Tok Guru Lantai

We were browsing the other day, in none other but the Deceiving TESCO, we can’t help spot these products which to us were hilarious. The products were called `Tok Guru Lantai’ literally translated as The Floor Master, and next to it was another product called simply Floor master.

I was just wondering TESCO, who are your target group? Are you targeting the locals or the millions of immigrants that we have in the country now? Or what? From the bottle of the product I could simply conclude that you are targeting the community who are conscious of Halal materials, though the bottle was short in putting that mark, but it does carry the word `Tanpa Alkohol’ (without alcohol).

If I had read the label right, these products are meant for floor cleaning, as well as insecticide, so what the @#?/ ? Are you actually expecting the people who are using these products to be licking their floors once they mop it? Or are you protecting the pests from being high on alcohol.

Pick your choice.

To top it all these products are technology of Korea…………. Are you kidding me? Anyways, if the recent milk scheme was not enough eye opening, then nothing will.

The authorities are just there to overcome the percentage of non employment in this county.

I Want To Kill That Cat!!!!!!

It is again our lazy Sunday; all of us were still asleep till past 1030 hours this morning. By 1130 hours I invited Chef Diva to accompany me to the TTDI wet market. This is because I have the intention of buying some serunding daging and Eid cookies to give to some friends.

While we were there I also took the opportunity to pay my phone bill. As usual we always go to get something but we arrive back home with everything else except the very thing that we wanted to get. Well, it must be that age is catching up with me, this means I have no choice but to make a trip there again.

Once home and having stored away all the groceries, we hit the sack again. I got up around 1530 hours and decided what to cook for Iftra. My little angel had requested for rice porridge the day before, so rice porridge it will be then. I took out 3 pieces of Mackerel from the freezer, and went back to bed.

While I was in bed I heard some noise in the kitchen and told my little angel to have a look, wondering if the cat has again make its way to my kitchen. Her answer was no. By 1800 hours, I went to the kitchen to start cooking, and yes to my horror the 3 pieces of mackerel were gone. The cat took my mackerel………… I WANT TO KILL THAT CAT…………….arrrrrrr.

This is not the first time the stupid moronic cat has done this. The first time was when Chef Diva wanted to make Rum steak, and took the meat out to defrost. By the time she was ready to cook, a whole 1 over kilo of rum steak was gone. We were then speculating on some entity bukti (ha ha ha…………. Bodoh right).

Some idiotic owner must have abandoned his cats when he left this condominium, so they are straying now. But my girls just love them and keep playing with them, so therefore, I guess as long as we are here history will keep on repeating itself.

KILL THAT CAT!!!!!!!!

TESCO Deceiving

This is the kind of advertisement that you get in the main stream meadia by TESCO. But the reality of what we saw there is not what we get at TESCO. I have never been a big fan of TESCO, but this one day, we were near TESCO, so we browsed to see if there are any changes to the quality of food being supplied there.

Sad reality is far from the truth

Look at the condition of the fish, see how the storage is

pieces of fish cutlet already yellow in color but still selling

The Ikan Bilis, do you think this is fit for human consumption?

Look at the color of the fish, I wonder how long these were kept in storage

You can be cheap TESCO but not this cheap.

Eid Al-Fitr

I want to take this opportunity to wish all my Muslim readers a beautiful and peaceful Eid al-Fitr. May Allah forgive us all for our wrong doings and bless us as better people in the future. Like always I will miss the month of Ramadhan, as this month has taught me the resilience of patience and respect.

To all those readers who come creeping in discreetly to my blog, my advice is that you don’t have to, my blog is public and everyone is welcome to read and comment. Of course you will know who you are, well let me tell you that life is too short. I am glad you all love to be intrusive in my life, I am passed that and if you think it is affecting me, NO it does not. Allah has bestowed peace in my heart a long time ago, just know that I forgive.

