Not Just One Fitting

We landed in Singapore in good time last evening but the immigration queue was very long and by the time we got out of the terminal it was already dark. It had been a long and tiring day.

This afternoon we went along with the bride-to-be, her mum and my son, to see the selection of bridal evening gowns. This particular place is situated in green and shady surroundings which provide a good background for photo shoots.

It is run by three ladies and there were many gowns, both evening wear and bridal gowns for brides to select. The bride tries on a few recommended by the designer and if she likes a particular one, then one would be tailored for her in the color that she likes.

This is only the first fitting. Once she settles on a design, the color and the material, she has to wait for a couple of months before the next fitting.

After that, she will then select the bridal gown and the groom will also select his suit and tuxedo so that they can see whether their clothes match.

All in all there will be about TEN fittings before everything is in order and the photo shoot can be taken. They have a choice of locations, depending on the type of package they have selected.

Another bride-to-be was also there with her groom, trying out cocktail length wedding dresses. Apparently she will be getting married at the Registry of Marriages, hence the short wedding dress.

My soon-to-be daughter-in-law settled for a red French lace evening gown for the wedding dinner.
She looked very elegant in it. Her mum helped her try out various gowns of different colours. Everyone agreed that she looked lovely in the red gown. The designer also came up with a few designs for her to choose.

Her next fitting will be in April after they have tailored the gown for her.

My son took photos of her in the various gowns so that she can go through them again and if she changes her mind about the design she had earlier selected, she can always inform the designer.

It wasn’t easy to make a decision as the gowns were very pretty. There were gowns with bouffant skirts, gowns with trains, slim gowns with very low-cut backs and gowns with pretty
details and beading.

I really wished I were young and slim again so that I can also wear a lovely gown. Sigh… the only consolation is that I am getting a lovely daughter-in-law and only she will be the belle of the evening, come her wedding day.

Another Milestone!

Tomorrow we fly to Singapore on an exciting chapter of our lives.

Our son is now engaged to be married later this year. So we shall be meeting his future in-laws to discuss the wedding. It's so exciting!


As the parents of the bridegroom, as per our Chinese customs, traditionally we would have to foot all expenses for the wedding, unlike the western customs where the bride's parents will take care of everything financially. Do correct me if I'm wrong but that was what my Kiwi friend told me.

So we shall be asking our counterparts what they expect from us. My brother, when his son got married, had to give a certain number of tables ( at the wedding banquet) to the bride's side (for her relatives & friends)apart from the bethrothal gifts. It all depends on what the bride's family wants. Thus we are naturally excited about this as we have only one son and he is the last of the Dragons (in our family clan) to be married. There are five Dragons altogether in our family clan - clan because I have nine siblibgs so you can imagine the size of our family! Oh, the Dragon is one of the twelve animals that heeded the call of Buddha and they are the signs under which a person is born. The coming Chinese New Year will herald the Year of the Tiger. So this will be a Tiger year.

It is customary for the guests to give ang pows(red packets containing gifts of money)when they come for the wedding dinner. They also write good wishes or just their names on a piece of red cloth at the reception table. In my brother's case, the ang pows given by the guests went towards the cost of the wedding dinner and he topped up the balance. I believe this is the usual practice now so that the parents of the groom are not out of pocket at the end of the day.

There will be a church wedding in Singapore, followed by the wedding banquet, and then the following week, we will host another wedding dinner in Kuala Lumpur because that's where most of my siblings live. One of my sisters will fly in from Melbourne to attend the wedding. Isn't that wonderful?

Once we know what is expected from us there will be lots of things to do.

The young couple have already looked into the printing of the wedding invitation cards and they have also booked the venues of the wedding banquets. They had a difficult time looking for a venue as there are few auspicious dates in the coming Year of the Tiger and normally, people would book in advance, as far as a year and a half before the wedding. The Almanac has to be consulted to choose an auspicious day. In our case, the bride's family chose the date as we do not read Chinese and do not know how to go about it.

