Happy 2006. Welcome 2007. . . . .

Weekend before Christmas....:)

Happy Holidays everyone!

The holiday season is here again... our first celebration was a lunch party and gift exchange at our home...

Lunch was chicken and prawn noodle soup, Loh mai fan and Seri Muka kueh... very sucessfully made...:). thanks to uncle hoe bok... i think the loh mai fan and kueh are great items to bring to a party..

After eating we gathered around and had the white elephant gift exchange... it was fun....... :)

Some of the popular gifts included a bottle of wine, a gift card and a set of walkie talkies..

Winter....

It's winter time here.... been cold and when we wake up in the morning, we see frost on the roof and on the cars by the street... a very pretty sight.

The leaves on our maple tree are also browning and leaves are dropping all over!

Check out the garden:

I raked the leaves already because the leaves will kill the grass if I don't rake it. But under those leaves, I found weeds..... living in a 4 season country is not easy. Nothing is ever the same all year round. Plants die in Autumn, flowers bloom in Spring. Grass grow at different rates all year round. In Malaysia, it seemed easier as the plants are always green as long as it gets water.....

Life is interesting......

We had House Guest and a chef...:)

My mom's frens Uncle Hoe Bok and Aunty Priscilla stayed with us over the last couple of days. It was fun having them around as they were easy to take care of and were willing to wake up early each day so that I can drop them off at the Bart station while I go to work. The SF weather was SO nice the last couple of days. Lucky for them...:)

The best part about their visit is.. Uncle Hoe Bok LOVES to cook. While they were here for only 5 nights, he made the following dishes:

1. Home made Kaya

2. Loh Mai Fan

3. Sweet and Sour Dungeness Crabs (We went over to Half Moon Bay and bought some fresh crabs)

4. Kueh Kocek (Fried Mash Banana)

5. Kueh Seri Muka (The green dessert)

6. Prawn Mee

7. Blue crab

8. Fried Banana/ Toffee Banana

9. Chui Kueh (White kueh with salty turnip)

10. Nasi Lemak with ikan bilis, sambal and peanuts

11. Lobak with dried shrimp

Note that out of the 5 nights, we ate out two nights.... the night before they left, we had two dinners... 1 sushi and then we came home and made nasi lemak and ate again....:) Such piggy's.....:D

Ahh... lots of leftovers for the rest of the week....:)

Steamboat party...

In celebration of Gordon's bday, we had some frens come over to the house; Jennie, Mei, Lisa, Paul and 2 year old Ananda.

Jennie and Mei bought the food... we had way too much food..:) but it was goood.... and of course we had plenty of left overs that lasted us the rest of the week......

Happy Birthday my favourite people!

Happy Birthday Cindy (my darling sister) and Happy Birthday Gordon (my darling husband)...

:)

Although my sister and Gordon's birthdays are a day apart, i get to celebrate both of their birthday together as ... Gordon's bday is Nov 24 (US time) and my sis bday is Nov 25(Singapore time).. which means... they celebrate their bdays together...:)---the great things about time differences...

To my dear sister... happy birthday.. wishing you another happy year ahead and may all things be great always...Wish we could spend more time together. Always love hanging out and doing our own things... luv u lots!

Here's a pic of my sis and her husband.....ain't she the prettiest..:)

For Gordon's bday... he wanted me to cook dinner for him.. and he requested for Curry Laksa... my husband is becoming SO Malaysian.. his only craving was Malaysian food...:P (the other day, when we went out with his frens.. he was talking and suddenly his fren, Mei said "Gordon talks so much like Lynda now... so I said "how?" and she said Gordon uses "lah" at the end of his sentences and I did not even notice it....)

Anyways, I made Curry Laksa (from scratch).... he liked it... the only complain was that it was not spicy enough!......

Here's the pic....

Thanksgiving...eating eating and SHOPPING...

Happy Thanksgiving...:)

We joined Gordon's family for Thanksgiving dinner. Although there was no turkey, we had loads of food... chinese style Thanksgiving.

Good food was followed by Gordon's Bday cake.....

The following day, we decided to wake up at 3.00am and hit the shops..(crazy-yah). This is the first time we had awaken so early to go shopping... Our first stop was Best Buy. Before we got there, we said, no one will wake up at 3am to go shopping..when we got there, the queue was wrapped around the building.. possible 300-400 people ahead of us. Anyways, we lined up.. in the cold... yes, my toes were numb...

Here are some pics from other stores..

