: : Mum-Mum : : Eat-Eat : :

: : Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport : :

Well, I have another 1 hr 35 min in Texas before flying off to Newark International Airport. Then, it’s an overnight at Fairfield Inn until the next day to catch the noon flight to KL. Then another 6 hr wait at the airport, am crashing at the airport and finally home.

I guess it’s going to be a boring day in Newark. No, am not doing the tourist thing because of the short time and it’s pretty cold as well. Hopefully, I will not get shock by someone coming up to me at the airport and saying, ‘Hi Wena! I know you… you’re the gal with the mum-mum blog!’ Yes, Cheryl, I still cannot get over what happened at KLIA! 🙂

Thanks to Jas, Donnie, Bob, Daniece, Scott, Autumn, Skylar, Montana, Rashema and Michael for the great time yesterday. We had fried turkey (amazing! pictures up in a few days time), vegetable loaf (it’s great and wholesome too!), trifle (yumm… in Christmas colours too) and loads and loads of other goodies. I love the dogs : Karsia and Fidget, as well as their cats : Little Bit and …er… Hershey? Didn’t get the chance to meet their other cat, Tank but meet up with the cutesy …err… sky divers? Someone please correct me!!! Hehehe… too many sights and sounds for me to absorb that I’m sorta lost at the moment. Rashema, I will send you the movie shots once I download them to my PC from my camera. I hope they come out clear. Not sure whether the lighting was bright enough or not. But anyways, the important thing was that I got the beautiful harp music that you played. 🙂

This trip has been an interesting trip, that’s for sure and it’s been so many sights, colours and sounds to take in all at once. Had to leave some of the photos behind in Jas’ computer as was too lazy to process it to ask her to burn it into a CD. So, took up the 15 day free trial offer at www.xdrive.com for 500MB. Going to be a hassle to download 76MB worth of pictures and movies on a dialup but we’ll see how it goes. :p

Let’s see, am now off to kill some time before the flight takes off. So, am off to the souvenir shops to get some Texan gifts for friends and family so cheerio!

: : Dinner with Friends : :

Had a small dinner party with my sister’s friends : Cathlee, Wei Wei (who absolutely luvs this blog! 😉 ), Rose and her bf, Kris. Dinner was a pretty simple affair. Cathlee brought over some maki sushi but the plate was half-finished by the time I remembered about taking photos. Anyway, here are the rest of the pictures :

My sis made a salad from spinach, lettuce and cherry tomatoes. Yep, we’re tomato lovers, especially the small cherry ones. Very sweet and juicy.

We also cheated a bit here. Bought an already seasoned pork roast (uncooked) from Walmart. Stuck it into the oven and hey presto! It’s done. All one has to do is read the instructions at the back of the packaging. Sort of mangled it while trying to cut it but oh well. Don’t have the electric knife that Dad has back home so had to make do.

It’s been 4-5 yrs since I last made this dish : spaghettic carbonara. Only cream we could find at Walmart was heavy whipping cream so used that. Wasn’t too bad. I thought it was too salty but everyone else seems to like it so okay then. Or maybe they were just being polite. Ah well.

Another cheat dish : apple crisp / crumble using Betty Crocker’s mix. Went well with ice-cream. 🙂

That goes to show how simple an informal dinner party can be. 😉

Anyway, a quick note to say that there will not be much updates until I get back home for Christmas. Will be going down to Arlington with my sis to see Donnie, her bf, and also to help her move her stuff there. So, au revoir! Until I get back to Kuching, that is.

: : The Big Day : :

The day started out really bright and sunny so that helped to chase away the cold air. After the hamburger lunch, I took a nap after taking from Theraflu. Then, it was a rush to the Coliseum building where the Graduation Ceremony was being held. Dr. B. drop me, Mum and Euline off while he went to look for parking. It was a packed hall, with people coming in to attend the ceremony and people leaving the earlier ceremony. Met up with Donnie (my sis’ bf) and his parents, Bob and Denise Daniece (oops! sorry) there as well. By chance, they were sitting just behind us.

Once we got to our seats, the ceremony started. It was about an hour’s wait before we saw my sister moving up. She’s the one in the middle. Finally graduated with her Masters. Woohoo!

The ceremony was interesting. For the postgraduate students, they are hooded by members of their respective faculty. Undergraduates do not wear a hood, just a white sash.

Then, it was off to the dinner party at the Royal East, courtesy of Mumsie dearest. This is a great place for Chinese food and Korean food. I only took pics of what me, my sis and Mum ate. Didn’t feel it was polite to take pics of what the others were eating.

