The Malaysianized spouse

In a mixed marriage the couple influences each other with their own culture, background. The other day I was looking for soya sauce (an essential ingredient in Chinese cooking), I was told by hubby that he has finished it. To be frank, I seldom use soya sauce here, I found them too salty. Hubby uses frequently soya sauce and sesame oil, I just make sure I fill the stock on time.



We got these chili peppers as Christmas gift. In Malaysia, you could see a small plate of cut chili dipping in soya sauce. I was never a big fan, but now this small plate of cut chili appears in our dining table here from time to time. Who eats them? Not me!

Between, could you tell what's wrong with the calendar?


The only Chinese New Year deco I made this year. Aelig was not interested, I lost motivation after making one. I have been showing her some CNY songs though, she loved them. This evening I asked what she would say when we call "wai po" (my mother), she sang "Kong Xi Ni". Now that's my girl, hope she would sing it again when I call my mother.

Stockmarket returns and the Chinese zodiac

The Economist just published a statistic that links the stock market returns (America's Dow Jones Industrial Average price index) to the twelves Chinese zodiac. Apparently over the last 110 years, Dragon years had shown an average increase of 7.7 percents, scoring high at the second place after Rabbit. Dragon is always seen as strong and prosperous animal among the Chinese culture, I don't know if the stock market will surge, but what I'm certain is that the Chinese couples will be working hard to produce Dragon babies. This has always given problems to educators as when the Dragon babies are at age to go to school, they explode the available places / resources!

Happy Dragon Year!

Winter is coming

I didn't think that I would be intrigued by this type of novel: middle age background + war. But I did, I was hooked since the beginning and swallowed both of the books within 1.5 months.

It started like this: from time to time hubby proposes me movie / series that would suit my taste. He had doubt for this one though, as I was bored while watching The Lord of the Rings. We watched the first episode of HBO TV series "Game of Thrones", and I was not into it at the first 20 minutes. The patient paid off as the more I watched it the more I got hooked. We finished the 10 episodes in three evenings. I couldn't wait to know what happened next, so hubby got the first two books as my birthday gift.

There are 5 books available in the market and two more are planned. My heart wants to buy the remaining three as soon as possible, but I hesitated. When I like a book, I want to finish it quick. Yesterday I read until wee hour and had been "abandoned" Aelig till I flipped through the last page. She was reading beside me, nagging me to do something else with her, but I didn't pay her much attention, instead I asked her to go see her daddy whenever she asked for something. On Saturday the sun was shinning but I didn't bring her out. Guilt filled me but it was too late, winter is really here, it was cold outside and it was getting dark. I brought her out anyway, but the playground was deserted, she could only play with me. I had been a bad mum, I should probably take sometime off the book.

Well, winter is really coming, it is freaking cold out there.

Yes to King Cake...or actually the dough

January is King's Cake month, we get to eat la galette des rois (The Kings' cake), and the person who has the figurine (la fève) inside the cake could be king or queen for the day.

I decided to make one myself this year, as those sold in the bakeries are very expensive. Hubby bought one for 6 persons and it cost 12.50€. The smallest one for 4 persons is sold for 8.50€.


I got the recipe from my Taiwanese friend's cookbook. Aelig loved it, well, precisely, she preferred the dough (pâte feuiletée bought from supermarket). See how she was tearing the dough off, she did it several times until I had to stop her. In the recipe I was supposed to cut the extra dough off to make a perfect round shape. We didn't want to waste it so we folded underneath.


My first attempt. It must be a curse, I usually don't like the dessert I made myself, but it pleased hubby. As for Aelig, she didn't even take a bite. Well, maybe I have to replace the frangipane with chocolate filling.

Saturday Morning Bread Hunt #6

Wow, it has been six months and I have not continued the bread hunt series. The bakery was closed for several weeks in summer and we didn't pick up the routine after. Blame it to laziness and discouraging weather.

