BelangZ

A Taste of Malaysia in Canberra~ Date: 27 June 2012 It is hard enough to find good halal food here, and it is a whole other story to find halal Malaysian food. At first, we were planning to go to Mamak Corner but since the tauke of Roti House informed us that Mamak Corner sells pork and is not halal, we changed our mind (obviously). Some non-food related info: The Malaysian Chinese tauke had no problem speaking Malay although he has been staying in Australia for 11 years... So order in Malay if you wish or don't try to ngumpat ! The chef is a Malay man from Kedah. The deco is classy. The menu is typical mamak food but the price is WOW ! Orang putih ordered 'sambal ikan bilis'... Impressive~ Interviewing the Kedah Chef: Halal logo ada maaa... Ini kakak was-was meh ? Nasi goreng pataya: Roti canai, kuey tiaw goreng and teh tarik kaawww!! Roti tisu pon ada : Nasi goreng kampung: Some cravings were definitely satisfied tonight... But o...

Seriously... Fuh!!! I have to record this milestone... My first ever serunding daging , which I never imagined I would actually even try to make. We are planning to go on a road trip to Sydney next week and apart from sambal ikan bilis , another common Malay food for on-the-go is serunding. I remembered JuliZac's mom made a bag full of homemade serunding for our trip to Hong Kong. And it was really good - we ate it with nasi impit separa basi and macaroni. Since nobody's mom is going to make it this time around, I have to make it myself! Browsed the internet and used this recipe as a guideline. Naturally, I didn't follow the steps exactly, made a few changes: 1) Did not bother to siat-siat daging ... Used minced meat instead. 2) Did not have any ketumbar (which I know is the most important spice for serunding), so replaced it with curry powder ( memang suka hati! ) I also read from another site that it takes about 2-3 hours to make this cuisine. However......

Brisbane, Again and Again! Date : 12 May 2012 About 1 year ago, my friends and I hopped on Air Asia, visited Gold Coast and Brisbane. The depressing story  here . At that time I was 2 months pregnant. I was not sure then that I will be back. So now, with Ju Jr. out and about, Hasben and I re-visited Parkland. It is sooo much better than the last time, because: In 2011, it was recovering from the horrible flood. All this time I was wondering what was all this construction site and swampy area about?! We arrived in Parkland in the evening, parked our car underground ($15!! But better than taking the risk of saman ), and excitedly pointing out here and there.. "Dulu kita lalu sini!" City of Brisbane: The boys enjoying the sunset: Free public pool: Street Beach: Aquativity - If only we had out bikinis on, haha! Aquativity at night - colourful lights on! River cruise - we went on one of these last year: Carvings on the Nepal Peace Pago...

From Flowery to Stripy! Owh how I've missed sewing! It is quite hard to find hobby-time when you're busy juggling between report writing and screaming baby! But today, I successfully cleared up my timetable for some ME time (screaming baby is always in the picture, nothing much I can do about that). What's interesting here in Toowoomba is Vinnie's - a volunteer/charity-based secondhand shop where people can donate their unwanted things, and other people (like me) can buy these things at very cheap prices. The money goes to charity. Can you see how this is a win-win-win-win situation?: Doner clears house from junks, buyer gets cheap quality items, some folks get charity money, and volunteers get satisfaction for being good people (???). We should have this sort of shops in Malaysia! Anyways, as a good-hearted person, I like shopping at Vinnie's (seriously, because I'm a cheapskate). I bought an old sofa-bed for $20 early this year. Two small beds, stacked o...

Happy Mum's Day~ Date: 13 May 2012 I have been extremely busy lately that blogging seemed impossible! But today, I have to make an exception since it is my first Mother's Day as a mum. My kid is too small to do any heart-melting gestures so it was not really an extraordinary day. However, Hasben did something sweet on behalf of Kimi - a cute card for lil old me~! Yeaah!! TQ dearest!~ At 1PM, we went for our first Aussie theatre - Cinderella. It was a cute play, enjoyed by me, Hasben and our Malaysian friends. Kimi? He slept halfway and tried to join the act by screaming. Overall, he behaved well so he passed the test for future cinema activities (provided he can have his milk ASAP)... Excited we are!  Cinderella - As told by Toby!  The stepmom and stepsisters....  Toby the story teller~ Cindy wearing her special shoes... In the evening, I tried my hands on baking my first chocolate cake - so-called Mother's Day cake - which turned...

Muslims in general are well aware of the power of Ayat Kursi. I have always preferred to have it hanged at home, not just for display purposes, but to remind the whole family to recite it at least once a day. In Malaysia, it is easy to purchase decorative writings of Ayat Kursi, or other ayats and surahs even. Here, I decided to design, print on A4 paper and frame it since I am not sure where to buy it. I would like to share with everyone my copy of Ayat Kursi. The background is black so it will use up a lot of black ink if you're thinking of printing it =p Wassalam...

Safety First! The Australian government is strict about the use of car seats. Babies travelling by cars must be placed on a car seat - securely buckled. Each seat can only accomodate 1 person, unlike in Malaysia, where we can sumbat selagi boleh as long as the door can be shut! Hihi...! Anyways, since Kimi will be doing a lot of travelling with his kaki jalan parents, we'll need to provide a comfy car seat for him. For this small sewing project, I've made him seat belt covers to protect his neck. Just for the record, I've only recently explored other stitch options on my sewing machine - I have found out about the other patterns you can use... So jakun ! With this new knowledge (Duh... Ammature ~) and using scrap cloth and an unwanted scarf for the padding: Completed with snap buttons: Kimi the QA and QC boy! He says, " Bolehla, kat kedai $5 je pon ~" Buckle up! Time to go...! Blogging on the go!