My Life On The Move – Current Location: Houston

Thai Red Curry with Chicken

INGREDIENT

Meat (I used chicken)

Vegetable (I used mushroom, green beans, carrots, aubergine and peas)

Thai basil

2 cubes brown / cane sugar

1/3 cube chicken stock

Fish sauce

2 teaspoon red curry paste (I used store-bought paste)

Chopped onion and garlic

1 can coconut milk

First fry onion, garlic and some sugar until fragrant, then fry the red curry paste. Make sure you have enough oil and the pot is not burning hot so that you don’t suffocate yourself from the pungent chilli smell.

Once you see the oil turning red, add some coconut milk and fry a little. When coconut milk is red, add in the remaining coconut milk. Simmer for about 5 minutes and add in chicken pieces. When chicken is half cooked, add vegetables.

Then add fish sauce and chicken cube. You can add chicken stock if prefer but I don’t like watered-down curry, I like my Thai curry thick.

Taste your curry and add more paste if you want it hotter. Add Thai basil, cover and let curry simmer for 10 minutes.

There’s a very good Thai restaurant that Adam and I normally go to, Adam said my red curry is not far off from that. YAY!

It’s Halloween!

We have got a Jack O’ Latern - battery operated so we can use it again next year, though the battery is dead now. I had it switched on for long hours the past few days =P

I bought a black bowl with spider web and a spider in it for chocolates. I also got 3 packets of chocolates just in case some kids come trick-or-treating but Adam and I have already finished half the chocolate supplies that we have. I guess if we run out of chocolate, we just don’t answer the door!

Happy Halloween people!

Food for the lazy and non-picky eaters. It took me only 20 minutes (including preparation time) to make this meal for 2 but let me warn you, this is not something for everyone. This is for you if you

• don’t want to spend alot of time in the kitchen
• love Campbell soup
• want a cheap and quick complete meal
• are not fussy
• have limited meat or veg in your fridge

Creamy Chicken Spaghetti with Bacon and Mixed Vegetable

What you need?

1 can Cream of Chicken with Herb (or Cream of Mushroom)

2/3 can of water

Mixed vegetable ( I used carrots, brocolli, mushroom and celery)

Meat ( I used chicken and bacon)

Pasta ( I used spaghetti)

Onion and garlic

First fry some onion and garlic in olive oil until fragrant, then add in meat. When meat is half cooked, add vegetable. Stir fry and add some black pepper. When vegetable is half cooked, add the condensed soup and water. Stir well so that there is no lumps and let it simmer for a couple minutes.

Top sauce on spaghetti and serve!

It’s so simple, isn’t it? I have to admit I was in a lazy mood yesterday and it worked out well. A decent meal, nothing fancy – it taste like spaghetti in campbell soup with alot of vegetable and meat.

Variation

Put cooked pasta (spagetti, fusilli, bow…etc) in a casserole dish. Add in sauce and top sauce with parmessan cheese. Bake in 450F oven for 20 minutes.

Over the weekend when everyone in Malaysia was busy with the Deepa-Raya celebrations, rushing to balik kampung or getting ready for a vacation, here in Houston was the 27th Asian American Festival.

This is an annual event that celebrates all Asian cultures in Houston and is held at Hermann Park (only minutes away from my apartment). This celebration showcases the dance, martial arts, puppetry, music, folk art and cuisine of the different culture and is free to everyone.

It was a lovely Sunday, 16C and sunny. Adam and I decided that we should go to the park, enjoy the celebration in that beautiful weather and have a little picnic. What’s in our picnic bag? I made bacon, egg and sausage sandwiches to fill our tummies and a flask of hot tea, a flask of cold water, a small bottle of grapefruit juice and a bottle of wine to quench our thirst. YUM!

Smiling with a full tummy, though not a very good shot.

When we got there, the place was packed! Packed with Asians! I have not seen such a great concentration of Asians in one venue in Houston until now. There were 3 performing stages, one each for martial arts, dance and music.

