Archive for the 'Daitaoha Eats Out' Category

Getting back

Published May 21, 2023 Baking , Daitaoha Cooks , Daitaoha Eats Out , Daitaoha, Saitaoha & Saitaomei , Japanese Leave a Comment

I stepped out of the house for the first time in a week to bring the kids to school on Friday. It felt good to be outdoors doing our normal Friday routine after working from home all week. I still had to take painkillers but I was functioning and walking.

I haven’t been cooking much and have been taking out instead. It was a nice lunch at Two Hands Noodles, comfort Kuching food.

I thought we would stay home on Saturday but the kids really wanted to eat out with their grandparents. Saitaoha had her favourite pizza, I’m amazed how she never gets sick of plain cheese pizza, she finished the whole thing herself !

I think I’ve gotten over my ramen phase now (or maybe not) because we had ramen for dinner. The whole family loves noodles, I’m more of a rice and bread person. I was glad my parents could come along, feels like it’s been a long time since we’ve felt well enough to eat out.

I knew I was feeling better because I started baking again. Lemon syrup loaf, lovely for those that love tart cakes, but R and my parents probably prefer it if I made it an orange syrup cake. Only thing is we have lots of lemons at home!

The hardworking girl who wanted me to take a picture of her cleaning up to show her mah mah.

Let’s hope we can kick off all our bugs and aches this week!

Autumn weekend

Published April 16, 2023 Daitaoha Eats Out , Daitaoha Loves Weekends , Daitaoha's Family and Friends , Malaysian/Singaporean Leave a Comment

Ah pa commented today that it feels like we skipped autumn altogether and jumped straight into winter. The temperature has dropped the past week and we also had the category five cyclone that hit the Pilbara region and brought rainy weather to Perth.

I have to admit that I’m loving the cooler weather but not loving the kids starting to get sick again. This is what gets me down the most during the cold season, the family getting sick including myself. Luckily Saitaomei wasn’t too bad and apart from bad coughing at night, she was generally fine during the day.

I thought that I wouldn’t be having Teawoks so soon again, but Saitaoha really wanted to have kolo mee! R and I ordered a laksa to share and it was pretty good, so good that …

we made our own laksa the next day ! It’s been a while since I’ve cooked laksa for the family, I can never get it quite right and always need R to help me season towards the end. Maybe we’re all missing home ? But this made me feel nice and warm inside.

Bringing the kids to the playground and having a picnic on Saturday because the rain finally let up! We were supposed to go to the beach but the weather dashed all plans. Summer is over and we haven’t been to the beach oops.

Happy girls who need a haircut. Luckily their hairdresser aka papa gave them a trim the next day.

Saitaoha tells me that she wants to go to Disneyland. I’m definitely bringing the girls in a few years, Shanghai or America, hopefully in 2 years ? I want to make sure that we have ample time and can travel in comfort !

Watching Jinny’s kitchen inspired me to make sushi/kimbap for our Sunday night dinner. Kids were delighted since they love sushi, my Ah ma and I were happy too since we both love Japanese food.

It dawned on me that I’m glad that I find pleasure in cooking, because if I see something nice in a tv show most of the time I can try making it myself, and I can also satisfy most of my own food cravings. It also makes me feel happy when I’m able to cook for the family and can cook together with Ah ma!

One of my favourite things to do during the weekend is going over to my parent’s house by myself in the afternoon and pottering about their kitchen (indoor and outdoor) prepping and cooking dinner. After a while my parents who are usually resting will come out of their room and Ah ma will chat with me, sometimes cook her own dishes, if the kids are around, ah pa will be busy cutting fruit for them, or else he will head out to his beloved garden and start watering and tending to his plants.

Then dinner time will come around and we will all sit together at the dining table and have a nice home cooked meal. Simple pleasures that I never take for granted. This is my favourite kind of Sunday to end the week.

