Chocolate Ice-Cream Cupcakes

I was away from work a couple of days 2 weeks ago and in anticipation for a makan session at Semenyih that weekend with a few of the floggers, I made this Chocolate Ice-Cream Cupcakes for them as some of them complaint that they never got to taste my cakes. However, sad to say the makan session got cancelled because not enough quorum...

Anyway, back to this cupcake. I had wanted to get the 500 Cupcakes & Muffins By Fergal Connolly book (published by PageOne Publishing) last Christmas but they were sold out at MPH. When Paprika gave me her eggless chocolate cupcake back on our first date, she told me she got the recipe from this book, I know must try to look for it again! Well try hard I did not for Popular Bookstore in Ikano has plenty of them. I got one copy and this Chocolate Ice-Cream Cupcakes is my first recipe from it after I've gotten the book.

Suffice to say, this cupcake is pretty easy to bake. To assemble, just cut the cupcake into half. Sandwich some ice-cream onto them before coating the top with a chocolate ganache. Best part is that they can be done in advance and freeze them. Bring them out of the freezer for about 15 mins (well if you can wait that long!!!) before serving.

Suffice to say my boiboi and myself are big fans of this cupcake! Thanks floggers hehehe... am enjoying them slowly :p

Technorati Tags: cupcake + chocolate

Jamie Oliver Inspired Rosemary Roasts

I did a simple roast chicken thighs and baby potatoes on a lazy Sunday ala Jamie Oliver. This is my simply hentam version. I have a pack of fresh rosemary, so I decided to stuff some underneath the skin of 4 chicken thighs together with some butter. Drizzle some olive oil over and sprinkle some sea salt and freshly grounded black pepper. Roast in the oven and they came out looking like this...

For the baby potatoes, dunk in cleaned potatoes in boiling water and cook till tender. Drain and place in roasting pan. Coat them up with olive oil, chopped rosemary, sea salt and black pepper. Roast them in the oven till golden. I also have some traffic light colours capsicums and sliced brinjal that I spread them in a tray. Again I drizzle over olive oil, sea salt and black pepper combo before chucking in the oven. No rosemary here as 1 pack is seriously not enough for 4 chicken thighs and a bunch of baby potatoes. Need at least 2, must remember this!

Easy peasy eh? The thighs were tender and the skins... mmm crispy, very sinful indeed and I simply loved those roasted vegetables. I have leftovers where I shredded the chicken, mix in sliced potatoes and mayo. Turned them into a chicken sandwich lined with the sweet roasted capsicums, served with a blob of mustard - utmost delish!

Check out my other roast chickens:
One Chook, Five Ways
Babe's Roast Chicken With Vegetables

Technorati Tags: roast chicken

Review: Restaurant Wong Poh

Spurned by backStreetGluttons recent post on Restaurant Wong Poh, I decided to heave my heavy bum to write this post up. Our family have a very late Father Day's celebration. One of my brother recommended to try this place which is new to the rest us. Since my aunt and cousin were around, we roped them in for dinner even though they have an early dinner that Sunday. So all in all there were 10 of us inclusive of my boiboi.

We started off with this Kerabu Octopus (RM15.00) that they recommended. When it came, my brother said "got cheated" hahaha when we saw it's just those baby octopus that came straight out from a pack mixed with some mango, red chillies and red onion strips. Served with a squeeze of lime and sprinkling of crushed peanuts. Overall, I give this an okay, quite refreshing and I liked those not too sour mango strips.

We asked for a tofu dish (RM16.00) and came this deep fried homemade tofu bricks braised with a few types of mushrooms. Nothing spectacular here.

Next, we have a plate of stewed pork belly with peanuts (RM15.00). I like the huge peanuts which were stewed to tender perfection without turning mushy. My boiboi lapped the gravy up with some fried mantau.

So it seems fried sang cheung (RM15.00) is Wong Poh's specialty and my brother said it's very good. That's how it ended up on our table. Seriously up till now, we're still debating which part of the pig this came from. Some said it's some part of the intestine but my mom said it's fallopian tubes. Maybe I should ask my butcher tomorrow. Anyhow, these sang cheung came fried with green chilli padis and crispy dried shrimps. This dish with 3 types of crunchiness of varying degrees melded together very well indeed. Definitely a must have.

I can't recall what type of fish is this, could be red snapper (hoong joe?? I'm really lousy with fish names). Mom chose the fish but I asked it to be steamed Teo Chew style (RM52.30). We loved the slight sourish soup and lapped up most of the soup. Certain parts of the fish were slightly over steamed, hence a bit coarse.

Mom asked for the Four Heavenly Kings (RM12.00). Wong Poh's version have long beans, ladies fingers, four angled beans and petai combinations. Stirred in sambal belacan, nothing special here, lacking a bit in "wok hei" (breath of the wok).

