Kueh Teow Soup

Last night's attempt to make Kueh Teow Soup - passed! :)

Despite having to juggle 2 kids who refused to sleep or be left alone to entertain themselves (they always seem to know when I've got a task at hand), I managed to somehow conjour the soup and it was not too bad! (I blame it on my not-so-recovered-tastebuds that the soup initially was rather bland)

Because of the fact that I had to entertain 2 of them, bottle feed one and cook at the same time, my earlier plans of taking photos of the whole process was cancelled. Halfway thru chopping garlic, AIR2 cries. Halfway entertaining her, AIR1 decides he wants me to accompany him to watch Barnyard. Adoi....So I carted AIR2 into the room and so we all watched Barnyard while the soup manages itself in the kitchen :)

The rest of the meal (thank God only some cutting and chopping required) was only completed 1.5hrs later, after hub came home and AIR1 decided he just couldn't stay awake any longer.

By then, we were both too hungry and so the finishing also had no snapshots! :)

Maybe I'll take those shots in my next attempt.

Dumplings

I think the Chang season is here...right? opps I've lost track of the Chinese month when the Chinese would make these dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves. (Oh yes, I checked and its supposed to be 28th May 2009, i.e. it falls on the 6th day of the 5th lunar month...macam terror...:P)

When my late Grandma (Ah Ma) was still around, and when most of her grandchildren were still in Penang, and she was still in the pink of health, she would make these every year. Well, at that point of time I think I was still quite young. Perhaps up till i was in secondary school...or was in when I was in college she was still making it? can't remember la, old liau...:)

There were many varients - Hokkien, Assorted Bean, Nyonya (this is also known as the salty chang), and then there was the sweet-ish one (I don't remember what its called), then there's the kngee-chang, the small yellow ones, no fillings and eaten with the gula melaka. Ah Ma will make all the types, and I usually love the Hokkien and the kngee chang. Mum would take a whole lot back home and I will have it for breakfast for a few days. Dad likes the assorted bean and nyonya while mum can never get enough of the kngee chang.

Well, looks like its been ages since I last had chang.

When I started working, it's usually the commercial ones that I buy and eat. Once in a while, friends or family friends would give some. Sometime office colleagues would bring some from home. Recently (i.e. past 1-2 yrs), I haven't really thought about it.

Suddenly, last few days, I was thinking about it. And somehow, yesterday when I was browsing the frozen food section, I chanced upon a halal chang. Comes in a pack of two and I was thrilled. No price tag to be seen, and I didn't bother to check. Just grabbed it and left. Hahaha...craving satisfied...no, no, I've not tasted it yet though. Looks yummy though.

The other day I had the lotus leaf glutinous rice - the dimsum type, when I took mum out for the early Mother's Day buffet. That was not too shabby either. I wonder what's with me - been looking for glutinous rice-based food recently....hmmmm not too good for the waistline or the health!!

So let's see what happens tonight....

LUnch time!

Curry noodles

Another day of calories and fat laden dish!! Again, same thing different place, different price. I think the one at this place too - the food court in Giant Bandar Puteri, Puchong. Cheap and lots of stuff...and tastes just as good. Of course this is the KL version la.

Sometimes I just dunno what else to eat in that constrained time, although this area does have lots of variety of food. It's just the hassle of going out, finding parking (that's the worst!) and then ordering and eating. The whole world is somehow with you when you're ordering, so it may take forever at a good eatery. Lunch time what, so everyone also want to eat la...:)

ENjoy your lunch! I wonder what's in store for me today....

Breakfast

The RM1.40 Karipap

I'm always on the lookout for yummy breakfast.

I found Gardenia's Butterscotch Bread superb. And I've been pining for that since. Yumyum...Ifeel like just having that for the whole day...(opps, forgot the photo)

This morning en-route to the bank, I stopped by this bakery and saw this huge curry puff and decided to give it a try. So-called Nyonya Curry Puff. So-so la. Lots of potatoes lor. Chicken meat can taste very little only. For RM1.40, I think i'd rather have my 3pcs for RM1.00 karipap from the stall near my place. Though this huge one is quite filling. Not to my taste I suppose.

Back to Butterscotch tomoro la...:)

Eat & eat & eat

Alot of makan2 over the weekend.

First it was a Chinese Halal restaurant in Taipan. It's been there for donkey's years but I've not tried it. Not appealing from the outlook of the restaurant. But when I tasted the food - yummy!! Or is it because it's been ages since I've had that type of food? NOt sure, both I suppose. hahaha

Then the next day I manage to grab some donuts at Krispy Kreme. A tad too sweet for my tastebuds, but I liked its dough. Yes, my first KK donut in M'sia. Yummy...Mum thought it was too sweet too, though she too liked its dough. hmmm perhaps another trip soon for some KK donuts.

