Hainanese Chicken Rice

China Trip - Part II

Now, most of us will somehow link Hainanese with their chicken rice and 'kopi'.

Well, I have to admit being one Hainanese myself, I LOVE Hainanese chicken rice (HCR). Be it roasted or boiled.

So when we went to Hainan Island, the origin of the origin, of the HCR, that is one MAIN itinerary that we MUST achieve.

First day, no chicken, but the rice - fuyoh! Fantastic! Oily but yummy...

Then, it was the chicken rared by my cousins.....Hmmmm.......If you are having any denture, then, please do not try cause it will fling out with the chicken!! It was so hard and we all left the chicken mainly intact. This kampung chicken really exercise a lot!! According to my cousin, he already caged in the chicken for a day. Gosh! He should have did it for a week at least! Hahaha. Anyway, it was a nice gesture of him. Anyway, the dish was swept clean as they(my relatives there of course) took their own sweet time talking and exercising their jaws...hehehe

Baking

I finally started baking cakes and make full use of the microwave oven hubby bought me.

My mind was busy the other day - thinking of baking and I finally get myself up, brought out the utensils, the scale, the sieve, the chocolate, the mixer and most important of all - the recipes. Thank goodness that was a simple one to start off.

Here it is.

From that, I had proceeded to a marvel cake and yesterday - a modified version of rum coffee cake.

Baking is not that difficult and scary after all. He he he.

Balik Kampung

Yes, balik kampung. Not Klang but to the root - China - Hainan. The southern tip of China, separated from the mainland - a tropical paradise - Hainan.

Yes, we went there in a BIG group. Me, hubby, Jien, my father, my brother and wife, my nephews and nieces and my brother's FIL. Good gracious!

It was a memorable trip indeed. My anak buah had not travelled any further from Ipoh. This was their first time on board an airplane and they were all so excited.

I don't know about the rest, taking a break aside, I really wanted to visit my father's kampung. My father was of China Chinese origin. He 'migrated' to nanyang with my grandpa when he was 5 to evade from the then cruel invasion of Nippon. He had visited Hainan a couple of times ( almost a yearly event now! ) and this time I wanted to visit this place, with him. As he and my brother was rather familiar with the island, we traveled on our own without a tour agent / guide.

As it was in early November, the temperature was around 22-25 deg C on average. Very pleasant although we have to suffer a bit of the choking smell of open burning as it was the end of harvesting season.

Our kampung, Wen Chang was about 30-40 mins drive from the Qiong Hai city. Me and hubby love kampungs, don't know why. Maybe we love the sincere smile of the people and the slower pace of life. I met my cousins and other relatives whom we shared our ancestors. My cousins are actually my father's elder sister's sons and daughters. My aunt did not leave China. Anyway, my cousin owned a coffee shop and we were welcomed with their coffee and home made dessert. I am glad that they are doing well now.


More story next.

My boy at 1 Year Old

My boy turned 1, 2 days before last X'mas.

A quick one to look at his little 'achievements' now..

. he finally learned how to clap his hands just right before his birthday.
. he could stand for quite sometime but finally let go his hands and started walking last week. Few steps at a time. ~ Grin~
. we taught him how to come down from bed / sofa but he did not learn the trick and had few great falls when he was in China. One fine day, as I was having my breakfast, I heard sound that Jien was trying hard to open our bedroom door - oh! He was already on the floor crawling. Good lord, he got it finally. Everytime he made it to the floor by himself, he would give a great victory smile to us! He he...

Our boy loves his books pretty much. First thing in the morning - book. Last thing before he goes to bed - books. And now that he could turned on the TV by himself, I was kind of worry that he would chuck his books aside, but NO. He still hangs on tight to his books. Flipping through and pointing at the pictures as if he know la...(maybe he really does?) He loves anything to do with animals. And we tried to imitate the sound of animals when we introduce the animals to him and to my surprise, one fine day, when I point out the 'piggy' and 'elephant', he made the sound himself! It is such joy to watch him learning and growing.

He is having 3 meals a day now. Not much of formula milk - 3 oz. in the morning only together with direct breastfeeding, eggs, cereals or bananas for breakfast. In the evening, he will have 6 oz. formula milk. And night time will be all breastfeeding. NO, I don't have much now to feed but he did not complaint. He refused to drink formula at night. Well, I take it slowly. I read from somewhere that baby of this age should have about 8 oz. of milk for 3 times a day.....I don't think I produce that much at night though. And engorged? No more...hmmm....busy mah... And so he is still waking mama up for at least once every night without fail. (except for the night when we came back from S'pore - transit from China, he was too too tired to do so! Thank goodness for I was drop dead sleeping like a log that night too).

More updates next. Here is his birthday cake from his cousins.

Happy 2008

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!

I am terrified for being so busy over the past few months! I don't even have time to read any blogs or write anything. I could hardly breath at times and all I want is to have extra time to finish my work and have extra time to be with my babies - hubby and Jien.

Well, looking back at 2007, I still grade myself PASS as a mum, a wife, an architect and a daughter. I don't think I pass with flying marks but at least I strike a balance to pass them all with ahhem, say 70%, a B?? He he he.

I had a couple of ID jobs done, a couple of bungalow designs, a trip to Australia, a trip to China (yes, we had a wonderful trip in Hainan with my dad, brother n family and of course my hubby and Jien). We spent most weekends with families (note the s) and most of all, we are all healthy and well generally.

I look forward for a fruitful year to come. I hope I can accomplish more. I want to enroll Jien in classes, maybe say once a week so that he is in 'his' community (baby group). I want to push myself further so that I can be a better designer. I want to start taking up culinary classes and start baking (which I did yesterday - a chocolate cake for a start). I want ANOTHER BABY. :) Yes, I want to go back to routine exercise so that I can have a healthy body to house our little one by end of next year. Hahaha. And I want to start 'dating' with hubby again so that we can have some romance time together.

HAPPY NEW YEAR ! God bless us all.

** Picture taken in Sanya, Hainan.





-- Jien peeling his birthday 'red' egg.