Malay cuisine.. coconut theme

Selamat Datang.. Hari ini saya sedikit rajin lalu menyediakan hidangan terkenal kaum melayu, Nasi Lemak & Kuih Puteri Mandi @ Badak Berendam. Kuih Badak berendam ni di tujukan khas buat En.Megat yang telah hampir setahun meminta saya buat tetapi kesibukan saya yang amat... (alasan) akhirnya....

Thanks to kakak (maid) for your assistance.

Memandangkan santan tak dijual hari Ahad, dan mama memberitahu santan kotak tak sedap, saya terpaksa perah sendiri santan..

Hehe.. Kerja keras sikit. Kemudian, bermula lah perjalanan memasukkan semua bahan2 masakan melayu yang harum mewangi.. daun pandan, bunga lawang, cengkih, dan sebagainya.

Sambil menunggu nasi masak, saya mencuba resepi Badak Berendam. Not confident actually.
Bahan2 nak buat Badak pun mcm2.. belum kolam dia lagi. Mula2, masak inti dengan kelapa parut, daun pandan, air & sedikit garam.

Kemudian, masukkan inti di dalam doh (tepung pulut + air pandan), rebus sekejap dan masukkan ke dalam kolam santan.. uish.. can someone count the calory? ;p Sorry, no proper photo for badak berendam since we had to rush packing the foods to our old house in Cheras for Spring Cleaning. This is basically how Badak Berendam @ Puteri Mandi looks like. As u can see I only lifted one of the Badak, the rest is busy swimming in there. And next time i think i should color each badak in pink + blue.. hmm..

So here it is.. Nasi Lemak Hari Minggu..

And the hungry martians..


And finally Mr. Megat came over to Cheras with a Kungfu Panda Orange shirt... Hmm very hungry huh.. But I didn't get to take his photo with Badak Berendam he's been craving since he swallowed all of them while I went up to get his drink. Huhu..


See ya'll !! mwahhhsss ..

My promised thai inspired post

Sawadeekaaa...

As promised...thai foood!!!



First up would have to be the ever so famous 'Som Tum', which is spicy papaya salad. You can find almost anywhere in Bangkok. It is traditionally eaten with glutonous rice but i haven't got used to it yet. The first time i ordered som tum on my own the lady then ask if i wanted the glutonous rice and all i did was just stared blank back at her like 'sshheeewaaaaaahht' hahahaha. She must have thought i was a weird thai looking girl who didn't get what she was saying. Main ingredient for this salad is obviously green papaya followed by beans, tomatoes, chilli, garlic, lime, fish sauce, palm sugar, shrimp paste and some other optional ingredients like crab. I've been told there is 3 different variations of som tum but i'm not too sure about what the difference are just yet.



This is a prawn salad and i don't know the name for it in thai. These type of salads are common here, with many different variations of herbs/leaves and substituting the prawns to fish, crab, etc.



Next up is 'Kra Pao Nuer', which is stir fried beef with basil leaves. Basil leaves are widely used here. Sometimes some places tend to put too much of it and the taste of basil overpowers the whole dish and gives a slightly unplesent taste. I don't know if that is how it should be, but i prefer a more mild taste. The beef can also be substituted with chicken, pork, prawn, fish, etc.



This is kuey teow...ok honestly i think i'm missing a word in the front or the back of kuey teow but it is definately called kuey teow something. Obviously because of the use of the flat rice noodles as you can see. This dish has a very interesting taste to it with the mushrooms, fried tofu, beansprouts, dried shrimp, nuts, fried garlic sprinkles, srping onions and the sauce which a type of black soy and then you add chilli flakes, a little sugar and a dash of fish sauce. Sweet, sour, salty, spicy all in one. :)



Deep fried fish with sweet, sour and spicy sauce. What more can i say...



