How many ways can you say pork?
Swine and Dine
Hog Dog
Pork ‘n’ Roll
Memphis, Tennessee: Best hog barbecue in the US (BB King’s ribs are melt-in-your mouth delish), worst oysters (tastes like cardboard jello).
Pics when I get back.
Seattle’s good eats
So I’ve been guilted into doing some tags. Shireen, you’re terriblelah.
But before yours, I’ve to do Vien’s food tag.
Thing is, even though I’ve been here almost 16 months (but who’s counting?), we’ve almost always cooked and ate at home (to save costlah, why else?).
Having said that, I really don’t think Seattle, or Western Washington, has just one signature dish because it’s so diverse here. Everytime someone from Malaysia visits, we are always a little lost as to where to bring them for a good Seattle meal. And herein, I think, lies a huge difference between Malaysians and Seattle-ites when it comes to eating out.
Back in Malaysia, we tend to home in on the tastiness of a meal as a factor paramount over things like atmosphere. The quality of the ingredients used, particularly for seafood, the skill in the preparation, the overall taste of the whole meal – these things are more important than the location of the place and sometimes, even the state of the restaurant. We will eat next to a dumpster if we deem the food worthy. Of course, following that closely is the price of the meal, but sometimes, even that is thrown out the window. Good food is what we care about. Sometimes, it’s all we care about.
Here in Seattle, more likely than not, locals will recommend places like the revolving restaurant up on what is perhaps most signature about Seattle: the Space Needle. Or a meal and a cruise upon the Victoria Clipper. Or a train ride to the vineyards, that sort of thing. It’s almost always the whole package: good food, great atmosphere, and most of the time, cut-throat expensive.
With that, allow me to apply our Malaysian mentality to recommending good eats here. These places are not necessarily good-looking or be the best places to exemplify Northwestern American cuisine, but I think they’re pretty darn good.
First off, in a mall called Crossroads in a city called Bellevue, there is a food court and in that food court, is a little Russian shop called Piroshky, which my friend Irina tells me literally means ‘baked goods’. Lokes and I love a dish called Lula Kebab there, a pork sausage combination without the skin, served with pasta or rice and Russian coleslaw. Yummy. Ironically, I’ve never tried any of the Piroshky there, although they always look very tempting.
As for Chinese, we have yet to find a good restaurant, or perhaps we are just too used to Malaysian Chinese food. The only Malaysian restaurant here, Malay Sate Hut, IMHO, sucks big time. It is a good place to bring your American friends, though, to introduce our country’s cuisine. We do like a dim sum place called Jeem’s, which serves fairly good dim sum and Cantonese dishes.
Now Seattle has LOADS of good Thai and Vietnamese restaurants. I particularly enjoy Thai Ginger at Redmond Town Center and Saigon City in Bellevue. These are, to date, the best in their class.
Italian restaurants run rampant in Seattle, but they are mostly not traditional Italian, but more American bistro-like offerings, where the restaurant serves Italian plus other types of popular dishes, such as Southwestern fried chicken or even gumbo. Family chains like Red Robin or Applebee’s are a good example of this ‘fusion’ of something for everyone, and in this category, I vote Applebee’s.
I guess the best place to eat in the whole of Seattle, is still my house. And all the more so now when my mother-in-law is here. She cooks superb Nyonya cuisine and I’ve been gorging on sambal belacan, all the ingredients of which can be found right here in the great Northwest!
Coming up: What’s behind a name? Find out what went on in our crazy brains when we named our daughters Raeven and Skyler!
To eat is to live
“Did he say bak choy, or siew bak choy?”
That question broke silence one sunny afternoon sitting at home at the dining table. There was no re-introduction, no recollection of a conversation dropped.
And yet, he knew exactly to what she was referring.
“Bak choy,” he answered in Hokkien.
“Oh, bak choy then it will taste very nice. If siew bak choy not so nice,” she responded, giving a curt nod.
