The Household COO

When I first got pregnant, I had a terrible craving for 100Plus. I didn’t know why, but I noticed that when I drank it, the nausea subsided somewhat. After that, I would keep one of those 1.5L bottles at my side just in case a particularly nasty wave of nausea hit.

I didn’t know if it was the fizziness, the sourish tang or just an odd quirk that worked just for me, but it worked, so I kept the habit even when I got sick with food poisoning and felt nauseous.

It was only after visiting the doctor after developing a case of food poisoning, who then recommended I take 100Plus for the nausea that I realise why it worked. According to the doctor, it is the electrolytes in 100Plus that helps to reduce the nausea.

So there you have it: taking 100Plus for nausea is not just a young wife’s tale, but a medical fact.

When I was down under for a holiday a couple of years back, my SIL recommended this ice creamery called “Cold Rock“.  The concept is basically this:

1. Pick your ice cream flavour
2. Pick your “mix ins” (from a range of chocolate, cookies, and lollies)

Then watch as they blend your “mix ins” into your ice cream scoop over a cold plate (yup, it’s exactly like a hot plate but it’s cold) to create one seriously cool ice cream.

It’s a pretty neat concept. 

Recently, I discovered that the Cold Rock concept that come to Malaysia.  It’s here at Baskin Robbins, Pavillion branch.  Actually I saw it probably about a week before at some other ice cream store but I can’t seem to recall where (that’s the problem with losing your memory after having a baby).  I think it was at The Curve but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t one of the regular ice cream brands.

The original concept of mixing sweets into ice cream began in the US with a company called Cold Stone Creamery whose history dates back to 1988.  Cold Rock only appeared in Australia some 8 years later in 1996, however, Cold Rock appears to be hitting international waters because I’ve discovered they now have a store in Holland Village, Singapore.

I’ve only tasted Cold Rock once, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  As for whether the Cold Rock copy-cats here are as good - well, I still have the pleasure of sampling them to find out so watch this space…

I’ve always known that the customer service in this country is well below par but even I couldn’t help being shocked by the service I received when I went to buy Gavin some ice cream from Baskin Robbins a couple of days ago. 

My SILs and I were at Midvalley Megamall doing some last minute shopping for accessories for a family portrait we were scheduled to take.  Deciding to reward Gavin, who had been most accommodating on that particular shopping trip, my SIL and I nipped off Baskin Robbins to get him some ice cream.  I always order a regular double scoop ice cream to share with Gavin and that particular morning was no different from any other.

This is the conversation that took place between me and the serving guy:

Me: I’ll have two scoops, world class chocolate and, er…
Serving Guy: Is that a double scoop?
Me: Yes.  I’ll have the world class chocolate and hokey pokey.
(At this point, I turn my attention to Gavin while the guy starts scooping out my ice cream.  After a while, I look back at him and realise that he’s put each scoop in a separate cup.)
Me: Erm, I said ”double scoop”.

The serving guy shot me a greasy, clearly put out by the mistake.  He then retorted: No you didn’t.

I look at him disbelievingly thinking, “Is this guy for real?  He’s arguing with me?”

Out loud, I repeated, “No, I asked for a double scoop.”

Expecting him to transfer the scoops into one cup, he stood there and repeated, “No, you didn’t.”  The argument probably would have continued if my SIL hadn’t interrupted by asking, “Are we going to argue all day?”

Honestly, at that point, I felt like walking off without the ice cream, but since it was for Gavin, I didn’t have the heart to deny him his ice cream after promising to get him some.

I was extremely annoyed because I clearly told him I wanted a double scoop. Secondly, even if I had made a mistake (which I didn’t), I am the customer who contributes towards his wages through my ice cream purchases so who is he to argue with me?  Thirdly, he didn’t just throw me a greasy (which is usually about as bad as the service gets), but he stood there arguing with me about whether I said “two single scoops” or “a double scoop”. 

I would boycott Baskin Robbins but the other outlets that we frequent are usually okay. 

Well, except for the one at The Curve.  There’s a serving girl there who gives such miserably small scoops by Baskin Robbins standards (if you’re familiar with ice cream, you’ll be aware that Baskin Robbins scoop size is larger than all the other ice cream brands).  What she served me was more like the junior scoop size.  I thought at first it was because she was new and that she didn’t know but she continued to do it on subsequent visits.  Now I just make sure I don’t get served by her.

With a taste from heaven and a smell from hell, you’ll either love it or hate it.

It’s categorised as a fruit but for some reason it’s never occured to me that durians might actually have some nutritional benefits.  Or rather I think a lot of my presumptions about durians being bad for you stem from the fact that the Chinese believe durians to be a “hot” fruit. 

To explain this further, food are usually classified as “heaty” or “cooling”.  When I was young, I seemed to get the impression that “heaty” foods were bad for you and “cooling” foods were good.  In reality, it really depends on your situation and your health.  In general, young people should not eat too much “heaty” foods and old people should not take too much “cooling” foods.  There is a long and more complicated explaination behind this which is partially explained here.

Anyway, I never even thought to look up the benefits of eating durians until it “cured” a minor little problem I had developed during the course of my pregnancy. 

