.: Pok Brothers :.

The Husband and I decided to sacrifice our usual Saturday morning sleep-ins to check out the recently launched Pok Brother’s Gourmessa – their retail mart.

Abit of the background first, Pok Brothers started off as a general store business in the heart of PJ way back in 1963. From it’s humble beginning as a family-owned business, it has grown and have become one of the leading frozen food companies in Malaysia.

The HQ is located in Glenmarie, Shah Alam, but they have distribution centers at a couple of places such as Penang, Johor, Langkawi & Pahang.

Most of Pok Brothers’ frozen products are imported from countries such as US, Europe, Australia & New Zealand. This includes products such as canned food, pastas, seafood, meat, cheese, etc.

If you are at their warehouse, you will notice the delivery trucks come to pick up the products, and from there, you can see where most of your favourite restaurants gets their supplies from.

Before this, Pok Brothers did not have a retail mart, but they do entertain walk-in customers. The walk-in customer will then pick from their products booklet of the items they want, and they will retrieve it from the big freezer. There are plenty of walk in customers and on the one occasion that we went together earlier in the year, we saw a couple of customers making their purchases.

I suppose that Pok Brothers have seen the potential in the retail market & hence decided to extend a part of their warehouse to a small retail outlet.

The trip that Saturday was worthwhile, as we have made a couple of purchases (which means spending more money, which is not good). We got ourselves some turkey & beef cold cuts (which are 10% off during this promo period). Then we got ourselves some regular cheddar cheese slices, which is prices pretty decently as well. Oh and we succumbed to the buy-3-frozen-pizza-and-get-a-free-freezer-bag trick (sigh!). The blueberry & apple puffs are delish as were the croissants that The Husband purchased in his previous visit without me.

Oh and if you are looking for bottled capers & olives, they have aplenty for a very decent price as well.

My colleague mentioned that the fresh milk is going for RM5 or RM6 for a two packs 1 liter carton. But the catch is that the expiry for this milk is within the next month or some.

Frozen lamb, frozen turkey, frozen salmon (cheap, cheap, cheap!) is worth checking out. If you’re feeding a big family, they do sell big cans of tomato paste, dried pasta, etc.

Pok Brothers Sdn Bhd

2, Jalan U1/24

Hicom-Glenmarie Industrial Park

40150 Shah Alam

Selangor Darul Ehsan

Malaysia

.: Childhood Memories :.

Random childhood memories.


Try and see if you can recall what I am referring to!

“Fighting crimes, trying to save the world. Here they come…..”

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking Pinky?”

“You’re just plain old Muttley, the snickering hound!”

“I’m smarter than the average bear!”

“Who's intellectual close friends get to call him T.C.”

“Omlette du fromage.”

.: One Hand, Other Hand :.

On one hand I …..

On the other hand I …..

Sigh, wanting the best of both worlds is not possible I guess. Back to reality!

.: Check In To The Batcave :.

Dedicated to the Foursquare addicts (myself included)

Tee hee! :)

.: Poh Poh :.

I spend some time with the grandmother yesterday. She’s the only surviving grandparents I have left. I’ve never gotten to see my paternal grandpa & my paternal grandma pass away when I was still very young, that I barely remembers how she looks and sounds like. As for my maternal grandpa, he passed away 6 years back, and because I was really attached to him, I miss him so much, until this very day.

As I was chatting with poh-poh, I begin to realize how much she has aged in the past years. She walks slower, talks slower & reacts slower than she used to. But she is still the proper, demure grandma that I know and love. She still takes her time to dress up, comb her hair, put on her lipstick to take walks at malls (much to my amusement, but my mom’s irritation). Well, for me I wouldn’t think twice of going to the mall with my shorts & college-old T-shirt (for the record, they are absolute comfy on a hot day). My grandma has always been a proper woman, and it reflects especially so in the way she presents the meals she cooks for/serves us. She ensures that the chili she cuts are of the right size (big chunky ones or unevenly sized are a big NO-NO or in the words of this Nyonya lady “tak senonoh”) or that the biscuits she serves for tea is properly arranged and served (eating direct from a tin like yours truly is unheard of!) or many more along these lines.

