Hainanese Kopi-O

The start of May marked some eventful makan (means eat in Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia) time though this is my most “bankrupt” month for makan escapades. A wedding dinner buffet at Avanti Sunway Hotel has one of the best roast beef, stew lamb, salmon, pasta, grilled vegetables and lovely salad service. Some guests, non western food diners had great time refilling their carnivorous appetite while lovely ladies had endless visits to the grilled vegetable, salad, seafood and never forgets the dessert bar. My dad never had true Italian food in his life, almost wanted the entire plate of huge vanilla pudding for our table. Congratulations to Julie and her Italian beau (whoops.. I forgot the groom’s name as food piled up into my head). Julie has a beautiful wedding cake made by her good friend.

To find Avanti Italian Restaurant, Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa in Petaling Jaya, go to Google Map,
copy and paste the following sentence Malaysia Petaling Jaya Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa
to figure out the exact location.

Breakfast at TTDI KL (forgot name of the Malay restaurant) but will never forget a unique combination of local humble ingredients for a meal. I promise to post the name and Google map later. Steamed or boiled ubi kayu (cassava roots) is the main meal accompanied by sambal (the same as nasi lemaks’), freshly grated coconut flesh and half of a fried ikan masin (kembung?).  100% local food.

Some lazy office lunches: Soft boiled egg salad, Village Park nasi dagang.

No so happy McD Sundae takeaway for my kids. Less than half filled. I did not complain on spot, too angry at that time. I felt belittled by the staffs. One of staffs filled a cupful of sundae for his dinner and darted out of the service area while I have waited for a while. Other staffs were busy laughing and talking.

Went to husband’s favourite chicken noodle stall only to find they stopped selling chicken as other stalls are selling the same. I should credit the former chicken noodle by detailing its serving and quality. A single serving of poached chicken presented in Chinese fine banquet style cut, served on an old fashion oval plate. As for noodles, our usual order were normally hor fun(mine) or Hakka noodle(husbands’) tossed with minced beef sauce. The minced beef sauce is cooked whenever an order comes in. The husband and wife Hakka noodle team is such humble and innovative.  The good news is they are now beef noodle specialist – different cuts, parts and also cook a hearty peppery pig stomach soup noodle. Heavenly…

Condiments in Hong Kong Chinese restaurants are not free flow but charge separately, per condiment plate. There is a humble Chinese restaurant in Sungai Buloh which has 2 excellent condiments that makes the start of a meal, an enjoyable experience for the palate before savouring the actual dishes. Pickled green chillies – sweet, sour, spicy with fresh crunchy bite goes well with medium weight flavour dishes. Good on its own to whet ones’ appetite in a hot day. The poached chicken comes with a unique condiment – minced garlic, ginger shallots poached in a combination of peanut oil and chicken fat. I could have bowls of steaming rice mixed with this unique dipping sauce all day.

During weekday lunch, we visited Vincent’s new food stall Bijan at Ali Bawal Building in Petaling Jaya Old Town, to join the Ali Bawal Food Court opening celebration. Nestled in the old industrial area, brand new Ali Bawal Food Court environment is closer to a relaxing resort, luxurious treat for factory workers in this area. Vincent’s new food concept never cease to amaze me. Fried calamari, fried crab, banquet style dishes and super silky steamed egg will render you speechless upon setting on your tongue. A bit exaggerating? We are talking about different grade of local Chinese economy/mix rice. Tell Vincent you got to know Bijan from my blog. You may get a surprise.

To find Wisma Ali Bawal, go to Google Map,
copy and paste the following sentence Malaysia Petaling Jaya Ali Bawal
to figure out the exact location

One of my husband’s favourite family dish-fish fried in shallot oil, topped with Chinese pickled onion bulbs, plum sauce and cucumber, made an appearance. A dish cooked by his demised maternal grandmother, who was an excellent cook, recreated by my talented FIL. The other two dishes pictured below are my FILs’ favourite.

Source: http://desiretoinspire.blogspot.com/2009/04/purple-area.html

From the genius “kaya” blogger: http://khngyi.wordpress.com/2009/02/12/khangkhang-made/

Ingredients you need:
1 cup Coconut milk
1 cup Eggs(about 3-4 medium to large size eggs)
1 cup sugar(already reduced from 2 cups)
10-15 pieces of pandan leaves, washed and wiped dry.