My son only proposed recently. That's the reason why it was difficult to find a venue for the day that they will be getting married. The church has also been booked for the solemnisation of the marriage. The young couple have selected the menu for the dinner in Singapore in consultation with the bride's parents and I understand that they have also selected the photography package.

I will get to know more about this in the next two days. That's why I'm so excited!

Do you realise that the mother of the groom will have to have new clothes for the wedding too? And the shoes and bags, etc., etc. My, there will be busy months ahead!

I shall keep you posted of the progress of the wedding preparations from time to time.

Bye for now.

Be more adventurous!

There are manay of us who are afraid to try out new things, whether it is a new dish, a new hairstyle, or even a new route.

It is common to hear people say that they do not trust shopping online as it requires the use of credit cards. They are afraid that their card details may be abused and they will get cheated.

However the trend is to go online now. We purchase our air tickets online as it is much cheaper to do so. It is also more convenient. Many people also pay bills online and many more shop online, whether it is to buy books or clothing, etc.

Allow me to share a tip. If you are afraid that your credit card details may be at risk, then opt for PayPal. Using PayPal means that your credit card details will not be revealed to the merchant you are purchasing goods from. Only PayPal knows your credit card number. PayPal will pay the merchant on your behalf and then claim the money from your credit card account.

It will also send you details of your transaction and the receipt.

It is very simple to use. Just log into www.paypal.com and sign up for an account.
If you already have a personal account, then upgrade to Premier so that you can buy and sell online.

It is very useful to have a PayPal account and it is very safe to use.

You will find the convenience of using it when you shop online or when you want to sell something online.

Do try it out. Shopping online is a whole new world. Be more adventurous!

Food I Love!

Kuala Lumpur is a great place for food! I would like to share some of the food I love to have whenever I'm here.


This is the Roasted Suckling Pig, a very scrumptious dish, with crackling skin and tender meat.

I like noodles better than rice. There are many types of noodles: glass noodles, fat yellow noodles, vermicelli, flat white noodles (kway teow), skinny noodles (wantan mee),flour noodles, fish paste noodles, egg noodles, etc.
They can be cooked in different styles, fried, braised, blanched. You can have them dry or in soup. I prefer them fried.

Then there is the belly pork braised in dark soya sauce (tau yu bak). Different cooks will come up with slightly different taste although the ingredients are the same. My sister, sister-in-law and my son-in-law cook the same dish but they all taste different and are equally delicious.

Herbal chicken soup is also very tasty especially when you add in a bit of tong kwei (angelica root). It's usual to use free range chicken (kampung chicken) to make soup.

Another hot favourite is the pork stomach and kidney soup. This one has a lot of pepper in it and I had some meehoon added in.
It is quite difficult to clean the stomach. You have to use a lot of limes and salt to clean the inside or it will have a strong odor. The pepper is to mask whatever odor there may be but usually the lime does the trick.

Another simple but tasty dish is the salted vegetable stirfried with roast pork (siew yoke)and garlic.
This recipe is from my grandmother.

More on my favourite dishes next time.

Vegetables & Protein

Hi,

We all know that we need protein to build muscles and we can get protein from animal sources. However,if we eat too much meat, we could be clogging our arteries with
saturated fat. That is something we need to avoid if we want to stay healthy.

Do you know that you can also get protein from vegetables? All along I thought that we can only get protein from meat, poultry and fish. Now I know better.

Some vegetables not only have proteins but also carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. So those who are vegetarians need not worry as they will also have sufficient nutrients.

Here are some examples:

100 gm of cauliflower will give you 3.2 gm of protein while 100 gm of cabbage will give you 1.6 gm.

100 gm of petai ( smelly bean) will give you 109gm of protein while 100gm of long beans only 2.1 gm.
This is sambal petai, petai cooked in spicy chilli and prawn. It's a delicious appetiser.

Long beans can also be cooked in curry, fried with belachan or stir-fried or sliced finely and cooked with egg as a tasty omelette.

100gm of taugeh (bean sprouts) have 2.6 gm of protein and the same amount of water cress also gives you 2.6gm of protein.

