Must-try Cakes @ Swich Cafe, Damansara Uptown

About just a weekend before I popped, 3e, 4e and Uncle Mike were nice enough to ask for a catch-up and since I was supposed to suggest something new, I suggested Swich Cafe for their unique cake selection that I've heard of. 

They have an outlet at Publika and one at Damansara Uptown and we went to the one at Uptown, which is a really small half-a-shop cafe. Honestly, although the decorations are very pretty, it was a disappointment to see such a small space and  after trying their food, I must say it's such a waste that the space is not spacious enough to not only cater to more people, but also to look more presentable.

Anyway, since we haven't had our lunch, we gave their new hot food menu a try. They sound pretty interesting I must say.

Pumpkin Curry Chicken Rice, RM9.90.

Cempedak Chicken Rice, RM11.90.

I had the Pumpkin Curry Chicken Rice which is okay, but Deardo's Cempedak Chicken Rice was pretty unforgettable. Deep fried chicken strips with a layer of cempedak sauce and sesame seed over a bowl of rice - very simple yet so tasty! Best of all, the prices of these hot food ranges only from around RM8.90 to RM11.90, if I'm not mistaken, super affordable!
Now to the signature stuff - their cakes!!!

Musang King Durian Mud Pie, RM14.

Cempedak Cake, RM12

Cendol Cheesecake, RM12.90.

Red Velvet, RM12.90.

We tried quite a few of their cakes, and I shall say my favourite is the Musang King Durian Mud Pie. Although I prefer the base crust to be a bit thinner, but the combination of the chocolate and durian were enough to make up for the imperfection. Plus, the durian layer really tasted like real durian flesh, I'm freaking serious! So yummy!!! The Cempedak Cake and Cendol Cheese Cake were really good too, I especially love how they are not stingy with their ingredients yet the sweetness were just nice! :) The only let down was the Red Velvet which was a bit too sweet with the huge amount of chocolate sauce over it. :S

Cappuccino. 

Lemonade. 

Their coffee was quite decent, although I must say the presentation again, wasn't impressive. I can't remember how much was my lemonade but I remember it was quite pricey for a drink.

Us catching-up over some nice cakes and coffee!

Overall, very small cafe but surprisingly very delicious hot food and super impressive cakes! Highly recommended! :D 

Swich Cafe
54, Jalan SS21/58,
Damansara Utama,
Petaling Jaya,
Selangor

Home-cooked for the Hungry Mummy Shirlexia II

Hello from home where I don't cook because I'm theoretically not even allowed to touch any cold water during this entire confinement month FML. I kinda miss cooking already I think maybe because I'm starting to get a bit sick of the limited stuff I can eat during confinement month. Sigh...

Anyway, here are some of the cooking/baking I've done before I popped that I still want to share with you guys. :)

#1 'Fake' Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

'Fake' because I cheated. I bought this pre-packed mixture and all I needed to add were eggs and butter! Oh yeah so easy and you get some nice American cookies already! The only problem though, is that since it's pre-mixed, the sugar content is quite high so they were a little too sweet. :S

#2 Nutella Oreo Cheese Bars

During the final months of having baby Rayden in my tummy, I was constantly craving for after meal desserts. Hence, I also suddenly have this really strong baking mojo. This one though, was a spin-off from the Nutella Cheesecake Bars I've done earlier. All I did was I added Oreo cookies in the second layer - the cream cheese layer. I'm proud to say it was a hit at 3e's CNY gathering this year where she secretly kept some in the fridge before we could finish them all! :p

#3 Oreo Cheese Bars

Another spin-off from the same recipe here. Ran out of Nutella so let's make an Oreo Cheese Bars! Still works! Although I'm not too sure should I actually bake it or just chill it cos I think it still works if I just chill it? Lol, not entirely a good baker I am, I admit!