I hadn’t the faintest idea of the dish being discussed, but knew enough Hokkien, a popular Malaysian Chinese dialect - and enough of their leisurely habits – to know that my in-laws were talking about a recipe they’d seen on the Food Channel, or perhaps on TVB (called Jade World, the equivalent of Astro’s Wa Lai Toi).
If food is a focus of life for many, it is perhaps the focus of life for the Chinese. It is second only to the purpose of life, which is the unabashed accumulation of wealth. This is a very old-fashioned opinion of my own people. However, like an old well, it still retains some truth. In some, it even overruns.
The Chinese live to eat, a phrase so apt for our affliction that it could’ve been made just for us. And I challenge anyone to find another civilisation that places as much emphasis and delight on the soothing of one’s palate, the satisfaction of one’s (too) curious tastebuds and the filling of one’s stomach.
Here’s my observation: This craving becomes more arresting with age. The older we get, the more consumed we are about food. It is as if retirement itself was effected simply to give one more time to eat or to think about eating.
Cases in point: My parents and my in-laws. Once reunited, after the usual exchanges are made, including observations about one’s health deduced mainly from one’s ever-expanding waistline (so much so that if it does go the other way, alarm is the first emotion expressed instead of applause), the subject changes quickly to what to eat for lunch or dinner or whatever the next meal is, as though the only purpose for meeting is so that we can be fed.
Food is talked about everyday, at all times of the day. From breakfast to supper, from daybreak to sundown, from teeth brushing to teeth brushing, dish after dish, past, present and future, is discussed and relished and analysed and picked apart until every morsel is understood and digested and committed to memory.
The ultimate consumer and the ultimate consumption.
I wonder. Will we talk only about food when we’re old?
Probably, for I do so love to eat, even now.
And I imagine my husband’s reply would be, “That, and levelling and questing.”
Random thoughts
The more I read, the more I’m convinced. Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech killer, might’ve suffered from a very severe, untreated, never-diagnosed case of Selective Mutism?
What would happen if enough of the troops in Iraq refuse to fight in the war? Lokes and I discussed this on the drive home yesterday. This morning, we heard this on NPR. Coincidence?
Breastfeeding doesn’t halt obesity. Damn.
We have not watched a single episode of American Idol this season. I wonder why.
Life of Pi is a surprisingly interesting read. I’d thought it would be dry (as all Man Booker Prize winners go, *snort*) but I am enthralled.
My scabbed knee still hurts like a bitch but I am still up for more netball this Saturday (the Seattle women’s netball team is competing in LA this weekend – wish them luck!).
I found a library book I thought I’d lost. Woohoo!
Raeven has two boys ‘fighting’ over her in school. They’d literally pushed each other today over who got to stand next to her. Mortified as I am, am also a little amused.
Skyler will NOT sleep in her own bed and has been coming over every night. It’s exhausting.
I bought some beef for stewing. Any suggestions?
Eggs, squared
Karli, in case you didn’t know what those things we gave Babs and Zibbit are, here’s a demo:
All egg-cited
As some of you may know, I keep a cooking blog as well.
I don’t update it unless I try something new, which means I don’t really check it as well.
So I was really alarmed to see how many comments THIS particular post about Egg in a Basket has garnered.
Don’t know if I should be sad or happy that that blog is more popular than this one!
Kid cuisine
More than one person from home (one of which is my mother-in-law, who poses the question to me once everytime I call home to check on the old folks) has asked me this past week what my kids and I eat everyday here in the States.
It's as though the US is this big black hole where all manner of edible matter disappears. Or perhaps they don't think much of me as a cook, so keeping my kids and I from the verge of starvation without spending the family fortune on take-out can be quite real a possibility.
Whatever it is, relax guys. I can bang a skillet/wok and a spatula together when I set my mind to it. If you don't believe me, ask my hubby, although I must say his needs are pretty simple to fulfill, Thai Chicken Rice being his only request most of the time. And I don't see my kids complaining. Skyler is skinny not for lack of food, so don't go pinning that on me. She will eat pine chips and plastic tomatoes, so -…
*we interrupt this blog entry with a short message about how cute Jenn's kids are. Again.*
We'd gone to the beach and Rae, my four-year old (omg, she IS four years old!! sigh…) managed to wet her undies so she went up to change herself. Came down with her shorts on backwards.
