Menu For Hope III: December 12

Last year over US$17,000 was raised during the 12-day campaign. As of 4.36am Malaysian time, the amount stood at US$2,740.00!!! Not bad for a first day, keep them coming! We're hoping for a bigger result this year.

Anyway, if you cannot afford a raffle ticket or too lazy or worried to use your credit card on the net, it's fine but would appreciate if you could drum up some kind of campaign in your blog or help us tell your friends and family members about this cause. Thanks so much.

To eek, thanks so much for your support. May good karma bestow upon you.

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Menu For Hope III: Tis The Season To Give

Dear all supporters,

I have 3 sets of cookbooks to be given away and managed to wrestle a sponsorship from Werner, chef and owner of El Cerdo located in Tengkat Tong Shin, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. The details are as follows:

(1) Malaysian Set [Prize code: AP26]





Malaysian Set comprises of 6 mini books published by Periplus and each book come with simple instructions and lovely pictures for each recipe. I've picked my favourites with Malaysian cuisines in mind. The six minibooks comprises of Malaysian Favourites by Wendy Hutton; Malaysian Cakes and Desserts by Rohani Jelani; Nyonya Favourites by Lee Geok Boi; Eurasian Favourites by Wendy Hutton; Homestyle Malay Cooking by Rohani Jelani and Delicious Asian Seafood by Lee Geok Boi. With these 6 minibooks in hand, you can drool over the recipes and get to understand a bit of Malaysian cuisines and its ingredients used. Who knows you might be able to host a Malaysian theme dinner in no time!

(2) Nyonya Set [Prize code: AP27]



Nyonya Set come with 2 books - Nyonya Flavours, A Complete Guide to Penang Straits Chinese Cuisine jointly published by The State Chinese (Penang) Association and Star Publications (M) Bhd show cases the history, goods and of course the food plus recipes of Penang Nyonyas. The second book, Hawker's Kuih-Muih Favourites, published by Famous Cuisine come in bilingual edition of Chinese and English. Though not really related to Nyonya theme but it has a lot of cakes and sweets that is fittingly Nyonya.





Just look at the contents above depicted in Nyonya Flavours, A Complete Guide to Penang Straits Chinese Cuisine. There are some history and introduction to Penang Nyonya and I simply loved those colourful and vibrant photographs from dinner ware, cooking utensils, food, festivals and of course the people.



I've included this Hawker's Kuih-Muih Favourites as well since many of Malaysian kuih-muih (sweet/savoury cakes and desserts) are of Nyonya origin. Some of the recipes came with a pictorial step-by-step guide.

(3) Vegetarian Set [Prize code: AP28]



Vegetarian Set is sponsored by hubby, KK. This set have Azrah Kamala Shashi's Vegetarian Feasts (under Celebrity Chef's Cookbooks series) published by Times Edition and Over 80 Great Vegetarian Cuisines published by Famous Cuisine.



Azrah's came out with quite a number of Chinese, Indian, Malay, Thai and Western mouthwatering vegetarian recipes. A short pictorial introduction on some of the Asian ingredients are included as well which I personally think is a wonderful idea as some of us might not know how the ingredients looked like.



Meanwhile, the Chinese-English bilingual edition of Over 80 Great Vegetarian Cuisines focused mainly on Chinese style vegetarian fare. Methods to make mock meat are included in this volume! I'm going to get my own copy in my next trip to the bookstore!!!


(4) El Cerdo Dining Voucher worth RM500 [Prize code: AP29]



I managed to rope in Werner, Chef and owner of El Cerdo, a restaurant that specialises in anything pork, to sponsor something. I'm feeling ecstatic now cause Chef Werner had generously pledged a dining voucher worth RM500 to dine in his restaurant - El Cerdo. El Cerdo is a non-halal restaurant located in Tengkat Tong Shin, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Hence this prize is limited to those living in the Klang Valley or to those who are willing to come to Kuala Lumpur to savour the delicious offerings by Chef Werner. El Cerdo specialises in porcine delights and I personally would like to recommend the pork knuckle for 2. It's slightly different from the usually knuckle, the skin is rubbed and topped with some herbs and garlic. The skin, aside from being crispy, have a fragrant herb aroma with a subtle hint of garlic. It taste just wonderful.

That's all I managed to wrestle and should there be any restaurant owners or food bloggers reading this in Malaysia and feel like taking part, please contact me at babe_kl(at)yahoo(dot)com as soon as possible. We can try to accommodate your pledges before December 22 but try to make it earlier (and not wait till December 22) so we can do a bit of promo for your pledges.

Do check out the rest of the prizes available in Asia Pacific region over at Grab Your Fork or Chez Pim for the round up of prizes offered around the world before placing your donation and bid at First Giving.

Here's what you should do...

1. Go to the donation page at http://www.firstgiving.com/menuforhopeIII


2. Make a donation, each USD10 will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize or prizes you'd like in the 'Personal Message' section in the donation form when confirming your donation. Do tell us how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code -for example, a donation of USD50 can be 2 tickets for AP01 and 3 for AP02.


3. For US donors, if your company has agreed to match your charity donation, please remember to check the box and fill in the information so we may claim the corporate match.


4. Please also check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.


5. Check back on Chez Pim on January 15 when we announce the results of the raffle. (The drawing will be done electronically. Our friend the code wizard Derrick at Obsession with Food is responsible for the wicked application that will do the job.)

All I wanted to say is be generous and to quote Chef Werner "It's for the children"! Your support to this cause will be tremendously appreciated by us all. Thank you in advance for your donation.

