Fly Away

365 km south-bound. Few steps away from reality, one step closer to LOVE.

Happy Holidays!

Belated Thanksgiving Feast

Roasted herb and lemon stuffed "turkey" (chicken)

Like this post, my masak-masak friends (Sheila, Chin Yin and Sim) had our thanksgiving feast in March... which was in a nutshell--way overdue.

Though you may say that we Malaysians can have our food around the clock at any time of the day. So can we celebrate the feast of roasted turkey (or chicken) in this case, any time according to our own calendar. The dinner was scheduled in the evening of 28th March 2009 in conjunction with the Earth Hour Malaysia.

Orthodox or lack thereof, we had prepared all dishes for this feast the way it has always been--slow, enjoyable and full of natural goodness to be thankful for. Now, let's just cut all the chase and look at the menu, shall we?

Rustic five mushrooms soup as starter.

For starter, we had rustic mushroom soup with fresh garden salad. Forget about the Italian 3 mushrooms soup, we used 5 variety of mushrooms--button, brown, oyster, enoki and shiitake cooked in chicken broth and then blended into country style soup with mushroom chunks. Chin Yin, the salad expert, prepared visually-pleasing salad (mix greens and top with cottage cheese) that was not only good to see but even better to consume.

The fresh garden salad was not only colourful but was crisp and fresh in every bite.

Then, the beautiful farfalline (far-FALL-lay) pasta with spring vegetables was served as pre-entrée. Hands down to Sheila because pasta dishes are always her expertise. Sim on the other hand was busy mashing up the cooked potatoes resulting in creamy and savoury mashed potato.

Sheila's famous farfalline cooked to al dante as always.

A Sim made this mountain of mashed potato that was so good that we almost licked the serving bowl.

The lead role of the feast was none other than--tadaaaaaa the "turkey" (chicken). We roasted chicken instead of the traditional turkey because the latter is much bigger and more difficult to cook bird, so we let it slide. The stuffing recipe was a combination of Jamie Oliver's and Sheila's + Chin Yin's. It was roasted for longer than we expected but the final product was gorgeous and succulent none the less (pictured above).

This time around I was busy at work, so the ladies cut me some slack and let me prepare the dessert instead. When it comes to thanksgiving dinner dessert, most people would opt for pumpkin pie or anything cranberry and pumpkin-y. But I was never good at observing the tradition. My mantra is "shop locally eat seasonally" . So the first fruit that comes to my mind when I think of exquisite tropical fruit and a spring-y fare was dragon fruit. So, I decided to make Italian panna cotta with a tropical twist topping--dragon fruit with lime zest.

Panna cotta was made with mascarpone cheese (Italian cream cheese) and whipping cream, topped with freshly grated dragon fruit and lime zest. I was thankful that it turned out great and people were asking for second serving.

Italian dessert with tropical twist--panna cotta with dragon fruit and lime zest.

After chomping away the feast for two hours, we observed the earth hour we all pledged. Instead of staying in a house of no electricity, we all went out for a breezy stroll and we were all thankful for the goodness that the earth has to offer. It is about time that we human being paying the due respect of mother earth by conserving the environment.

SK II Photography Competition 2007

Photo with SK II spoke person, Fauziah Latiff.

This post may be a bit old but I have to keep my promise to unveil the answer to my previous post and so here it is. I hope you are reading, JL.

Well, I took some cam-whoring photo shots with a SK II product to participate in the "SK II -- My Constant Companion" Photography Competition in August 2007. And guess what? I won the first-runner up prizes which include some real cash (can't remember RM800 or RM1000) and loads of SK II products.

The award ceremony took place at Isetan Garden and it was a celebrity-studded event where local media, artistes and fashion designers such as Fauziah Latiff, Charmaine Poh and the like made their appearance.

I was very very honoured and excited to be first-runner-up in this contest and despite teaching for almost 9 years now I still had stage fright sharing my story and photography in public. But it was all good. I wanted to thank my lovely hubby for being my plus one to the event and also snapping these precious photos.

This experience has given me a big boost of confidence and has encouraged me to pursue my passion into photography and I hope to share more beautiful photos in the years to come.

Sharing my SK II story and photography

I was pretty nervous speaking in public... :P

Receiving the prize from Fauziah... it was surreal!

Fauziah, the winners and Isetan Garden manager

Lemon and Dragon Fruit Cupcakes

It is said that the kitchen is the best place for a foodie's eureka, I couldn't have agreed more! Two weeks ago, I was enjoying some "me" moment with a juicy and succulent organic dragon fruit and while I was scooping the flesh from the exotic-looking mega-magenta fruit, I saw a fresh lemon sitting on the kitchen counter.

And then I suddenly had a eureka moment--how about a sweet treat with those dynamic duo--lemon and dragon fruit??? The lemon will give the cake an oomph while the dragon fruit would give the treat its natural moist and sweetness.

Lovely pink swirl effect after the dragon fruit is folded into the batter.

