Crafted by Mei - handmade jewellery

Ask my husband and you'll know that I'm extremely fussy when it comes to choosing earrings or necklaces.
I stumbled upon this blog craftedbymei.blogspot.com several years ago. Amelia is a very talented girl who makes beautiful handmade jewellery. Browse through her blog and you will see pretty bracelets and necklaces of different themes and colours.
My first purchase (2 years ago) were 2 necklaces; both simple and sweet to be worn for casual outings.

Earlier this month, I emailed Amelia and told her I wanted to order some pieces. We emailed back and forth discussing the colour of the flower cabochon I wanted, the charms and their positioning, etc. Finally after 2 weeks, her work arrived at my doorstep via poslaju.

Here, let me show you:)

Packaging

Here are my earrings with light purple flower cabochon.


          

Next, are the rings:) Aren't they pretty?
I asked for bright pink and aquamarine flower cabochon.

Up next are 3 lovely necklaces.

The first necklace has an orange flower cabochon at the center, with a gothic key and heart charm on its side.

The second necklace has a key charm at the center, with a blue flower cabochon and blue enchanted series charm at the sides.

Last but not least is the necklace I've been eyeing since its debut in Dec' 2013.
It's called Baby's Breath Crystal Ball necklace. It comes in a variety of colours and if you're interested do email Amelia. You can see better pictures here.

If you like her work, head over to Amelia's blog: Crafted by Mei (craftedbymei.blogspot.com)
Whether it is for yourself, for your sister, your friend or your bridesmaid...there's something in her blog that you will surely like.

Kaede Japanese Restaurant @ Alor Setar

Last week was one of the weirdest week ever. If you know me well, you'll know that I'm not a big fan of Japanese food. Like I said, it was a weird week since I had Japanese food (almost) 3 days in a row. Yesterday, I treated mum Japanese food for her birthday.
Kaede is not a new restaurant. In fact, it has been around for 4 years and this is my first time there (now you know I don't fancy Japanese food).

We arrived about 1pm. The place was not packed thankfully.

Mom ordered the Yakiniku set (chicken and cabbage dish with rice, miso soup and 2 slices of watermelon).

Yakiniku Set (RM 15)

Other half was late, so I ordered Beef Teppanyaki for him.

Beef Teppanyaki (RM 15)

I had cheese baked curry beef rice. Thumbs up!

Cheese baked curry beef rice (RM 16)

We ordered 2 scoops of green tea ice cream. I'm actually craving for it now.

Green tea ice cream (RM 2.80/scoop)

The total bill was RM 54.50 which includes 2 cups green tea (RM 0.50/cup) and 1 glass ice lemon tea (RM 1.90).

Ki No Me Japanese Restaurant@The One

We had a team lunch today at Ki No Me Japanese Restaurant, located at The One.
I made the reservation last Monday for the 7 of us and pre-ordered our meals before-hand.

We arrived rather early, 10 minutes before their official opening time. Fortunately, we only waited about 1 minute when the door opened and we were welcomed in to the restaurant.

In less than half an hour, the place was filled up with patrons. The service was quite fast, in my opinion.

The chawan mushi  was served first. According to my colleagues, the chawan mushi was quite peppery and tasted rather normal.

A and YS had Sake Teriyaki Gozen (RM 26), which consists of salmon in teriyaki sauce, fried chicken cutlets, salad, tuna and rice. They said that the salmon was okay, but did not like the fried chicken.

 C ordered Yakimono Sanpin Gozen (RM 26) which consists of  seafood (prawn and fish) and teriyaki chicken, served with rice and salad. She mentioned that the teriyaki chicken and fish was good, but the prawn was salty.

SS had  Salmon Teppanyaki set lunch (RM 16). She did not enjoy the garlic sauce that was poured on the salmon.

CC ordered the Chicken Sutaminayaki (RM 16). The chicken was okay, but again a little on the salty side. He commented that the portion was too small. Ah I suppose, guys can really eat..haha.

SL and I ordered Salmon fried rice (RM 8) but I added on 2 Yakitori chicken sticks (RM 6).
While the salmon fried rice is quite nice, the yakitori chicken lacks taste. IMO, the chicken should be marinated longer and the grilling time should be longer too.

CC ordered a slice of cheese cake (RM 4).

I think the mint chocolate cakes are complimentary. I feel it's quite nice, not too sweet nor too minty.

