The Ajumma Gang

It's always fun meeting a group of people who share the common interest. This post is just an update of my first Korean language class with additional group photos plus my lunch and dinner photos. Previous post about my first Korean language class here.

 Look at the amount of people who attended the beginner class. And this is just one class, there are other beginner classes as well in different timeslots.

Rachel, Meiyen, Hubby and I are now officially the Ajumma gang! There's no particular reason as to why we call ourselves the Ajumma gang though haha.

 Group photo 1. I was soooo far behind. Can you spot me? =D

Group photo 2.

Before the class, Hubby and I had lunch at this vegetarian cuisine restaurant nearby.

 Me!

 Hubby's spinach soup.

 Seaweed salad sandwich that I ordered and I like it! I like how they place the miniature sandwich in a coffee filter paper. Gonna order it again next time!

 Additional order of seaweed roll. Not bad but I still prefer the salad sandwich.

The vegetarian cuisine restaurant near our Korean language centre.

After the class ended, the four of us aka Ajumma gang members walked to Sunway Pyramid to fill our empty stomach.

The Ajumma gang at Ichiban Ramen.

Cold soba with ebi tempura ordered by me. Om nom nom. It was indeed a satisfying meal.

That's all!

by

CSY

CSY's Hainanese Chicken Chop

Finally, a Hainanese learning how to cook Hainanese Chicken Chop! Hainanese chicken chop is such a sentimental dish for the local Hainanese. I was told by my parents and grandparents that many Hainanese worked for the English people during the British colonisation era and they invented this yummy dish with a unique touch of western and eastern influence. Being a Hainanese myself, I felt like I really need to learn how to cook it. So once again I kept my afternoon busy by doing my stuff in the kitchen.

 Tadaa! The CSY's version of Hainanese Chicken Chop. My attempt in recreating this famous dish turned out to be quite successful! Here are the simple steps of making this delicious dish.

1. Lightly season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper (I used thin chicken breasts for the chicken chop but you can always use chicken thigh).
2. Lightly flour the chicken breasts.
3. Toss the chicken breasts in beaten egg mixture.
4. Toss the chicken breasts in breadcrumbs. The breadcrumbs I used is Ottogi brand breadcrumbs available in most supermarkets.
5. Deep fry the breadcrumbed chicken breasts. Make sure your oil is hot enough.
6. Now prepare the sauce. I used 3 tbsp of tomato ketchup, 2 tbsp of Worchestire sauce, 1 tbsp of oyster sauce, 1 tbsp of brown sugar and some water.
7. Add in the mixed veges, diced tomatoes and onions in the sauce and cook till the tomatoes are soft.
8. Pour the sauce over the crispy chicken chop and you're done!

 Another close up shot. Look at the crispy deep fried chicken chop. I was very pleased with my own work this time as I had experienced several failures at frying chicken chop in the past.

And it's important to eat it while it's hot! If you leave it for too long, the chicken chop will get soggy right away. So it's better to eat it right after you finished cooking!

Of course there are many different versions of Hainanese chicken chop you can get out there. I tried the Kluang Station's version once and it doesn't appeal to me. I personally feel that those Hainanese Chicken Chops served at modern style kopitiams are simply too soggy for my liking.

Magenta's version was definitely one of the most authentic ones you can get. It's served while the chicken chop is still crispy on the outside.

You can get it at Magenta @ Publika! (stole this picture from an online blog. I had Magenta chicken chop many times but I always forgot to snap a picture of it)

That's all for today!

by

CSY

Learning Korean

안녕하세요! ♥

My biggest, biggest wish ever was to be able to learn and speak Korean language fluently. I remembered being envious of people who can speak Korean fluently, especially in situations where they are able to converse with Koreans. At that point of time I was secretly hoping that someday I can be like them too. Imagine watching Korean drama and variety shows without subtitles, understanding Korean song lyrics without english translation etc etc.

Thanks to hubby and his friends, my wish is finally granted *wipe non-existing tears of joy* as hubby and I have recently signed up for Korean language class at Maru Language Education Centre. Now I'm one big step closer towards my dream of backpacking tour to Korea (knowing the language is quite essential if you want to travel without a tour guide or agency in Korea). Yesterday was my first Korean language class and I have to say I sincerely enjoyed it. I guess when you are passionate about learning something, the whole learning process becomes fun and that's when you know you enjoy learning something. Inserts quote of the day: learning a language is the only way to completely understand another’s culture from their perspective. I couldn't agree more with this! =)

Had to write down the address of the Korean language centre so we could locate it easily. The centre is located at the row of shophouses behind The One Academy, Bandar Sunway. So it's really convenient for us as we can have our meal/shopping at Sunway Shopping Mall after the class.

Tadaa Hubby and I manage to found the centre!

The Korean words on the board says something like welcome and nice to meet you I guess? Haha.

This is how the centre looks like once we entered. Feeling excited already! The centre feels so cosy and homey!

Maru is the name of the language centre.

Our classroom! 1A Kyou-Sil (教室).

A small classroom which can accommodate up to 24 students. Of course there are other classrooms as well for advanced levels students.

Our very first class would be learning the Korean consonants and vowels and how to pronounce them accurately as taught by our Korean teacher. The duration of the class is one hour and a half but time passes really quickly here.

Our studybook and workbook.

Hubby, Rachel and Meiyen. Rachel is the one introducing us to this centre.

Hubby and I ♥.

Picture of me with the very young Korean teacher from Korea of course. That's me posing with the Gwiyomi gestures. =P

Korean letters chart.

The centre also sells Korean food and beverages.

That's all about my very first Korean language class! Will blog more about the future classes and also how I progress from a beginner to intermediate and hopefully one day I can even blog in Korean! We shall see about that! Haha.

안녕히 계세요!

by

CSY

Pack-And-Go Healthy Lunch Boxes

Quote of the day: Eating fresh, local, healthy foods is the age old secret to a long and disease-free life. It may sound old but it's 100% true. That is also why I insisted on packing my lunch daily for work during my clinical placement (Glad it's over now! *throws confetti*). To be honest, packing lunch does take a little time (and sweat) but I enjoy cooking so why not =P.

Here are some of the lunch boxes that I made and enjoy eating.

 Kimchi fried rice! Brown rice fried with kimchi and korean chilli paste. Sometimes I would serve it with a sunny-side-up egg.

Green vegetables such as brocolli is also a must!

 Grilled chicken with herbs! Easy to make as you only have to marinate the chicken breast with herbs before grilling it on a hot pan!

 Again served with brocolli and pasta salad.

 Just a simple salad with spiral pasta, mayonnaise and pepper.

 Love love brocolli. It has so much good properties and taste good too!

 If I'm able to get cheap salmon from the market, it would be in my menu of the day.

The day when I crave for more greens. Frozen vege, tomato, cucumber and baby romaine leaves are the side salad for the day. 

 Pasta with homemade tomato paste from hubby's mother! Thank you aunty for making me this lovely tomato paste! Taste really good!

Salmon, bacon strips and stir-fry burdock with carrot and sesame oil! 

P/S: My current favourite youtube cooking guru is ochikeron! She's a Japanese and her videos show you how to cook Japanese home cooked meals. I manage to get a lot of cooking inspirations from her and the below afternoon tea sandwiches are inspired by ochikeron as well. Looks good isn't it? =)

 Chicken egg and BLT sandwiches. Video link here. I made this for hubby and he absolutely love it! <3

Would be better if you use wholemeal bread. I like the thick crunchy texture of whole meal bread.

Served with my home made mashed potatoes. My secret recipe ; )

That's all!

by

CSY