Yee Sang Special

Not long ago, we had a CNY lunch with together with our friends from the same apartment complex. We prepared our very own Malaysian style, Yee Sang.

To make it stand out, wifey did lots of research and used the following vegetables for the combination. Color and arrangement was also a prime importance. The list of vegetables and fruits were: Pamelo (translucent), Capsicum (Red), Cilantro (Green), Mango (Yellow), Ginger (Pinkish red), Spring Onion (light Green), Daikon (White) and Carrot at the center (Orange). For the sauce topping, a special combination that included Lee Kum Kee’s Plum sauce. And roasted sesame seed was added to it when ready to serve.

Of course a Yee Sang isn’t complete without the crispy crackers. But instead of buying ready made ones, we decided to take the risk of making our own the night before. After a near failure, we successfully were able to recreate the crackers with almost similar likeliness with the ones you find back home in our Chinese Malaysian restaurants serving this infamous CNY dish. And of course last but not the least!! The most important ingredient of them all – the fish itself. Being in Atlantic Canada has its advantage – fresh salmon is reasonably cheaper. But instead of buying off the shelf smoked salmon for the dish, we decided to cure the salmon on our own. To do that, the fish was about about 3-4 days earlier for the sole purpose of curing it to give that smoked flavour. The end product? An amazing Yee Sang dish that simple irresistible and definitely brings back memories of home.

Bon Appétit!

CNY & Valentine’s Food Prep

Being away for the first time for CNY has taught us alot of lessons – one that is how to prepare your own food.

Interestingly, V day falls on the same date. So we had CNY for lunch and Valentine for dinner.

For CNY lunch, we had talapia fish and mushroom. For Valentine dinner, we had fusila pasta with smoke salmon and cupcakes.

For the smoke salmon, we cured it on our own. That’s way cheaper than buying from the store.

Here’s the pic of our salmon curing process…

Happy Chinese New Year

Finally the year of the cow is coming to an end. Although a turbulent year whilst here in Canada, it has indeed been one full of experiences and lessons learned. We’re looking forward to a more exciting tiger year ahead.

p.s. Will post some photos later. Have been neglecting this blog of late….

Winter Has Been Kind

Last Friday’s Metro Halifax news says it all – that this year’s 2010 Winter has been very kind.

Some Shots of Winter

Here are some shots taken when we went out during winter and just after a snowfall.

Funniest one is this – A Chinese acupuncture physician shop named - “I Stop Pain”… 

Debunking Rich Dad Poor Dad’s Get Rich Program

Just watched today’s episode of CBC’s Marketplace program. It was particularly interesting for me because this particular episode exposes the slick tricks used by Robert Kiyosaki’s Learn to be Rich training workshop. That’s because both wifey and I went to the preview last year and were abit interested in signing up. But luckily we didn’t – and here’s why:

Based on the episode by CBC titled, “How not to get taken in by real estate seminars”

• The free intro session pitches its viewers to sign up for a 3days (costs CAD 500) workshop in which 3 days are spend on giving additional sales pitch for another costlier advance real-estate courses (price tagged at CAD 40K and more).
• Lots of folks have been tricked and not have their money returned.
• Rude trainers who conduct training sessions unprofessionally.
• Unwise lessons – such as asking you to raise your credit card limit to 100K!!!
• MOST OF ALL –> the man himself, Robert Kiyosaki being aware of these events and happenings but NOT doing anything serious about it!!! And why? Well, perhaps he’s getting alot of money out of it – so why should he…?!

Here’s a shot of Marketplace’s Erica Johnson interviewing Robert himself when he was here in Vancouver not too long ago…

So you think you’d learn something from Robert’s lessons. Well you probably would have learn a thing or two but, do be wise with anything else apart from that – like signing up for his workshops.

Want to know more? Just go to CBC Marketplace’s video channel and look for this particular episode and probably you’ll get a first understanding why –> here.

Here’s the CBC’s promo vid of that episode on facebook,
http://www.facebook.com/cbcmarketplace#/video/video.php?v=275007085980
and here
http://www.facebook.com/cbcmarketplace#/video/video.php?v=262772910980

Unsual Weather Again...

Canadians have a love-hate relationship with the weather. Its something we've been of late able to understand better.

Take for example today's forecast for the next few days.


Imagine this - its right smack in the middle of the winter month (not even at the end yet) and we're going to experience a temperature of 7 degrees Celsius with rainfall warning in effect!

Just 2 days ago it was -10 and -18 with wind chill effect. The weather is weird.

Here's CBC Nova Scotia's meteorologist, Peter Coede showing the viewers the weather outlook for tomorrow. Unlike back in Malaysia, the weather man is a much respected TV personality.


The markings in red are all the areas which are going to experience rain tomorrow.