Saturday 31 December 2011

See Ya at 3bittersweetlemon.blogspot.com

Right guys...hope over to www.missyblurkit.com where I update my stuff. I realised its easier than maintaining this mirror site. Thanx for dropping by al this while and the comments. So for 2012...let's meet up at:

Since its technically the end of 2011 and the eve of 2012...its not too early to say Happy New Year folks! Cheers to a fab and blessed 2012. I wish all and everyone of you "Good health, happiness & prosperity".

Thursday 3 November 2011

Simple 粽子 Dumplings in Quaint Kuala Kubu Baru

粽子(zongzi) or dumplings isn't just reserve for festivities. A good satisfying dumpling is good for any time especially breakfast with some good chinese tea to wash it down.

One of our random drives brought us to Kuala Kubu Baru. And we discovered some awesome dumplings there. Sold exclusively at the morning market, we now resort to a special order and will pick it up for our lunch after a satisfying touge. Check out our happy faces with the dumplings!
Like it sweet? Then opt for the sweet red bean alkaline dumpling at RM1.30 also known as keechang. Smooth and sweet red bean sits in the middle of each dumpling. In this little quaint town of Kuala Kubu Baru, this is a very popular dumpling amongst the locals.
And the savoury ones that this Aunty makes is simply awesome old fashion dumplings with simple yet flavourful ingredients that includes yellow pea, pork, salted egg, mushrooms and dried shrimps. At only RM3, this is quite a power packed bundle with its simple stuffings and fluffy glutinous rice
At only RM3 this is a good buy and I am not surprised that many people actually call her up for a special order! A special order means you can opt for other treasures such as scallops or abalone.

If you're in Kuala Kubu Baru, head down to the market and buy some for breakfast. Or like us, make your orders with this friendly Aunty 017 327 2092. Remember to speak to Aunty in Cantonese or Mandarin!
~.~
Confession...we don't just order to eat after our drive. We order extras to bring back home. Record...I think we ordered 70 to be eaten at home. Hehehe


Laughing Through Tears

COVINGTON — As a tear trickled down Katie Collier's cheek, she started to laugh.

The touted basketball recruit sat tucked into a leather chair with her long legs pulled up at an angle, her feet resting on an ottoman. She wore a black sweatsuit and her long, blond hair flowed down her right side.

She blinked back tears, but never stopped smiling.

During a time when most 18-year-olds with Division I college scholarship offers are making final decisions, the Seattle Christian senior tried to explain what it's like to have a dream diverted, a decision delayed.

Instead of selecting a school, Collier is dealing with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). She takes a chemotherapy pill at 9 a.m. and another at 9 p.m. and, until this week, made daily trips to Seattle Cancer Care Alliance for an arsenic drip.
The 18-year-old Collier faces each round of treatment for acute promyelocytic leukemia with a smile. After she finishes six months of treatment, doctors believe there is a good chance she will be cured.
But she isn't upset. She doesn't seem scared. Tears come with the territory, but she leans on laughter.

"It's more important to bring more smiles than tears," Collier said. "Who wants to be there soaking in tears? Not me."

When Collier woke up Sept. 24, she knew something was wrong. She was on her official visit to the University of Washington, and there was blood on her pillow. Her gums were bleeding.

She called her mom. Her parents were already tailgating before the Huskies' game against California.

"I don't feel good," Katie thought at the time. "I don't think I can make it through this football game."

When she met up with her parents, her mouth was still bleeding, so they went home. There is an urgent care center near her house, but she thought she just needed to rest.

"I do not want to go there," she told her parents. "I don't like doctors. No. No. No. It will all just wear off."

It didn't. She took a long nap and woke up about 7 p.m. Because she still didn't feel well, her mother, Ann, a registered nurse, decided Katie needed to see a doctor.

The urgent care center was just five minutes away. It was closed.

"Score! Just wait till morning," Collier thought at the time, even though there was so much blood coming from her gums she stuffed napkins in her mouth to staunch the bleeding.

Ann insisted they go to Valley Medical Center.

Collier had blood drawn in the emergency room. About an hour and a half after they arrived, doctors told Collier she had one of three things: mononucleosis, a rare virus or a blood disease.

She picked a positive perspective.

"OK, I have mono, no big deal," she thought. "I can deal with this."