I especially also love the way she answers the phone, with a ever soft “Hellooo….” So ladylike and demure unlike her eldest granddaughter which just grunts “What?” when answering calls. Tee hee.

Well, I wished I have more hours in a day to spend with her and I am glad I did took some time off from work yesterday to catch up with Poh-Poh.

.: Minions / Avengers :.

Happy friday people! :)

.: Key Must-Have Ingredients In The Kitchen :.

I love cooking. Actually, I love trying new recipes, tweaking them til my tastebuds agreeable and I am almost 84.56938% satisfied (I can never be 100% satisfied, coz I just a perfectionist that way). It’s truly a sense of satisfaction. A male colleague of mine mentioned that in this time, women don’t really cook anymore. Well, I beg to differ for a know plenty of friends my age who knows how to whip up excellent dishes & bakes. But then again, there are a couple whose “culinary skills” are limited to instant noodles & boiling water. -.-

When I drive back from my workplace to home, I will have a hundred thoughts running thru my head – and one of which is – what to cook for tonight’s dinner/tomorrow’s lunch. It’s a way of distressing as I get to, in my jumbled up mind, mix and match whatever ingredients I have left in my kitchen and hope to successfully assemble a satisfactory dish for the day!

There are a couple of key ingredients which I love to keep at home, and because they are so flexible, I can just pretty much conjure up a dish in no time using these few ingredients from your pantry.

Eggs

They can be fried and added to the top of your fried rice or fried noodle dish. Hard-boiled – and make into egg sandwich or act as fillers into potato salad. Soft-boiled – think egg purgatory! *drools* Scrambled – excellent with just salt & pepper or add some onions & chilly and you have yourself a simple omelet. If you are just feeling really, really lazy, add and egg to your favorite instant noodle & slurp all the way to yumminess! Even to bake, about 95% of the recipe requires for eggs. So it’s no wonder that I have at least half a dozen eggs in my fridge at any one time!

Pasta

Forget rice, pasta is the new black! Aside from spaghetti Bolognese, carbonara or oglio, you can fuse your paste (namely spaghetti) with our lip-smacking Asian flavors. I lost track of the times I have made Tom Yum pasta (still an all time favourite with The Husband), add it into your curry chicken and you got yourself some curry noodles or stir fry it ala mee mamak style. I have been using spaghetti & angel hair for my Malacca Nyonya Laksa and have never looked back since. Fancy a salad? Throw in a can of tuna (the tuna minus the can I mean) and some spiral pasta with your leafy greens and you got yourself a wholesome meal-in-one!

Chicken

Now, I suppose it’s obvious that chicken is probably the most flexible meat. It can be cooked western style (think rosemary/ thyme/ lemon/ bacon/ grill), Chinese style (think tong kua/ wine/ ginger/ steam), Malay and/or Indian style (think curry/ rendang chicken!). Our personal favourite is grilling it with salt & pepper (and trust me, that’s all you need for a mouth-watering meal!). Best part is, with the carcass, we can boil it into soup (think ABC soup! Yummers) and as a treat for The Husband  - chicken porridge! (I don’t personally fancy porridge) Mince chicken can be made into sui kow with wanton wrappers or add 1 : 1 portion of onions with eggs and binders and you got yourself a home made delish chicken burger patty to be grilled. Add some honey/marmite/plum sauce to some chicken chunk & stir-fry and you will get a nice Chinese dish to impress your in-laws (or out-laws?). The list is definitely endless and some chicken in the freezer can really come in handy! 

For a novice in the kitchen, who want to start experimenting in the kitchen, I strongly suggest to have these three basic ingredients in your kitchen. Then, ladies, in your kitchen, you can have - in the words of Bon Jovi – one wild night! Cooking of course! :)

.: Insurance Coverage :.

