Italian Theme Dinner

My other half was in Hannover last Sunday to attend an exhibition on commercial vehicle production and I took the opportunity to prepare him dinner as how he like it. HOT.

Before going to that, I must really apologize for my limited food post here coz MUA, had been a lazy bum lately. She´s not too keen to take picture of food in the evening too unless its an evening more interesting than average. Hahahaha. Besides, we have been eating LOTS of store bought stuffs like meatballs, pates, hams, instant pasta and such and I guess, you all are not interested to see those, right?

Anyway, anyway ... back to this dinner. Here I was, trying to make everything perfect and I got the cork opener STUCKED into the wine cork for the very first time. It had NEVER HAPPENED in my life and NOW! Hence first thing Juergen did when he sat on the table was ... errr, what artwork is this? Hahahaha. Did not even get the chance to air the Casal Bordino, btw but it was a rather good bottle. It was a semi dry red from Italy, from year 2002 and figured it would pair well with a tomato based tortellini dish.

Reminder; I need a new wine opener SOON!



I bought a fresh packet of Ricotta and Spinach filled Tortellini from Aldi and got them simmered with a simple gemuse (vegetables) and sausage based tomato sauce. The combination works but I would have preferred them the packet to come along with the right sauce combination as I find that my sauce drained the flavour of ricotta cheese out.

Anyway, I assumed that it came with the sauce and thougth of preparing them 10 minutes before he arrives home! But luckily, I checked the package half and hour earlier and scramble myself with a quick sauce fix. Hehehe.



As he´d earlier informed me before stepping into the train in Hannover, he will arrive home at 7.30pm and he was ON TIME, as usual.

• Candle Ligth - checked
• Lara Fabian´s Italian track - checked
• Wine - !$")$§")=/(/&"§!$!$§ almost got it
• Ricotta Kase und Spinat Tortellini mit Gemuse und Wurst Sosse - checked

HONEY`S HOMEEEE!!!

And so ... we sat down to another 2 course dinner at home on our breakfast table. Yum yum!

He shared with me on what´s in the exhibition, how big it was (and I´m thankful I did not tag along coz it sounded too huge!), shared with me on high speed train ride to Hannover (it was quite full and some were without seats coz its school holiday now), and his excitement on meeting his 20 years vehicle production contacts in the exhibition. I know how that feels. Meeting someone you´ve known after a long time.

We later enjoyed a Weisser Nougat Eis mit pistachio topping and found the packet stuff GOOD!

We also shared a super RICH Kaffee Schokolade Eis aka Coffee and Chocolate Ice Cream. No wonder I could not sleep that night!

After dinner was TV time. How boring, hahahaha.

Doppelkopf Night

Apart from Stammtisch Night (regular meeting over the table for drinks and chat) with the girls every month, we meet up for Doppelkopf game every last Thursday of the month too. My first time was at Silvia, with Arianna tuturing me. Anna, a friend of Sandra whom were visiting from Ireland were in town and helped me a lot in understanding some the game´s rule by translating them. That night, we played for 2 hours and I won about 50 cents! Beginner´s luck it seems.

Last week, we had another session at Arianna´s. It was suppose to be at Dotty´s but Arianna had to stay in to be with her kids for no ones home. Anna was not around, but thankfully, I was paired with Arianna. There´s 4 team for each game, and I was given a choice to play alone but I was simply not ready. Arianna tough me well, but luck was really not on our side for our cards were simply bad. Silvia on the other hand, had all the great cards. Simone, whom came all the way from Staedlohn joined us too but too bad that she will be transfered to Dusseldorf next month for her medic duties.

Anyway, anyway .. the reason why I´m blogging this is, I wanna find out if any of you is familiar with this game. If yes, please clue me IN! Coz I don´t like loosing money, you know BUT again, its also fun to be with the girls and while playing, we will be usually served bubbly, wine and all sort!

Here´s a little something I came across in Wikipedia.

Doppelkopf (German, lit. double-head), also abbreviated to "Doko," is a trick-taking card game for four players. The origins of this game are not well known; it is assumed that it originated from the game Schafkopf.

In Germany, Doppelkopf is nearly as popular as Skat, especially in Northern Germany and the Rhein-Main Region. Unlike in Skat, there are numerous variants. The variants use the same basic rules, but still require players to agree on a specific set of rules before their first game. Schafkopf however is still the preferred trick-tracking variant in Bavaria.

Game rules
In the following section, the common rules will be described. The more popular variants will be described afterwards.

General principles
Doppelkopf is a team game where each team normally consists of two players. The most distinguishing feature of the game is that the actual pairing is not known from the start, which is what makes the game interesting for most players.
The deck of cards consists of either 48 or 40 cards, with...
8 Nines worth 0 points each
8 Tens worth 10 points each
8 Jacks worth 2 points each
8 Queens worth 3 points each
8 Kings worth 4 points each, and
8 Aces worth 11 points each

... and with each group of 8 cards consisting of 2 cards from each suit: Diamonds, Hearts, Spades and Clubs. Each card exists twice in the deck (which leads to the name Doppelkopf) resulting in a total number of 240 points. In the following explanation, the more common 48-card version is assumed. The rules for the 40-card variant are the same, the only difference is that the Nines are missing.

In every game, there exist two parties, called Re and Kontra. To win, the Re-party must make 121 points or more; Kontra wins when Re fails to do so.

Preparation
Each player is dealt twelve cards, or ten in the 40-card variant. After the cards are dealt, the kind of game is determined. In non-tournament play, it is assumed that a normal game will be played and any player desiring a different game simply says so. In tournament games, a more complicated method is used to prevent players from gaining information about foreign hands.
The kinds of games that can be played only differ in what cards are considered trumps. When a player declares a game different from the normal game, he alone is Re and has to play against the other three players who form Kontra. These non-standard games are, therefore, called solo games.

In the standard game, the players who hold the Queen of Clubs ("Die Alten" ("The Elders")) constitute Re, while the other two are Kontra. In these games, the actual teams are not known from the start. In case a player has both Queens of Clubs, he declares Hochzeit (marriage).

Playing the cards
The player to the left of the dealer leads first; the other players follow in a clockwise direction. Each player must follow suit, that is, play a card in the same suit as the first-played card in the trick. If he cannot follow suit, he can play a trump or any other card. The player playing the highest trump or the highest card in the current suit wins the trick and plays the first card of the next trick. Since each card exists twice, there is the possibility of a tie; in that case, the first-played card wins the trick. For example, when the trick consists of ♠10 ♠A ♠9 ♠A, the player who played the first Ace of Spades wins the trick. When a trump card is played first, each player must play any trump card if possible, regardless of suit.

During the first tricks, each player may make some announcements which increase the value of the game.

After all the cards have been played, the point-values of the tricks are counted and each player in the winning party gets the game-value added to his score, while the losing players get the value subtracted.

Type of games

In the normal game, all Diamonds are trumps, as are all Queens and all Jacks. Therefore, there are as many trump cards as non-trump cards; this fact is mainly responsible for the specific Doppelkopf "feel" of play, noticeably different from other games of tricks, where there are usually far more non-trump cards than trump cards. In this game, the players holding the ♣Q form the Re party.

