Kueh Chap and Popiah TGIF!

Another good weekend bites the dust but I don’t feel that bad because a long weekend is coming up next week! And it’s R’s birthday too, so that means lots of great food and celebration (^___^) ahead.

Jo, HC and I went to Manise (William Street, Northbridge) for lunch during the weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve been to Manise and the food is still lovely. This little Indonesian shop is deserving of a full blog post but we were too full to have a proper lunch, so here’s a picture of their lovely cripsy empek empek instead.

We had another TGIF (thank god it’s family day) dinner today! I spent the whole afternoon in the kitchen, it was hard work but actually really fun and satisfying at the same time.

First up was nasi lemak lunch bento for tomorrow.

The popiah was a bit of a rush job at the end of the night so it didn’t turn out as well as I would have liked it to.  I’m going to give it a real go and full concentration tomorrow night so let’s see how that will turn out.

This was the dish that took up most of my afternoon, Kuching’s Kueh Chap, a popular herby porky dish that is well loved by my family members. Don’t bother asking me for the recipe because it was kindly given to me by my mum’s friend (whose family is apparently the pioneer kueh chap seller in Kuching *___*). So this is a family secret and I feel really privileged that dear Aunty Jenny was nice enough to share it with me.

The verdict? Pretty close to the real thing but definitely room for improvement. The part that I’m most chuffed about, my first attempt at cleaning pig intestines (tedious job ) turned out pretty good and my intestines were not foul smelling (there is a reason why they’re called offal you know) at all. Yeah, so I learned something new today and I’m happy. Hooray for TGIFs.

Next TGIF might be bak zhang night Any other suggestions for TGIF food?

March madness

So it’s officially the last day of March. The year seems to be crawling and yet speeding by at the same time. Even this year’s My Kitchen Rules season is over.

This was my ode to MKR. One of the contestants made this glutinous black rice pudding on the show and my colleague at work said she would really like to try it. So I made pulut hitam for our morning tea one day. I’ve decided that I like pulut hitam, the chewy bite of the black glutinous rice,richness of coconut cream and salty sweetness of gula melaka.

I’ve had a productive Saturday. This is loh bak with tofu puffs and egg lunch bento for the next week. But there’s only need for two lunch bentos this week because come Tuesday night, I’ll be flying out to Bangkok! I’m really looking forward to this holiday. 2012 has been tough so far, I’m hoping this holiday will give me a chance to reboot and start over again.

The best thing about 2012 so far, is the new addition to the family. This is baby Kaka, you will be hearing a lot more about her in the future. There is really something magical about being an aunty. (*___*).

Labour Day long weekend

Oh no, I’m blogging about the Labour Day long weekend which means the weekend is over (T_________T)!

The long weekend started with brunch at Mille Cafe (1000, Beaufort Street Inglewood). It’s Mark’s little sister Cindy’s first year in Perth, we promised Mark that we would look out for her, so brought her out to try some Aussie breakfast. Unfortunately Mille Cafe’s coffee was burnt and bad, I couldn’t finish it. Sigh, and weekend coffees are usually the best too.

This is my ‘Boston Beans’ which was baked beans with a poached egg in the middle with a toasty white bun ($12.50). The portion was huge and I couldn’t even finish half of it. Luckily Calvin was there to polish it off for me . The beans tasted like normal baked beans, but the bun was nice and soft with a lovely crust.

HC’s ‘Wake Up Call’ ($19.50) was gigantic and had a bit of everything including pork sausage, bacon, field mushroom, slow roasted tomato, herbed potato cake, fried eggs and toast.

Jo’s salmon and toast with rocket, turkish bread, scrambled eggs, truffle oil ($14.50). She said the scrambled eggs were very nice.

Cindy liked her oven baked eggs ($12.50 )which were baked with ham, cream, spinach, parmesan, mozzarella. She said they were very creamy and cheesy and filling.

The rest of the long weekend went by in a blur. There was a fishing/crabbing session, a dimsum and movie session. We even had an irish pub dinner at Fibber McGee’s with Wendy and Jason but I forgot to bring the camera *epic foodie fail*.

Monday was spent grocery shopping, cooking and vegging out in front of the tv. A pot of Malaysian curry always does the trick.

Diced tofu and minced pork dish.

My attempt at Aunty Jenny’s signature prawn omelette dish. Not exactly perfect but I will keep practising. If only all these lovely aunties would keep teaching me their signature dishes I would feel so privileged and happy.

