all that

Winter Solstice - 冬至

2009-12-22T13:16:00.006+08:00

My granny used to say that the Winter Solstice is a bigger celebration than Chinese New Year ( 冬至大过新年). She would knead and prepare the dough (glutinous rice dough) with different color and we would help her to shape the tiny dough into round shape. There are two types of Tang Yuen, sweet and savoury. The sweet one is with the sugar syrup and the savoury one is cooked with meat, pig's liver, fish ball and garnished with lots of chopped green onion and Chinese celery.

But nowadays, Tang Yuen is eaten in many different ways. Some with fillings inside such as red bean, black sesame, peanut. Some cooked with Gula Melaka instead of white sugar syrup. My son's nanny adds sliced jack fruit into the Gula Melaka syrup Tang Yuen, like some kind of Thai dessert to me. Some eat dry like 'Mua Chi', just mix with ground peanut, sesame seed and sugar. As for myself, this year I made the simplest Tang Yuen, just eat plain with sugar syrup.

My 'not so round' Tang Yuen. The red one is coloring, not the beetroot juice but the green one is from pure Pandan Juice. The round Tang Yuen must be placed on a piece of Mahjung paper to absorb extra water from the dough so that it tastes 'Q' when it is cooked.

Boil brown sugar syrup with some Pandan Leaves to make it more fragrant. The Tang Yuen and the syrup should be made one night earlier. The syrup should be cold when cooked Tang Yuen is poured into it. Taste better this way.

Next morning, on the Big Day, Granny would wake up early to cook the Tang Yuen before serving some on the praying altar and later to all her grandchildren. I woke up early this morning to cook the Tang Yuen before going to work.

The Tang Yuen floated above means it is cooked. Some would( 飞水)wash quickly in cold running water the Tang Yuen to make it "Q" but mine is simple, just add the cooked Tang Yuen in the cold syrup I made a night earlier. It tastes "Q" too!

I pack some to work and left half a pot at home for Kevin, my youngest son. Sean, the big one is away holidaying in Spore, he must be missing my home made Tang Yuen too. Both of them love Tang Yuen so much that they want me to make them on normal days too!

Winter Solstice is being celebrated in different parts of the world by different people of different race and religion. I have got to know this from here :

http://http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_solstice
http://http//www.farmersalmanac.com/astronomy/a/winter-solstice-longest-night-of-the-year

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Indonesia Layer Cake

2009-12-06T12:33:00.002+08:00

My Aunt Susie of Penang used to make this delicious Indonesia Layer Cake for us many years ago. Actually there was one very famous bakery called Sunshine in Penang selling this layer cake. I remember in those days the cake was not cheap and Aunt Susie decided to learn to make this cake on her own. The Sunshine Bakery/Cake House that specialised in Layer Cake even had a branch in Setapak, KL but closed down already.

Last month like a pregnant woman, I kind of crave for specific kind of food before my menses, I bumped into this www.myvanillapod.com when i was drooling for some good Indonesia Layer.

They claim only Australian Butter is used in their cakes, not plastic margarine.

It costs me RM58 for this 1kg of cake.

I like Layer Cake because of the texture. It must be tedious work to bake this cake.

The cake should be cut in small and thin piece instead of a big chunk as it is a very rich and slightly oily cake. It goes well with Tea or Coffee Kosong or Kurang Manis. This Layer Cake was delicious but I prefer more cinnamon powder to be added as I like it be more aromatic. I love anything cinnamon......Cinnamon Roll, dash of cinnamon in my Cappuccino etc.

Check out their website, they have other cakes, pastry, pie and puff. I don't know if they deliver your order because I collected the cake myself. The packing is not impressive. They are operating from home in Danau Kota, Setapak, KL.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Restoran Krua Thai - KL

2009-11-14T12:40:00.006+08:00

My hubby suggested we go to this Thai restaurant recommended by his friend T, I was more than happy to agree as it had been a long time I have Thai food. This restaurant is located in Metro Prima Kepong. Actually there are two Thai restaurants within the same row of shophouses, this one being not so well decorated and more like a coffeeshop. But according to our friend T , this is better.

The front entrance of the restaurant :

The name card and the location map:

They serves steamed rice individually:

There are few types of Tom Yam ; Red Hot Spicy, White Clear Soup and Tom Yam with coconut milk. We had White Clear Soup Tom Yam which tasted spicy and full of flavour.

Everyone's favourite : Fried Pandan Leaves Chicken.........the meat was well marinated, very yummy.

My sons ordered this Stir Fried La-la which taste average and normal.

This Kerabu Chicken Feet was very good.....fresh, crunchy and tangy.

Stir Fried Sayur Paku.........full of 'wok hei'.

Pan fried Fish Cake........fish paste mixed with herbs, very aromatic.

I find the menu here is quite limited. They do not have my favourite 'Miem Kam' (wrapped daun kaduk with various condiments) but overall the food is delicious, the price is reasonable and the service is fast. The restaurant is run by Thais. We definitely will come back again.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Genting Highlands - Marrybrown and Hou Mei

2009-10-05T12:11:00.008+08:00

My two school going children had 10 days Raya holiday last month and I took them to Genting Highlands for a day trip. Actually it was a last minute plan and that's why we could not get any hotel room even though we wanted to spend a night there.

It was Thursday, we reached there about 11.30am and the place was quite crowded. After paying the entrance fees, we went in for our fun rides. There were such a long queue everywhere. My sons' gotta wait for about 30minutes - 45minutes for a ride. Lucky it was cooling, otherwise it would be very unpleasant.

Kevin got down from his seat after the ride, looking happy!

Waited about an hour for this one!!

I could hear people screamed their hearts out up there!

More scream...... more fun!

I had a cup of Nescafe (RM4.00) while waiting for my children.

We had lunch at the Marrybrown, located near the entrance. I had a Chicken A-delicious with Mushroom Sauce (RM15.50). The chicken was crispy but quite salty. Normal fast food. nothing special. 10% discount for Genting card holder.

The Genting Indoor Themed Park was packed like sardine too. My sons did not play any game as they were quite impatience with the long queue. But they wanted to go the Snow House where they will let people go in session by session. So after buying the tickets for the 7.30pm session, we went for dinner.

This was my first time eating at Hou Mei, located at the First World Hotel indoor themed park, next to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

I had Hou Mei Special Noodles Soup (RM14.00), tasteless and bland. I only ate the ham, egg and some shredded chicken and little noodles with some cut chilies in soy sauce. I almost leave the noodles untouched. The soup base was like tap water.

Kevin had Kai See Hor Fun Soup (RM14.00), he told me it was tasteless too and he kept adding soy sauce.

Sean had Roasted Chicken Rice (RM13.50) which he said it was good. Maybe because of the chilies sauce provided.

Kevin had a Mango Pudding (RM5.00) and he said it was yummy.

The total bill was RM68.15 inclusive of one hot Chinese Tea(RM2.00), one Iced Mocha RM5.80) and one Iced Lemon Tea (RM4.95). Will I come back to this place again?? Definitely NO. The menu is limited and the food is so lousy. I should have gone to Hai Nan Cafe just a few doors away (in front of Coffee Bean), where the food taste much better and have more selection of food. Otherwise the buffet at The Garden Terrace in Genting Hotel is also a very good choice.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Mid Autumn Festival 中秋节

2009-10-02T12:27:00.011+08:00

Tomorrow is Mid Autumn Festival and I have received about 7 boxes of mooncakes from my husband's clients.

2 boxes of this Shanghai Mooncakes from client and friend from Kluang, Johor claimed to be very popular there. You are not able to eat the yolk unless you take the centre part of the mooncake. The pastry is thick and buttery and it is filled with lotus paste.

This is the name of the shop and hopefully you could see the address printed on it.

2 boxes of Tai Thong Mooncakes of various flavours from clients.

1 box of Agar-Agar Mooncake from the same client that gave us the Tai Thong Mooncake. It is homemade but look at the artificial colouring.

2 boxes of homemade Mooncakes from my sister in law. The green one is made of Avacado and the brown one of course is from chocolate.

The other box is Agar-Agar Mooncakes, less attractive without artificial colouring but safe to eat.

It was her first attempt to make these mooncakes. Thumb up Ann, it is very tasty.

It has lotus paste mixed with black sesame seed inside.

This is from my beloved Auntie Susie from Butterworth, we called this 'Kong Cai Pheng' . The one with melon seed is plain one and the other one is with coconut filling.

Actually I have a box of Snow Skin （冰皮）Mooncakes from another client. I think she bought from someone who made them at home because the packing was not attractive but they were very yummy. The mooncakes were quite small and filled with red bean paste and lotus paste, the yummy part was these mooncakes were filled with a lot of melon seeds. We finished before I could take any picture of it.

