Explore Singapore #1 - Boat Quay & Clarke Quay

Relocating to a new place means every weekend can be like a vacation. It sure felt like it when we explored the downtown area by Singapore River. Arriving at the Raffles MRT Station, this place feels very different on a weekend. There are no one in their office suits rushing around to get from one place to another. Instead, the place is packed with tourists taking pictures or groups of young adults playing their favorite musical instrument. With the Christmas events in town, this place is also swarmed with people shopping from temporary stalls along the river. 

From the Raffles MRT station, we walked along Boat Quay. This area is filled to the brim with bars, seafood restaurants and spas squeezed between the restaurants. Everyone stands right outside their shop trying to lure you in with their best dishes, cheapest beer for happy hour or the most popular sports show of the season. The end of Boat Quay is an underpass that once hosted a beautiful painting depicting the politics of Singapore. The mural has been partially torn down…wonder if it is an act of vandalism or there are plans for a change in scenery. 

Stop #1 - Cafe Iguana

With so many bars in this area, there is definitely a happy hour somewhere. Cafe Iguana is a Mexican restaurant and their margarita price increases as the day gets later. Hence, it was a great place for those who like to start early. It took us a while to find this place because the blur us was looking for a place called Chameleon (this place was recommended to us as the place to go for margaritas). 

Stop #2 - Liang Court

With the day still bright, we decided to roam indoors for a bit. We came upon Liang Court, a Japanese themed shopping mall located just upstream of Clarke Quay. The highlight there for me was Uniqlo and Kinokuniya. On a previous trip, we visited Tampopo with some friends. Their fresh sushi is highly recommended. 

Stop #3 - Sque and The Central

Looking for another place to enjoy happy hour, we head back towards Riverside Point (Clarke Quay is pretty much isolated before nightfall). After window shopping at the stalls set up along the river, we stopped by the Sque Rotiserrie & Alehouse for their buy 1 get 1 happy hour deal. Their location was great for people watching and so we decided to stay for dinner…highly not recommended. Their meat dishes came out barely cooked or extremely greasy. It was quite a disappointment for a place they call Rotiserrie. As we were about to leave, we realized the Sque is actually part of another mall - The Central. This is quite a maze of a mall with each section practically hidden from another. But they have a few Christmas-themed stalls on the first floor with pretty reasonable prices. 

Stop #4 - Mad for Garlic at Clarke Quay

After all the walking and barely had any food, we walked across the river to Clarke Quay and found Mad for Garlic. I was looking for an ice-cream place but JQ convinced me to try their pizza dessert. The verdict - I wouldn't mind getting it again!

Planning The Wedding

12.12.12. There will not be another date in my lifetime with repeated day, month, year numbers (unless I live up to 119 years old). Fun fact aside, it is exactly a month until JQ and my wedding day!

What is the purpose of a wedding? Celebration! Getting to know our families and friends. A reason to dress up. But mostly, a fun night with family and close friends. I had wanted it to be a fusion between a Western and traditional Peranakan wedding but my parents are pretty untraditional (at least in this case) so decided to keep it simple with several important essence of our family tradition.

1. Country: Malaysia! We knew we wanted a wedding back home as soon as JQ proposed. When I think of my wedding, my ahmah is the first one who came to mind. I always wanted a wedding where I can serve tea to my grandparents. Even with only my ahmah left to witness this event, there is no way I am having my wedding without her or without my aunts, uncles and cousins. JQ's family is also excited to celebrate with us in Malaysia. It will be a great opportunity for JQ's family to meet my family, to experience Malaysian culture and simply to visit my home country. 

2. A small wedding. Growing up, dad reminds me again and again not to over spend on wedding, invite only people who matters and not the entire village. That advice was repeated over and over that it got stuck in mind. Being away from M'sia for so long, I lost touch with several friends. But there are a handful who are dear to me, who influenced my life in some way, who I would like JQ to meet. With short trips back to M'sia, I also wanted this event to be like a mini-reunion, getting to know my friends again. I wanted to be able to tell JQ a story of every person who come to the wedding instead of 'I am not exactly sure who this person is'. Definitely a small, intimate wedding. 

3. Reasonable. We dream of wedding up in the Rockies, somewhere in the middle of the Amazon forest. But realistically, we can't afford that and we won't have any guests! Our first choice was at hotel gardens but the few places we looked at had a minimum of 100 guests. While it would be easy to invite 100 people, the cost was outrageous, and comes in package where refusing some items do not make it cheaper. With both of us coming close to a change in career, we also have to prepare for moving costs and temporary unemployment in the near future. 

