Best Popiah in Penang

Don't you love spring rolls or commonly known as popiah here in Malaysia. If you are Malaysian you will know what I am talking about, but if you are a foreigner travelling to Malaysia, make it a point to try our famous popiah when you are here. Basically, there are two types: fried and wet. The fried one is obviously fried and the wet one is well not fried! Haha : )

The best wet popiah I have ever eaten was in Penang. This popiah wins hands down. You can have the spicy one or ask for it without chilli paste/sambal. However, they give you some spicy soup that you can pour over the popiah or dip into before eating. As the kids were sleeping, we decided to ta pau/ take away. Hearing us ooh and aah as we ate, the kids woke up and they enjoyed their popiah, ones without the sambal. Let me tell you, the sambal is yummylicious! 

Spicy Wet Popiah

Where is this stall? It's at the Padang Brown Hawker Centre in Jalan Perak. 

Chinese Food Stalls

There were other stalls that  I would have loved to try but we were early and they hadn't opened yet. There were stalls selling fried oyster (oh chien), penang laksa, fried keow teow, ABC with ice cream and many more. These are all my favourites and I am looking forward to my next trip to Penang to try them out. 

Malay Food Stalls

If you are worried about the ambience or lack of it, don't fret. New stalls (brick ones) like the other Hawker Centres that can be seen around Penang, are being built for these stalls.

Not By My Strength...

Hubs had to go out station for work purposes and we didn't follow him. For 11 days.. so that left me all alone with a soon to be 5 year old, a just turned 3 year old and a 6 week newborn baby *gasp

Even before this, whenever anyone asked me how I was going to manage taking care of the three of them by myself especially when hubs has to travel, I say, "I know I can't do it by myself but by God's grace and if He helps me and gives me strength, only then can I do it." And let me tell you, that is the absolute TRUTH. Fact is, a hundred million things that are totally out of your control can go wrong.

10 days... and mind you I managed to cook at least three times a day. Lunch and dinner and either for breakfast or for tea time. Here in Malaysia, it is common to cook once for lunch and eat the same thing for dinner. No harm in that, it's just that I love cooking for my family and trying out new recipes..but boy was it a challenge.. I had to prep,cook and clean in stages.

So far I have managed to keep up my old routines.. However, I had to let go of many things namely in the region of housekeeping. One step at a time. Prioritise.. Could I have done this on my own strength? No way...

Hubs was a pillar of comfort and strength as well. He would keep tabs on the kids and through Skype would make the kids accountable for their actions.. 

Even so, after a bout of flu and cough which hit me and the kids- thanks to the haze, the next time Hubs has to travel we are going with him.. : )

Houz Depot: A Hunt for a Hob and Hood

Went to Houz Depot some time back to look at their selection of hobs and hoods...

Home Renovation: Kitchen Floor Tiles at Jalan Ipoh

All in all, hubs and I together with our two children would have made about 3 trips (trust me it would have been more had I not been in my first trimester and having all day sickness) to Jalan Ipoh before finally deciding on which type of tile to buy for our kitchen floor. As mentioned in a previous post, we purchased our kitchen backsplash tiles at Houz Depot.

These were few of the tiles that caught our attention...

However, in the end during our 3rd visit to Jalan Ipoh, we met Ironman and Captain America... Seriously! Two guys hired by the Feruni outlet were dressed up as Ironman and Captain America. My kids were thrilled to take the flyer they handed out about a sale that they were having. Coincidentally, the sale had started so we were able to check it out. And to be honest we didn't have a choice as our kids wanted to meet the 'superheroes' again.

In a way they did turn out to be superheroes because they led us to what would be our ultimate choice for our kitchen floor tiles! As Feruni is located off Jalan Ipoh at Jalan Kolam Air, I doubt we would have gone there as most of the shops were closing and I couldn't walk around anymore as I was feeling nauseous. Plus hubs had already warned me that we had to make a purchase that day as renovation was already underway and the contractor would need the tiles soon.

So do make sure you visit Feruni if you are tile shopping at Jalan Ipoh. The photos we took there were taken using my husbands phone as I was clearly out of sorts by then and its in another SD card etc so I shall leave you with photos of the chosen one instead.. I love the texture of the tile which is slightly rough and it's a breeze to clean, I tell you.

Okay, so this is the shop. This is their branch in Jalan Ipoh although they have many other branches.

Easier Said than Done

How wonderful it would be, if I could just follow this.. 

Home Renovation: Kitchen Backsplash Tiles @ Houz Depot

The most exciting part of a renovation is the planning part, I think. No added stress of actually making a purchase (yet!) and second guessing and rechecking is allowed. So for now, as we wait for our house keys (yayy!!) hubs and I and kiddies too try to squeeze in as much scouting as we can. First off, tiles. We went to near the Subang Airport and stopped at a shop called MASTER STONE.  The sales person was friendly and informative but kept a distance and allowed us to look around by ourselves. Not much choices though.

Another day, we set off to HOUZ DEPOT in Kota Damansara. There were a wide array of tiles as you can see...

I found the backsplash collection at Houz Depot more interesting than their tile collection...

 In the end, after visiting many other shops we purchased our kitchen backsplash tiles here...

3rd Bundle of Joy

So, baby no. 3 is on the way.. I've entered my third trimester...I didn't know I was pregnant until I started noticing my energy level was low last October..to which my dearest husband lovingly suggested, could be due to lack of exercise : ) (I had a good time reminding him about it once I found out I was actually 7 weeks pregnant) Seriously though, it was more like the non existence of such a thing called exercise.. However, taking care of 2 kids and running a household does count for some mild calorie burning I think. 

Other than that we bought a house, did some minor renovation (as it was a sub sale unit but bought for investment purposes so we are the first to live here) and moved in on New Year's Eve... I've also started my Phd. Yay! My coursemates can't believe I'm coming for classes while pregnant.. they'd rather sleep at home if they were pregnant they say...  So, that's a short round up of events and mainly some idea of posts that I shall be covering from time to time, hopefully.. But I have to say, I have missed you my dearest blog.