Old Town Kopitiam@Melbourne

It was a lovely day today, blue sky and warm! actually, it's not warm but HOT! haha....After the Royal Melbourne show, we went for our late lunch or I should say early dinner as it was almost 4pm. A friend brought us to Old Town Kopitiam for food. I believe every Malaysian should know Old Town. However this OLD TOWN is different to the one in Malaysia, but food are much better! :p

The food is really yummy and spicy. I love it. I definitely will go back again when I miss Malaysian food. haha...

My Cappuccino!

Australians are serious about their coffee and very particular about their beans and their taste. I am not addicted to coffee but I do love drinking coffee sometimes. Having seen people making good coffee in the cafe, I also want to make one for myself or for my friends. So I decided to learn the Barista skill. Some people may be confused about Barista, and ask what that is. A Barista is the person who makes the espresso based coffees by extraction from the beans using an espresso machine.

Here it is, my first Cappuccino! I didn't put a lot of chocolate on top for this one. :p

Looking good, isn't it? Standing in front of the Espresso Coffee Machine for 5 hours, I made over 50 cups of coffees including Flat White, Short Black/Espresso, Long Black, Caffe latte, Macha Coffee, Piccolo latte during the courses. It was really fun and enjoyable. Now I got my Barista Certificate and I am the BARISTA! The next thing I am going to do is to buy a Espresso Coffee Machine for myself so that I can make my own signature coffee at home! hahaha...

My first Pork Mee in Melbourne

Last Sunday I had my first Pork Mee in a Malaysian restaurant (马来大排档). I love pork mee and have been missing the pork mee in Malaysia so much. The pork mee I tried isn't the best compared to the Ipoh ones, however, it's already satisfied my eating desire. The problem we cannot have a good pork mee in Australia is the pork smell! The way they slaughter pigs is different to what people do in Malaysia or other Asian countries. Anyway, apart from pork, other are good! haha.....Enjoy!!!!!!

Pressure for Perfection

I just watched a show called 'Dr Phil' this morning. This is really an interesting show. 

Dr. Phil McGraw has galvanized millions of people to "get real" about their own behavior and create more positive lives. Dr. Phil uses his “get real” approach to help guests solve their problems by stripping away their emotional clutter, and providing them with the tools they need to move confidently ahead in their lives. 

Today the show was about ' Pressure for perfection', a mum who wants her 10 years old daughter to become a baton twirling champion, makes her to practice 2 hours a day and spent more than $15,000 on costumes. However, the true behind isn't her daughter wants to become baton twirling champion but her mums wants. The mum cannot make her dream come true when she was young so she wants her daughter to do it for her. That is really not fair...Whether it’s in school, sports or hobbies, all parents want their children to succeed. But can a competitive spirit go too far?

I know that nowadays there are many parents want their children to become successful either in sports, hobbies or school. However, they never think that whether their children want to be or not. I feel really sad sometimes. While I was living in Malaysia, I saw a lots of parents sending their kids to tuition centre after school, sending them to learn piano, drawing or other hobbies /sports. I understand that the parents want their kids to be multi tasks and be talented. However, they have never thought or asked if their kids want to do it. Sometimes I can feel the kids are not happy about what their parents have arranged for them, but they don't dare to say 'NO' to their parents. How sad it is! I feel so lucky that my parents never force me to do anything except I want to. 

What I want to say to those parents is if you really love your children, you should talk to your children and understand what they like and what they want, instead of forcing them to do what you want! 

Bacon Wrap Portuguese Chicken

Today I went to Queen Victoria Market and bough some fresh chicken breast fillets, so I decided to make something different tonight - Bacon Wrap Portuguese Chicken. It's really easy to do it and it tasted so good.

 

Ingredients: 

500g               Chicken breast fillets (slice them, as picture shown)

10 pieces         Bacon

Marinade: 

3 Tsp        Portuguese Chicken Sauce (you can actually buy that in Woolworths)

1 Tsp        Chinese cooking wine 

                 (it's up to you whether to add it or not, I personally like to add it for most of my cooking)

1 tsp         Sesame oil

Some        Black pepper

Method: 

1. Marinade the chicken slices for 20 mins. 

2. Pre-heat the oven with 200 degree for 15 mins. 

3. Wrap the chicken slices with Bacon. (see photo above)

4. Put into oven with 180 degree for 25 mins. 

5. Done! Serve hot!

I stir-fry some zucchini (I love zucchini )with some salt and black pepper. Done! That is my dinner. Isn't it easy? I am sure everyone can do it. Actually, you can serve with salad. 

A year older now

I will be a year older in two days time. Time flies. I can't believe that I am moving to another stage of my life!
For the past years, I had my up and down, happiness and sadness,moving from this country to another country.  It really made a huge different to my life!

Now I am entering to another stage of my life, I really hope that something good will happen to me as my birthday gift! Of course, I've got my first birthday present from my hubby last night. It was a surprise to me. I love it! I should say THANK YOU to my hubby.

This Vintage bag I like it a lot, I wanted to buy it at the shop the other day, but I didn't. Now hubby bought me as birthday gift! haha..

Fall in love with cooking

I am so addicted to cooking since I moved to Australia. It might be the reason that I have more time to be at home or I am inspired by all the lovely kitchenware and fresh ingredients. One of my favorite shop to go now is kitchenware shop, I can spend 30mins there looking around and I will be so happy, and my favorite show to watch is the cooking show.

Yesterday, we had a late lunch at 2pm then a tea break at 4pm. We were so full for dinner, so I decided to have light salad for our dinner. I used the balsamic vinegar that I bought from the Italian shop for our salad dressing.  It was really good and refreshing!

Chocolate Sundae & Dark Chocolate Mocha Frappe for our tea break

 

Barramundi Fish & Tiger Prawn Salad 

Dressing: 

3 Tsp balsamic vinegar or to your taste (you can add more if like it sour)

2 Tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt, to your taste

Black Pepper, to your taste

I suggest to put some garlic, crushed, it will make the taste much different. 

Brighton Beach

Last Saturday, I went to Brighton beach with my hubby. It was a sunny day and supper warm. We had our late lunch near the beach. After the lunch, we went down to the beach and had some photo shoot! :p

My favorite breakfast