Our first...

Went cycling around the village near our house and guess what we saw....


A cotton flower

We have never seen this before and it was a great discovery. The kids were excited and we brought it home and threw the "seeds" in our back garden. Let see if we can have the same flower during our stay here.

Try, everything also must try

I am so used to eating savoury sticky rice, our lor mai kai (glutinous chicken rice). When my dim sum shifu told me that we are going to make ba bao fan (eight treasure rice) today, I was like...er... nice meh?

After making, I tried it and yes! It is sooo good. Try, try, try. In life, everything must try.


It's sticky rice and in between, there is a layer of red bean paste. On top of the rice are chinese candies and dried date. The taste is very similar to the Thai sticky rice with mango.

I was told that during Chinese New Year, the Chinese make alot of these, shops, supermarkets and restaurants will make them in various shapes and sell them. It's suppose to be an auspicious dish. You want to try? Come and visit me with your two oranges!




These are xian shui jiao or the Cantonese call it 'harm suo kok' (salted sticky rice flour dumplings). The dough is made from sticky rice flour mix with corn flour. The fillings are minced pork, dried shrimps, mushroom and spring onions. The unhealthy part - deep fried!

As always, all sinful food are delicious. Better watch my waistline!

Ayi and jia shi yuan

Ayi is equivalent to a housekeeper and jia shi yuan is like a personal driver. I am very thankful for having both of them. My ayi, Ah Ling and my jia shi yuan, Zhou xian sheng have helped me to survive here.

I have never have a maid all my life. The only help I had when back home was my faithful part-time helper who came in once a week to help me with the ironing and some house chores. Here, the ayis work full day and some, even stay with the family. But I do not want to return home one day and not know what cleaning the house is all about. So, I stated my requirement, that is to have a part-time ayi who will come in twice a week to lighten my load so that I can have more time coaching Kai and Ann. Thank God, I found Ah Ling. She is a God-sent. Very hardworking lady, so much so, sometimes, I have to chase her out of my house to stop her from working more. I always believe that kindness begets kindness. There is no need to be picky and fuss over every small minute details. As long as the work gets done and even if it is done in a short period of time, it is time to let her go home. Ah Ling appreciates that, by the second week, she was already boiling soup for me. (Her job does not include cooking).

That's the reason why, till today, I cannot understand why some companies equates working long hours to being hardworking ??? Isn't getting the job done in the shortest time the best way to go.

The only time we own a car was when we were in US of A. Over there, a car is a need. We are not car owners in our country and we thoroughly enjoy the freedom of no car debt, no road tax, no ERP, no carpark fees etc... We don't have a car, let alone, a personal driver. So, when the company provided us with one, it felt really strange initially. But having been on the road for the past months, we truly appreciate Mr Zhou. Like my earlier posting, only dare-devils can drive on the roads here. I tell you, if you can survive the roads here, you can survive any roads on planet earth. Mr Zhou is a very skillful driver and he is very helpful. Each time when we need to go to a place, he always does his homework before driving us there. And one thing about him, he is never punctual, only EARLY!!! Without him, we will be imprisoned by our own home.

Finally, it's all up and running...

Appreciate all that you have, thank God for every daily things that you have and taken for granted.

Here, Facebook, Blogger, Twitter just come and go as and when. There is no such a thing that when you click on their site, you will sure to get it. Cellphone signal is weak, sometimes, lost, "kaput". Internet signal is comparable to snail mail. So, if you are still complaining that Starhub, Singtel...are so slow, think again.

So, the next time when you are wondering whatever happen to yours truly, it's most likely to be... "the mystery of the missing signal".

Xiao long bao

This week's dim sum class was making xiao long bao (soup dumplings). These are dh's most favourite dim sum among all the others. I really enjoyed doing it and I would say that the folding of the skin wasn't as difficult as it looked.



My teacher said that I have the skill but lack the practice. As you can see, the size isn't very consistent.


Yes, yours truly hard at work


The final result...YUM-MO!!! Dh gave his thumbs up and Kai loves them too. That means they are really good. Dh is a true blue Shanghainese and he knows what is good and what is not. As for Kai, he is very particular with his food. Look at the soup flowing out. That's what made it a soup dumpling

At the right place at the right time

We seemed to be always at a country for some historical event...dh made this comment. Well, I must agree.

Last year, in USA, we were there to witness the historical US presidential election where the first black president of United States was elected.

This year, we are in China where she celebrates her 60th National Day. A grand occasion and a historical one for her people. This National Day is also special as it clashes with the mid-autumn festival so we have an 8 days holiday break! We made use of this time to rest and relax as a family.



The grand celebration at Tiananmen Square, Beijing

Understand that the celebration will carry on for the next three days!

Shanghai Siew Mai

This was what I made. Have seen it at the hotel where we were staying when we first came. It looked weird then because we were so used to seeing meat in siew mai and not sticky rice. Now, I know that these are actually Shanghainese siew mai.


These were hand-made siew mai skin done by yours truly. Not too bad, it wasn't easy but still it can be done. Before steaming...


After steaming

After the sinful, comes the healthy feed

One thing about the bread in Shanghai, you must eat them fresh, the same day you bought it. But I find that a bit difficult because I usually have the habit of "buying for tomorrow's breakfast". Instead of eating hard bread, I have resorted to making my own.


Banana wheat (no yeast) bread

When in Shanghai, eat as the Shanghainese eat!

Seafood galore!

2 months of living in Shanghai and encountering various 'shocks', I think I was ready to step into their local wet market. (We cannot possibly be living on imported goods throughout our stay here) After garnering all the courage I have, I walked right into a wet market... I was blown away by what I saw.


Inside the wet market...it was drier than some of our wet makets.

Shanghai is famous for its hairy crabs and the best ones are from Yang Chen Hu.


Choosing the crabs, I had Zhou xian sheng to give me some tips on how to choose. The lady was very honest, every crab's weight was shown to me, I didn't feel it was necessary but she insisted. I told her I was going to take her picture, she was so shy about it...


Each crab was then given a good scrub and lastly, skilfully tied up. You and I would probably take half an hour to tie each crab. She did it in seconds!


There you have it. Great job!


You won't believe how much the abalone cost...............S$2/-(about the size of a Chinese pear) and bamboo clams only S$2 for this lot.

And now, presenting the delicious and mouth-watering Shanghainese hairy crabs....



Yes, yes...high cholesterol. But we cannot go through life fearing everything we put into our mouths...eat in moderation

You decide how you want to lead your life

Now for all of you out there who think that it is such a wonderful thing to be an expat. Everything provided for...house, car, school, helper etc... While your kids are in school, husbands at work, expat wives would gather together for high-tea, manicure, pedicure, facial, shopping...all the pleasures of life. Well, let me give you the reality of it all. Life is not always what you think it is.

I was reading a magazine on expat wives and one of the "illnesses" which expat wives suffer from is agoraphobia. It is a condition of anxiety disorder brought about by the fear of being in a situation from which a person has little or no means of removing themselves. Afraid of panic attacks in public settings, sufferers often avoid public places and in extreme cases, prefers being trapped in the discomfort of their comfort zone. (Cityweekend - Parents & Kids Aug 6 to Oct 7)

In one case, one wife actually kept herself in her home once her kids and her husband have left for school and work respectively. For the time she was in Shanghai, life was very much like that. The tough ones, went throught it, the weaker ones would crumble in. Her relief came about only when her husband was posted out of Shanghai and to...SINGAPORE!

Being able to speak both Chinese and English is really to my advantage. I had no problem with communication in the States and now here in Shanghai. The only problem was to gather enough courage to put my toes into the life of a Shanghainese...and I finally did!