KK's Hershey's Dark Choc

The next day I decided to take mum out for an early MOther's Day and Birthday treat. Hi-tea at Crowne PLaza Hotel. Yup, Hi-tea for us started at 12 noon (when the opened) and it was just us for almost an hour. The whole PLanter's Inn to ourselves. Selection of food - not bad. THere was Chinese - chicken & duck rice, some dimsum - steamed and fried, though the fried only had 1 type, changes when it goes out of stock; Japanese - sushi selection pretty pathetic but the tempura was not bad, tepanyaki quite good Local - laksa johor, tomyam or was it curry noodles (I didn't take either that's why couldn't remember), yong tau foo - quite a wide array but I didn't have any; Salad selection was unique; the usual mains - fried rice, pasta (not bad), potato wedges, mixed vege, satay - lamb (yummy yummy), chicken and beef, grilled beef and chicken (not too yummy), porridge (chicken), soup, carved meat - beef and chicken kebab (it had some glamourous name I can't rmember). Fruits - usual selection, but the sweets were yummy - choc mousse, pudding, cakes brownie, waffle, ice cream, ice kacang, bread & butter pudding and our local hot dessert - think it was bubur kacang hijau and a variety of malay kuihs. Mum mistakenly (cos they didn't put tags/lables on the desserts) took the pulut with tempoyak (fermented durian) and even I couldn't help her with it.

(photos to be uploaded later...erm only 1 photo actually) -done

My almost empty plate

from top - tepanyaki seafood, tandoori chichken, jumbo sausage, lamb satay, smoked salmon wrapped in crepe

AFter filling up to the max, for the first time, I had to 'return some'....yup...my first experience. I guess my tummy is not use to food bingeing anymore...

THEN, we went to the NIKE warehouse sale. It was a dissapointment. Either is because it was already on its 2nd last day, or it was meant to be like that. Prices weren't extremely 'warehouse-like'....plus there were things I could've gotten at cheaper price at some of its outlets. Funny eh? But I ended up buying 1 pair of shoes for mum and a pair of pants for myself.

IT was a HOT-experience...yeah, hot place on a hot day with only those industrial fans available..poor AIR was sooo sticky at the end of it. Thank God he didn't make noise...except when it was time for nenen...:)

Queen's Park - heard of, never been there till that NIKE warehouse sale day. WEnt to the Esprit Outlet and loved the stuff there...but since it was sooo hot and AIR wasn't in the mood anymore, I decided against buying anything...kekeke...good way to save some moolah! Next time I want new work attire, I'll go there. Previously the other Outlet I knew of was in Maju Junction.

Kari Mee (said with the Penang Hokkien accent)

Curry Mee - where?

OPps! I only remembered and managed to take the photo after I've devoured it. I was famished. When it came, although I was toying with my phone, I totally forgot to take a pic. And it was delicious. Or so I thought, to my tastebuds la.

My take on this - it was at this shop Papa-something in Bandar Puteri Puchong. Lots and lots of si-ham (cockles), generously thick and large slices of fish cake, large chunks of tau-fo-pok (small cube-like bean curd), some fu-chok (bean curd skin) and some chicken, topped with alot of mint leaves. Mum would love this.

Value for money - this is a larger and more hearty portion than that you can get at Chicken Rice Shop (Curry Laksa). They are both the SAME price at these two places. If you love si-ham, you'll prefer the one here. If you're a chicken-person, then this is not for you. The one in Old Town White Coffee, though RM1 cheaper, is much smaller in portion and less topping.

My soya bean with cincau and gula melaka - tak sempat take photo. Does not look good when finished either. kekeke

I still can't find an authentic Penang Curry Mee here. The closest one I got to was at Little Penang Cafe in The Curve, but it wasn't that tasty. Only the chilly paste that came with it was authentic.

Papayaya...

Something's happening - I'm not a papaya-fan. I dislike the taste of papaya, much worse if when its tasteless. THEN something happened. I discovered half-ripen papayas.

A : You should take papaya soup. Cook unripe or half ripe papayas with chicken, like how you normally

cook your chicken soup la.

R: Oh, I see. OK will try. Thanks.

That was the petua to help increase breast milk supply for breastfeeding mums.

And after 5 weeks of mum cooking the papaya soup for me, now (err, bout 7 weeks ago) I've got to do it myself. It wasn't too bad. Turned out ok. And it was after that 5 weeks, that somehow I've developed a liking for half-ripe papayas. Sweet and crunchy. If not sweet enough, nevermind. Still crunchy.

Now that sometimes I don't have time to make the soup, (when I have time, I always forget) I will just eat the half-ripe papaya as it is.

Somtam

And that dish up there was what I had for lunch today. Main ingredient - unripe papaya. There you go!

It came with lots of roasted peanuts on top. But I only take peanut as a snack and I don't like it on my food. So I finished the peanuts one by one first. hehe Then there was the slightly sweetened fried ikan bilis at the side. I also don't like this to mix with my food, but I decided against eating it first. Luckily. The somtam was spicy cos the lady asked me if 2 cili padi is ok, so I said ok. And almost halfway through, it set in - pedas!! I didn't order any drinks so to kill the spiciness, I took the sweet ikan bilis. Phewww! (opps the ikan bilis is on the other side of the plate)

But it was yummy, despite the fact that it was very spicy towards the end. I suppose can ask the lady to not put the chillis at all. Can go for another round.