4. Garden wedding. There is no way we are going to have our wedding in an indoor ballroom or function room. It has to be outdoor or partially outdoor (mosquitoes or not aside). Mom suggests the garden of my uncle's apartment. That would have been a perfect location - garden wedding by the pool! Unfortunately, we could not secure any florist to help us design the location (this is another story to tell some other time). Then we found the Tropical Spice Garden. I loved it when I went there almost 5 years ago and they have a lovely eco theme wedding package. So that is how we decided to have it at the TSG.  

5. Food. This was a challenging subject for us. We wanted traditional Nyonya cuisine. My family are strict critics when it comes to Nyonya cuisine. Nothing tastes better than my gee kim's cooking. No way we are going to make gee kim cook for 80 people on my wedding day. My parents favored catered food over hotel food. So the hunt for caterers began until they found Bamboo Catering. 

The most challenging on the major planning is communications with the different vendors in Penang. From our experience so far, Penang businesses rarely reply to emails, take months to respond to our enquiries and do no like to share their prices until you agree to their service. Lucky for us, my parents are retired and can help us hunt these people down. Yet, they still had a hard time getting quotes or finding a florist. With only one month left and the plans in place, we can only hope that these places deliver as they promised. 

Roka Akor

Roka Akor is a contemporary Japanese restaurant that uses the 'robata grill'. 'Robata grill' is basically a charcoal grill, which makes the food have more of a burnt flavor compared to the regular 'teppanyaki', also known as steel grill. We came across this restaurant on Groupon. I like that it is not a widely spread chain restaurant, making it more unique. In United States, there is one in Scottsdale, AZ and they recently opened another one in Chicago, IL.

The Scottsdale location is in a stand alone building right off N. Scottsdale Road, near the McCormick Ranch Golf Course. Upon entrance into the restaurant, we were greeted and given a choice of sitting at the bar or at the table. As we walked towards the restaurant, we saw that they had outdoor tables and given the nice weather that evening, we opt to sit outside. When we were guided to our table, I noticed that they have an open kitchen setup. It would have been fun to sit by the open kitchen to see all the cool cooking techniques they use.

Roka Akor is definitely the fanciest restaurant I have been to in the States. It is an upscale restaurant where you pay for not only the food but also the ambiance and service. We had a server who was very informative on the dishes and helpful with the recommendations. They were very alert on when we need refills for our drinks and the food came out at the appropriate timing.

The menu is definitely full of unique dishes with the Western-Japanese fusion theme. We wanted to try as many dishes as possible so we opt for a variety of their appetizer dishes rather than their entree dishes.

We started out with the Japanese Shishito Peppers. This is definitely a must try for pepper-lovers! The ponzu sauce (the Japanese version of soy sauce) enhances the juiciness of the pepper that was lightly grilled.

Robata-grilled Japanese Shishito Peppers with ponsu and bonito flakes, $7

Our server highly recommended their Salmon Nigiri for salmon-lovers. This is the first time I tried flame seared salmon and it has definitely left a mark in my taste bud. The salmon was so fresh and searing is definitely a better option because it cooked the salmon just enough, leaving it still juicy and the melt in your mouth taste. This was my favorite dish of the night.

Flamed seared sesame Salmon Nigiri, $11.50

Not getting enough of the salmon and of course, how can we pass up sashimi when we are in a Japanese restaurant, we ordered the Chef's Selection of sashimi. The selection was tuna, yellowtail and of course, salmon! The sashimi was served on ice, the proper way, unlike most Japanese restaurant.   It is very fresh and the sweetness from the fish bursts with every bite. It is definitely the best sashimi cuts I have had.

Sashimi Chef's Selection, 3-pc, $19.00

Another fish dish that we tried was the Butterfish Tataki. I don't think I tried butterfish before so this was exciting. This is the most attractive dish - the asparagus butterfish was steamed and served with yuzu, a refreshing citrus flavor sauce. Although this is an appetizer dish, the yuzu sauce was a great transition towards dessert.

Roka Akor Butterfish Tataki with white asparagus and yuzu, $11

For those who are not a big fan of seafood, they have very tasty vegetable side dishes too. We tried their signature Sweet Corn and Sweet Potato. They are definitely the most expensive corn and sweet potato I have ever ate but the robata grill definitely made a huge difference. The sweet potato is crispy on the outside and succulent on the inside. The corn is so juicy it feels like we were eating some kind of a melon instead of corn.

