The problem with batch cooking is that you end up eating the same thing for the entire week. So with the same ingredients, I made beef stew 2 ways.
Chinese style beef stew with mushrooms, radish and carrots. I braised this with cinnamon, star anise, garlic, ginger, zhu hou sauce, soy and rock sugar.
Western style beef stew with the common ingredients of herbs, onion, leek, garlic, red wine and chopped tomatoes.
Which would you prefer?
For some reason the food that I cooked last week all look bland and yellowy.But luckily they didn’t turn taste too bland *I hope*
This is my cheat Chicken rice meal. I used a spice pack for my rice and didn’t do a whole chicken but rather chicken pieces. It turned out alright but it would be so much better if I did it from scratch, chilli, stock and all. So I bought a whole chicken and will be making Hainan chicken rice soon. Maybe after Bangkok?
A pack of Hokkien noodles is always handy when you want a quick meal. Fried Hokkien noodles with chicken and mushrooms.
This is Hokkien noodles with chicken soup, topped with chicken, bok choy and egg.
There’s a story behind this chicken marsala dish. My sister Jan told me that they were having chicken and brocolli with madeira sauce for dinner. It just happened that I was wondering what to do with the chicken breasts at home, I was sick of cooking my normal stir fries. So I researched madeira sauce, realised I had no madeira and switched to chicken with marsala sauce instead. Hehe, it turned out pretty well, I shall try this on HC soon, he likes marsala sauce a lot.
I know it’s only Monday but I’m so ready for the weekend already.
One of the activities that I enjoy when I’m back in Kuching is accompanying my mother to the Kenyalang market.
The sights and sounds of the wet market are always interesting. There’s the rows of stalls selling their fare, ranging from chickens to fruits to clothes and all things possible. This stall sells Malaysian kuih muih, Malaysian desserts which can be sweet or savoury and are very yummy.
This is the floor level with all the food stalls, we used to come here a lot for supper when we were kids, this is our ‘Kenyalang Lao Deng’ meaning Kenyalang on top because it was on the upper level. I had many bowls of kolo mee here from this old aunty and uncle whom my father tells me have since retired 
.
My mum bought my favourite local vegetable ‘mani chai’ from this vegetable stall. I love this local veg and it’s my must-have when I’m back in Kuching. I believe you can only find it here in Kuching.
After the short shopping stint, I had breakfast with my parents at the Noodle Experts also located in Kenyalang, it was my first time in this refurbished and relocated cafe which has been around in Kenyalang since forever. My mum tells me that she used to buy this kolo mee takeaway for me for my breaktast/morning tea at school, but I don’t remember it at all!
I wasn’t ready for heavy eating so early in the morning, so had some gu chai kueh, which is a steamed dumpling (not eaten hot) with chives filling. You can also opt for dumplings with other vegetable fillings, my favourite being mang guang, otherwise known as radish. The dumpling skin is thin, chewy and lovely matched with the crunch of chives/radish, it’s easy to eat many of these at one go.
My other ultimate must-eat food in Kuching is popiah, fresh spring rolls with mixed fillings of meat, beancurd, radish, nuts etc. Every popiah is different. I wasn’t expecting much of the popiah from Noodle Experts as our favourite popiah hails from Jin Fook Ling cafe (the king of popias) but this one was quite nice. Or it could be that I’ve been popiah deprived for too long haha.
This popiah had carrots, radish, spring onion and not much else, it was pretty good, I love the thinness of popiah skin, can I ever learn how to make this?!
Can’t have breakfast without my usual cup of kopi! I have to admit, I am not missing Australian flat whites, lattes or cappucinos. They taste so different from kopi and I really shouldn’t compare them at all. But I could get used to a daily dose of sweet kopi.
I had a nice afternoon doggy session with our beautiful Goldie. She is still the friendliest, sweetest dog ever.
I roasted a chicken for dinner. I’m not sure it was a very good idea because Malaysian weather is not suitable for roasting, it was hot in the kitchen. Then again, Perth is probably sweating buckets right now, I should probably stick to roasting only in winter. In Malaysia, I shall stick to stir fries and iced desserts. Speaking of desserts, I know what I’ll be having for supper tonight, a bucket of pandan ice cream from Sunny Hill, gosh, it’s good to be home 
.
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!
I had a really lovely weekend! Too bad it only lasted till Saturday since Sunday was black assignment Sunday again (T____T).
But the weekend started early on Friday night when we celebrated Xinchen’s belated birthday. Recognize the handwriting on the cake? I made the birthday signs myself, haha, very DIY right?