Hochzeit
When a player has both Queens of Clubs, he usually declares Hochzeit (lit. "marriage") and will form the Re party with the first foreign player to win a trick (most variants allow the player to announce a specific kind of trick that must be taken, e.g. the first non-trump trick). Apart from this, the game is played like the normal game.
The player can also decide not to announce Hochzeit, in which case he plays a "stilles Solo" (silent solo). This is played like a normal Diamonds solo; the only difference being that the other players do not know from the start they are playing against a solo. Apart from this, the game is scored like a normal solo (times 3 for solo player, normal for all others).

Solo games
A player can, if he wants to, announce a solo game. These games change the status of trump cards; the player also must play against the other three players. He will get thrice game value added (or subtracted) from his scoreboard in case of a win (or a loss).
The kinds of solo games that can be played vary wildly, the most common being "Bubensolo" (Jack solo), which only makes the Jacks trump cards; "Damensolo" (Queen solo) with only Queens as trumps; and "Fleischlos" (fleshless) where no trumps exist. Another possibility is the "Farbensolo" (color solo) which makes the announced suit along with Jacks and Queens trump cards. A "Diamond solo", therefore, has the same trumps as in a normal game.

Bids
During play, a player may make announcements claiming that his party will succeed in achieving a specific goal. These announcements increase the game value regardless of whether they are fulfilled. If a party fails to accomplish the self-given goal, it has automatically lost.
Apart from increasing the game value, the bids fulfill the secondary role of clarifying which side a player who makes them belongs to. Bids are often made more for this purpose than for the increased game value.

The bids that are possible are:

Re (or Kontra), announcing that the player is part of the Re (Kontra) party and his party will score more than 120 points. This announcement also tells all players if they play against or with the announcer.

Each of the following announcements can only be made after Re or Kontra. If Re was said and a player of the Kontra party wants to make an announcement, he also has to announce Kontra.

Keine 90 (no 90), often abbreviated to keine 9, meaning that the opponents will get less than 90 points.
Keine 60, or keine 6, announces the opposing party will not make 60 points
Keine 30 / keine 3

Schwarz (black), meaning the opponents will not get a single trick, not even a trick worth 0 points

Each announcement implies any previous announcements, for example, "keine 60" implies "keine 90" and "Re"/"Kontra", increasing the game-value by 4 (for the standard rules) points. Every bid may be countered by "Kontra" resp. "Re" when the opponents think the goal will not be met. For example, if the Re-Party announces "Re, keine 60", a reply of "Kontra" simply claims Kontra will score 60 points.

To be able to make a bid, the player must still hold a specific number of cards in his hands, the official rules state:

A Re or Kontra can be made with 11 cards left (that is, before the player plays his second card; it does not require the announcement to be made before the first card of the second trick is played). A Kontra/Re in response to a bid of the opposing party (for example, Re or "keine 90") may be made before the player wanting to say it plays his next card.

For keine 90, 10 cards must be held.
keine 60: 9 cards
keine 30: 8 cards
schwarz: 7 cards

A player that has, for example, announced "Re", but not "keine 90", may not announce keine 60 with 9 cards left, because the implied "keine 90" would not be legal.

Meme; My Bag

Our dear, sweet Daphne from Down Under tagged me yesterday with this meme and I just had to share them with you quickly. Its a bit personal but FUN and INTERESTING. If you are the nosy kind, like me ... and at the same time, love to share, do help yourself and join in!

Here are the rules.

Find a safe quiet place free of significant others, nosey meme makers, priests, nuns, all things religious and men in general. (If you're a guy just reverse this process to male and tell us about your wallet, tool box, briefcase or metro sexual accessory.)

1. Dump the contents of your handbag in a pile
2. Take a photo of your handbag and the contents
3. Be brave and explain to your fellow bloggers what lurks inside the handbag.
4. Tag others who might want to embarrass themselves
5. Answer these questions:

Describe the contents of your handbag.
What's the most important thing in your handbag?
What's the most embarrassing thing in your handbag?
What's the smallest thing in your handbag?
Is there anything illegal in your handbag?

And here´s a sneak and MORE of what´s in my bag.

A lot of stuff horrrr ... so happen there´s a lot going on, otherwise its just the basic usually.


This is a princess card which I´d just picked up few days ago for Ashleen. Its really cute, with pop up effect. The sticker on the left are princess sticker lohhhh ... ahhh, I tell you ah, she will surely keep them in her special bag and bring them to sleep at night!



Silvia passed me a set of Doppelkopf card and a cue card for me to practise on Wednesday and I´d totally forgotten about it. Its sorta like mahjong, a tactical game but with LOTS OF RULES! And last Thursday, I won 20 cents! Hahaha.



Here are my set of keys. One for the front entrance, the other for back entrance via the garden and hmmmm, I´m not sure which one is the other for. Actually I don´t really need keys as Mama´s always home and our entrance via the garden´s sometimes not locked. Anyway, apart from my set of keys and the key holes, our remote control and entertainment system are tagged too. Not too mention, our kitchen compartment and more! Yupppp ... this is germans way of life. Everything must have a system one.



Usually, this are all I need. Here´s my Esprit sunglasses gift from Mama Else. Actually, it was a cash give for me to buy whatever I wanted. Nice eh. The left is my camera case, my beloved LUMIX. Further left is a watch I picked up from Mont Kiara stall. Infront of it is my Nokia, WHICH HARDLY RINGS *sob, sob*

... And of course, my purse which was a gift from my sis. Thanks again! I love it.



My mini, indispensable dictionary and Ricola. Need them now coz of the weather here. And ahem ... the purple stuff is for woman´s monthly thingy lah. And I tell ya .. the ALWAWS brand is damn awesome lah. Its super thin, and super DRACULA.



And of course, a hat is necessary whenever I do my cycling to keep my hair away from my face. I´m not an expert to cycle with one hand yet, of which I sometimes had to urge too, to remove the hair OUTTA my face so I figured, a hat does the trick eh.



And here goes, the decription part.

Describe the contents of your handbag.

What's the most important thing in your handbag?
Dictionary, what else! Cannot live without it whenever I step out from the house. Other than that, my mobile is important too, just incase I get lost.

What's the most embarrassing thing in your handbag?
My house key which were coded with coloured tags, coz I´m proned to sticking the wrong key to the wrong HOLE! Its really embarassing to explain isn´t it?

What's the smallest thing in your handbag?
My Malaysian 10 cent coin, whom I found in a secret compartment. If only I can tag my luggage bag when I arrive here coz you should see the PINK mobile phone Ashleen secretly hidden in one corner of the luggage bag, hinting for me to call her as frequent as possible.

Is there anything illegal in your handbag?
Does Ricola contain any illegal drugs?

This meme was started by Mimi, Queen of Memes who thinks up brilliant memes.

If you are game, try it!

It's a nice way to think about what you put inside your bag...and perhaps do some clearing too!

And now, I am forwarding this Meme to;

1. WMW! Sure a LOT of interesting stuff in her bag one hahahaha
2. Cumi & Ciki, please do join in!
3. FBB (I Knowwww you will love thiss!)
4. Christy of Food Diary
5. Jules, the EATING OUT KING!

Early Thanksgiving!

