Michael jackson dalam kenangan

Went to Micahel Jackson's "BAD" tour concert in 1988 at the Wembley Stadium. All great songs in this album from BAD to Dirty Diana, Smooth Criminal, Remember the time, Black or White just to name a few.His songs, his music videos never fail to impress me, especially his moon walk, how did he do that? Not to mention his THRILLER album which sold million copies with songs like Billy Jean, Beat It, Thriller,etc...He's brilliant, superb, outstanding singer and performer.

we went there quite early, kononnya nak get good seat tapi once the pintu masuk was opened, everybody rushed inside and me, being a small and petite me ( barely 36 kg then ) was squeezed and pushed inside with my friends.Once inside, what a big stadium! nak duk depan and berdiri kat dalam stadium di tengah2 padang tu, rasa2 tak kot, sebab they were all big tall people and surely I couldn't see and tak mahu berhimpit and berpanas so we decided to take the seat which was rather far away from the stadium, but at least taklah berhimpit. It was Summer and you can just imagine lah, kalau musim panas tu macamana. To make matters worse Iwas having a bad headache that day ( of all the days, why chose hari Michael JAckson's concert to have my headache!)

I couldn't really enjoy the concert ( because of the headache )but it still felt good, having being able to see The King of Pop live on stadium even though could only see him on the big screen. He was so tiny on that big stage .( from my seat lah)

Got some memorabilia from the concert, bought meself the scarf ( just the scarf, other merchandise were a bit expensive, masa tu student, beli ticket pun gagah kumpul duit...). These were some of the memories that I had with MJ, well, shared with thousand other fans on that day.

My admiration for him didn't just stop there. i looked forward to seeing his music videos whenever they were shown on TV or MTV, I never get bored seeing his dance moves, especially the moonwalk. He invented the moonwalk, didn't he? I especially like the dance in Smooth Criminal video. In fact I like all his videos and songs from Beat it to Billy Jean from his THRILLER albums which sold millions of copies to his BAD album. I even bought his BAD album but in record and my turntable is broken!( er, hubby's turn table , which he bought masa kat UK dulu) sekarang orang tak dengar turntable dah, orang main MP3, ipod lah and that jazz....

Gonna miss his ohh and auwww and aahh in his songs, his trademark and his dance moves. I told my friend DDI, in her blog that while I was driving home this morning after sending my daughter to school ( replacement class), and the DJ played MJ's song, suddenly I felt sebak, tears welled in my eyes. I like him, yes but I didn't know that he touched me deeply! I thought I must write something about him, I could say that I am his fan, not fanatic though, just like I like Bryan Adam but i am just one of his million fans out there who felt his loss, because it was so sudden.

I was just about to start baking in the kitchen yesterday morning when my daughter said to me. "Mama, Michael Jackson dah mati". Where did you hear the news? "It was on TV", she just saw it while clearing the dishes in the kitchen sink.Ajal maut di tangan Tuhan. It didn't wait one minute or even one second if it is one's time. If he is a Muslim convert just like the news been telling us and I hope he IS a muslim, may he be blessed with the others.

Life goes on for the rest of us and hopefully it will be filled with goodness ,kindness and happiness and his memory will live with us through his brilliant and memorable songs.

.

have a break...have a kit kat...cuti-cuti

MALACCA - 9th June 2009

HOLLANDS CAFE

Inside Holland's Cafe in M'cca. we had been walking for like forever and our legs were kiling us and there was no sight of a muslim restaurant or cafe around that area.( rasa macam kat oversea pulak susah nak cari restoran melayu, or maybe it's us who didn't know if there were any in that particular area ) we did find one but it was closed! We decided to get back to our car and drove to Mahkota Parade , wherever that was , we need to find our way there first ), when we suddenly came across this cafe.it's called Holland CAfe, so we decided to ask if they serve halal food cos we were truly starving at that time and thankfully they did. So had our lunch or maybe high tea because it was way past lunch time,made ourselves comfortable there since we were the only customers at that time and we had the service all to ourselves , so we ordered beef lasagna, meat kroket ( the dutch specialty as recommended by the lady ), black pepper chicken pizza and Holland coffee which contained 20% coffee and 80% milk.

