About Marrying

Don't marry a man who doesn't love his mother and a woman who hasn't been a good daughter.

by unknown

A quote I read today.

Brunch In Muar

We took a day trip to Muar last week. It's around 2 1/2 hour car ride from Singapore. We left in the morning, without having breakfast.  Naturally, when we arrived, our first destination before anything else, was a place to eat. DH had all the intention to have Yong To Fu, so that's where we went. We also had otah. Many of them.

Sweet Potatoes Ondeh

I think, I saw someone's post on purple sweet potato balls (Ondeh) on Instagram that got me into making them. It happened that I had some purple sweet potatoes at home and I love coconut. Also, I always have grated coconut in the freezer.  Instead of palm sugar for the filling, I substituted it with grated coconut, cooked in palm sugar. I ended up with a lot of them, although it was not my intention to make that many. We gave them away after we had some.

A couple of days later, motivated by the fact that I actually some leftover boiled sweet potatoes, and these ondeh are delicious,  I made more of them.

 

 

Lunch At Itacho, Ion

It was an after appointment lunch last Tursday, we had some sushi and salad at Ion. It was alright for me, but the salad was not satisfying, both in terms of flavor and size.

About Something From The Past

 "For every minute you are angry you waste 60 second of happiness"

I always say, no. There is way to turn back the clock. Many of us would probably live our lives differently if we could turn back the clock.  There are many things, including good things that you did to other people that you regret. You think that after looking at things now, some people are better left alone and you could your resources to help others that are truly in need.

I was blinded by gratitude and the notion that blood is thicker than water, so I helped and helped. I let myself, in a way, got cheated. Let me begin with one case, because I have many. We loaned a vehicle to someone to help them move around more easily because they were in rather strenuous financial situation, they ended up selling it and kept the money to enlarge their wealth. We also agreed to lend money for them to buy second or third house after hearing their pitiful story.  At zero interest. And probably took six years to pay back. And more other things, using us and our money to further enriching themselves. When opportunities arise to help their brothers in need, they raised the issues they were facing with their business, their children in college and everything else. What a disappointment to me! What a shameful thing they are! I do not understand why I could not see their true colors earlier.

A decision I made 20 something years make me think sometimes, that I have wasted my time on doing things for other people and what I did for them, don't seem to matter anymore to these people. They just took free things from me and ran away with them. Those are too many years that have gone and can't be taken back and that make wonder how things turned up should I decided differently.

Some people might say, it is our job to help the less fortunate ones and those who need help. I agree, it is our job. But, to what extent? Only now, I realize that it took too much of me. Only now, I become aware that I want something in return.  Don't get me wrong, never in my dream that I expect to be monetarily paid. What I'd like to get is to see is gratitude and kindness from them to the people that have helped them, when they were down and needed help. I'd like to see that they are kind to those who need help too. Sadly, some people are selfish. And sadly, I have wasted on selfish people.

Having said that, I have no intention to make my life miserable because of these people and and their behavior. What I hope is that, this could be a lesson to some. Real blood is thicker than real water and I am not talking about the idiom. But I question if relatives and family are always worthier to help than strangers, in many cases, they are the cause of miserable part of our life.

Go on with our life, be happy and continue helping others in need.

"Don't get mad, don't get even. Do better. Much better. Rise above. Become so engulfed in your own success that you forget bad thing ever happened."

Maison Kayser, Tokyo Midtown

I guess I miss Tokyo and I started looking at the pictures when we where there in June while sorting out my files in my new computer. Yes, with new computer, there are gazillion things to sort out and this practically take hours and days. I am not quite used to the new keyboard too, so I keep on hitting the wrong characters.

Back to Tokyo, I remember how we walked around Midtown Tokyo in the evening after dinner and sometimes if we still could make space in our stomach or planned to have them for breakfast, we got some pieces from Maison Kayser. Their croissant, breads, etc are so attractive. We wanted them, all of them.

Broccoli Quiche

I always wanted to incorporate broccoli into my quiche. Along with that, I also put in some grated carrots and other usual stuff for quiche like egg, milk and cheese.  The crust was wholewheat and it took a little time to make the crust and blind baked it, but it's all done for now. Ready to eat

Fish Soup, Food Republic @ Shaw House

Each time we went to Food Republic at Shaw House, I always had my eyes on Chai's Original Sliced Fish Soup. Somehow, I never got to have it because there was always a reason for not to, including feeling full.

Just recently, when DH and I went there again and I made sure that I tried their fish soup. I always wanted a mixed fish for my soup and I had it with misua and that's what I ordered. Yum.

Kazan Ramen Lunch

It had been a long while since we came to this restaurant in Liang Court. We had a small lunch earlier in a sushi place nearby, when suddenly DH had a crave for Japanese curry. 

Both of us shared the food we ordered, they were a bowl of ramen, curry rice with fried chicken and gyoza. 

Tagliatelle With Pan Seared Scallops

One evening, after we had a good and rather painful massage, I dragged DH to walk along the river and to a Japanese supermarket nearby. I had no plan on what to do and what to buy. We went to the supermarket and saw some beautiful salmon sashimi and delicious looking frozen scallops and felt compelled to buy them. 

Salmon sashimi went straight ahead into our stomach right after we got home. Days later, our scallops ended up on top of our pasta lunch.

I cooked the tagliatelle with garlic, tomatoes and sweet beans and seasoned them with salt, pepper, grated parmesan cheese and chili flakes.  Scallops were pan-seared with butter and I finished the dish with more grated parmesan cheese.