Ahhh and finally the piece de resistance - Butter Crabs (RM67.20, I think 2 crabs only if not mistaken)!!! Now this looks like the MUST ORDER dish in Wong Poh cos EVERY single table have a pot of this! Amazing. I know my boiboi was busy mopping the gravy up with mantau and so were the rest of us that we have to asked for more mantau. The waitress "hijacked" one set to serve us first LOL! The fried ones are nicer.

Simply loved the freshness and meatiness of the crabs coupled with the aromatic buttery sauce...! This gravy is slightly thicker than De Foodland Seafood Restaurant and it's way better.

We have a pot of tea (RM11.50), I think 5 plates of rice (RM3.50), peanuts (RM1.50) plus 5% Government tax, so our dinner costed us a total of RM224.18, seems reasonable. Overall, the dishes are just fine but will come here just for the Butter Crabs. Any other style that are nice here??? Leave me some comments. Thanks.

Have a nice weekend.

Restaurant Wong Poh
36 & 38 Jln BM 1/2
Bukit Mayang Mas
47301 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 603-7803 3527

Technorati Tags: malaysian food + crab

Black Eyed Beans Tong Shui

Got some black eyed beans/peas to make some sweet soup (tong shui) since it has been a long while I have this.

Easy peasy - boil the beans until tender (much faster than red beans!) before adding rock sugar to taste. Then swirl in beaten eggs. Done!

Technorati Tags: malaysian food + tong shui

Review: Veaty Bites - Pandan Chicken Style

Precious Pea, this is for you ;-)

Earlier, I posted a review on Veaty Bites's chicken flavour vegetarian chunk. I've tried the Pandan Chicken Style recently and here's what I have to say...

This was how the chunks looked like straight out from the freezer. The chunks are similar to the chicken flavour ones, just that these babies are marinaded with turmeric, lemongrass and a host of other ingredients just like the real thing. They are then roll with a small piece of pandan leaf secured with a small piece of skewer. I decided to defrost them as I'm so afraid of splattering hot oil even though you could fry them in their frozen state. I had thought of baking in the oven but then again I contemplated since pandan chicken packages are usually deep fried.

After deep frying, wrapped and unwrapped.

My verdict - they are not very flavourful as compared with the real thing. The marinade was sort of like being coated on the chunks hence the inner part of the chunks tasted just like the normal chicken flavoured chunks. However, this is a good party food as it is utmost easy to prepare - deep fried, microwave or bake in the oven in its frozen state. Well, we still enjoyed them nevertheless.

I still have one pack of satay flavoured chunks that I've gotten at BCAF07. Will update when I cook them later.

My other Kawan products review:
Review: Kawan Mini Rice Dumplings
Sweet and Sour Veaty Bites
Chapati, Dhal and Vegetables Curry

Technorati Tags: vegetarian + malaysian food

Ratatouille: Rat-a-too-ee

I caught the making of Ratatouille, the movie, last night. Other than being a food related movie churned out from Pixar's kitchen, I can't help but noticed that I now have the same (well, almost...) hairstyle as Colette (pictured above) albeit a little longer touching my shoulders and side parted... LOL!!!

Coincidentally I had my hair chopped off last Friday without prior knowledge of this hehe...

* Picture from Ratatouille official site.

Apple and Cinnamon Tea Cake

This Apple and Cinnamon Tea Cake from Donna Hay's Modern Classic Book 2 is fast becoming my favourite cake for it's not very heavy and it's filled with apples, lots of them! The slight tang of the apples sort of like cancel off the buttery cake mixture. I really really like them so much that I've baked them many times over. Glad that all the guinea pigs liked them too!

Apple and Cinnamon Tea Cake

185g butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2/3 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup milk

Topping:
4 small green apples, peeled, halved and cored
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup apricot jam, warmed

Preheat the oven to 160C. Line base of a 22cm (9in) springform pan with non-stick baking paper.

Place the butter, cinnamon and sugar in a bowl and beat until light and creamy with electric mixer. Gradually add the eggs and beat well. Sift flour and baking powder over butter mixture and stir in milk until combined. Spoon the mixture into the pan.

To make the topping, cut a row of deep slits in each apple half and arrange over the top of the cake mixture. Press apples into the batter but not until all the way down, otherwise the batter will cover the apples. Combine the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the apples. Bake for 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and brush the cake with the warm jam. Then return the cake to the oven for 10 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.

Ref: Donna Hay, Modern Classics Book 2

Note: I've used strawberry jam instead since I did not have apricot jam on hand. Worked as well.

Technorati Tags: donna hay + tea cake

Babe in the City - KL is THREE!!!!

As of today, I've been blogging officially for THREE (3) years!!!!

Gee, it just seems like yesterday! Looking back in the early days, I was kinda lonely since there isn't many local food related blog except for Friedchillies forum where I found some makan kakis there. It's funny how things turn out... one of the foodster, Adly, became a true makan kaki and another one, Wai Meng, turned out to be hubby's dharma centre's member. Who could anticipated this? I met Wai Meng at BCAF07 and we managed to chatted up a bit reminising how things have turned out. Things do worked strangely.