While waiting for the food, mama sempat gak pi one of the shops nearby which sold Kebaya Nyonya. I thot I must have one of those since I am in Melaka and got myself one green nyonya kebaya to be worn with green batik sarung. All these happened on the second day of our trip.

how we ended up in Melaka?


it's the school holiday but mama's schedule is very tight for the first week with weddings and kenduris and so mama decided to block the second week of the holidays, not to take any cake orders and Abah was also available...well...made himself available for the kids..so, the question is, where shall we go? locally, that is. a few options: Penang, KL, Kelantan? No theme park; be it water or land , cos it's the school holidays , for cying out loud, and most probably, well, surely these places will be packed with holiday-goers. we have been to most places be it on our own or office trips,Genting, Cameron, Langkawi, Danga Bay, A Famosa , Lost World, Bukit Merah, the Carnivall , etc....so we were totally clueless as to where we were heading as we set off for our journey on that particular Monday afternoon .

So, we decided to settle mummy's things first which were to look for baking stuff and books. went to one shop in Puchong, seronoknye tengok all the gadgets. At first, I just surveyed the items first, second round, baru start ambik things needed and suddenly heard the shutter being pulled down. It's only 6 pm! It seemed that the shop closed at 6pm. I rushed with my things and being the last customer to go out but I did managed to get a few things which I couldn't get back home. Okay, that's done. Went over to the nearby cafe where my hubby and kids were waiting for me and had kuayteow goreng there.

Where to next? It's still early, so off we went to KLCC, where the books were. I was looking for cake decorating books. Got myself a few books . , one of the books was by Martha Stewart, "Wedding Cakes", a gift from hubby for me. very expensive too, but I think it was worth it. this woman is so talented, with baking, cake deco, organising, house-keeping, crafting, you name it, she can do almost anything. Belum apa2 lagi, dah bertambah barang kat bonet kereta tu. itu baru first day, belum pun check in lagi.

Our eldest did mention that she wanted to go to the museum in Malacca and so on the second day, we decided to go there. The last time we went to Malacca was when Batrisyia was barely two months old. I had just finished my confinement period and had a few days left before I had to start working ( after the sixty day maternity leave ), so we decided to go for holiday , that was in the year 2004.

After a hearty breakfast at the hotel, we didn't go straight to M'cca but made a stop at the L*w Y*t Plaza to download some games , or something ( i dunno much about their games )to our kids DS and PSP. By noon, we made our journey to the land of HAng Tuah and Hang Li Poh and all the other "Hangs'"

We finally went to the museum, about half an hour before closing time!

before entering the museum.

had an ice-cream first...

whoa.a... sampai dua ice-cream.....perhaps the other one belongs to Kakak....

macam duk Holland lah pulak, with the windmill at the background...

love the view behind us, a narrow alley with trees crawling up the wall....

inside the museum

my hero with the patung hero....

peek ..a..boo...

My three Angels, not Charlie's Angels ya... ( my other angel is behind the camera)

After the museum tour in less than 45 minutes, we decided to leave Bandaraya Melaka Bandaraya Bersejarah and headed back to KL. After less than two hours, we reached Bukit Bintang area where we had our dinner of nasi ayam steam and kari kepala ikan. Feeling knackered and full , what more do we want but to put our heads on the pillows and to doze off into the dreamworld!

the next day, we decided to head home or should we go back to see Tok Abah and TokUmi. but before there one final shopping spree at the C*rve and IK*A.By evening, we finally left KL after stopping for satay kajang at the R&R, bought some for Tok Abah and Tok Umi cos we finally decided to go back to my hometown for a while, even it was just for one night cos I had to leave back to Alor Star on Thursday .

Arrived at Abah and Umi's place around midnite. Everybody at home, abah, my sister and her family except Umi were asleep. Umi waited for us. Everybody is tired..esp the driver, my other half...i only bawak sekejap sangat, from the R&R to a place (forgot the name of the place ) before we made the exit at Kuala Kangsar thru to Grik ( timur) to the East West highway.

Blur image of this elephant ( taken while driving ), spotted on the side of the road along the timur barat highway on our way back. We think this was the same elephant that we saw last night.perhaps he or she couldn't find her way back and was still lingering there trying to sort out where he or she could or should go. Poor thing, his habitat has been invaded, so where else could it go?

It's been quite some time since I last went back. the last time was for my youngest brother's wedding ceremony in January. So good to see them again. Umi bought macam2 for breakfast, from nasi berlauk to nasi dagang, to pulut pagi and roti goreng. All my favourite food. then went over to my sister's place off Jalan Telipot where we left our kids to play with her kids, their cousins while we went to another shop to get the stuff for my "keras tangan" project.

