Thursday, December 10, 2015

#onthetable

Ola!

I like taking pictures of my home cooked dishes, simply because i wanted to record down what have already cooked, what i have been cooking everyday for my family and also my cooking experiments on certain dish. Picture will help me recall those precious cooking process or moments even it's just a simple dish like onion omelette :D

Here's what we had for dinner the last few days. Chinese stir fried vegetables is a must on our menu almost everyday!

Garlic & oyster sauce stir-fried brussels sprout, our favorite vegetable lately. It taste so sweet & so crunchy!

 Light stir fried french beans with shrimps, you might already know that i'm a shrimp lover! >_<

Stir-fried iceberg lettuce with fried fish maw.

Spicy napa cabbage kimchi stir-fried with pork slices.

Stir-fried bitter melon with pork slices in black bean sauce, fermented black beans has a pungent flavor and taste very salty ~ so we usually will soak the beans prior to cooking.

  Chinese poached chicken (white cut chicken), a very easy and healthy steamed chicken recipe paired with a savory dipping sauce or ginger scallion oil.

 
Gong bao style squid (stir-fried squid with dried hot red pepper)

Since i have a new bottle of fermented black beans, so i will have to make full use of it in the cooking! Hehe, and this is stir-fried stingray with fermented Black bean sauce!

Monday, December 7, 2015

november happy mail!

hihi,

Having my egg mayo sandwich while writing my favorite snail mail blog post! I hope you had a perfect weekend! Last month has been hectic for me, but so touched to be able to receive all these wonderful mails & parcels; they are like the remedy to ease the tension after bad days and boost happiness!


 Claudia's signature letter in a box arrived in one good piece, yays!

 She sent me her beautiful illustration postcard set, some tea bags, adorable beaded ring, seed pack (as you might already know she has green fingers) & the most beautiful hand carved coral stamp ever!

This definitely need a close up shot to have a look on the detail & craftsmanship.
Thank you so so much Claudia, i really really love it!

Oh~ Naoko's package took so long to reach me this time! About 1.5 months to arrive from Japan, usually it only takes about 1-2 weeks maximum.

Lovely packaging & Naoko chan sent me some pages from magazine with beautiful food flat-lay.
A great inspiration to me!

Luckily this beautiful parcel was not lost, phew~ in the parcel, there are beautiful paper ephemera & stickers, washi roll, ribbon, karel capek tea & my favorite chopstick rest!

Look at this beauty~ chopstick rest in graceful shape of the ginkgo leaf!

While we think the first parcel has already lost its way here, Naoko proposed to send another smaller mail to makes up the first lost mail. She's such a lovely lady!

 Small but good one, I admire the time & effort she put into making each snail mail!

All the lovely little bits & pieces.

Olga leave me a message earlier asked if i can exchange some butterfly pea seed pods with her!
  Of course i would love to! 

She asked if i love anything from her etsy shop! I immediately answer YES! >_<
I always admired her & her work, and asking will it be too costly for me to have her handmade brass gingko leaf pendant. And she said:" Not a problem! Happy that i found something i like." 
How sweet she is.

 Too beautiful not to post a close up view, and olga even attached extra little things in the mail.
Aw~ it was so touching!

 Sadly this was the last super sweet mail from Yumi Chan, as she will be moving to Switzerland soon.

She knows me the best, delicious food package from Japan! On the left side its Knorr instant egg drop soup packs; while on the right is a white sauce pasta sauce mix.

I am really glad & blessed that i have never stop writing snail mail.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

update on my garden!

Hello peeps, do you miss me?

It's December!! Wish you Happy New Month!
Here i come with more updates, especially from my little garden. There is a lot of rain here as we are in monsoon season now, i think it's good for plants & the garden! {but not for succulent, so i moved them all into shaded area so they won't get too much rain}
I sow a new batch of basil seeds last 2 weeks, seed I saved from last batch fully matured basil plant. Let's have a peek at my garden!

  I have got a lemon tree in the garden, its from my neighbor - a lovely lady who loves gardening too! She has a lemon tree in her garden starting to bear fruits, therefore she does me a favor and help me to get a young tree from plant nursery she often visit.

 My fuzzy polka dot cactus have developed more little pads, it always grow in pairs~ so more bunny ears now! So cute, right?


 Chilli (Cili Kampung) seedling that just emerging beautifully from the soil, they have grown up to about 5-8 cm in height now, i will need to separate each of them in to a different pots this weekend.

