Life got busy

Malaysian fruits

It feels like ages since I last posted. The truth is that life got a little busy in my world.

Anyway, here are a few more photos from Malaysia.

Do you know the fruits shown on the right? They are langsat, (on the left) and maggis (on the right; mangoesteen in English).

Both fruits are widely available in Malaysia. My sister-in-law came home with a bag full of these exotic fruits which I haven’t tasted in over 10 years. It sure was a treat. The skin of both fruits are discarded. The small langsat (make a circle with your index finger and thumb – that’s about the size of the fruit) is easily eaten as the skin is soft and can be peeled away like  banana skin. The skin of the manggis is harder. Place it between both hands and gently press your palms together. The pressure will pop the fruit. The skin has a reddish stain so I am careful to keep it away from my clothes.

Pop a piece into the mouth, and the flesh of both fruits seems to melt. Be sure to spit out any seeds, and enjoy the sweet juicy taste :D.

Chocolates

My friend just arrived home from Hokkaido, Japan and she gave me this beautiful box of chocolates. Don’t you just love the packaging and colours?

There were many flavours such as passionfruit, berries, chocolate (of course!), green tea, etc. You’d notice that two pieces have gotten a little bit misshapened – the hot weather in Malaysia made the pieces soft, and when I tried to pick them up…

Hope you are having a great new year so far.

Central Market, Kuala Lumpur

Mom, Sis and I went to Central Market in Kuala Lumpur. It is a cultural shopping centre, which in the old days was a wet market selling meat and vegetables.

Today, the shopping centre offers visitors a lot of unique Malaysian made goods, and a pleasant place to walk around.

I am not keen on going to a modern shopping centre for brands that can be found all over the world (such as Gap, Esprit, etc.) At this place, my sister bought a lovely blouse, and I bought a shirt and a scarf – all made locally.

Indoors (the blue building on the left of the 2nd last photo is the Central Market) is lovely and pleasant, but there are also more stalls/shops outdoors. It’s quite hot and humid outdoors, but I enjoyed walking around and admiring the architecture of the old buildings seen in the photos.

The simple life

I have been a bit busy catching up with family and friends, and haven’t been drawing or painting. So, for Paint Party Friday, here are pieces I completed in Tai O Fishing Village in Hong Kong mid last year.

A skinny 4 storey house. The top (green section) of this house was used as a laundry room.

I wonder if this was a house. It resembled a surf rescue station. It was low tide, so there was no water below the house/building.

A beautiful old house which I think can be restored into a very lovely place.

 

Now to a totally unrelated topic…

Arrowroot Chips.

Chinese New Year is celebrated in Malaysia in late January.  My Mom and Sis-In-Law were busy in the kitchen making arrowroot chips, which is a popular snack made for the festival.

I help a little, but I was also taking photographs. Here is the finished product (above) which is crunchy and stores very well in airtight containers. If you are curious about how it is made, keep scrolling down. It is quite easy.

 

The arrowroot bulbs were washed and their skin peeled.

 

When using a slicer like the one above, leave the arrowroot stalks intact to be used as a handle while slicing.

Without adding any flavour, the slices were then deep fried in oil (I guess you can add some flavour if you like, but in this case, none was used).

 

All done.

Happy Weekend.

Photos from Malaysia

I went to the outdoor morning market with my Mom and her friend. My Mom has been shopping here for years. This vegetable stall owner allows Mom and her friend to deposit their purchases here, until it’s time to leave. The man would even help take their bags of food to the car. Fabulous service, don’t you think?! In case you are wondering, he doesn’t do that for everyone. Mom is a loyal and special customer.

These are popular Chinese snack that have been around for many years. Fried dough – they are crispy on the outside and soft inside. The long ones  on the left (Yau Char Kwai in Chinese. In Australia, these are referred to as “Chinese doughnuts”) are lovely when dunked in local coffee. It is also commonly eaten with Chinese congee.

There are a few varieties of round ones on the right (Ham Chim Pang)– sweetened dough with seeds on top, sometimes containing sweet fillings made of beans or rice, etc.

Char Kueh Teow is a favourite street food. It is made with thin flat rice noodles fried with bean sprouts, prawns and Chinese sausage (which is the red piece on the top). The sauce to flavour this dish is a concoction of a few ingredients including light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, salt and oyster sauce. The green leaf that the food is placed on is banana leaf, which in this case is just an aesthetic feature.

Malaysian desserts tend to use a lot of shaved ice, which I love since the weather is always hot and humid. This dessert has many varieties of local fruits and sweet potato, served in freshly squeezed coconut milk.

Hiding

Acrylics on canvas paper, 8.27 x 11.69 inches

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

It’s Paint Party Friday again, and here’s another acrylics painting in my bird series…

I arrived in Kuala Lumpur to catch up with my family. Here are a few random photos. My Mom’s prawns (above) was delicious.

She cooked a yummy meal. From top left, prawn curry, fried beans, boiled eggs and fried prawns. These were served with jasmine rice cooked in coconut milk.

Some photos taken in the garden…

This was mine, before I left Kuala Lumpur. It has since grown up a lot under my Mom’s care.

My brother’s beautiful palm tree

I wish you a wonderful 2012.

Ipad Art

Time is zipping by this week. I have “lost” a day, because I crossed the international time line coming back to Australia. In my current jetlagged state, I thought I have missed Paint Party Friday, but obviously I was wrong.

Today’s post is about some Ipad art I completed for my husband’s presentation a few months ago in New York. The finished artwork was exported to Jpeg format, which he projected on a big screen, together with other slides and video. The feedback I got was positive, since a picture can sometimes say so much more than words.

 

I hope you enjoyed the images, even though I haven’t given you the context of his presentation.

Have a nice weekend, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Kookaburra, San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge

Acrylics on canvas paper, 8.27 x 11.69 inches

I keep calling him “Tommy”, because it makes me think of a boy who is pleased with himself, and is thinking of the next mischief to get into…

Do you know the Australian nursery rhyme? Here goes…

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Merry, merry king of the bush is he
Laugh, Kookaburra! Laugh, Kookaburra!
Gay your life must be

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Eating all the gum drops he can see
Stop, Kookaburra! Stop, Kookaburra!
Leave some there for me

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Counting all the monkeys he can see
Stop, Kookaburra! Stop, Kookaburra!
That's not a monkey that's me

Kookaburra sits on a rusty nail
Gets a boo-boo in his tail
Cry, Kookaburra! Cry, kookaburra!
Oh how life can be

Paint Party Friday

The Golden Gate Bridge in silhouette… the family seemed to be having a nice day out last Saturday.

Sunday Bridges.