Return of the kuih bingka. I baked a tray of these, half for R’s colleagues morning tea and the other half for our charity morning tea tomorrow. I hope they like it.

And that ends our Labour Day long weekend of 2012.

Kuching Delights @ UWA Spring Feast 2011

We’re still recovering fromcelebrating the aftermath of the Pasar Malam + Spring Feast saga. Part of me just wants to forget the past few weeks (especially the burglary part) but I must admit that there were some really great moments and fond memories that I want to keep forever. Cheng asked for photos, so here they are:

Our supplies! For one month, my house resembled a warehouse. I literally had no furniture, my dining table was a chair and the floor was my seat. It slowly became a living room today, I’ve got some new furniture in which HC, Jo and Rich helped me to set up, so excited (^__^).

Last year we took more photos from the Curtin Pasar Malam, but this is the lone picture I have of our Curtin Pasar Malam signboard. I think this year we were definitely more prepared and experienced, but somehow the crowd was lacking and at times it was a quiet affair.

Skip Curtin Pasar Malam and it was preparing for UWA Spring Feast 2011. I always feel more sentimental about Spring Feast (since UWA is my alma mater) and enjoyed the whole process even more this year. The night before we even did our cooking in the uni’s cafeteria commercial kitchen, it was fantastic. I love commercial kitchens, the space,the professional stoves, the utensils, the cool rooms, everything.

I reckon HC baked the most beautiful batch of kuih bingka uni/tapioca cake in the commercial kitchen. It came out lovely and golden, Jo sold a pack to this young girl saying ‘I’m sure you’ll come back to buy our last pack once you’ve tried these!’ And guess what? The young girl returned and bought another pack!

Would you buy these from me?

I prepared less food for Spring Feast expecting a smaller crowd, but I did increase the variety and prepared the traditional staple of chicken curry and yellow rice. Surprisingly, despite it being sold all around Perth, it was still popular at the food stall.

Jo packed all these ayam masak merah boxes, she is the Queen of packaging.

You could tell who were the real foodie customers at the stall, the ones who actually picked up the ayam masak merah boxes and asked whether they could exchange it for one with more gravy. I agree that the best part about ayam masak merah is the sweet tomato gravy.

Our slightly cacat Spring Feast sign board! You’ll notice that there were more dishes on the menu. I will try new dishes next year and keep experimenting until I come up with the most popular dishes.

The little guild compound was our stall location. Compared to last year, it was less of a ‘hot’ spot and I think we missed out on a lot of action. Ah well, better luck next year.

Our prep area! This is where all the action happens and the chefs get busy when we shout orders such as ‘More laksa please!!’ ‘Running out of loh bak!’

Now to introduce you to the main characters of Kuching Delights:

Introducing my long suffering friend Jaso who still managed to flash a smile. See Jaso, this is why you stay in Geraldton during the month of October! Last year Jaso couldn’t make it to my stalls because he was in Gero, but this year, he was roped in to help at the stalls, he became the carrier of heavy boxes, the Maths teacher and the sweet talker. Thanks for your help Jas!

My favourite and most fun helper in the kitchen, Jo the Queen of Packaging a.k.a. fellow giggler, Coke drinker and yellow rice maker. (^___^) Hehe, it’s quite paiseh to say this but this is when you know you can really count on family and truly, I have the best sisters.

Can’t do without my trusty fellow chefs, HC and Rich. HC is also known as Tapioca Cake King, this year he was in charge of all the baking and I left everything to him while he churned out batch after batch of beautiful kuih bingka uni. Rich is the Laksa King and my valuable sous chef, I never ever think or worry about Sarawak Laksa because I know he will do the best job, he also somehow always manages to pack everything in my chest freezer through magical ‘jigsaw puzzle’ tricks. Both developed hefty muscles throughout this time and were my main movers. Poor guys.

The Wong family a.k.a. Wong mummy, Jess and April and Calv (who wasn’t in the picture) who surely must curse the day they met me through Calv because they’ve never stopped helping me ever since. April was even roped in as the official helper this year and suffered many boring hours of helping to sell drinks. She was a great help and Calv’s mum as usual was our best supporter of the night. Thank you Wong family.

Most of the team! Thanks guys, couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you for letting me indulge in my little hobby and allowing me to learn new skills in the kitchen and the food arena. Now.. will you do it again with me next year???

Pasar Malam prep: Day 1

I was so excited for the weekend because it signaled the end of exams and assignments hopefully for a long long time. But it turned out to be more of a ‘working weekend’, hunting for new furniture for the house (my house currently resembles a mini warehouse with no furniture but lots of boxes) and prepping for pasar malam on Friday.

