Beef Ribs with Noodles

 

Made Korean style beef ribs, Kalbi JJim for dinner last night.It is an excellent way of cooking beef ribs with soya sauce, sesame seed oil, garlic and brown sugar.For lunch I used the leftover gravy with some wonton noodles, added some vegetables and had a plate of restaurant standard noodles.This is the reason thatI,much to the chagrin of my wife,am often reluctant to eat out as I can whip a decent dish at any time. The beef ribs were inexpensive at $1.39/lb.I bought 4 lbs for about $5 and had the butcher cut them up to more or less bite size pieces.The vegetables were mustard greens (gai choy in Cantonese)going for 48 cents a lb. 3 of us had that for dinner and all the leftovers I had for lunch.

20 years in Toronto

Today is the 20th anniversary of our arrival in Canada.How time flies!I still remember the day we left.Family and friends were at the old Subang Airport to see us off.Shortly after the plane took off I fell asleep and woke up not long after feeling an enormous sense of trepidaton.Justifiably so.The first few years was tough for me in particular as I could not get a job. My wife got a job after a few months and the children as expected assimilated like duck to water.Not that I was unemployed. I worked as a commision sales rep for a magazine but a proper job eluded me for a few years.We managed to bring up our children well and they thrived under the Canadian environment.The children were cognizant that we were going through this process of living in a new country.My daugther wrote in a school essay (she was 14 or 15 at that time)referencing Hilary Clinton's book that "it takes a village" to bring up a child and she was growing up without the benefit of her "village" Somehow we managed well.Fast forward 20 years.Our two children are successful professionals.My wife has a good job and I am running my own business,stress free.We are healthy and enjoying life to its fullest. We are a very close knit family and our children ,although they are very successfull professionally,they are first and foremost 2 very decent persons and for this my wife and I can give ourselves a pat on our backs!

Durian Feast!

We were back for a visit to Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur to be exact in January for 3 weeks for our annual visit.This time we had our fill of the best durians money can buy.Although this time of the year is not the peak season, the quality of the durians were very good. Mostly a variety called " Musang".We also had "Cokok" and some very good D24s.They were bought from a stall in SS2 and this vendor really came through with very good stuff. In the old days I like my durians in their shells but this time I had them "tapaued" in takeaway boxes, so much more convenient.
Last year at the same time we did not see a single durian in our first 2 weeks back and only enjoyed some in the third week.This year we really made up for it.
The last three months have been very busy for me. Starting in December when we had the pre Christmas/end of year social functions with our circle of (mostly Malaysian/Singaporean) friends.It was one dinner/lunch after another every weekend culminating in our Christmas Eve dinner when we had 30+ people over. I cooked a whole bunch of food including chicken rice with white chicken, teowchew braised duck with pork, pig stomach eggs, etc, mamak fish curry, lamb curry, roast turkey with mashed potatoes. My wife made chicken pot pie and quiche.It was a feast enjoyed by everyone.
During this period leading up to Christmas, I was also very busy with my little printing business, running all over to fulfill orders especially during the last week before business when I had to shop for food for the party and buying Christmas presents. I was very glad when Christmas eve arrived. We also celebrated my daughter's birthday which falls on Christmas day. So we had a cake for her on Christmas Eve and celebrated when 12.00 arrived.Our guests also enjoyed a karaoke session in the basement.
On Christmas day we chilled out, had a nice birthday lunch with our daughter.In the evening we went over to our son's house where he and his girlfriend cooked a delicious roast lamb dinner. We opened our presents after dinner. Our children bought a netbook computer for us which is very useful when traveling. On boxing day we started packing for our trip and left for Shanghai on the night of December 27.
We stayed for 4 nights in Shanghai( actually 3 in Shanghai and one in Wuxi).We usually make a stopover in China on the way back to Malaysia every year.It is a very convenient way for us to visit China. This time our daughter came with us and we really spent some quality time with her during our 3 1/2 weeks vacation. Although she still lives with us we hardly see her as she works long hours at her job and spends a lot of time with her boyfriend

