Atlantic 1 Cafe

 I used to love the pineapple rice served at the Atlantic 1 cafe. It's situated next to the Shell station in Jalan Portugis (Jalan Kubu), Melaka. I used to go there for lunch when I was teaching in Ranger College back in 2003. After so many years, I had been having this craving for a good pineapple rice. So, we went there for dinner and it was packed with tourists.

A framed newspaper article of Jonker Street in 1890 at the Atlantic Cafe, Melaka

 Pictures taken using our new compact camera - LUMIX Panasonic DMC-ZR3.

After waiting for quite some time, I finally got to savor the pineapple rice which I had been craving for so long. But, I was a little dissapointed with the quality now - I remember it had much more ingredients and tasted much better back in 2003. Probably that's the price of over-commercialization - the quality of the food is compromised.

Grown Ups

This is the funniest movie I've watched this year! We laughed uncontrollably throughout the movie - my pregnant belly almost couldn't take it! We got so addicted to its good humor, we watched it for the second time - and laughed just as loud as the first time. A great movie about friendship, family and the importance of having humor in our lives; I would rate this movie 5/5. I'd consider watching it for the third time.

Merdeka at Balok Beach

It has been a long time since I went to the beach. The last time I went to Balok beach was sometime last year before I was pregnant. Balok beach is Alfred's favorite spot to learn kite-surfing. He is addicted to the new sport and he is always dreaming to go back to Balok beach to polish his kite-surfing skills. I love the beach for its tranquility and peace - there are usually not many people around that part of the beach as compared to Cherating.

We took the opportunity of the long Merdeka weekend to drive down to Balok beach. At 33 weeks of pregnancy, the car ride from KL to Balok was excruciating on my back and hips. However, I survived the journey and it felt so good to lie down on the bed once we reached the chalet. It felt so good to inhale the fresh ocean breeze. 

Balok beach

Alfred kite-surfing

Kite-surfing is dependent on the wind strength and we were lucky that there was sufficient wind for Alfred to polish his kite-surfing skills during the 2 days we were there. He was gleaming with pride when he managed to get on the board and kite-surf for a while before he dropped in the water again. It needs lots of practice - definitely not an easy sport. It's about learning to control the kite according to the wind direction and balance yourself on the surfing board at the same time. And if the waves are strong, it's difficult to maintain balance on the board while controlling the kite at the same time - it requires lots of skill. That's what Alfred is trying to learn - and he's happy that he is getting better at it.

 

Me chilling out by the beach

I just sat back and relaxed by the beach watching the guys kite-surfing. Though I feel tired so fast, it was certainly rejuvenating just to sit by the beach and hear the waves crash by the shore and enjoy the cool breeze.

8 months pregnant

8 months preggie - starting to feel heavy and sluggish. Little one is having a gala time inside my womb - practicing all his/her movements before the big day arrives. Looking forward to seeing you, little one!

Thirusshen's 1st year Birthday Party @ Lukut

My former colleague's son just turned 1 a few days back and his parents celebrated his 1-year-old birthday at their house in Lukut. It seemed like it was just yesterday that Kavi gave birth to Thirusshen and now 1 year as passed - and the little hero has grown-up so fast. 

Us with Kavi and Thirusshen Kumar

We met up with Mages and Selvam there and they brought a delicious vegetarian butter marbled cake. 

Kavi and the vegetarian butter marbled cake :)

Mages and I

 Group picture (Thirusshen was already asleep by the time we left the house)

Naan Mahaan Alla

I have been hanging out with Mages for the past week or so. It was a good change for me - rather than being cooped up in the house alone, it was fun venturing out to new vegetarian eating places with Mages. Mages introduced me to 2 organic vegetarian restaurants; one in Damansara Utama and the other one in Bangsar. Both have excellent and a tantalizing variety of vegetarian fare. I appreciated her company a lot especially since I spend most of the days alone at home while my husband is away at work. During times like these, when I am out with Mages trying out new vegetarian places to dine in, I value the amount of free time that we both have. And having a good company is certainly an icing on the cake. I have to thank Mages for being such a wonderful company and for feeding me delicious vegetarian dishes :)

One of the days after having a delectable vegetarian cuisine for lunch, we decided to catch a matinee show in PJ. We decided to watch the latest movie showing at that time which was Naan Mahaan Alla. Our mistake was that we didn't know the storyline nor did we read the review of the movie. The movie turned out to be very VIOLENT and I was traumatized by some of the scenes so much so that everytime I think about the movie, I'd rather not talk about it. My rating: 0/5!

