Spymama @ Mamakshop

Children nowadays are all PC literate. They play online games, have email accounts and surf the net for information. At home I have a desktop that is used by all family members at home. I have it placed in the living hall because I worry about safety issues like sites that contain unsavoury images. Even though I have increased the internet security filter on my computer, I know these filters do not work entirely. Some websites have popups, advertisements available in cyberspace that finds its way into our browzers. A simple search for a keyword that my daughter mis-spelled could even churn out some unwelcome images.

Sometimes she goes to a relative’s home to surf the net. Worst is, what if the images accidentally browzed are not during online access?

A wave of relief came when I read about SurfRecon, an application that works like a porn filter. What it does is it crawls through your computer and determines how sexual is an image using a sophisticated data matching technology. It is simple to use and can be downloaded direct into your computer or you can even purchase pre-installed on a thumb drive. Sounds like a wonderful idea. Keep your children safe from internet porn. You will never regret it.

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’

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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The weather is getting colder lately. It’s been pouring. This is all part of global warming, I guess. Some places flooding, ice and glaciers melting. And extreme weather conditions.

But WAIT!!! It’s not all that Bad.

Spymama has a Special Soup for YOU!

I made Minestrone Soup with lots of Vegetable and some little bits of Alphabet Pasta. So if you happen to drop by here and find me not sipping Teh Tarik, please help yourself to a bowl of soup.

Hope it makes your heart warm and fuzzy for a Great Weekend. Don’t forget to smile and make a stranger happy. It could be me that you bumped into! *grin*

In local context, ‘bird-man’ is not a comfy word. Why? Because for chinese, in particular, it is used when someone is labelled as a ‘jerk’ or ‘jerk-ass’. Some chinese prefer to use this word by adding ‘blue’ before ‘bird-man’ towards the same gesture. Of course when I am explaining this context, it is used in the dialect ‘Hokkien’ and not in English. It is an insult to scold or to be scold ‘bird-man’ but some times there are some who fooled around too. It is a language commonly used more in a vulgar form. Those who are from the countries in Malaysia and Singapore will probably have heard of it.

But then, Spymama also loves to visit this kopitiam where the ‘bird-man’ is usually hanging out. And when I meant ‘bird-man’, I don’t mean someone vulgar, nor do i mean someone who is a jerk-ass of course. Because this fella, is none other than the real ‘bird-man’. He has 2 parrots with him most of the time. He frequents this local eatery and lives in this town. Spymama sometimes gets the honour to sit on the next table and with darting eyes, from my plate of Chicken Rice, Laksa, and Wantan Mee, looks at this green earthling that is also looking at my plate. A grey one sits on his shoulder.

A star of the place, sometimes can’t be help, these birds gets some stares, kids’ pointing fingers, ladies trying to get fresh with the owner. ( okay, i don’t think they were trying to get fresh, just asking about the birds). Not perturbed by them, all it wants (the green parrot) is something from my plate. Sometimes I thought of giving it an occasional Chye Sim from my plate but I don’t want a reaction from the ‘bird-man’. Spymama is quiet and keeps her movements slo-mo throughout so it doesn’t ruffle it’s feather and flick that bits of feather to garnish my meal.

But for once this time, Spymama took a picture of it. To keep ‘bird-man’s’ anonymousity, no face is being shown. I swear it was just staring at me.

Mott cooked some delicious Hokkien Mee recently. She said she hopped by my blog daily and she had that hokkien me and she didn’t invite me. *blinks eye*.. So when I was there, I snipped some of her Hokkien Mee off her blog. This is what is left on my side.

But at least, I didn’t really commit plagiarism because her credits are still in the picture. LOL! So Mott, don’t forget to invite me for a cookout or any dish when you are cooking. Or else you will have to see more of your food snipped off. Not a very pretty sight. I wished I had money to get myself a Photoshop software. Anyone knows a good free to use similar one?

Sorry I had to help myself but Spymama was really hungry!