Mommy: Babe, your panties are on backwards.
Rae: (looks down) Oh! (sheepish smile) Silly me!
Mommy: It's okay, we're at home. You can leave them like that if you want to.
Rae: (looks at me, and then outside through the glass doors, and then back at me again) Did you lock the doors?
*end message*
…she LOVES my cooking, although that doesn't really make me sound very good.
So what do I eat everyday? I call it kid cuisine.
For breakfast, they have some kind of fruit, usually bananas or oranges, and cheese and usually a sandwich. When Lokes is around, he makes breakfast so I can catch a few more Zs, and he makes eggs most of the time. I've managed to convince the girls cereal is yummy, so yay, since that involves not having to turn on the stove. As for me, I eat whatever is left over on their plates. And of course, coffee. Yes, you can EAT my coffee, yum yum.
For lunch, it's more sandwiches, more cheese, more fruit. Sometimes I'll make chicken nuggets or that egg snack they both love if I have leftover bacon from breakfast.
Dinner is the main event which I agonise over the night before. Usually we have one meat dish and peas/carrots and/or rice. I've discovered putting a four-cheese-blend on rice is yummy. I make them into little rice balls, sometimes with steamed chicken and veggies. Sometimes I make Chinese-style chicken and potatoes. These days, we have a lot of pasta, which is Rae's flavour of the month. So again, it's kid cuisine, so long as Lokes is travelling 'coz I can't be bothered to cook for me when the kids will no doubt have loads left over.
By the way, you do notice I have a recipes blog. Motivates me to be a bit more adventurous than just Thai-freakin'-Chicken rice.
Hmm. Wonder if I have some Napa cabbage in the fridge?
Why nuggets are crunchy
While having dinner (Jack in the Box):
Daddy: Why are the nuggets so crunchy?
Raeven: Because they're born like that, daddy.
Now we know.
Oyster Sauce, and the best cook in the world
I've always thought my mother's the best cook in the world.
Her Braised Mushroom Chicken in Oyster Sauce.
Her Chicken and Potatoes in Oyster Sauce.
Chicken and Ginger in Oyster Sauce.
Sunny Side Up Eggs with Oyster Sauce.
Yes, Oyster Sauce was a big part of my mother's cuisine. And my sister and I ate it up, smacked our lips and proclaimed my mom's food the best in the world, then and now.
It wasn't until I got married that I discovered in slow-motion disbelief how little I actually knew about 'real' cuisine and cooking beyond Oyster Sauce. My mother-in-law, a housewife, had cookbooks upon cookbooks of dishes that she'd made, experimented with, adapted, created from scratch and basically memorised after years of feeding her two boys and husband, all of whom proclaim that she was the actual best cook in the world.
Of course, I would protest. In my heart. Her Braised Mushroom Chicken in Oyster Sauce was nice, but it came nowhere near my mother's. It was a family recipe, handed down by my grandmother and adapted by mom. And even though it was simple to make and required no real skill, my mom's Braised Mushroom Chicken in Oyster Sauce would be the one dish that I'd remember my mother's cooking by. And noone could take it from her.
Thing is, my mom's cooking wasn't about just taste or skill (or the lack of which). It was the fact that she'd been a working mother, who chose to teach afternoon classes because she wanted the time to make sure my sis and I always had homecooked meals everyday when we came back from school. Looking back, sure, the dishes we'd grown to love so much were really just mediocre. But it was whatever my mom could find the time to make, and what our family budget would allow.
It's been exactly one week since my in-laws have gone home, and I've been cooking up little storms everyday (well, almost. We're having Jack in the Box tonight because I got sick of rice). They're simple dishes, just like mom's, but as I watch my family tuck heartily into each meal I'd spend my time and effort making each day, the realisation that I am making history as the person who noone is ever going to measure up to in terms of homecooking as far as my kids are concerned, settled on me like a warm blanket.