Since the three of us ordered Korean, the condiments for the food came : KIMCHI!!! Definitely something to warm up the bones in the middle of winter. The kimchi isn’t as strong as those found in Kuching but it was still great. They also serve up some pickled seaweed with sesame seed which Mum loves. The poor waiter was rushing up and down with our orders and various requests.

This was the Hae Jang Guk which Jas ordered. It was a spicy beef soup with tripes, intestin and vegetables. Hot hot hot! But nice.

Mum had the Kimchi Jigae i.e. kimchi and pork soup with tauhu and rice cake. Didn’t try any but could see that Mum loves it.

I had the Bibim Bap with the hot stone bowl. It was great to have rice after more than 4 days of not having rice. Wah! Siok lah!

Now what is an Asian meal in the US without the traditional fortune cookie? The cookie actually tasted a lot like kuih supit i.e. love letters.

Two generations of graduates. And I just had to close my eyes during the photo take! Ah well.

More food pictures later.

: : H is for Hamburger : :

Funny, the use of the word HAM in front of BURGER when it’s made completely out of beef. So, it was a lunchdate with Mum, Dr. B. and the beautiful Mayor of Denton, Euline. We had lunch at the Denton County Independant Hamburger Co. located in the town center.

Mum had the Chilli Burger. I had the Hickory Burger. Dr. B. had the Old Fashion burger with chips. I tihnk Euline had the Chicken Fried Steak Burger but am not sure. Forgot to ask. Too cold and hungry.

Dr. B was very sweet. Kept mentioning to everyone at the cafe that I have a food website. Only problem was that he didn’t know the URL. Ah well. Will let him know later. 🙂

The different salads available for order.

I think this is a pressing device for pressing out honey from honeycombs. Anyone?

While waiting in line for my turn, saw this cute poster. Haha! Very ‘tongue-in-the-cheek’ poster.

Some more posters. Most of it are very old posters and signages from long long ago.

Side orders for the dish : beans and chips.

Chips from California but burger from Texas. Interesting combination.

My burger with Hickory Sauce and Cheese and Onions. Believe me, it was spilling over everywhere. Had to eat it with a knife and fork.

Mum’s burger with Chilli Sauce, Cheese and Onion. The chilli sauce is made from capsicum and not from jalapeno chilli which is abundant here.

Dr. B’s Old Fashion Burger. Nice chips though. They fried it with the skin still on.

A Willie Nelson photo. Saw a lot of Willie Nelson stuff at the Prairie House Restaurant but that’s for another posting.

A picture of a Victorian couple. Black was in, in those days.

More advertisements and posters.

A gumball machine. Old-fashioned one, that is.

Country and Western theme mural.

Article on the restaurant. Click on the image for a bigger picture. Else, click here.

Yo Veritas! This poster is for you! Haha!

Details of Cafe :

Denton County Independant Hamburger Co.

113 W. Hickory Street

Denton, Texas, USA.

Tel : 940-383 1022

Mon.-Sat. 11 am to 3 pm

Wouldn’t mind going there again. 🙂

: : H is for Hamburger : :

Funny, the use of the word HAM in front of BURGER when it’s made completely out of beef. So, it was a lunchdate with Mum, Dr. B. and the beautiful Mayor of Denton, Euline. We had lunch at the Denton County Independant Hamburger Co. located in the town center.

Mum had the Chilli Burger. I had the Hickory Burger. Dr. B. had the Old Fashion burger with chips. I tihnk Euline had the Chicken Fried Steak Burger but am not sure. Forgot to ask. Too cold and hungry.

Dr. B was very sweet. Kept mentioning to everyone at the cafe that I have a food website. Only problem was that he didn’t know the URL. Ah well. Will let him know later. 🙂

The different salads available for order.

I think this is a pressing device for pressing out honey from honeycombs. Anyone?

While waiting in line for my turn, saw this cute poster. Haha! Very ‘tongue-in-the-cheek’ poster.

Some more posters. Most of it are very old posters and signages from long long ago.

Side orders for the dish : beans and chips.

Chips from California but burger from Texas. Interesting combination.

My burger with Hickory Sauce and Cheese and Onions. Believe me, it was spilling over everywhere. Had to eat it with a knife and fork.

Mum’s burger with Chilli Sauce, Cheese and Onion. The chilli sauce is made from capsicum and not from jalapeno chilli which is abundant here.

Dr. B’s Old Fashion Burger. Nice chips though. They fried it with the skin still on.

A Willie Nelson photo. Saw a lot of Willie Nelson stuff at the Prairie House Restaurant but that’s for another posting.