I patronized my favourite Prata shop in the morning. The coffeeshop was packed like sardines. Sigh.. I think because the coffeeshop next door was doing renovation so many customers ended up in these coffeeshop. It is also Sunday, by the way. The latter should be the reason.

That means I have to wait a while for my favourite breezy corner. No seats were available and I’ve got a whiney kid that insists she wants to go eat somewhere else with air cond! She hinted she was hungry for burgers…alamak!

So I decided that I shan’t wait. No spymama at work today. No people watching. No ‘*Kay Po-ing’ or looking into people’s marketing bag. So I asked my Mr Mamak to ‘**bungkus’ up 7pcs of Prata kosong and lots of curry to bring home and eat. I’ll make my Kopi ‘***Kao Kao’ at home too. I’ve got my favourite Tesco Kopi mom bought for me during our vacation.

Of course Little Miss It’s So Hot, Hot, Hot wasn’t pleased about it. “What?! We are going home to eat?” I told her, “yup my dear” (trying to look excited about it). Who could fool a kid. Her chin was getting longer and longer and it certainly seemed heavier than the other bag in my other hand. If we don’t go now pretty soon I’ll be tripping over it every step of the way..

Some terms you may want to know:

*Kay Po  - Being a busy body or nosy parker. (Local Hokkien ’slang’)
**Bungkus - Direct translation means ‘wrap’, In this context, it means to wrap for take away. (Malay)
*** Kao Kao - Concentrated. I used the term Kopi Kao Kao means Strong bodied local cofee with condensed milk.

Today I took the opportunity of having an early breakfast at the wet market coffeeshop. There were plenty of people. There was no rush of time for me, just watching people and spying at what their shopping baskets contain. I’m a busybody. Never mind, I’ll do it my way. Spymama way.

Can you tell a person by the kind of food he or she buys? Some are conscious buyers or thrifty ones. And sometimes you look into their shopping baskets and see lots of things that are more extravagant. I see an aunty buying small fishes, lots of vegetable of the leafy kind. She also bought a chicken and potatoes. Hmm, I wonder if she was going to cook the fish or the chicken today or perhaps both? With potatoes, there are endless possibilities! Curry Chicken? Braised Potato? Steamed Chicken? Chicken Soup? She bought the kembung fish.. I figured most people like to fry these little gems. It is nice when it is fried and hot and crispy. Simple marination of salt and pepper and brush a little of tumeric is good enough. Eat these with nasi lemak! A malay aunty with 3 kids in tow not only buys veg and fish, but she also bought a whole lot of crisps! Twisties and another one that I’m not quite familiar with. Look, she also bought carbonated drinks. Must be her kids, but then most malay friends I know love these carbonated drinks along with their meal. Or they will stir up glasses of syrup drinks. Different races different tastes. My mama doesn’t allow me to have those on the dining table. It’s only water if I must have or it’s going to be a bowl of hearty soup.

Catch ya later.

I’m glad you dropped by. Please feel free to introduce yourself here.

Before I turned blogger, I love to hang out with friends, young and old over a cup of teh tarik (pulled tea) by an Indian Muslim stall and savour the yummy roti canais ( popular in Malaysia) and gossip about anything under the sun and moon.

In my younger times, I also loved to run to the little indian shop that sells anything from newspapers, magazines, cigarettes that comes in a can, crisps, sweets, epok (curried puffs) watch them rattle away in their indian language in a jovial manner. Although I have moved away from my original hometown of Penang, the trend of drinking ginger milk-tea had not changed much. In fact, they have gotten trendier. It is very common to see youngsters having an enjoyable time getting together at mamakstalls near homes, roadsides, makeshifts coffeeshops eating their favourite Roti Canai, Mee Goreng and more!

Now, a mother of two, I still enjoy going to have my usual Prata (it’s called Prata in Singapore) or Toast with Butter/Sugar or Butter/Kaya with my buddies reliving old days, old music, old gossips and going around with my camera looking for interesting things to blog.