To all those people who are very very close to my heart, Raden (be strong, trust in yourself and go on each day with the courageous spirit that you have), Rahimah (I’m so sorry about your recurrence but I hope after Eid your PETSCAN will reveal a more positive result), Sari (sorry I have not been in touch till now, but I will try to create a support group for you, InsyaAllah), D (life has to go on, I know it is difficult when you lost your soul mate and the kids are still too young to understand, but Allah give you strength), D’s sister (Cancer is not about giving up, it is about moving on till the end of time. You are strong). Of course there are many more of my Cancer Survivor friends, to each of you; my prayers are always with you.

Eid Mubarak, Selamat Hari Raya may you also open your heart to forgive me. Thank you.

Halia

Iftar today for me and the two angels was a gift from my eldest Princess. She was given this gift as her birthday present, however due to her commitment as a student; she was not able to take leave.

The place was Halia Restaurant at the Sime Darby Convention Center. We arrived there at approximately 1850 hours, and the place was still empty due the fact that there was a heavy shower an hour before.

I took the opportunity to take some pictures just to share with all of you especially my Princess. Wish you were here to share this moment with us. The food was a mixture of nice and not so nice. The crowd was well behaved, not one table was piling up food like a glutton, beautiful ambience, and wonderful staff on hands.

Thumbs up to you SDCC, but you could do with better Chef.

Pavlova

My little angel and me had to take our Iftar outside yesterday, since we have to be in time for our class. Not knowing what else to eat as I am not a fast food person, we decided on a corner nyonya restaurant.

The restaurant was empty except for the two of us. We had ordered fried pucuk paku, clay pot tofu and deep fried squid. The first served dish was the fried pucuk paku, then the clay pot tofu. We only had 20 minutes to do Iftar, without delay we started. I took the tofu and could smell the dead rotten smell of prawns, it was so disgusting. I told the owner I do not want that plate anymore and to change it to just an omelet.

We left with a surprisingly unbelievable bill, ahhh…… who cares, I don’t think the restaurant will last long anyways. Again I wonder where the health inspectors are.

My night was saved by my sweet Chef Diva. While I was on the internet with hubby; she was busy baking something in the kitchen. After a while, she came smiling with a beautiful piece of Pavlova. The fillings were cream and mango. It was pure heaven for me, but alas only one was served. Thank you darling.

I don’t know what exactly is in the recipe, but it is mostly egg white, cream and fresh mango.

Invasion of a Different Kind

Camel in the Curve

Red Bull in Marché

and TURKS in One Utama

What has become of our identity, we are losing everything to these invaders. Isn't there enough lessons to learn already?

Inta Hayatte

Everyday I will wait till past midnight my time, just to accompany hubby while he is cooking in preparation for Iftar. My heart breaks seeing him taking over the task that should be mine. Being the only son in his family, doing house work especially cooking was never his forte.

Now he is an expert at most of the food that he loves especially Sardine Curry, Chicken Kabsah and Fattouch. Coming home from work is normally after 1800 hours, and as the end of summer is approaching there; the sunset is early as well. Having hardly half an hour at times upon reaching home, hubby will have to do Iftar with just plain water (as that is the only water that he will drink). There were also times that he had to work late, which left him with no choice but to eat out, of course at the limited trusted `halal’ restaurants. The only disadvantage of him eating out means he will be arriving home much later then he would normally like.

Ramadhan is a new thing to hubby, initially it was tough for him, but alhamdulillah he is fine with the routine now, and I am so proud of him. I can only encourage him by staying by his side all the time even if it means on the internet world. To make sure that he also wakes up at dawn to do the `suhur’ I will also call to wake him up. We try to make the best of everything possible while keeping our faith in each other strong.

God bless you hayatte, you have a heart of gold.

Fat Ass

For so long my princess wanted to move out from her hostel to a rented house. I had refused her request due to security reasons, but after all the things that were going on in her room I blessed her moving out.

I went to see the house during one of my trips there and I can see that the house was located in a trustworthy neighborhood. She started to be obsessed with furnishing the little unit; of course as much as I may not like it, I supported her all the way. However, after seeing the curtain in the hall that was neither here nor there, I invited her to go and get a proper curtain for her room at least.

Off to Ikano we went, as usual we will be walking around while having our alone time. One of the shops that we happened to stop at was Crocs. As we enter the shop I noticed this big fat woman alone, trying on several pairs of shoes. She was really humongous, I can’t help but look and well what next? SNAP la.

