Spymama @ Mamakshop

I went to Marche over the weekend. And it was terribly crowded. Sigh… Waiting for food took a while. Marche concept is similar to foodcourt, except that it is a Swiss foodcourt. It is like a marketplace actually.

You bring your cards, order your food, let them scan it in for payment later upon exit. Then you can go browze and buy other food or stand there while they cook your food on the spot. When you order food like grills and steaks and there is a queue, it’s just terrible. If I go back to my table and come back, I won’t know if my food is ready. And if I wait there, I may wait for a while. Terrible, huh. After this experience, I think the next time I want to have a nice grilled steak or seafood, I’d go to Jack’s Place. At least I know once my food is ready, it’s delivered hot to my table. Because by the time I go hunt for a vegetable in Marche, I am lost at where to wait. sigh…

Too much flab, too much fat. That’s what Spypapa said.. He was scrutinizing himself when he looked in the mirror in the mornings. He wanted to lose weight. I cannot agree more. Since I met him decades ago, he had put on a lot of weight. He has lost his waist and it is now taken over by that blubber. And his trouser size is also moving parallel alongside his ‘waist’ size. Yesterday, he asked me what I was going to get for lunch.. He passed me the stored value card that we use for our foodcourt meal purchase. Our foodcourt uses store value card for purchase.. No need cash. About 5 minutes later, I brought this plate of fruits and said.. ‘nah.. you eat this!’ It was hilarious. He raised his eyebrow and said, ‘you ought to be joking!’ I need something more.. err  ’solid’

Laughing, I told him. Of course, I’m joking, this is mine. Passing him the card, I enjoyed my fruits and agar agar. Later that night, I stuffed my hungry tummy with 3 Old Chang Kee Curry Puffs. He had the last laugh, of course.

Spymama wanted to buy a birthday cake for a dear friend. She wanted a Chocolate Cake, the yummiest one. A friend once told me that Awfully Chocolate has yummy Chocolate Cakes. Spymama wanted to check out their cakes first. And guess what Spymama found out? There are no cakes to check out. Sigh..

Look at how the shop is dressed. There are no cakes on display. It was just a shop, counter, a freezer with some ice cream inside and some bar stools and table.

So how? Donch like that very much. Must look good ma. If not how to buy. Maybe it works for some but not for Spymama. I want to buy and try their cakes first so only I will buy the whole cakes. Cannot buy a slice how to know.

So, Awfully Chocolate is Awfully Empty. Spymama disappoointed.

When I was in the market, I like to stop by the dry provision that sells biscuits in large tins. When you see something you like, you get him to weigh it according to the weight or amount you want to purchase. While browzing at the endless variations, I saw this that made me so excited and happy! It was the type of biscuits that I used to eat when I was in Primary school. The old days, it was shaped into a triangle and inside, sometimes you get to find a little coin all wrapped up in newspaper (olden days hygiene - no one bat an eyelid). Those biscuits were sold for about 5 cents each and if you find a 10 cents inside, you’ld be jumping for joy! Although these are the earliest traits of ‘gambling’ it is really something that I enjoyed tremendously. It was bonus to me of course.

So when I saw this in the market, I asked the man to give me about $2.00 worth of biscuits. But to my disappointment, they had no coins wrapped up in newspaper anymore… Should I be disappointed or should I wake up now? Did someone just burst my bubble?

Spymama loves to eat Salmon. Especially when it is bought fresh and grilled over a pan. Sedap! That was what Spymama did yesterday when there was fresh salmon cuts for sale at the wet market. It was a hot day indeed and I didn’t feel like cooking a lot. So I bought a fresh fillet of Salmon, took it home to give it a good rinse and marinate it with just salt, ground pepper, a little bit of Italian herbs and squeezed some ginger juice on it. Left it in the chiller for about half and hour.

When I was hungry enough, I just heat up the pan, added some margarine (butter is nice but burns easily) and place the salmon in, skin side down first. I covered the pan a little to prevent oil splats. When the salmon is cooked almost all the way to the top layer (the top layer is not totally cooked yet tho), I turn it to grill on the other side. That means the skin part of the salmon is just nice and crispy!

Serve it with lemon if you like but I don’t because I already had ginger juice in it. I just added some mixed vegetable, squeeze some Heinz Salad dressing and it was good to go (into my tummy, of course!)