Not exactly one of my cita-citas (objectives in life), but man, it feels great to know I will be remembered that way.
Google doing recipes
Look what I found trying to Google for Chinese pork recipes:
And these were the results:
I was telling Lokes the other day that someone should make a 'reverse' search engine for recipes where you input the ingredients you have in your fridge/pantry and then see what kind of dishes you can make instead of having to look around blindly.
Looks like someone in Google is already working on it?
(And you read it here first, from a newbie cook, no less!)
Travelling for food
My friend Sharon, a Malaysian lady who also lives in Seattle with her family, said something the other day when we went trekking together, that struck me as irrefutably true, and I was surprised I'd never realised it before although it's something most Malaysians would already know: that Malaysian Chinese will travel anywhere, just to eat.
From the famous Klang Bak Kut Teh to Penang's Jelutong Asam Laksa to Ipoh's Cowan Street Chicken Kuay Teow soup to Sabah (or was it Sarawak?) for its Ko Lor Mee, we pride ourselves as being the most travelled food lovers in the world. And that is because we are blessed in Malaysia to have a diverse array of multicultural cuisines, all within driving distance. Well, one has to take a plane to Sabah/Sarawak, but even that has not stopped us.
In the US, we are still trying to find our way through the many gastronomical delights the beautiful city of Seattle has to offer. Arby's Reubens are good. The Malay Satay Hut is not. We found a Chinese eatery called Joy's Wok just ten minutes walk from the house, that serves tasty and cheap standard fare like Sweet and Sour Pork and Chow Mein.
Still, after three months, the food trek has been pretty tame. We've not found something that keeps us going back for more, so much so that if a friend from Malaysia is visiting, we would not be able to take him or her anywhere that's uniquely Northwest American. Mostly also because we don't know what THAT is. Yet.
Anyway, back to this whole travelling to eat business.
Yesterday, for their last night in Seattle, we decided to bring Lokes' parents to Red Lobster in Lynnwood, a town about 15 miles from Redmond, to enjoy their LobsterFest, because their ads on TV just made it look too good to pass (yea, we're much too gullible when it comes to food). Since we couldn't make a reservation, we decided to throw all caution to the wind and drive that many miles to see if the seafood was really as good as it looked.
30 minutes of uneventful driving later, we arrived at the bustling town of Lynnwood, which seemed like a small metropolis of restaurants, eateries and delis. I mean, never have we seen so many places to eat crammed into two, three strip malls side by side like that. Every American restaurant brand was there, including of course, our destination, the Red Lobster. Lokes dropped us at the entrance, we wrapped up the kids and proceeded to enter the establishment, our appetites ready to take on as many grilled crustaceans as we are willing to pay for.
Only to be faced by a wall of people waiting to be let in.
"How does it look?" I asked the hostess, a young, attractive girl who seemed very stressed out by her stressed out would-be customers. I mean, the waiting lobby was PACKED with hungry people. Who wouldn't be a little worried?
"How many?" she asked.
"Four adults and two kids," I answered.
She flipped her pages and pages of people's names, and came to an empty one, scribbled a "four" on it, and looked at me.
"30 to 40 minutes?"
In the best Malaysian food travelling tradition, we chose not to wait. I mean, driving 15 miles for lobster we don't know is good or not, is already giving it face. To have to wait what could be an hour to eat? No way.
We ended up at Applebee's, just down the road, and ended up having a scrumptious shrimp dinner that my in-laws thoroughly enjoyed. Sure, we spent 30 minutes on the road, but it wasn't wasted. We discovered a food lovers' paradise here just waiting to be explored.
One outlet at a time.
Nothing like cake
So I'm really down and out after a weekend of frolicky family fun.
My head aches. My nose is nnduck. I actually had to put on a sweater and gym pants to sleep last night because I got the shivers, and I don't own a pair of decent 'jammies and never had.
But yes, I own gym pants.