There are reasons why they have chairs and benches in shoe stores; so that customer can sit and try on their shoes properly, not like what this fat ass is doing. A picture is worth a thousand words.

People watch 3, what were they thinking of?

Pesto Angel Hair

I was really not in the mood for anything today; princess called and told me that she would not be able to go for the Iftar that was a gift from FlyFm for her birthday. She wanted me to claim the gift and take her sisters for the Iftar. I told her to text the details to me.

After the hospital, I was still early to fetch Chef Diva and my little angel, the weather was super duper hot, and my fever was too much for me to bear. I drove to my favorite petrol station and had the car wash, while waiting for them to clean the exterior of the car, I actually took a nap.

I went to the college but Chef Diva was not answering my calls, meaning she is still busy. After going round for at least 4 times under the soaring sun, I decided to go to TV3 and collect the gift. It was very fast; I was back at the college and had to wait for another half hour, then off to fetch my little angel.

By the time we arrived home, I was exhausted and drained and feeling so weak. The moment my head touched the pillow I was in dreamland. I woke up just in time to make salad for Iftar, and Chef Diva had prepared everything today. She is fantastic.

This is what we had, wish my throat was not hurting so much, all I could enjoy was the mushroom soup. The rest was too much to swallow.

Thank you darling for the meal today

Mushroom Soup

fattouch for salad

then there is fried pink salmon

Pesto Angel Hair

grain bread

plum and grapes

Lingual Tonsil

I have been coughing, down with fever and painful sore throat for nearly two weeks now. My attempt for self medication does not seem to work anymore; even drinking the young coconut water is not giving me any results. Off to Damansara Specialist Hospital I went today.

The ENT Surgeon with super TLC, was very meticulous in checking what was causing the pain in my throat. He was attired with some gadget on his head and over his eyes, at one point he reminded me of some outer space character face, which I could not put my finger to who it was. Anyways, I was asked to stick out my tongue, he pulled it hard and told me to relax. At the same time some kind of camera was pushed down my throat and the picture was captured on his computer screen.

Having done that, he told me that I am suffering from Lingual Tonsil. Hemm……. What?

Lingual Tonsil, this must be another tonsil on top of the one that I had removed some years ago. The picture showed that both my left and right lingual tonsils are enlarged and inflamed. But he did not see anything more worrisome at this point of time, however if the symptoms still persist after the one week of antibiotic, then a further test needs to be carried out. Ok, whatever la, I was prescribed with Prednisolone 5mg tab and Klacid MR 500mg tab.

He also gave me the option of going under the knife, but advised me that it will be a very painful operation; therefore it is better to go on antibiotics. I was told to even start taking the antibiotic immediately once I have the symptom in the future, or I will have to do the Barium swallow test to check of any abnormalities.

The fever and the weather is making me feel like a ticking time bomb.

Guardian Sales

I was alerted by my princess that she saw the banner advertising Guardian’s warehouse sales at Atria Shopping Center, so we decided to go for it. This is one shopping center that refuses to give up on its slow painful demise. Upon entering the floor that was housing the so called sales, I was surprised to see that there were also clothes, shoes, books and others on sales too. Naturally, it puts me off.

But what the heck since we are here already and to show my princess not to trust anything advertised; we went to the Guardian corner. What was on sales there was worse than what I could have anticipated, if I could compare the sales to anything near, it would have been Chow Kit Road style of products.

While walking around, I can’t help but notice one lady was sitting on the floor and busy putting on make-up that was also on sale there. She must be so confident of herself thinking that no one is watching, or either no one even bother to ask her what’s going on?

These kinds of sights always seem to amuse me. I stood next to her; looked at her then took a picture of her. She caught me stealing her picture and quickly put on her glasses. I just turned and walked out to the exit.

People watch 2, what were they thinking?

Respect No More

Last Friday, I accompanied a friend for an appointment at Center Point. Since the doctor was with a patient, we had to wait for 30 minutes. My friend who is not a Muslim decided to go for lunch while waiting.

