Biskut

Forget Famous Amos, throw away those Macaroons, and drop those cupcakes. These my friends are the real deal in sweet flour, sugar and butter snacks from the past, that still soldier on till today. These are just one of Kajang small town charm, which are jars and tins of biscuit in all kinds of flavour. One particular store also sells seeds, chips, and pet food. A snack for every species on earth!

I think many people especially those born in the 90s or those that live in the city will never see these jars and tins of biscuits. Instead you are served with square plastic containers, or even more mundane, pre packaged plastic wrap bags. All the charm is lost.

The old Chinese couple (usually any old couple) will sell these biscuits and it adds a certain charm to it, which really means I feel like a kid again. Then again, I don't think I grown up at all.

Suddenly Mushroom

Suddenly mushroom. I went karaokeing with my siblings the other night. The karaoke package includes a buffet spread and free flow drinks (out goes the diet again, although the teas that I drank which was included in the buffet, seamed to have a cleansing effect). One of the dishes that were served in the buffet was these wonderfully juicy mushrooms. I have absolutely no idea what type they are, but they are black and juicy. Almost fishball like juiciness. It reminded me of a show on Food Network on Astro Beyond, where this Southern USA lady was preparing these portbello mushroom burgers. The mushrooms were so huge, they were used as patties to make these wonderful looking mushroom burgers. I was in a mushroom mode, I feel I need to have more mushrooms. Even my usual claypot dish that I always seem to eat at The Mines, food court, had mushrooms in it. I feel the need to have mushrooms till I am sick of it.

I am in the mood for something naughty

Is it naughty really? To be in the mood..

The mood of

CAKE
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I am in the mood for cake. Yes cake, what's better than cake? Baking a cake of course. It keeps me calm, it makes me happy, it lifts my mood to another level. There is one cake recipe I loved. I love it because it is easy, the ingredients is cheap and its healthy. How is this possible you ask? The reason is because this cake is vegan, which means it contains no eggs, no butter and no milk. No saturated fat or cholesterol in this cake. The ingredients are natural without those egg/butter substitute. So this is the recipe

Peppermint Chocolate Cake

1 1/2 cup of flour
3/4 sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/3 vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white distilled vinegar
1 cup of cold water


Mixed the dry ingredients together first.
Then add in the wet ingredients.
Stir till everything is fully mixed
Baked in a greased pan in a 180 Celsius oven till the centre of the cake comes out clean with a toothpick (about 30 minutes)

*pictures? if you come back again, i might post one up again :D

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts or Is it?

This is my favorite Krispy Kreme Doughnut. Its THE doughnut I would choose in a heartbeat. However to my surprise, this was not a doughnut. :-o ... Nope its a cake, and its real name is Glaze Vanilla Cake.. LOL.. should have read the description first before biting into eat. These doughnuts are so sinfully good, you swear the Devil has it for breakfast each day.

Nestum

You know, we had these sachets of Nestiva laying in the kitchen cabinet at home. These sachets just stare at me while I was reaching for some teabags or coffee. I decided to try it, it was.. well.. taste like Nestum that has been water down with milk. When I was younger, I used to love the original Nestum. I would add hot water and put in 1 table spoon of sugar and make Nestum porridge. They use to show it on the can, that a porridge is a way to enjoy it, but now they don't do it anymore. They even made these 3 in 1 sachets complete with milk, sugar and Nestum to promote drinking the Nestum instead of eating it. Still, drinking it does bring back memories of my childhood.

Fresh Chicken

Yup, nothing like fresh chicken from the market. My mother stopped buying chicken from the hyper market and stick with the ones in wet market, since they slaughtered it on the same day. You can even see them process the chicken, so you know the quality that goes in it. Its funny that I take chicken for granted. I did not even know we ate skinless chicken all this while at home. Go figure eh. Even worse, sometimes I don't know how to reply their question when you go buy chicken..

Seller: Yes, dik, you want chicken?

Me: Yes, 3 of them please, no feet, no legs, no giblet, no liver, no head and no skin

Seller: How many parts do you want to cut them?

