Ref: The Significance of Wesak Day
Friday, 28 May 2010
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Vegetarian Fare
Since tomorrow is Wesak Day, some of us might observe a vegetarian fare for the day. We're not as lucky as our PM to have Gordon Ramsay to cook for us on such occasion. So, here's a compilation of vegetarian ideas, recipes and places you can go for some hearty vegetarian food.
For pure vegetarian dishes that do not contain onions, garlic, egg and dairy products, there are Braised Dao Gan (a type of layered beancurd skin), Stir-Fried Kei Chi Mix Vegetables (just sub the oyster sauce with the vegetarian kind), and Stir-Fried Snowpeas and Eryngii Mushrooms (just remove garlic and wine from the recipe). My many versions of Tzai Choy that I normally cooked on the first day of Chinese New Year.
Simple one dish noodles like this fried bee hoon will keep your hunger pangs at bay. Did you know you can cook pak gor meen or Shanghai nian gao into this delicious noodle dish? Have you tried olives leaves? If not, try this Vegetarian Olive Leaves Fried Rice.
No time to cook? No worries, just chuck these yummy Veaty Bites' Pandan "Chicken" Style into your oven. There's a plain version which some cooking need to be done. They're very versatile where you can practically use this in your curry, soup, rendang or how about a tangy sweet and sour style?
Dong Zhi is coming soon and if you're a lover of karn shui tzung/kee chang (Alkaline Glutinous Rice Dumpling), Kawan manufactures a nice frozen mini dumplings. I hope Kawan still makes them today! Kawan also manufacture really good chapati that is great to go with their instant vegetable curry or dhall curry (but do check the label as it might contain garlic and onions).
One of my favourite restaurant that serves really good Chinese vegetarian cuisine is Yin Futt Kuok. Loved their assam fish and yam ring basket here! Check out Gopala Vegetarian Restaurant for some decent Indian and Malaysian vegetarian cuisine. Food in this restaurant are not cooked with onions or garlic as they practice Hare Krishna belief here.
For some new age vegetarian cuisine, one must check out Kechara Oasis. This restaurant has a nice ambiance apart from having a healthy alternative vegetarian food.
When I'm hankering for vegetarian hawker food, I would naturally head to Blue Boy Food Centre. Ah Wah can certainly fry up a mean plate of char kuey teow and it's fantastic to be able to savour yong tau foo, assam laksa, curry laksa, mixed rice, burger and chee cheung fun at this hawker centre.
Trouble finding vegetarian cakes, buns, onigiri and western cuisine? Try MG's Cafe or Tian Yian Cafe & Restaurant!
If you can partake onions, garlic, egg and dairy products, I have some lovely tapas recipes here such as Avocado Dip, Aubergine in Tomato Sauce and Marinaded Mushrooms. EggPlant Fritters with Spiced Yoghurt is a great dish to hide vegetables away from the prying eyes of children. And I have to say, Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce is one of the best pasta sauce I've ever tasted.
For pure vegetarian dishes that do not contain onions, garlic, egg and dairy products, there are Braised Dao Gan (a type of layered beancurd skin), Stir-Fried Kei Chi Mix Vegetables (just sub the oyster sauce with the vegetarian kind), and Stir-Fried Snowpeas and Eryngii Mushrooms (just remove garlic and wine from the recipe). My many versions of Tzai Choy that I normally cooked on the first day of Chinese New Year.
Simple one dish noodles like this fried bee hoon will keep your hunger pangs at bay. Did you know you can cook pak gor meen or Shanghai nian gao into this delicious noodle dish? Have you tried olives leaves? If not, try this Vegetarian Olive Leaves Fried Rice.
No time to cook? No worries, just chuck these yummy Veaty Bites' Pandan "Chicken" Style into your oven. There's a plain version which some cooking need to be done. They're very versatile where you can practically use this in your curry, soup, rendang or how about a tangy sweet and sour style?
Dong Zhi is coming soon and if you're a lover of karn shui tzung/kee chang (Alkaline Glutinous Rice Dumpling), Kawan manufactures a nice frozen mini dumplings. I hope Kawan still makes them today! Kawan also manufacture really good chapati that is great to go with their instant vegetable curry or dhall curry (but do check the label as it might contain garlic and onions).
One of my favourite restaurant that serves really good Chinese vegetarian cuisine is Yin Futt Kuok. Loved their assam fish and yam ring basket here! Check out Gopala Vegetarian Restaurant for some decent Indian and Malaysian vegetarian cuisine. Food in this restaurant are not cooked with onions or garlic as they practice Hare Krishna belief here.
