C2 - Cool & Clean Green Tea

I recently had a chance to sample a new drink in town. Its called C2 - Cool & Clean Green Tea! Its actually 100% green tea but flavoured with apple, lemon and forest fruit .. cool eh!


From what I read from its label, its apparently 100% natural green tea, meaning it is brewed and not made from concentrates or powder. And they are also brewed and packed on the very same day ... making it so fresh in taste and smell .. hmmm!!!

I am no green tea fan I tell ya (yeah, me coffee addict) and I stay away from green tea altogether cos I dont like the normal strong greenish tea smell the usual green tea drinks have, but this one, you gotta try it to like it!

I tried the apple flavour first. Unchilled. Its was ok. I was able to taste a good balance of the green tea and the apple flavour. The tea did not overpower the apple taste and it actually gave it a nice touch of flavour to an ordinary green tea.

Next, I tried the lemon. Chilled this time. It was a blast! It was full of flavour and very very refreshing! In fact, I just returned from a long drive under the hot sun (searching high & low for cheap & good lime trees lah for CNY) and boy! It was really good! It cleared my thirst instantly! I loved it! Hubby tried the forest fruit flavour and did not even leave me a sip!

I have 3 cartons at home now and this is what is going to be served for CNY ... provided there is any left by then. Hubby and lil one seem to be eyeing it all the time *wink*. Honestly, its a good alternative to those carbonated drinks out there. Its full of anti-oxidants and so beneficial to our body. You have to be careful of the sugar though. As long as its taken in moderation, should be ok I guess. And its HALAL too .. perfect for my muslim friends that will be coming over for CNY.

Apparently, its now selling at Jusco and Giant .. both of which is near my house. And also at 7-11 outlets. Will check it out if I find my 3 cartons of supply diminishing too soon!

Do remember to give it a try if you see them on the shelves .. its good!

Our Pot of Gold!

The coming CNY marks our very first CNY in our new home. It will also double up as our house warming party. Many friends and relatives have been asking us continuously, when is your open house, when is your open house. But we decided to wait and have it together with the CNY open house. 2-in-1 saves us quite a bit of $$$ and time *wink*

I am opting for a really simple decoration (almost none!) with a bit of "ang" here and "ang" there and that's about it. MIL commented that I should change my living room curtains cos they are not of "auspicious" color and recommended that I change it to red or orange! And that would totally spoil the overall look & feel of my new home. Cos we designed it to be a really simple contemporary look and red/orange surely does not fit in. So what shall I do? I shall then attempt to bake her a nice CNY cake lah to compensate *hehehe*.

There are loads of CNY decorations that departmental stores have brought in! But you should visit the morning markets in dominantly chinese areas like Old Klang Road or Kepong. Those people brought in loads of stuff from China and they all look so gorgoues! And cheap! I opted for some simple ones off the pasar malam near my house. And this pot of gold cost me RM7.

For real ones, dont ever go to Sungai Buloh! Cut throat these days! Even Jusco sells these mid size pots for RM26++ and in Sungai Buloh, there were asking for above RM40! Not sure if I went to the right stall but not many stalls left though.

How are your CNY decorations getting along?

Gold Coin Cupcakes

I was looking for some gold nugget chocolates that are usually available during CNY but could not find any. So I settled for some gold coin chockies instead for my CNY cuppies.


These are my first batch of cuppies and baked it for a friend and hubby's colleagues to try. So if you guys are reading this, thanks for being my guinea pigs okay ... hahaha.

I am not very creative when it comes to colors or designs, but this is one design that is simple to pipe and I only have one thousand and one star nozzle remember??

I dont quite like the pink I mixed. I prefer those baby-pink rather than this CNY pink but I dont know how to get it right, so just went ahead with this lah.

Next batch, I will try a very light shade of lemon yellow. I think it will look more cheerful!

Nga Ku

Every year, Mom makes it a point to make some fried nga ku for CNY. We dont consume much but we do make it as gifts for family and friends.

Headed out to Tesco Extra last Sat to get a box of 20kg. It cost RM59.60. It contained really fresh ones and of good sizes too. Not too large and not too small. Just right for slicing and frying them.


Each year, Mom ventures out into making nga ku, love letters and muruku for own consumption as well as for family and friends. Years back, mom used to go into it almost full time, for sales during CNY. It was good money! But recent years, age is catching up and I dont see a point for her to work her butt out so hard anymore. She should slow down and enjoy the season a bit. We used to help mom each night after work, and made them till the wee hours of the night. But not anymore lah. I also tired of it edi ....