There are many type of mooncakes of various flavours in the market but being an old fashion and traditional person, I still like traditional mooncakes , that is baked Lotus Mooncakes with just single yolk (double yolk if I am younger!). The only shop I will buy my mooncakes every year is called Tong Wah Confectionery located at 92, Jalan Tuba Off Jalan Kampong Attap, 50460 Kuala Lumpur. Tel : 03-22736278.

This is Nut with Melon Seeds Mooncakes, one of my favourite too!

This is baked Lotus Paste Mooncake with single yolk. Ahem.....I took the piece with the most yolk!
I don't know what is this called in English but we call them ' Ling Kok' (菱角）. Just boil them like hard boiled egg but add some salt in the water to make them tastier.

These small tiny yams are also part of the food we serve during Mid Autumn Festival. I remember my grandmother used to clean the yam and dried it under the hot sun. She said this will make the yam creamier. To cook these is like cooking the 'Ling Kok'. Just boil them or you can steam them. Both these yam and 'ling kok' are seasonal and only available during the Mid Autumn.

Lastly, the fruit that is common during this time is Tambun Pomelo, hubby has gone to Ipoh today for business and he will be back on the same day and I have asked him to buy from there.

So with the Mooncakes, 'Ling Kok', Yam, Pomelo, Groundnut and a pot of Chinese Tea, sitting outside of our house watching the stars and the Moon above us (hopefully no rain).......I am going to let my children experience the Mid Autumn I used to have with my parents and siblings during the good old days. Oops, not forgetting the lanterns (the traditional one, folded type) and lots of candles too!

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

My Penang Trip and Food

2009-09-22T12:17:00.011+08:00

I have taken many pictures during my recent Penang trip. Having a hard time to locate and remembering them. But I manage to have them download and sum up everything here in this blog.

Kedai Kopi New Cathay located in Jalan Burmah, opposite Bellisa Row is a corner lot coffee shop. It is always packed especially in the morning. These are what we ate :

Prawn Mee or Hokkien Mee not good as compared to Kedai Kopi Swee Kong located further down the same road (opposite Pulau Tikus Police Station). I hate eating Prawn Mee without Sayur Kangkung. I wonder why they don't add Sayur Kangkung as this vegetable is common and not expensive here.

This Apom was not good either compared to the one in Kedai Kopi Swee Kong. Disappointing.

Ahaa.....this is what I like Popiah (the wet type). My other family members find it a bit bland but I think it is very tasty.

This Curry Mee was delicious too. Full of curry aroma and the amount of coconut milk was just right not too thick or watery.

This Mee Rebus was so so only.

We had Penang Chee Cheong Fun too (the one with prawn paste 'ha ko' and sweet sauce) and it was very delicious. I saw many people had Fried Cantonese Fried. I think it must be tasty. The coffee and tea here are good too. This place is not bad as it has many varieties of food. Definitely will come back again next time.

Go Penang must eat Fried Koay Teow and the one we had was Sister's Char Koay Teow in Macalister Road.

We had Otak-Otak which taste average.

Does this picture make you drool..............? I think they wanted to close shop as we reached there about 4.30pm because this Fried Koay Teow was not good, lack of 'wok hei' and no Koay Teow aroma (不够香).

During our 4days 3 nights trip in Penang, we went to Kedai Kopi Swee Kong in Pulau Tikus 2 times for breakfast because my sister loves the Indian Apom there. The Apom was made using traditional Indian claypot and it costs about 50 sen each. The business is very good, usually they finish everything by 9.30am. There are two other stalls in Kedai Kopi Swee Kong which are also very good business, ie the Wantan Mee and the Hokkien Mee stall. Both are very tasty but I love Hokkien Mee more so I usually eat Hokkien Mee whenever I go there. But the coffee and milk tea here are not good. The Kedai Kopi New Cathay was better.

We bring our own container to store the Apom we bought at Kedai Kopi Swee Kong. This way the Apom won't stick and crumble together.

We went to Penang Hill but it was raining heavily and we end up having tea at the David Brown's.

My coffee RM8.00 , full of coffee aroma.

Scones with fresh cream and home made strawberry jam.........very yummy.

This trip was more like a family get together for us ( my sibblings live in three different countries) and we had a chance to meet with our relatives in Penang too. I look forward to more family trip like this.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Restaurant Goh Swee Kee - Georgetown, Penang

2009-09-05T10:17:00.009+08:00

We had much good food during my family recent holiday in Penang. We went to the famous Lor Bak in Kedai Kopi Kheng Pin, Chendol and Assam Laksa in Kedai Kopi Joo Hooi, Sister's Fried Kueh Teow in Jalan Macalister, Prawn Mee in Kedai Kopi Swee Kong in Pulau Tikus, Nyonya food at Ivy's Kitchen in Jalan Burmah etc. As there are about 10 of us, so finding a table in all these small Kedai Kopi can be a headache. Sometimes we sat at seperate tables.

I think the Goh clan must be good in food business in Penang and I wonder if they are related. There have Restaurant Goh Teo Kee (Sg Ara, Gurney Drive), Goh Huat Seng (serving steamboat) and this Goh Swee Kee serving teochew dishes. We decided to have a nice meal at Restaurant Goh Swee Kee when my Penang relatives joined us for dinner in one of the nights of our 4day/3 nite stay in Penang.

We ordered many dishes that night but I only snapped a few picture of some of the food. I was shy to keep taking photo in front of my Penang's relatives.

This is Stuff Sea Cucumber : the fat sea cucumber was stuffed with mince meat in superior stock (上汤), very delicious.

Fried Prawn Dumpling, the children's favourite. The filling was very generous ; I think there were minced prawn, meat and water chestnut inside. Very good.

My brother loves this Fried Oyster, he almost ate half of the plate. These fresh, succulent oyster was fried with tauchu, chopped garlic and chili sauce, very tasty indeed.

We have about 8 dishes, besides the three above we have Homemade Tofu, Stir Fried Vegetables, Sambal Brinjals, Braised Goose and Fish ball Seaweed Soup. The total bill come out to about RM250 for 14 person inclusive of 4 soft drinks and Chinese tea for all and what more we have our favourite 'Or Nee' (Sweet Yam Paste dessert) for dessert. I think the price was very reasonable and the food is very yummy.

Restaurant Goh Swee Kee is located at Jalan Sri Bahari ( near The Ship in Georgetown branch), behind Kedai Kopi Kheng Pin (famous for Lor Bak and Chicken Rice). Telephone number is 04-2636932. The restaurant is opened for lunch and dinner. Call to make reservation especially on weekend dinners.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Kedai Kopi Yik Chan - Bidor

2009-09-03T13:34:00.004+08:00

Besides Melaka, my family also made a trip to Penang when my eldest sister Annie came back from UK with her two sons for holiday. On the way from KL to Penang, we stopped over in Bidor for lunch. Fed up with the usual 'Pun Chun Restaurant', my Dad took us to this place called Kedai Kopi Yik Chan. It is located behind Pun Chun, that is the first right turn after the traffic light at the KFC. It is in one of the pre war building. Remember to place your parking ticket on your dashboard. You can buy the parking ticket at a shop just a few doors away from this Kedai Kopi Yik Chan.
Hand written menu on the board.
As there are about 10 of us, my Dad decides to order dishes to go with rice. They have fried noodles and rice too.

The restaurant is quite old and not very clean and the people managing the shop are old aunties and uncles. I guess the shop has been around for about half a century old. Hope the old 'sifu' is still around or has passed down his culinary skill to his younger generation for us to taste good food.

Look at the 'aging table' !
These are what we ordered :

I was quite disappointed with the Stir Fried Choy Sum, they looked so big and old but to my surprise they are so fresh, sweet and crispy. Lesson learned : don't judge the food by its look.

The children favourite : Fried Prawn Wantan with Sweet and Sour Sauce. There are well marinated prawn wrapped with wantan sheet. The prawn is juicy and fresh. The Sweet and Sour Sauce is served in a separated bowl and I find it is quite spicy and sour. The children did not dip the sauce.

This is Braised Ginger Duck which I find not very good and oily. It lacks of ginger and tauchu (sweet bean paste) taste.

Steamed Fish (Soon Hock) with Soy Sauce is good. The fish is fresh and the aroma of the soy sauce is just right.

My sister favourite, Yam Basket is very good. The yam is soft and creamy and the filling is very tasty too.

Total bill come up to about RM150 inclusive of 4cans of 100plus and Chinese tea. Next time if I pass by Bidor and think of 吃饭 ( eat rice) I will come back again.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Teo Soon Leong Chan Teo Chew Seafood Restaurant-Melaka

2009-08-27T11:58:00.007+08:00

I was told that Goh Chok Tong (S'pore PM) ate at this little Teochew Restaurant in Melaka and I added this restaurant in my 'must eat list' in my recent Melaka trip. The restaurant is located at No.55, Jalan Hang Kasturi, 75200 Melaka and the contact number is 012-6066503. They even have a website at http://www.tslcmalaysia.com/ .

