Aberdeen, the third most populous city in Scotland boasts of its stately and serene architecture of many gray granite buildings, hence dubbed the 'Granite City'. Most of the buildings were built from gray granite excavated from the Rubislaw Quarry which closed in 1971. Aberdeen is an expensive city, also known as the Oil Capital of Europe, fuelled by the North Sea petroleum industry. This was where I spent my short vacation with my family recently.
I'm sure many of you would have heard of Mary Moh, author of Keep Learning Keep Smiling, the Badminton enthusiast and just recently her team emerged the champion at the Corporate Decathlon Badminton Competition. Congrats, Mary! At the mention of Badminton I could see the gleam in Mary's eyes! I was very glad to meet up with her again. I first met up with her around August 2010 in London. This time as I was in her 'home city', she was so kind to invite me and my family to her house for dinner, in fact, we had two dinners.
A picture for rememberance before we dig into the FOOD .... Mary and her hubby Steven with my family.
Ok, let me introduce you to the menu .... from left, mixed vegetables, then pancakes, cucumber and sauce to go with the Peking Chicken, the foil wrapped pulut panggang, (spicy, sambal glutinous rice roll), mixed seafood and her signature dish, pork belly stew. Imagine having home made pulut panggang in Aberdeen! We liked the pork belly stew, very tasty and the pork was tender. The pulut panggang was absolutely marvellous and my children enjoyed it very much too.
Have you had this before? Peking Chicken with pancakes and sauce, all homemade! Absolutely delicious! I wouldn't dream of making this dish.
See the dessert spread ...... fresh grapes and strawberries, red bean paste Mochi and yummy chocolate Brownies, homemade! We ate our fill and Mary separately packed the Brownies for us so that we can snack on them while travelling the next day..... so thoughtful of her!
This was the second dinner we had in Mary's house before we left for home the next day. Vegetarian 'chai kuih' and Sweet & Sour Pork.
Salted vegetable with pork belly and Salmon in Tomato ketchup sauce.
Hot and Spicy chicken (finger licking good) and Mixed vegetables.
Dessert ..... watermelon and sweet potato angku kuih. The angku kuih was very, very soft and yummy! She packed some for us to take home for breakfast the next day.
Mary and her hubby, Steven are such accommodating hosts and we enjoyed their company very much. We chatted as if we've known each other for umpteen years and my children felt very comfortable with them too.
No one will believe that we met on the internet and through blogging. I've never regretted starting my blog for I've made many friends and learnt a lot from sharing with my blogger friends.
So much for now and if you'd like to see more pictures of Scotland, stay tuned! Cheers :)
Everything looks so delicious! Those sweet sour pork and kuih are my favourites.
ReplyDeleteYes, the food was delicious. Perhaps you should hop over to Aberdeen one day to meet up with Mary.
DeleteHi Cheah , I do so agree with you about the food , it has to be delicious , I have made so many friends through blogging , none in person yet. Thanks for sharing your trip and especially the food , family and pictures :).
ReplyDeleteYou're most welcome, Nee.
DeleteCheah, Mary is a good host and a great cook! I can see you all had an enjoyable meals together ~ I'm so jealous! :D
ReplyDeleteOh yes, indeed she is. You should make a trip to Aberdeen one day to meet up with her.
DeleteWow! A great spread indeed! I agreed Mary is a superwoman to be able to cook up so many dishes in such short notice! Yummy!
ReplyDeleteShe's amazing, this lady!
DeleteWow ... what a spread?
ReplyDeleteYes, you envy me???
DeleteYes .... very!
DeleteYeah, Mary is such a superwoman ! She managed to prepare a storm of food for you guys in just a short notice. You guys are really lucky to have tasted her food. >o< Hopefully, I'm lucky enough to visit her some day as well.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to read your upcoming post. Enjoy your day.
Kristy
Yes, Kristy, she can multi-task. I should've taken a picture of her in the kitchen. You enjoy your weekend.
Deletewow....you had a great time in Aberdeen, despite surrounded by the grey, dull building (granite city)...Mary is really a good cook, I tasted her chicken rice couple years ago and I can't forget it till now
ReplyDeleteYes, we really had a wonderful time in Aberdeen and touring part of Scotland. Mary must be so pleased to hear that compliment!
Deletewow Mary is amazing! I always knew she was a great cook from her blog, but boy was this a feast!
Deletewow...wow..wow...i must meet the superwoman mary one day when i go visit scotland! i must make sure she prepares all these food for me too ! hahaha!
ReplyDeleteOh wow...Cheah, you make Aberdeen look very big and beautiful....haha. And you make me blush with all your compliments :D We really had a great time with you and your family. You have such a beautiful family! Hope you will come by this way again. More food waiting for you....hehe
ReplyDeleteI really hope to visit you and Steven next year, God willing! Yes, miss your angku kuih and mochi and the pork belly stew and lots more!
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