A great weekend

Published April 11, 2021 Daitaoha Eats Out , Daitaoha Loves Weekends , Daitaoha's lunch bentos , Daitaoha's Family and Friends , Daitaoha, Saitaoha & Saitaomei , Korean Leave a Comment

A great weekend is when …

the weather is beautiful, sunny with an autumn breeze, blue skies with not a cloud in sight. It starts raining on the Sunday, but that’s great too because rainy mornings are best for Sunday sleep ins, and the husband remembered to bring in the laundry before the rain came in.

Vegetarian bibimbap

A great weekend is when you finally get some household chores done, when there’s Korean music playing in the background whilst you are cooking R’s lunch bentos for the week of vegetarian bibimbap. There’s a hum of satisfaction when you line up the healthy lunch boxes in a row, I know that R will enjoy them especially since he is always trying to eat more vegetables and less meat.

It’s especially nice to have the kids pottering around me, they are playing together in the playroom. Saitaoha comes into the kitchen ‘Mummy!’ ‘Yes Saitaoha?’ I stop mid cook, spatula in the air, thinking maybe she needs water or a snack. ‘Nothing! I just wanted to tell you I love you!’ she giggles and runs away. For the umpteenth time, I marvel at how my kids turned out to be such affectionate, sweet little girls despite their undemonstrative parents . I love you too my girls ❤️❤️❤️.

A great weekend is when you get to bake some cakes for your family and neighbour, the cakes didn’t turn out as beautiful as I wanted them to, but I’m told they were quite delicious.

A great weekend is when you go for your daughters’ swimming classes and see them improving every week. I love swimming and am glad they love the water too. Weekly swimming classes are also a great time for me to hang out with ah ma alone, despite living so close to each other, we don’t get to chat by ourselves that often, so these weekly outings together are always something I enjoy. It’s like when I make myself a weekend caramel macchiato from ah ma’s coffee machine, a simple pleasure and so enjoyable.

A great weekend is when I get to experience a new Korean food place with food that jump out from my Korean dramas and variety shows, the kimbaps, jajiangmyeon, teokbokki. The best is going with my foodie sister and chatting about the latest shows we’ve been watching or not watching.

Cousin worship is real

A great weekend is when you know Saitaoha is having a great weekend because she finally gets to hang out with LG jeje, with no Saitaomei or Tristan in tow! She loves her cousin and sister but loves having one on one time with LG jeje whom she worships.

Can you see how much she is brimming with happiness and excitement?

Hotteok

We finally tried hotteok and it was really nice. So nice that I bought a box of hotteok mix and I’m going to try making it for the family one day.

Saitaoha had a wonderful playdate and was all exhausted and played out when she came back home.

A great weekend is coming home to a Saitaomei who greets you as if you’ve been gone for a year instead of a couple of hours ‘Mummy I miss you!!!’ She proceeds to stick to me for the rest of the afternoon and even joins me for my daily exercise routine, a planking Saitaomei is super cute I must say. A great weekend is also one when you get to find time for exercise.

A great weekend is having an indulgent afternoon nap with Saitaomei next to you. Waking up to cook dinner and welcome back a sleepy Saitaoha. Sitting down for a family dinner and folding laundry together with the kids ‘helping’.

A great weekend is having a cup of tea and slice of cake with R. Getting the kids ready for bed and taking turns asking for ‘very very very big hug and kiss’. Saitaomei pretending to struggle when papa gives her a huge hug and saying ‘no papa too big !!! Small hug and kiss! Small!!!’

Finally there’s quiet and darkness. It’s back to the daily grind tomorrow but thank goodness for the memories of a great weekend to get you by before the next weekend.

Birthday, lockdown! and CNY treats

Published February 6, 2021 Baking , Chinese , Daitaoha Special Days , Italian Leave a Comment

I wasn’t terribly shocked when we headed into a one week lockdown, it just felt inevitable with COVID being everywhere and Perth-ians in general being very complacent. It was a bummer that he had to announce it on my birthday which meant that we couldn’t have our family celebration.