#4 Chicken Porridge with Stir-fry Okra and Onion Omelet

Was still making a lot of chicken porridge for quick dinner fixes. Only difference here is I added Shiitake Mushrooms, sweet corn and carrots here for extra colours and nutrition.

#5 Chicken Porridge (again) with Water Cress Soup and Steamed Okra with Homemade Sambal

Honestly, Steamed Okra with Sambal is really awesome. But don't ask me for the recipe for the Sambal, it was from my MIL. :p

#6 Chinese Sausage Quinoa Served with Sweet Corn and Brussels Sprouts

Slowly getting the hang of cooking some perfect Quinoa now, most of the time with the rice cooker. And I really love Brussels sprout but it is one of the vegetables that Deardo is afraid of so yes, this was a home-alone meal. :)

#7 Minced Beef and Mixed Veg Pasta

Was working from home already about a week before baby Rayden was born so I made myself some awesome lunches like this. I fried the pasta with beef marinated with cumin powder, light soya sauce and pepper, tomato, Edamame and broccoli. Seasoned with some pepper and black pepper then sprinkle some roasted sesame on top to make this really yummy pasta dish!

#8 Minced Pork and Mixed Veg Pasta

Made another version of the pasta with Vermicelli Spaghetti, replaced the beef with pork and broccoli with asparagus for Deardo to try. Not too bad either! :)

#9  Dried Scallop Porridge with Tau Eu Bak and Stir-Fry Mixed Vege

Improved my Tau Eu Bak by cooking it over fire instead of slow cooker and also added cinnamon sticks. Yumz... Get the Tau Eu Bak recipe here.

#10 Instant Noodle with Homemade Chicken Soup

For another home alone lunch, I boiled some chicken soup with Goji berry to go with some instant noodle instead of using the seasoning packets that comes with the noodles. Added some oyster mushrooms, black fungus and broccoli for extra nutrition for the then mummy-to-be. :)

#11 Quinoa with Chicken Strips and Zucchini Served with Kacang Botol Omelet

Chicken Strips was leftover from the chicken stock we made while Kacang Botol Omelet was urm, something different???

#12 Curry Pork Ribs Dinner

Made some curry bai kuat with Kacang Botol as well, since we only have that in the fridge. Don't ask me for the curry recipe cos it was pre-packed curry paste. :p Had that with some stir-fry spinach, old cucumber soup and our favourite 10-grain rice with Chinese Sausages.

#13 Fried Soba with Chicken Strips and Zucchini Served with Edamame and Fried Egg

Same ingredients as #11, only this one with Soba noodles, definitely my favourite Japanese noodles of all. Topped that up with Edamame to make it really 'Japanese'. LOL.

#14 Just another Chicken Porridge and Stir-fry French Beans with Chinese Sausages 

Trying out new stuff again here with Chinese Sausages in a French beans dish. 

#15 One-Pot Chicken, Chinese Sausage and Edamame 10-Grain Rice Served with Stir-fry Kale and a Fried Egg

This is my favourite of all my home alone lunches. Rice cooked with all ingredients dumped into the rice cooker and the smell and taste of it was so good!!! Also cooked and tasted Kale for the first time, made it an Asian one with bit of oyster sauce and light soya sauce. Tasted quite like Kailan, which I really like! Such a yummey lunch! :D

Okay, that's all for now. Perhaps more cooking adventure when I'm left alone at home during my second month of maternity leave? 

Naming our Son - Rayden Wong

Before I forget, a very belated Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there! 

For some odd reasons, I still feel pretty surreal to have a son right now, like I don't really feel like I'm a mum yet? I look at Rayden everyday going hey this baby boy is so cute, but never really feel like hey this cute boy is my son? Maybe the feeling just hasn't really kick in.

Celebrating Mother's Day at home with Baby Rayden and Mamo, with my two sisters too, of course. 