Three years after, thank goodness the scenario had changed. There are many local floggers, forums and food portals now, in fact so many that I find it hard to keep up with everyone's postings. Many a time, I resort to reading my feeds but leave no comments. Sorry about that but seriously I have a long list in my feed kekeke... Lots of addiction there!

I was browsing through some of my very old postings, omigosh, those of you whom have praised me for the delish looking photos should have taken a looked at my old postings! Goshhhh... looked how ugly those pics were hahahaha... Lucky thing things turn out pretty ok now with lots of practice.

I've gone thru three change of clothings with the current strawberries one being the latest. I still can't get a couple of the links working. Tried every darn thing but it still won't budge, will try again later. There will be some tweakings here and there so please bear with me. I can't get Haloscan to work along side with Blogger's comments, so in the mean time, Blogger's comment it is. I've allowed people to post as Anonymous but I'm thinking of withdrawing that since I would love to see who is commenting. BTW, I did not come out with the template on my own, I just copied and paste from Finalsense. So full credits should go to Finalsense. Do give them a visit if you want a change of template.

Wishing more good things to come, happy 3rd anniversary, dear blog!

p.s.: The cake shown above is Donna Hay's Apple and Cinnamon Tea Cake. Will post the recipe in a separate post.

Technorati Tags: anniversary

SHF#33: Tropical Paradise - Mango & Nata De Coco Konnyaku Jelly

This round of Sugar High Friday is hosted by Mary of alpineberry with the theme Tropical Paradise. It will be totally be unforgiven if I did not enter this round of SHF since the country I'm staying in, Malaysia, is practically a tropical paradise the whole year round.

Bearing in mind with the heat at this time of the year, I decided to make some konnyaku jelly with some cubed mangoes, nata de coco that came in a can with mango juice.

Easy peasy with a pack of konnyaku jelly powder (I used Jim Willie's brand) and the suggested amount of sugar on the packet. Mix them well together and set aside.

I've some cubed mangoes and drained nata de coco on hand. Place these into individual jelly moulds.

The nata de coco that I've gotten came with mango juice. So I added some water to it until the amount specified on the packet. You can use more mango juice if you want but make sure you cut down the amount of sugar used. Let it come to a boil in a pan and lower down the heat. Slowly add in the jelly powder and sugar mixture by the tablespoon and stir after each addition. Once done, quickly spoon them into the prepared jelly moulds. You'll need to work fast here as the konnyaku jelly sets pretty quickly.

Let them cool down before refrigerate them. To serve, just use a sharp knife and give it a gentle slide on the side to remove them from the moulds.

And there you go, a tropical mango and nata de coco konnyaku jelly for this round of Sugar High Friday. Thanks Mary for being a wonder host. Looking forward to the round up.

Technorati Tags: Sugar High Friday + shf

Merdeka Open House 2007: Muhibbah

Sorry for the long delay in coming out with this year's Merdeka Open House topic. Last year, I took the idea of Malaysian Recipes Long Forgotten from Mike and Audrey. I was still in a limber since I haven't gotten much suggestions this year, hence I came up with a few ideas and got a poll started. Even with this poll on, I wasn't very satisfied with those ideas as they were created in a harried manner *thousands of apologies*

The majority voted for "Pick yr fave food fm a diff ethnic. Write in detail & explain why & how it became yr fave."

I read and reread this line, gosh... like so lame haha... yeah too easy as a challenge, so I decided to souped it up. So read on if you're interested to participate. Would appreciate if you could get fellow bloggers to take part as well. They need not be a food blogger since there will be options for those who don't cook as well as for those who are staying overseas.

Pick your favourite dish of a different ethnic from yours but this dish has to be something original and not fusionised or tweaked to fit the modern age. Explain in detail how this dish was introduced to you, why and how this particular dish became your favourite. If you could inject some history or origin of this dish as well, it's all the better! With this, I therefore named this year's topic - MUHIBBAH.

Now, if you can, do recreate this dish in your kitchen. You can stick to the original recipe or your own. Those who can't cook, you can go to your favourite place to dine on this dish BUT you will need to do a little bit more... by writing some history about this favourite dining place of yours and how you stumbled upon this place or it could be that your grandparents or parents whom have brought you there since you're young.

Take a picture of your homecooked dish or the one you have ordered, put it up together with your posting. Email me at babe_kl(at)yahoo(dot)com, a copy of this picture (500x375 pixels) and the following details BY midnight Malaysian time of 29 August 2007 but of course the earlier the better. I need time to compose the round up and post it up by 31 August.