Can you guess what Xinchen is wishing for? I hope he struck the lottery this weekend.
He didn’t win any money at our mahjong game though, because we don’t play with money. But it was still fun learning the rules, chatting, drinking sweet wine and playing round after round. The night wrapped up around 3am! Our latest mahjong night yet!
Saturday ramen at Arigataya. This ramen store just isn’t very consistent, we had some good ramen before on a Wednesday, but this time their broth wasn’t as flavourful, weekend diluted effect?
My first time at a German restaurant in Perth. I’ve passed by Beethoven many times and remarked ‘we should try this place some day’. And so we did on Saturday. The pretty lights at the restaurant were very welcoming and felt like it was beaconing to us a good night ahead.
I was pleasantly surprised at the cosy and warm atmosphere inside the restaurant, the mid circle booths were comfy and the candles romantically lit. I could already imagine coming here with friends and family.
My veal wiener schnitzel with mash, braised red cabbage and mushroom sauce. With a squeeze of lemon, this schnitzel was surprisingly tasty with crispy breadcrumbs, tender veal mopped up with a yummy mushroom sauce. This gently spiced vinegary red cabbage gave the whole dish an acidic touch and lifted the oiliness of the dish. It felt like comforting, homecooked food. I’m not sure whether that’s what German food is like, but it was nice.
This Schweinebraten was pot roasted pork leg served in a pepper corn gravy with sauerkraut and mash. The slices of pork leg were tender and flavourful, not too rich and delicious. Another meat dish with a home cooked feel to it.
My favourite part of most meals, dessert! I don’t usually like apple strudel but this one was yummy and easy to polish off with vanilla icecream.
I really liked Beethoven, it was such a pleasant surprise and I would recommend the place to friends who like hearty, homemade, slowcooked food (Wendy and J, it’s buy one main get one main free on the Entertainment card!). I overhead a girl who had the whole lamb rack exclaiming that she was eating so fast because it was delicious, I’m going to try that next!
Beethovens
4 Sleat Rd
Applecross, 6153
It wasn’t all eating out during the weekend. It wasn’t bulk cooking because I didn’t have time, but it was my first attempt at cooking Ossobuco, which is braised veal shanks with vegetables, white wine and chicken stock. Ligament King liked it.
I’ll cook more bentos today and blog about it next time.
It feels like ages since I last blogged and it probably has been a while. Life has been full on with a heavy workload during the week and visitors during the weekend. August and September are the months for fly in fly outs
Last weekend it was David’s turn to experience Di’s 3 day whirlwind Tour of Perth. I might trademark this. While it is fun showing visitors around beautiful Perth, I must admit that the late night weekends are getting to me, I could hardly keep my eyes open on Monday. Must be getting old (T___T). It’s becoming a tradition to end each trip with A Night of Roasted chicken, this time chilli mussels, spaghetti, garlic bread and potato salad were thrown in for good measure.
Not to blow our own horn but this was seriously our best roasted chicken yet, the chicken was wonderfully moist and tasty, even the roasted potatoes were sweet and yummy:)
Dessert was my easy Pear Tarte Tatin again, always easy and a crowd pleaser. I wish I had a bigger fridge so I could stock vanilla icecream, it just goes so well with desserts.
Ok, I hope I can update soon, it’s a big week ahead, sigh, but at least it’s almost half over.
I’ve been off sick and staying at home for the past two days. While it is nice sleeping in, I’m sick of the body aches and the sniffling and can’t wait to get well again. But I can’t say excited about going back to work (T___T).
Being at home means I have lots of time on my hands, I should be resting but ended up baking instead. My first attempt at Hongkong Kueh a.k.a. Beehive Cake.
The cake turned out pretty good, holey enough and chewy texture, I only wish it was more brown. One of the best things about having a mum that is a great cook, she always has plenty of good recipes and tips to share with me (^___^). All my cake recipes are recommended and tried tested by my mum.
Gerry has been talking about eating dumplings for ages, so finally I made some pork and cabbage wantons for dinner.
We had the wantons with simple chicken soup.
Calv came over for dinner to help me with my computer problems, the Laptop God fixed my laptop for me and was rewarded with two slices of cake and icecream. We had butter chicken for dinner, a new recipe with evaporated milk, curry leaves, garlic and chilli, it’s very rich and needs to be eaten immediately before the sauce thickens up.