We were seated at one of the restaurants on the ground floor, she ordered and we chatted. Somehow I noticed this Malay lady sitting opposite our table,she was busy with her laptop, mobile phone and also instructing her maid who was attending to her two kids. She was also smoking.

I know it is none of my business but what really has gone wrong everywhere, even if you do not want to fast, is it too much to ask for you to respect the Ramadhan month, and eat somewhere private? She took a couple of looks at me and once her food arrived, I choose to ignore.

People watch 1, what were they thinking?

Uninvited Guest

19.9.2008 my princess turned 25, I have decided to take this little family of mine to a Japanese Restaurant that served food that is easy for my princess palette known as Shabu-shabu. The name of the restaurant is Nagomi, and it is located in Hartamas Shopping Center.

We arrived at the restaurant at 1900 hours and were shown to the private room that we have booked. The set up of the restaurant was very impressive, very up class and nice ambience. The waitress was always on hand, food was served on time, and you may think that nothing could go wrong.

While enjoying our food and out of nowhere an uninvited guest came crawling on the table, it was a sight. Everyone started to move the food away from the uninvited guest, and I stood up and took a couple of pictures, while doing so one of the waitresses walked into our room. I told her that there’s a cockroach on the dining table. Without even flicking an eyelid, she said, `oh just yesterday the pest control was here’, and carry on with what she was doing. My jaw just dropped. And to add salt to the wound we saw one of the waiters pulling this big green trash can across the dining hall outside, not once but twice. Oh my God, how much lower can we go?

Nagomi, you sure is a no go, this will be the first and of course the last. God save this country, not only it is filled with lies, manipulation and insecurity but also now health hazard.

Just Kenwood

This is my new rice cooker, it is called Kenwood. I got to purchase this after Best Denki was convinced on my two complaints about the other brand rice cooker. As you can see this one does not have much of a look but it serves its purpose well, very well indeed.

The first time I used it, I took the time to read the instruction as well (they are all the same anyway). Since I had to fetch my daughter at the bus terminal at the same time as Iftar, I decided to cook steamed chicken while cooking the rice. Not only the rice was nicely cooked without the nightmare of being burnt to crisp, but also the steamed chicken was well done, smelled fantastic and tasted superb.

Thank you Kenwood for an intelligent invention.

Smoked Salmon and Beef Bacon Pasta

Today for Iftar I decided to cook Smoked Salmon and Beef Bacon Spiral Pasta. The preparation time is only 15 minutes and cooking time is approximately 10 minutes. Since it is fasting, I can only use my imagination where the taste is concerned. Like most of my cooking, I have no specific measurement for the ingredients, however the end result is always superb.

If you would like to try, just heat up about 3 tablespoons of Olive oil, sauté the onion and garlic till soft, add in the mushrooms. Once the mushrooms are soft add the cream, smoked salmon and thyme. Leave to boil for 3 minutes, add cheese, boiled spiral pasta and beef bacon (cut to bite pieces first).

Enjoy and do let me know if it is worth trying.

Chopped onion, Garlic and Thyme

Cream

Grated Cheese (Parmesan or mozarella)

Boiled Spiral Pasta

Swiss and Button Mushroom

Smoked Salmon

Fried Beef Bacon

The End Result (Yummy)

Consumer Rights

I bought this pot aka the rice cooker under the brand name Philips from Best Denki in OU on September 7, 2008. This brand must be super powerful as it does not only cook the rice under 10 minutes but also burns it to crisp.

Make a trip back to Best Denki on September 14, 2008 to complain about my predicament. As expected they give me the run around, insisting that goods bought cannot be exchanged despite their fault. Of course they touched my sore button once they said that, so I gave them an ultimatum. I will take the pot back, however if the burning continues, they will have to exchange it with another product of my choice FOC, pay for my patrol as well as parking. Or take this faulty pot back and allow me to purchase another pot whereby I will pay the difference in price. It was no go for them.

So the next best thing to do is to raise my voice, another higher level staff was sent to attend to me. I looked at him and told him straight away that I do not wish to get angry, convey my predicament all over again not forgetting my option, and to my surprise he told the sales girl to replace the pot (same model of course), and walked away with the excuse that he was busy. Ok whatever.

