Akramin's visit

Akramin @ PS is here for a 2 week stay. He's here for a friend's wedding in London, and I offered him a place to stay rather than spending quids on B&B's in London. He's also visiting all the places where he used to spend time as a student in London. On the day of his arrival, I told him to text me once he got into Hampden Park as that would give me right time to arrive at the station in Eastbourne to meet up with him. Too bad, he didn't get my message quite right. He then called me from the public phone at the station whilst I was having my breakfast!!! I jumped and laughed. hehehe. Took him for lunch at Yummy Noodle, then for a photo shoot along the pier before he went off to London for a reunion.




So, he's been making return trips to London, and he's in London at the moment. Yesterday, I decided to come along with him and meet up with Shahin as I didn't have anything to do. Plus, it's only £8.90 return, might as well make the best use of my railcard. I also wanted to look for something for mom's coming up birthday. We split up at Paddington, and London transport was still horrible. Few lines were still closed.

Had a quick breakfast from Puccino's...my usual work-time breakfast. Look what Puccino's has done to him!


I had lunch at Harrods for the second time, and the pizza is still a wow! Went there for a 3-course meal and simply worth every penny. The £90 lunch certainly kept me filled up the whole day! hahhaa Although I must say, my tiramisu presents and tastes much better! ahahhaha

My Pizza as main course filled with tons of fresh seafoods!!


Then had a look around at Harrods for the right stuff for mom. There were so many good handbags that I perfectly knew mom would love it, but they're just too big for PS to bring it home for me. At the same time, I can't afford to have it posted as it's too risky to lose it. Then we moved to Selfridges and House of Fraser. Did I get anything? NOPE! arrgh... I gave up and decided to go to Leicester Square. End up watching Too Fast Too Furious. It was good, but not as good as the previous versions of the movie. Had dinner at Nando's before I head back to Victoria for Eastbourne.



As it is spring already, take a look at those bloomed flowers.


It's a nice weather too, and people were just basking in the sun almost on any green space available.


I hate Nando's this time. One it was full. Secondly, the drinks dispenser were broken and all you get were thick sweet syrup of lemonade, fanta or coke. You end up having to get your bottomless drinks from the counter, but stupidly the people are just lazy and non-helpful! One of the counterman had the Sprite splashed on me, and he didn't even apologise!!!! How rude, luckily the manager apologised.

My mozzarella and tomato croissant

A success!!


Ingredients:
Ready rolled puff pastry
Ripe tomatoes - cut and salted
Grated Mozzarella
Thyme

Gosh, could I be missing home?

Well... today I made nasi katok for lunch. Simply because I had too much running in my head on what to eat. Made this nasi katok whilst my mozzarella and tomato croissant baking in the oven.



These are my mozzarella and tomato croissant before it is baked. Will put up the baked picture later once it's ready. This is my attempt to overcome my craving for the ones made by Pret A Manger. Hope it tastes alright.

Udang Salai

I just had my dinner. Took me about 5mins to prepare. Since I got those fresh king prawns from Bayswater, my ideas for preparing prawns are just endless. Up to an exhaustion, I decided to make a simple dish, Udang Salai. Simply translates, grilled prawns. No seasoning needed just a hot pan! But the trick is the cooking technique making sure it's not overcooked, nor undercooked. If it's too overcooked, the skin won't peel off and you get manky prawns to eat. And I got it just perfect. Not sure if this is a Bruneian dish, or a Chinese dish. Perhaps a mix of both. My dipping sauce is of course kicap lada (siya sauce with chilli).

This dish has always been my favourite since I was a kid. This is my recipe when I first started cooking! eheheh

Monopoly tour.

Shahin once again had this crazy idea, and this time Monopoly tour. Since Shumba was also in London, we thought of doing it together with her. Bought my ticket to London a day earlier which cost me only £8.90! Should have known all these tricks of getting cheap tickets to London. You know you could get £5 single and £8.90 return?? Hmmph.. wish I knew this earlier. hhahah nevermind.

Alright, the day started with me taking the 6.57am train to London and meeting up with Shahin at Paddington, before King's Cross to meet up Shumba. Had breakfast at King's Cross to fill up our ever so hungry tummies at Pret A Manger. Gosh I am still craving for those lovely mozzarella and tomato croissant. Then, the journey began!! We started off just after 10am, and finished at round about 9pm. Just the right time for me to head back to Victoria and got on the 9.17pm train back to Eastbourne.

Time well spent indeed! It was very tiring, and what made it worse was there were many tube lines closure due to engineering works and signal failure. We had to walk to most of these places and hop on and off the London buses. We had the advantage of Shahin knowing central London whilst I kinda know the way round South London as I worked there. Shumba, well.. she just joined the ride! ahhaha She even finally said in the end "I know London now in one day" in her cute accent and tired tone.