Post

Luckily R had already celebrated my birthday for me a day earlier with a yummy Italian dinner at Post. The food was good Italian fare, wine was lovely and we had a great time out.

Maccas

I also had MCD with my parents and kids as a treat. I’m not a fan of MCD but I love their soft serves. So it was a real treat for me :), but I think the kids enjoyed it even more.

See happy kid!

Took bites of everyone’s icecream that Saitaomei 😥. Honestly, despite the lockdown, my birthday was as good as it gets because I was surrounded by my loved ones and felt loved and celebrated.

Waffle lover

Perks of lockdown and mummy working from home is getting to make special requests for breakfast.

Saitaoha likes waffles too

Actually it was Saitaoha that requested for the waffles but mei ended up liking them so much she requested to have them for dinner!

The lockdown to be honest was a reprieve for me, I enjoyed working from home, the routine and the lack of commute. I had so much more time to do housechores, I had a daily exercise routine, I was still productive at work and I could spend more time with the kids. It was a bonus week for me.

Pineapple tarts

The last time I made pineapple tarts was maybe 9 years ago? I forgot how tedious it is to make tarts and biscuits, it’s my least favourite form of baking and I’m terrible at it #daitaohabakes .

My 收成 this year

But there is such a lack of CNY spirits and festivity this year that I really want to do something for my family, so here’s my CNY gift to them this year, I hope they enjoy the tarts.

Ah ma’s outdoor kitchen

It was a productive weekend ! We hopped to IKEA and bought ah Ma’a outdoor kitchen, she’s been wanting an outdoor kitchen for ages so R finally decided to build her one. hope it all turns out well!

Bak kwa

I also make bak kwa for the first time! It was an easy recipe and surprising legit. Poor ah ma and ah pa must have been wishing that I would hurry go home after messing up their kitchen with the pineapple tarts. But no, I proceeded to smoke out their house with bak kwa making! It reminds me of a Lee Ang movie that I love about this father who is a great chef at a high end Chinese restaurant and always ends up cooking a banquet for his family dinners with his three daughters. His youngest daughter always wanted to follow in her dad’s footsteps but he didn’t want her to be a chef and chased her out of his kitchen. Funnily enough the father who was a widower, shocked his kids when he wanted to sell the family house to start a new life for himself with his girlfriend (the daughters had no idea about the relationship ). The end of the story had the youngest daughter buying over the family home and using her dad’s kitchen, when her father ate his daughter’s food, his tastebuds which had died were awaken and he said he could taste the taste of 家, meaning home, and also meaning family.

Ah pa always says home is where family is. He no longer sees Kuching as his home since my mah mah passed away. And somehow because my parents are here with us, their Perth house has somehow become the family home, and is where us three daughters end up gravitating to, for special occasions, for celebrations and just for every other day. After more than a decade of our lives living overseas and apart from our parents, us girls are getting a second chance of hanging out with my cool parents again, they are very sought after! Hopefully my parents don’t mind me and the kids invading their home so often, I promise to only smoke it out every now and then!

I’ll just end here but wishing my family and friends a Happy Ox year in advance. May the new year bring us renewed energy, positive spirits, best of luck, good health and an abundance of happiness.

Goodbye Singapore Hello Kuching

Published October 3, 2019 Daitaoha Eats Out , Daitaoha Travels , Daitaoha's Family and Friends , Daitaoha, Saitaoha & Saitaomei , Kuching , Seafood Leave a Comment

Last full day in Singapore. View of Orchard Road from the Orchard Central gallery.

Even though I already had my daily dose of kopi, I couldn’t resist a second shot for the last day. It was a hot day though so I had kopi ais, good but not as satisfying as a hot mug of kopi.

The kids had fun at the outdoor playground at the Food Republic at 313 Somerset. It’s mostly quite empty which is probably not good for business but great for us. I hate waiting to chope tables during peak hours which in Orchard Road sometimes feels like forever.

