Jalan-Jalan Around KL

I've just realized that there are many public holidays in Malaysia. During my break this time, it seems there's atleast one public holiday each week. I'm not really complaining but I'm getting worried with my mama's visa application. The less working day means the longer it takes to process it. No use in dwelling, might as well just enjoy the holiday since Danial doesn't have to work.

Since both Danial and I hate travelling long distance, and Zade is not exactly thrill with sitting in his car seat for long duration of time, we decided not to go travel instead spending the holiday around KL. It's exciting to revisit our old hangouts and discover new ones along the way. We didn't do any shopping except for a few essentials, but we did found a lot of good eateries. After cooking each and every meal for the past couple of months, I just cannot take another bite of my own cooking. So the ability to buy food at any time and anywhere is such a welcome change. I think I was able to satisfy all my cravings.

We had a chance to visit a few favourites : TGIF - somehow it's not as good as I remembered, KLCC's Foodcourt - I love the Char Keow Teow at their new Penang stall and the teh ais is the best just like at my old high school canteen - Cafe Lavista and Palm Cafe. We also managed to try new ones : Victory Arab Street, Ayam Penyet, Tony Ramo's, Harrods, Austin Chase. I found both Victory and Ayam Penyet to be just so so. But Tony Ramo's is just simply fantastic. The best American food in KL. Harrods at KLCC has good food, but what makes it stands out is the excellent presentation and service. It's a great place to relax. And surprisingly, Austin Chase's choc chip frappe was out of this world!

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

I usually make butter pound cake. But once I had some cream cheese, so I went to look for a recipe online and found this at grouprecipes.com. This is a simple recipe that I've tried a few times. And each time in turned out great. It's really easy to make with only a few ingredients. One of my neighbour at Unimews gave me some bubur jagung today, so I thought it would be a nice gesture to give her some cake. Since I'm travelling tomorrow, I'm going to take some with me on the flight cause I'm sure the food is not going to be great. The cake taste as lovely as always, especially when it's fresh out of the oven.

Ingredients
125 g butter or margarine, softened.
125 g package cream cheese
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp.vanilla
1 1/2 cups sifted self raising flour

Directions
1. Grease and flour a 10" tube pan or a 12-cup bundt pan.
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
3. Beat butter and cream cheese together until well-blended.
4. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
5. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Blend in vanilla. Sift flour and salt together and blend into the creamed mixture.
7. Bake 1 hour 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted 1" from edge comes out clean.


Hot out of the oven

Shrimp and Avocado Pasta

As always when I run out of cooking ideas, I will go online to search for one. Meals.com is one of my favourites and I've been using it for more than five years now. There's a lot of simple recipes and it helps you find a recipe using ingredients that you have at home. So I went searching for a recipe with avocados as they are now in season. I found a pasta recipe which looks easy enough to make. It turned out to be quite delicious and Zade loves it too. Yummy!


The shrimp and avocado pasta

The ingredients are:
Olive oil
Garlic
Basil
Shrimp
Avocado
Salt
Cooked pasta

Banana Cake

Zade and I eat bananas regularly. Sometimes I buy way too much and we don't eat them fast enough. This week I'm stuck with 3 ripe bananas. I'm not a big fan of banana cake so I've never tried to make one before. But I wasn't about to throw away the bananas since they are quite expensive. I went online in search of a a simple banana cake recipe. I found one with good reviews at bestrecipes.com.au. I gave it a try and added some walnuts and sultanas. It turned out lovely. Rich and moist. Banana cake is not too bad after all.

Ingredients
½ cup butter
2 eggs
3 small bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
50 mL milk
½ cup caster sugar
1½ cups self-raising flour

Method
1. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla.
2. Add eggs separately, beating well.
3. Mash bananas and add to mixture.
4. Dissolve soda in milk and add flour and milk alternately.
5. Bake in 2 greased tins or 1 large tin 180°C for 35 minutes or until cooked.

Max Brenner

Since I was in the city for the AIAC13, I took the opportunity to catch up with a good friend of mine who recently transferred from RMIT to Monash. Ever since she told me about Maxx Brenner, I've been dying to try it out. So we decided to meet at Melb Central as there's an outlet.





It looks like a typical cafe, but instead of serving coffee, they serve chocolate. From chocolate blocks, truffles, beverages and desserts. My head was spinning just looking at the menu. Everything looked so good, I just didn't know which to order. I was actually quite full after the big lunch at the conference, so I decided on something small. On my friend's recommendation I settled on the Milky Max Cookies which was served in an old-fashioned milk bottle while she ordered the Chocolate Cinnamon Babka.

It is as good as it looked. Too bad I couldn't really enjoy it as I was still full. Anyway I definitely will go again to try more of their offereings. I bought a box of the dark chocolate eggs for Zade. He just loves them - and I do too. Yummy.