From this well designed name card, you may be impressed and think this is a fine dining place but..........

This is it.....the interior of the restaurant, very small 70s looking restaurant in one of the horizontal alley in Jonker Street. The kitchen is at the front portion of the restaurant. The restaurant reminds me of some of the small back alley Chinese restaurants in Macau.

The boss will bring you to a seafood and vegetables display counter and take down orders of what you choose from the counter. You may choose from cheap to expensive stuff depending on your budget.

The first dish we had was Fried Noodles with Oyster. The Boss told us that the noodles taste better if we mix vinegar and chopped garlic into it and he was right, the noodles tasted really good. The noodles texture was springy and full of aroma.

Next was Steamed Pomfret (Tau Dai) in Teochew style. I prefer it to be a bit sourish but overall it tasted good. The fish was fresh and the meat was firm.

We ordered this Roasted Suckling Pig (RSP) upon recommendation of the Boss and we did not regret it. The RSP was very crispy and there was only a very fine and thin layer of fat between the meat and the roasted skin. Really yummy!

The Stir Fried Baby Kailan was full of 'wok hei' and fresh.

We had Braised Teochew Duck too but I did not take any picture of it because everyone was too quick with the dish. The Braised Teochew Duck was not very fat, the meat was lean and the 'weird duck smell' was well covered with herb and spices.

As for dessert, we have Mangoes and this all time favourite of my family, Or Nee (Sweet Yam Paste) come with pumpkin and ginkgo nuts.

In our individual bowl ; the yam paste was very smooth and not too sweet but I find it lacked of yam taste. But overall it still tasted good to go with the mashed pumpkin and sweetened ginkgo nuts. The total bill costs about RM400 for 9 persons plus inclusive of 4 soft drinks, Chinese tea and a bottle of red wine. Please be reminded that they don't accept any credit card. For parking, you can park your car at Kota Laksamana behind Heeren House and walk about 5minutes to the restaurant. Book table earlier to avoid disappointment.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

HAKKA YONG TAU FOO - KEPONG , KL

2009-08-20T14:24:00.002+08:00

Yong Tau Foo is one of my favourite food. Besides the famous Ampang Yong Tau Foo, there are many other places that sell good and tasty Yong Tau Foo. My friend recommended this place to me a few months ago and now I like to frequent this place whenever I crave for Yong Tau Foo. The location of the place is one of the reasons and also because Yong Tau Foo is a low-carb food with many variety of vegetable, so it is not that fattening.

This place is in Kepong Baru, if you drive along Jalan Kepong main road, pass the Jaya Jusco on your left , go straight pass the Shell petrol station, a mosque and another petrol station Caltex again, turn left immediately after the Caltex, go straight pass two rows of 2 storey shoplots until you see a row of single storey terrace house and a road sign: Jalan Development, turn left again, go straight and you will see the Yong Tau Foo shop below :

Besides Yong Tau Foo, they also have Chee Cheong Fun and Nasi Lemak, but I had CCF to go with my Yong Tau Foo.

My selection of Yong Tau Foo consists of : Brinjal, Tau Pok, FuChuk, Chili, Bittergourd, Lady's Finger @ RM.080 per piece.

Hubby and my breakfast:

The Yong Tau Foo stuffing is generous and fresh, can taste a lot of pure fish meat and they serve with tasty soup instead of starchy gravy. Besides Yong Tau Foo, they have Curry Fish Head and Vinegar Pig Trotter on certain days. Opened for Breakfast and Lunch only. Closed on Sunday. Parking is easy and free.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Ban Kee - Bt 4 Jalan Gombak, KL

2009-08-13T15:22:00.007+08:00

Last Saturday, after a run with my boys in Templer's Park, we met up with my husband to have dinner at Ban Kee which is located in one of the zinc roof shops in Bt4 (4th Mile) Jalan Gombak, KL. Before moving here in June, Ban Kee was also around 4th Mile Jalan Gombak area, but they were originally located behind Campbell Shopping Centre in Jalan Dang Wangi (where the anti-ISA protest was held). But that place was demolished due to development of new shop houses and Semua House building.

Actually they are inside this coffee shop called Soon Sing but you hardly see the coffee shop signboard in front. Ban Kee Fried Noodles has been around for many years.....about 30-35years. I remember my father used to bring our family there for crab dish. Another of my Dad's favourite place is Brickfields (opposite the police station). There were not many seafood eating place in KL in those days (about 35 years ago) unless you drive down to Klang.

As the Jalan Gombak main road was upgraded and widen, many cars parked illegally along the roadside. There is some parking space beside the shop. Dinner time, most tables are fully occupied.

Our first dish, Fried Pek Kuih (sliced rice cake).

Then Fried Tang Hoon. Both noodles taste average to me that day, maybe it's because of too many customers and the food's quality was not well maintained.

This is what we usually come for : Fried Salt and Pepper Crab. The crab was big that day but not good as it was not salty enough to bring out the seafood taste.
This Fried Balitung with chili and bean paste was tasty and we wanted to order another plate but thinking of the long wait, we abandoned the idea!

The place is not very clean and a bit noisy but the price is reasonable and the food is ok. It caters for the folks staying around this area and also many Genting Highlands 'kaki' coming here for supper (you will pass this shop if you use Jalan Gombak to go to GH)because it is opened until 1 am - 2am.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Home Cook Food - Steamed Ikan Kembong

2009-08-09T12:17:00.006+08:00

I love eating fish ever since I was a child and I was nicknamed "fish cat" (direct translated from Cantonese) meaning someone who love to eat fish. I remember my beloved grandma would keep the best part of the fish for me when I was small as I was the youngest girl in the family.

I still love to eat fish now and we are lucky because we get to savour different kind of fish meal. At home, I try to cook fish in many different ways as possible instead of just simple fried fish or soy sauce steamed fish.

When I prepare meal at home, I usually have three dishes, one is definitely stir-fried vegetable and the other two ; if one dish is of dried version, i will try to cook the other one with some sauce as my young children get some sauce to go with their rice. I seldom boil soup on weekdays and there are only four persons eating.

This Steamed Ikan Kembong is very simple to cook. The ingredients are of Ikan Kembong (rub with some salt), chopped ginger, garlic, chili, lemon grass and sprinkle on top of the fish.

Some lime (about 10 small limau nipis ) juice seasoned with sugar and salt and diluted with some water then pour onto the fish and steam for about 7 - 10 minutes. Then garnish with spring onion and Chinese celery ( or some thinly sliced daun limau purut/kaffir lime).

Taaaa....da..! Healthy and yummy and no fishy oily kitchen to clean up later.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Vegetarian Curry Mee - Jinjang, KL

2009-08-09T11:27:00.004+08:00

My friend knows that I love vegetarian food and he told me of this stall selling tasty vegetarian curry and clear soup noodles in Jinjang KL. There are many stalls along the main road of Jalan Kepong near Jinjang where the three Chinese Temples are and this stall is one of them (very near to the Ipoh Road Yong Tau Foo stall).

My bowl of Curry Noodles:
The condiments are long bean, vegetarian char siew, bean sprouts and tau fu pok. The soup is full of curry aroma and the amount of coconut milk is not too thick and that is what I like.

The stall opens for breakfast until lunch about 3pm. Besides this vegetarian stall there are other stalls selling chicken rice and wantan noodles. Many retired or elderly people drinking coffee and passing time there. My friend paid for my meal and I think it costs less than RM4.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Jeta Groves - Melaka Raya

2009-07-30T14:05:00.009+08:00

My family went to Melaka for holiday when my elder sister Annie came back with her two sons from UK. We stayed in Garden City service apartment as there were nine of us. Initially I wanted to book Aldy Hotel as it is very centralised but Melaka is quite small and I think I made the right choice with Garden City as it has a small kitchen ( we did not use.....who would want to cook in Melaka when holidaying there??!) and a sitting room with a small TV where family can gather and chit-chat. Moreover it only costs RM320 for a three-bedroom apartment. We stayed in Mahkota Apartment (behind Mahkota Parade) before but the place was badly maintained and more expensive.

I heard so much from friends about this Jeta Groves serving good food and chendol. So we went for our breakfast there that first morning in Melaka. It is located at No.115, Main Road of Melaka Raya, few doors away from Makko Nyonya Restaurant.

This is the name card :

A plate of nyonya kuih on each table. Mum tried the Kuih Koci and she said it is good.