Soya beans beat all vegetables flat. 100gm of soya bean will give you 34.6gm of protein.

Let’s compare the animal sources of protein also in 100gm portions.

Lean beef gives you 21.9 gm of protein while fatty beef 15.3 gm.
Lean mutton gives you 18.1 gm of protein while fatty mutton 13.1 gm
Lean pork gives you 17 gm of protein while fatty pork 2.5gm.
Chicken gives you 22.3 gm of protein.
Fish ( ikan kurau ) gives you 17.9 gm of protein.

Eating soya bean is great as you can take it in different forms. You can have it as tau kua ( the harder type of tofu ), steamed, stir-fried, deep fried, and tau foo fah as dessert ( soya bean custard). There is of course the soya bean drink ( tau chui or tau cheong sui ).

As we grow older we should eat more vegetables and cut down on the meat. This will help our digestive system. Vegetables provide fiber and hastens the process of digestion and elimination. We don’t want to keep the wastes in our system as they build up into toxic wastes and can lead to diseases which we can do without.

Some vegetables can be eaten raw or semi-cooked. Those of us who like salads will know how good and fresh they taste. My granddaughter doesn’t really like vegetables, not even carrots. So at the dinner table, I mentioned to her that she was born in the Year of the Rabbit and she should love carrots and vegetables, by right. Know what she replied? “ I’m an odd rabbit.”


Kids these days are quick to respond and they are so good with the machines. They can figure out very quickly how those things work while I have to press this button and that and still the stuff I want don’t come out. Hummph…. frustrating.

Dark Chocolate is Good for You

Do you know that studies conducted have revealed good things about chocolate? Yes, that sinfully delicious treat that sends thrills of pleasure through me whenever I see them in their lovely wrappings. It makes me feel so good that dark chocolate contains more health benefits than white chocolate and milk chocolate. I absolutely love dark chocolate! Unfortunately white chocolate and milk chocolate have higher fat content and less health benefits.So those of you who love white chocolate, beware!

Dark chocolate, also considered as bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, has been found to be very beneficial for people. I've condensed the benefits below:

1. It has serotonin which brightens up your mood and keeps you on a positive mindset throughout the day. That is why your mood becomes visibly improved after a bar of chocolate on a bad day. ( I can chomp on a lot more but my sugar levels do not permit me to pig out!)

2. It helps to reduce the risk of getting heart diseases. The flavonoids in cocoa, a basic ingredient of chocolate lowers high blood pressure and keeps body fats from blocking the arteries. It also improves the flexibility of your blood vessels and eases the circulation of blood in our system. Wow, isn't this great news? There's more!

3. These flavonoids also contain antioxidants that reduce the risk of cancer. Antioxidants are essential for the body to fight the free radicals that cause heart ailments, cancer and other types of diseases.

4. Chocolate has nitric oxide that helps in blood pressure maintenance and heart sustenance. Another plus factor!

5. Chocolate has vitamins that are important for our bodies to function properly. It has components of Vitamins A, B1, C, D E and minerals such as potassium, calcium, iron

6.Chocolate has caffeine, theobromine, tyramine and phenylethylamine that contribute to decrease of fatigue and give an extra boost of energy needed to get through the day. Absolutely great! We can cut down on tea and coffee.


So eat your dark chocolate without feeling guilty because the antioxidants also help
in reducing pain and stiffness caused by arthritis. You also get better sleep.

Psssst....you won’t become a diabetic if you eat dark chocolate. It is low in carbohydrates. Better still there are now sugarless chocolates!! I go for these and everytime I see sugar free dark chocolate, you can be sure they will be in my shopping cart.


However, the health benefits of chocolate should not start you eating loads of chocolate now. As in all things, excessiveness is not healthy and moderation is key.

So let's enjoy our dark chocolates. We can always sweat off the extra calories if we ate more than we should have.

A Simple Meal Cooked by 3

We had a simple meal this evening. Chloe helped to make her fish patties.

