The way to a man's heart is through his stomach

Do you ever see a photo of your love ones that perfectly represents exactly what they look like to you? That perfectly conveys the way you see them in real life?

This is one of those photos.

Doesn't he look very much "Peter" in the photo? 

I know, my husband is a simple person to please, he is happy as long as there is good food. However bear in mind as well that a hungry husband is an angry husband. So woman, work your way to his heart through his stomach!!

Anyway, cooking and baking is part of my routine now. In fact, i enjoy weekend baking so much that sometimes I rather stay in the kitchen the whole day because that's the only time in the week that I can spend long hours with my precious oven. 

This is a baked cheesecake with blueberries and strawberries. I love the hint of the cream cheese at the first bite of the cake. I've over baked the cake slightly as the texture was a bit crumble. However, it become much more solid and firm after refrigerated overnight. 

The vanilla muffins i baked last weekend. Not too sweet, zero butter, very light and filling. 

I also baked a chocolate pound cake layered with chocolate ganache and a coffee cream cheese layered with butter cake (couldnt find the photos) sometimes ago. I know thats damn lot of cheesecakes but i couldn't help it, cheesecakes are my favourite!

Anyway, I bought some remikin last week. Contemplating to try out panna cotta or creme brulee soon, will definitely post some photos ;)  

Miri oh Miri

I spent my Chinese New Year holiday with my family at Miri recently. It is a very warm town. Literally. As the city was surrounded by the sea, it is moist and heaty all the time. It reminds me alot of Penang, minus the char keow tiao and the seas of people of course. 

Not many people knew much about Miri, except the fact its the birthplace of Malaysia's petroleum industry. Since the day the Hollanders set their drills at the coast, Miri has grown phenomenally into a buzzing little city. Do you know that the first oil well (The Grand Old lady) was drilled by Shell in 1910? Gosh, that's like 102 years ago.

My sister married her college sweet heart who is a Miri-an 3 or 4 years ago. Since then, the small town has become a place she called home. I cant speak for my sister, but sometimes, I still find it hard to accept the fact that the home I grew up in in Kuching is no longer my first home. Both my sister and I left the home that was full of our childhood fond memories at early age to study at the cities that was completely foreign to us. Over the years, we slowly get used to the new environment and build our life around it. However, our little home in Kuching always have a special place in my heart, its a place where I can forget the fact that I'm a manager and whine like a 12 years old; its a place where I have to hid all my love letters under my bed from my curious parents; its a place where I wrote most of my songs with my faithful old friend named guitar under the moonlight....

Although I have so much love for my home in Kuching, however I enjoyed my Chinese New Year holiday the best when I was in Miri with my family.  It was when time like this when we were having our sweet reunion again, it makes me feel so much loved and homey, and the physical place no longer seems to be important.

Anyway, just sharing with you some of the picture taken during the trip at Miri.

This is a small cove very near to our hotel (like 5 mins walking) which leads to the sea. The sky was so blue in the morning, and the fishermen sells fishes freshly caught from the sea at the docking platform.

The food we saw at the local coffee shop. We tried laksa only (which was so so and cost a bomb) since we were stuffed. But the rest looks tempting - The red wine fried rice (This is the first time i saw this), the famous Tomato sauce noodle and Roti kahwin. According to my brother, it means butter and kaya toast, perfect marriage!!

The famous seahorse - icon of Miri.  

Dinner with my relatives. Our first ever picture with my grandmother. She is so old (nearly 90s) which I don't think she recognizes me anymore. 

Well, that sums up my Miri trip. Hope to visit the town (and see my dear nephew) again soon!

The Dentist

I always have this unrealistic fear towards dentist.

If I close my eyes and think about the dentist, the image of a man in white suit wearing a hideous looking wielding mask, holding the dental hand piece, vividly emblazoned in my mind. The white ceiling; the sight of all the sharp dental burrs; the smell of antiseptics; the feeling of helplessness when you open your mouth wide in total surrender  to the dentist (and he can do whatever he wants)... that pretty much sum up to my fear towards the dentist.

I remember when I was young, I would avoid anything to go to see dentist. There was one time when my tooth was unfortunately decayed and loose, but I was too chicken to go to see dentist to get it pull out that, I  came out with the most ridiculous d.i.y plan for extracting the tooth. I kept it a secret from everyone, especially my mom and dad, except my sister, whom I dragged into the evil plot by threatening her that either she help me in this or she will see my die of toothache. 

First, I tied a string at the loose teeth and tied the other end of the string at a door knob. After said a little prayer for God's know how many times, at the count of 1,2,3, my sister opened the door in the counter direction with a brute force, and wala, the tooth was out. 

I have to say the plan was quite effective, however the mentioned act is performed by highly skilled professionals, so kids, do not try this at home. I'm lucky in the sense that the tooth was dead and was wiggly, jiggly loose. If the tooth is just rotting and not dead, I will definitely experience a lot of pain because of the exposed nerve. Well, ignorance can be a real bliss sometimes. 