Roka Akor Sweet Potato with ginger teriyaki, $4.50

Roka Akor Sweet Corn with butter and soy, $4.50

We ended dinner with their Green Tea Custard for dessert. The custard is not too sweet, which is always a risk when ordering custard, and is great when eaten together with the banana-vanilla foam. I suspected that they have a tinge of pandan added to the custard but since I couldn't remember what pandan is called in English, I didn't ask about it. This combination reminded of the sweet and salty kuih talam. The chef recommended dipping the caramelized banana into the custard but I preferred eating them separately. While it is a tasty custard and definitely made with green tea (rather than flavored), I can't say it is the best dessert I have had.

Baked Green Tea Custard with caramelized banana and vanilla, $8

I would definitely go back to Roka Akor just for their seared salmon but probably not anytime soon as their pricing is on the high side. But, I do highly recommend it for a pre-dinner place to visit. It is also known to have really good shochu (unfortunately I can't vouch for their quality as we didn't get any alcoholic drinks) so for those who want to get some drinks and light snacks before dinner, it is a great place. Off to think of a special occasion or celebration to go back there…

Mexican Food Galore

When it comes to eating out, Mexican food is my choice if the real Chinese food is not available. Taco Bell, a fast food chain selling simple Mexican food like taco and burrito is one of my most visited places when I was too busy to cook. My list of ‘favorite restaurants’ also consists of several Mexican places – Qdoba, Pancheros and Los Tres Amigos. The style is very similar to Malaysian ‘chap fan’ – rice (or beans) with seasoned meat – but of course the taste is very different.

BUT, it wasn’t until the trip to Mexico that I realized how different real Mexican food tastes like. They are so fresh and full of spices. Now it is even more like Malaysian food. Four very important ingredients – cilantro (ketumbar/芫荽), lime (limau nipis), salsa (sauce) and tortilla. Onion is widely used too but I tend to ignore it since I am not a fan of onion. J Cilantro can be found in anything. Lime are cut in halves and served as a side dish. Some of us have had a halved lime served on our dishes, especially on seafood dishes. In Mexico, you get a whole bowl of it! It is served along with tortilla chips and of course, salsa! Lime is also used to make lime juice, which of course, is also a very popular drink in Malaysia (limau ais!). You can have it made with water (natural) or with soda (mineral). Hehe, yes, I learned the difference between natural and mineral pretty fast. Tortilla also comes in two choices – corn (maize) or flour (harina). The corn tortilla is really yummy when it is warm but becomes dry and hard easily. It is always served warm and wrapped in cloth. Salsa – this is the must try ingredient no matter where we go. Every place has its own style, from really spicy to mild and from watery to more chunky, almost like pico de gallo (raw, chopped up mix of vegetables).

Cuatro Cienegas is a desert. Sure, there are lots of desert springs with aquatic life but you would not expect the place to have any restaurants with good seafood. Wrong. The first week that I was there, we went to a little restaurant that served ceviche. Ceviche is a dish of raw fish seasoned with lime and peppers. However, I did not try it since it was also loaded with raw onions. Instead, I had a fish soup (caldo de pescado) that was very light and refreshing. It was not ‘chao cho’ at all. There were also a significant number of huge chunks of fish!

Calde de Pescado (Fish Soup)

 While it was fun to eat out and try all the different food at CC, it was also pretty costly to be eating out all the time. The house that the guys lived in has a small kitchen where we get to do some cooking.

Kitchen in the house

JC and JR were great cooks of Mexican food, giving me the opportunity to learn a recipe or two. We had lots of tacos and pasta (not so ulu until we can’t find pasta sauce lah). JC is a vegetarian so she made really good vegetarian tacos like the lentil taco.

JC's lentil taco

JR once made us vegetables enchilada. Enchilada is like a mini burrito but covered with some kind of chili sauce. Like in Malaysia, there are all kinds of chili sauce in Mexico. I can just snack on chips and chili sauce all day!

JR's vegetable enchilada

Another Mexican dish that looks like a mini burrito is the flautas (flute). The flautas is the crunchy version and the sauce is serve on the side. We had this at one of the local restaurant in town. Like every restaurant that I have been to in this little town, it is very casual and there are only about 4 or 5 tables. The owner of this little restaurant was the cook, the cashier and the server.

Flautas de Pollo (Chicken Flautas)

I also had the opportunity to try a very unique dish, crepas de huitlacoche, at a more upscale restaurant that we went to in town. Huitlacoche is a type of fungus that grows on corn. It is more like a paste and occasionally you bite into little black pieces with springy texture. It reminds me a lot of ‘bok nee’ but has a stronger flavor. This place also has the best salsa in town, in my opinion.

