Not home-made by me – silly!  i’m not so smart and clever with baking – but the ang mohs – i tell you they can bake a storm and everything done from scratch!  envy right?  Anyhow this were cheesecake made by one of PB’s relative during a BBQ  a few weeks ago.  You see Chloe’s second cousin from Ontario was in town – so we all went up to Briar’s Lake to meet up with them and had a lovely time.  But the cheesecake – was so yummy – i had to ask for some to bring home and it sure didn’t disappoint – although Aunt Renette was too generous and gave me too much.  Pity i didn’t managed to finish the cheesecake – but I did eat a good half of what i brought home.  More on the BBQ in the next post – in the meantime – you all can drool on the cheesecake – very rich and very smooth – melted in my mouth.

I don’t know if you noticed this but bloggers are not only good with food and eating them nor cooking them nor just sharing with you good restaurants and nooks – but they are   also a group of very tech savvy individuals.  Why do i say that?   – because amongst us bloggers – i found some who are great at online auction and able to get the best items – one can never find in ordinary stores.  Another food blogger i met recently is very artistic – and can draw and design websites.  Plus bloggers are great at introducing their online friends and businesses for them – from parent’s workshop to handmade stuff – the amount of business generated for these individual online entrepreneur is immensely successful.    So don’t under-estimate a blogger – because like some famous blogger said – they can make you or break you – i quote and unquote.  The online presence is much, much greater than you think – in fact – I myself am so proud of blogging – i am doing a t-shirt to be worn to identify myself as a blogger.  What say you?

So over the weekend I read about the big boo – ha around Asia – where some claimed that bloggers love to go out eating for free!  wow!!  awesome!!  but truth be told bloggers are very privileged people especially those in Asia.  Why?  they always get invited for food tasting and they have so many things going on for bloggers in Asia.  But it is not only food bloggers in Asia who gets all the attention but famous bloggers like Wendy Cheng aka Xia Xue gets to go on trips to UK and Kuala Lumpur for advertorial purposes too.  So yes! bloggers are very privileged group of people – we love the attention.

Someone asked me during the weekend if I too get free stuff and eat for free ?  or get invited for food tasting?  Yes I get all sorts of free stuff from snow globes to snowmean and even snow boots last year from my advertisers to try them out and give my honest opinions about it.  What else do I get?  bird feeders – snow jackets and mittens – kids snow boots and PB got a shoe one time from one advertiser as well – a $200 shoe sent to us all the way from USA.   Awesome much..??  can’t really asked for more being a blogger eh.  It’s all the fun ! and all the trying out new stuff.  As for food – yes ! i get paid to EAT!! and i make lots of friends from all over the world.  Did you know that food bloggers in our community sends me food all the time? well, not only food bloggers for me – fans of this blog – who turned into great friends.  If you don’t know by now – you should go back and read all my post – my chloe gets all sorts of dresses from all over – we never really have to buy anything for her.

Anyhow – I’ve been reading Lady Iron Chef’s blog for a long, long time now – and his blog was a finalist for the Nuffnang blog awards held last year.  I’ve even commented many a times before I had my own food blog and I know – he is not what they had reported him to be.   An advertorial with Brad I heard range from approximately $1K to $2K – so – you think he is so el cheapo to ask for free food ?  I sincerely don’t like the way Private Affairs PR handled the situation with the press  – food tasting definitely means – come for a complimentary meal.  Can you imagine – if my advertisers were to send me a snow boots for a free trial  – and only to be asked to pay for it – when it arrived in the mail or being charged to my credit card?  obviously Brad is right to be a wee bit upset – but he was gracious enough to pay for his friends’ meals.  This is definitely the first – i’ve heard a restaurant inviting you for a food tasting to be told you had to pay !  Quite the mis – handling if i may say and definitely the first !  so i applaud Wendy Cheng aka Xia Xue for standing up for Brad – good for her!  Once again – I have not seen or heard of any bloggers to take advantage of any situation nor advertisers – bloggers have an invisible code of ethics and we write what we really feel about the product we are testing/tasting.  I’m one privileged blogger myself and I’m grateful to be working with so many great advertisers and tasting food from all over the world despite the fact that I’m in a small town in Canada.