Ah ma knows me best. She got me a takeaway cup of kopi from Yakun before we set off to the airport. It was legit good kopi.

I really love these strollers at Changi, I also like the kid friendly corners at various spots of Changi. I am always impressed and appreciate the effort that goes into the planning of Changi’s terminals design. It really is a top notch airport.

Silly cousins. They’ve bickered,fought, made up and mostly played well together this holiday.

Whereas this little ball of terror showed her age 😅.

Love the heritage zone celebrating Peranakan culture, so beautiful.

Seafood dinner at Top spot with the must order local midin. I am sure every family has their go-to seafood restaurant in Kuching, for our family, it’s always Top Spot and we’ve been going there for many many years. Back in those days my grandparents were still well and healthy, they could indulge in great plates of crab and steamed fish. Sigh. Those were the good days.

The crabs were really for my sister who is a huge crab lover. We always think of her when we are eating crabs or see crab on the menu. But we never eat crabs in Perth because they are so expensive and not even that good!

This is one satisfied customer. She enjoyed dinner so much we are going back for more crab tonight!

The size of the prawns put our so called king prawns in Perth to shame. So delicious lightly grilled.

This foodie enjoyed her food a lot and we pretty much had to pry the bowl of rice away from her. She’s a 饭桶!

Our parents got up early and went to Jin Fu Ling to pick up our pre order of popiah. We are spoilt kids lah.

I haven’t had these yet but the chai kueh look good! My sister can probably demolish ten at a go, or 20?

Jeje getting a trim at the neighbourhood salon while mei mei watches on. The trim cost RM2! I had to ask ‘huh? 多少?’ when she mentioned the price. It costs her $10 to trim her fringe in Perth and that’s already the cheapest option.

Can do for RM2?

Mei mei so hot and bothered. She’s wiltering in the heat.

Posers at Kenyalang who were happy to score their loot of old school snacks.

Mozzie attack

Published August 8, 2018 Daitaoha Eats Out , Daitaoha Travels , Daitaoha, Saitaoha & Saitaomei , Kuching , Malaysian/Singaporean Leave a Comment

Last kueh chap of the year. Unless I make it myself in Perth? But let’s not kid myself, who has time to clean pig intestines nowadays? It amazes me that 5 years ago, we visited my sister in England and to satisfy her cravings, I cooked kueh chap, tomato kueh tiaw and baked siew pao. Who has time or energy to do that now? Some days when Saitaoha is acting up or sleeping particularly badly (last night was case in point) I just want to return the kids 😓.

Yeah durian for baby!

Actually baby gets none but she is getting to eat local bananas and papayas which she enjoys very much.

The kids are being eaten alive by the mozzies in Malaysia. They had a brief reprieve when we were in Singapore as our flat level was too high for mozzies. But since we’ve been back, the mozzies have come out in full force and it’s been a feeding frenzy. They only like young blood it seems, poor Tristan, Saitaoha and Saitaomei are covered with red, angry bites 😭.

We’ve been spraying mosquito repellent to no avail, those are some tough, pesky mozzies. And unlike the fat, slow ones in Perth, the mozzies here are quick and very good at hiding!

Ah pa tells me that he’s been waking up at night and shining a torchlight on Saitaomei and her surroundings to hunt for these monsters. ‘Boh kua tiok leh, ta pi yi ku si hor mang ka’ (couldn’t see them but she’s still getting bitten by mosquitos!) he laments. The thought of my ah pa getting up at night just to chase away mosquitoes from biting his precious grandchild is just 😭😭😭. Seriously my kids are so lucky to have the best grandfather ever.

The days slip away

Published August 7, 2018 Daitaoha Eats Out , Daitaoha Travels , Daitaoha, Saitaoha & Saitaomei , Kuching , Malaysian/Singaporean 1 Comment

Hmmm… I wonder whether it’s one of those days where everyone is eating yummy food and I get nothing again.

Eh not bad, I get a snack too 😀.