Anyway, I had a cool first Mother's Day with my two sisters around buying me flowers and cakes, spending some time and laughter with me, who otherwise would be bored till death sitting at home. I just have some of the best siblings and relatives and I'm forever thankful for them. :)

I've dreamed about typing this particular post and it would be a pretty long one if my son is only my son, without Deardo included. I would have named him some super cool names like some Greek, Italian, Spanish or French baby boy's name. But because our boy has a dad who is super scared of people making fun of his son's name, we ended up arguing and could never agree to a name until perhaps a week before he was born.

Let me just skip all the names I love cos I just love them too much I'm worry you will steal them from me. LOL (just kidding la, I'll share with you privately if you need some ideas for cool baby boy's name, I promise)! But for Deardo, he always come up with some pretty common names like Sebastian (because of Sebastian Vettel, the F1 World Champ) and I would always say ah that's too common!

In the end he said he wanted the name to start with the letter R (again, it's a car freak's thing), which I quickly came up with Roderick, which I really really like since hearing the name on the final season of Glee, but he was just urm may~be~ Grrrrhhhhh... So frustrating!

Oh hi! My name is Rayden Wong! Nice meeting you! :D

After some research, I'm just glad we finally agreed on one name and that's Rayden. It's like an extended name to names like Aiden, Jayden or Hayden. Not only does the name start with the letter R (which makes papa very happy), the 'Ray' in the name also rhyme with Rayden's Chinese's name. And to me, the word 'Ray' means something bright, like ray of light and of course best of all, it's quite a new and uncommon name that I can't even find a meaning for the name online, so I can't complain much anymore or we will NEVER get this done.

So here we have, Rayden Wong, our cute little fellar's name!

I'm not too sure if we will have a second one in the future, but I do hope if we do, I can have my cool names back. I even have a whole list of cool and lovely girls' names in my mind already cos I find girls' names more interesting actually! :p

I've Popped... In the Most Unglam Way Possible

So yes, while you are still reading my scheduled posts on my blog, I've actually popped and it happened in one of the most dramatic ways possible, like you know, women in TVB dramas giving birth. 

To begin the story, we have to go back to 23rd April where we visited our doctor for our check-up. She said I was only about 1cm dilated so she did something 'down there' to sort of try to open up my cervix a little. Because I was having pregnancy high BP, her suggestion was to have me check-into the hospital on 28th (Tuesday) and induce me so latest I'll deliver would be on 29th (Wednesday), instead of my earlier due date, which was supposed to be 8th May.

So Deardo and I started doing some last minute preparations to welcome our little bundle of joy. We also went out quite a lot, knowing that I'll be confined for a month after delivering the baby.

On Saturday (25th April) morning, instead of some brownish blood discharge (which was supposed to be normal after what the doctor has done the other day), I noticed there were fresh blood on my panty liner, together with some transparent-looking stuff. I've heard about this being 'the show' so I quickly Google it up and phew~ It says normally for first-time mum, the mucus plug coming out means you might have to wait a week or up to a month to deliver! So I was like okay baby isn't coming, just yet.

That evening we made a spontaneous decision to go down to Sungei Wang, a place we know we might not want to bring a baby to when he is out. We were going to choose a new G-Shock for Deardo since his birthday falls in May. But before that, we stopped by one of our favourite restaurants, Hong Kong's Food Culture for some yummy Fried Beef Noodles.

Beef Noodles FTW!!!

While I was eating, I constantly feel discharge coming out of me. I still thought it was normal discharge until we finished and started walking towards Sungei Wang. By then I could feel my thighs were rubbing each other with water... I told Deardo maybe my water bag has broken??? He was like hai mai gah??? To be safe, I went to the ladies and once I take off my underwear, water just flow freely down my legs... OMG MY WATER BAG REALLY DID BREAK!!!

Hey that's me, trying to hold on to the water that are still flowing down... :S

Freaked out, we quickly, but also slowly (hahaha I don't know if you understand this lol) made our way back to the car (yeap, no G-Shock today my dear husband) where the only thing we can use for me to sit on was a recycle bag. We drove all the way home, took an important shower, washed my hair and checked into the hospital at about 11pm.