CNY Deco at Leisure Mall

Have not really started on my CNY shopping. Basically, just need to stock up on some food items and that's about it. Not getting anymore new clothings for Bryan cos I bought a few while I was in Hong Kong back in July.

Visited Leisure Mall shopping mall last weekend for a quicky. Rushed in to get some shower gel from Guardian and made our way out after that since we left Bryan at my SIL place. Moreover, he has not fully recovered from his flu and cough. And it was raining heavily, so decided to make a quick dash.

Loved the overall pink CNY deco they had there. A nice change to the red red red year after year. Do you like it?

Flower Power!

Over lunch last week, my colleague suggested we drop by a nursery to see if their CNY plants have arrived. I am one, who is not keen over gardening and am glad my new house does not have any plots with sand or grass! Serious! I dont like gardening at all.

Nevertheless, I do like flowers ... hehehe. So I bought some potted flower plants at RM7 each and headed home to make it more cheerful, in preparation for the X'Mas dinner cum CNY!

I'll see how long they last *wink*

Random CNY pics

Took quite a bit of pictures during the CNY but too lazy to upload too many.

Below is a pics of our reunion dinner with my in-laws. We had it at Royal China (as in previous years). Deco for our dinner tables were soooo "ang" until like wedding dinner like that! Total 12 tables this year. I can hardly remember 10% of the names of those uncles and aunties that came .. so can you imagine my son, hardly knows anyone there.

Mommie decided that this year's theme colour would be "pink" for the 3 of us ... hehehe. So here is lil one posing in front of grandma's precious crysanthemum plants.





Posing with Daddie at the restaurant. Dont be fooled .. he only sat on that baby-chair for 5 seconds! Right after this shot, he was ALL OVER THE PLACE! And that is the No. 1 reason why there are no food pics although we had such a lovely 8-course dinner.

Lion Dance @ Office

The Lion Dance is pretty customary for corporate organisations or businesses. There are homes too who host this special significant event but as it is pretty costly, not all homes can afford it.

This year, I was "appointed" to be officially in charge of preparing for this at our office. Why I say "appointed" in inverted commas is because they had a meeting to decide who to take charge and I was not in the meeting! Terror management team I have here! We had this on the 3rd day of CNY (as "calculated" by my boss's sifu). At 7am!

So I prepared a red platter, a large pomelo, 5 mandarin oranges, a bunch of fresh salad and a red packet consisting the fee for the lion dance.

Wah, didnt know these days these "kungfu" people can be so professional. After I googled them on the net (they got website okay, dont play play), they sent me a fax for job confirmation! Impressive! For those who are keen on their services, do check out Kee Ling Kok Lion Dance Association (ask for Xand Ting, young man, quite handsome too! Looks even more dashing in his lion dance kungfu pants!).

They do quite a bit of official launches and retail outlet openings such as Marks & Spencers and Eu Yan Sang. They even blessed the opening of Eric Tsang's outlet at Hartamas Shopping Centre ok, dont play play.

Platter for Prosperity

Every CNY, my SIL prepares this tray of "goodies" for the house, hoping for more prosperity *smile*. This tray consist of lots of "good" fruits & vegetables .... bringing special meanings by each of them. Don't ask me what they each mean ... I dont know all of them. But I can guess lah ... like mandarin oranges for "gold", dried longan for "sweetness", etc. etc.

Here is a closer look for the full "recipe". It consist of leek, mandarin oranges, pumpkin, nian gao, huat kueh, dried longan, pomelo, whole garlic bulbs and complete with a red packet.

Eldest SIL came on the 1st day of CNY and asked why never put pineapple. Then 2nd SIL say "you never tell me mah" ... and the conversation continued for another good 20 minutes.

Would I do this when I have my own home? Well, yeah, maybe ... but purely for deco purposes and nothing else!

BTW, do you like the red plant that is at the background of the platter? I love this simple plant. It looks lovely when the light green leaves sprout out. Something simple and with a bit of a modern twist for CNY!

CNY almost over :-(

It was hard waking up this morning. It is my first day back to work in the new Lunar New Year. After 12 days of being away from the office, actually I was a bit eager to get back to the routine .. simply because it has been darn tiring taking care of my lil one 24-7 for the past 12 days! His unending energy is .. is ... is ... (I have nothing to say, too tired).

