Chinese Sausage Fried Rice

Lap Cheung Fried Rice

Yet another fried rice kekeke sorry la, its one of the simplest thing around to cook up plus can use anything you have in your fridge or freezer. I've one huge bag of Chinese sausage (lap cheung in Cantonese) that my MIL gave us during Chinese New Year. Decided to sliced them up. Rummaged thru my fridge and found a bag of celery. So, I cut off the outer stalks and reserved them for juicing purposes. I've used the inner core which is young and tender. I chopped them up.

First, I scrambled up some eggs with oil. Remove and set aside. Add more oil into the wok and fry chopped garlic till fragant. In went the sliced sausages and stir fry till slightly browned. Next, dumped in the celery and continue to stir. Added in some salt and pepper as seasoning before putting in the cooked rice (preferably left over night in the fridge). Stir and taste. Adjust the seasoning. You may use soya sauce too instead of salt. Lastly add in the scrambled egg and mixed throughly. Dish up and eat whilst it's hot.

Glutinous Rice Dumpling aka Bak Chang

Now come the exciting part of Duan Wu Jie or Dumpling Festival, haha the rice dumpling or also commonly known as bak chang (in Hokkien dialect) or ham yuk chung (in Cantonese dialect).

This year I've the pleasure to get hold of some homemade Hakka and Hokkien chungs. My parents have lovely neighbours who gave loads of chungs to my family knowing that my mother doesn't know how to make them. Mother don't make, hence, me also don't know how to make it too hehehe.

First one up is Hakka chung. Looked ordinary pyramid shaped.

This is how it looked like once removing the bamboo leaves. The dark spots are actually red beans. The special part of this chung lies in the usage of some coconut milk in the glutinous rice which looked whitish here.

Now, since this is homemade, see the ingredients bursting to the seams?? It has salted egg yolk, chestnut, mushroom, dried shrimps and a piece of meat. This chung have a slight fragrant which I can't tell until I learnt that it has coconut milk in it. Very very lovely and delicious.

I have some Hokkien chung here. Basically looked the same type of pyramid. The Hokkiens used dark soya sauce here, hence the glutinous rice looked darker in colour.

Once opened up revealed loads of mung beans, mushroom, a piece of meat and some dried shrimps. Hmmm this is also yummy.

I miss having alkaline (karn shui or kee chang) ones. Will get some soon to eat with kaya (a type of egg custard jam).

This Month's "Is My Blog Burning"

The 16th IMBB has been announced and the theme is Eggs! This round is hosted by Viv of Seattle Bon Vivant.

Hmmm... this should be easy but so many things that can be done with all sorts of eggs. My brain is running on high speed now.

Remember, if you want to participate, submit your entries between 24th - 26th June 2005.

Duan Wu Jie or Dumpling Festival

Tomorrow is the 5th day in the 5th month in the Chinese Lunar calendar. This marks Duan Wu Jie or also known as Dumpling Festival. Chinese all over the world will be celebrating this festival. So, I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Duan Wu Jie!!!

I'm not going to elaborate on Duan Wu Jie as many articles have been written about it. Renee of Shiokadelicious have written one about it and it came with steps on how to wrap the dumplings plus another one about the dumplings itself.

Umami have a couple too. Seadragon of Cafe of the East have a recipe. The latest copy of Flavours magazine featured some awesome dumplings too.

I've eaten some and I will write about them once I uploaded the photos. My personal fave is the kan sui (alkaline) type, hmm yummy yummy...

North Ocean Seafood Restaurant Review

**non-halal posting**

With so many restaurants around in KL, sometimes it’s hard to decide where to eat… a real big headache. We have to host dinner recently; hubby and I were enlisted to think of where to go… ouch… as usual the task will be bestowed upon me! Urrghhh… so this time, hubby gave me a huge task indeed, to go somewhere special, unique and different from the normal Chinese fare. Sighhh… headache man!

Anyhow, we debated and finally got round to this North Ocean located in Selayang. Actually we’re not going to North Ocean as the main criteria per se but more like to shop for fresh seafood direct from the tank before heading to North Ocean to chow down! Located next to North Ocean Seafood Restaurant is Jin Chwan a seafood supplier. Many years ago, they started off with many tanks selling all sorts of exotic (read expensive) fish and shellfish (king crabs, mantis prawns, geoduck etc). Shoppers can opt to bring them home or else where to have them cooked. Otherwise, you can tell the seafood you’ve bought to either Chef Tam across the street or North Ocean next door. Before we managed to try Chef Tam, they’ve gotten big and shifted to Sunway. I’m not sure if they’re still around or not cos I heard business wasn’t that good over there. We find North Ocean is not too bad plus service is pretty good too.