The sun was shining warmly this morning. I decided to go run some errands and brought Aelig along. She got to try out her Christmas gift from Santa: the tricycle. She doesn't know how to pedal yet so I had to push her along.

I bought her a pain au chocolat and told her that the croissant was for her daddy. She was super motivated after hearing this, climbing upstair as quickly as she can. Once arrived, she ran into our bedroom and found nobody. She then rushed to the study room and found daddy there. She was so proud to present the croissant to him.

A happy girl with her pain au chocolat.

Just a side note, she surprised me today. We were looking at this picture, I pointed at one strawberry and could not find the word in Mandarin. Seeing that I was struggling to find the word, she looked at me and said: "Cao mei". Wow, I didn't know she remember that word! This shows how I should continue teaching her words, and even though she might not say it immediately, it is actually registered in her brain. I then pointed to one cherry and told her "Ying Tao". She shaked her head and corrected me: "No, c'est ping guo" (No, it is apple). Ok I was pretty convinced that it was cerise, but I agree that it could be taken as an apple if you do not consider the leaf on the top.

A week of child-free time

Happy New Year 2012!

New Year's even party is over and we had a blast! Aelig was having a great time too, she went with her grandparents to a dancing party (fest-noz). I don't have photos yet so I will post them in another post.

After Christmas celebration, we left Aelig with her grandparents as the sitter was on vacation. I think it is great to be child-free from time to time. These were what we did which would not be possible / would be complicated when Aelig was around:

- slept till 8am everyday before moving our asses to work
- went to restaurants several times and dined as a couple
- had food delivered to our place
- eating junk food as we wish (I don't want her to eat junk food so I won't eat junk in front of her)
- read for several hours uninterrupted

Activities she had with her grandparents:
- went to have walk on a beach
- went Brittany dancing
- went to visit family
- ate healthy
- played in the garden
- Grandma sang French song and read French stories to her

Everyone had a great time. After a week, we were very happy to have the angel back.

Now back to routine.

Meeting Santa Claus

We had a splendid Christmas gathering with family. This year's theme concentrated on bringing jubilant moments to the little angel.


In the middle of the feast, someone was knocking on the door. Aelig went answered the door.


Oh, Santa Claus is coming! Everyone was telling her that was "père Noël" (Santa Claus in French)! She starred at him suspiciously, but was quickly influenced by the joyful atmosphere and followed him into the house.


"Are you really Santa Claus"? She seemed to doubt it. Apparently, she was calling "papounet" to Santa when we asked her to give him a kiss.


When she saw those presents Santa brought, she kept yelling "cadeau" (present in French) and wanted Santa to open one of them.


Santa was taking off and wanted to give her a hug. She reluctantly obliged. Second later she requested to go to her tonton Benjy's arms. Something is fishy about this Santa, she seemed to tell herself.


Inspired from one of her nursery songs, I had prepared a game. The song describes about a kid who has hard time pulling out a carrot so he asks help from a grandpa, a grandma, a dog, a cat and a mouse. Aelig was going to play as the carrot but she didn't want to cooperate, so we change the game. I was singing the song and each round calling a person, to join the force to swing her! Look how excited she was!


After the song / swing, she wanted more, and since everyone was standing in a circle, she went from one to another, asking to play acrobat with her. First with papa, then with mamounette, mamig, papounet...


and even tonton Benjy was invited to play. She did this several rounds and we would see what she was extremely elated. What a wonderful Christmas for her!

Seeing how everyone was ready to do the best to please her, it touched me enormously. I love my family here. I hesitated if we should really lie to her about the existence of Santa Claus, or should we spoil her with gifts, or should we introduce her another version of Santa where he would arrive through the chimney, and the kids will prepare some biscuits and milk the night before... All these doubts are gone, as long as we celebrate as family and she is happy, all is fine with me.

Note: We didn't have the roasted capon with chestnuts. It is my father in laws' signature dish and it is the family tradition to have it during Christmas lunch. Have to wait till next year!