Nama je cuti tapi semua tempat pergi berkaitan dengan Zue's Oven. What to do, it has become part of my life now, but hey, I 'm not complaining cos am enjoying every minute of it despite the number of sleepless nights, the back aches, etc...it was worth it. Never before have I felt this good about something. It's a very satisfying new experience.

had "Nasi kak Wok" for lunch at my sister's place before we headed back to Abah and Umi's place before leaving for Alor Star.Umi was busy preparing dinner for us. She made us kari kepala ikan, ikan merah and goreng ikan kerisi ( my favourite when I as young ) and insisted that we brought them back untuk makan on the way or back home. That's Umi, she would cook our favourite dish everytime we come back, for me, she would either make sup ekor or sotong rebus or that ikan goreng tu, for my hubby, asam pedas ikan keli, same with my adik-beradik yang lain, She would go all out to make their favourie dishes.Abah, would normally go to his kebun and get the pisang rasa for me but not this trip because he wasn't feeling too good, baru lega from demam the last few days. Love Abah and Umi soooo much. unfortunately we can only stay a while, balik jus nak bersua muka, nak lepaskan rindu yang tak pandai nak diucapkan melalui kata2. We left just before 6 pm and arrived Home Sweet Home around 10 pm.

Subhanallah..teramatlah cantik, magnifique...breathtakingly beautiful sight to behold. If only i can capture this sight on canvas.this view was taken just after we passed the Puncak titiwangsa. We have always loved the trip to and from Kelantan because of the view.

we missed the actual sunset but this is still as beautiful .

It was quite a tiring trip but it was rather fun and worthwhile trip. Now that I am back, berasap baliklah oven at Zue's Oven for the black and white theme engagement cakes and cupcakes were waiting for me.

Back to reality, school holidays is over. Kids back to their routine, me and my baking , hubby and his work. Dunno when the next trip will be or where we are going. I just want to be thankful and grateful for what is bestowed upon us, syukur alhamdulillah.

Daging masak cili kicap jem dan raisins

you heard or rather read that right. there are raisins and some jam in this dish.These are new to me but maybe not to some people.

I couldn't believe it myself until I saw it with my own eyes, my friend throwing some raisins and scooped in a blob of jam ( could be strawberry jam), into the dish. That was in the 80s or 90s , (student days, far away from home days, those days when I learned how to cook to survive...yelah, Umi duk jauh, camana nak masak for me, kan, so kena belajar masak maaa.... )

did this the other day,on Wednesday. took out a piece of meat,( normally I would cook this dish using chicken ) cut into not so thin slices, clean it, of course and boil with some water ( later to be used ), sliced onions, garlic and some ginger. Boil till the meat is tender.

meanwhile, heat some oil, fry chili paste ( or blended dried chillies), shallot and garlic ( crushed), a bit of blacan and also rempah sup, serbuk ketumbar, , dark soy sauce, kayu manis, bunga cengkih, and not forgetting the raisins, jem and a bit of sugar and salt to taste. Mix thoroughly last but not not least, add in say, two tomatoes ( sliced ) and cook till everything is ready .

Sedap, tak caya, cuba sendiri....

thanx Rina sarawak for showing me how this dish is done cos my kids love this recipe and i have been cooking this every now and then.

Words that warm me up...feel good conversations

B:Batisya nak pegam, boleh tak Mama?
mama:Tak boleh, nanti putus tussle tu.
B:Batisya pegam pelan2.

Mama:Tak b oleh..
B:mama marah Batisya?
Mama:yes
B:tak mau kawanlah,
Mama:tak mau kawan sudah,
B:nak kawan, nak kawan.....

okay, kita kawan, Batisya kan kawan mama, Batisya selalu teman Mama buat kek.
that conversation took place when I was busy making some figurines and things for a cupcake order with the theme medic and baby shower this afternoon. I made the teddy bear wearing the graduation hat with a tussle. since I am sill not an expert with this fondant thingy, I was a bit "not so much of angry" when she wanted to play with the tussle, more of I can't afford to do it all over again, cos the lady who ordered this is picking it anytime today.

Mama cakaplah.
Cakap apa
Mama sayang Batisya.
Mama sayang Batrisyia
Batisya sayang Mama jugak.
Kiss, kiss
muahh.....

after a while,

Batisya sayaaaaang Mama,
Mama pun sayaaaang Batrisyia jugak.
mama sayang abam, Mama sayang kakak.

these sentences were repeated almost over and over again when I was preparing the 140 pieces of brownies and carrot cupcakes last night. It was way past midnite but she was still awake because she wanted to accompany Mama.sampai finally she terlentok on the chair besides me in the kitchen.