We got there first with my parents and boiboi in tow. I think it’s his second visit there but since he’s older now, he’s more expressive now. He went away with all his “wows” after going thru the introduction by his daddy, tank by tank of various fish and shellfish. I guess he was excited and amazed with so many tanks around him. I forgot to bring my digicam down from the car, hence no photos of Jin Chwan’s tanks. The place is clean and no fish smell can be detected (I have extra sensitive nose hehe). There will be someone around to serve you. All you need to do is tell them which fish you want and for how many pax it should serve. They then fish them out from the tank and place into rectangular bucket. Actually you can also point which fish you want and they’ll fish it out for you too. Next, they'll weigh the buckets and place bar code stickers on the receipt and buckets.

This round, we did not picked any fish since we almost always order a fish dish for our meal. We picked huge mantis prawns and razor or commonly known as bamboo clam (much larger than those small and thin bamboo clams one usually find in restaurants in town) instead. They don’t come cheap either… RM198 and RM98 respectively! After paying for them, we instructed them to send over to North Ocean.

Once we seated, the captain came around and took my Jin Chwan receipt from me. Then he recommended ways to cook our goodies. We chose Jiu Yim (salt bake?) for the mantis prawns and steamed razor clam with garlic. Also in the order list were a bean curd dish, chicken and vegetable.

First one up was this lovely plate of bean curd dish… well I can’t remember what’s it name in Cantonese but it’s deep fried homemade bean curd cut into rectangular blocks cooked in a delicious sauce which tasted of oyster sauce and black beans (dau si in Cantonese). Other ingredients detected were garlic, spring onions, sliced meat and some red chillies. It’s a huge plate for RM22 and there were 9 adults and my boiboi. My boiboi and I liked this one… he kept asking for more! The dau si impart a lovely flavour to this dish.



Next up was the chicken with chestnut that came in a claypot (RM28). Hmmm very yummy too!!! It’s basically braised chicken with chestnut and slices of garlic, ginger and spring onions gave a fresh flavouring to this dish. The sauce is superb with white rice.



We have lai pak (almost like pak choy but with stems that are shorter and fatter) stir fry in garlic. I liked the crunch in lai pak, which seems to be the current rage in vegetables replacing xiu pak choy.



Wooohoooo these razor clam are really fresh and was superbly steamed by North Ocean chefs. Loads of chopped fresh garlic and ginger topped with fried garlic once it’s done. We have to eat them fast as it won’t taste good when it’s cold. In China or Hong Kong, these clams are known as zhing tzi (errr Cantonese for the scrolls or orders directed from the Emperors). We were charged RM30 for the cleaning and cooking job. Wahseh, so expensive huh the garlic and ginger hehehe…



When this plate of mantis prawns came, my boiboi stood up and said he want that. Hmm he usually doesn’t do that but maybe the prawns looked really appetising to him. Baked in salt I think or maybe just a quick deep fried in the wok. My boiboi is very impatient even though we told him it’s hot and his hand reached out and grab a piece which he quickly drop it as it was really hot. I can’t imagine his next action was to pick up his piece of serviette and grab one of the prawns with it!!! So dang smart kids these days! Anyhow, it was still too hot but he bite into the shell slowly but surely he can’t eat the flesh hehehe silly fella. Managed to coax him to pass on the prawn for us to remove the flesh for him. I guess this prawns were given 2 thumbs up. The price to clean and cook them was RM28.



We were really stuffed by the end of these 5 dishes. The captain came and asked if we wanted any dessert. He said they’ve lovely mango that day but we declined. My mom joked with him how come no complimentary dessert like mixed fruits platter, he smiled and we were offered FOC (free of charge) tau foo far (a type of soft bean curd usually eaten with white or brown sugar syrup) in brown sugar syrup. Hahaha it pays to have thick skin. Nothing to shout about though but who's complaining??



We paid RM296 for the seafood at Jin Chwan and RM182.70 at North Ocean. A rather expensive affair but we all agreed it has been a wonderful meal. All tummy satisfied haha…

Syarikat Pengedar Ikan Jin Chwan
9 Jalan 2/4, Taman Bidara
Selayang, 68100 Batu Caves

North Ocean Seafood Restaurant
10 Jalan 2/4, Taman Bidara
Selayang, 68100 Batu Caves
Tel: +603 6120 1778

Liang Xin

Hahaha there is no new restaurant in town named Liang Xin. Today no food talk ok, today is pampering day :) My darling hubby treated me a pampering session at a rather new reflexology centre in the city, Liang Xin is the name. Since they were opened less than 2 months, they were offering a very reasonable package that is so hard to refuse. They charged us RM100 for one session of foot reflexology and one session of accupressure body massage. The normal price per session is RM80. I'm not sure how long this promotion last, so if you wanna check them up, better hurry!!!