In general, Germans do not celebrate Thanksgiving. But being a green nation that they are, most do commemorate them by having a mini gathering with friends and family. We had a small gathering in the garden today (btw, actual day is next Sunday) and did some harvesting on what´s left over from the summer season. This also signify a gathering to look forward to autumm and winter soon.

Me, Juergen were invited by Mama Else for cake and coffee session along with Dirk whom lives in Dortmurd, and drove all the way back for the gathering. When we arrive, the garden patio were already set in place. I love Mama Else´s china collection, and mind you ... she has LOTS of sets. I´m always amazed by her `never seen before collection`everytime we go down for a little coffee. This one´s from England. No idea what brand but it looks good for the garden!



She baked quite a bit today. Two loaves of bread, one flat and one puffed up kind which we had them for dinner later, but my battery went flat on me, hence no photo.

Seen here is Cherry Cake and Gooseberry Cake.

It was LECKE! Means yummy in deutsch.



Coffee and a little snack at 3.00pm ... German culture I tell ya!



After 2 pieces of cake and 2 cups of coffee, we better do something! Hahaha .. harvesting time! Juergen was first to harvest the grapes, followed by Dirk. I helped load the grapes into baskets and boxes and boy! I though it was just a handful but as it turns out ...



We filled up a whole basket! AND MORE!!!



Its premium grapes mind you, not the ones we buy from store. This ones similar to Riesling grapes which are meant for making wine and its called .. hmmm, aiyo ..forgotten the name lah hehehe. It is small, firm, ripe and perfectly sweet.



While the boys harvested the grapes, of which my monkey crawled to the top of the roof to gather more grapes hehehe, Mama and me went to pluck the remaining apples in the garden.

The tree were FULL and we could not finish the apple and plums last year BUT not this year, said Mama.

Oh well .. guess, I can always go over to Silvia´s place for apples and plums (of which I did last Thursday and carted home 30+ apples and now cracking my head on what to do with it!)

Anyway ... our apples were so fresh, sweet and juicy! There´s two apple trees though and one is of this sweet variety while the other is on sourish side.

And come Tuesday, we´re gonna make Grapes Marmalade!!!



Wanna see our harvest? This is Part 1 ... which 3 loads of grapes and a handful of apples. Not bad. Seeing our fruitful harvest, we decided to celebrate with a little white wine.



Then we recalled another plant waiting to be harvested! It was beans! Not sure if its broad beans or what beans. All I know is, it was hugeeee and long. Seen here, the two brothers plucking beans.



Mama decided to pull some beets out for dinner later.



And we drank, and harvested, drank and harvested more ... the wine was a young, sweet wine and it belong to Scheurebe Grape variety. It went really well with the grapes.



Look! Beans. Can someone tell me what beans are these?



And these are .......... grapes. Please fill in the blank.



And tadaaaaa .. our final harvest with the beans added in, AND we found some left over strawberries from last season too! The strawberries are a bit small here (botton, middle and on a red napkin) but were nonetheless sweet and juicy.



With sooooo many good harvest, no wonder my China-man so happy hor.



Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

And oh ... if you can, try and jaga our mother earth a bit more okay?

Sex And the City

No, I´m not blogging about the movie. I´m blogging about my first attempt in making a cocktail called Cosmopolitan made famousby the program. Juergen is incharge of my beverage request usually, along with dessert but I wanted to give cocktail making a try. I had a recipe from Cointreau and off I went ... shaking along two nights ago.



All I did was mix 50ml Cranberry Juice, 25 ml vodka, 20 ml Cointreau and 10 ml Lime Juice in and shake it till air incorporates in and that´s it! Not so difficult!

And it tasted good and STRONG! I would lessen the vodka to 15 ml next round but overall, it was a yummy drink for ladies.

Later that night, Juergen made us some Lemon Pudding and said that I can name it whatever I want. Hmmmm ... so here goes ...

This is Cocaine ++ aka Coconut Flakes with Chopped Pistachio and Chocolate!



Okaylah .. I better not blog about drugs and stuff otherwise my sis whom reads this will be wondering what´s happening to her sis over here. Drinking alcohol more lately, and now drugs???!!! Hahaha ...



Alright ... I´m a bit tipsy while typing this coz just had a fabulous HARVESTING DAY with Mama, Papa, Dirk and Juergen just now .. and we drank LOTS again.

Happy weekend everyone!

Backerei Pick of the Week

Germans are known for their extensive choices of yummy breads and confectionary.

This is true as I constantly find myself overwhelmed when in the bakery or Backerei as locally called, and can´t help falling in love with it again and again.

I picked this Eclair lookalike, but tasted nothing like it. It was actually butter cookie with chocolate sauce on top.


I picked something nutty too, and it was lovely! The bread had a chewy, pretzel texture and slightly salty, with chocolate nutty outer.


And of course, my favourite bread texture which is the pretzel kind. This came with lots of yummy seeds and it was lovely.


Hmmmm .... I wonder what is in-store next week?

Celebrity Wannabe

I am currently sooooooo addicted to this morphing thing where you can combine two faces (one of yourself and the other is a celebrity) into one. Some turned out pretty well, but some where downright outrageous!

And may I introduce you to ...

Ahemmm ... Winona Kang :-)


Lianne Porter (hmmmm, too bad that the celebrity genes are stronger than mine. I can´t see myself in here).


Monalisa Kang ...


Lianne Holmes aka Mrs. Cruise, I kinda like the broody look!


And this is my sister, Lianne Ziyi. Hahaha, NOT BAD!


Aiyo ... I aged Uma Thurman. Sorry!


This LiaKIRA is so puffed up. Will not do.


Perhaps I can change my hair colour a little and do a bit of eyelid operation. Love this look!


Hmmm .. her trademark eyebrow which one gotta get use too.


Audrey Toutou Kang, ahhhh ... love her magnetic eye. If you don´t know her, go watch Amelie. Its my all time favourite movie.


Lianne Jolie-Pitt! Oh YES! I can die happily now!


Okay .. moving on to fun stuff ...

If I make baby with a chinese man, my boy will look like this.


If with caucasian, look like this worrrr ... (btw, that´s Jude Law´s genes)


If Lianne Kang decides to be Lion King .. oh man, how it rhymes!


If I become the queen of England one day, my son will look like this. Goodness!


Alas .. better be with a wise man, horrrrr ...


Errr ... no lah. If I am given a choice ah, I´d rather be a latino babe anyday.

Check me out! Hehe ...

With Almudena Fernandez


Maria Menounos + Lianne Kang


Actually, Zhang Zi Yi´s not bad of all.

My man made crepes

And I´m so grateful for when I´m not so inspired too from time to time. We had these two days ago, starting with savoury and moving on later to sweet.

My first crepe had ham and cheese filling. It was delicious.



I than had another alla Italian style with tomato paste, ham and parmesan cheese. It was yummy too!



As for dessert, nooo chocolate in stock hence we had cinnamon and sugar. I would rate this second to my favourite chocolate and banana combo though.



Three crepes were not enough. But fraid not, we had more stuff on our table. Fresh cheese with herbs anyone?



Goes well with grapes.



And of course, the best cheese to pair them with ??? My beloved BRIE ...



Satisfied.