For some new age vegetarian cuisine, one must check out Kechara Oasis. This restaurant has a nice ambiance apart from having a healthy alternative vegetarian food.
When I'm hankering for vegetarian hawker food, I would naturally head to Blue Boy Food Centre. Ah Wah can certainly fry up a mean plate of char kuey teow and it's fantastic to be able to savour yong tau foo, assam laksa, curry laksa, mixed rice, burger and chee cheung fun at this hawker centre.
Trouble finding vegetarian cakes, buns, onigiri and western cuisine? Try MG's Cafe or Tian Yian Cafe & Restaurant!
If you can partake onions, garlic, egg and dairy products, I have some lovely tapas recipes here such as Avocado Dip, Aubergine in Tomato Sauce and Marinaded Mushrooms. EggPlant Fritters with Spiced Yoghurt is a great dish to hide vegetables away from the prying eyes of children. And I have to say, Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce is one of the best pasta sauce I've ever tasted.
p/s: plus there's an egg free chocolate cupcake!!!
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
Mung Beans and Sweet Potatoes Soup (Tong Shui)
Kindly excuse the colour of the above pic, due to my lack of skills instead of making it look real and better, I turned it looking a bit retro which reminded me of photos taken by my dad in the 70s.
This tong shui is one of the simplest but big in taste! Just boil the mung (green) beans in some water until they're soften before adding the orange sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes that I've bought is the easy to cook variety, hence do not need to cook it for long. I've used gula melaka (palm sugar) for this tong shui which is the key ingredient to enhance the taste.
I like this to be serve cold but it's as good when it's hot.
Friday, 21 May 2010
Chocolate Guinness Cake Is Now Known As Black Velvet
Thanks to the Munkey, the Chocolate Guinness Cake is christened with a new name - Black Velvet! It's very apt as it is really dark and moist cake.
I've turned the recipe into cupcakes, just need to reduce the baking time to about 20 mins for the large Soufflé cups or 15 mins for the small Soufflé cups. Happy baking!
p/s: The white cups you see in the pic are known as Soufflé cups when I searched for the proper name but I think it's known as muffin cups here.
Thursday, 20 May 2010
Review: Sushi Zen @ The Gardens
**Pork Free**
Of late, BoiBoi has taken a liking to Japanese food especially sushi. His fave is inari even though he has tried a bit of this and that. I'm glad at least now he has one more item added into his reply whenever we asked him what we would like to eat. It's very refreshing indeed after the same old replies of spaghetti, pasta or fried rice!
In one of our recent dinner trip to Ichiban Boshi, as usual he would go for his sushi plates and gyoza. When my cold soba arrived, he was looking at me curiously on how I ate the noodles even though I've ordered this numerous times. I offered him a bite, letting him doing all the work. After lifting the strands of noodles from the soba tsuyu and into his mouth, the sentence that rang out was utmost sweet... "hmmmmm nice". Ever since that experience, I think he's really hooked! So far he got us detoured at least a couple of times just to have cold soba and over a period of 1.5 weeks, he had them thrice!
Last weekend, we were in The Gardens cos someone wanted to get his leopard from Machines. Come dinner time, BoiBoi says he wanted to eat cold soba. We usually visit Sushi Zanmai but their queue is almost always rather long be it at 1U or The Gardens. Remembering there is a Sushi Zen at the lower ground level, we headed there instead. After all, both of them are from the same operator, SuperSushi, which was spawn off from Rakuzen.
Ahhh no queue... perfect but we have to wait for a short while for them to clear a table. Capt'n Hook and I spotted the banner promoting their Bento for the month of May and we both went... wahhhh really value for money!
BoiBoi have his usual Cha Soba (small portion RM8.80) and Chicken Gyoza (RM9.80). He slurped his noodles happily. The chicken gyoza to me is just so so and have very little fillings.
Capt'n Hook placed the order for the Bento of the month which costed only RM28.80. Actually I didn't want to eat but I'mkiasu not to be outdone... I followed him and order the bento as well :p BIG mistake cos when the food arrived I knew I'm screwed. The portion is really like a lot, even the so called mini udon is to me... is normal!
The entire bento set consists of chawan mushi, a bowl of fresh salad, bento box that contained lots of goodies (will get to that later) and a bowl of mini hot udon in soup. Loved the light eggy custard and has lots of ingredients in there when you dig deep. The bowl of udon can be just my main course as it's rather a big portion!