The sales girl whose finger nails were longer then the claws of a tiger immediately irritated me (bulan puasa dosa betul aku), changed the pot tested it and told me that you are the only complainant that we have got so far. Really? You think I am nuts or what? Ignoring all this I asked her what if my rice got burnt again? Her reply was then we cannot help it anymore. Fine, I took the new pot and left.

Monday evening I took the pot out of the box, read every instruction there is on the leaflet in order not to miss anything, as though this is my first rice cooker. I even cooked extra rice thinking that may be when you cook more it will not burn. Well my rice was burnt again and this time round I even have to plug it off from keeping warm.

About 10 minutes before I left for my class, I called Best Denki requesting to speak to the manager. Response was the manager is busy; ok put me to someone lower than the manager. To this request I was put on hold for about 8 minutes before a man’s voice came over the phone. After the first hello I asked him for his name, he was Hamid. Upon finishing the reiteration of my predicament, I told him of my option. One I will call FOMCA and two I will have this matter published in the paper. He went silent, then apologized and finally told me that you can come and choose any pot that you like and just pay the difference.

Do I have to use threats before I can claim my right? Welcome to Malaysia.

Mama Is A Nerd

My frustration of being stood up on Saturday overflowed till Sunday. I keep on wondering what more I can do to change the attitude of my only son, worrying about him all the time and wanting the best for him. I was so happy when he finally told me that he wanted to continue with his studies.

The enquiries that I had made at the college indicated that he could proceed with his masters program for the duration of 18 months, so he had made an appointment with me to accompany him to the college on Saturday. Saturday came, the appointed time came and was gone, after waiting for almost half of the day, I sent a text message to him. His response does not surprise me any more, but brought warm tears to my eyes.

Anyways, when I woke up on Sunday I decided not to do anything, my little angel was still fast asleep (at 12 noon mind you) and my Chef Diva is busy in front of her computer, so what do I do? CNN does not amuse me much nowadays, the constant reporting on hurricane Ike is boring, after some contemplation I decided to take my books and study, yes I am studying again, just doing an extra language.

I took my bag to the hall, and sat at the little wooden table, I was barely 20 minutes into doing my work, and reading through the exercise, when suddenly Chef Diva came laughing at me saying `mama is a nerd, mama is a nerd’. She just continues on laughing at me despite whatever reason I could come out with. Well, that’s just me, I have to be the best student in class, so I am being classified as a nerd (he he he whatever).

She pulled out a chair and sat next to me, and listed out the 101 criteria of a nerd. Bo hoo she forgot that at this age my memory capacity may not be as good as hers; therefore I have to put extra effort to be none other than JUST THE BEST!!!!!!!

Lazy Sunday

Today is our lazy Sunday, we decided to go out for Iftar, and this is mainly because we have to make the trip to OU. Apparently, we had bought a new rice cooker from BEST Denki (as the old one was kaput), however, we notice that cooking in the new rice cooker resulted in the rice being 1/3 burnt all the time.

We have decided that we wanted to eat at Manhattan Fish Market, so round and round we went looking for the restaurant when we finally realized that the restaurant is not located here. After some contemplation between the 3 of us we settled for something similar called Fish & Co. The food is very blend, nothing much to shout about, however the restaurant was packed with people doing their Iftar.

The evening at the restaurant was saved by a beautiful, friendly, robust and charming waitress. Her accent was foreign, so we start making guesses to what her nationality could be, and our curiosity got the better of us. I asked her and she was very polite to furnish us with a little bit of her career with Fish and Co, she was trained in Singapore, no she is not Singaporean, nor Pilipino, nor Sabahan or Sarawakian but Nepalese (ok so what other nationality to infest the country, come one come all).

This was our order:

Coke Light for me

Passion Fruit and Ice Tea for the 2 angels

Seafood Platter for 2

Caesar Salad with Smoked Salmon

The Accompanying Sauce

Fried Calamari

The Super Sweet Jelly (which was left 1/4 touch)Chef Diva has to get this Japanese ice cream on the way out to replace the jelly