My second son Kevin ordered Nasi Lemak and he said yummy. The nasi lemak is very basic without additional 'Lauk', just rice, ikan bilis, cucumber, fried egg omelette and sambal in seperate small plate. From the picture below, the nasi lemak looks lousy but I can tell you it is very tasty.

I had a Mee Siam and I love it very much. Full of aroma and fragrant. The beehoon is of the right texture and the taste is just right.

Elder sister ordered Rojak (for breakfast??) and she said the sauce taste just right , not too sweet but fragrant.

Other family member ordered Mee Jawa, Toasted Bread, Nyonya Laksa but they were too fast to eat the food for me to take any picture! All of them were satisfied with the food even my little nephew was happy with his toasted bread in peanut sauce. Another thing I would like to mention is their beverage.........the milk tea and local coffee were so good that we have two serving each!

After all the historical tour of Melaka and about 3pm we went there for tea break, actually is more for the chendol. There are two type of Chendol ie. normal and durian. In my opinion, I think Jonker 88 chendol is being overrated. The chendol here taste much better. The ingredient used is fresh and the amount of each ingredient used ( I think it is coconut milk, gula melaka, chendol, red bean??) is of the right quantity and that makes the chendol not too sweet but fragrant and yummy. Even the shaved ice is of the right texture not too fine or coarse.

Normal chendol : RM2.50 per bowl.

It was Saturday afternoon and the food was selling fast. The kitchen only had fried noodle/rice left. I ordered fried Meehoon which tasted very good. There was not much 'liao' eg. prawn, sotong or fishcake in the meehoon but it turned out so tasty and full of 'wok hei'. Thumb up to the chef who could make such a tasty meal with so simple ingredients. If you say it might be the MSG but honestly we didn't feel thirty after eating here.

This is the must have 'Durian Chendol'-RM3.50 per bowl. They add bittersweet alcohol taste durian and not any durian puree or lousy 'ubi' durian. And it came with a bigger bowl than a normal chendol, but definitely you can finish it.

The place is just a normal ground floor shoplot with about twelve tables with no air-con . The price is reasonable (about RM2.80 per plate) and the service is quite fast. The shop closed on Mondays. We will definitely come back again whenever we visit Melaka.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Restaurant Pan Heong - Batu Caves

2009-06-17T14:46:00.003+08:00

Last Friday, hubby went down to Pontian for business and I decided to take the children to the Zoo as it was school holiday then. The last time we went to the Zoo was about five years ago and my youngest son suggested we go there again to check it out. But we've gotta fill our stomach first before all the walking and sweating! So, we ate at this Restaurant Pan Heong aka 'Tai Shu Tao' (big tree).

This restaurant was located under a big tree before moving to a stone throw away to this corner shop lot many years ago. I remember their service was no good and the food take a very long time to be served. My husband did not like to come here then. But now their service is faster and the place is brighter and cleaner.

Many newspaper cutting about the food and the restaurant hang on the wall. They are famous for their 'mee goreng' (fried yellow noodles) and porridge. But now they have many varieties of food.

It was only three of us, so I ordered just a few dishes. This is Stuff Bean Curd Sheet with Fish Paste (RM6.60), my boys like it and I ordered two plates. Very crispy and the fish paste is fresh.

This is Steamed Herbal Chicken (RM17.00), the sauce goes well with rice. The chicken meat is moist and tender. The herbal smell is light but fragrant.

Stir fried vegetable (sweet potatoes leaves) RM7.00, very young and tender and full of 'wok hei'.

Restaurant Pan Heong is located at No.2, Jalan Medan Batu Caves 2, Selangor. (opposite SJK Khiew Ming) Tel : 03-61877430 and business hours : 8.00am - 3.30pm. Lunch time is very packed and the price is reasonable depending of what you order. A restaurant that I will back again.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Restoran Kam Fatt - Jalan Tengkat Tong Shin, KL

2009-06-04T09:58:00.005+08:00

When we have extra time, husband and I would 'cari makan' at a further place instead of few limited option near our office. Restoran Kam Fatt is one of them. It is located in one of the shop lots in Jalan Tong Shin (behind Jalan Alor) in the neighbouring of Max's , La Bodega and Restaurant Muar.

Hubby had a 'Chu Chap' porridge and it was very tasty. The fried intestine was crunchy and very clean (no bad smell).

I regret ordered this 'Kai Si Hor Fun' - Shredded Chicken with Flat Noodles Soup as it was not very good. The soup a bit bland but it is ok if you go with the cut chilies in soy sauce.

They have other food like curry mee, mixed rice, the usual stuff that a normal conventional coffee shop food. I see many people order the sliced raw fish porridge. It must be good and I will order that when I come here next time.

Price is reasonable and the place is quite clean but the parking is limited.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

PAPPA KOPITIAM - Selayang Mall, KL

2009-05-20T15:31:00.004+08:00

Over the last ten years, there are so many cafes mushrooming all over major cities of Malaysia. I remember during the good old days, upmarket coffee drinking places usually will be at the hotel lounge or coffee house. Then we were introduced to Coffee Bean, Starbucks etc. Later, the local entrepreneur came out with many localised cafes equipped with air-cond and wi-fi environment and the most successful so far I think is Oldtown Cafe.

Initially, I really like Oldtown Cafe as a change from the old, hot and not so hygienic 'kopitiam'. But nowadays, I don't like that place as the food is not tasty and the milk tea has too much milk added. The only reason I go there because they are almost everywhere and the price is still reasonable. Luckily, there are a few cafes nearby my place besides the Oldtown and Pappa Kopitiam is one of them. It is located at the lower ground floor of the Selayang Mall in Taman Utama Selayang.

These are our drinks. 1st son had Black Jelly Ice (Cincau Ais) - RM4.50, 2nd son had Iced Lemon Tea (RM4.50) and Kopi-O (RM2.60) for myself.

This Nasi Lemak (RM8.90) is very tasty and not as dry as the Oldtown's.

This Dried Koay Teow Prawn (RM8.90) is really yummy.

But this Chicken Chop (RM12.80) is really disappointing. I don't like my chop served with rice, I am not Jap/Korean although many people say I look like one if I keep my mouth shut. The Jap/Korean like to have everything served with rice. I prefer they serve with butter/bread or mashed potatoes instead.

This is Soy Milk with Glutinous Ball (RM4.90). Three type of filling ie red bean, groundnut and black sesame inside each one of the ball. This is good and definitely will order this whenever we come here.

Overall the food taste better than The Oldtown but the price is more expensive. But I find the place a bit dark and hope they will brighten up the place a little. Definitely will go back there again!

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Late Afternoon Coffee Break

2009-05-19T10:57:00.006+08:00

Instead of sipping tea and eating scones and sandwiches the English way, we Malaysian have many varieties of food to choose from when come to tea/coffee break such as Nasi Lemak, Roti Canai, Dim Sum, Roti Bakar, Tong Sui (eg red bean soup, bo bo cha cha), economy fried meehoon, yam cake and drinks we have Kopi-o, Teh Tarik, Milo and Barley.

Today's coffee break, I have my favourite childhood snack 'yu cha kueh' with hot kopi-o (black coffee) near my son's school.

My way of eating this is : dip the 'yu char kueh' into the black coffee first before eating........it is so yummyyyyyyyyyyy!

Mainland Chinese/Taiwanese eats 'yu char kueh' with Soy Milk; Hongkie eats with porridge; Malaysian eats 'yu char kueh' with coffee, tong sui, bak kut teh or kaya/jam whatever you can think of..... Yong Tau Foo even have 'yu char kueh' stuffed with fish paste.

My coffee break costs me less than RM2.....kopi-o is RM1.10 and the 'yu char kueh' RM0.60 per piece. These food is common everywhere in the street of Malaysia.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Coconut Drink - Kelapa Pandan

2009-05-12T10:24:00.003+08:00

My mother and I love coconut drink a lot. I remember once we went to Thailand, we had the coconut drink from day till night whenever we passed by any coconut stall. They are selling cheap too, about 20baht per coconut. Thai coconut is smaller and very sweet.

In the street of KL especially around the housing area, small trucks selling coconut like the picture below are quite common. There is one around my son's school and I buy a few for my family as coconut has cooling effect like herbal tea.

The boss sells two type of coconut, they are Kelapa Mawar and Kelapa Pandan. Kelapa Mawar is bigger but not sweet. Kelapa Pandan is smaller, sweeter and it is more fragrant (like daun pandan smell).

Load of coconuts in his small truck.

