Weekend with Janet & Duane and Alex

We had Janet & Duane over at our place for dinner for the second time. They are shifting to their new home at Waverley Park, which is close to 30km from where we are right now. So we have to treasure their last few weekends at St Kilda Road. We also invited our housemate, Alex along.

Johanna is quite busy with exams so I had agreed to cook. I had decided to learn how to make spaghetti marinara and scallop for starters. Alex had made some lovely chocolate brownies for dessert. We also had some white wine to accompany the food. I wasn't that satisfied with the starter and main course I made. Still a lot of room to improve. But it was a great experience to learn something new as I've been lazy to learn new recipes for quite some time.



We ended up watching "Twin Towers" after dinner. I've run out of good movies to watch and decided to watch this movie I've acquired quite a while ago. It turned out to be quite boring. Nevertheless, I hope Janet, Duane and Alex enjoyed the evening.


Scallop in white wine sauce and cream and mozzarella cheese


Cooking in process


Spaghetti marinara


Chocolate brownies

More photos here.

Our Apartment

Finally got all the furniture delivered and set up. Now this place truly feels like home. Wish I have a wider lense to shoot these photos.

Living room







Master Bedroom



Study



View from outside

Guests at home

I invited my colleagues Chit Wai and Daren over after work last Friday.

Chit Wai is from Penang while Daren is from Sabah.

I prepared some lamb chops to cook during lunch time. I started cooking upon arriving back from work while Chit Wai and Daren were in the living room.

Unfortunately, the lamb chops I made that evening was something I would rather forget for a long time. Since I'm not experienced with red meat, I still don't know whether I undercooked the meat or the quality of the meat was not good as the lamb was very chewy. The aubergine sides I tried to make for the first time also tasted bland and dry. It turned out very different from the one I've made for Duane few weeks ago. I felt really bad that my guests have to finish the dinner.

Anyway, after dinner, we watched Mr and Mrs Smith on TV while chatting. Dessert was chocolate chip ice-cream. Good that it was not made by me.

Cooking

I've been a very lucky guy lately. Not only I work so near home, I get to eat lunch at home too since Johanna is not working.

She has been downloading many recipes from the Internet. Most of them turned out very good and I have been enjoying my lunches and dinners at home - sweet and sour chicken, kong pou chicken, chili chicken, tom yum soup, black pepper beef, tangy sauce chikcen, etc. Top that off with her favourite ginseng soup. Yum!

The only downside is I get fewer chance to cook. Also, she only cooks Malaysian/Chinese dishes as she don't quite like Western food. Hence I have to make use of the very few precious opportunity to warm up my grill pan. The Scanpan titanium wok and grill pan we bought on Boxing Day last year are really impressive. However, my cooking has been less than impressive lately. Perhaps it is something that requires a lot of practice. And practices are difficult to come by ever since Johanna rules the kitchen.

The very few things I've cooked since last month...

My usual grilled chicken, with grilled broccoli and tomato, substituting ground coriander with steak spice


Swordfish with grilled asparagus and tomato. Johanna said not nice.


Tuna with grilled asparagus and tomato.

Room to let

I'm going to put this ad in the Star tomorrow or the day after.

TAMAN SEA SS23 Room w aircond for Single Executive. Quiet, clean and furnished house. Parking avl. Available 11/11/07. Pls call JY 012-3796898.

We have one room to let out. Our house comes furnished with TV, hi-fi, DVD player, fridge, water heater, washing machine, oven, rice cooker, kitchen utensils, cockery, auto gate, etc. Must be neat and tidy. Very near to Taman Megah, Taman Mayang and Taman Sea commercial areas.

If you have friends who are interested, please ask him/her to give me a call at 012 3796898.

Dinner with Victor & Clare

I was very delighted to have my Bapak and Mak over for dinner last night.

After attending a number of Christmas parties organised by the McWilliams over the years, it's only fair that I make them a dinner in return.

It's great to see them back in the UK, after retiring from their teaching roles in KTJ after a whopping 12 years.