Crepas de Huitlacoche (Corn fungus crepes)

On my birthday, we went to the east side of town for dinner at a little hawker stall called Alheli. It was my favorite place of all the places we went to at Cuatro Cienegas. It reminded me so much of mamak stalls back in Malaysia. One of their specialties is a set of tacos with beef, pork and two other parts of cow (probably some kind of intestinal parts). It was lots of meat but delicious! The meat was very well marinated and cooked very ‘thiam’. They also had baked potato that was so good although you don’t want to know how much butter they put in it.

Alheli

Taco set

Butter loaded baked potato

As you can see, most of the dishes are meat dishes. It was a little ‘jelak’ after a while. The vegetables are mainly lettuce, avocado (neither of which are my favorite) and tomatoes. It is a desert with very harsh environment for growing vegetables. But, they do have very delicious mango. Since I didn’t get to go back home to dad’s garden for fresh mango this year, I got my share of it from Mexico. There is an ice-cream shop in town that also sells popsicles (paleta) and ice-cold drinks. They have a mango drink that is made out of fresh mango. It is basically mango juice with ice. No added sugar since their mango are so sweet and besides the ice, it doesn’t seem like the juice was diluted with any water because it is a thick drink. On a hot sunny day, which is everyday, the mango juice is definitely a blessing!

I also discovered a Mexican spice that tastes very much like ‘sui boi hun’ that we use for ‘jambu’ – tajin. It tastes great with mango and hijama (hong guak).

Tajin with mango

Lastly, I also got a nice surprise on my birthday. The team bought some cinnamon buns and topped it with Mexican chocolate chip cookies.

The birthday surprise

It was nice to try all the different food there but I sure miss vegetables and fruits. Unlike most Mexican food that I have had, the food in Cuatro Cienegas does not have lots of rice. I definitely missed having rice after being there for two weeks.

Nasi Ulam

This past trip back to Malaysia, gee kim was not around much and we didn't cook at home either. So the only home cook meal I get to eat this trip is Nasi Ulam or can be known as Herbed Rice or Rice Salad. 

Nasi Ulam is a true Nyonya style home cook dish as it is not easily found in restaurants or any hawker stall (in fact I have never seen it sold outside). It is a dish that requires fine chopping abilities and patience. It is also a very time consuming dish as every ingredient requires chopping and roasting. However, if the ingredients are prepared in large amount, they can be kept for a few days and the dish itself can be easily put together. 

The ingredients for Nasi Ulam varies with the cook. The main ingredient is steamed rice and a variety of leaves finely chopped. The leaves that are commonly used are daun kaduk (betel leaf), daun limau purut (kaffir lime leaf), daun kesom (polyganum leaf), daun pudina (mint leaf), daun cekur (galangal leaf) and daun selasih (basal leaf). While they can be mix and match according to the likings of the cook, gee kim uses only daun kaduk. Daun kaduk is a wild plant in Malaysia. It can be found almost in anyone's garden and also in various tropical grassland. In ahmah's house, daun kaduk is just right next to the kitchen area. Besides for Nasi Ulam, it is also commonly used for Perut Ikan (fish stomach) and various other Nyonya dish. The leaves simply washed and mixed in with the rice raw. These leaves have various medicinal values and hence, it is more beneficial to eat them uncooked. 

In addition to the leaves and rice, other sides are added to give the dish more taste and to overcome some of the bitterness from the leaves. Gee kim's sides are kerisik (toasted grated coconut), belacan powder (roasted fermented shrimp paste), ground dried shrimp, roasted salted fish, finely sliced kunyit (turmeric), finely sliced serai (lemongrass), finely sliced shallots and white pepper powder. As shown in the picture, all ingredients are finely sliced and some of them needs to be roasted. This is why the preparation time can take almost the entire day! Some of these ingredients are meant to give only a subtle taste to the final dish but I love to have mine with lots and lots of daun kaduk, kerisik and ground dried shrimp. I would avoid the shallots though. :P 

Once all the ingredients are prepared, they are then mixed in a large bowl and is ready to be consumed. 

While it is sort of a salad dish, it is much healthier than Western salads that uses cream dressing. This does not come with any dressings. The variety of spices and leaves in the dish also adds antioxidant and other medicinal values to the dish. Until I can have my own house with a herb garden (even then, if I stay in US, might not be able to find the root for those leaves to plant it), I can only eat this once in a few years when I go home to David Chen Garden. For now, gee kim's supply of sambal hae bee (chilli roasted dried shrimp) will satisfy the often encountered craving for delicious Malaysian food. 