When the doctor left, Collier noticed her mother was crying.

"Mom, what's wrong?" she asked.

"You know there's the possibility that you could have leukemia," said Ann, a breast-cancer survivor.

As they hugged in the hospital, Collier tried to soothe her mother. "It's no big deal. This is not leukemia."

With her father Mark, sister Megan, and brother Adam — Katie is the youngest of five children — at the hospital, two doctors delivered the preliminary diagnosis about midnight.

"Crap, two doctors, can't be a good sign," Collier thought.

They told her she had leukemia. Her family surrounded her. They held her hands. But it didn't seem real.

"When somebody tells you that, it's like, 'No, I don't. You got it wrong. Go check it again,' " said Collier, still smiling.

The preliminary diagnosis was acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The family had an iPad in the emergency room and checked the survival rate.

"The initial results that we were looking at, the survival rate for five years was 40 percent," Mark said. "That's what we all saw."

As the tablet computer was passed around the room — Katie didn't look at it — family members exchanged looks that said, "You've got to be kidding."

Collier was then taken by ambulance to the UW Medical Center. She arrived at 2 a.m. and had more blood drawn. She didn't get much sleep, and she hadn't eaten for almost 24 hours.

"That was hard, because I like to eat," said Collier, prompting Ann, Mark and Megan to start laughing.

While all this was going on, one thought kept running through the back of her mind: "Am I going to be able to play basketball again?" She didn't want to ask. One potential answer scared her more than the diagnosis.

When doctors thought she had AML, Ann said they told Collier in a roundabout way she was probably never going to play basketball again. However, APL carries a much different prognosis. After she finishes six months of treatment, there is a good chance she will be cured.

"They say there's like a 95 percent success rate to cure it," Mark said. "Not to put it into remission, but to cure it."

Once she finishes treatment, she can begin building her strength, working her way back to the court.

Her doctor "said it's mostly going to be me, what I can handle," Collier said. "Obviously I'm going to have to work harder and just kind of watch my nutrition, just kind of watch myself, because I get really tired."

Before her diagnosis, Collier was weighing scholarship offers from Washington, UCLA and Gonzaga. All of those programs have told the 6-foot-3 post player those scholarships are still on the table.

During her stay at the UW Medical Center, Collier had plenty of visitors — Mark estimates about 200. She was in isolation, so everyone who came to see her had to put on a gown, mask and gloves.

Most people walked into the room expecting somber silence. They were greeted by laughter.

There was so much noise coming out of the room, a man visiting his father stopped by. He didn't ask them to be quiet. He thanked them.

"I just wanted to tell you we love all that laughter," the man said. "Not many times do we get laughter coming down the hallway instead of crying."

Once Collier returned home, she started making daily trips from Covington to Seattle for treatment. Collier's first visit to the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance was surreal for Ann, who tucked her daughter into the same bed — in room No. 37 — she had been treated in during her battle with breast cancer.

"It felt very wrong to be tucking her in," said Ann, who had her last treatment in July 2009.

Days before the diagnosis, Collier shared a school paper with her mother. It was a personal missive on Ann's struggle with breast cancer.

"My mom is one of the strongest people you will ever meet, she is so strong and will not allow those she loves to see her in a weak moment," Collier wrote.

Like mother, like daughter.

"I can't imagine ... I would be horrible in this situation, and from the very beginning, when Katie first found out, she didn't even cry. She was like, 'OK, I'll deal with this,' " said Megan, who is almost like a nurse for her sister, bringing her damp washcloths, a heating pad, SunChips, anything that could comfort her younger sibling.

As Collier endures the treatment, there are bad days. For weeks, she got most of her sleep during treatments, curled up with her sister in a hospital bed, arsenic flowing into her left arm.
Basketball player Katie Collier, right, receives chemotherapy for her leukemia while sister Megan curls up next to her. Mother Ann, left, is a breast cancer survivor.
After a recent treatment, Collier got out of the hospital bed, pulled on a black University of Hawaii sweatshirt and slipped on a pair of furry boots. She wanted to visit her horse, Harley, a black thoroughbred.

"Like the motorcycle?" someone asked.

"Exactly," she said.