The bento box contained 3 tempura pieces - inoki mushrooms, prawn and salmon! The last one was a bit of a surprise and under the tempura batter, I saw an orangey shade which I thought is the usual sweet potato. In the box there were also 2 large pieces of tamago, 1 shishamo (pregnant fish), 1 piece of chicken karaage (deep fried), a bunch of edamame beans, a piece of cold tofu wrapped in raw salmon, 2 pieces of gyoza and 7 various types of sushi. You tell me, a lot or not for RM28.80?
Heh not only I struggled so did Capt'n Hook. We ended up asking for take away container to pack up most of the sushi and tamago pieces.
We paid RM89.95 for all the above items plus 2 cups of hot ocha after the additional 5% Government Tax and 10% service charge.
Pardon the photo quality as it's taken with my SE W800i.
Sushi Zen
LG-K02 Lower Ground Floor
The Gardens, Mid Valley City
Linkaran Syed Putra
59200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: (+603) 9492 3080
Of late, BoiBoi has taken a liking to Japanese food especially sushi. His fave is inari even though he has tried a bit of this and that. I'm glad at least now he has one more item added into his reply whenever we asked him what we would like to eat. It's very refreshing indeed after the same old replies of spaghetti, pasta or fried rice!
In one of our recent dinner trip to Ichiban Boshi, as usual he would go for his sushi plates and gyoza. When my cold soba arrived, he was looking at me curiously on how I ate the noodles even though I've ordered this numerous times. I offered him a bite, letting him doing all the work. After lifting the strands of noodles from the soba tsuyu and into his mouth, the sentence that rang out was utmost sweet... "hmmmmm nice". Ever since that experience, I think he's really hooked! So far he got us detoured at least a couple of times just to have cold soba and over a period of 1.5 weeks, he had them thrice!
Last weekend, we were in The Gardens cos someone wanted to get his leopard from Machines. Come dinner time, BoiBoi says he wanted to eat cold soba. We usually visit Sushi Zanmai but their queue is almost always rather long be it at 1U or The Gardens. Remembering there is a Sushi Zen at the lower ground level, we headed there instead. After all, both of them are from the same operator, SuperSushi, which was spawn off from Rakuzen.
Ahhh no queue... perfect but we have to wait for a short while for them to clear a table. Capt'n Hook and I spotted the banner promoting their Bento for the month of May and we both went... wahhhh really value for money!
BoiBoi have his usual Cha Soba (small portion RM8.80) and Chicken Gyoza (RM9.80). He slurped his noodles happily. The chicken gyoza to me is just so so and have very little fillings.
Capt'n Hook placed the order for the Bento of the month which costed only RM28.80. Actually I didn't want to eat but I'm
The entire bento set consists of chawan mushi, a bowl of fresh salad, bento box that contained lots of goodies (will get to that later) and a bowl of mini hot udon in soup. Loved the light eggy custard and has lots of ingredients in there when you dig deep. The bowl of udon can be just my main course as it's rather a big portion!
The bento box contained 3 tempura pieces - inoki mushrooms, prawn and salmon! The last one was a bit of a surprise and under the tempura batter, I saw an orangey shade which I thought is the usual sweet potato. In the box there were also 2 large pieces of tamago, 1 shishamo (pregnant fish), 1 piece of chicken karaage (deep fried), a bunch of edamame beans, a piece of cold tofu wrapped in raw salmon, 2 pieces of gyoza and 7 various types of sushi. You tell me, a lot or not for RM28.80?
Heh not only I struggled so did Capt'n Hook. We ended up asking for take away container to pack up most of the sushi and tamago pieces.
We paid RM89.95 for all the above items plus 2 cups of hot ocha after the additional 5% Government Tax and 10% service charge.
Pardon the photo quality as it's taken with my SE W800i.
Sushi Zen
LG-K02 Lower Ground Floor
The Gardens, Mid Valley City
Linkaran Syed Putra
59200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: (+603) 9492 3080
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
Moist Coconut Cake
I have about 1 and a half tub of sour cream left in the fridge and I badly need to use them all up before they expire. I ran thru my books but funny there were so few recipes that uses sour cream. Darn!!! That's seems to be the problem all the time when I need to find something the very last minute but not when I'm browsing freely.
Anyway, with the few options in hand, I went thru the rest of my larder and found desiccated coconut which I've bought without knowing yet what to do with them :p
I've checked the books again and I found this recipe in Australian Women's Weekly's Food We Love. The recipe is also available in their website over here.