Anyway, I was still together enough to make angel cake (we Malaysians call it chiffon cake) this morning, but only because I couldn't wait to use all my new baking utensils. I've never baked in my entire life but since we have an oven here, and you know, some cake is always useful to cheer up an otherwise miserable Monday, so I did it. Right now, it's cookin' in there and the smell of vanilla is wafting through the house. Mmmm…I feel better already.
Comfort food. Nothing wrong with it.
Watch out for the recipe in my n00b cook's blog.
Crunchy Chicken Fingers
Here’s a recipe for a simple, economic yet healthy lunch/snack your preschooler will just gobble down. Great if you are running out of time and lunchtime is looming, or when your fridge is running out of food!
It does need an oven though, although you can always fry the chicken with a pan in lieu of one. Baking is healthier – no grease.
Ingredients
- one egg
- a mid-sized pc of chicken breast, cut into strips
- 1/4 cup of milk
- handful of chips (can sub with tortilla, Lays, taco chips, cornflakes even)
Method
1. Beat egg
2. Add milk to egg and mix in a bowl
3. Put chips in a bag and whack until fine and then place in another bowl
4. Pre-heat oven for five minutes at 400F
5. Dip chicken into milk/egg mix and then coat with chips
6. Place onto baking tray with parchment paper (for easier cleaning) and bake for 10 minutes
You can add a bit of salt into the mix to taste, but if you use presalted Lays chips etc, it should be enough.
Serve with ketchup or a dip. I served with a few slices of buttered bread to make up for the carbs Rae needs, and she TOTALLY cleaned her plate.
Recipe is originally from allrecipes.com. Also in my recipe/food blog for cooking newbies!.
There’s always tomorrow
Hey, isn’t that the name of a cheesy Hong Kong serial? Or was it that Chow Yuen Fatt, Cherie Chung, Leslie Cheung movie?
Anyway, things are much better. Rae is still under the weather thanks to the antibiotics but we took her to the park and I attempted to skate AND push her in her stroller at the same time. Fell down once in front of a couple of strangers but sokay.
There’s always tomorrow.
The second thing that the last week has taught me is that the support of your man is important. Lokes was strong and calm throughout, hugs and kisses, soothing words.
It was nice to know that SOMEone was on my side, even if it seems to be us against our own child. One in unison. That’s how you survive parenthood.
And as a reward, I made egg and bacon swiss roll this morning. Yes, swiss roll! Smells yummy already in the oven.
Have a good week ahead, y’all.
Update
Tada!
The unrolled product.
Rolled…
And ready to eat!
Want the recipe? Here it is:
1 cup of cheddar/cottage cheese, grated
3/4 cup of cream/milk mix (they call it half-and-half here, u can sub with just full cream milk)
1/4 tsp of salt
6oz of bacon, fried and crumbled (churning in blender works well) – substituting with Chinese ‘long yuk’/dried meat may also work!
Dijon Mustard
2 tbsp all purpose flour
9 eggs
Parchment/baking lining paper and baking pan (10-inch by 15-incher)
Method
- Blend half the cheese with milk in blender (leave half of the cheese for later)
- add eggs, salt and flour and process further
- line pan with paper and preheat oven to 375F
- pour mixture in and bake for 30 mins until puffy and golden brown
- once done, take out and immediately spread mustard and lay down the cheese and then lay down bacon on top
- roll up from short end like a swiss roll and wait five minutes before serving
It’s a bit of work but worth it. Yum-my!
Fragrant Steamed Rice, Chinese-Style
Finally, Google approved my first cooking production!
This recipe is great for singles and parents who need to whip something simple yet nutritious and delicious up in under 30 minutes.
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Need to run now, send Lokes to the airport. Will input ingredients and extra notes in text later. Enjoy!
Cont’d: So the ingredients for this delish dish are (in case the thing just zipped right by ya):
- 2.5 cups of rice, cooked
- 3-4 Chinese black mushrooms, cubed
- 1 cup of chicken, cubed
- 1/2 cup dried small shrimp
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
- 1 tbsp each of garlic and onions/shallots, chopped
- Oyster and soy sauces, salt/pepper to taste (you can use one chicken cube seasoning for added flavor)
Try it!
