Luck…

I don’t have much luck at lucky draws. Even with around 80 prizes for a staff of around 100, I would be one of the unfortunate few going home without a prize. Sobssss!!!! To add insult to injury, I was always the master of ceremony at those school dinners, the one conducting the draws and not winning one myself. In fact, at my retirement party, my principal reserved a prize just for me – for emcee-ing all those years (and missing out on much of the good food served) and not winning a prize…ever.

Thankfully, my girl’s not in the same boat. She seems to be a lot luckier than the old man…and she won something at a school party a couple of weeks ago and that day, at the lunch function that she went to, she came home with this…

And talking about that lunch function here…

…after we had our own lunch at the coffee shop next door, my missus and I went to that supermarket in town – the one that has all the imported stuff, to browse around…and I ended up buying these for my girl…

…to enjoy. I know she loves such stuff and she sure was delighted at the sight of what I had got for her and cooked one right away that evening for dinner…

…with bits of bacon added. This was the made-in-the-USA (Orinda, CA) FARMHOUSE “durum wheat semolina pasta, parmesan flavour – fettuccine in savory cheese sauce with other natural flavors plus four cheeses and milk“. Yes, it was very nice…and each box was only RM7 something, serves two…and if it’s only RM3 something per serving, that’s a lot cheaper than eating something like this anywhere outside…and some may not even be all that great!

Of course, my missus did not have any as she is not fond of those rich and creamy sauces served with pasta and would much rather go for something like the bihun that I fried for breakfast the following morning…

…with beef sausages, egg and green vegetables.

Back at the supermarket, I saw these on special offer – R1.99 for each of those boxes with the Japanese characters and only RM2.99 for the one from Arnotts…

…and no, the Arnotts one was made in Australia…

…NOT Indonesia and if not for the fact that the expiry date was drawing close, you would never be able to get it at this price. Well, I’ve tried it but I can’t say that I liked it a lot – it was very sweet and hard…and I could not dip it in my coffee because of the chocolate coating. I would say that the Marks & Spencer ones that I got from my ex-student, Julia, the other day were very much nicer.

I’ve also tried the Japanese ones. The Coco Nut, even though I have never been a fan of coconut cookies (I’m not all that fond of those bits of grated coconut in them), were really very good – no grated coconut in them but the coconut fragrance was absolutely awesome, very rich and very very nice. Melissa loved the chocolate chip ones as well – she said they were very much nicer than the ones I bought for her to try the other day. At RM1.99 only a box, I think I would want to head back to the place and grab some more before the stock runs out.