Babe in the City - KL is 20!!!

Wow, can't believe this... feel so ancient 😆. If you have been following me since my blogging days, Thank You So Much 🥲😊🤗.

I have since moved on to Instagram. My handle is babe_kl. Join me here...

Pretty stoked that there are ppl reading my craps on Instagram even though it is mostly for me to document & search back where I have been & what I have been cincai cooking. Good to know we have the same taste buds if you hv been sharing & saving my posts ❤️. As we celebrate, remember that our love for food is the greatest gift to socialise here 🍻.

Thank you once again from the bottom of my heart ❤️❤️❤️.

P.S.: if you have sent me invite to visit your makan place & I did not respond; it's bcos it went to hidden request. Anyway, I no longer accept invites as I prefer to have an honest say especially when it come to negatives which owners tend not to be able to accept it after belanja makan 😅🤪🤭. Sorry in advance. 

#babeinthecitykl #babekleats #babeklcooks #babekltravels #20thanniversary #pioneerfoodblogger #foodblogger #malaysianfoodblogger #Malaysianfoodblog 

Masterchef Asia Live in Malaysia

Hello hello... sorry for being away so long. Just too many things on the family front now :-( can't focus but maybe I should seek solace here? For instant posts on what I cook, eat and drink, do check me up on Instagram on the handle babe_kl.



Anyway, just a quickie... in case you do not know, you can head on to Midvalley Megamall, Ground Floor Centre Court now to check out MasterChef Asia's kitchen. They will be on display till this Sunday 23 Aug 2015! If you wish to fulfill your Masterchef dreams, head on there like now! Don't forget to bring your camera and a photographer along hehe.

On top of this, on Saturday, 22 Aug 2015 from 12 noon onwards... there will be a meet and greet session with the 3 judges, Susur Lee, Bruno Ménard and Audra Morrice; as well as the three Malaysian contestants Jasbir Kaur, Marcus Low and Sophia Zulkifli. I heard Jasbir, Marcus and Sophia will battle it out in front of live audience on my favourite Mystery Box Challenge! So do head on there this Saturday to watch this battle ermm right above on the "balcony"?

The 3 judges for this Asia instalment are award-winning restaurateur and fusion specialist, Susur Lee; 3-Michelin-starred chef and culinary consultant Chef Bruno Ménard; and Audra Morrice, finalist in MasterChef Australia, caterer and cookbook author. How nice if I could meet all three but alas I am not free this Saturday to meet and chat them up :-( however, you can!



I can't wait for the series to begin so that I can root and support my fellow Malaysian contestants! I know one of them could win since *ahem* we Malaysians eat, talk and sleep food!!! Just check out their background... Jasbir, the most senior participant in the season who can whip up Punjabi specialities with ease; Marcus, a banker with an interest in molecular cuisine and unique food pairings; and Sophia, a mother with a passion for food and cooking. So who will win?

The series premieres on 3 September, Thursdays at 9pm on Lifetime (Astro Ch 709). For more information, please visit the official website at msn.com/masterchefasia. Also don't forget to Like MasterChefAsia on Facebook!

MasterChef Asia Season 1 is presented by the Singapore Tourism Board and Knorr, in association with Panasonic, Changi Airport Group, Carlton Hotel Singapore and Air Asia. 

P.S.: There's a chance for you to win a kitchen makeover... check it out here!


** Photos were downloaded from MasterChef Asia's Facebook Page

Casting Call for MasterChefAsia

If you are not aware, MasterChef Asia is in search for amateur cooks in Asia to audition for the first ever MasterChef Asia! The show will be shown over Lifetime channel (Astro Ch 709).

So if you have what it takes to be a MasterChef, do submit your audition video as soon as possible before it ends on 5 March. Check out www.facebook.com/MasterChefAsia for more information or watch the video below.

I would love to sign up but I can't under one of the rules and restrictions :-( So please please give it a go and I am rooting for one of my friend who has submitted his entry *fingers crossed* If you have submitted an entry, do leave in the comments so that I can cheer for you too ;-)

MasterChef Asia is presented by the Singapore Tourism Board and Knorr, in association with Panasonic and Changi Airport Group. Lifetime (Astro Ch 709) is the exclusive Pay TV home in Asia for MasterChef versions from Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

MasterChef is represented internationally by Endemol Shine Group. The show was originally revived as MasterChef Goes Large in 2005 by Shine TV in the UK and is based on a format originally created by Franc Roddam.