Fish and Chips at Mern’s is definitely value for money – this portion is already a portion that had been taken out to feed chloe – and look at all the fish left.  In fact, it was too much for even PB – he only finished one piece and I had the other half – there were 2.5 pieces of fish and they were huge!   We have been trying Fish & Chips all over town and these are pretty good.   Love the french fries !!!  really yummy!! and the oil they used must be fresh too – you don’t taste old oil in these french fries that’s for sure.  So yes ! thumbs up for Mern’s  - we will be trying other things from Mern’s that’s for sure.

PS :  Phone call to order from Mern’s went very well too – they were very polite and explained their dishes over the phone.

Two weeks ago – i had gone for routine check up and learned that i had put on weight.  I pride myself as one who is also pro-active and never ever say die – so i did what i know best and changed my eating habits a little.  Not too much but a little.  So it’s fish for me 3 times a week now and baked salmon.  It’s so easy – at 425 F at 12 mins and let it sit in the oven for another 15mins with a small bowl of beehoon or udon.  Plus no more timbits in the morning now and fruits for snacks only.  So two weeks later – i feel a lot healthier – and happier too.

While PB and Chloe loves their fish and chips – i on the other hand love to try different things – so a few weeks ago – while at Jungle Jims – i tried the cheese steak.  And once again – forgotten to ask for a salad instead of french fries – so the french fries went to waste because i never eat them.  As for the Cheese Steak – it was the yummiest – the steak were well marinated and cooked just nice.  I had a very filling meal that day!  told yer i never waste my calories on bad food..   heheh!!

Foot long hot dog anyone?   During Seafest a few weeks ago – they had some sort of carnival going on – nothing like the ones from home or Australia – but something for the kids and parents to enjoy.  And during summer time you get a lot of very enterprising people selling hot dogs too.  Not a bad price that’s for sure – and if you like hot dogs like I do – you may want to try it.  I didn’t this time – because I just had breakfast not too, too long ago.

Look at how long the hot dog was – hahah!!  pretty cool eh! i like it all burnt up – what about you ..??  I missed the Tuesdays Coney Dog from A&W back home – i used to wait for Tuesdays just to get that Coney Dog – do they still have it back home now?   I remember sneaking them into the movies and stinking up the whole movie theatre -hahahah!! the people in there must have hated me  - hahahha!!  Coney Dogs are hot dogs with chilli on it.  Yummy!!!   But i rarely eat hot dogs anymore – coz’ i still prefer my favorite Coney Dog.  What about you ..??  Oh before i forget – honorable mention for Hot Dogs gotta be to Pinks Hot Dogs in Los Angeles – but darn expensive lor! and the queue very, very long.  Have you been to Pinks?

A few weeks ago, I had written that one of our local supermarket – Superstore – started carrying a lot more food from home.  And i had left a note for the store manager to try and get some curry noodles instead of the ones they already have – because no one would buy it.   Guess what – last week we found some Maggie curry noodles !!! woohoo!!  although the packaging is different – i’m sure they are the same.  Of course, we bought some immediately.  But alas – i found out that my sugar had gone up – so i didn’t dare it them at all.  Bummer…!! nevermind – save for days when i miss home so much – i must have some.

Look familiar to you all??  oh .. btw – we never had curry noodles here at this store before – I had to go to Halifax to an Asian grocery store to get them.  Now if only they could bring some frozen chinese stuff – like Hai Gow, Siew Mah and Char Siew Pau !  that would be awesome..!!! or some lotus roots for my soup perhaps..??  One can always hope eh.

Singapore Curry from Prima Taste – all the way from home – came last year from UK – from a fan of this blog – thank you very much – Sherry.  I was craving bad for curry – awaiting for the laksa package from Jenn – in Toronto – she was so kind and sent me some – finally i went searching in my pantry and found this.  Thank God!!! i said.. and PB must have been relieved hahahah!!  when i crave for something from home – i get all crazy.

The thing about Prima Taste is – they have everything in the box for you – all the condiments and everything you need to cook – well, except for the meat.  So i don’t have to worry if i don’t have coconut powder or extra chilli sauce – i just have to dump everything into the pot and cook – no need for chicken stock like the other packages – from another brand.  In other words – expensive – but really easy to make.