Kolo mee

Yay!! Finally overcame my craving for kolo mee. Although it is still nice to have it served, and made for you rather than having to do everything yourself until to a point of exhaustion.

Got all the stuffs from London. In this, the key is the noodle itself. Previously I had to use some dried packed egg noodles to replace the fresh egg noodles specifically for kolo mee. But I got the fresh one this time from Bayswater.. woohoo!!




So there you go. Hard work indeed. Started off by making the fried onions for the oil. Shed loads of tears slicing the horrible onion. I couldn't stand it any longer, I ended up just processing it in a food processor! Then made the sauce, then blanch the noodle the kolomee proper style (hot and cold blanching). Even the chicken breast meat was actually from a whole chicken cut by yours truly! Trulu homemade this one!

Result = worth it!


Recipe:

Fresh egg noodles
Boneless chicken fillets - minced
Chinese mushrooms
Red onion - thinly sliced or shallots
Dark soya sauce
Light soya sauce
salt
pepper
fishballs
spring onions
corn starch
some sugar
sesame oil
egg

Step 1: the oil

Deep fry the red onion or shallots until golden brown. Save the oil and salt the onions. Let the onions cool down to crisp.

Step 2: the sauce

Saute the chicken meat and mushrooms with some onion oil and add the dark soya sauce. Add water / chicken stock. Season with salt, pepper and sugar. Let the sauce be slightly salty and sweet as the noodle will take these taste away. Thicken the sauce with some cornstarch.

Step 3: Preparing the noodle

Prepare a bowl of cold water. In a pot get ready a boiling water. Blanch the noodle in cold water and alternate in boiling water. Do this several times until noodle is nice and light.

Step 4: Mixing the noodle

In a serving bowl - mix the pre-made onion oil (be generous), light soy sauce and salt. Toss the blanched noodle in this bowl. Mix well.

Step 5: serving

Top the mixed noodle with the chicken meat sauce, garnish with cut fishballs/fishcake, egg omellette, spring onion and fried onions.

Done!

London for a day - burp!

Excuse my manners! I was in London yesterday to pay Shahin's parents a visit. I hadn't seen them for quite a while. The first thing that Shahin's mom noticed was "you looked skinny!". I was like.. "no no... I've gained a lot over the weeks". So I was at Shahin's place all day playing Wii with his sisters and brother. I didn't even win any! hmmphh..

Came lunch time, his mom fed me with my favourite dishes. Her homemade chicken curry. I could already smell the aroma whilst playing the wii. She specially prepared it for me which everyone was complaining about as it caused a delay for lunch. We finally got lunch at 2pm. But before hand I had again my favourite as starters, I had puri with deep fried breadcrumbed prawns. Heaven!! Came main course, my goodness! Shaon, Shahin's brother was there literally sitting infront of me making sure I eat! I had what's equivalent to 3 servings! I went all bloated that I could hardly walk. They were saying that they wanted me to crawl out of the house. Too bad I couldn't stay long as I had to take the 4pm train to make it to Eastbourne on time for Megan's birthday do. But before that, I had to go to Bayswater to get all the good food supplies.




Got into Bayswater, got all the ingredients I needed to make Kolomee, and couldn't resist but also to get those cheap fresh uncooked king prawns. For a huge bag only 5.99!! You can't get it here in Eastbourne. From there, took the tube back to Victoria and couldn't find my train! Bummer! Tried online on my phone and the website was down. Then it finally showed up and next train was 5.36pm train. Platform number showed up about 2 mins before the train left. There was a huge crowd waiting under the screen proximal to the barrier. I had to literally stand under the screen as I didn't have my glasses with me and I couldn't see the screen properly.

Soon the number showed up on screen, this whole crowd was running toward the barrier as if it was "now or never" kinda moment, or those moments you know when you're in nowhere out of shipwreck and suddenly after a month of hunger, you discovered food! Yeah, that's how it was. That feeling was no different to what I had experienced whilst working in London. Suddenly all those moments came back. Just that I wasn't in my working clothes that day like anyone else who was running for seats on the train. Nevertheless, that put a smile on my face.

Oh, I also saw few familiar faces on the train. Those people who I used to travel with when I used to commute Eastbourne to London and back. eehehe.


I slept on the train as I was so full and laziness was slowly creeping through my veins after all the food galore I shoved in my mouth. Luckily I managed to run for a seat anyway.