Every year I think ‘why am I doing this to myself? This is hard work!’ Then the next year I do it all over again… I am a glutton  for punishment (^___^).

Something new on the menu this year! Kuching’s famous crispy Tomato Mee! Would you buy this from me?

 

No time

I am running out of time to do anything. The working days feel extremely long and never ending.

Even happy lunch bentos like this minced pork in spicy bean sauce and braised japanese egg tofu don’t make the work days go faster.

Even my photos are rushed nowadays so please excuse my blur photo of kueh bakar which is baked pandan custard kueh. This is for my team morning tea tomorrow, I was going to make savoury siew paos to go with them but well, I ran out of time, so I’ll probably make them on Friday or Saturday.

So visit my house during the weekend if you want a flaky siew pao to go… two more days to the weekend.

Winter curries

Winter is frightfully cold this year in Perth. Everyday I find myself craving warm creamy soups and spicy hot curries. So cooking for the past two weeks has been very winter themed.

First up, butter chicken which is my favourite Indian curry. I think I like sweet curries.

I love pumpkin everything, oven roasted pumpkin, pumpkin steamed cake. But I recently discovered curried pumpkin soup which is delightful dipped with a hunk of bread. This is my first try and making pumpkin soup which I garnished with bacon strips.

Something not so warm but delicious nonetheless, salmon sushi rice bowl with fish roe and sweet egg strips.

Return of the malaysian chicken curry. Jo’s portion had lots of chicken breast meat (the only part she likes), potatoes and cabbage.

Bento of the week, teriyaki chicken with scrambled tomato omelette. Hope this week flies by quick!

2 weeks blitz

It’s been more than a week since my last blog post! It definitely wasn’t due to lack of blogging material (I still have so many food places that I haven’t blogged about not to mention the Japan posts which have been overdue for a year *gulp*), I think I’ve just been feeling a little blue due to work. But at least the Easter holidays are almost here! I can’t wait.

This post merges my past two weekend eating. Last last weekend, we went to the trendy Venn for breakfast. I would probably never have discovered Venn (even though it’s so near work) if it wasn’t for Jaso. I don’t know how he finds out about all these up and coming places but he’s a great source of foodie information.

It’s worth going to Venn just to check out the gorgeous architecture and interior design of the building. The old flour mill factory is split into three stories, the ground level being the art studio, street level being the shop (selling cool and expensive knick knacks) and the bar/cafe, and the second level being an art gallery. I really liked how they made use of the light and the tall ceilings, it was a comfortable and airy space.

Back to the food, the breakfast menu wasn’t extensive so there wasn’t much to choose from. Both Jaso and HC has the poached eggs on toast which came out looking very healthy and green. Nothing spectacular but not bad at all.

Calv and I both had the roast beef bagel. I don’t know why, maybe it’s the mysterious hole in the middle, but I really like bagels. This bagel was one of the best bagels I’ve had in Perth, it was soft without being too soft, chewy and yet had a crispy lightly toasted exterior. Cal and I really enjoyed our bagel.

The coffee was good. Pretty milk patterns are always a plus (^___^). All in all, a good find so thanks for the recommendation Jas.

Venn
16 Queen Street
Perth, WA 6000 Australia

While I usually plan my dinner and lunch venues ahead(this includes checking out the menu and already choosing what I’m going to have), sometimes unplanned foodie adventures can be the best.

The couple Jason and Wendy were the ones that introduced me to Chime. They told us about how they planned to go to Chime restaurant  for lunch, but since it was not open, they ended up heading across the road to Phi Yen for good Vietnamese instead.

It was the exact opposite scenario for us. We headed to Phi Yen for some pho, but the restaurant was busy and the waitresses didn’t bother to serve us. So we headed across the road to Chime for lunch instead! The restaurant itself is located in the newly refurbished Northbridge Hotel, it was a lazy Sunday afternoon and we were the only table besides a couple of ladies enjoying a bottle of wine and a late lunch.

R had the premium sirloin with mash and pepper sauce. The steak was more medium than medium rare in some places, but otherwise the pepper sauce was tasty with the steak.

Even before my caramelised pork belly arrived, the two ladies sitting behind us who both ordered the pork belly were already making ‘mmmm’ sounds with every bite. It was quite funny. The asian style pork belly came with yellow turmeric rice and condiments like fried shallots, chilli vinegar sauce. The rice itself wasn’t heavily spiced and lacked taste, but that was fine because the pork belly was richly flavoured, sweet, beautifully caramelized, sticky and chewy. A heavily spiced turmeric rice would have overpowered the taste of the pork belly.

