Low-Fat Chocolate Chip Muffins

Don't these babies looked terrific?? Best of all they're low fat! Indulge...

As I went through the recipe again and again, I noticed there isn't any addition of chocolate chips in there despite the title of the muffin. Hence, I adapted the recipe, adding this and removing that. The texture is little dense but since they're muffin, I guess that was how they were supposed to be like. For myself, I prefer cupcakes' texture as they're lighter and fluffier, nevertheless, these muffins were well received by the recipients or maybe they were polite?

Low-Fat Chocolate Chip Muffins

For muffins:
300g plain flour
25g caster sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 lightly beaten eggs
115 ml sunflower oil
175 ml low fat milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 handfuls of chocolate chips

For icing:
2 tbsp margerine, softened
175g icing sugar, sieved
30g cocoa powder
4 tbsp low fat milk
A handful of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 175C. Grease 12-cup muffin tin. In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and cocoa with a spoon. In a large bowl, combine eggs, oil, milk and vanilla with electric whisk (I used manual which worked as well) and beat till combined. Add flour mixture and stir till just combined before adding chocolate chips. Do not overmix. Spoon batter into prepared tin. Bake for 20 mins. Remove tin from oven and cool for 5 mins. Then remove muffins and cool on a rack.

In actual fact, I've used the small muffin paper cups which yielded 18-20 muffins (sorry can't recall). They looked terribly cute in them!

For icing, combine all ingredients except milk. Add the milk slowly, beating with electric whisk to make a firm but spreadable mixture. Add in chocolate chips. Spoon the icing onto the cooled muffins.

Adapted from the 500 Cupcakes & Muffins, By Fergal Connolly book (published by PageOne Publishing)

Technorati Tags: cupcake + muffin

Stir-fried Watercress With Garlic

Quickie post again as I'm a bit busy with work. This is a very lame stir-fried vegetable dish but of course I have a few tips to impart here. These watercress are done by heating up some oil in a wok before dumping in a heap of chopped garlic. Fry till fragrant before adding the watercress. Sprinkle in salt to taste and quickly stir till they turned a darker shade. Try not to over cook them. Dish up and serve. It's not necessary to add water as there would be some water that tend to cling to the watercress, well unless your watercress are absolutely very dry.

As watercress grew in water ponds, cleaning them is an arduous task! You'll need to go thru every single leaves and stems to spot for teeny weeny snails. I tried to take some pictures of them but they turned out rather lousy so I can't show them here.

Whilst cleaning, pluck the younger shoots, leaves and stems (make sure into small sections cos it's really fibrous to chew them all in one go); and placed them in one pile for stir frying or make a quick and simple soup (cook them in shortly in ikan bilis (anchovies) stock.

You'll noticed that there will be a lot of "leftovers" ie. the woody and fibrous stems. DO NOT throw these away! Clean them up as well to make a tasty and cooling drink by boiling them a couple of hours with dried/candied honey dates (mutt joe) sweeten with rock sugar if needed. Otherwise, you could also make a nutritious soup by boiling these stems with some meat bones, red dates and dried squid for about 3 hours.

Technorati Tags: watercress

Roast Pork "One Pot" Rice

**Non-Halal**

At times when one is lazy, "one pot" rice using an electrical rice cooker would be the mother of all solutions. Ahhh the wonders of us, Asians, having a rice cooker in almost every household heh... Haha without slaving myself over some hot stoves nor pot, the rice cooker is indeed Lord sent. It's a very versatile electrical item where you can boil water/soup; cook your rice or congee/porridge; use it for steamboat or even bake a cake!!!

As with before where I've made a "One Pot" Rice that have ingredients like chicken, French beans, Chinese sausage, mushroom and black fungus; this time round I have roast pork which I've gotten from my butcher, long beans, dried shitake mushrooms and Chinese sausage.

In order to have an aromatic rice, other than using dried shrimps which I did not use this time, I sliced some shallots and deep fried them till a light golden brown. Remove the shallots from the oil. Keep the oil for other times ie cooking or dribble over noodles or vegetables.

Soak dried shitake mushrooms till soften and slice them up. Chop up a bunch of long beans into even length. Slice up Chinese sausage. Wash up some rice and add in enough water to cook them. Pour in oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Next, add in all the ingredients mentioned earlier. Cook in the rice cooker. Once cooked, continue to let the rice cook thru in the "Keep Warm" function.

Right before serving, stir in a couple dashes of Shaoxing wine, the deep fried shallots and chopped spring onions. Close the lid and let the aromas steep into the rice for about 5 minutes. Serve hot.

I tell you, this rice is so scrummy until hubby and I have seconds which is very rare for me. Even my boiboi ate up in a gusto!

Technorati Tags: rice

Wishing All a Blessed Mid-Autumn Festival

I'm going back to my parents' tonight to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival with my family and my boiboi. I know he can't wait to play with lantern again tonight. Are you guys feasting with your family and friends too?

Wishing all of you a safe and blessed Mid-Autumn Festival.

No write-ups about the festival since I've done so previously. Not much mooncakes to share either since I don't have my digicam with me. Managed to captured these with my phone and they looked lousy since it's taken last night.






