Tuesday 6 October 2015

A Birthday Lunch


This was lunch one weekend with my parents (visiting from KT), brother and uncle.  Yes, the uncle who stopped me and my brother from ordering our usual feeding-frenzy-sized orders the last time we were at Kar Hiong hah..hah... But we are fond of him and we invite him along at every opportunity we get.

Well, we were back at Kar Hiong to celebrate somebody's birthday. Somebody. Oh no, please don't wish me happy birthday because it is way past and besides, at my age, I don't need to be reminded. Get it? Good.

Mum insisted on buying her birthday girl lunch, so we put her in charge. And with Mum's backing, we can order as many dishes as we like hah...hah...

First up, a vegetable. As I mentioned before, mum loves her vegetables and so do we. We ordered the cekor manis. It was very good.


And of course, what's a birthday celebration without some fatty oinks? I chose this pork belly with yam dish. It was alright. I was curious because I haven't had this before. No, I don't think I want this again. Sweet and Sour Pork would have been better.


And this is me miserable without my mountain of cili padi. Abstaining for the sake of my health. But once I recover, I'm going to eat cili padi again. Just less.


Then we had another vegetable, stir fried sweet potato leaves. This was very good too. I always love sweet potato leaves. They are delicious. And I do need lots of fiber in my diet.


The honey pepper chicken is as good as ever. I must come back and eat this again.


And of course, everytime we come to Kar Hiong, we will order the asam fish. I was supposed to avoid spicy food, so I made sure to take only the fish without the gravy.


Oh, another vegetable! Of course with mum at the helm we must focus on our vegetable. Gladly so, as she has trained us to love vegetables. This stir fried bittergourd with egg is an all time favorite anywhere we go. 


The last dish was a steamed fish. I prefer deep fried but I do enjoy steamed fish too. 


We did rather well didn't we, 7 dishes for 5 people. All except the two fish dishes were small orders. That was uncle's recommendation, to go for small sizes but more variety. But honestly, I could have eaten more hah..hah... But we were saving space for dinner at my house. Thank you mummy for the lovely lunch!

This was what we had later that evening.





Acar


And this is the Ice Cream birthday cake from Baskin Robbins courtesy of my other brother and his family.

Raspberry flavour. It was so, so good!
I also baked a cake but I didn't take a picture. I should have, to show you the disaster. My cake was too tall and the top got stuck to the cover. So when I opened the container, off came the top of my cake. Grrr.....


The next day, I had leftovers for lunch. Actually there were no leftovers for the nasi minyak (in fact not enough). The nasi minyak you see above was from a test run I did in the morning. I was glad I did the trial run because I made mistakes which I avoided when I cooked the one for dinner.

So that's it for the little birthday do!

36 comments:

  1. wah... so makan till perut kembung ye? :)

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    1. Not really, didn't eat to 100% capacity. hah..hah...

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  2. So much good food! Happy birthday to the birthday girl *wink wink*

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  3. Hi Phong Hong,
    Wow!! That was such a wonderful treat for a lovely lady!
    Happy Birthday to that lovely lady :) :)
    mui

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    1. mui mui, the "lovely lady" says "thank you" hee..hee...

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  4. wow, what a nice birthday treat, both lunch and dinner!! errr, what about breakfast ah?? hehehe.. indeed sumptuous and scrumptious for this big-eaters-family-but-with-the-uncle-who-stopped-them-from-ordering-their-usual-feeding-frenzy-sized-orders.. so with less food ordered for lunch, no wonder there was nothing leftover except that little bit of acar and kuzi ayam~~

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    1. No breakfast because saving space for the lunch and dinner. I should have cooked more nasi minyak, knowing my family's capacity hah..hah...

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  5. 3 veggie 2 fish and 2 meat, 7 dishes for 5 person.. i would like to have that too, smaller portion but more varieties.. i would say i love them all, hahaha, but if you would want me to pick then i would pick the bittergourd with eggs, the honey pepper chicken and the asam fish, maybe these 3 dishes would be enough for me.. having second thought on 7 dishes, am i actually able to try all of them?? because the three dishes i picked above could probably get me finished up my plate of rice, and nope, i am not going for a second plate, hahaha!! :D

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    1. You are very disciplined when eating or perhaps you are a small eater, not like auntie!

