FeDex Delivered!

Congrats Roger Federer for winning the long awaited French Open 2009! He’s a happy guy, I’m a happy fan! Now, lets hope he will deliver @ Wimbledon and US Open! =) Well done, Roger!

Photo borrowed from Times Online Photo Gallery. Photo : Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images

It Was Exactly A Year Ago……

………... when my friend, Ying and I woke up at 6 am in the morning to get ready for the arrival of the hair and make up artist at 7am. The whole house was bustling and everyone was wide awake, getting ready for the arrival of the groom, my hubby. Although hubby and I have been legally married for 1.5 years prior to June 7, 2008; we had only held our wedding reception and did all the customary Chinese wedding tradition then.

It took me almost a year to plan out my wedding reception and the sorts….. It was tough planning the wedding from aboard arriving just 2 weeks before it to finalize stuff. Thankfully I have the tremendous love, help and support from my family, in-laws and friends, especially Ween. THANKS AGAIN, GUYS!! In just a glimpse, everything I’ve planned for the past year came to an end. Thanks to Ke Wynn of Whizarts Photography, family and friends, I now have beautiful wedding pictures to relive every moment of it.

Wedding reception was held at a Charming Historical Hotel; E & O Hotel, Penang. I’ve been in love with the architecture of the building since forever; I just had to have our wedding reception there!

Here are some pictures taken exactly a year ago, today. These are just 5 of hundreds of pictures Ke Wynn took of us and the wedding that day.  Sorry, the bride and groom are a little “blog shy”. =P All photo credits from this post goes to Whizarts Photography. 

Many thanks to each of you (and you know who you are!) who in many ways made my wedding day memorable! =) Oh yeah….. Happy “Anniversary”, darling.. =)..

Phillips Seafood Restaurant @ Baltimore, MD

I had earlier wanted to bring my family to Obrycki’s Crab House, which supposedly famous for theri Crab Cakes (me thinks!) though not sure how good it was. I insisted that we have to eat crab cakes while in Maryland..after all you the crab cake is named after the state! =)

Obrycki’s was quite a walk for us from our hotel, and we so happen stumbled upon Phillips Seafood while walking around the Inner Harbor area in Baltimore. It was a wonderful find!! Food was mostly pretty good, except for your trying-to hard waiter who was slowly getting on my nerves! And the warm rolls he promised us took forever to come. I had to remind Eric our waiter about our warm bread in which when we were brought 3 pieces of dinner roll for 4 people… Like Hello??? 1-2-3-4… 4 guests = 4 bread/rolls? =pLets move on to the happy thoughts…FOOD! Dad & Mom ordered Cream Of Crab @ $6.99/bowl to share. It was simply DELICIOUS!!. The crab flavors came true very well! =)Thumbs up. Soup was a little on the cold side, which made me wonder how long our dear Eric waiter left it at the counter before serving the soups to us!

My brother ordered King Crab Bisque (left) @ $6.99/bowl. Another yummilicious bowl of soup!!! It was slightly different from the Cream of Crab, the crab flavor is not as strong. Nonetheless, it’s got some yummy flavors to it… I really miss this soup!! And because everyone in the family already chose the soups I wanted to order, I decided to try their Chipotle Crab & Shrimp (right) @ $5.99/bowl. This was just ok, spicy and a little sour which reminds me of the Thai Tom Yam soup. There were some tiny shrimp in the soup, crab was I think no where to be seen. I am guessing the crab might just in the soup base. Not really my kind of soup and will not order this again! These 2 soups were also a little on the cold side.