We got there just on time for Shaolin Kung Fu presented by the Houston Songshan Shaolin Temple. It was amazing how some kids at the age of 4 can do so much! Also, it wasn’t only Chinese who does kung fu, there were a few white and black kids too. Adam and I were amazed by their performance, they were so flexible and agile.

Also, whenever there’s something to do with kung fu, there will be Wong Fei Hung music. This time is no different and it brought back memories of Malaysia. You know how every Chinese New Year, the tv stations will never miss a chance to broadcast one Jet-Li movie? Ahh… the sweet memories of CNY, spending time with my family with alot of food and drinks (alcoholic) and meeting friends and eating even more. Card games, mah jong, mandarin oranges, kuaci, meat floss, BBQ meat (pork yuk kon), loh sang and booze… such great memories.

We kinda have had enough of kung fu after an hour, so we walked to the other side of the park to enjoy some dance performance. We watch an Indian classical dance which was awesome. The beautiful costumes and accessories and the graceful movements.

After that was a dance session called Pride of the Pacific, Hawaii. The aboriginal culture of Hawaii is Polynesian, which is why here they are somewhat classified as Asian. The audience were presented with some dances and songs.

Not a very clear photo of some kids doing a Hawaiian dance.

One of the performance which I really enjoyed was the Kaminari Taiko. Taiko means drum in Japanese. The group of Japanese (and some Americans) had a good performance, strong beats on the drums which exert some powerful energy in their performance – just brilliant.

Kaminari Taiko performance

When Taiko was over, it was close to 6pm and we wanted to leave. Though the celebration ends at 8.30pm we decided not to stay as the temperature was getting colder. It was a great way to spend Sunday, especially in such cool Fall weather.

I just got home from the grocery store – my 4th trip to the store this week. I usually aim to go twice a week but somehow sometimes circumstances are such that I have to go more often.

Anyhow, today I went to this signature store near my apartment as I was too lazy to drive all the way to the store which I usually go to. I was looking for the last item on my shopping list – moisturiser, when I thought of just asking for help to save me some time. Saw the usual employee in white shirt and navy blue pants and asked

Me: Excuse me.

Lady: (turns with a smile) Yes

Me: Do you know which aisle facial moisturisers are at?

Lady: (lost her smile) No. I don’t work here.

Me: (F-CK!) I am sorry, so sorry.

I looked at the badge on her shirt, it says HOUSTON METRO OFFICER.

Shit. Malunya.

This is not the first time. Somehow I have this ability to ask people who DOES NOT WORK at stores for assistance. I wonder if it’s because some people dress like store employees or I am just not attentive.

One night in Austin, Adam and I wanted to catch a cab to a bar. We were hailing what we thought was a cab (it has those lights at the roof of a cab to indicate it’s not occupied). That car didn’t stop for us and as I wanted to curse the driver we realised it’s a Domino’s Pizza delivery car!

Anyone planning a dive vacation or want to learn to dive? If you do, I will recommend that you go to Scuba Dynamics in Hartamas.

No, I don’t own any shares in this place. I came across this shop by chance a few months back when I started planning our dive vacation in December. Then I was looking for a shop that can plan my entire trip for me based on what we wanted in a dive holiday.

I did my homework before I contacted several dive shops but this place impressed me. The owner, Henry, replied my email and did a great job in trying to understand our preferences and he did have some good recommendations. (Mind you, some well known shops around KL either did not reply to my email or recommended some crappy resorts!)

Based on our requirements, Henry came back with an estimate which is $800 cheaper than what I have estimated it would cost us if we did the bookings on our own!

Having chatted with Henry many times, I find that he’s a very nice person and very helpful. His business is not all about making your money, which is very important to me.

I have to say that I am confident that this is a much better place to learn to dive and go with on dive vacations than the one I went with once (and never again).

Many of you know that Adam and I have been planning to move into a new apartment next year. We have been apartment hunting with the main priorities like

1. Lap pool
2. Within walking distance to nice restaurants and bars
3. Easy access to highways for Adam to get to work
4. Nice surrounding area / neighbourhood

With these requirements, we found 3 apartments! We really like 2 of them and we are keeping the 3rd as a backup.

