Pass us by…

Mother’s Day falls on the 2nd Sunday in May every year and over the past few years, we would go out to celebrate a day or two earlier as on Sunday, we would be sending our girl to her school in the jungle and on the way, we would stop by my mum’s resting place to offer flowers and prayers. Well, obviously, we cannot do those things this year with the on-going MCO/partial lockdown.

Prior to the day, my girl asked what we could do to celebrate the special occasion this year and I said, “Nothing!” We would just let the day pass us by like any other day and she did not seem too happy with the idea. In the end, I suggested having a steamboat lunch as there were a few things in the freezer that we could use for that and that was exactly what we had…

We had some minced meat and fish paste for the meat and fish balls and my missus did grab two packs of those frozen stuff – one fish tofu stuffed with cheese (the golden cubes) and the other, those imitation crab sticks with something in the middle. I quite enjoy the former but no, I am no fan of those so-called crab sticks.

We were out of prawns as we used the last pack for our tom yam goong that day so I went out early in the morning to the nearby shop. They only had two packs left so I bought both and used one for the steamboat, size 4A, 18 prawns altogether and saved the other pack in the freezer for another day. I also bought a box of New Zealand mussels – there were quite a lot in it so we took out 10 only and saved the rest.

The other things I bought included tang hoon (glass noodles), some shimeji and eryngii mushrooms but my missus did not use the latter – she said we had too much stuff in our steamboat already and I did see some enoki mushrooms but I did not buy those as not too long ago, I read some not very nice news reports online about them. She did not want to include the block of tofu either so that too went into the fridge and of course, I managed to buy some khiew chai (curly vegetable) for a bit of green.

The clear soup from cooking the meat balls and also the fish balls plus the stock from simmering the heads, shell and what not from the prawns was so very good, very sweet and tasty.

I stopped by this bakery to buy their baked Japanese cheesecake but there was none available. The girl said I could order and collect that afternoon and of course, I did not want to do that. I noticed that their fridge was about to burst at the seams already with all the boxes of cakes that people had ordered. In their cooler cabinet, there were only a few choices available – a couple of chocolate cakes, one vanilla and yam and I bought this one…

…vanilla and blueberry. Thankfully, it made up for its looks with its taste and it turned out to be quite good and my girl loved it!

I cooked some pulut hitam and served it with santan (coconut milk) for dessert…

….following what this guy did in his youtube video. The thing was he said he cooked one cup of the rice, one serving for one person only so I cooked two cups so there would be enough to go round…and ended up with one pot full, enough to feed an army! Tsk! Tsk!

We had some other things too, just that I forgot to take photographs of them till after we had finished eating.

We invited my sister to join us for the lunch – she is my girl’s godmother – and she bought this so-called lakia mee (Dayak noodles) which is actually spicy fried noodles, dry with a lot of chili…

…from here. We had not had fried anything from anywhere since the lockdown started and boy, it sure swept us off our feet. We missed it so much!

My missus heated up some leftover meat patties that she made…

…and I also steamed the sio bee…

…that I bought from here some two weeks ago and kept in the freezer all this while.

That was indeed a very nice lunch and we sure enjoyed eating and bonding with one another and I must say I was glad we had something in conjunction with the special occasion in the end because in the course of the day, everyone started posting photographs of their stunning Mother’s Day meals (mostly home delivery, food ordered from somewhere). Everything looked so good, so impressive that it sure put what we had to shame. Ah well! As they say, something is better than nothing – it’s the thought that counts.

WeLove BAKERY, Pedada outlet (2.311098, 111.846125) is located at the corner shoplot where this coffee shop once was, back to back with the Sugar Bun outlet in that area to the left of Delta Mall, Jalan Pedada (now Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai) and HAPPY POINTS CAFE (2.310958, 111.831458) is located along Jalan Dewan Suarah, on your right as you are entering from Jalan Melur, two doors away from the Aroma Bakery so that makes it the fourth shoplot in the block while SIN KIAW CAFE (2.291287, 111.826611) is located along Ramin Way, the first shop on your right as you turn in from Jalan Kampung Nyabor, right behind the petrol station located at the bend.