Quarkballen

Apart from Berliner (jam stuffed) which is German´s answer to Doughnuts, this Quarkballen also reminded me of those munchkins from Dunkin but are much more simplified without any fillings. Its made of Quark or Curd in English with basic pastry ingredients, deep fried and later, coated with sugar sprinkles.

The texture is soft, moist, with a hint of saltiness from the curd and its outer layer, nicely sweeten.

Love them with a cup of coffee.

The Malaysian Ocsar

DAMN FUNNY; MADE MY DAY!

Malaysia Political Scenario, Out of a movie – so here are the awards.

The envelope, please…

The Wide Angle Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, headquartered for no particular reason in Skudai, presents this year's Malaysian Political Oscars. The most widely watched television event in Malaysia, the Political Oscar telecast reaches over 1 billion viewers, some of whom are dead, some of whom are 130 years old, and most of whom are registered at the same address.

How does it work? Members of the academy (all Malaysian taxi drivers who despite being allegedly the worst in the world at driving taxis are remarkably good at political analysis) vote on these awards, and the results are tabulated by the auditors of some large accounting firm who would rather do this sort of thing than real accounting work, which might explain the state of the economy.

Here are the nominees and winners.

Best Supporting Actor

It is a crowded field this year, with many stellar performances from both veterans and newcomers. The nominees include private investigator P. Balasubramaniam in Missing; Pusrawi's Dr. Mohd Osman in Rear Window; Zaid Ibrahim in Gone in Sixty Seconds; and Raja Petra Kamaruddin in An Inconvenient Truth.

But the Best Supporting Actor Oscar goes to Penang Umno leader Ahmad Ismail for his controversial performance in Pride and Prejudice. Despite his recent success, which led to him being cast in Under Siege and Raging Bull, Ahmad has flatly refused roles in the films Anger Management and Atonement.

Best Supporting Actress

For her critically-acclaimed performance in Minority Report, this year's Best Supporting Actress Oscar goes to Sinchew Daily reporter Tan Hoon Cheng. Interestingly, immediately after that film completed principal photography, Tan was the unwitting star of Catch and Release, a film that may or may not have been directed by Syed Hamid Albar, depending on which version of the studio press kit you read.Tan spent just 18 hours on location, before quitting, citing creative differences.

Best Cinematography

For his impactful camera work in the V.K. Lingam vehicle The Conversation, the Oscar for Cinematography goes to Gwo Loh Burne. (Although The Conversation was shot some time ago, due to his refusal to be credited for many months, Gwo Loh Burne could not be given the award earlier. When he finally came forward, this legal thriller was re-released in some markets as The Burne Identity.) The Conversation beat out Entrapment, starring Chua Soi Lek, which also features an anonymous cinematographer.

Best Foreign-Language Film

Agricultural Study Tour, a Taiwanese sleeper hit, was shot entirely by coincidence, supposedly with no director and no funding. Nonetheless, a sequel, Exile on My Taiwanese Farm: Peeling my Taugeh might be filmed next year with some of the original cast.

Best Original Screenplay

Jumper, written by Anwar Ibrahim, wins this year's award. Although the film suffers from a cast of unknowns, whose number seems to fluctuate from scene to scene (though always at least 31), the script is undeniably original and exciting. It also has the potential for numerous sequels, which will prove profitable for the actors.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Written by a team of in-house screenwriters from the Attorney-General's Studios, The Accused, starring Anwar Ibrahim, is allegedly adapted from instructions given by political superiors. A remake of the 1998 flop, but with many of the same actors and production team.

Best Actress

Seputeh Member of Parliament Teresa Kok was competing against herself this year with sterling performances in a slew of releases: Election; Woman on Top; Supergirl; and, in cinemas until last Friday, the black comedy Enemy of the State. She wins the Best Actress Oscar, however, for her most famous role, Miss Congeniality, which has earned her praise from audiences and critics alike.

Best Actor

The big stars of yesteryear dominated the Best Actor category this year.Nominees include S. Samy Vellu in Gone With The Wind; Dr. Mahathir Mohamed in V for Vendetta; and both Najib Tun Razak and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in the comedy Trading Places.

The winner, however, of the Malaysian Political Oscar for Best Actor is Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for his flawless, nuanced, masterful performance in Eyes Wide Shut.

Best Picture

The nominees for Best Picture in the Malaysian Political Oscars are all gripping epics.They include the moving story of the many members of Parti Sosialis Malaysia, The Magnificent Seven; the Khairy Jamaluddin biopic Million Dollar Baby; the Hindraf saga, Out for Justice; and the tale of Gerakan in the Barisan Nasional, The End of the Affair.

The winner for Best Picture, however, is the story of the MCA's struggle against the Internal Security Act, Look Who's Talking Now.

Lifetime Achievement Award

For his astonishing film career spanning many decades, and including both commercial hits and small but critically-acclaimed art-house movies, Anwar Ibrahim wins the Lifetime Achievement Award.His roles, in chronological order, include: Wild at Heart; The Young Guns; The Great Debaters; Sleeping With The Enemy; The Insider; The Sweet Smell of Success; Reversal of Fortune; Cast Away; The Accused; The Cell; Cry Freedom!; Into the Wild; Back to the Future; Mission: Impossible; The Perfect Storm; and, most recently, Eastern Promises. Depending on the outcome of contract negotiations, Anwar's next movies may include The King and I; Top Gun; and Great Expectations.Alternatively, he may take roles in Crash; The Departed; and The Forgotten.

That's the thing about show business – you never know what the big stars will do next!That's all for this year's edition of the Malaysian Political Oscars.

See you on the red carpet next year!

Gentiana Scabra

Both, Juergen and I love flowers and one of the thing I look forward too are his flower surprises now and then.

Last week, he was at the Gardening Centre to check out the latest autumm and winter flower selection to replace our current spring and summer plants around the house. And he surprised me with these.

This is Gentiana Scabra and she originates from the mountainous Alps in Austria.

When Juergen brough it back, this was how it looked. And because I loved it so much, I place them in one of my favourite places which was the kitchen and it wilted within days! Jeez ... so sensative hor. So, I quickly put them outside again where its 5C in the evening now and around 10C during the day, and she´s happily blooming and cheerful.

Two weeks ago, I found some new pots around the house. There´s moreeeeee at the attic upstairs, and some in an old cupboard at the front room and perhaps, perhaps ... I shall go hunt for more at the basement cellar downstairs hehehe. A lot of goodies there!

.. anyway, I decided to plant more basil and have them handy in the kitchen too, in addition to the long pot of herbs I have outside. Its growing well and I´m so thrilled!



Because they are well, now .. my head is getting bigger and Juergen´s head is probably spinning. Hahahaha. Another two pots of parsley would be nice.

What do you think?

Speechless

I have just found out that Raja Petra will be going into detention centre for 2 years. Those people up there ... morons and SICK in their head! Have you not bullied us enough? That being said, I´m wondering what´s taking DSAI so long to get his act together?

Mamma Mia, The Movie

We went to watch Mamma Mia 3 weeks ago in Ahaus. If you have not watched them, DO NOT MISS THEM!

