I Miss Cha Ca

Apart from missing my hubby after I'm back from Vietnam. I miss this Vietnamese food "Cha Ca" very much, my favourite Vietnamese food "Cha Ca" ~ fried fish. I will make sure, I eat this "Cha Ca" on my each trip to Hanoi. I'm not sure if we can find this in Ho Chi Minh because this dishes are one of the speciality in Hanoi. By looking at the pictures here, it still can makes my saliva drop ~ lol ... I MISS CHA CA!!

The fish are marinated & grilled before they are fried in some oil with the fish internal organ. I think it's fish stomach ...

The waitress help us to fry the fish
Few different kind of vege are added as well...

Omg, I still remember how it smelt ... I'm hungry now ~ lol

We eat it with this noodles ...

Add in some peanuts

Some herbs .... to be added in the noodles we ate

And not forget this important sauce. It smells like our "belacan" but without this sauce...i think it won't taste that nice...

The vege that they added in the fried fish....

After we finished the fish...we still add in a lot of vege .... the vege taste real nice ~

Must try this "CHA CA" when in Hanoi and I bet you will miss it too !! ~ ^.^


AMY

Vietnam Special Fruit - Vu Sua

On our one month stay in Hanoi, we get to tried out not only many different Vietnamese dishes but also many different kind of fruits there. Today, let introduce this special fruits which is originally from Ho Chi Minh city to all of you. This round green coloured fruit are called "Vu Sua" in Vietnamese language which means "squeeze breast" ~ lol... Let me tell you all why they called it like this.

"Vu Sua"

Why this fruit are so special ??? Before we eat, we have to slowly press the fruit until it's soft. It takes few minutes to press it. My daughter enjoy squeeze the fruit. She just loved it!

When the fruit started to turn soft you can see some milky solution coming out ...
How to eat this fruit???
This milk look alike juice taste real sweet .... how to eat this??? lol ~

Easy,...just suck the milky juice first.

After finished drink the juice of this fruit, cut the fruit into half and eat it's flesh.

Soft & juice flesh are to be eaten with spoon.

Don't missed out this "Vu Sua" when you are to visit Vietnam in future okay. It's cheap too.

AMY

Home Cooked Food ~

It has been quite sometime that I didn't cook for my kids. Since my indonesian maid finished her working contract with me on June 2008. I've been busy with the housework and sending my kids to tuition/school everyday. Last year 2 of my kids are in the morning class and 1 of them are in the afternoon class. Can you imagine that??? I have to sent them to tuition class in the afternoon and at night time too and it's almost everyday ~ *faint*

But this year.... yipee!!! All of them are now in morning class. After some conversation with my friend we came out with this idea that she sent my kids to school and I fetch her kids after school. Ya, we car polled to safe time & petrol ~hehe!! Now, I've more time to finish my housework and cook for my kids. They all love my cooking very much. All this while, my mom have been cooked for us and I think now it's my turn to cook for her in return ^.^

Since my dad & mom are now in Penang to attend a relative wedding. Today I just cook this simple dishes for my kids & myself ... just 4 of us ~~

Stir-fried vege with fishballs, fishcakes & prawns
Fried "Chai Por" eggs with prawn
"Sai Yong Choi" soup

Simple & yummy!!

AMY

Seafood Dinner At Hadyai

I'm so sorry for the late update. Guess what??? I've been busy with the winter cleaning...lol~ Clearing all the unwanted stuff at my home. Tied up the old magazines, books & newspaper for recycle. Take out all the clothes that I no longer wear or fix to give it to others and the lists goes on....& on.....& on ~ Here is the dinner that we had when we are in Hadyai on Christmas. I just love & enjoy the food there.

* Our dinner started with this ~ some vege & the extremely hot chilies sauce *

Grilled fish * this is very yummy *

Coconut drink

Fried eggs for the kids
Fried Bitter Gourd with egg
Fish balls with mushrooms - for the kids too ~

Fried rice

Grilled prawns

Steamed fish

" Sar Pou Tang Hun" Crab ~~ I love this the most ^.^

After our dinner, my daughter asked for this Thai Glutinous Rice with Mango and we just "ta pao" it and take back to the hotel.

Sweet-sweet Mangoes

The glutinous rice

Coconut Syrup - to be added in the glutinous rice before we eat it with the mangoes ...

AMY

Good Bye 2008 !!!