Winter is here

The first snowfall of the winter arrived this morning.The significance of this is that we in Toronto had no snow in November for the first time in 160 years.We managed to play golf until the end of November.My final game was on November 21.The season was therefore extended by some 3 weeks.My next game will be in Kuala Lumpur on January 5 when I will be back for my annual visit.
Winter has not officially arrived until the winter solstice on December 21.However in Toronto, winter arrives early and leaves late.However this year, with El Nino the temperatures have been warmer.Last year at this time the temperature was already -10c.When I refer to "warmer" it is totally relative.I remember when we first came to Canada, I was watching the weather report and the presenter announced that after a few weeks of below freezing temperatures the weekend's temperature will be a "balmy zero".I knew there and then that I was in a very cold place.

Thanksgiving Dinner

We are well into Fall and with this comes Thanksgiving which was on October 12th. As Malaysians we are not really not into this festival but as they say When in Rome....We also had some family visitors from Singapore and therefore had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at home. I roasted a turkey in my convection microwave oven which I have been doing for the past 19 years.

It is so easy that I really have a stress free Thanksgiving and Christmas, at least where cooking the turkey is concerned. I also roasted a prime rib of beef. My daugther made delicious mash potatoes ( with Yukon gold potatoes and sweet potatoes).
With the cold weather fast approaching, we are squeezing in as much golf as possible. On the days we played it was not as cold, between 5-15 c. The trick is to dress in layers. Firstly it is a better way to keep warm, as opposed to wearing one thick layer. Secondly when the temperature starts creeping up as the day progresses, it is easy to peel off layer by layer. Last Saturday when we starting playing at 9.45 ( there was a 1.5 hr frost delay), it was about 6 c but crept up to about 12 c by 1 pm and therefore I had to peel off all the layers until I was only in my golf shirt.

September Blues

It is really coming to an end, summer that is. Next weekend is Labour Day weekend, which unofficially spells the end of summer although Fall does not officially arrive until September 20. This summer has been especially busy for us socially as we had a dinner party to attend every weekend for the past 3 months, no kidding.This, it appears will continue into September. We have given our share of parties and this is the reason for our active social calender.The Malaysian food that we served have been very popular with our friends especially "wat tan hor". For me it is so easy to make but seems abundantly popular among Malaysians.The last few months I have also served, Penang Hokkien Mee, KL Fried Hokkien Mee, Yong Tau Foo, Curry Laksa, Nasi Lemak, Sang Har Meen ( including once using lobsters instead of prawns), char kuey teow etc. I have not taken many pictures because my first priority is to serve a good meal at that moment and not, I apologise thinking of taking pictures for this blog!
The Blue Jays have not been playing well for the past few months after a good start to the season and have fallen out of contention for the playoffs. Although many have forgotten that this year was just a reloading year and the plan was to make a run for the playoffs in 2010. I hope that tis will happen. Nevertheless I will still be a fan no matter what happens. As I tell my friends, there are 30 teams in Major League Baseball and only 8 teams make it to the playoffs. Together with other contending teams, there maybe about less than 15 teams out of the 30 that are playing meaningful baseball by September. If every fan gives up on their team when they are not contending, half the teams will have no support.

Great Summer Weather

I have been really enjoying the great weather so far this Summer. Many Torontonians will want to vehemently disagree with me. This summer has been wetter and cooler than normal.The natives have been whining about it being not hot enough.They are partly right.One of the major differences in weather in the eastern seaboard of North America and say the U.K is that we have very cold winters and very hot summers.In the UK , the temperatures are relatively cool in the summers and typically do not get a really a hot whack of in your face heat for any length of time in the summer.If you watch golf on TV, you will notice that during the British Open in the middle of July, both players and spectators are wrapped up in sweaters. Not so here.We typically get very hot temperature for days on end, 32 -35 C during July and August.This is the payback for the very bone chilling days in the winter.So when this hot weather is not delivered by mother nature, the people really freak out.Not me though.Being brought up in the tropics, I have enough of hot weahter to last me a few life times. I enjoy the 20-25c highs so far this summer.I played golf yesterday in 22c weather, absolutely fantastic for this time of the year. This Saturday the forecast is for a high of 30c and this means lots of Gatorade to bring along for golf.