I'm a full-time mummy

I have been sharing some of my favorite angpow pieces on an angpow collectors group in Facebook and some members have been telling me to continue sharing my memorable stories and so I thought, why not write it down, that way, our kiddos can read about it when they grow up next time, eh?

For those of you who are not familiar or never heard of the words 'Angpow' (also known as 'ang pau', 'ang pao', 'angpau'), here is a quick definition:

Angpow = Red Packet (filled with cash inside) given during festivals

So for today's angpow story, it comes from this 2 pieces of lovely angpows (front and back placed side by side):

When I see this angpow, I remembered my younger years whenever I go back to my late mum's hometown, my late po-po (means grandmother) used to have this giant kettle(okay, I was really young and little and it looked giant to me).

It was quite terrifying to handle such a gigantic looking kettle at such a young age and I never dared to hold and pour water out of it by myself. I always have to bug my cousins to help me or asked my late mum to pour water for me or continue being thirsty until someone went to get water and I quickly ask along for help to get water to drink.

Until today, I have a mini phobia seeing big kettles like this :P Looking at these angpows reminded me of these childhood times. What a bittersweet childhood memories!

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

Few weeks ago, I bought a book on "Bugs: A Pop-up Journey into the World of Insects, Spiders and Creepy-crawlies" and our 2 older kiddos seem very interested with this book. Maybe because there are pop-ups insects and creepy-crawlies in the book hehehe...

Anyway, the reason for my post today is to share with you guys something we learned from this book - Bombardier Beetle

Sometimes, after reading to our kiddos from the book, I like to show them YouTube videos on how the subject looks like in real-life, how it moves, what sound it makes etc. So naturally, after explaining to our kiddos what is a Bombardier Beetle, I searched for a nice educational video of it on YouTube. You can watch the video here. Our kiddos watched it few times, very intrigued with the beetle and I explained to them again and again, how the beetle protect and defends itself from its enemies.

Btw, if you are interested to get this book, you can get it with free worldwide shipping from The Book Depository or from Amazon website.

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

One of the reasons I love being a blogger is getting to do food review with my family. Over a year ago, I had the privilege to try out a food preview session for IPPUDO's Parent's Day package and this year, I have been invited again to try out their latest promo deal. Without further ado, check out my review below...

About the company:

"IPPUDO was founded in 1985 in Japan’s ramen capital of Hakata by Shigemi Kawahara, the internationally renowned Ramen King and CEO of Chikaranomoto Company, which encompasses some of Japan’s finest restaurants. There are over 65 stores in Japan, and globally in places such as New York, Sydney, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Shanghai. IPPUDO has become the most popular ramen restaurant over the years."

We opted to go back to IPPUDO The Gardens Midvalley, the same outlet we went to in 2014 and instead of just our family member of 5 (hubby and I with our 3 kiddos then), this time we brought a whole lot of people along to try out the promo with us. Actually all of us were celebrating our nephew's 10th birthday earlier in the afternoon and we decided to continue on our celebration with a nice family dinner at IPPUDO. There is a total of 7 adults with 5 kiddos on that night.

We reached the outlet at almost 8pm and were greeted with an enthusiastic welcome by the restaurant's staff and were then directed to our room. The supervisor in-charge, Mr. Alfred promptly helped us along as we ordered our ramens and extra dishes (hubby wanted to let our family members try out IPPUDO's other awesome dishes as well).

I managed to snap a few quick pictures around the room we were in while waiting for hubby to order the ramens and dishes. We requested for normal textured ramen and were given the following complimentary sets for our food review:

• Premium set A (Choice of 2 ramens with salmon roll + appetizer platter + Itachoco)

• Premium set B (Choice of 2 ramens with 2 pork buns + spicy boiled gyoza + appetizer platter + Daifuku)

  

• Kids Menu Combo A (Shiromaru Moboaji + Chicken Karaage + Orange juice)

  

• Kids Menu Combo B (Furikake + Ebi + Tsukune + Chicken Teriyaki + Kiwi + Orange juice)
  

The food arrived very fast and in orderly manner. I am sorry but I can't snap the pictures nicely because of the long table and the food is everywhere being passed around to share hahahaha...We were all calm and cool as cucumber before the food arrived, but when they came... oh boy... my family and the kiddos are like locusts! Swarming over the ramens and side dishes to be the first to try out and share their feedback.

I am very impressed with the numerous staff who were very helpful, checking in every now and then to make sure we have everything we wanted, refilling our green teas and taking away our plates to clear up space and etc.

A real honest feedback to how delicious the food at IPPUDO? Very easy to see. Just look at our 3 kiddos and how they behave when they were eating their food. Our girls especially are very picky with their food, if it is not nice, no matter how you force or entice them with sweet treats also it won't work. But throughout the whole time during the dinner, our 3.5 years old girl happily self-feed 3 bowls of ramen, wiping off the soup that dribbles down her mouth as she gobbles up her ramen.

Our 6 years old boy? Look at his face smiling through his kid's meal combo B. And our 1.5 years old girl? She is the pickiest amongst her siblings. Her SEP (standard eating procedure) would be:

1. Take a small bite

If food is not up to her taste, she will shrug away and said NO and attacked my breasts (she is still breastfeeding on top of her solids) OR

If she likes the food, she will nod her head and said 'Samor!'

During the dinner, she continued whacking all the karaage which was really crispy on the outside, smooth and tender on the inside and easy for a toddler like her to eat. I am a happy mum!

 As for us adults, our honest opinion of the food review at IPPUDO this time? The menu selection was good, the food was delicious, quality is the maintained tip-top good and from the family point of view, the package is value for money instead of ordering separately. I'm sure anyone would be happy to pay for something as long as the food is delicious and made of the good quality ingredients, so the awesome point of getting to eat delicious food and knowing it is well worth the money spent for is just fantastic! Do go over to IPPUDO and try out their Premium set while the promo is still available! GOOOOOOOOO!!!

Thank you again Ippudo Malaysia for inviting us!

We really enjoy it very very much! Thumbs up from all of us!

IPPUDO's Premium set promo is available for a limited time only. You can find out more at http://www.ippudo.com.my/

Do note that I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the products in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.