Cantiknya!!!!!!
Mama pandai buat kek and cupcakes
cantik kek Mama, mama pandai , mama cantik......( mama cantik ke, kek mama yang cantik? hihi...)
siapa tak cair listening to those melodious statement , of course they are a bit bias, coming from your own daughter, but still, it just warms you up ....

A sweet experience....

.....unlike yesterday, today's event is totally the opposite of what had happened to me the day before. Maybe to some people what happened to me today is nothing extraordinary but I just feel that today is so sweet, the reason being, it is the first time I did what I did this morning.



what's on your mind? What do you think I did?

As I continue writing this, "today" has become the day before yesterday cos I was unable to complete the entry due to the orders for wedding cakes and cupcakes and brownies and BEN 10 birthday cake

So back to that story, well, it was nothing much really. I just went to the market....okay, picture this, the day was , Wednesday, the time was almost 8 am, the place was, the morning wet market. So? what's so sweet and special about the day, the time and the place?

Firstly, it's working day, and it's rush hour and it's not an office! Yup. I got to get used to this new experience. For the past countless number of years, the only day that I could do this is over the weekend, either Friday or Saturday or on my annual leave day, but not anymore, I can go there or anywhere anytime I want.To make the experience sweeter, I bumped into a friend who also did her morning shopping there and she asked me to join her for breakfast at one of the gerai at the market. Me...sitting and having my nasi lemak bungkus with milo tarik there... with a very good friend, .never before, so I just sat back and enjoy the moment. Furthermore it's not everyday that you go to the market and bumped into your good friend for a good breakfast and catching up on things.....even so, I couldn't stay too long, chores waiting at home, cakes to be baked and decorated, anyway I just enjoyed it while it last....

A frightening experience.......

....... not frightening or scary as in watching horror movie , Friday the 13th or Jaws but another kind of frightening.

It was 7.06 am. I was doing my daily chores of sending my daughters to school every morning and this morning was no exception. First destination was my eldest daughter. DONE. The next one was to send my youngest daughter ( my second child cycles to school everyday) to her kindergarten very near our place so I was about to drop her off on the way back.It was 7.30 am.

Out of the blue, the signal " battery" came on the warning panel. I was a bit stunned. Err...what does it mean? Does it mean, the car battery is weak? or what? Frankly, I don't know anything about cars except to drive it. I don't know if anyone out there is like me, but that's just me...so ignorant about cars. I always leave all these things about cars to my other half.

To make matters worst , the steering wheel suddenly felt heavy. I couln' t move it either to the right or to the left. it could just go straight! I was panicky! OMG! What was I supposed to do? Do I stop at the road side and do what? I couldn't call my other half because he is outstation and I wouldn't want to disturb him at least not before 12.30 noon.

I kept on driving and "bersalawat" and didn't stop "berdoa" so that the car wouldn't give up on me right in the middle of the busy road. I was only less than a kilometre away from my house and from my daughter's tadika.

There's a round about ahead and my heartbeat pounded faster and faster. I was at Jalan Teluk Wanjah. What if I can't steer the car to the right, into Jalan Stadium? I tried ( nak pulas kuat2 takut patah pulak tengkuk steering tu ) and I did manage to go into Jalan Stadium and I kept on driving and drove past my daughter's tadika ( I had to turn left if I were to send her and I didn't want to take the risk of the car refusing to turn left ).

Oh no! Another turn and this time I had to make a U turn at the traffic light and again, I made a decision to de-tour by going slightly to the right about 45 degree angle and not U turn and drove into the road going to Komplek Pendidikan but I still had to make a right turn at the junction. A car stopped to give way for me ( bless this good soul ) and I nearly drove into his car because my car refused to make that turn, with great difficulty I managed to get into that smaller road leading to my house. Two more corners to make and I finally saw the yellow bambo tree in front of my house and never before have I felt so relieved and glad to see the sight of my house. I decided not to park the car inside because then I would have to make that ninety degree left turn which is a bit difficult with that subborn steering wheel so I just parked it outside under the yellow bamboo tree.