Delicious Classic Chocolate Cake with vanilla ice-cream

This is the best-ever chocolate cake! The warm-moist-cake-with-melting-chocolate-ganache with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the top is simply irresistible! It's so rich, it might be a good idea to share it - although it's so tempting to have the cake to yourself. This cake was recommended by my friend Gaya's husband, Aaron when we met up for dinner at Delicious, Bangsar a few months back. When I took the first bite, I fell instantly in love with the cake - the best part about the cake is that it is served warm with the ganache melting on its sides - mmmmmmm!

Marbled Cheesecake

Ever since I got pregnant, I had pretty much been lazy in baking. But, I do miss the euphoria I get when I bake - the satisfaction in my heart when I see my loved ones devour the cakes I bake and the joy of sharing the cake with my family members and friends. When I moved to KL after marriage, it was just the two of us - and baking became less exciting because I couldn't share it with my sisters and cousins who have always been the ever-ready 'testers' of my baking outputs. 

This time around, my sister made a special request for a chocolate cheesecake. Cheesecake had always been a popular request from my family members. I have baked chocolate cheesecake before, so I decided that I should try baking marbled cheesecake. It turned out very creamy and nice and it's so easy to make because this cheesecake does not need to be baked in a water bath as my previous cheesecake recipes required.

Marbled cheesecake

Recipes as follows:

Ingredients:

For the crust:

2 cups of graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup melted butter

For the filling:

2 blocks of 250 gm Philadelphia cream cheese

1 cup of sweetened condensed milk

3 eggs, room temperature

120 gm bittersweet chocolate

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celcius.

2. To prepare the cheesecake crust, combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter until the crumbs clump together.

3. Spread the mixture evenly into the bottom of the cake pan and press down firmly to make an even base. Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Set aside.

4. Reduce oven temperature to 150 degrees Celcius. 

5. Melt chocolate over a double boiler. Set aside to cool slightly. 

6. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. 

7. Add condensed milk and beat until smooth. 

8. Add eggs, one by one, beating each until fully incorporated. 

9. Pour 1/2 of the batter into the bowl with the melted chocolate and stir well. 

10. Pour chocolate and plain cheese batters into the prepared pan, evenly distributing and alternating batters. Swirl with a clean knife. 

11. Bake cheesecake for 50-55 minutes. The top of the cheesecake should be set, but the underneath should still have a wobble/jiggle to it. 

12. Cool the cheesecake in a fairly warm place after removing it from the oven to allow it to set without cracking. 

13. Chill the cheesecake overnight before serving. 

Wa Zen Japanese Restaurant @ Melaka Raya

I am a big fan of Japanese food. But ever since I got pregnant, I had to stop consuming raw seafood. Nonetheless, I still dine at Japanese restaurants and order mainly sushi dishes without any raw seafood on it and edamami. I love the simplicity in Japanese food.

Chin Lay and I have been regular customers in Sushi King for the past few years. As a change, Chin Lay brought me to this cosy Japanese restaurant in Melaka Raya. The ambiance is warm and cozy with its warm lighting - it's perfect for romantic dinners. You have to make booking in advance due to the limited seats in the restaurant. The food is superb and authentic - a big difference to what we are used to having in Sushi King. The pricing is very reasonable as well. The only thing that turned me off about this place was the strong fishy smell that greeted us upon entering the restaurant. It took me a while to recover from the strong smell - it must have been aggravated by my pregnancy hormones. Eventually, I got used to the smell and enjoyed the dishes we ordered.

We ordered the unagi set which comes with a bowl of rice, two slices of unagi, chawanmushi and few slices of watermelon. We also ordered edamami (my favorite) and potato salad (YUM!).

Unagi set

For dessert, we had green tea ice cream with red bean paste. It was very good.

 

 Green tea ice cream dessert

I would strongly recommend this place to all Japanese food lovers. 

Wa Zen Japanese Restaurant
38, Jalan Melaka Raya 15,
Taman Melaka Raya, 75000 Melaka.
Tel: 06-2823882

Valaikappu (Indian Baby Shower) ~7th August 2010~

My Valaikappu (traditional Indian baby shower) was held on 7th August 2010. I was 29 weeks pregnant at that time. 

This ceremony is performed during the odd months of pregnancy mostly during the seventh month for the expectant mother in her mother's house. Prayers are invoked for the well-being of the mother-to -be and the foetus. Mostly women are invited for this function. The expectant mother is made to wear a lot of bangles mostly glass ones of red and green colors and the sound of these bangles are supposed to reach the womb.

My mom insisted that she wants to do all the cooking by herself - she refused to cater. So, it was a merry occasion with all my relatives helping to bring their own home-made dishes to the ceremony.