Her mum used canned tuna chunks and mashed potatoes to make the patties. Chloe dipped them into the beaten egg and rolled them in breadcrumbs before her mum did the frying.



I’m not good at frying patties because either the fire is too hot and they get so brown as if they had a dark suntan or the patties crumble and don’t turn out nice and round.

I did a simple steamed white taufoo. My daughter likes taufoo to be steamed because it’s healthier than stir frying it in bean paste. ( tau chneow ) I made a simple sauce of sesame oil, dark soya sauce and oyster sauce mixed with some water and drizzled it over the taufoo so that it wouldn’t be dry. It was cooked in the microwave for 3 minutes and then I topped it with some fried baby anchovies. However I forgot to garnish it with spring onions!


Another variation is to top it with dried sambal prawn but my daughter doesn’t like dried prawn. I personally prefer it topped with dried sambal prawn because it tastes nicer and is a little spicy. The dried prawn is soaked to soften it a bit and then ground with dried chillies and a couple of small onions. A bit of tamarind juice is added for flavor. This mixture is then fried until it is fragrant and slightly dry.

My daughter then stir-fried the vegetable (choi sum or mustard leaves) with sliced fish roll. We didn’t have any soup today as I didn’t have the time to boil it. Had to rush to the service centre to get back my new notebook which had been giving me problems.


Three generations of a family cooking a meal together makes good bonding and gives us a lot of satisfaction,

After dinner, Chloe and Stephen take turns to wipe the table and to make sure that the windows are shut and locked with the curtains drawn for the night. It is hard to believe that a decade has gone by so quickly. When they came home to live with us, they were just babies, Stephen a one-year old toddler and Chloe a couple of months old.

I have the greatest pleasure of seeing them grow and become independent little adults who help out at home. Chloe loves her grandfather very much and gets annoyed with grandma when she nags grandpa who tends to be absent-minded and leaves the fan on or the tap running. My grandchildren give me rainbow days especially when I hear them singing away together with a song of their choice on YouTube. In fact Chloe was the one who introduced me to YouTube!

Fruit of Abundance

We are lucky to live in the Tropics as there is an abundance of coconut palms. You can see them growing by the beach and you also have them growing in plantations for commercial purposes.


The coconut itself has many uses and deserves to be called the fruit of abundance. The husk or outer brown layer of the mature coconut can be made into brushes, mats, rope, planters for orchids and it was also burned for fuel in the past. Its shell is often made into cups, ladles and money-boxes.

Its flowers can be fermented to produce toddy, a very potent drink that can get you drunk in no time. Coconut oil, a saturated fat is made from the copra or dried coconut meat. Who hasn’t heard of Virgin Coconut Oil?

Coconut candy is made from the inside of the fresh mature coconut.This is a superb sweet that is so very yummy. It is usually home made.

When the coconut flesh is scraped ( dessicated ) it can be squeezed to produce coconut milk known as santan which is used in curries and local cakes. The coconut is also used in the production of soaps and cosmetics.

The water inside the coconut makes a healthy drink as it is low in fat and calories. It has no cholesterol and has a natural balance of sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium making it a healthy electrolyte drink. It is good to drink after your exercise as it really quenches your thirst,refreshes you and hydrates your system.


The coconut is anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-microbial. It helps to prevent intestinal gas and detoxifies your body. At the same time it enhances the absorption of nutrients.

Because it has high potassium content, drinking coconut water regularly can significantly reduce your risk of hypertension.

You can use the coconut water to help reduce the rashes caused by chicken pox and measles.

If you have a hangover, after too much booze, a glass of coconut water will help you to get rid of it. Moreover if you find yourself vomiting you should drink coconut water as it helps to stop it. Isn't it wonderful? The toddy made from its flowers will make you drunk but the coconut water will stop you from vomitting and bring you out of your hangover and refresh you!

The final good news is that people who are trying to lose weight, will find that drinking coconut water increases the metabolic rate, thereby promoting weight loss.

So here's to Coconut water, Nature's Health Drink! A votre sante!