(This recipe makes roughly about 1 and 1/2 cups of kaya)

1. Wash, dry and tie up bundles of about 5 pandan leaves in each bundle(like in the pic above)
2. Measure out eggs, then beat lightly till yolk and white mixed.
3. Pour all(as in sugar, coconut milk and eggs) into breadmaker tin(like in picture above) and throw in bundles of pandan leaves.
4. Set on ‘Jam’ function.
5. Check on kaya after some time and make sure sides are mixed too.
6. When the breadmaker completes the function, take it out and cool for a while, remove all the pandan leaves, then put into a blender and blend lightly till it is smooth.

Notes:

*edited* The kaya will look like lumpy curdy chunks in a watery substance once the breadmaker has completed its cycle. This is NORMAL. You are supposed to blend it to acheive the smooth texture, ie, what we buy off the shelves. You may find that there might be quite a bit of water(this is just sugar water), so drain out some of this water and blend the remainder. You may add in more sugar water if you find your kaya too thick while blending. I hope this will iron out any misunderstandings about the product!

1. You may blend it till it is completely smooth too. I like my kaya with a bit of bits in it, so that you can taste the kaya bits rather than a smooth paste.
2. If you prefer a little sweeter, add another 1/4 to 1/2 cup more sugar.
3. If you cook this over the stove, you may not need to blend it since you are constantly stirring the kaya.
4. You may put in more pandan leaves if you want it to be greener… Alternatively, you may pound or blend a portion of the pandan leaves and strain it for the pandan juice and put it into the mixture before cooking.
5. If you’re cooking over the stove, the pot you’re using should NOT be warm/hot when you place the ingredients in to mix. If the pot is hot, the eggs would cook immediately, resulting in scrambled eggs!

Watch it here :-)

Thanks to David for sharing The Chicken and the Egg by Lara of Cook & Eat.
Re: King County Hunger Challenge & blog.

Let me do a self check on meals I had out of home:
Breakfast: Tea & Toast RM6./US$1.70
Lunch: Nasi Lemak & Tea RM8./US$2.20
Tea break: Starbucks RM10./US$2.80
Total: RM 24. /US$6.70
Check on lowest priced grocery I normally buy
High 5 wholemeal RM3./US$0.85
Whole head of cabbage RM8/US$2.20
Lean meat RM5/US$1.40
Eggs of 10 RM4.50/US$1.25
Total: RM20.50/US$5.70

Daily consumption list:
Kids milk for 14 days RM60./US$16.70 RM4.30/US$1.20 per day
Lipton Tea 100 bags/box 4 bags per day RM(no idea yet-to be filled later)

Saturday all-day meal/snack
Buns 15pcs RM3.00 /US$0.90
Frozen fish fillet 6 large pieces RM10./US$2.80
Eggs of 10 RM4.50/US$1.25
Tartar sauce RM7./US$2.00
Lettuce RM4./US$1.20
Tomato ketchup RM4./US$1.20
Total: RM32.50/US$9.35
Friday-Labour Day holiday challenge: Is it possible to spend less than RM50 for a day’s outing?
KLCC parking RM??
PetroSains for 2 adults & 2 children RM24
Lunch RM??
Total: RM??/US$??

Saturday routine challenge: Is it possible to spend RM30./US$8.35 on grocery on this day for 3 square meals & 2 tea time?

 
Touching and heart warming photos by Yong Yen Nie. Above picture from The Edge.

Sweet minced meat with chinese style preserved soya bean
[W] Stir fried asparagus with garlic and salt
Stir fried dark soya sauce pork fillet with stir-in spring onion
[W] Fried black pomfret with tomato, onion sweet and sour sauce.

[W] Green radish, white radish, carrot, dried octupus tentacle with pork shoulder bone soup.

Received same message through sms. Pray for the little boy - rescue soonest and in good state, pray for his families and friends to stay strong.

“A 7 year old boy was kidnapped @ 8:15AM at a nursery two doors down from BU6/7, Bandar Utama. Please keep a lookout for a dark blue car (possibly a Proton Satria) with the registration number of BFW 4377. The child might be with a tall, dark-skinned man with wiry hair. Your co-operation is greatly appreciated. Let’s find this boy soon!