Gwailo’s M’sian restaurant in New York
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Read in The Star Online today about Martha Stewart’s Tuesday show on M’sian cuisine this week (yea, I don’t watch Martha Stewart, so I didn’t know) and about Fatty Crab (not THE Fatty Crab in PJ – another rare instance where a gwailo rips off of a Malaysian institution) in the meat-packing district of New York city.
Pretty cool, huh? Should read the review where the writer talks about kangkung and belacan. Excerpting:
“Malaysian food, apparently, makes excellent bar snacks. A few items seem designed to accompany an ice-cold beer or two (there are several offbeat choices on the mostly Asian list, including Hitachino’s new Ginger). Innocuous green mango slices, arranged like Lincoln Logs, turn lethal as soon as they’re dipped into the accompanying bowl of chili, sugar, and salt. Pickles Raja Chulan (julienned carrots, cucumber slices, chopped long beans) combine various flavors and textures on a sliding heat scale. Continuing the pickle theme—the sour crunch seems to be a popular Malaysian motif—watermelon pickle and crispy pork combines cubes of the sweet fruit and its rind with aromatic basil leaves, scallions, and crispy, salty, lardon-like pork nuggets.”
Pickles Raja Chulan *lol*
It takes a gwailo to introduce proper Malaysian food to Americans, in the trendiest city in the world!
Best ever snack in the world
These must be the best grape tomatoes in the world. We went to Costco today (Makro-type wholesale hypermart) and I picked a box of these up, and man, did I score.
Hey, I love my tomatoes. And you know what? They’re sweeter than the grapes I bought, from the same place! Am definitely going back for more.
Yum yum.
Delicious Cheesy Chicken Veggie Mash (for >8mths babies)
This is a simple form of chicken + veggie mash you can make for your infants over eight months old. I am feeding this to Sky, who’s ten months now (corrected age).
Ingredients (makes about four meals):
Two carrots
One potato
One tomato
One drumstick with thigh
Cheese stick (for kids) – I usually use Arla Kids Sticks
Method:
1. Dice up all the veggies and put them together with washed drumstick/thigh on a plate.
2. Heat up water in a wok and steam everything for about 20 mins. Make sure chicken is well cooked.
3. Throw everything, including the juices resulting from the steam, into a blender. Toss in cheese stick and blend to a mash.
To store:
1. Freeze mash in ice tray. I recommend those flexi rubber trays from Ikea because when the mash IS frozen, you will need to ‘fold’ the tray and water the bottom part of the tray to make it easier for the cubes to dislodge.
2. When frozen hard (usually overnight), remove mash cubes and place in zipper freezer bags. Can keep for one month (mark date of production on your bags if you want, although they usually finish in a few days!).
3. Simply heat up using a microwave for 1.5-2 minutes before serving. Make sure to let it cool down!
Note: If you have a toddler, like I do (three years old), you can steam more and then put aside one drumstick and some of the veggies, cut into smaller pieces, to go with rice. The soup from the veggies and chicken is delicious with rice and a bit of soy sauce. This is great since you can make one meal for both kids!
Limeade Smoothie
I made this for my husband, who loves all these sweet, salty and sour stuff all the time. You will need a blender that can churn ice for this.
Ingredients (serves 2-4):
16 X limes
Half a cup of sugar
1/2 tsp of salt
Lots and LOTS of ice cubes
Method:
1. Cut and squeeze limes into a container. Remember to take out the seeds later. Easier to squeeze quarters instead of halves.
2. Toss four quarters of a lime (for the skin) into the lime squeeze.
3. Toss in sugar, salt and ice
4. Blend until smooth. If it’s too thick, add just a bit of water, not too much, or it will become runny.
Optional: Blend with vodka and you get ice-blended margarita!
Happening Thai Chicken Rice
Inspired by my experiment making bread and butter pudding last Sunday, I’m gonna try to emulate a favourite dish The Hubby likes to order at a restaurant downstairs of our condo. Called Thai Chicken rice, it tastes and looks nothing like it sounds. It’s not sweet or sour. It’s spicy, made probably with oyster sauce, garlic and chinese cabbage (wong ah bak).
