Spending a day in in-laws house 回家探访公公，婆婆

Has been bck to Penang for almost a week. All of us are recovering well from jetlag attack. We able to make up a trip back to my inlaw place in a small town called Parit Buntar, it is located in the bordering of Penang and Perak State in Malaysia. The trip objective is mainly to visit my inlaws and pass them the present we bought from the US, secondly, off cause not forgeting to continuously tasting food along the trip before and after we arrived in Barit Buntar! Food always make people pleasant and excited, rite?

Stop by at a early morning market to take our breakfast in Nibong Tebal town. i didnt mean to snap pic for these intimate lovers of mine, but i intend to snap the bananas hang out behind! This is how bananas is showcase and sell in Malaysia typically. Alternatively, u can oso get bananas from the surpermarket.

this is the "must order" food everytime we drive back to visit our inlaws. It is called "Mee Jawa"(Jawa noodles), yellow noodles serve in sweet potato gravy stock, garnished with egg, ground peanut, lectuce, potato and prawn fritter. We usually sip the stock until the last drop!

For those who never see this tree b4 out of tropical countries and region, This is so-called Bananas tree! My inlaw planted 2 bananas tree at their backyard.

another "unknown" tree to resident apart from South East Asia region, this is call "Papaya Tree" Papaya is 木瓜in mandarin.

William holding the ripe papaya on hand.

William is helping grandpa to pluck the ripe papaya from it's tree.

my mom in law. Look at the "herritage" kind of cooking hob and work top she has! she usually cook in the open space at the backyard, in preventing stink and oilly smell spreading around inside the kicthen. Never look down her simple yet old fashion cooking hob and wok!! Regardless how bad her "kicthen" condition, she still cook good food consistantly for the past 50 years!

Benjamin potray himself with 6 ripe papaya pluck by grandpa and William.

Another old fashion rattan made sling arm-chair. My father in law all time favorite! Everytime we steps foot home, we like to swing ourshelves on this arm chair while enjoying the Astro (Malaysian paid TV network) TV program, or while waiting for food to be served by mom in law.

This is the outlook of my grand parents house. They hv step foot on this cosy home for almost 20 years now. William will always recognise his grandpa's house by memorising the yellow painted grill and gate. I always remind myself to pay more frequent visit to my inlaws, and grand-parent of my kids, when time permits, cause life is impermanent. Nobody knows what happen next.

hunting for good food again b4 we right back to Penang.

We dropped by a small restaurant in my inlaws hometown, serving typical and authentic local chinese delights. In this photo: we ordere steam Thai style hot and sour fish, braised Japanese tofu and fried kangkung （空心菜）with sambal belacan chili paste. Sambal belacan is a popular stir fry paste among all races in Malaysia, made from dry shrimp and fresh chilis.

I noticed William is the one who finished almost 2/3 of the fish dish!! Believe it or not? 他爱死了这一道酸辣蒸鱼. keep on asking for more rice to dip with the hot and spicy sauce. U will be surprised how much my kids can stand for hot and spicy food.

Granpa and grandma, till we see u again!

Friendship Feast for the kids on 20th Nov

谢谢你，淑君，帮William 和Charlie照了那么难能可贵的相片，他们这两个活宝贝，总是腻在一起，像极了连体婴！现在他们“天各一方”，总也要些时间适应一个人的生活。

Charlie给了William很多童年的玩伴回忆，他们交换了地址，希望以后可以当笔友。

小孩在班上上课的情形。大家通常都是围圈圈就席而坐，小朋友的关系更密切。

William还是希望有一天可以回到这间学校就读。当然，当那么一天到来时，一切的人和事，早已面目全非。 This is Life!

Malaysian Food (Part 1): Chinese Hong Kong style Dim Sum

Outlook of Maxim Dim Sum restaurant, Penang Island, Malaysia, approx. 15 minutes from my home.

Today i wanna introduce Chinese-Hong Kong style Dim Sum to my reader, a typical Malaysian snack/light meal that u should not missed! The Dim Sum is as similar as to those served in Dim Sum restaurant in Sacramento area although the taste and flavour maybe different due to local preference.

The wall portrated all the menu they served: including all sorts of dim sum varieties, wantan noodles, dumplings and chow mien in Chinese style.

William can't wait to grab the lovely dim sum and melted into his mouth! His top favorite is the prawn wrapped in beancurd sheet (deep fried), dip with mayo.

clock wise: chicken feet, prawn dumpling, deep-fried prawn in beancurd sheet, egg tart, sesame ball with lotus filling, spare rib and Siew Mai.

This is a traditional Malaysian Chinese dish: Glutinious Rice with Chicken and mushroom, which u wont get from Dim Sum Restaurant in the US. I used to make this dish at home back in US, i guess my Taiwanese friend, Shu Chun was the lucky one who tasted it before!

William biting the BBQ Pork (Char Siew) steam Bun (Bao). This dim sum served among the best Char Siew Bao in Penang, besides another dim sum restaurant named 点心之家located in Anson Road.

this is how the dim sum is served. They push around the cart where a gas stove is installed to continously steam the dim sum tray that are stacker up. The dim sum remains heat and ready to serve anytime.

For this round, the very 1st Dim Sum treat after back from the US, we spend RM32 (Approx $9) for almost 10-12 plates of dim sum verieties. We shall come back again, for sure!