Tairu (yogurt) rice made by my mom

Pulli (tamarind) rice courtesy by Aunty Seetha

Tomato chutney made by my mom

Ponggal (sweet) rice made by Bala Sinamma

I made this vegetarian butter cake

Idli by my mom

My husband and I

We started the ceremony at about 6 p.m. All my aunties were there by the time. The ceremony starts by Alfred having to break a coconut and put the garland around me.

Next is the bangles ceremony. 9 married ladies blessed me by adorning the bangles on me and prayed for a safe delivery and a healthy baby.

Next, I was asked to pick one of the three bundles of rice tied in a white muslin cloth. The three bundles being ponggal (sweet) rice, pulli (tamarind) rice, and tairu (yogurt) rice. It's a old wives' tale that if you pick the tamarind or the yogurt rice (both of which are sour), you will be having a baby boy and if you pick the sweet rice, it's predicted that it's a baby girl. Back in those days without the modern-state-of-the-art ultrasound device, they relied on this method to guess the baby's gender. It was fun for us as well since we don't know our baby's gender - we are leaving it as a surprise until the big day arrives. 

I picked the sour rice - so everyone is guessing a baby boy :) Let's wait and see!

My husband feeding me the rice

My mom feeding me

A shot with my sisters and cousins

With my uncle, aunties and grandpa

 

Chin Lay, Me, Shuba, Durai and cute Nithish

 

I was so happy to see my good friends Chin Lay and Shuba and Shuba's family. It was a great celebration filled with love and joy. I feel so blessed. 

The Last Airbender

I have been a huge  fan of M. Night Shyamalan ever since I watched his movie The Sixth Sense and I haven't missed any of his movies since then. But I presume that there is usually only one masterpiece created in most forms of art. This seemed to be true in M. Night Shyamalan's subsequent movies - his masterpiece being The Sixth Sense where he gained international recognition. Some of his other movies which I would give good ratings are: Lady in the Water and The Happening. 

His recent movie, The Last Airbender has received largely negative reviews; but that didn't stop us from watching it. Contrary to the newspaper reviews about the movie, I enjoyed the movie. I appreciated the moral message behind the story. The movie showcased the disastrous effects when the Fire Nation waged war against all the other nations to gain more power. I liked the message imparted in the movie regarding the importance of living in harmony with each other - the whole message seemed to point towards the reality of our current world. The little boy's acting was just awesome. I would give this movie a rating of 4/5.

Salt

Chin Lay and I hardly miss any of Angeline Jolie's movie. And this is one of it. Action-packed with superb acting by Angeline Jolie, this movie lived up to our expectation except for its ending. The ending of the movie was abrupt - leaving us wondering "Is that all?" That was the biggest letdown of this movie. I think that's why I could never convince Alfred to watch any of Angelina Jolie's movie; he said it is just too predictable with the same kind of plot. He is right to some extent. But I just love to watch her movie for her hot-action-star role :) Rating for this movie: 3/5.

Shanghai

Set in a gloomy setting, this is definitely not a must-watch movie in our list. We've been maximizing our movie-going time before the baby arrives. We randomly went for this movie since it seemed like the only one worth watching at that time. Alfred enjoyed the movie; but I had mixed reviews about it. I felt that the movie was a little too draggy and I came out of the cinema theatre not feeling so good - must be due to the gloomy setting of the movie.

The plot: An American man (John Cusack) returns to a corrupt, Japanese-occupied Shanghai four months before Pearl Harbor and discovers his friend (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) has been killed. While he unravels the mysteries of the death, he falls in love with a Chinese woman (Gong Li) and discovers a much larger secret that his own government is hiding. There is a twist at the end of the movie - that made up for its other weaknesses. With prominent actors on the line-up - John Cusack, Ken Watanabe, Chow Yun-Fat, and Gong Li, I would rate this movie 3/5. 

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

The plot - nothing to shout about. A purely entertainment-type-with-no-thinking-required type of movie. I enjoyed Jay Baruchel's (the apprentice) acting - he was more like a comedian in the movie rather than an apprentice - hilarious fellow! Rather than being impressed with the whole magic thingy, we sat there laughing at Jay Baruchel's antics. Nicholas Cage's acting was dull and expressionless. Overall rating: 3/5.

Inception

 

 

After hearing mostly good reviews about this movie, we decided to go and watch it. I realized that suddenly everyone was talking about Inception - sort of a hype. Usually, from my experience, when something is really hyped up, the expectation tends to be very high and most of the time I'll end up disappointed with the outcome. But, I must say that this movie lived up to my expectation. 

