Every Chinese New Year, Mom, Por Por (my grandmother) and Kam Mo (my aunt) will be dolled up in new cheongsams (a chinese traditional dress) made by the finest tailor in Ipoh (and some say Alor Star too!!  Hahah)… ie. MY GRANDMOTHER! It’s not easy to find tailors who can sew cheongsams nowadays, what more make the pretty elaborate flower button thingy. Even if you found one, it definitely would NOT be cheap.

It’s an art really! I really can’t sew for nuts… but she did teach me how she sews down the flower thing onto the cheongsam. All I can say is that it’s a pretty tedious process. Not too diffcult but tedious. Plus… you need a good eye for design too. Each and every flower design on all the cheongsams she makes is a different one. No two alike. She has tonnes of pattern templates which she hand drew over the years.

In the past, my cheongsams were passed down from my Mumzie, altered to fit me. This round, Por Por decided to make one… no TWO… specially for me. So happily, I went to Kamdar and picked out the nicest piece of cloth it could find (not to mention a super expensive one!!) for the cheongsam. One pastel floral design, and a piece of batik from Terengganu (which so happens to be my Dad’s hometown). So yeah… 2 new cheongsams for me. Yaye. The pastel one is done I think… but the batik… no news.. But for now, just drool over my finished one. Hahahaha…. Don’t be jealous!

Hmmmm.. after quite a long time, I decided that hey… it’s time for a mini reunion for the old JNB supper gang!! So I told Kee, and we decided to propose a steamboat outing. Surprisingly, everyone could make it except for Alvin Ding… initially… Ended up only 6 out of the 10 actually made it to Chong Pang Steamboat last Sunday. It’s the one we went to last time at Marina South… only now it’s moved to Turf Club. I haven’t seen Panda for ages!! Met Dennis in school one or two times this sem…The rest, I’ve been keeping in touch once in awhile if not often. Seafood there is pretty fresh I must say… We practically pigged out on the clams and mussels. BBQed them in salty butter and they were quite nice. I remember there used to be live prawns…. I miss that! Oh… and this time Sam FINALLY remembered to bring the Leonard Bernstein Conducts West Side Story he burnt for me MONTHS ago… I’m watching it now. I love West Side Story. Both the story and the music. Bernstein is one mighty amazing guy!

L to R: Dennis, Siew Kee, Me, Choi Harn, Suhu, Sam

Some 2 weeks back, I was tempted into trying to make fondant icing to decorate cupcakes. Obesessed with the idea, I finally managed to tumpang Huey Shan to buy the ingredients for me. Fondant icing has some pretty weird stuff in it that I only can get from the baking shops. Nearest to my house would be the one at Jurong East.

I used a basic vanilla cupcake recipe from my new amazing 500 Muffins & Cupcakes book I bought during a sale in Popular a few months back. Never had the chance to try it  out till now. I imporvised a little by adding chocolate chips to the cupcake mixture…. and walah!! Chocolate chip cupcakes!!! Yummy! The fondant icing recipe was taken from here. I used cookie cutters and maybe a small drop of red food coloring to give it the shape and color I wanted. Turned out pretty nice for a first attempt I must say…

So what did I do with so many cupcakes? Well, since it was SC’s birthday, I decided to give her some. I also passed some of the “ai xin” cupcakes (which means i made them with tender loving care… hahaha) to Paro and Kee. Put them in a ziploc with a message on it. Like a little care package… See? Aren’t they lucky to have such nice me for a friend?? Hahaha… SHAMELESS! Anyway, I’m glad they liked it. Kee thought I bought the icing ready made though… Lol.

Overall, I like this recipe. Quite foolproof. Only thing I noticed about it was that it was a bit too sweet for my liking. Paro and Kee didn’t seem to mind one bit though. Maybe if you try, reduce the sugar amount. I’ll post the recipe sometime when I’m free.

I just attended Sir James Galway’s masterclass on embouchure and producing a good tone on the flute.

Via Youtube. 

How I wish I sounded like that! I know of course I will never be as good…. coz I don’t own a 20k gold Nagahara custom made flute! Haha… I have a Yamaha YFL-311 silver flute. It’s only an intermediate flute but I’m guessing mine sounds pretty nice for my standards. I need to practice the flute more. Possibly take proper lessons once I graduate. No time… no moolah… For now, I shall resort to online resources.

One step at a time.