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  6. eating out for lunch and sambung makan at home!! i love the nasi minyak and definitely the acar and kuzi ayam go well with the rice!! indeed a rather wholesome meal at home, after the main and you have birthday cake as desserts.. BR31 raspberry ice-cream (i-scream) cake in the shape of a rose for the birthday auntie, ooopss girl!! wow, how sweet.. did everyone sing a birthday song for the birthday girl, get her to make a wish and then blow the candles?? and then she unwrapped the presents in front of everyone?? hahaha.. :p

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    1. It was a good family celebration. I actually prefer eating at home. Yes, we sang birthday song, in fact also celebrated 2 other belated birthdays :)

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  7. Oh...anak Libra also.....happy birthday to the Librarian ...

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  8. What nice birthday meals for the lovely birthday girl. Hope she enjoyed her day. That ice cream cake looks pretty. All the food looks good. I like the dinner better than the lunch, hehehe.

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    1. Thank you, Mun! It was indeed very good!

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  9. Hey!!! We had one same dish - my blogpost today, but that's where the similarity ends. LOL!!! Personally I would enjoy dinner more...I am more into Malaysian than Chinese, and my missus too - she likes it hot!!!

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    1. Yup, I saw that. Looks like we enjoy our cekur manis/cangkuk manis very much!

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  10. We go to Kar Hiong almost once a week, coz my lady boss likes it.. Frankly, I don't know what's so special about Kar Hiong, except their minced meat potatoes and asam ladies fingers.. Each time we go there, these 2 dishes are a must to order.. But overall, food is nice and affordable, so most of my colleagues like it there.. Eh the ice cream cake looks so so good, I thought it's red velvet cake timmm.. I can scoop and eat terus with a spoon!

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    1. Louiz, I like the food at Kar Hiong. And it's one of my uncle's favorite place to go. I want to go again hah..hah...

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  11. I like the honey pepper chicken, steamed fish, dinner, and the cake, hehe...

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  12. First time I see a table ordering two dishes of fish....the same type of fish some more...kekeke! :D Don't pretend, dear, you can't possible take the fish without taking the assam gravy too, otherwise you would have just stuck to the steamed fish! ;D Glad you had a lovely birthday treat. Will we be seeing your blog posts for the nasi minyak, kuzi ayam (I've no idea what that is....sounds like the chicken is being tickled, hehe) and acar coming up soon?

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    1. Yeah, we are a funny lot :) I did sweep away the asam gravy (sobs!!) before eating the fish. Didn't eat much of that. I have already blogged about the nasi minyak and kuzi ayam. You can click on the links above the photo.

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  13. Hi Phong Hong,
    Well ... I've also come to a point that I don't wish to know my age on my birthday ... "as the number is not a significant symbol in my life" hee .. hee ! But having said that, I do like to receive well wishes .... Blessed belated birthday to the birthday girl !

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    1. Hi Karen! Better forget about the numbers hah..hah... Thank you for the wishes :)

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  14. Wow! You had a marathon feast for the celebrations. I love the rose cake, so creative and I guess it cost a bomb as nothing comes cheap from there.

    I still have to wish you a Happy Belated Birthday. Hope you will get healthier and happier every passing day.

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    1. Thank you, TM for your wishes! It's always nice to celebrate with family and to eat lots of good food.

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  15. Lovely dishes! The celebrations must have been very nice:)

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  16. Hi Phong Hong, people's perception of birthday varies as we age, hahaha!. Most important is on that day, we enjoyed doing the things we love to do and are happy about it all.

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  17. Very nice birthday celebration from lunch to dinner and cake with love ones. The birthday girl is very blessed. Happy birthday to the sweet birthday lady!

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    1. Nancy, thank you for your warm wishes!

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  18. WTF?! You have never eaten that pork belly + yam dish before?? That dish is awesome leh!! But I think you got a bad version, the one in your picture looks like a pile of badly cooked mess. A good one, I'm sure you'll love it!

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    1. Yup, seen that dish many times but somehow never ate it until that day. I came away somewhat disappointed. I guess you are right, I must find a good one. I mean, how can I not enjoy pork and yam?

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