Travel Around the World to Italy, Paris, Germany, Dubai and New York!

Paris Louvre Us

I love to travel! I think everyone who reads this site knows that. I’ve been to a lot of destinations ranging from the quirky like Georgia (the ex-Soviet state in Eastern Europe) to the more conventional like London. I’ve also studied for over 4 years in Australia (that’s where I started this blog in 2002) and went to Germany and France with my better half earlier this year.

2 Michelin Star Meal

It’s so much fun to travel and I love everything about it – you get to immerse yourself in the local culture, meet interesting people, experience new things and best of all, eat amazing food! That was what we had in the 2 Michelin Star restaurant in Paris we went to.

Frankfurt Apfelwein Wagner

This year alone, we’ve been to Paris and Frankfurt (famous for their apple wine or apfelwein) on our annual couple trip, Sydney right after that, Hat Yai in Thailand for our end-of-year Asian trip, and back to my hometown of Sibu to visit my dad before a second staycation right in the heart of Kuala Lumpur to end the year with.

Arc de Triomphe Us

It was a lot of fun, and we’re already making lots of plans for travel next year!

Stonehenge

However, one place that has always evaded me is the United States. I’ve never been there! I’ve gone to Europe *4 different times in the past four years* (loved the Berlin Wall) but I’ve never been to New York. I’ll love to and with the recent visa exchange program, I think it’ll be easier to go for long periods of time (it has always been my dream to go from coast-to-coast – New York to Los Angeles).

Laduree

That’s the place I’ll be choosing for my contest entries – New York! πŸ™‚

US Army

There’s a campaign going on called Travel Around the World with RHBNow and it’s an easy way to get a chance to visit the country you’ve always been wanting to go. There’s five (5) dream destinations for two pax you can choose from and it’s worth RM 50,000:

  • Berlin
  • Paris
  • New York
  • Dubai
  • Italy

New RHBNow signups will get an additional 20 extra entries! You can get entries based on a minimum transactions of RM 30 for the valid transactions below:

Valid Transactions

I love using RHBNow coz you don’t need to drive out to a bank or find the nearest ATM to do the basic but essential things like paying your bills (which will net you 20 entries via Mobile Banking). I also do a lot of Foreign Telegraphic Transfer and PayPal transfers (for Internet shopping) so there’s a lot of entries each time I do that.

Pro tip: A lot of online websites offers payment via PayPal now. You can buy everything online now – from the biggest sites offering hotel stays to the smallest independent Internet shops selling bracelets. I even pay for the hosting on sixthseal.com using PayPal! Of course, there’s the option of paying via credit card but if you want more entries for this RHBNow contest, you should always choose the PayPal option and use RHB to send money via PayPal!

RHBNow Contest

The Travel Around the World with RHBNow contest runs from now till 22nd February 2015. You can register via SMS by typing RHBNOW 12 digits NRIC Number and send to 36266. Example: RHBNOW 123456121234. You can also fill in the online contest form here and start using RHBNow via Internet Banking or Mobile Banking to win your dream trip to the five destinations!

I’m hoping to win a trip to New York. Good luck, everyone! πŸ™‚

Our traditional fish pie for New Year’s Eve dinner

Fish Pie

I wanted to have a traditional British fish pie for New Year’s Eve dinner so I used Β½ fresh salmon and Β½ smoked salmon with snow crab meat for a pie. I actually modified Jamie Oliver’s fish pie recipe which used half smoked haddock and half fresh salmon for a β€œsmokier” dish than all fresh fish.

Salmon Fillet Steak

The salmon I got were nice fillets meant for pan-frying that costs RM 79.90 per kg. There was another batch of salmon steaks going for half the price but I didn’t like the look of the sad pieces of fish lying about so I paid premium for the fresher salmon.

You will need:

Fish Pie Recipe

  • 300 grams salmon fillets
  • 150 grams smoked salmon
  • 250 grams snow crab claw legs
  • 4 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 3 bunches of spinach
  • 3-4 Brussels sprouts
  • 800 grams of red potatoes
  • 200 grams freshly grated Cheddar cheese
  • 1 lemon

Curly Parsley Flat Leaf Parsley

I bought a packet of parsley and you can see the difference between flat-leaf and curly-leaf parsley. There are equal amounts of each in the pack, I just used the flat-leaf ones, also known as Italian parsley.

Fish Pie Cheese

I chopped up all the vegetables into small pieces and lined the bottom of the baking trays with it before adding the grated Cheddar cheese on top. I used two, and that was a mistake, you can’t split a recipe in half like that, will show you why later.

Red Pontiac Potato

Meanwhile, I peeled the Red Pontiac potatoes for chopping into 2 cm chunks. Red potatoes are perfect for baking but due to it’s starch content, is not so suitable for frying. These aren’t the potatoes for French fries, but it’s good as mash.

Dicing Red Tomatoes

The red potatoes are then dumped into a pot of salted water and boiled for 15 minutes until soft.

Skinning Salmon

I started on the fresh salmon fillet after that – you need to skin it since the recipe calls for the fish to be skinned so the easiest way is to de-skin it is to run a sharp knife under it.

Cutting Fish

I chopped up the fresh salmon fillet into bite sized pieces and did the same for the smoked salmon and snow crab claw legs…

Fish Crab Pie

…before dumping everything into the baking trays.

Mixed Fish Pie

You just need to give it a good dousing of extra virgin olive oil and add some salt and black pepper before mixing *everything* thoroughly.

Fish Pie Topping

The red potatoes are mashed and then put on top of the fish pie as a topping. This is where I went wrong coz I used two baking trays and the potatoes were barely enough to cover both!

Potato Topping

I actually needed a deeper baking tray which would provide the same surface area for the potatoes but I really had to stretch the potatoes to cover both trays.

Baked Salmon Pie

I put both of the fish pies into the oven for 40 minutes and they came out perfect!

Fish Pie Baked

The kids both tried it but declared it to be too salty as I had forgotten smoked salmon is already seasoned and added too much salt to the recipe.

Baked Fish Pie

My better half also thought the same, and I had a huge thirst after eating all that due to the sodium.

Fish Pie Cooked

I think I’ll use cod next time instead of salmon, and hold back on the liberal handfuls pinches of salt. smirk

New Year Eve Dinner

Nevertheless, it was a great New Year’s Eve dinner together with the family. πŸ™‚

Happy New Year 2015!

Happy New Year 2015

2014 has come and gone, and there are a lot of happy memories associated with it (and a few sad ones – we lost a member of our family to cancer, my late mom). It was a year where I learned to be a better person and a year of renewal.

Here’s to a better year in 2015 – may all your hopes be fulfilled, your dreams realized, and your worries conquered. Above all, may you find love, joy and meaning in everything you do.

Happy New Year everyone! πŸ™‚

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