Little Kitchen 4

Today hosting activities is pack. I am having friends from London over tea and then hosting birthday celebration for another friend at night. My hosting style is small crowd to make it more personal and to suit the small space I have. Tips for hosting is always prepare the menu, table and ensure the conversations are flowing...

For Azlin and Irish, the menu will be mee goreng. Starter is roti canai (instant) with curry. The key to mee goreng is the you need to add in a bit of dried shrimp when you blend the onion, garlic, ginger and chilis. While frying these into the wok, always put in some oyster sauce. I usually pour in a bit of fish sauce (just few sprinkle). Note: Fish sauce is predominantly used in Thai cooking. I love pad thai so I this gave me idea to sprinkle some into the mee goreng..:)

Mee goreng still in the wok

Mee goreng garnished with fried prawns

 While waiting for Irish and Azlin to arrive, I started to work on the menu for Eli's birthday dinner. Meatballs are prepared according to the recipe given to me by my dear friend Mimiejoe. All you need is minced beef, parsley, black pepper, onion, garlic, bread crumbs and a pinch of salt.
 

The ingredients to make meat balls

Frying the meatballs

Meatballs in the tomato sauce, all ready to be served

Once all the food is ready, I can finally set up the table for the coming guests. The first guests arrived at around 4pm.

We were having food, chatting, gossiping, updates about all there is in life. The left just before 6pm for me to prepare for the next session. My next hosting session is birthday dinner for a dear friend Eli (which I prefer to call Elliot) 

For this occasion, I have decided to use the tea collection from Portmeirion as we will be having birthday cakes. 

From the pot...

Into the dining table..

The birthday girl looking so happy!!

 

I really enjoyed myself hosting. As part of the experience is when the guests enjoyed themselves too. Therefore it is important to ensure that the food are good too as food is always the main thing in our Malaysian environment. The challenge is always to control what we eat... tough!!
The guests left at around 11pm. I have to admit hosting is not easy especially when it comes to cleaning up work after the event. There is no help as I do not even own a dishwasher...
But then again in life, when you do something that you're passionate about you will be willing to do everything... If only I could make this as a job then life would be more fulfilling...

Skydiving in Africa

I wanted to do sky diving in Africa, a different place out of nowhere. Reviews I have read mentioned that it has amazing view of Table Top Mountain and Cape Point. The place is situated around 40km north of Cape Town. We have two options, either to arrange the pick-up or drive there ourselves. So, the choice is obvious, drive ourselves. This can only be done with the help of TomTom obviously as I do not know my way around Africa. So, there you go..two adventurous girls getting ready for the sky dive of their life..it is the first time for both of us...

A word of advice- safety is the utmost priority if anyone decide to take up the challenge of skydiving.

A different angle pic of me skydiving. This is rare compared to the standard front face captured that everyone has.. At this time, we are still doing the free fall, the instructor is checking his watch to release the parachute

As we arrived, there were other people as well from different countries in the world. We were all given safety talks and each one of us were given instructor. Authorization forms are signed in case of anything happen whilst we are up there.

Everyone is told what is each one's responsibility- to have fun and enjoy while we are up there. Super excited!!

The partner in crime..Gee Rahmat

The aircraft that will be taking us up in the air..

All cosy in the aircraft.. I had to wear a knee guard as I have just recently recovered from an injury..

The view from aircraft is already breath taking, I can't imagine how it's going to be like after....

So, everyone is on board the small aircraft. We are doing tandem skydiving, where we are each connected to a harness attached to a tandem instructor. It is not as daunting as what you would imagine such as what if my parachute does not open? Leave it to the expert and just have fun. We even had a photographer swith us to take our amazing shots of once in a lifetime experience...

So here you go, I was super excited to do the free fall. It is only for 15 seconds but when you are up there, it feels like going on forever before the parachute opens..

Are you READY to jump??!!!

Positioning oneself at the edge before jumping...woot, woot!!

NO fear..:)

Standard pose of skydiving

Just check out the view....it is as per advertised, amazing!!

 While up on the air, I did feel nausea as the instructor was trying to show off his skills by doing some acrobatic moves..right. I did not sign up for acrobatic moves...durghhhhh. So, I was relieved to be back down on earth....

Landing time...yay!!

It's a wrap!! We had a fab time of our life and it's time to hit to our next destination...

Little Kitchen 3

I am currently obsessed with hosting dinner parties. Due to my little place, I would have to limit my guests to three people only. Including myself the dining table would be full already..
Now,  I am making time to host and invite friends over. It is quite a perfect solution as I could never finish all the food that I cook, hence sharing is caring. On top of that, it gives me a chance to perfecting my cooking skills (as one should not just self proclaimed they can cook without inviting friends or families)
Hosting is not an easy job (perhaps this is why not many Malaysians host dinner parties? I am talking about my generation of people in their 30s, not my mum's generation) Planning for the menu, setting the table, cooking and cleaning up.. I have to say I love the rewards that comes after, friends enjoying the food is the ultimate objective of hosting dinner parties..

So, menu for the night is kept simple, Asian style. I have already decided to cook bihun tomyam (my sister's recipe) and for starter is tauhu sumbat. I added a few others dinner complements too such as fried chicken and prawns...

Ayam goreng berempah (Fried chicken in spices)

Udang goreng bercili (Prawn with chili)

Setting the table with another latest Corelle collection from Canada- Square Sand & Sky

Appetiser- Stuffed Tofu, this is the perfect appetiser with tomyam mihum. There was popia too but this I did not make it, I just fried it..

Tomyam mihun, there are still some left for second servings..

Hokaido cake for desserts- garnished with pineapple slices

I was so tired from hosting (is it because of haze exposure??!!) I only managed to wash the dishes the next morning.If only I had dishwasher, life would be slightly easier...

I am going off now. I need to think of the next menu for tomorrow's dinner party.... Ideas/comments/recommendations are most welcomed.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Summer starts in June and this time off to Dubrovnik for the perfect hols. One of the hidden gems in the Adriatic Coast, the trip was planned in advance with an old friend from primary school. Easyjet was the cheapest option to go for our holidays from London Gatwick direct to Dubrovnik.

The view of the old city

As we get into the airport, the first thing is to get a rented car to make it easy for our hols. It was relatively cheap to rent a car and drive around as the public transport was not as established like London. There is no GPS available which means we have to read maps (Yikes!! obviously, I am not good at it) However, assurance was given that it would be easy to drive around as there is one main road in and out from the city.

Just arrived with the rented car. Dressing up casual in white jeans and black sleeveless from M&S.

 

 

As soon as we arrive, it was good to know that the apartment we are renting is facing the sea.. Check it out..

 The plan is for us to buy our own groceries and have breakfast in the apartment. Lunch and dinner will be enjoying the local food We just walk around the place near the apartment and found this nice place..

The nice setting for lunch. Things I have noticed in Europe, table settings are important even for normal restaurants...

White bates, crunchy eaten with the bones

Things to do in Dubrovnik are kept simple as we are having relaxing holidays. Visit to the old town, ancient city walls and island hopping. The island hopping that departs from Dubrovnik is visit to the Elafiti islands (Kolocep, Lopud and Sipan)

I'm in Old City Dubrovnik, wearing dress from Zara

My friend Eva from my primary school in Ipoh. We are the Ipoh mali girls...

Mussels for dinner. 

Walking around the old city is our favourite pastime.. This included people watching..:)

The great atmosphere in the Old Town

There is a lot of small streets, cafes and little shops in the old town Dubrovnik. It is has everything to cater for different needs. One thing which I find tough in the old town is to find a parking.. Once you got this sorted, the rest will fall into places. Good fun indeed!!