A picture of a Victorian couple. Black was in, in those days.

More advertisements and posters.

A gumball machine. Old-fashioned one, that is.

Country and Western theme mural.

Article on the restaurant. Click on the image for a bigger picture. Else, click here.

Yo Veritas! This poster is for you! Haha!

Details of Cafe :

Denton County Independant Hamburger Co.

113 W. Hickory Street

Denton, Texas, USA.

Tel : 940-383 1022

Mon.-Sat. 11 am to 3 pm

Wouldn’t mind going there again. 🙂

: : USA or Bust! : :

It’s a long delayed posting. Was rushing around like mad last week and feeling very down. This flu is bad to have in the middle of winter. Sigh. Plus, the throat isn’t feeling all that well. Urgh. Was speechless and hoarse over the weekend. Thanks to TheraFlu, my throat and nose is on the way to recovery. Although, the coughing fits are making me break out into sweat each time. Sigh. Oh well.

Anyway, let’s start from KL. Boarded the plan at around 11 p.m. at nite and we took off to Dubai, enroute to Newark Airport, New York. Airline meal wasn’t too bad but it could have been a lot better.

On the way to Dubai, supper was :

Smoke Chicken with Cream Potato Salad

Szechuan Chicken

Banana Strawberry Gateau

Wasn’t too bad. I enjoyed it. Then, it was a tiring time of tossing and turning for the next 8 hrs to Dubai. Couldn’t really sleep that well.

The stopover in Dubai was about an hour. Had to take off a lot of things as the alarm was going off every other second. Didn’t dare take any pictures of the airport in case the camera was confiscated by the security guards everywhere.

Supper (again) was :

Nicoise Salad

Nile Perth with Tomato and Corn Salsa with boiled potato wedges in parsley butter and mixed seasonal vegetable. Very nice but then again, I luv eating fish.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

The bread was kind of funny so didn’t take it.

Another tossing and turning session. Been on the plane and in transit for nearly 24 hours and rest is not so forthcoming. Am definintely not going to enjoy the flight back home to Malaysia. Anyway, the sun was rising so it was time for breakfast.

I had the creamed mushroom omelette with hash-brown potato, chicken sausage and tomato. Decided to play it safe.

We were nearly there and I was getting more and more anxious. However, kept falling asleep due to exhaustion. It was not an easy flight, I can tell you that.

Beautiful scenery everywhere. Got some videos so here they are (right-click and Save As… into your computer!):

An interesting spotlight amongst the clouds (1.61 MB)

Below the clouds (2.24 MB)

Landing in Newark Airport (2.89 MB)

Arrving in Newark International Airport, I cleared customs with no problems at all. 🙂 Note to travellers to New York, do not look at the centralized airport departure times. They’re not updated regularly. Look for the TV screens dedicated for each airline. Also, couldn’t find a single CLOCK in Newark Airport. How to know if one is catching the flight on time?

Anyway, was feeling a bit cold and hungry so was looking around for some breakfast. Had some at Famiglia. Needed something hot hot hot. Bagels? Another day I guess. Probably on the trip back.

The final leg of the journey was a 3-hr flight to Dallas-Fort Worth airport. No food served on the flight. Most of the time, I was fast asleep on the plane. Too tired. Anyway, got in into Dallas and saw my sis! Hugs hugs and laughter at the airport with me cursing at the cold. Grab the bags and off we went to eat dinner! Yep, had mexican food at On the Border!

I luv corn chips with salsa sauce! Luv it better with Queso sauce, courtesy of Donnie, my sis’ bf. Pics of that homemade sauce will be up later.

I tried out the Border Sampler which is ‘sampling of chicken quesadillas, steak nachos and chicken flautas. Served with guacamole, sour cream, pico de gallo and queso’ as mentioned on the website. Confirmed that I luv quesadillas now. Gotta find the recipe to making tortilla from scratch. Don’t think I can find it back home.

Jas had the steak fajitas. Again, I just love the tortilla. Something about unleaven bread that makes me addicted to them.

Snapshots of the restaurant.

And of course, my sis, Jas. Haven’t seen in something like 3-4 yrs. Time really flies.

Anyway, more pics up later. Still got a lot of KL pics to be posted up but thought I’d post these up first. Am now off to sit on the Homedic Therapist Select Shiatsu Massage Seat which we got at Bed, Bath & Beyond for USD99.99 (about RM400). Granny’s Christmas gift and it’s definitely a lot cheaper than the OSIM Medic Chair (RM14,000!!!).