Then she smiled.
Katie Collier, right, can take comfort from her mother Ann's successful cancer fight. "My mom is one of the strongest people you will ever meet."
~.~
This was published in the Seattle Times by staff reporter Mason Kelley. Thanx Mason for allowing me to publish this on my blog. Cancer is a subject that is very close to my heart with the demise of a few of my friends and as I watch my favourite aunty battle it the third time round.

The link for the above post can be found:

Tuesday 1 November 2011

Lizard by E House

A theatre show about control, manipulation and hidden camera.

Presented by E House Theatre & Production (E House) that brought us Malaysia’s first award-winning Nyonya thriller performed in Chinese, “Lizard” is a 90-minute theatre performance that examines the relationship between family members, the manipulation of feelings and trust, and men’s obsession to control.

The story revolves around a conventional Chinese family with a paralysed mother who can only communicate through her eyes; The father who had faithfully remained at the side of his wife; The eldest son who owns a café at the age of 24; A conservative and bashful elder daughter who writes for a living; And the youngest daughter who is abrasive and unafraid to challenge the authority.

Despite the differences in characters, the parents and siblings have been living in harmony and every members of the family understands and respect the rule of coming home for dinner together regardless of work or social activities.

Unknowing to them, a dark secret is lurking amongst the family, as it was perfectly disguised and as cold-blooded as a lizard. Disorder will soon hit the family, while the secret will be unravelled by a surprise visit of the aunt who had stayed overseas for the last 20 years.

The cast:

Claudia who plays the role as the aunt

Cynthia who plays the role as the youngest daughter
Emily who plays the role of as the elder daughter
Eldest Son's best friend - Eugene
Youngest daughter's boy friend - Kent

Swei who plays the role as the eldest son

Tammy who plays the role as the mother
The team:
E House, the team behind the production of “Lizard” is the same folks who brought us “Casa”, their first production which had won three awards during the ADA Drama Award 2010, namely Best Supporting Actor, Best Stage Design and Best Graphic Design. E House producer and founder, Emiko Ten founded the team at the young age of 24 in 2010, and had since made her name as one of the youngest and most successful stage producer.

Producer - Emiko Ten
Milo Low, the director of “Lizard” and playing the role of the father was the winner of ADA Drama Award Best Supporting Actor for 2010 and 2011. On top of that, he is also a theatre educator with 12 years of experience, and is a trained performer in body rhythm, directing, acting, and script-writing.

Milo Low, director of Lizard, and plays the role as the father
Art direction is by Suzuki Cheng, who is a Macanese and formally joined E House as a partner after her first collaboration with the team in “Casa”.
Art Director - Suzuki Cheng

Assistant Director - Azo

Stage Director - Eagle
How to catch this play:
“Lizard” will be performed in Chinese with English subtitles at PJ Live Arts (PJLA), Jaya One, Petaling Jaya from 4th until 6th November 2011. Ticket is priced at RM30.
For more information or ticket purchase, kindly contact:
+6017 696 6003
+6016 715 4345

Show schedule
4 November 2011 8:30p.m
5 November 2011 11:30a.m / 3:30p.m / 8:30p.m
6 November 2011 8:30p.m

Cya there!






Monday 31 October 2011

My Heart Sweated Bullets

My heart sweated bullets. Not kidding and Benjamin certainly described it aptly.

I was in a housekeeping frenzy. I see too many draft posts sitting around ~ blogger keeps a new draft of the same title each time when I quit halfway through a post. And in my moment of blurness (the nick missyblurkit obviously comes with a reason), I clicked "ALL" and happily deleted all my 50 blog posts. That was at 11:25p.m.

OOOOOPSSSSSSS

Oh My God
Panic attack. Heart stops many beats.

Dang...what am I going to do?

I googled. I yahooed. I was frantic. There does not seem to be a solution for deleted blog post under Blogger unless I was on a content management system or something.

Walked around my house...what do I do? Look at my plants, my 2 terrapins and my furkid Shalom. Hoping very much to find a solution from them. And saviour (I'll like to think so) Shalom started walking between her toy baskets. She was doing her usual habit of transferring toys or shifting her treats (which she sometimes forgets where she keeps them so hubby and I have to go around the house with her to look for them for her).
this is Shalom
Voila! It hit me that surely Blogger will still have it around somewhere. All I should need to do is to look through my browser history to see if I can find the link of my last edits. Luck was semi with me. I found 1! The only one that I edited right before my revisit to Central Market toilet and to have my hokkien mee fix. That was at 7:03p.m. 3 hours before I did the unthinkable.