Me: huh?? parts? cut? how many?

Seller: Yes, how many

Me: *blank stare.

Seller: *stares..

Me: Err.. what do people usually ask?

Seller: 14

Me: okay..

I am not sure its either 12 or 14.. see I already forgotten about it. I probably just go to the hypermarket and just buy the pieces that have been cut. labelled and shrink wrapped.

Coke

I had a sudden urge to drink Coke yesterday, so I decided to buy a 1.5 litre bottle yesterday at Tesco, while searching for a light bulb. Apparently its almost insanely difficult to get a Cool Daylight and Warm White Genie 14w Energy Saving Lamps at Tesco. I don't think they even carry this type at the Kajang branch. Anyways frustration of the missing bulb, the insane traffic jam after picking up my sister from her Islamic School which was combined with another school because they had Islamic School exam. I felt like a rat, trapped in a maze of traffic jam, and was desperately finding ways to get out of the gridlock. We weren't even in the city, it was small neighborhood road.

I am not sure either to be insulted or amazed.

Anyways stress levels were high, and unlike last year, the last days of fasting seemed the most terrible for me. Tempers flare, sleepiness increase, and I feel quite nocturnal. I needed something, a quick fix, a drug or sort. Its terrible, its bad and its unhealthy, especially since I dranked the whole bottle within 12 hours. Yeah, that is crazy and I suffered the consequences. Coke has caffeine, just like coffee but not as much though, but 1 whole bottle of Coke, I think that is a lot of caffeine going to my system. Unlike most people, I can still sleep with a dose of caffeine. The other effects of caffeine is increased bowel movements. Yes, that means you tend to go to the bathroom more often to do number 2. On the bright side, its cleasing to the digestive system. Yeah its not good to associate food with emotion, for that it would make me a better candidate to enter The Biggest Loser Asia, but I swear, that eating chocolates does not make me fat. Time and time it shows when I down lots and lots of chocolate, people end up saying, I look good and thin. Perhaps chocolate stops me from eating other things, or the phytochemicals in chocolates makes your radiant with in. Studies shown chocolate makes you be in a better mood too.

That Thing We Do At The End Of Ramadan

Its that time of the year again, time to be baking delicious Raya biscuits or cookies. The lines at the bakery was deathly long, as long as the store it self. You can see the kind of biscuits or cookies people are making based on the ingredients. The makcik in front of me, has 2 bags of corn flakes from germany and 8 pieces of butter. She must be making cornflakes biscuits, a easy no bake biscuit.

My family plans to have only 6 homemade biscuits this year, we will have oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip almond, kuih gunting, kuih siput, semperit and cornflakes biscuits. No pineapple tarts, macadamia london, bangkit, or chocolate flower. I just don't like store bought cookies, they taste the same to me. Different color, but same floury taste. Raisin oatmeal is done, now tomorrow perhaps chocolate chip almond.

Sahur and Iftar

This was our sahur

This is our iftar, a chinese chicken salad
Hawaian pizza. The salad and pizza was from California Pizza at KLCC.

Could you have these two meals? I know some could not stomach this kind of meals, neither does my mother. I could have it two or three times a week, but nothing like a plate of rice to fill me up nicely. Actually, before that hotdog and beans sahur, my sister and I had McD for iftar before it, so basically we had no rice for 3 meals. Hohoho... they said rice makes you fat, its true since its loaded with complex sugar that will be turned into fat if not used, but these meals aren't exactly healthy, but my sister swear she looses weight eating these stuff. Go figure eh..

Jualan Gudang Air Pepsi

Only for valid at 3rd and 4th September only. Hurry! :D

Pulang

Bapaku pulang dari Sudan
Bapaku bawa daging kambing biri-biri
Daging beku di simpan dalam beg
Boleh di jamah ramai-ramai

Yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum
Daging kambing yang di perap dan di bakar
Sangat lah sedap lagi manis
Elok di makan waktu berbuka.