So here is the photo of the dinner, not including the dessert - Tarte Tatin. Can't remember how Clare pronounced the name of this French dessert.

And here is everyone...

And also I'm suppose to check out this book called The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw, a great read according to Clare.

Lunch with Suk Yi & Christine

Johanna & I invited Suk Yi and Christine over for lunch yesterday.

I've known Suk Yi since primary school years through a competition where we represented Perak State. Christine is her housemate. We actually knew Christine during Rachel's son, Ethan's birthday party. Christine is one of Rachel's friends and we were surprised to learn that she and Suk Yi are housemates during our conversation. I have learnt to get used to all these coincidence and 'what a small world' thingy... after so many similar incidents.

Xian & Niki @ Home

Since we moved in to this place, we've been inviting friends/family over for lunch or dinner. It has been quite a while since we moved in but due to various reasons we have not had Xian & Niki over at our place.

One Friday evening (29 June), Xian & Niki finally made it. It was a simple dinner - chicken breast and grilled lamb, due to time constraint. We had ice cream and pudding for dessert as well.

Both of them are starting new jobs this month. All the best!

Brian & Cherlyn in London

It was nearly a small meet up for Vialentino & Community members in London, but it was not to be.

Netcat & Meowsou was here on Thursday night, on their honeymoon to Europe. But we couldn't meet up as they only arrived late at their hotel which was only 2 miles away from my place.

But then, on the weekend we had Brian and Cherlyn a.k.a. BrianLulu over at our place. It was Cherlyn's first proper visit to London. Johanna and I took them to city centre first for some shopping. But before that we brought them to NCR restaurant - the only Malaysian restaurant in London Chinatown for lunch. The food there is really good and authentic. Never failed to make us feel more at home.

Prawn mee, better known as Hokkien mee in Penang

After lunch, Brian's sister Belle, joined us. She's in London on holiday working visa. We walked around Piccadilly and then towards Oxford Street via Regent Street. Plenty of shops but also a bit of rain. Johanna also spent some time at Laura Ashley checking out some clothes.

We proceed to Harrods after that, briefly walking through a few sections as the place is too big. We made our way to Westminster after that. It was too late to walk to Buckingham Palace and St. James's Park, so we gave it a miss. We decided to make our way to Tower Bridge instead. There was no District/Circle line running between Whitechapel and Earls Court so we had to take Jubilee line to Bermondsey and change to a bus from there. Unfortunately, I brought them onto the wrong bus and we ended up back in town. So I brought them for dinner at Jade Garden instead.

After dinner, I decided to bring them back to Tower Bridge. I know Brian is yearning for some good photography and he had not manage much on that cloudy and rainy day. At last we arrived at Tower Bridge on a bus from Liverpool Street. We walked across the bridge to the South bank. The night view of the bridge from there is splendid. We managed a few photos before calling it a day.


Tower Bridge @ night

The next day I made them English breakfast. We then proceed to Canary Wharf. The weather was equally as bad as the day before, cloudy and wet. I brought them to Lotus Floating restaurant for a late dim sum lunch before Brian & Cherlyn departed for Swindon, dropping off Belle in North East London on the way.




Outside Lotus Floating restaurant

A Great Coriander Mystery

I've decided to post this to see whether anyone can help me solve this great mystery. It has been baffling me since this morning.

I was shocked to find my coriander plant in a mess this morning, as shown in the photo. I left it on the floor since yesterday, at a place with good sunlight. Johanna had trimmed the plant two nights ago as it was getting too leafy.

I have no idea what have caused the earth to be scattered around the plant. It looks like somebody (who?) had uprooted the plant and then placed it back in the pot, or something in the pot had exploded, causing the earth to be scattered all over the place. Can a coriander plant explode?

Hmm... I have a feeling this is going to be one unsolved mystery in my life. Any Sherlock Holmes out there?

Jonathan & Nancy

It has been more than half a year since Jo and I arrived in London. Finally, we've managed to get Johanna's cousin - Jonathan, and girlfriend Nancy to visit us at our flat. Both are musicians playing for reputable orchestras.