Before I start commenting about the movie, let me share you my first cinema experience in Deutschland yeah. For a town of 25,000 resident like Ahaus, there´s two cineplexes in town. Not bad. We decided to go to the older one coz its nearer but half way, I got skeptical over the condition of the old cinema. Will the chair squek, will there be kuachi on the floor (haha!), I mean, beer stains or some junk food lying around. But it was SQUEKY clean, and well maintained, just like any new cinemas if not better. The seats were huge with ample armrest, head rest and leg space. The seats were comfortable and most importantly, the cinema does not stink.

There´s even a board infront of you for you to place your drinks and food, and a small hook to hang your coats. Similiar like those trays on aircraft but better. When someone needs to pass by to get to their seat, I don´t have to stand up and make way for the person. Well, at least for short me. The other notable thing is, they serve wine, bubblies, beer and all sorts of drinks in the cinema, which made me felt like .. wah, going to cinema is so luxury hor.

All is said, I had a bottle of Apple Juice. Good girl.

Alright, on to the movie. If you like ABBA, go watch it! If you´re not a big fan like I do, it was ALL WORTH IT TOO! The songs were of course cheesy, but the story line were great. Its about this girl whom wanted her dad to walk her down the aisle on her wedding day. The problem is, she´s not met them, nor heard of them UNTIL she stumble upon her mum´s diary with the name and address of 3 possible father. She, of course, took the opportunity to invite them over to her wedding. Without her mum´s knowledge.

Merly Streep played her mum and she was fabulous. I´ve always been a big fan of her movies but here, she not only shone in her acting, she excelled in singing too! Talented woman! The rest of the cast sang too, with Colin Firth (one of my favourite actor) being commendable, but Pierce Brosnan ... argggggggg, he´s BAD.

The movie were shot in BEAUTIFUL Santorini Island in Greece (we will visit soon, I hope!), and the costume were all classics! And the ABBA song selection were very appropriate and got everyone in fun mood! Haha. Really! At one stage, it got everyone in the cinema singing to it and I was sooo surprise because, heyyy .. this is Germany! They are not suppose to know English songs soo well!

I won´t give away the ending, but let´s say its a good, happy ending for all. But arggggg .. Colin Firth turned out to be a GAY!

Do watch, DO WATCH! IT IS DAMNNNNN GOOD!

My Daily Indulgence

This is why I need to hop on my trampolin more often.

My favourite chocolate brand Amicelli, but now with limited edition Cappucino flavour which I felt were not too bad. I did not fancy much the Cappucino Ball though as it did not melt in my mouth. Sugar free sweets with coffee flavour were FAB! Must grab these for mum in November!



Lindt. What can I say. The selection here is MINDBOGGLING! There seems to be new range, limited edition and what not from time to time and we are kept guessing on what next!

Meat flavoured chocolate???



I love these Olive Oil sticks from Italy. Addictive! The mini pretzel´s not bad too!



Whenever we help Mama Else on getting her heavier stuff during Grocery, she will NOT MISS returing our favour with some goodies. Be it a potted flower, or something for the kitchen and home or chocolates and biscuit packs like these. The ones here from Swiss is one of the best I´ve come across and just found out that I can grab them from Aldi. Woohoo! Seen here too, Pistachio from Trader Joes.



And this my friend, is our wake me up machine. Our Philip Senseo coffee machine which works wonderfullly and runs on coffee pads. We now have two kinds of filter, one for normal coffee bean which uses thin pads and one for frothy kind of coffee which requires the thicker pad. Just insert the pad in the second grey lid, make sure there´s water at the container behind and press the BIG round button in the centre. We can choose to have either 1 or 2 cups of freshly brewed coffee within minutes straight from our kitchen.

For me, I love the thicker pad kinda coffee like Cappucino and Cafe Choco.

They taste as good as any Starbucks coffee and the great thing is, theres a wide selection of Douwe Egberts coffee packets to choose from.



And of course, the occasional alcohol to warm my body. Last week was Vodka and Blood Orange week. I loveeee Blood Orange juice.



Here´s Joshua. He teaches me Deutsch and I teach him English every Thursday. It was his birthday last Monday and we had a little cake celebration at his parent´s range in between lessons. Handsome boy huh.



And this is Leandra .. the mischivious one whom introduced me to Trampolin with her

`Lianne, Lianne .. komme hopfen`



Cute girl.



Reminds me of Ashleen. So difficult to take a decent photo of her, and mind you ... there´s more that I deleted than posted here because of her antics.



But awwwwwwwwwwwww .... okaylah, forgive her coz she´s so cute.

Besides ....



She is a DAMN GOOD photographer too!



I love this pic of me!

Another update. We´ve started planning for our new master bedroom makeover and am sooo excited to share them with you. Juergen had ordered our flooring way back in December and yesterday, we went browsing for some wardrobe and lighting ideas in Stadhlohn and I tell ya, the stuffs here are all GREAT! A bit pricey coz they are all branded, hence we will still shop around for cheaper alternative. We will have to redo our wall paper but have no idea what yet. On the bed, ahhhh .. the bed ... we will have a hugeeeeeeeeee bed, probably customize coz poor Juergen´s always caught at the EDGE of our current queen size bed. Hahahaha!

I will post up some pics for updates soon!

And oh, I was told there´s another festival heading Ahaus in two weeks time, BUT we will be taking an Autumm vacation to Winterberg than. Winterberg is a ski resort, but of course, its October and there won´t be snow, so it will just be a relaxing weekend with colourful leaves. Nonetheless, I´m thrilled to be there!

Coming up next ... our weekend in Stadtlohn Festival yesterday!

New Identity

My last hair perm was many months ago and eversince arriving here in early August, my hair had been limpy, which I totally hate. My perms gone. And why not perm again, you may ask.

Well, I´m in a dilemma actually. I have been colouring them since 7 years old as I have lots of white hair. Not to mention the perms eversince I started working and finally after turning 30, my crowning glory had taken its toll and decided to drop in alarming rate. I´ve tried many shampoos, tonic and suppliment, and little did it improve. Naturally, I would like my healthy bunch of hair back, with volume but how? And I don´t want to resort to perming again! Which I did, under desperate measure to look good.

And so, I was kind of fidgety when I walk into a new hair saloon. Moreover, my communcation skill is almost non existent. Sandra booked me the appointment and told our hairdresser Lotte what I was looking for. My instruction were very simple. Just a snip to get ride of dry ends, and give me volume at the top. Asian heads are flat naturally, I joked.

This was what Lotte did with my natural wave. She managed to give me waves without a perm and volume without hair implant.

Magical isn´t it?

And this is how I look with my new winter hat.



On another note, my German Integration Course is confirmed in October. About time! Our commitment to the immigration was actually language study course only, but we felt that an integration course to the german society which includes language study will be more helpful in the long run. Things like migration papers etc, who knows what else is needed in the future eh.

The class is for a duration of 6 months. It is pretty intensive with 4 hours lesson each day from Monday to Friday. Till date, there´s already a confirmed list of 20 students of which I was the last in the list and from what I know, there was a few more interested and the centre had to dissappoint them. Phew.

This is the registration office.



And the school itself. There are so many courses there and I´m drooling over some of them. But alas, the language baby ... I got to get them into me FAST! Than any course is possible!



So, I will be meeting up with my class teacher Frau Gobbel coming Wednesday for a little understanding of my background and that´s it!

Oh I´m so excited!