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2006/11/24/BAGIFMJBOG5.DTL&o=0

At 5am, they let us in the store.. but first telling us that the 7 hour specials were all gone. They gave out coupons starting at 4am and we were left with some boring ones like PS2. This is the start of our shopping craze...Here are the places we went and what we bought..;)

1. Best Buy - language DVD's, DVD player, 100 DVD-R

2. Walmart - toys

3. Kohls - had to go here three times as the queue was SO long to pay that we hid our items and came back later to pay..

4. Sport Chalet - nothing to buy...

5. Home Depot - super ladder, wet-dry vac

6. Comp USA - nothing to buy

7. Circuit City - had to wait 1 hour to get in due to crowd control. (dumb!) and when we got in, nothing was left...:(

8. Toys-R-Us - line was too long so decided not to buy anything.

9. Target - nothing to buy....

10. Headed to the mall.... drank a Godiva Choc drink.... nothing to buy....cos it was after 1pm.

Conclusion.. I think we shopped till we dropped..... if we go again, i think I need to wear thicker socks.. my feet were cold.... and I think the real business is to sell coffee and donuts at 4am in the morning to the people in the lines....:)

Chocolate Factory Tour..:)

My weekend was eventful..:)

Met up with Ee Ling, Sheryl and Jessica to check out the Scharffen Berger factory in bekerley. It was a 1 hour tour of the factory which included a 1/2 talk about how chocolate comes about and some choc samples....:) It was yum..

Pic from Sheryl's camera...

We then headed over to Vik Chaat Cafe... this place was opened by an Indian man.. and serves great indian food.. we had samosas, biryani rice, Lamb Baida Roti (taste like murtabak) and Bhatura Cholle (puri)..:) ate too much! and did not leave room for dessert... this place is a hole in the wall and did not even have a restaurant name outside the shop. However, it was filled with people... with indian cooks behind the counter. sorry no pics... camera is in for repair and should be back tomorrow.. can't wait!

Here is the link to the restaurant.. has pictures of food......
http://www.vikdistributors.com/chaat/chaatMenu.html

Our final stop for the day was to Bekerley 4th Street. Nice cute shops... but did not buy anything...:)

Sunday - met up with Gordon friends, Mei and Jennie.. more eating involved. this time it was american brunch at Home restaurant, including:
1. Brioche French Toast, cinnamon apple compote, whipped cream
2. Niman Ranch brisket hash, bell peppers, onions, poached eggs
3. Caggiano’s Italian Sausage omelet, red peppers, mozzarella

All I rememeber is, it was nice...:) cos we sat along the window and watch the cars pass....

It's a three day work week before Thanksgiving and Gordon and Cindy's Birthday!

:):):):):):)

Cal Berkerley vs UCLA Football game...

Gordon and I decided to support the UCLA football team as they played against the Cal Bears.... it also gave us a chance to hang out with Ee Ling and Eric who were big supporters of Berkerley...

It was a fun outing.. with the final score ending at 38-24. UCLA lost. Oh well.. we had fun....:) This was followed by Thai food dinner.... yummm.....

What's a good men shaver to buy?

My hubby needs a new shaver.....

Need some input on what is a good shaver to buy for him.. his bday is coming up and what better gift to get than a shaver..:)

Can anyone recommend me a good shaver?

:D

* I ended up buying a Norelco shaver. Works well. My honey says any shaver will do since he is an asian man...........

We are back from our vacation....

After 11 days, 46 hours of plane rides, 16 hours of bus rides, 8 airline meals, 4 massages and a lot of eating.... we are back.

Our journey started with us flying out from SFO via China Airlines. Tip to everyone, China Airlines doesn't have individual TV's on each seat, so even if it's cheap, pay a bit more and sit Eva, Cathay, SIA, etc...:). Total flight time was 18 hours.

Our arrival to KL was greeted with coffee shop food. We ate Prawn mee, char kuew teow, curry laksa and rojak. After that we went home, rested and headed out for our 1 hour massages. This is a full body massage for about 8 USD..:)

Since we had little time in KL, our first dinner was at Fatty Crab with family and frens (adeline and philip). Fatty Crab has this sweet and sour sauce that is SO SO good. If you ever go there, remember to ask for extra sauce. We got two extra bowls of sauce and ate it with bread. YUM!

Dinner was followed by dessert at Chef Long in SS2. They had some good hot desserts.

Did not sleep much cos the Flight to Nepal was at 7.30am and we had to get on airport limo at 4.30am.... our flight left late and had to stopover in Singapore. Total flight time was 7 hours.

ok ok, my next blog will be about Nepal. I will finish this blog with what I ate after coming back from Nepal..:)

Friday Brunch - O&S Coffee Shop.
Friday Dinner - Ang Kee Restaurant. Ate fatty pork, chicken, fish

Saturday Breakfast - Jaipur Curry House. Ate Roti Canai..
Saturday Lunch - Noodles with Prawn Petai
Saturday Dinner - Ang Kee Restaurant. Had Big prawn noodle, black noodle, Buddha Jump over the wall soup

Sunday Brunch - Pan Mee in KL....

KL is so much fun for eating,...:) Was able to hit 1 Utama for shopping and was able to go to another massage on Friday as well....

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

Sambal Belacan

In an attempt to make my food more tasty, I started making my own Sambal Belacan.

For those who dont know what it is, here is the info from wikipedia....:)

Belacan, a Malay variety of shrimp paste, is prepared from fresh tiny shrimp of a species known as geragau in Malay. These are mashed into a paste and buried for several months. The fermented shrimp are then dug up, fried and hard-pressed into cakes.
Belacan is used as an ingredient in many dishes, or eaten on its own with rice. A common preparation is sambal belacan, made by mixing belacan with chilli peppers, minced garlic, shallot paste and sugar.

