Simple and Yummy dinner – Fried Belacan Chicken Wings

Since we miss KFC very much, so I decided to fry belacan chicken wings as our dinner. I marinated the chicken wings with belacan, pepper, sugar, Chinese cooking wine and ‘Nam Yu’ before I went for fat burner class in Fitness Studio. After 1 hour of the fat burner class and 45 minutes running, my whole body was so tired. I determined to cook some simple food to fulfill our stomach.

When I reached home, my dear prepared a zuchinni soup and a bowl of salad. Some more he fried the chicken too. We always have problem frying the chicken ala KFC style. Either the skin was burnt or too oily. We strived to achieve the “hot & spicy” effect. This time we dipped the chicken into lightly foamed beaten egg before coating it with tempura flour. The chicken turned out this time crispy and not so oily. Next time, we could perhaps season the flour as well with chili powder and wahhlahhh… home made hot & spicy. Having fried chicken for dinner is quite sinful and the light zuchinni soup helped to feeling less guilt.

Christopher Street Day

Christopher Street Day (CSD) is an annual European LGBT celebration held in various cities across Europe. Only Germany and Switzerland use the term CSD, in other countries, the same kind of event is called Gay Pride or Pride Parade. Austria calls their Pride Parade Rainbow Parade. The most prominent CSD events are in Cologne and Berlin, Germany, and Zürich in Switzerland. Almost every large town in Germany celebrates CSD. Due to organizational reasons, the CSDs do not take place on the historic date of June 27, but on different weekends between June and August. On the one hand, CSDs are considered political parades, and therefore also include speeches, political mottos, and attendances and patronages from well-known politicians.

On 22rd June after lunch, we went out to the town center to watch this Parade. There was crowded and luckily we could find a comfortable place to capture some photos. This was not the first time I watch this parade. I was there as well last year. We were coincidently in the town last year when this parade took place and we were so surprised to see people dressing up strangely. Later we found out it was actually the CSD parade. We would never have the chance to see this at home. This year we intended to capture some photos of those taking part in the parade. It came out that the “costume” was not that “impressing” although a total of 2000 of gays and lesbian took part, maybe our expectation was too high…hihi.

Raining Saturday

It was a raining Saturday, so we just stayed at home for the whole morning. After we had fried rice as a lunch, we went to a local supermarket for shopping. Haha…there was promotion for M & M chocolate, so I bought it even though my dear did not allow me. He is afraid that I become fat girl later. Actually since the last 2 months, my weight gained a lot because we ate countless ice cream and drank often ices chocolate and ices coffee. Thus, I must plan a proper diet program already.


We cooked Spanish food for our dinner. 1st, we cooked tomatoes and celery soup and baked a baguette. Then we cooked seafood’s paella – prawn, squid, chicken meat and salmon. From last Budapest trip, we bought some saffron because my dear likes to use saffron to bake Peri-peri chicken. Saffron, which has for decades been the world's most expensive spice by weight but we can buy it cheaper at Budapest. This is because maybe the quality of this saffron from Budapest is not so good compared with the expensive one. During the dinner time, we enjoyed a bottle of red wine too.

Loh Mei Kai

After we made some effort to clean up my living room, bedroom and bathroom this raining Sunday morning, we were so tired. I decided to make Loh Mai Kei for lunch. I like to eat Loh Mai Kei during Dim Sum time with my family in Malaysia. I miss this food very much! So I checked this recipe from internet and tried to make it myself. Haha… finally my Loh Mai Kei is tasty and delicious even though I did not put Chinese sausage and replaced it with egg. Thank you for Lilyng for sharing the recipe. The Recipe can be found at (http://lilyng2000.blogspot.com/2006/11/loh-mai-kai.html). It tasted well and delicious-better than the ones from the restaurants in Malaysia, so my dear had 2 Loh Mai Kei for his lunch.

After the lunch, we watched F1 live from TV as I am Ferrari supporter and my dear is Mclaren supporter. Thus we always argue for our team. I hope my lovely Ferrari team will win for this Germany race. We plan to jog to Oldenburg Palace Garden if the weather is good later. Actually it was a bit boring living here because all shops and supermarket are closed during Sunday. It was not like our home country, all the people enjoy going out for shopping or eating with their friends or family at shopping centers on Sunday. I miss the life in Malaysia.