Lately we’ve been having MYOB sessions, it’s fun making your own burgers with fresh salads and thin tomato slices. Ok, back to the bed now, bye!
also known as Dragon Boat Festival, and to me the gluttony daitaoha, the day we get to eat zhong zi, bak chang, rice dumplings (^___^)
I trekked a long way to get these rice dumplings, hopefully it will bring some cheer and foodie joy to my family and friends. It’s also Adrian’s birthday today, if you’re reading this, happy birthday, hope it was a great one!
More lunch bentos, hambagu with demi glace, my first attempt at demi glace, it was a very basic and simple version, will try more complex versions in future.
I like chawan mushis for winter. My mother gave me some fabulous mushrooms which just taste great in everything.
Dinner tonight was marinated lamb chops with mash and asparagus. I love tender and crunchy asparagus stalks, if only they weren’t so expensive, I would have them more often.
Banana and marmalade muffins for morning tea/afternoon tea the next day. Aren’t my 100 yen Daiso toothpick thingys cute?
Ok, time to sleep, two more days to the weekend, will it never come?
Our homecooking project is still going strong! Today’s dinner was Jamie Oliver’s melt in the mouth beef shin (click for recipe) which Richard cooked in the slow cooker.
We had it with mashed potato made from warm milk and butter since we didn’t have any creme fraiche. It’s interesting to see what kind of recipes we’ll be able to come up with in 2010, I have lots of new cookbooks from Malaysia, haha.
I’m at the transition phase at work, caught between the old and the new. I’m getting along ok with the new manager, but I do miss J and A. It’s odd not knowing where I’ll be in a month but this time I’m not panicking. I figure life will work it’s way out like it always does (^__^).
But I received an email from A today from his new workplace titled ‘Checking in’. And coincidentally J emailed me as well, we’re meeting up for coffee tomorrow. Another excuse to drink the delectable Velvet flat whites. It’s touching that they’re both still looking out for me. Even though they’ve moved on from our old workplace, they’ve stayed on in my life.
It goes to show that you can meet the movers and shakers of your life anytime, anywhere.
It was Wendy’s birthday yesterday and Gerry’s birthday today so happy birthday guys! Hope both of you had really wonderful birthdays and that all your birthday wishes come true *hug* During Gerry’s birthday dinner tonight, Wendy mentioned that I don’t blog as often anymore, which I know is shamefully true, I’ve just been caught up with so many activities and new things in my life, that blogging is no longer a daily habit. But… I’m blogging now! And I’ll definitely try to blog everyday in Kuching if possible.
So.. we came up with the brilliant idea of baking Christmas cookies for our friends and colleagues. Scouted around for nice glass jars, Christmas ribbons etc. Which worked until my hand mixer of 3 years broke down and died. (T____T). BUT…. I got a real baking mixer instead!! So exciting !!!
We baked really basic butter cookies and cut them into Christmas shapes.I am really not a baker at all, all that measuring and weighing kinda frustrated me.
But the cookies turned out pretty cute which was good. But we also burned a batch when I forgot that they were in the oven.
We also made almond biscotti which I think I overloaded with a gazillion almonds (I like almonds), crunchy and fragrant, I couldn’t help eating these and still steal a biscotti now and then.
Leftover cookie dough makes for good strawberry jam filled biscuits. I’m bringing my cookie jar to work tomorrow, I hope it brings some Christmas cheer to an otherwise horrible Monday.
We actually saved on our Project November budget and had money left in the bank. So the last meal I decided we could afford to splurge and we had baked eggs with leeks for entree. It was interesting baking eggs in the oven, it’s something I will try again with different variations. And I’ve decided that I like leeks.
Chirashi sushi for main, yummy. Our chirashi was made with salmon sashimi, crabmeat, braised bamboo shoots and eggs.
Dessert was the Japanese castella sponge cake that I baked, my first baked cake in a long long time! My mum gave me this recipe and it was pretty good, easy to bake, light and simple. I sectioned the cake and sandwiched it with whipped cream and strawberries, topped it with more cream and cocoa powder dusting.
It didn’t end there, Richard surprised us with abalone for supper, haha luxurious or not? They were caught by Wendy and Jason, so thank you! The abalone was nice, he slow cooked the abalones overnight so they were tender but still bouncy.
A random brekky pic! I like making breakfast nowadays and this is a trio of bruschetta which I was experimenting for Wendy’s birthday tidbits, mushroom and parsley bruschetta with mozarella, chopped vine tomatoes and basil with pinenuts on cream cheese bruschetta and strawberries with mascapone cheese and drizzled honey bruschetta. Which one is your favourite?
Ok, time for bed now, good night!!