I’ll post the recipe tonight if it turns out good.
As for the B&BP, here’s the recipe:
Ingredients (4-6 people):
Four slices of white bread, cut half diagonally
Half a slab of butter
Sugar – half a cup
Cinnamon powder – 2 teaspoons
Three eggs
Milk – 1.5 cups
How to prepare:
1. Mix cinnamon with sugar in a bowl and put aside
2. Butter generously on ONE side of the bread. Place bread slices with cut side facing the middle in a round baking tray, creating a circle (pointy side facing the wall of the tray). buttered side facing upwards.
2. As you place the bread, sprinkle the sugar-cinnamon mix on buttered side as you go along.
3. Mix eggs and milk in a bowl. Pour over the bread and let it soak for 15 minutes
Preheat oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for 30 minutes or until upper crust is golden brown. Best when eaten slightly warm.
Optional: Vanilla cream sauce
In a saucepan, heat up a cup of milk, one beaten egg, half a cup of sugar and 3 tablespoons of wheat flour. Bring the mixture to a boil and toss in a small teaspoon of vanilla essence. Serve warm with pudding.
Enjoy!
UPDATE: Turns out my Thai Chicken Rice was a moderate success. I was only missing one ingredient (the one ingredient that made it Thai!): Fish sauce!
Anyway, here’s the recipe:
Ingredients (serves 4-6):
Chicken fillet – cut to stir-fry portions
Wong Ah Bak – 1-2lbs, depending on how much cabbage you like
Oyster sauce
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Salt
Pepper
Fish sauce
Cilipadi (lots, chopped)
Cooking oil
How to prepare:
Heat wok and
The allure of Rotiboy
Each time I take the train to KLCC, the moment I am near the entrance, I am assailed by the delicious smells of Rotiboy’s famous, well, Rotiboy. About a month or two old at KLCC, this devilishly simple yet seductive food of the masses manages to ruin my low carbo diet each and every time. And if the smells don’t draw you, the perpetual queues will.
Today, I bought ten just to give out to my hubby’s colleagues, RM1.50 buns of pure ecstacy.
But the alluring thing about Rotiboy goes beyond its culinary delights. As mentioned, it’s the sheer simplicity of this generous yet humble serving of flour, butter, caramel and what I suspect is a bit of coffee powder. The perfect blend of crispy on the outside, soft and warm in the inside, the aromatic sweet smell, coupled with the savoury baked taste – you must have eaten a LOT of bread and butter to come up with this potent concoction that’s seduced so many Malaysian commuters. Whoever’s behind this, kudos! You deserve every bite of your success!
For those who have yet to experience the simple yet wonderful Rotiboy, drop by at KLCC’s LRT entrance, Wisma Central or Low Yat Plaza. As for the directions – your nose will guide you!
Utterly delish chicken stew
My mother-in-law whipped up this heavenly stew yesterday because I’m on a high-protein diet. I tell you – it was just…awesome! FOr diet food, it’s just super. Here’s the recipe for those of you who want to keep the carbs off and still have a good meal:
Ingredients:
Chicken drumsticks, skinned
Carrots, sliced thickly
Celery, broken into short sticks
Bombay onions, diced
Tomatos, halved
Soy sauce
Pepper
Marinate the drumsticks with a dash of soysauce and pepper. Leave for 15 minutes. Using a good stainless steel pot with a heavy bottom, throw in the chicken and onions WITHOUT any oil. When the onions are nicely browned, throw in the tomatoes. You’ll see the juices from the chicken and tomatoes surfacing and thus giving your cooking dish a nice, wet base. When the chicken is cooked (test with a fork), throw in the rest of the veggies and stew for 15 minutes.
It’s important to remember the stainless steel pot with the inch-thick bottom because if you use, say, a claypot or an aluminium pot, the juices will all be absorbed into the pot – not the point of a good stew. The bottom has to be thick to retain heat even after you’ve stopped heating. And DON’T add any water.
That’s it. Enjoy!
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