Abalone Claypot Rice

I just bought a multi cooker for weekend cooking, steamboat or BBQ.  So I tried for today's lunch. I cooked claypot rice with oriental sausages and baby abalone. Try something simple and easy first. 

I googled the recipe online and found something. I think generally just dump all the seasoning into the pot with the rice.  But I stirfried the garlic, shallot and the oriental sausage pieces with oil first before adding water and rice. The seasoning is just light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, put a bit of knorr stocks and Chinese cooking wine. I added wolf berried for eye nutrition, angelica herbs (dang gui) because I like the taste and kelp for a bit of taste and chilli of course. 

I still have the baby abalone in small can from CNY 2 weeks ago, last can. I put the gravy with the abalone into the pot as well.  I realised it was too much water. Next time I should have considered the gravy from abalone so the water should not be too much.

It turned out to be a bit mussy as I put too much water. However the taste was nice. I would perfect this recipe for weekend meal. Marco will say nice to the food I cook eventhough I think my food sucks. LOL

My 39th Birthday, 2021

The global economy of the world generally is not good and my job is greatly affected. I know some people make more money during this pandemic. However in MICE industry, we feel the great impact of this situation.

I had a very simple day. No celebration. Just got cake, cut and ate it. My helper cooked birthday noodle. Simple like normal days.

Marco is very sweet boy. He prepared a present for me around 2-3 weeks before my birthday. He saved his pocket money to get me something at his school bookshop. He kept the items secret from me. 2 days before my birthday, he boxed it and wrapped it with paper and tied with a ribbon. Since he couldn't tie a ribbon, he came to me and asked me to tie the ribbon for my own present. LOL. He hid the present somewhere for me to find.

On my birthday, he was so happy therefore he told many people he met at school and when he was on the way home that his mummy had birthday today. When he reached home, he told me he bought another present for me. So I got 2 presents.  

I opened my presents. The box contained 2 purple pens and 1 mechanical pencil (I think I will give him back when he is ready to use the thin mechanical pencil). The other present is a modelling clay. LOL...Reminds me of how happy I was when I was lower primary to receive such gifts. He is a very sweet boy. I love him so much.

After cutting cake, I played modelling clay with MG. We worked together to build Baby Yoda. I did the head, body, scarf, hands and ears (basically almost everything). He helped me to cut the ears to be the same size, attached them to the head and the eyes.

Divina also gave me cheese cake from Twelve Cupcakes. It was nice. These 2 years have been though journey for me. For care and concerns, I thank you so much.

Meadow Potato Chips

I have seen this potato chips in Giant hypermarket many times. Judging from the price for just $1, I thought I didn't want to waste money to buy such lousy potato chips. 

One of my ex-colleagues told me that Meadow brand is nice. I was quite surprised. So I tried to buy 2 packages first, truffle and BBQ. I think the both turned out very nice. The truffle one is more to salty flavour with infused of truffle smell. The BBQ one is more on the sweet side which Marco prefers more.

The thickness of the chips is just nice. It's more on the thin side, not like ruffles. Price is also value for money. I don't pay $4 for just a bag of potato chips.  I am definitely going to buy the truffle one again.

www.chngkae.com

 I saw NOC did a review about CNY goodies from this shop. Suddenly I saw one at my office. The packaging is super unique. Nice oriental vintage design box with 3 gigantic majong tiles inside. The majong tiles are metal tin. One for pandan pineapple tarts, one for shrimp spring rolls and one for some kind of butter sagoo kueh.

The three snacks are average taste but very decent, nothing ordinary. What makes it outstanding is the packaging. It is good for gift. But if you ask me whether I buy for myself, I would say NO.

Tai Dong Teochew Duck Rice at Sims Village Market

 This was my second time getting my lunch from this stall. It was because the Hollywood duck rice stall was close. So from my statement you should know that I prefer Hollywood duck rice over this Tai Dong one.

I got set B $4.50 and added one egg $0.50. The experience eating the duck was not so shiok because of the bones. Too many bones and they were everywhere. I also realised there were little edible duck meat because of the bone scattered everywhere in small pieces. I am not so sure whethere the way of cutting duck affects the eating experience. Because I have eaten ducks in many restaurant (such as London Fat duck and Dian Xiao Er), the way the cut ducks are not as messy as the duck from this stall. Sorry, I just stating my eating experience honestly and affect the entire lunch experience apart from just judging from taste only.

Although Food King gave 3 stars to this stall, I still think it's just 2 stars kind. Please take note that their presentation is very unappealing. 

Calls from School Pay Phone

I received call around 10am few days ago. When I picked up it had been disconnected. I called back the number but it was busy tone.

Yesterday around 10am when I just reached office, suddenly my phone rang. It was the same number calling me few days ago. I picked up and it was so noisy on the other side. It was MG calling me. He was not sure that he was calling my number and  he asked "are you my mummy?"

It was so sweet that he called me during recess before buying food. He said he put in 50 cent into the payphone. I said don't waste money for this call. Put 10 cent can already. He made my day by calling me in the morning. So so sweet. I was not expecting it.

He recently did sweet things for me like preparing my birthday present from many days before hand. When I coughed night time, he got me a cup of water and said "Mummy, you drink!". I think he is a sweet boy. He just needs to manage his emotion more.

He mentioned that he wanted to call me again from his school. I told him that it's better to save his money than just calling me too often. He just needs to learn how to save money since young. Everything needs to get started from young age and it will be habitual later on.

Bakmi Gocit, Ayam Jamur

I had craving for Indonesian Bakmi. So I found bakmi gocit which I heard it is not bad. The seller stayed at Punggol so I met her at Buangkok MRT to collect which is quite convenient for me. I tried the chicken mushroom noodle and the normal chicken noodle. 

Inside the main packaging, they packaged individual seasoning and the meat being separated to the mushroom. But look at the amount of meat given...duh...very little.

My helper cooked it like cooking instant noodle. She also added green vegetables and fried shallot. Why I like bakmi Gocit more than bakmi Ernie is the pork fat smell. Bakmi Gocit got certain nice smell like pork fat but it is halal. The amount of meat is really a disappointment.