During pregnancy, the body increases the release of the hormone relaxin which acts on the smooth muscles in the body, including those in the digestive tract.  The purpose of this is to facilitate the absorption of nutrients by slowing down the digestive process.  Unfortunately, it causes the unpleasant side effect of constipation.

When I introduced durians into my diet, I’d also noticed an improvement in bowel movements.  Intrigued, I decided to take a look at what nutritional benefits durians actually provide to the consumer and needless to say, I was quite surprised by what I discovered.

One serve of durian (about 243g) yields 9g of fiber (no wonder it brought an end to my toilet worries!).  It’s also a great source of Vitamin C and some forms of Vitamin B (such as Thiamin, B6, Riboflavin, Niacin and Folate).

For the full details about the nutritional value of durians click here.

From time to time, my SIL (the chef) returns for an extended holiday break and she spoils us all rotten by cooking up a storm in the kitchen - a storm of desserts, sweets and other treats, that is.  Curiously, I asked her one day why she didn’t make dinner for us.  Before I get to her answer, I should clarify this point.  She does cook meals for us occasionally but not very often.  I thought it rather odd since dinner would give her the perfect opportunity to test out recipes - something I know she really enjoys doing.

Anyway, the reason why she doesn’t really like cooking dinner is because it is difficult to plan when the family has so many specific meal requests.  I never really thought much of it myself until I volunteered to cook dinner one night.  That was when I realised the stress of cooking for picky eaters.  Yes, I know, my son’s a picky eater, too, but when he refuses to eat my cooking, I just offer him my one-stop solution - breastmilk - and he’s happy again.  Unfortunately, I can’t exactly do that for the family. 

Here’s a brief list of meal restrictions in this family (after you read through it, you probably wouldn’t want to cook for us either):

1. There’s got to be dishes with real meat (and by real meat I mean chunks of meat - mince meat doesn’t cut it by a long shot) or the men in the family will be crying murder.
2. My MIL’s a Taoist so we can’t have beef.
3. My hubby and SIL won’t eat pork but my FIL loves the stuff so we have to have at least two different meat dishes (unless it’s Bah Ku Teh, in which case, the hubby will make an exception).
4. My hubby and SIL won’t eat carrots or cauliflower so there has to be a veggie dish that they’ll eat (in fact, there are a lot of veggies the hubby won’t eat - potatoes, lettuce of any sort, zucchini or any other like veggies).
5. My MIL abhores anything that is “ready made” (in the jar or out of a can, etc.), although the other day, I discovered ways to circumvent this issue which is also a trick my late Aunt used to pull with my Uncle who also refuses any food that bears the words “instant”, “quick”, or “easy” on the packet.  The trick is to make it taste like it was made from scratch and make sure you dispose of all the evidence.  My mother, I’ve discovered is also really good at this - she can make packet Rendang taste like the real McCoy, although I’ve yet to learn how she does it.

When you consider the fact that my repertoire of Chinese recipes is extremely limited, you’ll understand why I hesitate before volunteering to cook dinner again.

If you compare this list of food restrictions against the list of food restrictions in my family - which is none, maybe you’ll understand why I feel even more frustrated about cooking.  My Dad, my brother and I eat anything and everything my mother serves.  In fact, there isn’t a dish she makes that I don’t like eating.  The hubby likes to think that I have no taste when it comes to food and anything that I dislike means “don’t go anywhere near it without a ten-foot pole” because if I don’t like it, it’s got to be REALLY BAD.

Now that my in laws have gone to the States for a holiday and my SIL2’s convocation, making dinner has fallen back into my hands again.  The good news is that I only have one fussy eater to contend with (the hubby, since Gavin can still be easily placated with milk).

Every weekend, the hubby and I will go out for dinner with my in laws and every weekend everyone will ask me where I want to go. I don’t even know why they bother because I never know where to go, so we always end up at the same old haunts: Chili’s, Sakura, TTL (a Chinese restaurant near our house), O’Brien’s, Cozy Corner (Great Eastern Mall), or Shin Nichi.

I suppose another one of the reasons why we’re stuck with this boring list of restaurants is also because it’s not convenient to take Gavin to certain venues because he’s rather heat intolerant. Up until recently, I was also establishing a breastfeeding relationship with Gavin so I wasn’t too keen to breastfeed just anywhere in public until the both of us were comfortable with each other.

I would love to go somewhere different, but the few new places we’ve ventured into on my request (usually because we just happen to be passing by) always seem to be a bad choice. While looking around for the name and location of a restaurant, I stumbled across a pretty handy list of restaurants around the Klang Valley. I suppose if we’re adventurous enough, we might actually get to try something different for a change.

I’m also open to recommendations if anyone’s got any…

Check this out - Cuisine Musings. This is my SIL’s new blog. There’s only one entry there right now, but do stay tuned for more delicious recipes and pictures that will make your mouth dribble over your keyboard.

All I can say is, I’m so glad she’s back from the land down under. I just love being the taste tester!

Here’s a little bit of background about the chef who authors Cuisine Musings:

A Cordon Bleu chef, she’s worked in the kitchen of a fine French restaurant at Crown Entertainment Center in Melbourne. She also won the Mark Thierry award and was personally mentored by the three star Michelin chef for a month in France.

So bookmark her blog. Even if you’re not a chef, the pictures will be worth it!