Dad ordered one of their signature dish as an appetizer; Phillips Crab & Spinach Dip (Lump Crab, Cheddar Cheese in a Crusty Bowl) @ $9.99. This was AWEFUL!!!! The dip was cold and the crust bread was so tough to cut into…. It would have made our lives easier if they cut up the bread and serve the dip on the side. Dip tasted horrible……All of us had a hard time eating this dish. I could hardly swallow this! We all tried very hard to finish this dish that I’m not sure if we ever noticed the lump crab meat…if any! I hate returning food to the kitchen...you never know what they will do it it!! Mom and Dad ordered what we thought was the BEST dish/entree; King Crab Macaroni & Cheese @ $19.99. It was so worth eating this delicious pasta. The 3 cheeses used in this dish were not overly cheesy…..Shell pasta cooked perfectly; al-dente. The best part…….CHUNKS OF KING CRAB LEGS in the pasta! A whole generous lot if them!! The pasta also came with some grilled asparagus and 2 slices of crusty bread. This was the best Mac & Cheese I’ve ever had, probably the priciest too! I’m left craving for the King Crab Mac & Cheese the next day and wishing I could get them in Boston! They should make this their signature/specialty dish instead of that dip!Brother ordered their “Phillips Famous Crab Cake Sandwich” @ $14.99 which came on a regular bun, fries and coleslaw. I thought this was very good. It was truly “Crab Cake”…lump crab to be exact…you see and taste large pieces of delicious lump crab….. YUMS!!! And to my delight, I found Phillips’ Crab Cakes in Costo!!! Yup…never realized we have actually sampled them in Costco and over the weekend..hubby got a pack coz he wanted some Crab cakes. Delicious box of crab cakes @ $13.95 ( I think, box of 6 pieces). All I did was pan fried them in some oil..and we got ourselves Crab cakes!I ordered Baked Crab Stuffed Shrimp @ $24.99, which came with some coleslaw. I don’t think this was worth it. The size of the shrimp was just ok, the stuffed crab meat was ok too.. It was nothing compared to my brother’s crab cakes. The crab meat here are more second grade, and probably mixed in with more ingredients. I had thought this entree was on a Wednesday special which was supposed to be $19.99 and that was why I ordered it. Looking back at the check, I was charged the $24.99 which I felt not quite worth it. $19.99 for it was more acceptable! =P. At least, drinks were on the house……our waiter must have forgotten to charge us for the coke and ice teas we ordered.=pBefore we left for our hotel, our waiter shook our hands and thanked us for coming. I was a little puzzled with his actions……. Don’t you agree that he’s trying… a little too hard?

Check out Phillips’ website HERE and their menu HERE. Locations are mainly in the Maryland and DC area. Shop online HERE. Ahhh how I wish I can get their Mac & Cheese from the local grocer!

PS: Oh yeah, I think there was live music too…. or not… good music either way!

Revisited: Sichuan Palace @ Chelmsford, MA

I’ve written about this place previously mentioning that this is the first place I really enjoyed my Si Chuan food, without burning my poor mouth/tongue. When my family was here, Chris wanted to take them out for a meal and I suggested Sichuan Palace where food is pretty good and that we we don’t have to go all the way down to Boston Chinatown for some Chinese food.

This time, I’m armed with my camera and took pictures of the stuff we had. Here’s what we ordered;

1) Fried Squid With Spicy Salt @ $11.95 . This was pretty good, slightly crunchy and had a little kick to it. Large squid pieces too. Maybe a little too large for my preference.. Haha!2) Fish Fillet In Spicy Bean Sauce @ $13.95. We would usually order this. Not overly spicy. Portion is also big. Yums! Don’t know what kind of fish they used though. 3) Chef Shao’s Tofu with Shrimp & Vegetables @ $12.95.  I tried this once the last time we went and I loved it. Soft yummy tofu is mixed in with shrimp and some vegetables, then sautéed with other greens and mushrooms. Mom & dad gave the approval seal for this dish! =)4)  Sautéed Pork Slices With Pepper & Chili @ $10.95. I love this dish too. It’s sliced pork belly (bacon maybe?) cooked in a spicy sauce with some green onions and peppers. Yums!! If you don’t like pork fat, this is not really the dish for you!5) Peking Ravioli @ $6.25. My mom loves Peking Ravioli, so we had to order this for her to try. It was disappointing. I felt the skin was too thick. The generous meat filling was not very fragrant and doesn’t look like it had other stuff, other than meat in it. I would pass on this dish the next time.

Everyone pretty much enjoyed everything. However, my mom pointed out to me that they may have used a lot of MSG in their dishes. She felt uneasy a few hours after eating the food, and we all did get quite thirsty. I wonder how the food will taste like if we tell them not to add MSG? =)

Check out Sichuan Palace’s website and their delicious menu HERE.

Vanilla Butter Cream

This is a simple butter cream recipe I used to frost the recent birthday cupcakes I made for Seyda. I found the recipe on You Tube when I was Googling on how to pipe flowers onto cupcakes.

I’m not a huge fan of butter cream as it’s usually overly sweet, but with my recent cupcake bouquet project..butter cream was a better option. This is my first time making butter cream with success. The last time I made a batch of butter cream, something was wrong somewhere…my butter cream did not look like it’s supposed to! I usually stick to using plain whipped cream with a tinge of sugar added for a tad of sweetness and color it to my liking.

EASY VANILLA BUTTER CREAM RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Butter (2 sticks; softened @ room temperature)
• 4 Cups Powdered Sugar
• 2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/4 Cup Heavy Cream
• Coloring (**Optional)

Method:

In a large bowl (with a hand mixer) or in a stand mixer, cream butter and gradually add powdered sugar. Do this over low speed and gradually increase to medium speed. Then, pour in vanilla extract and heavy cream. Continue beating until everything is all blended nicely and cream is smooth.

The frosting is now ready to be used. If you like to color it, place some butter cream in a bowl and gradually mix in food coloring and stirring until you get the color you liked!