These are homemade TeoChew Single Yolk Yam Paste. This type of mooncake is deep fried hence the flaky pastry that spirals around the fillings are crispy and very fragrant. I liked this one cos it's not sweet and has yam, my fave. Have to finish these up quickly though as they tend to turn rancid very fast in our weather.


I've got a couple of photos that were taken last year but not featured here. These flat discs are actually a type of mooncake. Also from the TeoChew clan, these mooncake have flaky pastry as well but baked instead. The one shown here are with red bean paste filling. I've gotten a couple this year and I managed to get my favourite - white lotus paste filling and hubby picked a crystal filling that has candied winter melon. Will take the pics once I opened the package up. This year I got them from Setapak TeoChew Restaurant just as previously. Other than getting this type of pastry during the festival, I could also get hold of them other times from certain places but they sell those from the famous Yong Sheng Confectionery originated from Muar, Johor.

My other posts on this festival:
Mid-Autumn Festival 2007: Leisure Mall (Cheras)
Yuan Xiao Festival
Mid-Autumn Festival Part 1: Mid Valley
Mid-Autumn Festival Part 2: Jelly Mooncake
Mid-Autumn Festival Part 3: Leisure Mall
Mid-Autumn Festival Part 4: Shangri-la's Mooncake
Mid-Autumn Festival Part 5: A Date With The Moon
Review: Bakerzins Mini Snowskin Mooncake
Review: Mooncake from Lavender Cake Shop
Mid-Autumn Festival 2004

Technorati Tags: mooncake + mid-autumn festival

Review: The Bird Restaurant

Last Saturday, after my sugar high class at The Cooking House, I had dinner with my parents. After deliberating for a long while, my parents suggested to bring us to The Bird Restaurant in Bandar Menjalara which one of my brother had taken them to. I can't help but to say yes since I knew a bunch of floggers are going to have a session here. Actually I've passed by this place countless times and had piqued the curiosity in me due to the decor and ambiance of The Bird. Somehow, it never crossed my mind to note this down even though my brother had mentioned that they're pretty ok.

Please excuse my photos' quality, taken with my W800i, they turned out very lousy due to the low lighting. I'm sans digicam for a while since it had been borrowed. Hence, there won't be any yummy mooncake pics this year as well. The interior of The Bird is of a mismatched of tables and chairs, some with table cloth, some none. Lots of bamboo bird traps and cages were transformed into lampshades. Lined on the bright yellow walls were loads of antiqued and replica posters of Shanghainese pretty lasses, advertisements of the yore, photos of western actors/actress, olden days photos of people from China etc. There's even a water feature at a corner of the restaurant. My dad told me that the owner, Desmond Liew, loves to collect such items.

Since my parents have eaten their single portions before, my mom asked me to pick from the Set Menu. For four adults, the set came at a very reasonable RM53.00. So I went on and pick the limited style of cooking from the menu. I've asked them to recommend not spicy stuff since my hubby is having sore throat.

My boiboi quickly picked a Mango Ice Blended (RM3.00) drink since he noticed there are some colourful toppings but was disappointed when it came with none. I had to pacified him that there were some slices of mangoes on top. Anyway, when this drink came, we nearly have a shock out of our sheer lives since it came huge, and I really meant HUGE! Served in a roughly 12cm diameter flower pot was finely crushed mango flavoured ice topped with lots more pureed mangoes. Absolutely fabulous! My only problem is sucking the ice up with a thin and soft straw.

When this plate of chicken came, I quickly took a couple of photos only to be taken away shortly as there was a mistake. I was told it was Marmite Chicken instead of King Toh Chicken that I've picked. Darn, this chicken looked so good lah!

Desmond recommended a Kerabu Chicken Feet (RM6.00) which seems to be one of their specialty of the day. This item is not from the set. I quite liked this tangy salad but the chicken skin pieces are a tad too big, can look a bit scary haha... Peppered with loads of firery chili padi which my mom find them a tad too spicy.

The dishes of the set meal started to arrived. Our correct order of King Toh Chicken came finally. Boneless chicken pieces cooked in a thick soy and oyster sauce plus a handful of dried chillies, slightly sweetish and tasted okay only. Maybe because I was offered an eye candy earlier on.... hmmm... The vege dish that I've picked was Romaine Lettuce stir fried with preserved bean curd (foo yue). Enough of wok hei but mom was complaining that they have a lot of chili padi in it.

Butter King Fish seems to be one of their specialties as it is sort of like prominently featured in their menu. Deep fried fish soaked in a rich buttery gravy. Tasted great when eaten hot but once it cooled down, it gotten very jelak! So gotta wallop this quickly. Also have chilli padi here!

Next came the squid dish cooked ala Thai basil leaves style. This is the lousiest of the loot with the squid turned out soft and came with a lot of gravy. Tastewise it's quite all right but somehow the cooking method isn't quite ok. The expert mom said something about how they should cook these squid but I was too busy to pay attention plus she also complained about chilli padi in it (my mom loves her son-in-law a lot one, so that explains the complaints hehe). Seems like the chef like to dish out chilli padi freely in all their dishes.

