Always my favorite!

Bubur Taiwan was the first came to my mind when being questioned what to have for the dinner yesterday.
I fully aware that this is not my first time writting about this cuisine. Needless to say that this is one from those dishes that I love to ingest! It would be very easy to lure me away to visit this resto. I'll be gleefully joined you guys no matter how stuffy or how overheated I might get.
Century egg congee plus the palatable side dishes will surely make my day!

Caption 1 : Century egg + steamed minced pork with salted fish.
Caption 2 : Peanut, stir fried green bean with dried shrimp, braised preserved vegetable with pork and fried fish meat.
Caption 3 : Chicken congee, salted egg, grilled pork meat and chili padi pork meat.

The friend shook her head over and over when she saw how I manage my congee. Hehe..
And I like to have them this way, heavenly!

I'm not good in taking care of plants and animals

If u still remember that I brought 2 pots of plants to my cubicle last month, there is no longer 2 pots in my office now.
The green leaves went yellowish from day to day (since the very first day I brought it to work). Its my bad that I never put any fertilizer on it. Although I watered it daily, the soil was still dry and hard after some good hours. I didnt have the good memory to recall and put it near the window to allow the plant to get the sunshine.
At the end of the day, I have to pull the plants out of the soil. And they were lying withered and forlorn.
Xiao mei have the same plant with me. Hers has as well undergone approximately the same chronicle as mine. I challenged her to revive the plants back to complete health, at least 5 leaves in one row.
Now u can see the vivid evidences of this all about, that I have to lose to her!

The pics below were taken a week back when she bragged to me that she has 4 leaves at that time. Another.one.to.go!

Oh well... She is now laughing with contentment and said " Jie, see! They are seven now!!!"

It was a seafood feast!

I always love Sunday!
The mom was in serious craving of seafood since few days ago.
With the mom who was prohibited to savor prawns/shrimp in any recipe by the doctor and Dad who is a hypertension sufferer that he takes the blood pressure medication daily, me and xiao mei has to completely polish off the whole portion of steamed fresh shrimps.
The freshness of each of our dishes was just so obvious.
IDR. 196K for 1kg of crab in sweet sour sauce, half a kg of steamed fresh shrimps, another half a kg of cockles and clams, 1/2 kg of fried fish, 2 pieces of stewed eggplant and petai beans plus 3 coconut juices was reasonable and very affordable. Love the seafood spread!
Get ourselves indulged in good food is the way to spend the weekend!

Still under pressure of work

Hectic hours in office has made me detached from my social life. Many times the word "succumb" has come into my mind and I oftenly reckon that I'm not as deft as the ex manager. The distressed mind has sometimes occupied the whole me. Sigh..
I know I am abstinence from thinking about quit, it might not happen. But the mountain high of work that I've been dealing with over 2 months cause me to feel more than woozy.
I have my 2 new girls with me in office now, since the other two has been very familiar in catching up on their own errands (which I'm thankful to them). Notwithstanding, the 2 new girls which are supposed to be the key persons in my department still need a bunch of attention from me. I still recheck all their work and I should say that I am doubting when I will ever pull through this situation. I am more than hoping to only "supervise" them, not getting involved in their paper work anymore. I want them to be fluent in their work, so that I will be able to focus my mind to my other bigger task at hand.
Still, the old slogan for myself : "Keep on striving and never give up.."

Left my desk at ard 7pm today, which I claimed as "early enough" for this moment. With the BB device with me, I only have the spare time to take a glimpse on FB while on my way home and I saw this picture! A very mesmerizing smile from a petite Celine! This snap really caught my full attention. At the end of my hectic day, she has made my day!

In other note, I'm still in pie-mood. Pleaded mom to bake chicken pie and I brought them to office for my yesterday and today's lunch. After more than a decade, finally mom was getting challenged by the fruit pie I bought from my ex-coworker last Saturday. LOL..