Apply now at http://masterchefasia.com! Good luck!!!

Xin Nian Kuai Ler 2015

Wishing everyone a blessed, happy, prosperous and most importantly great of health in this year of the golden ram. 

Xin Nian Kuai Ler! 

Gong Hei Fatt Choy!!!

Tefal: Families that Eat Together, Stick Together

Tonight, all Chinese will gather for a reunion dinner and it will not be short of rice. Rice is something that hold abundance in food hence every household will ensure that their rice bin will be filled to the brim to usher in the new year. It also signify the whole year will be filled with food too!

At work, I have the opportunity to worked with a few Tefal rice cooker models and I really have to vouch that the rice turned out fluffy and perfect. Well that too if you stick to the tips and tricks. Tefal have some here together with some interesting information.

Those who are travelling back to celebrate the new year with a reunion dinner tonight, have a safe trip home ;-)

Ushering The Year of Ram With Pineapple Tarts Using SCS Butter

Sorry to disappoint... been slacking yet again. Yeah right. I ought to be shot for promising something that I could not deliver. However, this post is something close to our hearts. It's our love affair with SCS Butter, particularly Capn't Hook. There's always this withdrawal syndrome in him when he see his slab of salted SCS butter has grown smaller in size. Hence, I always have a block or two in the freezer on stand by. He loves it with kaya... almost an everyday affair for him spreading kaya and SCS butter on the bread that I made these days.

There are many ignorant consumer, really, even these days. Just when I thought our consumer these days are well read or informed. How I found out is based on the participants who came for classes... we tend to get questions like what brand of butter and where do we get them etc. We are surprised that many have thought butter-like-blocks labelled as "butter blend" are 100% butter. When we informed them that they're blended with vegetable oil, their reply would generally be "Ohhh no wonder they're so much cheaper!!!".

And so here I am, informing you that anything that is labelled as butter blend IS NOT 100% butter. If you're making cookies especially, I doubt you could get that special butter aroma and texture for cookies made with real butter. Also, please... try not to use margarine. I have to agree to this lady who always tell me "If you plan to eat something laden with calories, make it a good one" hehe... so butter it is!

Christmas and New Year have gone by and by now, when you walk into any malls or shops, you'll be greeted by a sea of red. It's time to usher in the Lunar New Year. As Chinese is always particular with good wishes and prosperity, pineapple tarts tend to be a must in almost every household as pineapple is known as "ong lai" in Hokkien language which means prosperity come literally.

I still remember my aunty showing my mother how to make pineapple tart once when I was really young. Maybe being wai sek (gluttony), even after so many years, I still remember the measurement for the pastry. It's just merely one pound of flour and one pound of SCS butter, no less.

In the recent years, pineapple tarts have revolved into many patterns but what is interesting this time round is SCS Butter have came up with 8 varieties of them, not only in terms of looks but flavours as well. They are Pineapple Cream Cheese, Pecan Pineapple, Berrylicious Pineapple, Chocolate Brownie Pineapple, Caramel Pineapple, Creamy Mango and Pineapple White Chocolate, Oatmeal Pineapple, and Green Tea Pineapple.

SCS Butter is giving away the booklet containing these recipes at selected supermarkets this month onwards. There will also be an online-driven pineapple tart contest. Just watch out for the announcements on their Facebook page. To make things easier since describing in words can be quite challenging, there are videos on how to make these tarts on SCS Butter YouTube Channel.

SCS Butter is kind enough to share these recipes so here they are. Just click on the respective picture and download them via flickr.

For the full booklet, check out the album here. Thank you SCS Butter Malaysia to make this happen.

MasterChef Australia Judge George Calombaris in Malaysia

If you're a foodie, you would have been catching up the latest season of MasterChef Australia on Lifetime (Astro channel 709) but for those who don't but is still a fan of MasterChef series, remember to tune in every weeknights at 7.00pm and 11.00pm.

In conjunction with this, A+E Networks who runs Lifetime, brought in one of the beloved judge of MasterChef Australia, George Calombaris, for a promotional tour of Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Jakarta.