The moment we walked in, we were impressed with it's oriental decor which looked very exclusive. I checked their brochure and it says "Where Kings Relax". Looks like their moto and tagline for the business.



Check how happy this particular Emperor (King) seems to be enjoying himself.



Wait!!! Look properly at the Emperor again!!!! Hahahaha did you notice something on his hand???? Yes...



What a funky Emperor... kekekeke he has got an iPOD and listening to it too. Well true to its tag, Liang Xin actually do provide you an iPOD upon request if you choose to isolate yourself from their pipe-in music and the din created by your "neighbours". This is not a hanky panky place ok cos the massage area is kinda open concept, only separated with a thin blind. They have two huge area where one is for female and the other for male. Since business is new and there is not many customers, only one area is in operation. However, if you opt for a ladies only area, I'm sure they can accommodate.



Back to their tagline "Where Kings Relax", it's really true to their words. Fruit juices are served and they're freeflow. Premium Chinese Tea is available too. Fresh premium fruits are provided. Really shiok (Malay word for enjoyable)! Everything served are healthy things... hmmmmm... I'm already impressed!

Since we have opted 2 sessions, we went for the foot reflexology first. When I heard they're using the Taiwanese method, I nearly fainted... gosh this method is painful type... sweating already hahaha... First the masseur (you can opt for a male or female) came and wipe clean my feet with a damp towel. Next they place my feet into a basin of warm water and they keep adding hot water inside. Super hot hot... but it was supposed to make the blood circulate. When I removed my feet, I can feel the melt down effect. It's so relaxing. Whilst the masseur wipe dry, another person came and gave me a shoulder rub. Wahhhh 2 staff pampering at the same time, really made me feel like a Queen! Then one staff came with a bottle of hand lotion and gave us a quick hand massage. They placed a warm pad at my back and asked me to lean back. Shiok shiok man!

Next... the foot reflexology session. I'm usually very tense when it come to this cos I really can't stand the itchiness hehehehehahahahehehe gosh I can stand the pain but this is super geli (itchy in Malay). Poor masseur have to keep on telling me to relax. Me hubby is an expert in relaxing... already lying down and relaxing whilst I squirm around. Anyway, this is not as painful but very relaxing instead. Did I tell you how shiok it was??? This went on for about 45 minutes. More juices, warm water and fruits were served.

I went on to change to a tee shirt and shorts provided by them since I was in my work clothes. Poor hubby can't fit into their tee shirt hahaha... I seriously think he need to go on a diet!

My masseur seems to be an experienced lady and she went on and on for the next one hour, pressing and kneading the pressure points. I peered at my hubby, aiks he seems to be going on a Thai massage kinda thingy. I learnt that his masseur is giving him some kind of chiropractic type of massage. The friendly centre's owner was around to serve and explain to us the process and so forth. Nice fella.

Two hours gone by and our pampering session came to an end. We linger on for a while chatting with the owner and we found out more information about the centre. They do have staff from the People's Republic of China and you may request to have them to massage you. They have other services too like facial, manicure and pedicure. Perfect for a all-girls-outting. Listen my chee muis (sisters in Cantonese), one day we all go ok ;) Very shiok one.

On my way out, hey I saw one Malay staff... cool! Pretty muhibbah (harmonious in Malay) eh!

I had a great time, relaxing like a Queen whilst my hubby like a King. They do have packages where 2, 3 or 4 masseur attend to you at one time. Yes... to make you feel like an Empress or Emperor!!! Extremely shiok ok.

On our personal note, not that we really enjoyed the body massage cos we've tried better place than this. I personally prefered the Malay traditional massage where the makcik (aunty in Malay) really unknot all the tired muscles plus they provide cures to various ailments. The makcik I used to visit, managed to get rid of the wind off my body especially calves. Ermmm she used her thumb and pressed into belly button AND she told me the maximum number of children that I can bear! Yes, she did that... well, I'm not telling what's the number until it really bear any truth hehehehe...

If you feel like some pampering yourself, do try them out here...
Lots 1-01 & 1-02 Level 1, Wisma Bukit Bintang (opposite Low Yat Plaza's BB Park)
28 Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 603 2145 2663



Don't forget to bring along your partner!!!

Thank you my darling *muaks* He's such a sweetie!

Japanese Purple Sweet Potatoes Tong Shui

Now this is more like the ori(ginal) version as compare to my previous attempt but using Japanese sweet potatoes instead. I have to give two thumbs up for these Japanese purple sweet potatoes are indeed much sweeter in taste and they're not fibrous. Yippeee!!! I hate those fibres cos they tend to stuck in between my teeth urrghhhh....

Just as before, wash, peel and cut the sweet potatoes. Add in a knob of ginger and sugar (I usually use rock sugar) into a pot of water. Simmer in the water till the sweet potatoes soften. Voila... sweet potatoes tong shui (sweet soup).