So i started cooking –  and it really took less than 20 mins – no prep time or anything – but i wished i had some tau pok and some bean sprouts but never mind lah – eggs and chicken also can.

So i had some beehoon and the curry and chicken and yums!!   I cannot tell you how much blessing this blog has brought me – not only do i get to work online and anywheres i am – make money – but most importantly – i’ve met so many wonderful, wonderful selfless people.  There are good people in this world – you just need to look out for them.  Have you met any wonderful people of late?  if you have – did you say thank you for being my friend and being there for you.  So here – i take this opportunity to thank all my friends – online and offline – thank you for being such wonderful friends – for the last 7 years – yes! that’s how long i’ve been blogging and you know who you all are.

So we had to order fish and chips for Chloe a few weeks ago – and since we no longer patronize the place we used to order fish and chips – we now go to Jungle Jims instead.  The main reason why we didn’t order from Jungle Jim’s before was because they were at Starrs Road and we are at Main Street and as you know we are constantly busy at the store – or doing our online work – it makes it convenient to order it from the one downtown.  But since a few months ago, we stop going to the usual place because we no longer choose to support this business – we are now at Jungle Jim’s every time we need fish and chips. Plus did I tell you,  we’ve always like the decor of Jungle Jim’s and wonder where they had gotten their  porch lights from – you see they recently re-decorated their patio because during the summer – the patio is open to the public and it does make good business sense – since we all love an outdoor dining once in a while especially with kids.

And since at Jungle Jim’s – they also have food that I would eat – i ordered the Thai Chicken Wrap as well a few weeks ago.   While they advertise that 2 can eat for $12.99 – it is actually 3 can eat for $12.99  for us.  As usual – Jungle Jim’s at Starrs Road has food for great value – the Thai Chicken Wrap had a tangy taste and the chicken was  ALOTTTT!!!  it was yummy .. unfortunately, i’m not a french fries gal – the next time I will ask for some greens instead – i’m sure they are gonna be ok with it.  Ordering on the phone for take-outs with Jungle Jim’s is a breeze – the gals are swell – they are very kind and their fish and chips?  excellente !

I haven’t eaten Guai Lin Gou for a long, long time now – i remember eating them at least once or twice a month when i was home.  Why? It is said that these herbal jelly has chinese herbs and medicine in it – and it is said to cleanse your body of toxin and relieve heatiness in your body.  Meaning good stuff all the way for your body – those got lots of acne – they said that this will help.  Oh !  people with no sense of humor can try this too – hahahahha!!  i didn’t say that – it’s the Asian Grocery Store boss who told me so – hahahah!!

The Herbal Jelly is black in color and it had a strong chinese medicine smell as expected but it was really good and I had offered some to PB – but he wouldn’t eat it.  But i do like it – and will buy some more of it – the next time I’m up in the city.

This is how it looks – you pour a little bit of syrup to go with it – to make it less bitter – but i rarely used it – it isn’t that bitter.

When you have a kid like I do – you want to give them the best – in terms of everything.  Food is what we cannot go without and as parents, we want to feed our kids well – not just any kind of food but healthy ones.  And every summer – we buy freezies and pops that are either premade with lots of sugar or ingredients that we are reluctant to let Chloe eat.

So I’ve decided to buy this Zoku Quick Pop Maker instead, it’s not only easy – it’s definitely something every parents would want.   It’s so easy to make your own pop- your kids can even help with it.  Use all the real and good ingredients and never have to worry about your kids having too much sugar in their body, plus it’s definitely good for diabetics like myself.   A good investment at $49.95 – shipping was free too.

Guess where I had lunch a few weeks ago – yes, yes..! i’m back logged .. and you know the reason why.  Busy business and lots of work online.  But anyhow – I took pictures to show you what a lovely meal i had.  This was take out – and it only took 15mins for us to pick up our food – super fast and super efficient – the staff were .  They were ready – even before PB came back from picking up some   best prenatal multivitamin for his buddy’s wife.  Why?  our store near the pharmacy mah!