Okay .. I will go take my much needed rest now. Dinner tonight.

Power of C

Brrr ...

Autumm´s coming and the temperature´s getting colder. Sob, sob ... I think I´m coming down with a cold and there´s this dinner tonight that I´m hoping to go :-(

Ahaus Funfair and Flea Market Day (Part 1 of 2)

Achtung!

(Hahahaha, everytime I say this, I think of Teckie!)

Super LONG POST up next ... mitt LOTS of photos. So, do have patience with the photo download yeah ...

I was in the funfair last Friday with the girls and it was fun. We not only crawled the fun fair, but did a pub crawl to Drebbers and Vivaldi too. The following day, a few of us returned with our other half, and needless to say, we spent the evening later having wonderful time underneath the beer tent drinking and chatting.

Sunday was spent cycling to another town, of which you can get the full coverage and photo here.

And come Monday, I returned to the same area for an extended event where a market were held. The fun fair were there still but since it was mid afternoon, only the food stalls and merchandise stall were open. It was good coz that´s the main reason what I returned again.

The flea market was not really a flea market (I got it wrong). It was a normal market selling all kinds of household goods and only happens once a year. The crowd were mainly elderly people or retirees. And I though .. hmmmm, why don´t they have the real flea market here.

To cut it short .. photo time!

Do you know what this is? I HAVE NO IDEA! Is it for decoration or for eating?



The stalls were repetitive with a few selling wood based household tools. Cutleries and knifes were popular too and they are mainly from Solingen where its reknowed for its knifes worldwide. I was tempted to get some for my sis as we have very good ones at home, but luckily did not coz Juergen told me that the ones sold in such stalls may not be authentic.

Sorry that I left out the pics of knifes.



There was a stall selling all kinds of spices and herbs. Curry powder were applenty hence, I don´t have to worry about importing them from Malaysia. There was a huge selection of tea too, along with herbs of all kind like morrocan, provence or mexican. I bought a packet of provence herb and am looking for recipe to cook them with. Any suggestions?



A stall selling all sorts of cookie cutter, and baking stuff. Their cookie cutters were so cool! The one that attracted me were pumpkin, snowflakes, amsterdam houses, and gingerbread man shape but I could not bear to pay 2-4 euro for each!. Juergen said there´s a huge store selling bake ware and kitchen stuff here and would not cost that much and upon hearing that, I was relieved!



Do you think I can make mooncake with those moulds? Check out the patterned rollin pins!



I bought a 7 inch springform here coz the one we had at home made us ate too much.



Frankly, I was kinda dissapointed with the `flea`market. I thought it was the real flea market where there´s antiques and junks on display and for sale just like those in England. I found out later that there is another market in Ahaus that does that, and its called something else. Hehe.

Aftert walking two rounds ... I routed towards the adjoining street for the fun fair venue. My tummy were calling me.



It was pretty crowded that day, with everyone taking the opportunity to eat out.



The first stall that greeted me were a candy stall. Upon seeing this, I though of Ashleen.

If only she´s here .. she would go berserk!



The next stall is Champignon cooked ala french style.

I had them on Friday night with the girls and it was really good. You can have them with cheese, herb sauce and a few other, and I chose herb sauce that night. It was wickedly yummy, juicy and served piping hot under the cold german weather and I was tempted to have another go but though, its better for me to try something else this time round as that day is the last day of the fair.



Ahhh ... I think this post is too long. I will break here lah ...

Continue below ...

Ahaus Funfair and Flea Market Day (Part 2 of 2)

And so,

I opted for Crepes instead. It looked similar to the ones like in Paris, and even had nutella filling with it. But ...



I opted for Kinder Chocolate. Must support german chocolates mahhhh ...



And it was goodddd. The crepe were perfectly soft, and fragrant and the melted chocolate .. what can I say. Creamy and sweet and goeyyyy like ... great combination.



After the crepe, I decided to hunt for my main lunch! Haha ...

There´s a popular seafood stall here which sells mainly battered fish and seafood. Since I´ve been having seafood every time I eat out .. I decided to `let this one go`



Seafood with bun. I don´t know about you, but to me .. this look kinda dry and normal.



American hamburger anyone? Hmmm ... I´m not such a big burger fan.



Or noodles!

I was very tempted to go for it .. but when I spotted someone digging the oily strand out from the takeout box ... I immediately change my mind.



There are LOTS of SNACKS stall. Most of them carries a few variety of roasted Mandeln, or Almond with interestng flavours!



I tried two stalls and this is the best, according to the girls. There´s cappucino, chilli, plain, chocolate and many more flavour. I loveeee the cappucino flavoured ones! Yum yum!



Don´t they remind you of our school time fairy tale stories? Well, most of the stories are from Germany actually. Haha .. no wonder! Cinderella, Snow White, Rampunzel, Little Red Riding Hood and many more. Cannot remember lah.



Ohhhh .. the red apples. Just like the ones offered by the witch!



I walked further and found something. A pub offering Berliner Weisser! Read on and you will know what it is ... hehe



And right next to the pub were an Imbiss stall selling all kinds of German food. There´s champignon again, burger and hotdog, platters, snacks and everything under the sun. Its like mother of all stalls and no wonder its the second busiest after the seafood stall. The good thing is, theres a beer tent right next to this stall and so, I can order my food and eat there.



I ordered a Spiessbrater Teller (7.50 Euro)! Its a platter man .. so its HUGE!



The blonde lady served me and she spoke perfect English. Phew!



The one of the left is some meat skewer cooked in a red sauce. Looks tomatoesh. The one of the right are slices of pork fillet cooked in an onion gravy. They seem to be popular. And that´s my choice! Woohoo!



Champignon anyone? Looks good huh ...



And tadaaaaa! My lunch of pork fillet with frites and vinegared salad.



Yum yum!

The pork fillet were tender and juicy! And the onion sauce were so yummy and delicious! To add on further, she´s asked if I´d like to have extra mushroom sauce and I said yes! Coz both brown colour mah, so I figured it should go well too.

The fries were like the ones I had in Brussel Sprout, Singapore. Haha. The potatoes here rock, but alas, I reminded myself not to have too much carb or else I will balloon up! And so, I tried being a good girl and finished up the salad.



And here´s my Berliner Weisser, my latest LOVE. Some info on it from the web.

Berliner Weisse is a top-fermented, bottle conditioned wheat beer made with both traditional warm-fermenting yeasts and lactobacillus culture. They have a rapidly vanishing head and a clear, pale golden straw-coloured appearance. The taste is refreshing, tart, sour and acidic, with a lemony-citric fruit sharpness and almost no hop bitterness. Served in wide bulbous stemmed glasses, tourists in Berlin will often order on as a "Berliner Weisse mit Schuss: Himbeere" or "Berliner Weisse mit Schuss: Waldmeister". These are syrups that are added to make the sourness more palatable. Himbeere is raspberry (red) and Waldmeister is woodruff (green). Woodrugg is an aromatic herb found here.



Yummy stuff and I can say, this kinda beer can get popular amongst the ladies coz it has a bit of assam boi taste. Hehe ... so after the drink, I staggered back with a happy belly. Its a pity that I did not take more photos, but again, it will be back next year and isn´t it a good excuse to visit again?

OHHHHH YES IT IS!!!!

