Happy Mooncake festival! These are the Chinese festivals I miss:)

Being a Chinese brought up in Malaysia, I would always look forward to Mooncake festival/Lantern festival because I usually get to gather with my family and friends to light lanterns, carry them around, and eat mooncake! It's been awhile since I have actually celebrated(actually have not been for the past 5 years!) Hence, when I found out that I will be in Malaysia this time around, I was stoked! You might be thinking...but you mean you are still excited to light lanterns after all these years??!!?? and my answer is YEESSS! I appreciate this festival much more since I went to the States..I actually like the hype of all the pretty mooncakes around(even Haagen Daaz sold ice cream mooncakes)! Alot of youngsters would find it a drag to go to their grandparent's house to have dinner or celebrate with family, as many would much rather prefer hanging out with friends(I was once like that), we grumble and moan.....but I guess this is not just a festival to celebrate the "moon" but to gather with your family:) That's how I see it anyway....

Candles and lanterns we were suppose to finish lighting

In the proccess of lighting with my uncle's help

Mom being lazy just "held" one:p

Slowly hanging them up one by one:) That's sort of the fun part when you have to find branches to hang your lanterns on..and most of the time...mine always burnt down because I placed the candles wrongly:(

The masterpiece! Isn't it pretty:) And..given that my grandparents are directly from China, they pray to the Gods by facing the moon once in the morning and at night... I never thought of how important Chinese traditions were untill my auntie brought up the fact that no one in Singapore or Malaysia does that anymore...hhmm........ me being sentimental, I think I really want to keep the tradition alive..now I just need to find out how to do it!! lol!!

The best part!! Supper!Besides the usual yam, mooncakes and pomelo, my aunt's usually buy delicious sweet and sour crabs with fried "man tao"(something like dinner rolls but wayyy better!)... trust me, you can eat it for years and never get bored of it!

All my aunt's and uncle's present( I was the only "young" one there) aiks!

But to be honest with you, the MAIN reason I wanted to spend Mooncake festival with my family was for MY GRANDPA! You should have seen the smile on his face when all of us were decorating the garden with lanterns and candles. Even when I had to re-light the candles and lanterns countless times...it's all worth it to see that smile on his face.... I Love you yeye!

Hope all of you had a great Mooncake festival!

xoxo

Meiz

A Crazy story on a pregnant maid:) read on...

Given that many families in Malaysia hire maids/helpers to take care of children, old folks or just be a housekeeper, it is not suprising that many housewife's topic of conversations revolves around maids, and many people even youngsters know about what a maid's role is in the house. A question I have for people who employ maids in their house....What would you do if you found out your maid had a boyfriend? Most of the answers I got from friends would be..."If I found out, I would have sent her back straightaway!"

There you go.... but this story gets worse..it's about a pregnant maid...in my household! How did it start you may ask? Did we know.....??? YES! Of course my parents did.....The story goes like that...

One fine evening while I was still in Hawaii, probably in March or April, my mom called me sounding distressed...saying that she had found out that the maid had a boyfriend. Of course, my grandmother and every other family member we knew advised my parents to send her home..... but my parents being reasonable... said that she has rights too.. "to fall in love"...which I agree with. Fine.... she then brought her boyfriend home to "meet my parents"...(he worked in the shops opposite my house), and they told me...I guess we will keep her and let her date at night after finishing her work. I know...they are very very lenient............. but things got worse...of course she abused my parents agreement by sneaking out late at night to meet her boyfriend and even during the day...the worst part was she NEVER locked the doors when she went out! Can you believe that??!?? My parents(which till now I do not understand why) were still kind to her, even after what she basically put them through.......I Know..they are either TOO COOL or super nice?

The story continues......

When I came back from the USA with my parents(they were there for 3 weeks), my mom started to realize she was growing bigger in size after a month or so being back here. She just thought that our maid was putting on weight because she ate alot. One fine day....I was bouncing down the stair case when I caught my maid from the side angle....her stomach was huge!!! She was soooo good at hiding......! I kept it to myself and I finally told my parents over dinner.... "I can safely confirmed to you that our maid is pregnant!" My parents looked at me with incredulous eyes....They then called her to the dining table asking her whether it was true...she kept quiet at first and finally admitted...after much questioning...

