shark or shark fin, as it ain't my call anyway. It is known that many classified shark as one of the protected animal, many had ran causes to promote No Shark fin, especially among the Chinese community, whom still love to dine on Shark fin's as a classy dish. Well, if you'd to ask me, why don't we just go vegan while we should also classify other fishes as protected animal too. It's not in due cause that some fishermen had been hunting only for the shark fins, but not the entire fish's meat. To me, if one would hunt for the fin, should also kill the fish. Not letting them die suffering without their fin. In those case, it is then truly cruelty. If one would dine the entire fish, it makes no difference if one would eat other fishes.

It was glad that the restaurant ran out of shark meat that night. Hence, I didn't need to swallow the shark fish. But I did noticed they uses those mini shark fin for its steamed bean curd (Tofu) dish.

Steamed Tofu & Shark fin

Other dishes are as follows.

Hakka fried pork

Asparagus

Claypot Steamed Talapia

No doubt, their dishes served were not too bad, especially for simple family dinner. The restaurant was quite full, believe it was due to weekend where families usually dine out for dinner.

The location :

According to foursquare, the address is Lorong Sekilau 63, Kuantan, Pahang 25000

But a Facebook site mention it is along Jalan Haji Ahmad

Its a few shops next to Cosway, right opposite Petronas Station

(sorry didn't get their name card, will update next time round, if I ever get the chance)

Kedai Kopi Hai Peng (海濱) @ Kuantan, Pahang

If you are familiar with the ever famous Hai Peng Kopitiam at Kemaman, Terrenganu, this ain't the branch. I was not very sure if this shop has any connection to the one at Chukai Kemaman, but according to this blog, the Kuantan branch is opened by the grandson of Kemaman's Hai Peng. To me, as long as it is worth to dine, I don't mind going back or introduce more friends to stop by.

I bumped into this shop, on my recent visit back to the land of Lynas! Oh, remarking the heated protest on rare earth in Malaysia over 2011/2012. Side tracked with a picture on a anti-Lynas T-shirt I have got. I might not make more frequent stop to this place once the rare earth plant is fully operate, there goes the land of Malaysia. Ok, story aside.

T-shirt front 

T-shirt back

Alright, as my partner drove along Jalan Haji Abdul Aziz an afternoon, I saw many locals park their cars and headed to this coffee shop for coffee break. As the shop area was shady, it automatically became a good spot for locals hangout. Nevertheless, I told partner to stop at this shop instead of the original coffee shop we were supposed to head to.

As we about to sat down, we started to observe what others ordered. To be safe, we ordered out drinks which came along a set of roti bakar (toast bread). There goes our bread, I didn't even have the time to snap a pic, we both held it all into our mouth and stomach, taste good! Along on my left hand, I was busy googling for blogs of this shop. First blog I stumbled was this. Apparently, the bread they used for toast are all wholemeal bread, it's healthy! ^^

Iced coffee - so refreshing

There goes our observation for other foods available to taste. I saw the next table ordered Assam Laksa, while the blog did mentioned the same dish. Upon checking, my partner has headed near to the kitchen to place an order, and it surprised me well enough... they serve Italian Assam Laksa! What about that? It uses Spaghetti instead of local noodle, RM4/bowl.

Simple Assam Laksa

Oh dear - it was Spaghetti!

Honestly, it was yummy! Just love the noodle mixed onto the local assam laksa favor, simply delicious.
Worth a try if you happen to be around.

The address :
Hai Peng Kopitiam
Jalan Haji Abdul Aziz
25000 Kuantan, Pahang
(next to Sin Chew Jit Poh's office, opposite AmBank)