Ying Ker Farewell Lunch with Boss

I do have a fair bit of backlog entries from Malaysia left. Especially the farewell lunch and dinners with friends and family. This one´s from my boss, Ken. Since it was a day where all of us were at outlet attending to some stuff, he left the decision to me to decide on what I´d like to eat. And when in Curve, I can´t think of anywhere better than Ying Ker, a Hakka restaurant serving pretty good, authentic Hakka Food!

A good choice, and something that I would definately, DEFINATELY miss when in Germany.

Here´s what I ate.

A 8/10 point Fried Eggs with Picked Radish and Chinese Sausage (RM12.00). Almost perfect and not oily but could have been better with more chinese sausages!



Another 8/10 pointer Hakka Yam Abacus (RM16.00). Minus 2 points for the quantity. Taste was great!



I like my braised dishes dark in colour. Perhaps the sigh of seeing meat in such bright hue frightens me hehehe. Also, it was not tender enough, hence I would give this Braised Sliced Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Vegetable (RM20.00) a 6/10 point instead.



Really good Drunken Kampung Chicken with Ginger and Rice Wine (RM33.00), and deserving a 9/10 wholeheartedly. It was fragrant and had a tint of sweetness from the rice wine. Good stuff!



Ahhhh .. I love minced meat hence can I give this Hakka Stuffed White Bean Curd in Hot Pot (RM28.00) a 10/10? The combination with tofu works really well too. Well deserved.



Last but not least, we had a portion of Fried Yam Cake (RM7.00) which I find a bit too oily and normal. For this, I will rate it as a 6/10.



Thanks Ex-boss if you are reading this! It was a great lunch and I MISS, MISS, MISS eating them!

Fast Food, German Way

I have these for breakfast, lunch or snacks sometimes. But still not use to the dark bread. Anyone into such kind of food out there?

Cola Bier

Anyone tried this before? This is good. I wonder if it will taste the same if were to mix them ourself.

How Low Can A Country Go ...

A country takes ages to climb to where it is today, but take only mere few years, months, weeks or days to sink itself to new low.

Congrats my home country. Our managemnt team has done us proud again.

Dear fellow Malaysians, unite for a better tomorrow and stay strong and calm.

Hugs,
true malaysian

Golden Dragon, Ahaus

I finally made my way to one of the Asian restaurant in Ahaus on Monday afternoon for lunch. I suddenly found no inspiration to cook that day, felt lonely and soooo homesick (must be my 2nd day menstruating that´s making me sooo emo!) and after being home alone over the weekend coz Juergen was in Croatia than, I needed something to remind me of home.

Golden Dragon ... right infront of K&K, before my grocery shopping expedition.



Owned by a chinese, cooks are from mainland chinese and wait staff from Vietnam. The moment I entered, the wait staff started asking if I live here, and where I´m from. With my broken deutsch, I manage to tell him I´m from Malaysia but currently living here. It seems that I´m the only Malaysian here, but there´s a Singaporean, Korean, some mainland Chinese, a Taiwanese, some Vietnamese and Thais living around this area. Woohoo! Not so bad huh ...



Anyway .. my tummy were rumbling and I took a quick seat near the buffet table. It was 30 minutes before noon and I was the FIRST customer. I initially though of ala carte but since they were running a Euro6.50 buffet (damn cheap!), I decided to give it a go. Had to wait a while though so I filled up my tummy with ...



Ginger Ale drink first ... which was so good! My new favourite beverage!



And munched on 3 plates of cracker loh .. than, waited and waited. Thankfully, minutes later ... the soup arrived but was told to give it another 10 minutes for it to warm up. Wait loh ...



1 minute before times up, I attacked! Tomyum Soup ... gooddddddd! It was slightly spicy, a bit sweet and ingredients were fresh. No seafood however, but chicken pieces were tender and succulent. I won´t say this is the best tomyum soup I´ve tried of course, but with limited choices here, I will return for more!



The other soup choices available were Peking Soup. The thick starchy kind, with had hint of vinegar, hmmmm .. I prefer the clean taste of tomyum better.



This was my first plate.

Fried Wantan at top (with miserable minced meat filling), Spring Rolls (moderate taste and from the packet I reckon) and the one that´s surprisingly good is the Roast Chicken Breast with Peanut Sauce. It was yummy yummmmy so I went for seconds!

On the left side of the plate were a braised Tofu and Bamboo Shoot dish and upon arrival, the waiter quickly pointed out to me THE TOFU pieces and ask me to scoop it quickly! Hahaha ... its treasure you see and there were only 3 miserable pieces in the whole serving dish and I took two! Hahahaha. Well, the taste were like normal tofu loh and not fresh so next time, I should just leave them to the desperate tofu lover eater huh.

And can you spot the vege in the middle of my plate? Yes! That is SPARGEL aka White Asparagus. It cost nothing here and can be found everywhere but back in KL, wahhh ... treasure huh. Taste wise .. hmmm, the cooking style drowned the taste seriously so I can´t comment if its good.



I went for more Spargel anyway, some noodles which were NOT oily (like those in London, yucks!) and super yummy Thai Style Yellow Curry Chicken! The round ball is Goreng Pisang which was NOT BAD. The other deep fried batter is fish fillet. Normal stuff.



Spargel from upclose and personal. Damn fat spargel.



I only manage to eat two plates of the main and my tummy were already full coz I ate too fast. Ahem. But, I can always return when my craving hits again eh ...

And so, I decided to have a closure of a dessert bowl, consisting of canned papaya, lychee, guava and pineapple. Simple dessert but perfect ending.



Well, I will try out their ala carte next and see if its any good. After shopping, and on the way back ... I bumped into the korean lady, two vietnamese and a mainland chinese around the shopping area!

Is some Asian festival going on?

What coincidence!

Seapark Market Assam Laksa

Something Malaysian today, and it is a post on my ABSOLUTE favourite laksa stall in Klang Valley! Anyone tried their laksa before? I know the place needs a bit of cleaning up and it stinks but hey, the laksa here is to die for. I´ve been eating my laksa here for the past 15-20 years and it had been super consistent la wei. And if you can speak Hokkien like me (the Penang ones, not the Klang ones), perhaps, perhaps, you will be rewarded with more on your bowl too.

Damn good stuff!

The broth had the right consistency of sourness, sweetness, saltiness, fishiness and aroma from the fresh herbs. Yum!

Only downside ... inflation had upped the price of this bowl (keh liao size) from around RM4.50 to RM6.00 a bowl! Goodness!

Our Curryful Night

Life here is not too bad lah.

The only thing missing are family and friends back home, and of course, our glorious, most delectable Malaysian food. But if I were to lower my expectation and be a bit more resourceful or creative, I guess bolehlah ... satisfy whatever craving at the meantime.

So here´s to one of my craving last week ... indian food! But this was wayyyy before the chinese food craving.

I cooked curry with potatoes, some spices with yoghurt and milk. The taste was good!



We made Roti from flour and water, with a little salt. Just like chapati, which requires it to be cooked without oil.



And for dessert, we had Rasberry Lassi! Easy peasy lah .. just blend in some yoghurt, water, sugar and rasberries. Yum yum!