Fruit Pie

Have I ever mentioned that I was seeking for luscious pie before?
I am a pie lover, I pretty much love every kind of pie. So, it's explicable why I fancy more pastry than filling when it comes to pineapple tarts. I would love to know if there are ppl selling pineapple tarts with no filling, I'm sure I'll be more than gleeful to chew on the crumbly pastry.
FB is ultra social nowadays, I came across some photos of my former coworker and I just couldn't resist not to drop her some lines to know further about her business. I remember vividly that she is good at cooking and baking, and I'm quite astounded to know that she has now turned her hobbies into her current job.
After exchanging the PIN#, we chatted for a good few minutes before I decided on which pie I would like to get from her.
I finally found the pie that I have been wanted for many months. Fruit pie mesmerized me the first time I saw the picture.
At the end, Saturday evening when I back from work, the fruit pie has been seated well at rear seat behind the driver.
Xiao mei was happy to have me lugging the fruit pie home. We immediately cut a slice and had the first gnaw. The fruits are sweet enough as they are, I as well love every single bit of the butter vla, but the pastry was a little too hard and flaky. Overall, it tasted perfecto!
To add on this post, I have ordered for another tray of pie for the next Saturday. This time, I'll go for apple pie. Will post the photos and pen down my thought and opinion about it next week.

Happy Dragon Boat Festival 2011!!

Exploring Lake Toba and Samosir Island

2 days after the outbound trip in Brastagi, I was on a long road trip to Lake Toba (again).
Fen's friend was coming all the way from Tokyo, so there's me and the other pals partook to join this trip.
We headed off to Parapat city from Medan at ard 7.30am. Gosh! I was not fully awakened yet until I found out that conversing with the Japanese guy was not dull at all :)
3 hrs ride and we were greeted by the drizzling rain in Siantar city which is an hour away from Lake Toba. We decided to sojourn at this well-known noodle stall to beat our hunger pangs before continuing the journey and the Japan friend squealed in delight "oishii"!!! LOL.. He is not a food picky person, he uttered oishii many times. He raved about the noodle and sipped the soup with gusto. Even more to our surprise, he gulped down all the chili pieces. Nothing left, the bowl was spick and span!
Another an hour, we finally got to see the Lake Toba in distance. We haven't reach the intended place yet, but we could have an amazing view of the lake through the window. It appeared much larger and much broader than what I was thinking in my mind. That explained how I could see it through the window. It was not our first time being there, but still we were impressed by it's beautifulness. It made the japan friend again squealed with glee "sugoii!!!" We got on a half an hour ferry ride to Samosir Island, the largest island within an island. Due to failed to embark on a large ferry which could accommodate cars, we could only left the car at the city. Our dandy friend who drove us there is knowledgeable about the history of the city, he led us to visit many historical spots in Samosir. Stopped over the kings tombs, one of the many historical spots. There was a narrator telling us the story of the history and culture of the island dwellers in the earlier era. We were obliged to drape the ulos over the shoulder before entering the tombs area. The Japan guy was fascinated enough to listen intently to the narrator, and waiting patiently for our translation in english. He is not too fluent in english, his spoken english is hard to be comprehended either.

For the 2nd time, I was there again in tea plantation. The atmosphere was still the same, the scent of the nature was wonderful and I managed to take some photos of danbo with the large plot of greenery, beautiful!

The last but not the least, we never forgo the tasty nasi galung when on our way back home. The subtle meat of the beef rendang is the most delicacy, I miss it to the max since my last time I chewed on it. For me, the spiciness was not too intense. The most important thing is the Japan friend polished his portion off quickly and again uttered a low sound "Oishii..."

The lazy Sunday

Waking up at 6.30am every morning is torturing.
Public holiday made tis morning is the exclusion of those common days, I had the chance to satiate myself by having a long deep slumber, being free from any phone calls and work emails. The weather was gloomy enough to make me prolong my sleeping hours. Totally a bliss!
Xiao mei came up with her idea to whip up her signature dish for our lunch. Can say that she is more decent than me in any sort of household work, not excluding her culinary skill.
And spaghetti is one of the opulent dishes. All on her own, she managed to prep a big bowl of it. Very nice and moist with sauce.
I didnt make any effort on this, shame on me. U huh u huh..
Its large enough batch for today's lunch plus dinner. And we still have some remnants in the fridge. Xiao mei said she will heat it up for her brekkie tomorrow morning.