One coconut is RM3 and four for RM10. I bought four. I ask the boss to cut the coconut in a way so I can easily open it at home. He applies some 'asam' on the surface of the coconut and according to him this will keep the coconut fresh for three days without refrigerated. Anyway, I chill all the coconut straight away upon reaching home because I prefer to drink it cold especially with the recent hot weather.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Air Panas Wet Market - Chee Cheong Fun(CCF)

2009-05-11T15:27:00.004+08:00

There are three CCF stalls in the Air Panas Wet Market. The one located in the center is my favourite. It is the only CCF stall served with curry and sweet sauce whereas the other two only have sweet sauce. The CCF is the Ipoh type with dried shrimps.

I usually order one piece of fuchuk, one fishball and two pieces of CCF and it costs me RM2.40. I like the curry gravy instead of the sweet sauce. The CCF taste good with the curry!

Yummmmyy......shake more sesame, boss!

That's my breakfast whenever I do my marketing there.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Butterfly Farm - Lake Garden , KL

2009-05-11T10:38:00.014+08:00

After Vesak Praying, I took my children to sweat out in Butterfly Farm in Lake Garden, KL. Actually, both of my boys were indecisive as to go to the Bird Park or Butterfly Farm but finally the eldest son said he wants to see giant millipede in the Insect Section of the Butterfly Farm so there we go.

The farm is covered with net to prevent butterflies/moths flying away.

That day was not very sunny but there are many trees and plants provide shady path for walking.

A small area for turtles. Not impressive but at least there is something extra item besides the butterflies.

Koi Fish Pond and man made waterfall make the farm interesting.

Sword Fish Pond.

There are many different color and shape of butterflies and moths flying freely around. Some are simply drop dead on the ground, I guess their life span is short.

More butterflies..........I saw many photography enthusiast keep snapping photo and I also 'kiasu' and keep taking photo using my digital camera (of course just the normal type of camera, not the DSLR type...lah!).

Flora and Fauna. This Fragipani (Daun Pandan) provides sweet aroma to the place.

Our National Flower......Bunga Raya (Hibiscus).

There is an indoor section exhibit all the insects like Scorpion, Beetles, Grasshoppers, Millipede and many other weird but interesting kind of insects. Too bad I was not able to take picture here as my camera was run out of battery. It is really an eye opening experience to see the insect world.

The entrance fee is RM8 for adult and RM4 for children. RM1 is charged for camera and RM5 for video camera.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Happy Wesak Day

2009-05-10T12:30:00.004+08:00

From Wikipedia............Vesak is an annual holiday observed traditionally by practicing Buddhists in South Asian & South East Asian countries like Nepal, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Indonesia, Pakistan and India. [1] Sometimes informally called "Buddha's birthday," it actually encompasses the birth, enlightenment Nirvana, and passing (Parinirvana) of Gautama Buddha.

The exact date of Vesak varies according to the various lunar calendars used in different traditions. In Theravada countries following the Buddhist calendar, it falls on the full moon Uposatha day (typically the 5th or 6th lunar month). While the Vesak Day in China, it is on the eighth of the fourth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. The date varies from year to year in the Western Gregorian calendar but falls in April or May.

This year Vesak Day, I took my children to this Siamese Temple behind the Perkeliling Flat in Kuala Lumpur. There was a Kampung Siam ( Siamese Settlement/Village) in this area long before Tawakal Hospital and the rest of the shop/office area were built. The village had long gone but this Siamese Temple remain. The Temple is not visible from the main road as it is blocked by a Mosque. You only see the Mosque on your left hand side at the Perkeliling round about if you are coming from PWTC.

The name of the temple in Thai, Wat Meh Liew. My Mom brought me here when I was 7 or 8 year old.

Decoration for Vesak Day.

In Buddhism, Gautama Buddha is our Spiritual Teacher, the Awakened One or the Enlightened One. You can find out more in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/buddhism.

.

The main entrance of the Temple.

南无本师释迦莫尼佛。

合十

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Selayang Food Court - Selayang Jaya, KL

2009-05-05T13:24:00.008+08:00

Sometimes when I have run of idea of what to cook or too busy to cook, I take my children to eat at food court because that is the place where one can find many selection of food. One of the places we go quite frequent is Selayang Food Court in Selayang Jaya, behind Summit Selayang. It opens from morning about 7.30 am till 12 midnight.

Here are some of the food we ate on different occasions.

This is Lum Mee my son ordered. He said it is good.

I had Curry Mee(RM3.50) which was quite delicious and full of curry spices aroma and it is not too coconut milky type and that is what I like. I don't like too 'Lemak' type of curry.

We shared this Hong Kong Chee Cheong Fun (CCF). The prawn was fresh and quite big and the CCF was smooth. (RM3.50)

Fried Kueh Kak (Radish Cake)-RM3.50. We ordered this on two occasions. The first time, the dish was done by an Indonesian assistant and it was tasty and full of 'wok hei'. The second time we ordered was not nice at all and surprisingly we found out it was cooked by the Chinese boss.

Hubby ordered this Clay pot Chicken Rice which was not nice at all.

This is Seafood Noodles (RM6.00), although the 'liao' are generous but overall it is not tasty.

This Vietnam Pho was surprisingly good and the Fried Vietnam Spring Roll (not in the pic) taste good too. The stall is managed by Vietnamese.

This Fried Kueh Teow was not bad.

The place is big and airy with two big CTVs with Astro for entertainment while waiting for the food to come. Parking is available in front and at the back of the foodcourt.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Stink Bean -Biji Petai

2009-04-29T10:11:00.006+08:00

During pregnancy of my both children, I was never craved for any kind of food as claimed by some other pregnant women. I had mild morning sickness but I was never craved for the sweet and sour stuff. One of my pregnant friends, J craved for ice-cream in the middle of the night and her husband had to rush to the 7-eleven to get it for her and luckily 7-eleven was operating then, it was about 15 years ago.

But my craving for specific kind of food happens before my menstruation. I have this PMS thing for quite some time. Besides the bloatedness of my body, I feel tired, sleepy and moody. Like yesterday, I craved for the Sambal Petai. I bought all the ingredients from a supermarket near my office at 4pm and finished cooking the sambal by 6.30pm.

Parkia speciosa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Petai

Seed pods of P. speciosa
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Plantae
Division:
Magnoliophyta
Class:
Magnoliopsida
Order:
Fabales
Family:
Fabaceae
Genus:
Parkia
Species:
P. speciosa
Binomial name
Parkia speciosaHassk.
Parkia speciosa (petai, bitter bean,sataw, twisted cluster bean, yongchaa, yongchaak, zawngtah or stink bean), is a plant of the genus Parkia in the family Fabaceae. It bears long, flat edible beans with bright green seeds the size and shape of plump almonds which have a rather peculiar smell, characterised by some as being similar to that added to methane gas.[1]
Contents[hide]

Uses
The beans are an acquired taste, but are popular in southern Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, and northeastern India, and are sold in bunches, still in the pod, or the seeds are sold in plastic bags. Pods are gathered from the wild, or from cultivated trees, They are exported in jars or cans, pickled in brine.

Culinary use
Depending on the country of origin they may be labelled peteh, petai, yongchaak, sataw, or sator). They are best when combined with other strong flavoured foods such as garlic, chile peppers, and dried shrimp, as in "sambal petai" or added to a Thai curry such as Thai Green Curry of Duck. When young the pods are flat because the seeds have not yet developed, and they hang like a bunch of slightly twisted ribbons, pale green, almost translucent. At this stage they may be eaten raw, fried or pickled. Young tender pods with undeveloped beans can be used whole in stir fried dishes. In North-eastern India, the seeds or the bean as a whole are eaten by preparing a local delicacy call Iromba or Yongchak singju. Seeds are also dried and seasoned for later consumption. When dried the seeds turn black. In Indonesia, petai is very popular in the highlands of Java.
Petai beans or seeds look like broad beans. Like mature broad beans, they may have to be peeled before cooking. Petai has earned its nickname 'stink bean' because its strong smell is very pervasive. It lingers in the mouth and body. Like asparagus, it contains certain amino acids that give a strong smell to one's urine, an effect that can be noticed up to two days after consumption. Like other beans, their complex carbohydrates can also cause strong-smelling flatulence.

Botanical description
The petai tree can grow to about 90 feet (30 metres). It bears flowers in a light-bulb shaped mass at the end of long stalks. The flowers secrete a nectar that attracts bats and other pollinators. The tiny flowers mature and die. Long, twisted, translucent pods emerge in a cluster of 7 or 8 pods. When those pods are mature, within them will reside the petai beans or seeds.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkia_speciosa"

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Sakae Sushi - The Curve, Bandar Utama

2009-04-27T15:13:00.006+08:00

It is always my children's number 1 choice to eat Japanese food whenever we go out for family dinner and they like Japanese fast food like Sushi King, Sakae Sushi etc. We would very much prefer Sakae Sushi as it has more varieties and the food is much better.

We were led to the back portion of the restaurant where the table was much bigger.