Later I stopped by Es Teller to get some dinner since I was too exhausted to cook. The nasi uduk tasted ok, nothing to shout about. What happened next was not too good. Zade vomitted when he's sleeping that nite and again the next day. He was also purging for a couple of days. I started vomitting the next day and continued for the next four days. It was just awful. This is my worst experience with food poisoning. However, to my surprise, Zade recovered much faster than I did. Anyway, I'm definitely staying away from Es Teller.

Bread Talk II : Sultana Bread

In my second attempt at making bread, I decided to make something sweet. After cheking the pantry for ingredients, I went online to look for a recipe which I could make. I came across a sultana bread recipe which seems easy enough. Since I had all the ingredients, I went ahead and tried the recipe. It turned out quite well.


The dough was balled up and arranged in the baking tray


Hot out of the oven

Bread Talk

Zade and I usually eat two loaves of bread a week, and this doesn't include sweet bread. Each loaf is about AUD4, which means I spend AUD8 for bread a week or AUD36 a month. It could easily be more if I buy sweet breads. There are cheaper breads but they are just not worth buying. Anyway, I've been reading that breads that are sold at the supermarket are not really bread and they are unhealthy as it is full of additives. I've read on a few blogs on how easy it is to actually make your own bread, and not to mention cheaper and healthier. So, I've finally summoned up the courage give it a try.

I found a simple recipe which had only a few ingredients and seem easy enough to make. The ingredients:
1 1/4 cup water/milk
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoon salt
i teaspoon dry yeast
2 tablespoon butter
4 cups flour

The preparation took about 2 and a half hours which include rising time and another half an hour for baking. But the result is really amazing. The taste of the bread while it's still warm is just scrumptious. Definitely worth the effort. And not only does it taste better than the store bought bread, it cost only a fraction of the price. Yummy!


Dough left to rise in the mixing bowl


Dough left to rise in the baking tin


Ready to bake


A beautiful loaf of bread

Cashewnut Chicken

Usually Mama prepares the dishes for breaking fast, but today I decided to make my favourite cashewnut chicken. It's one of the easiest stir fry dish I know and it tastes super.

The ingredients:
Chicken
Cornflour
Garlic
Ginger
Onion
Dried Chilli
Oyster Sauce
Chilli Sauce
And last but not least, cashewnuts


Ready to eat.

I also tried to make some simple chicken puff using the roti canai as the pastry. But I made the mistake of using the microwave grill function. It turned out dry. I remember making this with sardine filling a few years back and it turned out great. The difference then is that I baked them in the oven. Another reason to buy an oven.


Roti canai with the chicken filling.


Microwaved chicken puff.

Microwave with Grill Function

I love baking cake and cookies. The problem is my apartment is not equipped with an oven, instead I've been provided with a microwave which has crisp and grill function. I tried to make a butter cake once using the microwave function. It turned out just ok, which I was not satisfied with. Since I've been craving for a cake, I'm making a second attempt. This time I tried using the grill function with the hope that the cake will turned out better. And to avoid any disappointment, I also made steam cakes just in case. So I ended having three cakes, a chocolate layer which I baked in the microwave, and haw flakes layer cake & coffee cake which I steamed.


The verdict, the chocloate layer cake turned out dry. Huhuhu. Luckily the steamed cakes were perfectly moist and tasted great. Yummy. I do need an oven desperately.

Alamaro

Neezam and Julie invited us to join them for dinner at Alamaro's in Coburg. The food and ambience there was quite nice. Maybe we'll go there again when Danial comes to visit.


The lasagna was just ok, I've had better.


Seafood steak.


Fettucine Alfredo


My steak diavola was really nice.

D' Tasik Seafood Bangi

I read a review on D'Tasik in the Star newspaper during my maternity leave. Wanting to eat good seafood before leaving Malaysia, I decided to give it a try. It must be pretty good since it landed a spot in the paper. I'm quite adventurous when it comes to food, so I invited my in-laws to join us for dinner there.

It's located inside the UNITEN Campus, behind the Residence Hotel. We went on a weekday night, so it was not surprising that there wasn't a big crowd, which was nice. I was looking forward to a quiet dinner so that I could enjoy the food and the company of my family. The restaurant is actually built a lake, hence the name. During the course of the night, we were entertained by strollers, which was nice and made the atmosphere more relaxing.

We had sweet and sour fish (I'm not sure which kind though), butter prawn which was my favourite, sotong goreng tepung, tom yam, beancurd and fried kailan. Everything turned out quite delicious, especially the prawns, which made me really happy and satisfied. Customers also had the choice to pick their own seafood, but I just ask the really nice and friendly waitress to pick for me. And there's a range of special concoction to quench your thirst. The special ice kacang looked awesome, but it didn't really tast that great. I had one of their special juice which was not so bad, though I've forgotten the name.

We finished off almost everything. I was so full, that I didn't have any dessert :(. Maybe next time. The whole dinner for 7 adults came to less than RM200 which is a really good deal. I'll give it a four star rating.