Italian Brioche

We had guests over for lunch the other day. Dad invited 4 local staff (valerie, debbie, remy et sape lg sorang tak ingt..but lg sorang tu once borrowed mama's baju kurung for a reception on national day and later bought it from mama) from the embassy for a taste of malaysian cooking. Nasi tomato tak pedas langsung was on the menu. They complimented and raved about the smell and the chicken, but what was normal to expect from mat sallehs, they do not eat much. Well at least not much rice. Jelatah sayur was finished, along with dalca daging which mama ladden with cauliflowers (x ingt sp?) and other legumes. For dessert mama prepared the usual agar2 pudding with lychee topping. Yumm.

But that is not what I want to share today. Valerie brought us cadeaux which turned out to be a gateaux. Bloody big box it came in. And it was so..fluffy. Mcm pipi mama. Haha..

Presenting you..italian brioche!! Brioche is actually a bread-like pastery that can come in billions of different erm, fillings of fruits or chocolates. This one had raisins, and was topped off with a meringue and almond topping which was oven baked to give a sweet crispy crown on the top.

It was humungous, so we decided to share it with baby dina and encik amran's family. Even the local swiss told us that once you started eating it, you can't stop. (very true, pantang da siap potong mesti licin)

So that is the story of the first time our family had italian brioche-which is very typical in the winter-for tea!!

Karlovy Vary, Czech Rep : Euro Tour Part II

*this is a serie of a 4-part entry of the author's euro trip recently..

Date: Wednesday, 13th December 2006.

Making our way to Karlovy Vary with the intention of buying mama's chandelier, we passed heavy snow as we inclined up the mountains and the temperature dropped to almost -1. There was massive telltale signs of how much different the lives of the people in Czech Rep was compared to the Germans. The highway was partially done, with the mentality that the country could make better use of the money other than make highways (which I 2nd). And in almost all the windows of the village like cottage we passed by stood the candles symbolizing the celebration of Hanukkah, the festival of light. Hitler drove them all out of Germany, and now they reside in almost all neighbouring country of Germany.

Some people might mistaken this as an ornament of decoration. Poor souls.

We arrived in Karlovy Vary around 5pm which is considerably bad timing. It gets dark real soon here in europ, especially during the winter. All the small stalls selling handicrafts of crystals were packed for the day and our party of 4 made our way to Madonna Crystals where mama found her blue chandelier.

More and more crystals, got me in a dizzy spell myself there. I purchased some brooches and bracelets made out of glass for friends, while my brother sat there hopeless. Haha..

The wall lights

Gold plated ornaments and real crystals, for those whose fetish is collecting intricately detailed handcrafts made to burn a hole in anyones pocket.

Shoes? Doubt it if it comes in a 7.

At the bridge. The chandelier and other crystal things mama bought were dead heavy. We stopped by the fountain of youth, so as the Karlovarsky people cherish it so. We bought a small teapot like mug and tasted the mineral water rase besi (besi is mineral..) everyone we passed by was holding a'mug' or at least a cup and was sipping ever so religiously. Haha. I took a sip and it was hello river!

Mari minom. Did you know, that budweiser the beer originated from the Czech Rep but the americans produced and marketed it until it was known as the american budweiser? There are many more stories of how the Czech have been outsmart by their own neighbors, well maybe for some good reason or other.

At the town square, near the mineral water dispenser..

Dispenser la sgt..haha

So then we made our way in the dark and on to our next destination..Prague!

Berlin: Euro Tour Part I

*this is a serie of a 4-part entry of the author's euro trip recently..

Date: Monday 11th December, 2006.

The 4 of us departed for Berlin via Nurnberg, Germany. Dad was not feeling so well and in the end our journey of 8 hours took us around 14 hours. We stopped a lot for naps and short snacks but eventually got to Berlin all safe and sound around 1 a.m. at uncle zalazfian's house. The residential compound in Berlin was an apartment which was all rented out to the embassy staff and office suites. This first picture is of dad and mama with the Berlin 'Malaysia' Bear. Bears are the symbol of Berlin, which is similar to Bern (Swiss).