These little chicken bone/tendon nuggets/bites are 'khor kai tod'. A popular snack or appetizer here. It's basically boneless chicken nuggets, sometimes even smaller like popcorn. I like it very much because it's not all chicken meat so you don't get full or 'muak' with it like how some people don't like to eat chicken breast. It's crunchy from the bone/tendon/cartilage but yet you get bits of chicken meat as well. You can either eat it just like that, dip it into some thai chilli sauce or like the picture above. Pop some chicken bits, lime, chilli, onion, ginger and nuts all at once. Funky flavours...



Vermicelli noodle salad with prawns, basically the same style of salads here just different main ingredients.

I'll stop here for now, will update more soon. Also more updates on pastries from school. Till then...Khorb khun ka :)

Sawadeekaa...

*mula-mula tu terkejut biler bukak blogger tengok semua dalam thai.mampos mcm mane nak baca ni...hahaha

Sawadeeka, sa bai di mai ka to everyone. Greetings from Bangkok. It's been 2 weeks now and i'm adjusting well. Missing nasi lemak already!!! I don't know how i'm going to survive without it. On the other hand everything else is great here.

My latest updates on food or should i say DESSERTS!!! sorry nothing Thai inspired today but i promise in my future posts.

First up, i came acroos this ice cream parlour called Cream & Fudge and fell in love with it. I'll have to add it to my lists of Haagen Daz & Swensens. It literally took me about 15 minutes standing there deciding on which flavour and concoction i wanted. I fianlly settles on this...feast your eyeballs...


oooohhh aaahhhhhh i want more!!!

Here, the rival for Dunkin Donuts is Mister Donut...ahahha (kelakar tak kay?) anyways i had already took out my camera to snap away but they wouldn't let me. Boo :( I can't say they taste better but their products sure do look interesting and mostly cute. They have mini donut lollipops, bunny shaped, donuts on sticks and more.


Sorry as i only have a photo of the packaging. Was awwed with the smiley face i totally forgot about the actual donut. Hahahaha.


Mini donuts i bought at the market...not bad and inexpensive as well.


Random fact...i love the coconut ice blended here....very refreshing.

One of the specialties here are these...


It's balls of deep fried rice noodles with a meat filling. Could be chicken but most of the time it would be pork and this particular one happens to be the latter. So boo hoo to me...it looks yummy ha? I forgot what's it called...(thinks for 10 minutes) damnit still can't remember...

Finally we go to school...will show you a few of what i've made since i arrived.


Shortbread cookies... very rich and nice (mcm butter cookies yg dlm tin biru tu)


Fruit Cake


Almond sponge cake with almond fondant flower and leaf


Tarte aux Pomme....apple tart..my favourite....pomme tart :)


Mini Fruit Tarts...these are like to die for...i just love em. Filled with pastry cream and topped with any fruits to your liking....*drools*


Same fruit tart but bigger version with more mixed fruits...i still have half of it in my fridge. Mmmm *winks* (kay, ummi, nanie...want some?)


Lunettes...a softer version of the shortbread cookies with strawberry filling.

That's all for now...will go jalan-jalan around Bangkok and hope to write a more thai inspired post. :)

Japanese Food

Hello food lovers..!!

2007 was a great food year for me, tried varieties of food that fulfills my tummy.

Dad was invited for a farewell dinner by China delegates and we got lucky coz they mentioned "and family". Went to Fukuya Restaurant in Ampang the setting was superb! Traditional Japanese with bamboo gates, u could fell JAPAN.. moshi moshi!

The meal? Fantastic! They served food with sakura leaves. It's oysters + dried fish + persimmon with some stuffings. The sakura leaves are imported from Japan, and its seasonal. I wonder how much the restaurant charged the sakura leaves. Anyway i just love it! Sorry for the poor image quality.

This one here is scallop and radish. Taste fine. Very "under the sea". huhuhu..

And this is my favourite part..DESERT!! It's mocha ice cream served with cream and strawberries.
I tried to take as many photos but one of the delegate is right in front of me. Nampak sgt jakun. U can have better view of the place and foods from their website http://www.fukuya.com.my

Gurls, we should have outside activities for our blog. Maybe we can organize our own "jalan2 cari makan" virginredvelvet style! ;)

Love,
Nanie

Yes. I thought this should be a tribute to my boyfriend, who's constantly raving about pide, a sort of turkish bread.






