Throwing a Party - Food Items

I have attended a birthday party during my school days that was thrown by my classmate. Apparently she comes from a wealthy family having stayed in a semi-detached home in a landed property. I was quite young then but I remembered the adult guests had italian wine glasses in their hands and were merrily drinking red wine. There were also dinnerware like sango dishes to contain the savory food and desserts plus some finger food like sausages and french fries. We ate using square paper plates which was kind of unusual because most of the paper plates are round for easier dining.

The party lasted quite long and I had to go back before it ended late at night. I was still young, so my family were also concerned about my safety and well being. Personally speaking I have never organized any home party as our terrace house is cluttered with stuffs and there is not much room to move around. So, we normally invite friends to restaurants and have our gatherings there over a cuppa and some scrumptious food. Having good friends around to celebrate momentous occasion is worth the time and money spent. This is especially so during Christmas, Chinese New Year, etc.

Kitchenaid Blender Parts

I used to learn cooking, baking and sewing as part of the syllabus of secondary school long time ago. And I scored an A for the subject which was known as Home Science. It fun was learning how to cook curries, bake cakes, sardine puffs and be able to enjoy them with your family. When you cook at home, it is good to have kitchenaid blender parts to help assist you in your food preparation. The kitchenaid blender parts need not be expensive and can be affordable if you search online and click on the links given. Cooking can be any enjoyable past time while you learn to prepare new recipes using your kitchenaid blender parts.

Now with the internet, it is so easy to look for new recipes to try out by searching online for them. That is the magic of the internet - everything is instant that sometimes you tend to take it for granted. In the past, housewives have to buy cookbooks from the book stores before they can learn new dishes to cook and experiment with. Well, the internet is the answer to most of our problems in this day and age. Which is why we should not be afraid to embrace technology and learn to be internet savvy.

Low Calorie Snacks

I love to binge now and then especially during tea time. I would look into the fridge for some low calorie snacks to staff of the hunger pangs while not putting on extra weight. The low calorie snacks come in handy when I stock them up in my fridge for emergencies like this when I feel lazy to go out and buy food.

Living here in a warm climate, makes me hungry faster and taking a glass of plain water helps. You don't add on any more calories while the water make your stomach full and dilute the gastric juice so that you don't get gastric or stomach ulcer pains. There are many hypermarkets like Tesco selling low calorie snacks and you just need to look out for them. They are not difficult to find when you go to the food section or dry food section. You can check out the links given above to find out more and perhaps to order online if you are a busy person. Sometime, I prefer to buy through the internet to test out the payment system and check the reliability of the site. Not only that, it is also very convenient to make purchases - all at the touch of the keyboard.

Traditional English Afternoon Tea at E & O Hotel, Penang

Here are some desserts during a traditional English afternoon tea at E & O hotel in Penang. The English afternoon tea was free using the coupon voucher for members and is valid for 1 year. E & O hotel was owned by the Sarkies brothers and is a premier lifestyle hotel that was recently renovated.

The sandwiches are served in a 2 tier holder with scones on top. There are cucumber sandwiches, salmon, cheese and beef sandwiches. You can have a choice of various types of tea, and my favourite is orange flavoured tea. Each diner has a tea pot to himself.

A closer view of the sandwiches with whole meal bread and plain white bread.

Fine bone china is used at the cutlery. On the left is strawberry jam while the right side is butter. These are fillings for the scones where you can split into halves using a butter knife and spread the jam evenly.

Food from Various Places

 

Just recently, I had lobster thermidor in Fishing Village in Teluk Bahang, Penang. As seen from the picture, lobster thermidor looks scrumptious with fillings of button mushrooms, onions, succulent lobster meat and lots of cheese. It was garnished with juliened cabbage, carrots and greens. 100gm of frozen lobster is about $13.00 or USD 4.35. This meal was 1kg lobster served on a huge dining plate.

 

Our next ordered meal was baked crabs - we prefer it baked to retain the flavor so that it is not masked by other sauces like chilly crab with eggs, lots of gravy, et cetera. Here, we had 2 baked crabs, one for each of us to fill our hungry appetites.

 

This is curry chicken cheese baked spaghetti on the 7th level of Gurney Plaza, next to Xuan Xin Steamboat that was opened 2 weeks ago. As we were catching a movie soon, it was only convenient to have our dinner on the same floor as the movie screen cinemas as we don't want to be late for any cinema show. I don't like it when it is all dark with the lights turned off and the movie has started while you have to search for your seat numbers. It is like searching for a needle in a haystack.

