A Bunny Deery Horsy Goodtime

Little ones just love animals. Especially real and up-close. Even my teenage girl and my ten year-old son squealed with delight when we visited the Animal Park in Berjaya Hills during the last school holiday.

In the Rabbit Farm, there were more than a dozen of rabbits belonging to different breeds.

They were cuddly and soft, have tails and ears to pull on, and fur and face to grab. They became instant playmates to my two kids.

Next stop was the Deer Sanctuary.

Shy, elusive, beautiful white spotted deer, originated from Holland. But they were such a lazy bunch hiding in the shades, couldn't really get close to them to take pictures. Well, proceeded to the Pony Stable.

There were half a dozen of ponies in the stable, of different breeds. Compare to horses, ponies generally have shorter legs, wider barrels, thicker neck, shorter heads and broader foreheads.

Beauty and the ponies.

Gosh! Look at that! I just asked them to pose for me, and they happily obliged! Who said ponies are stubborn and devious? I think they are intelligent and friendly.

This one obviously was very fond of my son.

Has he spotted something interesting? Found a piece of gold?

Yukes! Gigantic creepy crawly! Let's run!

Birthday Reflections

Today is my birthday.

Happy Birthday to me.

Happy Burpday to me.

Happy Blurday to me

Happy Bluffday to me.

As I celebrate this one, I have so much to be thankful for Life has hitherto bestowed so much upon me, ... my family, my friends and all the experiences, whether good or bad.

My birthday wish this year, "Be healthy and happy. Always strive to be wiser with each experience."

My Amazing Rice Cooker

Feeling sceptical about the sticker on my new Japanese micro computer rice cooker whereby it depicts a photo of a cake and vouches that it is able to bake the same by employing surrounding heating system and the 4mm forged thick pot. I skimmed through the instruction manual and found no instruction whatsoever. I browsed the Toshiba website and eventually managed to get scantily infomation on cake baking. It merely gives you a recipe of a cake, but does not delve into how exactly to press those soft-touch 'buttons'.

But, knowing me, I would not give up just like that. I decided to give it a try. Looked around the kitchen, I found some ripe bananas and so decided to add them to my cake. I prepared the ingredients and did the mixing just like normal, greased the rice cooker pot and poured the mixture in. I selected the Congee menu and pressed 'cook'. The light came on showing 1 hour, I thought I could put my feet up and come back an hour later.

While I was washing the utensils, the rice cooker started to beep and all of a sudden, it turned to the 'keep warm' function. What the heck was going on? Then I started to push those buttons again but it did not react. I gave up in the end and continued with my dish washing. Few minutes later, I frowned at the cooker and pressed the buttons all over again. Wow! The light came on and the timer started to tick. I prayed hard that it won't switch to keep warm again.

One hour later ...

Voila! There you have it, a banana cake baked in a rice cooker!

Prior to this, I wasn't having any great expectation of a cake baked in rice cooker. But, seeing this, I was really amazed by the light and fluffy texture. On top of that, it was cooked quite thoroughly, no burning at the bottom or the edge.

Yes! I baked a cake in a rice cooker, not steamed, not boiled! On second thought, may be I can KIV my plan of getting an oven.

Pangkor Escapade (2)

As the rainforest falls right into the Pangkor Island Beach Resort, we have come across some interesting wildlife. Well, interesting enough for the kids.

Firstly, those weird looking birds named Hornbill, characterized by a long, down curved bill, brightly coloured. In this instance, they are yellow with some black patches, looks more like a ripe-o-banana. They are now endangered species and are protected.

A quick reference to Wikipedia, these birds are omnivorous, meaning eating fruits, insects and small animals. Look at their dinner plate, the PIBR is feeding them with bread and papaya. No need to go all the way to Pangkor to admire these creatures, as I heard there is this eatery in KL Birds' Park where one will find hornbills lazing around, resting on your shoulder, sharing your chips (yuks!) while you tuck into your food. The place is called Hornbill Restoran and Kafe.

Oh, spotted some beautiful greenish blue patterns moving in the bushes!

Aha. It is a peacock. Or, should I say, a male peafowl. Peafowls are forest birds. The male has iridescent blue green plumage. These elongated upper tail coverts are termed "trains"? The train feathers have a series of eyes that are best seen when the tail is fanned. As there was no female (Ahem, I mean female peafowl la) around at that time, we haven't the privilege of witnessing the beautiful plumage.

This is the female peafowl or the peahen. It also has a crest atop its head.

Like mother like baby. So sweet!

Does the above sentence apply here as well?

Next, the crabs that my kids caught using this plastic net.

OMG, it is staring at us! Creepy crawlies are seriously unfathomable. Better release them. But, just bear with me while I take a portrait of you. Say Cheese.

This one has a pair of extremely long front legs.

Yikes! The hairy one!

My girl was unbelievably brave!

A wobbly mega jellyfish being washed up to the beach.

Yes, baby, this is what you normally get in the hors d'oeuvres in Chinese restaurants.

Some of the pics showing the hotel spa and the secluded ocean villas.

Food Crawl : Ipoh (1)

Everytime I go home to Ipoh, I bound to binge on the glorious Ipoh food. During the recent two weeks school holiday when we stayed in Ipoh, we went out looking for good food three times a day.

On one Saturday night, we went to try out this tea bar-cum-restaurant, A'Shore. I have read some good recommendations but none of my Ipoh cousins/nieces have heard of this place. Apparently, A'Shore originates from Sunway Mas Commercial Centre and has just opened this Ipoh branch three months ago. It is located in a rather isolated area, by a quiet side street between Excelsior Hotel and UOB Bank.

By the time we reached there it was getting dark, and hence the reason not capturing on pics the exterior of the restaurant. Just realized that the restaurant has a beautiful chinese name 岸廷食坊.

Housed inside a colonial building, fitted out with nostalgic decor, wooden furniture and pretty-looking chandeliers. The place seemed deserted, we were the only one there.

While nagivating through the menu, we had two pots of refreshing Green Tea and Sweet Osmanthus. The menu is quite extensive, with bright, brilliant, big pictures indicating the signature dishes. Hmm, it is tough choice when you have eight other person round the table. Save me the hassle, I just pointed to most of the signature dishes.

First came the Milk and Cream Chicken. The milk and cream did give the chicken a marvellous taste.

The 'must order' prawn dish for my son. Oops, there is a nice name to it, but I cannot recall now. The batter was too thick it spoilt the freshness of the prawns.

The spare-ribs laced with salad cream. Yet again forgot the name of the dish. Heck, I am starting to show the Alzheimer syndrome. The ribs was kind of tough for old folks, but it tasted not bad.

Steamed fish Teochew style. The fish was fresh and the zesty sourish sauce made it very appertising indeed.

The Claypot Taufu. Love the brinjal.

The 'Yin Yang' Hong Kong Kailan. The leaves were deep fried until crispy, and sprinkled with dried shrimps. Whereas the stalks were cooked in clear broth, hence the 'Yin' and the 'Yang', a very 'in' dish.

My son insisted on having a mocha ice-blended to wash everything down.

Patrons started to flood the place while we tucked into our food.

The bill came to slightly under RM200 for 9 person including rice and drinks. Very reasonable indeed. They are doing a promotion right now, giving out vouchers for 10% discount on next visit within a month.

Overall, the ambience was good and homely, food was fusion and tasteful, price was reasonable, but service was a bit slow. Will definitely come back especially for their noodle dish. My girl spotted the table next to us ordered the colourful cold noodles. Must try.