I clicked on the link in my browser history. Fingers, eyes and toes crossed...I hoped it will work. Yes it worked!
My draft post was alive. I click "save now". Opened another browser...and yes the draft post was resurrected. Unfortunately, only 1 was resurrected as I was working on another browser previously which I did not save my browsing history. Aaaargh! Consolation...one is better than none!
So which was the lucky post? Ol Skool Dim Sum at Pudu Cafe which I posted this morning.
Meanwhile...thanx to Pummkin I discovered MacJournal and LiewCF I discovered MarsEdit. I am going to play with this 2 and decide which is better for me. Thanx folks!

Sunday 30 October 2011

Ol Skool Dim Sum at Pudu Cafe

And with my monochrome adventure in Pudu, I am treated to dim sum ol skool style. Hidden at Pudu market is Pudu Cafe. A no frills shop, I am greeted at 6:00a.m. by a packed shop. Yeah its seriously packed at this hour. Its also non stop steaming of dim sum to cater to the clients.
Every table, I see people enjoying their dim sum. It can be an uncle slurping his porridge with his wife for company. On another table, someone else is enjoying his pow and cup of chinese tea while browsing the newspapers.

Needless to say, I am ravenous after my morning walk with my camera and bag. I have a peep at what's steaming and quickly return to my table to start picking the dim sums.
Here's a glimpse of some of the items we ate.
Not overly sweet egg tarts
Yummy radish cake
Creamy woo kok with a generous stuffing of melt in your mouth char siew
what's inside?
lo mai kai with a generous portion of chicken, pork, sausage and mushroom
fried lobak. basically its fu chuk (beancurd skin) with meat stuffing
stuffed chilly
chicken soup for breakfast. super yum yum for the soul and tummy
satisfying & bouncy fishball (yee wak)
siu mai
rather strange shaped lai yao bao
its not the oozy drip all over type of filling but it has a very nice corn custard taste to it
braised fu chuk with stuffing. the sauce is yummy.
braised chicken feet
My faves? Porridge. Char Siew Pow. Pork ribs. Chee Cheong Fun. Lotus Leaf Rice. Stuffed Bittergourd.

We ordered 3 servings of the pork ribs and the confession is that I ate one on my own. The meat is tender and is well marinated. You can taste the awesome taste of the flavourful black dace in every bite without even biting into the black dace.
The char siew pow is fluffy. The filling is not too sweet and the meat is juicy with a light hint of sesame seed. Lean meat is used but its not dry.
I admit that I wasn't too keen on the idea of chee cheong fun initially. This I reckon is because of the amount of fried onions that I saw on it. However I took a bite (after pushing aside the fried onions) and was wowed. Silky and smooth chee cheong fun with fragrant soya sauce. Take it with the sambal on the side. This is awesome! Yes it was good...we ordered another plate!
What is dim sum without porridge? Pudu Cafe serves wholesome thick porridge with a generous amount of minced pork and century egg. Of course there is salted egg. Just that you don't see it. Proper way of cooking is to mash the salted egg with the porridge so you taste it but don't see it with your naked eye.
an old uncle with his bowl of porridge
thick hot porridge
yummy...
The lotus leaf rice is a must order. The glutionous rice is aromatic because of the lotus leaf. It is also aromatic because of the generous fillings including salted, lean meat (healthy shop!) and chinese sausages.
a dainty parcel wrapped with lotus leaf
fluffy fragrant glutinous rice
I love stuffed bittergourds and Pudu Cafe serves them the way I like. Huge generous amount of fish paste stuffed into a ring of bittergourd. The bittergourd is soft and coupled with the firm fish paste. The fish paste is as original as you can get. Its pure fish meat that is minced together sans any flour whatsoever.
And if you're around that part of town, hop over to this ol skool shop:
45 Jalan Pasar Baru
Off Jalan Pudu
Kuala Lumpur

~.~
I am glad "This Fella" invited me to check out the market at such an unearthly hour (well 5:30a.m. is seriously unearthly for me) and resulted in my play with monochrome pictures and a gastronomic experience. Thanx buddy!