This is the best part of the story....

After our maid admitted she was 3 MONTHS pregnant( we were clearly blind!), my mom asked her "Is he going to marry you, is he serious?", like she was their daughter..... although my mom was really mad then..... my father gave the best statement of all....and he was soooo calmed about the whole situation....he turned around and ask all of us...

"What should we get the baby for the baby shower?"

Can you believe that??????????????!!!?????? I just couldn't help but burst out laughing...... Man.... this story is to tell you.... there are definitely nice people out there...but sometimes... there is a word called TOO NICE!!!! Anyways..this is just  a funny story that I really wanted to write about!!!hahaha...Hope you laughed as hard as I did!!!

xoxo
Meiz

Hari Raya Buffet galore!!!

Have any of you ever tried a Buka Puasa buffet before??????? One word to surmise how I felt when I tried my first Buka Puasa buffet at Impiana hotel @ KLCC...... AMAZING! I am usually not one for buffets as I am the "Lazy" kind  that refuses to get up to get additional food! Yeap...so I usually only eat two rounds..first plate is whatever I see nearest to me and the next one is just dessert....:) However, this time around....I went back and forth more than four times and we it was down and up a flight of stairs ok!!!!!Here's why???

The first round....where all the ayamn percik, rice, soup, rojak were.....even salads!!

 

Some dessert in this corner....chocolatate fondue!

May and her friend from Aus(she was astounded by the amount of food there were and how much we ate!)

The laksa stand....all types..curry, assam.......

 

They even had a kebab stand and fresh lamb!

 

Fresh seafood which you can choose from to grill, satay was available too:)

What I found fascinating was the fact that they had a durian stand...where you can choose whole durians to be cut right in front of you!For those durian lovers..u know where to go the next Buka Puasa buffet...

The thing that tempted me from the very beginning to agree to go to the Buffet was the realization that they had 18 flavours of Baskin Robbins!!! Can you believe that??????? It's like transporting the whole Baskin Robbin's stand to the hotel!ANNDD...they had all the flavours I liked:)

 

Can you see all of our satisfied smiles and tummy's????? Some of us had to loosen our belts....lol

And the following week..you wouldn't believe it but I agreed to go to a high tea buffet during the Raya holidays at One World Hotel! The spread at this buffet just for high tea was more than my feeble mind could count or handle...at the top of my head...they had a sushi stand, chicken rice stand, tempura/japanese area, tempura ice cream stand, and even a pasta stand....MIND YOU..this is high tea we are talking about...who eats that much for tea??!!

 

BESIDES HER!!! This girl went ccrrrazzzzyyy!!!!!!

Due to the fact I was not prepared for the amount of food there was, my mom and  I were only able to eat

2 or 3 plates of food??? Fine..that's actually quite alot!!!! but nothing compared to other people on different tables that kept refilling their food!!

Sometimes I wonder when I go to buffets in Malaysia... whether people starve themselves for a whole day before going for a buffet because these hotels seem to cater for giants or something like that???? But I heard really uncouth stories of people going to these buffets and heaping tonnes of food on their plates and worse of all...not finishing it! Come on people, it's still food..think of the poor and desolate out there..just because"you paid for it", does not mean it is right for you to waste food......you can still get "your money's worth", just in moderation.......(Decorum 101)

I am glad I was able to experience the Buka Puasa buffet this time when I am back....it was a really fun experience and will definitely try it again next year! Selamat Hari Raya!!!!!!

xoxo

Meiz

A perfect weekend getaway from the city @Janda Baik(Tanarimba)

For those living in the city, anywhere in the world for that matter, be it in KL,Singapore, New York, etc, I am sure there are times when you want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city right? Well....being back for almost three months now....I felt that way because I was still not use to the traffic, tonnes of people, fast paced lifestyles, and felt it was a great opportunity when Pye suggested we had a last get together for Sharon at Janda Baik.