Dad and mama in front of the malaysian embassy/residence

We took a Berlin Tour Bus that costs us 12 euros for students and 14 euros for adults. The bus took us within Berlin and provided a tour guide to explain the becoming of Berlin. As we all know, the Berlin Wall was broken down in 1991 and much of Berlin's infrastructure construction took place after the reunification. This is evident in the big bigg buildings we found in Berlin and the wide roads and big open spaces in between the roads which could also be used as parking lots during the evening. Neat huh?

The remains of the Berlin Wall

East and West Berlin was separated by a great wall, much like our friends in Palestine. The occupation of Germany took place when both the Americans and the Russians won the war, so they wanted to claim the land. In the end Germany was divided into two, the east for Russians and the west for the americans. We visited Checkpoint Charlie, a famous US checkpoint where people who only had access (thus the stamping of passport et all) could go to the west. The political instability was very suppressing and a very famous photograph of soldier jumping over barbed wire so that he could escape to the west still poses a strong notion.

Checkpoint Charlie

The US army guardhouse (pictures with the guards costs 1 euro each)

The stamp collection, the different stamps people got to go in or out of west berlin (stamping could also be done on your own passport for 1 euro).

This signboard can be seen on t-shirts, mugs, posters..it is the actual text on the signboard still found today in Checkpoint Charlie to tell citizens that they have reached the border.

This is at Checkpoint Charlie, a monument for..don't remember the name for..don't remember the deed. Hehe..

Beberapa org malaysia stuck in a demonstration back in the days..nape mama senyum time protest??! Taken at a poster exhibition, which was just along the whole street.

In the Berlin City Tour bus, we didn't have the luxury of getting off too many stops because we were on the last touring bus for the day, they had to shorten their services due to some government event later in the day.

Passing by the monuments for remembering those who died..

The happy tourists.

Later, we toured Berlin by ourselves. The embassy wasn't too far for us to remember our way back. Europe really celebrates christmas, in every town we go there will definitely be a christmas bazar, which consists of lots and lots of vin chaud (hot wine), alchocolic punches and more drinking..Everyone is all pink and merry! Haha. The germans however ar famous for their saurkraut big sausages, potatoes and mushrooms. Mmg mengiurkan, especially if you've been walking around town all cold and living off bread and oranges. So in the end, we found the most halal looking stall, a vietnamese preparing mee goreng. She used sunflower oil and after much confirmation, it was all vegetarian. Sedappp~~

A big plate of mee hoon goreng at 3 euros, dirt cheap.

The candy stall at the christmas bazaar.

Erdenbeeren mit schokolade!! Not sure if the sentence is correct or not, but i found chocolate covered strawberriess!! 3 euros each.

Yummmyyy, overall, Berlin nye choc-cov-strawberries were the best

dad with amin syukran

And finally, a picture with the hosts of 2 days and 2 nights, encik Amin Syukran bin Zalazfian. Thanks for your hospitality and good food! Makes me more round by the minute. Owh, and it turns out that uncle zalazfian is the son of my mom's mentor when she just started teaching back in negeri sembilan!! damn coincidence no? en zalazfian is from tampin and they both went to the same school, but him being a much younger junior of course. Skali mama browsed through their photo album and saw someone she recognized. Small world!!

In a nutshell, Berlin is pretty darn modernized even with the set back of the wall. Their economic sector is really something many other countries should follow suit.

I'll be back with more tales..stay tuned =)

Pit Stop

Im a yoddling away during the car ride, dad drove the car all by himself. Never once admitting to being sleepy, and then as usual would rub it in our faces that all we did was sleep the whole jurney to and home. Haha..ye yah. Im packing again tonight, this time leaving on a train, TGV to be exact. My family of 4 are heading to Paris. This would be my second time and the aim would have to be only ONE. Get the bag, and leave. Haha, simplicity of life that will never be achieved when the other 20hours of non-bag searching is spent in a haven for shoppers. Fine. We'll see how I fair. Will tell more about the russian land I stepped on in the past. Till then, adieu.