Remember the last time – we went for a sit down on a Sunday – and they didn’t have Tabasco sauce – therefore i didn’t order Spaghetti ?  yes – i’m horrid in that sense – need the burning sensation.  But yes I ordered a Spaghetti Supreme.  What is a Spaghetti supreme..??  It’s oven-baked spaghetti with meat sauce, mushrooms, Italian meatballs and our signature cheese blend.  Yummy or not..??

I ordered a side salad – a Caesar to go with my meal of course and it’s sinful – but absolutely hit the spot.   The side salad was only $2.99 and they did come with a piece of garlic bread – but i prefer the ones from Jessy’s – rich !   The meal cost less than 15 bucks and chloe and I had the ghettis and there were leftovers for another meal – so definitely value for money – huge portion of food and really quick too.

Yums!!

When we were up in the city – we found a new grocery store – Asian one of course  -  in Queen Street – so instead of going to the old one – we decided to check this one out.  It is a pretty neat and clean store – and guess what we found – WINTER MELON!! woohoo!!  so i bought a piece – in fact i should have bought a bigger piece – I’ll know the next time.

So came home from the city and slow cooked winter melon soup with chinese mushrooms, dried scallops, wolfberries, red dates – and of course pork, then slow cooked it for 4 hrs. Result – yummy yummy soup!  ahhhh!!  blisssssfulness!  Chloe loves the soup too – and I wished we can get more winter melons here but alas as you all know – they only have it in the city.

PB bought this Black & Decker steamer for me like 2 0r 3 Christmases ago – and this was the first time I’ve used it.  Why?  too busy to steam things to eat lah – other times – i just use a bigger pot, put in water – and another bowl and steam away.  Why in the world i did not use this – i cannot understand it myself – because this must be the best thing I’ve had  - i kid you not – it’s cheap – it’s easy to use and easy to wash too.

What prompted me to use the steamer?  it’s these paus – that we had bought from Halifax a few week – a month ago.  You see normally i use the pot method and the pau always turned out like horrid – all soggy and wet – not edible – so with these paus – i suddenly thought – why not.  And this i’ll have to say – was the best decision I’ve made with the kitchen.

The paos turned out awesome – and i’ve been using it for steaming dumplings and other stuff – I’ll attempt to do steam fish really soon.  Wish me luck!   Oh – those were “tau sa” paos – if you were wondering.

So a few weeks ago – we headed up to the city, bringing my colonix review with me and whenever we do – we try to stop at New Minas for our Burger King fix.  Yes ! sad ! we don’t have a Burger King in this small town and truth be told – i prefer the burger at BK than Mac’s but I prefer the french fries at Mac’s and not BK.  And i’ve gotta remember this burger king does not have an indoor playground but the Macdonald’s at New Minas do have one.

We arrived at 2.30pm and we were very hungry then – our meal came up to about $15 and it was a pretty good meal.  PB had a junior whopper and Chloe had the chicken meal and the Iron Man 2 toy came with it.  She loved her toy for that day.

I had a whopper because i wasn’t thinking straight – hahahah!!  because the burger was huge!!!   I couldn’t have finished it.  But mannnn..!! it was so good..! i finished it.. every last morsel of it.

Yummy or what!!!!  C’mon !!! someone open a burger king already in Yarmouth!!!

This was PB’s plain burger.. because he didn’t want anything with it.

How was the service..?? not bad at all – friendly and pretty young crew – but overall – not bad.

It was pretty crowded at Burger King – so i didn’t stay to look thru’ the menu but took a few pictures – and had forgotten to take one of the outside – next time I will remember.  For those who are not aware of this .. I grew up eating Macdonald’s and Burger King and when Delifrance came to town – i ate Delifrance a lot.

I’m sure I told you – my mom never let us do anything in the kitchen – firstly, she was too busy and secondly, i secretly thinks, she was afraid we might break something in the kitchen.  But having said that – she wouldn’t let us touch anything – from the phone to the tv and even the treadmill in the recreation room when we were kids.  So I told myself – when i was very young, I would never do this to my kids.

But you see when you grow older and you have responsibilities you then know the real reason why your mothers didn’t want you to do anything in the kitchen.  Why? because at times, i catch myself telling Chloe – that she should just let me cook or wash up quickly – so that i can go and finish my other tasks.  I am very vigilant about this – and make sure I let Chloe cook and wash whenever she wants – so that we can bond – she doesn’t really clean or cook but she is always very happy when she thinks she is helping out and what better way to teach your kids responsibilities and to share your day with her then now.