Name or nick
Location
Permalink/URL of your post
Name of the dish

Do put this reference at the end of your post for self-round up, just copy and paste:

<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Merdeka+Open+House+2007" rel="tag"><img style="border:0;vertical-align:middle;margin-left:.4em" src="http://static.technorati.com/static/img/pub/icon-utag-16x13.png?tag=Merdeka+Open+House+2007" alt=" " />Merdeka Open House 2007</a>

As long as you’re a Malaysian, doesn't matter where you're located, you can participate. Unlike last year where I forbade sensitive ingredients ie. pork/beef but I'm not going to do so this time. It's difficult to impose but since this is a virtual open house with the Muhibbah theme, I guess it's ok lah. HOWEVER, if you feel offensive please don't take part and please don't spam me. This is just for fun and I hope you guys don't take things so seriously.

Those without a blog, don't fret, you can join in too, just write your article and send me the details together with the picture (if you have). I will post your article on my blog.

Looking forward to your entries and happy cooking/eating!

Technorati Tags: Merdeka Open House 2007

Steamed Brinjal With Garlic Oil

My mother used to make this Steamed Brinjal as it's simple and healthy. I recreated it at my kitchen. She used to boiled the brinjal/aubergine whole in water but I steamed them instead. After steaming the brinjal till soften, let it cool down a bit before working on it. Peel off the skin but be careful as it can be very hot. Remove the seeds by scraping them away with a spoon, not easy but you can leave them as it is if you don't mind the seeds. It's ok to leave some seeds behind otherwise you'll end up having very little brinjal left. Oh yeah, you'll need to use more brinjal for this recipe as after removing the skin and seeds, there isn't much left behind.

To serve, simply drizzle some soy sauce to taste and garlic oil. Topped with the garlic bits and chopped fresh red chillies. Best served with sambal belacan on the side.

Note: To make garlic oil, chopped some garlic. Make sure they're quite even in size otherwise will have problem making them brown evenly at the same time. Drop them into hot oil and fry till light golden brown. Shut off the heat and pour into heat proof container. The hot oil will continue to brown the garlic, hence do not over brown them earlier. Usually I make a large batch and keep it for blanched vegetables or to make dry version of noodles.

Technorati Tags: malaysian food

Review: Restoran Muar

I'm taking a break from tweaking my new clothes. Still can't figure what went wrong with my labels and International Foodies links. It's not helping when my line is yo-yoing sighhh...

Remember the night we got turned away to Max! Kitchen & Wine??? Well, we ended up at Restoran Muar right across the road. Had meant to try this place for some time back but some how never got the chance.

We sat on a huge round table since there isn't any smaller tables left... seems very promising. Behind us, there is a large group of diners chowing down and I tried to peep back, left and right before I check the simple menu. Hubby then got the lady boss to recommend us dishes.

Started off with a dish of Petai Squid and Prawn (RM16 for small). I don't really like the sambal taste of this dish. Somehow something is missing but I can't pinpoint, and I hate chewing on the large pieces of dried chilli bits. Luckily, the seafood is fresh and loved the petai bits.

Hubby originally asked for Kangkung Belachan but they ran out of kangkung, hence we opted for sweet potato shoots instead (RM6.00). Aisay, they've used the same sambal as in the Petai Squid and Prawn. Had to dig out those chilli bits, so minus points there.

Next, we have this Crispy Fried Eggs (RM5.00). 3 eggs deep fried into a lacey omelette, served with a few dashes of dark soy sauce. The simplest dish but yet the most satisfying of all!!! Loved the crispy whites coupled with the runny egg yolk... simply divine. Hubby told me that his mom used to deep fry their eggs this way, wahhh... so nice but not my mom as she usually shallow fry them.

We ended our dinner with cendol of fine shavings of ice, drizzled with gula melaka and thin coconut milk; and topped with cendol. As we dug further, red beans are abound underneath the ice. It was on a special price of RM1.00 but it's a very small bowl. Hubby asked for second. This time round, the lady boss made it herself and the ice was not shaved as finely as the Indonesian helper. A week later, we are delighted that they started to serve cendol in two sizes, big for RM2.50 and small bowl remained at RM1.00.

The sambal dishes are not to my liking but there are a few more other dishes that I would loved to try, so might go back there for them. Will comment further then. Was told that reservation is a must on weekends.

Restoran Muar
No. 6G Tengkat Tong Shin
50200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +603-2144 2072 or +6012 219 2199

Technorati Tags: malaysian food

Almost There...

Hmmm... I think I'm almost done with my blog renovation. Still tweaking here and there though. Not sure how long the paints and walls going to last me but for the time being it's going to be a sweet and red strawberries theme. I thought it was going to be easy but nooo... well not when you want something else than offered kekeke...

BTW, I'm not sure if you could click on the icons at my links that will expand and collapse the long long list. I can't seems to be able to click on them on my side. Will check later at another location. Oh yeah, do you prefer to remain in this window when you click on links or would rather have it to open in a new one??? Let me know ok cos for the time being, they will open in the same window.

