Blue High Fin Mickey Mouse Platy

I have a pair of blue high fin Mickey Mouse Platy and I've been keeping them for almost half a year now.  I started with a M/F pair which I got from Big Al's.  Then I added another female which I bought from Frank's Aquarium.  The male never likes his mate from Big Al's and he only courted the one from Frank's.  I guess that's because the one from Frank's was a bit pregnant and more mature when I first bought it.

This female from Frank's has given birth to several baby platies for the past half year, all her fries were cute and healthy living in my 10 gallon fry tank, no death rate.  Her belly usually remains fat and round although she has given birth, which makes me think that she always keep some fries inside her belly no matter what, maybe they're just not mature enough to be released...   Things got worsen recently, she released all her fries and her belly is super flat!  She always hide inside my piggy decor just to avoid the courtship from her mate.

 Sad to see...the female is hiding, and her boyfriend is stalking her right outside the decor!!  If the boyfriend don't see her, he will go crazy chasing other fish (not courting).  But if he sees her, he will dash inside the decor and chase her out...

 My piggy decor has become a pretty popular spot in the tank.  A nosy Balloon Molly peak through the hole looking at me while I was taking a picture of her.

 Now it has become a resting place for this Bandit Cory.

 My fries in my 10 gallon tank are growing big and it's time to move them over to the 20 gallon tank.  My husband has selected and separated these larger ones here, there are almost 50 counts!!

 A closer shot of the fries.  There are guppies, sunset platies and blue mickey mouse platies here.  Don't think there is any balloon molly fries though.

 Fries ready to be released into the 20 gallon tank.

Once these fries were released, they sank to the bottom...  It takes some times for them to adopt to the new environment here...

Jun 17 (Friday) - Fishermen Clubhouse Restaurant 魚樂軒小廚

Dear Uncle Hong,

Uncle Hong, this post is specially for you~~  ^^

My mom and your mom finally met each other last Friday!!  Woohoo!!  We went to 魚樂軒小廚 to had dinner that night.  Thanks god I made a reservation a couple of days before the dinner.  The reservation was at 6pm and the restaurant was almost half full already, by 6:30pm, it was full!!  We ordered a 五和菜 and two other dishes, including soup and dessert, there were 9 dishes in total!!  Wa.....

 魚樂軒 is located at around Old Kennedy Rd. / Steeles Ave. E., It was pretty hard to find at first ...  The sign was small and it was not easy to see, I nearly missed it! =P

 It's pretty small inside, tables were packed and patio section was opened to serve more seats.  Lucky that we were sitting inside that day,outside was hot and humid!!  It's incredible that they can fit (I think) 14 tanks of fresh seafood at the restaurant entrance - lobsters, crab, fish, razor clam...you name it!!

 Part of their menu and of course, I didn't order these combos.

 Soup was first served.  It was the 豬骨蓮藕赤小豆湯。 Although I know this is a bowl of MSG soup, I still think it was pretty good - I got thirsty right after finished this soup, MSG 好勁!

 花彫浸大蜆- the clam was fresh, fat, no sand and the soup has a very flavorful wine taste. 好清，但唔夠味！

 黑椒牛柳粒 - beef was tender and their black pepper sauce was not bad either. However, their portion was a bit too small and the black pepper sauce was too spicy.

 薑蔥炒蟹 - stir fried ginger and green onion tasted very good in this dish, 送飯一流!  Crab was fresh and very meaty; shell was unexpectedly thin and was easy to crack.  Not bad!

 清蒸青斑 - presentation was very nice but the 青斑 was a bit too small.  魚肉彈牙，但太細條變得唔夠食。

 皇子菇扒白菜苗 - nothing really special about this dish except the portion was small and tasteless.

 風沙焗龍蝦 - this dish was extremely good!  Lobster was fresh and 嫩, those 風沙 were deep fried garlic (with something else maybe?) and they tasted a bit sweet, good for 撈飯! 龍蝦更是一絕! It was coated with 一層薄粉, 脆卜卜, 焗得乾身又野味。  Also, very good presentation, 可惜唔夠味!

 霸王雞- This is a bit of a joke!  Too much green onion covering the chicken, which you couldn't see what you were eating.  Portion was small and tasteless...  每次夾雞似玩抽獎...抽親嘟係骨頭，肉唔多...  No good!

 Dessert - 芝麻糊.  There aren't a lot of places out there offer 芝麻糊 as dessert.  I think their 芝麻糊 was pretty good except it was a little too sweet.

Uncle Hong, I wish you were here so that you can enjoy the meal with us but too bad you are not around la!  Also, I hope your mom is full enough after the dinner...  My mom and your mom were busy chatting during the dinner, and we were busy eating....so she might not have eaten enough.....  Next time when you come back and we go to eat together ba!!  ^^  Hope you enjoy the pictures here la!! 