Moreover, today is the 9th day of Lunar New Year, and being married to a Hokkien "lang", we had the "tien kong" festival last night. Lots and lots of preparation and had to wait till midnight before we can start our prayers. Probably fell asleep as past 2am this morning and by 6.30am, had to wake up to ensure we dont get stuck in the usual morning traffic as all of KLnites start work today due to the public holiday yesterday to commemorate City Day.

No pictures from me today although we have been eating out every lunch & dinner since the eve of CNY ... just no mood to snap any pics while attending to lil one.

I prayed hard last night for my lil one to sleep without waking up at night for milk or for any reason. Prayed that he would enjoy his night sleep from tonight onwards as he is a big boy now. Prayed that he would be an obedient boy and listen to mommie & daddie's words. So will have to wait and see if it works :-)

Today will be mostly spent blog-hopping as I have not touched my laptop for the past 12 days as well. So my blogger friends, here I come :-)

Gong Xi Fa Cai to you!

Its getting exciting for me. Today will be my last day at the office and from tomorrow onwards, I will start my unofficial Chinese New Year celebrations ... yippee!

I already have plans lined up for 5 out of the 15 lunar new year celebrations and I am sure there are more to come! We have lots of visiting to do and also hosts lots of family and friends at our home too.

Our celebrations start on the eve of the new year whereby Chinese around the world would hosts a REUNION DINNER with their family. And as a married woman, it is customary to spend this dinner with her in-laws. My in-laws have a pretty extended family. There are 10 siblings on my father-in-laws side of the family and we all get together for the reunion dinner each year. With each of them having their own children and grandchildren, there are at least 100 of us at that dinner ... large group huh? If I remember correctly, we had 120 last year *smile*. And each year, we sit down together for a wonderful 8-course meal at Royal China Restaurant (which is part of the Tai Thong Group). And it is never complete without Yee Sang & karaoke all night long!.

On the first day of CNY, it will be our turn to host the extended family in our house. Of course not all 100-odd of them would turn up but still the house will be filled with people from noon till late night. Usually I am in the kitchen all the time, preparing food & drinks. Yes its tiring but thats the true meaning of CNY - food, drinks & some small time gambling too!

Traditionally, only on the 2nd day of CNY are the married woman allowed to go back to her own home for the celebrations. And I have practised this since I got married. So this day, I would wake up early and get prepared. The family would first have our must-have dimsum at Xin Cuisine (we do this every year too!) and after this, hubby & I head to my mom's place and BIL & SIL and his family heads to Melaka, where my SIL is from. Hubby, lil one & I spend the rest of the day there, chatting with my aunts & uncles and cousins, etc. Its nice to meet up with all of them once a year. My mom usually cooks up a storm for today's dinner, which I really appreciate. So thoughtful of her to cook all the food that I enjoy :-) Also on this day, my eldest SIL & her family returns home from Ipoh to celebrate CNY with us.

This year, CNY falls on a Monday & Tuesday and I presume quite a number of us would take the remaining 3 days off as well so that we can enjoy an extended week of holidays. So I will have to look forward to more food & open houses.

I will therefore have limited or even no time to blog at all .... so may I leave you with my sincere wishes for a ...

HAPPY & PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!

GONG XI FA CAI!

Chinese Kung Fu Shirt

I simply adore tradition. And with Chinese New Year fast approaching, I look forward to adhering to the tradition for the sake of festivity such as no sweeping on the first day of the Lunar New Year, giving of angpows (money in red packets) to the young & single, lots & lots of oranges to symbolise "gold", etc etc.

During the last CNY, my son was only 8 months young. It was an adorable age and my mom bought him a gold traditional outfit. Boy! He looks absolutely adorable! This coming CNY, he will be a year older, running about everywhere. Told hubby that we should stick to the tradition and dress him up in a chinese kung fu shirt as well *smile*.

I find it rather difficult to shop for boys but when it comes to girls, there are abundance of choices in the shopping malls. Luckily, this mother recommended me Domii - a fashion outlet exclusively for boys clothing. I was ecstatic!



The above sample might look a bit "mature" for my toddler son, but don't despair ... Domii offers very exciting choices for all occasions. Be it a party, or casual wear and even smart formal wear and festive choices too!

I was rather surprised to find out that Metrojaya outlets have their range too in addition to their own outlet located on the first floor of The Curve. Or if you are FB (Facebook) fan like me ... check out ...dommiboyswear.

And specially for blogging mommies (or daddies), do check out the opportunity to win a RM88 voucher for your shopping spree! Closing date is 20 December but its never too early to try your luck! Happy Blogging friends!