My Dear’s Birthday

I was a bit busy last month due to preparation for my C1 German exam. It is summer here and the temperature fluctuates around 25°C – 33°C, so hot! Luckily we have a fan at home, if not I will become a ‘roasted pig’. :)

One day before my dear’s birthday, I baked 2 Cheesecake – Oreo Cheesecake and Strawberry Cheesecake for him to treat his colleagues on his birthday. After an hour, both of the cakes were finished and all of his colleagues praised me. Haha… This is a culture in here – the birthday boy must bring a cake or chocolate to delight colleagues.


In the morning on my dear’s birthday, I cooked Mee Suah Soup with 2 eggs and a big chicken drumsticks for his lunch. This is my dear’s family traditional birthday culture. After my dear went to work, I started to bake a birthday cake – Black Forest Cake for my dear as a surprising present. Then, I prepared a mini steamboat for our dinner because my dear requested a few day before his birthday. I prepared some prawns, crabs, cuttlefish, chicken, home made pork wantan, home made dumpling, home made chicken ball, stuffed eggplants, stuffed sweet paprika, stuffed mushroom, vegetables etc. The steamboat was only prepared 2 hours before my dear arrived home. We enjoyed our dinner very much and my dear was so happy when he saw his birthday cake and present. What a surprised for my dear! This is my 1st time to bake Black Forest Cake. Actually I wanted to held a Birthday party for him and invite all his colleagues and friends, but he rejected as he wanted me to put more effort on my German exam and Corporate Finance exam. He is the best for me. Haha…. Love you so much, my dear!!

Budapest Trip on 18-200308

We spent three days in Budapest during the Easter holiday. Not a long trip nevertheless a memorable one. I have been to Budapest once some years ago and since then I always wanted to revisit this magnificant capital. Widely regarded as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Budapest is considered an important Central European hub for business, culture and tourism.
We planned our trip this time differently hoping that we won´t miss anything. We travelled with Ryanair from Bremen to Budapest and arrived at budapest in the morning.
The weather in the morning as we arrived was perfect with lots of sunshine as wished. After settled down in our apartment, we headed on directly to the castle hill for breakfast. We decided for the Cafe Auguszt. One of the most famous and oldest cafe in the town. It was not so easy to find as the building where it is located is not that eye catching. Even the cafe entrance is a bit too moderate to our liking. We know we should not concentraste too much on these details but rather on the coffee and pastries we have been hungrying for. The cafe was not very crowded at that time maybe it was too late for breakfast already and too early for a coffee break. We sat down and being handed a menu, of course in Hungarian. There is no way we could order anything from this menu hence we walked to the counter and just pointed on those nice looking little pastries based on our stomach instincts. The coffee varieties is not that wide but we ordered the classical cappuccino and latte. They were just magnficant. Of course the pastries too. We like the one with the spinach filling the most althought we thought it is pistachious filling.



It was time to walk down the castle hill district inhibiting Budapest’s most important medieval monument and museums and a Unesco World Heritage site. We took this opportunity to visit the Royal Palace, the Vienna Gate, the statue of the Holy Trinity, the Hungarian National Gallery, and the Budapest History Museum. The Castle Hill’s is dominated by two most famous sights: Matthias Church, a neo-Gothic creation with a colourful tiled roof and remarkable stained-glass windows. Just east of the church is Fishermen’s Bastion, it built as a viewing platform. We could enjoy the best views in Budapest. After that, we walked across the Chain Bridge which is a landmarks and delightful vantage points over the Danube River. The view of the chain bridge is just inforgetable.
We planned to visit one of the thermal bath in Budapest in the evening hence we headed back to our appartment to change and pack. We have not done this before and hence we decided to go to the most famous one, the Szechenyi bath, favourite among the tourist. We knew that we won´t go wrong with that. The interior of the building is also a marvel. We paid the entrance fees, around 12 Euros per person and without wasting anymore time went to look for the cabins. There are a few thermal pool in the complex all with different temperatures. We jumped in one of the hottest (38 degree) one. It smelled actually not that comfortable and the water was kind of yellowish. I think this is the real thermal hot spring. As it is a medicine pool, I think it is just normal and did not pay to much attention to that, but sitting in a small pool with so many other hairy men was quite scary. My dear was different as he was quite delighted when some nice girls sat next to him. After some 30 minutes, we wanted to try the open air pool though it is a bit cool outside. There are two lage swimming pools outside. The water is warm but the chlorine smells is a bit disturbing. There are just like big swimming pools with warm water. However, I enjoyed this much better as it is much more spacious and most of those in the pool were young teenagers and not those old men inside. There are also water jets from below and the side of the pools so it actually feels like kind of jacuzzi. Nice nice... After the bath, we just bought some pizzas and salat for dinner. It was a long day and we decided to go to bed early.