Growing fig tree has always been a dream of mine, because fig trees are pricey, also very rare and it's really hard to get from local nursery, some of them never even heard before! Then the 'growing-my-own-fig-tree' dream came true 2 years ago when i met the owners of a nursery, and he offered the help to find me a fig trees. Although it took sometime, but he managed to find one at the end. Yays!! 
 The little fig tree didn't grow well the first year, almost died; it might be because i don't have experience with the plant. The leaves started to turn brown and fell off one by one. T_T Then i googled for solutions, it says pruning can help stimulates the plant to growth, i think that's the only way to try and giving the tree to bounce back, so i pruned off the top & damage branches. And it will miracle come alive; new growth of buds & leaves after pruning, the shoot will lengthen dramatically and THEN it begin to bear fruits now! Yuhoo!!

My very beautiful mulberry tree and the ripen fruits!

 Claudia sent me some physalis seeds in her previous mail, the first batch of seeds i sow didn't germinate. Then i tried again last few weeks, and they did it this time! Hohoho ~ can you see the little flower pods, they will slowly develops into a little lantern (papery pods with fruit inside).
Thank you so much dear friend!

 
 On-growing healthy sweet basil seedlings, it's a must- have herb to grown in the garden!

 Happy baby succulents, they are taking a morning sunbath!

Wohoo! If you have beautiful vintage or recycle steel tins or cans at home, don't throw it away.
Take some time everything will be beautiful in its way!

Has I introduced them to you yet? Meet Elm, Emma & Rosette, the triplets of my garden! I transplanted them in to a beautiful pot given by a good friend, they seemed to enjoy very much and happily growing in their new home! >_<

HAPPY GARDENING!

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

outgoing mail october!

hello,

Life has been bit hectic lately, need to bring more luck back into my life! Almost forgot to share my outgoing mail last month, here they come!
Christmas will be here soon, one of my favourite occasion. And it's time to start writing out some xmas cards! Hehe.

 My mail to Aki Chan
Japan

 My mail to Azusa Chan
Japan

My mail to Diana
Bulgaria

 My mail to Samanta
Spain

My mail to Sylvie
Belgium

Monday, November 2, 2015

this made my day!

Hello!

I or {I should say} my Instagram page have been featured in a blog! How wonderful it is?
I was so surprised when i saw Daria tag me on my 'culinary' FB page. Never thought it would happen to me, really really glad to know that there are people who actually love my instagram photos sharing and shared it! Daria is a fashion blogger, a cat person and i absolutely love her unique sense of retro style!

If you happen to have time now, please click in here to read her lovely words about my yummy images.  ❤    ❤  THANK YOU   ❤  ❤  Can't thank you enough, with the most intense state of happiness!

Happy November, also a good start of the week peeps!



Thursday, October 29, 2015

october happy mail!

Hello!

So great to finally see the beautiful sunlight and clear blue sky, looks like the haze is clearing up; hope it won't be coming back. 

My little mulberry tree begin producing fruit once again, and the fruits are abundant! They are almost all ripened already, I will need to harvest them this weekend before birds get to them. >_< 

The most exciting new is my fig tree start bearing fruit for the first time after 2 years! Wohoo!! I capture a photo every morning before going out to work, wanted to record the fruit growth and development, too curious and get very excited about it! Will share some picture soon~ but today, let see what came in my mail box this month.

Franka a lovely lady from The Netherlands who hoard all the beautiful paper ephemera and vintage treasures and wish to work in her beautiful studio all day long! (same here >_<)

 Hand drawn envelope are almost too beautiful to open!

Super gorgeous mail with beautiful cursive writing, some vintage receipts, labels, postcard, memo card, tickets... etc!

 Merrisa's letter has finally made its way to my mailbox, she sent me a valentine mail few months ago, but it didn't turn up. :( sad

The mail is sweet, pink and her handwriting is so neat just too cute!
 I especially love the red origami bird, and hand-lettering 'Fiona'~

Michelle sent me her mail from Japan while she was there last few weeks for her book's publication (very cool right!)
I admire her for her work and she's really an amazing person!

Small little things that I do matter a lot, her mail made me think of to observe our lives in every detail!


Thursday, October 15, 2015

#onthetable

If you can't find me anywhere, try look for me in the kitchen! You can see quite a few of prawn dishes here, my parents bought and brought it up from my hometown from a recent visit. I love prawns!!!

 Grilled sambal stingray (p.s. with my homemade sambal chili paste)! 
I never thought I could make THIS at home, was proud for my first try.

 Indonesian style curry prawns cooked in a thick sweet and spicy coconut milk gravy.
Love coconut milk curry-based sauce in anything and this looks so warm and cozy to you? no?

Sambal udang (chilli prawn) goes really well with nasi lemak (fragrant rice cooked in coconut milk)

 Braised fish with fermented black beans & bittergourd - i can't stop eating and keep on adding some more rice on my plate!

 Braised napa cabbage, love those soft napa cabbage leaves that soaks up all the juices and
absorbs the every bit of flavors from the foods around it! Yum~

Stir friend soy sauce-caramelized prawns - its a very homely dish, the easiest recipe ever, and yummiest!