Here´s our simple indian night at home. I ate with my hands, and got Juergen to do that too! But it was such a hilarious sigh and we ended up cracking up than eating so alas ... he got hold of a knife to scope the curry into the bread. As for me .. no need lah lol.



Happy, homely meal.

My Quickie Chinese Food

One of the weeknights last week, I had a sudden crave for chinese food. Y´know, those layered pork stuff in dark soya sauce bath. I tell ya ... its been a while since I last salivated over something so badly. It was after watching a program about China (yup, programs about China are plenty here in Europe) and in the program were this lady gorging down bigggg mouthful of Fei Chu Yoke and I could almost die of heart attack seeing her do that! That night, I cannot tahan ... and what to do, have to cook something right? Otherwise can´t sleep ...

So here´s what I cooked.

Boring stuff ... but at least, it satisfies my craving instantly.

Sweet and Sour Chicken. Instead of cucumber, mine high class a bit. I use Zucchini.



I wanted to create this winter melon stir fry from the same program but of course, where to find the melon here lah. So here goes another zucchini to the rescue!



Ah .. this one is a classic in my home in KL. My mum would slice up the long beans or whatever beans she can find, as long as green colour lah .. and sautee them till fragrant before pouring in the egg to turn it into omelette.


Though the meal is simple, I DAMN SATISFIED and went to bed smiling lol.

I am trying to stay off alcohol BUT ...

This place is so darn cold! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr .... and at times like this, a yummy shot of liquor like this German Herb Liquor with 30% alcohol is perfekt! It warms my body instantly!

No wonder my godsister LiKian whom use to be based here were consuming so much alcohol few years ago and I was like ... what´s wrong with her???

Now my turn.

Gratin Dauphinois

Potato is not exactly my kinda food. I always find them too heavy, bland, predictable and after eating them, I will feel guilthy as though I´ve commited the most hideous murder. But we had half a bag still, and we didn´t feel like making our Gordon Ramsey style mash potato. We simply call them that after our lunch experience with mash potato in his restaurant in London.

Potatoes. Hmmm .... potatoes. We shall try french´s intepretation of using potato then, I suggested. He´s on for it and I´m so glad. The taste was not as I had expected. It was light, first of all. Secondly, nutmeg powder works magically with potato. During baking process, Juergen was asking again if indeed milk is needed for this recipe. It must have been a strange combination, but hey .. this dish is a classic. Top them with cheese, in this case we had gouda, emmenthal and brie but was not sure if the french type goes well here hence Gouda was the chosen one. It was perfect.



We both finished the whole baking dish with our glasses of muskat, of which you can heat up if you like them warm lol.



Another great eating in night.

Pork Burger wth Mixed Herb

Damn the supermarket chain here.

Before I came to this country, I told myself to try and make everything from scratch since I had time and not to get myself addicted to eating process food which German supermarket is so well stocked with.

But last weekend, after a gruelling 11km bicycle tour to nearby village, we decided to stop by Aldi and picked up our something for our BBQ dinner. I spotted this package of 5 huge, juicy looking burger for the price of less than 2 Euro and though, wow, good value hor. Hopefully, the taste is not bad.

And ... kaboom!!!

We hit jackpot! The herbed pork burger were THE BEST I have ever eaten! Damn juicy, flavourful with yummy porky taste (yum! yum!)

We had them with toasted baquette, roma tomatoes, lettuce, gouda cheese and my wicked sun dried tomato paste!

We were in heaven!

Turkey Schnitzel with Spargel

Sometimes this is my quick lunch. Dump the schnitzel in the oven to roast and boil the veg over the pot. I miss my regular Nasi Lemak.

Seeding & BBQ Day

Two weekends ago, we did our routine gardening again but instead of gardening at our balcony, we downgraded ourselves to the ground floor. lol. Juergen also trimmed the plants growing aggressively on the staircase leading to our balcony and I helped with cleaning up after that.

Back to gardening, Mama Else knows that we are keen on gardening, and space is limited around the balcony area hence the offer. Gardening on the ground was new to me but not Juergen, hence he proceeded to prepared the soil. First, he used a broom stick to impose some lines on the ground. When that is done, all we need to do was distribute the seeds evenly inside the line ...
Our first batch of babies ... and this was what we decided to plant.

Two rows of Spinach.



One row of Choy Sum!

I would have wanted more rows but little did I know that the seeds were less than the pimples on my face!



Salad for healthy days .. haha



And more salad ...



Ooooo .. ohhhhh ... and more parsley too. I only had herb seeds left and a packet of spinach but I reckon that I would feel jelak eating so much spinach once it is ready for harvesting and parsley, well .. I can always dry them or transfer them into a pot.



And lastly ... get someone big and strong to cover the seeds with some soil. Water them sparingly.



We also harvested these after gardening ...

Cressa ... which took 4 days for its sprout to show and another few more days for harvesting. A darn easy herb to grow and you can use it to substitute basil leave in your cooking.



And fresh, crunchy, flavourful beans ...



Since the weather was lovely, we decided to have a BBQ. For just the two of us.

We pulled the shades out in our balcony to protect us from the direct sun, bring out our breakfast table and two antique chair from the storeroom which were handmade by Juergen´s grandpa and looked so much like the chair in Van Gogh Bedroom´s painting ( really!).

Anyway ... have to remind myself to sit on them delicately. We moved the BBQ set from the spare room too and gave it a quick wipe. Brought some bouquet of flower for the table along with some candle lights too with cutleries and plates to eat with.

We are such romantic souls. *grin*

There is of course, food and drinks to go around.

Juergen made us a glass of Singapore Sling. It was really good! Just like the ones we tried in Singapore!



And of course, beer. The most essential drink in this country.



We enlisted our dear Ipod to be the entertainment for tonight.



While waiting for the BBQ item to cook, we digged into a huge bowl of pasta salad. In it were the most tastiest pieces of Roma tomato which we discoved from Kaufland. We seasoned them with yoghurt dressing and a bunch of Cressa.



These were some of our spread.



We marinated some chicken pieces with german sauce marinade and got them skewed with zucchini, onions and tomatoes. We boiled some potatoes, seasoned them with some extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and got them grilled again over the pit. And it was so good.

I also marinated a piece of white salmon with some oil and lemon juice. Grilling them over was a bad idea coz it turned out dry and its flesh tends to stick to the grill.

For the rest of the chicken pieces (read; pieces that Juergen does not eat e.g head, feet, wing, thigh, drumstick), I had them seasoned with soya sauce, sesame oil and a bit of belacan powder. It turned out really well!

The far left were turkey schnitzels.



We also had some sausages too (of course), and zucchini from the garden.



In no less than an hour, everything was gone. We are both fast eater naturally, and after a hard day´s work, not surprising to find us gobbling down our food like speed of light isn´t it?

Damn satisfied!

Another update ... Mama Else gave us 3 gingko nut for seeding. Honestly, it looked exactly like the gingko nut that we get back home, only thing is .. this comes with an instruction box on how to grow them.



The instruction says, place them in the fridge overnight. Which I did.



Then soak them in water for 24 hours. Which I also did.



After soaking, put the nuts in a pot of soil and water them occassionally. Its sprout will only show up after a good 4-6 months wait time!

Goodness!!!

But I did that anyway. Let´s see what happens.