As The Husband & I was called to revisit Project Umbrella of late, we had to relook into our existing insurance coverage & decide if we need (yet again) another top up. The reason for the impromptu top-up was because one of the policies that The Husband is holding is having a promotion for existing policyholders at a very reasonable premium.

Anyways, I was trying to get a rough idea of how much coverage is enough, when I stumble upon this article by Meshio.com (read here). Very simple to read, tongue-in-cheek humour & definately imformative, I would strongly advise those who have very lil knowledge of insurance (like myself) to read thru & get a rough idea about it. From "do you really need life insurance" to "how much life insurance coverage do one need". Do read!

.: PJ Laugh Fest 2012 :.

PJ Laugh Fest was amazing last year when I watched God Of Carnage. This year, PJ Laugh Fest 2012 is back  with Kuah Jenhan, Harith Iskandar, Douglas Lim & other seriously funny people!

I can’t wait to catch tomorrow’s show much thanks to JayaOne & PJ Life Arts for the pair of tickets!

.: Milkshake Factory, Kuala Lumpur :.

The milkshake that brings all the boys (and girls) down KL’s yard is having a promotion all for the month of April to July!

Yipyiphooray! :)

Ground Floor, Crown Regency Hotel, Jalan P.Ramlee, 50250. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

.: Lil' Joy :.

Went to the library yesterday to pick up yet another 6 new books to be devoured in 6 weeks.

Ah, the simple lil things in life that brings joy.

.: Our Castle :.

.: Whipped :.

I love to see whipping cream being whipped by the mixer until it becomes… er… whipped cream. I watch with amazement on how it can turn from liquid into white fluffy mass. Yesterday, I was reminded of how I miss baking. Oh, indeed the joy of baking!

.: Garden Bench DIYs :.

As you all have know, I have launched Project Spring a couple of months back. It’s nice to bring you updates that the garden is doing relatively well for a amateur garderner. I have taken a short break from gardening to catch up on my reading. But I reckon it’s bout time I start getting my hands sinked in to my garden again. The plants that we have planted are doing reasonably well. Plenty of pointers from the local gardener’s blog, as I have mentioned in my previous post. Then again, there are a couple of plants that didn’t make it in our hands, a couple of plants that are not thriving as good as we expect (point in case – the orkid has not bloomed yet *sigh*), but we are pleased with the ones that did.

I am now looking at simple & easy solutions to storing my gardening tools and what not, and thanks to the power of Google, here are a couple of creative ideas that is easy on the pocket. Now out with those drills *piewww*pieeww* :)

Robin made this from an old table & a discarded bedframe. Love it!

An old dresser and some tiles is what it takes for Jary to transform into this lovely garden bench!

Hanging garden desk from a couple of planks of wood. Steps to make from GAP Gardens.

Becky + pallets = Awesome garden bench!

Bobby create an awesome rustic planter with just an old door. Adds character with some vintage kitchenware!

INSPIRED MUCH? :)

.: Lullaby, Say Goodnight :.

The Husband called to tell me he was coming back at 1am. I thought to myself, “that’s early”, so I decided to wait while I read a book. At 1.30am, no signs of him, and I was already groggy. I called The Husband only to get to hear some muttering of “I’m in a discussion”. Fine, a lil bit agitated that he didn’t even bother to text me to tell me the case, I went to sleep. At 2.30am, he called. Awaken, I picked up, only to have The Husband tell me that he’s on the way home. What?! I gave him a good piece of shelling for interrupting my sleep, and then went back to bed. When he came home, me being a light sleeper, was awaken again by the sounds of jangling keys. I tried to get back to sleep, only to heard some bing-banging of pots and pans in the kitchen. Seriously? Doing the dishes (well, technically it’s only ONE pot, but for god knows what reason(s), the way he washed it made it sound like that he’s closing up a tai chow restaurant) at 3am in the morning! So, The Husband dutifully obeyed and I was again, dozing on and off sleep, no thanks to the sounds of the running shower. Finally, when he is done, and all tuck into bed, and just when I thought I could finally get some shut eye – The Husband starting snoring. FML.