As you can see – Chloe is darn serious about her “job” – she wants to be a real mama’s helper – and thanks to Auntie CY and Rachel Jeh Jeh from UK who made it possible by sending her a special kid’s apron and cook hat last Christmas.  As you can see here – she just loved her outfit and never fails to put them on – when she is being mama’s helper for the day.

So moms and dads – make time for your kids – they don’t stay this young forever – you don’t want to miss these special moments with them.  And you know what? when Chloe is older – she will learn how to build computers – man the store and do lots of other things with us.

Yes! yes!  I’m so backlogged – but i did tell you – i was up to my eyeball with work right – not only was the store busy – my online work was steady.  And for Mother’s Day this year – PB made me some French toast with cinnamom and syrup – without me asking him to – he just did it.  So sweeeettt right..??

And some turkey bacon of course – i haven’t eaten the regular bacon for years now – it’s easier on the health i think.   I had a late breakfast and an early dinner – and we had dinner at PB’s parents – but that’s for another day and another story eh.  So what did you have for breakfast on Mother’s day?

Mysteries Of Love

I’ve always wanted to have the All Day Breakfast at Jungle Jim’s – so 2 weeks ago – even though it was lunch time – i decided to try their all day breakfast of the Ham and Cheese Omelet.  But i was torn in between the french toast and the omelet but chose the omelet instead for fear that the french toast may have too much sugar for my diabetic me. The omelet turned out pretty good – and i wasn’t expecting potatoes with it – so it was indeed very filling.

PB and Chloe had their fish and chips from their lunch special and a side order of Onion Rings  – as you can see lots of food as usual and only at $5.95 – cant beat that eh.

The coffee came free with the breakfast and this trip the coffee was pretty good – i finished my coffee – in fact I was tempted to have another half a cup but didn’t.  I had asked PB if he remembered how much the omelet was – he said he didn’t remember – but he rarely looked at the prices at Jungle Jim’s because the prices are very reasonable.

We like Jungle Jim’s too because it’s Chloe’s favorite as it is kid friendly. They  have special juice cups for them – and they have a treasure chest for them to pick a prize after they’ve finished eating their food.  As you all know – chloe loves drawing  and Jungle Jim’s has papers and crayons for her to color.

The staff are friendly – they have Tabasco sauce there !!  woohoo!!  and the owner of the establishment is really nice and friendly.

And they let us snap away happily – and this mandatory photo of father and daughter – for keepsake.

And i tried to take a good picture with the lil’ brat – but she just wanna cover up my face i guess – probably thinks mama is obese -  kekekekek!! so doing me a favor eh.

I do love the deli counter at Sobeys – our local grocery shop here in town – they not only have the western stuff – like macaroni salad and coleslaw etc – they are pretty adventurous in the recent years because they also have food like Sweet & Sour Pork and Ginger beef and a few order things that even I liked.  One of the many things they have – is the sweet and sour pork deli style, whereby you just tell them how much food you want – and they scooped it up for you and charge you accordingly.  I have always liked the ladies at the deli at Sobeys because not only do they have an awesome deli Manager – Susan – everyone there are very nice – very accommodating and always have a minute to spare – whether we are buying a lot that day or not. Sobeys is where we get most of our groceries – although we do go to other places to get other stuff – like tofu and sesame oil – but i find Sobeys have more comprehensive range to choose from – geez they even have discount diet pills.  Now this is my preference – and i`m not saying other grocery stores are not good – so donch huff and puff  and become one of those puffer fish -  if you are from another store – and think that i`m trashing your business eh – hahahha!!  some people can be funny in this small town.  I have an amusing story to tell – but that will be for another day and another story.

Anyhow – it is great that Sobeys has these deli style food because it sure makes it really convenient for me – as the brat don`t eat any meat except for chicken and fish.   So if i was craving for pork – you know where I am headed and then i have them with my favorite cup noodles and there – satisfied totally!  Simple, awesome & cheap!  and may i add – excellent service from Sobeys !