 

The plot is very intelligent; it leaves you thinking deeply. It took me two-days to recover from the movie, LOL. Many people said they watched it twice to understand and conclude the ending - the ending in the movie is the icing on the cake - it leaves you wondering about what is reality and what is not. We didn't watch it twice - the effect of watching the movie for the first time itself  had a lingering effect in me - I was in a dream-like state for a few days. Very intelligent plot - kudos to the director; and good casting;- however, there's nothing to shout about Leonardo's acting (I preferred his acting in Shutter Island - that was superb!). I would rate this movie 5/5. This type of intelligent-think-outside-the-box-type-of-movie is difficult to come by nowadays. Definitely worth the watch!

Mamil Mama Pregnancy Talk

We attended the pregnancy forum organized by Mamil Mama Gold Club at the Grand Dorsett Subang hotel on the 17th of July. The talk was from 12.30 - 6 pm and the registration fee was only RM 10. As it was our first time attending a talk on pregnancy, we didn't know what to expect. So, we agreed that we would leave earlier if it's boring. But the whole event turned to be so interesting and well organized.

We were served some light refreshments upon arrival and then we were escorted into the grand ballroom where there was a violin group performing all the classic pieces from Beethoven and Mozart - absolutely beautiful.

The first session was a general talk on optimal nourishment during pregnancy and pregnancy development and the origins of health. Both the speakers gave excellent talk on pregnancy-related topics. We definitely learned new things. 

The next session was divided into 3 topics of which you can choose to attend any one of the talks. We chose to attend the "Preparing mothers for breastfeeding" talk. I was told many horror stories of the difficulties of breastfeeding and attending the talk definitely prepared me mentally on what to expect and how to be prepared to effectively breastfeed. Before the talk, I couldn't understand why so many mothers give up on breastfeeding and switch to formula milk. This talk helped us to understand the potential problems and how to overcome some of the breastfeeding hurdles that most first-time-mothers face.

After the talk, we were served scrumptious lunch with the live violin performance in the background. We were so impressed by the whole organizing committee of this talk - it was certainly worth our time!

Anniversary Holiday @ Bali - 8th-11th July 2010

After hearing much raves about Bali being a fantastic destination for a romantic getaway, we were excited in planning this trip. As we traveled quite a bit last year, it wasn't possible for us to slot in a holiday to Bali. What better way to celebrate our 1st year wedding anniversary than to plan a holiday to relax and rejuvenate in Bali. I was into my 25 weeks pregnancy (6 months) that time; and of course my body feels different when traveling during pregnancy - fatigue, cranky and aches here and there; but I couldn't resist the temptation. When else if not now! Seize the moment :)

Upon arrival at the Denpasar airport

We arrived Bali at about 11 a.m. and bought the traditional Balinese nasi bungkus (packed rice with chicken or pork and some veggies). It was so tasty - authentic local Balinese food. We stayed in Bali Hyatt for the 4 days 3 nights we were there. It is a lovely resort with excellent service.  

At the resort

We went to a nice restaurant nearby our hotel on our first night in Bali. We were served scrumptious Balinese food - and our dining experience was enriched by the traditional Balinese dance.

The next morning, we rented a car to go around Bali.

Scenery along the way

We drove up north heading towards Kintamani - where the active volcano of Mount Batur and the Kitamani Batur Lake is situated. The scenic drive towards Kintamani is breathtaking - with green view and cool mountain air.

The active volcano - Mount Batur

We had lunch in one of the local restaurants with a beautiful view of the volcanic mountain and the lake. Although we didn't really enjoy the buffet spread, the panoramic view made up for it. It was just so refreshing sitting and enjoying the beautiful spread of nature and the mountain breeze. 

The next day we drove around Bali and tried most of the local delicacies. We enjoyed the gado-gado and the Balinese mixed rice. In the evening, we drove to Tanah Lot for its spectacular sunset view. The place was crowded with tourists. It was a memorable experience for us to stand at the edge of the land and witness the vastness of the ocean - it was a spiritual awakening moment - I am unable to describe it in words.

At Tanah Lot Sunset

The next morning, we just relaxed and chilled by the beach.

Beachside at Bali Hyatt

The lobby of Bali Hyatt

Since our flight was only at 6 p.m., we decided to drop by the infamous shopping area at Kuta to have lunch. Kuta is the happening place in Bali - full of hustle-bustle - and filled with tourists. We bought back some souvenirs at Kuta.

A memorable 1st year wedding anniversary at Bali. A toast to us for more travels to come!