Sorry for the hiatus, blame it on En Muddy and my busy-ness. He forgot to topup my broadband prepaid. Furthermore, they're so many things happening around lately, I can't really find time to meet and greet my lappy long enough to post something worth to be called post although I've been meaning to write at least something short here everyday.

Without further due, let see what we had for sahur and Iftar. We had few Iftar invitations and been in and out to buy Hari Raya stuffs, hence my kitchen was not very productive lately.

{ Kobis goreng telur kaler kuning. Konon konon nk creative mcm mamak nasik kandar, dh macam kene jaundice kobis haku tapi sodappp wakkaa}

{ Grilled beef - sahur En Muddy}

{ Red snapper sup aka Sup Ikan merah}

{ Laksa Penang. Kuah was given by Ati so I just prepared the raw and sides like laksa, telur salad, bawang and cili padi. Owhh I want daun kesum badly uhuhuhu}

Talking about daun kesum, actually before I come here, I've asked En Muddy whether he saw any daun kesum here and he said : Aderrrrrrrrr... Jgn risau. Bile dah sampai, my worry came to reality as no daun kesum sell here anywhere. So my 4 packet laksa was kept in store till I had daun kesum. It's no mystery that Q8 has a reputation for a very bad postage service. Despite it's jaw-dropping cost involved to sent something here, the parcel was not necessarily reach you. I had friend here, whom haven't received her birthday handbag sent by her sister from Malaysia to Kuwait since last May till now. Till this post was submit, no sign of handbag. May the handbag rest in peace I must say.

Therefor, no one here dare to trust postal service anymore, hence if anyone need to kirim something, we will just wait till we go back to Malaysia or kirim to or from colleagues that going back to Malaysia. Safer that way. However, knowing me, I need to learn from hard lesson hehe. So I asked my mum to try send me anything un-important. Ermmm important is not the word. I mean things that will not make me bang my head to wall if it get lost on the way. After thinking and discussing, I asked my mum to send me daun kesum, daun kunyit, kicap and any other cheap stuff around 2 kg weight, just for the sake to give it a try. At least if it was meant that my daun kesum will be buried in the Arabic sea, I will not feel so much pain, and my mum agreed to participate in my experiment. Isn't she the best?

She used Telco & Post Service for that matter. All in all, the parcel weight around 5 kg and she was charged RM 300. Pretty affordable and logical. Considered cheap among it's class. So what do we do now?

We wait and wait and wait. 6 days passed by and no status yet. My mum gave telco collection centre a few follow up calls and was told that there's delay in our parcel coz it's contained liquid( Kicap kipas udang to be exact hahah). I've wrote bout it before about Q8 customs are quite particular about any liquid in bottle-like, afraid to be alcohol as Q8 are free-alcohol country. I even made my own follow up by checking inside poslaju website ( ehh kata cam x heran kalau x sampai heheh) . It's quite straightforward and hassle free actually. Just open the web and enter the trekking number. The status written was Attempt to delivery - Location Pejabat Pos Laju Kuala Lumpur. I was not hoping at all that my parcel will reach me, not before Hari Raya.

During casual talks with pioneer here, they said Q8 had no home delivery service. Any parcel or packages will need to be collect at collection centre which quite a hassle. Holding to that statement, I reminded my mum to ask the Telco office how we go about retrieve our goods and she was told that it will be send to the postal address given. Hmmmm let see...

After 6 days, someone knocked my door around 4 plus in the afternoon. It's the TNT parcel guy. Yeayyyyyyyyyy... I'm so happy I practically running to the package and can't wait to tear the wrapping paper. Apparently they had open my parcel for inspection so the wrapping was not in their perfect shape. Beside that, other stuffs was intact. Not a single thing missing. Double yeayyyy...

{ My safely arrived it's home parcel}

I was exactly like 5 years old being given her birthday presents. Can't wait to open it. My heart beats fast and my palm sweating. Hahahah serious.. Although I pretty much knew what awaits me inside. Daun kesum and kicap ! Receiving a parcel never failed to excite me. They can send me ubat gigi yet I will still get excited heheh.

{ The invoice}

Funny thing happened though, my girls asked me what was that so I replied, Nenek antar barang and they thought it was birthday present so as I am opening the parcel, they went :

Kah kah kah kah.... Cute !

We were charged another additional of KD 3.750 ( Around RM 30 plus) for custom duty fee. Anyway, since the long delay, some of the thing inside already rotten. My daun kesum already turning into air-berlendir like since my mum sent the fresh one instead of the dried one. Nothing I could do to save it, hence still no laksa for me huhuhu. My tart nenas was turning to crumb but my other kueh raya survived the custom's torture apparently. My daun kunyit and bunga kantan was still in good shape although some of it already turned yellow and blackish. There's few more good one left so it looks like I will be having rendang with daun kunyit after all this year raya heheh.

Okay enough with my successful postal bits, let's move on with more food story hehe..