And my jeje is willing to play with me at last! It’s a good day 😃.

Mummy says my top front teeth are out, papa will be amazed at how much I’ve grown in these past few weeks.

Saitaoha enjoying her milo peng. She doesn’t eat much outside, preferring simple home cooked food.

More for the adults then! Kampua mee from Yi An kopitiam.

Sister and I shared a laksa which was pretty good.

Both kids napped at the same time so I rewarded myself with a siew pao and Sundrop lime juice. I used to love this lime juice as a kid and now I still like it as an adult.

Ah ma and ah pa went out and da-paoed the famous Old Rex prawn fritters and other yummy fried things for our afternoon tea. It was really good with their chilli sauce, I ate so much that I had to skip dinner.

Afternoon shopping with the sister was fun, the kids had a short playground session but Saitaoha was so naughty and pushed a little boy away from the playhouse. I made her say sorry but poor little boy was crying. She wasn’t allowed to continue to play after that 😡.

These two squabble like mad but had fun giving us a dance performance tonight. Saitaoha copying everything her koko was doing like a parrot.

They have a fan! Hahahaha.

Last day in Singapore

Published August 4, 2018 Daitaoha Eats Out , Daitaoha Travels , Malaysian/Singaporean , Singapore , Takeaway 4 Comments

The baby’s face says it all, meh…it’s our last day in Singapore.

The day started out great with this yummy pack of economy beehoon that ah ms and Tspellstrouble bought for my breakfast. They had to trek to the newly renovated Lorong 1 market for our breakfast and have been buying us breakfasts for the past few mornings, 辛苦了！

LG is blurry, Tristan’s eyes are close but never mind, Saitaoha looks cute #shamelessmummy.

Saitaoha is LG’s little shadow, it’s amusing to watch her adulation, I hope she doesn’t mind too much that LG won’t be joining us for the last leg of the trip.

Ah ma looked after Saitaomei (apparently she yelled her lungs out for an hour after we left 😓) at home so I had the luxury of handling only one kid whilst shopping with my sisters. I decided to do without the stroller and Tula-ed Saitaoha instead, good idea because she was thrilled to be carried for a change and even slept in the Tula throughout lunch.

Lunch at Tampopo of meitaiko tonkatsu set was pretty good, my sister and I shared this so the portion was just right. I enjoyed lunch a lot, probably because my kid was sleeping haha.

More playground time in the afternoon. My sister took this photo saying ‘look how small and cute she is, such a munchkin!’ In my eyes, my child has grown so much, but to my sister whose daughter is 6, she’s so little. I must keep reminding myself she’s only two.

Saitaoha wasn’t quite sure how to pose like jeje, always trying to keep up with her older cousins.

Ooh what is this yummy looking snack?

Babies cannot eat meh?

Can I try just a little bit pretty please?

Maybe they won’t notice if I slowly inch my mouth towards the snack.

Getting closer… getting closer…

Lor mee for dinner, I ate mine too late and the noodles were all soggy and all the crispy bits no longer crispy. But I still liked it leh, so much better fresh at the stall I reckon.

We’ve been eyeing this honey cheese cake thing from Breadtalk for days and finally succumbed tonight. It was ok only.

I will miss Singapore and spending time with my family here. I loved our late night TP central shopping jaunts, enjoying Singapore food with my family, our playground sessions and watching the kids play together. I laugh most freely and happily with my family, so I’m grateful to have this gem of a break to tuck into my memory box. Thank you again Singapore for the memories.

Majulah Singapura – my tamchiak family

Published August 1, 2018 Daitaoha Eats Out , Daitaoha Travels , Malaysian/Singaporean , Singapore 2 Comments

Yeesh! I am very happy to be in Singapore!

The kids always grow faster during holidays but these girls are jumping leaps and bounds.

Hello Singapore kopi. I have missed you. The weather has been remarkably kind to us the past couple of days, please stay that way.