Benihana

Yippee, I finished my last class!! The crazy busy semester is done! Now I can start looking forward to going home and spending time with my family - in exactly two weeks, I'll be at home with mum, dad and ahmah!! For now, got another experiment to work on. Soil sampling on the only sunny day this week - Tuesday. Spring is really here! The rain is getting more frequent, flowers are blooming, the greens are coming back!

Got a bunch of photos from AZ and John's last trip here to MI that I haven't shared. Since it is raining outside and I can't go out to get more photos, I'll share the photos and videos I already have.

The last night I was in Arizona, we went to a Japanese cuisine restaurant, Benihana. It is a chain restaurant but I have had different good experience both times that I went. The first time I went to Benihana was in Florida, when we celebrated John's birthday.

It is a teppanyaki style Japanese cuisine, where we sit around a huge hot plate and they cook the food right there in front of us. I remember going to one of this back in primary school, after Sunday Dhamma class. It was somewhere on the top floor of Sungei Wang Plaza. We got a very entertaining cook this time. He did a lot of cool moves and I got to take a video of a bunch of them!

The meal started with miso soup and salad. While we're eating, the cook started with fried rice. Here is a video of him bouncing an egg yolk around.

After he fried the rice, he arranged it together into few different designs. Here is an angel.

Here is a Mickey Mouse. We happened to be sitting with a family who is celebrating a little boy's birthday. The cook made Mickey Mouse fried rice 'sing' Happy Birthday to the little boy.

For sides, we got roasted vegetables - onions, mushrooms, avocado and zucchini - and shrimp. I got soooo much mushroom this time because there was a lady who didn't want mushroom and I got all of John's mushroom too! Below is a video of him moving the onions around like a train. They also have their signature sauces - mustard and some garlic sauce. The garlic sauce blends really well with the mushroom!

As for main dish, John got lobster and I got tuna steak. The tuna is one of the best tuna I have ever had!

Lastly, we were really full but I still wanted to try the green tea ice-cream. So we just took one and shared.

Mickey Mouse Breakfast

One of the days that I was in Arizona, we just slept in and had a 'take-it-easy' day. We had a fruit platter with grapes, bananas and pineapples for breakfast while watching Seinfeld. Hehe, there was a lot more pineapple but we used some for the pizza and as I was cutting the pineapple, chi tae jip chui, chi tae hae lok ark. Hehe. John also made us tea to go with the fruit platter. He has a teapot with a built-in strainer (haha, I am sure there is a better way to describe it) so he can make tea from loose leaves and flowers!! I couldn't remember what tea we had for breakfast but I got to try a variety of teas that he had while I was there and my favorite is the acai berry with green tea.

I couldn't help noticing that our breakfast setup resembles Mickey Mouse so I had to take a picture of it!

Pizza pizza!

The only bread meal I really like! (as oppose to bo pan huat, in America, loti teh eh pang ghi)

We took an unplanned trip to Oregano's Pizza Bistro. We were driving home from a fun morning at a Japanese garden in Phoenix when we passed by this pizza place. John mentioned that it is a highly recommended pizza place in town. Since it was lunch time, we decided to walk over there (it is only a few blocks away from John's. In fact, we had passed that place multiple times when we walked around campus) for a slice of pizza but they didn't have pizza by the slice (oh yeah, this is a nice thing here in the States, where you can get a slice of pizza if you are by yourself or with friends who do not share the same cravings at the same time.). But since we were already there, why not try it, we can always take it home for dinner later. As it was lunch time, the place was packed and we had to wait. They have nice benches by their patio section and it was a sunny day!

It was only a short 10-15 minutes wait for us to be seated. While we were waiting, we took a look at their menu so we get to order right when they served us our drinks. We both got passion fruit black tea, which was very refreshing! On the menu, they state that their pizza takes about 40 minutes as they bake it fresh. Not a problem since we were not super hungry. But guess what, it took almost 1.5 hours for our pizza to be served! Although it took forever, our server was really nice and attentive because he noticed that we were waiting for way too long. Eventually, the owner/manager of the pizza place personally served us our pizza and nicely apologize for the delay. He even bought us the pizza!! Hehe, so we got a free pizza! This would never happen in M'sia! Instead of building on the customer's disappointment in the delay, they were very responsible and it was very nice that the owner/manager came out to see to the matter himself.