It really was delicious and a sinful indulgence. In hindsight, I think the flavours were a little bit too intense and strong, causing me to feel rather thirsty afterwards, but I could totally understand why the ladies were making ‘mmm’ sounds throughout their meal.

With a buy one main get one main free deal from our entertainment card, it was a great deal and a surprisingly lovely lunch.
Chime Restaurant
210 Lake Street, Northbridge, Western Australia 6003
(cnr Brisbane Street)

Cooking from last weekend. This was Penne Marinara which I tossed with fish fillets, mussels and prawns.

The pork belly from Chimes was so nice that it inspired me to cook pork belly the next day. Mine was nothing like Chimes though and very Malaysian with the usual soy sauce, star anise flavours.

Sometimes simple meals like stir fried broccolli and carrots with grilled chicken wings can be nice for dinner. My chicken wings were marinated with hoisin sauce, honey and five spice powder.

We received a whole bagful of plums during the weekend. Not eating them fast enough, I decided to use them in a dessert tonight, the only problem with Plum Tarte Tatin? They’re not as pretty as Pear tarte tatin or apples.

Two more days to Easter and counting!

Sapporo

Sapporo is located along my homebound train line. During my train journeys home, I would look out of the train and stare at the white dilapidated building with the big Sapporo sign and think ‘I wonder what that’s like?’

Turns out it’s like going back to many many years ago. It  reminded me of the tiny smoky diner that we had lunch at in Kyoto. The bad ventilation and oily atmosphere permeates this little shop too. The old Japanese ojisan and obasan man the little shop by themselves, the cute uncle is in charge of the cooking while aunty deals with the customers. She prattled to us happily in Japanese until she noticed our half embarrassed and perplexed expressions, then she laughed and apologised.

The food is a little slow, but worth the wait. I’ve never had an agedashi tofu with clear broth before. This broth was very tasty and a little too salty but perfect with rice.

My sisters and I love korokke (croquette) and this one was gorgeous. It was the best korokke I’ve had in Perth , crispy on the outside, yummy and delicately flavoured mashed potato on the inside. I would order this again and again.

Can’t go to a Japanese restaurant without trying the ramen. This was the shoyu ramen. I asked R for comments for the blog, he said two words ‘hao chi’ (meaning yummy!). They also have butter corn ramen on their menu, a Hokkaido specialty apparently, can’t wait to try that.

I loved Sapporo. Yes, the oily atmosphere wasn’t great, the little shop was dilapidated and shabby. But the cute aunty and uncle, the homemade style food was comforting and reminded me of the Japan that I visited in 2010. I really hope to return to wonderful Japan someday, but for the meantime, Sapporo will do (^__^).

Victoria Park
186 Rutland Ave
Carlisle, 6101

Baking of the week was pandan and coconut milk muffins. Muffins with a Malaysian twist.

Oyster sauce beef noodles.

I used up the last of my mum’s rempah to make this curry. It was so nice and I am now so sad that I don’t have my mum’s rempah anymore. Sigh…. .

Two more days to the weekend …

The Maze

It’s funny how one can feel so lethargic and listless on Mondays when the weekend was filled with energetic bursts of activities.

Hot milky coffees and buttery crumpets for breakfast are such a nice way to start the weekend.

Then there’s running around and getting lost in the timber maze. My preference was the pine maze which made me feel like I was walking in a scene from wuxia novels. Why two completely directionless people would enjoy getting lost in the maze I have no idea. But it was fun (^__^).

The biggest koalas I have ever seen, and this one was nursing its baby. Followed by rounds of mini golf which was lots of fun, except I am possibly the only person who actually gets worse at each additional round. So much for practice makes perfect. Doesn’t apply to daitaohas.

Then it was Wendy’s birthday bbq on Sunday which was a lovely way to catch up. It’s Gerry’s birthday today, happy birthday if you’re reading my friend!

Back to boring workdays of thinking up sickie excuses and thinking of what to cook for dinner. Tonight it was thai pineapple fried rice and ayam pongteh (chicken and potato stew). I tried being productive tonight and thought I would do a bit of packing, I packed one box of books. Which brings my total number of packages so far to TWO BOXES. Yes, I packed two boxes in two weeks. I am the epitome of procrastination. I know I shall live to regret this.

Anyone want to do my packing for me?