You city folks must be thinking..."Where is that?"...yup...all of us questioned....but I found my father and another friend's father knew about it...NOT us...kekeke..guess we are clearly not in touch witn nature....it is actually a pretty cooling place near Bukit Tinggi, and only 45 minutes from Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur!!!!! A gem of a place...and THanks to Pye who got us a beautiful house to live in for the night.....the view was literally breathtaking......!!!!!!

When you go up the stairs...this is what you see.....

The whole house was surrounded by greenery...

Rolling hills...

The long dining table for a group to dine and chat....cozy:) and...this is where we played murder for the whole night!!hehehehe

I liked how they designed a lil "hut" adjourning to the main villa, for people to enjoy the scenery....bird's eye view right there!

Beuatiful walls....

The to-go to couch for people to take naps!

We basically played pictionary, charades, and murder the whole time...no access to tv/internet!! A real getaway from the city and TECHNOLOGY! These were how people keep themselves occupied when we had no Blackberry's and I-phones!

Boo! Punishment for the girls...200 sit ups for losing the game to the guys in charades:p

As I woke up to the chirping sounds of the birds...this is what I saw:)

THe lodge which was surrounded by the lake...

 The quaint restaurant in the lodge which served really good lamb shank!!!

A few pictures with the girls before we left.......Had a great time with my girlies.......and of course the guys too...heheheh....

This much needed break away from the city was definitely good for all of us especially for the stressed out Sharon before her big competition! I truly liked the fact that we actually tried to partake in healthy activities, such as jogging when we were there..I guess the combination of no internet, tv and the sound of serenity lured us to do more outdoorsy stuff:) Because of it's close proximity to Petaling Jaya and the fact that you can actually hold a conversation with friends without much interferences from our phones, I actually plan to go back there to celebrate my birthday! Would be fun but in a different way!!! What can be better than celebrating with a group of your closest friends....and having a "true" bonding experience...!!!

xoxo

Meiz

Sharon Beh's farewell/good luck dinner @Teeq!

Good luck Sora Ma!!!!!!

Yes,if you are Singaporean or even a fellow Malaysian...my good friend is competing in the Mediacorp Star search currently, so please do support her:) She is not only good looking, but she has a great personality(I know....hard selling gila! But I won't say it, if I didn't believe it:p)

Hence, a few days before she forayed across the Causeway to Singapore, we organized a dinner for her at Teeq on the rooftop of Lot10......

Chilling at the patio of the restaurant, waiting for the princess of the night to arrive.....

When you walk in to the lawn area...you are already taken in by the scenery...it's amazing, how you exit from an elevator in a shopping mall, and you instantly get transported to a different world altogether.... even the bar area is surrounded by bamboo plants at the side....

Overlooks the KL towers...the extended patio area..with the surreal blue lightings..

The lawn area which no one ever expects at the rooftop of a shopping complex.....I think all tourists should check this place out!

Sitting at our dining area with Sora in her beautiful dress.... with cute headbands bought by Christina!!

OOhh...Kendra with the guys "trying" out the headbands...!!! All three of you look cute:)

On to the food....

Larb Gai...it's a spicy salad..has a zing to it!yumzzzzz

Duck confit...meat was tender..The sauce was just to my liking....a little sweet.....:)

Fish.....I love the orange zest to the flavour....(No, I didn't eat two main courses, this was my friends! I am greedy, but NOT THAT greedy)

Tiramisu!!! The dessert was good!!!! Love the fudge on top!! I suggest you pick tiramisu from the dessert menu because this is a very unexpected and different tiramisu..and I have tried many different types..this is one of those tiramisu's the top of my list..

A pic with the star of the night..with the backdrop of the twin towers...signifies a good night!hehehehe~

All in all...Teeq was a great place to celebrate Sharon's farewell/good luck dinner...quiet where all of us can chat.......serene surrounding......and their set meals were delicious! Hope everyone who gives this place a try enjoys it as much as we did:)

And....... a BIG Good luck to you babe! We miss you thoroughly!!! Do your best and perservere.......huggzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

xoxo

Meiz