The set meal came with complimentary dessert and for that day Desmond served us homemade cendol. The cendol wowed me!!! The cendol is soft and slippery served with perfectly cooked reddish sago pearls. The coconut milk and gula melaka proportion were nice to me striking a not too sweet balance BUT BUT BUT it came with crushed tubed ice, what a shame. I've pointed this to Desmond and he said they don't have the resources to take care of that as his restaurant have too many dishes to handle. Awww what a pity.

The food have some hits and misses but I must go back to try their single portion dishes as they have lots of them in their menu or order dishes from the ala carte menu. Two on my must-try list are Laksa Sarawak and Nasi Muhibah! My mom said their nasi lemak has very very good sambal and she simply adores Desmond's way of public relations/customer service. For that alone, my mom will frequent here!

We have 5 bowls of rice (RM5.00), kinda small serving; and we each took a green tea (RM8.00 for 4 pax) upon Desmond's recommendation saying that they added some leaves or I'm not sure what since he didn't disclosed. Very fragrant like jasmine flower, so maybe it could be jasmine but can't confirm. All in I paid RM79.90.

There seems to be a singing competition going on and this Friday is the final. You may give them a call to buy a ticket and do hurry cos I heard they were packed to the brim last Friday. BTW, this place serves halal food (not sure if certified one or not but that's according to Desmond) but did not displayed that all out since they serve beer.

The Bird Restaurant
5 Jalan 3/62D
Medan Putra Business Centre
Bandar Menjalara, Kepong
Tel: 603-6277 1453

Technorati Tags: malaysian food

First Attempt With Bagels

I saw these cutesy mini bagels over at Delicious Days and they really won me over. I have been procastinating for some time over bagel making thinking that it must be very difficult until I saw Nicky's recipe. Since I have the ingredients on hand, I embarked on my first attempt in making some bagels.

I didn't do very well cos I've over baked them as they looked kinda pale as I did not brushed egg yolk over them. I thot by baking them slightly longer, the colour would looked more tanned but how wrong I was! When it first came out of the oven, they were hard but crispy just like after toasting them which is not too bad as it's still chewy. However, they turned rock hard the next day, so hard that if I threw one on my wall, it will create a dent on it hehe... I managed to saved those by steaming them for a while and they turned chewy, phew... I need to refine my method again, mainly because I did not knead them enough since my mixer decided to go on holiday. Looks like I could only continue with my bread adventure after my mixer came back from it's holiday.

Loved it nevertheless, when served with cream cheese and smoked salmon.

Technorati Tags: bagel

Review: Ying Ker Restaurant

Ying Ker Restaurant at The Curve made it on my list even before its opening. I saw the signage during their renovation period. At that time, there weren't that many good eating places at that mall but it's a very different story now. Breaking away from the normal grubs that our fart usually would asked for, this time we forced our way into a Chinese Hakka cuisine place.

I had always wondered why this place is so pack and they even put up a row of chairs outside for waiting patrons. All these while I thought it must be the place is too small to cope with the crowds but oh boy, how wrong I was! I didn't realised there is a huge dining hall further inside this classy restaurant.

Anyhow, we managed to get a table since we were there very early one evening. After browsing thru the menu, there are dishes that could go with rice; single portion order of rice or noodles; and the latest addition of dim sum.

I've asked for the Hakka Minced Pork Noodles (RM10.90) to be shared with my boiboi. The noodles came in a bed of noodles topped with minced meat and two meat patties. Looking very plain but I have to say this is very flavourful, as great as the one at Pudu. The minced meat were a tad too salty since I'm used to bland food but it went well with the noodles. Overall, I did enjoyed this very much.

Hubby had his favourite Braised Pork (Char Yuk) to be served with a bowl of noodles in soup (RM15.90). The noodles are very very plain indeed but hubby said it was nice to be served with the braised pork. I noticed the portion came with loads of black fungus that I liked. Tastewise, it's comparable to the tasty one at Leung Ya but again a tad too salty for myself.

We ordered a plate of chee cheung fun (rice rolls) filled with carrot and turnip strips (RM5.00) to be shared but my boiboi loves this so much that he whacked almost the whole plate leaving me struggling with my noodles. I managed to grabbed a couple of pieces which I find the rice rolls smooth and the filling have dried shrimps.

Overall, it was pretty pleasant but the prices are generally on a very high side, most likely to fund the expensive looking chopsticks, crockery and renovation heh. All in all, we spent in total RM45.77 in which RM8.00 went for a pot of Puer that came in a very nice purple clay teapot plus 10% service charge and 5% government tax.

Ying Ker Restaurant
Lot 139, 1st Floor
The Curve
Tel: 603-7729 4229

Technorati Tags: malaysian food + hakka food

Review: Mui Hiong Salt Fish Delicacy

**Non-Halal**

I first read about this Mui Hiong Salt Fish Delicacy in the papers a couple of years ago but somehow never got round to Imbi to check them out even though hubby is a big fan of salted fish. Sad when Lilian even ate here on one of her trips to Kuala Lumpur!!! I told myself I must make it a point to come by but still...

Next I saw the delicious post by Lyrical Lemongrass, wahhh must definitely put this a few ranks up in my long long list of "To Eat". We were determined and went one day but alas the shop was closed! *pout*

Opportunity came again the following week when we arrived at the million dollar question of where to eat one evening, hubby was gamed when I mentioned the salted fish place again. We went round the block twice but can't find any car park but was delighted they were at least opened, anyway, we eventually got into the paid carparks which are aplenty besides Imbi Palace Restaurant. Mui Hiong is located at Medan Imbi, same row as Lo Hong Ka.