Fasting

I am not sure what is the problem, its only been two days of fasting and yet I feel its been two weeks. Have I been that weak?. It feels like I have experienced half of the fasting month experience. I went to Tarawikh prayer, including a day I felt like the world is spinning around me (headache), I break fasting and sahur with family, I did the same with friends, I did some shopping for Raya. In summary whatever the things I did for 15 days last year, I done it in 3 days. Now I just got work waiting for me on Monday with my prof calling on both Saturday and Sunday. That kinda sucked and spoiled my whole weekend, but that is a supervisors job to do right. Sigh. Anyways, in my family, we like to break our fasting with something that is not rice related, because we feel its a bit to heavy. Especially for my mother, youngest sister and I who always go for Tarawikh prayer, I try to go everyday if possible. We usually have fritters, "kuih", noodles, sandwiches, bread or any finger foods. This usually make my friends family dropped, since most of them take something heavy when breaking the fast. However during sahur, my family will have something heavy, usually rice with fish, chicken, beef or any other "lauk" along with veggies. Its quite heavy which is different with my friend who prefer to just drink water or have something light. I guess our family is total opposites. Anyways 28 days to go, and I am going to make some of the raya cookies, which is my infamous chocolate chip nut and raisin oatmeal cookies. Due stop by if you want some this raya then ;)

Food = Arabic

Oooh Barbican.? Yes Barbican, its a non alcoholic beer. Its made as the same thing as beer which is malt and hops, but its not processes into beer. This is a raspberry flavoured one and taste nice, and not too sweet :).

Peppermint Tea for my friend

Grilled Lamb and Beriyani rice with Tomato sauce and sour cream on the side, with these incredibly insanely SPICY chillies. I know because I took a bite out of it.

Arabic salad and then grilled chicken with arabic bread and garlic sauce.

Everything was soo good, but I can't help thinking that this reminds me of how my parents cook :p. They know how to make everything on the menu except the bread. We even ate Basmati rice (which is used to make the Beriyani) each day. I am not exactly surprised that is taste like this because its something I am used to eat, but then to have something that taste exactly like home cooking, now that is a feat itself. Even the priced is reasonable, for the exotic dish that we ate, about RM 50 for two, almost the same price at William. Hmm.. not sure if my family would want to go here, but this is definitely a place to eat..Err.. where is it... hik.. sorry I forgotten the take a snap of the restaurant -_-" its one of those restaurants located in a up class housing area in Ampang. I will informed you all ASAP :D

Food and Friends

Eating is good, going out with friends is good too, but combining them two together is the best.

Seafood dinner at Riverview restaurant at Sg Buloh. Heavenly.

Grilled lamb by my dad. These came all the way from Sudan. Finger licking good.

Baked chocolate chip almond bar.

Slightly different from the normal way of baking the cookie. This make it every cake like.

Although regulars ones are nice and crispy

Tepayaki beef, chicken and shrimps with mushrooms at the Legend Hotel.

Hmm Mix Grill at William. Yum, with pandan chicken, sausages, chicken scramble and 2 types of salami with a side of mashed potatoes.

Baked Lasangnia, suprising sour. Like really sour as is someone trying to kill me with vinegar, but the meatballs saved the day, as always.

Ricosta with seafood. I am not sure if I spelled that right, it has servings of baked salmon, shrimps, clams and bamboo clams. Yum!

A Japanese buffet dinner at the Legend Hotel. Yum! all you can eat raw seafood ;)

Don't fret, they also many other types of cooked food.

Food should always be enjoyed with people you love to be around :)

Weddings

There seem to be no shortage of weddings last weekend. I attended 4, with 3 of them being on the same day and on the same side of the family, with 2 of the three weddings is the second wedding of the groom. Talk about overload of nasi minyak, beef curry (Negri Style) and cow stomach, yum2.

This my neighbour lab, lab mate on her wedding. Looking very pretty with a very well sharpen nose (due to make up I hope).

First dish of the first 3 weddings I had to attend at my mother's hometown. The curry beef bone is delicious, I was nibbling the meat off the bone.

The dish from the third wedding that we attended. Similar taste, well..they do live in neighboring hometown. I forgot to take pictures of the second wedding. One must rush and get off the seat since other people are finding places to sit and eat too.