Apartment #1 – Kirby Place

• Has a lap pool and very beautiful pool area
• 10 minutes walk to some nice restaurants and a gourmet food market and 15 minutes walk to the hip Rice Village – an area with alot of good bars, nice restaurants and aa shopping centre
• Neighbourhood is ok, nothing fancy but next to a posh neighbourhood and a very nice place to cycle around.
• About 3km drive to the highway.

Extra goodies

• Well equipped gym
• 8 free classes at the aerobics studio weekly – yoga, pillates, tae-bo, kick boxing, step
• Complimentary hot breakfast at the clubhouse every first Saturday of the month – apartment’s social gathering

Apartment # 2 – Pin Oak Park

• It has a lap pool, a heated lap pool and a jacuzzi with a very big sundeck.
• In the posh Belair neighbourhood, very beautiful and green surroundings which is good for walks and cycles.
• Quicker to work than Apartment #1

Extra goodies

• Car wash bay with vacuum
• Beautiful floorplan
• Tight security
• 5 minutes drive from the famous shopping district, The Galleria

Concerns:

• Only 1 cajun restaurant and bar which is within walking distance
• Gym looks old
• No lifts, walk-up only

Apartment #3 – The Maroneal (backup option)

• It has a lap pool and a small (really small) pool but the pool area is small.
• In a very beautiful neighbourhood, apartment surrounded by big houses and very green environment
• 5 minutes walk to some decent restaurants and fast food outlets and about 10 minutes walk to Rice Village.
• About the same distance to work as Apartment #1

Concerns:

• Small gym
• Slightly more expensive than the other 2 apartments with the same layout

Adam and I are torned between Aparment 1 and 2. I like the many free aerobic classes and it being close by to Rice Village in Apartment #1 and Adam loves the idea of having a heated lap pool and a jacuzzi and it being close to the Galleria in Apartment #2.

We can only decide in November where we will be moving into as it’s only then that the management office of the apartments know what units are available for move in.

We will be back to Houston on 27 December and intend to move 29 or 30 December before the New Year. Since I will be back in Malaysia 19 November, I will have to start packing the small stuff before I leave and leave the big stuff to the movers.

Adam’s dad and stepmum will be visiting us 8 January, which leaves me less than 2 weeks to unpack! Looks like we will have some very exciting and busy months ahead of us.

Will update once we have decided on which apartment we are moving to.

This is an easy to make and delicious meal.

Hot & Spicy Fish Fillet with Steam Vegetable (Broccoli, Baby Carrots and Broccoflower)

I bought Tilapia fillet and then sliced it into bite size. Season with salt and pepper, dust with flour and fry them until golden brown

Sauce:

• Sambal oelek (garlic and chilli paste)
• Thai sweet chilli sauce
• Lemon Juice
• Fish sauce

Mix the sauce in a bowl first. Add the ingredients according to your preference. More sambal if you like it spicy; more sweet chili sauce for a sweeter taste.

When you are done frying the fish, set them aside. Fry red onion and garlic until fragrant. Add cili padi if you like it hot. Pour in the sauce and let it simmer. When it starts to get thick add in the fish pieces. Make sure every piece of fish is coated with the sauce.

I like to serve mine with steam vegetable as a dish and have them with rice. You can always have it as a dish on its own.

Happy cooking!

One more vacation before the year ends. Last vacation of the year will be in Asia!

21 Nov – Arriving in KL!

Adam has to be in China for a conference before heading to KL. He’ll arrive 8 Dec.

12 Dec – Singapore (some shopping and we are planning to meet some friends)
13 Dec – Manado, Indonesia (our first dive vacation this year, a week of diving in North Sulawesi – Manado and Lembeh Straits)
20 Dec – Back to KL (for the weekend and Christmas parties)
27 Dec – Leave for home (Houston)

We have to go makan ok? (A call to the foodie chairman and TCG people). There should be a TCG reunion, especially since its members will all be back

Flight tickets confirmed and dive package paid for. Everything is set to go. We are looking forward to be back. See you next month!