The food was served on colored plate to differentiate the pricing and run on a conveyor belt. Each table was placed with a computer for food ordering purpose.

My favourite preserved ginger, crunchy, sour and sweet.

Hubby's favourite Ebi Tempura(RM15.90).

I think this was Ika Lobster Salad(RM7.90).

Beef slice Gyuniku Tataki 8 pcs (RM13.90).

Soft shelled crab tempura(RM8.90).

Sashimi Moriawase (RM29.90).

Eldest son ordered Tenzaru Cha Soba (RM16.90).

Youngest son ordered Tempura Yuzu Soba.

My sons took many colored plate food from the belt ie red plate - RM5.90, pink plate - RM3.90 and green plate - RM1.90.

The total bill was RM218 incl. tea four four. Overall it was quite a satisfying meal for the price we paid and the amount of food we ate.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Lin Zi Kang - Dessert

2009-04-27T14:37:00.003+08:00

It has been very hot for the past few weeks and I try not to go out unless it is necessary. I put a lot of sunblock on my face and hands and keep one sunblock cream in my car for extra protection. Although I put on my sunglasses when I am driving but my eyes feel dry due to the hot blazing sun. The weather makes me sweat and heaty and I have been boiling a lot of herbal/cooling tea for my family. For those who are not free to make herbal/cooling tea, just look out for herbal/cooling tea (凉茶） vans. They are all over the street in KL/PJ. Yesterday I spotted one in Selayang Jaya Pasar Malam (but already open around 4.30pm). I tried the Lin Zi Kang which was very tasty and cooling.

The Lin Zi Kang consists of many ingredients ie. lotus seed, dried longan, grass jelly, barley, sweet potatoes, white fungus etc. The ingredients were very fresh and it costs RM2.50 for a small bowl (which was quite big for me).

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Madam Kwan's - Bangsar KL

2009-04-26T15:47:00.007+08:00

Last week, we had our dinner at Madam Kwan's, Bangsar KL. Although Hubby thinks it is not money worth to pay about RM20 for a plate of Nasi Lemak, but once in a while to pay extra for the service, ambiance and environment, I think it is ok.

This is the Nasi Lemak we order : 1/2 hard boiled egg, sambal ikan bilis, two pieces of curry chicken, sambal dried shrimp, two pieces of sliced cucumber served with one bowl of nasi lemak.

Acar is served separately.

I remembered we paid less than RM10 for a plate of Nasi Lemak when Madam Kwan's was still the owner of The Sakura Restaurant in Jalan Imbi. That was about 20 years ago. The value of money is getting less and less.

This is the ABC aka ais batu campur my friend ordered.
Banana fritters with ice cream.

This is the Nasi Lemak I cook at home and it costs me less than RM20 to cook four persons. Taste wise.....so far no complain.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Braised Ginger Chicken 姜芽鸡

2009-04-24T15:06:00.006+08:00

It has been my family tradition to cook up this dish during any Chinese Festive reunion meals. But my Mom uses Duck instead of chicken. I use chicken as it has more meat and not so fat and I modify my recipe a little.

The ingredients are quite simple. First, preserved ginger..........marinade ginger (cut in chunk size) with three tablespoons of white ginger and one heap teaspoon full of sugar overnight.

These are the additional ingredients I put. Blend 2 stalks of serai, garlic, onion and 2 thick slice of lengkuas(galangal) together to make a paste. The amount of these ingredients is depending on how many chicken you cook and how you want your sauce to be either thick or dilute.

One tablespoon of taucu ( bean paste).Heat up two tablespoon of oil, add in blended ingredients and taucu and fry till fragant. Then add in chicken pieces ( I used three chicken thighs), light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar and salt to taste, preserved ginger and water just to cover the chicken and stir fry everything so the seasoning is spread evenly. Then cover the wok let it simmer about 20-25 minutes. Lastly, drop some sesame oil and Xiao Xin rice wine into the chicken.

Final result :

As you can see from the ingredients above, I did not use any oyster sauce at all. I try not to use much oyster sauce in my cooking because I don't recall any oyster sauce in my grandma's kitchen in the 60s or 70s but she could cook up such a wonderful dishes. The seasoning was very basic in those days and one can taste the original taste of the food. You can add some in this dish if you like.

My children love this and it goes well with rice. Happy cooking!

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Italiannies - The Curve, Bandar Utama

2009-04-21T14:22:00.006+08:00

Last week, Hubby and I went to the Curve in B.U for dinner. Actually we thought of eating Sakae Sushi but were told that the kitchen was closed and only the food available is on the conveyor belt. It was already 9.30pm and we did not want to spoil our day by eating sort of leftover food of the day on the conveyor belt, so we tried out Italiannies!

The restaurant opens until 11.00pm and it was half full when we were there. It was a Friday.

The Olive oil, salt and pepper and I think is balsamic vinegar were placed on each and every table.

Hubby ordered Lamb Shank (RM39.90) and he said is good. The meat was tender and the mashed potatoes was very tasty. He finished all the mashed potatoes.

This was the shrimp pasta (RM32.90) we ordered. The menu stated is for two persons but the serving was quite big and I think is enough for four persons. There were about 8 medium size shrimps and they were very fresh and not overly cooked. The pasta has other vege like asparagus, tomatoes and celery. We did not finish the pasta as it was a lot and very cheesy. I still prefer pasta with garlic and oil .

The total bill was RM107.60 incl. of one Iced Cafe Mocha (RM7.90) and one Brewed Coffee (RM12.90) plus taxes.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Wantan Noodles(云吞面）- Air Panas New Village, KL

2009-04-20T14:45:00.004+08:00

There are still many Chinese new villages within Kuala Lumpur (Ampang N.V and Serdang N.V etc) and these are the places where good traditional food still maintained and exist thru generation after generation. Today I have my breakfast in the village I grew up in.....Air Panas New Village. Although I have moved 25km away from here but I still go back there often to savour my childhood food. Actually there is one very famous Wantan Noodles stall in the Air Panas Wet Market called Choy Kee (财记）which has been passed down from the original owner to his daughter now. The noodles is still tasty but I don't like the char siew there. It is too dry and tasteless.

This Wantan Noodles stall I am going to write about is not as old as 'Choy Kee' but the noodles is delicious. It is located opposite the 4d gaming Toto shop in Air Panas New Village called Home town Wantan Noodls Ping Jie (家乡云吞面屏姐）. It is a village house but convert to coffee shop.

The front portion of the shop:

This is my dried (kan lo) wantan mee costs RM3.50 per plate come with a bowl of soup with meat dumpling in it.

This is the bbq meat (Char Siew) I like. Not the red or orange coloured type. It is not very sweet and full of bbq sauce aroma. The noodles is very Q and the sauce is not too sweet. I don't like wantan noodles that is either too much ( 猪油味) lard or five spice powder(五香粉味) smell. This has the right amount of both with a taste of shallots oil (红葱油）。

The stall opens about 7am until 11.00 am and closed on Thursday. They have Curry Mee, Chicken Feet Noodles and Soup Noodles.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

PETER KARI KEPALA IKAN - SETAPAK, KL

2009-04-19T14:45:00.011+08:00

Restaurant Peter Kari Kepala Ikan is my husband favourite eating place for lunch. It is located in Jalan Angsana, Setapak. If you are coming from Perkeliling roundabout, go to Jalan Pahang (the same road that will take you to the Zoo and TAR College), pass all the : Tawakal Hospital, McDonald and two Chinese primary schools, mosque, police station, Court Mammoth and a Church (all on your left) slow down and take first left turn, Peter's is on your left.

The menu is on the wall:

Our food, Seafood Taufu, fried from a frozen pack taufu from supermarket I think but it is good anyway, after all their speciality is Curry Fish Head.

Another Taufu dish (picture was was taken on last occasion). Thickly slice Japanese Taufu with fried dried shrimp and onion topping. The taufu is the cold one.

The curry fish head meat was fresh and I think fresh coconut milk was used instead the pack one. Generous amount of vegetables like ladies' fingers, brinjals. long beans, cabbage and taufu pok were added. The curry was a bit sourish and sweet and the santan was not too much but it was not spicy at all. I would say this is a typical Chinese style curry because you can taste that not much spices(rempah) were used. Anyway it is still goes well with rice! You can add additional squid and prawn to the curry at extra cost.

The place is quite packed during lunch hour and you can see many office workers will drive here to eat. Parking is ok and the price is reasonable.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Restoran Fatty Mok HakkaYong Tau Foo 肥佬莫客家酿豆腐

2009-04-18T14:02:00.004+08:00

My sister and brother are going back today and we decided to eat at my father's favourite restaurant ie Fatty Mok Hakka Yong Tau Foo in Salak South Garden, near the morning market place.