On day two, we went to the central market to hunt for souvenirs. We read that they are cheapest here. We bought some hungarian hand made table clothes and the famous paprika powder and the Tokaji sweet wine. We also took our brunch there at one of the local store, nice and cheap.
After that, we hopped on to a tram which operates along the Danube river. It was just one of the best decision as we could admire the magnificant achitectures along the river side including the Gellert hill minus all the walkings. We stopped at the parliament. This is the oldest parliamant in Europe and I think also the most beautiful one. After a round of hoto session, we decided to also visit the famous Nyugati railway station. My dear had a hard time reading the map but we managed at last. We spent some time in a shopping complex next to the station and had our lunch there. Don´t be suprised, but I had KFC for lunch. You know, I am a KFC fan and there is no KFC in my town. Pei Wei got the Palacsinta, the famous hungarian pancake with different kinds of fillings to choose from. We spent the rest of the afternoons visiting the remaining monuments we planned for, among others the St. Stephan Basillica and the opera.



Thinking to spent all of the remaining Forints we have changed, we decided to treat ourself a nice dinner. Before that, we took the chance to visit the Heroes´ square situated near the restaurant, I have seen this monument during day time some years ago but the night view is just totally different. The restaurant we dined in is quite of special as all the staffs are females and that´s why the locals call it a `woman restaurant`. The service was very freindly and the atmosphere was though a bit too serious as we tends to talk too loud while eating. However, we manged to behave ourself and enjoy the food to the end. My dear orderes the pork chops, I had the paprika chicken and Pei Wei the classical Goulash. After the dinner, we went back to the chain bridge for the night view. I could not descibe how beautiful it was but we spent at least some 30 minutes there just taking photos and admiring the bridge with the royal palace on the castle hill at the background.
Our flight was in the early morning the next day so we had to rest earlier to ensure that we could get up the next morning. We arrived back home in Germany in the afternoon and went straight away to bed...

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!!

Hereby wishing all my family and friends a Happy and Prosperous New Year and may this year brings you health, wealth and lots of happiness! :o)

One week before CNY, i baked some pineapple tarts, cornflakes cookies and bak gua. I finally test out this peanut cookies by baking a batch since this is one of the cookies I wanted to make for CNY. Glad to say I like it and it's so easy to make too. Pwei and my dear like it very much!

Anyway, for Reunion Dinner, which sadly wasn't celebrated with all our immediate family members,We decided to make a few "traditional dishes". We cooked chicken, chicken soup, fried fish and xiao bak choi. At midnight, we called home to wish all my family and my dear friends back home in Malaysia, Happy Chinese New Year and to catch up with their CNY celebrations. I miss all of you very much!

1st day of CNY, we cooked some vegetarien food for our lunch and dinner - sweet and sour vege prawn, loh han zai and vege popiah. We enjoyed it very much. After dinner, we cooked some red bean tong shui with tong yuan for our dessert.

The picture of Yam Ring, PWei & I made on 2nd day of CNY for dinner at home, my dear prepared some tasty terriyaki chicken and prawn and a soup. I thought what a great idea to prepare wantan roll with seeweed and to serve with Thai sweet chili sauce. This is a yummy food, so nice!!

Lastly, I wish all of you a prosperous, healthy, wealthy and Happy Chinese New Year!!

Happy New Year 2008 !

It’s 2 jilo jilo eight. How you guys have celebrated. After having our New Year’s Eve dinner, we went for countdown at a pub in the town. We enjoyed the music, the beer and the cocktails in the pub. It was so crowded but luckily we managed to grab a place to settle down. It was already 15 minutes before 12. The atmosphere started to get warm. More people started to go on the street from the pub. Here in Germany, people are allowed to light fireworks during midnight. 5 minutes before New Year, we left our seats to get a place on the street to join the crowd. Some impatient people have started lighting their munitions. Sharp at 12, there was really a firework show, although not synchronize but most important is still the atmosphere and the people. Surprising, it lasted for 15 minutes; the fireworks really went off above our heads. Here you don’t see those kiddy fireworks we normally had last time during Chinese New Year at home but really some serious ones. We were really satisfied and it worth standing outside in the freezing temperature. Happy New Year 2008 to all my friends!!!