By the time the pizza came, we were both sooooo hungry we ate all of it! Hehe, I basically ate the first piece in 3 bites! We ordered a thin crust (my favorite! since that is even less loti and more garing!) with pepperoni and pepperoncinis, which is the yellow slices of chili you see on the top.
We also ordered a side of marinara sauce and John likes his pizza with lots and lots of sauce...
I would definitely go back to that place again! I wonder if their pasta or lasagna are as good as their pizza. Oh, they also have super huge meatballs!!! It is like a size of a golf ball! :P We were sooo full from eating the entire pizza, it was a good thing that we had planned to go check out the Arizona Aloha Festival at the Tempe Beach Park. It was so packed that there are some parts where we have to squeeze our way to get around people! (Found some photos online from someone's blog). We took a quick walk around and then can't help trying out some strawberry lemonade as we saw lots and lots of people carrying their cup around. It was sooooooooooo good! Hehe, the walk probably didn't do much as we got a huge cup, walk around the river and went back to get a refill. The first taste, you wondered why is it strawberry (which is common since lemonade typically over power most flavors unless they use a syrup based flavoring) but wait, the strawberry flavor is an aftertaste. Great combination! You get to taste the lemonade then the strawberry.

Pizza Part 2 - We had pizza again the next day! This time, 好特別喔! 有人煮給我吃的喔! I just had to chop up stuff. John made a pizza with the most topping I have ever had on a pizza! The toppings are sliced carrots (first time I had carrots on pizza!), diced chicken, yellow peppers and pineapple with a sprinkle of chopped cilantro. Of course, not forgetting the yummy pizza sauce and lots and lots of cheese!
Ahhhh...the wonders of good food and a sweet bf who don't mind being in the kitchen!

P. F. Chang's China Bistro and Cookiez

I made another trip to Phoenix this spring break (my first spring break vacation!!) to visit John. It is funny to feel that a trip to Phoenix comes so naturally when after my last trip, I wondered if I would go back there again.

So what did we do at Phoenix this trip? Lots!!! We also ate a lot!! As I had expected, we made another trip to P. F. Chang's. They have really yummy food there that we both tried new stuff and was very satisfied with it. We took a nice walk to P. F. Chang's, which was only about 15 minutes walk from John's. The weather in Phoenix was a lot warmer than Michigan's weather a week ago (it was about 15 C all week this week here in Michigan!) and I get to wear a skirt!! It was warm enough that we got a table outside. In fact, both times that I have been there, we get to sit outside! This is allowable in Michigan only for like 2 months. Hehe.

Alright, what did we get this time? We started out with the 'must-try' of P. F. Chang's - Chicken Lettuce Wrap appetizer. For our main course, I got a white fish that is lightly breaded, just enough to make it crispy on the outside, and stir-fried with carrots and snow peas. It is a spicy dish as they stir-fried it with Szechuan sauce and it is simply called "Hot Fish". For my level of spiciness, it was not spicy at all but I like it just the way it is because it is very refreshing. Really spicy fish should be left to the works of an authentic Szechuan cuisine. In addition to the Szechuan sauce, there is also a hint of fermented black beans that is commonly used in Chinese cuisine. I am not too fond of fermented black beans by itself but the addition into this dish makes it unique. Fish also goes really well with brown rice that P. F. Chang's offer for no extra charges.
John got another fish dish - Mahi-mahi. Nope, mahi-mahi is not a dolphin, which it is commonly mistaken for. It is known as the 'dolphin fish' but it is not a member of the Delphinidae family, which is the family of the dolphins. Hehe, unlike its cute name, it actually has a fierce look! The mahi-mahi was grilled with lemongrass garlic sauce. The mild grilling definitely does justice to the freshness of the mahi-mahi because the fish is still juicy. The intensity of the garlic was also just right, not over-powering the lemongrass and the sweetness of the mahi-mahi. The fish was served with cilantro rice, another good rice combination with fish. I often make it myself when I get the canned roasted eel from the local Asian market - Oriental Mart.
Me love fish dishes! It is lighter on the digestion system and does not makes me sooo full that I just want to curl up and go to bed. Hehe. Even that, their dishes are pretty huge that I only finish half of my hot fish. But, we did go out for dessert after dinner. I still would like to try P. F. Chang's Flourless Chocolate Dome one day. To get that, we would have to just order one dish and share it so that we can still indulge in the chocolate dome without feeling too full.