The restaurant is divided into two section ie. one with air-cond and one without air-cond. We went to the air-cond section as the weather was very hot.

Pictures of the boss taken with TVB stars pasted on the wall.

The clear and simple menu with pictures and price.

Here are our food, of course Yong Tau Foo. As there is one very tasty yong tau foo stall near my work place, I find this one to be just average. The soup is tasty and not so much MSG added.

Our favourites , Fried stuffed Brinjal and Crispy Fried Dumpling. Both are tasty and very nice.

This is the main reason we come here for : the Pork innards porridge. This is really good. The porridge is smooth and not too thick or watery, just nice.

We order extra fried pig intestines for our porridge which I think quite unnecessary as the original bowl of porridge come with quite generous amount of it.

But out of kiasu, I add some to my porridge......hehehe.

Besides the yong tau foo and porridge, they have 'Hakka Cha Yuk' , Curry laksa, Clear Soup Noodles, Curry ribs, Chicken Rice and Kan Lo Mian. The price is reasonable and the place is quite clean.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Ming Huang Court - 明煌馆

2009-04-14T14:56:00.011+08:00

We were looking for a cosy place to eat and chat and I remember my friend Tan brought us here once. This place is in Metro Prima Kepong. If you are coming from KL Jinjang, pass The Carrefour traffic light , turn right at the second traffic in front of the Petronas, go straight and turn left after the TNB substation, this restaurant is on your left among the shophouses.

This is the menu, all the food and drink are clearly listed.
The interior of the restaurant:Our food: Shanghai special fried bean sheet 三素炒面皮, it tasted like Hokkien Fried Tapioca but less oily and the bean sheet is very QQ.

Steam Glutinous Duck Rice with Dried Scallop (RM4.80). This is very yummy (很入味).

This is Shanghai Xiao Loong Pau (RM6.00), served with shredded ginger in vinegar. The soup in the pau is delicious and the meat is not very fat, just mixed with enough of lean meat to make it perfect.
Steamed salted egg sauce bun (流金入口包）RM3.60, this is the first time I eat this kind of pao, very unusual filling, a bit salty sweet and the pao pastry is not the sticky type.
This Seafood Siu Mai taste average only.

But this Steamed Egg Custard is very good. Unlike some egg custard, they will mix with flour to make it smooth but this one is without flour and yet so smooth and full of aroma of milk and egg. They sure have kungfu to steam such a smooth egg custard.

Other Tong Sui:

Deep fried red bean bananas is special and very yummy. The bananas are just ripe and sweet and filled with red bean paste. And the bananas remain cold inside! How did the chef do it?My siblings and Mom had a very good time here. The place is cosy and the little dim sum served here are all delicious and the price is reasonable.

The restaurant address : No.12, Jalan Metro Perdana Barat 3, Taman Usahawan Kepong, Kepong Utara, 52100KL. Tel : 03-62587996.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Checkers - Damansara Heights

2009-04-12T14:59:00.009+08:00

When my brother and sisters come back to Malaysia, they will try out as much local food as possible as they could not find good and tasty local food in overseas. But last night we went to Checkers, a restaurant serve pizza, pasta, porky dishes and some tex-mex food.

Upon recommendation of the owner, we ordered this dish called Enchiladas(RM29), very cheesy and a little spicy and we shared it among five of us. I think it will be too filling and rich for one person to eat the whole plate.

We shared this aglio olio with garlic oil. This is very good. My son can eat the whole plate but we adults want to reserve our stomach space for other dishes.

This is the star of the restaurant Lord Of The Ribs (RM88). It comes with a bed of fresh salad, chickpea and tomatoes and mashed potatoes. The salad dressing is very appetising, a bit tangy and spicy. The portion is big enough for 4-5 persons.
The sauce for the LOTR, bbq sauce and garlic sauce. It is really finger licking good.

My Dad ordered grilled sea bass(RM72). The sea bass was really fresh and tasty.

We had grilled calamari(RM8.50) which was very tasty and fresh. Checkers has other dishes like Scampi ( prawn dish), pizza, pork knuckles, french loaf served with garlic oil but we did not order because we came here mainly for the LOTR. We finished off our meals with their to die for dessert @ Rum and Chendol(RM11), which I forgot to snap photo of it (too excited to eat!). If not for the calories, I think I could finish the whole serving of the dessert instead of sharing with my siblings.

Checkers is located at : 19, Lorong SetiaBistari, Damansara Heights, 50490 KL. Tel : 03-20953304, open from 6.00pm - 10.00pm and closed on Monday. If you are coming from Bangsar, turn into second left turn after the petrol station and go straight and turn into second left turn again. Pass the Good Shepherd Nursery and go straight till you see a row of two storey shoplots., Checkers is there in the middle.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Setapak Prawn Mee

2009-04-04T13:02:00.005+08:00

Malaysia politics suck........no eye see, lets eat! This is one of our brunch eating place, Setapak Prawn Mee and of course is in Setapak, Jalan Pahang, opposite the SRJK Chung Hwa and this vacant shopping mall called Gallaria as the pic shown below : Very simple and clear menu with picture and price. They have many varieties of prawn mee eg. Big Prawn, normal size prawn, abalone, fried pig intestine(炸猪肠), fish slice and pork ribs and etc.
Hubby and I ordered the same Prawn Mee. The last time hubby ordered Abalone Prawn Mee (RM18.00 per bowl) and it did not taste good and with that price I think they gave fake abalone. And we did not ask for pork ribs either because we find it weird to eat prawn mee with pork ribs.
Our drinks, kopi-o ice and barley.
This was my prawn mee. The soup was not the clear type and I find it a bit sweet. Lack of prawn aroma in the soup but lucky they sprinkled home made fried onion instead of the mass produce type. I think the prawn mee just taste average only.

Next to this Setapak Prawn Mee is Tan Kee Prawn Mee which has been around very much longer than this Setapak Prawn Mee. They are also famous for their pork ribs prawn mee which I find is too oily.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Today I Mourn................

2009-04-03T18:07:00.005+08:00

I mourn for the death of democracy of this country. We usually hear people says good will always overtake the evil but I think this will not happen in this Bolehland of ours, not for now. The Police, the MACC, the judge and even the hospital ( the Saifool's case) are all being controlled by the Ameno.

And today we have a murder suspect by the name of Najis (oops...sorry for my typing error!) sworn in as our 6th PM (puppet man of Mahafiraun).

Tomorrow is an All Soul's Day and we will see Genghis Khan leads his millions of death soldiers to claim justice on the death of his great great great granddaughter Al ( sorry typing error again)....... Aminah!

1st Of April

2009-04-01T15:59:00.002+08:00

Wow....how time flies, three mths has gone and we are now in April 2009. We have been very busy and work life has been very rewarding so far and if everything goes smoothly I hope we could take a long overseas holiday break in 2011 or earlier! Why such a long time away? Well that's my plan, not giving ourselves too much pressure to attain our aim. Lots of money had been spent in moving to our new house and I told myself and my family that no overseas holiday for the next three years after moving in. No frequent expensive dining.....meaning once in a blue moon. We spend more time at home and I feed my family with home cook food. So far my family has been very cooperative. But one thing I found out is that domestic travelling is not cheap. There is only a slight different in travelling cost between local and overseas trip but my overseas meaning Asean countries...lah! For example , DIY 3days/2nights trip to Hanoi/Siem Reap flying by Air Asia and stay in an average hotel cost about RM600 per person. I am sorry I don't mean to discourage domestic travelling, I am just saying it from $$$ point of view. But I think cost of living has gone up that is why everything is so expensive nowadays.

I will give you a hint as to where I plan to go for my overseas break in 2011.......it is a country that across two continents ( no prize for guessing the correct answer !!)

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

CROC, CLARK OR PUPPY?

2009-03-31T22:48:00.002+08:00

I really need a pair of good walking shoes, preferable a pair of sandals that look good and casual. My Mom has a pair of Croc which looks very comfortable and they are really comfortable coz she did not complain when I went 'long haul' shopping with her. Her Croc shoes are not the common 'big head' type which I don't really like because they make my feet look big and bulky.

Another brand I might consider is 'Clark' shoes. They have very nice and basic, everlasting design. But I find both 'Croc' and 'Clark' are rather expensive for a pair of sandals. Maybe I will look for 'Hush Puppy' or maybe 'Scholl' which are more affordable. Well, it has been a long time I have not bought myself a pair of shoes, why not Croc or Clark?

I have a good reason to go shopping this weekend.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

1-Stop Cafe - Bt 3 Jalan Ipoh, KL

2009-03-22T12:28:00.003+08:00

We have been working without off since the CNY 5 days holiday, so hubby called one day off yesterday to be lazy around!