Later that evening, went to Cosmos and had another 3 rounds of buffet! Blimey! For a second, I thought, gosh.. am I going back to my old body??? Everyone was shocked to see the amount of foods I had. They were like "Sani.. where do you keep all those?". In the end, it was ubber difficult to walk. Luckily the pub we were heading to was just around the corner. We went to the pub near the pier for a karaoke. It was fun and I had a huge fan! ahahhhaa. It was after the Liverpool vs Chelsea game, and obviously loads of people were already drunk and deluded. Who cares...


Anyhow, thanks for the great day and great people yesterday. Such a day filled with foods!

Knock-knock...who's there?

It's Shumba! Again, sneaky Shahin had arranged this. He was chatting to me online and asking if I had any plans. Obviously, I had no plans for the day other than stuffing myself with foods and sleep (well the one that I needed the most as sleep seems to be a luxury as a student). So at round about 1-ish, Shumba rang me and said she was at my door front. Shahin called her to see if she could come down to Eastbourne for a day out, for a meal or something. Off we went for a buffet lunch at Cosmos. Didn't want to be rude and as much as I couldn't resist food, I had the buffet although I already had lunch minutes prior to this. This time round though, Cosmos was friendly. No "30mins" time allowance and there were so many foods for lunch offerings compared than usual. Saw my favourite salt and pepper seafood = heaven! From there we strolled down the pier and had Movenpick ice-cream. It was a lvoely day although the breeze was slightly cold and I was in my flipflops. BUt really appreciated the company... =D Don't you just appreciate life to know that people around you really care... ehhee I am blessed.

Look at the tulips bloomed... ehhehe


And of course, the warm and caring Shumba. Thanks for the lunch!!

Meringue

Not the dance, don't be silly. I was dead bored and craving for some nice sponge with my tea. But I couldn't be arsed to get out of the house although it's nice and sunny outside. And this came up, well being myself, I tend to try things out when I'm bored. So what I came up with? Yes, you guessed it, Meringue!!

Went to kitchen, boil the kettle for tea and heat the oven. Break an egg, separate the yolk and whisk with some vanilla and sugar. Voila! I got my egg wbite nice, fluffy and creamy. Pop it in the pre-heated oven for about 10mins... done!

Too bad I didn't have peaches to make it a pavlova. All I got is just longans. ahaha So meringue it is for tea.

I may not be home, but...

Yes, I may not necessarily back at home in Brunei, but my fond of home cooked meals never fail to urge me to cook good food. They're simple to prepare and delish. Simply going back to my Chinese root where food is simply served hot and quick stir fry. I was craving for wongbok. As I went grocery shopping yesterday for my char kway teow, my basket was filled loads of Asians stuff, from oyster sauce to wongbok, etc. Today, I made myself egg fried rice with stir fry wongbok with prawns. The last time I had this was in London during my placement lunch. That was yummy. But nothing compares home cooked.

I miss eating foods like this which is staple for me back at home. But being a full-time student, meals always cosist of chips, chicken, pastas, and curries. *sigh*

Char Kway Teow

I miss home char kway teow. Today I went into town and got some udon for substitute. Taste was the same, but the oomph was not all there. The smell was there, if only I could wrap it in newspaper to give that extra special taste.

I only finally found kway teow when I bought the soya sauce at the Pinoy shop.

Here it is....




and I had it with ice cold chrysanthemumtea.... phew

Easter Holidays 2009 - The Road Trip

It started with the long awaited arrival of Cathy from Brunei. She took the coach from Heathrow and met up at Gatwick where we pick up the rented car. The day greeted us with nice blue skies. Just perfect to start the long and exciting week!



We arrived perfectly on time, simultaneously as Cathy. As we had another half an hour before picking up the car, we had breakfast at Costa and a quick chat to update each other. Mins later, we got the car, and ready to start the journey back to Eastbourne.

The trusted Toyota Yaris. Very cosy to drive.


As excited as we were like kids having a new toy, too bad I couldn't get the car started!!! That was so embarassing. Another blondeness!!! So I had to resort the manual and it wasn't helpful at all. After a while, I gave up and passed it over to Shahin which he ended up driving back to Eastbourne.




Shahin ended up driving back to Eastbourne


A quick stop in Eastbourne gave Cathy the time to freshen up after a long and tiring flight. Being cruel and mean, but again blame on her short time here, we packed our stuffs in the boot and set off staright to Brighton for lunch in no time. I drove to Brighton whilst Shahin tried to catch some sleep as he was so knackered and sleep deprived from the night before.

Lovely day just outside Eastbourne


On arrival at Brighton city centre.


After a late lunch, and bought some munchies in Brighton, we took off straight to Cardiff. It was a quiet 3 hour plus drive. It was just me and Tomtom. I just followed the audio instructions and everything went well, until it was time to find the hotel. hehe The sun started to set in as we approach Cardiff crossing the bridge. It was a beautiful scenery, and pictures were taken by Cathy and Shahin as I was driving.