I adapted the recipe and added a handful of chopped toasted pistachios. Since I've more sour cream than needed, I added all in and omitted the milk which worked out fine. I've also cut down the amount of sugar and couldn't be bothered with the icing since it required raw egg whites.
The cake is indeed very moist and have this coconutty fragrant that smell so lovely especially during baking. The pistachios added a nice bite to this cake, this recipe is definitely a keeper.
Anyway, with the few options in hand, I went thru the rest of my larder and found desiccated coconut which I've bought without knowing yet what to do with them :p
I've checked the books again and I found this recipe in Australian Women's Weekly's Food We Love. The recipe is also available in their website over here.
I adapted the recipe and added a handful of chopped toasted pistachios. Since I've more sour cream than needed, I added all in and omitted the milk which worked out fine. I've also cut down the amount of sugar and couldn't be bothered with the icing since it required raw egg whites.
The cake is indeed very moist and have this coconutty fragrant that smell so lovely especially during baking. The pistachios added a nice bite to this cake, this recipe is definitely a keeper.
Moist Coconut Cake
Adapted from Australian Women's Weekly
125g butter, soften
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
3/4 cup castor sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1 & 1/2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
350g sour cream
Preheat oven to 180C and grease a deep 22cm round cake pan; line with baking paper.
Cream butter, essence and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time until combined.
Stir in half the coconut and flour with half the sour cream, then fold in remaining ingredients; stir until smooth.
Pour mixture into prepared pan. Bake for about 1 hour. Stand 5 minutes before turning on to wire rack to cool.
Monday, 17 May 2010
Review: Susan's Bistro @ Bandar Mahkota Cheras
**Pork Free**
I've blogged about Calabria Cafe & Restaurant way back in 2007. Not long after that it seems that the people who ran this cafe went over to Bandar Mahkota Cheras and opened up Susan's Bistro, I gather so since it's the same few faces who served us. Anyway, Calabria Cafe has been renamed not too long ago, can't remember what since I only passes by there.
Susan's Bistro stuck out like a sore thumb between the many Chinese food courts, Mamak shops and dai chow (stir-fries) restaurants around Bandar Mahkota Cheras' commercial area. However, there is a steady stream of patrons visiting this Italian cafe from around the neighbourhood. We tend to drop by whenever we ran out of options or when BoiBoi decided that he wanted to have pasta or pizza. Considering the prices in the menu and the stuff churned out from the kitchen, it's not a surprised that they're still standing strong amidst all the competitions around here.
So far their food has been consistently good except for a couple of times when Capt'n Hook was there with just the kid. We visited again not too long ago, seems to be ok this time round. For this occasion we have a Golden Garlic Escargot (RM16) as starter. Half a dozen of escargot complete with shells came on a bed of light and creamy sauce and topped with some croutons. Loved the sauce which is not rich at all and great if you're a garlic fan, great when soaked them up with the croutons! The texture of the escargot was firm and bouncy unlike another place we have been recently that was all too soft.
I asked for a Wild Mushroom Soup (RM7) since I know very well BoiBoi won't be able to finish up his dinner. BoiBoi loved mushroom soups and he did not hesitate to ask me to have some. Served with a crunchy garlic toasts, this soup packed with mushroom bits and it's certainly not the instant kind. Again it's not overly creamy that will overwhelm your entire dinner.
BoiBoi ordered a Smoked Salmon Spaghetti (RM17.50) which according to him is his favourite *roll eyes*. If I remember clearly, he had ordered this each time we're here and he's not someone who fancy fish unless they're deep fried! The spaghetti here is done al dente and you can just look at the pic how much smoked salmon slices are in there! The creamy white sauce is thickish and peppered with capers.
I need to get this out of my system - Capt'n Hook always order rice with cheese be it at those Hong Kong style cafe or Italian cafe!!! Ahhh that feels better :p This time, not his first either, he asked for Beef Doria (RM18). Ehhh... we were surprised they have changed the dish served to us. The portion has grown large due to a larger dish used! Still cheesy and tasty!
At the end of dinner, our "boss" requested for dessert and he picked a Creme Brulee (RM8.50). I raised my eye brows when it arrived as it was topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Hmmm... but it doesn't really matter as the boss likes ice cream. Digging into the creme brulee, it's not cloying at all, not too bad to end the meal.
The other times we have tried other stuff such as Cioppino (RM8) which is a tomato seafood based soup packed with seafood. Pardon the pics cos they're taken with my trusty W800i.