Lo hold behold, don't be misled by the plain black and white signboard, elegant Chinese styled marble topped tables and chairs will greet you upon entering the glass door. A lady whom we found out was the wife of propriety, George Lai. She made some recommendation to us and shoot off to the kitchen to hand in our order.

Whilst waiting, we looked around and couldn't helped but to noticed a children playpen beneath the stairs. Hubby was curious and went over to have a look, and he waved me over to check out the cosy pen filled with mattress, toys and telly. There is a little boy came over and hubby held out his palm. The little boy then proceed to place his palm over hubby's... awwww very sweet. We later found out that the little boy is one of George's son, same age as our boiboi but he's autistic. Mrs Lai was surprised at how her son reacted to hubby as she said he's usually very reserved. Many words were exchanged and shared since one of hubby's friend had an autistic child. Mr & Mrs Lai seems frustrated and at all ends but upon hubby's adviced to show more compassion rather than resort to scolding and caning, it was then George realised that he noticed that his son would listen to him whenever he asked him to do things nicely. Well, we hoped we could drop by one day with our boiboi to play with him and see how the child had progressed after his horse riding sessions which is a form of therapy. Wish all is well ;-)

By then our soup came. We ordered a single portion of Ngau Chat Soup upon strongly recommendation from Mrs Lai. Errrmm I know, it sounded a bit foul haha but apparently ngau chat is a type of Chinese herb and not beef part *ahem*, double boiled with a few other Chinese herbs and chicken meat. It's our first and we both loved it. The soup is very ching timm (clear with natural sweetness). Had wanted a second bowl but decided against it, otherwise we would be over stuffed.

We have a Steamed Minced Pork with Yau Yue (dried squid, ) which abosolutely tasted homemade just like Ma's!

Next came this delicious Stir Fried Bittergourd and Prawns in Salted Eggs. There were 3 HUGE prawns in our portion since we asked to have a smaller portion, otherwise Mrs Lai would have given us 2 prawns each. I guess the prawns were pre-fried before stirring in thinly sliced bittergourd. A thick gravy made out of salted egg yolk is poured all over, stir till melded before serving. We licked and sucked the creamy gravy from the shells before digging into the firm and fresh prawn meat. Who would think prawns, bittergourd and salted eggs could lived under one roof harmoniously??

A steamed white pomfret with salted fish was highly recommended by Mrs Lai...

... but where is the salted fish??? LOL... the treasures were hidden underneath the fish!!! George told us to drizzle the broth onto our rice but aduiii so little broth on the plate which we both fought for them. After tasting the fish, I totally understood why George had placed the salted fish beneath. By doing so, one can taste the natural freshness and sweetness of the fish without marring the taste with the strong and salty salted fish. Ohh how clever!

This restaurant seems very popular as we see the crowds trickling in as the clock ticks and we were told to reserve should we decided to visit on weekends. I guess I know why... the food here not only reminds one of mother's or maybe not, more like hometown (ka hiong) cooking but they're genuinely good.

For the above dishes, two bowls of rice (they used good quality rice which I liked) and a pot of tea, the meal came to RM65.00. Prawn and fish are at market rate.

Mui Hiong Salt Fish Delicacy
4 Jalan Medan Imbi,
Off Jalan Imbi,
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 012-299 3331
Opening Hours: 12 noon - 3.00pm; 6.00pm - 10.00pm
Closed on last Monday and Tuesday of the month

Technorati Tags: malaysian food

Chocolate Glazed Cupcakes

No inspiration to write... quickie post here.

Just make a batch of basic cupcakes then melt some dark chocolate with some cream. Cool and refrigerate the chocolate glaze till thickened before slatering them on the cupcakes. Decorate to your heart contents with sprinkles and candies.

Technorati Tags: cupcake

The Onset of Ramadan

Today marks the start of the Muslim month of Ramadhan where eating, drinking, smoking and sexual intercourse are forbidden between dawn (fajr) and sunset (maghrib). At the end of the month, the Muslim will usher in Eid ul-Fitr or most commonly known in Malaysia as Hari Raya Aidil Fitri.

Check out your neighbourhoods or the local papers for Ramadhan bazaars' locations around town. I hope boo_licious will give us all a fantabulous updates on some of these bazaars just like previous years.

Here is a list that I've downloaded from The Star (click on it to expand):

To all my Muslim readers, please come in here after you've buka puasa, otherwise, read with your own risk. :p Selamat Berpuasa.

Technorati Tags: ramadhan

Review: Checking Up Zuup Soup Bar Again

Actually I didn't want to post this up since we've been to Zuup numerous times and we've never failed to like their food. This is all Dr Chen's fault (words borrowed from her too). I'm now officially in her Tungku Club! I had promised her to show how my boiboi drink and eat his Tungku Soup which I had previewed yesterday haha... He's so darn cute and funny! He finished up the soup and chomped down the "bowl".