Deardo wanted to capture almost every moment so this is when we arrived at the hospital...

First check, I was only about 3cm dilated so we knew it would be next day that we will meet our baby boy. We refused to take Epidural because Deardo has heard story from colleague that it has side effect - backache. But being the useless self, by 2am ish the pain was too unbearable I begged Deardo to just let me take the Epidural. Gosh those nurses could hear me screaming from outside the room okay!

Before the pain kicks in, I'm assuming since I looked so happy still. 

So after the Epidural I felt much better but the entire night (or morning) we didn't get to sleep much since the midwives and nurses kept coming in to check on me from time-to-time. At least I wasn't feeling much of the contraction pain anymore...

Fast forward to 8 something in the morning where I started pushing (or should I say we since Deardo was sort of involved in the whole process?), and by 9.20am our baby boy finally came into our world! But honestly, because of the numbness at my lower body I didn't even realise our baby is already here so when they put him on my tummy and told me hey baby is here I went huh? Oh! There he is! Later when they handed him over and asked me to kiss baby, I was also like huh? Oh ok, then kissed him on his forehead... LOL! I think I was just too tired and numb to react to it. So unlike a lot of you new mums out there, I didn't really shed any tear. Deardo instead was in tears haha...

Mummy and baby's first photo together! :D

Papa kissing baby passionately. :D

So there, from a family of two, we now have a new member and it's our son, Rayden Wong! :)

First family wefie yo!!!

Well, more about that name slightly later when I have more strength to blog. Till then, here are some earlier photos of Rayden to brighten up your day. :p

Seriously Nice Curry Chee Cheong Fun @ Restoran Yap Hup Kee, KL

This is a place where Deardo frequents quite a lot on weekdays with his colleagues for lunch in KL city. So one fine afternoon he brought me there too just to introduce the shop to me and to show me why he and his colleagues love going there for lunch. 

First of all, it's actually quite a clean and air-conditioned small restaurant, when I thought it must have been a lousy and old kopitiam. The most impressive part though, must be the spread of Yong Tofu they offer. Apart from the usual types of Yong Tofu, they also have stuffed Kacang Botol, stuffed long beans, etc just to name a few. They also made their own fish balls, which is a very huge plus point for me! :)

You can have your Yong Tofu with noodles of any kind (from Wanton Mee to Hakka Mee), or Chee Cheongs Fun with dried shrimp or curry. Plus there are pig stomach, dumplings etc to order as sides too. You just need to pick your Yong Tufu, make your other orders and sit down and wait for your food to arrive!

Fresh and crispy deep fried items. 

Loving all the unique Yong Tofu like long beans and Kacang Botol!

Obviously, their homemade Yong Tofu are a class above - tasted really fresh, homey and yummy too. They separate the deep fried ones and the non-deep fried ones so you still get the deep fried items hot and crispy. I'm quite impressed.

Curry Chee Cheong Fun that has really kaw curry gravy! 

But the most impressive dish has to be the Curry Chee Cheong Fun. The Chee Cheong Fun were super smooth, curry gravy was probably the thickest among all other Curry Chee Cheong Fun I've had before and it has this super nice fragrance thanks to the dried shrimps that was sprinkled on top of the dish. Ohhhhh... So delicious we ordered another one to share! :p

Happy diners! :)

I don't know exactly how much it cost us per item since they didn't bother giving us a bill anyway. But the Yong Tofu (at least about 12 pieces), 3 bowls of Chee Cheong Fun and three drinks (pregnant woman was feeling hot) costs us about RM24, which is still quite reasonable for a lunch for two in KL city. Really wouldn't mind going back again! :)

Restoran Yap Hup Kee
45, Jalan Brunei Barat,
Off Jalan Pudu,
55100 KL
Tel: 03-2148 9220