So, there you are, help yourself to my virtual meal. Grilled Salmon with Ginger Juice. ‘burp’

Nothing beats an afternoon with a good cup of black coffee with sugar. Oh and I forgot to mention that it has got to be taken with fried dough fritters of course. Dip it in coffee and enjoy the crispy and hot fritters. This is a diet that Spymama had been addicted to for the past 2 weeks.

In the morning at the market, I’d patronize this shop that sells these dough fritters, commonly known in the local dialect as ‘Yew Char Koay’ and also buy some “butterfly fritters’. Butterfly fritters are a little sweet and has some sesame seeds on it and they are my children’s favourite snack for breakfast.

Because of my regular patronage at the fritter stall, even the elderly man who sells it is now my friend. And somedays when I get my fritters later than usual, i notice that he will throw in an extra fritter for me although I only order 3.  And he refuse to take any money for the extras. I think for all the fritters that I am gorging, I need to look into getting some of those diet stuff like Phentermine or similar.

Anyway, before the year is up (2 more months to 2009), I want to kick start my resolution of doing a little more exercise such as briskwalking or play a sports twice weekly.

Restaurant meals are kept to very minimum lately, like when we have a special occasion or festive. We have most of meals at home, cooking simple ones to cut down on the electricity, gas and water bills since the government is now reminding us to save for a rainy day. No harm in doing that. It should be a conscious effort and we should all act responsible.

Then last night, my subconscious awaken Spymama with this yummy looking Prawn Cocktail in her dreams. I had the most delicious old fashion Prawn Cocktail with the most delicious French dressing.. Woke up with an active salivating mouth. So the first thing Spymama did was to run over to the fishmonger and buy that Tiger Prawn.

I was thinking of making the Dream Prawn Cocktail that I had seen in my dream. Will it be the same? Most importantly, will it TASTE the same?

We shall see.

On some days, Spymama feels very chatty. But lately the haze is making Spymama a little edgy. Can feel as if a rash is coming up in these terrible air. I have been taking lots and lots of ice cool drinks and desserts. Spymama misses Chendols from Malaysia terribly and the ones in Singapore aren’t even close. Is it the gula Malacca that is different? Or the way the chendol is made? Of course that doesn’t mean that stops Spymama from ordering it in a food court recently. It looked pretty, in terms of presentation but the taste was just average. Something is missing and that something is what Spymama is craving.

The Pretty but taste so-so Chendol from the food court

The Food that Spymama ate too fast and took the picture after. *Burp!*

Spypapa and I went out for dinner at the local eatery. As usual, we would have our favourite BBQ dishes such as the Sambal Sotong or the Sambal Stingray. This time we went to Sambal Sotong and Sambal Belachan Kangkung. I could never resist this two dishes from the stall we patronize. They do not really sell a wide variety of seafood, just a limited few dishes and few other items. This is very different from the normal stall that also does all that frying or noodles and fried rice. This stall just specialize in few items and they are very popular indeed. Just this two dishes, Spypapa and I can have our bowl of rice as a meal.

below: Sambal Belachan Kangkung
(Stirfried ‘Belachan’ Chilly Kangkung)

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below: Sambal Sotong (’Belachan’ Chilly Squids)

A virtual treat to my blogger friends here. Enjoy.

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First, they say eggs are good for you. Then they say eggs are bad for you. Eggs have protein and they also have cholesterol. So which one should I choose. I love the yolks more than the whites.

According to those health experts, daily intake of cholesterol is limited to 300 milligrams in a day. If you eat a large egg, you would be putting in about 215 milligrams of cholesterol. So perhaps I should just have one egg. But if you want to have half boiled eggs, ONE IS NOT SHIOK! It’s gotta be TWO. So that means I have taken in access of 430 - 300 = 130 milligrams of cholesterol. Oooh.. Do I mind? No! They say garlic reduces cholesterol. So why not have more garlic on the days that I have eggs? Do they work? Bummer!

The American Heart Association adviced or recommends that we should limit eating egg yolk to three or four times a week. And it says that you can eat as much of the whites as you like but i don’t really like whites without the yolks.

Eggs have a hight source of protein, Vitamin B, iron and other minerals.

So what is my verdict if I want to eat two eggs? Perhaps I’ll just have them twice a week then. My cholesterol level has been fine, cross my fingers, toes. I wont fret. I’ll go for two eggs!

Two half boiled eggs, with a dash of dark soya and pepper! Wash it down with a big cup of coffee!