My first trial ended up being too spicy as I was lazy to de-seed the chillies. I had to add sugar and lots of lemons to help make it less spicy.

My attempt today was better...:) Now I eat everything with this.........

We are going to Nepal.....:)

After much planning and looking, we decided to head to Nepal for a vacation..:) My sis informed me of her long holiday in end Oct due to the Raya holidays and I decided to plan a trip together....

So, Gordon, his brother Henry, my sis, her husband Jin, my mom and myself will head to Nepal in Oct.

Interesting enough, all flights were fully booked to Nepal unless one takes a tour... so, we will stop in Kuala Lumpur and take a tour from there. And of course, we get to EAT Malaysian food....woopppppeeeee...:)

Waiting patiently for this vacation... The dates are Oct 18-29....:)

Our first choice was China... but tours were fully booked and too much coordination was needed...... Nepal.. here we come....

dum dee dumm dummm....

I sold it!

After driving my car for 7 years, I finally sold it today.

For those who rememeber, I drove a 1995 black 4-door Honda Accord. I fell in love with the car after I graduated from uni. My intend was to buy a honda Civic, but I test drove the honda accord and of course I liked the Accord better.

The milieage on the car marked 178,674 miles. I bought it when it was 69,990 miles..:)

Highlights of trips taken with the car...
1. From Santa Rosa to Palo Alto most weekends in 2000-2001
2. From Santa Clara to Pleasanton every workday from 2001-2003
3. From San Francisco to Pleasanton every workday from 2003-2004
4. From Castro Valley to Pleasanton every workday from 2004-2006
5. Loads of road trips including trips to Seattle, LA, Tahoe, and many many more...:)

So long my dear car. I really had loads of fun with it. Too many memories........ Yikes, I miss the car already!

Chicken Vindaloo?

Gordon attempted to cook Chicken Vindaloo from scratch...:) I like the sauce....

A Fondue Affair...

Happy Wedding Anniversary to Us...:)

Gordon and I celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary on Sunday. We are excited that we have reached today and are in good spirits..... First years are suppose to be the hardest. We had some tough moments, and I think we have learned a lot from each other through marriage..

To celebrate this special day, we made reservations are La Fondue in Saratoga. This place is always crowded but we managed to get a 4.30pm reservation..(early dinner)

Since it was a special occasion, we went the combination fondue which included:

1. Salad for each person
2. Cheese fondue with bread, fruits, garlic, pickle etc etc
3. 6 kinds of meat (buffalo, elk, duck, venison, ostrich and wild boar)
4. Chocolate fondue with banana, strawberries, mashmallows, grapes, etc etc.

We had a feast. The grilled the meat on our own and ate so much!

Check out the pictures. This is a great romantic place....:) We got to blow candles since we were celebrating our anniversary..........

Get Your Own! View Slideshow

Gordon's Mom's Bday...:)

Happy Birthday mom!

Coconut Salmon

Gordon made coconut salmon Friday night...:) It was good.. as usual..>:)

Not sure why the pictures are posting this way........

Welcome Baby Alissa

:) Baby Alissa finally arrived. Congrats Chung and Lily on this beautiful baby!....:)

James and Dai's Wedding... Congrats!

Our dear friend James got married over the weekend. We cannot believe he is now officially married! The wedding was a very beautiful one. They had the wedding just outside of Dai's house. Simple and sweet and they had a harpist and a guy playing the trumpet! I love the harpist..:)

The wedding ceremony was completed with a nice lunch at Dai's house. We had satay, spring rolls, jelly, cherries, strawberries.. all the yummy food! (forgot to take a picture of the food..)

Dinner was celebrated at Koi Palace. This place is super duper crowded during dim-sum and we had never tried the dinner. This was a very good chance, and of course the food was good! The sharks fin were in chunks.. (urm, if my mom is reading this, she would know that a lot of sharks were killed for this dinner)...............We had a great time. Congrats to James and Dai!

Gordon made me dinner...:)

This week, Gordon promised that he would cook dinner. He borrowed a seafood cookbook from our fren Chung.

Monday evening came around and I asked Gordon what he had planned for dinner. His response, "I have not grocery shopped yet".

...... does that mean Lynda has to cook???

So, we looked into the refrigerator and decided that I should make same baked spaghetti since we had frozen meat, pasta sauce, garlic and spaghetti...:)

Tuesday night came around, and we had leftovers of the baked spaghetti..

Wednesday and Gordon made a run to Oakland Chinatown. Which means, he cooked dinner!

Gordon made a delicious dish of "Chinese-style prawns". He made it from scratch and it tasted SO good!

Check out the pictures....

Five minutes later....(literally 5 minutes later)

So very delicious. Since Gordon doesn't really cook too much... I am really proud of him...:) Can't wait for tomorrow! More good food planned!!!