My boiboi, as like other kids of his age, if I ever ask him what he would like to have for his meal especially when we're in a mall, his reply would be either one of these - pasta, burger or pizza (jwmc's faves too)! Being a kiasi parent, I would usually accommodate. This would be better for me rather than having me to persuade him to eat other stuff. That lunch time at 1 Utama was no different especially when it was just me and him. I conveniently took him to Zuup as they would have his two favourite food - soup and pasta.

This round, I opted for the set meal for the two of us that costed RM16.90. The set came with a soup of the day, spaghetti and iced lemon tea. After checking with the staff, they're serving Chicken and Corn Soup. My boiboi doesn't like corn so I asked for his favourite, Wild Mushroom Cappucino and he specifically asked for the soup to come in a bread bowl (RM10.90)!!! On top of that he also wanted a Ribena Soda (RM5.90), sighhh the bad thing about knowing how to read the menu these days!

His Tungku soup came first and he quickly took the cover off and bite on it before I could even take a pic. So I cheated lah by turning the cover around haha... After 3 bites then he put the cover on and asked me to take pic (the one in the first pic). *roll eyes* This soup is of a consistency we both liked, not too thick nor creamy. He almost finished the whole bowl of soup which is pretty huge in my standard. On top of the soup, he whacked half of the bread bowl! Then he licked his fingers too... it was that good!

My Chicken and Corn Soup in a light creamy based is good too but paled in comparison since I quite like mushroom myself. When the spaghetti (darn, I had forgotten it's name) came, I knew it was a big mistake asking for a creamy based one. Not my fault either cos my boiboi picked one. He hardly have 4 bites of his small share of the spaghetti, duh!!!! Next time, I'm gonna decide for him but then I also kiasi he don't eat. How lah??? I tried to stuffed myself as much as I could and left some behind. This spaghetti have sliced sausages and mushrooms, not as creamy as I had before... delicious!

Zuup Soup Bar
LG 223, Lower Ground Floor,
1 Utama Shopping Centre, Lebuh Bandar Utama,
47800 Petaling Jaya,
SELANGOR
Operation Hours: Monday to Sunday From 11:30am to 10:00pm
(There is a 5% Government Tax imposed.)

Technorati Tags: soup + 1utama

Wat's Biting???

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Next Change!!!

Note: The Smilebox will take a bit of time to load up, be patient :)

Poppy Seed Cupcakes With Lemon Drizzle

Yet another cupcake from the 500 cupcakes book hahaha... please bear with me ok. There are 500 variations of cupcakes alone from his book alone! Hehehe... this time, the texture of the Poppy Seed Cupcakes With Lemon Drizzle is completely different from the Orange Poppy Seeds Cake which is moist and dense. These cupcakes are light and fluffy; plus I got them out of the oven at a right time even though the top turned just light golden otherwise it would have ended up a tad too dry.

As usual, I've cut down the sugar of this recipe to just 200g, hence the added sugar drizzle does not turn these cupcakes overly sweet. I totally loved the lemon fragrant in the cupcakes and the extra crunch of the poppy seeds in the icing. Would loved to sub the lemon with other citruses ie. lime or maybe kaffir lime huh?

Poppy Seed Cupcakes With Lemon Drizzle

Cupcakes:
225g unsalted butter, soften
225g castor sugar
225g self-raising flour
4 eggs
1stp vanilla essence
1 tbsp poppy seeds
1 tbsp grated lemon zest

For the drizzle:
125g icing sugar, sifted
4 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 175C and place 18 casings in muffin trays.

Combine butter, sugar, flour, and eggs in a mixing bowl and beat with electric whisk until smooth, about 2-3 mins. (You'll noticed that majority of the recipes have the same ingredients and steps up till here. So you can actually make a few types of cupcakes by using the basic ingredients.)

Stir in vanilla essence, poppy seeds and lemon zest until well combined. Spoon batter into cases and bake for about 20 mins. Remove tins from oven and cool for 5 mins before removing the cupcakes and cool on rack.

To make the drizzle, mix lemon juice into the icing sugar into the consistency of double cream. Stir in poppy seeds and drizzle over cupcakes.

Store in air-tight container for up to 2 days or 3 months in the freezer.

Ref: 500 Cupcakes & Muffins, By Fergal Connolly book (published by PageOne Publishing)

Technorati Tags: cupcake

Long Beans Fried Rice

**Non-Halal**

Juice all dried up for a proper food post. Since I need to live up to my Fried Rice Queen title, here's another simple fried rice dish where I've used long beans, carrots, eggs and diced Chinese waxed sausages to cook up with some rice. Topped with some fried shallots for the extra fragrant taste.

Refer the following posts for method.

Colourful Vegetables Fried Rice
Garlic Fried Rice
Cabbage Fried Rice
Sardine Fried Rice
IMBB#24: Make it in 30 Minutes
Review: Maggi Belacan Fried Rice Mix

Technorati Tags: rice + malaysian food

Gender Survey Results

My sincere thanks to all of you whom had partipate in my gender survey. As anticipated, I have quite a large amount of female readers, 70% or 190 out of 268 responses. The reason I had this survey on was I need to test out Venus Affiliate program. What Venus?? If you're interested to know further, read on...