We went to this 1-Stop Cafe in Jalan Ipoh, located behind all the Dim Sum shops that operate almost 24 hours per day. It was a very hot day and I ordered this cold drink called Mint Medley (RM4.90) a mixture of calamasi,apple and pear juice, very refreshing:
Hubby ordered Hainan Coffee(RM1.50), very aromatic and creamy.

Hubby ordered Green Bean Soup:

And Tau Fu Fa:

As we had our lunch just a few hours ago, we tried out some snack like this Pumpkin Pie (RM3.00):
It tasted something like Fried Sweet Potatoes but mashed pumpkin was used instead, something different.I ordered Trendy Tortilla (RM3.50), it was something like minced meat wrapped with roti prata, savoury tasty.

Besides all the light snacks, the cafe serves heavy stuff like Nasi Lemak, Fried Hokkien Mee and Tai Chow dishes that go with rice. The drink list has many to select too. From healthy juices to coffee and tea. Price is quite reasonable and the ambiance is relax and cosy. I find this place is much better that the famous OTC, yunno which one mean!

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Kedai Makanan Laut LTE - Selayang Utama, Selangor

2009-03-18T12:40:00.007+08:00

One rainy night, the fridge was empty and hubby was not around and I decided to eat outside with my two boys. Instead of eating 'one bowl meal' ie laksa, soup noodles, we craved for something like home cook food 'tai chow style'.

This corner lot 'tai chow' restaurant is located in Selayang Utama Industrial area. The restaurant had two portion, one is air-cond area and one is outside...sort of al-fresco dining.
We ordered 'Steamed egg @ three kind of yolks '. It was not coated with a layer of oil and soy sauce on top so it was a bit dry, healthy though.

This Stir Fry Spinach was very tasty with a tinge of Shao Xin Wine.

I wonder what is the secret of making this dish....'Fried Calamari' can be so crispy, dry and well coated with batter.

My boys' favourite..'Steamed Lala with Soup'.

The total cost was about RM45 inclusive of two plates of rice, one coconut, one coke and one glass of hot Chinese tea.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

Pizza Milano - One Utama New Wing

2009-03-18T11:12:00.005+08:00

It's school holiday again........what else to do for city folks and kids?? See movie, window shopping, eat, eat and eat. Well yesterday I brought my boys to watch the movie "Dragonball" in One Utama, new wing. After buying 2.30pm show we decided to have lunch there. The eldest son wanted Japanese buffet at the Shogun, youngest son wanted Pizza and Mommy wanted to eat Thai food. We ended up going for pizza because it's been a long time we have not eaten pizza.

We spotted Pizza Milano located just 200 meter away from the ticket booth of GSC cinema. It is kind of fast food pizza selling Italian pasta , pizza and waffle.

The place was quite empty when we entered.

10 minutes later, after placing our order, the crowd came in and almost covered 3/4 of the place.

I ordered Pizza Americano consists of pepperoni, sliced chicken and olive.

Eldest son ordered Pizza Chicken Delight.

Eldest son ordered another Pizza Beef Pepperoni.

Youngest son ordered Meat Ball spaghetti.

My Americano Pizza.......
Although only one type of pizza pastry available, I find the pizza and spaghetti here are very tasty, full of mozzarella cheese and quite generous with the meat and vegetables. The price is quite reasonable, RM9.90 for a small pizza and RM7.90 for a generous plate of spaghetti. Drinks are between RM2.00 - RM6.00. I will come here again if I want some fast food pizza instead of the famous Pizza Hut or The Shakey Pizza which I find it's not tasty and rather expensive.

P/S : All views and opinions expressed here are based on my own personal opinion. Nobody pay or threaten me to say good or bad things about the food I eat!!

CHARN KEE TASTY CORNER - JLN ALOR, KL

2009-03-15T13:59:00.004+08:00

Hubby and I usually have our brunch nearby our office area but today we decided to go further to 'cari makan' (look for food). We drove down to Jalan Alor and were very lucky to find a parking upon reaching the place.

Charn Kee Tasty Corner is the place recommended by my ex-colleague when I was working in the then Nagaria Kompleks (now Berjaya Building). I love the food here. They have Soup Dumpling, Tomyam Noodles, Dried Curry Noodles, Lam Mee and their famous Seafood Noodles.

This the front part of the shop, it is quite difficult to spot the shop as it is blocked by eating stalls (operating at night) in front of the shop.

Charn Kee is famous for its Fish Paste Seafood Noodles, a lot of 'liao' and the soup is tasty, served with their sambal belanchan........yummy!

I tried their Lam Mee for the first time, I find it lacks of certain taste. I think I still prefer their Seafood Noodles.
Their Chendol is very "SEDAP".

Outside the shop, a lady selling some very delicious Nyonya Kuih @ RM1.50 per box.

Charn Kee Tasty Corner opens from 7.30am to 4.00pm, closed on Monday. A bowl of noodles cost about RM4.50. It is located before The Sisters Rice Wine Chicken Noodles shop in Jalan Alor main road.

all that

Winter Solstice - 冬至

Indonesia Layer Cake

Restoran Krua Thai - KL

Genting Highlands - Marrybrown and Hou Mei

Mid Autumn Festival 中秋节

My Penang Trip and Food

Restaurant Goh Swee Kee - Georgetown, Penang

Kedai Kopi Yik Chan - Bidor

Teo Soon Leong Chan Teo Chew Seafood Restaurant-Melaka

HAKKA YONG TAU FOO - KEPONG , KL

Ban Kee - Bt 4 Jalan Gombak, KL

Home Cook Food - Steamed Ikan Kembong

Vegetarian Curry Mee - Jinjang, KL

Jeta Groves - Melaka Raya

Restaurant Pan Heong - Batu Caves

Restoran Kam Fatt - Jalan Tengkat Tong Shin, KL

PAPPA KOPITIAM - Selayang Mall, KL

Late Afternoon Coffee Break

Coconut Drink - Kelapa Pandan

Air Panas Wet Market - Chee Cheong Fun(CCF)

Butterfly Farm - Lake Garden , KL

Happy Wesak Day

Selayang Food Court - Selayang Jaya, KL

Stink Bean -Biji Petai

Sakae Sushi - The Curve, Bandar Utama

Lin Zi Kang - Dessert

Madam Kwan's - Bangsar KL

Braised Ginger Chicken 姜芽鸡

Italiannies - The Curve, Bandar Utama

Wantan Noodles(云吞面）- Air Panas New Village, KL

PETER KARI KEPALA IKAN - SETAPAK, KL

Restoran Fatty Mok HakkaYong Tau Foo 肥佬莫客家酿豆腐

Ming Huang Court - 明煌馆

Checkers - Damansara Heights

Setapak Prawn Mee

Today I Mourn................

1st Of April

CROC, CLARK OR PUPPY?

1-Stop Cafe - Bt 3 Jalan Ipoh, KL

Kedai Makanan Laut LTE - Selayang Utama, Selangor

Pizza Milano - One Utama New Wing

CHARN KEE TASTY CORNER - JLN ALOR, KL

HAKKA LUI CHA

Muar and Melaka Trip during CNY- Pt2

Muar and Melaka Trip during CNY- Pt1

Tian Ya Ker Mushroom Noodles - 天涯客冬菇板面

Flowers In My Garden

St Valentine's Day

圣严法师

COFFEE, COFFEE, COFFEE

Jun Kee Restaurant , Taman Midah Cheras, KL

2009 Chinese 'Niu' Year

CHINESE LIME JUICE SATAY - SELAYANG JAYA

BYE BYE 2008 AND HELLO 2009

December Part 2

December Part 1

HAKKA ABACUS SEED 客家算盘子

Mom's Steamboat Meal

Man Jian Kueh - 慢煎糕

Salt Lamp

Home cook Food - 家常便饭

Homecook Food - Prawn Mee or Penang Hokkien Mee

Ong Lai (Tai Chow Stall) - Jalan Raja Laut, KL

Hing Ket Grill House - Kg Jawa , Klang

A Trip To Pulau Pangkor

STEAMBOAT DINNER IN SETAPAK GARDEN-易记

TRIP TO BATU CAVES

SETAPAK TEOCHEW RESTAURANT- JALAN PAHANG,KL

Restaurant Tien Pin - Desa Aman Puri, Kepong

新至尊-Rawang

Restaurant Heong Kee Seafood @ Selayang Jaya

Kaki Bukit @ Perlis - Part 2

Kaki Bukit @ Perlis - Part 1

Chinatown/ Petaling Street - Kuala Lumpur

HAR MEE and ABC @ Air Panas

DUCK KING @ JAYA ONE, PJ

ZAKURO JAPANESE RESTAURANT-MONT KIARA

WEDDING DINNER AT WESTIN HOTEL

LI JIN CHINESE RESTAURANT AT PAVILLION, KL