Fishball noodles from Block 75 were so good as usual. That chilli sauce and boing boing fishballs are so yummy lah.

Nana green tea at Suntec for lunch. It’s been fun having a mini holiday with my ah ma, sisters and kids. There are stressful moments (always to do with kids) but I think we are enjoying our time together.

The best part about being with my ah ma and sisters, we can all be tamchiak together, as evident by our dinner tonight. I love our foodie adventures, there’s no one I enjoy feasting with more than my mum and sisters. The men in the family think we are a bit crazy but are nice enough to indulge us. I love love being a foodie with my foodie family. We have so much fun discussing and shopping for food.

Ah ma and Saitaoha, my little girl is not so little anymore 😭.

Saitaomei is 4 months old / 5th year anniversary dinner

Published March 24, 2018 Daitaoha Eats Out , Daitaoha Special Days , Daitaoha, Saitaoha & Saitaomei , Fine Dining 4 Comments

Saitaomei is 4 months old today! Ah how time flies, my underweight newborn is now a 6.4 kg chubby baby with the cutest coos and sweet smile.

Hahaha my sister sent me this photo, so funny. I told them if it was real the hanger would definitely break.

We joke that she’s a couch potato baby that loves the tv. In reality she is very alert and loves scrutinising people and her surroundings. I already know I will miss carrying my little soft and squishy marshmallow. Now when Saitaoha cuddles me in bed, she is all long limbed and stout, luckily I still have this puff to hug for a while.

Mummy and papa left me at home with cookies whilst they went out fine dining.

Yes, I had another night off, two days in a row (thank you long suffering gung gung and mah mah for babysitting).

R surprised me a few days ago when he msged me saying ‘want to go to Red Cabbage on Saturday?’

We haven’t had a Sat night date for aeons, let alone fine dining! This time it was to celebrate our fifth year wedding anniversary, yes, it has been that long. R asked me at dinner ‘are you sure? It has been five years??’ I told him I couldn’t get it wrong because I’ve been filling out forms that require me to fill in our marriage registration date. Or else I don’t think I would have remembered the date let alone the years 😅. Anyway, I think it’s a good sign that we both don’t feel that it’s been that long, means we’re not tired of each other yet right ? 😬

We went to Red Cabbage because it’s our favourite fine dining restaurant in Perth, they never disappoint and they didn’t again tonight.

We had their Easter special menu which was a four course dinner for $59 pp. Cold tomato soup starter was a freebie (very refreshing). As usual their warm soft buns and parsley garlic whipped butter was 👍.

Our first course was scallops, vindaloo cauliflower purée, coriander yoghurt and saffron crisps. It was so delicious and well balanced, we loved it.

Second course was pork belly bacon, quandong, quandong and cauliflower. R and I swapped our pork belly because mine was fatty (which he loves) while his was more lean. The pork belly fats just melted, it was all very tasty but I preferred the first course.

R had the veal with eggplant, mushroom and candlenut. There was a lovely smoky flavour to the veal, again very yummy.

I had the fish as my main. It was Tasmanian salmon with nori butter sauce, red cabbage and puffed rice. This was really delicious, very decadent and rich sauce, the salmon was gorgeously medium rare and I loved the crunch of the puffed rice.

Dark chocolate mousse, cherry sorbet and Guinness jam for dessert. I enjoyed the sorbet the most but this was the most average course I thought.

The service was excellent, they even surprised us with a little happy anniversary cake and took a Polaroid picture for us.

It was a lovely celebration which we both thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated. To be honest, it was a bit hectic prepping the kids before sending them over to their grandparents. I was kinda stressed before we went out and thought maybe we wouldn’t enjoy ourselves. But I’m so glad we did. I have to admit, with the arrival of the second child, it has added strain and stress to our marriage. I’m glad we recognised the tension and are both working on it and putting in extra effort to sustain a happy marriage. May the next five years and more be filled with more happiness, love and joy.

June 2024
M T W T F S S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930

Archives

Pages