.: Second Edition :.

If life had a second edition, how I would correct the proofs.

-John Clare-

.: Just Another Manic Monday :.

It's just another manic Monday

I wish it were Sunday

'Cause that's my funday

My I don't have to runday

It's just another manic Monday

- The Bangles : Manic Monday –

Woke up in the morning to the gentle rhythms of raindrops tippity-tapping on the roof above my head. This morning is colder than most mornings; and; like almost all Monday mornings (or ALL mornings for the matter), I struggle to get out of bed. It doesn’t help that The Husband wants to cuddle more. Well, he has the luxury of waltzing into work slightly later than the prescribed working hours (good on him!) and I don’t (boo on me!). It also doesn’t help that I am down with a slight flu (pray it will not develop into something further as I have just recently recovered from a fever) and my nose is all blocked and stuffy. I have to wedge myself of my fluffy, comfy bed and get myself ready. For work. *big sigh*

I hate mornings (as you can tell, I am not really a morning-sunshine person). I hate workday mornings even especially more. I hate jams. Not strawberry jams (well, I don’t really fancy those, but don’t hate hate per say). But traffic jams. Crazy traffic jams which are somehow worse on Monday mornings! I hate driving thru them. Hate is such a strong word. But yes, I hate this morning. Ugh!

.: Kath's Lil Kitchen Helper :.

One of the greatest inventions for those on the go but wants to come home to a warm home-cooked meal. Am I pleased to introduce you to La Gourmet 2.5L Thermal Wonder Cooker! (Sounds like I’m doing a commercial or something! hehe!)

I have been telling The Husband a couple of months back that we need to get ourselves a thermal cooker. It was difficult to explain the concept of thermal cooking to him and he conveniently thought that it’s the same as slow cooker (which is not!). And again, like most of the things I tell him, it falls unto deaf ears, and in the end, completely forgotten. Tsk,tsk,tsk….

But thank goodness for Moms! I told my mom the other day (only once, mind you, whereas I have repeatedly told The Husband for like umpteenth times!) of my need, and she happily sourced for me the best bargain price and in the end got one for me at only RM99! Yippiedeedoo! :)

Anyways, The Husband was still skeptical when he saw this thingamajiggy. He was very doubtful that something can be boiled in the fire for 10 mins and then left to cook in the thermal. Oh, man of little faith. I guess it’s up to me to proof him otherwise.

So I took half of a kampong chicken, throw in some dried scallop, dried mushroom, wolfberry (kei chi), dried longans & red dates (the latter two for sweetness) into the inner pot. Add salt to taste.

Bring the inner pot with water filled to about 80% of the pot to boil. It takes about 15 mins or so. Then lift the inner pot from the fire (be careful as the pot will be very very hot) and place it in the outer pot. Close the lid, and that’s it. Wait for 8 hours and the soup’s ready to be served. Mind you, it will still be delightfully warm! I on the other hand, took a step further to reboil the soup, at left it in the pot for another 8 hours. Hence, in total, 16 hours. I believe that it gives the soup much more flavour than just only the first step, but it’s all down to individual preference. Anyhows, the first step suffices for a good bowl of soup!

I am loving this! And so is The (skeptical) Husband who, like a typical chinaman, enjoys his warm bowl of tong (soup). I believe that one can use this to cook soup, stew, porridge and even tong sui. Eyeing a recipe on pandan tau fu fa, if only I can figure out what GDL is!

Only complain is that I wished my mom got us a bigger one. I know, I know, there’s just the two of us, why would I need a bigger one you would ask? I just love to cook in volumes; for own consumptions as well as for family & friends and tho 2.5L is good enough for the both of us, it is not enough for say 4 people or more. And oh ya, can it just not also come in more fashionable colour such as bright red or pink? Just sayin'.

.: Blast From The Past :.

A couple of wedding momentos that I would like to post in this blog for keepsake.

One of which is my Save the Date card which was posted on Facebook.