We are back at home in Penang Island, Malaysia

i can't wait to cut short my hair the next day i touched down. i hv not been cutting my hair for 9 months! now i feel more "free and easy" with my layered and shorten hair!

kids enjoying sweet donuts in Gurney Plaza, Penang

Transit in Singapore airport

The journey was extremely tiring, a 24 hours journey spend on flight mostly, transiting in HK and Singapore. Kids are almost exhausted and started crancky when we hv 3 hours transit time in Singapore Changi Airport.

Finally we reached home. I started to feel the uneasy of my throat, i hv sore-throat now. Kids are still fighting against the jetlag. Me getting better after the 3rd day now.

Hv been continuosly hunting for Penang Street food these 2 days, hokkien mee, curry mee, laksa, fried keoy teow, chee cheong fun, chicken rice, char ho-fun, nyonya kuih, wantan mee....etc, just too much to name one by one!

Thats all we hv for now, till i share more photos about our life in Penang, Malaysia again ya.

The last gift from hubby before departure

Thanks my beloved hubby for giving me the last minute surprise right before 12 hours of departure!!

I do feel COACH is a way too luxury and gotta think twice b4 i determined to grab one to pamper myself.

Sock Peng, thanks for your "encouragement and inspiration"! without u, i wont thought of getting one bigger COACH for myself.

model: Hampton Signature Lunch Tote

Interested about COACH? look for here.

Packing and Moving day 20.11.08

After a 9 months stay in Folsom, CA, at last our US stay journey comes to the end. Today, 20th Nov, is the packing date. The cargos containd all our necessity from kicthenware, books, computer, TV, electronic and electrical applicance, to kids toys, apparels, and some sports gadgets. On top of that, we are kind enough to render some cargo spare to move our fello friends and intel's colleague belonging too!

The truck contained all the 3 huge container worth of cargos, approx 1250kg.

Truck came all the way from Fremont, 3 hours drive, to upload our cargo back to their warehouse. The cargos will take a minimum of 2.5 weeks for shipment and clearance prior to deliver to our Penang home.

The mover company, S&M Moving Systems, works mainly for intel's accounts.

Dun ask me about the feeling when i m about to leave in 48 hours time...it is absolutely mix feeling!!! Mix in the sense that, sad for the sake of leaving my international friend behind, William leave his dear friend and teacher at school. However, exciting for the sake of gonna see and meet our beloved families and good friends again in Penang.

Thanks for my husband employer, without them, me and my boys should not hv the "once in a life time" experience to explore a new wonderland in foreign country.

Thanks for all the kind friendship, helps and support during our stay here. Without them, we shouldnt be as comfortable and as cheerful as for the entire months here.

Last but not least...We look forward to see u again Iron Point, Somewhere, some times, some years ahead.

后会有期。

Heather, Thanks for your Vietnamese Spring Roll (Gui Cuon)

She is just like my little sister....but our age is just different by one year.

me with my dear Vietnamese good friend, Heather..she is so sweet and lovely huh!

Rice Paper

越南特级米纸春卷皮

Vietnamese Spring Roll (Gou Cuon)

I wanna say Thank You Very Much to Heather, my Vietnamese friend, who teach me how to prepare and wrap the spring roll and how to prepare the fish sauce dip. I promise i will make this and share with my Malaysian friends back in Malaysia.

For spring roll rice paper assembly:

About 10 rice paper wrappers

LettuceCucumber, cut into long slices

Fresh herbs: mint, cilantro, basil, vietnamese coriander, balm or perillaBean sprouts

Rice Vermmicili (米粉）

Method:

1. In bowl of warm water, dip each rice paper wrapper for about 3-5 seconds (depending on rice paper thickness). Do not over soak your rice paper wrapper! Place on work service and allow rice paper to soak up water and become gelatinous and pliable (about 30 seconds to 1 minute, again, depending on the thickness rice paper).

2. On top 1/3 side closest to you, lay lettuce on the bottom for added strength to the wrapper. Then place cooked shrimp, cooked rice vermmicili, herbs and other vegetables. Roll up spring roll about 1/3 way through, then fold in the sides.

3. Serve with hoisin peanut dip or fish sauce dip. Heavenly!

Say Good Bye to Mrs. Witt

We hv a Teacher-Parent Conference with Mrs. Witt today at 10am. She is William class teacher, a soft hearted, loving-kindness and professional kindergarten teacher.

Mrs. Witt feel sad too....she wish we may still keep in touch with her via emails, send some photos from our country in Malaysia. She would be extremely delightful to share William's photo to the kids in her class and show them where is Malaysia situated!

Bye-bye Mrs. Witt. We will always remember your kindness...

The Cheese Cake Factory cheese cake

昨天试了Olive Garden的Tiramisu, 还是余忧未尽，今天再闯Costco买了美国盛名的Cheese Cake Factory 牌子的cheese cake 回来"叹一叹",在回国之前来个Cheese Cake 大吃会，要把我在美国吃cheesecake 的回忆装满满的。爽！

里面共有12片不同口味的cheese cake, 包括 Dulee De Leche Cheesecake, Vanila Bean Cheesecake, Godiva Double Chocolate Cheesecake, White Chocolate Rasberry Truffle. 我一个人可以同一时间吃完两片，够力吗？

吃完后，也是说拜拜的时候了。。。再见了，America.