Today is the last day of 2008. I've got one mixed feeling and I don't know why. Today should be a day for us to celebrate right?? 2008 year have been a tough year for me with many things keep on happening, stressed and surprises. I've learned to be more independent, take care of my house & my kids all ALONE without a maid to help me. Living far apart from my hubby also have trained me to be more patient, mature & digged out the stronger side me. All these years, I've been too depended to him for anything & everything. Overall the year 2008 is not good year for me. I just prayed that, tomorrow will be BETTER. I hope in the year 2009 things will be smoother, all my wishes will be granted (hehe) and a happier me.

Next year my son's will be facing his first ever important exam. His UPSR, I hope he will tried his best to get a good result which enable him to get into a good secondary school. All these years his result are not too bad. Thank god~ I'm really very lucky to have 3 lovely kids accompany me all the time. They make me laugh & makes me angry, when at times I started to nagged them and scolding them. Without them my life will be dull and meaningless....

I missed my hubby so much. I wished him successful in whatever he do and please take care of yourself while we are not by your side. I MISSED the family gathering very much, it's been quite sometime we don't have a family gathering. I hope we can do it on this coming CNY. I missed my lovely sis in-law Aei Ween, it's has been quite sometime that we didn't meet & have a good chat with each other. I want to wish her all the best with her loved one and be happy ya!

I want to thank both my parents who've helped me a lot in anything & everything while my hubby was away to work in Hanoi. Daddy & Mommy, without you both I think I can't make it!!! Thank you!

Lastly, I want to take this opportunity to wish ALL OF YOU a very HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009, wishing ALL OF YOU WISHES COME TRUE and celebrate this special day with your loved one & family.



AMY

Trip To Hadyai On Christmas Day

Since my sister in-law Alice came all the way from KL to sent us back to Alor Star after we came back from our trip to Hanoi. We take the opportunity to visit Hadyai on the Christmas Day. My father in-law sent us there before he went to play golf with his friends there. The main purpose for us to visit Hadyai is of course for their food and visiting the temples there. We did some shopping at Robinson Shopping Centre before we went home.

From Alor Star, it's just about 2hrs drive to Hadyai. But, it's a bit crowded at the border that day and we spent more than 30 minutes just lining up there to get our passport and border pass chopped.

Prawn Noodles - my breakfast in Alor Star before we started our journey to Hadyai by car.

Christmas Day ~ off day and everyone are visiting Hadyai. Pls look at the crowd~

There is several tourist bus there too. Very slow and long queue at the custom counter.

All my kids, my nephew & niece join the crowd to get their passport chopped.

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Upon we reached Hadyai, the first thing we do is to get our empty stomach filled first. We go to this famous Thai Food restaurant - Kan Eng to have our lunch. It's just 2 adult and 5 children, well...majority are children. We ordered most of the non-spicy food for the kids. Their TomYam are NICEEEE...

Kan Eng restaurant Menu ...
Fried Egg - I love Thai fried egg very much...
Stirred fried Kang-Kung with bean sauce
Kerabu Mango with Deep fried fish

Yummy fish cakes with peanut sauce

Fried fish meat with ginger & spring onion

Most people who visited Hadyai will know this restaurant and it's always crowded with many customers either the locals or the tourist. Most of the dishes there are very tasty and the most important is, their price are very reasonable. The dishes all come in small size which enable us to order more types of dishes to try. Must try all the dishes there when you all visit Hadyai okay!! ~ We stay there one night, our dinner is Thai Seafood ... yum, yum, YUMMY !!!~

Check out my next post ~ ^.^

AMY

Our Santa Papa

Come on, what is Christmas without a Christmas present right?? Alice & Fen (both are my sis in-law) discussed and bought some toys & the kids favourite snacks as presents for the my kids, my nephews and nieces. In our family we have 8 children all together. So, Fen devided and packed all the stuff into 8 packets then wrapped it up with beautiful wrapping papers.

We asked Papa (my father in-law) to become our Santa tonight .... and even bring him a red hat to wear it,... hohoho~~ He become our Santa Clause and distributed all the pressies for his 8 grandchildren...the kids are so happy, each and everyone got their present.

Santa Papa

Happy Santa Grand-dad with his 8 most precious grandchildren ....
My nephew -Zhe Xhe
My princess & my niece - Enn Yin

Group photo of the kids ...

Look at Enn Yin cute face...she is enjoying the Vitagen ~ so cute!!~

AMY