Cheers,

Sis

Picture of My Day - 'Geese Crossing'

Caution! Geese crossing ahead!  I've seen signs for pedestrian, moose and bear crossing, but geese crossing?!  I've seen geese crossing, it's fun to watch when you are not in a hurry, and you really have to be cautious!  Imagine when you are driving 80km on a busy street and out of a sudden the vehicle next to you make a sudden stop on a green light!  While you are wondering what the heck is going on, a goose head pops out from no where!!  Next thing you do is a hard break'coz you wouldn't know when the (herd of) geese is going suicide...  Nothing you can do but just sit there, wait and watch.  Honking at them won't help 'coz they don't care, it will make thing worse since the 'boss' will just stand still and stare at you.  But dont' get me wrong, they are always cute to watch!  =)

順德菜: 煎釀豆角

近日看了一本雜誌﹐介紹了這道順德名菜煎釀豆角。 豆角卷成一圈圈然後再釀上新鮮的鯪魚肉﹐把兩面煎得金黃﹐單是看上去就覺得好吃﹗ 我有點無聊, 於是在家中嘗試做這道菜，一做便做了三四十個。 唯一不同的便是我用碎豬肉代替鯪魚肉。  功夫菜果然是功夫菜﹗ 單是卷豆角釀豬肉已經玩了我三個鐘，還沒計其他 preparations...

自家製煎釀豆角。沒有想像中好吃... 如果說口感像在嘴嚼發泡膠，這就真的對不起自己。前後煮了好幾個鐘...我以後不玩了！

煎之前。豆角卷成圈狀，我只用了生粉水埋口。曾想過在煎之前用蛋白塗在豆角上，可是煎完後豆角上的蛋白會變白，影響觀感，所以最終放棄。

實驗結果：把豆角那面先煎，這樣豆角就不容易散開。

把兩邊用文火煎至金黃。運氣好的話只有一兩塊豆角散開！

失敗之作：散開了的釀豆角，像一塊蚊香...哈哈！

Picture of My Day - Guan Yu 關羽

關羽, 字雲長﹐河東解縣人。  我第一眼見到這個小擺設便讓我想起電子遊戲 Dynasty Warrior 三國無雙中的角色關羽﹗ 多得這個遊戲的發明者﹐讓我對中國歷史產生了濃厚的興趣﹐尤其是有關魏蜀吳三國鼎立的時代。 如果我早些愛上中國歷史﹔如果我早些認識個遊戲﹐也許我在中學時期的中史成積不會這麼差 。 。 。  

My Aquarium

Taking picture of my fish is always a challenge to me, especially I only have this Sony something Cyber Shot digital camera.  Worse part is, I don't really know how to program my camera to suit my need.  The only thing I know is to switch it to auto mode and let it do it's job (that's why you never see me posting night photos 'coz I don't know how to take it with my camera and I don't want to read the manuals)

 My Takashi Amano shrimp hiding in the greens eating his flake food.

 Flower shrimp opened up his fan-like appendages to catch microscopes.

 Pregnant Takashi Amano shrimp carrying her eggs underneath her belly.

 I call this one '叢林之神'.  Peppered Cory hiding in the 'bushes' just to avoid any harassment from my Yoyo!

 Forgot the name of this Cory.  Don't think this is a Sterbai.

 Those pictures above weren't too hard to take 'coz those fish just simply sits there.  Picture of these balloon mollies are so damned hard to take!!  This white one I call it '大Jur 咀'!  She is pretty cute when eating, she sucks the rock and the plant pretty hard to get her food.

 Male dalmatian balloon molly, or it's a she?? - my lance can't get any closer...

 Find this Amano pretty cute when she is grabbing the edge of a leaf.  Carrying eggs too!

 網中魚 - to avoid any harassment from my Yoyo, this Cory chose to hide in the breeding net.

 Male guppy - it was pretty lucky that I could take this shot, he wasn't moving much.

 Sigh...see the reflection of my camera?  Told you I don't know how to take good pictures..  This one here is a Sunset Tuxedo platy which I pretty like.

 This is another lucky shot.  Black Phantom Tetra - they usually swim very fast.

 Definitely a male dalmatian balloon molly.  This fellow swam towards me for several times while I was taking picture of the tank. So 八掛!!

  This lazy flying fox 一線飛狐 always like to rest on a leaf!!

 Up-side-down Cat.  Swim up-side-down, hide up-side-down but I don't think it eats up-side-down though.

40 gallon community tank.  The blue net on the left is the breeding net, which my Peppered Cory, Flying Fox and Barbs like hide in there.  PS, I used to trap my naughty Yoyo inside the breeding net, but not anymore now 'coz he has learnt his lesson hard and never swim close to the net!

Another shot of the community tank without the breeding net.

Jun 19: My husband has rearranged the water wisteria (the one in the middle) in the 40 gallon tank, providing a better shelter for the shrimps.  PS, those 4 fast blurry swimmers above the water wisteria are Congo Tetras.

10 gallon bare bottom fry tank.  I've got guppy fries, balloon molly fries (just a few) and platy fries (those orange one - they are dwarf sunsets).  I've also got some small cherry red shrimp fries in the breeding net on the right.

Picture of one of the platty fry, really hard to get this steady post!



20 gallon live bearing tank.  I got some Guppies, Balloon Mollies and Platies here with several kinds of Cory: Sterbai, Panda, Peppered, Bandit and one I forgot it's name....  I don't know how to fix the plant in this tank and my husband does not allow me to get the plant food...  Perhaps I will get some leafy plants later.