Without much hesitation, I whipped up a basic cake mixture and folded those fabulous duo into the batter before hitting the oven. The result is--vibrant colour and ultra moist cake that goes perfectly with an afternoon tea.

My focus group members (aka people whom I shared my latest invention with, all right, all right, my culinary guinea pigs) all gave a thumbs up for this pretty treat. I simply can't wait to whip up yet another batch of these gems!

Tenji in Mont' Kiara

I always believe in better be late than never, so even though this post is two months old but I still think it's worthwhile to post it despite the fact that it is way overdue.

My dear sister was in town during the March holiday and we had decided to pig out in this Japanese buffet restaurant highly recommended by my brother and sister-in-law--Tenji.

Located in Mont' Kiara's latest shopping haven, Solaris, Tenji is a newly-established Japanese buffet restaurant on the first floor of the mall. It is located opposite another hip restaurant--Schocolat.

Tenji is located on the first floor of Solaris, right above Cold Storage, opposite Schocolat.

Tenji's wide-scale build-up luxes up the restaurant's ambience. And you have the choice of dining in ind00r or outdoor. The alfresco view overlooks the city's major highways. I bet the night view is impeccable!

Alfresco view overlooking the major highways.

Upon arrival, we were received by polite receptionists who are dressed in kimonos. We were then ushered to the indoor dining area which is surrounded islands of food, which are mostly Japanese. But there are also some Western and Asian. We sat by the dessert bar because the dessert looked enticing.

Personally, my sister and I are 60% satisfied with the service and quality of food. I definitely recommend the sashimi, tepanyaki, Chinese steamed pomfrets and fresh young coconut juice. Much to my disappointment, the dessert was nothing to shout about, except the Häagen-Dazs macadamia nut ice-cream.

We paid about RM50++ per pax for lunch. It was quite reasonable for the variety and quality of food. So we have had yet again another gastronomic pig-out adventure.

Reception area

'Outdoor' dining area

Islands of food

The ramen/udon island
For starter, I had fresh seaweed salad. Very fresh and yummy!

Fresh oyster with lemon. My sister's favorite!

The sushi island

The western food island

Salmon sashimi--probably the freshest I have yet tried.


Young coconut juice, sweet and refreshing!!!
.Shiitake mushroom tepanyaki

Steamed herbal chicken


Oishi sushi!!!

Chocolate fountain!!!Now you can understand why we couldn't resist sitting next to the dessert bar???

They have the look but the taste is another story...

Thanks for the gastronomic adventure, sis!!! I love ya, muak muak!!

Mid-term...

That time of the year when most students think I am a "guru sekolah yang garang" (ferocious school teacher)... LOL!

海角七号情信 第四封

傍晚，已經進入了日本海
白天我頭痛欲裂
可恨的濃霧
阻擋了我一整個白天的視線
而現在的星光真美
記得你才是中學一年級小女生時
就膽敢以天狗食月的農村傳說
來挑戰我月蝕的天文理論嗎？
再說一件不怕你挑戰的理論
你知道我們現在所看到的星光
是自幾億光年遠的星球上
所發射過來的嗎？
哇，幾億光年發射出來的光
我們現在才看到
幾億光年的台灣島和日本島
又是什麼樣子呢？
山還是山，海還是海
卻不見了人
我想再多看幾眼星空
在這什麼都善變的人世間裡
我想看一下永恆
遇見了要往台灣避冬的烏魚群
我把對你的相思寄放在其中的一隻
希望你的漁人父親可以捕獲
友子，儘管他的氣味辛酸
你也一定要嚐一口
你會明白…
我不是拋棄你，我是捨不得你
我在眾人熟睡的甲板上反覆低喃
我不是拋棄你，我是捨不得你

夕方、日本海に出た。
昼間は頭が割れそうに痛い。
今日は濃い霧がたちこめ、昼の間、僕の視界を遮った。
でも、今は星がとても綺麗だ。
覚えてる？
君はまだ中学一年生だった頃、
天狗が月を食う農村の伝説を引っ張り出して、月食の天文理論に挑戦したね。
君に教えておきたい理論がもう一つある。
君は、今見ている星の光が、数億光年の彼方にある星から放たれてるって知ってるかい？
わぁ～、
数億光年前に放たれた光が、今僕たちの目に届いているんだ。
数億年前、台湾と日本は一体どんな様子だったろう。
山は山、
海は海。
でも、そこには誰もいない。
僕は星空が見たくなった。
虚ろやすいこの世で、永遠が見たくなったんだ。

台湾で冬を越すライギョの群れを見たよ。
僕はこの思いを一匹に託そう。
漁師をしている君の父親が、捕まえてくれることを願って。
友子。悲しい味がしても食べておくれ。
君には分かるはず。
君を捨てたのではなく、泣く泣く手放したということを。
皆が寝ている甲板で、低く何度も繰り返す。
捨てたのではなく、泣く泣く手放したんだと。