A 7 year-old boy was kidnapped in Bandar Utama this morning (10/04/2009) at 8.30am by 4 Indian men in a dark Proton Satria (BFW3347). Please be on the lookout for this car and number plate. Contact police immediately at 019-237 6677. As of 12:24pm today, the boy has yet to be recovered.”

Music: Striking a Romantic Chord 愛 在 和 弦 間_ -  Tchaikovsky 

Audio enjoyment - The Magic of Mendelssohn ( 孟 德 爾 遜 雋 永 錄 音 )

Yesterday I bought the yellow flesh variety of tapioca, mashed, salted and steamed. I even tried to bake its top, sprinkled with generous amount of white sugar, hoping that it would turn out to be creme brulee topping like. You know, the brown crusty sweet top as in creme brulee and crema catalana. Forgot to take pictures. In fact I tried steaming tapioca twice with different successful result, except yesterdays’. The oven heater wasn’t working well, hence I got this tapioca cake with burnt sugar on its left and right, the center remains transparent with melted sugar.

A few links to tapioca cake, as a reminder and reference:

http://www.google.com.my/search?hl=en&q=steam+tapioca+cake+recipe&meta=
http://nonya-kueh.blogspot.com/2006/02/tapioca-kueh.html
http://lilyng2000.blogspot.com/2005/05/kuih-bingka-ubi.html
http://www.mykitchensnippets.com/2008/04/steam-tapiocacassava-cake.html
http://cuisineparadiseindex.blogspot.com/
http://www.geocities.com/mystecurious/recipe2.htm
http://notecook.com/desserts/cakes/secrets-of-indonesian-cuisine-recipes-steamed-layer-tapioca-cake/
http://lynns-recipes.blogspot.com/2008/05/steamed-tapioca-cake.html
http://www.mykitchensnippets.com/2008/02/tapioca-cake-kueh-ubi-kaya.html
http://www.seasaltwithfood.com/2009/01/kuih-talam-ubi-kayu-tapioca-tray-cake.html

Not exactly tapioca, it’s a beautiful sago pearl recipe
http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2009/01/steamed-tapioca-red-bean-cake.html

Yam cake
http://roseskitchen.wordpress.com/2007/03/10/steamed-yam-cake/

U House by Natalie Dionne.

The Annie Residence by Bercy Chen Studio. A macho exterior marriage of steel, concrete, glass and wood. I don’t favour the interior and landscaping.

Hawthorn house in Melbourne.

Brighton house by Nic Boschler

Last year I fell in love in a school architecture which I went to taught for a week. I help myself to admire its landscaping, building layout and interior design.

Click on the picture below to find out more about it. Pircher makes Planit prefab modular home, designed by Bestetti Associati. I don’t like the furniture and the stuff arrangement, pretty bland and messy.

 This is the place that inspired my dream home. In fact I am surprised of myself, that I like contemporary style homes.

Green grass, smooth pebbles, ceiling to floor glass, large steel and glass doors, concrete staircase, floor and ceiling awashed in white. My mind felt peaceful, surroundded with natural light to work and read.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s father said these loving words to her:

He said, “I wanted you to see Paris for the first time with a man who would always love you, no matter what.”

Read more about it from Gwyneth’s web site Goop.com

ps. I miss Paris……

Not in any order but all are my favourites:-

• The Louvre, Paris, France
• Palace Museum, Beijing, China
• Hong Kong Museum of Arts, Tsim Tsa Tsui, Hong Kong
• National Museum, Singapore
• Rijk Museum, Amsterdam, Holland
• Jim Thompson Museum, Bangkok, Thailand
• Textile Museum, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

At my time of visiting National Museum in Taipei, Taiwan, I did not have a good time due to heavy renovation going around. I hope the next experience to National Museum in Taipei, Taiwan is to be a good one.

List of museums to visit:-

• National Museum of Arts, Singapore (2012)
• Asia Civilisation Museum, Singapore
• Les Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France
• National Museum in Taipei, Taiwan
• Peranakan Museum, Melaka, Malaysia
• Peranakan Museum, Penang, Malaysia
• Peranakan Museum, Singapore
• Cat Museum, Kuching, Sarawak