As always, we must have something to eat at my Wan's house. This is Serawa Bachang (I think it is), made from Bachang, a type of mango but very stronger and has a rougher flesh, with coconut milk and gula melaka. Taste great with bread dipped into the gravy. First time I had this dish, but I already love it.

Hot

Yeah, the weather has been pretty hot lately, everyone is saying it, so I am too :p. For me today it was a bit unbearable. I had a great buffet lunch with lots and lots of food, which includes a chocolate fondue. As the result, I am still digesting the food, even though its already 10pm. Another side effect I did not notice is, I felt much hotter than usual. I guess my body is trying its best to process what I have eaten. No gym tonight T_T but its okay. I don't mind having this big body, because I like food and I will continue to eat. However another inch of my waist is not so bad :p. I am okay, I am fine by my gym. Just like the trainer said, if you are comfortable with what you have now, who are other people to question it?. Back to the issue, I have been trying to sleep with just the fan on, but today is unbearable with my body going to max trying to detox me out, so I feel quite hot, even though I already drank 4 glasses of plain water. Beside its only 26 Celsius. My sister sets the temperature at 16 Celsius. Now that is crazy.

Fondue

Yes, I want one of these Fondue Machine in my house. I seen it on television but never had a chance to use it. However today, during our Recruit meeting at a hotel, the Fondue Machine was there glistening with it melted chocolate. I was estacted, I foundued everthing from fruit, cheescake and dried fruit. It was fun and it was messy, but most important of all it tasted good :D. Melted chocolate taste great :D. My kenduri/party/makan2 will be much more exiciting with this toy :p

Value?

I love peppermint tea, its taste like regular tea that you drank after you brush your teeth :D. Very refreshing and cool. Once I freaked a friend out by giving him this tea. My friend is very old fashion and very malay, since the tea he drinks are teh o, teh o ice, and teh tarik. I love seeing his reaction when he exclaimed "Ko letak ubat gigi ker nih (Did you put tootpaste in this)". If you are at those high end cafe, or restaurants, ordering tea by the pot can be the best value. Since it comes in a small teapot and refilling with hot water is free, you can get up to 4 cups of tea from one bag. Although after the second cup, the tea becomes rather bland since all the flavour are in the first two cups.
Dominos, introduced their newest card. Its basically the same "buy one get one free" card for takeaway purchases. Its more expensive now, but since you can use it as much as you want, it is good value, since they hiked up the price on their pizza. I love Dominos because they are generous with their sauce and their pepperoni taste better than Pizza Hut.

Homecooked feast

My friends and I had this wonderful feast last Saturday. Instead of the host preparing the food or the guest bringing in the food ala "pot luck", it was decided that the guest come over with raw ingredients and cook in the host kitchen. We all got to show off our culinary skills in the kitchen. The theme was "my mum's cooking" which is basically the simpe food that our mum's make that so good, it can be also called as comfort food.

Kerabu Sotong a marvelous mixture of cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, squids, vinegar, salt and other veggies.

Sambal sardine, sardines cooked in tomato sauce and chille, while garnished with deep fried potatoes.

Ayam Percik, grilled chicken with a special "percik sauce"

Ikan selar goreng, simple friend fish that is fried extra crispy.

It was requested that I made these fresh chocolate chip almond cookies. I had to use an old pictures because the cookies were gone as soon as they were out of the oven. Another satisfied group.

This is my obsession

I seem to have this current obsession of baking. It's not even Hari Raya yet but my kitchen is filled with the sweet smell of freshly baked cookies.

I wanted to the ones that we had when we stayed in the US. American style, soft, chewy centre, crunchy edges, chocolate chip cookies.

The recipe is quite simple. Cream butter and sugar. add eggs, baking soda, vanilla extract, salt, flour, chocolate chip and nuts. The just put a teaspoon on the ungreased baking tray and bake in the oven till it spreads out nicely.

Better than Famous Amous and a whole lot cheaper.

More reason to stay fat...