Phew! I managed to drive us both safely home and I still didn't know what was wrong with this car.Ya Allah ya tuhanku , thank you so much for answering my prayer. I'll call my other half later. In the mean time, I still have to send my daughter to her tadika , if not for her "exam" ( lima tahun pun ada exam now ni ). I would just let her stay with me at home , and fortunately we have this other car, this old VW model (seventies I think) .

it's ironic actually, only this morning when I was about to start my car ( the black one , the one with the stubborn steering wheel ) I said to myself, I'd drive the VW later because I haven't driven it for a number of days ( takut tak hidup pulak sebab lama tak start engine ).

I turned the ignition and it gave a coughing sound. Oh nO! Not you too!Tried several times but still it refused to start. Turned the air-cond knob to "off" position and thankfully the VW came to life. Alhamdulillah. So off I went to send my daughter in this VW, she was still unaware of the drama that her mama went through earlier for she was fast asleep at the back seat.

Slowly I drove this good old VW Beetle back home and please please please , I hope that she will be good to me this coming days because it won't be a few more days before my other half comes back.( wish you all the best dear , i know that there are soo many butterflies in your stomach as I am writing this but InsyaAllah, God willing, our prayers will be answered, ditto )

Ayam Masak Minangkabau

Ayam Masak Minangkabau, ready , to be served hot with hot white rice..

The name , masak minangkabau sounded so grand to a mere mortal who didn't know how to cook, like me, with all the cumin, fennel seeds, coriander, galangal, turmeric. Noticed the past tenses used in this sentence because it is to describe a thing of the past. However, it doesn't sound grand or alien to me anymore cos I think I have mastered the making of this wonderfully spicy cuminy coriandery ( are there such word?....whatever....)dishy..

this is the part when you put in the chicken after all the ingredients are all cooked and smell so fragrantly with the combination of the following:

Ingredients:
shallot and garlic
lengkuas and kunyit
jintan manis, jintan putih, ketumbar
cili kering, belacan.
blend everything and tumis with cooking oil until fragrant.


People say or rather I said because that was what I thought at that time( back in the student days), that making chicken curry was the easiest of all the dishes for curry, but not to moi. I could make dishes much more complicated than chicken curry, like this ayam masak minangkabau, masak lemak cili api, ayam masak portugis but I didn't know how to make that simple curry! ( with its readymade curry powder, Ad*b*, b*b*s,Al*g*p*a, etc, etc, )

After the chicken is almost cooked, add some water, just about covering the chicken, cover the pot, simmer it and leave it to become tender.

After a while, add a few blobs of tomato sauce and a couple of tablespoons of fresh milk, salt and sugar to taste.

When it boils, add some coconut milk and stir occasionally , cook on slow fire until the gravy becomes thick.

Done!

" zue guna rempah apa ni? , abah asked me in our house in Kedai Batu 8 ( meaning which brand did I use to make this dish?

"Zue tumbuk sendiri", I answered proudly, though wasn't so sure what the comment was gonna be.
"Sedap...macam yang dijual di kedai2".

That was one of the proudest moments in my life.( for someone who didn't really know how to cook, that was quite an achievement! )

I was on holiday during the Summer break and decided to cook for my family, which was a rare moment because normally My Umi or my sister would do all the cooking because this girl ( girl lagi ke, dah mak budak...masa tu girl lah....)wasn't much of a cook. I was away from home most of the time, if at the boarding school, food was served on the table, nasi kawah and the lauk2 all done and prepared by the Makcik2 ( Bless all of them for preparing such wonderful lauk2, though ada jugak masa2 yang I don't like, me being a picky eater, but most of the time, simply delicious ), and thereafter, nasi bungkus or nasi mangkuk tingkat or nasi polysterine ( this was when I was doing my A Level in Kelana Jaya in the 80s )

The highlight of the cooking era was during my student days where I was staying thousands of miles away from my home-cooked meal by my Umi and stayed in a 3 bedroom rented house somewhere in Ilford with three other Malaysian ladies. We have to eat and so we have to cook ourselves because mummy is not here to cook for us, eating out is a bit expensive for students like us and we are also not 100% sure of the halal status, furthermore, it's not easy to get Malaysian dish from where we are staying, halal chicken is readily available but the dish itself, we have to cook them ourselves. Thankfully, we have a few good cooks in the house and it is from them and also from the recipe books that I learn how to cook some of the dishes.

But this particular ayam masak minangkabau, I learned when I was in my secondary school. Let's not dwell into that era, it will require more space in this entry if I were to talk about my school days. maybe, in the next entries