For dessert, we walked a few blocks down on Mill Avenue, which is the main street of Downtown Tempe, to a small, locally owned ice-cream store called Cookiez on Mill. It is a very tiny shop with only one small table. Its specially is ice-cream sandwiches (and Italian Ice according to the review), where we can make our own combination from a list of cookies and ice-cream flavors. We shared an oatmeal cookie with Rocky road ice-cream sandwich. After getting our dessert, we walked down a few more blocks to my favorite spot in Downtown Tempe to enjoy our ice-cream sandwich - Tempe Beach Park, which is at the beginning of south Mill Avenue. I got to take another shot of the bridge for the Phoenix Metro Light Rail, this time with my macro lens! I also caught a shot of the train rushing through the bridge!
The picture of the ice-cream sandwich above is from the second time we got it. This time we got the white chocolate almond cookie with chocolate mint ice-cream. It is a superb combination!! The mint blends so well with the cookie. We love it so much we got it again just before I had to leave on Tuesday. Hehe. Yup, it is really good!

很開心John也很喜歡嚐試各種飲食. 真好玩! 我們可以一起聊些美食的話題, 我也不用擔心他念我吃太多, 或者吃到胖. Gives me a chance to learn how to take photos of food too!

甜甜的

今年的情人節我收到好特別的禮物...那東西並不特別, 但那心意讓我非常的感動. 因為是他自己弄的喔! 那禮物就是...

當全部的零食摻起來, 那就叫'snack mix'. 平常'snack mix' 都會有些'pretzels', 各種炒貨, 巧克力, 和乾果. 我收到的有杏仁, 藍莓, 小紅莓, 櫻桃, 葡萄乾和最好吃的黑巧克力依macadamia! 通通都好吃, 參起來更好吃! 好甜蜜, 好幸福的感覺喔!!

甜甜的

我輕輕的嚐一口, 你說的愛我,
還在會味你給過的溫柔,
我輕輕的嚐一口,這香濃的誘惑,
我喜歡的樣子你都有.

Ethiopian Lunch

It reminds me of chapati. It also reminds me of back home because their tradition is to eat with your hands instead of utensils.

Me and ahdik went out for lunch today to celebrate ahdik getting a new job - a supplementary instructor (yep, surprise, surprise!). We went to an Ethiopian restaurant called Altu's. I went there once with the TT, Pei and Jo a few years back and liked it but haven't been back since.

Ethiopian food (at least from what I had in the restaurant) reminds of chapati. Every dish comes with a spongy bread that taste exactly like chapati except it is much more spongy. Their dishes are a variety of vegetable or meat stew. Their vegetarian dishes are mostly beans or peas. Since I have been making lots of beans and peas stew recently (actually, ever since I find out how easy it is to make them with the slow cooker!), both of us got their chicken stew. The chicken stew dish also comes with cabbage that reminds me of the nasi lemak stall at the corner restaurant at Mentari Business Park. We used to ta pau that for lunch after school as it is one of the fastest thing to get. Plus, the auntie also have mummy and my favorite ikan pari!
Besides the unique type of food, the restaurant setup is also different. They have regular booth seating at the edge and in the middle of the restaurant, they have this 'kalo' looking thing. When they serve the food, they will take the top off and turn it around so it becomes like a table.

Huat arrrr!!!

Keong Hee Huat Chai!! (Happy New Year!) Hor ni huat tua cai! (Have a prosperous tiger year!)

Without the M'sians this year, I didn't have a party at my place. But it was still a fun weekend with friends from a different lab. After the crazy weeks of presentations, posters, sampling in the freezing weather and long overnight experiments, it feels great to take a weekend off.

The weekend started with my first sledding and cross-country skiing (nope, I didn't cross-country, it is just called cross-country). Sledding is definitely much more fun than skiing. I can barely move my skiis and when I finally did, I kept falling down! Lucky thing there was inches and inches of snow! Going downhill is fun but I can't go up hill at all! It took me forever to go uphill because I kept slipping downhill. Sledding was scary initially but after a few trips down the hill, it was lots of fun! I'm the one in the yellow round tube. Another scary thing is there are lots of kids who do not get out of the way fast enough and I have no idea how to stop the tube or how to avoid them! I almost bumped into the little boy down there but lucky thing he stepped back fast enough.
The next day, which is the first day of CNY itself, Fan and I went for dim sum with some friends at a chinese restaurant called Golden Wok. It is the only restaurant in town that serves dim sum on a cart like it should be. Due to the large crowd (Duh! It is Cheh It!), they kept running out of stuff...like my favorite Wu Kok and the Tao Phui filled with pork. They did have 'kae kah' but we were there with a bunch of American friends so I didn't order that. Nothing beats the original dim sum in Hong Kong and of course, the one in Tai Tong, Penang (daddy, we have to go there for breakfast one morning!). Steph, it sounds like you have a much tastier dim sum stuff than I did!!!