{ Nasik lemak+sambal ikan bilis+ikan kerapu goreng for iftar}

Remembered my cik mek molek picture I posted few post before? My husband uploaded it into his FB and somehow he received a lot of request and sad messages from " bachelor" here hahahaha. So we invited 4 of them to had Iftar at my home on Friday last week. All 4 are former Petronas firefighters whom now working in Q8 local companies. We had doctors and now firemen. Malaysia did produced quality and sought after manpower after all

They had few requests for what we will be serving that day. They specifically said they wat cik mek molek and Malay dishes. Very affordable request I must say, so this is what I managed to prepare for them with my both hands. Luckily my leg was not needed in this case.

{ Sup tulang - hubby request}

{ My staple food - Sambal Udang}

{ Kangkung belacan, malaysian enough? }

{ Cik mek molek menggerutu. I started fry this at 5pm, with intention that I can served it hot to my guest, totally forgotting the fact that Iftar time was at 6.15pm and I still have tons thing to do, so to speed things up, I turned the cooker to max. Urghhhh .. Despite it's a bit ugly appearance, I didn't have chance to taste a single one. Gerai cik mek laku ari tu. DUN JUDGE CIK MEK BY IT'S SKIN}

{ Ayam goreng and puyuh goreng rempah. Sorry for the un-attempting photo. This photo was take when the guest already leaving, sort of leftover for tuan rumah. It's already azan and I haven't done fry my puyuh. They have to start eat 1st without puyuh. However, it's consider plus point coz I can served them puyuh goreng rempah fresh from my wok. Furthermore, I think having Iftar with puyuh and ayam rempah smelled filled the air, just boost your appetite to the max, definitely bring out the Malaysian crave in you}

In my calculation, the guests was supposedly 4 adults men plus 1 tuan rumah plus one exhausted cook cum blogger plus 2 kids. However, our invitation reached few other bachelors hence, total person coming was 6 adults men. Ngam ngam for our 6 seater dining table. Pahala besar menjamu orang berpuasa, the rewards was equal to seorang muslim berpuasa so we let our guests eats 1st and insisted them to eat as full as they can. We can always eat later. I'm not worry if there's no leftover for me and hubby as I can always cook maggee after that or order something else, but alhamdullilah, there's leftover just nice for two of us after that :).

Moving forward...

{ Dua ketul ni bukan makanan walaupun kalau grilled ni sedap gak sbb isik banyak haha }

{ Grilled salmon with dark soy, sesame and ginger sauce for En Muddy's sahur}

{ Bendi goreng cili hidup}

{ Macaroni with bolognese sauce for girls lunch}

{ Gulai Ayam Padang style. Sangat sedap wehh walau terlupe letak lengkuas dan takde daun salam hehe. Nanti nk wat lagi coz Alis Erin suka bangat. Nanti aku post recipe kalau ade yg berminat}

{ 1st time jumpa ikan parang kat sini so beli sekor. Kurus je pun so tak la byk sgt dpt. Kelakar dowh orang arab ni potong ikan parang ni, cam potong kacang buncis hehe. Serong2. Intention nak buat sambal ikan parang so goreng dulu. Tak sempat masak sambal, alis ngn erin dh gatah sampai tinggal 2 keping jek, camno? Maka jadik lah Ikan parang goreng saje for Iftar.}

{ Mee Asam pedas or some people called it Mee bandung ek. Tataw la actual name de, yg penting sodap- Iftar for today :)

{ Nasi Goreng Cili Padi for sahur. I like my nasik goreng cili padi this way. Simple with not much sampah sarap, not even sayur. Udang or ikan bilis goreng is acceptable. Else it would overshadow the taste of cili padi. Normally my nasik goreng will be greener than this, however since it's fasting month and we gradually have empty stomach till iftar, overdose of cili padi is not a good idea. As in we will be getting dehydrated during the day due to fasting, let's not add more reason to get more dehydrated. Diarrhea = dehydrated}

{ owhh I didn't made this one. Lina my neighbor did. I am going to learn how to make one very soon from her, since sushi here cost me my arm. Okay a bit exaggeration here, my arm definitely cost more than KD 6 heheh but still, it's way too expensive. Note to myself : learn to make sushi soonest !}

Well I guess sushi photo ends my post today. However I still have one more photo to show you before I say goodbye. This thing in my photo was something I purchased from Friday Market last friday. It has sentimental value since it could be the last time I would go to friday market during summer. The heat was unbearable, the people flooding like crazy, Alis and Erin was cranky, Mummy gets grumpy and grouchy, all of us got really sweaty, papa got moody.. Ermm I think I had provide enough reason already hehe. So next visit to Friday market will be during winter Insya Allah.

{ Taraaaaaaaaaaaaa... decided I could add up of a little bit of Arabic touch and sentiment in my house for Hari Raya. Nice or not? I bought a real nice rug with same abstract pattern too. Totally a steal. Although we had to adjust our not very big living hall for this cushion, I don't really mind .Totally Love It ! }