This is one of my favourite Hokkein dish, "Tau Yew Bak" aka Stewed Pork. Best served with sambal belacan. It could be very oily as the original recipe uses belly pork. However, for health reasons, I usually substitute it with lean pork. Still could satisfy my cravings without feeling guilty. All you need for the marinate is dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, 1 teaspoon brown sugar, 1 small star anise, some white peppercorns and 1 small cinnamon stick. Sautee 3/4 garlic bulb with a little oil, add the pork marinate and stir fry till fragrant. Then, add water just enough to cover the pork. Add hard boiled eggs and leave to simmer on low fire for an hour.

This is specially for Alison and Rachel and other health conscious friends - tuna and salmon recipes. These are oily fish, rich in Omega-3 fatty acids which are essential for brain development, circulatory and immune systems. However, limit the consumption of tuna to 6 ounces per week during pregnancy due to the uncertainty of mercury levels content. The same goes to other deep sea fishes like shark, swordfish, king mackerel or tile fish. Nevertheless, consume everything in moderate level to ensure a healthy balanced diet. Bon appetit!

Grilled Salmon in Sage and Lemon

1. Marinate fresh salmon steak in soy sauce and sage.

2. Shallow fry with a little oil until it becomes half cooked.

3. Garnish with spring onions.

4. Grill in medium heat for 15 minutes. Serve with lemon extract.

Spaghetti in Tuna and Basil (A little fusion)

1. Sautee diced garlic, diced onions, sliced button mushrooms and diced tomato with olive oil and basil.

2. Add canned tuna and stir.

3. Add boiled diced potatoes and stir.

4. Add soy sauce, dash of black pepper and basil to taste.

5. Serve on cooked spaghetti.

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…

A brand new ebay WC.

Eng’s newfound project…bathroom DIY. He removed the yucky old WC and replaced it with a new one that he bid from ebay for £135. Sounds like a disgusting job doesn’t it? Surprisingly, no creepy crawlies, no undecent stench and no messy areas. You must be thinking why on earth do we need to DIY in a developed country. Well these countries are well-known for their expensive services and high labour costs. Imagine paying £150 just to change a WC, Eng rather does it himself (with some advise from friends). That’s the reason why most people living in the UK, States and OZ tend to develop a substantial level of DIY skills. However, there are still demand for plumbers and electricians and they are quite well paid. Anyway, I’m so pleased with the 1 piece WC which is neat, comes with dual flush and a soft close cover, haha our new throne.

This is our second Christmas in the UK. It was a relaxing day as we headed to the church in the morning and then to our friend’s home for a traditional Christmas dinner, roast turkey that is and brussel sprouts, yorkshire puddings, sage and onion stuffings (my fav!) and the sinful M&S sticky toffee pudding (heaven!). It was a day with endless munching and chats and rounds of ginrami (to substitute mahjong for the benefit of our British friend who would find it difficult to recognise the chinese characters). Unfortunately, time flies and Christmas is over now Anyway, here are some most recent photos..how does my bump look eh?

Went half Italian and half English for dinner today. Risotto has always been my favourite especially seafood risotto. On this Christmas Eve, I made Pork Risotto and Leek & Potato Soup. However, I cheated during the preparation of the rice as I par-boiled it for 5-10 minutes before cooking it with the rest of the ingredients. Otherwise, it would take ages for it to cook and becomes soft. The only setback is it doesn’t look as translucent as it should be. Anyway, here’s wishing everyone a Blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year. Oink! - Eng & Mel.

Made this dessert today but the only failure is the beancurd skin refused to disintegrate to my expectation. Wonder if I’d used the wrong type of beancurd skin. Or maybe I should have mashed up the skin first before cooking it? Do you know? Besides, I used China barley for this cooking (that’s the only type I could find in Chinatown) and in my opinion it doesn’t taste as nice as the Malaysian barley which would give the syrup a starchy taste - mel

Last week, it still felt like late autumn. However, the temperature just plunged to sub zero beginning of this week. It was –1 this morning and Eng has to begin his daily routine of scrapping the ice from his windscreens and windows. You might have read the news that the thick fog in UK has caused many flights to be cancelled or delayed for the past few days. Indeed, it is still quite foggy as you can see from the photo taken in Woking – mel.

Finally, I’m ready to share. What has been holding me back for so many years apart from just sharing with really closed friends? Well, I think I just couldn’t get over it and the fear of how others might react. Besides, I respected the fact that my parents were quite “pantang” about letting others know that I had critical illness.

This happened way back in 2000, before I got married. I’d never done blood test prior to then and thank God for Eng who insisted I had a thorough health checkup. I did a CA125, which is an ovarian tumour marker test and the result indicated that my marker was above the range. That horrified me straight away and I was recommended to undergo an ultrasound. Being at that young tender age, I had no idea what to expect. The ultrasound showed that I had a big cyst, measured 11cm in diameter on my left ovary. No second thoughts about getting it removed soonest possible. Basically I had no choice because the cyst contained a white substance, which could be cancerous, and once that spreads or the capsule breaches, it would infect other areas. I was trying to recall if I had other symptoms that could be related to the cyst. I did have a couple of warning signs, which I hastily ignored. I did have night fevers, sharp pain on the lower back, diarrhea and hard bloated tummy for a couple of months. My endurance level of pain must be pretty high then in other to disregard those entire ordeals.