Hey tummythoz, I got the navigation bar back up there!!! Thank goodness for search engines. :p

In the meantime, about the Merdeka Project, I've got an idea but need to spend some time to cough the words out here. Gimme till next week to come out with the post ok. Sorry for the delay.

Happy weekend all!

Disclaimer

This policy is valid from 11 July 2007


Babe in the City - KL is a personal blog written and edited by Babe_KL. Please contact babe_kl(at)yahoo(dot)com for any enquiries.

Babe_KL is not compensated to provide opinions or reviews. All views and opinions expressed in Babe in the City – KL are purely Babe_KL’s taste buds, influence and experience which may differ from others. Any future compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog.

All advertising found in Babe in the City - KL is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. These advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements.

If offensive or innappropriate comments are posted, these will be removed. Babe_KL will not be responsible for comments made herewithin, or their accuracy. If you are not happy with a particular comment, please notify Babe_KL and it will be investigated for suitability of publication. None of the opinions made are those of Babe_KL. If you are a commenter who wishes to publish something innappropriate, please think again. If you have something to say that is your opinion, please feel free, if it is suggested as fact and is proven not to be, you will be liable for your comments.

You can access other sites via links from Babe in the City - KL. These sites are not under Babe_KL’s control and Babe_KL is not responsible in any way for any of their contents.


Privacy Policy updated on 19 May 2009

Privacy Policy for babeinthecitykl.blogspot.com

The privacy of our visitors to babeinthecitykl.blogspot.com is important to us.

At babeinthecitykl.blogspot.com, we recognize that privacy of your personal information is important. Here is information on what types of personal information we receive and collect when you use and visit babeinthecitykl.blogspot.com, and how we safeguard your information. We never sell your personal information to third parties.

Log Files

As with most other websites, we collect and use the data contained in log files. The information in the log files include your IP (internet protocol) address, your ISP (internet service provider, such as AOL or Shaw Cable), the browser you used to visit our site (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox), the time you visited our site and which pages you visited throughout our site.

Cookies and Web Beacons

We do use cookies to store information, such as your personal preferences when you visit our site. This could include only showing you a popup once in your visit, or the ability to login to some of our features, such as forums.

We also use third party advertisements on babeinthecitykl.blogspot.com to support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).

DoubleClick DART cookies

We also may use DART cookies for ad serving through Google’s DoubleClick, which places a cookie on your computer when you are browsing the web and visit a site using DoubleClick advertising (including some Google AdSense advertisements). This cookie is used to serve ads specific to you and your interests (”interest based targeting”). The ads served will be targeted based on your previous browsing history (For example, if you have been viewing sites about visiting Las Vegas, you may see Las Vegas hotel advertisements when viewing a non-related site, such as on a site about hockey). DART uses “non personally identifiable information”. It does NOT track personal information about you, such as your name, email address, physical address, telephone number, social security numbers, bank account numbers or credit card numbers. You can opt-out of this ad serving on all sites using this advertising by visiting http://www.doubleclick.com/privacy/dart_adserving.aspx

You can choose to disable or selectively turn off our cookies or third-party cookies in your browser settings, or by managing preferences in programs such as Norton Internet Security. However, this can affect how you are able to interact with our site as well as other websites. This could include the inability to login to services or programs, such as logging into forums or accounts.

Deleting cookies does not mean you are permanently opted out of any advertising program. Unless you have settings that disallow cookies, the next time you visit a site running the advertisements, a new cookie will be added.

AdSense Privacy Policy Provided by JenSense





Privacy Policy added on 29 April 2008

Privacy Policy for babeinthecitykl.blogspot.com

The privacy of our visitors to babeinthecitykl.blogspot.com is important to us.

At babeinthecitykl.blogspot.com, we recognize that privacy of your personal information is important. Here is information on what types of personal information we receive and collect when you use visit babeinthecitykl.blogspot.com, and how we safeguard your information. We never sell your personal information to third parties.

Log Files
As with most other websites, we collect and use the data contained in log files. The information in the log files include your IP (internet protocol) address, your ISP (internet service provider, such as AOL or Shaw Cable), the browser you used to visit our site (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox), the time you visited our site and which pages you visited throughout our site.

Cookies and Web Beacons
We do use cookies to store information, such as your personal preferences when you visit our site. This could include only showing you a popup once in your visit, or the ability to login to some of our features, such as forums.

We also use third party advertisements on babeinthecitykl.blogspot.com to support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).

You can chose to disable or selectively turn off our cookies or third-party cookies in your browser settings, or by managing preferences in programs such as Norton Internet Security. However, this can affect how you are able to interact with our site as well as other websites. This could include the inability to login to services or programs, such as logging into forums or accounts.

AdSense Privacy Policy Provided by JenSense

Interruptions

I've decided to upgrade my template to XML format, do expect some interruptions here and there from today onwards. Darn, I should have done this earlier since it's a breeze with the new format!