Seafood Doria (RM19) is delicious and packed with seafood as well. Guess who had this???
Gamberi Aglio Olio With Linguine (RM18.80) is a prawn filled linguine, just check the amount of prawns versus linguine. It's light and not laden with oil.
As for dessert we have the Tiramisu (RM7) which is quite all right and served in a teacup. Not sure why they don't serve the alcoholic version anymore :( which was of course better.
This cosy Italian-style family bistro also serves set meals for both lunch and dinner. Menu varies and it's noted at a blackboard outside the cafe. I've had them before and it's really value for money with a main that comes with a glass of iced lemon tea, best when it's below RM20! If you're around the area, mark this down!
Susan’s Bistro
No.6 Jalan Temenggung 3/9, Seksyen 9
Bandar Mahkota Cheras
Selangor
Tel: (+603) 9010 4588
Click here for map
I've blogged about Calabria Cafe & Restaurant way back in 2007. Not long after that it seems that the people who ran this cafe went over to Bandar Mahkota Cheras and opened up Susan's Bistro, I gather so since it's the same few faces who served us. Anyway, Calabria Cafe has been renamed not too long ago, can't remember what since I only passes by there.
Susan's Bistro stuck out like a sore thumb between the many Chinese food courts, Mamak shops and dai chow (stir-fries) restaurants around Bandar Mahkota Cheras' commercial area. However, there is a steady stream of patrons visiting this Italian cafe from around the neighbourhood. We tend to drop by whenever we ran out of options or when BoiBoi decided that he wanted to have pasta or pizza. Considering the prices in the menu and the stuff churned out from the kitchen, it's not a surprised that they're still standing strong amidst all the competitions around here.
So far their food has been consistently good except for a couple of times when Capt'n Hook was there with just the kid. We visited again not too long ago, seems to be ok this time round. For this occasion we have a Golden Garlic Escargot (RM16) as starter. Half a dozen of escargot complete with shells came on a bed of light and creamy sauce and topped with some croutons. Loved the sauce which is not rich at all and great if you're a garlic fan, great when soaked them up with the croutons! The texture of the escargot was firm and bouncy unlike another place we have been recently that was all too soft.
I asked for a Wild Mushroom Soup (RM7) since I know very well BoiBoi won't be able to finish up his dinner. BoiBoi loved mushroom soups and he did not hesitate to ask me to have some. Served with a crunchy garlic toasts, this soup packed with mushroom bits and it's certainly not the instant kind. Again it's not overly creamy that will overwhelm your entire dinner.
BoiBoi ordered a Smoked Salmon Spaghetti (RM17.50) which according to him is his favourite *roll eyes*. If I remember clearly, he had ordered this each time we're here and he's not someone who fancy fish unless they're deep fried! The spaghetti here is done al dente and you can just look at the pic how much smoked salmon slices are in there! The creamy white sauce is thickish and peppered with capers.
I need to get this out of my system - Capt'n Hook always order rice with cheese be it at those Hong Kong style cafe or Italian cafe!!! Ahhh that feels better :p This time, not his first either, he asked for Beef Doria (RM18). Ehhh... we were surprised they have changed the dish served to us. The portion has grown large due to a larger dish used! Still cheesy and tasty!
At the end of dinner, our "boss" requested for dessert and he picked a Creme Brulee (RM8.50). I raised my eye brows when it arrived as it was topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Hmmm... but it doesn't really matter as the boss likes ice cream. Digging into the creme brulee, it's not cloying at all, not too bad to end the meal.
The other times we have tried other stuff such as Cioppino (RM8) which is a tomato seafood based soup packed with seafood. Pardon the pics cos they're taken with my trusty W800i.
Seafood Doria (RM19) is delicious and packed with seafood as well. Guess who had this???
Gamberi Aglio Olio With Linguine (RM18.80) is a prawn filled linguine, just check the amount of prawns versus linguine. It's light and not laden with oil.
As for dessert we have the Tiramisu (RM7) which is quite all right and served in a teacup. Not sure why they don't serve the alcoholic version anymore :( which was of course better.
This cosy Italian-style family bistro also serves set meals for both lunch and dinner. Menu varies and it's noted at a blackboard outside the cafe. I've had them before and it's really value for money with a main that comes with a glass of iced lemon tea, best when it's below RM20! If you're around the area, mark this down!
Susan’s Bistro
No.6 Jalan Temenggung 3/9, Seksyen 9
Bandar Mahkota Cheras
Selangor
Tel: (+603) 9010 4588
Click here for map
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)