Our team photo:)

Mapo Tofu

I had this craving for mapo tofu since I last had it at one the restaurants at The One 2 weeks ago.
Tried cooking this dish and it turned out pretty well (not perfect since I do not have Szechuan peppercorns) albeit not 'mala' or mouth numbing enough.

Here are the ingredients:

1 packet of soft tofu - cut into squares (mine turned out a little mushy from the packet)
50gs minced pork
3 cloves garlic - chopped
2 chilli padi - chopped
3 spring onions - chopped

For the sauce, you will need:

2 tbsp chilli bean paste ( I use Lee Kum Kee's Toban Djan sauce)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
1 tspb sesame oil
2 tsp chilli flakes
100 ml beef stock (not in the picture)
100 ml water
Cornstarch for thickening

Steps:

1. Heat up cooking oil in the wok.
2. Add garlic, chilli flakes and chilli padi and fry until fragrant.
3. Add the pork and fry until the pork is cooked.
4. Add the chilli bean paste and mix the combination until even. Add in the spring onions.
5. Slide the tofu in gently.
6. Add in the balsamic vinegar, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, shaoxing wine and sesame oil.
7. Coat the tofu with the gravy evenly and gently. Now pour in the beef stock and water.
8. Bring it to a boil.
9. If the gravy is too diluted, add cornstarch.
10. Add salt and sugar to taste.

Kupang (Mussels) Masak Merah Berserai

The inspiration of this recipe comes from a lady blogger.

I read through the ingredients and decided to tweak a little.

Ingredients:

Mussels (about 200g)

Turmeric powder (1 tsbp)

Lime juice (2 tbsp)

3 garlic cloves (chopped)

12 knob ginger (chopped)

2-3 shallots (chopped)

1 medium size tomato (cut into slices)

1 Lemongrass (bruised)

3-4 pcs Kaffir lime

2-3 pcs chilli padi

2 tbps tomato sauce

1 tbsp chilli sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

100 ml water

salt and sugar to taste

Steps:

1. Boil mussels until they're cooked. Drain mussels and add turmeric and 1 tbsp lime juice. - This is to remove the musky smell.

2. In a wok, heat up oil and then add in chopped garlic, ginger and shallots. Fry until fragrant.

3. Stir in lemongrass, kaffir lime and chilli padi. The combination should be very aromatic.

4. Now, add tomatoes followed by the mussels.

5. Keep frying until for about 5 minutes and then add in the tomato, chilli and oyster sauce.

6. Ensure the mussels are coated nicely with the sauces and then pour in water.

7. Bring to a boil. Then add in the remaining lime juice.

8. You can add salt and sugar according to your preference.

9. Serve warm with rice

Enjoy!

Pizza with tuna and pineapples (Hawaiian Tuna Pizza)

Some called it Hawaiian pizza, it's basically a simple pizza made with 2 main ingredients; tuna and pineapples.

This is our first time making this, so there's still room for improvements.

Prepare beforehand the basic marinara sauce. You don't need much for the pizza base, but the remaining sauce can be used for pasta too. I prepared the marinara sauce several hours before making the pizza. It's pretty simple. You will need

• Chopped garlic (2-3 cloves)
• Chopped onion (1 large yellow onion),
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 200-300 ml water
• 3 tomatoes chopped
• 2 bay leaves 
• Mixed Italian herbs
• Black pepper and salt to taste

In a pan, heat up olive oil and saute the garlic and onions until slightly browned. Add in chopped tomatoes and the tomato paste. Add bay leaves and mixed herbs. Give it a stir and then pour in water. Bring the sauce to a boil. Add some freshly grounded black pepper and salt.

You can always make the pizza base from scratch but since we were lazy, we used the pre-made base bought from Tesco instead. We got the canned tuna and pineapples from Tesco too.

Using a fork, mashed the tuna and add some black pepper. Slice some button mushrooms.

Now, put some olive oil into the baking tray (we do not have a pizza pan so we used a baking tray instead). Spread the marinara sauce on the pizza base.

Next, spread the tuna on top followed by mushrooms and pineapples.

Now, sprinkle generous amounts of mozzarella cheese on top.

Pre-heat oven for 5 minutes at 200C. Then pop in the pizza and bake for another 20 minutes.

We realized halfway that we should have sprinkle more cheese on the pizza. So halfway through the baking process, we took the pizza out and add more cheese on top.

Hoping that the 2nd time round, I would have perfected this pizza. I suppose I could also add some bacon/ham to this pizza. What do you think?