I apologise in advance for any inconveniences caused.

Shanghai Nian Gao - Vegetarian Style

I made a vegetarian version using White Rice Cake. Check out my Hokkien style version on how to prepare the rice cake aka Shanghai Nian Gao.

This vegetarian version have very minimal ingredients of vegetarian ham, soaked dried mushroom, cabbage, choy sum and carrot. Just fried the ham and vegetables with some oil before adding the rice cakes. Pour in some water and add vegetarian oyster sauce and pepper to taste. Bring to boil, lower heat and put on the lid. Simmer till water dried up, stir and served. As simple as that.

Technorati Tags: noodle + malaysian food

Review: My Kitchen

Updated 14 April 2009

My Kitchen has gone Pork Free!!!


**Non-Halal Posting**

No, no... not a review of my kitchen back home, but My Kitchen at Sunway Mas (besides Aman Suria). Been hearing rave reviews by some but then another group, not so favourable. Since I was in that area, decided to give it a go. Apparently, My Kitchen serves Hainanese cuisine.



It was very early and we were the first to arrive. The menu are not extensive but sufficient for a decent meal. We ordered the Stewed Pork, Hainanese Style Brinjal and the must have according those who raves about it - Hainanese Mutton Soup.

I ordered the Pineapple drink that my mom used to make. So that was my benchmark. My Kitchen's version is not bad, definitely have pineapple flavour unlike the one I had in Kluang Station. Not too sweet and lots of pineapple pieces. Actually this is very easy to make, chop pineapple into small pieces and boiled in water for about 30 minutes. Add rock sugar. Best served chilled.

First to arrive was the Stewed Pork (small portion RM12.90) which to me looked a whole lot like the Hakka version of Char Nyuk. Taste wise it's slightly different though. Can't really pinpoint what but somehow lacking the oommphhh of it's Hakka cousin. Perhaps the usage or rather the lack of 5 spice powder is the factor here.



Next came the Hainanese Style Brinjal (small portion RM7.90). Thick chunks of brinjals are not too oily. The dried shrimps do bring out the flavour of this dish.



A pot of chilli sauce and a bowl of parsley were placed on the table. Oooo... the chilli looked great and tasted full of garlic and ginger. Just the right balanced for me.

And so apparently the chilli sauce and parsley are to be eaten with the Hainanese Mutton Soup (small portion RM9.00). Smart of them to serve the parsley separately as some people find them "smelly" but I loved them. Added loads of them in my share. This soup came with loads of mutton chunks some beancurd sheet (foo chuk) and deep fried beancurd (tau pok).

The soup is thickish but not sure what so flavourful as claimed. Could be due to a certain Chinese herbs that they have used that gave this soup a distinct flavour. This certainly is not our cup of soup. Could be an acquired taste. The mutton is tender though and thank goodness tasted good with loads of chilli sauce that masked away the flavour.



At the moment, I'm standing on the not so favourable side but might need to give them another try... chicken chop and chicken rice with rice rolled into balls will be on my list next.

My Kitchen
26-1, Jalan PJU 1/38,
Sunway Mas Commercial Centre,
47301 Petaling Jaya
Tel : 603-78808726
Opening Hours: Mon - Sun (11.00am - 3.00pm, 6.00pm - 10.00pm)

Technorati Tags: malaysian food + hainanese

My Adapted Marcella Hazan's Bolognese Sauce

I saw Marcella Hazan's Bolognese Sauce here sometime back. Read and filed in my memory since it seems pretty simple just like her Tomato Sauce recipe. I got a pack of minced beef recently thinking of using it for the Bolognese Sauce that I usually make, somehow this Marcella Hazan's recipe appeared out of the sudden on my head. So why not huh... but since I did not have certain ingredients so I adapted it.


I sauteed 1 chopped onions in olive oil till translucent before adding some chopped garlic. Next chucked in the minced beef and brown throughly. Poured in 2 canned whole tomatoes and smash them up into smaller pieces whilst stirring. Since I have a bottle of red wine opened, I put in about half a cup of that. Added salt and black pepper to taste.


It was too tangy for my boiboi's taste, I added some sugar to adjust. Next, I spooned in about 2 tablespoon of butter. By now, the concoction doesn't look very appealing at all... I was kinda worried since I did not use any tomato paste. Thought that could affect the colour of this dish. Anyway, I placed the lid on and simmer.


Whilst uncovering after simmering on low heat for 20 minutes, I can't help but to soak into that whaft of steam, I know it's hot BUT the smell was great!!!! Didn't know flowery wine and butter could smell so good. The colour turned into a deeper red too. I gave it a stir and cover. Simmered for another hour since I need to leave the house. Note that the original recipe is to simmer for 3 hours.


And this was how the sauce looked like...






