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Heritage sights from Penang, Malaysia

Recently, my little city in Georgetown, Penang island in Malaysia was granted a heritage site. To explain :

Georgetown has been recognised as a Unesco historical sites tonight.

The inscription of Georgetown as a World Heritage Site was announced by Unesco, or the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, when the Paris-based World Heritage Council met in Quebec, Canada, yesterday.

There are a total of eight new cultural sites added to Unesco’s World Heritage List, namely:

1 ) Melaka and George Town, historic cities of the Straits of Malacca (Malaysia)
2 ) Kuk Early Agricultural Site (Papua New Guinea)
3 ) Stari Grad Plain (Croatia)
4 ) Fortifications of Vauban (France)
5 ) Berlin Modernism Housing Estates (Germany)
6 ) Mantua and Sabbioneta (Italy)
7 ) San Marino Historic Centre and Mount Titano (San Marino)
8 ) The Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of Carpathian Mountain Area (Slovakia)

(JeffOoi’s Screenshot)

This is the Masjid Kapitan Keling. I have blogged about this in my previous post but am doing one more because I want to show off my 100% organic cotton bag from Foodbuzz. I think the background of the mosque is very Malaysian.

I have been carrying the bag around with some books and Bible, very much like a missionary worker. LOL. I love the bag. Thanks, Foodbuzz. If you are a food blogger with fantastic posts and beautiful photos, do check out my review on Foodbuzz.

I will make a post on the delicious nasi kandar I had next to the mosque in my next post.

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Traditional Chinese celebration - Baby’s full moon

Traditionally, Chinese has very strict rules when a mother gives birth to a baby. The mother is treated with special foods and usually ‘kept hidden’ in the house for the full month. So, the full month is call the confinement because the mom is literally and physically confined to the home. The only place she goes is the hospital and nowhere else as she is considered ‘dirty’ and not welcome to visit other people. *roll eyes*

Therefore, when the complete month is up, the birth of the baby is celebrated by giving away these foods. They comprise of the yellow rice which is made of tumeric and glutinous rice, red eggs and the sweet cakes call ‘ang koo’ or red tortoise.

Red eggs are symbolic, meaning good fortune, completeness and a new beginning.

The above red sweet cake is made of glutinous rice flour or sticky rice flour and filled with mung bean paste. What you see is the shape of a peach. If you get a baby girl, you give two peach shape sweet cakes with the tortoise shape. If you get a baby boy, the peach is replaced with two round balls. Completely roundish balls with no patterns.

The tumeric rice goes with curry chicken. In olden times, the family with new babies will distribute these packages to all their neighbours and relatives. My late mother-in-law told me she made her own yellow rice, curry and eggs when she had my husband. Bless her for her efficiency! She lived up to the ripe old age of 70+ years old without any rheumatism or whatever illness.

Meanwhile, in this modern times, one can easily order these packages from shops specialised in providing baby full moon celebration gift packs. The whole package above costs RM12.50. (please do not ask me which shop because I don’t do promo)

I got this package from my niece who just had her baby. Normally, we reciprocate by giving an angpow to the baby. Angpow is a red packet filled with money.

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Ribs Restaurant, Penang - Barbeque spare ribs

I had read about this restaurant from a few food blogs and they recommended the place. I love spare ribs. Many restaurants have closed down like Mr. Ho, Scarlet and even Hardwicke House and Mizi have reduced the quality of their foods due to the escalating prices of imported food items. Places like TGIF and Chilli’s have gigantic portion and sometimes, the ribs are too huge and grainy.

So, my family head over to Ribs, not very sure if the foods are as good as what we read. the newspapers advertised their set lunch costs RM9.90. I know those are definitely marketing gimmick.

True enough, there are no RM9.90 set except for one spaghetti chicken. So, we ordered the sets with ribs and chicken. I like their barbeque sauce and the baby spare ribs. It is very tender.

My second son ordered chicken cordon bleu. It is yet another barbeque sauce, grilled chicken with a layer of ham and cheese. Not bad, in my opinion. But it is certainly not the regular chicken cordon bleu that we are used to, i.e. deep fried with chicken with breadcrumbs and stuffed with cheese and ham.

The price for the set lunch is about RM22 + and above. It is inclusive of one soup, one main dish, a very tangy and fresh ice-lemon tea and ice cream. The ambience is great and service is friendly. So, it is a good place for a quick lunch.

Caesar salad. Not inclusive in the menu, order separately.

My other son ordered the mixed grill which comes with a piece of lamb chop, large prawn, baby ribs and chicken. Portion is not very big but all the above three set lunches were enough to feed the five of us. I have forgotten the price of this set but it is less than RM30.

Check out the other food bloggers review on Ribs :

Vkeong

tmytzt

and PenangTua Pui has the direction and even map to Ribs.

So, there you have it. A few of the most active food bloggers in Penang, giving the thumbs up for the place. We cannot be wrong, you know?

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Recipe : Fresh cordyceps root soup

I have seen these maggots like fresh cordyceps sold in supermarket but never have the inclination to buy them because they really look like maggots. But the other day, the old gentleman in Pulau Tikus market talked me into it to give it a try.

So, I boiled the soup with some red dates, yuk chok and meat.

The fresh cordyceps has little flavour and it doesn’t taste ‘floury’ like what I expected it. However, it makes a nice, clear soup.

The soup ready boiled.

And here is my maggot rice. Lucky the size of the cordyceps is rather huge so it doesn’t give me the creepy crawly feeling. Otherwise, I will not even look at them, what more buy and boil soup with it.

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The cost of wedding will kill you

I just did a little calculation and realize that you will probably need all your life savings and even more if you throw a lavish wedding. So, unless you have really rich parents, I suppose you wouldn’t want to splurge on giving wedding banquet that costs around $3,000 for a table of 10 persons.

I think even if I have the money, I won’t give it to my sons to throw lavish wedding banquets because they are better spent elsewhere. How about down payment for an apartment? Or an unforgettable honeymoon? How about stag weekends for them to have a final fling? And if I have daughters, I will probably ask if I can join them in their Hen Weekends.

And in case you have not heard of hen weekends, it is one smashing idea of a girls’ night out. They can make plans for you to do things you probably never have a chance if you have your spouse or boyfriend with you. Do take a look at the kind of entertainment programs and also the exotic destinations available for you.

Maybe I should ask my old girlfriends if we can go on a hen weekends, alone, minus our spouses. I didn’t spend much on my wedding and couldn’t afford to go on a honeymoon. Since my 20th wedding anniversary is coming this November, maybe I can catch up on old times?

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