HAHAHAHAHAHA

Death Eater?

This is called "death by ice chocolate" from Delicious Cafe in Bangsar Village. Tried last year in Ramadhan. Not bad..

I still don't get the fuss over JCo's doughnuts. Ayesha and I had a huge moan about the 'fad' and how they (the consumers who'd skip work and queue for ages for those sweet cakes sans holes) say it's the best thing evurrrr but we still think the hype is unjustified. At first I based my argument on, 'it's only doughnuts' whilst holding the 'KRISPY KREME IS THE BEST THING EVAAAAHH' banner without even trying out the famous JCo product. So last week, my brothers and I head to Pavilion for other reasons but decided to get the doughnuts as our mom hinted that she might want to try the doughnut that must be good because of the people queueing for it.

So that we did. Took us 20 minutes. Actually, my elder brother queued for the most part of it as I got bored (read: do not want to be seen queuing hahahah). While we were queueing, one of the workers tried to coax us into getting the pre-packed doughnuts. The benefit? We do not have to queue. The catch? You have no say as to what you'll get. It's a lottery. After deliberating for 5 seconds, we decided we'd rather queue than not get what we think we want. On the menu, there were oreo flavoured doughnuts, some belgian chocolate thing, caramel (I HAD MY EYES ON THEM) and strawberry among others. But as the queueing went on, the doughnuts disappeared and the new ones made didn't replenish the lost ones. Instead of having a variety of doughnuts on selection, we're left with a double batch of less than half of what is offered.

I still don't get the fuss.


I think this is a brilliant marketing ploy.

Step 1: Hire people to queue up (I kid, I kid.)

Step 2: Instead of having two tiered counter, which would be economical and if they wish to have two batches of one flavour, the two tiered counter would provide enough space for other flavours offered, have only tiered-less counter just for kicks.

Step 3: Have a service so slow that you would make the queues longer.


Because the queues were longer, people who were queueing are more likely to buy in bulk. And because it is bought in bulk, the selection goes fast rather quickly. To aid this, make sure the people in charge of the flavour department don't replenish the sold flavours, instead just do things haphazardly.

I noticed there were two trays of choc-nut, glazed and cheese. By the time it was our turn, we barely had any choice so we bought cheese, glazed, choc-nut, green tea, almonds, some strawberry swirl and some blueberry thing. Yes, a selection of 7 doughnuts, how can I be moaning? Of course I am not happy as I'd like to have the option to buy what is advertised and I (read: my brother) did not just queue for 20 minutes to not get what I want.

But eh, what's done is done so we thought, the doughnut BETTER be good. The prices are OK-lah but we thought the taste should justify the 'hard-work' undertaken. We went for the cheese.

TASTELESS.

Is it cream cheese? Is it supposed to be sweet? Or savoury? Or what? It didn't even taste like cheese.

The glazed ones weren't half bad. I had a taste of all of them and I think the only doughnut I like was of the almonds variation. I liked it but it still doesn't seem to match on what a lot of people have been raving about. The only thing was it WAS different from Dunkin Donuts. Just because it's different, doesn't mean it's good. Give me Cinnabons anyday. And I don't like Cinnabons.


We came up with a conclusion to the hype.

You probably queue for half an hour (average). You don't buy A doughnut, you probably buy at least half a dozen to justify the queuing. You pay RMxx amount for the said purchase. YOU HAVE TO LIKE IT BECAUSE OF ALL THE CONTRIBUTIONS AND EFFORT MADE. To go through all these and then NOT like it would indicate the futility of the attempt, therefore making you look like mugs for investing on something that you don't even like. So what do you do?

Feign it.

OMG IT'S THE BEST THING EVER.


No, it's not, luv.


Unfortunately, there weren't any pictures of the purchased doughnuts as we just couldn't be arsed.

I still don't get the fuss.

Note: I know it's a question of preference and taste so JCo lovers can save their time from bashing me and start queuing on your favourite doughnut store while I have some kuih keria.