Ok, back to my story. What i am trying to say is that I am a self claimed adontophobic. I lived in total avoidance when it come to dental care for the past 20 years and to be really frank, i havent seen a dentist since the day I left my primary school. Those days the dentist used to come to the school occasionally to check out the children's teeth and made all of us lining up beside the longkang (drain) and forcing us to brush teeth in front of everyone. So the moment I'm out of the school, it marked the beginning of my abstinence from dental care.

In stark contrast, Peter believes that dental care is absolutely important, and would religiously go to do dental examination every year. He would make an attempt to remind me to go for dental checkup every now and then to the point of booking the dental appointment on my behalf. This year, i have finally agreed and resolute to go for a dental checkup in the beginning of 2012. Sigh, what we do for love.

Anyway, i went for the dental checkup at a small dental clinic near my home at Melawati. Not just once, but twice. The dentist was a friendly middle age man, whom i shall refer as Dr. M. Firstly Dr. M examined my entire oral cavity and took some photos using his impressive oral camera which pretty much look like a pen. Surprisingly, he then explained to me that my teeth was actually kinda of healthy, but with alot of plagues. There was no cavities except my wisdom teeth were misaligned hence they might squish or damage the second molars and increase their vulnerabilities towards gum disease/ cavities in future. Besides that, nothing serious.

Dr M started to do the scaling on my teeth by using a hand piece which looks very dangerous and life threatening. All the while, i kept on hearing the sound of the metal grinding and crushing towards the calcified structure, that alone, sends shivers down my spine.

To be frank, it was pretty pain at some point due to the stubborn plagues. Although the nurse kept on sucking out the fluid in my mouth using this long tube, but I can still taste the metallic taste as though my mouth was full of blood. But again, I've always have problem of gum bleeding. According to Dr. M, the bleeding was caused by inflamed gum which in turn caused by stubborn plaque known as tartar clouding the edge of the tooth (and makes it feel flat). He kept on scratching  the side and edge of the teeth with the hand piece until there was a clear demarcation between the teeth and the gum. I was tense, I was on the edge, but in short, I survived the whole event, and that includes the second appointment 2 days after for the scaling of the upper jaw.

I'm still trying to get used to the feeling of having gaps in between the teeth and able to feel with my tongue the clear contour of each individual tooth edging to the gum. It did make me feel good knowing the fact that my teeth is clean a.k.a free-of-plagues now, but moreover, i felt pretty much empowered for being able to conquer the ridiculous fear which had haunted me for more than 20 years. And that itself is worthy of all the pains which I've went through. 

The men in my family

My family has expanded quite a bit across the past few years. It used to be just 5 of us- my parents, my elder sister, my younger brother and I. My dad is a quiet man, well imbued with the Chinese tradition and culture. Like most of the Chinese father, he rarely express his emotion and was distant even to his own children. And for this reason I've always felt that my brother lack of a male figure in his life, someone not only he can look up to but also he can easily approach and count on.

Being surrounded by so many women in the house, he was the victim of our endless nag. Sometimes, I felt that my brother needs someone who he can do all the man stuff with- playing basketball, err... arm wrestling? or maybe just to have a simple man to man talk. It saddened me that no matter how much we (my sister and I) tried to reach out to him, we can never fill the part of the gap in his feeling. In fact, it was getting harder over the years as my sister and I had moved out and started our own lives. 

Then my brother in law came along. He is an accountable yet approachable person. He is not timid and squeamish in his words and thoughts and is more than willing to share his life with his new extended family. Its hard to explain in words but he brought a kind of male positivity into our family whereby in the past the women  used to be always at the louder side. The next addition to our family was of course my husband. Born and raised as an Eurasian, he is the total opposite of my brother in law (or should i say any Chinese). He is cheeky, bold and unorthodox as he is not bonded by any Chinese customs/ tradition, and that's why he brought a fresh vibe into our family. 

And recently (2 months ago to be exact), we have another new member added into our family- my nephew Joshua. The new born baby brought untold joy to our family. Every of our conversation circled around the baby, even petty things such as how the baby cry or sucks his thumbs (the entire fist to be exact) can be told over and over again. One thing about babies is that, they are truly the manifestation of God's perfect creation. When the baby look at you and giggles, its the greatest feeling you will ever feel. Their innocent smile makes you feel like you are someone special in their eyes. 

So as you can see, suddenly my family was overruled by so many men (and a baby boy). Gosh, I loved all the men in my family. I love how my brother in law offered advice to my brother about how to handle people at workplace; I love how my husband shared our usual couple time and evening walk with my brother unselfishly; and I love how my nephew had brought out the big brother side in him. The way my brother look at the baby Joshua, is with the softest smile i've ever seen from him. Even my dad is different now compare to before, i guess the presence of the son in laws and the baby had really soften his character. It surprised me so much to see him trying his best to initiate conversation with Peter in English.

The men in my family, how they bring me joy. I can't stop giving thanks for them.