 

I love this Siamese 'belacan' fried rice consisting of chopped long beans, onions, mango, dried prawns, chicken, egg omelette and sambal. The whole combination was just simply delicious when mixed together and eaten as a complete meal with enough carbo from the rice and roughage from the veges.

 

The same meal together with spicy tom yum soup and a glass of fresh orange juice without sugar and ice - also from Gurney Plaza.

 

Here is coconut ice cream added with chopped peanuts, stripes of mango and water chess nut coated with red jelly-like substance which is typical of any Thai dessert.

 

The black pepper gravy for the fish fillet simply sumptuous. This was ordered at Clinic Cafe on the 4th level of Gurney Plaza. By now you might have guessed that I love to patronize Gurney Plaza, an upmarket lifestyle shopping mall.

Dinner at Hei Yeong Seng Chinese Restaurant

 

This is the entrance to Hei Yeong Seng Chinese Restaurant where we dined recently over the weekend. It looks decadent with the red Chinese New Year cloth decos, potted bongsai trees, et cetera.

 

This was one of our dishes that I ordered - broccoli with scallops, stirfried with ginger, garlic and spring onions. The broccoli was crunchy and scallops succulent to taste. The chopped ginger added the 'oomph' to the flavor.

 

Notice the comb of genuine shark's fins with dried scallops, chicken plus chinese herbal roots and other condiments. A bowl like this will set you back by $40 as sharks' fins are rare commodity now and sharks are endangered species. The double-boiled soup was just superb and heavenly. 

 

This presentation of this dish was not as nice as what we have ordered before but it tasted just as delicious. This is two styles cooked chicken that's fried and garnished with sesame seeds which give the added flavor to the palate.

 

After finishing our ordered dishes, to our surprise, the waiter brought us free dessert of mooncakes to celebrate the lunar month of the mooncake festival. The middle portions are salted duck egg yolk covered with lotus seed that's been processed into a paste and baked in the oven. Some of the mooncakes are just plain filling while others have nutty fillings and red bean paste.

 

These are the most common mooncakes with brown covering and floral motifs imprinted on them. They are vacuum  packed individually at now cost 10% more than last year, ranging from $12 - $18 a piece. This photo was taken downstairs of the restaurant where there is a supermarket on the ground floor.

 

This is a different variety of mooncakes made from black charcoal powder to give its distinct black color.

 

More colored mooncakes - in this case, they are beige or pastel yellow snowskin.

 

This is the ambiance of Hei Yeong Seng Chinese Restaurant and view from our table. Sometimes Chinese wedding banquets are held here with almost the whole restaurant being booked in advance. There are also private function rooms for the discerning wealthy and millionaire diners who prefer to eat in complete privacy and away from the prying eyes of other diners at other tables.

 

I am done with the photos at Hei Yeong Seng Restaurant. Now next to showing food photos taken in Kuala Lumpur where I went for a business trip last week. This 'sui kow' soup was taken at Noodle House in Taipan, Subang Jaya and sprinkled with chopped spring onions. A bowl like this with 5 'sui kows' cost about $6.

 

This is fish fillet baked rice at Kim Gary on the 3rd floor of Gurney Plaza. This is one of my favorite dishes and I don't mind having this every day! I can eat the same food on a daily basis without getting bored.

Gourmet Tea

Today is the first of September and heralds a new beginning of the month. It is also pay day for me. As an aside, I am paid twice a month - one on the first and the other on the fifteenth. And I love to work from a home office. Just last night, I had lobster thermidor which I will put up the picture later on. I also had baked crabs and stir-fried vermicelli in a fishing village food cafe. We had to book a table, otherwise there will not be any place and you will have to wait until the diner finished their meals before getting an empty table. That's how popular the place is, regardless of how ramshackle it looks.

My friend had gourmet tea that came in a tea pot while I ordered 2 glasses of orange juice. The lobster thermidor was succulent! There was plenty of cheese, button mushrooms and lots of onions baked together with the fresh lobster. The bill came to about $190 which was much cheaper than if you were to dine elsewhere in Penang. This particular food cafe is located in a fishing village by the seaside and is always patronized by diners that come from far and near. Singaporeans love this place for its very affordable yet delicious food. That is why it is always jammed packed with people.

The gourmet tea that my friend ordered was a type of Chinese tea called 'pu er'. It is not cheap either and the longer you keep it, the better it tastes just like wine. The older it ages, the more expensive it becomes. There are many types of gourmet tea and you can check out by clicking on the links given to read more about them. My favorite English tea is Earl Grey and Peppermint tea.