A little background - I've chanced upon Notes from Venus, an Asia's women blog community, sometime back. There was a similar site for women based in Penang aeons ago before the blogging era but somehow there isn't much support garnered hence it was closed down. Then there is CloveTWO by The Star but it wasn't close enough to fill the empty void left. When I first surfed up on Notes from Venus, boy I was glad! I was glued to what other women have to share whether it's about home front, health, pets, beauty, parenting, relationships, how to glam up and so forth. Current issues such as Selayang Municipal Council's dog catching competition is being highlighted as well.

I did signed up eventually but I didn't share any articles. Sounded very selfish huh??? But at that time I was struggling to even update my own blog as I was away working on a project but later on I got an email from the editor of Notes from Venus prodding me to contribute to the network. It took me some time before I came out my first post, well up till now I'm ashamed to admit that I have only 2 postings up hahaha and those are actually a reproduction of what I've posted in my blog.

The editor was somehow still very supportive and offered me to be one of their tester on their affiliate program. Since I can't say no in support of being a woman, I'm trying it out here so please let me know if you have encountered any problem whilst visiting.

So my dear SISTERS... ermmm sorry to leave the guys out, keep tuning in as there will be more goodies coming your way from the Venus network. Interested sisters, if you're keen to be part of this, watch this space.

Gender Survey

UPDATED 10 Sept 2007

Hi all, I've just closed the poll. Results will come out in the next post. Thank you all for participating.



UPDATED 4 Sept 2007

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

I need to push up this post as I seriously think my readers must have been away for the long holidays and have not seen this request of mine. So far only 85 votes have been casted which I think it's way too low looking at my number of visitors per day or week for that matter. Hence, I'll have this poll run for another week.

So if you could, kindly just perform a simple 2-clicks action at poll over at your left side under Main Menu. Your help is deeply appreciated.

Thank you once again.



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



Dear all,

I'm trying to get to know the population of my readers, hence I'm conducting a little survey here asking for your gender. Kindly help me out by performing a simple 2-clicks step at the poll I have put up right at my Main Menu on your left.

I know I have a lot of readers who doesn't leave comments which is fine with me but for once could you all please just let me know whether you're a male or female. This poll will be up for the next 7 days.

Thank you so much.

Review: Sin Eng Heong's Mini Kaya Puff from Ipoh

**Non-Halal**

I have to declare this - my hubby is a Power Kaya Puff Girls Fanatic!!!!!

Ho Chak on 8TV featured this place in Ipoh that made kaya puffs some moons back. I looked at the puffs, they looked kinda ordinary and the hosts showed the cross section of the puff which to me is like... so little kaya filling one??? Hubby who was sitting next to me was literally drooling away at those puffs and he said he loved kaya puffs, yeah, as if I don't know after knowing him for 11 years! He ordered asked me to write down the details at the end of that segment. At the end of the show, he said "Let's go to Ipoh next weekend and grab these puffs!!". So tell me, is he a kaya puff fanatic or not???

Well of course, it didn't happened the next weekend with this busy schedule. The following weekend, MIL went to BIL's place in Ipoh and hubby was secretly hoping that they will grab him some puffs as I've messaged his nephew asking about them. When his mother came back, he see no puffs LOL... very disappointed.

Many weekends came and gone... finally he need to travel up north on boiboi's birthday. Happily he told me that he will definitely stop by Ipoh to get his dose of kaya puffs. He sms me right after he got his puffs, hmmm very happy indeed.

When he reached home, I saw many boxes of kaya puffs, kwai far goe (a type of glutinous cake with red bean or lotus paste fillings) and hiong pheng. Nearly fainted haha but luckily hubby told me most of them are to be given away. We kept 2 boxes of kaya puffs and one box of kwai far goe.

One box contained 10 mini kaya puffs which cost RM4.50, I've placed a Chinese soup spoon next to one just to gauge the size.

After one piece, I'm completely blown away! These jewels are sooo crispy and fluffy even it was eaten the next day!!! The flaky pastry is made with lard hence the fluffy texture. As for the kaya, even though it wasn't filled to the brim but it's enough to bask in the same glory as the delicious pastry. Smooth and very fragrant indeed... it's a star on it's own. The best part was... my boiboi who never liked kaya puff kept on asking for more after one bite!!!

The fresh kwai far goe is absolutely lovely. I haven't had one in Kuala Lumpur that tasted this good for a long while. The one at Chinatown is no longer "edible". This is soft yet chewy (not tough) with light pandan fragrance (not fake essence) and contained reasonable amount of fillings. My boiboi simply adores them!

Technorati Tags: ipoh + pastry + malaysian food

Review: Calabria Cafe & Restaurant

I decided to post this up today after reading Joe's post on Milwaukee Steak Corner. This is not on the same restaurant but the one just next to it called Calabria Cafe & Restaurant. I got acquainted with Calabria via a makan kaki whom posted about this place in Friedchillies few years back. At that time they were located in Bandar Sungai Long before shifting to the current location. Calabria is basically an Italian cafe serving the usual pizza and pasta but a look into their current menu, the list had expanded serving steaks as well.

This time round, hubby ordered a Seafood Soup (RM9.80) which came as a lightly herbed tomato based soup laden with seafood; from prawns, calamari, fish fillets, clams and mussels. A light soup with just the right balance of tomato taste of not too soury that my boiboi was enjoying it too.