View of the bridge from the car with the sun setting in.



Arrived in Cardiff, checked in to the hotel and we had dinner at Spice Root at Red Dragon Centre. It was very tiring and the roads in Cardiff were so confusing. We ended up going round and round the city centre. It was jam packed too. Luckily, dinner was good. There were so many Asians in Cardiff, especially the Malay community. Instantly saw Malaysians/Singaporean Malay diners. Didn't do much for the night as we were so knackered. Headed back to the hotel and had an early night.

Hungry faces waiting to be served.


Now filled up and satisfied with great foods, and foods were freshly cooked at the counter.


Started the day early morning. Had a slight confusion with the time change. We thought we had an hour extra, and it was the opposite. Tour around the Cardiff Bay, and had a quick look around at the Marina. It was very beautiful and quiet, but was very cold.




Then at 10am, we met up with Cathy's niece Lysa, and Nurul in the city centre for breakfast at the nearest pub. It was a good meeting although it was very short. They were very kind enough to show us around Cardiff. We had a quick look at the city centre, the town hall, the castle and the stadium.






From Cardiff, we drove to Swindon for shopping at McArther Glen. It only took less than an hour to drive. We spent for about 2-3hours or so to do some shopping before we head to Birmingham where we spent the night.

The bridge during day time.


Cows crossing the bridge. Brilliant!!


At Birmingham, we didn't do much that night. We went to the city centre and had a look around, and more so around Bullring. Then followed by dinner at Wagamama.

Birmingham at night.






The next day, we spent a few hours in Birmingham city centre and had lunch at Chinatown before we set off to Coventry.



In Coventry, we went to see the remains of the St. Michael's Cathedral which was bombed by the German Luftwaffe in the 1940's during the second world war. We went up the tower and had a good bird's eye view of Coventry. It was a narrow and spiral flight of stairs. It was making us all dizzy and gasp for air to breathe! From there we went to the Coventry Transport museum. That was the coolest part of all. We got to see all the British cars, bikes and also the cat's eyes. Brilliant displays and some of them were interactive too.






After Coventry, we drove off to Manchester to meet a friend. It was meant to be a surprise visit. Unfortunately, again my blondeness, I texted the wrong person for the address and told everything in it. I texted to the person who we meant to surprise. It was meant to be a short hop from Coventry to Manchester and esitmated to arrive at 6.30pm. Unfortunately, there was a diesel spillage on the M6 motorway and it was causing major delays and traffic. We were caught in traffic for about 3 hours!!!!




We finally arrived in Manchester at 10.30pm. Without delay, we headed for teh Curry Mile for dinner. It was a massive portion of kebabs, and we were to stuffed to fill in albeit being very hungry. The next day, we set off to Old Trafford, Theatre of Dreams as Cathy is a ManUtd fan. We went on the stadium tour, guided by a friendly chap. When asked what was the stadium called, Shahin shouted out "Anfield".. and jokingly he asked Shahin to get out. Then when he asked whether everyone could understand English, Shahin replied again and said "Si Senor". Hahhaa






After the stadium, we didn't know where to go. I decided just to pay a visit to Trafford centre for lunch and look around rather than the city centre. Dinner was at Lal-Qilla, as it was claimed to be the best for Indian food at Curry Mile.






After quick breakfast at Betty's, we took off to Liverpool. We headed straight to Anfield, and this time it's for Shahin as he's a Liverpool fan. Too bad, we missed the last tour as they didn't have it all day due to a memorial service. We only had a look around outside the stadium and the merchandise store before checking in to the hotel in the city centre. After lunch, Cathy took off to outside Liverpool to meet up an old friend whilst Shahin and I took the opportunity to look around Liverpool. We went to the Cathedral which was very scary and eary. We went through the wrong way which was from the backyard where it is a graveyard dating from the 1800's! All I could remember, it was cold, grey and quiet. *goosebumps* It was a long walk from the Albert Dock. From there, we walked back to the city centre to have a quick rest at the hotel, before meeting up with Cathy at the station for dinner. We had Mediteranean dinner at Kimos.

Upset for not being able to go for the tour. He was so much looking forward to this.




Sightseeing in the city centre, Albert Docks and the Cathedral.











Finally, we left Liverpool for Gatwick at 3.30am and arrived Gatwick at 9.30am to leave the car. From Gatwick we headed into Paddington and went straight for what we had to do. Had lunch at Westfield and met up with some friends at Leicester Square for coffee. The night ended with a dinner at Nandos with Cathy's friend from Huddersfield.








Then the last day... it was time to say goodbye to Cathy.