Technorati Tags: Marcella Hazan + Bolognese Sauce

MAX!mum experience

Updated 20 September 2009: Max! Kitchen has shifted to IHaus in Imbi which is bigger and has a better parking facility.

--------------

'Twas a long dinner at Max! Kitchen & Wine last night, not because of the waiting nor the crowd, but merely the hospitality of owner and chef, Max Chin. We would love to thank Max and his team for going all out to make the dinner a memorable one.

Max have created a mini degustation dinner for us, sampling about 90% of what's on the current menu so it's not really something different. The out of the menu experience was merely sizing down the portion so that we can try the signature dishes.

Since we reached there at 7.oopm, we managed to get a parking slot right at Max!'s door step LOL... darn lucky. We were so early that they have yet to even switch on the air-cond haha... Instead of Table No. 1, we we ushered to the table next to the bar, nearest to the light source. I supposed he knew I needed good lighting to take decent pics, plus it's easier to monitor us from his cooking station. Max came downstairs to greet us and spent at least 15 minutes chatting up before he sprung into action.

First course: Scallops topped with sun dried tuna. I knew Max picked the largest 4 scallops for us. They're succulent and fresh sitting pretty on top of capsicum confit.



Second Course: Lightly seared tuna chunks in skewers served with truffle oil and tartare sauce. Simply loved the eggs holder where they were served in. Didn't knew it was truffle oil until Max told us to dip in the oil. I had some earlier and I was thinking what was in the oil that it is so fragrant.



Third Course: Land and Sea. The sea is represented by the yabbies whilst the land is the potato. Nope you don't get chucks or slices of potatoes but they're in the smooth creamy gravy which we lapped up happily with our spoon. I didn't noticed the spoon until Max told us so. The gravy is simply marvelous, nearly wanna lick the plate clean!



Next, we have a palate cleanser of lime sherbet with bubbly champagne poured over it. Not too tangy and certainly very refreshing. We certainly welcomed this to clear our palate for our mains. By now, I was getting a bit worried cos I was already half-filled. Nearly fainted when Max said we still have another THREE mains to go.

Fourth Course: Duck breast in two style. One side pan seared on a bed of polenta, the other side hickory smoked served with berries jam or was it cranberry?? Hubby dugged into the smoked slice and he was watching me taking my portion. *Ding ding* I looked at him and we both agreed the lightly smoked slices are absolutely a WOW. The slices were tender even though they looked throughly cooked. Tasted like roasted duck but better. After tasting the smoked portion, the pinkish pan seared portion certainly paled in comparison. We loved the polenta though, tasted eggy. We could be biased since we lurrrveee eggs!

Fifth Course: Lamb cutlet on a bed of artichokes with mint sauce. We have this before so no need to comment here.



Sixth Course: Wagyu beef cheeks, thank goodness it's only one slice, otherwise, don't know how to finish up. Meat overload haha...



Seventh Course: Dessert Trio, finally!!! In this platter, there's a Valrhona Chocolate Souffle which came sitting tall but collapsed just before the click of my camera. I oops out loud till our neighbouring man craned his neck to see what was I doing. I knew he had been curious with our food and attention since our food were sort of different from theirs *giggle*. I ate my souffle with extra care since it's so HOT but I spied hubby one is runnier and he's on 7th Heaven! Best eaten with the cold cold vanilla bean ice-cream. There is a lone kataifi pastry filled with strawberry.

Max paired matching wines for hubby which I declined since I'm still under medication. He offered to fix me some pau sum soe (hair of ginseng roots) after hearing that I still haven't recover which I politely declined as well. Very shy already with all the hospitality.

And so we thought we have ended our dinner with coffee and tea but we got a surprise cake. Max and I very paiseh cos he thought it was my birthday hehehe... his wait staff came with candle and all but I kept telling him to forget about lighting the candle. By then Max had finish cooking for the day and sat down with us. It was then he found out that hubby is from his Hakka clan. Adui, the next thing I knew the conversation was interpersed with Hakka which I had to keep up with. It hit homerun when Max mentioned their clan's fave swear phrase. I chuckled out loud but they both didn't what it was all about. Not until I told hubby later in the car. It took me countless lessons just to say out this phrase correctly, oh my! Please don't ask me what it is as it's pretty foul hehe. They certainly got chummy... If not the other 2 guys at Table No. 1 call him to join them for a drink (no choice since it has been many 7 minutes and 5 seconds that he had promised them earlier), I think we would have been the first customer to arrive and the last to leave at 10.45pm.

In total, we have 3 appetisers, 3 mains, dessert, coffee/tea + wines. When the bill came, I was shocked... errr not that it was overly expensive but very reasonable I would say with the kind of quality served. I'm contemplating to reveal the figure but nahhh... I'll keep that as a suspense.

Last night's dinner is not so much on food and drinks. It's more like a celebration, not only of our marriage of 9 years but certainly in celebration of a new found friend in Max and the Max!mum touch that we have experienced.