I'm not sure since when hubby had a thing with risotto but it seems of late he has been ordering that if he sees them on the menu. This time no difference and he asked for a Beef Risotto (RM15.80), where the rice is cooked in a vegetable stock that came with sauteed striploin. We were disappointed though as Calabria did not use Arborio rice. We suspected they have used Calrose rice instead. The taste was alright but seriously the texture is totally out. So don't order risotto here.

We ordered pizza and spaghetti as options for my boiboi since we weren't sure how was his appetite that evening. Hubby picked a Pizza Quattro (RM13.30) that have four sections of different ingredients namely, chicken pepperoni, beef salami, roasted chunky chicken and tuna with tomato paste topped with mozzarella. My boiboi had 1 slice of the chicken chunks and said it was good *roll eyes* so much so that he asked for a second slice which is a good sign. I had one slice and find the crust a bit too thick. Could have been better if it's thinner by half.

After reading the menu that baked eggs & capsicum, onion, mushroom and chicken with tasty cheese and parmesan in a herbed tomato sauce spaghetti which sounded kinda interesting and delicious, hence I opted for that. This is supposedly to be Spaghetti Spanish Style (RM11.80) and the thought of baked eggs made my mouth waters in anticipation. When it arrives, hubby and I stared at it, asked ourselves what it is??? Hello, did we order egg omelette??? Hahaha... I flipped over the omelette and saw strands of spaghetti coated in thick tomato paste. Oklah it wasn't baked as claimed but nevertheless I still enjoyed this pasta. The omelette is tasty enough with the said ingredients in it. The spaghetti is cooked to perfection with the thick tomato paste clung onto them, the way I liked them. Boiboi had a few bites of the spaghetti before he gave up hahaha... overloaded by now!

That cheeky little fella did not stopped at the spaghetti even though he declared he was full. He asked for a slice of cake for dessert, well its more like hubby asked if he wanted any dessert. Checking with the staff, they only have Tiramisu (RM8.00) and so we have one to satisfy the small fart! I had a few small bites ("someone" was guarding with his watchful eyes!!! Eventhugh he was generous to share with us but we were told to take small bites only hehehe...) and it was kinda good. The sponge fingers are not soggy nor dry, lightly fragrant with coffee. The mascaporne cheese portion is not heavy at all and was best combined with the sponge fingers but of course nothing beat FBB's version. Order here!!!

Hubby had Affogato (RM6.20) and we were all given drinking water (no charge!!! yay!). Bill came to a total RM71.40 after adding in 5% government tax and another 5% service charge. Service here is pretty smooth and attentive as compared to its chaotic neighbour, well maybe because they're not packed to the brim which we liked, can eat in peace!

Silly me, I did not check if they're halal or not but it's pork free for sure and they have several Malay wait staff. I guess that says it all huh.

Calabria Cafe & Restaurant
11G Jalan Kasturi 1,
Plaza Kasturi,
Off Jalan Balakong,
43200 Cheras, Balakong
Tel: (603) 9080 3004

Technorati Tags: balakong + italian

Mid-Autumn Festival 2007: Leisure Mall (Cheras)

UPDATED 7 Sept 2007:
Coincidently, this was featured in today's The Star. Check out Mall marks arrival of the Mid-Autumn Festival with art fest in Metro (Central) section.

Mid-Autumn Festival will fall on 25 Sept this year and it seems like most if not all super/hyper markets, minimarts and bakeries are in full swing selling mooncakes. It is noted that not many malls emphasised on this Chinese festival other than having a fair selling mooncakes and lanterns. However, there is this mall in Kuala Lumpur that organises lantern making competition every year without fail. So which mall is this??? Haha it's of course Leisure Mall that is located in Taman Segar, Cheras.

We were there on Monday night and the staffs are still in the midst of hauling up the lanterns. I had a glance and it was sad to note that this year's lanterns were not as great as 2 years ago. Some looked like quite haphazardly put up. There is one done by simply plastering up 2 red upturned food cover with beige masking tape!!!

Take a look at part of the lanterns showcased... Quite a number of them were fashioned from recycled materials or your normal everyday items like disposable bamboo chopsticks, batik fabrics, ping pong balls, plastic food cover etc.

There is this one made outta folded straws which looked kinda nice on close up as you can see the different patterns and shapes of the folded straws. Some of them are in 3D!

This little monk is my favourite cos it's one of the more traditional method used to construct it. The structure is fashioned out by twisting wires before sticking on the paper. Another one, a ferris wheel is made out of coloured cellophane papers.

The lanterns makers are very creative indeed. This year, there are KLCC and KL Tower lanterns.

The staff were in the midst of hanging the lanterns up.

As we were walking down to Giant, we noticed this Art and History of Lion Dance mini exhibition on the first floor.

On display were a few types of dragons and lions used in the dances. On the bottom left there is this Lion Fish or was it Dragon Fish(??) where the head is of a dragon and the short body is a fish tail. First time I came across such thing! Then there is this Dragon in the centre with it's long "body" wrapping round the head. Ooooo I must dig out my dad's old photo of him and my grandfather in the FooChow Association's Dragon Dance team!!!

The Qilin (bottom left) is not as pretty as those I saw on telly showcased by China. There are a pair of Northern Lions as well.