I've totally banned the food at the cafe downstairs already. First it was exorbitant. Then the prices got adjusted and it was ok. So I thought i'll give it another chance. It's a hassle driving out for lunch everyday and trying to decide what I should eat. But now, I can't take it anymore. Everyday the meat dishes are pathetic. And the vegies are not much better. Maybe they changed the cook. And the fruits - pathetic! So there goes. Guess I'll either have to tapau or drive out.

Earth Hour etcetera

It’s funny how our Saturday was. We went to a warehouse sale, more like it was hubby who wanted to go there and I ended up buying something. We were almost leaving when I suddenly went to the display case and took a look at some of the sunnies available and suddenly this particular unit just caught my attention and from then on, it was it. No matter how many more I tried on afterwards.

Then we went down to KL, our postponed trip to the Pavilion. Not that we love to shop there but we just love the coffee and mini cheesecakes. So since I wasn’t well 2 weeks’ back, we decided to go this week. Pavilion wasn’t the only reason we had to go to town. I wanted to get an ‘extension’ of the milk container and funny I should’ve bought something which could only be found at that particular branch of Parkson outlet. Aiyo, so much trouble for such a small item. Mum’s colourful pair of shoes is also no longer available. So looks like I’ve got to be on the lookout for something else for her.

Then there was Earth Hour. We had dinner in 1-Utama and our dinner stretched past 830pm. So just before 830pm, every table was given a tea light candle. And so we ate in the candle light. Well, it didn’t turn out to be romantic cos baby decided to have a mind of his own and refused milk when he woke up and wanted to be carried around moving, not in his stroller. What to do, there are things that have to be sacrificed when you have a small one along. Nonetheless it’s a joy to take him out with us every time.

Some of the outlet in the shopping mall actually dimmed or switched off their lights and left those near their display items on only. Some switched off completely, like the restaurant we were in. Except the kitchen of course. It’s interesting how people did work together for just this one hour. Maybe it should be on a larger scale and not just a once-a-year thing.

We can do a lot more than just switching off lights to save the environment. There are many ways to reduce our daily carbon footprint. I’ll have to start somewhere too. I keep telling myself I should take a bag when I do my grocery shopping, which I did yesterday, but I ended up with the same plastic bags before putting it into my bag. Hence, it equates to nothing. I just had a carry-all bag. Haha I forgot, I guess in the haste to tell the seller no need to give me the plastic bag. OK, next time I’ll bring that bag again when I go to Tesco. There we bag our things ourselves so I suppose I will remember.

For the first time in such a long time, well not THAT long, maybe in more than 2 months, yes since baby and I were allowed out of the house, yesterday we stayed in. We didn’t even go out for lunch, which we usually do on weekends even if we didn’t have plans to go anywhere else after. I finally cooked lunch. Simple lunch but since it’s been a while since I cooked rice and dishes, it wasn’t too bad an attempt.

I’m looking forward to spaggy night again tonight, in such a long time. Hopefully it turns out as good as before…and baby will allow me to cook properly and not rushed.

Food for thoughts

It just didn't turn out as I wanted it to be. Perhaps I was in a hurry. But now I know better what to do next time.


Weird. It wasn't that baby was around. Perhaps it was the anxiety anticipating that baby will be home soon so I tried my best to speed things up. Yeah, but it tasted as good anyways, just that it would've been much better if left on the stove slightly longer.


Yeah, my Fish Head Curry....sorry la no pics...just imagine the best-looking fish head curry you've encountered with lots of ladies fingers and tomatoes. *perasan kan?*


And I've got thumbs-up to cook for my in-laws....oh no!! I don't like cooking for people, especially whom I'm not very certain how their taste-buds would adapt to my style of cooking. Somehow it's daunting. I'd much rather cook for my pals and even if it doesn't taste that great, its not so bad. Phai-seh perhaps. Not living up to your in-laws' expectations of your cooking. hahaha we'll have to wait and see la.

We 'graduated' from our favourite (at that time) grilled salmon. Somehow the blocks got larger everytime we bought it and cutting into two would make it too small and leaving it as one was too big, so we ended up not buying.

Then there was the pasta phase when I was preggy. Yes, I could have pasta for dinner almost everynight. Thank God I managed to cook up some commendable seafood pasta so hubby had no complains. Now, I wonder it that left over pasta sauce from 3 months ago is still fungi-free? Better de-clutter my fridge later.

And somehow now it's it fish head curry and 'sup ekor' phase. Sup ekor has been quite sometime. Almost (yeah, almost) once a week we'll have that.

But now that there's a new distraction in our life, cooking is not priority. I try to do it as often as I can cos it's definitely easier and faster than eating out with baby in tow, especially on weekdays. So far I think it's 3 times a week and some days of tapau while weekends we will eat out.

It's weird - I do miss cooking somehow. hahaha not that I'm such a fantastic cook, but then sometimes its quite fun concocting dishes you either end up eating with joy or forcing it down your throat (luckily that not so often la). Hmmm I miss my sambal belacan la...:P

For now, it'll have to be a wait-n-see strategy on our daily dinner fare. Maybe we'll eat out tonight?