Once again, Max, thank you so much.

ps: Our first visit was only last week, check here.

Technorati Tags: tengkat tong shin

A Merdeka Day Project: Poll

Sorry for not updating you guys on this project. Since I did not receive many suggestions, I'll put up a poll on a few ideas from here and there. Once I close the result next week, then we'll finalised what to do.

Do take part in the poll ya. Many Thanks. Please scroll down cos I don't know how to fix the code :p

	Pick a topic for this year's Merdeka Project.
	Cook a dish of a different ethnic fm yr own.
	Pick a recipe circa 1950s & recreate in yr kitchen.
	Pick yr fave food fm a diff ethnic. Write in detail & explain why & how it became yr fave.
	Write abt food found in yr hometown. If possible recreate it in yr kitchen.

Love, Happy Anniversary

"Finally... this was the day I signed my life away to him 9 years ago!"

Would love to dedicate this song "Your Love" to my Love who has been so nice, so wonderful, so loving, so understanding and so pain in the arse (sometimes). Thank you for loving me and boiboi, and throughly been patient and understanding all these while. You are certainly our greatest gift of all!

Happy Anniversary!

This is the original music video of Jim Brickman and Michelle Wright.



Can't help but to load this up too. Someone by the name Enelle uploaded herself playing the piano. Lovely!

Lyrics, in case you wanna sing to me hehe

Your Love
Jim Brickman featuring Michelle Wright

It's not the flowers, wrapped in fancy paper
it's not the ring, I wear around my finger
There's nothing in all the world I need
when I have you here beside me,
here beside me

Chorus
So you could give me wings to fly
and catch me if I fall
or pull the stars down from the sky
So I could wish on them all
but I couldnt ask for more
cuz your love is the greatest gift of all

In your arms, I found a strength inside me
and in your eyes there's a light to guide me
I would be lost with out you
and all that my heart could ever want
has come true

Chorus

You could offer me the sun, the moon
and I would still believe
You gave me everything
when you gave your heart to me

So you could give me wings to fly
and catch me if I fall
or pull the stars down from the sky
So I could wish on them all
but I couldnt ask for more
cuz your love is the greatest gift of all

p/s: Tummythoz, this and this were the give aways haha... no need to stake out everyday :p

Happy Wedding Anniversary

... well not mine, notchet hehehe...

Cyrene and Matt; Mr and Mrs TengTeng; and (in advance) Dr Chen and darling,

Wishing you a special day,
filled with lovely hours enlightened
by your happiness...
Wishing you more happy years
to come as husband and wife.
Happy Anniversary!!!

Intermission

Warning: Skip this... Not meant for those who are in their 20s and below. This is a self-shioking post :p most prolly high on drugs

I was down with a cold since last Thursday but finally went to the clinic today as my pleghm had changed colour, sore throat had started and I sounded funny. Had half a day off and for once I'm glad that I'm sick and back home early since I managed to catch Concert for Diana at spanking new Wembley Stadium even though its a repeat.

Elton John started off with Your Song... such a beautiful song especially with the tinkling of the piano.

OMG, Duran Duran performed 2nd in line!!!! They were introduced by Prince Andrew and Prince Harry as one of Diana's favourite band. Arrrggghh they played Rio too!!! OOOoooo, I was on cloud nine but ohhh my, John Taylor and Nick Rhodes did not age gracefully definitely haha... John was like errrmmm just woke up from slumber with his hair all ruffled up. I was absolutely crazy over Duran Duran back in the 80s. Yeah, I lived in the mumbo jumbo era :p Could have been better if both Princes rehearsed their speech rather than reading notes.

Absolutely loved Joss Stone and Nelly Furtado segments!!! They both rock!

Bryan Ferry is playing now and he's good too. Errr by the time I'm typing on, its showing Andrew Lloyd Webber section now!!!! Anastacia looked in the pink of health. Josh Groban and Sarah Brightman are simply brilliant. Andrea Bocelli, no need to say of course was fantabulous. Donny Osmond and Jason Donovan still looked dashing.

I'm waiting for Take That (arrghh) and Rod Stewart (arrrghhhh *pull hair*) now... goshhh I took my meds and not sure how long I can last before I went on slumberland. Thank goodness there is You Tube LOL!!!! I'm watching them now :p Just go on to You Tube and search for Concert of Diana... voila... loads of videos were up by now. Oh my, Rod still looked great as ever!!! Eh... no one threw knickers onto the stage kekeke security is pretty tight I guess.

This is certainly a fitting concert to pay tribute to the late Princess Diana. I'm sure she must be very proud of Andrew Williams (thanks Kat :p) and Harry. The snippets in between are very touching and some of them brought tears to my eyes.

Ok I better get this posted and concentrate on the concert. Hope I don't doze off so soon.

Regular programme will resume once I'm no longer on a high.