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Stir Fried Eggs WithTomatoes

This is my first time stir frying eggs with tomatoes. Somehow it just doesn't look right... kinda too wet. Maybe I should have cook them a little longer.

What I did was diced the tomatoes and remove the seeds. Heat up oil in wok and fry the tomatoes for a short while. Next pour in the beaten eggs seasoned with some soy sauce and pepper. Let it set for while before scrapping the centre to let the runny bit to cook. Then quickly stir and turn them. Dish up and serve.

Experts out there, please let me know if this is the correct way to make this dish? Thank you very much in advance.

Technorati Tags: egg + tomato

Quick Corned Beef Snack

Should you have a snack attack in the middle of the night, some canned food would do wonders to the appetite! Hubby got back almost midnite one day and he was crying hungry. I looked thru the larder and found one can of corned beef. At that unGodly hour, I was too lazy to fire up the stove to do any cooking or cleaning, so the microwave oven came to play, else it will be used basically to heat up food in the household or cleaning/sterilising dish sponges.

What I did was dice up some onions and yellow capsicum. Heat up some olive oil in a glass casserole dish on high for 1 minute. Chuck in the onions and cook on high for another minute. Next put in the capsicum and stir to mix well. Cook on high for another minute. Pour in the corned beef and stir. Be careful here cos the contents sizzle a bit. Cook on medium for about 3 minutes or more. Crack in loads of black pepper and mix well.



Great with some bread. Sorry for the ghastly pictures, was too lazy to use my digicam nor change the settings on my phone.



Technorati Tags: corned beef + snack

Menu For Hope III: Food Blogger Fundraising for World Food Programme

Some of you may have received the mail from Pim (Chez Pim) or Helen (Grab Your Fork) asking for assistance to make this year's Menu For Hope a success. Judging from the number of coordinators across the world, I can or already smell success. Nevertheless, we need to do something huh to kick start the campaign.

Menu For Hope is devised by Chez Pim and now it had spread across the continent to raise funds to support the United Nations World Food Programme. In anticipating for the influx of goodies, Helen will be the coordinator for Asia Pacific region.

So, I'm doing my part here by promoting the event and of course I'll be pledging something here. Check out this space for details later as I'm still finalising the stuff. Should you wish to participate and pledge something... do contact Helen if you're within AsiaPac.

To donate, buy a virtual raffle ticket at USD10 via First Giving from 11th December onwards till 22nd December. Specify your desired prize in the comment area of the donation form. You can select one prize for each set of donation ie. a USD50 donation will give you five chances at only one prize of your choice. You get the gist? If not visit Grab Your Fork for more details or Menu for Hope II for an idea what kind of prizes are up for grabs. They will certainly worth every single cent you'll be donating.

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Stir Fried Udon With Fish Slices

This is a simple but delicious stir fried noodle dish. I've used udon but I supposed you can opt for other type of noodles.

First marinade fish slices with some soy sauce, pepper and corn flour. Shallow fry them in batches till golden brown. Remove and drain on paper towel. Blanch the udon quickly in hot water then submerge the udon in cold water to stop them from cooking further.

Heat up some oil and fry some onion strips till translucent. Add in chopped garlic and fry till fragrant. Next, chuck in some shredded cabbage and carrots. Pour in some oyster sauce, fish sauce and some black pepper to taste. Stir in the udon and some water. Mix well and simmer till udon is cooked. Lastly add in the fried fish slices and stir lightly. Dish up and serve hot.

Technorati Tags: udon + noodles

Review: Fishing Village Restaurant

Its getting scarier in Kepong nowadays... so many restaurants and eateries have opened in the new and up coming part of Kepong. They are located either in Metro Prima where Jusco is located or the opposite part where Carrefour is. There are many shoplots at these two places and traffic at times can be a nightmare, well unless you know the back roads haha.

Anyway, my parents have gone to this Fishing Village Restaurant for countless times so naturally one day they asked us to go along for some lip smacking yong tau foo (stuffed beancurd and vegetables). Fishing Village Restaurant can be easily located and parking is a breeze in this part of the shops. Best part is, this shop is air conditioned and it's clean, with the decor slightly better than kopitiam.

My mom had wanted the drunken chicken which she claimed is delicious but they have ran out of it so we opted for drunken prawns instead. I tell you, this dish is absolutely delicious till the last drop of broth were consumed. My mom made a kickass version of drunken chicken for my confinement but this one I tell you, is simply out of this world. The amount of rice wine used is generous but not over powering. Best of all the prawns are rather big and very fresh.



The yong tau foo here is HUGE!!! A bit pricy at 90 sens a piece but it's certainly worth it cos one piece is so huge that they usually cut it into half to be shared. The foo chuk (beancurd sheet) is deep fried to the crisp and my fave, in fact everyone's fave is the stuffed brinjal! The large brinjal pieces are generously filled with fish paste... ooooh so tasty! OMG I'm craving for some now and I just had some brinjal today for lunch haha!!! Anyway the yong tau foo here is not laden with beanpaste sauce ala Hakka style. The beanpaste sauce and chilli sauce are served separately.

Certain yong tau foo pieces like bittergourd, white soft beancurd and sui kow (dumplings) were served in a clear broth. The sui kow is mediocre only but the beancurd is really silky and again came in large pieces. I like bittergourd so enough said.



We also have an order of munn char yuk (Hakka style braised meat with black fungus) which is a thumb-up dish too. This is hubby's favourite dish so he whacked almost the whole dish by himself.



Overall, the food is enjoyable and we're definitely heading back for more.




(Click for a larger map)

Technorati Tags: malaysian food + yong tau foo