Halfway through our dim sum brunch, they presented a lion dance!!! What a surprise! I never thought I would see one here at Michigan!!! It was a little weird since the lion was dancing around in the restaurant. The last lion dance I saw was during CNY in 2008 at Uncle Thean Yong's family CNY gathering.
The lion dance at Golden Wok...

After the dim sum brunch, we went over to a friend's house to make and of course, eat, dumplings! When we had enough dumplings, we played a fun card game which involves a lot of drinking. Hehe, good thing Datuk Loo does not know this game...otherwise, I would be drunk everytime we have a gathering. I kept losing! Without Datuk Loo, I just drank water. Hehe, yes, and yet I am the one who kept losing. It still amaze me how much beer people can drink, as we then proceed to play 'Flippy Cup'. It is another drinking game where one have to drink the beer and then flip the cup over on the table. The group that finishes the fastest win.

That about sums up my CNY. Not traditional but it was fun!

Arizona State University

Walking around the campus of Arizona State University made me realize one thing - MSU's campus will always be my favorite campus. We have the prettiest landscapes and gardens with lots and lots of colorful plants. The few campuses that I have been to in the US (besides ASU and MSU) are Stanford University in California, Boston University, Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Massachusetts, Western Michigan University, University of Michigan, Central Michigan University and Wayne State University in Michigan, and University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign in Illinois. They each have their specialty but MSU is still my favorite in terms of the look of the campus.

ASU is much smaller than MSU and the buildings are much closer to each other. In fact, it actually feels like SS15 without the crazy number of cars. Just right across the road from the campus are a variety of shops from restaurants and bars to clothing stores. While ASU have less greeneries (maybe because it is located at a desert area), its buildings have more interesting architecture. The two major plants (besides cactus) that are widely spread at ASU campus is the bitter/sour orange (Citrus aurantium, hmm, I wonder if there is any link between this orange tree and the bacteria Spirochaeta aurantia) tree

and this bright colored flowers that seem to clusters in pairs.

The nice thing about the ASU campus is it is very friendly to people who like to walk and there are lots of stuff to see within walking distance, unlike at East Lansing, where there is not much going on within walking distance. A nice place that I really like is the Tempe Beach Park, especially at night. It reminds me of Esplanade, Penang. From the park, you can see the Mill Avenue bridges that cross the Tempe Lake and the Valley Metro Light Rail bridge. The Metro Light Rail is similar to our Putra LRT. It connects ASU all the way to Phoenix downtown. The colored bridge below is the bridge for the Light Rail. The color changes every day and it is cool when the train comes because the colored lights will chase after the train.

At the north edge of the campus is a mountain with a huge A on it. It is like The Rock at MSU although they don't mess it up as much and it is not as high in demand like the Rock. From this mountain, you can see both sunset and sunrise and I saw both on it too!!

As for the shops around campus, there are tons of different restaurants serving food of different culture (hehe, except Malaysian! This will always be the one factor that makes Malaysia special because there is no other country that have mamak!). Besides the regular chain restaurants that you can find anywhere in the US, they also have chains that are more specific to the southwest region like Jack in the Box and non-chain local restaurants. We went to a Mexican restaurant the first night I was there and P.F. Chang's on my last night there. 和John出去吃飯很輕鬆因為我們不會常常去吃那些典型美國菜.他對別文明美食還蠻有興趣的. 有幾次我不太敢約他和我們一起出去吃飯因為不懂他會不會喜歡我們吃的食物.但,我們有一次辦BBQ的時候, 我約他去, 他好多食物都嚐試.這次, 我們去P.F. Chang's 的時候, 我看到有烤鴨,好興奮喔!好久沒吃烤鴨了.我問他,他會不會吃鴨, 他竟然說他嚐過!太好了! Hehe. So we end up ordering our favorite Chicken Lettuce Wrap, VIP Duck (which is basically the same concept as Beijing Roast Duck but they serve it with tortilla wraps instead of the puffy buns) and a salmon dish (是的, 他也很喜歡吃魚!所以我們出去時, 我常常有得吃魚!). They have one of the best fish dishes because they add enough spices to make it tasty and still taste the fish and don't cook it too long that the fish becomes dry.

On my last day there, we walked through their 'Union', which is known as the Memorial Union. They have tons of stuff to eat there!!! They even have a Cold Stone Creamery right in there (in addition to one that is just right off campus!). Since we already got our dose of Cold Stone ice-cream the day before, we went to Einstein Bros. Bagels for breakfast. They have a really yummy bagel called the green pepper bagel.

There are definitely still more stuff to explore there ...hehe, if I get to make another trip there. :P