2 days later, I underwent an hour surgery and it was hours later before I recovered from the effect of anesthetic. The first voice I heard and the face I saw was Eng who was with me all the time. The surgery went well and I had my left ovary removed. Unfortunately, the biopsy result of the cyst was unpleasant. The diagnosis reported Serous Papillary Cystadenocarcinoma, in layman’s term, ovarian cancer stage 1a, which was confined to the ovary. The treatment did not end with the surgery as I had to undergo CT scan and other scans regularly to ensure the malignancy did not spread. God spared me by not letting the matter worsen and since the cells were not detected in any other areas, I did not have to undergo chemotherapy.

It was a wakeup call for Eng and myself as that drove us to be more health conscious and respond to any repulsive body signals. I’m still monitoring my health by going for bi-yearly ultrasounds and full blood test. It is invaluable and I urge all my lady friends to do the same. Whenever I hear of someone going through the same trauma, I feel upset for the person and angry with myself for not sharing in advance. So I hope that with this, it would be treated as a lesson and a newfound knowledge to be responsible for your own health. Blood test is essential and never forget to include CA125. Besides, get a comprehensive insurance cover that includes critical illness and hospitalization. Money is the last thing you would want to worry about when there are more life-battling issues.

We couldn’t thank God for more as with just 1 ovary, I managed to conceive without many problems. This episode of our life really means a lot to us and I just hope that no one would ever need to go through my past experience ever - mel

The day is drawing near. Not feeling as panicky as the previous month but Eng is unquestionably anxious. I often tone down after a while. Anyway, I checked with the midwife rgd the baby hiccups and she says it’s quite usual and that the baby might turn to be a gulper or even a gobbler haha. Alright for a boy but what if it turns out to be a girl….hmmm not so elegant. My bump is growing by the day and more colleagues are noticing it now *grin and some are pretty shocked to know that I’m in my 8^th month! I’m petite to them… it feels good to be petite (in their eyes) once in a while since I will never be classified in that category back in KL hehe. Size aside, I hope that Cameron will be born with a healthy weight. I’m not comparing him with the babies here because the average weight that I’ve gathered so far is between 8-11 pounds! For an Asian, 7ish should be healthy enough. So I’m currently in a food marathon to stimulate his growth and hopefully not the other way round by depositing the extra pounds onto myself instead. I’m even eating more than Eng, so just imagine what I look like. And Eng insists that I drink mineral water, so I’ve been gulping that throughout the pregnancy hehe being pampered to the max eh. I know I haven’t been posting any photos as I was just too occupied. We will be off for Christmas the whole of next week, so should have plenty of time to snap some shots.

My Cameron hiccups all the time! How do I know? Well, I always feel a series of rhythmic movements on one side of my tummy, usually once a day. It feels like heartbeat but at a slightly slower pace. I began to feel it in my mid second trimester but thought it was his heartbeat. Right now, the sensation has full-fledged. It seems normal and that the fetal is actually practicing swallowing. Not too sure how accurate the theory is but it is definitely soothing to know that it is a positive sign (I worry all the time!) My last scan reveals that Cameron’s head is already wedged down or at a cephalic presentation and that his spine is positioned on my left side. Apparently, that’s the ideal position for delivery. Again, not too sure why. Just pray that he will remain that way. But sometimes I wonder wouldn’t the baby feels uncomfortable lying upside down? God’s creation is amazing isn’t it? This morning, a member of the church who is also a GP mentioned that he would like to pray for those who would like to be healed as well as for expectants. He mentioned that he just had a sudden visualization of an unborn baby cramped in the womb and that he would like to pray for the well-being of both mother and child. As believers, Eng and I always do what we can and leave the rest to Him. But at hectic times, we tend to drift away from things that are far more important, so we construe this as a signal to recall our attention on the imminent greatest gift from God.

It was a fruitful day yesterday. We went to Mothercare, super extensive IKEA and a chinese supermart at Croydon to stock up groceries for my confinement. We also bought some Salmon fish head from the same store for only 65p a piece! I made Assam Fish Head Curry for lunch today….after a long time since we last had this sort of food. Luckily, London is so multi cultural that it’s easy for us to purchase the raw ingredients like belacan, asam pieces, tamarind and etc.

This post is so overdue. Just thought that I should take a break and share what we’ve been up to. Nothing much about the house yet. As I was a little under the weather for the past few weeks, especially with my consistent irritating cough, I thought I experienced a decrease in fetal movements. I consulted the midwife via phone and the GP and they advised me to drop by the hospital to undergo a non-stress test just to get some reassurance. So, off we went to the hospital and in no time, the midwife put some straps on my bump to detect the fetal heartbeat for 30 minutes. I was also given a device with a button and was instructed to trigger it whenever I sense any kicks or movements. The session was encouraging as I managed to experience more than 10 movements in that duration. As you can see from the graph, the mark circled in red indicates the movements, which is coherent with the rise in heartbeat. The health check definitely instill peace in our minds. Subsequent scan also showed signs of Cameron’s healthy growth. Unfortunately, he is already too big for the sonographer to capture a 4D image. Otherwise, I could have gotten a coloured pose of his features. Maybe he wants me to be patient and hang in there for just another 8 weeks.

We’ve been busy moving house since last Friday and things are still quite unsettled. During our packing, we sorted out so many items that we didn’t need, hence donated them to the charity. Some stuffs have been with us, the nomads, as we moved from home to home and country to country. 4 of our friends helped us with the moving, thank God for them. Eng still needs to get his hands dirty on some DIY and as for me, just put up my feet and rest from time to time Fortunately, our wireless is up and running (can’t live wihout it). Still lots to do and the need to multitask as we also prepare for the arrival of our baby, so will blog more when we are less occupied.