Now this Hokkien Lion that is green and flat faced (forgot to take a pic of it's side profile) is my first too! Looked kinda weird compared with the more common Southern Lions.

These lion/dragon dances are usually accompanied by 3 musical instruments ie drum, cymbal and a gong (if I can remember clearly haha, getting old liau) plus the Dai Thau Futt (Big Head Buddha) which here was represented by a boy and a girl version. The girl one looked kinda eerie without her eyeballs.

Do give Leisure Mall another week or so to complete their Mid-Autumn Festival's decorations before you head there. I wonder I would have anymore posts on Mid-Autumn Festival this year... mooncakes again?? Kinda boring ain't it???

Technorati Tags: mid-autumn festival

Steamboat Party

**Non-Halal**

I had a steamboat (also known as Chinese fondue) party recently... hmmm in actual fact I'm pretty reluctant to post this up but never mind lah I suddenly feel very generous to divulge our family secret recipe to a great steamboat stock!

With our simple and easy recipe (well if you think it's a recipe at all hahaha) you can forget about toiling over in the kitchen preparing a large pot of stock of the usual chicken carcass or meat bones!!! Can you imagine all the cleaning, blanching, more cleaning before boiling the bones for hours... on top of the washing, cleaning and cutting of steamboat ingredients, you get the drift??? Urghhh... Fret not, so here I am sharing our family secret recipe which will no longer be secret after I click Publish Post button *giggle*

The secret ingredient used for the stock is *tada* dried squid! All you need to do is wash the dried squids (I guesstimated for about 4-5 litres of stock, I've used 2 medium sized ones), then soak them with some water (roughly around 500-700ml, just enough to soak in everything) for a few hours until soften. Then gently remove the squids and save the water cos this WATER is your STOCK base! Yup, as simple as that! You can strain the water if you find some impurities inside. Next, pour this stock base into a stock pot and add in more water (to how much you think you'll need). Boil it then add salt to taste. You can now pour this stock into your steamboat pot. Simple or not?

We find this stock is the best as the chicken/bones stock clouds out all the seafood and steamboat ingredients. This stock will produce a very clear and sweet taste. Try it and do tell me what you think. Oh, there is another item which is essential in our recipe... deep fried shallots (lots of them) oil. Now, with these 2 basic ingredients... you can fly now (literally).

We usually have some sort of rules when it come to having steamboat. First, we will try to avoid too much of those processed stuff made out of fish paste. Usage of chicken and pork meats; and seafood are encouraged. You can use innards too but since I don't know how to handle them, I've omitted them. Second, the first couple of rounds after adding the ingredients, we tried not to scoop and drink up the broth (but it's so hard to resist haha). It is these ingredients that will lent a natural sweet taste to the broth, hence I usually eat last cos the broth will be the best by then. Also, try not to add too much stock as you go along as this will dissipate all the sweetness and goodness of the broth.

Enough with the basics, let's see what kind of ingredients I've prepared for this time.

Fish fillets which has been marinaded with some shallots oil and soy sauce.

Chicken meat, I've used the thigh parts. Mix in some soy sauce, shallots oil and wee bit of cornflour. Let them marinade in the fridge.

Did the same with some lean meat. I bought a pack of pork shouder slices meant for shabu-shabu and just left them as it is.

Some seafood like prawns which I've kept the shell on as this will enhance the taste of the broth, sliced the softened dried squid and I'm not sure why I went and buy a bunch of lala (clams) which is not a very great idea so don't use them. Had wanted to get some scallops and mussels but can't find nice succulent ones. For the prawns, I will always remove the sharp front and end with a pair of scissors as it's pretty dangerous to stuff them in the mouth trying to remove the shells. Check out the pics below on which part to remove.

Had some obligatory fish balls and processed fish products - this round I've the large Hock Chiew ones with pork in the centre, meat ball with dried octopus, seafood tofu, "flying saucer" (a named most of coined due to its shape but I think it's known as fish wanton) and etc.

Sidekicks of mushrooms and some vegetables like chrysanthemum leaves (tong hoe in Cantonese, which sort of like tasted better in such occassion) and iceberg lettuce for guests who don't fancy the strong flavoured chrysanthemum leaves.

Instead of rice, bee hoon or yee meen; we find it is the better to have loh shue fun to be served with the ingredients and broth. Just blanched the noodles quickly in hot water and drain them. Set aside and let guests scoop as much as they want.

Kicking off the meal, we'll have the stock boiling before adding the ingredients that take longer time to cook. Scoop some shallot oil in together with loads of the fried shallots Cover and wait for it to boil. Scoop out ingredients and eat with assam chilli sauce dip that one can find in the wet market specially made for steamboat. Next round, add more ingredients and shallots, cover and wait for them to be cooked. Just repeat until all ingredients are exhausted or all stomachs are filled to the brim heh! *Burp*

Steamboat parties are one of the party I favour as we get to chat whilst waiting for the ingredients to be cooked, guests can pick which ever item they wanted, eat and stop when they liked, best of all, as a host, there isn't much running around nor preparation at our end. Fantabulous isn't it??

Pardon for the blurry pics as I had to do the job quickly before the guests arrive.

Technorati Tags: steamboat