meh meh jia (translation from Teochew: "eat quickly")

I spent today doing what I love best - sitting at the feet of Jesus and bonding with Da and my family.

Da and I met my mother, my brother (LG) and LG's girlfriend (ZT) for an early brunch at our favourite coffee shop at Jalan Tua Kong. Da and I decided to order nasi padang (Chinese style) today while the rest of my family ordered "one-dish-meals" from the "zi char" stall. The food was delicious, as always. Best of all, we managed to order two containers of freshly fried anchovies. We wanted to order some last weekend but due to a mix-up in the order, we left without our order. This time, we requested for "double portion" of fried anchovies in each container. I am rubbing my hands in anticipation as I type this post - just imagine the number of anchovies cookies I can bake with a double portion of fried anchovies.

The large plastic container that you see in the middle of the photograph above contains the pumpkin butter cake that I baked last night.

In the afternoon, Da and I went to church. There was a guest speaker today, a Pastor from a church in Seattle, United States of America. Even though the Pastor looked to be in his thirties, nuggets of wisdom filled with the grace of Jesus peppered the entire sermon. Who is Jesus? He said, "I am who I am". He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is our Saviour, our brother and our friend. It is not enough to pray or to go to church every sunday just because it is the right thing to do. We pray and we go to church because each time we do so, we come boldly into the throne of grace and feed on Him. Everything that we need is wrapped up in Jesus. He said, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest for your soul. My yoke is easy and my burden is light". Let us therefore cast our cares on Him. Jesus, we love You and we taste Your goodness every day.

LG and ZT had a dinner appointment with some friends today. Da had arranged with YK (the husband of Da's sister, GN) to attend a soccer match between Liverpool Football Club and the Singapore team. Da is not a Liverpool supporter but it is not every day that you get to watch a live match involving an English Premier League soccer club, so when the invitation from YK came to Da, he accepted the invitation. That left my mother, me... and a dog named Boy-Boy.

My mother contacted my other brother (LB) who came with his wife (MF) to take my mother and I out to dinner. Realising that he could not join us for dinner, Boy-Boy reluctantly settled for his own rice dinner.

We were toying with the idea of having our dinner at Hong Kong Street Family Restaurant at Eastwood Centre (hi GP, I took your suggestion!) or Cafe Cartel at East Coast Road. LB suggested the Crystal Cafe at Orchard Grand Court Hotel. As we had not eaten there for some time, the rest of us agreed. This cafe is known for their Teochew buffet.

During dinner, peals of laughter could be heard at our table as my mother, LB and I tried to speak in Teochew. MF is a Teochew (in fact, so are Da and ZT) and MF was greatly amused at the way my mother, LB and I mangled the dialect. It was only when a client pointed out to me some time ago that I realised that when I use dialect words, I use a mixture of Hokkien and Teochew and my pronunciation is more Teochew than Hokkien (which often leads to clients mistaking me for a Teochew). Perhaps I have been learning Teochew by osmosis (that is, listening to Da's family speak Teochew).

The cut fruits served at the buffet today were sweet, especially the pineapples. I am not a big fan of pineapples (as I have eaten one too many sour pineapples) but I could not resist a second helping of the sliced pineapples today as they were very sweet.

As always, it was "share-share" time when it came to the cakes. The mango cake was very moist and soft! Yummy!

The dessert in the buffet spread changes daily. On sundays, they serve glutinous rice balls (that is, "tang yuan" (汤圆)). Hi AJ, on saturdays they serve tau suan, your favourite dessert!

Ooh... we overate, as usual. Back at my mother's home, I added to LB's and MF's waistline by scooping some home-made durian ice cream for them to share.

I hope that you all had a restful weekend. I pray for the Lord's blessings upon all of us this coming week.

Shaloam,