I was checking my Instagram (look for babe_kl) on late Saturday night and saw George posted that he's on his way to Kuala Lumpur. Wow so late and I know he has a meet the fans session at MidValley Megamall at 2.00pm on Sunday. Anyway, I knew via Lifetime's website that they have asked fans to vote for dishes to be presented to George to try during this session. The final top 3 dishes were Nasi Kerabu, Assam Laksa and Orh Jien (Penang Style Oyster Omelette).


Photo courtesy Lifetime

You can see hordes of people at Midvalley and he did took a video on Instagram (@gcalombaris). He told us Assam Laksa tasted FUNKY, something I would have describe the dish myself :p


Photo courtesy Lifetime

We have the privilege to be invited to a dinner cooked by George and his team held at Pullman Hotel, Bangsar. When BoiBoi found out that we're going for this dinner and he had to go back to the gramps for the night, he literally "beg" his daddy to let him go in his place. Many pleases went and the daddy was happy to allow him to and there went our "date night" haha.

During the introduction, we were told by Charles Less, ‎Head of Advertisng Sales at A+E Networks Asia that viewership of MasterChef Australia S6 overtook MasterChef USA S5 by 15%. That's quite an amazing fete.



George was introduced later on amidst thunderous applauds. After some banters, he took out a list from his pocket and read out what food he has tasted so far in KL. Lots of yummy dishes listed such as nasi lemak, Hokkien mee, hor fun, rojak etc but not long enough to taste many others delicious fare we have in Malaysia. When asked which is his favourite so far and he was quick to name (fruit) rojak. He loves the flavour and various textures in the fruit rojak.

We were served the first course of Chicken Parfait with Bitter Chocolate Baklava, Coffee, Cumquat, Pickled Onion & Pumpkin Seeds which is essentially creamy chicken liver pâté which went with crunchy flat baklava. The pâté portion was quite substantially, enough to be spread on dinner roll. Sounds like a train of ingredients on the plate but each of them complimented each other perfectly.

Next on he took to the stage to demonstrate the next course of Green Greek Salad with Stir Fry Abalone with a female student (sorry didn't catch her name) Inti International University & Colleges who is one of the sponsor. Once he's done, he turned the table around and asked her to be the judge of his dish. She gave him full marks for his effort, of course.



The whole dish basically looked green which well got BoiBoi a bit skeptical to try. He poked around and got round to taste the crispy kale and green feta puree. Nothing beat fresh stir fried abalone slices that went along with cheese puree, slivers of asparagus & peas and crispy kale.



Main course is on next. We get to see George preparing the chicken rolls on live feed. This time round he has a male student to assist him. Once he plated up his Poached Chicken with Miso Hummus & Green Mango Salad, George got him to taste. Full marks for this dish too!


George introduced his Head Chef, Alex

It did sounded strange to marry a Japanese ingredient with a Middle Eastern dish. Luckily the miso was rather mild in the hummus. The chicken meat is marinaded first before rolled into a cylinder. It was then secured in cling wrap to be poached. Next the chicken is rolled with black and white sesame seeds. Loved how the sesame seeds incorporated into this for the texture. There are even "worms" on the plate :D



Earlier in the evening, we were told to ask George questions via Twitter. Before I forget the tag #askgeorge, I quickly posted my question and get on with dinner. Was totally surprised that my question got picked. I get to ask George personally the question... what inspire him to come out with tonight's dishes. Not only that, BoiBoi and I got on to the stage as well for photos opportunity :D

George replied that one would usually need to come earlier to recce the ingredients available in the country, check out the freshest ingredients and spices locally and try to use them to incorporate the different elements of the dishes. For that effort, BoiBoi was presented an autographed copy of George's cook book. BoiBoi is very proud of this and hopefully he will get round to cook some of the dishes in the book.



Lastly, dessert simply named as Chocolate Cake was served. Such simple name but you can see there are a lot of going-ons on the plate! There's the chocolate cake, chocolatey sauce, dark chocolate soil, chocolate ice cream, some yellow crumbs which I thought it was crushed honeycomb and hmmm foam which I think it's fennel but none of us could guess what it was. Everyone around the table went yuummmm mmmmmm on this one.



BoiBoi and I would like to thank Rubini, Janet, Hui Jun, the good people of A+E Networks Asia for the most memorable invite ever for both of us. Thank you George too for being so accommodating!

You may follow George Calombaris @gcalombaris on Twitter & Instagram and Facebook Page.